While Stephen Colbert may have made the most famous innovation involving the iPad and we all know that iPads will blend, someone else has been thinking about combining what he considers to be two of mankind’s greatest inventions.

Meanwhile, the iPad is also upsetting the usurpers of the common handheld book, with e-book reader readers catching on to the fact that they are increasingly obsolete.

But as the iPad release date draws nearer in New Zealand, I get a feeling that I haven’t had since swine flu (or was it bird flu?) For months, I’d mind my own business, occasionally hearing about the flu on the news, and basically ignored it. But then I realised that this is exactly what people do in zombie movies in the lead-up to the night when everyone turns into a zombie. These little hints that you ignore, until it’s too late and the world is never the same again.

Of course, most people consider world zombie domination to be a bad thing, and that’s not what I’m saying about iPads. What I’m saying is that I have this growing sensation that Apple’s redefining people’s experience of technology, dragging us (some kicking and screaming) into the 21st century.

Consider this little gem. Japanese scientists (yes, them again) are playing around with touchable holography.

Touchable holography. Apple’s pioneering interface philosophy. Velcro.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?