The iPad - What Changed?

Alex Payne was not a fan of the iPad

Back in January, I wrote that the iPad wasn’t something “I want to bring into my home”. But right now, there’s an iPad in my home.

Alex Payne — The Moderate's Position on iPad Openness

What changed? He spent some time with an iPad

Human-computer interaction has found a sweet spot on the iPad. It’s all the power of desktop computing, plus the valuable constraints of mobile devices, minus the limitations of both. It just makes sense. Use one for a couple hours and your desktop or laptop will seem clumsy, arbitrary, and bewildering. It is, simply, how (most) computing should be.

You can be as cooly aloof as you like about the device, but it won’t change the fact that it’s a fundamental step forward in computing. Many consumers can surely afford to sit this initial release out until the costs come down and the quality goes up. But if you work in tech, you should spend some time with an iPad. If it doesn’t change the way you think about what you do, you’re either a genius or an idiot.