I didn’t have to work yesterday, January 27 2010.  I spent most of the morning in bed, curled up under the covers with a special lady, hiding from the bitter cold that is winter in Chicago.  And as much as I try to ignore it, even in such a surreal moment as this, I just can’t resist that urge like so many others in our “new” society.  I heard the sound of my phone vibrate against the surface of the night table, and I couldn’t help but grab at it and wonder what was going on outside the confines of my northwest side studio.

I’ll admit, my phone is an iPhone.  I’ve been interested in “mobile computing” since my high school days, when I received my first hand-me-down handheld from my uncle, a Palm IIIc.  Not to brag, but I was clearly ahead of the trend.  In an era where cell phones were just beginning to surface in daily life, I was taking apart that Palm IIIc and spraypainting the case red with a glossy clear coat.

Technology, meet style.  Style, technology…

I went on to own a few Palm devices.  The m130 came next.  I was amazed at the durability of that little guy, with as much abuse as I put him through.  That was the device that I first started really discovering the power and utility of a mobile handheld device.  I forget the exact software package all these years later, something I pirated.  It was a database suite, with a desktop app to sync to, that allowed you to build simple data applications.  I was hooked…

At the time I was a community college student, slingin’ pizzas for some cash on the side.  Needless to say, I had the luxury of free time and limited responsibility back then to invent, experiment, and create.  First I built a simple little database to track my gas mileage.  I had a theory, that by watching for a fluctuation in the gas mileage of my “less than desirable” car of the time, I could predict a breakdown.  I don’t have any hard numbers, but the anecdotal evidence suggested I was on to something.

I got a little more creative, designing a database program based on my profession at the time, pizza delivery.  I kept track of everything.  When I first got to work, I would enter the time I started, and the mileage on the odometer.  At the end of the night, I’d enter the time I left, the odometer reading, the number of deliveries I made, and the money I earned.  Some of the drivers could tell you “I made this much per hour”, the good ones could tell you “I made this much per delivery”.  But I had hard numbers.  How much per hour.  How much per delivery.  How much per mile driven.  Cross referenced with the gas mileage numbers, I knew my cost basis as well…

I eventually upgraded to the Palm TX, the “high water mark” of the Palm era.  I’ve still got a lot of life ahead of me, but as it stands now, and I suspect it always will, that TX will always be my all time favorite “geek toy”.  By this time, I’d moved up a little in the “career” way of things.  I had contacts, schedules, and a little bit of money.  Then I discovered SplashMoney, a handheld personal finance suite.  In an era where everybody was moving towards getting by being able to check their “available balance” online, I could glance at my Palm and tell you how much was in my bank account, the balance of my credit card, and even the amount of cash I had stashed in my sock drawer.

Which brings me to that cold winter night when I finally pulled the trigger.  I walked into an  AT&T store, and walked out with the future in my hand.  I was in love.  I had just started dating a new girl a month prior, but that night I went home with a new love.  My iPhone.

In alot of ways, that iPhone and that girl were very similar.  I’ve had something like them both before, a past girlfriend and a Palm TX.  But there was something very new, very sexy, and more “grown up” about both of them.  The curves, the pleasure that we both felt when I would touch her  just right…  I’m talking about the iPhone of course.  This brings me back to yesterday morning.  I reached over to pick up my iPhone, and see the AP News alert I received.

“Apple unveils the iPad”

We knew it was coming.  Shortly after that, I got online and followed the Engaget live-blog of the Apple event.  I held my iPhone tight, watching with excitement.  What I saw, though intriguing, was both baffling and disappointing.

They called it the iPad.  What an awful name.  I heard rumors of it being called the “iSlate”, but iPad?  Even calling it an “iBook”, a play on it e-reader capability as well as a throwback re-branding of a previous Apple model, would have been much better.  But an iPad?  Too close to iPod, and too open to obvious jokes about feminine hygiene products.

Watching further, reading the new articles that would surface throughout the day, I found myself more disappointed.  Apple didn’t “re-invent” as they had in the past.  They didn’t push any boundaries.  What they had was a plus sized iPhone.  A “fat chick” version of the iPod Touch.  For months there have been rumors flying around about this new revolutionary product, and the rumors were only half true.  It appears to be new, but not so much in the revolutionary department.

The iPad appears to be a stylish and useful device to some extent.  If I had money to burn, I wouldn’t mind having this on my night table.  Waking up and reading the news in bed on a Saturday morning with my girl on a screen we can both see and share.  But that’s the only use I can see, and for the price of even the baseline model, it’s still not quite enough product for the price.  The product isn’t revolutionary, it’s just repackaged.

It seems to me like Apple is trying to compete in too many markets with a single lackluster device.  A jack of all trades, while a master of none.  It takes on the Kindle as an e-reader,  it takes on the netbook as a web-browser, and it seeks to expand on the success of the iPod Touch as a casual gaming platform.  But despite being all these things, it doesn’t seem to stand out as any.  The 3G “upgrade” and data plan pricing make it an overpriced Kindle competitor, without a real keyboard it’s far less featured than a traditional netbook, and it’s an expensive and limited platform for gaming compared to other handhelds gaming devices on the market.

The question that remains is “can Apple reinvent tablet computing?”  I discussed this with my uncle, pointing out the lack of an highly useful input device, be it a stylus for on-screen writing or a QWERTY keyboard.  I wanted more than a one-button wonder with a questionably useful onscreen keyboard.  Something more, such as a netbook sized device with a touch screen that folds back and locks into place for a tablet experience.  It didn’t take long, but I found what I was looking for.

The Touch Book.  Some small time company on the west coast that most of the consumer electronic market has never heard of makes a device better than I could dream of.  It’s a netbook.  Detach the screen from the keyboard… It’s a tablet.  With a fully functional open source operating system and comparable hardware specs to the iPad, it still manages to come in under the price of even the cheapest of Apple’s new offering.  And it’s open, so it’s only limitations are as much as a developer can dream.

So while I love my iPhone, with it’s App Store.  And the ‘Apps’, iTunes remote, Shazam, Urbanspoon, and iSpreadsheet.  I still can’t help but miss the old days, when you could dream it and do it.  I think back fondly to all the programs, hacks, tweaks, and ‘desk accessories’ from that old Palm TX that I enjoyed.  And after reading all the reviews and media hype for Apple’s newest “revolution”, then watching a video of a German guy demo’ing his easily superior product without the cult following that Steve Jobs has, I can’t help but think that maybe the “old days” will be back sooner than we think.