Is the Apple iPad my path to domestic productivity?

I’m pretty bullish on the prospects of the iPad and I’m totally looking forward to getting one (actually, I’m a tech late adopter, so I’ll wait until its released, hear what everyone is saying about it, and then get excited about buying one.)

I view this as the ultimate domestic management device; meaning something you have around the house that can quickly and easily help you look stuff up, provide information and even manage the household (calendaring to keep track of everyone comes to mind.)

My laptop doesn’t really fulfill this function because it is mostly off and kept in the office. So if I need to quickly look up something I gotta go to the study, fire up my PC and after Windows decides to boot up some 10 minutes later I’m able to be productive.

Normally, at this point I’ve forgotten what I’m trying to look up.

I suppose a smartphone could fill this role but it is a personal device, not something everyone can use as a quick reference. Plus, I haven’t really warmed up to the smartphone. I don’t have an iPhone because I’m not on AT&T and I haven’t seen any other smartphone that really excites me. My wife has a Storm and I’m often frustrated with how slow it is to surf the web at home.

But with the iPad, I could have it always on and always handy in the kitchen or living room, plus it’ll be on my wifi so speed of access shouldn’t be an issue.

I’ll be able to quickly reference wikipedia when I get into a pop culture debate with my wife, quickly bring up videos to amuse my kid when she refuses to eat her vegetables, and quickly look up recipes when it is (yet again) my turn to cook.

And when all is said and done, I can flake out on the couch and use it to update my blog or cruise through headlines on Google News.

Anyway, that is how I envision the iPad playing out. My technology fix to domestic bliss.

Is the Apple iPad the next great portable video game device? / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com.