I saw the iPad last night for the first time at Apple’s SoHo store in Manhattan. It is an amazing thing. A bit of futuristic Star Trek-level technology that found its way into the year 2010: a large-size tricorder with great video. (And to think that Spock struggled with that mouseless gadget!).
I watched a few videos (smooth, fluid ), tried one of the book readers (seductive), and was wowed by a location-sensitive astronomy app called Star Walk.
It is not a smaller this or a larger that. I remember similar dismissive talk about mini-computers and personal computers. It’s a new genre of touch-sensitive, location-aware multimedia gagdets that will create its own uses—many that we can not even conceive of at this point. With the Epicurious app, I already see the beginnings of a whole new market of kitchen countertop virtual cookbooks. If they can just hook in speech rec….Continue reading