Yesterday's announcement of the Apple iPad -- basically an iPhone with a larger screen and no camera -- ushered in a new era for OS design. That is, an OS that was originally designed for a phone (the "iPhone OS", which is itself a stripped down version of Mac OS X), is now being ported over to larger, much more capable devices. I have no doubt that the iPhone OS will be very successful on the iPad. It would not surprise me to see it running on laptops and desktops in the near future. This simplified OS eliminates most of the complexity that makes people hate computers: the quagmire of configuration options, keeping up with upgrades, and of course the constant battle against viruses and malware. When I first saw the iPad, I immediately recognized that this is going to be the perfect computer for "non-computer users", like my dear mother-in-law, who pretty much only uses her Windows PC to read email and surf the web. (I'm not sure she's ever saved a file…