[jsz0]

I'm not quite sure why all these iPad articles are framed with the assumption you're going to use the iPad instead of something else. I've been working on a project in Logic most of the night on my Mac with the iPad sitting on my desk for browsing, music, and video. It's a fantastic setup. Nice break from keyboard & mousing. The display is stunning and multi-touch web browsing on this size screen is such a natural experience. Something about the portrait view is very compelling to me. I popped it over to landscape for a bit and some of the magic disappeared. I wonder if part of the appeal of the iPad is simply that it's the first mainstream computing device to use portrait orientation so effectively.

[randrews]

They're framed with that assumption because of the other articles that call it "the future of computing". If something's the future of computing, it's supposed to supplant the present of computing, right?

[bombs]

Why can't the future be something that augments instead of supplants?

[nooneelse]

Wouldn't that be phrased better as "a part of the" instead of just "the". The definite article alone directs the connotation towards exclusivity.

[pkulak]

By definition?

[swombat]

Yes, because there totally aren't any sailboats around now that steamboats and motorboats got invented.

And people definitely don't go and watch plays and operas live anymore now that they can do so in their living room with a TV.

You need a better dictionary..

[krainboltgreene]

Sailboats are luxury items, dude. People aren't forced to use sailboats. In fact, instead of 100% of ships being sailboats, I'd gander only 5% or less are sailboats.

[swombat]

5% of the sailboat market is pretty significant - as is 5% of the computer market. In fact, iirc, Apple has been making solid profits from round about 5% of the laptop market.

Anyway, I was merely illustrating that "the future of" does not mean "the sole replacement of".

[ryanhuff]

It certainly simplifies things to say x will replace y. I suspect that with the ipad, its more of the beginnings of a new facet of computing.

For me, as a developer, the ipad certainly won't be much more than a diversion or a target for development. For people like my wife, though, I think it will definitely have an impact. Many people simply want a content consumption device (web, media, etc), and I think the ipad is a very good device for consuming most content.

[dkersten]

Don't forget the cost. If its the future, its a must have thing. But its also expensive, meaning a lot of people can have only one and its a choice between the future of computing and everything else.

[mlinsey]

I remember in one post PG mentioned that his solution to procrastinating on the internet was to get a separate computer to do all of his non-work-related internet browsing on. If I'm remembering correctly, that's the only thing he would use this computer for. It was at a different desk and so whenever he would use it too much he would feel something wrong.

I think I will try implementing something similar with my iPad, and see how it works.