Gifting iPad
Nothing helps you appreciate something quite like seeing that joy reflected in how it brings so much value to someone else’s life.
Being deeply embedded in the Apple ecosystem for decades now, I sometimes take for granted what it's like to experience the joy of new tech for the first time. A place where GHz, MPs, & GBs stop mattering, and we experience a device purely from the perspective of how it enriches our life.
When it came to deciding what to do with an ageing iPad, I decided to gift it to a family member rather than trading it in. It's worth providing some context that this family member could easily be a finalist as the furthest thing from a tech-inclined person. I'm talking about someone who literally still owns a VCR and watches TV on a 35-year old 20" CRT television that gives off enough radiation that you'd become sterile if you sat in front of it for long enough.
So I gave this family member an iPad. And honestly, it felt like a bit of a coin toss whether this gift would be something that would bring value to their life or if I would find it used to level an uneven couch the next time I came to visit.
But I should have trusted my gut, as the next time I went to visit, just as I had feared, there was the iPad under the wobbly left leg of the living room sofa.
Nah... I'm just screwing with you! They loved it!
There is something joyous about gifting something that the person receiving it could never have expected. I'm talking about the kind of gift that leaves someone speechless as they try to process just what the heck is going on in front of them. Like you've broken the rules of the universe about how things are supposed to function. But after several 'wows' and 'really?', it began to sink in that they were now the owner of their very own iPad.
After the initial shock wore off, the next step was setting up the device. I'm fortunate that despite their technical disinclination, they own an iPhone SE (the 2016 model). As a result, years of familiarity with iOS made the process of getting acquainted with the iPad a lot smoother. And to keep the interaction similar between the two devices, I also disabled multiple apps & gestures (Settings > Home Screen > Multitasking > Allow Multiple Apps) to remove any chance of any app going rogue into split-view or slide-over.
Then came the most important part: organizing the icons and selecting just the right widgets & wallpaper to personalize the device to feel precisely how they wanted it.
Lastly, I had a chance to introduce them to aspects of the iPad that I hoped could boost their quality of life. We walked through the music app and even created several one-touch shortcuts that led directly to some of the stations and playlists they would love. This was my family's first exposure to streaming music, & they had no idea that listening to music beyond the half dozen radio stations we had in town was even an option for them. We then looked through the News+ app and picked out a half dozen magazines they wanted to return to reading. And finally, we set up messaging, photos, and even some streaming apps to make sure they had access to all the messages, all the images, and all the sports and TV they wanted right from their iPad.
Checking Back
In I knew the iPad was a hit when only days after gifting it, I began receiving messages about an article or news story that had caught their eye. I also heard about how the iPad helped them communicate more efficiently with family abroad. The large display, Smart Keyboard, and messaging on the iPad also made corresponding to people much more accessible in day-to-day communication.
I can't help but reflect on how much this iPad has expanded the things my family now does. The iPad has enriched much of their daily experiences, whether by increasing their connection to others or filling their home with the favourite music, in ways that weren't possible before.
