My Apologies

If you are anything like me, you experienced a wide range of emotions yesterday when the news spread that Google Slides was FINALLY available for the iPad.  But first, before I walk through my range of emotions yesterday.  I feel that I should apologize.  To all those people over the years that I've told, "Be patient.  Google is working on Slides for the iPad.  They have to be.  They are just waiting to release it until they have it right."  To all of you, all I can say is, I was wrong and I'm sorry.

I've been using iPads in an educational setting since the iPad2 was released and have always worked under the idea that you can do anything on your iPad that you can do on your computer, you just may have to approach it a little differently.  And then Google for Education gained momentum and even before the release of the Google apps I said you could do anything on your iPad that you could do with Google on your computer.  It may not be fun, but you could do it.  Just this time there was one little exception, Google Slides.

For years I've been telling people that Google Slides was coming for the iPad.  I occasionally lost hope, thinking that it was never going to happen. But I knew better!  I knew that Google was working on it. I told people they were working on it, they just weren't going to release it until they had done it right.

So yesterday, they clouds parted and rays of sunshine covered the Earth as Google Slides was finally released for the iPad! I was excited, giddy almost with a touch of vindication.  My patience and faith in Google had paid off.  Slides was here!

Now, in hindsight there were a few things I should have been concerned about.  Google Slides had been released for Android for a few weeks before it was released for the iPad, but I never saw a lot about it after it was released.  I know that school hadn't started and Android isn't as popular in the schools as iPads so I just assumed that it wasn't really on my radar.  The other thing that should have started me wondering, why didn't it pop up easily in an App Store search?  Why did it seem like it was hidden and I had to use a tweeted link to download it?  But I paid no attention to those nagging thoughts!  I gleefully downloaded the new app.

And then I used it.  The excitement and vindication I felt earlier in the day drained away and instead feelings of disillusionment and betrayal took their place.  No backgrounds?  Ok, I could see that.  That could be a coding nightmare.  I get it.  I can deal with that.  I can work around.  I'll create an image and use that as the background.  Wait a minute.  No way to insert images?!?  You have to be kidding me! Who makes presentations with just text and white backgrounds?

And to top it all off.  I can't access my Google Drive through my browser anymore.  It just keeps spinning and spinning and spinning so all of the work arounds that I used to have with my browser are no longer available.  No more Forms, no more Sites, no more Research Tool.  Google is less useful on the iPad, than it was before the Slides app was released.  To be honest, I'm not sure what to do with this.

Now this morning I am in a happier place than I was last night.  I'm still feeling a little dejected but it is subsiding. I'm approaching the acceptance stage as I continue to work through my grief.  But I may never get over the hurt.

Here is the link if you still feel like downloading the Google Slides app.