It doesn't take photos or videos. Or play music. The "delete" button is powered by the eraser of a #2 pencil. But it's tough, lightweight and cheap. It goes with me everywhere. Recently, I realized how glad I was to have it.

I went off to write at Foster’s Market, a leisurely café popular with Duke students, families and foodies. It has a big back room and a do-what-you-will mentality. I decamped, opened on my browser and was met with an error message.

NO NETWORK CONNECTION

Steve Jobs was speechless. Bill Gates was aghast. Suddenly, my laptop was an unwieldy doo-dad and my connection to a gazillion other voices was silent. (Kind of a relief, actually....)

There’s been a lot of talk recently of integrating the online and offline worlds. Foursquare. Geo targeting. Sixth Sense technology. Augmented reality.

It’s easy to assume the Internet is everywhere, like an invisible aura in our iPhoned and iPadded iWorld. Without it, things just are: a wooden table, a notebook, a pen.

So “No Wi-Fi” was a shock of cold water. It wore off when I remembered my trusty “iPad”– a pad. It’s cheap, sparkly, and pocket-sized.

I pressed the ink down onto the paper. My document was saved from the start. I couldn’t lose power. I was the power. Some of my favorite ideas are scribbled in notebooks like this. At a restaurant. In a doctor’s office. Before a gym class.

My "iPad" can teach my laptop a thing or two about versatility.  And it reminds me to be just as flexible.

I think the real "unspoken" genius of the iPad is that Apple is creating the most intuitive, most user-centered, most human user interface we've ever known -- our hands!  The iPhone trained us to use our fingers to control media -- think about it, we never flipped or pinched before the iPhone (you know what I mean!).  Scrolling took on a whole new meaning.  What the iPad is sure to create is a new user interface where the screen and all media are literally, in our hands.  Who knows what kinds of applications can be created when keyboards and mice disappear...and everything we do is with gestures...soon to be eye, thought, motion gestures!

join the group on facebook and share a screen grab of your iPhone home screen...it's part social experiement, part self expression!

http://bit.ly/8In4A0

Here’s the situation. You and a friend with an iPhone are discussing a very interesting topic.

“All I’m saying is, if Thatcher and Reagan, two conservative leaders, didn’t come together at that exact point in history, things today would be much, much… oops, hold on, my iPhone’s ringing.”

People with iPhones don’t say their cellphone is ringing. No, no – it’s their iPhone that is ringing.

“Uh oh! My crazy friend tagged me in a photo on Facebook. I’ve got see what he posted. Man the 3G is slow in here.”

To be an iPhone user, you are required to comment on the status of the 3G network at every location you visit.

“HA HA HA!! Look at that crazy guy!  He’s making copies of his butt!”

And now for the ceremonial holding-up-of-the-iPhone-screen-to-the-friend-without-an-iPhone. 

“Quick, what’s a funny comment I can post about it? No wait. I’ve got it!”

For the next five minutes, as your friend struggles with the iPhone’s QWERTY keypad, you could try to remember what the discussion was you were having before. But the efforts will be futile. All you’ll be able to think about is that guy’s butt.

“Ha, ha. I wrote, ‘That’s butt-tastic!’”

Here’s my solution to this type of situation. A simple iPhone App will automatically detect when an interesting, thought-provoking discussion is taking place. When the iPhone user grabs their iPhone during the discussion, the app will send a direct shock to the iPhone user’s brain, jarring their attention back to the face-to-face conversation they are having.

I’m thinking of calling the app “The Conversation Saver.” Or maybe something cute like, “Ring-a-ling-a-ling! Quit playing with your iPhone when you are talking to people.”

the new skype iphone app is launching...i for one will be downloading and installing it as soon as it becomes available

on launch it will be restricted to making calls via wi-fi hotspots only- surely it won't be long before calls will work via the 3g network too as this is a feature available on t-mobile / skype enabled phones

chat works, but there is no video, voicemail or sms support yet- that's all coming in v2

Last Saturday's NYT article, "Why television shines in a world of screens" made me stop and wonder what television will actually mean in the months and years ahead.

The article says, "television stands out as the one old-media business with surprising resilience."  It went on to say that people are showing a clear preference for a fully formed video experience that comes ready to play on a screen, requiring nothing but our passive attention."  And, "The video mode has been reinforced by the rise of YouTube. In December, almost 100 million viewers in the United States watched 5.9 billion YouTube videos, according to ComScore. Tellingly, YouTube has not cannibalized TV viewership - it has instead carved out another chunk of our leisure time for video on a screen."

If i stream an episode of The Office on my handset with MobiTV, is that television?

If i watch a DVR'd show on my laptop in a hotel room with Slingbox, is that television?

If i watch an old episode of Barney Miller on my Mac, for FREE on Hulu, is that television?

If i work on a PowerPoint presentation in my family room using a wireless keyboard and mouse, and my 55" Sharp LCD hanging on the wall, is that a computer...or television?

Is it too much to say that VERY soon television will simply be the word for the screen, and not a description of the content as we know it today?

In the mean time, i'm enjoying the hell out of watching YouTube videos (and TV shows, movies, music, podcasts and slide shows) on that same 55" Sharp LCD, being streamed by AppleTV and controlled by my iPhone.

I'm just saying...