First off, hate the name. iSlate would have been better, especially as this is truly a clean slate for many applications and how people will interact with a computer. Now, I’ve been reading all kinds of rants from folks on the web about the iPad. I think they’re all full of it. The iPad represents a proper computational device for the masses. Why? Simple. Most people just want something that works, that does not require endless dicking around with, that does what it claims to do, is light and functional and attractive. They don’t want to program it and they want the applications all to behave in standardized ways. The attitude from some people is that it’s closed and makes you use the iPhone/iPod Touch touch interface. Well, duh. Most people can figure out using something based on touch, but the mouse, keyboard, etc. aggravate people. What Jobs and crew have done is create a device that replaces paper in a number of instances: notebook calendar contact list books etc. Thus, you suddenly have a single device that does all those things. And does them elegantly and consistently. I look upon the reaction of some kids I know. They quickly
