Andy Ihnatko on iPad, Multitasking, and lousy tech reporting

Andy Ihnatko’s Celes­tial Waste of Band­width (BETA) » iPad and Mul­ti­task­ing

Couldn’t agree more.

So it dis­ap­points me to see com­men­ta­tors on TV today ding­ing the iPad for a lack of mul­ti­task­ing. A tech expert whose mis­sion is to com­mu­ni­cate tricky tech­nol­ogy to civil­ian audi­ences can’t let that pitch go by with a flat “no.” You also shouldn’t offer a flat “yes” but at least the state­ment “the iPad OS mul­ti­tasks” is tech­ni­cally cor­rect. You’re there to edu­cate. Which means that you don’t want peo­ple to come away think­ing that (for exam­ple) iPod play­back stops when you try to get your mail or fire off a Tweet.