Arranged Delirium

I’ve been meaning to write about my Apple Tablet Device (ATD) for some time now, and just haven’t had time to get to it. There’s been no shortage of coverage for it however, and you can find way too much written about it already: either praising it as passed down from the right hand of God, or reviled as an incomplete tool for which there is no real use. I still hold to my original premise. This is a great tool for folks who simply want easy-to-use technology. That audience isn’t necessarily the Technorati - although some of them may use one.

For my part, I’ve been surprised that I have liked it as much as I have. I’ve found it eminently useful. I can’t do any real development work on it - but then again, that isn’t the majority of my time on a computer anymore. I’ll always need a desktop machine for my development work; but my laptop has increasingly become the tool for my professional work which consists largely of email, web work, word processing, along with the occasional spreadsheet thrown in. This little machine handles all of that. I’ve found it particularly useful for the activities that you can tend to when you find yourself with 10 minutes to spare and want to get something done.

I should emphasize that this works for me because I rarely use a cell phone (unlike most people). So, I don’t see this replacing a phone, but replacing my laptop. I will also avoid the hyperbole of stating that this device will kill the Netbook - because that simply isn’t true - but this device will play a significant role in shaping the future of computing where our daily devices will look a lot more like this and desktop or tower machines will become increasingly rare.

In any event, here is a brief list of a few articles that I’ve found interesting over the past few months. You can check them out if you are interested, but take note of the dates - some are going to be less valuable through time:

Ann Kirschner shares her impressions through an article in the Chronicle
Omar Wasow explains The Techies Are Wrong about the iPad
Jean-Louis Gassée has been around a long time, and gives a reasoned review here

...and there are hundreds more. Articles regarding the features and specs, opinion around the usefulness of the device, and invective concerning how this changes everything - we’ve heard it all before. But you should go see this device and play with it a little bit. With the other tablet machines that will soon hit (or are already on) the market, it’s clear that this is the next big thing to figure out hardware-wise.