More Than A New Gadget

It has been hard to pick up a magazine or newspaper, watch a TV news program or listen to the radio without hearing some report about the release of the new iPad. Even Steven Colbert took the opportunity on his program to use an iPad to dice vegetables for salsa. As much as I would like to, I can’t make salsa with it and I really can’t review the iPad since I don’t have one and the chances of getting one soon are not good. But the major gurus of all things high tech like Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of the New York Times have given the iPod their imprimatur.

The excitement over the release of the iPad, and not too long ago the release of its older sibling the iPhone, is really demonstrative of radical changes that have been happening in the way we do things in every day life. Not long ago these new electronic devices took years to become commonplace. For sure there were always the techies or geeks that would stand in line to buy anything new that had batteries and beeped. For most of us we waited. Today the time period from the release of a new device to the time it becomes indispensable has been reduced to a New York minute.

Just look around your house or office. How did you ever keep track of family members and their ever changing schedules and whereabouts without your cell phone? Need to take the dog to the new vet clinic? Where did I put that GPS? Term paper due Friday on the French Revolution? Google to the rescue. And of course keeping track of family members far from home is made easy with Facebook, email and Skype.

How long did it take from the time you first learned about the existence of the new technologies listed above to the time that they became essential to your daily routine? I am sure that it was much quicker than the time it took for you to get your first PC or even CD player once they were first introduced. Let’s not even think about the time it took for more than one or two people to use that invention of those two bicycle mechanics in Dayton.

So as the iPad and all the other tablet devices come to market, don’t be surprised how quickly they become a familiar and commonplace tool.