The iPad in All of Us

Apple's new iPad has no doubt crossed your mind if you are even close to an Apple or Mac fan.  I know it has been an item that has been impossible for me to ignore lately.  Even with all of the fanfare and how truly spectacular the iPad itself looks, I still have no desire to own one.  I just cannot find a good place for it to fit into my lifestyle.  Although it looks cool and is a prime example of an Apple product, it just doesn't seem like a very good alternative to a MacBook.  Of course the starting price is quite lower than a MacBook, but a MacBook has Mac OSX, flash, easily replaceable or upgradable components, a physical keyboard, a countless number of existent applications, and I am sure there are a few other things that I am missing.  Also, the premium that you pay to get 3G on the iPad seems downright outrageous at $130, unless I am missing something.  You would be hard pressed to convince me to get the 3G version of the iPad especially since it is on AT&T's network and costs so much more both monthly and initially.

So where do you stand on the fence of iPad or not iPad.  If I were to get the iPad I would definitely have to use it for a car computer or something.  It is just too expensive for me to justify using as a reader and too limited to use as much more than my iPhone.  No flash!  Look, I do not care if Steve Jobs hates flash and the HTML5 or whatever is supposed to be better (debate-able), every site out there already uses it even after three years of Apple pushing back against flash.  Can we not just grow up and allow the consumer some convenience for once?

New MacBook and MacBook Pros Coming Soon

I always get excited about new Apple products coming out and new notebooks are long overdue in my opinion.  I love my MacBook Pro and I got it when they first came out (yes I am one of those crazy people).  Sometimes you just have to have it I guess.  That exciting time for new notebooks has finally come again though.  Apple will announce the new MacBook and MacBook Pro models on Tuesday the 14th and will likely explain all of the new exciting features.  I have been checking out the rumors and general rumors and photos indicate a few things about the new laptops:

 - There is going to be an aluminum version of the MacBook now and not just the Pro

 - The new notebooks will be using a dedicated NVIDIA graphics cards to provide higher quality graphics 

 - The larger trackpads that are included on the MacBook Air are going to be on the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros

There are other rumors surfacing about possible LCD HDTVs made by Apple that would include the Apple TV functionality right out of the box.  I am not so sure about the HDTVs, but most of the notebook stuff seems to be feasible.  the other thing is the possible inclusion of Blu-ray drives in the notebooks rather than the DVD drives included now.  We will have to see on Tuesday how it pans out.  In  the mean time take a look at these pictures at Mac Rumors; they should wet your appetite for the new all aluminum notebooks.