I've had my iPad for a couple of months now and because I'm over 50, I am still in the learning phase, although everyone tells me that even if I was 20 years younger I'd probably still be in the learning curve.  If you recall, when I first purchased it I told you that I bought it for a specific reason...a client relationship.  It really is an incredible device and I find I'm using it every day for business and pleasure.  It's clear that many brokers have been buying tablets.  Of course, with an iPad there's a big "cool" factor that is appealing, but the real reason is portability and, frankly, to view property.  Google Earth on the iPad is a "must have" if you're in the business of commercial real estate!  Of course, being able to show photos of various properties is important too.

But until recently, I was very frustrated with the viewing photos aspect of the iPad.  Remember, I don't have the new iPad2 with a built in camera, and even if I did, I doubt that all the images I'd want to see would be generated by me taking photos with it.  First, I understand it's not a good camera and secondly, the visual of holding a big ol' iPad up to take photos makes me laugh out loud.

But I digress...While viewing photos on theiPad is truly a beautiful thing, getting photos onto your iPad...not so much.  As I started to do this more and more, I found that emailing photos to myself or using a product like Dropbox to upload and download became very annoying.  Apple does have an iPad camera connection kit that gives you two dongles; one for reading SD media another for connecting your camera directly via USB.  But, just as I was getting ready to enter my credit card information to buy, I decided to check to see if there's something else.  Instead, I found the 3-in-1 iPad Camera Connection Kit, which for about the same price as Apple's connector ($29) combines three connectivity options in one dongle; SD, microSD and USB.  It's a popular item because everywhere I looked it was temporarily out of stock.  It's in my shopping cart though, particularly since it will let me then transfer photos from my Androind based phone to the iPad.

I did want to talk today about the good and bad, perfect and not so perfect issues of using the iPad as an e-reader.  But alas,  since there's not time, I'll pick that topic up in the near future.  So I leave you with this...Get a tablet of some type.  Take your time to actually pick one up and see what you like about the size.  Take a photo or two if you want one with that capability.  Check out some of the software it comes loaded with.  In other words, test drive it.  I think you'll drive something off the lot.  

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