I’ve been using an iPad since the day they came out and I have to say I really enjoy it. To be honest up until the last week I typically haven’t even been taking my laptop home at night or on weekends and find myself much happier just using the iPad for casual stuff. I can manage nearly all of my off hours work needs — mostly email and browsing. I will say that in the last week I have been needing my laptop quite a bit more as my work has recently changed … but I’ll save that for a forthcoming post.

What has surprised me is how much other stuff I do on it nearly every evening. I find myself using it as a primary entertainment source now as well — watching streaming Netflix seems to be the number one thing I do with it. And I have recently started to use it to push video content to my TV at night — I almost wonder why one would need an Apple or Google TV.

It strikes me as this may be the start of a different dynamic in the living room, one dominated not by a single TV set, but by personal devices connected to the Internet. I am beginning to wonder when we might start to lament the days when we all sat around the TV as a family. Growing up I heard how much better it was in the old days when families gathered around the radio and listend to programming together … I honestly never understood why that was any different than all of us sitting around watching TV together in the 80’s.

I imagine it will be similar with my own children in the coming years only they will make fun of how I talk about how great it was when we all watched TV together (even though I doubt I’d ever say that). As I use my iPad more I see people moving into personal viewing experiences in their living rooms with each family member making personal choices of what they watch individually. I know this isn’t rocket science to say this, but it just dawned on me that devices of that form factor aren’t just changing the way we work, but also the way we interact with each other.