So yeah I tried to avoid talking about this but nothing much else is happening on the internet at the moment so I guess I have to. Last week was a big week for Apple as their new product, the “iPad” hit stores in the UK on Friday, days after officially becoming bigger than Microsoft. The iPad is deemed likely to fail miserably or transform portable computing, creating a new category of product that we will all end up needing.

Apple iPad

I personally am not an Apple fan boy. However, looking at me and what I own you might say that I am. I have an Macbook Pro with Final Cut Studio and Logic 9, an iPhone, and I used to have an iMac. The reason I have these things is not because I think they are cool, or because I want to look cool like the Apple stereotype would have you believe. I have them because they are the best tools for the job that I use them for. Period.

I do sound engineering, I do video editing and live video mixing. The best software for these tasks run on Macs and they work well on Macs. I can’t be doing live visuals only to have windows cut in half way through saying you have committed an illegal operation and need to shut down. I have seen that happen first hand and it can destroy shows. So there you go, at the end of the day if you look past all the bullshit arguments between Mac or PC, Macs are better for this situation that I am in, by a long way.

Anyway back to the iPad. It is basically just a massive iPhone lets be honest. Lets be brutally honest here: iPads are cool. They are fun to play with and it is much more exiting to view web pages with. But is it useful? That is what really matters. I wont buy one, because I don’t need one. For me it would essentially be a toy. I can do far more things with the combination of my smart phone and my laptop than I could with an iPad. But if you want to give me one for free, I would love it.

This viral video however tries to prove that iPads can be more than a toy. So how do you make the iPad useful? No, not through modern technology, you need something from the past to help you out. Velcro. The video shows off it’s many uses from using as a digital picture frame to a sat nav for your car hire journeys. I’m still not buying one.

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