I’m between phone contracts now. I have a 2 year old BlackBerry Curve 8320 and I’ve decided to get a new iPhone when it is release in June/July. Until then, I was looking for a something to quench my gadget thirst.





I thought that I would abandon my desire for the iPhone with Google’s Nexus One. I tried to get excited about this phone but I just couldn’t. It’s like a GoBot when you really want a Transformer.


I considered the Kindle but the black and white display was a deal breaker for me. The design also irritated me. I didn’t want to pay $300 or more for something that looked like it was made in the early 2000’s. The other features or lack thereof were a disappointment. It ONLY reads books and everything seems extremely closed and locked down; even more so than Apple. Amazon didn’t win any favors with me when they deleted 1984 and Animal Farm from customer’s Kindles without permission. It also bugs me CEO Jeff Bezos won’t reveal the exact number of Kindles sold. Dude, we just want to love you!

After I gave up on the Kindle, I decided that I’d get a Zune. I was sold with the multi-touch but when I realized that there were no apps, it just wasn’t what I wanted. It has a Twitter client that censors tweets and no Facebook app. The games weren’t exciting.


The iPad hype


It was about this time that I realized that I really wanted was something like an iTouch. I didn’t want to buy an iTouch because I’m going to get an iPhone and I don’t want to be stuck with two almost identical gadgets.





I’m not usually one to fall all over myself when there’s a “Steve Note”. This year, for some reason, I was a drooling devotee. I was tuned into the coverage 2 hours early. I had 5 browsers open checking Engadget, MacRumors, iLounge, ArsTechnica, Gizmodo, GDGT, TWiT, Slashgear, Twitter and Houston’s own Dwight Silverman’s Techblog. Techblog and Gizmodo had the best pre-show coverage. The best overall coverage goes to TWiT for having audio and video of the event. The best website coverage goes to GDGT and Gizmodo. Their sites didn’t fold under the traffic and they both got hi-res pics up really fast.





I want it
When I saw the iPad and how it worked, I fell in love. It is true; the iPad is like an iTouch but bigger and like a Kindle but way cooler. To me, it’s not like a netbook at all. If you are looking for a computer replacement, the iPad will always disappoint you. I see the iPad as nothing more than the Kindle that should have been.


[Update]
Mockups of the new Google tablet (gPad?) just surfaced. I don’t hate it. I’m open to giving it a chance but Google always has a way of not quite hitting the mark for me. We’ll see.