Over the past year or so my Apple product ownership has gone from zero -> four (well maybe 6/7 if you count peripherals). Is this because I am now a Fanboi and will join the queuing masses in the coming months when the iPhone 5 is announced and camp out for days to be the first, yes the first to own it for a nano second. The short answer is no, I’m still not a massive fan in fact when I spent £1500+ on my first Apple product I felt dirty inside and the yorkshireman in me died a bit more. Don’t get me wrong the products are all good, a nice quality, but are still overpriced for what they are. I could have bought 3 decent laptops over the next 5 years for the price of the Macbook Pro. I bought these devices because as a developer it opened up more doors for me.

So around Christmas time when I was trying to desperately come up with a good gift for my wife I turned to Apple once again and bought an iPad. The device doesn’t fit my needs personally, if I’m surfing the net then I want to do it on a fully functioning laptop. If I’m casually surfing, my phone suffices. For my wife however it did fit the need, I wanted a replacement to my wife’s ageing netbook and the iPad fit the bill.

I also had a sneaking suspicion that my one year old Adam would take to it as well. What I didn’t realise was how much and how easily he would take to it. Bear in mind that we are talking about a baby who cannot yet talk and has the attention span of a fly. He was instantly hooked, and in some ways obsessed with the device. It could keep him amused for minutes (a big thing for him)! He instantly got the interaction and was happily switching between apps and making noises, and turning the screen to flip it to the right side. Amazing really for someone so young.

Fast forward 6 months and whilst he still can’t talk (he’s getting there) his level of understanding of what the iPad plays is astounding. We downloaded apps that make animal noises as he likes animals and the education that the iPad has given him is brilliant. As the following video shows, he can identify animals I wouldn’t have believed possible for a 21 month year old. And he definitely hasn’t memorised the locations, they change between portrait/landscape modes, and there are multiple pages. He literally knows what an Elephant is, looks like and sounds like. The video doesn’t show it be he equally can point out flamingos, camels and crocodiles, not your average farm yard.

I never had anything like this as a kid, as obviously the technology wasn’t there, but today it is. I am filled with a sense of awe of what children today will be achieving in 20-30 years with a foundation such as what is the norm today. Technology is amazing.