Never again would birds' song be the same.
And to do that to birds was why she came.
-- Was Robert Frost talking about the iPad in "Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same," 1942?
Today is a very big day for the Apple
The most full-featured version of the tablet ships today, with 3G wireless connectivity aboard. And two of the gadget's most hotly anticipated competitors have decided to throw in the towel.
Microsoft
Meanwhile, sources at Hewlett-Packard
The Slate was hyped as an iPad killer, and supposedly in development for years. This cancellation is a big surprise, because the HP Slate was a solid product, shown off to good effect at the CES consumer electronics show earlier this year. According to TechCrunch's sources, HP was simply not happy with Windows 7 as a tablet operating system, and the relatively power-hungry nature of the Intel
If this product ever rises from the dead, I suppose we should expect a different hardware platform like the less power-hungry QUALCOMM
So the iPad is launching a fresh version into a relative vacuum. This model should appeal to the tech-savvy or truly mobile crowd, and the environment seems ripe for an epidemic of sellouts. This weekend will show us the stuff that the iPad is truly made of.
Blow my mind today, or forever hold your peace, Steve.