Fellow Laderians,

Every computer analyst has made a prediction about Apple's recently-introduced iPad. Some say it's the greatest think since the iPhone, and others say it's a waste of money because it doesn't perform like a regular computer and has limited functionality. Still others say they don't know what it would be used for, which I personally think is its greatest asset.

I'm not a fan of Steve Jobs. He's arrogant, smug, superior, controlling, and, unlike his overzealous Apple enthusiasts believe, doesn't build a better computer than the PC. I have first-hand experience, having owned both and used them extensively. I purchased the iMac with the guts in a half-moon base and the articulating arm that had a catastrophic latent defect that Apple wouldn't stand behind. Building an iPhone and now an iPad with a battery that can only be changed by sending the unit back to Apple is, in my opinion, the height of contempt for one's customers.

But you have to give the man his props. He's truly a visionary who creates very attractive-looking products that consumers didn't know they wanted or needed until he introduced them – the iTouch, iPod, iPhone, for example, and now the iPad. He has produced products that had a basic need but became much, much more than anyone, save possibly Jobs, imagined after their introduction. In my opinion, the iPad follows this trend and, coupled with other developments that are taking place, it's going to be part of a sea-change in the way people use computers in the not too distant future.

There's a emerging technology called "Cloud Computing." If you're not familiar with the term, it refers to having all your data and software stored off-line somewhere in cyberspace, ergo reference to the clouds. It's not that new but is becoming more common everyday. With cloud technology, one wouldn't need a hard drive on your computer per se – just enough built-in memory to download software and programs that you're working on, and possibly a few imbedded basic software programs such as word processing and the like.

Companies like Adobe that sell expensive software, such as Photoshop, which sells for $800, would "rent" you the software for, say, $30 a month. That way, the consumer wouldn't have to lay out a big expenditure up front for the software and wouldn't have to buy updates every time the software is improved. You'd always have access to the latest version. If the iPad isn't perfect for this evolving technology I don't know what is. That said, whatever the iPad will eventually become will evolve over time, like the iPhone has, Which I believe is the real genius of Steve Jobs. My iPad arrived just before this issue of the Ladera Times went to press.

                    Jim Schmitt, Editor and Publisher