NET RESULTS:I am having more fun with the iPad than I have had with anything since my first Mac in the 1990s, writes KARLIN LILLINGTON

I LIED. A couple of months ago, I wrote a column in which I carefully explained why I would definitely not be buying an iPad the first time around. Better to wait and get the second or third iteration, the ones in which the glitches are smoothed over and the features missing in the first version are added in.

Despite much curiosity and a conviction that this was a groundbreaking new device, I intended to sit on my wallet. I had no doubt at all that I would be getting an iPad, but the operative word was “eventually”.

That was until I saw one and when Colm Grealy, one of the co-founders of Ireland OnLine and now with a media business called Digital Reach Group (DRG.ie), kindly spent some time demonstrating many of the apps and features on his iPad.

That changed everything for me. I realised I not just wanted to get one but that I needed to get one. I needed to better understand what I might want to do with this unique larger-scale touch interface and I wanted to see what developers, websites, business and media companies would do with it as well.

Sitting around and waiting meant not understanding how this device was being used and would change over time.

I work for media companies, I am immersed in what happens as the web meets traditional print and broadcast media and I knew I needed to be there now. Thus, on a recent trip to California, I wandered into the Apple Store on University Avenue in Palo Alto, geared up to make a purchase.

There on the white display table sat two rows of demo iPads.

An employee hovered nearby with a small cloth and when there was a lull in visitors, he discreetly wiped the fingerprints off the glass screens. That highlighted one of the frustrations of a touchscreen device – fingers equal screen grease – but it did not put me off a sale. What did, though, was availability.

Initially there had been iPads in stores, then demand took off, especially around the time of the release of the 3G version of the device. Now there was a waiting list. All across the state. Darn.

Full of scepticism about the point of doing so on a five-day visit, I put my name on a waiting list. And lo, I got an e-mail saying my iPad had arrived, two hours before I was to leave for the airport. My mother and I drove over to collect the one iPad I was allowed to purchase (she wanted to check them out, too) and I had it for the flight back.

Was it worth it? For me, an unequivocal yes. Using it has been endlessly fascinating. First off, I am doing entirely different things with the iPad than I do with my laptop, desktop or my iPhone.

As such, I strongly disagree with the opinion that it is just an iPhone or iPod Touch on steroids.

For example, like a lot of people, I don’t like using the tiny screen of a phone for surfing the web. I don’t really bother with games, except to occasionally pass some time here and there on the move. I don’t want to read much on a smartphone.

I don’t even play many games on my computer or on consoles. But the iPad! I have discovered a whole world of games on the iPad. I love not having to use a mouse or controller or remember sets of commands. So. for the first time, I am buying lots of games.

I also find it a quite pleasant way to read books. I much prefer using it for web access compared to my laptop. I can easily write my stories – such as this one – on its touch keyboard (the ludicrous lack of a word count feature in the Pages word processor, though, has to be addressed).

I also find it fascinating to see what various media outlets are doing with the iPad. There is much creative design, fresh use of images (this is truly a device for displaying great photography) and playing with ways of organising stories and other content.

Much has been said about the ability to embed video ads – as if this will save the traditional media industry – but they still require a reader to opt in to see the ad. Given that TV viewers are finding many ways to avoid ads, I cannot see why people will be filled with a desire to see them in this format.

All of this spurs new thinking on so many aspects of media consumption, of convergence between devices and content, of old things seen in new ways and ways of seeing new things that haven’t been dreamt up yet.

And honestly, I am having more fun with the iPad than I have had with anything since my very first Mac in the early 1990s.

I’ll upgrade the device a few versions into the future, but I’m glad I sprang for one now.