On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 1:49 AM, Richmond Mathewson <richmondmathew...@gmail.com> wrote: > My top 3 ideas are: > > 1. Swank toy. > > 2. Castrated computer for people who don't need laptops or PCs. > > 3. Tree-Free book. > > What are yours? Come on you-all . . . :0
Remember trying to explain HyperCard? Because it could do everything but had no one specific task, it was very difficult to convince people who like to be able to categorise. The iPad is the same - it's whatever you want it to be. Adam Engst's article about the "blank slate" is a good read: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11152>. But here is the key section: "So what's the difference between a Mac and an iPad? It's that blank slate thing. No matter what you do on a Mac, the keyboard and mouse and window-based operating system make it impossible to ignore the fact that you're using a Mac, and it's often equally impossible to ignore the fact that you're using a particular program. In contrast, the iPad becomes the app you're using. That's part of the magic. The hardware is so understated - it's just a screen, really - and because you manipulate objects and interface elements so smoothly and directly on the screen, the fact that you're using an iPad falls away. You're using the app, whatever it may be, and while you're doing so, the iPad is that app. Switch to another app and the iPad becomes that app. If that's not magic, I don't know what is." I haven't touched one yet, so I am just theorising at this stage, but here's my opinion: this is the first true consumer computer and is the start of the next phase of the computer revolution. Computers are about to move out the hands of the geeks and into the hands (literally) of people who don't know or care about the hardware. As developers, an iPad won't be the computer we will use for work, because we are like car mechanics and want to tinker. Most people just want to hop in the car and drive to the shops, and they don't care about the technology that makes that possible - they just want it to work reliably and easily. As developers, we should all be embracing the multitude of possibilities that this opens up for us. Cheers, Sarah P.S. Can't spare 2 cents - saving for my iPad :-) _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution