So. The Apple tablet. I was never chomping at the bit for one and I’m still not. I have a small laptop (an eee with a 10″ screen) which works just fine for those few tasks I can’t perform with my iPhone. To get me to switch away from it, here’s what I need:
And really that’s about all I need (other than an external keyboard, but they already provide that). However, to really make me a devotee, I also want:
A front facing camera for video communication – I get not having a camera on the back, but all of Apple’s computers come with cameras, even my eee has a camera, and the iPhone has the processing power to stream video so surely this device does
Flash support – Youtube is ok, but what about Vimeo or blip.tv (so I can watch That Sci Fi Guy) or the dozens of games. The battery argument may have made since on the iPhone, but not on the iPad
And well, that may be it. I was quite underwhelmed at first, but the more I’ve thought about it, most of my problems are software based. That’s something fixable either via OS updates or via third party apps. With a two month lead on getting those apps ready, developers may have some great programs ready on day one.
i wrote this up to explain why i was going to wait for version 2, but I may have talked myself into hopping on early (assuming I had or can find the money).
This post is what happens though when I listen to too much NPR and dip just a toe back into the political blogosphere.
Republicians:
Until you accept responsibility for taking a budget surplus and creating a budget deficit from it, I’m not listening to a single word you say about fiscal responsibility
My fiancee has no health care not because she thinks she’s invincible, but because she can’t afford it. The problem doesn’t lie with how much she makes, but with how expensive health care costs are (like the $75 we were charged for a doctor to look at the results of a $300+ test, not to talk to her about it just to look at the paper sent back to him from a lab). Do something about that.
Back to the deficit for a minute, a big part of where it came from (since your memories don’t seem to go past last January) was the Medicare prescription drug plan you enacted and didn’t pay for. Sure Obama’s spending freeze will only affect a small percent of the deficit, that’s because the biggest part of it is health care related.
Right now, I’m still assuming you do want to do what’s right for the people, but based on all I’ve seen and heard from you, you don’t want the Democrats and specifically Obama to get any credit so you’re doing everything you can to drag your feet and ensure they fail so you can be back in power and then you’ll actually do something. No. We need you to act now.
Obama and the Democrats:
You weren’t elected to work with Republicans. You were elected because we didn’t like what they were doing and wanted to give you a chance. So do something already. Even if you lost eight more Senate seats you would still have a majority. Make them filibuster.
See what I said above about health care.
One one hand we hear Clinton proclaiming internet access a human right and on the other we have Music and Movie Industry Lawyers the Justice Department saying that even an accusation of online copyright infringement should result in being banned from the internet.
Repeal all the laws enacted over the past eight years giving the executive branch the power to violate our rights.
Nice job on the State of the Union, Obama.
Tea Partiers and Fox “News”:
Where were your protests when Bush and the Republicans created the deficit? Oh that’s right, back then questioning the president was un-American. Sure Obama has added to it, but part of that addition gave me (and most Tea Party attendees and probably none of the Fox “News” hosts) a tax cut. Yes, Obama’s evil stimulus package put more money in your pocket. Go back and check your pay stubs.
The census? Really? That’s how the government is going to gather information on you so they can round you up? Thanks to Bush and the Republicans, Obama has the authority to listen in on all of your phone calls and read everything you post online. He doesn’t need the census. If he hadn’t nixed it, he’d also have the power to declare you an unlawful enemy combatant, lock you up, and throw away the key and you’d have no recourse to challenge that decision. Fight that fight, not the census.
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I could go on and on, but I have better things to do (like write up my thoughts on the iPad).
A week or so ago, Rosie finally convinced me we should go ahead and start up our wedding registries. We had planned to set one up on Amazon and, because of her great love for the place, at Macy’s and a third place to be named later (probably Target).
In setting up the Macy’s registry we discovered they were holding a “Sip and Scan” event at Lenox this past Thursday. I didn’t even need to ask her if she wanted to attend. Once we got down there and signed in, they handed us a free tote bag (made by Victorinox so a decent quality item) with a bunch of flyers and ads inside along with a free wine bottle opener called “The Bunny”, clearly a knockoff of “The Rabbit”, but still better than anything we had at home.
Aside: The free gift item was particularly amusing for us. A bit over a year ago, before I moved in with Rosie, we needed a corkscrew at her place. So we set out to buy one. We couldn’t find one that wasn’t ridiculously expensive. We did finally find one, but ever since, anywhere we go, we find corkscrews, even in places that we looked before. So showing up for our first real wedding event and being given a free corkscrew? Priceless.
They then handed us a Palm-based Symbol barcode scanner (I’m a geek, I notice these things) and set us loose. After sampling some of the hors d’œuvres and a bit of aimless milling around we started scanning up a storm. OK, we didn’t go crazy with it, but got a decent amount of items registered.
At one point, I took a look around at the other couples and had the feeling of being in an exclusive club. All of the people there, as varied and unlike us as they may have been, are our peers in one very significant way. That’s part of why I’m going to try and be a bit better about blogging this year. This experience is completely new for me and, hopefully, something I’ll only go through once.
All in all, it was an enjoyable way to spend an evening.