iPads and Long Haul Flights

I'm currently (at time of writing) flying from Almaty, Kazakhstan to London Heathrow, which is just under 3,500 miles and takes about eight hours. It's the second long haul flight I've done with the iPad (the first being the flight out to Almaty earlier in the week) and all I can say is that it is an absolutely epic piece of equipment.

One of the questions people ask is "what do you use your iPad for?" because although it is clearly an attractive piece of kit it is no immediately obvious, despite Apple's best efforts, why anyone might need one. After a flight like this, where the selection of entertainment chosen by the airline is not hugely interesting, it's a fairly easy question to answer because it is my only distraction. I have:

1. Watched a movie (The Expendables - not great, but somewhat diverting if you're into guns, explosions and ludicrous fight scenes) 
2. Dealt with a load of email (reading and writing, both for work and home, although without an Internet connection it isn't going anywhere at the moment) 
3. Read part of a book (Marcus Brigstocke's God Collar - entertaining but a little over the top and best consumed in modest chunks) 
4. Updated Facebook (or not - I've prepared email responses to several comments made by other people but the aforementioned lack of internet means that the updates haven't yet happened) 
5. Drafted a couple of boring blog updates (using PlainText and email) and some notes for work (via Evernote) 
6. Listened to a load of a music 
7. Caught up on some reading (mostly articles from New Scientist that I saved for later reading using Instapaper, another recommended app). 

At time of writing, after about four hours of continuous use, the battery is down only 30% and I'm thinking about taking a break from writing to work through a couple of Sudoku puzzles. Be right back.

And we're back, with four Sudoku puzzles finished off in something more than record time (I blame a lack of sleep). I thought about playing some other games (I have a couple of tower defence games, some racing games and a version of Command and Conquer) but decided against it - too lazy.

Being locked in a tin tube over the middle of Europe reduces Internet access options somewhat. When there is an Internet connection (3G or Wi-fi) the range of possible activities increases to include shopping for books (I like to use iBooks), browsing the web, chatting using IM or Skype and any of a dozen other data-dependent tasks.

So if you wanted to know what I use my iPad for you now know. You might find a load of different things to do on an iPad but that's your problem. For me, it offers the opportunity to do a little work, consume a little entertainment media and, network allowing, communicate with friends, family and work colleagues. As a multi-purpose lightweight computer it is spectacularly good and it makes an invaluable companion for a long flight.