Hasta La Gadget!

When you go down to the Apple Store to pick up your iPad this weekend (or anytime in the future), there will be people on hand to get you started. Apple employees will help people setup their email, download “their favorite apps from the App Store” and “host special iPad workshops to help customers learn more about this magical new product” [sarcastic emphasis added].

Will this bring the sure-to-be-busy Apples Stores to their knees this weekend? Unlikely. The people buying iPads sight-unseen are you and I: nerds who will be scouring the iPad’s darkest corners to find out just what it can do. We don’t need help signing on to Gmail. In the coming months, though, as more and more regular people buy the iPad, Geniuses will take the place of the geeky family member (also you and I). Normally, we spend a day with moms and dads when they get a new machine, getting it all ready to go. Now we don’t have to. It brings up one question, though: can you use an iPad without hooking it up to a Mac or PC first?

It’s clear what Apple is doing here. Your grandmother should be able to buy an iPad and leave the store with it ready to use. This is why all the complaint about multitasking and cameras doesn’t matter: if you’re moaning about that, then the iPad isn’t for you.

iPad Arrives This Saturday [Apple]

Photo: John Snyder/Wired.com