Tens of thousands of ex-Cubans currently living in Florida (after risking their lives to get there) would beg to differ.

I don't see many people trying to cross the Gulf on makeshift rafts to get IN to your communist paradise. Why do you s'pose that is?

You can't. They're dead.

Also, notice that nobody announces how old George Washington is every year.

You know who never says that Jobs stole it all from Woz?

Woz.

Yes he did. What have you done that's so much better?

Yeah, the idea of apps tying somebody to a phone platform is beyond silly.

I've had an iPhone for about two years now, and intend to wait at least another year before bothering to upgrade.

At that point, if the Android is the best phone on the market (or if I've simply had it with AT&T's weaksauce network), a collection of easily-replaced $1.99 apps is not going to stop me from getting the phone I want.

Don't be silly. There's no camera on an iPad.

That would be true if Flash was EVER a good way to develop cross-platform products. Anybody who has ever experienced Flash on a Mac laptop knows better. Nothing like having the whirring of the cooling fan completely drown out the sound of the YouTube video you were trying to watch.

Oddly, watching h.264 files via VLC or QuickTime doesn't have the same problem, even at much higher data rates.

When it comes to the two-term administrations of Eisenhower, Reagan, and Clinton, the first question one must ask any critic is, "what didn't you like, the peace or the prosperity?"

And I have an 8-track, but that doesn't mean I expect anybody to sell me new albums that work with it.

Thanks for that tip, AC. I'll look into those options.

Yeah, but who wants a 747 filling the entry way to the bathroom, when a door does the job so well?

A lot of things about a 747 which make it very valuable, but comparisons of different tools, meant for different jobs, is completely silly.

I don't know, but when I discovered that the iPad can't print, even to a printer plugged right in to their "AirPort" hub, which supports printer sharing, I decided to pass on getting any of the iWork apps.

Fuck including a camera. Lack of printing is my biggest disappointment with the device.

That said, it's fantastic for the tasks I actually bought it for (mostly VNC), so I'm mostly happy with it. I just won't be selling off my laptop unless iPhone OS 4 addresses my few nitpicks like the printing issue.

Yeah, how does the battery hold up playing h.264 video on the "Jupiter" pad?

Oh yeah, that's right, it can't do it.

So one of the big selling features of the iPad... can't be done with that gizmo.

Okay, what does WiFi broadband surfing do to battery perfor... Oh.

Fine, how about when you turn on 3G for cell conne... Oh.

So, this is basically like comparing the Sony Walkman to the first iPod... Except that the Sony Walkman was an actual market success that people enjoyed owning.

Making it a small fraction of the price in inflation-adjusted dollars might have something to do with it.

Nothing could ever compel me to spend $1000 in in '98 on a touch-screen computer (with a non-touch OS).

But $500 in 2010? Shit, I think I could dig that kind of cash out of my couch cushions.

Only so long as government is a significant land owner. Some people believe it ought not be.