Good iPad apps can make the iPad feel not like a device running an app, but like an object that is the app. GarageBand isn’t a musical app running on an iPad. It turns an iPad into a musical instrument.
This is John Gruber talking about GarageBand from the iPad 2 reveal earlier this week. This thought, that the best apps turn the iPad into a whole new device is something we discussed when it first arrived last year. Scott McDonlad and I took our iPads into our Disruptive Technology class a day after it shipped to share with our students … that single point was what many of the students marveled at — that a device like the iPad becomes something new each time you launch a new app, at least when you launch a good app.
I like that notion a lot. It is still what separates the iPad from my laptop — it is the app I am running.
I guess I have to cave in and get an iPad. So be it.
The iPAD compares best to a phone. Every time you download a new app to it, the phone becomes something new. With a laptop when a new software is installed, it is still your laptop. That is the nice thing about mobile devices, with every new model your phone becomes another tool.