Maria has gone offline for the weekend and she is disciplined about that, so I can share my gift for her. I got her an Ipad2, and beyond the fun of fooling her (she just doesn’t really want to know in advance, she is like that) I wanted to write about it because it was a difficult and interesting choice for me. Her business is expanding, her communications, ordering and online work is extensive. I thought of three gifts – the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet and the Ipad 2.

Quite understandably, many people focused on price as their most important consideration. The Fire is $199, the Nook Tablet $149, the Ipad ranges from $400 to $800 (approximately), more of a capital investment. Money was an issue for me, too, but I see buying technology as akin to sometimes buying a dog – it is worth some money to invest in an animal that will be living with you and your children for years. I need for my technology to work.

Amazon began the Kindle as a rather pure reading device, but the “Fire” seemed to me to be much more focused on working as a cultural device, transmitting movies, music and books and consumer products from Amazon to the consumer. It doesn’t have that pure book feeling the early Kindle had. It’s big selling features are Wi-Fi transmission of video and songs. The Nook Tablet seemed to me to be similiar, though clearly superior in construction, technology and memory. It also is less proprietary, in that you can buy books anywhere with it, including independent bookstores (a feature rarely mentioned in any reviews) and have wide access to libraries, not just Amazon. The Kindle “Fire” keeps the user in the Amazon system, much as Apple devices keep their users in the Apple System.

The Ipad is, to me, a very different kind of device. I am an Apple user, and a fan of Apple products. They are more expensive, but they do more things and you can get help when you need it. The Apple Apps – more than 800,000 of them – just offer people like me and Maria a wide range of communications, design, research and record-keeping options. Apple sells a plastic device that fits into the Ipad and allows the user to swipe credit cards. It has apps for design, and receipts and it’s browser is lightning fast. The Ipad2 has changed my relationship to the desktop. I hardly ever use it anymore, except to write. I am never without the Ipad, on which are appointments, contacts, mail.

So my thinking is that Maria will use this as a business tool. She doesn’t play games, and isn’t much of an online yakker. Her interest in social media is minimal, and restricted to business. Interesting choices though. Almost everyone I meet is considering one tablet or another. My conclusion: the “Fire” is a wondrous gift for kids and teenagers: the new Nook Tablet is a superior book reading device, and the Ipad offers a much wider range of options and uses – cultural, business and entertainment. It is more expensive, but it is a radically superior piece of technology.