Well, several days have gone by since Apple announced it's new tablet device the iPad. It seems that all that could be said about a device that we can't have yet has been said. The iPhone Obsessed blog has remained silent. Well one thing you didn't know before: I want one! Not that anyone cares but me! One thing that I have wished for when programming for the iPhone is more screen real estate. This cannot be underestimated in importance. The iPad addresses this problem in spades. So I talk here, hopefully providing just a slightly different angle of looking at a subject that has already been written about at length.As I read all the buzz for the iPad: the initial disappointment after the device didn't meet people's heightened expectations due to all the hype, then the growing realization by developers that they have all this space to put their user interfaces in... I see others are focusing in on this advantage. Some say that "look, a laptop has a bigger screen." But a laptop computer does not have a touch screen. A laptop computer has this physical keyboard that gets in the way and makes it feel a bit awkward sitting on your lap. When I saw Steve Jobs during the key note sitting in the chair with the iPad in his lap just using it, it connected with me: This was precisely like how I would interact with a book or magazine, or a pad of paper. It is not almost there like a laptop computer is. The awkwardness has been completely removed.
Steve Jobs called it an "intimate" experience. I have to agree. It worked for him as a real-world, non-tech device would work, and has worked for thousands of years. In fact, it works better than books and magazines do (no more holding the page down to keep it from turning when you don't want it to, no more trying to put a crease in the page so it stays open... more like a clay tablet with ancient cuneiform written on it. A flat, single surface. The iPad is like that except its able to hold lots more information, does color, is back-lit, and is hooked up to the internet!
As for all the prognostication on how it will sell, and will Apple save the publishing industry, will the iPad bring world peace or feed starving children, I have no clue. But I know I want one, and am planning on buying one.
