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So, iPad! YAY! I haven’t watched the press conference Apple threw today, so I have only been able to read what others have writen about the new iPad introduced to the world today. Here are a few of my thoughts on this “revolutionary” device:

Simply put: it’s a lot of overblown hype. I guess more specifically I mean that the hype it is getting too much hype. I’m not saying everyone who loves all the features and demos shown today are wrong, but the overall “buzz” for this is overblown. Essentially, in my mind, this is what the Kindle should be, and once again Apple has shown the way to the world about how exactly to lead the world in every electronics category you enter.

Operating Systems? Leads. Hardware? Leads (but I understand both of these go hand-in-hand). Smartphones? Leads. Portable music devices? Leads. And now? They will lead in the “medium sized application delivery system” category, that they just created. The only they don’t lead in is servers, and that’s just an opinion, I don’t have any numbers to back that up.

The Kindle now belongs to this category, as does Barnes and Noble’s new device. These devices are now painfully behind what Apple has introduced here today: a gorgeous color, multi-touch screen, with full iPhone/iPod touch application support, and the same, rock-solid portable OS that is found in the iPhone and iPod touch.

This all combines to be one awesome package, and is proof, yet again, that Apple is on top of their game.

Now that I’ve said that, here’s the problems I find with this:

This is essentially what the iPod touch SHOULD have been from the very beginning. All the other iPods are better portable music player values then the iPod touch. Sure, a case could be made that the iPod touch can and will kill the Nintendo DS, and the Sony PSP, but the issue with that for me is that now there will be little to no market for an iPod touch.

No one is going to want to make games for the iPod touch that is designed for the small screen, when the same effort could be made to expand the experience on a larger screen. Most games require an internet connection, anyway since they are anticipating being run on an iPhone anyway.

Now, though, the devlopers of apps have 2 clear targets: iPhones (and by association the iPads with 3G) and iPads. Games will be designed to run at the max resolution, and some productivity apps will be designed to run exclusively on iPads.

But logistics aside, who is going to use these? Travellers, for one, as they can now watch movies, listen to music and play games from their seat either on the train, or plane, or taxi cab. This experience will be AMAZING too. A gorgeous screen to watch movies and music videos and TV shows.

But how many people regularly fly anymore? Take the train? Not many. As I blogged about earlier, when I lived in the Bay Area, I rode the train often, and loved spending my time playing the PSP. But that’s a PSP, not this large, bright $500 “STEAL ME!” sign. Not that I expect the worst in people, but all it takes is one bad Apple (pardon the pun) to ruin the bunch, and this device seems a little too flamboyant to take out in public.

So that leaves long-distance travel. And again, who does that regularly? At MOST I fly a couple times a year. I don’t go on Amtrak, and I don’t take Greyhound. So for me (and millions of people like me) this iPad is a catchy and kind of cool device, that will never satisfy my needs at $500.

Perhaps if this were the price of a PS3, then I maybe could justify the cost of purchasing it, but as it currently stands, I would rather spend a couple hundred more dollars, and get a full-fledged laptop, and I know I’m not in the minority on this.

Yes, it has some cool features, and yes it looks sharp, great, and Apple continues to demonstrate itself to be a trand-setter, but I don’t see how this is “revolutionary” at all. It’s just a bigger iPod touch, and as such has a few new bells and whistles to go with it. That’s it.

There will be the obvious migration to your local Apple store to pick one up, and your obvious fanboys will pick one up, but I don’t see how this will benefit the average consumer in any meaningful way.

We’ll see!

Remember this post? I was geeking out about the fact that Firefox had so many extensions, and how I could customize it any way I wanted. Namely, I could stack my tabs anywhere I wanted, and I could have my bookmarks appear anywhere I wanted too.

Now? I’m geeking out again. This time it’s all about Google Chrome. The reasons for this are simple, but long. Here is a short list of why I love Chrome more then Firefox, and why you should switch:

1. 100/100 Acid 3 test. This means that every single thing should be rendered properly according to the specs as determined by the W3. Firefox isn’t there yet, and certainly not Internet Explorer. Safari is though, so that’s something.
2. By nature of its name, Google Chrome aims to use as little “chrome” as possible while still being functional. This means that things like the status bar and the tab bar either don’t exist, or are part of something else. The tabs now appear where traditionally the title bar appeared, and the status bar appears only when necessary, and simply hovers over the page.
3. Each tab is essentially in its own world. If that tab crashes, it simply closes. It doesn’t take the whole browser (and by extension, the rest of my tabs) with it. This is a major feature in my opinion, and I love it.
4. It’s fast. There are statistics everwhere, but trust me, it’s not slower then Firefox, it is faster.
5. It has extensions too!! My favorite extension is XMarks, and it allows me to sync bookmars across browsers (passwords too!), so wherever I am, my bookmarks will follow. Google Chrome even has this feature built-in, but it saves them on Google Docs, so they may or may not be easily transported to other browsers. Either way, most of the other extensions I have were to try to accomplish what Chrome inherently does, which is to minimize the amount of space the browser itself occupies, and maximize the area to view the web page.

If these 5 reasons don’t get you to switch to Chrome, I don’t know what will. 100/100 Acid 3 test alone is almost worth the switch, which guarantees properly coded web sites to render perfectly, and the extensions take it over the top. Some of the most popular Firefox extensions have found their way over to Chrome as well, so there really is little downside to switching.

Even if you want to give it a test-spin, go right ahead. Firefox won’t go anywhere. You can always switch back at any time.

Just please, please, PLEASE, don’t use Internet Explorer. Maybe by the time IE 10 comes out things will be safe, but at the moment, do yourself a favor and use Firefox or Chrome (or Safari, it works on Windows now too, not just Mac).

Peace.

Hello. YouTube’s today.

Here’s why I hate Bill O’Reilly:

Here’s why I hate Fox News (if those Bill O’Reilly clips didn’t convince you), and why I love Ron Paul:

I’ll have more about why Ron Paul is so much better then Sarah Palin, but the internet is going berserk on me and I need to go to work, so maybe later. Anyway, enjoy what I’ve got for now

So, congrats to the new NFC Champion New Orleans Saints. They played their asses off, and deserve to be the NFC Champions. The Vikings piled up tons and tons of yards against them, and they managed to stay a step ahead.

But the Vikings lost this game just as much as the Saints won it. 5 turnovers, 2 of which were inside the Saints 10 yard line, did them in. The three other turnovers, and the other fumbles that happened to be recovered before they became a turnover, proved to be their undoing. As happy as I am that the Saints won tonight, I am more then concerned with how they played. The Vikings looked like the better team that just couldn’t hold onto the ball.

Because if this, I’m afraid that the Colts deserve to be HEAVY favorites against the Saints. I firmly believe the Vikings were the better team, that just so happened to play a slightly worse game. Most of the problems the Vikings had was their mistakes. They had no problems moving the ball, and no problems getting touchdowns, they just had a hard time keeping the ball. These mistakes are easily corrected, and most likely would have been in two weeks, but we’ll never get the chance to find out.

I always wanted whoever won this game to win the Super Bowl, but I am beyond disappointed in the performance of the Saints. I am having a hard time finding a way their defense can stop the Colts. I’m also having a hard time finding how their offense can score 31 points against the Colts either. Indianapolis shut DOWN the Jets in the 2nd half today, and while the Saints are tremendously better then Jets, I feel that the Vikings are better still.

They just dropped the ball.

Yep. More thoughts to follow. Just had to get this up.