As well as my parents generation starts to adopt to a system not using windows. By the way, this mental hurdle might be the toughest for the iPad.

With the iPad being able to print very soon, and hopefully to make video conferences, there isn’t much left for my mother, etc. to need a laptop anymore… Except making photo-books. We’ll see.

As long as there is one thing you usually do, that you can’t do at the iPad, a lot of non-Geeks will not use it. It will take us some more years to have better usability as a broadly accepted sales argument. (What a pity you can’t measure it in GHz)

I think the Ipad is for the 80 and the 20. Both for the novice and the uber-geek.

I fall somewhere towards the uber-greek side of the equation and I love it. I use it with a free VNC app that allows me access to all of my computers and clients machines.

It’s a great just to grab it and jump on the couch, and watch TV while checking email with and then make dinner and use a recipe that I can find instantly and keep the screen up while throwing together the ingredients.

and dude, don’t get me started on the games. Show me some games that are anywhere as addictive and as beautifully displayed as in the Ipad.

Before you mock it, you need to get your hands on one and play with it for a month. I guarantee you that it will change your mind like it did mine.

I hate, hate, hate using a laptop IN MY LAP for extended periods of time. One way or the other it’s gonna hurt my neck, back or wrists to use it in a “lounging on the couch” position for too long. Laptops are great for easily moving from one desk to another, but to use while lounging around, the tablet is a much more effective form. The problem with tablets to date is that they have pretty much tried to mimic the UI of a traditional computer OS, but that OS just isn’t designed to be interacted with through the screen (but through a mouse and keyboard). Where the iPad “changes everything” is it takes a device more like a tablet computer (a bit more power, and much larger screen than a smart phone) and gives it an UI that’s actually designed to be used the way people are going to use it. If there’s a better option out there for casually using the web while lounging around the house, I’ve not seen it.

Now lets think about our everyday baby boomer demographic. Even now my 55 year old mother and 80 year old grandmother are sending pictures back and forth to each other, my mother just learning how to send e-mail as of last year. Times are changing, and I think the baby boomers are jumping on the bandwagon too.I have to agree with the points that while this product is attempting to hit a casual user, it just might be a bit too casual and not provide even some features they would find useful. Time will tell, and we can all agree that the next iterations of the Ipad will be much more impressive, and satisfying to the casual palette.

Let’s say I work in a shop, the iPad is capable of running iWork or a special web app to keep in touch back of house with what i’m selling. So my team could sell 50 boxes of chocolate and my back of house could replenish it on the shop floor (or know about it) in seconds.

Let’s say I’m on the train to work. I had a tiny desk, I have an hour journey left, i want to listen/look at all my media, keep up to date with my family, keep up to date with my work emails, organise a weekend off… all this can be done on the iPad.

Let’s say I’m a music editor, I could create an app that would allow Logic to link up to the iPad and take advantage of all the small shortcuts I use all the time. Instead of clicking or using shortcuts, I tap a simple icon on the screen.

The problem with the iPad *is* the people. People don’t understand the concept. People don’t understand that this essentially is something that won’t need multi-tasking to the full extent or a camera.

This is a 9.7” HD device that allows you to do ANYTHING you want except take pictures and play two games at once.

One day, just like with all the other Apple products, you’ll realise why this is going to speed your life up, or why this will play such a big part in cutting the bull.

What have Apple announced? 140,000 applications. That’s suddenly 40,000 applications than the day before they had an iPad. hmm.

D’ya reckon they’re hiding something a little?

I do.

Keep your head open and your opinions neutral, because until you’ve had a hands-on or a definitive wow, you can’t accurately judge.

The average user wants to upload photos to their computer, before they upload them to their iPad?
The average user doesn’t need their iPad to play Flash? (It could, you know. 1GHz can run Flash fine.)
The average user wants a device that doesn’t do anything spectacular?

As for specialty purposes, like auto shops, schools, etc., that’s a fairly small niche, in the workplace, and I doubt parents are going to run out and buy an iPad for their kids’ textbooks, even if the school will accommodate iPad students.

Imagine everyone you dealt with today, the barrista, the service writer at the car shop, the waiter. Now imagine them with an iPad in their hands. Visualize the systems that will work differently than ever before. Imagine every school kids backpack reduced to 1.5 lbs plus his lunch.

Where do publishing houses add value in a work flow that goes from the writer to a data file to the final customer? Can’t the writer hire an editor and layout consultant and just bypass the publishing house, since Apple provides the international storefront from which to sell their creation?

Everything is different now. We just don’t know how.