So what’s it all about?

Why is it so revolutionary, so special the thing everyone seems to talk about?

…the iPad becomes the app you’re using. That’s part of the magic. The hardware is so understated – it’s just a screen, really – and because you manipulate objects and interface elements so smoothly and directly on the screen, the fact that you’re using an iPad falls away. You’re using the app, whatever it may be, and while you’re doing so, the iPad is that app. Switch to another app and the iPad becomes that app. If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is. (Adam C. Engst on TidBits)

Okay, so it’s magic and its perfect design as Dieter Rams told us – but Gizmodo says: well, you know…yes… but: no:

It feels like the future in your hands. But it could be better.

So what are the problems? – According to Gizmodo: weight (it’s still better than my netbook…), stand, 4:3 format, fingerprints on the surface – well, that’s annoying but it won’t keep me from wanting one. But I’m wondering when the next edition might come out because it might be better already…

P.S.: I think Xeni Jardins‘ Boing Boing article „Apple’s iPad is a touch of genius“ might have done the trick: 

Remember The Periodic Table of Elements series of books we featured here at Boing Boing? There’s an iPad version ($13.99 in the app store, screenshots here), and it’s dazzling — it makes science feel like magic in your hands. I called the guy behind The Elements, Theo Gray, and asked him to put into words the UI magic that iPad makes possible for creators of books, games, news, and productivity tools.

The Elements on iPad is not a game, not an app, not a TV show. It’s a book. But it’s Harry Potter’s book. This is the version you check out from the Hogwarts library. Everything in it is alive in some way.“

Update 1: iPad im Videotest auf NeuNetz

Update 2: sehr lesenswerter Artikel „Beyond the iPad“ hier, und dann natürlich noch Cory Doctorow, der sich kein iPad kaufen will und Jeff Jarvis, der anführt, dass das iPad ein Schritt zurück sei: passiver Konsum statt eigene Medienproduktion (keine Kamera usw.).

Update 3: iPad as „feet up“ technology which will be the next big thing. Hm.

Bild: iPad von Sean MacEntee auf flickr CC BY 2.0 Lizenz