I tried an experiment of sorts during my vacation; I wanted to see if I could use my iPad exclusively while I was away.
Granted, I was on vacation so I wasn’t planning on spending a lot of time on my computer, but I wanted to be able to check mail, news, catch up on blogs, tweet and write a few blog posts here and there.
I had my laptop last year on vacation but rarely used it because I didn’t have Internet access all the time.
I didn’t really blog either the last time, I wrote a few posts beforehand and scheduled them to post later.
The iPad proved very helpful during the almost ten hour flight, I used NewsReader earlier to download my blogs which I read later on the plane.
I read a book on Paris and watched a movie.
I also jotted down a few blog ideas, played scrabble and listened to podcasts.
That, the wine and a nap in between, the flight didn’t seem as long.

I’d already decided that I was going to try to blog while on vacation; I wanted to share pictures on the go.
Initially I was using the camera connection kit to download pictures from my Canon DSLR, process them using PS Express and upload them unto Flickr via FlickStackr.
I tried this a few times and decided while the process worked, it was a bit cumbersome and time consuming – really not something I wanted to do while on vacation.
At the same time I noticed that the photos I was taking with my iPhone were pretty nice, and much easier to upload directly to Flickr.
For blogging I used the WordPress app, which I think is great for a quick or text-only post, but not so much if there are a lot of  links, or pictures and videos to embed.

So all my posts from Paris were written and posted using the iPad, once I got a hang of the flow it wasn’t that bad.
In fact, I preferred it; I could lay in bed and update my blog, or do a quick post while having breakfast.
Blogging didn’t become an inconvenience; it was something I did quickly and somewhat seamlessly on this lightweight device.
The battery life is amazing, it lasted (with heavy use) my entire flight from Vancouver to Amsterdam, and then on to Paris.

I thought about using the extra space to store my pictures from the camera (to free up my SD card) but decided against it,  I really didn’t want to get into the drama of having to transfer it back onto my PC and whether I could retain the Raw file format.
I just got extra SD cards instead.