The Droid 2 and X have already been pegged for March 2011 EOL (end-of-life) status.

Here in MI, you can't find a Droid X. Everywhere is sold out.

If this report is true, that's the frustrating thing about Android: you get a scarce phone one month, and a few months later it's completely phased out.  Pace of innovation, or another symptom of Android fragmentation?  How much longer can carriers keep you locked into a two-year contract when the landscape is advancing so quickly?

Makes used phones, sans contract, much more appealing.

From the press release:

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced a new update to Kindle for iPad and Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch, which allows readers to enjoy the benefits of embedded video and audio clips in Kindle books. The first books to take advantage of this new technology, including Rick Steves' London by Rick Steves and Together We Cannot Fail by Terry Golway, are available in the Kindle Store at http://www.amazon.com/kindleaudiovideo.

The Kindle app for iOS devices now out-features the Kindle hardware itself.

Chris Brogan:

I think the iPad serves me well as a way to focus on writing. I think it’s a great way to “check status” on certain things. It will never replace my laptop at its current configuration. I find myself slowing down when I walk by Apple stores, thinking about the Macbook Air, but that’s adding a 13″ laptop to my 15″ Macbook Pro, and that just doesn’t make sense, either.

What the iPad represents is the nascent tip of the next generation of computing platform.  It's by no means mature, and anyone saying the iPad can replace the laptop is either seeking blog hits via hyperbole or doesn't use a laptop for much more than pure content consumption.

I also think that in order for it to appeal to laptop users as a main tool, it needs more connectivity and software polish.  You can bet a print subsystem is coming to iOS, and the applications will just get exponentially better, just like those for the iPhone did over the past three generations.

I use my iPad for mainly 'couchtop' stuff: reading Google Reader feeds, doing work on Twitter, web surfing, email.  I don't even consider it for 'real' work, as my workflows are almost purely dependent on my Mac (read: real computer).  I have written some draft blog posts on my iPad, and I have played around with some light image processing, but nothing serious.  It was more experimenting that actually getting things done.

I suspect this will change as iOS matures along with the hardware capabilities and application depth.

What about you?  How do you use your iPad?

If you hop over to Pixar's website and try to navigate its feature films, you're presented with a Flash-based menu to do so.  Given Steve Jobs's Thoughts on Flash, this is more than a little ironic.

UPDATE: John Gruber shows us how Toy Story 3's website looks on an iPad.  Again: irony.

Does Steve Jobs know about this?  If he doesn't, I guarantee he will shortly.  Somebody's milkshake will be drunk.

I mentioned in my iPad review that the machine needs a print subsystem ASAP, and what do you know? The latest rumor is that direct printing (via Bluetooth and/or WiFi) will be part of tomorrow's iPhone OS 4 announcement.

Again, as I said in my review: improvements to the iPad will move the device in the direction of today's modern laptop, not away from it.  It's 'tweener device' state is its beta state that's all about driving adoption.

Many people have been asking me for my iPad review, presumably because the glowing, over-the-top hyperbole that the mainstream outlets have gushing out their maws has been (a) read several times over already, or (b) met with some degree of skepticism, and they're now looking for a more real-world review from your average Joe on the street.

So, here goes, in no particular order.  I'm going to get a bit of cognitive dissonance out of the way first, so if it seems like I'm harshing on the iPad too much at first, read the whole thing.

(Also, I'm intentionally going to avoid the whole closed v. open debate, brought to a head by Cory Doctorow's screed, which I found to be quite off base for someone so typically astute.  I might tackle that later.)

Let's get back to the title of this post.  When I say 'caught between two worlds,' that's the overall feeling I have when using the iPad.  Some of this feeling is intentional -- remember Steve Jobs's slide that shows the iPad shoehorned in between the iPhone and laptop? -- and some of  it seems the unintended consequence of birthing a device that is simultaneously incredibly fucking good and brand new with no usage baseline whatsoever.

Examples:

I find myself wanting to get my calendar information, which is stored in Google Calendar, into the iPad's Calendar app.  But then, why?  The browser is fantastic, and its size and resolution encamp it firmly in the company of desktop browsers.  So, I fire up Google Calendar in Safari, and there she is, resplendent.

Caught.

I punch in an address in Maps and marvel for longer than I should at the gorgeous display and utterly massive improvement it represents over the iPhone's app of the same name.  I want to get some directions out of the app, but then I realize I can only email the link somewhere.  I can't print, because there are no print drivers or print subsystem.  My mind wants to do what I'd do with a 'main' machine, but I can't because the OS doesn't yet support certain desktop functions.  It's a mobile device that makes you want to work on it like a full computer.

Caught.

I took a bunch of campy pictures of my son as he tore through the house at just under Mach 1 to find his Easter eggs, and I want to get them on the iPad quickly and easily for viewing and light editing.  As of now -- with no USB ports and no commercially-available camera connection kit -- I can't, so while my mind says Yes, I want to do this work on this iPad because I enjoy it, I can't.  I have to use my MacBook Pro.

Caught.

There are other examples, but you get the point.

Read the rest of this post »

Dave Winer with some interesting insight into what Apple may really be doing:

I said it's a lot simpler and more insidious. Apple doesn't care about web standards, nor do any other large companies. That term, and "open" are just fig leaves that cover up what they're reallly doing. Instead of opening things up, they're doing just the opposite. Closing as many holes as they can as quickly as they can. Because they're doing what the media business wants to but hasn't been able to do, yet -- control and monetize user programming of content. Apple and many (if not all) of the tech companies want to get the control back from the users. Of course they can't say this, and they won't. But actions speak louder than words.

Winer's take is that Apple is trying to close as many open holes as it can so that it, with the continued blessing of the entertainment industry, can provide a tidy way to monetize digital content moving forward.  It's about closing the many paths that are now open and only leaving one road, albeit likely paved with gold, open.  It's a curious analysis, one that has baked into it a certain amount of (well placed) tinfoil-hattery.

Winer's opinion runs counter to John Gruber's, who states that Apple is closing the Flash "hole" in the iPhone/iPad platform to 'enforce web standards.'  I tend to agree with Gruber, because with Apple, it's all about platform control.  The quicker Flash gets relegated to wherever it is that Flash opponents wish it would crawl, the faster, the argument goes, open web standards like HTML5 and h.264 can become mainstream.

It will be very interesting to see what's in the middle of all of this, where the truth often lies.

No.

A conversation I have every month or so. Fellow iPhone users, this is our pickle.

I'm a three-time (soon to be four-time) published author. When aspiring authors learn this, they invariably ask what word processor I use. It doesn't fucking matter! I happen to write in Emacs. I also code in Emacs, which is a nice bonus. Other people write and code in vi. Other people write in Microsoft Word and code in TextMate+ or TextEdit or some fancy web-based collaborative editor like EtherPad or Google Wave. Whatever. Picking the right text editor will not make you a better writer. Writing will make you a better writer. Writing, and editing, and publishing, and listening -- really listening -- to what people say about your writing. This is the golden age for aspiring writers. We have a worldwide communications and distribution network where you can publish anything you want and -- if you can manage to get anybody's attention -- get near-instant feedback. Writers just 20 years ago would have killed for that kind of feedback loop. Killed! And you're asking me what word processor I use? Just fucking write, then publish, then write some more. One day your writing will get featured on a site like Reddit and you'll go from 5 readers to 5000 in a matter of hours, and they'll all tell you how much your writing sucks. And most of them will be right! Learn how to respond to constructive criticism and filter out the trolls, and you can write the next great American novel in edlin.

Bingo.  Do yourself and read Mark Pilgrim on The Setup, which is interesting way, way beyond this little quip about writing.