So the Apple tablet device has finally been revealed and it's the iPad.

It looks like a bigger iPhone. Will it have the impact of the iPhone and the iPod? At first blush it doesn't really look like that much. But at second glance, its a game-changer.

It squarely targets netbooks and Amazon's Kindle. Making both of those look instantly obsolete. I can see students no longer carring bulky textbooks, just their iPads. I can see travellers ditching their netbooks for the iPad.

If it's adopted widely it may even make mobile Web design obsolote because if users can surf the web on a larger display there'll be no need for optimizing content for a smaller device. But I don't see that happening. There'll still be a need for mobile web design as there's a large world of mobile devices beyond iPod, iPhones and iPads that will require specific design. But if, as Steve Jobs says while paraphrasing Wayne Gretzky, you need to skate where the puck is going not where it's been, then this is a product to watch.

It's the contradictory reality of the 21st century. We want things bigger... and smaller.

We want our 1080p TVs at 52" and our computer monitors to be 1920 x 1200. In other words, big! But we want to access things on our phones. In other words... small. This is the new world where design has to live in.

To build a cohesive brand that can exist in these very different domains is a challenge, to say the least but it is the way things are. It's a paradigm shift and companies that understand that will prosper.

The line's been drawn in the sand, one side is the future and one side is the past. Make sure you're on the right side of that line.

Sometimes it feels like Canada is the world's red-headed stepchild. Amazon's Kindle is finally available here, but to tell you the truth I don't see what the big deal is.

Do we really need another electronic device to carry around? We've got our iPods, iPhones, Blackberrys, Androids and most of these devices do more than one thing. An iPhone, for example, can surf the net, hold your music, make phone calls and... hold books, which is  the only thing the Kindle does.

I can see the thinking behind the Kindle... do one thing really well. However the target market doesn't seem to be the type that would want electronic devices. The people I know that love books (yes I know that's a very small focus group) enjoy the physical aspect of books. There's something permanent about it, something traditional, something that resonates about books. I wonder if  a device like a Kindle (and the Sony e-reader which has been available here for a while) can convey that.

Where I do see the Kindle excelling in is with the younger generation. Goodbye text books! Those backpacks full of those heavy tomes of learning could be replaced quite nicely.

A threat to the Kindle on the horizon is Apple's much-rumoured tablet device. Something like that could do all the Kindle could do and more  -- and look better doing it.  Which brings me to my next problem with the Kindle. It just doesn't look very good. It reminds me of a first generation iPod. Back when they were first introduced iPods looked great but if you look at it now it looks archaic, which is what the Kindle looks like to me right now. It's so 2001.

But you never know what will get the public's attention. At least its here in Canada now and we have a choice. Kindle... show me what you got!