The iPad is about a year or so old.  It was released to much fanfare last year, about this time; and everybody and their brother went nuts for it.  At the time, it didn’t do much for me.  I had an iPhone and sold it.  I have a 2G iPod Touch, but don’t use it much.  At the time, the iPad seemed like nothing more than a giant iPod Touch (Wi-Fi only version) or a giant iPhone (3G version) that couldn’t make phone calls.

Now (hopefully), it can and is much, much more to a number of different people.  I’ve seen evidence that the iPad is seriously being integrated into the enterprise, though with highly focused purposes, and the full blown security and management applications you would expect to see on any other IT asset.

For me and my purposes, I’m not concerned with using it to match fabric swatches or to sell specific medical equipment.  I just want to be able to move from meeting to meeting with the ability to get through my day without HAVING to lug a laptop from place to place, conference room to conference room, office to office.  Basic stuff…

Specifically, I’m going to cover

• create and edit meeting notes (much like Microsoft’s One Note)
• Generate and track tasks, task lists and to-do’s
• send and receive e-mail,
• keep up with my ever changing calendar

This is basic PIM type stuff; but the addition of meeting notes isn’t. With the iPad’s size, weight and capabilities, getting all of this done should be a no brainer. Over the next few days and weeks, I’m going to be taking a long hard look at what the device can and cannot do in this regard.  Please watch JAMM as well as iTechGear.org for the articles, and we’ll see if Apple (and perhaps some 3rd party development houses) have given us something that really can work, or if they are only teasing us.

The Apple iPad at work…