SEQUIM — The object of his desire appeared on his doorstep Saturday morning, just as Ray Bentsen of Sequim pictured, and pre-ordered, it.
Bentsen, 65, is one of the proud 450,000 who own an iPad, the latest pound-and-a-half wonder from Apple Inc.
Upon unwrapping it, Bentsen began learning his way around the device: loading it up with his DVD library, browsing classics and best-sellers on iBooks, playing checkers, organizing a plethora of photo albums and reading anything from the Peninsula Daily News and The New York Times to “Amazing Spider-Man” comics.
The iPad brings home all of that and more, for $499, $599 or $699 depending on how much memory you want.
Of course, there are naysayers who say this tablet isn’t so hot. It only accepts Apple-approved applications, for one thing.
And it lacks a lot: no camera, no phone, no printing capability.
Presentation on iPad
But none of that dimmed the laser-beam focus of Bentsen, who gave a presentation Wednesday night to about 50 curious members of the StraitMac Users Group, aka SMUG.
The SMUG crowd are Apple fans already. Jerry Freilich, for example, is a Mac maniac, according to his wife, Helen.
And Freilich isn’t shy about admitting he’s smitten with the iPad.
“I just want to read and read, and surf the Web wherever I happen to be,” he said.
“It’s such a sexy thing. I can’t wait to get my hands on one.”
You mean he hasn’t yet?
“I’m going to get one for Helen,” Freilich vowed.
Helen doesn’t usually attend SMUG meets, but did this time because the iPad had, well, captivated her.
“I want to have something I can use to browse the Internet, send e-mails and look up information while I’m sitting on the couch — and then take it into the kitchen and look up recipes,” she said.
The iPad is smaller and lighter than a laptop, while bigger than an iPhone, Helen added. So it’s plain comfortable.
She sees herself browsing the PDN’s Web site for community news and using the Web to research projects. To her mind, the device is a speedy connector to the wider world.
‘Resisted electronics’
“I resisted electronics for a long time,” Helen said. “This is the first product that has come along” that tempted her.
“Somehow, the size and shape interest me,” she said.
But the Freilichs have yet to order one, for financial reasons.
Their family of four already spends a lot on cell phones; they have laptops, and they just bought two pairs of skis.
So they’re going to delay iPadification.
The Freilichs did, however, pay close attention to Bentsen’s report on what the tablet has and does.
The iPad is half an inch thick, 7.5 inches wide and 9.5 inches long; its crisp resolution allows its master or mistress to read all kinds of books, newspapers and magazines, visit Web sites, send and receive e-mails, play games and, Bentsen noted, use some 1,000 Apple applications for 10 hours straight on a single charge of its lithium battery.
This tablet computer has no mouse, so there’s no clicking or dragging.
Instead you tap, double-tap, flick and pinch one or two fingers to open, save, close, shrink and stretch whatever you’re watching on the screen.
If you’re reading the newspaper, for example, you use your fingers to enlarge a particular part of the page.
If you want to save a friend’s contact information in your e-mail address book, you touch your fingertip to the friend’s name.
The screen has an oleophobic coating, which means “it’s afraid of oleo,” Bentsen joked.
In fact, oleophobic means resistant to oil, so fingerprints aren’t supposed to stick to the iPad’s gleaming face.
Bentsen said, however, that the device isn’t quite perfect in this regard.
Can’t edit on it
And while you can feast your eyes on photos and videos, you won’t be modifying them on your iPad.
“It’s designed more for media consumption,” Bentsen noted, “than for media creation.” Meaning the iPad isn’t the greatest thing for writing anything longer than a sonnet or for editing video and designing Web sites.
He’s delighted, however, with the variety of media now at his fingertips. Bentsen has Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat ready for his grandchildren and a slew of free comics.
“This is going to revolutionize comic books,” he told the SMUG members peering at his iPad. It has the capacity for downloading dozens upon dozens of comics, including many that are free.
Lots of the applications, or apps, that facilitate such downloading of media don’t cost anything, Bentsen added.
Since Saturday, he’s been exploring the iPad frontier and reveling in it.
Bentsen was a math teacher in Skokie, Ill., for 15 years before becoming the school district’s computer guru in charge of hundreds of machines.
Now retired, Bentsen mans the computer help desk at the from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays at the Sequim Senior Activity Center, 921 E. Hammond St.
“We’ll see how it flies. Maybe [the help desk] will expand,” he said.
You might say the same about the iPad.
“I enjoy the learning part of it: learning what it can do,” said Bentsen.
Anyone interested in Apple and Macintosh computers is welcome to join the StraitMac Users Group.
Dues are $1 a year, and meetings are the first Wednesday of the month at 7:15 p.m.
The location alternates between Port Angeles and Sequim, with the next one May 5 at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
For information, visit www.StraitMac.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.