My Dream Product from Apple

My latest column for CNN.com discusses my disappointment with the iPad and my hopes for Apple's next product.

My latest column for CNN.com discusses my disappointment with the iPad and my hopes for Apple's next product.

I won't be buying the new iPad. I can't see why I need it: an iPhone that cannot make calls, a laptop on which it is inconvenient to type.

The iPad reminds me of a previous Apple product, the Newton. Introduced in the early 1990s, the Newton was a datebook, phonebook and sketchpad too big to hold in a pocket. Who needed it? But the Newton contained the genesis of the iPhone, a machine I depend upon utterly, despite the maddeningly poor quality of the phone service.

So I ask myself: If the iPad is a concept, what is it a concept of? What would I like Apple to do for me next?

Admitting I'm probably an idiosyncratic computer user, here's what I want:

I want Apple to do for my library what the iPod did for my record collection: eliminate it.

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