The article doesn't go far enough: the iPad is the temporary hack bridge between technologies. The major function of the iPad I have seen among people who are not making hardware accessories has been as a social bridge so they can get work done in a place/time when pulling out a whole laptop would be weird, awkward or rude. For example: if you're having a lunch meeting and the other person is late, pulling out a whole laptop rubs in how late they were because you had time to "set up and settle into a device" instead of "messing about on your iPad" which is socially closer to messing about on your phone, and we hold no stigma against for a waiting person.
Having a sister 10 years younger than me (14) has taught me that younger generations are not use to our protocols and therefore hold no squeamishness about breaking the conventions of them. For example, if you have her (or her peer's) attention you know this because she has removed one phone(MP3 player) earbud to listen to you. She doesn't see continuing to use the technology as a potential distraction/rudeness, and in many senses resents the older generations (teachers/parents) for demanding her absolute attention for every trivial thing.
The iPad is our bridge from dropping in and out of the internet in the real world all the time, because a full drop is seen as rude, but her generation won't really care about that. They'll just drop in and out as they please, which is why I suspect that they'll have little use for the iPad, except as the training bridge for dinosaurs like us.
I've never seen us go "back" to any technology in anything other than aesthetics which seem to cycle. If I knew what was coming next though, I'd probably go build it. I bet it is exciting, technically currently difficult, and will make a lot of money.
Neural interfaces seem a little too far forward though, it seems like you'd need another generation to have that be socially "normal," and that they'll need their own cultural bridge technology. There must be something between an iPad and neural interfaces which lets us casually and continuously wander in and out of the internet.
a pair of glasses (in which you can see a screen--or transparency for augmented reality) with full voice control. Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad optional for productivity usage. Can also control via iPhone or iPad.
I've been saying for a while that I think the "next thing" is high-powered cellphones acting as a computing device (providing storage, connectivity, and processing power), with several different types of devices acting as dumb terminals.
If you're at home or at work, your keyboard and monitor auto-connect to your cellphone to provide a full-sized screen. If you're on the go, you use your cellphone as-is, or you use an eyepiece or tablet as an alternate display. Ideally, the main apps you use would provide appropriate user interfaces for each situation.
I think you're basically correct, but the docking devices are likely to be more than dumb terminals in some cases. At work that cellphone may plug into another device which provides additional, higher-speed processor cores.
I like this! I think the glasses are great because everybody wants to look important and busy while they waste their time on facebook and hacker news, and the glasses are right in line with that. Voice control I think won't catch on in public though, the blind have had access to it for years and despite the obvious benefits to them they just don't seem to enjoy it, it is too public. Once again, you want to look important while you waste your time. I could buy into the idea of a keyboard showing up on the glasses and then a camera catching your typing against a table though.
Having a sister 10 years younger than me (14) has taught me that younger generations are not use to our protocols and therefore hold no squeamishness about breaking the conventions of them. For example, if you have her (or her peer's) attention you know this because she has removed one phone(MP3 player) earbud to listen to you. She doesn't see continuing to use the technology as a potential distraction/rudeness, and in many senses resents the older generations (teachers/parents) for demanding her absolute attention for every trivial thing.
The iPad is our bridge from dropping in and out of the internet in the real world all the time, because a full drop is seen as rude, but her generation won't really care about that. They'll just drop in and out as they please, which is why I suspect that they'll have little use for the iPad, except as the training bridge for dinosaurs like us.