The Apple Lisa was bulky but had a great, spongy keyboard. Photo source: oldcomputers.net

I’ll admit that the hype and hoopla surrounding Apple’s iPad tablet computer turned my head.

I was reading online updates on my BlackBerry as I was shopping at a store.

You can read all you want about it since journalists flocked to Cupertino, Calif. San Francisco to see Steve Jobs introduce the company’s latest creation.

But I am proud to say that I once used the Apple Lisa – my dad brought one home in the 1980s – and it still holds a soft spot for me in the history of computers.

I thought the drawing program with different patterns and bold lines was the coolest.

OK, so I’m a little old school, if you want to use those words.

But imagine, in the future, there’s going to be a generation of young people who think the iPod generation was straight out of the Stone Age.

Such as it is.

And as I was eating lunch and thinking about the iPad, I was reminded of the Apple Newton – and as someone who loves to type using the smallest hardware possible, I was always a fan of the concept behind the Newton.

I just realized that people are already saying that the iPad is this decade’s Newton.

I’ll have to stop by an Apple store to see the iPad.

Jobs is still the master of cool.

And this type of technological buzz, at the least, is what the United States needs at this moment when its place in the global economy is changing – or at least there is the perception that real change is nearing.

Yes, on this one, advantage Apple.

I’m sure Apple will keep the secrets behind the iPad under tight lock and key. My guess is that there will be people in the world who will want to try and copy it for secondary markets.

The iPad is Apple's latest creation with a touchscreen. The company says it's the perfect device between a smart phone and laptop computer. Photo source: Apple