Apple’s iPad – tool, toy or both?

As a younger man, the label of “technology geek” might have been a shade insulting, if not overtly incorrect.  But today, as I was meeting with help desk support staff at my medical center and was identified as being a bit on the fringe in already having an iPad and having worked out the connection to our institutional exchange server, I felt a little proud when jokingly confronted with the label.  After all, at 55 I might be consumed with more mundane and sensible passions – like the implications of health care reform or retirement.   Ah, but to have some simple passions!

If ever a device could induce an excitement for technology, its  Apple’s new iPad.  Not since the iPhone have I opened a box with such anticipation, and been so rewarded.  From its feel, it appearance, and its unique functionality, this is a device that is meant to please.  Weighing in at just a pound and a half and measuring a modest 9.5 by 7.5 inches x ½ inch, the iPad is small enough to sit comfortably on a bedside table and easy to stash in the outside pocket of my computer carrying bag.  But most amazing is the connection it brings.  Whether sitting on my lap or on a table, with the iPad the world is suddenly at my fingertips.  The New York Times is there for my perusal.  The Weather Channel application provides not only a variety of functions separately presented on the iPhone in a single screen, but the immediate availability of moving full screen weather maps.   From my Netflix application I can launch any of the myriad of downloadable movies and view them on a comfortably sized screen.   The book I heard about on talk radio a couple of days ago was downloaded in seconds with iBook and ready for reading.  The list could go on:  books, news, magazines, weather, politics, email, movies.  It seems that not only are my favorite places building applications for the iPad, but extraordinary applications!

The iPad and speech recognition?  In my excitement to explore the seemingly endless possibilities of this device I have only scratched the surface of the speech recognition capacity.  More to come.  For now, let me make just two quick comments. First, as of this moment, the Google application that allows voice initiated web searches on the iPhone allows only standard text searches on the iPad.  An iPad oriented application is not yet available from Google.   Second, Nuance, who has created an entire division dedicated to speech recognition in mobile applications, has already released a version of their “Dragon Dictation” for the iPad.  This free application takes speech spoken into your iPad, processes it on a server, and returns your text within seconds in the form of a dictation “note” (simple word processing document) from which you can save, copy, cut or insert your dictation directly into an email.  It’s very slick and will be reviewed in more detail in the near future.   

In fact, there is lots more I’d like to say.  But guess where I’m off to now?  Back to exploring and playing with my new toy  … oops … I meant to say new work device.  I never know when my wonderful wife might be paying attention.

Jon Wahrenberger