The dirty truth about iPads

I was messing around with an iPad in a crowded Apple store the other day when it dawned on me that this might not be a great idea.

A recent story in the New York Daily News confirmed my suspicions. Reporters swabbed some iPads in Manhattan stores and had the samples analyzed. Two of them had Staphylococcus aureus, the germ associated with staph infections, and Candida parapsilosis, a yeast, and rash-causing Corynebacterium minutissimum.

Nice, huh? I don't want to go all Howard Hughes on you, but this is enough for me to stay away from store-display iPads forever.

Nonetheless, it's a neat device. Not something I need at this moment in my life, but still a fairly appealing gadget if you can block out the nasty little critters that live on its vivid touch screen.

Apple takes the next step with iPad

The Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, has done it again. His latest innovation, the iPad, appears to be a revolutionary device in the same way the company's Macintosh computers and iPod music players blazed new trails years ago. This isn't just an over-sized smart phone. This thing appears to have some serious possibilities that move us one step further away from clunky desktop and notebook computers. It has a screen you can actually see and a large virtual keyboard suitable for typing, yet it's still more portable than even the smallest notebook computers. Some complaints about the lack of certain features are already being raised, but with a device like this, I tend to see it as a start rather than a finished product. And it's a significant start that could evolve into various new products.

I can envision people being more likely to take this on a commuter train to read their morning newspaper than lugging along and cranking up a laptop. Is it more convenient than a paper news product? Well, that remains to be seen. Some folks will always prefer the feel of ink and disposable newsprint, I suppose. I will confess that paper and ink will always appeal to me. In some ways, newsprint is more high tech than anything invented to this point to replace it. Nothing loads faster and it has no annoying popups. But I am a realist and know that we can't keep cutting down trees forever. Nor can companies invest in massive printing presses and costly distribution methods.

If one thing could hurt the iPad, it's the cost. Starting at $499 and going up over $800, some will argue it doesn't do enough to justify such a purchase. People still want a real keyboard to type long documents on. They still want their smart phones to talk on and to easily carry in their pockets. I believe Apple will quickly need to update this device so that users can multitask on it. Still, with that said, there is nothing else on the market quite like the iPad. It makes the Kindle already look outdated.

Here's the link to video where Jobs describes the iPad. Along with his still getting it done in the technology field, I also applaud Jobs for wearing jeans to announce the launching of the iPad. Seeing him up there in a suit wouldn't have flown with most Apple groupies. Under Jobs, Apple has always marched to the beat of a different drummer. The jeans, like the iPad, are symbolic of that pioneering spirit.