The image above is from a post on the Bits Blog from the New York Times; a lovely infographic detailing who’s suing who in the mobile space right now.

A lot has been made of Apple’s lawsuit against HTC over gestures, but when Nokia sued Apple for something similarly inane, at best I heard silence and at worse I heard cheering to Nokia for taking Apple on. Looking at the infographic, the real answer is that everyone is piling on each other and suing one another for ridiculous reasons, but in the center there, suing everyone likely out of fear of its position in the market is Nokia, the behemoth itself.

So where’s the outrage at Nokia, or any of the other companies throwing its patent weight around?

If anything, this is proof that our patent and intellectual property system badly needs reform.

Many thanks to Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker editor) for posting this on Twitter.

[ NY Times - Bits :: An Explosion of Mobile Patent Lawsuits ]

GelaSkins had an exciting announcement today: they unveiled a new line of iPod, iPhone, and laptop skins based on Marvel Comics superheroes, including Iron Man, Spider Man, and the X-Men! All of the designs are available now in their store in the various shapes and forms they come in, but they were kind enough to provide me some review samples prior to the release for an exclusive over at Gearlog on behalf of PCMag.com.

The snapshot above is one of the images I took of the new iPod Skins, but wait until you see what I did with my iPod, and then what I did to my Macbook Pro using the new designs! Head over to Gearlog to see!

[ Gearlog :: Hands On: GelaSkins Marvel Comics Collection ]

This one goes in the box of “things I definitely need to do.” Lifehacker has an excellent wrapup of how you can build a fully and completely automated media center; that is, not only does it automatically snag the movies and TV shows that you want to watch, but it take care of archiving itself, naming its own files, and tying it all together into a simple interface and experience that makes it easier for you to sit down in front of your HDTV with your computer connected to it just knowing that the program you want to watch is waiting for you, without having to worry about whether you downloaded it yourself, or having to spend tons of time downloading the things you want to see on your own.

The more automated you can make the process, the more time you can spend actually watching your media and enjoying it rather than getting yourself to the point where you can enjoy it.

[ Lifehacker :: Set Up a Fully Automated Media Center ]

I absolutely love Google Voice. I was skeptical about it at first, but now that I have it, and I have the app on my phone, I don’t know what I’d do without the ability to review, listen to, and archive voicemail without actually having to place a call to anyone. And while I find Google’s ability to transcribe messages still a little inaccurate, it’s getting better all the time.

I haven’t taken the leap to telling everyone to use my actual Google Voice number instead of my mobile number, and I haven’t gotten as deep into setting the app up to send certain calls to certain places or to do different things for different contact groups just yet – I’m certain I haven’t scratched the surface of Google Voice’s abilities yet. That being said though, there are lots of really cool things you can do with Google Voice, considering you can score yourself an invite.

Over at MakeUseOf there are a few really great Google Voice features you may not be aware of that are definitely worth knowing about, including making outbound calls with Google Voice, listening in on your voicemail as it’s being recorded, and even using it to record calls that you make. Check out the whole list:

[ MakeUseOf :: 5 Cool Things You Can Do with Google Voice ]

Mashable.com posted a number of beautiful free Wordpress themes lately, a topic which is near and dear to my heart. Wordpress is the backend of all of my blogs, including this one, and while I love the themes I’ve chosen, they’re only getting better over time and I love watching new ones be developed, designed, and made available to the public.

This collection of 14 themes is particularly nice, and a number of them are designed for the modern user’s display: multiple columns of data, room for ads if the blog wants to post them, and an attractive and image-heavy layout that can work for more types of sites than traditional top-to-bottom blogs. If you’re a wordpress junkie like I am, head over and check them out.

[ Mashable :: 14 Fantastic Free Wordpress Themes ]

Earlier this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft took the stage and finally announced a product that people in the mobile space have been waiting for for a long time: Windows Mobile 7, or more appropriately (since Microsoft re-dubbed the product a couple of months ago “Windows Phone,”) Windows Phone 7 Series. Windows Phone 7 will be Microsoft’s new mobile operating system, replacing the aging and unattractive Windows Mobile 6.5 that’s the mainstay of a number of enterprise-class and tech-savvy smartphones currently on the market.

Faced with stiff competition in the smartphone space from companies like Apple and Google, Microsoft was forced to come to the table with something strong or risk falling even father behind in the smartphone space – a slip that likely would have met with their downfall in the mobile marketplace. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile has never been a particularly strong OS, and the bulk of its functionality came from the fact that because it’s a Microsoft product and Exchange is also a Microsoft product, the only competition for it on the corporate side has been RIM’s BlackBerry, which unseated Windows Mobile in a huge way. Now, Windows Mobile looks dated, aged, and reminds us of an era when it’s major competition was the old Palm OS (not to be confused with Palm’s WebOS, which is on its new smartphones.)

Windows Phone 7 on the other hand, looks incredible. It’s been updated, it looks modern, it looks sleek, it’s got integration with your social networks and services, it’s got a stunning touch-screen interface, and it brings in two of Microsoft’s most successful properties to the mobile space: Zune and XBox Live. That’s right – your music and your Windows Phone 7 Series device will sync with Zune marketplace and you can snag your music from there, and your mobile gaming experience will be integrated with XBox Live. This alone proves that Microsoft means business and is rolling up its sleeves in the mobile space again.

But it’ll take more than rolled up sleeves and determination to make people abandon their iPhones and G1s for a Windows Phone 7 device.

Before we dive into why, here’s a hands-on video with Windows Phone 7 by my friend Sascha Segan at PC Magazine, who was out at the Mobile World Congress and got to see a live demo of the new operating system:

Windows Phone 7 Series looks great, I have no doubt in my mind, and I’m very excited about it, but there are a number of things I can’t help but think, having watched the technology industry as long as I have.

Apps, Apps, Apps!

Pre-installed apps don’t sell mobile phones anymore. Apps do. The iPhone’s “There’s an app for that” campaign isn’t successful for nothing – it’s because people like having the ability to do just about anything they can think of doing with a mobile phone with their device. They like the idea that if there’s something they want, not only do they have full access to the internet, but there’s probably an app that will make the process easier, whether it’s finding someplace to eat tonight, buying movie tickets, chatting with their friends, or letting their buddies know where they are so they can meet up for a drink. There are apps on the iPhone and in Google’s Android mobile OS for all of those purposes. The question stands: will Microsoft be as open with Windows Phone Series 7 as they have been in the past?

The Windows Mobile story has been a good one for software developers – people have always had access to development tools and kits for Windows Mobile. Windows Phone 7 on the other hand represents a fresh start for Microsoft, and they have the choice to either go as open as possible with the platform as a development stage or clamp down in the Apple model and build a walled garden where they have control over the user experience.

There may have been a time where it would be insane to build in so much control over the user experience, but Apple’s made it work, so it must be at least tempting. At the same time, Google has had tremendous success with Android as a strong challenger to the iPhone and the iPhone OS. It’s likely Microsoft will try to take a middle-path with Windows Phone 7 development, opening the door slowly and trying to control the flow of apps in some fashion.

However, even as that’s likely, the number of available apps for the Zune HD (literally, less than 10) isn’t much encouragement that Microsoft will open the floodgates all at once, and it’s not a positive sign. Again, Microsoft could take the very attractive page from Apple’s book – they’ve managed to make the walled garden approach work, even to the grumbling of their own partners and developers, so anything is possible.

Even so, I still think Microsoft will open the doors. It won’t be completely wide open like Android, but it may be too close to the Apple model for some people. I doubt Microsoft really wants individual developers redefining the Windows Phone experience…just yet.

Agility

Microsoft doesn’t exactly have a reputation these days of being a very agile company. Some of their product lines have seen tremendous success because of their agility and ability to adapt to a changing marketplace, namely their entertainment arm: the Zune, Zune Marketplace, XBox and XBox 360, XBox Live, and Games for Windows. Even so, Microsoft is like a massive ship – steering it takes strategic thinking and the ability to look ahead a long way, and immediately starting to turn that massive ship to move in the direction of the market.

While I wouldn’t say Windows Phone 7 Series is too late, a few more years and it could have been. Also, Microsoft has been telling analysts and reporters for years that they needed to make this shift, and that they were planning to, but it’s taken them that long to respond to these changes in the marketplace.

What remains to be seen is whether or not Microsoft can be fast to market with Windows Phone 7, and whether or not they can be quick to adapt to the market when their competition capitalizes on their weaknesses and re-engineers their strengths. You can bet some of the beauty of Microsoft’s sliding display and actively updating widgets off-screen will be in future iterations of the iPhone OS and Android. Whether or not they’ll get there before or after Microsoft is in the market with Windows Phone 7 is a different matter.

Additionally, when the playing field is level again and everyone adopts (assuming it’s successful) home-screens full of widgets and utilities and blocks that provide you real-time updates from your social services and e-mail instead of flat, static icons you press to open apps, what will Microsoft do then to up their game? I ask because I guarantee that more historically agile companies like Apple and Google will be thinking about it, and especially companies that partner with Google to build on top of Android – like HTC and Motorola – will be thinking about how they can innovate their interfaces as well.

WrapUp

None of this means that I don’t think Windows Phone 7 will be anything but a huge success. I’m almost certain, looking at it and it’s built-in ability to integrate with your social networks, your gaming platforms, and all of your media, that it will be. Out of the box it’s an incredibly strong competitor to the iPhone OS, and it has more built-in seamlessly than Google Android does (which relies heavily on its openness and other apps to provide) but Microsoft will have to bring it fast and bring it strong in order to be real competition for both of those companies.

Additionally, the user experience will have to be as good as we see in the demo, and people will have to be able to get the tools they need to do the things they want with their mobile phones. Otherwise all of the glitter and glamor will be for nothing.

Windows Phone 7 looks like it’ll be a winner and I can’t wait for Microsoft to begin making it available to its hardware partners – I’m cautiously optimistic, and I hope they do it right. I take a bit more of a skeptical and rational approach than some other bloggers I’ve read (I’m looking at you, Gizmodo) but I should stress I’m more optimistic than cautious.

As you all well know, I’m a huge fan of really impressive and creative-looking workstations. Desks, home offices, you name it, I love seeing them – and this roundup of what the author called “minimalist” workstations at Webdesigner Depot is no exception. I wouldn’t call them all minimalist, but I can definitely see the contrast between these workstations and some of the huge, sprawling, multi-display, multi-computer setups that a lot of pepole have.

Most of these workstations feature one computer, maybe one or two displays, and a pretty organized workspace – a lot of them even feature some bias lighting to set the mood. Not all of them are horribly practical for anyone who uses their computer for long periods of time, but I’ll say one thing for them, they all look good.

Now then, I definitely want to get some bias lighting for my workspace.

[ Webdesigner Depot :: A Showcase of Minimalist Workstations ]

Whether you like your thumbdrives to also open beers for you or you just want them as flush to the side of your computer as possible, over at Pixelelement I noted a roundup of 10 awesome thumbdrives perfect for geeks of all tastes! Whether you love to skate, snowboard, or surf, or perhaps you’re like me and you’re an anime fan, you’ll appreciate at least one or two of the drives in the roundup.

I definitely dig the TrekStor bottle opener above, but I’m also a fan of the little Gundam USB drive in the roundup, and the Transformer (Ravage was never one of my faves, but I dig it!) – I don’t know if I’d like the Nano, just because I’d most certainly lose it.

[ Pixelelement :: 10 Awesome USB Thumb Drives for Geeks ]

VIdeo game console manufacturers, set-top box makers, and even television manufacturers are all clawing to get their hands on a partnership with Netflix or Blockbuster Online so buyers can do what they obviously want to do; stream audio and video straight to their HDTVs.

The rationale is simple – streaming Netflix and Blockbuster Online over broadband to the home has become a huge part of both companies’ business models, and clearly video on demand is the future of rented movies and material. Even Netflix’s CEO said that they expect their physical disc-mailing business to decline over the next several years as their streaming business soars.

So clearly the general public is happier with paying for temporary access to video content, whether they pay Netflix or Blockbuster Online to send them DVD or Blu-Ray discs straight to their homes, where they watch them and then return them in a mailer or they get the content streamed directly to their XBox 360 or their Boxee Box or their HTPC. We’re all comfortable with the concept that we pay a monthly fee to watch as many movies as we can stand or the mail can deliver to us, and when we’re finished watching or we send it back, the movie’s gone forever unless we want to watch it again. When we cancel our accounts with Netflix or Blockbuster Online, our access to that content is gone forever.

So, then, why isn’t the same for subscription music services? The Zune Marketplace, Rhapsody, Napster, all of those services operate using exactly the same business model, if not more generous than the video services’ are. The Zune Marketplace, for example, gives you a number of credits you can spend monthly to download and permanently own the songs you really like, instead of losing access to them if you ever terminate your account. Netflix doesn’t say every month “you’ve been such a great customer, why don’t you keep these movies from your queue, go ahead, take them,” but in order for a service like the Zune Marketplace to survive, they have to.

Why are we so okay with essentially leasing our movies from Netflix and Blockbuster Online, but we’re not okay with leasing our music from Zune Marketplace and Rhapsody in the exact same way? I have a couple of ideas, but it mostly has to do with history and perception – not functionality. Let’s dive in.

This isn’t entirely a defense of subscription music services, although I admit that I have a hard time discounting them as much as I used to now that I realize how hypocritical it can be to love subscription video services for one reason and then hating subscription music services for the same reason. It’s difficult to maintain that the iTunes model, for example, that lets you own your own music once you’ve purchased it, is so much leaps and bounds ahead of its major competitor, the Zune Marketplace, when you realize that Netflix doesn’t let you “own” your own movies any more than the Zune Marketplace lets you own your music – in fact, the Zune Marketplace is much more lenient, and gives you the ability to download songs to keep yourself forever even if you cancel your Zune Marketplace subscription.

So what’s the major difference? Why does the thought of “rented music,” a la subscription music services, raise people’s hackles and bring to mind the rabid “information wants to be free” rhetoric where services like Netflix, which makes its money renting you movies, doesn’t? Do we fundamentally view video and audio as qualitatively different?

The answer is no, not really, but there are some things that make us more protective of our music than we traditionally have been about our movies:

The Spectre of DRM

Subscription music services still reek of DRM, and this is probably the biggest thing that’s turned people off about them. There are naturally built-in protections to make sure that the music you have on your computer or your mobile device by virtue of your subscription to the service can only be played as long as your subscription is valid – that part isn’t really under dispute. What does become a problem is the historical precedent that subscription services saddle you with only a handful of supported players, and usually not very good ones that people actually want to buy.

This rings like the iTunes/iPod circular relationship, which also chafes a number of people (but given the massive popularity of the iPod as a music device Apple has been able to get away with it) but the combination of not really being able to play your music on any device AND the stigma that came with not totally “owning” your music was too much for a lot of people to bear. Assuming that using Napster required that you use a pretty poorly rated Samsung mp3 player and on top of that you could only play or share your music the way you were told was just a huge turnoff for a lot of people.

This is where one of the parallels between subscription services for audio and video break down. The parallel to this would be if in order to use Netflix you HAD to use a certain device to play the video on your HDTV – one sanctioned by Netflix, and if you tried to use something else it just wouldn’t work, including with your mailed discs. You could see how this would be a problem for people.

Thankfully, with the launch of Amazon MP3 and the change of heart that Amazon and Apple took towards DRM, the fall of DRM opened the door to a much more trusting relationship between subscription service providers and their customers. For example, with the Zune Marketplace, the songs you get to keep are in mp3 format, and the songs you “rent” are in protected WMA, which means any player that can play WMA can play the files – it’s just that when your subscription is cancelled, they’re removed from your computer.

The spectre of DRM is largely gone from subscription music services, and only remains as a way to validate that you’re an active subscriber. The demons of Microsoft’s PlaysForSure debacle and Sony BMG’s rootkit fiasco all still ring in music consumer’s minds as a reason to stay away from any service that doesn’t affordably allow you to download and completely own, free and clear, the music that you purchase.

It’s understandable, but subscription services have adapted and grown since those days, and they’re worth another look. A number of them allow you to subscribe and stream music just like music discovery services like Last.fm or Pandora, and spin the subscription as a way to get customized radio of music you would like based on songs you already own or songs you rate highly. Then you have the ability to buy stand-alone downloads that belong to you in DRM-free mp3 format. The Zune Marketplace is a good example of a service which started out pretty poorly and came a long long way – it’s music discovery engine surpasses Apple’s Genius in a number of ways, and can generate playlists based on songs you own or songs you find in the catalog using songs you own or songs in the catalog that you can rent or buy.

The flip side to this is video on demand services like Netflix and Blockbuster Online, which ship you discs that you can keep as long as you want as long as you’re a subscriber. If you ever cancel your subscription, you have to send the discs back or pay to own them. Video streamed over the Web to your HDTV or console is only available to you for a short time, cached on your device. When it’s gone, it’s gone forever – you have no option to own it, and neither service currently allows you to even pay to download the movies you stream permanently. (although it’s likely coming.)

In some ways, subscription video is less flexible in this regard than subscription audio – it’s just that the spectre of DRM isn’t necessarily applied: there’s no “you kinda own it while you pay us” aside from having a physical DVD. In this case, it’s probably more history, media, and the echo chamber that makes us more afraid to keep protected WMA on our computers to listen to whenever we want for the life of our Rhapsody subscription than we are unhappy that the instant we turn off our XBox 360, we lose the Netflix movie we were watching back to the ether, never to become part of our collection.

Collector’s Mentality

While I think DRM and the horrible history of the music industry treating its consumers like criminals is the real reason why people want complete and utter control over their music (and subsequently, the MPAA being somewhat careful about demonizing itself to its customers and trying to learn from the mistakes of the RIAA – even though they’ve only been partially successful, seriously the “You wouldn’t download a car” campaign is laughable) and willing to be a bit more lenient about the degree to which they own their movies.

At the same time, I think people have a different perception of what it means to have a music collection and what it means to have a movie collection. Movie collections and owning movies digitally simply haven’t gotten to the point where the majority of people are comfortable with their movies on a hard drive or a computer or another device hooked up to their television. When the average American wants to watch a movie, they expect to look at a shelf and pick something they’d like to watch, and physically put a disc in a player.

Granted, all of this is changing with streaming video to your set-top via game console, widget-powered TVs, and Blu-Ray players with network connectivity, but it’s just not at critical mass yet. Just like with the compact disc, the tide has only now begun to shift in the direction of people understanding that owning their media in some digital format on a box that’s near the TV is okay – and in some ways preferable to – having lots of boxes and disc cases on a shelf next to or under the TV. I also get the feeling that people will be more clingy to physical video media for longer than they were for the CD, especially with the advent of Blu-Ray. (which give your more features and greater video quality than you can get by streaming the same video via broadband – although that’s changing too)

The tide is changing in people’s perceptions of what it means to have a “movie collection,” and it’s shifting to set-top boxes and HTPCs the same way as people understand now that having a “music collection” doesn’t necessarily mean bookshelves of CDs and can instead mean a couple of external hard drives or a single iPod on a desk. The trick is that it’s just not there yet.

Wrapup

In the end, don’t really mean to claim that there’s a definitive or correct reason why people trust rented video, both on demand and physical, when they don’t trust rented audio in the same shape and fashion – even from companies whose business models line up very very closely. There are likely more reasons than these to explain the phenomenon, but unfortunately, some really grreat subscription music services have gone under the radar partially because of this negative stigma applied to them and partially because there are just so many great music discovery and download services that let you buy music free and clear.

Add to this the “us versus them” stigma that’s applied to just about every product or company, and you have people who won’t look twice at Zune Marketplace because they hate Microsoft, for example, or people who won’t touch Rhapsody because it’s from Real Networks, or worse, people who won’t consider them because they already use iTunes or Amazon MP3 and dare not use more than one service for their music, as if it’s “cheating” somehow.

Being an music lover, I can see the benefit of a subscription service that lets you snag and listen to as much music as you can possibly stand for as long as you can stand to pay the monthly fee while also direct downloading the tunes you know you’ll love forever or have some special meaning to you. (or want to use to complete you collection or an artist’s discography!) I feel the same way about movies as well – I’m a very happy Netflix subscriber and think that streaming video direct to my HDTV is a fantastic thing, but I wouldn’t sacrifice my shelf of DVDs for the world, and I’ll definitely buy Blu-Ray videos in additon to using Netflix for other videos I’m comfortable renting.

Explore multiple options, and try different services. You might surprise yourself.

Yesterday was the day – the day that everyone has been waiting for for years, the day everyone just knew that Apple was going to unveil their entry into the tablet market. They didn’t dissapoint: Steve Jobs walked on stage an announced the Apple iPad, a 10-inch tablet that Apple claims is their “most advanced technology in an magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.”

Watching the furor leading up to the event was remarkable – people have been crowing about the “upcoming Apple Tablet” for years, and even now searching Google images for “iPad” yields a number of the mockups and designs that have been posted on the Web for years while the rumbling built up to a fever pitch while fans and detractors alike started frothing at the opportunity to get their hands on or similarly detract senselessly any new product line that Apple introduced. They weren’t dissapointed either – watching the reaction from the people who simply expected far more than they ever should have (and subsequently blamed Apple for letting them down) and then watching the reaction from the people who otherwise hated Apple but warmed up to this particular product was an amazing thing to see.

You would have thought people were expecting Apple to unveil a cancer cure if you considered the hype beforehand, and it was natural that a lot of those people were let down. The typical Apple bashing began and the cracks at the name “iPad” are more than justified, but here’s the truth of the matter: the iPad is a solid product for what it is – a giant iPod Touch that stands as Apple’s first volley in to the tablet market.

There are tons of tablets out there – traditional laptops folded into single panel devices that are thick, generally bulky, and only applicable in certain situations (schools, doctors’ offices and hospitals, etc) that clearly consumers aren’t interested in. This trend of the “consumer tablet” has only recently surfaced, and considering what I saw at CES earlier this month, the market will be flooded with tablets of all shapes, sizes, and configurations by year’s end – not just the iPad.

The iPad looks like it could be an interesting netbook replacement: Apple made a point of showing off its media capabilities, a version of iWork that you’ll be able to load onto the iPad to do word processing and spreadsheet management, as well as gaming. Since the iPad is essentially a large iPod Touch (and let’s be clear about that – I don’t say that flippantly, it really is a large iPod Touch. If you love your iPod Touch, you’d love the iPad. If you hate the iPod Touch or iPhone for its limitations, you’ll find those same limitation in the iPad.) it’ll run a modified version of the iPhone OS, for which Apple released the SDK yesterday.

There’ll be tons of apps, no doubt, and tons of games, tons of eBooks, and I imagine that because of its color screen and interface that reading comics and documents on it will be fantastic. I see a lot of people comparing it instinctively to the Kindle or the Nook, which I think is a poor comparison: the iPad is a tablet, not an eReader, and the whole point of the consumer tablet market is that they’re more than just eReaders; they’re simply different classes of product, although all tablets will likely have some eBook reading functionality. One consumes the other, but they’re not the same. Speculation is flying about whether the iPad will put Amazon’s Kindle into its grave, and frankly, I highly doubt it. People who love e-ink displays will stick to the Kindle and the Nook, and people who don’t care about that can swing either way depending on what they really want in a product.

The price is right, with Wifi only models coming in at 16GB for $499, 32GB for $599, and 64GB for $699. Wifi and AT&T 3G will run you 16GB at $629, 32GB at $729, and 64GB at $829. Everyone was expecting a $1000 price point, and Apple beat that pretty well. The wifi version looks most attractive to me personally, but that’s because AT&T is horrible where I live, and I think most people’s experiences with the iPhone being tethered to AT&T may wave them off of the 3G models as well. (which also come with a 2 year contract, mind you, and even though Apple says they’ll be “unlocked,” the 3G radios will make them impossible to use with other GSM carriers like T-Mobile.)

That being said though, criticism of the iPad is more than justified. Since it’s a big iPod Touch (or iPhone, since you’ll be able to get it with AT&T 3G built in at a higher price point), you suffer all of the limitations that the iPhone OS has; meaning no multi-tasking, no background apps, no Flash support, and only apps that are supported by Apple’s walled-garden iTunes App Store.

The iPad also has no video out, no USB or expansion ports, no choice of carriers (it’s AT&T for 3G service or nothing), no camera, and no expandable memory or replaceable battery. The fine folks at PC Mag have an excellent roundup of things that are notably missing from the iPad.

The 30-pin dock connector we all know from our iPods and iPhones will be available though, and it’s likely the iPad isn’t designed to serve as a stand-alone device: it’s supposed to be at least somewhat tethered to a computer for updates, data syncs, and app installs. You’ll likely treat the iPad like an iPod Touch or an iPhone – you only hook it up to a computer as often as you need to based on the way you use it. A number of vendors have already come out with cases and peripherals for the iPad that use the 30-pin dock connector and the new iPhone SDK, although the product itself won’t ship for another 60 days at least.

In any event, the ridiculous furor over the iPad has finally started to dissipate, and the people who love Apple and hate Apple are settling back into their respective camps after another product announcement where they all tried to claim impartiality in their criticism or support. Even so, the iPad looks like it could be a strong product as long as the price stays right and the app support is there. There are some serious and notable weaknesses though, ones that Apple’s competitors in the tablet space are likely already scrambling to take full advantage of.

Regardless, hands-on impressions of the iPad confirm that it is what Apple is good at: a solid, attractive, easy-to-use, and powerful piece of consumer electronics. It will likely sell well, but if anything the most exciting thing about the iPad is that it sets the stage for even stronger products in the future. I’m more excited about what an iPad v2 or v3 could bring to the table than the iPad itself.

[ Apple :: iPad ]