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'Some tech mavens believed the new (Apple iPad) device might finally fulfill the promise of the "Dynabook." This is a device conceived four decades ago by the visionary computer pioneer Alan Kay as a prototypical personal computer (this was before Kay actually conceived the first personal computer at the legendary Xerox Palo Alto Research Center). The Dynabook, he wrote in 1972, would be “a tool, a toy, a medium of expression, a source of unending pleasure and delight." It would be a device with which musicians could compose and authors write, teachers teach and children learn. It would offer electronic access to the world's libraries. It would have a high-quality flat screen and a keyboard. It would be less than 4 pounds.
The Apple iPad is 1.5 pounds, but in other ways it still falls short of the Dynabook, especially in the inadequacy of its keyboard. (Though it will accommodate Brushes, an onscreen painting program available on the iPhone.) It's still a device better suited to distributing than to creating content...'
Early comment on the Apple iPad launch courtesy of the LA Times
