Apple iPad: Krishnan reviews his shiny new toy

No matter how much you want to maintain critical faculties and assess the iPad like an intelligent adult, when you first take it out of the box it reduces you to childhood.

It is the shiny toy you had dreamt about, and you can’t quite believe it is there in your hands.

The touchscreen, and the way big images and graphics slide around on it, is slightly mesmerising.

With an embarrassing mixture of “ooohh’s” and “ahhhhh’s” you are surprised and delighted to discover it is already charged up and ready to use.

The touchscreen, and the way big images and graphics slide around on it, is slightly mesmerising.

So after showing whoever is in the room with you how beautiful it is, and trying to justify how much you have spent on it, you plug it in to your computer and start syncing your music, movies, email and calendar before going on to the iTunes Application store.

And here comes the first disappointment: after flicking around for a couple of minutes looking at small pieces of software that cost anything from nothing to £10 you realise there is relatively little there that you actually need or even particularly want.

You could spend nearly £10 buying 28 days access to The Times newspaper application, or you could just go to the Times website.

The games are amusing but you feel slightly protective of your shiny new screen and don’t want to bash it too much.

The newspapers and magazine applications do look fantastic, and the way pages turn is tickling every time. But the lack of video embedded in them, and the way web pages don’t load the Adobe Flash content you have become used to on the computer is a bit of a let down.

Apple have created a thing I didn’t need, or particularly want, and now I have it I realise it doesn’t really do much more than my little iPod Touch yet I am delighted with it.

And you soon realise that nothing on offer is really going to transform your life the way having a mobile phone or a laptop computer did. But you love it, nonetheless.

And that is the first aspect of the genius of the iPad. Apple have created a thing I didn’t need, or particularly want, and now I have it I realise it doesn’t really do much more than my little iPod Touch yet I am delighted with it.

All the content is so seductive to look at, the screen is so bright and all those things you have grown used to watching on the small screens of iPods and iPhones suddenly leap out at you on the bigger iPad.

The second aspect of genius is even more surprising. This is the first gadget I have handled which instantly makes me imagine its potential, rather than getting hung up on its exisiting limitations.

Yes, of course, I wish it had a camera so that I could use Skype. And yes Apple really ought to get over their childish fight with Adobe and allow Flash video onto all its devices.

And yes it is expensive and there aren’t enough really exciting applications. But already I am imagining taking the iPad on holiday, not having to worry about that last minute dash around the airport bookshop, or even having to carry my laptop with me too.

I know eventually, when the prices come down, I am going to have to get one for the kids to keep them amused on the hellish journey we make every year to see the in-laws in Australia.

And I am excited by imagining a Channel 4 News app one day in the not too distant future – a place where you can get the news, talk about the news, watch the news and communicate with us who make it.

The iPad has sold a dream – the test will be whether reality can catch up.