Essential? Really? > es·sen·tial   [uh-sen-shuhl] > 1. absolutely necessary; indispensable: Discipline is essential in an army. > 2. pertaining to or constit

Essential? Really? > es·sen·tial   [uh-sen-shuhl] > 1. absolutely necessary; indispensable: Discipline is essential in an army. > 2. pertaining to or constituting the essence of a thing. I think the phrase the author is looking for is "pretty cool", or "actually quite easy to use". Edit: On reflection I think I'm being overly snarky. But I seriously do get wound up when a writer uses a hyperbolic word when a plain and more accurate one would not just suffice but actually work better. iOS is NOT essential to making music. It is, however, representative of a commonly overlooked aspect of tablet computing. A lot of focus seems to be on gaming, but this has never really appealed to me. Making music on a tablet is where it's at. I've never owned a tablet (hence my snootiness when I read the essential above), but when I played with Garage Band on my friend's iPad my mind was blown. I can certainly see how musicians are using it to work in new ways. Remember when Gorillaz wrote recorded and released a whole album on the iPad? Incredible. However, this is a gimmick and will soon pass (has already passed, even). iOS has taken the lead in mobile music composition and production, simply by virtue of being on the first successful tablet computer line-up. Obviously the Android tablet platform has barely kicked off, so it'll be a while before there's anything comparable available to us Droid plebs.