When I read a book, I read a book; everything else fades off into the hoary mists beyond my imagination. When I write in a notebook, the same thing happens. This is good. I can read a book in a day or two. I can fill ten pages in my notebook with almost a pure stream of output. Simple enough. When I’m using my web browser, I’ve got 15 tabs open all the time, and my mail client is there, and a bunch of other stuff, and flip, flip, flip, OMG new link in reader! Case in point: I wrote that last sentence 10 minutes ago, saw that I had a new message, and away goes the concentration.
The iPad, with its lack of multitasking, would do away with that for me. I imagine myself sitting in the back corner at the coffee chop , iPad attached to the add-on keyboard, typing away. Did mail come? I don’t know. I’m in my writing app, I can’t check. I can’t be bothered by the little distractions that a notebook offers me. I think of it as a more gee whiz (and more expensive) AlphaSmart , since it will let you type until you are done typing. But then, it also lets you read until you are done reading, email until you are done emailing, et cetera until you are done et ceteraing, so I guess the extra couple of hundred dollars are justified, since you would get the same functionality (and price) by duct taping an AlphaSmart and an iPod to a Kindle.
Though, you would be able to multitask with the iKinSmart.
Discussion (3) ¬
Everybody was so quick to complain about the iPad but honestly, what were they expecting from Steve Jobs? Were they hoping that the new Apple device would give them a sense of self-worth, or that it would meld with your mind and do away with input devices? People had their hopes way too high for this new product and failed to see how useful it could be.