All signs are pointing to Apple releasing the latest iteration of its popular tablet this coming week. I gave in last year and purchased the original iPad, and I made this decision just days before the iPad 2 was announced. Now, tech geeks are expecting the iPad 3 to hit to streets this week. The iPad was my first Apple-branded product. I’ve never been a fan of Apple’s computers, with my objections stemming from everything from the keyboard layout to the graphical user interface. Nevertheless, I’ve used the iPad almost daily.
I won’t upgrade yet I’m satisfied with my original iPad, so I see now reason to spend money on the latest device.
Are you planning to buy an iPad 3?
Here are a few articles I’ve discovered recently that I’d like to share.
Neal from Wealth Pilgrim has reviewed the social lending website, Prosper. Peer-to-peer and social lending is an intriguing idea. I think tools like Prosper, helping borrowers and lenders work with each other without layers of third parties like banks, are needed. It’s slightly more efficient, but not free from regulation. Without a trusted party between borrowers and lenders, large-scale borrowing and lending would be risky. At the same time, most financial institutions have too much overhead.
Social lending isn’t perfect. I couldn’t loan money to a friend at a decent rate through either Prosper or Lending Club because the state in which he lives has anti-usury laws that prevented a loan at the interest rate he qualified for. I couldn’t easily and directly invest in a basket of loans through a service because the state in which I live wasn’t ready to allow this type of investment opportunity.
Jim from Bargaineering explains how to print USPS postage at home for free. I didn’t take this approach a few years ago when I was selling old text books online through Amazon.com; media mail rates was not available for online printing. Now that media mail rates are available, it is easy to save money printing postage online for those who ship books, CDs, and video often.
The latest Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted earlier this week on Well-Heeled Blog. The Carnival included a number of excellent personal finance articles, as well as my article about modifying your behavior to improve your finances. The Carnival followed the Little Price’s journey to financial enlightenment. It’s always fun to read a Carnival that has an entertaining theme.
Photo: Veronica Belmont
Updated February 26, 2013 and originally published March 4, 2012. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Nah. I’ve used friend’s iPads. They interesting and fun, but if I have half a grand laying around, I’ll buy stock with it, not a techno-bauble that will be worth little in a few years. I prefer my desktop PC anyway. New laptops with real keyboards can be purchased for less than a low-end iPad fer cryin’ out loud.
I have the original iPad and will be upgrading once the iPad 3 comes out. It’s probably the best gadget I’ve ever owned. Like you, I use it every day. The “retina display” on the new version is what has me sold.
By the way, the base model of the original iPad (used) can still fetch about $200 on eBay.
The one thing i am waiting on for getting an iPad is the web browsing experience. Some of the sites i frequent use flash or outdated html calls. What is really needed is for these sites to update. Not a shortcoming of the iPad.
The Photon app ($.99) lets you use flash from ANY site on an iPad. It i a work around by acting as a “middle man” to upload the flash content and then pushes it to the iPad.
BTW flash is dying. Adobe isn’t even going to update it anymore. HTML5 is where everything is going.
I actually don’t get the whole tablet movement. When I am on my laptop at home, I am commenting on sites, checking financial stuff and on the back-end stuff on my blog…I feel like the tablet would be limiting.
My notebook is not extremely portable. I do cart it back and forth if I know I’m going to be working away from my home… but I find the iPad is convenient for quick administrative things like answering emails and writing or approving comments… Also, I just discovered an addictive, fun game… and I probably shouldn’t download it…
I recently got a Kindle Fire (for free–with registration to a conference). It’s convenient for checking email and Facebook when I don’t feel like powering up my laptop, but it hasn’t blown me away. It’s, you know, OK.
I dont have an iPad but I plan to buy one later this year. I have an iPod touch that is just awesome & makes things so convenient.
Yes, if I can sell my iPad 2 for a good price.
I’d like to try it before buying. My laptop is pretty old, but I’m wondering if I should just get another small laptop. I don’t travel much with the computer in tow. But it is still tempting, if the funds are available.
We have no iPads here so are eagerly waiting to get our first one — when the 3 is available we will be in line. Or preorder if that’s possible.
I like your iPad rest…..miaow…..
I confess that photo’s not mine. The picture come from Flickr’s creative commons. But it’s not far from my reality, at least when I had a cat.
I received an iPad2 as a gift and while it’s pretty cool, I definitely don’t think it’s worth the asking price. I don’t even use it every day, maybe just 3 or 4 times a week. It’s still too awkward to get any real work done on, so my use of it is limited to web browsing and the occasional game. I doubt I’ll be any more impressed with the iPad3, but we’ll see. I almost certainly won’t buy it, though.
I have never been an Apple fan. The only Apple product I’ve ever bought was an I-Pod Nano because it was the only MP3 player supported by my car’s stereo.
I’ll wait for the arrival of the Windows 8 Tablets later this year. I will be able to do everything I now do on my laptop but in a more modern interface. The I-Pad 3 will probably have a better screen, but that’s about it, IOS is very limiting. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an Apple hater, actually Android suffers from the same limitations.
I’ve been using Quicken since 1998 for my personal accounting and there is no app equivalent as good as the PC Version (Quicken Premier).
Didn’t the iPad 2 come out not that long ago? I would be kind of ticked off if I had spent money on one and an upgrade was already on the market. I don’t own one at all; they’re kind of cool but I can’t justify buying one right now. I was at a basketball game a few weeks ago and someone in front of us used his iPad as a camera. That was cool.
The iPad 2 was released in March 2011. It has been a year and Apple tends to release product updates on a yearly cycle.
I have an iPad 2 already and I’m not impressed with the new iPad, so no I will not be purchasing one. I don’t really need an upgraded camera, upgraded display or upgraded speed. Mine has far more than I could ever need. I actually doubt I’ll be upgrading even when the iPad 4 or 5 come out.