However, the last few weeks I have been trying to solve a technology problem and an coming to realize the iPad just might fit the bill. I switched companies a couple weeks ago and the IT setup is very different. My old company had an external WiFi network that was outside the corporate LAN, and streaming, video watching, etc, was fine. So, I took my laptop to my office and had access to Pandora, Rhapsody, Hulu, etc. My new company’s IT policy is much more strict and prohibits streaming via the company network and there is no public WiFi.

Like most people I need to be entertained while I write code, so I have been trying to come up with a better solution. Aside from streaming music, I listen to podcasts. So I have been using Pandora/Rhapsody on my Android and then have my iPod for podcasts and other media that I own. But this isn’t all that great… I dont like running music on my phone all day as it seriously hurts the battery, and I’m still using 2 devices.

Side note on why 2 devices – lets face it, iTunes is still king of media programs. The podcasting setup is great… and movie purchase/rental is nice as well. The Zune desktop app comes close, but Zune isn’t an option for my current situation as there is no 3G (yet). And Android podcasting is pretty basic.. with no good desktop app for syncing.

So, I went the netbook route and looked at 3G cards. ATT and VZ offer a 5GB/mo plan for $60, with hefty fees if you go over. Cricket offers a no contract “unlimited” plan for $40 a month. Unlimited in that you can go over 5GB, but they will throttle your bandwidth.

With a 2 year contract I can get a netbook from either ATT or VZ for $50-$200 depending on specs. This works out to be (60*24)+200 = $1640 for the two years. Cricket would be less per month, but you have to buy a netbook at full price, so its about a wash.

The problem is, 5GB wont last long spread over a month with lots of music and some vid use. Plus, the majority of netbooks I tried were just blah. Screens weren’t that nice, etc. There is a Sony with a high res screen that is very nice, but it is about $550 and isn’t carried by ATT or VZ. So that puts you at close to $2000 for a two year contract. Thats a lot just to play pandora…

Enter the iPad. I have all my music and podcasts on one device. I can rent movies, I can play silly games.. and use not so silly apps. The battery should be pretty good… and the web surfing experience will be way better than any phone… and I would bet better than the netbooks (except for the lack of Flash). Add to this the $30 a month true unlimited ATT data plan with *NO* contract! You literally can sign up and cancel service at any time from the iPad itself. No need to go to an ATT store even. This is really.

So, the base 3G model with two years of data comes to (30*24) + 630 = 1350. So not only are we cheaper than a normal netbook (and much cheaper than a good netbook) setup, we aren’t limited to 5GB. Plus, I can turn off the data any month that I dont need it, or want to save some cash.

The bottom line is, while I still think some things about iPad are stupid (no flash, no multitasking), it really does solve my current problem quite well and for less money.

I downloaded this on my Droid and have been playing around with it for a few days. All I can say is that this is crazy. Take a picture of something and Google will (most of the time) find you some info on it. I’ve played around with some examples:

Took a pic of my Macbook Pro sitting on my desk… and Google new it was a Macbook.

I was across the street from the Fox Theater in Boulder and I took a pic of the front of the building. Google knew it was the Fox, and brought up info and links to a map.

I found a Hanna Montana pink tissue box at a local store and I took a pic.. Google knew it was Hanna…

Supposedly it will recognize wine labels too. This is some neat technology and could be useful. Sometimes its hard to search for something based on text, especially if you dont know exactly what you are looking at or it is in some foreign language.

Maybe eventually this will couple with Google’s really great translation tools and do things like translate street signs on the fly… it also reads barcodes and book covers, but its a bit slower than other Android apps for just that.

There are several very nice improvements over the default:

- Skins. You can use an iPhone skin to get that iChat sms feel.

- Popup notification. If you choose, you can have an iPhone like popup when you get an SMS. However, unlike the iPhone, the popup window lets you do a quick response back without even opening the SMS app.

- Voice to Text!!!! This is awesome. Jsut hit Menu -> Voice when in an sms thread and the standard Google Voice box pops up, just speak your message and bam, the text is put in a message for you. This is killer because its way faster than using and on-screen or physical keyboard. And when you are driving, much safer

- Widget that launches SMS on click, and displays unread msg number.

All this and the app is free!