The Apple iPad. It’s a remote and a lot more…

I have been following the blogs and press related to the Apple announcement of the iPad. A lot of what I have read is on the negative side. However, these writers are focusing on what the iPad can’t do. Yeah, it doesn’t run Flash in the browser, no ability to run multiple applications at the same time (yet?), no camera (yet?)…yadda, yadda. I do believe that despite these issues, the iPad will be a very prominent device used throughout the home of the average consumer. With the entry price point of $499, it will be sitting on the coffee table a lot quicker too. Here is a little scenario of what may very well be the typical day in the life of an iPad.

Morning:
- While making coffee to start the day, I reach for my iPad to check out the morning news sites in Safari and the various news apps that I have installed.

- As I eat breakfast and sip on some ever so delicious coffee, I bring up the calendar app to get an idea on how my day is going to go.

- I do a quick check of my email and reply to a couple before I go in to work.

- Kids are getting up now and they ask for the iPad (I really must get another one!) so that they can check off their daily chores via the GizBitz chore app (yeah..I know…a plug).

-  My beautiful wife (another plug..hehe) is up and repeats the same usage I did on the iPad.

Afternoon:
- Even though my wife works during the day, she takes time out to take one of our kids to get his allergy shots. Lucky kid. He gets to use the iPad to watch a TV show and play a game during the drive time and while sitting in the Drs. office.

Evening:
- Making dinner for us tonight, my wife brings up her recipe app on the iPad. Complete with pictures and a calculator that automatically adjusts the recipe for how many of us are eating at home tonight. Our oldest ones aren’t home as much as they used to be due to work and sports. My wife also complains that the dinners never look like the pictures. I tell her they still taste the same. Oh…and it always tastes good too.

- Still making dinner, she brings up facebook to catch up on whatever the heck her friends are either doing or want to do. There is no Flash so she can’t play farmville and that may be a good thing.

- After dinner, the kids check off their chores again via the iPad. They get $$$ for them so they are really into chores now.

-  Most of the time we all have too much going on in the evenings, but tonight is different. We all plop down on the couch to watch some TV. Grabbing the iPad, we use the (insert Satellite or Cable TV vendor here) iPad/iPhone app to view the schedule. Yes, we could use the onscreen guide, but it is slow and the interface just plain sucks. The iPad is fast and has more information on it’s screen.

- After we agree to a TV show to watch (we really need an app for that), I tap on the “View Now” button and viola, the iPad is now a remote and the channel on the TV changes to what we agreed on! Due in part that the tuner is on the same network and the iPad app can communicate with it.

- While watching the TV show, we see a trailer for a movie that is coming out this weekend. Hey! The iPad is right there so we checkout the showtimes for this weekend and compare the times we have available with the calendar app. Holy crap! we have some time that we are all together on Sunday afternoon. So we touch type the event into our family calendar.  (we now have a new meaning for touch typing)

- One of the kids just remembered that he has a paper due for school tomorrow. So while partaking in our family TV night. he grabs the iPad and uses one of the iWork apps to get it finished.

- The kids are still up but my wife and I head to bed.  I’d love to read my latest iBook purchase, but she has dibs on the iPad tonight. Did I mention that I really, really need to get another iPad?

That is just one scenario of using an iPad throughout the day. Sure, we could just use our iPhones or jump on the laptop/desktop to do most of these things. However, having an iPad around is like reaching for the remote, but better. The remote sometimes gets lost in the cushions.

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