Category Archives: Gadgets/Gear - Page 10

What are you playing?

Posted by on July 20, 2010 7 comments

I have been thinking of trying to get a weekly post up of what I am playing and maybe put it out to see what you guys are playing as well. I have seen a lot of sites do this to get a good discussion going and maybe get some ideas about a game I wouldn’t normally pick up.  So, seeing as how I am the only one here, I’ll go first.

The past week or two I have been working on some house type stuff and reconfiguring things on my network.  After picking up the new Xbox 360S (I traded in my old 20gb Xbox) I decided to upgrade my router to a Wireless N to use the new Xbox’s N device.  I bought the Belkin Play Dual Band Wireless N router and replaced my crappy Netgear G.  Long story made short, I can’t stream media from my PC to the xbox anymore and have no idea why.  While I am not a hard core network guy, I still know my way around a subnet and have spent the past 2 weeks tweaking and such to figure this out.  It’s kind of a pain.

Outside of that I have been playing some Lego Harry Potter with Sarah.  It’s one of those games where we pretty much only play together.  I believe we are towards the end of Book 3 right now.  the Quick review on it, it’s a Lego game.  Same basic premise and humor.  That’s not a bad thing, because I love the Lego games.  Aside from that I have picked up Risk: Factions from the Xbox Live Arcade.  They found a way to really make a Risk game fun for everyone!  We have played as a family, as well as through the solo campaign.  Enjoyable all around.  May have more of a full review on it up soon.

In the life department, I also picked up an Elliptical machine and am using it to get back into some sort of shape that’s not “round”.  My hope is to turn some of this belly fat into muscle in time for DragonCon at the beginning of September.  We’ll See, as of this morning I was at 192lb.  My target is Around 175lb but I would be happy with a strong 180-185lbs.  The goal is not so much loss but re-distribution.  Wish me luck!

E3 Week and Kinect

Posted by on June 14, 2010 No comments

So this is the start of E3 week and the big news so far is the new Kinect controller, or the Controller formerly known as Natal. We all knew it was coming and now it’s hear. The pictures so far look great. I am not too sure about the list of games though. According to USA Today the release list of games at launch will include:

•Kinectimals lets you train and play with 20 different virtual cats, including a lion, cheetah and tiger.

•Joyride, a racing game, lets players use their hands to hold an imaginary steering wheel — pull your hands toward you and push back out for an acceleration boost — and their bodies to execute jumps and tricks.

•Kinect Sports has six activities including boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis. To serve a volleyball, you mimic the real motion; in soccer, you can kick the ball or do a header.

•Kinect Adventures includes a river-raft time trial and obstacle course, playable by up to four players. On the raft, playing as a duo, you and a partner must lean one way or another to steer. Jumping helps the raft reach special areas for extra points.

•Dance Central, in development by MTV Games, incorporates immersive, full-body dancing without the need for a controller.

•Star Wars characters and iconic Disney favorites will be featured in separate new games being developed at Microsoft in conjunction with LucasArts and Disney.

In other E3 news, some new game trailers have been released for a few games I am really looking forward to seeing.

The Force Unleashed II:

Rock Band 3:

Spiderman Shattered Dimensions:

Yeah, it’s gonna be a fun week!

iPad Apps

Posted by on May 7, 2010 1 comment

So here is a list of what I have installed on the iPad so far.  Aside from this I have ported over my three essential albums of music, some episodes of Deep Space 9, the movie Sherlock Holmes, A bunch of pictures, and the D&D Reference books in PDF format.  As of right now, I still have 9.17gb free.  This list does not include the default apps that come on the device.

ABC Player – This one is for some of the full ABC shows that stream to the iPad.
AIM for iPad – Full AIM client with Lifestream
Air Hockey Gold – Air Hockey game.  Very cool, Works with 2 players too!
Beat the Traffic HD – Traffic App to show alternate routes
Captain’s Blog – Nifty LCARS style interface for a status updater.  Plugs into Twitter and Facebook for Updates only
Comics – Comics app that pulls from lots of publishers (no DC)
Dictionary.com – Dictionary and thesarus
DigiDrummer HD Lite – Drum Pad
Doodle Buddy for iPad – Drawing app for fun
Dragon Dictation – Speech to text dictation (uses online for conversion)
Draw for iPad – Another drawing app
Dropbox – Cloud based file repository
Epicurious Recipes – Cookbook
Facebook (iPhone) – Facebook app for notifications and such
Filterstorm – Photo Editor
Foursquare (iPhone) – Social checkin App
Game Table – Chess Checkers and Cards.  No AI, no rules.  Just the board and the pieces.
Godfinger for iPad – Cute game for playing God (Kind of like Black and White)
Goodreader for iPad – PDF Reader and file manager (kinda)
Google Mobile for iPad – Google Front End for all it’s services
Harbor Master HD – Neat game for guiding boats in and out of a harbor
Heads up: Hold’em HD – Head to Head Hold’Em game
iBooks – Apple’s e-book reader
iCARS Interface – Just a visualization to make the iPadd look like a PADD from Star Trek. Doesn’t really do anything
iMahjong HD – Mahjong game
IMDB Movies &TV – IMDB Front end for lookups to their database
Kindle for iPad – Kindle reader tied to our Kindle account
Marvel Comics – Marvel specific Comic book app
Netflix – Netflix front end for watching streaming movies and managing the queue
Now Playing – Movie app for seeing what’s in theaters and buying tickets online
Pandora – Music streaming app
PaperDesk LITE for iPad – Notepad app
Plants vs Zombies HD – Tower Defense game with Zombies
Pocket Legends for iPad – MMO kind of WoW-ish
Pocket Pond HD – Koi pond.  Top down view.
Real Racing HD – Racing game
Skype (iPhone) – Skype app for Voice calls
The Solitare – Solitare game
Tap Tap Radiation – Music Game
ThumDrum – Drum Emulator
Twitterrific for iPad – Twitter App
Virtuoso Piano Free 2 HD – Piano Emulator
WarChess – Chess game with AI and battle Animations
Warpgate HD Free – Space based adventure game
The Weather Channel iPad – Weather app
Wikipanion for iPad – Front end for Wikipedia
WordPress – Blog editor for my site
Yahoo! Entertainment – Entertainment news/Videos, and a TV Guide type interface

iPad Day one

Posted by on May 6, 2010 No comments

My soul is now sitting in a neat little jar on Steve Jobs shelf.  For my birthday Sarah gave me permission to get an iPad.  I picked it up on Tuesday night on my way home from work.  (yeah, I know my birthday isn’t until NEXT Friday but my inner Verruca took over.  I was orginally thinking of getting the low end 3G model just to have the capability to do OTA internet when I needed it, but after a long dialogue with myself I realized that, I have a 3G phone for things like that and that extra $130 could be used for better things! (Like buying my wife flowers for being nice enough to tolerate my gadget addictions.)  So I ended up buying the 16gb WiFi only model.  They way I figure it, I do a lot of cloud computing so space on the device isn’t really important to me since most of my files are already out there.

So, when I got home I connected up to iTunes and, after the long install of the updated iTunes (I guess I should have used it more) I managed to get my first batch of apps loaded and started the casual using!  So I want to break this down into a few catagories for what I would be using the device for:  Reading/Browsing, Media (Videos/Music/Photos), Games, Apps.

Reading/Browsing:
This is probably the main reason for getting the iPad.  While I have a smallish laptop, it’s still a pain to sit on the couch with it and read, not to mention being more upwardly mobile.  So with Sarah’s Kindle account and the Kindle app now allow me to access all the books she has been buying.  So now I can finish Lost Symbol while she can still keep the kindle.  So far the reading seems ok.  It’s not as easy on the eyes as the e-ink screen but not as harsh as a computer monitor.  The web browsing is awesome on the device.  Most of the news sites I read came through just fine, even with the lack of flash.  Many of the site that use embeds have been using you-tube, and since you-tube has started using HTML5, you don’t miss much.  As a side note on the browsing, I downloaded the app Goodreader for use with PDF’s and ported the PDF’s I have for D&D.  They look amazing!  Very easy to use and search through and easy to read!

Media:
I didn’t plan on using the media all that much on the device but it looks pretty good for what it can do.  The Netflix app streams perfectly, though I haven’t had enough time to sit and watch a movie.  Not to mention,  could just watch on the Xbox.  I loaded a few episodes of DS9 on it that I had ripped in for my droid, so the resolution is still 320×240, but they still look good.  For music I copied over the mandatory albums of Journey, The Cure, and Depeche Mode, but again, I have streaming audio on my Droid (and the Pandora app on the iPad is cool).  So honestly, while I may use it every now and then, the Media side of the device is just there.

Games:
The iPhone/iPad/iPod platform has started to hold it’s own in the gaming world, and the iPad versions of the games really shine because of the size of the screen and the power of the device.  I told myself that if I got an iPad, I would get the Plants Vs. Zombies game (HD version) and I don’t regret it.  On the iPad it’s exactly the same as playing it on the PC and it’s easy!  Outside of that I am sticking with the freebies until I find something that’s really good.  Even the free games run and look great.

Apps:
Ahh the other reason for getting the iPad.  As I have stated many times, there are a lot of developers of applications that are only doing work in the apple environment.  While Android is the “up and coming”, it’s still not there yet, and I want access to the available apps that are out there.  Yes, we have an iPod in the house, but that’s Andrew’s and he rarely lets me play with it. Given that I have my Droid, I will have access to all that is Android, and now that I have the iPad, I have access to all that is Apple.  There really are apps for just about anything too.  There is only one little problem….. The iPhone/iPod apps are very small.  the iPad has a beautiful screen and when you run the iPhone/iPod apps, it’s tiny.  Yes there is a 2x button that doubles the size, but the pixels look bad and often it makes the app blury.  Case in point, the Facebook app.  There is no native iPad app for Facebook so I get to use the iPhone one for notifications and photos, but everything else is through Safari.  The iPhone Facebook app just looks silly when stretched out to iPad size.

The last two nights I have been able to sit on the couch, browse my Google reader and catch up on my news sites, sit with the family while we watched TV, and occasionally look up some info.  I am very happy with the purchase(present?) and will be doing much much more with it in the future.

Las Vegas and Kick Ass

Posted by on April 21, 2010 No comments

So I haven’t posted much this last week because I am in Las Vegas for a Microsoft conference. I love traveling because it gives me the chance to scope out what gadgets other people are using for their trips. Personally I am traveling kind of gadget lite with only my laptop and my Droid, but I love walking through the airport or even around the conference floor and seeing what phones, readers, and laptops people are using. Amazingly enough. I have only seen a grand total of 2 iPads! Guess people haven’t jumped on the bandwaggon just yet. Also got to see 1 Nook e-reader out in the wild. Now this may be just because I am at a MS conference but the primary phone has been the blackberry, followed by the iPhone, an then a mix of Droid and WinMo phones.

But anyways, enough with the geeking out, I am really enjoying the conference and learning a ton more about server management. I also am taking this trip to Vegas much lighter that others because I am getting to the point where it’s not about sight seeing and more about relaxing.

Speaking of relaxing, I took a break last night and went to see Kick Ass. For those of you without a TV or internet (how are You reading this?) Kick Ass is a new superhero movie about an real life version of a comic book hero. Instead of super powers or mass ammounts of money it’s just a guy who wants to help people. It is very based in reality and amazingly graphic. I highly reccomend that You pay attention to the rating on this one as it is not for kids at all. Personally I thought it was amazing. It will certainly set the bar for upcoming superhero movies and center them in reality. Given that I am writing this on my Droid I don’t want to go into too much detail but I will say Go See It! Hopefully there won’t be too many copy cats that get themselves killed. Remember kids, don’t try this at home!

Trying to resist.

Posted by on April 4, 2010 No comments

So back in January we saw the announcement of the iPad and now the time of the tablet is upon us.  I wrote up a small preview back when it was announced and mentioned a few of the issues I have with the device.  Mostly it came down to some of it’s capability and it’s price, two things that I still hold as the primary reasons for holding off on buying one.  The problem is that there are so many reasons to check one out.

Let me explain.  I have a Droid, and before that I had a Blackberry Storm.  I am on the Verizon network and have no plans to change that anytime soon.  My phone plays music and runs apps and plays videos just finr so the things I would use an iPod for are all covered…..except the litany of custom iPhone and iPod apps that are available.  It would appear that since Apple was first to really grasp the App market mentality that many of the primary developers have embraced that as the high visability area to produce their applications.  Due to this, most of the more utilitarian and high quality apps are produced for that platform.  Not to say that there are not any good apps for the Android market, there are, but they are still playing catch up.

Because of this, I have been kind of yearning for the ability to make use of some of these apps.  Until now, the only way to acomplish this has been via the iPod.  Andrew has an iPod and I have toyed around with his for a while, but it would be wrong of me to monopolize it.  So, that means my option has been go out at buy myself an iPod touch.  But again, my phone does more of that and so getting yet another small touch screen device for only a little functionality doesn’t seem like a wise use of funds.

Enter the iPad.  So over the last 4 months there has been a lot of talk about what the iPad will be able to do, as well as an ongoing war between Apple and Adobe over Flash.  (FYI, for those interesting, I am in the Flash camp.  It’s damn hard to do things on the Internet without flash.) Other things that have gone on are all about showing how many new and cool things the iPad can do.  From Specific games designed for the larger screen to the ability to stream Netflix Watch now movies.  (Which personally, I think is huge.) So now we have a device that is 1/2 way between a netbook and a iPod, that has full access to all the apps available to the iPod and iPhone crowd.

Gizmodo has a great set of articles that covers why you should, and shouldn’t get the iPad.  I am still riding the “Not gonna get one” side of the fence, but from what I have seen as of late, it’s becoming increasingly difficult.  The biggest issue, of course, is still the price.  I can’t see dropping $500 on something like that just yet.  I also have a feeling that we may see a price drop within the first few months.  I have changed my original estimate of $300, to a good solid $400 for something of this worth.  So a simple $100 price drop on it would totally entice me to buy it.  It is just still too early to jump on the bandwagon and grab one.

But the gadget guy in my is screaming in the back of my head.  It’s gonna be a long month or two.

The iPadd, the only thing that may….may tempt me to get an iPad

Posted by on March 31, 2010 No comments

Gizmodo posted this today and I know I am not the only person to have thought this right out of the gate.  The PADD from Star Trek is the iPad from today.  It’s really that simple.  It would probably be better if you could do some more interacting with your household systems too but, you never know, there may be an app for that.  In any case, it’s stuff like this that may tempt me to think about maybe possibly getting one.

maybe.

Skype, aka, “Hey everyone it’s 2003 and I’m having a grand ol time!”

Posted by on March 25, 2010 1 comment

I know I know, I am on near about everything in the ether but I never managed to get around to using Skype.  I don’t know what it was but I just never found a use for it.  I had Google Talk for voice and video, I have Google Voice for calling outside of wherever I would need to call, and about 5 different IM clients that I can chat on.  So why would I need Skype?  Well, to be honest I am still occasionally asking myself that question.  So here are some pros and cons

Pro: It does Audio and Video chat
Con: So does near about everything else, Google Chat mainly.

Pro: It does Screen Sharing
Con: So does MSN messenger through Remote Desktop which also allows for screen helping

Pro: It does Conference calls with multiple people
Con: I have been using Ventrillo and Team Speak, Of course those require a dedicated server.

Pro: Sound and Video Quality are amazing
Con: So are Google Chat’s

Pro: International Calling to a Landline number!
Con: 1: I don’t know anyone overseas and 2: Google Voice does that

Pro: Mobile App that allows voice to PC connections
Con: Ok No con here, that’s just fraking cool

Pro: All of that is in one package.  You don’t need to run Google Voice, Talk, MSN, and Ventrillo, to do what Skype is doing all on it’s lonesome.
Con: Personally, I believe that these other programs sometimes do their tasks better than Skype.

This morning the Skype mobile app got release to the Verizon based phones and I was really looking forward to it!  Until, that is, I ran it and discovered that to even run it had to turn off my WiFi.  Seriously?  I have not even seen a app on the droid that requires you to either be on or off WiFi.  When I am at home I leave WiFi on so I can make use of it.  Now if I want to use Skype on the phone, at all, I have to have WiFi off.  That just seems lame.  Haven’t had the chance to test out the quality of the calls yet so Stand by for that one.

The Desktop app, however, is pretty damn stellar.  I know that version 4.X has been out for like a year now but again, it’s new to me.  I did quite a bit of testing as was impressed with the audio quality (especially if someone has a really good Mic).  The video quality was about as expected.  I kind of expected the audio quality to drop when I added people to the call but was happy that it didn’t.  Even running Skype in the background and STO (Star Trek Online) in the foreground was great.  Add in the screen sharing, which helped my father install some somftware with my guidance.  I even ran the screen share with my friend while I was running STO and he claimed it showed it running smooth, which amazes me.

So yeah, I will be adding Skype to the arsenal of contact methods for me, if you would like, my Skype username is Wizzer2801.  Feel free to pop on by for a chat.

This IS the Droid you’re looking for.

Posted by on February 20, 2010 No comments

Well, I have been very remiss about my duties and haven’t written anything lately about things.  A lot of that has been taken up by Star Trek Online.  I am happy to announce that I have made it to Commander and have picked up my latest ship.  I resisted the urge to name it the U.S.S. Tennis Ball due to the giant sphere that makes up the Saucer, but once I hit Captain I will get the Intrepid class and will feel much better about the ship.  But enough about STO.  I am hoping to get in some more Bioshock 2 and possibly the DLC for Assassin’s Creed 2 this weekend, but we’ll see.  I did want to spend some time to discuss one of my latest acquisitions, the Motorola Droid on Verizon Wireless.  I know this is a bit of a departure from the Game reviews but I wanted to keep this open for various tech stuff as well.  I am quite the Gadget guy.

So I picked up the Droid just before the new year and have used it extensively for the last 2 months.  Before that I was using the Blackberry Storm.  I didn’t have too many qualms about the Storm, and for a while I was seriously contemplating picking up the Storm2, but a number of friends talked me into the Droid and I am VERY happy with the switch.  My requirements for a smart-phone were pretty simple.  I wanted a full screen touch interface that would run many of the main stream popular apps and could be used for it’s GPS and mapping.  Oh, and it had to be on Verizon.  (Sorry iPhone) Those were the main points which both the Storm and the Droid did very well.  The main difference was simply ease of use.  Compared to each other, the Droids screen was easier to use, there was no more full screen pushing, the Camera was better, the apps were better and more plentiful, and the overall feel was just smoother than the Storm.  So I switched.

The Droid runs Google’s Android 2.0.1, though I am currently awaiting the arrival of 2.1 to be in line with the Nexus 1.  Personally, I love Google.  I am an avid Google user for nigh on everything they put out.  Honestly even my older blog was even running on Blogger, which is a Google service!  I type out these posts using Google Docs, I pull much of my info from Google Reader, etc., etc..  So the Droid and I were a natural fit.  One of the things I love about it is that the applications, as of now at least, are about 60% free and 40% paid.  I haven’t yet needed to purchase a single app for it.  At the end of the post I will give a list of my Most used apps but in the meantime, lets get to the real loves and hates.

Yahoo’s

  • How Many Fart apps are there?!?! The library of applications is seriously starting to rival the iPhone App store.  Every time I load it it’s like a good 20 min of browsing and thinking “Oh, I could use that!”  Some of them have even made it into the Most used!
  • I see everything! The screen is amazing!  It’s plenty large that I can sit and watch a show it on comfortably and see everything clearly.  I was concerned switching from the Storm’s screen because I wasn’t sure I would be able to manage the Just touch, vs. the Touch and press in of the Storm.  Long story made short, it’s 150% better
  • The Power of the Sun in the palm of my Hand! Google handles everything.  My G-mail, my voicemail, my news. it’s all at a touch and it runs amazing.
  • My Phone is Faster than my PC! Ok, maybe not, but this thing is damn fast.  I have downloaded a few tech demos on it and even running 3D apps it’s fast.  One of the big issues I had with the Storm was that if I needed to shut down for any reason and restart, it would take about 5-7 minutes!  No, Not kidding there.  The droid takes about 30 seconds.
  • I can see my house from here. Google Maps added the Navigation Suite to their app which makes it rival even the best of the Garmins and TomTom’s.  (Not my TomTom though, because it’s already Retarded).  Adding in the street view and Satilite view to a Navigation system is Genius!
  • Making it my own. One of my favorite things is the ability to pick the functions I want for the phone.  If I don’t like the app that runs the SMS function, I can change it.  Don’t like the home screens?  Replace the Home program!  It’s like someone made “Pimp My Phone”

AOL’s

  • So, Many, Keyboards! This may be a bit different for different people, but I hate the hardware keyboard!  I have only used it on occasion and the feel of it just isn’t right.  I find myself using the on screen keyboard much much more.  I think the last time I used the HW keyboard was for writing out that iPad post last month.
  • What have you done to my Face….book! The app for facebook sucks.  There I said it.  The blackberry app and the iPhone app are both amazing, but the android app is trash.  They had better fix it soon.
  • Wheres my App? The organization of the App Market is Really Really bad.  Trying to find something through browsing will take hours of scanning, the rating system is good, but you can’t really sort based on it.  The categories need to be a little more granular with a few more sub categories.  Also, having something Web based or even just PC based that we could browse through would be awesome.  The iPhone has iTunes and the App Store there, we need that!
  • Which Android do you have? This complaint is more with the Android system itself.  It seems that every company wants to make their own flavor of Android.  The nice thing about the iPhone is that it’s standard across the board.  With Android you have the HTC version, the Motorola version, and even the various version of Motorola’s android!  It would be nice to just standardize the OS and let the companies just alter with App’s.  That way when an newer version of the OS comes out, everyone gets it!

Ok so here are some of my Favorite apps and why I like them:

G-mail, Maps, Voice, Goggles, Sky Map, Etc. Basically the Android version of Google Pack.  I can’t just narrow down each one because you really just need all of them.

GDocs – Ties directly in to Google Docs for easy Document Management!

Bic Concert Lighter – Ok, while it’s not one of my most used apps I felt the need to mention….What the Hell man!  the iPhone gets a Zippo and we get a MuthaF&%^$’n BIC?!?!

Where – Where is great for local gas prices, and Yowza is integrated for great deals!  As far as a “what’s around me” app, there are a few others that are a bit less kludgey (and yes, that’s a technical term)

iHeartRadio – An easy way to listen to broadcast radio from anywhere!

Movies/Fandango – Ok so it’s two apps that do the same damn thing.  Movie listing and ticket buying.  This is because some theaters are picky when it comes to buying tickets.  Movies gets a bump up though because of Netflix integration!

Sweet Dreams – This one is a new app that I am using a lot.  it allows me to set a time for the phone to be silent and when to wake up.  I am always forgetting to put my phone on silent when I head to bed.

wpToGo/Wordpress – This ties into my WordPress site so I can post on the go.  There’s two apps and I am still waffling on which I like.

Seesmic – Twitter app.  I liked this one because it was simple!

LastFM/Pandora – Streaming radio.  I am a big fan of Pandora because it gets the stations genres right, but LastFm has a good variety of stock stations.

FourSquare – Social check in app.  Lets me announce where I am to friends.

Home++ – This is a Home screen replacement.  It allows for 3-7 home screens, and a dock at the bottom for most used utilities.  It’s a must.

Jewels – Bejeweled game.  It’s a great time waster but Sarah is kicking my ass at it right now.

KeyRing – All those shopping discount cards in one place!

SMS Popup – SMS Augmenting program.  Lets the SMS messages pop up so I can read instantly and reply instantly.

NewsRob – It’s a Google Reader app that syncs with Reader so I can back and forth from the PC and the Droid.

Qik – Streaming video program, but streaming out.  I can capture video and stream it live to the web.  Where was this all my life!

ShopSavvy – I love this app.  You can scan a bar code on something and it will tell you where you can get the best deal.  Searches online as well as local stores.  Saved me like 20$ because Best Buy matched a price based on this!

WeatherBug – Weather app, pretty simple.

Wow, so this post ended up being huge!  Hopefully this will help anyone who is looking at what phone they may want to check out.  Now, back to gaming!

Technorati Code: C58MXTT77AE3

iPad, or iPod-Maxi, take your pick.

Posted by on January 28, 2010 1 comment

It should surprise no one that I am not a huge Apple fan.  Heck I am taking a week long class on Windows Server now, but I am not completely against them either.  Without Apple we would not have the competitive market that is leading us into the 21st century.  No iPhone means we would all still be using flip phones because of how they remind us of Star Trek. (or maybe that’s just me.) I certainly would not be writing this post on my fancy touch screen phone while zipping along on the train.  Apple has done some amazing things for tech, but now it seems like it’s their turn to try and play catch up.

The tablet PC has been around for a long time.  I understand that most tablets are bulky, or the interface is a bit weird, but they keep changing and have progressively gotten better.  I have used a few tablets that feel great to use and do everything I need them to do and more.  Unfortunately I don’t see this iPad doing even 1/2 of them.  Yay, it can read books,  but my Kindle and any number of cheaper ebook readers can do that.  It plays games, but so does my Droid and my Xbox and any of the tablet. (one may argue that it plays iPod/iPhone games that my stuff can’t, we have an iPod in the house so I’m good.)  Honestly the only things the iPad has going for it is 1: a rabid Apple fan-base that will buy anything the almighty Steve Jobs produces, and 2: its size.  I will say that they seemed to have gotten that part right.  It appears to be sleek, slim, and fit right in the hand, but I would expect that from Apple.

So what would it take to make me like this?  Easy.
1: Flash Player. (Adobe has 10.1 working now…port it!)
2: Front facing web-cam.  (it would be the perfect video conference tool)
3: USB (why does it NOT have this?  oh right because then you could choose your wireless provider)
4: Hit below the $300 price mark. (seriously with everything that’s available that does the same thing, it’s just not competitive)

So there you go.  I am sure that many of you have other ideas about what it should have as well but there are r simple things that would make me more interested.  Until I see that,  I give the iPad a preview score of 6 oranges out of 10 apples.