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I have a few predictions to make before the iPad actually arrives, and I think I’m pretty spot-on. Since it’s an Apple product, and everything they make sells like hotcakes, you can almost bet that the iPad will sell just as well as the iPhone. Don’t need “an extra device”? Yeah, you do. See, the thing about it is… at first, sure — it’ll be “just another gadget”. But once you start using it, it’s going to be the only device you feel like using.

Apple streamlines all of its user interfaces. I call it “dumbing down technology for the masses”. Any time I get into an argument, I pull that card against the Mac fanboy and it’s all over. You can’t deny that Apple dumbed down a potent operating system (FreeBSD & Linux) so the average Joe can use it without a terminal prompt or kernel recompilation. It’s brilliant. This is how Apple works. Get used to it.

To broadcast how much of an Apple fanboy I am not, here’s an interesting fact for you: I don’t own one Apple device. NOT ONE. I have a completely unbiased outlook on Apple’s products in the sense that I’ve used them before, they’re awesome, but they just don’t fit into my daily lifestyle. As a computer repair technician, I have to backup peoples’ stuff every day at work. OS X doesn’t like NTFS. They don’t play well together at all. And I can’t see any intelligence in gimping a $2,000+ Macbook Pro with Boot Camp, Parallels, or VMware Fusion just so I can spend $120 more on Windows 7. That’s retarded.

Back on track, you remember the iPhone hype and media coverage back in 2007, don’t you? Get ready to witness the same thing on a slightly smaller scale. Apple is spreading its iPad across the US at Apple Stores, Best Buy, and UPS deliveries on launch day. This will cut down on the perceived amount of success. But don’t be fooled. People don’t understand how it’s better than the iPhone or why they should replace their computer with it, but you just wait a week, or a month, whichever it takes. Apple will make billions off of this product. You. Just. Wait.

The Google video on YouTube about Google Chrome OS comes to mind. Early in their introduction video, they simply state that the first thing most users click on when their computer starts up is their web browser. That’s all they care about — how fast they can get on the world wide freakin’ web. And it’s 100% true! Other than e-mail, that’s a majority of what matters to Tom, Dick, or Harry. So there it is, web and e-mail in the palms of your hands.

Why is it better? Because it’s always on, has amazing battery life, and has a huge multitouch IPS display. People just do not understand the convenience that the iPad will bring. They look at the price tag and what they already own & know how to use, and they instantly judge the iPad without even using it.

Can’t multitask? It doesn’t need to. With push notifications for your instant messaging, I cannot think of one logical reason why the iPad needs to be able multitask. Especially not for the shorter battery life it’ll cause. Stop whining. Apple has so much money tied up in the R&D for the iPad that your bitching about multitasking just makes them laugh because you don’t see the full picture.

No external storage? You don’t need it! Buy the internal storage you need and be done with it. Apple not only wants complete control of the devices through iTunes, but they also want the end-user to have the best, trouble-free experience possible so they don’t have to hear people whining on the phone wondering why something doesn’t work. It all makes complete sense if you put one of Apple’s shoes on and one of the user’s shoes on. Try seeing both sides for once.

No camera? I can’t think of the last time I used a webcam. I really can’t. Once again, to give you a real battery life estimate, they cannot simply slap a camera in the iPad. It’s not only the power draw of the camera module itself that matters. It’s the extra processor cycles used to integrate the camera in real time frame-by-frame into applications.

The iPad will be a great success. Just sit back, watch, and enjoy. I’ve even printed comments from an Engadget post about how much people think the iPad will fail and they wouldn’t purchase one if it they needed it to stay alive. You’ll quickly see how wrong those comments were. In a few days.

I’ve never dealt with them, but Mwave.com had the best price on the Intel X25-M 160GB SSD. After looking up reviews on past experiences with them, there were good and bad – but the bad reviews seemed to be small problems that stemmed from the customer being a temperamental individual. So I ordered it with overnight shipping. This morning at like 2AM.

They are in the Pacific Time Zone, and I’m in Eastern, so I didn’t expect human interaction until at least noon or so my time. I did end up receiving an e-mail for me to call them about processing my order. Since I’m mostly optimistic, I politely called them, and was immediately greeted by an actual person but asked to be put on hold. This was fine, and I patiently waited about 4 minutes until the same lady came back on the phone. She asked for my order number and wanted the toll-free number on the back of my debit card to verify the transaction. Hey, that’s fine with me!

I then received an e-mail saying that my order had been approved. After checking my order status on their website, it still had not shipped. That’s fine. Hell, it was just approved. I never expected for them to ship it yet. I was just nosey.

I usually leave important tabs open in my browser, and frequently refresh them when I’m waiting on updated information. Refreshed it and not long after the payment was processed and accepted, the drive had a tracking number available via their website and I received an e-mail for every update to my order.

Excellent service so far, and an excellent experience overall. I may start doing more business with them.

Ordered 7 miscellaneous hard drives from Newegg.com, and finally got around to using the last couple in a FreeNAS server for someone. Lookie what we have here, a hard drive that repeatedly clicks when powered up. Nice! It’s going back today.

Whelp, I can’t stop looking at laptops, and here’s the final list of candidates:

• Alienware M15x (15″)
• ASUS G73JH-A2 (17″)
• Dell Studio XPS 16 (16″, Bottom of the list. CPU throttling issues.)
• HP Envy 15 (15″)
• Lenovo Thinkpad T510 (15″)
• Lenovo Thinkpad W510 (15″)
• Toshiba Qosmio X505 Series (18.4″ – WOW!)

What will I end up buying? I have no clue. The ASUS looks nice but has no eSATA or USB 3.0.

My Lenovo T400 still has plenty of life in it, since it’s only about 8 months old, but there’s new stuff out there. And for a geek like me, that means I need something new. Here’s my dilemma:

• I settle for nothing less than the best.
• I plan on spending a pretty penny for a nice computer that’ll last me at least a year.
• If I’m going to spend a lot of money on a computer, I’d like to use it all day long. (Work, home, travel.)
• If I couldn’t use it all day long, I consider it half as useful as it could be.
• I need the same files available to me all day long, without external hard drives or online storage.
• My main point: I need a laptop.

Here are my current choices:

• Lenovo Thinkpad T510: This is Lenovo’s updated, 15-inch model Thinkpad. It’s available as a Core-i5 or Core-i7 with a FHD (1920×1080) resolution. The LCD also displays a 95% color gamut. This is irrelevant to me, but a plus for this specific laptop. Total cost: Around $1500+tax, customized.
• Hewlett-Packard Envy 15: The Envy 15 has been updated to include USB 3.0 in the Core-i7 model and is now available as a Core-i5. It is also available with a FHD resolution of 1920×1080, which is a must. It’s 1″ thick and costs around $1500+tax for the configuration I want.
• Apple’s conference will be held on January 26th (12 days from now) where I’m betting they’ll be unveiling new Macbook Pro’s with the new Intel Core series. I don’t want a 17″ laptop and that’s the only size that has ever included a high-resolution screen like I’m wanting. We’ll see if they give us choices. I bet not. Price: Probably around $1800+tax.

All in all, I have no clue what I’ll end up with. I would really love to stick with a Windows laptop, but having a Mac wouldn’t be a big deal. I’ve owned them in the past (within the past few years I’ve owned two). Who knows. Do you know?