Sometimes you don't need to think outside the box, so much as build a better one. Rather than describing, I'm actually going to just paste from the newsletter I just got from Infinite Kind LLC, the creators of Moneydance, announcing their new iPad app, SyncSpace.
SyncSpace
I'm pleased to introduce our amazing new iPad app: SyncSpace is a drawing/sketching/brainstorming app that lets you express your ideas on an infinite, shared, zoomable canvas. My objective in creating SyncSpace was to connect people remotely to brainstorm and share ideas visually in a way that can't be done with a phone call or video conference. For example, people in different geographic locations can use SyncSpace to work together in real-time to sketch out an application's user interface, web site, magazine layout, network architecture or a variety of other projects. SyncSpace can also post your drawings to Facebook, Twitter and 37 Signals' Campfire. It's available for an introductory price of only 1.99 USD on the app store , so check it out soon.
Now THIS is smart thinking that leverages the strengths of a touchscreen tablet device. It's an intelligent use of the technology. Every application like this is worth a hundred or a thousand Angry Birds. Yet Another handheld game device that can also kinda sorta be used as an awkward phone? Meh. Working interactively on a diagram or flow chart in real time with someone a thousand miles away, without needing ten thousand dollars of teleconferencing hardware or some inflexible remote-collaboration package designed for the PowerPoint mindset?
...OK, NOW you have my attention.