The iPad | via Daring Fireball
Really great, detailed, personalized look at the iPad. As of the writing of the piece Gruber had only been using his iPad for two days. Very difficult to pull out any single highlight because the piece is bloody full of them.
One interesting point, and a detail that differentiates what Gruber has to say from what Rick LePage has to say, kind of hinges on the same idea. At this point in the game the iPad appears as a blank slate, or as Gruber says, an empty Canvas. (Canvas being the name he was using before the iPad was actually called the iPad.)
One thing that’s making it hard for some people to grasp the purpose of the iPad is that no one has an answer to what precisely it is for. This was not so for the iPhone. The answer to the question of what the original 2007 iPhone was meant for was right there at the bottom of the iPhone home screen, in the “dock”: phone, email, web, music and video. The other apps were icing on the cake. The four apps in the dock were what Apple designed the iPhone to do.
That singular fact is what leads LePage to suggest that the device is a luxury and not a necessity. That same “what’s it for” question is what leads Gruber to see the iPad as a blank page, with open and endless possibilities, that can be written on by anyone developing an app for the iPad. In short, the opportunities for making the iPad more than a luxury gizmo are legion and it’s up to the innovators to take that canvas and turn it into something essential.
The truth is that the App Store is the killer app. The iPad is meant for anything that can be represented on a 10-inch color touchscreen.
Gruber’s bit, as always, is eloquent and essential.