Isaacson

So, the iPad for me has been a mixed bag. I have big problems with Apple as a company: the produce high cost equipment in Chinese factories as a way to boost profit margins, the never give the user full control of their products, the are the most blatant example of designed obsolescence that I can think of. Then snag is that they're also producing well designed hardware and software that's right on the bleeding edge of the future; the things that Apple produces, for the most part, are indicative of where consumer electronics is going. So, when I got an iPad I wanted to tear it apart, I wanted to claim control of my device while still working with generally superior Apple hardware. I was able to do this to an extent, but the most basic flaws of the device remain. You still need a computer to active and interact with it, meaning that it could never act as a person's only computer, it still doesn't have flash support, and it doesn't have a physical keyboard which will always limit the how quickly or easily you can interact with device. For example, I'm typing this on my iPad right now and every fourth word or so Ill have to correct in some way where my accuracy on a physical keyboard is much, much higher.

As a tool of education, however, the iPad worked like a dream. It's lightweight and much easier to haul class to class than my laptop. I never have to waste paper by printing readings from Blackboard, I just bring my iPad. If I need to fact check something or lookup the definition of a Spanish word it's much easier to do on the iPad then on my cell phone. And, several of my textbooks were available in e-book format for less money or even free.

The iPad doesn't replace anything but it's release, much like the iPhone and the smartphone explosion, has created a popular market for tablet computing. Modern consumers won't be able to replace their laptops or their cellphones with the iPad, but instead they'll have a new way of interacting with the internet and information.