iPads and ELN's

It seems the iPad is everywhere lately, even popping up on a LinkedIn discussion on Lab Notebooks.

My opinion on this topic is essentially the same as the tablet-pc form factor. The tech is not there yet to get any real advantage in most cases, though there may be a few isolated edge cases. What I think we are waiting for is the next disruptive way of recording lab observations and tying the information flow together in a more seamless fashion. I do not see anything the iPad will make easier yet, except the type of task already relegated to the iPaq, or similar form factor which is essentially basic, situation specific, observational recordings. Now - don't get me wrong, I think it's very cool and would like to have one dropped in my lap to play with, but from a business value in the labs perspective, I think we are waiting on the killer app. (Let's just hope it's not Flash based)

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