By Greg (Angie’s partner in crime).

I’ve been an interested Apple watcher since their early days — initially as a fan of many of their products, but later also as a direct competitor when I worked as an engineer and manager at Microsoft. These days I’m an independent entrepreneur and some of the projects I’m working on (including YLF) involve writing programs for Apple devices.

So it is exciting to watch Apple release what they believe is the next big revolution in personal computing: the iPad. The concept is a tablet computer — a portable PC that you use with finger touch (like the iPhone) instead of a mouse and keyboard. Many companies have taken a run at the tablet concept before, but no-one has cracked it. Apple has a good chance of being the first to do so — they have demonstrated with music players and phones that they can take a nascent category and make it successful. They certainly have an unmatched ability to generate hype around new product launches — the iPad has recently appeared on everything from Letterman to Time Magazine.

YLF on Apple's iPad

The iPad’s launch day is tomorrow and no doubt thousands of people will be lining up outside Apple stores to be among the first to get their hands on one. The big question is whether the demand continues after the initial rush, and whether Apple manages to succeed in taking the concept of tablet computing mainstream. If they do, it has the potential to open the door to new ways of doing things with computers, so I’m really interested in your take on this new product. I’ve put together a short informal survey, and I would love it if you could give your opinions in the comments below.

Three questions:

  1. Did you know about the Apple iPad, or has the hype passed you by?
  2. Did you pre-order an iPad? If not, are you thinking about buying one?
  3. What would you like YLF to do on your iPad? The obvious thing is to use the iPad web browser to access the site, but if there were a dedicated YLF application for iPad, what would you like it to do? Don’t hold back! It would be great to hear some wild suggestions. In the spirit of brainstorming, there are no bad ideas.

Of course, Angie and I also have plans for the iPhone. If you have an iPhone (or another smartphone) and have some ideas on what YLF should do on that platform, let’s hear those too. And of course, anything else you think is relevant.