The hype machine is full on for the new Apple iPad, with even Media Watch devoting a programme to it and its implications for the media in Australia.
I know I've written that it could be the saviour of printed media but also it has some other implications for the internet.
Media commentator Jeff Jarvis (whose blog is really worth subscribing to) sees it as a retrograde step:
"It tries to turn us back into an audience again. That is why media companies and advertisers are embracing it so fervently, because they think it returns us all to their good old days when we just consumed, we didn’t create, when they controlled our media experience and business models and we came to them."
His big point is that the iPad is really designed for consumption rather than producing content and interacting and sees a war developing between Apple and Google:
"I now see the battle between Apple and Google Android in clearer focus. At Davos, Eric Schmidt said that phones (and he saw the iPad as just a big phone… which it is, just without the calling capabilities and a few other things) will be defined by their apps. The mobile (that is to say, constantly connected) war will be won on apps. Google is competing with openness, Apple with control; Google will have countless manufacturers and brands spreading its OS, Apple will have media and fanboys (including me) do the work for it."
Time to switch to Google Android if you are serious about the internet?