Its almost here… can’t believe its almost April and that means the long awaited iPad will be available. Lots of buzz about it in “Macland…” One place is giving an iPad away (site might be busy) in exchange for ~ 600 old CDs and DVDs you have to have the original artwork and jewel cases though. I don’t think I own that much CDs esp. with the cases. I would love more than anything to have one of them but when you have to decide between that and a bed to sleep on the choice is pretty clear at least for me. Ah I long for the irresponsible days when I could go slap down some cash on an electronic feat of fancy Oh well for now I’ll watch and wait and read the blogs and check out the ‘>cool videos and wait for my birthday perhaps someone will slap a gift on me (a gal can dream).

Need I say more? This can be had for some change at this place. The description is quite clear and uh comes in lived in red. Don’t make me explain why this has me in stitches.

Wow! Those folks at Apple did it again! Yap they made me say yum! That new iPad looks sweet actually as one friend said “its a big ass iPhone sans the phone…” Indeed that about sums it up for me. To think that if I had save my money and not bought the original iPhone I might have some bucks to shell out for one of these beauties. What’s there not to like about this new “magical and revolutionary device.”  They took the iPhone dumped the phone part and made the screen big I mean 9.7” of pure screen real-estate… and 1.5 lbs… Lots more room for your fingers to do that flicking, typing, pinching goodness. Its a little bulkier than the Kindle but the Kindle does not compare IMHO so we’ll leave it at that. I won’t go on and on about the possible uses for this thing. If you happen to see me in line on release day just smile and nod… 

If you want to check out some magazine covers with Steve Jobs on them, you will like this selection of 89 magazine covers with his Steveness gracing every cover complements of Kuo Design . I enjoyed looking at it because it’s like looking back in time at a person and a company that started off small with a great idea then failed miserably for a while then rose again despite all the cynics. It also makes me think about all the insanely great products that came out of Apple/Steve’s “magic kingdom” and what if there were no iPods, no iPhones, no iTunes Store, etc. Have a look it!  It was nice looking back at some of those covers as they reminded me of the first time I used a Mac back in undergrad, writing my undergrad thesis on an LC III in living color in my advisers living room, my reaction to the first time I played with my friend’s  iMac Blueberry with the round mouse and the 1st generation iPod I received for my birthday compliments of a few of my friends pitching in…

So I heard a rumor last week that there would be new Macbooks and that they (Apple) would be marketing a $800 Macbook given the state of the economy and all that. I’ve been milking my Mac Mini for all its worth and its going on to year 3 next week so I was all set to upgrade given the $800 rumored price point. Well, the rumors were dead wrong (only place you can get a $800 Macbook is under the refurb section and those are the old ones). The entry level October 2008 edition costs $1299. Its boast the new uni-body aluminum design and a new graphics card that’s supposed to be good for gaming and all that. I honestly don’t see why the entry level machines are so much. It must have been cheaper to make the new machine as they said in the video less material, not much moving parts, shouldn’t this be cheaper then? It seem to me that the only persons that’s gaining are the folks in the Macbook Pro group. They get more bang for their buck and pay the same entry level price. A new entry level Macbook used to cost you a little less than $1100… it just went up by a little over $100. I know they stuck one of the old Macbooks in there to make it look like they dropped the price of the Macbooks in general but again that’s one of the older models with the Intel GMA card that nobody seems to like as much as the new Nvidia 9400M graphics card that is supposed to be 5x faster than the intel integrated card, although I’ve heard its more like 3x faster. So I’m holding out for an update to the Mac Mini line but I wonder how much Apple will make us pay. A refurb Macbook Pro is not looking so bad… if I had money to blow, I rather get that for $1299 than the new Macbook, at least it has a dedicated graphics card which would be more useful. Don’t get me started on the lack of firewire in the new Macbooks either.

Apple Store Is Down again! Yipie! The day after my special day and the Apple Store is down. This can only mean one thing. More Apple goodness is on the way. I hear the sound of new cheaper notebooks and perhaps and upgrade to iWork and maybe some Mac Mini love… Who the heck knows… I’ll find out soon enough. I’m genuinely excited about this one. Check out TUAW & Engadget for some live-blog goodness.