The iPad 2 Smart Cover: A Crack-Like Turn-On (Thanks Magnets)

The race toward speed and elegance, exemplified by nearly every technology, from the wheel to the bizarre but soon-to-be-normal Google Instant, has met the iPad in the form of the Smart Cover.

Steve Jobs wants you to think of the object – which also deftly rolls up into a triangular stand – not only as the protector and activator of your glowing talisman, or as the curtain that promises to reveal our own personal Wizard of Ozes, but as a vehicle for our already speediest and elegant of computers. Reports the Times:

"We are in an environment where there is no downtime anymore," said Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles. "We have become impatient."

Three seconds may not be much, but it suggests to us that we may be able to send one more message or read one more tweet, he said. "Where does it end?"

The marriage of speed and technology did not start yesterday and it will not end tomorrow. When AT&T unveiled the first commercial push button phone in 1963, part of its pitch was simple: calling someone would be faster than it was on rotary phones. For years, makers of computers and Web browsers have competed on the speed of their products.

More recently, computer makers have been hard at work trying to cut the boot-up time of PCs — minutes of idle time that have become increasingly infuriating. Most hand-held devices turn on much faster. And with its smart cover, the new iPad 2 goes one step further.

"This is the story of our lives," said James Gleick, the author of "Faster," "The Information" and other books on the cultural ramifications of technology. "These little technologies that save us a fraction of a second or a gesture, they're a form of crack."

Paul Saffo, a veteran technology forecaster in Silicon Valley, likened it to another vital need. "Connectivity has become like oxygen," he said. "If you don't have it, you notice its absence at about two seconds."

The paradox of course is that at some point, speed may come at the expense of connectivity. Witness this fiendish fanboy exchange in the comments section of the Youtube video below:

7H3FUCK3RG0D95: i fucking bought the frst ipad, and now the 2nd one goes out…im going to kill steve jobs!!!XD NICE WORK APPLE!!
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87ramasaurus: @7H3FUCK3RG0D95 Certified douchebag, if you had a little more brain than a boiled potato you’d know that Apple releases all of its mobile products at a one year cycle. So suck some cock and fuck off."

Also: all of a sudden, the technology world is captivated by magnets again.