It’s like that guy at the party that everyone loves. No substance, but TONS of charisma.

Here we are at hour 59 since they gave me Donovan, and I have to say he definitely has his role. (What? I name things. It gives them character. And personality. Besides, I just cannot continue to use the label “iPad’. It gives me the creeps every time I even think it.)

Where was I? Right. Donovan. While he hasn’t been able to really help me in the details of my daily life, he is incredible to have at a group event. He mingles well with just about anyone and can go from circle to circle with ease. I don’t even have to check up on him really. He makes his way back to me, eventually.

Seriously though, the weekend I’ve had this brilliant piece of hardware has proved extremely interesting. I traveled to a yearly family get-together on Saturday  – we call it a Cemetery Party – and I took Donovan along with just in case.  My large, loud, awesome Southern family couldn’t have been any less interested. So, he stayed in the car.

On Sunday, more than 20 people gathered in my beautiful, old house to celebrate the birthday of a great friend. Donovan was great for showing off Facebook pictures, looking at YouTube videos, and reading comics amongst the group. He got passed around throughout the evening, showing off recipes, tracking down the number to the closest pizza place and playing back Tiger Woods cursing at the Masters on live television. I lost track of him for well over two hours. I didn’t mind, though.

While Donovan is definitely nice to have occasionally, he couldn’t join my circle of friends unless I were to have an extra $829.00 lying around. Hello, I’m a college student. There are a plethora of other things that I can spend $829.00 on to help improve my life. Let me write that out for effect. Eight HUNDRED twenty nine dollars. Folks, if you are a college student and don’t think that’s a lot of money, we need to be friends. $829.00 is practically my budget for the entire month. You heard me. Month.

That $829.00 buys you 64GB of space, as well as wi-fi and 3G network capability. You see, without the 3G network, browsing is limited to being in an area with a Wi-Fi network. Once you leave the network, browsing is no mas. If there is a way to view certain things “offline,” I have yet to figured it out. Not being able to do so was something I discovered en route to see my family. I had looked up directions and simply left the page open, assuming that once I left the network, I would be able to at least see the step-by-step I had already looked up. Nope. Donovan was not havin’ it.

As a designer, who is constantly on the go (I keep clothes in the car. No lie.), I couldn’t be limited to Wi-Fi only. Constantly having to hunt down a network from which I could mooch would be both frustrating and exhausting. So, though this option is available for purchase, it doesn’t seem very feasible for me.

Also, why would anyone buy a 16GB version? I thought this as well when the iPod Touch came out with the same storage capacity. I don’t have very many songs on my iPod, yet I’ve still easily filled 6GB of space. When you add apps, files and photos, free space disappears very quickly. Terabytes make me giddy.  64GB is really my only option.

However, I do admit: rolling over Saturday morning to pick up a lightweight, portable television to check the weather, read, and watch an episode of Arrested Development was a pretty fantastical way to start the day.

Who’s got an extra 829 bucks they can spare?