The iPad is the first of an apparently new generation of personal information appliance. The app has become the new shrink-wrapped access point for the web of chemistry, and the metaphors are driven by touch and the sensors built into the devices. Whilst it would be fair to say these have not really started being explored by chemists, we have had one year to explore the potential. Some low-hanging fruits can be picked, including redesigning the text book, the lecture and the laboratory for this medium. But will the concept merely fragment and dumb-down chemistry in yet another proprietory manner, or could this be the start of the next revolution?