Okay, This Is The Line

[Intrepidation]

Of course not, look how many people still buy Toyotas.

[Blake Noble]

I made it to the end. I raged. Hard.

So much for considering replacing my worn-out iPod touch with a nice new one.

So much for considering the iPhone (to maybe replace both my phone and iPod touch) this coming week when the family contract with Verizon expires.

I don't want to download a free app and have a goddamn ad popping up every 3 minutes for Vick's Vapor Rub and Enzyte.

I'd hate to be an early iPad adopter. You guessed it, the OS the iPad should have came with isn't supported. Edited April 12, 2010 by whiteknight

[FAPTurbo]

Well, they ARE free applications, so advertising would be OK. I just find it hilarious that Jobs is touting such a feature, for a brand that is supposed to be 'premium'. Apple made fun of PC's for 'bloatware' which is advertising, and here they go introducing a platform that will allow for something even more invasive.

[frogger]

Well the multitasking support is a bit of a kick in the head to Microsoft. MS finally announces a promising mobile OS to replace their horrible kludgey one for later this year and it doesn't have multitasking, so it will be behind Android and Iphone OS.

[frogger]

My big issue with the iPad is the OS. Had it shipped with an OS X lite, that would have been teh awesome..... iPhone OS for something like this = fail

Regular OS for a touch screen tablet = FAIL as all the windows ones have thus far. Atleast the iPhone OS was designed from the ground up to be used on a touchscreen device.

[Blake Noble]

Well, they ARE free applications, so advertising would be OK.

No, no it won't.

With free apps, usually when you are done using the app, you already have a screen encouraging you to "BUY THE FULL VERSION!" 95 percent of the time. It's a trivial thing, I can overlook it, and I usually will buy the full version if I figure my money is worth it (mostly stuff like Grand Piano, Syth apps ... stuff I can sketch out ideas for music with). Technically, you already have ads with free apps, so why in the hell are more ads that aren't even pertinent to what app you have downloaded and are using acceptable?

I just find it hilarious that Jobs is touting such a feature, for a brand that is supposed to be 'premium'. Apple made fun of PC's for 'bloatware' which is advertising, and here they go introducing a platform that will allow for something even more invasive.

Steve Jobs is a douchebag. I shouldn't need to say that, though. One look at the guy and it's obvious.

You run a multi-million dollar corporation, Steve-o. I think you can afford a damn jean belt with your fucking 501s and black, beatnik turtleneck sweater, you bald bastard.

Edited April 12, 2010 by whiteknight

[Drew Dowdell]

[Robert Hall]

You run a multi-million dollar corporation, Steve-o. I think you can afford a damn jean belt with your fucking 501s and black, beatnik turtleneck sweater, you bald bastard.

His style is California geek chic, he's not an old fashioned suit and tie CEO...

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

I'm very close to buying an iPad...

Love the GF's MacBook Pro... Love both my and the GF's iPhones... What's not to love about the iPad?

It'd be perfect for what I do the most, which is blog, send out resumes (would have to order one of those sexy wireless keyboards) and entertain myself.

I do agree that it is pretty useless though....

What I really want is a new MacBook Pro... What I have the money for is an iPad. (LOL)

Edited April 29, 2010 by FUTURE_OF_GM

[FAPTurbo]

I'm very close to buying an iPad...

Love the GF's MacBook Pro... Love both my and the GF's iPhones... What's not to love about the iPad?

It'd be perfect for what I do the most, which is blog, send out resumes (would have to order one of those sexy wireless keyboards) and entertain myself.

I do agree that it is pretty useless though....

What I really want is a new MacBook Pro... What I have the money for is an iPad. (LOL)

Get yourself a Dell Mini 10V, and make a 'Hackintosh' out of it. It'll run the same OS as the MacBook, and be cheaper than the iPad. You gotta be handy with computers, of course.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/osx-netbook-compatib.html

A bit old, but very helpful.

[frogger]

Looks like HP has decided not to release their Windows 7 based tablet they had previewed earlier this year.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/29/hewlett-packard-to-kill-windows-7-tablet-project/

[frogger]

Yikes Microsoft decided not to release the Courier dual screen tablet they've showed off too.. Looks like no one thinks they can compete well enough with the iPad. Another near monopoly..

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/29/microsoft-confirms-kills-courier-in-one-fell-swoop/

[FAPTurbo]

[Blake Noble]

I liked them for their advantages in recording music, that was it.

Now Macs definitely have the upper hand for recording (read below).

I'm buying a used Mac Mini soon.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Mac-Mini-Desktop-1-25-GHz-1GB-RAM-40GB-HDD-/370426137829?pt=Apple_Desktops&hash=item563f1e4ce5

$235 bucks. I'll just use my 22" flat screen for a monitor. It also plays DVDs, too, so I can use it for that. (I don't own a game console, so yeah.)

My Toshiba Satellite runs Windows 7 and the latency issues for recording are bad, man. I didn't try recording anything with it until last night and now I'm highly upset.

There's about a 500ms delay. 500ms sounds great only if you're buying an MXR Carbon Copy guitar pedal. For recording with a computer, sounds bad man. Not only that, there is no way to monitor what you're recording while you're recording it. Unless you have Beethoven's sixth sense for music or some shit.

Yes, I know about "Sounds, Recording, Show Hidden Devices, Stereo Mix". That still doesn't fix the issue. It just allows you to discover it.

Apparently, there's a(n intentional) flaw with how Windows 7 calculates the incoming sound. Hurr-durr, good job Microsoft.

Microsoft Tech Support keeps bantering about with an "update your drivers, update your drivers" tirade. Yeah, my drivers are up to date. The problem is on your end, guys. Thanks for your world-class support with this issue.

It isn't so much the software anymore. I've found Audacity is decent for recording raw audio. Linux Multimedia Studio is good if you need digital instruments for recording. Reaper is awesome for arrangement, mixing, engineering, and overall production. I actually prefer Reaper to Ableton Live. And all of this software is free (if you ignore Reaper's nag screen).

How does it taste, Microsoft? You know? When you're sucking off the RIAA? Must be good, huh? That's the whole reason why you did this. I know it. You caved in to those money-grubbing nazis so someone wouldn't rip music from someone else's digital music player using Audacity. So now aspiring musicians and hobbyists have to suffer too. You did this because Lars Ulrich is just a regular Joe who needs $500,000 to pay for his new indoor, below ground/above ground, heated, Olympic class swimming pool with an optional heated Turkish bath. Good job.

Of course, I'll still use my laptop for Adobe Creative Suite, classwork, and surfing the web. But I am highly upset that I will definitely have to buy a second computer just for one purpose and one purpose only because Windows 7 has an inherit software issue.

EDIT: And here I had the epiphany that Microsoft sucks and Apple sucks and if you choose either one, you fail. So I guess if I have both a Mac and a PC, I'll fail so hard, I'll win?

Bill Gates is a turd sandwich and Steve Jobs is a douchebag. One is too cheap to stop cutting his hair using a bowl and the other is too cheap to buy a jean belt.

Edited September 7, 2010 by whiteknight

[FAPTurbo]

Before you buy that piece of Crapple, have you consulted the solutions in this thread?

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7music/thread/603fcccc-4a98-412b-81a2-e3df9d141f21

It seems XP does not have latency issues. What I would suggest is instead getting yourself a copy of XP, and doing a 'dual-boot' on your laptop. You can use XP for any of your music creation, and Windows 7 for everything else. That'd be far more cost effective.

As for the rest of your crazy-ass rant, I can only say that you're completely wrong. Thing is, you're using a pedestrian laptop. For media creation, you should really have a desktop that's modern, and has a dedicated sound card from the likes of M-Audio.

[Blake Noble]

Before you buy that piece of Crapple, have you consulted the solutions in this thread?

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7music/thread/603fcccc-4a98-412b-81a2-e3df9d141f21

It seems XP does not have latency issues. What I would suggest is instead getting yourself a copy of XP, and doing a 'dual-boot' on your laptop. You can use XP for any of your music creation, and Windows 7 for everything else. That'd be far more cost effective.

Read that thread, actually. Ultimately, that's just about the same as MTS's solution.

And that thought crossed my mind.

I don't trust myself enough to install a dual OS on my main computer that I rely on for school however. I rely on my laptop for a very major task and I don't think it makes sense to tamper with it.

As for the rest of your crazy-ass rant,

Proud of it.

I can only say that you're completely wrong. Thing is, you're using a pedestrian laptop. For media creation, you should really have a desktop that's modern, and has a dedicated sound card from the likes of M-Audio.

I'm on a very small budget and I'm only recording and producing demos for a band I play in plus recording and producing demos for a project I've been dabbling with off and on for some time now.

So, let me break down the cost of all of that.

"a desktop that's modern" - Okay, lets say I choose to buy a used HP Pavilion Elite from eBay. 8GB of RAM, 1TB of storage. The basics are modern. The cheapest one I've found used is $449 bucks. Ouch. And, wait, it has Windows 7. Oh, never mind then. Partition the harddrive off for XP? Experienced or not with the whole procedure, yes, I could do that. There wouldn't be any issue with doing that on this PC, but it's out of my price range. So, ultimately, what's the point?

"dedicated sound card from M-Audio" - Typically one of those runs about $100 bucks or more depending on application.

And if I have all of that, well I might as well buy ProTools (which I don't care much for) to go with it. Pro-Tools M-Powered 8 runs $299.95.

Do I really need all of that to record demos? No. Does any of that fit in with my budget? Nope. That's more than what I need to record demos with anyway. In fact, it's complete overkill.

To record good quality demos/recordings, you don't need to spend almost a grand on equipment and software. That's a fact. I can attest to that. Hell, I know a guy who insisted on pressing shit his band recorded in his living room to CD for their last EP (sounds good, man). Don't forget Sabbath -- Sabbath for Christsake -- recorded their demos in a fucking basement and didn't have much gear to go on for the job. So I know for a fact you don't need any of that crap to make a decent recording.

What you do need, though, is an understanding of what you're doing and an understanding of how to do what you're doing with what you have. Also, I think a touch of a lo-fi asthetic to music adds a certain emotional depth that you lose with highly polished, over engineered, +4db (make it loud, man!), $5,000 an hour studio recordings. That last bit is just an honest personal preference, though.

For the Mac Mini, this is what I would be out: $235 for the Mac Mini itself, Garageband is free, Reaper is free. I don't have to build anything, I don't have to modify anything. I already own everything else I need (microphones, headphones for monitoring, a MIDI keyboard) to do the job.

I'm not jumping on any bandwagon here, if that's what you're thinking.

I just have a hobby in music. My only PC does not support that hobby (and if it's pedestrian, that's just fine; I've got 3GB of RAM and a 250GB harddrive that serves me just fine, thanks; I may not have 8GB of RAM and 1TB of harddrive space, but my pedestrian laptop ain't really broke, so I don't need to fix it). I might ad plenty of people use pedestrian laptops for recording/constructing demos as well (it worked for Trent Reznor with writing "Year Zero" lolol). Like I said, I don't need an expensive system specifically for recording what I want to do.

Actually, if I still had a PC with XP and XP were current, I wouldn't have posted my crazy ass rant or this one.

So I found something the Mac is definitely better at out of the box because Windows chose to limit 7's functionality in one aspect. So what? Overall, I still prefer Windows 7 to Snow Leopard. I'm just annoyed that Microsoft intentionally did something stupid and refuse to patch it (it sure does seem like they're refusing to patch it anyway).

And, yeah, I still think Microsoft and Apple both suck, minus the dramatics. It's ultimately a case of "who do you think is the lesser of two evils?" And I don't see the point to join the "Screw Windows!" camp or join the "Screw Mac!" camp.

If I really had went on a batshit crazy ass rant, I would have said something stupid like, "I shouldn't have bought CS5 for Windows, should have just chucked this POS for a Mac and bought CS5 for Mac" and probably went on about wanting to sell my laptop to fund a fucking new MacBook Pro when that wouldn't have made a bit of sense.

Get a grip, man. I know what I want and what I'm going to need to do the job I want without downgrading to XP. If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. Didn't anyone tell you not to argue with a crazy person anyway?

Edited September 7, 2010 by whiteknight

[Blake Noble]

LOL at whoever thinks you need to spend a grand to record basic frigging demos. Ha, if I could record the sort of music I'm doing with an old four-track recorder and an old microphone as easy as I could with a pedestrian computer and pedestrian open source/free programs, I would, trust me. Sampling is a bitch with just a mic and a four-track, FYI.

I don't know who it is, but I do know you're going to disagree with this post. I would save you the trouble of hitting the little red "minus" button if I could.

learn2production d00d.

Edited September 7, 2010 by whiteknight

[FAPTurbo]

You don't trust yourself doing a dual boot partition? It's a cakewalk if you follow the instructions. All you need is to double check the settings and make sure you've got your most important data burned if things go haywire (nil-to-rare).

Here:

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

http://www.techspot.com/guides/143-dual-boot-windows7/

This should be more or less the same for Windows 7. I'm only suggesting this because it WILL save you money. It's not terribly hard either, just read through the instructions and you'll see they've made it very user-friendly and easy to understand.

Honestly, you're already digging into debt, so I figured any sort of suggestion to save you a few bucks would've been helpful. You may have a (full, not upgrade) copy of Windows XP lying around somewhere, or just find a torrent and burn yourself an ISO. You may incur some driver problems with the stuff like the sound drivers, but if that happens, then that's what Google is for. If things don't work out, then all you've wasted is time.

Besides, those Mac Mini's are PowerPC based. Apple's new software runs on Intel CPU's. If you buy one of those Mini's, not only will you have horribly slow performance, but decreased compatibility with software. I'm not sure they'd come with Garage Band; if they do, then it'd be old. If it doesn't, then you'll be running around looking for old stuff. At least try and find one that is a Core2Duo system.

[FAPTurbo]

Oh and I priced out a 'build-your-own' PC that worked out to 289 Bucks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.472812

and this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152173

Providing this is the correct Pro-Tools:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823143023

... and the total cost is $378.97. It has 2GB of RAM, which is perfectly fine for XP, and if you really care, you can get another 1GB stick. The motherboard has integrated graphics by ATI, so they're perfectly fine for day-to-day use and light gaming. Just 'find' a copy of XP and you're laughing.

Shipped to the 40402 postal code would cost $383.39 in total. Food for thought.

[Blake Noble]

$289 bucks gets me 2GB of RAM and a 30GB harddrive. What sound card does that come with?

Now, as for that version of ProTools, I wouldn't really need it. The software isn't any better than Reaper and my MIDI keyboard has interfacing that allows me to connect my guitar or a microphone, so I wouldn't really need the FastTrack interface. I'll admit, it's better to have more interfacing, though.

If I still wanted to pursue the Mac Mini route, though, I could score one for the price of a guitar pedal (a boutique guitar pedal) if I really wanted to. I would have a gig to a gig and a half less RAM, though. I would have more HDD space however.

I'm going to sleep on it.

[FAPTurbo]

$289 bucks gets me 2GB of RAM and a 30GB harddrive. What sound card does that come with?

2GB of RAM and a 1TB Hard Drive... At least that's what I linked to... Don't look at the quantity of RAM too closely. Manufacturers cram the stuff into their PC's as a selling bulletpoint, but 2GB with XP is more than sufficient. I'm using 2GB for gaming, which requires tons of memory, and I've yet to ever have an issue. Your uses are far less resource intensive than mine.

The sound chip is a VIA VT1708S which isn't terrible, but it's not the best. However, I'd wager it's better than your laptop's.

Worth noting too, is that the PC has a three-core CPU and operates at 3.1GHz. Mathematically, that is about four hundred percent more awesome than the Apple's.

Now, as for that version of ProTools, I wouldn't really need it. The software isn't any better than Reaper and my MIDI keyboard has interfacing that allows me to connect my guitar or a microphone, so I wouldn't really need the FastTrack interface. I'll admit, it's better to have more interfacing, though.

You brought up ProTools so I thought I'd see what could be snagged on NewEgg. They have different suites and hardware, and this one seemed the most applicable. You can likely find a better one on NewEgg if that's something you'd at all want.

If I still wanted to pursue the Mac Mini route, though, I could score one for the price of a guitar pedal (a boutique guitar pedal) if I really wanted to. I would have a gig to a gig and a half less RAM, though. I would have more HDD space however.

The system I 'built' here has a 1 Terabyte Hard Drive. Even if you go the Mac Mini route, you'll be buying hardware that will not be compatible with pretty much any modern software. I don't think there's a guarantee you'd get Garage Band in the ones on eBay. Even if you did, it'd be old software.

I still really encourage you to investigate the dual-boot option. It's the cheapest (freeist?) solution in front of you. It would solve all your problems: you wouldn't spend much (or anything at all), you'd retain the portability of your laptop, and you'd still have Windows 7 for anything else. Win-win-win as far I can see.

[Blake Noble]

2GB of RAM and a 1TB Hard Drive... At least that's what I linked to...

You did.

I have no idea where I had been seeing 30GB at.

Don't look at the quantity of RAM too closely. Manufacturers cram the stuff into their PC's as a selling bulletpoint, but 2GB with XP is more than sufficient. I'm using 2GB for gaming, which requires tons of memory, and I've yet to ever have an issue. Your uses are far less resource intensive than mine.

Indeed. This secondary computer doesn't need to be blisteringly fast. In fact, I'd make a bet and say 1GB would do just fine. My old XP-equipped HP Slimline only had 512MB of RAM and it never game me any problems when I wanted to record something while also running Firefox and a few other programs in the background.

The sound chip is a VIA VT1708S which isn't terrible, but it's not the best. However, I'd wager it's better than your laptop's.

I'm not sure exactly what soundcard is in this laptop. It isn't horrible, though.

Worth noting too, is that the PC has a three-core CPU and operates at 3.1GHz. Mathematically, that is about four hundred percent more awesome than the Apple's.

Good point. I'm not terribly worried about this, though, but still you made a good point.

You brought up ProTools so I thought I'd see what could be snagged on NewEgg. They have different suites and hardware, and this one seemed the most applicable. You can likely find a better one on NewEgg if that's something you'd at all want.

Well I brought up ProTools because ProTools M-Powered 8 is a DAW that works specifically with those soundcards. If I'm going to go that far, I might as well go all the way, although I personally dislike ProTools. Open Source/Free programs like I've been using work just as well honestly if you take the time to learn how to use them effectively. I like assigning certain roles to those programs to make the process a bit easier, although I would like a DAW that could effectively combine the roles I've assigned Audacity and LMMS to. Too bad I would have to pay for a program like that (well, I don't, but I don't like using cracked software and "portable" versions currently don't work on 7 ... that's another thing I really liked about XP).

The system I 'built' here has a 1 Terabyte Hard Drive. Even if you go the Mac Mini route, you'll be buying hardware that will not be compatible with pretty much any modern software. I don't think there's a guarantee you'd get Garage Band in the ones on eBay. Even if you did, it'd be old software.

I could probably snag a Core 2 Duo Mac Mini for about the same price as the PowerPC version I linked to, probably even cheaper (like I said, I found a C2D MM that had recent OS updates and a recent copy of iLife with Garageband for around the price of a boutique guitar pedal). I'd have to bid on it, but I'm not too worried about that. Typically sellers do mention if they've upgraded those specific things as well.

I still really encourage you to investigate the dual-boot option. It's the cheapest (freeist?) solution in front of you. It would solve all your problems: you wouldn't spend much (or anything at all), you'd retain the portability of your laptop, and you'd still have Windows 7 for anything else. Win-win-win as far I can see.

I might actually know someone who did a dual-boot. I'll get in touch with them and see if it corrects the latency issues. I don't see why it wouldn't, but it wouldn't hurt to try it out.

Edited September 8, 2010 by whiteknight

[Cory Wolfe]

My PC ran fine with XP, but with Vista, its just horror-tastic. If you have a version of XP to install, buy mine.

[Intrepidation]

Good point. I'm not terribly worried about this, though, but still you made a good point.

You will notice a big performance jump in day to day tasks with that processor compared to what you have no and the Apple you listed, especially when it comes to multitasking. If you ever run more than one program at once, you will appreciate the multiple cores tremendously.

[Blake Noble]

My PC ran fine with XP, but with Vista, its just horror-tastic. If you have a version of XP to install, buy mine.

If you don't have the same demands I do for a computer, update yours to 7. It only costs a spare $100 bucks. Like I said, I still prefer Win7 to Snow Leopard, but I'm highly annoyed that my PC isn't up to the task that I want it to do out of the box when it really should be all because of a stupid inherit issue.

Depending on who you talk to, Microsoft is still living in XP's shadow. And I can see why someone would think that. There wasn't anything really much wrong with that OS at all. Microsoft should have just used XP as a basis for whatever it wanted to replace it with; add more features and update the appearance and then leave it alone.

[Blake Noble]

You will notice a big performance jump in day to day tasks with that processor compared to what you have no and the Apple you listed, especially when it comes to multitasking. If you ever run more than one program at once, you will appreciate the multiple cores tremendously.

The only other program I typically have running in the background while using a DAW is Firefox. Maybe iTunes after everything is completely wrapped up and that's for burning the finished product to a CD or transferring it to an iPod (well, my iPhone now).

[Drew Dowdell]

So... to iPad or to wait?

[regfootball]

iPad is a pittance and everyone I know who has one gushes about it. THey LOVE IT and use it all the time..

It cannot do everything, and it doesn't have flash. It won't replace a computer. But as an extra device.......more than worth it.

For me, as a media device....movies, mail, web. I doubt its a productivity device.

A 16gb refurb is 429 at apple.com. Ipod touches were going for that not too long ago.

I might wait for the next gen as i hear it will have face time and possibly phone functionality.

I can't recall if they have bluetooth. If they did, I would velcro one to the dash of my ford in front of my radio and use it to stream bluetooth and have an interface that is better than my radio to boot.

Edited February 3, 2011 by regfootball

[Drew Dowdell]

I want it for ultimate mobility of managing my websites. I'd have to have the 3g version. I don't care about Facetime or making calls.

I barely care about watching movies.

[FAPTurbo]

If you don't need it right away, perhaps see what Motorola's 'Xoom' will have to offer. It's slated to be released at the end of this month, and runs on Honeycomb which is a new Android system that promises to be 150% more awesomer than anything on the market today. Plus, I'd assume Android to be better suited for power-use, like website and database management.

[Intrepidation]

Next up, Apple will announce the iPad Mini

Tools everywhere will fight each other to get one.

[frogger]

If you don't need it right away, perhaps see what Motorola's 'Xoom' will have to offer. It's slated to be released at the end of this month, and runs on Honeycomb which is a new Android system that promises to be 150% more awesomer than anything on the market today. Plus, I'd assume Android to be better suited for power-use, like website and database management.

The problem with that is you might end up waiting a year for the apps to catch up to the hardware.. So why not just wait a year when the hardware will be even better or use an iOS product for a year then revisit Android. I have an iPad and an Android phone (HTC Desire)..

My iPad is Wifi only as on the road I just use the wifi hotspot feature of my phone to use it. The app situation for Android isn't that great.. lots of them but magazine publishes, game publishers, newspaper publishers etc have not adopted it the way they have iOS devices. Lots of widgets to control battery life if that is what you are looking for though! Meanwhile my friend's Pioneer receiver has an iPad app available for it to control it.

Edited February 3, 2011 by frogger

[Drew Dowdell]

If you don't need it right away, perhaps see what Motorola's 'Xoom' will have to offer. It's slated to be released at the end of this month, and runs on Honeycomb which is a new Android system that promises to be 150% more awesomer than anything on the market today. Plus, I'd assume Android to be better suited for power-use, like website and database management.

I'm already an Android fan, but the dearth of available tablets so far has left me underwhelmed.

[Drew Dowdell]

The problem with that is you might end up waiting a year for the apps to catch up to the hardware.. So why not just wait a year when the hardware will be even better or use an iOS product for a year then revisit Android. I have an iPad and an Android phone (HTC Desire)..

My iPad is Wifi only as on the road I just use the wifi hotspot feature of my phone to use it. The app situation for Android isn't that great.. lots of them but magazine publishes, game publishers, newspaper publishers etc have not adopted it the way they have iOS devices. Lots of widgets to control battery life if that is what you are looking for though! Meanwhile my friend's Pioneer receiver has an iPad app available for it to control it.

I'd say that I'm not exactly app happy. I need a good browser(already available), I need Tweetdeck (already available), I need FTP apps (already available) and decent email (built in)... and that's about it.

I really don't play games or use e-readers or anything like that. Even music is secondary.

[frogger]

I'm watching the Nook Color Honeycomb hack closely.. In a month it may be stable and a great bargain (it already is a good bargain for a $250 Froyo 2.2 tablet).

[Drew Dowdell]

I'm watching the Nook Color Honeycomb hack closely.. In a month it may be stable and a great bargain (it already is a good bargain for a $250 Froyo 2.2 tablet).

Nook is missing one very very very critical feature for me. 3G.

[Cory Wolfe]

iPad is pretty wonderful. Wasn't a believer until I actually tried one out.