The iPad rocks my world, and you know it droid-boy

*Re-sending Aug 6th, initially sent Weds Aug 4th during Posterous' outage due DoS attacks* 

Earlier tonight I dropped my wife, Jodie, off at the International Terminal at San Francisco airport, for a quick 1-week trip home to Aus to take care of some family stuff. Normally when we fly this kind of distance she has her regular suitcase (mid-size, bit bigger than an American-style roll-aboard case), and her little mini roll-aboard suitcase as a carry-on; and in this latter one is normally a travel pillow, eyemask, earplugs, moisturizers, headache pills and Ambien tablets, wallet, passport, pen, 3 magazines, a book, maybe my book, a camera, her jacket, my jacket, and some other random shit. Tonight, she hopped out of the car with just one suitcase, and a handbag. Like this:

Why? Two days ago she got an iPad. Our first in this house. My friends are mostly surprised that I'd been holding out, but I secretly am a tight-arse (tight fisted here in the US) and was hoping to see maybe a front-facing camera, or a Retina display before dropping the Benjamins on a first release unit. But as we got her itinerary prepared for this trip, it became clear that the investment was worth it right now - not 14 months in the future when Apple somehow moved heaven and earth again (maybe). 

How? Just look at these ticket prices, focusing on the third line:
  1. Ticket price on Qantas, direct flight, cheapest Economy seats: ~$1450
  2. Ticket price on V.Australia, layovers in LAX both ways (sucks balls), cheapest Economy seats: ~$1550
  3. Ticket price on United (gasp!), direct flights, Economy Plus seats +iPad: ~$1650

So we naturally, decidedly, and quickly booked United (gasp! again, my friend Alex is going to think I've lost it as I was just dissing the heck out of them last week) and promptly went out and bought a 32GB iPad. 

So back to tonight; I (and the dog) dropped Jodes at the airport with just one suitcase and that handbag, because in it, she had a travel pillow, eyemask, earplugs, moisturizer, pills, passport and wallet, and an iPad. And on that iPad is:

And still there's 22GB of free space for more content, and the 8 to 10 hour battery. This is why the iPad rocks my world. Tell me again, why I'm supposed to moan about Jobs having a deity complex, and hopefully wait for a semi-functional Android or WebOS tablet with an unknown delivery timeframe? Or even worse, a Windows tablet (yet again) with nothing but Office apps for company, and quite possibly a shitty stylus (yet again)? Once more, this is why the iPad rocks my world: it's here, it works, it's gorgeous, and it changes your life. Computing can only get better. I'm looking forward to being part of it. Devices/software like the iPad remind me why. 

Ok, #iPad changes things. *insert nervous excited dancing here*

Obviously, I'm excited that the Apple iPad launched today starts at the $499 price point. Given everything we've seen, this may be the device I next want. I was initially thinking that before I really bet on plunking down my $499 or $599 or $699 or whatever, I really did want to see file upload from Safari Mobile, and multi-tasking in the next OS, but I kept looking at the pictures, replaying the event speeches in my mind, and now I'm actually drooling.

Excuse me whilst I go off and prepare my "we have got to have one of these!" speech to my wife. Seriously though, am I going to buy one immediately they become available? No. I'll wait and see for a bit. Why? It's all about the software, and Apple just delivered the start. Not the end.

Here's a great example of what you could do with your $499 iPad, on top of the internet/email/media experience you already get; control everything in your home. Of course, this kind of app would/will work better with background multi-tasking, and I'll bet you Apple knows that. 

Here's another great blog from Stephen Fry, that fabulous erudite British comedian and actor, discussing why it's churlish and childish to dismiss the iPad, and why you should get over the name *titter, giggle* <-- 14 year old boys. The premise is simple; everything you know about computers is old. The iPad could well be the first device in recent years that changes how we interact with technology. Think of it this way; you likely had a great-grandfather who thought that cars were utterly ridiculous, overly expensive, and would never catch on; because the horse was a fine mode of transport. Look at cars now. Similarly, the iPad could change your perspective, and change your boundaries. I'll be watching this technology with interest, for sure.