There is no way I can be objective about this.  I'd buy the Apple house if they made one, and upgrade it every time I was notified.  Seriously.

Let me also say that this is not my first experience with tablets.  In 2003 while President and CEO of LB Works we were selected by Microsoft as the professional services industry vertical for a pilot program.  We gave the Compaq Tablet PC to account planning, account management and creative.  The hardware was junk.  The software was first generation.  The idea was brilliant and one that people loved!

Over the last 5-7 years we've become an iMac, MacBook Pro, AppleTV, iPhone, multiple iPod household.  I've got this lonely Lenovo ThinkPad on my desk at work just to ensure I don't show massive signs of complete addiction.

The "out of the box" experience with Apple is typically pretty special, albeit simple.  Opening the iPad box was just the same, but even more simple.  What struck me was the absence of all forms of instructions other than classic Apple card.  No manual.  No operating system CD.  I picked up the iPad, pressed the home button and immediately begin using the device.  The iPhone had trained me well.  By contrast, with the pilot program referenced above, I was sent to Microsoft for training!    

Within :30 minutes I had synced with iTunes, downloaded several iPad specific applications and was sitting on the couch holding the internet in my hands. 

Holding the internet in my hands.

I know no other way to describe it than that.  I literally found myself interacting with the web in a way that simply isn't possible on a laptop or with a mouse and keyboard.

I also found myself walking around the kitchen watching television.  Not walking around and watching the television on my wall - walking around and carrying television with me.  Thanks to the free ABC application, I was standing at the counter making dinner with the iPad setting next to the cutting board and watching the last episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. 

Television lying next to the cutting board.  Holy shit!

Having met and presented to Steve Jobs on two occasions when I was at Gap, I have just a tiny bit of an understanding of his obsession for simplicity and the human experience.  So while I'm not surprised at my initial iPad experience, once again I am WOWed!

What's funny is a couple days before receiving my iPad I read this article in Time:   http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1976932,00.html

Like many people, the author was really trying to understand who the iPad is for and what it does.  Now that I've had a few hours with it I can answer both questions definitively.  Who's it for?  Apple made it feel like it's incredibly personal and for me.  What does it do?  It makes me feel very good and completely changes the way I interact with content.  Not too shabby for v1.0!

I think the real "unspoken" genius of the iPad is that Apple is creating the most intuitive, most user-centered, most human user interface we've ever known -- our hands!  The iPhone trained us to use our fingers to control media -- think about it, we never flipped or pinched before the iPhone (you know what I mean!).  Scrolling took on a whole new meaning.  What the iPad is sure to create is a new user interface where the screen and all media are literally, in our hands.  Who knows what kinds of applications can be created when keyboards and mice disappear...and everything we do is with gestures...soon to be eye, thought, motion gestures!

most of us fly right?  generally it's not a great experience.

to me without a doubt one industry crying out to be next in line to reinvent itself is the airline industry.  big industries are reinventing themselves all the time- either by choice or being forced to.

consider for a moment :

how companies like skype are reinventing the telco industry, you could argue that apple is too

how television is being reinvented as we speak, just look at hulu, boxee, chumby, mobitv

that radio is being attacked from all sides by the likes of pandora, sirius, and itunes

the gas car tank is being taken down by water and electric models

these new companies are creating seismic waves in the traditional business models that their far larger and older rivals have long enjoyed.  sure at the core they have new technologies and interesting products but each and every one of them is also changing how much customers pay for their product or in some cases don't pay for their product.

i can see airlines making some effort to innovate - low cost providers, mobile reservations, wireless on planes, but it's not going to be enough.

so what's the airline industry to do.  well i don't have all the answers but it sure would be fun to work out what a 21st century airline looks like, help it to make money, AND improve the over all experience.

Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, bills itself as a “decision engine.” In actuality I think it’s more of a “decision French maid”— it organizes your search results but puts things where you can’t find them, all while wearing a cute little outfit.

Case in point. This scene wafts me away to the Mediterranean where a bottle of Chianti awaits. If Bing is a decision engine, then my very first one is to go to Travelocity.com RIGHT NOW!

For indecisive types like me, a real-life adjudicator would put an end to countless hours of grocery store wandering and dead-end dating. Like a pocket protector or a guardian angel, it would help me feel secure in everything I do. Luckily, I’ve got options.

Hunch.com promises to answer any and all lingering questions in my head. All I have to do is answer twenty questions about myself.  (My god, I’m less complex than an IRS form.)

When I feel existential angst, I can check and see if I’m depressed or not on the Sad Scale.

The ol’ Wheel of Food will recommend a lunch spot for me with no supporting evidence other than an address.

For decisions made just the way I like them- without any strategy or common sense, I go to random.org. They boast that, “Most computer programs are pseudo-random...random.org offers true random numbers to anyone on the Internet.”

Onsite applications let you flip your global and historical choice of coin, roll virtual dice and generate a series of random calendar dates.

My coin of choice:

1935 Buffalo Nickel

When I’m in the mood for a little mystical advice, I check the Tarot Reading Widget from Apple Downloads. Its scarily true readings give me the shivers every time.

Of course, I could just listen to my gut, but I’m waiting for an intuition widget to come out with that.

Last week i had the chance to visit with Melanie Wells, assistant managing editor of Forbes.  She's created this amazing destination at forbes.com -- sort of the "go-to" place for marketers.

I shared with her some strong beliefs i have about why this recession creates an enormous opportunity for marketers.  The last 6-12 months have been brutal for businesses, and most marketers have been scrambling to figure out what to cut next. 

The ironic good news is that there is very little left to cut. 

The way out of this mess is growth and that is exactly what the role of marketing is all about.

Some brands like Apple, Oprah and Amazon really get reinvention and are constantly taking steps to stay ahead, even in tough times like these.

I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

http://video.forbes.com/fvn/cmo/recession-good-for-marketers

Let’s take a walk down memory lane.

Remember Mr. Peabody in the Rocky and Bullwinkle Cartoons? The genius canine who palled around with his “pet boy” Sherman? Well, they had a contraption called the WABAC machine (pronounced “Way-back”.) They used it to travel back through time and make sure history was historically accurate.

While the Internet's Wayback Machine won’t let us turn back time, it will let us laugh at it. It’s a digital time capsule created by the Internet Archive that allows users to see 150 billion Web pages archived from 1996 to the present. I did a little time traveling myself and picked out these choice memories.

Ruby may have been her name in the TV spot, but my iMac was blueberry. 

When the Hale-Bopp Comet appeared in 1997, the Heaven’s Gate Cult disappeared. Or so I thought.

Although the Dodge Neon’s production life ended on September 23, 2005, you can relive its 16-valve, 4-cylinder glory here:

Before the scandal, before the shame, Enron promised “Endless Possibilities.”

For a time, Howard Dean was the hope of the Democratic Party to beat George W. in the 2004 Presidential Election.

And for the grand finale, welcome to Furbyland! Music included!

I have a new Mac Book, courtesy of McKinney. This morning I opened up the power adapter box and “read” the instructions.

There were 4 pictures. No words.

This brought me back to the first iMac I ever bought. First off, I actually bought it. And I opened it expecting a Steve Jobs-ian encyclopedia. Instead, a few pictures were included, which I’ve assembled into a single image below.

Even a toddler could understand it. In fact, they’d probably yawn and say “That’s below me.” I think it’s brilliant.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that a lot of people think communication is solely a Scrabble game, where you get more points for using more letters. At least a few people have the power of the pretty picture down pat.

Take Japanese Restaurants. All the sushi and sashimi formerly swimming in the deep, blue sea can be found in full color on a table tent, right above the name of the fish in Japanese and English.

Wham, bam thank you ma’am.

Another way to cut the crapulous blather of words is to pack necessary product info into the product name itself. Hence, Shake & Bake. (Need any further instructions?)

Or the new SlapChop, the vegetable and nut chopper shilled by the energetic host of the ShamWow. These companies get mileage out of both syllables in the titles.

Now it’s not always smart to be brief. (Wedding vows that consist of the word “ditto” may make for a very brief marriage.) But at the end of the day, a verdict is one word or two, I love you is three and an Apple Instruction Manual is zero.