Well, at least I think so.  I went on and on about how cool the iPad is not too long ago, and I still think it's a beautiful device.  I was convinced I'd line up like the rest of the Apple crowd, but I've been waffling for weeks on whether I really want to drop the cash.

Then I saw the preview of the Microsoft Courier.

From that moment on, I decided that I will not be purchasing an iPad at launch, and perhaps not at all.  I mean, I do already have an iPhone, but that's not really why.  The Courier appears to do things the iPad doesn't/can't do, and those are things I like.  Here are some of them:

1.  The Courier Has Two Screens

How could an eBook reader be more book-like than by having two screens?  Other than being made out of paper, I can't see how.

You like explosions? Tons of guns? Exploration? Guns? GUNS?? Prepare for your new addiction, and check out these reasons why you should be playing Borderlands.  Now.  You should just buy it.

1.  Harmonious Blend of RPG and FPS

Borderlands rides the fence between role-playing and first-person shooter quite well; while definitely leaning towards a shooter, the plot elements, quests, loot gathering, and leveling structure lend a good RPG feel.

2.  Loads of Action and Good Pacing

There's enough action to the point that you are never actually bored.  I loved Fallout 3 and Oblivion, but they sometimes got boring due to lack of BLOWING THINGS UP.

3.  Replayability

The first playthough lasted about 30 hours for me, but upon completion of the game you can play though again.  Except for that it's a ton harder. And you get to fight "BadMutha Skags."  The second playthrough is exponentially better than the first.

Putting aside my obvious love for Apple products, I have to say that the freshly-revealed Windows Phone 7 Series is quite exciting and has a lot to offer.  Here's a quick rundown from my perspective as a longtime iPhone power user.  (I would check out the video below to get an idea of what the phone will have to offer.)

The Minimalist Interface is Gorgeous...

You keep seeing the word "minimalist" pop up in almost every post and review, and for good reason.  Seriously, there isn't a beveled edge, drop shadow, or cartoony, color-saturated icon anywhere on this thing.  It feels simultaneously retro and futuristic, and makes the iPhone/iPod touch icons look positively silly.  I would gladly replace my iPhone's general look and feel with this one anyday.

The look extends to everything from the calendar app to the email reader, which is actually black and white if I'm not mistaken.

The beauty of apps available in the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch (and soon, for the iPad) is that they typically do one thing, and they do it really well.  Pastebot, a productivity application by Tapbots, is no exception to this trend.

iPhone was unfashionably late to the party with a copy and paste feature, but as soon as it was made available, developers jumped at the opportunity to take advantage of it.  Of all the apps I had heard of, this one sounded like the best to try, and I have no doubts that it is indeed the finest (although I haven't tested any others, I'm pretty confident.)

Simply copy and paste any text or photo from your iPhone, such as from a webpage in Mobile Safari, and open the Pastebot application.  Whatever was on your iPhone's clipboard is immediately copied into Pastebot. 

You can then perform several functions on the clipping, which range from simply giving it a title...

I'm going to.

Now, before you dismiss me as some raving lunatic fanboi with red glowing eyes and a wallet with bills sticking out of it labeled "for Steve," hear me out. I was super skeptical at first.

What is the iPad?

So, unless you live in a far-away dimension, or just don't care about tech, you've heard far too much about the much-anticipated iPad.  You've heard the rumors, you saw the liveblog, you peeped the Photoshopped parodies.  But should you care?

It's more than a giant iPhone, but less than a laptop - what a tablet should be.  At least that's my opinion.  It's got a 9.7" screen, weighs 1.5 pounds, and is half an inch thick: typical sexy Apple fare, showcasing a full multi-touch display. It's available in several trims, ranging in price from $499 for the basic, Wi-Fi only model with 16GB storage up to $829 for the 64GB, Wi-Fi and 3G sporting model.

Ok, ok - I know the title is cliche.  However, I couldn't resist.  Forgive me.

Moving on.  For brevity's sake, let's say that I saw a metric ton's worth of sweet gear at CES 2010.  Everything from media streamers to iPhone skins to Android phones and back again were on display for showgoers' ogling pleasure.  After a while, all of the iPod clones and netbooks start to swim together in a blurry soup of semiconductors and colored plastic, leaving you with nothing but callouses on your feet and a mean headache.

One thing really stood out for me, even through the hubbub: the Mint floor cleaning robot, by Evolution Robotics.  I'm not sure if it was the slick marketing, unique logo, or the product itself that attracted me.  My mind keeps going back to it, and I feel compelled to talk about it.

The Mint is a cute little robot, square-shaped, made out of a white plastic.

The Mighty Mouse.  The mere mention of the "pointing-device-who-shall-not-be-named" evokes deep regret and even rage in the fan-iest of Apple's devoted fanboi crowd.  The loathing for this overpriced hunk of plastic pervades the Internet, and I echo that hatred.  I liked it at first, but eventually the little scrolly ball failed, prompting me to attempt surgery and repair it.  I, of course, failed miserably and it ended up a cracked hunk of junk in the circular file.  So much for that.

I had been using a cheap, crappy $6 dollar mouse for the longest time, and I finally cracked and bought the Magic Mouse.  Yeah, there are tons of other options, but I have always liked Apple's peripherals.  Was it a good buy?

First Impressions

The Magic Mouse is packaged in typical Apple style, in a tiny secure plastic clamshell.  Very little is wasted here, which is a good thing - although they're a bit hard to find in the store when they're buried in a shelf.

I'm addicted to my smartphone, but hey, I'm a huge geek.  I feel pretty strongly, though, that it's starting to get to the point where even your average tech-fearing Luddite will be avoiding the dumbphones this year.  They're so cheap these days, and their feature sets are too powerful to ignore.  That being said, though, which do you pick?  How on earth do you decide between Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile, and other OS's?  Here's a "quick and dirty overview" of a few of each major network's most buzz-worthy handsets.

Verizon Wireless

DROID by Motorola

Features:

• Runs Android 2.0
• 5 MP Camera
• World's thinnest QWERTY sliding keyboard
• Visual Voicemail
• Full suite of Google Apps
• Downloadable apps via the Android Market
• Excellent touch screen with impressive 480x854 resolution
• Built-in navigation with Google Maps
• Multitasking capability

Cost: $199.99 w/ new 2 year contract

More Information on the Motorola DROID

HTC Touch Diamond

Features:

What Internet browser do you use?  Internet Explorer?  If so, you're in the majority... over 60% of Internet users still roam the intarwebs with IE, with Mozilla Firefox coming in a distant second at about 25%.

The browser wars are raging on, however, with smaller contenders stepping up to the plate for their own chance at dominance.  Apple's Safari and Google Chrome are fast, flexible, secure browsers that while used only by a very small portion of the Internet community, are gaining popularity.  Then, there's Opera.

At a measly 1.5%, Opera users are truly the fanboy/fangirl majority - but the quality of their recent offering, Opera 10.10, belies this small user base.  It's pretty amazing what this recent release can actually do; sadly, most will probably ignore it.  This is my small attempt to encourage people to give the new Opera a try, as competition is good, and so is this browser.

I don't know, but it just seems like RSS is so under-rated.  It certainly takes a backseat to Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Alltop, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and so many other online services that bask in the glory of media attention and daily mention basically everywhere.  Some even declare that RSS is dying, soon to be replaced by Twitter (or whomever else.)

So whatever happened to the good old RSS feed?  Truth be told, there are way too many clients available, how in the world do you pick one?  It might seem like a lot to manage and keep with, as well as syncing across multiple PC's.  I think this is why many people have ditched favorite services such as Google Reader for organized browser bookmarks instead.

That just won't cut it for me.  I want access to all of my news in one convenient spot so I don't have to navigate to individual sites just to see if it's something I want to read or not.