Meh, it has its place.

Well...Today's the day. It's here. The big, well small one. The iPad...thing. The great Stephen Fry once said that this is a "Game Changer" Is it really? Whatever you think about Apple, it does make some astonishing hardware. The quality, the finesse, le je ne c'est quoi. I can look on and admire, wishing that my laptop was just as posh. But then I remind myself that, the reason I think like that is because Steve Jobs has sold it to me. He is one of the greatest sales people of our generation. He no longer sells things we need. He sells things we want. It is the perfect formula. He has given us a way of excusing extravagance. There is no real need for this device. Ok there could be. I can see Joe Bloggs taking this to the park instead of a newspaper. Or on holiday instead of a laptop. For what it is, it is far too expensive. Especially if you live the East side of 'The Pond'. I don't want another 3g data plan. I have one already. I don't want to use a tiny sim instead of the perfectly good standard sized ones. I don't want to be put in the position where everything is policed by Apple. I do not want to see Apple out of the market. I'm all for choice. They've made it perfectly clear to their pals at Microsoft that choice is important. Yet Steve and his geezers are certainly changing the game. They've created an entire market to call their own because they can't dent the other one. Creating a market and patenting every inch, does not induce competition and/or choice.

For what its worth, I like the look of the iPad. I just don't like what it means, what it stands for. Many of my friends and twitter followers know that I'm a Linux user. So, to many, my opinion on this is already biased. But hey-ho, such is life. People are going to come up to me pinch zooming and swooshing away. They'll tell me I want it, they'll tell me I need it, They'll insist that its so much better than anything I've ever used. To those questions I answer; I don't, I really don't, and it certainly isn't better than lube.

Dave.