Anyone that’s called me lately knows the issues my last phone had - poor speaker, sometimes wouldn’t allow the two parties to talk to eachother until I restarted it, vibrate had stopped working, and a battery that could drain in 2-4 hours easily (even on new batteries).  While I’ve only played with this phone for less than 10 hours, I can already tell it’s a giant step in the right direction for Windows Mobile, especially with HTC’s Touch Flo 3D interface that’s overlaid on top of the WinMo interface.  Touch controls aren’t nearly as awkward, buttons are big enough to hit with fingers instead of stylus only, the thing’s fast, and my biggest pet peeve is gone - flush screen, so scrollbars are no longer a pain.  The only thing I miss is having a directional pad - when one-handed, that thing always made navigation a little easier.

The screen resolution is unbelieveable - 480×800, especially perfect for web browsing.  Say I want to see what amenities are on the aircraft Affordable Charters of Excellence owns, should I want a nice, luxurious private air charter - I can do so without having to constantly scroll left and right to read all that’s on the page.

For once, Verizon hasn’t fully crippled a high-end phone they’ve gotten, either - the Touch Pro 2 comes with aGPS (assisted GPS) still enabled, so I can use it with Google Maps and actually see where on a map I am.  The speakerphone is amazing, vibrate isn’t weak, camera pretty decent… and the pricetag wasn’t all bad, either - $199 after a $100 mail-in, Verizon’s finally getting that part right as well.

You say the iPhone has had a lot of these things (sans screen resolution) already?  Bring the iPhone to Verizon, and maybe I’ll consider heading that route - but for now, I’m quite content with the handy little WinMo phone I have.

I’ve always been one to be stubborn about the software I use - I’ve always been a Windows person, an IE person, etc.; after realizing Apple was never going to update the Windows/Boot Camp drivers for my MacBook Pro (which had plenty of Blue Screens, overheating issues, and hard freezes, all related to the buggy drivers), I swapped over to Mac OS - a big change, which I’m still trying to get used to; I miss quite a few different things I could do on a PC I can no longer do on a Mac, including full keyboard accessibility (Mac OS’s FKA leaves a lot to be desired).  But I got over that, and swapped over to Firefox on my laptop as well (since running IE is pretty much an impossibility), and finally settled into that program, as well.  I still used Internet Explorer on my desktop at home, just an old habit I wasn’t ready to break, until Britt pointed me to Mozilla Weave - a spectacular add-on that allows synchronizing bookmarks, saved passwords, form data, preferences, tabs, and browsing history.  Coming from previously having to manually copy bookmarks back and forth every couple weeks, this certainly sounded good, so I gave it a shot - and I’m sure glad I did.  Create an account, and you’re all set - it does the rest for you.  Having all that sync continuously is a Godsend - and I’m not surprised they haven’t made it a standard part of Firefox yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnV9D7p4Fyo

     First, tactile feedback.  Yes, having a screen that you can change languages, rearrange the keys, etc. may sound nice, but a touchscreen tablet won’t be able to give you the feel of the keys while you’re typing.  Need to look away to read what you need to type, or to talk to someone?  You can try to do it, but it’s not going to be pretty, if coherent at all.  I’ve messed with my share of tablet PCs, and it just doesn’t come out quite right. 

     Second, maintainability would be a major factor - how do you keep from scratching the screen, cracking it, keep it free from major fingerprints, etc.  I see enough cracked screens on normal laptops, imagine how often it would happen with an unprotected tablet.  The mockups I’ve seen show the Mac tablet as being simply a tablet, not a convertable laptop/tablet hybrid as most Tablet PCs are.  Users would likely end up having to use a hard case to protect their computer, but having such a case would likely take away from the “pretty” Mac design, not to mention add clutter once you’ve pulled everything out on the desk to start working.

     Third, cost and profitability.  Apple would likely use a glass multi-touch panel, and one of that size would be quite costly to install - and to replace when cracked/broken.  While there would likely be a surge of initial sales, mainly from the idealistic people who think such a design would be AWESOME, users would come to realize it isn’t as flashy as they’d hoped… leaving Apple holding the bag on a lot of unsold tablets.

     Do I think Apple is researching these kinds of things? Of course I do, and I certainly hope they (and other companies) are - it is something worth trying to fully brainstorm/develop.  But as of now, good idea on paper, bad idea in production.

The up side?  No unsafe side effects to humans or surrounding items (that is, nothing discovered yet), something that plagues many “wireless power” ideas that have come in the past.  Intel’s design delivers power via magnetic field, compared to prior designs that pretty much amounted to shooting electric bolts across the room, hitting anything that might be in the way.

While I know this technology is far from being perfected (and made cheap), it does bring some hope to me - I’m so tired of having to stay plugged in most of the time.  And think if this can be adapted and shrunk to become the size of a standard laptop power adapter - you could have a nice, portable wireless power adapter to plug into any room, any building.  Of course, I would surely lose/forget my adapter ALL THE TIME, since I wouldn’t be stuck to it and whatnot.

My only concern?  While Intel is saying “the human body is not affected by magnetic fields,” magnets are used in various ways to help the human body heal - obviously there are effects.  What effects would this power system have on us, especially if it were cranked up to a kilowatt or so to cover powering a whole room?

Read up more:
http://news.yahoo.com/story/afp/20080821/ts_afp/usitinternetenergychipcompanyintel

http://blogs.intel.com/research/2008/08/you_have_to_see_thiswireless_p.php

     The board I got has a 1.6ghz Atom built-in, and in Vista, it was getting a mid 3 experience score for the CPU; 2gb RAM gets it a respectable 5’s range on RAM, and of course the hard drive is a normal SATA drive; the only thing lacking was the “Gaming” and “Aero” performance; both were around a 2.  In other words, while the rest of the setup is fine, its graphics capabilities are lacking, and only having a PCI slot (not Express) limits the options for upgrades.  I have to admit, though, this thing is pretty quick going through Vista - windows were quick to open/close, there wasn’t any real lag… I’m sure games like Age of Empires 2 or 3 would work fine, as should Starcraft… so I ‘d be all set.  Needless to say, this thing does quite well, considering the processor runs at a MUCH lower wattage than Core 2 Duos/anything else out there today - 2.5W max on the Atom, compared to 65W on Core 2’s.  The only other comparable competitor is the Via C7/Nano, but so far any board I’ve found with the Via kinda…well…sucks. (1GB max RAM, boards are too far overpriced for what they have, etc.)

     So, for anyone who needs a good, lightweight system for doing everyday computing, or something to get your child, this thing’s the way to go - we’ll gladly build one for you.

http://www.intel.com/technology/atom/index.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmNrm9vHBHs

Here’s another couple that Britt found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHrbid_uf4k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMIhfqqRwpA

http://jalopnik.com/339153/beautiful-hand+built-air+cooled-v12-makes-68-hp-per-liter

http://joshb-log.blogspot.com/2007/12/wii-vr.html