A discussion during Saturday's epic Age of Sail game got us thinking about how iPads and similar devices could be used for wargaming.
I have used a laptop for the DBA campaign but its quite clunky and has a very short battery life. I use it to refer to the campaign rules. But John used his Kindle for Saturday as he'd downloaded a pdf of the Age of Sail rules and could refer to them simply without having to thumb through sheafs of paper.
iPads should offer the same ability (and it would mean that rule books and army lists wouldn't have to carted down - and players would have all rule sets and army lists in one place (after all, its so frustrating to get to the club and find you've left a book at home).
But it could go one better. Mark thinks there's some software that allows you to make your own barcodes. So you can attach a barcode to a unit (say in POW or Grand Armee where bookeeping on individual bases is required) and as a battle unfolds the players roll and the referee scans the barcodes of the units in action and he alone keeps tabs on the battlefield casualties and morale.
Thus the iPad can keep track of damage and morale of every unit - e.g the referee can keep tabs on all that's going on. This would add a certain degree of realism to the battle as generals would have only the scantiest idea of how much damage a regiment / squad / vehicle has taken. Players might become less (or more) prone to throwing units into the breach if they don't really know the strength each unit has (and could have a shock as a few of his units turn and flee at a crucual time).
Certainly the iPad can be used for bookeeping by players in the normal way - ticking off damage as inflicted (and I'm sure that D&D players can also see the benefits of such a system for managing player stats).
And there is also the opportunity for instant blogging as the battle unfolds (and it can take pictures as well!).