Interview: Author Susan Orlean on her life with the iPad

08.08.2010

I don't think of the Internet as a danger. Its funny...we just bought a new car and we were looking at getting a DVD system, a built in one, factory installed. And they're ridiculously expensive of course, and all they do is play movies. So a friend of mine said what a waste. Just get Austin an iPad.

And that way if I get him just the small one without 3G, loaded up with a bunch of games and download some movies for him, it would take us like three years before we come close to the price that you pay for DVD. And she said its old technology anyway and it will be useless and they charge about $2,000 for them.

...If you're on a road trip and you have a $2,000 built in DVD player in your car, and first of all, all they can watch is DVDs. They can't do interesting educational games, they can't draw, all they can do is watch a movie, totally passive....and then you get to the hotel for the night and you go inside and you don't have anything. You buy an iPad and you're reading books, you're drawing, you're doing puzzles, you can watch a movie, and then you get to the hotel and you bring it in with you.

...I'm not going to buy my son a laptop, he's five. ... I've got a ton of things for him to play and read and that isn't what a laptop would do.

Laptops are going to start seeming like work tools. And iPads will be the sort of interesting, exploratory, adventuring, device. And not so much work but functional for work. And laptops are going to start seeming really drab and functional but its interesting it wouldn't have occurred to me to get a laptop for my son to use in the car.