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If Microsoft wants to get ahead, stop trying to imitate and start innovating. The only time imitation works is when the current product becomes crappy. Take for instance the Xbox 360, it didn't get ahead because it was great, but rather got ahead because the competition was crappy. The Wii had (has) a shortage of good games and the PS3 was (and still almost is) far too expensive.

Google isn't getting any worse and Bing just isn't innovating in any meaningful way. Trying to promote Bing is like promoting alternate keyboard layouts, even if it -is- better, any benefits will be lost in the fact that people have to re-learn something. Google isn't just a search engine, its a bookmarking engine. Its a lot easier to remember "nexus one review" than http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/nexus-one-review/

Sprint's already launching the EVO 4G, which should outdo the Nexus One.

Can you please enlighten me as to the great number of technical ways the Nexus is better? A better screen? Oh wait, no, that goes to the Droid. Better touch screen interface? Nope, the Nexus has be notorious with its issues... A GPU? Oh no, that's the Droid too. Better 3g connectivity? Oh wait, isn't the Nexus 1 having major 3G issues? Better WiFi? Oh wait, no, the Nexus 1 never actually got 802.11n... Battery Life? Kinda, the Nexus has 30 minutes more talk time, but the Droid has 20 hours more standby. Price? Oh no, that's right, you can find the Droid for $99... Oh I know, Android 2.1? Nope...

There are only 2 things that you can argue that the Nexus is better than the Droid at. CPU speed, and Network. In every other realm, they are at best tied and at worst the Droid edges out the winner...

Can you please enlighten me as to the great number of technical ways the Nexus is better? A better screen? Oh wait, no, that goes to the Droid. Better touch screen interface? Nope, the Nexus has be notorious with its issues... A GPU? Oh no, that's the Droid too. Better 3g connectivity? Oh wait, isn't the Nexus 1 having major 3G issues? Better WiFi? Oh wait, no, the Nexus 1 never actually got 802.11n... Battery Life? Kinda, the Nexus has 30 minutes more talk time, but the Droid has 20 hours more standby. Price? Oh no, that's right, you can find the Droid for $99... Oh I know, Android 2.1? Nope...

There are only 2 things that you can argue that the Nexus is better than the Droid at. CPU speed, and Network. In every other realm, they are at best tied and at worst the Droid edges out the winner...

Incredible multitouch is better than the N1:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/26/confirmed-droid-incredibles-multitouch-support-is-better-than/

Have you heard about the Lenovo LePhone, launching in May? You may be in luck. This may be as close to perfection as we're likely to see in the near future:

Lenovo LePhone launching in Le May
Specs

I'm in exactly the same boat as you, and have been waiting for the right Android phone to come along here in China. Check out the specs: it has 3G (whole bunch of cellular bands supported), A-GPS, and Wi-fi. It even has an unique optional removable hardware keyboard option, the practical utility of which remains to be seen, but it's a cool idea.

The fact that it's from Lenovo is a plus in my eyes, as I like the solid feeling of the hardware on their ThinkPads.

Not true. The Droid Eris, like all variants of the HTC Hero, has 288 MB of RAM. This is more than, say, the Motorola Droid, which only has 256 MB of RAM. Given that the Droid was more or less designed to run Android 2, I can see how the Droid Eris can run it smoothly.

There are very few Android phones that have 128 MB of RAM; even the Dream/G1 has 192 MB. The only Android phones I've seen that have 128 MB of RAM have been the Chinese knockoff phones one occasionally finds on Engadget. Like this one.

I hope this doesn't happen, but if it does, I hope they leave the current ISA/availability/pricing scheme alone and just use ARM resources to improve their own products, but that is unlike Apple.

You mean how Apple destroyed CUPS after they bought it? Or how about when they stopped upstreaming changes to webkit? Despite much hand-wringing by slashdotters about this, they didn't do either of these things and these projects are both fine. Apple contributes much more to open source than Microsoft does and while hardware is a different beast, the point is there is absolutely no evidence that Apple would ever stop selling ARMs to competitors.

In any case, why the fuck would apple want to buy ARM? THey just bought P. A. Semi. The whole article is just baseless speculation by people whose sole purpose in life is to drive page views while having the title "analyst".

While ARM is in a totally different league from P. A. Semi it's worth pointing out that after Apple bought P. A. Semi they basically did destroy their product. Sure they said they would support PWRficient (the super efficient processor that P. A. Semi was working on) on an end of life basis but that meant committing to a massive order. A lot of people in the defence industries got really burned by that as their definition of mass produce is a little different from the consumer world. I believe the DoD was considering trying to exert some influence but I'm not sure what happened.

Just because the iPod is the Toyota Camry of mp3 players doesn't mean the iPhone gets to be the most expensive thing Toyota sells. It's an LS 400, at most. Hell, the Lexus analogy itself is stretching things.

I hope this doesn't happen, but if it does, I hope they leave the current ISA/availability/pricing scheme alone and just use ARM resources to improve their own products, but that is unlike Apple.

You mean how Apple destroyed CUPS after they bought it? Or how about when they stopped upstreaming changes to webkit? Despite much hand-wringing by slashdotters about this, they didn't do either of these things and these projects are both fine. Apple contributes much more to open source than Microsoft does and while hardware is a different beast, the point is there is absolutely no evidence that Apple would ever stop selling ARMs to competitors.

In any case, why the fuck would apple want to buy ARM? THey just bought P. A. Semi. The whole article is just baseless speculation by people whose sole purpose in life is to drive page views while having the title "analyst".

"I'm bashing MS for ignoring human rights complaints against them for many, many years. If they say they'll look into one incident because it got too much publicity, that sounds like spin rather than a real commitment. I certainly condemn all companies with this attitude and I try to avoid doing business with them as well, including HP and Dell. "

The issue is that you're doing it with extreme bias. In your original response to me you noted that in the 2006 investigation the issues were merely too much overtime- in other words you were simply parotting Apple's PR response. Look at the fucking dormitories they have to live in, and 80 FORCED hours extra per month? that's pretty fucking excessive:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/26/ipod-city-admits-labor-law-violations/

You can bash Microsoft's record all you want, but don't try and suggest Apple's is better- if Apple are really doing regular audits since 2006 and really care, then how the fuck did they get away with using child labour and so forth in the first place? The audits obviously aren't very effective if knowing full well that it's a big deal they weren't able to deter it. What about the workers who were poisoned elsewhere by n-hexane, one of whom died as a result that Apple refused to comment on? Or does that not count as an issue because Apple didn't give you a nicely worded PR statement about it?

As I say, slag Microsoft off for it all you want, slag any company off for it, but when you try and defend Apple for it when they're very clearly at least as guilty, that just makes you a fanboy, period. You say you boycott HP and Dell, but tell me, do you do business with Apple? is this how you justify it by telling yourself it's not as bad, by simply swallowing their PR statements, rather than those of the 3rd party independent investigative journalists who broke the story?

If you consume Apple kit, at very least quit trying to pretend that you're not part of the problem.

I think it will change. Look at some of the decisions made in the design of the last Macbook pros, in determining which GPU to use (discrete vs integrated):
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/21/macbook-pros-with-nvidia-geforce-gt-330m-silicon-making-question/

I spend most of my time reading http://www.engadget.com/ and http://arstechnica.com/ depending on whether I want 'gossip' news or 'newspaper' news. Engadget was created by the original founder of Gizmodo, so to me it's a fairly close match minus the over the top Apple slant.

That isn't to say that they don't go pro-Apple sometimes, but it's far less "I love Apple and here are some of the reasons why you are an idiot if you don't" than Gizmodo's articles are.

... that Apple released a tablet called the iPad, which is white, has mutitouch and runs iPhoneOS, and just move on? In the meantime, Endgadget received a JooJoo board and made a quick video preview of it, there were news about the Notion Ink Adams (along with a nice video too), the HP Slate, the Gemini, and probably a slew of other tablets nobody even heard of, because they were drowned by the Big Apple Marketing Monster.

... that Apple released a tablet called the iPad, which is white, has mutitouch and runs iPhoneOS, and just move on? In the meantime, Endgadget received a JooJoo board and made a quick video preview of it, there were news about the Notion Ink Adams (along with a nice video too), the HP Slate, the Gemini, and probably a slew of other tablets nobody even heard of, because they were drowned by the Big Apple Marketing Monster.

... that Apple released a tablet called the iPad, which is white, has mutitouch and runs iPhoneOS, and just move on? In the meantime, Endgadget received a JooJoo board and made a quick video preview of it, there were news about the Notion Ink Adams (along with a nice video too), the HP Slate, the Gemini, and probably a slew of other tablets nobody even heard of, because they were drowned by the Big Apple Marketing Monster.

John Gruber has Steve Jobs' cock firmly implanted in his mouth 24x7, so he will say or do anything to make this intentional leak look like something else. Hopefully the US government will start looking into this kind of unethical business practice of "leaking" products on the same day as major competitor product releases (in this case the Droid Incredible, living up to its name).

They're using it in the iPad 3G. Engadget article . It's actually kind of nice, because this way people may be able to use their iPhone microsims on their iPad, if that's truly how they're going to go.

They could require the deployment of chipped banking cards.

And this is where most of the problem has been caused. The belief that if we put those RFID chips in our bank cards, they must become safer. The problem is, it's the chip that is the biggest security issue since its RFID it's 'always on' and more then willing to send it's information to whomever asks. The banks and credit card companies have invested millions, if not in the billions, of dollars into the technology and its a flop. A massive, expensive flop. And now they have 2 options. Fess up that it's a failed experiment and have very pissed off investors. Or, censor/intimidate anyone who wishes to publicly expose this as the failure it truly is.

They could require the deployment of chipped banking cards.

And this is where most of the problem has been caused. The belief that if we put those RFID chips in our bank cards, they must become safer. The problem is, it's the chip that is the biggest security issue since its RFID it's 'always on' and more then willing to send it's information to whomever asks. The banks and credit card companies have invested millions, if not in the billions, of dollars into the technology and its a flop. A massive, expensive flop. And now they have 2 options. Fess up that it's a failed experiment and have very pissed off investors. Or, censor/intimidate anyone who wishes to publicly expose this as the failure it truly is.

My Asus 1005HA can manage 9 hours of battery life. The newer, Pineview based 1005PE does even better.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/21/asus-eee-pc-1005pe-review/

I have a 1005HA and I love it, but under heavy use it does not pull 9 hours.

My Asus 1005HA can manage 9 hours of battery life. The newer, Pineview based 1005PE does even better.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/21/asus-eee-pc-1005pe-review/

What are iPad's sales figures like? I haven't seen any. I can see a use for the iPad for certain people, but I'm on the side of the fence that says it won't do particularly amazing.

Apple announced 300,000 iPads sold on launch day (including pre-orders) -- April 3
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/05/apple-sells-over-300-000-ipad-tablets-on-us-launch-day/

Apple announced 450,000 sold the following Thursday -- April 8
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362390,00.asp

They announced 500,000 sold today.
http://www.gearlog.com/2010/04/apple_breaks_500000_ipad_barri.php

"Half the functionality" isn't opinion, it's fact? I'm quite interested in learning more about the methodology you used to quantify this. Remember to show your work.

Limited multi-tasking. No card reader of any kind. No USB ports. Zero user servicable parts inside (i.e. can't replace internal storage, battery, etc.) Limited to applications in app store (unless you jailbreak it, but we aren't counting what it can do once it is hacked.)

All of these things are available on portable machines that cost as much and, in many cases, less than an iPad. I know you are paying for the form fact, but the fact that there is a keyboard accessory that the iPad docks to is HILARIOUS. If you own an iPad, and buy the keyboard dock...why didn't you just buy a netbook?

While we're at it, could you point me at the "fully functional" devices that cost the same as the ipad. No vaporware please!

Ever hear of a netbook, or a budget laptop? Or any of the literally dozens of tablets that are on their way?

Oh wait, you mean something that can be used in a tablet form factor and bought today. Here you go.

In fact, for less than the cost of the "top of the line" iPad, you could buy an Alienware m11x.

"Half the functionality" isn't opinion, it's fact? I'm quite interested in learning more about the methodology you used to quantify this. Remember to show your work.

Limited multi-tasking. No card reader of any kind. No USB ports. Zero user servicable parts inside (i.e. can't replace internal storage, battery, etc.) Limited to applications in app store (unless you jailbreak it, but we aren't counting what it can do once it is hacked.)

All of these things are available on portable machines that cost as much and, in many cases, less than an iPad. I know you are paying for the form fact, but the fact that there is a keyboard accessory that the iPad docks to is HILARIOUS. If you own an iPad, and buy the keyboard dock...why didn't you just buy a netbook?

While we're at it, could you point me at the "fully functional" devices that cost the same as the ipad. No vaporware please!

Ever hear of a netbook, or a budget laptop? Or any of the literally dozens of tablets that are on their way?

Oh wait, you mean something that can be used in a tablet form factor and bought today. Here you go.

In fact, for less than the cost of the "top of the line" iPad, you could buy an Alienware m11x.

It looks like the bet they're making is that including Facebook and Twitter support is a complete replacement for the traditional IM client. I'm not so sure that decision is so terrible from a marketing perspective. The trend I'm seeing is that old school IM clients just aren't as popular among less serious users nowadays; I get Facebook messages from all sorts of people I know would never bother getting a "real" IM account, or who have never figured out they already have one via Gmail.

Ultimately the real limitations of this phone aren't going to apparent until the matching data plan is announced. How much it will cost to download all the Twilight ringtones and background images that will obviously be introduced for this phone? These are the important questions. So far we already know that updates from some sites are put into 15 minute batches, presumably to same on network bandwidth, which doesn't bode well.

WePad makes sense anyway. It's both pun of iPad and illustrates the product - it's more for us and since it uses Linux it allows multiple user accounts, good privacy and better security. iPad only has a single user and not even a guest account, do you really want to let your kids, friends or random people to use it access all your browser history, photos, emails and such?

It also looks awesome and you can use applications or develop them yourself. You can run scripts and most ssh in to the tablet. It shows Flash. At this point I would either get this or Courier, as the iPad seems really limited and you have to hack it for it to be any use. Oh and it supports multitasking too.

If these new batteries will be succeptable to the infamous swelling...

Opera for iPhone supports pinch to zoom multitouch. Check the video in Engadget - http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/12/opera-mini-for-iphone-approved-will-be-available-for-free/

how did opera get this through the app store approval process!?

Because, as far as I understand, it is not really a browser, but rather a viewer for a remotely processed webpage: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/17/opera-mini-on-iphone-is-fast-but-why/

It allowed my old Sony Ericsson phone (can't remember which model, but it was not a smartphone) to have a Safari like zoomable web-browser of quite hight quality (:

This is a serious question: Why does Apple appear to be OK with HTML5, but not with Flash? There are lots of posts claiming Apple is "afraid" of Flash, because the app store is their cash cow and Flash is a threat to that.

Now, I realize there is a lot more Flash content than HTML5 content, but isn't the basic principle the same? Couldn't I go make just about any game in HTML5 right now and have it work on the iPhone and iPad?

Is it because the source for any HTML5 game is viewable that Apple think "serious" game developers will avoid it?

Or another reason I'm missing?

I think Apple is OK with HTML5 and not Flash because Apple really is afraid of Flash and it's threat to it's market place. HTML5 at the moment is more of a novelty that might mature into something way in the future, but at the moment its not anywhere as useful as Flash. HTML5 can play video but it can't do much else like play games without extra's involved which I doubt Apple would allow. These extra's are plugins like Web3D which to my knowledge aren't on products like the iPad. And even if you could get plugins like Web3d on the iPad, it might not function well (as shown here on what looks to be on a full Mac computer). As you can see in the video, it's slow, and it's Quake 2, and it's running on HTML5, a far cry from the smoother Quake 3 running through Flash/. Flash would give access to free web games, which Apple won't want since by the looks of it as of 2 months ago the top 3 money making apps are games and no company wants to kill its money-maker.

I don't care whether Google prepares an iPad rival. A whole bunch of new Linux tablets are coming, likewise a whole bunch of "smartbooks" (netbook computers with non-x86 processors).

I'm really excited about the nVidia Tegra 2 chip. Typical power dissipation of about 500 milliWatts, 8 cores: ARM7 "housekeeping" core, dual 1GHz ARM9 processing cores, audio core, graphics accelerator core, video encode core, video decode core, and "image processing" core (which will support a high-resolution camera). nVidia showed off prototype smartbooks with a Tegra 2 playing HD video, and claimed that the chip was dissipating 150 milliWatts; elsewhere I have seen 500 milliWatts as the typical number.

I'm also excited about the Pixel Qi screen. That's the same display technology from the OLPC. A nice-looking display that dissipates 2 Watts when the backlight is on, and about 0.2 Watts with the backlight disabled. If you want to sit outside in the bright sun, you turn the backlight off and you get a nice, readable, sharp display that's very suitable for ebooks and web surfing, but you could watch movies that way too if you wanted.

A typical Atom system dissipates 15 to 20 Watts while operating. That's why netbooks need cooling fans. A Tegra 2/Pixel Qi system ought to have tremendous battery life, especially with the backlight off, and won't need a cooling fan. Win/win.

So, what I want is a tablet and a smartbook with a Tegra 2 and a Pixel Qi screen. I want Linux, but that's no problem, because Windows doesn't even run on a Tegra 2, and I don't think anybody is going to ship a Windows CE tablet. And I insist on a device with USB ports: I want to be able to plug in a keyboard, a mouse, a memory card reader, or USB storage devices.

I imagine that Acer and Asus will both ship products I will want. But the actual announced product I know about is the Notion Ink Adam tablet: Tegra 2 chip, Pixel Qi screen, capacitive multitouch touchscreen, Android OS. It also has an intriguing feature: a trackpad on the back of the device, which allows you to use Flash applications that were designed for use with a mouse (you use a finger on the back to drag the cursor around, and tap on the front with your other hand to click the mouse). It also has a camera that can be flipped around to point at you, away from you, or in between. It was originally announced for June, but recent news casts doubt on that.

By the way, one reason why tablets are the hot new form factor: people who see something that looks like a notebook computer expect it to run Windows, but people who see a tablet device have no expectations. So, there will probably be more tablets than smartbooks.

steveha

I don't care whether Google prepares an iPad rival. A whole bunch of new Linux tablets are coming, likewise a whole bunch of "smartbooks" (netbook computers with non-x86 processors).

I'm really excited about the nVidia Tegra 2 chip. Typical power dissipation of about 500 milliWatts, 8 cores: ARM7 "housekeeping" core, dual 1GHz ARM9 processing cores, audio core, graphics accelerator core, video encode core, video decode core, and "image processing" core (which will support a high-resolution camera). nVidia showed off prototype smartbooks with a Tegra 2 playing HD video, and claimed that the chip was dissipating 150 milliWatts; elsewhere I have seen 500 milliWatts as the typical number.

I'm also excited about the Pixel Qi screen. That's the same display technology from the OLPC. A nice-looking display that dissipates 2 Watts when the backlight is on, and about 0.2 Watts with the backlight disabled. If you want to sit outside in the bright sun, you turn the backlight off and you get a nice, readable, sharp display that's very suitable for ebooks and web surfing, but you could watch movies that way too if you wanted.

A typical Atom system dissipates 15 to 20 Watts while operating. That's why netbooks need cooling fans. A Tegra 2/Pixel Qi system ought to have tremendous battery life, especially with the backlight off, and won't need a cooling fan. Win/win.

So, what I want is a tablet and a smartbook with a Tegra 2 and a Pixel Qi screen. I want Linux, but that's no problem, because Windows doesn't even run on a Tegra 2, and I don't think anybody is going to ship a Windows CE tablet. And I insist on a device with USB ports: I want to be able to plug in a keyboard, a mouse, a memory card reader, or USB storage devices.

I imagine that Acer and Asus will both ship products I will want. But the actual announced product I know about is the Notion Ink Adam tablet: Tegra 2 chip, Pixel Qi screen, capacitive multitouch touchscreen, Android OS. It also has an intriguing feature: a trackpad on the back of the device, which allows you to use Flash applications that were designed for use with a mouse (you use a finger on the back to drag the cursor around, and tap on the front with your other hand to click the mouse). It also has a camera that can be flipped around to point at you, away from you, or in between. It was originally announced for June, but recent news casts doubt on that.

By the way, one reason why tablets are the hot new form factor: people who see something that looks like a notebook computer expect it to run Windows, but people who see a tablet device have no expectations. So, there will probably be more tablets than smartbooks.

steveha

Microsoft Entertainment and Devices wouldn't release a Windows Phone 7 Series tablet like the one in this concept video. But one of the companies making handsets that run Windows Phone might.

Could be the Enzo zenPad. Pure vapourware.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/09/ensos-zenpad-is-vaporware-get-refunds-while-they-last/

Sure, you can buy lawyers, but you can't as readily buy a particular verdict. Palm's portfolio of patents is very, very strong. See http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/09/editorial-htc-and-palm-should-get-hitched-and-make-beautiful-ba/ for Engadget's take on it. At $870m, they'd be getting a lot for their money.

You _do_ know that this "feature" will be removed from Windows Mobile 7 right? Enjoy it while it lasts : http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/15/confirmed-marketplace-will-be-the-only-way-to-get-apps-on-windo/

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/02/nexus-one-gets-a-software-update-enables-multitouch/

*BZZT*

Try spreading FUD again later.

The funny thing is the iPad Case -accessory. Apple has tried to make it look like Courier Tablet and like an actual book, but the truth is that theres no screen on the other side (which you can't see from the picture). What a surprise for the buyer.

Too bad the iPad sales are disappointing:

Over the weekend we saw some footage of empty queue stalls which was vaguely like when we popped into Disneyland Florida in November. -- Eric Savitz said that the figures "didn't quite meet estimates" -- According to the WSJ, Wall Street took a deep breath when analysts heard the figures.

Apple themselves know they are competing with netbooks. Or as they like to say it "better" than a netbook. Quoting:

10:10AM "We think we've got something that is better. And we call it the iPad."

10:09AM "Now some people thought that was a netbook -- the problem is that netbooks aren't better than anything!" Big cheers! Ha! - slide

It is a shame the iPad isn't better than anything either Steve.

Also, any reports on how that second-monitor app works on it?

Horrible...

What would be "massively innovative and useful"? I think Courier looks innovative and way better than iPad and other tablets. Live and the community on Xbox 360 is something not on other devices and the in-game interface quite innovative. But I wouldn't say it's massively innovative, in fact nothing is. Are Google or Apple in some way massively innovative? No, neither one of them are. Apple just takes an open source project and polishes the user experience and interface. There was existing search engines before Google, but they just did it better. Nothing massively innovative there.

In fact, most of the time innovations come from small startups. Most of those fail, but some happen to come across something innovative and gets bough by larger companies.

Indeed - this idea of using the ill-defined "smartphone" category is rather misleading (especially when the original Iphone reasonably wasn't even a smartphone - things like running apps and Internet access were the domain of plain old feature phones by 2005, so a phone lacking extra features in 2007 hardly qualifies as smart). Even if we accepted that you could separate the market like that, it hardly disproves that Apple phones are a niche, when smartphones as a whole are not what most people are buying. [*]

It's like that article we had a while back, saying how Apple were the number one PC seller in PCs costing over $1000. Well, yes, Apple are good at selling expensive products! But that doesn't stop them being a niche.

[*] Of course, then we get that related claim of "But Apple have caused more people to buy smartphones, more than any other company" which simply can't be true - as at most, they can only claim 5% of new smartphone owners, where as Nokia are there at 40-50%.

They are already facing some serious time in court over the hoopla with VOI>P and it is only going to get more ugly before the Feds step in and regulate them.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/atandt-now-allowing-iphone-voip-calls-over-3g/

http://www.skype.com/download/skype/iphone/
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/185433/vonage_offers_unlimited_intl_calling_for_iphone_blackberry.html
http://www.truphone.com/applications/devices/iphone/
http://www.fring.com/default.php

• Assuming this story is correct. As described in IEEE Spectrum, Intrinsity is an unique company that produces technology capable of significantly boosting the performance of many ARM processors. Considering the ubiquity of ARM, this technology could've potentially benefited a large range of consumers; but, apparently, that benefit will, now, only fall on those purchasing Apple products.
• Apple's suit against HTC: This is an obvious ploy to impede if not completely halt the ascent of Android. Apple sues HTC for infringing on its questionable soft patents while refusing to pay Nokia for the use of its hard patents.
• E-book Price Increase: This is an instance of Apple using its virtual monolopy in the mind share if not the market share of mobile devices to hurt the consumer. Perhaps, previous e-book prices were artificially low; I won't argue that point. The fact remains that Apple's entry into the e-book business has resulted in higher prices for the consumer -- with one concrete instance being the 43% increase in NY Times subscriptions.
• Banning of Google Voice App: In additional to a multitude of other features, Google Voice allow users to make free domestic VOIP calls; so, the adverse affect to consumers of this rejection should be obvious. Furthermore, this isn't an isolated instance: Apple has a history of rejecting apps that compete against its products or those of its business partners.

It is also one reason we may never see a $99 netbook

Interesting article here on a $99 netbook - and yes they are real and for actual sale

uh, how about no? I'd rather read this on a $450-$800 laptop. Something I can install Windows/Linux/OSX/whatever I want on, run the games I like on, rip movies on, etc, etc. The last thing I want is a giant iPod. I'd rather buy something like the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, but here s a non-apple iPad options out there:

• IBM IdeaPad U1 Hybrid
• ASUS Eee Tablet
• MSI's $500 tablet
• HP Slate (roughly $550 as a guess and SUPPORTS Flash)
  • More info on Slate

uh, how about no? I'd rather read this on a $450-$800 laptop. Something I can install Windows/Linux/OSX/whatever I want on, run the games I like on, rip movies on, etc, etc. The last thing I want is a giant iPod. I'd rather buy something like the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, but here s a non-apple iPad options out there:

• IBM IdeaPad U1 Hybrid
• ASUS Eee Tablet
• MSI's $500 tablet
• HP Slate (roughly $550 as a guess and SUPPORTS Flash)
  • More info on Slate

uh, how about no? I'd rather read this on a $450-$800 laptop. Something I can install Windows/Linux/OSX/whatever I want on, run the games I like on, rip movies on, etc, etc. The last thing I want is a giant iPod. I'd rather buy something like the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, but here s a non-apple iPad options out there:

• IBM IdeaPad U1 Hybrid
• ASUS Eee Tablet
• MSI's $500 tablet
• HP Slate (roughly $550 as a guess and SUPPORTS Flash)
  • More info on Slate

And no, it is not vaporware.

At 90 preorders (also posted on Engadget IIRC), it might as well be...

And did you watch the Engadget video of the UI? Either the Engadget dude has no feeling whatsoever in the tips of his fingers, or the screen is _extremely_ unresponsive.