All About the Apple iPad

to the Technology podcast that's out of this world. Okay, then that's gonna make no sense to you because you didn't hear what we were talking about immediately before we hit record. At least I hope you didn't. Yeah, I hope that's really up to Liz. Let's start this this appolicious episode with a little listener mail list. Listener mail comes from Chris k r I s Chris says, I just wanted to see you what you would say about at Jason pranking the Twitter world about the iPad just

to get an extra twenty thou followers. Is it immoral or against some code of the Internet? Also, do you still think the iPad is too awkward a form factor or worth buying? Chris? Well, Chris, um, we'll get into what Jason calicanas, which is that's the person behind at

Jason what he did a little bit later. But first we're gonna talk about the iPad, something that everyone has been talking about ever since Apple first unveiled it on Well, it was just two days before we started recording this podcast. That's true. That's true. Um, that would be January A Wednesday and Wednesday. And Apple has a tendency to not tell you what's coming up at their announcements, but making this sort of veiled reference with graphics and and you know,

some sort of tagline tagline. Basically, they see our latest creation was the tagline and had lots of splashy colors on the hand of the invite. And uh, but everybody sort of knew what was going to go on because for weeks beforehand, if you're tuning in very late, and uh, this is all old news to you. Uh, we've been talking about the possibility that Apple was going to come out with a tablet computer of some sort. Now you

say weeks, but in reality we're talking years. Well, it's true, yeah, I mean this is something that's been going on for many years. Okay, So I remember last year that nine that there were rumors when Steve Jobs was going to return to Apple, because he took a medical leave starting in in the beginning of the year. Uh, there were rumors that when he would return, he would return also with the announcement of this tablet device, which had already been in the the rumor mill for quite some time

at that point. Oh so this is more than six months ago. And the first of all, Steve Jobs did not appear at the press release that everyone thought he was gonna appear in back in June. Um, he remained off stage. And then second of all, Uh, there was no mention of the tablet. And then there was another Apple event mentioned announced for September of two thousand nine. Again everyone went bonkers, thinking that the tablet. This has got to be it. This is when they're going to

finally announce this tablet thing, whatever it may be. Uh. But of course that was an iPod event. It was all about their ipodline and updates to it, had nothing to do with the tablet. They made no mention of it. And uh, there were rumors coming out that Okay, well, they're gonna announce it sometime in February of two thousand TENU at the beginning of two thousand ten Apple there were rumors that Apple is going to hold an event at the end of January and that that would finally

be when we hear about the tablet. And as the end of January neared, first it was confirmed that yes, indeed they were going to hold an event, and then it became pretty much a certainty among most people on the Internet that they were, in fact, and I mentioned some sort of tablet device, and uh, I was kind of hoping that they wouldn't, just to see what would happen. Yeah.

That that that there is sort of a almost like thing. Yeah, sort of a letdown that they actually announced what they everyone thought that they were announced, But it was the iPad that they announced, which uh, some people have referred to as an oversized iPod Touch. I think, even even though I am personally skeptical of this device and the usefulness of this device, I think that's not entirely fair. Actually, I think that it is unfair to classify it as

a giant iPod Touch is definitely more than that. But I can see why people would be tempted to call it that, because after two years of speculation, I'm pretty sure that any device Apple unveiled, no matter how amazing it was, was bound to disappoint people because after two years, I mean, how can you live up to that kind of anticipation. Un Us it had a direct line to heaven and could make you milkshakes, I'm pretty sure that you're going to be disappointed and on some level, no

matter what it did. Okay, Well, since I actually wrote a blog post about this a few days ago, the day of the it's released, And uh, before we go further, one don't I since since I, since I'm the writer, I can plagiarize myself, why don't I just tell you what it is and what it can do? Hit me and then we can actually talk about what it means. Sounds okay. So it's it's half an inch thin and weighs one point five pounds. UM. It's got a nine

point seven inch in plane switching ips backlit led display. UM. It's got a proprietary Apple design one gigga Hurts processor that runs a version of the iPhone OS, and it can run i've Touch and iPhone applications without modifying them, although developers can write new versions of those applications that take advantage of the larger screen size. Um. You can watch movies on it. You can watch TV shows on it. YouTube. It's got the YouTube app, so you can watch videos

from YouTube on it. You can listen to music. Hey, you know that's a giant iPod touch. Um has an iTunes app on it. Yep. Uh, so that means you can download and listen to music on i Tunes. You and other content podcasts. Um. You can read e books on it. There's an application that they put on there called e Books that will allow you to read books from a number of different publishers. It's got a very slick in our face. Yes. Yes, it looks sort of

like Bookshow. Actually it looks a little bit like Delicious Library for the Mac. You've ever seen that application? Um? And Apple has time deals with publishers including Hashett, HarperCollins, McMillan, Penguin, and Simon and Schuster. Um. It has built in WiFi but uh and Bluetooth, but if you want three G connectivity you have to pay on it and thirty dollars

extra for that. And it's uh it's a O two dot eleven in Yeah, that's what said on the okay Yeah, which is actually a a faster and uh has longer range than the previous versions. Um, and let's see, there is a doc If you want it, you can dock it and attach it to your your you know, basically set it up so that it functions like a laptop screen in front of you. And you can buy a keyboard. Although it doesn't come with a keyboard, it's it inform factory.

It actually does look very much like the iPod Touch because it's got a virtual keyword on the screen. Button is the one, you know, the round button and I guess the power on off. But I do maintain that the on screen keyboard is awkward if you're going to do extensive data entry. If you're just typing a couple of notes in or whatever, it's not so bad. Um. Otherwise, Uh, if I were to own this device, I would probably

want the the keyboard accessory. If I were ever planning on, say, composing an email longer than two sentences, I would probably want that, just because, uh, it's I find it very irritating to use on screen keyboards. I'm just I'm a very fast type and it's frustrating to get slowed down

to that level. Well, speaking of productivity, In addition to App Store apps, Apple is offering a version of its I work software which includes Pages which is the word process or Keynote, which is a you know, presentation software, and numbers, a spreadsheet program. Uh. For each um and UM there are three different versions sixteen gigabytes, thirty two gigabytes, and sixty four gigabytes of space. Uh, they go four and that's for the WiFi only. If you want the

three g ad hundred and thirty dollars each. On top of that, now the three g's only gonna that's you have to wait an extra month, and you also have to pay for an a T and T contract for thirty dollars a month for not at it's a non contract paid, so you prepay however many months you want. And uh, it's fifteen dollars or we're up to two and fifty megaby it's of data for a month, or

thirty dollars for what they're calling unlimited. I'm saying what they're calling unlimited because in in many of these cases you later find out that what is referred to as unlimited ends up being very very limited, or at least there's a cap, which means that it's not really unlimited, UM, but I don't know the details behind that. At any rate, it's thirty dollars a month and you do prepay, and

it's not a contract. And I also found out today that I Books uses UM the accelerometer built in to the device, so that you can read books in landscape or portrait mode. UM. But if you were interested in buying books through the online bookstore that Apple has set up with all these publishers, you have to be in the United States, because currently the licensing agreements do not permit you to buy stuff outside the United States at

this time. Well, and we knew that Apple had been really pushing to make deals with publishers leading up to this announcement. So this is still early days yet. And maybe that by the time these these devices launch that there will be much more comprehensive deals in place. So by the time you buy one of these things, or you're able to buy one of these things, that that problem may be solved. We don't know yet, right right, UM, And I have a quote for you, Jonathan, because I'm

just waiting to see what you say. I probably take a good ten minute break after this. UM, You're you're familiar with Nicholas Carr, the technology writer. Yes, he actually wrote the blog post and inspired are the article that I wrote for the site called way are how the Apple Google uh Cloud computer will work? Um. He wrote a post for NPR National Public Radio on the website, and here's a quote from him. I'm just explaining in case no one else is right, especially for people who

who are outside the United States. I'm trying to brace myself. The PC era ended yesterday morning at ten o'clock Pacific time, when Steve Jobs stepped onto a stand in Francisco stage to unveil the iPad, Apple's version of a tablet computer. Alright, folks, dress yourselves in. I want to have a little bit of discussion with Mr Carr here. Mr Carr, I greatly respect you. You You are a very intelligent person, probably more intelligent than I am. I'm gonna go take a break.

Could you give me some sandwich? Um, So, before I get into it and and explain exactly how much I disagree with that statement, which is completely I'll just go and say that I completely disagree with that statement. Well, he actually softens it. I just wanted to quote him on that one. Excellent, but actually go read the post because it really is kind of interesting. Okay, So so I shouldn't just judge the whole thing by that one quote, but I but I wanted to an example of what

a lot of people are saying. Yeah, because it's there's so much hype behind it, I think it's I think it's definitely too premature to say that. Um So, here here a couple of other things we should add before we I really get into it. One, the battery life around ten hours. And that's even if you're watching video. According to what they said at the press release it you could get ten hours of video on this thing, which is a video is a is a very demanding applications.

So if that's true, that's pretty impressive. I'm be very surprised to see that. Now we have to remember that often the actual battery life tends to be a little different from what the advertised battery life is. But let's just go ahead and assume that that's that's true. Um here are some things that does not have right now as of the recording of this podcast. Now, this could all change by the time it launches, well not all

of it, but some of it. Um it does not have the ability to multitask, you can't run multiple applications at the same time. I would argue that alone invalidates Mr Carr's statement. Well, I I okay, before we go and you um jump, since you haven't actually read this, I will. I will tell you why he said this.

He said that the tablet, and in launching the iPad, Apple has created the missing piece of the non PC segment that's basically shattered it into all the little pieces now, such as on the smaller end smartphones, smart books, netbooks, and now the tablet in between. He said, basically, people don't really necessarily need a PC. You will find a a kind. You will find something in that spectrum that if you want to take your laptop with you, you

no longer need something that large. You have something in between a desktop and a smartphone occurring to use that still has me Okay, cool, excellent. I just want to declare I understand his reasoning. Uh. First of all, I would argue that one, the tablet form factor is not new. It's been around for years, more than two decades really, or around two decades, I would say, And so therefore, if something has been around for twenty years and it

has not revolutionized the technology industry. It may very well be that it's not. You know, it's a it's an also ran anyway, um, because the tablet is neither fish nor foul. It is not a smartphone. It is not a computer. The tablet, the iPad specifically, cannot really exist as its own standalone computing device. Uh. You can run a lot of a little cool apps on it, which are great. And I don't mean to dismiss the apps

when I say little cool apps. They do generally tend to be less complex and less demanding than full computer programs, but many of them are incredibly innovative and very useful. I have apps on my smartphone and I love them. Um. At the same time, I don't confuse them with fully fledged computer applications, so you can't run those. You essentially need a computer to sink your iPad too on occasion, so you can't just get away with having the iPad

as your primary computing device. You can't use it to make calls like you can with a smartphone, so you can't have it replaced that what Well, now that they've unblocked using v I P on three G networks, you could make that just happened yesterday. You can use some vope technology, this is true, but if they don't want using the Skype application, if you used a plugable, you know, a third party microphone, I'm I'm wondering, why would you do it? Why? Why would you do it? That's a

that's a better question. Yeah, because it doesn't like if you happen to have it sitting around, then sure you can pick it up and make a phone call. But otherwise, I mean, you're not going to carry this thing around with you to to make It's not going to replace a smartphone. And then there's the quality of voipe calls, which and as Chris makes his point, uh, I will continue. Um, so there's no camera yet that might come out on a future edition of the iPad. Bet that will happen.

But with no camera you can't do things like video conferencing, which to me was seemed crazy because they showed him the press release a really cool use of it as a presentation device, where they showed how how the presentation the Keynote presentation software works on the iPad, and it was legitimately impressive. It looked slick, it was intuitive. I

thought it was really well done. But if you're going to create something that does something that well, you're suggesting essentially to your audience, Hey, this is a great business tool. If you don't put a camera in there where you can do video conferencing, it's not really a great business tool. It's an incomplete business tool, just as I would argue it's an incomplete everything tool. I called it earlier while I was in the office, and I think this this

holds water. I think the iPad is the perfect tool to browse the web. If we were talking about web one point oh web one point out. What I mean by that is it doesn't really ultimately mean anything and some marketing term, but but in general, what I mean is the old style websites where you consumed the content that was there, but you didn't contribute to it. You would go to a website, you would read what was there, and then you would leave, and that's all there was

to it. You might go to websites now and watch a couple of videos and leave, and that's all there is to it. But a lot of the websites out there today are what we would refer to as web two point oh sites where contribution and participation is a major factor of browsing, and I argue that the iPad and it's on screen keyboard device is not the most useful if you want to do a lot of contributing while you're on the web. And I don't know about

anyone else. I mean, there are probably plenty of people out there who all they do is consume stuff on the web. They don't necessarily participate in discussions or anything like that. For them, this device might be perfect, and I won't argue against that. I think if it works for your lifestyle, great by one, by as many as

you like. But for people who do lots of participation across the web, I think trying to use this as your your main device, or even as a supplemental device that you're using while you're like sitting on the couch or whatever, will ultimately be frustrating, just because it's too hard to input data and into something that kind of requires two hands. And uh, I mean, when you think about it, you're typing on the same surface that you're

looking at. So you're either typing on it by holding it in one hand and using the other hand to peck out words, or you're gonna have to put it on your lap or on a tabletop or something and try and type with two hands, uh that way, which is why I argue that you can't really do extensive data entry. That's why I call it the web. One point of a web browser jobs when he got up there,

said that netbooks don't do anything well. They do lots of stuff, but they don't do anything well, including web browsing. I argue that netbooks are superior to the tablet in the web browsing experience simply because it's easier to type stuff in. It may not be as slick and interface, but they're going to be able to do things that you can't do with the tablet or the iPad. I should say, I keep calling it the tablet because that's

what we've been calling it for years, but the iPad. Um. That's not to say the iPad is a bad device. I think it looks beautiful. I think the stuff it does it does pretty well. Um, I think the stuff it doesn't do is pretty damning because there are other devices out on the market that do those things. There's an Android tablet that's in the works that does all the stuff that you think the tablet. The iPad should be able to do. Um. Will it be successful? Probably not.

I don't think so. I think the iPad, despite all the things that I find wrong with it, is going to be incredibly successful. I also think that the people who buy one three months after they buy it are gonna set it down and forget that they have it, because it's just not gonna be instrumental in their daily lives, and it'll just be a cool piece of technology that doesn't get used very much. All right, now, what I also want to say, kid kidding, you've heard me rant

for like seven eight minutes straight. Chris actually left he Um, he's brought back Arby's so rosecuef Tyler, nothing says Nothing says iPad like a cartoner Curly fries. Um. Well, I think I think the funny thing about the iPad is that it's actually about tablet computers in general. It's it's more of a niche thing, and I think that Apple's loaning Apple's name and interface to it suddenly makes it a consumer thing where it really probably should have been before,

but nobody really wanted to mess with it. I've seen them used in a lot of cases. Um, you know, there are lots and lots of tablets used in the medical industry right because they're really handy for artists use various kinds of tablets, and architects use various kinds of tablets. There are a lot of many good reasons to use them. Um And like you said, it hasn't really broken into the consumer market. I think partly because as convenient as a tablet is, it's really convenient if you keep it

in your house. You know, it's not necessarily the convenient device that you take with you on the go because it's about the same size as a netbook. It's it's not as thick as a netbook, it's not as heavy as a netbook. But you're gonna need a bag about the size of a netbook bag to carry this thing around it and the protective case so that you don't get any scratches on that screen, that gorgeous screen. You

don't want that to get all scratched up. So, yeah, the the it's it's just not as portable as what It's not portable enough to be a big enough draw compared to a netbook. In my opinion, Now, I do think there is a market for this. I think there are people who will think this is really cool and

they'll buy one and they'll be very pleased with it. UM. I think people along my line of thought just don't see a place like if I want to watch a movie, then I'm gonna either watch it on my computer on my DVD player or through Roku on my television, um, or I'll hook up a computer to my TV and watch it that way. But for people who don't have that kind of level of comfort with technology, this is

this thing makes sense. So it might be that the reason why I have so many problems with this is because I am not the target market for this device, and and people who are the target market they may have nothing but great things to say about it, which that's fine, you know well, and UM, but I think I think there are other groups that might latch onto the iPad that might not have been in that that

other segments of the population. UM. For example, education, it might be an opportunity for UH schools to get a a computer that they can use in that case, um, because they're they're less expend of than other forms of of laptops. Now maybe not netbooks. Um. And there are a lot of people who will argue with me on that and say, well, you can get um, you know,

a very cheap notebook for under four hundred dollars. Um. Well, that's probably true, but I think that there are people that might try to adopt it, and you know, I would I want to say to that, I'm not necessarily in the market to run out and buy an I have had as soon as they hit store shelves, but I would like to mess with it because, um, you know, I personally like the OS ten interface and I would like to buy something that I could carry with me to uh, you know on on the rare occasions when

I do travel. Um, but I don't really want to fork over the money for a whole notebook, and I mostly I'm basically going to try to get on the web and do email now, as you pointed out, without any flash right now at the moment, there is if there are some limitations to you, but I'm I'm interested in looking at it and messing around with it to see if I could use it for that purpose, because

it is less expensive than a full fledged Apple notebook. Um. And there are the people who would tell me, why don't you just you know, get a netbook and make it a Hackintosh. Well I could probably do that too,

except for the whole them walking out the atom processor thing. Well, but yeah, I mean I think that they It'll be interesting to see how far Apple's marketing can take this, because there there's a limit to the market for this, I think literally, but whether or not there's a desire the desire site of the market, well, uh, how far they will take it. So the tablet doesn't really compete against netbooks other than the fact that Jobs came out

and said netbooks suck. Uh yeah, essentially jobs kind of through the gauntlet down. But really, the tablets not in the same space as the netbook in my opinion. It's also not really in the same space as e readers, which is the other device that people have said is the tablet and e reader killer? Is it a Kindle killer? Um? I would kind of argue that it's not even really in the same space as the tablets that have gone

before it and are being marketed alongside it. Well, no, because a lot of the tablets that are marketed beside it, and Go and and came before it are more of us stand alone computing device. They don't they aren't necessarily as slick and easy to use. They don't have all the features that the iPad has, but they do have the ability to to run multiple processes and they can run more more fully fledged programs in the iPad can't. But that being said, let's getting back to the whole

Kindle thing. Yeah, I was asked about that, like, do I think it's uh trouble for the Kindle And I think that all depends upon what you're in the market for. If people are in the market or an e reader, then I think if you compare the two devices and the experience you get between the two devices, things like the battery life and the ease of the ink display on your eyes in comparison to a backlet display, those sort of things will end the price because it's the

Kindles cheaper. Will kind of helped the Kindle went out. Also, the massive Amazon library helps Barnes and Noble Nook same sort of thing. You've got the Barnes and Noble store behind that than the e ink display, then it's cheaper than the than the iPad. If, however, you're looking for a device that does more than just e books, then I think the iPad wins out because even though it's

more expensive. It's not prohibitively expensive, you know, it's it's it's maybe it's less than twice the amount of the Kindle and the nook, but uh, and it does weigh more than the Kindle or nook do. So if you're in the market for something that does more than just displays books, and you don't really care about the battery

life issue, uh, then the iPad wins out. So I think I think it will probably take a bite out of e book readers sales, But for people who are specifically looking for that e reader experience, I don't think that's gonna dissuade them from buying a Nook or a Kindle. Okay, three things, Uh. Number one, the the advantage that the iPad has as an e book reader strictly as an e book reader over the Kindle and other eating screens

is its color interface. And people who were who really actually need stuff like graphs, charts, um color illustrations, or really really want that, you're not going to get that in the anything with an eating interface. Of course, if you want to read a novel that doesn't require illustrations, the you know you're gonna be using a lot of power to light that with a an iPad where you wouldn't with a kindle. The kindle is probably going to

be the better bet. UM number two, UM the Kindle as their Amazon has also started offering to open up the Kindle to third party applications in development, So there is a possibility that uh, Amazon is already anticipating Apple's move into this and and starting to uh to plan

for their next move. It's gonna have to be a limited suite of applications though, just because they display technology isn't designed to show things like animation, so it's gonna have to be stuff that has lots of different static screens. Really yeah, unless they have other plans, I think that we're gonna see things like UM text based adventures. Zorike is making a big comeback. Why not, UM, I don't know.

And then the third thing, UM, one thing that I saw people complain about about the Eye books thing is that the cost of the books is going back up. Well, yeah, because Amazon. Amazon is buying the books from the publishers and they're doing what they're doing with it. But Apple made a deal directly with the publishers, which is to the publisher's advantage and now that and and I think that's going to change the kindle experience too, because their agreements.

Once these things settle in, now that it's public knowledge that Apple is working with these publishers, that's gonna force Barnes and Noble and Amazon into a bit of a pricing struggle because well, possibly there's no there's no guarantee of that, but I have the feeling it's gonna put some pressure on them if the iPad is successful, and

I have no doubts that it will be. But if the iPad is successful, then it's gonna then the publishers will have the leverage because they'll say, hey, we can just move over here to this, and then it'll become the standard and everybody will use that. They can play

Apple off of everybody else. But if no one buys the iPad, or if the iPad is just kind of a uh, you know, if it gets some popularity but it doesn't hit the mainstream consciousness, and if people aren't don't start buying books on the iPad, then the publishers are stuck with a model where, yeah, they can price books the way they want and they get the deal the way they want. But no one's buying the books, so then they end up having to crawl back to

Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Oh, by the way, publishers don't crawl. Um, well I have people to do that for them. Well, I'm also interested to see, I mean, since it's still early daysa I'm interested to see if there's an eye Books app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Yeah, that'll be interesting. They've got the Kindle app for the iPhone, so now you're wondering if that's gonna presume it would come to the iPad. One thing I wanted to point

out that I thought was kind of cool. You mentioned it earlier about how being able to use iPod UH applications on the iPad. It has has two different modes. You can view it in a smaller windows, so essentially you're looking at it as if it were on an iPod Touch or on an iPhone, which I'm sure it'll be very strange. Or you can increase its size so that it's looking more natural On the iPad. It doubles the pixels. It's gonna look Yeah, it's gonna look a

little blocky. The resolution is not going to be as good but it does does increase the size so that you can view it in a in a larger frame. So I thought that was kind of neat. Um, But we had a question in that email, okay, Jason Callicannis. So what Calicanis did was he claimed that he got hold of the iPad early on, and in that claim, he said that the device had two cameras, an hd TV tuner, thumb pad, user interface on either side, had

fingerprint recognitions for security measures. Um. It connected through other to other devices through WiFi, so you could have like a networked gaming session with a whole bunch of people. He said that the gaming would be huge. Um. He said it had a solar panel on the back to recharge because it only had like four hours worth of gaming life in it, but the solar panel had unprecedented charging capabilities. Turns out he was just joking. I mean,

it was all just a joke. And people have claimed otherwise, saying that it was a ploy for him to get lots and lots of Twitter followers and that this was really just kind of a dirty, underhanded way of trying to to boost his popularity. I don't know Mr Calicanus personally. I have corresponded with him in the past, and I've listened to a lot of his discussions on various shows. I'm fairly confident in saying that, uh, that this was

probably just a joke. It wasn't necessarily meant as a publicity stunt to get him his name over because his publicity stunts are far more transparent. He has done them in the past by doing lots of giveaways and things like that, so Calicanus is not above doing that sort of thing. But I think I think in this case, it was just him being silly. He was just trying to create the most ridiculously uh lavish tablet idea possible

and then see if anyone would would buy it. And he gave people lots of outs, lots of clues that this was just a joke, and a lot of people bought it anyway, and then we're upset when they found out later that it wasn't true. But yeah, I don't think this was I don't think he broke any kind of code of ethics or unwritten code of the Internet. The unwritten code of the internet's very serious and if

you break it, we will find you. But Internet, yeah, um, and we can't tell you what the rules are, but we can tell you you don't want to break them. Uh so, but yeah, I think this was just a case of a joke gone kind of too far. Um. I mean, I read the original post and I just like, I don't know how anyone necessarily believe this, except for the fact that after two years of waiting, you kind of believe anything. Yeah. So, um, well, that's that's our

our initial discussion of the iPad. Of course, we have neither of us have had the chance to get one in our hands yet. Actually, very very few people have at this point. And uh, you know, people ask us all the time on Twitter and an email and on the blogs what we think is this means, and we can honestly, we can really only conjecture at this point, where it's gonna take some time before the public can really get their hands on it and developers can develop

for it. Some Apple stores might have some demo models out now, but I haven't tried to check it out yet, just because it's been a crazy week. But uh, maybe when I get my hands on it, I will Maybe I'll get it, you know, maybe I'll see And I think that I think it's really, really aggressively for an Apple product it is, and so I think that's gonna help it out a lot too. And as I said, there's probably a market out there that I just don't understand that will eat this up and maybe they'll use

it forever. But I just see it as a flash in the pan ultimately. And there's all there's also an anti Apple market, and they've been very vocal in saying it's just a piece of junk. Right. I don't think it's a piece sure, And maybe, like I said, maybe when I hold it, maybe I'll say that, you know what, I was totally wrong. I want one, and I can see why I would use it, and that could still happen. Uh, So don't write me and say that I hate Apple. I don't hate Apple. I own Apple products and uh

and and I'm willing to be proven wrong. But the tablet format for me has never really made sense. And that goes beyond Apple that I'm talking about across manufacturers. The only tablet like device I've been tempted to get is the Lenovo you won. Because it's also a netbook for notebook, I shouldn't call it a netbook because Lenovo will say I broke one of those rules, and then Neilson someone after that. That is a very nifty device.

All right, Well, that wraps up our very long discussion about the iPad and leads us to a little more listener mail. This listener mail comes from Kate, and Kate says, Hey, guys, I wanted to mention one of my favorite Easter eggs of days past. It's changed now, but a few years ago you could type the word failure into Google and click I'm feeling lucky, and it would take you directly to the official white House dot gov bio of George W. Bush. It always made me giggle. Kate. The reason why I

did this was to correct a little bit. Really, that's not an Easter egg. That's not an Easter egg. No. No. The way it worked was that people essentially gained the system so that when you typed in failure the top, the top link would come up as white House dot gov, and people would click on that right to make it a higher search rank, or they would link to it, you know that. So it was it was not necessarily

Google making a political statement. When you click the I'm feeling lucky, it essentially takes you to the top the other top search result for whatever the term is. So that was not necessarily Google putting something into the the algorithm specifically as a political statement. And it wasn't anybody messing with the White House website, right, It was third

party people. I mean, I guess theoretically could have been someone in Google who did it, but as far as I've read, no one is willing to cop to it, so it may just have been a bunch of people who very diligently worked so that failure would lead to that bio. So I don't think that necessarily counts as an Easter egg. So if you guys want to send us some comments, questions you want to yell at me because you think I hate Apple, rite us our addresses

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