I have seen a collection of posts about MagicJack lately. It looks like a cool idea.

I guess the Apple rumors have struck a nerve considering the number of new articles and commentaries written about the possibility. I liked Mr. Fulton’s take on this as he generally seems to have a level opinion on things, not too hot or too cold. Mr. Wilcox, not to be left out, has responded to his responders. After reading this second article, I can believe that he wanted to start a good discussion. However, his attempt to show “I’m one of you guys” by pointing out other articles he has written about technology in general and Apple in particular, seem to me to be about covering his bases. If the “iSlab”, (his nominal label) fails, he was right in predicting it. If it does well, he wrote this second article explaining why it did well and how he’s always been an Apple backer; so again, he was right. This probably sounds more negative than I mean it to be, because I am happy he wrote the original item and the follow-up piece as well. I think this is because I’m a news junkie and wanted something to carry me over until the (I hope) eventual announcement of such a device.

Others, including Mr. Scoble, Mr. Carr, and Mr. Flores also weighed in on the original article. Although I liked this last article the most out of the three, I had two issues with it. 1) The price still has to be low enough. Even adding magazine/newspaper/textbook subscriptions, media center remote control, and more pleasant web surfing doesn’t make me want to splash out more than $400 for such a device. Even that seems high. However, if Mr. Scoble is right, then all I have to do is wait to hit the price point I want. 2) I love the idea of textbooks, but textbook publishers as a group are generally stupid. I don’t think they will be much more enlightened than the RIAA, MPAA, Author’s Guild, or game publishers. They will love the idea of charging the same amount for an electronic textbook that expires after one semester as they do for the physical copy. They will even have all kinds of justifications of how this is better for the consumer and why they still need to charge the same amount. The especially dull in the group will even argue that they should charge more. In the end, they will have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into a new business model invented by someone else, like iTunes, Netflix, Steam just like the other groups before them. Hopefully, the business cycles have shortened and someone “disrupts” them faster. Although they aren’t perfect, I like the way that Manning Publications Co. has enabled electronic copies. Maybe they would consider branching out into the general textbook publishing world if something like the “iSlab” gave them an opening. I guess one can hope.

John Gruber and http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/The-world-doesnt-need-an-Apple-tablet-or-any-other/1262456214 had some things to say about a possibly imminent tablet-like device from Apple. Then MG Siegler disagreed with Joe Wilcox. Somewhere in one of these posts or comments to them, I ran across Mag+ by Bonnier. The thing I found interesting about this was the thought that went into how digital magazines would work. It wasn’t web pages that looked like a magazine. It wasn’t 100% true to printed format. It looks like they really tried to make an effort to determine what a sensible balance would be. Although, their radial menu idea and “warming up the page” didn’t click with me right away, their idea for both allowing some of the layout elements of a magazine to remain while getting rid of the tiresome electronic page turning meme really resonated with me. The final products may not end up working or looking like this, but they have at least shown part of a compelling path forward.

Although I don’t have a Kindle reader, I do have the software loaded on my iPhone and PC. I’m not sure I care for the horizontal page flipping as opposed to vertical scrolling, but maybe it will grow on me. The one advantage I see right now to flipping is that it is easier to figure out where you left off after setting the device down. However, the visual bookmarking on the iPhone works well enough for this that I’m not sure flipping is really a benefit over scrolling. Nevertheless, I definitely enjoy reading books on my iPhone and expect to continue to do so. The fact that Amazon sold more digital than physical books this last Christmas makes me think I am in the rapidly approaching majority, at least for serious readers.

What does this have to do with the tablet? I think Gruber is right that Apple may have planned uses for the tablet that we on the outside haven’t fully grasped yet. It won’t just be a bathroom e-reader and browser. Apple will have some other compelling use case, or combination of use cases. However, I cannot imagine that any use case will preclude the tablet’s use as a reader and browser. In addition, you have to think that a 7 to 10 inch screen would in fact be large enough for decent home automation software. I personally would stick to the lower dollar amounts ($300-500) expected of a e-reader or fancy webpad. I think the home control enthusiasts would be getting a steal at the higher end ($800-1000) considering the quality that is likely to go into a gadget released by Apple and the cost of existing products if the tablet could replace them. In the end, I wouldn’t pay more than the low end unless, Gruber is right and the released product has a good chance of replacing my old PowerPC based Macbook (which is still running strong). The truth is, I currently don’t see a tablet as a compelling laptop replacement. However, I wouldn’t put it past Apple to surprise me like that. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

VIM can be incredibly efficient as a text editor. Even if this wasn’t the case, movement keystrokes are so ingrained in my muscle memory that I end getting j’s and k’s in my notepad and MSWord documents. So the editing is taken care of, but the compiling, deploying, keyword/function lookup, etc. could be better. I realize there are many “tricks” and vim plugins to give a lot of this functionality, but it seems like I have to search again whenever I set up a vim environment to find the best fit for my style. I have linked a few posts below because I found them useful, and this is a handy way for me to get back to them the next time the question comes up. I’m sure I’ve missed some. Post your favorite links on turning VIM into an IDE in the comments.

1) Unix is an IDE
2) Python and vim: Make your own IDE
3) VIM as Python IDE