Five reasons we love our new iPad

Alternate title: Dr SteveJobs, or, how I learned to stop worrying and love my tablet.

So, I caved. I got myself an iPad.

It's not like it was on purpose - a friend's household ended up with one surplus to requirements (long story), and he offered the spare to me for cheaps. Cheap tech - what's not to like?

Well, the truth is I actually like it a lot - a real, really lot. I'm probably spending as much time on the iPad now as on my PC, and I'm slowly starting to try and find apps that can control or link to pretty much everything at home.

Fear when I find some kind of fishkeeping app. Fear.

But it occurs to me that a lot of people probably dislike the thing on general principle, like hating turnips, or Justin Beiber. The thing is, though, that there's a lot to actually like once you cut through Steve Jobs' Koolaid.

So, in generous spirit (and hoping that any item that's got 'ipad' and 'tablet pc' in its keywords might be ranking well right now) we give you... our five reason we love our iPad!

It's a great gaming platform
The iPhone did a pretty good job as a gaming platform, and if you pay attention to a packed train at peak hour, you'll see people playing everything from Bejewelled to Crazy Birds on their phones. The iPad, however, takes that to another level, providing a platform for some surprisingly competent 3D titles.

Most recently, the biggest and arguably most impressive have been Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and the fantasy epic Infinity Blade. These are not cut-down gimmicks, either - Hot Pursuit is a surprisingly fully featured racing title, while Infinity Blade boasts a unique control mechanic to bring its swordfighting action to life.

But it's the little games we keep coming back to - games that are uniquely aimed at the device. There are three games we keep coming back to: Osmos, Words for Friends, and the relatively new Death Worm.

Osmos... well, it sounds odd - you play a single cell striving to grow/survive/navigate a sea of other cells. But it's beautiful graphics, moody ambient soundtrack and incredibly well-realised physics make it a must own.

Word for Friends, on the other hand, is a basic Scrabble clone, but one that breathes new life into the word building classic. Plus, with the ability to pass the device to a friend and play on the iPad, which by turns hides your tile selection, pretty much means you'll never have to dig out your dusty old 'real' version of the game ever again.

You guys do play Scrabble, right?

And Death Worm? You get to eat Abrams MBTs, tigers, elephants and UFOs. And you're a worm. Enough said.

It's an even better real gaming platform
However, the kind of gaming that the iPad was MADE for is, ironically, proper pen and paper gaming. You know... the kind with dice and rulebooks. Piles of rulebooks... see what I'm hinting at?

Let me describe a campaign (based on a cross between Inception and Zelazny's Amber novels - and yes, I am a GIANT NERD) I'm currently playing in. Of the four players and GM, all but one of us has an iPad, which holds our character sheets, backgrounds, and campaign info. We can type up notes, look up info and maps, and - if we wanted - even roll dice on the thing.

The GM even uses her iPad to control music for the game's soundtrack. You could ask a roleplayer to design a computing device for roleplaying, and they could not have come up with anything but the iPad.

Of course, this concept is only as good as the gaming companies will let it be. Modern, more agile companies like Posthuman Studios (who make the excellent Eclipse Phase RPG) are embracing the platform, not to mention releasing both hardcopy and digital versions of the rules. These guys get just how useful a fully bookmarked and indexed rulebook can be on the iPad.

But it'll take the big boys, like Wizards of the Coast for instance, to release something like a full set of Dungeons and Dragons, to really make the platform take off around dinner tables the world over.