Before the iPad, probably the most popular “middle” device that was between a laptop and a smartphone was The Kindle by Amazon. You could read books with The Kindle along with magazines, newspapers and blogs. They come in different sizes but the biggest is the Kindle DX that is 9.7″ diagonal.

Fast-forward to now and the most striking hardware spec of the iPad is this: The iPad screen is 9.7″ diagonal.

To me, that screams that the iPad is intended first and foremost to displace the Kindle. Which it does. I used to want a Kindle but not after reading books on my iPad. But if you really want a Kindle, you can get the Kindle app for free on your iPad.

Our brains have come to expect a lot of things when we read a book. We expect that there are black words on white or off-white paper. But there are more subliminal things that I think our brains expect. When we read, we expect to see a stack of paper. If it is a hardcover book, we expect a dust jacket. We are used to reading a book two pages at a time. We don’t really think about these things, but I think Apple studied this.

iBooks replicates that reading experience faithfully. It’s a free download in the App Store but really it probably should pre-installed on the iPad. You can read a book in portrait mode so that you just see one page, which still has the page stack and also the dust jacket behind all those pages. Or you can read it in landscape mode so that you see two pages at a time with the center crease. There’s a page curl and really the only thing missing is maybe the cracking of the spine and being able to inspect the inside front/back of the dust cover and also the back cover.

What I really want to convey is that the iPad replaces having a physical book. Laptops kind of did it, but it was awkward to hold it with the keyboard and holding it sideways. iPhones and other smart phones are just too small to read on for long periods of time.

I’ve started reading more again and I think that’s due to the iPad. I actually enjoy reading late at night before I go to sleep. The backlighting is nice then, though I usually turn down the in-app brightness a lot. Still it is enough to read by without turning on a light and disturbing your wife, roommate or cat. The hardware rotation lock on the iPad helps you read it in whatever mode you like. So one of my favorite things about the iPad is that the iPad is a Book.

Apple looks out for the little things, for the most part. I unpacked the iPad and noticed that the box seemed scratched. No big deal. The box fit perfectly and the instructions were minimal but nicely designed. Even before I turn on the thing, I’m having a good experience.

Then I turn it on and horrors - it looks like the screen is scratched. I realize that it is some sort of camera shot of shooting meteors or something. OK heart attack averted, I venture on.

Simply put, I was playing with the iPad for hours and hours and hours. I spent a lot of time exploring all the built-in apps, the buttons, all the “HD” apps from the App Store… On Monday morning, I felt like I had an iPad hangover. There were so many new computing experiences, it was hard for my mind to process it all.

Bottom line: The first generation iPad is going to be a huge hit. The iPad pushes the boundaries of touch screen technology in ways that stylus/pressure-oriented touch screens like the Tablet PC and even Nintendo DS have not. It simplifies computing in a dramatic way that we haven’t seen in technology since the way the Nintendo Wii shook up video gaming.

The Wii was criticized by the gaming elite, like the iPad by the computing elite, as having so many flaws but ultimately it unlocked the gaming experience for a large population that didn’t enjoy gaming before. I think iPad will do the same for computing, but people won’t think of it as a computer. I don’t think we have a name for it yet.

Laptops and desktops won’t go away. Mac OS X won’t go away. There’s just a lot of things that are better done on your MacBook, like writing this blog entry. The iPhone won’t go away - the iPad is way too big to fit into your pockets and would look ridiculous for making calls. But I think Apple has found a Third Device that will help improve our daily lives.

I will try to catalog the different ways I use the iPad in future blog entries. I think that’ll be more insightful than trying to write one uber-review.

Fast forward to today - the DSi XL seems perfect for me.

What’s good about it?

- The form factor

At first I thought this would be a con. It might not fit my pockets. It might be too heavy. Even after unwrapping it, I was concerned.

Instead, I found that I can actually hold it
better than a DSi or DS Lite. That is because my hands can grip the entire bottom half. With the DSi and DS Lite, I tend to hold on to a bit of the top half too to stabilize it with one or both of my index fingers. That is tends to stress out my hand, so I found myself being more comfortable with the XL even though it may weigh a bit more. My guess is that Nintendo realized that older folks (I’m in my thirties) were playing portable games more and we tend to have larger hands on average than kids.

- The stylus

There’s actually two styluses (stylii?) included. One is the regular DSi stylus that fits in the console itself. The other is a large pen-like stylus that reminds me of a Waterman. This larger pen-like stylus is really comfortable in the hand for an adult.

I actually got another pair of small/pen-like styluses with an XL protection pack by PDP. The big pen-like stylus has a gel grip which is even more comfortable.

- Pixels are easier to hit

Another shortcoming which actually turns out to be good is that the touchscreen and the top display screen don’t have any more pixels than a DSi or a DS Lite. The pixels are just bigger. That is easier for a developer - sidenote: expect to have some complaining in the near future about iPhone apps on the iPad due to the difference in resolutions.

It is also easier for the user on touch-screen intensive games like SimCity DS or Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Users have typically preferred the D-pad due to this. The DSi helped this situation out somewhat, but the XL takes it to a new level with a screen that is roughly twice the size. What that means is the hit area for any given pixel is increased to 4x! This combined with an easier to hold stylus makes the XL much better for (stylus-driven) touch-screen games. iPhone and iPod Touch are still the best for touch-screen games without a stylus.

- Pre-loaded DSiWare

I bought the DSi when it first came out as well - about a year ago. I was pretty pleased with it but I had a hard time deciding on what to spend my points on. I traded it in when I bought this XL and when I did, it still had the original 1000 DSiWare points.

The XL comes with a photo clock (yawn), two Brain Age games (the math makes me feel good, the other one is a little frustrating) and the standout - Flipnote Studio (no relation to Webnote.) Flipnote is a way to create flip-books, animations basically. It is easy, fun and a really great use of the console, I think.

It also has a browser (Opera) which I of course tweeted from. Tip: use the m.twitter.com site instead of the regular site - it works much better on the DSi and DSi XL.

Alright - so what are the cons, or what could be better?

- Price

Definitely the most expensive DS you can get. This is almost a luxury item compared to the $60 cheaper DS Lite. I showed my XL to a friend and he called it “the Lexus of the DS family.” That was pretty insightful - the Lite is the Toyota (pre-floor-mat days) and the DSi is now a mid-market item.

Still, it is less expensive than the base level iPod Touch and the iPhone (with contract included.)

- No place for the big stylus

While the small stylus has integrated storage like the DSi or DS Lite, the big pen-like stylus has no place on the XL to live. It is like I need to get a daily planner-like cover that I can hook a pen onto. For now I’m just stuffing it in one of my other pockets.

- No video capability and camera resolution still relatively poor

I really wish the XL could take some video even in SD. Also the resolution of the camera is still relatively poor although I have only taken a few shots. So the XL won’t replace your digital camera - even the first generation iPhone camera is better. But the integrated camera + calendar is handy for taking shots to include in-game like in the Flipnote Studio.

On the other hand, the included photo editing tools are still better than what I’ve seen in a lot of devices - at least for ease of use.

The bottom line:

I think the DSi XL is perfect for adults who play DS games and want a more comfortable playing experience. It is easier to hold, the screens are much bigger, the touch-screen is easier to use and the pen is more comfortable to use. It can even fit in adult (men’s) pants pockets.

For children, I’d recommend sticking with the DS Lite. It’s cheaper and better sized for their hands. It’ll also fit in their pockets better.

I’ve been working for the past few years on a 20″ iMac (white) paired with a 20″ monitor. Together, its 1680×1050 x 2, or 3360 x 1050. Apple just came out with a new 27″ iMac that is 2560×1440. That’s about 5% bigger than my current setup, which is amazing. It is not quite as large as a 30″ Cinema Display, but it is almost there.

Previously I was looking at purchasing a Mac Pro (quad or octo) and a 30″ Cinema Display, but it just seemed like a lot of money ($4,000+) considering how fast tech improves nowadays. Now, the 27″ iMac is starting to push into that configuration for around half the price:

Quad-Core. Previously, iMacs were only available as Dual-Core.

4 RAM Slots for up to 16GB of RAM. Previously, iMacs were limited to 8GB (and a pricey 8GB at that due to the price of 4GB chips.) My current iMac is limited to a measly 3GB. Adding 8GB as a Built-To-Order option on the new 27″ iMac seems to run only $200.

Probably the big thing you give up on the iMac is the ability to service it yourself, the ability to add drives internally, and the option of a matte screen on the 30″ Cinema Display. But I think come November, I’ll be getting one of the new 27″ iMacs and adjusting my office lighting to maximize the massive glossy screen.

17″ PowerBook G4 1.33 Ghz - my wife uses it now, mainly for checking her email and surfing the web. Works great for that and it is still running Tiger.

Mac Mini 1.25 Ghz - I’m using it as a file server and source code control server. I have good memories of this, considering the frenzy at the Tysons Corner Apple Store and unboxing photos. I’m using this one headless (that is, without a monitor.) This is running Leopard.

BTW, I currently use an Intel iMac and an Intel MacBook Pro.

A better way to save on your taxes if you have a business is to focus your spending on things that improve yourself and your business. Here are some ideas:

1. Conferences, online training, and books - if you’re a consultant, you’ll be able to sell your services with more confidence and for higher rates if you improve your skills and knowledge.

Personally, I’m planning to go to WWDC 2009 and C4 this year. I’m probably going to buy the Icon Resource tutorials. And I’ve got an overflowing bookshelf at the Pragmatic Programmer.

2. Hardware - if you’ve got an older computer or a small screen, then a new computer or a bigger screen could help make you more productive.

I’m personally waiting until WWDC to see what new hardware is coming out and I’m keeping an eye out for good deals on 30″ monitors. Right now I’ve got a 15″ MacBook Pro and a 20″ iMac with paired 20″ Dell monitor - good enough for now. I think more screen real estate would help when I’ve got Xcode, Interface Builder, Photoshop, the app I’m debugging and the documentation all open at the same time.

3. Software - developers are creating new apps that can improve your workflow all the time. I once got in trouble for automating a 2 day process down to 2 hours because it reduced the workload at a big corporation I once worked at, but the people that depended on that process were really grateful.

Of course, if I weren’t the creator of WebnoteHappy, I’d buy a license to help with my web research. A happy customer named Doug Hogg wrote in the other day and said “It is the best program that I have found for doing research on the internet.”

Personally, I’m going to be buying ScreenFlow to help produce some screencasts that I plan to do for the next version of Webnote. I’m also probably to buy Base.app to help with my iPhone development which relies on SQLite for persistence.

If you’re an employee, you could still follow this same strategy, but you’ll have to clear a 2% threshold - so if you make $50,000 a year, you won’t be able to deduct the first $1,000 of expenses.

Hopefully this helps people save some money in taxes next year and also improve their businesses, their skills and productivity. Oh and buy from independent businesses when you can!

As for the difficulties, WebnoteHappy will now detect service failures better and if it is running in the background doing its periodic sync then it will log the failure in Console.app and inform you via http://growl.info/ if you have that installed. Growl is nice (install it if you haven’t already) since it notifies you subtly in the background. Previously, it would show a dialog box that you would manually dismiss. So we’re trying to improve bit by bit on the user experience.

In other news, we’re working on another release of Webnote. So keep an eye out for that.

I’m glad to see that some of my previously blogged Mac and iPhone Tips have helped people. I’ll try to share more of those.

I’m steering Happy Apps towards a better blend of product development and consulting in 2009. So stay tuned!