Culturebox: Meet the New iPad

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technology Meet the New iPad Just about the same as the old iPad ... but that's OK. By Farhad Manjoo Updated Wednesday, March 2, 2011, at 4:47 PM ET March 2, 4:30 p.m.: I wasn't counting, but Steve Jobs and his pals must have used the phrase "post-PC" at least a dozen times at Wednesday morning's launch of the iPad 2. The term gives you a sense of their ambition. Apple sees the iPad as more than just the next profit center for the company (though, of course, it is that). The iPad, in Apple's vision, represents the first wave of the future of computing. As I wrote a few weeks ago, this doesn't mean that we'll all switch to tablets, or that desktops and laptops will go extinct. Over time, though, tablets will represent a greater share of the computer market, and--more importantly--our laptops and desktops will come to work much more like the iPad. They will be easier to use and maintain, and we'll have many more of them across more parts of our lives. For Apple, the iPad 2 is a chance to make this vision a reality--to show that selling 15 million devices in its first year was just the start of something much bigger. I got to play with the new iPad for about 20 minutes this morning, and after my brief time with it, it certainly seems possible for Apple to make good on that promise. Yesterday I wrote that Apple didn't need to do much with iPad 2 to keep the lead in the tablet market. That seemed to be its thinking, too. The new iPad--which goes on sale March 11--is pretty much like the old one, just slightly better in a few important ways. To continue reading, click here. Farhad Manjoo is Slate's technology columnist and the author of True Enough: Learning To Live in a Post-Fact Society. You can e-mail him at farhad.manjoo@slate.com and follow him on Twitter. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Shafer: The Darrell Issa Spokesman Lays Bare the Reporter-Source Relationship If You Think Qaddafi Is Vicious to Protesters, Look What Happens to Them in Sudan The Volunteer "Poison Squads" That Used To Protect Americans From Tainted Food by Tasting It	Advertisement
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