meh

Well, the biggest news was easily the iPad announcement. Funny that it was a much more momentous occasion than Obama’s first State of the Union address, but I think that’s just evidence of how disillusioned everyone is with the state of affairs at the moment. Regardless, even someone like me, who built their own PC, owns a Zune, and isn’t particularly a fan or hater of the OSX interface, found it interesting. Mainly because I was wondering why it took so long for such a device, so ubiquitously applied in any number of sci-fi films, to be put on the market. By the way, where’s my flying car? It’s also, as always, a perfect example of minimalist industrial design and oooo, look, it’s shiny.

What I like about the iPad? It’s simple, it is a direct interface experience, it’s fast, it is perfect as a lounge-while-you-browse device among other things, and the price is fairly reasonable. The whole 3G with no contract thing is pretty cool too.

Probably among my biggest beefs is the rather deliberateness that Apple used in not including certain features, like a camera and multitasking, along with the closed nature of the device (sure, there’s an app for that, but it’s about principles). The on-screen keyboard seems like an after thought too, making what probably would have been most attractive with this device in my view, journaling and notetaking, a bit more hampered. Considering the capacitive touchscreen (no stylus or handwriting recognition), it seems like it wouldn’t be the most convenient device for transcribing lectures or sketching out whimsical photo thoughts. I imagine Apple will resolve the issues come 2.0, but some of these (the camera especially) seem like such a no-brainer, that it’s hard to not be cynical about the reasons for not including such hardware.

With that said though, I am particularly interested in something like Microsoft’s Courier project, which is very much journal and notetaking centric, and looks to be able to do all the other tasks you could with an iPad, including web browsing, music, and reading. But I swear, I’m not a Microsoft fanboy/Apple hater! Seriously guys! With that said, if by 2.0 the Courier has not materialized, and Apple does have those gripes taken care of, I could very well see this as a competent replacement for my current netbook. Plus, I really wouldn’t mind having an eReader device.

I should also note, the other tablet/slate offerings don’t catch my eye as much (such as the HP Slate), as it seems more like designers are grafting software onto the device, as opposed to developing a system that takes advantage of the format (why I like the Courier so much).

On to speculative news items, this time about camera gear. There’s rumors buzzing that Nikon will announce new toys on Wednesday the 3rd (one would think given they have a press conference scheduled), and according to NikonRumors, it’s going to be two lenses which (if real) I will likely sell off my Sigmas and 20-35 to get: the 16-35 f/4 and 24 1.4.  The 16-35 I would have to debate on more, as I may not need something so wide, and instead would be better off with a midrange zoom between 24 and 135. But the 24 1.4 is just too good to pass up for myself, and would all but complete the f/1.4 trifecta, plus cut down on the number of lenses in my bag by 1 (as the 20 and 28 1.8 would be gone).

The other news making me geek out a bit is some potential ILC (interchangeable lens compact) announcements and revelations in the pipeline. Olympus just effectively confirmed an EP-3 is on the horizon, and the current rumor is that it might actually be cheaper. $400-500 body only perhaps? I am also hoping that aside from price, physical size may be further honed to something more pocketable (I’m not holding out for miracles, but every millimeter counts). It also sounds like Nikon may finally be jumping into the game, but there’s no telling what they’ll actually do (sensor size, lens mount if any, timelines, etc). So will 2010 be the year I finally have a somewhat portable and pocket-readyish camera? I sure hope so.