I’m not trying to be a hater here. The Apple iPad is a gorgeous device. It really is. The New York Times application looks phenomenal…it will make reading on-screen a great experience, but that’s nothing new…the Kindle already did that.

I guess I just expected a little more out of this announcement. Honestly, it’s not even Apple’s fault. Outside of the invitation, Apple had not released a single piece of information about the iPad…that was all through speculation and the rumor mill on the internet. Even speculation on the name was enough to get Gruber and the other Mac-olytes in a tizzy. The hype was out of control for this device and I shouldn’t have bought into it so much, but I did. I held out hope that I’d be able to purchase an iPhone for Sprint. Yeah…not so much.

Don’t get me wrong…if someone gave me one of these, I’d take it. But I was just hoping for something a little more. Especially that first one.

That would have been AWESOME.

Anyone who knows me understands what a big deal this has been. I had access to an iPhone through work for my social initiatives that I was driving during the Cerner Health Conference (which were featured on KCTV5). I was controlling 4 Twitter accounts, a blog, a Flickr account and organizing a group of great volunteers.

My iPhone experience was predictably awesome. I spent about an hour getting used to it, downloading the apps I needed and then spending the money to download the apps I wanted.

There’s a ton to love about it.

The App Store

The user interface is slick and intuitive, but the biggest win for the iPhone is the iTunes store, which now boasts over 75,000 applications ranging from games to task managers to weather to about 500 applications for Twitter (not exaggerating). I downloaded several free apps and then with some Paypal money I had laying around (is that what cyber-money does?), I purchased a few other apps that I had either heard recommended or thought were interesting. Apple approves (or rejects) every application that is submitted and that is helpful in separating horribly designed apps (I’m looking at you, BlackBerry developers) from the pack.

One device for everything

I can’t tell you how much I hate filling my pockets with extra crap. I carry an iPod and my BlackBerry. While my Curve has the ability to handle music, the user experience of playing any sort of media takes far too many clicks and trackball movements. Imagine the difference between using a mouse with a scroll wheel to navigate web pages vs. navigating with arrows and keystrokes. It works, it’s just not very efficient.

It just…works

Everything about the iPhone is intuitive. From the gestures to the navigation…it takes about 10 seconds to get used to it and then you are multi-touching with relative ease.

Mobile browsing has no equal

Mobile Safari, the iPhone’s built in browser is so far past every other mobile browser on the market that it is almost unfair. And don’t even bring up your Opera Mini garbage. That doesn’t play here. I’ve used both. The iPhone browser is better in every possible way. It’s fast and awesome. It’s easy to switch from landscape to portrait browsing (just turn the phone). And you can make any of your favorite pages launchable like an app (which I did for Google Reader and Google Talk, since they don’t have apps).

BUT. There’s also stuff that kinda sucks.

Push Gmail is NOT Exchange

I don’t know if this is really Apple’s problem, but I really don’t like how Google decided to use the Microsoft Exchange settings to enable push Gmail. For people like me who want to have both Exchange email for work and Gmail email for home, I would need multiple Exchange accounts, which is not allowed. I ended up leaving Gmail as an IMAP account and using the Exchange account for my work. It made the most sense to me.

The network…UGGGHHHH

Much has been said about the complete suckage that is AT&T’s network. Not only are their costs ridonkulous, but they have completely under-delivered with nearly everything that they promised. MMS rollout took forever. People still can’t tether their iPhones to their computers. All these things are technologies that have been around FOREVER on other networks. Additionally, the 3G network doesn’t feel any faster than the Edge network and there are so many dead spots that you can never count on a consistent connection if you’re driving around.

Multiple calendars

I really like that the Palm Pre offers multiple calendars. With the iPhone, you only get one. If you want to check your Google calendar, you’ve got to go to the Google calendar mobile site (which is a nice experience in Mobile Safari, but still). I don’t get much use out of a calendar that doesn’t show me everything that is going on on all my calendars. I have multiple points of entry. This is one major reason why my next phone will likely be a Pre. (Well, that and I’m a loyal Sprint customer…)

What’s next

I’ve got a couple weeks before I can replace my BlackBerry. I’ve got my eye on the Pre, but the HTC Hero is on my radar as well. Unfortunately, I’ve likely ruined any semblance of a chance that they had at being happy with any non-iPhone device, but we’ll give someone a shot. It has to be a Sprint device for the time being.

Because I’m loyal to my local telecom like that…

But man…do I ever wish that Sprint had taken the opportunity to get the iPhone back when it had the chance.

I’m not sure what happened. I’d like to blame Microsoft and I actually have some justification in doing it. For some reason, it froze in the middle of a Microsoft Office automatic update and it never recovered.

I’ve tried everything I can for free. I took it to the Apple Store on the Plaza…they couldn’t even see it. I bought a SATA to USB adapter on eBay that arrived today…it didn’t work either.

So I called a data recovery specialist. They told me that if they didn’t recover anything (which they assured me rarely happens), it would still cost me a $200 attempt fee, but if they did, it would be closer to $2,300! (They give you a range and the price is based on how much they recover – minimum $500, maximum $2,700.)

As much as I’d like to recover the data, I’m not down with dropping that much money. The only absolutely heart-breaking thing that I lost was a bunch of pictures. Fortunately, I moved many of the 10,000+ in my iPhoto library (especially the almost 2,000 from our Italy trip) to my Macbook and I’m thankful for that. 

I’ll likely discover over time more of what’s missing, but what’s disheartening is that if I’d upgraded to Leopard I could have used Time Machine to automate the backups, but unfortunately I was still running Tiger.

If there’s one bright spot regarding the crash, it’s that the computer itself will still work and I can upgrade the drive to 320GB…twice the size of its predecessor. Still, it sucks.

As someone who has been a loyal Sprint user for many years, I have been really looking forward to the release of the Samsung Instinct, a phone that many are calling one of the first decent competitors to the iPhone. When the iPhone first came out, I was jealous, but it was way too expensive to even consider. Tack that onto the fact that I am a member of Sprint’s Friends and Family plan, which makes things all the more inexpensive.

I’d go as far to say that I was excited for the release of the Instinct…

Until today.

Today, my favorite company in the world released the second-generation of their industry-changing device. There are haters that don’t want to admit Apple’s greatness, but those people are kidding themselves. This is a phone that has sold 6 million units in ONE YEAR.

To put that into perspective…even though it was released mid-way through the year, the iPhone was the 2nd most popular smartphone in the U.S. (3rd globally) and outsold all Windows Mobile devices combined.

The iPhone 3G isn’t really a massive update overall. However, the fact that it is adding 3G wireless connectivity and dropping its price by half (the 8GB iPhone went from $399 to $199), combined with the best operating system a phone has ever seen…well…needless to say, I’m reconsidering whether or not I want to stick with Sprint.

So here’s what I’m proposing…those of you that helped me raise money to buy a dairy cow back in January…I’m giving you another opportunity to give.

If you donate enough money for me to buy an iPhone, I’ll give up red meat for the rest of the year.

You read that right…I’ll give up red meat through the holidays if you help me buy an iPhone.

First things first…it’s pretty. It’s so clean and well-designed that just looking at it makes me happy. Alli and I spent the first 10 minutes just photographing it as we took it out of the well-designed box.

There are several things that I’m particularly excited about:

First, I have an integrated iSight for the first time. I doubt I’ll even use it that much, but it is so freaking cool.

Second, one of the things that I wasn’t sure I would like was the redesigned keyboards. I was wrong. After a short 10 minute adjustment, I can’t figure out what the old one even felt like.

Third, Leopard. Sweet sweet Leopard. What a beautiful and fast operating system. I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of what it is capable of, but so far, I’m really impressed.

I probably should go to bed, but I just want to keep playing. I am wanting to get an AppleSac to keep it safe in my bag, but I’ll probably wait until after I pay my ticket.

Click the pictures to see all my unboxing photos.

My laptop arrived today.

I’m so excited that I can’t even see straight. The importance of me having a laptop for work just went down considerably. Now I have a portable APPLE laptop that I LOVE.

The impressive thing about the whole situation is that I got the notification that it shipped late Friday night. It departed from Shanghai, so I didn’t expect to see it until Wednesday or later (scheduled delivery was 1/23). I tracked it all weekend (ask anyone…I have the tracking number memorized). I saw that it was in KC this morning and I thought I would at least get it by tomorrow since it might need to be sorted.

God Bless FedEx – it was sorted and out for delivery by 6 AM, delivered to my house by 10:00 this morning. That’s an impressive delivery time from China (via Anchorage), especially considering that all FedEx packages are routed through Memphis. My laptop flew overhead to Memphis before making its way to my house.

I still can’t believe that it is here already. I can’t wait to go home and hug it.

The only drawback to its awesomeness is its lack of an internal optical drive, but I suppose that most folks using a subnotebook could care less. Plus, Apple can sell an external Superdrive for $99 now.

This mother is THIN. I’m still leaning toward the standard Macbook, but it certainly is an appealing option. I just want to be able to watch DVDs that I own without having to import them using HandBrake.

As for the rest of the announcements…

iTunes Movie Rentals – everyone saw that coming.

Time Capsule – cool feature for Leopard users. Wireless backup. Pretty neat.

New iPhone and iPod Touch features – The Touch is much more appealing now that it has Mail. Until the iPhone comes to Sprint, I won’t buy it. I MIGHT buy an iPod touch now.

On to more pressing things…

Ever since I’ve been considering getting a MacBook, then deciding to wait until after MacWorld, I’ve been in situations where I’ve been wanting to use it. Today is a perfect example.

I’ve got several speaking engagements coming up (tomorrow in Bonner Springs, January 20 in Lee’s Summit, February 17 in Holton, KS) and I would love to be sitting in my living room, typing away on my new MacBook. But alas, I’m limited to the big clunky standard-work-issue Dell. Booooooooo.

Still, I’m anxious to see what Uncle Steve and his army of MacMen come up with on January 15. Even if it is merely a price decrease to the existing line, I’m cool with that. They say patience is a virtue…I guess I’m not very virtuous in that manner.

I’m staying red meat-free (it was tough last night considering I was tempted by an Original Boston Cheesesteak), but I’ll stay that way and continue to take donations toward the purchase of a heifer. Go to this post to read the background and donate.

I’ve put it off for a while for several reasons…

1. Not a huge need
2. I have a work laptop
3. Concern about the newer keyboards
4. My desire to have a completely full machine, regardless of its intended use
5. Money

There’s still no huge need and I still have the work laptop. However, it’s a Dell and as free as it is, my computer has more problems than any computer rightly should (as I write this, I’m considering having our IT department wipe the hard drive for the 3rd time).

After spending some time with the new keyboards, I’ve found them completely awesome. I don’t know why I would have expected anything different from Cupertino. They are very nice…responsive and extremely elegantly designed.

As far as #4 goes…I’ll be frank. I’m a total geek. I want latest and greatest stuff across the board. My original desire for this computer was something to kick around with. I want to be able to easily move around my house not using my work laptop to blog, check e-mail, write that ever-elusive novel, etc. I’ve decided that after the Macworld Expo in January that I would just take whatever they are offering at the time in my price range. Now, after looking at all the rumors, it appears that Apple may be poised to release a NAND-flash hard-drive based compact notebook. It would be light, extremely portable, but it might not have an optical drive. One of the reasons I want a new laptop is that I want to be able to easily watch movies on trips. That might pose a problem.

Then there’s the question of which version to get. Really, that question boils down to issue #5. As much as I’d like the black one, it makes a lot more sense to stick with the mid-range white one so I can still get a SuperDrive.

This decision is very trying to my patience. Now that I’ve made the decision to get one, I can’t wait to get it. Uncle Steve Jobs’ Macworld Expo keynote on January 15 cannot get here soon enough.

Do you think I should wait?

Today, I’m not so sure.

There wasn’t much of an update to the shuffle…a color refresh and an additional (Product) RED version. Ho hum.

Then they went and updated the world’s most popular MP3-player, the iPod nano. The new nano throws away its old skinny form factor for something more squat in order to provide it with a screen large enough for video.

I’m not sure how I feel about it. The form looks strange compared to the sleekness of predecessors dating back to the iPod mini. However, they pushed up the battery life to 24 hours for audio and 5 hours for video, which is quite impressive. The fact that they added these enhancements (and increased the sizes from 2GB and 4GB to 4GB and 8GB) while managing to keep the price the same ($149 for the 4GB and $199 for the 8GB) is awesome. You can now have a video iPod for less than $200. That’s amazing.

Obviously Apple couldn’t do anything without updating the standard iPod, which they are now calling the iPod Classic. They increased the size on it and added metal enclosures as well, pushing the smaller models to 80GB for $249 and 160GB for $349. Consider this: when I got my first iPod, the original 20GB version, it cost $500. You can now get 8 times the storage for $150 LESS. And battery life is now 40 hours for audio and 7 hours for video.

And the reason for the name change? A new iPod – the iPod Touch, which is basically an iPhone without the phone capability. This is the Big One. There is now finally an iPod with a touchscreen, widescreen capability and Freaking. Wi-Fi. That’s right. This is exactly an iPhone without the phone. Very VERY cool. I would have liked to see it in larger sizes than 8GB ($299) and 16GB ($399) – videos take up lots of space, both on hard drives and on iPods. Very cool that they added a Wi-Fi version of the iTunes store so you can buy stuff on the fly now and it syncs to your computer.

There is a feature where if you are at Starbucks and you are listening to a song, you can buy it. I don’t know why he saved it for last…pretty underwhelming.

No wait…they dropped the price on the iPhone. Only one model. $200 less. 8GB for $399. Morons who bought early.

It’s a good day to be an iPod fan and just another example of why Apple should be responsible for ALL hardware design. I bet NBC is kicking themselves now.

So what do you think? Do you want one? Are you upset about a recent purchase? Sound off.

Special thanks to Engadget for their live blog of the event.