Yesterday, I got my new toy: an Apple iPad [link]. I spent the day at home installing applications, playing with features and games. All around, yesterday was about me bonding with my iPad. For those curious, I named it P.A.D.D. (after the devices on Star Trek [link]). It was a day of finding positions. Lounging on the couch to watch videos and read was never quite so comfortable with my laptop. This morning, though, I wanted to take P.A.D.D. out in the world.

I went to my java juice joint. Within minutes, I heard a remark about the iPad. It was complementary. While I settled into my breakfast bagel and mocha, I practiced sketching on my iPad. Within a few minutes of this another comment. This one from the table next to me. “My Apple stock just went up. Thank you.”

The couple next to me (let’s call them Joan and Bill) were in the late forties to mid-fifties. We struck up a conversation about technology and cafe culture. Bill is planning his own coffee house. He wants a place where people are more likely to strike up conversations with strangers than to tan by the light of computer screens or attempt to stuff cellphone handsets into their ears. His solution was to not provide wireless internet access and set up a bank of phone booths for callers. A friend suggested that he could go a step further and wrap his shop in chicken wire. Effectively turning the shop into a faraday cage and blocking all signals.

Bill sees computers and cell phones as an insulator between bodies. People will go to their coffee shops with laptop in hand or cellphone plugged into their ear, buy a cup of coffee, and camp out for several hours. The most direct human contact they have is with the people behind the counter. Walk into any coffee shop offering WiFi today and you will see at least a half dozen screens up and headphones on. We go to coffee shops now for free WiFi rather than human contact.

Historically, the cafe culture was about meeting with friends, exchanging ideas, making new acquaintances. The late twentieth century added computers. Now we can connect with anyone around the world. This connection comes at the cost of connecting with a person that is next to us. Coffee shops look like a Hasbro Battleship gaming convention. I told Bill that if he really wanted to solve the cellphone etiquette issues then he should treat cellphone users like smokers – make them go outside to make calls.

In our conversation, we did have to admit that the iPad is a game changer. Shortly after we started talking (imagine that – talking to real strangers in person), I noticed that the iPad we set aside. I produced it only to show Joan and Bill how the little wonder performed certain tasks. The iPad was as easy to set down as a book. It offered less interference than a laptop. I showed them how it could be used as a centerpiece for a group a la Scrabble.

P.A.D.D. opened up a connection between local humans. I’m sure much of this is the iPad’s newness, but I have to wonder. Pundits talk about how the iPad is a computing game changer. They remark about it’s size, ease of use, and flexibility. Yet no one has mentioned how damned easy it is to put down and set aside. The laptop lid can be closed. True. But the laptop will still sit their like a brick in an invisible wall between users and their neighbors. Cellphones will always remain at the back of everyone’s mind. P.A.D.D. disappeared from view easily and re-entered our conversation only when it was appropriate. That to me is amazing.