the iPad

Unless you have been living under a rock somewhere in the High Sierras, you might have heard that Apple announced their new iPad.

The video with Jony Ive and Phil Schiller is quite sharp. Ive is worth tuning in for alone because of how he conceptualizes design.

The reviews are starting to trickle in, some good, some OK. Two of the news feeds I tune into had their own reviews: truthdig and true/slant. I am actually not going to say much about the product at the moment. Do I think it is the instant game changer that the iPod was, no. Do I think it heralds the game-changer coming, yes.

As remarkable as the product is, imagine any of these marketing campaigns that Apple could launch:

* Apple could ship iPads to Stanford or UCLA and Johns Hopkins medical staffs and have an app developer work with those schools to revolutionize paperwork in hospitals.

* Imagine a Netfilx and Apple partnership where users could stream their Netflix account to their iPads and if they really liked a movie they could purchase the content to be saved to their pad and transferred to their home computer/entertainment center ala the iPod.

* Apple could announce a nation-wide innovation in education contest where iPads would be provided to the high school or magnate school that could best utilize the technology in allowing their students to create and improve the world.

* Apple could gift the performance artists improv everywhere with iPads to see what they could produce.

* Apple could send Emmy award winning Richard Koci Hernandez of San Jose Mercury News and Multimediashooter fame a bunch of iPads and see how he and the Knight Foundation could transform journalism and news.

- Imagine watching your favorite movie and having the script text running along side the film or beneath it.

- Imagine airlines loaning iPads to frustrated, stranded travelers to reschedule their trips.

The last time we had a major change in the transmission medium of information, we had the reformation of the Catholic Church. Hold on, I think this one will be just as big!