It isn’t my job here at the Secret Lab to tout products. But all the online nonsense about the Fragile Ipad got to me and I had to tell my story…
This afternoon my five-year-old grandson ran past me with my first Ipad in hand. The Targus case was open and flopping in the breeze. He made a hard right at the living room couch while the Ipad continued on straight across the hardwood floor on its unprotected screen. I felt a bit sick; I’ve got another IPad, but this one and I have a history…
One morning over a year ago while we still lived in Duluth, Mn. my wife and I set out for a drive to Minneapolis 160 miles south. Of course I brought my IPad with me. I’d only had it a few months and already I couldn’t go long without it. I clutched it in one hand and lugged a large suitcase in the other as my wife and I went out to the garage to load the car. I set the IPad on the roof of my Subaru while I struggled to get the suitcase into the back seat.
Yes, you guessed it! We then drove off with a $600 tablet bouncing around on top of our car. The Ipad, fortunately, was sheltered in a Targus case; I have no idea what the fabric was but it was sufficiently rough to keep from sliding off–at least until we hit the freeway on the hill out of town at seventy-five mph. At that point gravity must have overcome the blessings of luck and the Ipad went bouncing down the freeway after me.
Of course I was still sitting fat, dumb, and happy behind the wheel thinking how great it would be showing off my new Ipad to my old friends in Minneapolis. When we arrived in Minneapolis I couldn’t find the tablet. I was disappointed but not frantic–stupid me, I couldn’t even remember taking it out to the car.
It wasn’t until we got home and I couldn’t find the Ipad anywhere in the house after an exhaustive search that I realized what had happened. Wonderful! I didn’t sleep well that night, and the next day when I wasn’t beating myself up I was changing all my passwords and checking for incursions into my credit accounts. Great! How dumb could you get? Don’t answer that…
And then two days later I got a phone call. “Mike,” said an unfamiliar voice. “Did you lose something the other day?”
I’m sure my mouth must have dropped open. “You can’t mean my Ipad!”
Yes, it was my Ipad. The gentleman noticed it lying on the freeway next to the median and wondered what it could be. He stopped and opened the Targus case and switched it on. Amazingly, it worked. But the most amazing thing of all was that he went to some trouble and called me. There may yet be hope for our species!
Until that time I’d always thought Apple products to be on the fragile side. I’m not sure where I got that idea; maybe it’s because they are so darned attractive. How could anything that pretty be tough at the same time? Oh, I forgot about my wife!
This Ipad flew off my car at 75 to 80 mph. Just imagining how it must have bounced over and over on the hard, unforgiving concrete makes me ill. The Targus case helped– not a scratch on the screen–but there were deep gouges on the outer rim of the tablet where no fabric protected it. Fragile? I don’t think so. That was over a year ago and it was still working today when my speeding grandchild threw it halfway across the livingroom.
And it is still working tonight as I type away on it. The Ipad fragile? Don’t you believe it!
Michael Nardine
As should be made obvious by the accompanying photo, Mike Nardine (aka Cheap Mike) is plain vanilla and old as dirt. He is Secret Laboratory’s Technology Editor and has been writing since before the invention of the electric typewriter. His first computer was a 1kb Sinclair; his love-affair with computers began with a Kaypro. He has sold short stories to women’s magazines and has published several books, which are available in Amazon’s Kindle Store. Mr. Nardine has also written a whole slug of book reviews, play reviews, news articles, and consumer-tech stuff for various ezines and The Reader Weekly of Duluth, Minnesota. He presently lives in Rochester, Minnesota with his wife of many years and a fifteen-year-old Jack Russel Terrier named Chloe. Still writing as he circles the drain, he also sells domains and web hosting at CheapMikes.com. Visit Mike and view all of his titles at booksonkindle.com.
Email Mr. Nardine at michaelnardine@secretlaboratory.org.
