“People laugh at me because I describe the iPad as magical. You have a much more direct and intimate relationship with the Internet and media and apps and your content.”

• Steve Jobs, D8 Conference

Humans not only need intimate social relationships, they also need and love to touch other people… and things. Once you’ve gotten used to using your iPad for some time, think about the last time you touched the screen of your laptop trying to mimic what you can do on the iPad. We have all done it! Touching the screen directly is better than just looking and clicking with the mouse. The iPad is all about touching.

Before the iPad there was Microsoft with the Tablet PC concept - an expensive technology that created the first laptops which allowed you to interact with the screen. Many of the people that had them loved them. There was something about the interaction with the screen that a regular PC could not replicate, even though it required the use of an annoying stylus. It was so much fun to ‘touch the screen’ directly and watch the computer react to your touch.

We both had TabletPCs before we switched to the Mac. We missed ‘the touch’ of our old PCs but we liked the new Mac OSX platform. Our ‘touchy’ feeling came back even stronger when we started working on the iPad. Steve Jobs was right - the finger is the best stylus ever. We could really touch our email! We could touch the articles, swipe them, and rotate images. We could actually create a closer and more intimate relationship not only with the device, but with the content. It felt like we really were connected to the contents of the screen more than when using a laptop or even the TabletPC.

In addition, the developers have been bringing innovative approaches to their iPad apps that encourage you to use your fingers and play with the content. It’s fun, intuitive and has a more natural feel.

That’s why we agree with Steve Jobs - it really is a more intimate way of computing and after more than two years of working almost exclusively on the iPad, we can’t say we’re tired of it. Lots of apps are being designed in a way to help you use gestures, swipe, touch and pinch and simply touch the screen even more. The fun has only just begun and there is no turning back. This new and intimate way of interacting with our computers and content is here to stay.