Everybody has some kind of gadget today, don't they? Cell phones, Smartphones, computers, old PDA's, even calculators. I can't think of anybody who doesn't have a cell phone. I'm sure they are out there. I know a few people who don't own a computer, but not many. My point, well known as it is, we are in the gadget age. So what?

Let's boil it down to one word. Information. All those gadgets and all that software is about one thing, moving numbers and words around on screens, printed papers and having access to it in our heads when we want to see it. We are using a lot of Digits these days.

Take that Smartphone you carry(I don't have one so I might be somewhat uninformed). It can tell the time, tell you your late, early, warn you about something coming up, give you info about your next meeting, tell time by the stars, tell you which direction to go and when, tell you how much money is in your accounts, how many accounts you have, access the library, update your fitness portfolio, buy stocks, sell stocks, send pictures, receive pictures, watch videos, movies, take pictures and movies, and the list just goes on and on and on. You can even talk to people, several of them if you want at one time. Pretty amazing stuff. What do you do most with your smartphone besides yell at the monthly bill.

I well remember what it was like to have one bill from ATT and MaBell. Cell phones were a ways off back then. Now, no cell phone or smartphone almost means you don't exist. And if anybody can find you, it's the phone companies. They have plenty of digits to sell.

So how do I move my digits around. Plain old cell phone for phone calls. A wee bit of texting since I know three people who like to text me more than talk to me, but that's it. So for the most part, a phone is still a phone to me. Say what you will, that's what I use it for. You use it for a whole lot of other stuff. Great, I still like you. Just don't worry about me, I'm still happy without a smartphone. I might change my mind sometime this century, but for now I'm good. When my cellphone breaks, I may get one that texts well since I may want to keep up with my texting buddies in the future.

So where does my iPod touch and iPad come in. That's how I move my digits around. They have plenty of similarities, not the least of which, they come from the same Apple orchard. The differences are fairly obvious today as well. The larger screen of the tablet works well for me. I want a huge one for the pulpit like a Surface Tablet that I can use when I preach or present, but that is a ways off. For now, the iPad will do well. My Touch is taking a back seat even though it is an amazing device.

So what do I do with the iPad. Here's a quick list:

• Prompter software allows me to use it for preaching and speaking and preparing for sermons. I practice my sermon by using prompter software.

• I am setting up to do more video work with the prompter software. As soon as Facetime comes to the iPad,(it's already on the Touch and iPhone). I'll be able to look at the screen for the words to read and take video for the blog at the same time. At least I look forward to that use of the iPad. Don't know when that will happen, but it will be an instant teleprompter with excellent results I believe.
• Email and basic communications are a snap on the iPad.
• Internet surfing of all stripes is fun on the iPad.
• The other areas that are important to me are writing and presenting, using Pages and Keynotes. All my sermons and articles are on my iPad in at least three places, the teleprompter software, the Pages App where I can easily edit them, or on Keynote where I make Powerpoint style presentations and edits. Since I write out every word in a sermon, I need good editing capabilities. The iPad works well for this. I still write sermons on my desktop, then transfer them over to my iPad. Will the day come when I write them all on my iPad? Maybe. Not this year. I have the wireless keyboard and find it pleasant to use, but I don't use it much at all compared to my desktop.
• There are many apps to use with the iPad, star watching, todo apps, management apps, financial apps, facebook apps, twitter apps, the list is long, over 10,000 specifically for the iPad and over 100,000 that work on the tablet but are basically written for the Touch or iPhone. They work well on the iPad but don't use the larger screen as well as they could. But that is changing fast.

I Use my iPad every day and find it to fit into my lifestyle very well. There are so many wifi hotspots in Lincoln that I have no trouble dropping into a cafe or bookstore or library if I need information at my fingertips. Our church has a wifi spot as well so anything I need when church is going on is available as well. I store much of my stuff in the cloud, Dropbox or Google Docs.

The iPad has forced me to learn to use the Cloud more effectively. I am not entirely happy about that. I am still stuck on flash drives somewhat and have not fully learned to access the Cloud for all my information. But I can see that this will work out sooner than later. Products like the Airstash will fill the void, enabling you to carry your digits around and access them with any wireless device.

The iPad has forced me to make some adaptations. But it is a small price to pay for having all that digtalia power in a 2 pound package. That's with the cover I use, otherwise less weight. The cover makes it feel sturdy or secure in my hands though.

One other criticism that seems to be out there is reading books on the iPad. It could be that a Kindle or a Nook is a better way to go if you read books. I don't own either device and probably won't, although I wouldn't turn one down if it was offered to me. I simply don't plan to buy many digital books. I read free ones on my iPad and that works well for me. But I am on a book diet, I already have far more books than you do and we have great libraries here in town, so I am not buying one tenth as many books as I used to.

But the argument stands that reading a book on other devices is easier than the iPad. That may be true. If you want a device to read books and little else, than you might be better off with a Nook or Kindle. But if you want everything else that an iPad does, than the choice becomes clearer.

As for carrying around a smartphone versus and Ipad or laptop for that matter, that is another discussion. I'm quite happy with the extra screen real estate for what I do. I really do need the larger screen. You may not for what you do. That's fine. Whatever works. You may need to be constantly connected with a smartphone. Then that is the way to go, although you can be constantly connected with a 3G version of the iPad. And the cost is probably a lot less on a monthly basis.

Limitations for me with the iPad are multitasking and printing right now. And I can't do blogging as easily with the iPad yet since my blogging software is not iPad friendly. I expect the next update of the iPad's software will fix the first two and hopefully my blog software will come up to speed soon. In the meantime, I have to send items to print back through the cloud or snyc them with my iTunes account to get them to another machine to print. A hassle for sure but doable. Multitasking is not all that it is cracked up to be for me, but I will like it when I get it, probably this November.

That's a brief rundown of my digital deliriousness. The iPad has become integral to it all. It is just a gadget, but I love it and I don't normally fall in love with plastic and silicon and glass. But it makes life a lot easier and you gotta love that.