The iPad is truly an amazing device, and the cockpit is a perfect application for it. But PDF? Really? Now that there is no reason for a paper format to exist, why tangle all the information up in a format designed for the printed page?

It'd be like taking a freeway map, scanning it, and saving it as an image. Sure, the information you used to refer to is now available electronically, but compare that to the richness you get in Google Maps. The power of tablets is in freeing the user from the printed page, not merely replacing large tomes with digital paper representations.

All it takes is a chunk of cash to dump PDF manuals on iPads for all your pilots. Real innovation would be organizing and re-creating the information in a way that's designed to be consumed on a tablet rather than a piece of paper. I hope that in Alaska's quest to return to the forefront of technology, they're willing to do a bit more than just fling cash at the latest gizmos from Silicon Valley.