The heck with Watson and jobs — here comes iPad!

Long before the Jeopardy! carpet-munching, scene-stealing computer takes over customer service jobs, the iPad may take over plenty of others.

One casual sit-down restaurant chain is using iPads to partially replace service staff. Patrons will order off an iPad menu and pay,if on credit, with a built-in card swiper. The story notes plenty of ways in which this might not work so well, but, other restaurants will certainly be eyeing BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse.

An obvious location for something like this could be drive-through lanes of fast food restaurants, or drive-ins ... if an iPad is encased against theft, first, and second, can be made to swivel or pull out enough to be usable from a car window.

Especially at a drive-in, with multiple stations, like a Sonic, rather than a single-lane drive-through, yes, this could be tempting.

Or a White Castle, where you can get long lines inside, but the menu's simple.