Let's face it, the new iPad is just plain crazy. After you work on its gorgeous retina display, every other display pales in comparison. Textures take an a hyper-realistic quality, and text is so crystal sharp that even the ink-bleed on real paper is noticeable.

 We've been fans of iBooks since it launched, but we've been doing a lot of reading recently (studying for certifications and whatnot), and even for books for which we own the hardcopy, we find ourselves reaching for the iPad to read the digital version. It's pretty remarkable for us, because we suddenly realize that the feature set has shifted from the capacity of digital (carrying a library in one hand isn’t bad) or the device's weight (we work out our triceps with Tolstoy), and suddenly we have something so gorgeous that we just WANT to look at it, even over real paper.

And therein is the real genius of a well designed product, one that we forget even exists because we are so mesmerized by what it delivers. One another note, we probably spend more time on our iPads than watching tv, which is another surprising twist. Fortunately, the App Store keeps us plenty busy with Angry Birds and Netflix movies, so we're not in any danger of becoming too smart from all that reading. 10 years ago, who'd have thought that we'd do the most work and have the most fun all on the same device?