Entertainment, news and education. Yes, it has some of the capabilities of a laptop and a giant iPhone… and there may be some that want to use it like that but what it is absolutely going to dominate at, is watching movies, sports games, music events and providing a new, rich reading experience.

Erik Qualman writes an excellent post here about the possibilities for enhanced knowledge transfer for educational books through the iPad. Imagine no more scribbling in text books or getting a second hand Economics book with the notes of a D- student masquerading as useful insights (I am still bitter about that one!). Instead, you will get the best notes from the smartest brains, even the authors themselves and be able to search for complimentary information all in the same place – very cool.

The latest industries to be disrupted by emerging technology, music and print, can start to tip toe their way back in by utilizing these platforms. Will people (micro) pay to have their chosen sections of the Times, Sun, NYT, FT downloaded to their tablet each day so they can read it on the train without attacking the person sitting next to them with a load of paper – yeah I reckon they might. How about the latest blockbuster while they are on a 4 hour train or plane journey? Definitely. The highlights from their team’s win in the Cup the day before as they lie in bed on Sunday morning…yes please!

Don’t expect it to do something that already exists. If Apple are good at one thing then its leading innovation and I think the entertainment industry as a whole is the most obvious application for the ipad and it should present a wealth of opportunities for the producers and gatekeepers of the content.

The iPhone or HTC (in my case) are too small to watch anything longer than 15-20mins worth of footage and people don’t want to hump their heavy laptops around everywhere they go. The iPad (I should point out that I am yet to touch one!) looks the perfect size to consume entertainment and that means new business models can start to appear – micro payments, freemium, sponsorship, content marketing etc.

What say you?

Right, we are coming to the end of February (2010 is going quickly) and there was plenty in the social media blogosphere this week for us to draw from. There were enough posts bookmarked this week to increase the top six to the top ten…but we are trying to keep the same format for a few more weeks. Please feel free to add any of your favourite stories from this week, or any other week for that matter, in the comments.

1. The New App Store Rules: No Swimsuits, No Skin, And No Innuendo – Jason Kincaid

Apple are going on an anti sexual content crusade in the app store. According to Apple, anything with overtly sexual content will be removed…unless its Playboy, which apparently isn’t sexual at all. Admittedly, its been a while since I read a Playboy, but unless they have done a serious re brand, this seems like a slight case of double standards. Jason Kincaid goes into the details.

2. Video, Customer Interactions, and Getting Seen – Valeria Maltoni

“Of all the amazing new technologies that are opening up possibilities to communicate and connect in the digital space, video is the one that holds the most promise”. I couldn’t agree more. Humans are visual beings and while we have been used to text based communications online, the next few years should see us using video more and more. The technology is there, connectivity is getting better and I believe the content is already there for brands…they just need to dig inside their company to find it. Valeria Maltoni takes us through some video strategy, from Technology, content and getting seen.

3. The Dalai Lama Officially Joins Twitter – Ben Parr

Not too much to say about this other than if you are a fan of his Holiest The Dalai Lama, then you can now follow his  musings on twitter. I doubt it is actually him on the keyboard but its pretty cool none the less! Follow him at @DalaiLama

4. Human Brands – Katy Lindemann

At Spearfish Labs, we are all about helping companies be more human.  In this post, Katy Lindemann talks about how some of the biggest and best brands (Virgin,  Apple, Ben & Jerry’s etc) reflect the personalities of their founders. Social media lets brands reflect a persona to their customers and this can be an extremely powerful branding strategy…if your founders are good!

5. Social Media Trends at Fortune 100 Companies [STATS] – Samuel Axon

We thought we would throw in some stats for all the bean counters out there. Burson Marstellar have released a study of the 100 largest companies in the Fortune 500, and found that nearly 80% are using social media to communicate with customers and stakeholders. What is better, is that they show some proof that customers actually like these methods of interaction. There is a good presentation embedded in the post so go and check it out.

6. Social media ‘teams’ needed to cut business confusion- IAB

An interesting one from the IAB. They are calling for specific social media teams to be set up in organisations to avoid the confusion that is currently being experienced when defining who ‘owns’ social media. The different disciplines and measurement metrics mean it shouldn’t rest solely with marketing or PR or Research. I get the point but believe that creating a social media department would merely be another silo when it needs to be integrated into every department and used internally as well as a customer communication channel. Guy Phillipson (IAB CEO) spells it out “If leveraged correctly, social media has the potential to sit at the very heart of an organisation,” We agree with that, so maybe the title is misleading. Worth a look.

OK, thats all for this week, folks. Have a good weekend.