Let's talk about 10 years of iPad and Rise of the Resistance

Welcome back to another "From the Editor's Desk," awesome iMorians!

With the iPad announced on January 27, 2010 by Steve Jobs, we are now hitting a decade of iPad. A decade! The iPad is almost hitting its teen years, folks, and that's crazy. I remember the original iPad keynote like yesterday, and 512 Pixel's Stephen Hackett has done a nice re-watch of the announcement with real-time commentary that you can find here.

Honestly, I can't believe that it's been 10 years since that Jobs revealed the iPad. I remember being in awe of the device, as it was always exciting whenever Apple unveiled a new product. But I was still in college at the time, and all I thought of was how useful the iPad would be for replacing my heavy textbooks back then. I had an Amazon Kindle around then, but the idea of having full color digital copies of textbooks on a tablet, and being able to annotate pages excited me like no other back then, and that's how I wanted finish off my last year of university. But another part of me was also thinking, "isn't this just a giant iPod touch?"

I'll admit it — the iPad hasn't had a big of an impact on my life as the original iPhone, because the latter is what got me to pursue my goals of being a tech journalist and also what drew me into the Apple ecosystem as a whole. But I remember getting the first iPad when it launched in April 2010, and even that OG keyboard dock, and just feeling impressed overall. This is the future.

With my first OG iPad, I used it to write, watch video, read some books, access social media, and even play some games. iOS was not super advanced back then, so the iPad wasn't making me as productive as I am on a Mac, but it was still just fun to use. And even though many people, myself included, kind of thought that it was just going to be a "big iPod touch or iPhone," it's amazing to see how far it's come in 10 years.

I mean, we no longer have just one 9.7-inch iPad anymore like the old days. Instead, we have a 7.9-inch iPad mini, 10.2-inch iPad, 10.5-inch iPad Air, and 11 and 12-inch iPad Pros. It's even gone from iPhoneOS to iOS and now iPadOS, which even support DualShock 4 and Xbox One S controllers for games. There's even mouse support in iOS and iPadOS, bringing it closer to a regular computer more than ever before. And all of this in just a decade.

We have a whole slew of iPad 10-year anniversary articles coming out tomorrow, so stay tuned for those.

In non-Apple news, I finally got to ride the new Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge last week! It's best to not think of RotR as a ride, but an entire experience, and one of the best that Disney's Imagineers have ever done, hands down.

Going through the entire RotR experience takes about 15 minutes total, and it combines four types of attractions into one, but it truly makes you feel like you're in Star Wars. An incredible amount of detail was poured into this, from the queue decor to the holograms to the animatronics, and even the cast members playing their part as First Order officers.

I won't say any more about RotR because it may be "spoiler-y," but it's definitely something that you must do if you get the opportunity at Walt Disney World in Florida or Disneyland in California. Even if you aren't a Star Wars fan, the attraction itself is the most immersive yet at any theme park.

Bright suns, iMorians!

• Christine Romero-Chan

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