The Invisible Republic

But the iPhone isn't perfect for baby boomers. The screen and text are too small for aging eyes, the keyboard too cramped for confident typing, making it unusable for even basic office productivity tasks.

Enter the larger, faster iPad. It's a complex computer simplified, which makes it a perfect fit to those whose remaining life is too short to spend it defragging drives. Add the keyboard dock, and the iPad is versatile enough to be a baby boomer's only computer. The only thing it won't let them do is videoconference with their grandchildren - which is an omission I hope they fix in next year's version - but on the other hand, at $500 this much is forgiven.

And not just for "old people," but the less technical in general, who far outnumber the digerati who feel comfortable with technology even among 20- and 30-somethings.