In 2007, lines stretched for blocks so people could buy the Jesus phone. Now on Saturday, while Jesus waits for colorful streamers and the Easter bunny, Apple will release iPad, its tablet computer.
I wasn’t convinced about the iPad until I saw a kid walking home reading his Kindle. How pretentious, I thought, as I leaned over to see if the electronic paper that is supposed to make reading easier on your eyes really works as well as they say.
That’s when I realized that if there were a device that let you do more than just read books, it’d be the talk of the town. That’s what iPad is.
It can be pretty annoying when the kid in front of you is playing Robot Unicorn Attack on his laptop during lecture — it’s a great game, don’t get me wrong
But imagine if you could do the same thing on a tablet, with your fingers instead of a mouse. Video games (under the semblance of paying attention, of course) will take distraction to a whole new level.
Or what if you notice somebody who just got an iPad? Even if they discreetly put it away before class, I’d still be wondering: can it withstand being in a backpack? Is the Wi-Fi connection prevalent enough to be usable? Has it revolutionized communication?
OK, so some of that is me projecting technological hopes for the future onto everybody else. Gradually, the wealthy among us will all get one and will love to be loved for their stuff. They’ll get to explain the best applications and generously let others hold it like their iPads are infants to be delicately handled.
By next fall, everyone will have iPad more or less on their radar. There are a bunch of other tablet PCs coming out this year, I hear, and maybe one or two renegades will buy those. But even more than the iPhone revolution, which is really only valuable if you own one and have all your contacts saved, we’ll easily be able to covet iPad.
