My relationship with my iPad has been a hate/love one. At first I thought I would have no use for it, but as time wore on, well I was mistaken.
Back in my early Facebook days I was prone to liking all kinds of stupid things and making friends with anyone I shared using an app with. So while I have 800+ friends, not all of them are real, honest to goodness friends. There are people on my list who use Swagbucks, there are people who used to use the now defunct app Scratchix (where you got more scratch off tickets based on the number of active friends you had) being the two largest places where I met some like minded people,my hat being people who like free shit.
I also liked some local businesses and what not and entered contests on their sites. Isaly's was one where they had a trivia contest, the first 5 people who could answer three trivia questions correctly would win two tickets to a Penguins - Coyotes game. Apparently I google faster than most people because I was one of the winners. I don't even remember the questions, I know one of them had to deal with Sidney Crosby's first NHL game, and what other significant thing happened that night (It was Michel Thierren's first game as coach for Pittsburgh).
Along the same line, while I was busy liking things on Facebook, I liked Mrs T's Pierogis. Most likely because I love pierogis. In fact if you are ever courting me (which anyone who reads this blog would concur would be a very bad idea) bring me pierogis and you have a big chance of winning over my heart. Anyway while I was on their page one day I saw something about a Digital Utensil contest. Apparently if you listed a way you like your pierogis done as a comment it would enter you into a contest to with a 6 month supply of pierogis and an iPad mini, which was presumably the digital utensil of which the contest was named. Perhaps they expected me to be standing over my stove with the iPad in one hand cooking with the other some unique pierogi recipe I found online, I don't know.
But low and behold, I was one of the winners. I won the pierogis and the iPad. Honestly when I won, I was more geeked about the free food, which turned out to be 6 coupons for boxes of Mrs T's. Hardly a 6 moth supply for the likes of me, but appreciated nonetheless. The iPad was a nice throw in, but I had my laptop and thought, what the hell would I do with an iPad anyway.
So my prizes came, albeit I had issues with the claim form, it got lost in the mailbox at Kinkos/Fedex and spent an inordinate amount of time exchanging emails with the PR firm that was managing the contest. In fact they received my claim form late but but because I had done my due diligence on my end of things they held my prizes for me rather than reaward them to someone else. So I had in my grubby little paws an iPad mini and 6 coupons for free boxes of pierogis.
I used the coupons at work (you don't know me very well if you think I would not stock a store without pierogis to begin with) but the iPad sat in its box for months before I finally took it out and started playing with the features on it. Once I do however I fell in love with it. It took the place of my laptop at work, it went on trips with me and acted as my camera, I was downloading podcasts to listen to while at work or on the road, because I have wireless internet in my apartment, it became my de facto laptop at home as well. Sure I still used my laptop, but with the apps I had downloaded I was able to watch TV via Crackle, watch the cameras at work via logmein and start my addiction with Marvel Puzzle Quest. The iPad went from something I expected to never use to a tool I couldn't function without.
Then the unthinkable happened, I cracked the screen when I dropped it. I took it to Cellhelmut in Oakland. After all they were one of the businesses featured on Shark Tank (one of my favorite TV shows) certainly they wouldn't be scam artists would they? Well I will leave that for you to decide, I don't do reviews here after all, but if I did I would warn you to stay the fuck away from them. I took the iPad in on a Friday looking for a screen replacement. I demonstrated for the clerk at the counter that it worked by logging into it and what not and they told me because I brought it in on a Friday and they didn't have the glass on hand to fix it, it would be Monday or Tuesday until it was back in my hands. Monday rolls around and because they are in Oakland I stopped by on my way home from work, I thought I would check to see if the repairs were done. They weren't which caused me a little concern because of my reliance on it, but I figured it would be done the next day, so I went home empty handed but hopeful. On Tuesday again I stopped by their store, this was the outside estimate that they gave me originally, but again it wasn't done, they claimed they were short staffed and didn't get to it yet. So I stop by again on Wednesday, this time I am told they are fixing it, but it is apart on the table and wouldn't be ready until Thursday. Finally I go in on Thursday and they tell me the motherboard is broke. Mind you it worked fine when I turned it over to them, not it doesn't work at all. They tell me I can have it back if I want at no charge, to which I replied what charge you took a functioning machine and now it doesn't, you are handing me the proverbial box of rocks. They offered to look online for me for a replacement motherboard, which they expected me to pay for, to which I said no, you have done enough already. Instead I went online and bought a new iPad mini off of Amazon. Simply because I had gotten to the point where I couldn't function without one, I was keeping notes for work on mine, like passwords to bank accounts and the multiple safes we have amongst other things.
So I am on my second iPad and the other day I am sitting in Mellon Square doing my blog or playing an app, just relapsing after work and the iPad slips out of my hands and lands face down on the concrete. The glass spider cracked everywhere, to the point that if I used a finger as opposed to my stylus to go from screen to screen I risked putting a splinter into my hand. Another repair was called for, but I knew better than to trust the assclowns in my neighborhood (Cellhelmut) so I looked online and there was an outfit called UbreakiFix and they had a store in Pittsburgh that wasn't to inconvenient for me in Bloomfield. So I took it in on Tuesday afternoon and by today I had it back and all is good. I got new glass with a warranty and all of the bells and whistles see to work as well. And so I am back to blogging on it as well, this is actually an iPad note that I will mail to myself and copy and paste from my email (blogger is not tablet friendly, and I have made that complaint to the fine folks at Google about that) but rest assured the love affair between me and my iPad continues.
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