But the big question is who is going to buy it? Sure, there will be the fanboys and Apple maniacs who’ll stand in the cold pouring rain to snap up the latest shiny toy offered by His Royal Steveness. But apart from this demographic, who else is eager for an iPad. No one seems to know. Not even Apple, according to The Economist.

In its new technology blog, Babbage, The Economist wonders if the iPad is aimed at road warriors–people who spend a lot of time travelling for work. You can already access email, Facebook and the iWork suite on the new gadget, but in the absence of video-conferencing abilities, it’s hard to see why businessmen would want to switch from a laptop or Macbook.

So is Apple trying to use the iPad to entice grandpa and grandma to get online? For several people past a certain age, operating a computer is like trying to activate a nuclear reactor–complex and incomprehensible. So, with its touch-screen technology and easy navigation, the iPad would be the perfect tool to launch oneself into the great online vortex. Also, the iPad could serve as a great educational tool in developing nations.

Already, Apple has seen close to 190,000 pre-orders for the iPad. But once the fanboys are out of the way and the initial enthusiasm fades—it would interesting to see who finally goes home with the gadget.

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The Ipad is finally here!
iPads in Classrooms! Good Luck Teaching Kids ANYTHING Now

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that major textbook publishers are in the process of inking deals with software company ScrollMotion Inc. to transfer their textbooks into an e-reader form that can make it compatible with digital devices like Apple’s iPad. The publishers are tapping the know-how of ScrollMotion Inc. to develop textbook applications and test-prep and study guides for the iPad (WSJ). The publishers on board, include Kaplan Inc., which is best know for its test prep guides and the education unit of McGraw Hill and Cos.

So far, the Journal reports, college kids have been slow to adapt to digital e-textbooks, partly because of mobility problems- the desktops and laptops and netbooks were too large to lug around. But with the iPad’s portability–that issue could be addressed. So now college kids can download their e-textbooks and school kids could “enhance” their learning by taking notes online, recording lectures and taking tests online.

The iPad also will be helped by the interest that schools have always had in tablet-form computers. Science teachers, for example, could use them for taking lab notes, which often use a combination of sentences, charts and mathematical equations, while others could use them on field trips. “This is the beginning of handheld education,” said John Lema, chief executive of ScrollMotion (WSJ).

BARF! Try getting kids to pay attention when they have access to video online–it’s hard enough already to get them to get their digits off their cell-phones, you think they’re going to pay attention when they have a shiny iPad? And didn’t we all buy into that study that said that multi-tasking actually makes the kids more ADD? What are we doing to our kids?!

I know. We’re developing a breed of attention-resistant, multi-tasking brats, who won’t know how to use a pen or remember what they learnt two minutes after exiting class. And I should know- I read on the internet all the time to never retain information and my hand-writing sucks. There- game, set, match! Over.

Related Content:
The iPad is Finally Here

It has been one of the world’s worst kept secrets, but that hasn’t make the waiting any easier. Now, after years of whispers, rumors, speculation, and leaks, people can finally gawk at Apple’s latest offering–a new device the company refers to as the iPad.

The thin and elegant tablet device was officially unveiled Wednesday by Apple CEO Steve Jobs in San Fransisco. The iPad “is so much more intimate than a laptop, and it’s so much more capable than a smartphone with its gorgeous screen,” Mr. Jobs crowed. “It’s phenomenal to hold the Internet in your hands” [The New York Times].

So what exactly is this tablet? The iPad, it seems, looks and acts a lot like a giant iPhone or iPod Touch. You can get your apps, play your games, store your pictures, watch your videos, and browse the Internet–but on a bigger screen and in higher definition. One addition to the tablet is that now you can read books online with Apple’s new iBooks.

At the launch, Jobs described the iPad as featuring a 9.7-inch, full capacitive multi-touch IPS display that weighs 1.5 pounds and measures just half an inch. “Thinner and lighter than any netbook,” according to Jobs [PCMag]. There’s also an on-screen keyboard for you to jab at. The tablet’s starting price is $499 for a 16 gigabyte device and goes up to $699 for the 64 GB version. If you throw in an extra $130, you’ll get 3G capability. Apple linked up with AT&T for its two 3G data plans: You can choose between paying $14.99 a month for 250 megabytes (which you could burn through pretty quickly by downloading multimedia) or $29.99 for unlimited data. In both cases, you don’t need a contract. All models feature built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an accelerometer, speaker, and microphone. It is expected to start shipping in March.

The iPad has a built-in iTunes store, for music playback. It can also do video, naturally, either via iTunes for movies and TV shows, or via third-party apps like YouTube and YouTube HD. The device syncs to Macs and PCs via USB, in much the same manner as the iPhone, so users can transfer content like movies and music from iTunes. According to Jobs, the device gets 10 hours of battery life. “I can take a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo and watch video the whole time.” It also features a month of standby time on a single charge, he said [PCMag].

But what’s a tablet without the right accessories? There are two docks offered for the device: The first one is a picture dock, so you can watch videos with the device docked upright. The other has a built-in-keyboard that transforms the tablet into a (gasp!) netbook of sorts.

It is clear one of the main functions of the iPad will be as a reading device. Martin Nisenholtz from the New York Times showed its own app onstage for the iPad, which looks like a larger, lusher version of the one which is now available on the iPhone. “This is the next version of digital journalism,” declares Nisenholtz. We’ll see [Washington Post].

This post originally appeared in Discover Magazine’s blog 80 Beats.

Haha…no! It won’t..but I like to be alarmist about these things.

But take a look at the new phone, the Nexus One. According to people who got an early trial by Google, it’s like an Android Version of the Iphone.

The BBC reports:

It will be sold via Google’s website and initially be available on T-mobile in America followed by Vodafone in Europe and Verizon in the US.

Direct from Google it will cost $529 (£331) and on contract with T-Mobile $179 (£112). Google said the phone would ship from launch day.

Mario Queiroz, Google vice president for product management, described the unveiling as “the next stage in the evolution of Android”.

Mr Queiroz said there were now more than 20 Android phones available from 59 carriers in 48 nations.

Read more here.

Read Wired’s review here.

Doesn’t it make you wince when you watch an old flick and think, “Man, he used to look like that? And now he looks like this?”

It’s bad enough to watch relatives age, but seeing it happen to impregnable famous athletes and movie stars is more sudden dispiriting. Yes, yes, looks are superficial and all that, but what about brains? Until I saw Judge Guido Calabrese majestically and literally hold court in the Second Circuit, I was having trouble wrapping my head around the older and wiser concept.

Then you’ve got health issues, oh man, the health issues. It’s pretty easy to picture that part of the journey.

Long gone are the days when I would knock myself unconscious diving into a brick wall playing Chinese handball. Recently I pulled a muscle while I was sleeping. Tough times indeed. Nobody ever is what he used to be. But now there’s a new cause for agingaphobia, and it has to with Sergei Brin, Steve Jobs and all the other techno mad men.

Watching a sexagenarian open an attachment is painfully unfair. They worked all their lives to get this far, and now they can’t even open the modern envelope. I gasp- that could be me one day. After all, I declared boldly in 1998 that email would never take off. I was the last guy to get a cell phone, preferring to memorize numbers in my head or scrawl them on my hand as I marched into the night with quarters in my back pocket. I didn’t send a text message till 2006, and learned how to upload pictures what seems like yesterday.

As we get older and stop making sense, our children and grandchildren will play with toys that seem like magic, and young associates will roll their eyes every time we say, “the what?” or “how/where?”

Every step you fall behind now is two you’ll have to make up later.

Lyndon Johnson knew this- that’s why the Great Society begat Head Start. Every runner knows this- that’s why you’ve gotta work the hills. The internet is no information highway, my friends, it’s a raging river, and all boats are sinkable. My new year’s resolution is to keep my head above water, fear of technology trumped by fear of falling too far behind to enjoy the future milk and honey years.

Slate's list of 50 companies that use Facebook well includes Apple, Louis Vuitton, and Gatorade

We all use Facebook well. We did put up pictures of the dumb pie we baked, or the loser concert we attended … not to mention cutesy pictures of us at various parties to prove our popularity. We update our statuses religiously, add friends, spy on people’s babies and smirk at dormant walls.

Of course, we are all aces at maximizing Facebook’s potential to kill time. But what about companies? Large one, small ones, ones that barely have any money or employees – How are they using God’s gift to nosey parkers a.k.a FB?

Slate’s Big Money compiled Big Money Facebook 50, a ranking of all the companies making the best use of Facebook.

Winners on the list include

Taco Bell – Yum Brands’ (YUM) fast food chain Taco Bell is responsive to fan comments and generates strong positive feedback when it posts promotions. (Big Money)

Gatorade: PepsiCo.’s (PEP) Gatorade set up an app that encouraged users to vote for their favorite moment from Michael Jordan’s career. More than 8,000 votes were cast on the sports drink’s page.

Apple Students: Apple (AAPL) started “Apple Students” as a sponsored group when the Facebook community was almost exclusively college kids. Even though Facebook has since grown, the electronics retailer’s page is a good place to deliver targeted messages to this audience.

Check out the whole list here.

Big Money points out that most of the companies that made the list are very large, very well known firms.  It also notes, that ExxonMobil seems to have no official presence on Facebook (GASP!) and Bank of America has little more than 600 fans (C’mon fellas, lets some ‘em banks a ‘lil more lovin! After all they have our MONEY!).

The piece says Facebook pages are also a great way for the  company to announce giveaways, communicate promotions to fans across the world and serve as a forum to creatively generate ideas to support the product in question (eg.Design ideas from fans for a car manufacturer)

You can read the rest of Slate Big Money’s Facebook 50 here.

Wait! You named me WHAT!?!

It’s amazing. Your new baby bounces into your life, you’re overcome with happiness and then, in a weird sinister twist, you decide to punish the child by naming him/ her something totally ridiculous.

No idea what I am talking about? err..try this on for size…”Apple?” (Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s daughter) or “Pilot Inspecktor?” (unfortunate child of Jason Lee)

Ok, maybe celebs go the extra mile to come up with crazy names..but for regular ol’ folks like you and me, and indeed the celebrities, there is a new service in town- Today Translations- that helps translate exotic names so that you don’t end up with a name that means something crazy in another language.

For Example: Tom Cruise and Katie Holme’s child is called Suri-which means “pickpocket” in Japanese, “turned sour” in French and “horse mackerels” in Italian. Hyuk! No more sofa jumping for Suri, methinks!

Reuters reports that for 1,000 pounds ($1,678), the company’s linguists will carry out a “basic name translation audit” of names, checking their meaning in 100 languages, or more for an additional cost.

While open to everyone, the firm said it expects the service is likely to attract celebrity clients, who are known for giving their babies unusual names.

Some baby names, the report concedes, are beyond translation such as Jermajesty — the son of Michael Jackson’s brother Jermaine.

Check out the 20 most bizarre celebrity baby names here.