(Reading time: 7 – 11 minutes)

I’m excited about Apple’s iPad.

I’m pretty sure the iPad will change everything for me. Hyperbole? Maybe. Before I look forward too much though, I want to look backwards.

Since the birth of the modern internet, software has conformed to hardware. The modern PC has been around a lot longer than the modern internet, and the hardware has remained the same. Yes, it’s gotten faster and better, but we still have the same old screen, keyboard and mouse that has been around as long as I can remember.

On the other end of the spectrum, the iPhone (and other smart phones) is just a variation of the Personal Data Assistant (PDA) theme. It has gotten about as good as PDAs can get, but the idea has been largely the same since the Palm Pilot: handheld, portable, big screen, keyboard optional.

As hardware has evolved, the internet has been conforming to the hardware. Web browsers have been designed to work with the keyboard, mouse, and screen, and websites and web-based applications have to work within those browsers. The software has had to conform to the hardware, and that has fundamentally impacted the design of web technology.

The tablet is the beginning of a new cycle, the hardware is conforming to the software. Instead of asking how to make the internet work with computers, the tablet answers how we can make computers that best work with the internet.

I think this will start a cascade of changes. Hardware will conform to software, then software will conform to new hardware, and the cycle repeats and repeats, flip flopping up a ladder of progress. The result will be that the internet will not be confined to the PC-style computer.

For the most part, the internet has only been useable with a computer. The connection between these two is so strong that computers and internet are almost synonymous. This tablet however, is not a computing device, it is a connecting device. It is designed to use the internet, and to be a device that makes using the internet a lot more useful.

Here are jsut a couple simple examples off the top of my head:

• I’ll look up a recipe and reference it while cooking. I’ll just prop up a tablet on my counter as I cook. No need to print a recipe or walk back and forth fromt eh kitchen to my computer screen.
• I’ll sit in my bed and read comics without buying a single piece of paper. I’ll store those comics on the device (or maybe even online) instead of filling my closet with boxes of comic books.
• I’ll read your blog and drink my coffee on a couch every morning, without the pain of balancing a labtop on my lap.

I’m pretty sure that there are dozens of super simple, super practical ways that this will be immediately useful. I also imagine that there will be a whole lot more really complex ways that this will be useful. I believe in few years we will use tablets and think, “how did I ever do this on a laptop or on my iphone?”

All those reasons above are certainly cool.

I won’t be buying this because it is cool, but because it will make every other computer I have a more useful and productive tool. The reason for this goes back to how this device seperates computing from connecting.

I don’t need an iPad.

I’ve got an iPhone, 2 laptops (PCs), a desktop (also PC), and an xbox (if you want to count that). Everything the iPad will do can be done on one of my other devices.

But for many things, it can’t be done better.

For most tasks, my iPhone is too small, and my laptop is needlessly big and clumsy. Checking email, posting to twitter, quick blog updates, facebook, reading RSS feeds, and commenting on other blogs is a touch difficult on the iPhone because of its size. My labtops are powerful enough to do all of this, but they are not easily portable. I have to lug it around, plug in a mouse, wait for it to boot, and the battery runs out after 2 hours.

iPad the casual computer

The iPad tablet will be my “casual” computing device. The screen is big enough to be usable and useful, and the device is small and portable enough that I can lounge about at my coffee table, or sit in bed while I use it. I have a feeling that for all of these casual computing and internet tasks, this tablet will be the baby bear device: not too big, not too small, but just right.

I’ll quickly check my email, post to twitter, read some articles, or anything else that has to do with interaction, connection, personal contact, and media consumption. As soon as I get my hands on one of these tablets, I am uninstalling Feeddemon and Tweetdeck, and deleting my browser quick launch buttons from my laptops.

I am convinced that for the iPad does, it will do best.

Right now, my laptops are be-all, do-all devices. My laptop can be used for everything, and because of that, I focus less on the one thing I have to do right now.

Other devices, other uses

The real beauty of using the iPad for connection and consumption is my other devices will be free to do what they do best.

My iPhone will still be a phone, ipod, and on-the-go internet device. I’ll be able to look up restaurants, post to twitter, update foursquare, and check my email on the bus, walking to work, or anywhere else.

My laptops will be movable work stations, and I’ll be able to use them for what they do best, writing code, creating written content, and editing audio media. My desktop will be my primary media storage device, and my image and video editor.

The biggest challenge for me is that computers do too much. For someone that has trouble focusing on anything that isn’t edible (yours truly), it is a bit overwhelming to be connected to email, RSS, music, twitter, and websites, when I am just trying to edit an article I wrote. Even when I don’t have these applications fired up, the fact that email is just 2 mouse clicks away is a distraction.

When working on my computer, I don’t get so distracted by doing dishes, folding laundry, or reading a book. There is a hardware separation between those activities, this helps me separate these in my mind.

(Sure, it may be funny to think of a laptop and a dish sponge as separate hardware, but it works for me)

Separate hardware, better focus

Here’s an example: I don’t have a hardware separation between twitter and Notepad++.

Interacting on twitter and writing PHP code are very different tasks, they require different skills,a nd very different parts of my brain. They are abotu as different as checking email and doing dishes. Having one machine that does both keeps me a little distracted all the time, even when I’m not consciously aware of it. I may not know that this happens, but I feel that this happens.

I am a poster child for Constant Partial Attention

In the future, I’ll fire up my laptop when I want to write code, or write a blog post, edit images, or upload a podcast. I won’t need to turn on my laptop to check email or twitter, log onto facebook, or read my RSS feed. My computer will be a content creation device, and I will (hopefully) be able to break the distractions from content consumption.

My computers will once again be tools for getting work done.

I could write another 500 to 1000 words about how this tablet will change how media is consumed, create a new platform for media production, blah blah blah, and it probably will. The iPad will have an impact on the arts, media, and all sorts of cool stuff.

But really, having a device for consuming content separate from a device to produce content will make me more productive.

That alone sold me.

What do you think?

Is the iPad the future?

Are you gonna be in line at the Apple store? Why or why not? Leave a comment, let’s discuss.

Sean Neprud operates Bad Deacon Design under the moniker Deacon (surprise!), where he works in a range of mediums from wood block to web design.