I kid, really, because I was excited to see a viable tablet, and if anyone can make it happen, it would be Cupertino. I was lucky enough to watch the unveiling from Robert Scoble HQ, along with my friend Don Dodge, and to watch Robert synthesize multiple live streams of video, audio, tweets, and photos into an overview of the event.
What did we think? The take was pretty much unanimous. We’ll all buy one because it’s a fun toy and that’s what we do. We love that the 16 GB base model is $499 but we want the 64GB 3G model at $829. We aren’t blown away. Scoble says “I was expecting a 10.0 and an 8.7 showed up.” What’s the use case?

I think there’s a potential new market for AAPL here. The theory seems to be that there is a consumer base that doesn’t need a workhorse computer, does not need enterprise, but wants to surf the Web, consume media, play games, and use the applications to which iPhone users have become addicted. The larger multi-touch screen is a great use of that technology. The iPad is really fun. It’s probably not really useful (more…)

Microsoft laid off about 800 people today. One of them was my friend and former Napster colleague Don Dodge. Don was a Director of Business Development in the Emerging Businesses unit, which is a fancy way of saying he evaluated startups mainly for possible acquisition by Microsoft.

I walked around TechCrunch 50 once with Don. He was inundated by the attending startup peeps. Don’t let anyone tell you that they’re too cool to want to be bought by Microsoft.

You can read what Don has to say about today in his blog here . What struck me most, besides the fact that Don now gets to write his own ticket in tech and do any one of a million things, is that he says he’s never had the time to think about what he might want to do. And it’s true for most of us. We’re rushing from city to city, country to country, and barely have time to tend our home lives properly (and some of us neglect that too). “The gift of time”, another ex-Napsterite, Milton Olin, used to call it. You get that gift when a lunch cancels last minute or you have that weekend at home after all. Being fired sucks. But if you’re smart and capable and know how to make the most of your skill set, it can also give you the gift of time and another, priceless gift – that of perspective. Being fired is the best thing ever to happen to many people I know.

My Napster colleague (our VP, Product Development) Don Dodge has become a startup guru, running the Microsoft Startup Zone and conducting some of the most clear-eyed assessments of newcos I’ve seen, and doing some very cool angel investing (Zink is one). I had a blast last September at Techcrunch 50 sitting with Don in the “blogger zone”. Here’s Don’s take on the newcos at DEMO this year:

http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2009/03/best-of-demo-09.html