Confessions of an iPhone iPad-less Early Adopter

Today is the day everyone and their sister flew to Europe to get one early, waited in line for hours or worked some magic to get an iPad.  Mind you the Wi-Fi version only.  The version I'd get, the 3G, comes out later this month.  But the long lines and the giddyness remind me of how I was so excited when the first iPhone came out.  Don't you remember that too? But because I have a new Macbook Pro 15, a (gasping-for-air/on-its-last-leg) 3G iPhone and a Kindle I have chosen to wait.  I keep telling myself, tethering, tethering...

And, depsite my earlier "what is this thing" attitude, hats off to Apple's marketing to changing my mind (and those of millions of others too, right)

MacWorld's Cause Celebre! (i.e., Apple) How We Missed Ya!

Last week's Macworld fete in San Francisco was a departure from times past.  Just like times past are waiting for something new from Apple (the iPhone, the Macbook Air, etc.).  But for the first time unlike Apple itself was itself departed.  And, from what I could tell, excitement for the next "something new" - the iPad - was muted apart from the accessory makers salivating of course. 

Instead of a keynote from Applerati we got the sine qua non of Apple fanboys: David Pogue.   Funny, prepared and entertaining he pushed his book on Twitter, hosted the Gregory Brothers of YouTube fame and even had LeVar Burton from Star Trek TNG on.   Pogus' finale featured another rendition of his "I want an iPhone" song, which rang a bit hollow this year.  The iPhone is passe, right?  With millions sold how could it not be?  The anachronism turned into downright irony if you changed "I Want an iPhone" to "I Want an iPad."  Just as he screeched and reached beyond his vocal range, it seemed like we are reaching as well to like the iPad so that it becomes something we need rather than something we want.  

Even if Geordi La Forge (Levar Burton) doesn't want one right away and would rather focus on the next iteration of an online Reading Rainbow in late 2010 maybe we'll find our enthusiasm by then or else Apple's books will suffer. 

What does Macworld Mean Sans Apple?

I've been inundated with press releases, interview requests and random calls from non-415 telephone numbers all vying for attention for coverage.   I should be so lucky, right? 

But what separates the real, next iPhone phenomenon from the pet rock that gets delegrated to the purgatory known as TJ Max or Ross Dress for Less?  Time will tell.  But so far I've been looking forward to:

(1) exclusive licensing of pop culture icons from the likes of Cartoon Network;

(2) mass customization of personal accessories that are not of the ink jet-based kind; and,

(3)  something completely different, surprising and unknown.