As many of you reading this already know,  Apple announced their new “iPad” yesterday (January 27, 2010).  The iPads resemblance to Mr. Job’s ever popular “iPhone” is striking, as well as its touch sensitive user interface.  All of us here at AgencyWeb were pretty excited when we first saw the announcement, but more due to the omen presented by the iPad than what the iPad is.

Don’t get me wrong, this thing is very cool.  A nice big display, wireless web browsing, familiar apps: the iPad is a titan among entertainment machines to be sure.  If  one is to use a computer primarily for surfing the web, watching videos and listening to music this thing is great! And the price is tailor made: $500 gets you your own iPad.

Entertainment based industries should definitely be watching this thing. If the iPhone was the catalyst, the iPad very well could be the explosion.  And Kindle watch out! I suspect if the publishing industry embraces Apple’s new baby, there could be a bit of literary revitalization.

But at AgencyWeb, our design-riddled brains are thinking of how WE could make use of something like the iPad.  At the moment, the iPad’s technical specifications don’t lend to any kind of serious design or multimedia work, though the UI absolutely does!

Imagine being able to draw directly onto a project without anything segregating your stylus and the work. Or being able to reposition items by literally picking them up and placing them somewhere else.  This intuitive interface would make creativity far more natural. Perhaps you could give your work to a collaborator simply by “throwing” it to them from across a table or room.

And what about video? Cellphones have cameras exceeding five mega-pixels now, and LG is putting projectors in phones. The ability to shoot high quality video, edit it on the same device and then display it immediately is definitely a reality. Or perhaps a business could project a video on a glass window, and allow customers to visually manipulate it, drawing people off the street and through the door.

Regardless, we’re not quite there. The power of the iPad would have to increase a bit before the creative options would really be viable, but some companies, such as Adobe, seem to be preparing themselves for the future.  Adobe has already begun work on an iPhone packager for flash developers with plans to expand the packager for the iPad’s higher resolution. In my opinion, this is a taste of things to come.

So as it stands, the iPad is pretty much a really big, really cool iPhone that doesn’t make calls. But I foresee its release as a taste of what’s next in the computing world.