My friend David Burmon (and partner here at Walden) purchased an iPad for his wife as a Mothers’ Day gift over the weekend.  This is not unusual for David.  I’m writing from my new MacBook Pro and I’ve read a few articles about the iPad (and held one in the Apple store before a lunch meeting) so I asked him how well the gift was received.  His reaction was very unusual for David; he raved about the thing….using a long string of explicatives (which is not uncommon for David….but usually reserved for important matters like his amazing collection of baseball memorabilia).  That great, eh?  Over lunch I did a bit more Google research and found a great blog post about the iPad by my friend Chuck Hollis.  Go ahead…read it.  It will only take a minute or two…

Why is Chuck’s post great?  Notice his conversational style and use of smaller, focused paragraphs.  And of all of the iPad hype, I don’t know anyone who has written a more effective title.  The post invites us to watch Chuck’s family as though it were an episode of Modern Family (which also features a bit about the iPad); it’s a great short-story in the making.

And here’s the interesting part, now that you’ve read his post.  We learn about the iPad, a consumer product with massive visibility.  We also learn a lot about Iomega, a subsidiary of EMC with a lot less press than the latest Apple brainchild.  By including Iomega in an iPad story the reader is subtly invited to consider doing the same;  I identify with Chuck’s story…and I consider an Iomega NAS device as part of my new Apple home reboot.

I haven’t asked Chuck if the Iomega mention was just part of the story or a more intensional tip-of-the-hat to his employer but it doesn’t really matter.  The sincere blend of personality and technology create an experience that is at once informative and enjoyable.  Nice job Chuck!