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Verizon Wireless just yesterday began its 3 day sale, and it will be ending hastily tomorrow. The sale has the Touch Pro2 going at an undeniable cost of $29.99 with a two year contract for current costumers and 79.99 with a 2 year agreement for new costumers. The sale is something totally random, and the true savings is a mail in rebate, which if you are like me, you do not do.

This is either just a random sale, or Verizon is cleaning up for their upcoming Android devices. I think it’s the second one, and I am a little excited to see the new device, and maybe do a couple of HD2 vs. Nexus One or HD2 vs. Incredible.

What do you think of this new sale? Will you be shopping for a new device due to it? Are you waiting for an Android device? Comment below.

Via: Pocketnow

Looks like we might be ready to start talking about the myTouch Slide again.  A newly leaked image from Radio Shack (The Shack) shows a T-Mobile MyTouch Slide with ‘Image Coming Soon.”  We’re pretty sure we already know what the phone looks like and what some of the details are.  At this point, we’re most interested in learning of launch dates and pricing.  Be sure to check back for more on those as we can get our hands on them!

As a refresher, the rumored specs include a 320×480 resolution touch screen, ARM11 chip, camera with LED flash, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD memory card slot and a 1300mAh battery.  Hopefully the device has picked up a  touch more polish and sexiness since we last checked in.

Might We Suggest…

• First Look at T-Mobile myTouch Slide
  

  We’d recently started hearing whispers that T-Mobile would be expanding their myTouch handset into a line of phones, starting with a slideout QWERTY model.  With no pictures, specs, or estimate…

California state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) on Wednesday accused Cal State Stanislaus officials of violating the public trust by failing to disclose documents about an upcoming fundraising appearance by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Yee has asked the state attorney general to investigate.

Yee and the nonprofit group Californians Aware filed public records requests with the university last week seeking documents relating to Palin’s appearance at the school’s 50th anniversary gala June 25, particularly how much she is being paid to speak. A campus official said there were no such documents. But Yee’s office acquired a March 29 e-mail sent by a university vice president about the Palin appearance, which Yee said should have been disclosed. 

The university responded Wednesday that it did not provide the campus e-mail because it was circulated to faculty and staff and that the public records request excluded documents prepared for public release.

— Carla Rivera

With the launch of the iPad, the value of content is being reconsidered once again. It’s clear that free (the way of Google) isn’t the goal of the publishing industry. As a result, many new iPad owners are faced with the question of whether the book or magazine they own or consume should be purchased again on the iPad.

Similarly, developers are faced with a set of decision on how to appropriately extract payment from consumers. In this post, we’ll take a look at the solution offered by Apple and a host of solutions that exist on the web that are available to the iPad as applications or web sites that charge for views.

Sponsor

To App, or not to App, That is a Question

For content providers that have websites, or an existing relationship with Amazon, the question of whether to push content to Apple’s book store, or to build an app is more complicated than first meets the eye.

On one hand, getting paid through multiple channels makes a ton of sense.

Apple, being very wise is working to find balance in the closed and open ecosystem. Its breakthrough product, iPad, supports web sites, applications like Kindle, and its own book store simultaneously.

On the other hand, it can be a pain to track customer relationships and inventory across multiple channels.

If your content is recurring (weekly, monthly), it is even more complicated. And, if you already have subscribers on your web site behind a paywall, it can be even more challenging to rationalize how to merge these customer populations and price points. In a way, we’re all learning together and competition across channels is going to make it harder in the short term to figure out the right mix.

Distribution Matters

Apple’s StoreKIt Framework is the tookit for developers to enable payments in iPhone and iPad applications.

Apple has evolved its own rules and technology in the last several years to do this, and in 3.0 released last summer offered the Store Kit API. When first launched, only paid apps were able to offer recurring payments through Store Kit. However, in one of the more recent updates offered by Apple, the company changed the terms of Store Kit to allow developers to set the price of their application for “Free” and then to offer updates or subscriptions as additional payments.

In the release of iPad this week, we saw veterans of the industry release amazing reader applications, but as reported in The Huffington Post, price does matter, and parity across offerings is still a question to be answered.

Amazon offers its books and other goods via the iPhone in its Kindle for iPhone applicaiton, in this free application, Amazon is the back-end for payment and Apple is the distributor of the application.

Amazon, like Apple has a direct relationship with publishers to offer their inventory in its stores. In recent weeks, it has been reported that intense negotiations have been underway between the publishers and Amazon on pricing and margin. As reported by AP, Amazon has seemingly conceded a new level of pricing control to publishers.

Amazon and Apple are setting the pace for the future of computing. Both are engaged with content providers to work out all the kinks of pricing in this new world. We wonder if there is a way that both can win, as certainly they are both extremely well positioned and successful in payments, computing, and content distribution.

Getting Paid is Hard – However Recurring Billing is a Real Pain

In contrast to these end-to-end platforms for distribution, we took a look at companies that focus on the process of payment itself as offered as a platform to content and application developers.

Aria Systems announced a new release of its PCI compliant platform to support iPad today.

The company’s core vision is to “Simplify Your Billing”. To do that, the company is making a bet that content providers will want to extend their relationships with consumers via the iPad and integrate their web applications by announcing a future integration with Safari.

Aria Systems brings a plug-and-play solution to integrating with back-end systems that a company may be running, including QuickBooks and SalesForce.com. It also specializes in dealing with the process of recurring billing transactions, which can be a difficult thing to work out in the context of subscription revenue recognition. The platform is described as being PCI complicant, which can be a huge benefit for content and application owners that don’t want to take on the burden and liability of all of the controls of handling credit cards and personal privacy.

Chargify is another software-as-a-service application that suggests its core value being “Build Your Business, Not Your Billing System”. We think this is the value-add that both Chargify and Aria bring to companies that want to offer recurring payments. Many do not have the time to also become experts in the hard word of accounting and compliance.

The Chargify solution is offered as a set of APIs to integrate into an existing application and offers an iPhone application to peer into the payments processes in play.

Here’s a quick view of how it works.

Content Distribution Enters Into a New Chapter

We are left wondering whether Apple or Amazon will extend their reach further beyond their current distribution.

Will they grow their payment solutions to become the center of gravity for all payments for content on the web?

Or, will solutions like Aria Systems and Chargify get closer to the distribution channel and offer app developers and content owners they can have a deeper relationship to consumers when they remove distribution as the driver of payments? We expect that in the next years content providers will require the best of both worlds will require both great distribution and simple billing.

Perhaps we’re asking the wrong question by focusing on what Rupert Murdoch is doing.

Maybe we should ask what Wolverine would do.

After all, content is king.

Are you looking at recurring payments for your content or application? In 2010, is it possible to choose a single solution?

Discuss

There has been some talk of settling two big disputes, the U.S. – Cotton WTO dispute and the Chinese currency dispute.  Cotton has progressed a bit further.  USTR provides the following details:

… the United States agreed to work with Brazil to establish a fund of approximately $147.3 million per year on a pro rata basis to provide technical assistance and capacity building. Under terms to be agreed by the United States and Brazil in the Memorandum of Understanding, the fund would continue until passage of the next Farm Bill or a mutually agreed solution to the Cotton dispute is reached, whichever is sooner. The fund would be subject to transparency and auditing requirements.

The United States also agreed to make some near term modifications to the operation of the GSM-102 Export Credit Guarantee Program, and to engage with the Government of Brazil in technical discussions regarding further operation of the program. The United States also agreed to publish a proposed rule by April 16, 2010, to recognize the State of Santa Catarina as free of foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, classical swine fever, African swine fever, and swine vesicular disease, based on World Organization for Animal Health Guidelines and to complete a risk evaluation that is currently underway and identify appropriate risk mitigation measures to determine whether fresh beef can be imported from Brazil while preventing the introduction of foot-and-mouth disease in the United States.

Following implementation of these initial steps, the United States and the Government of Brazil agreed to continue engagement on these issues, with a view to agreeing on a process by June that will allow us to reach a mutually agreed solution to the Cotton dispute.

And in the currency dispute:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will visit Beijing for talks with a Chinese vice premier for economic affairs on Thursday, Geithner's spokesman said, in a sign the two sides are moving toward settling a dispute over China's currency controls.

From the FT on the same issue:

China has begun to prepare the ground publicly for a shift in exchange rate policy, days after the US Treasury said it would postpone a decision on whether to name China a “currency manipulator”.

A senior government economist told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday China could widen the daily trading band for the renminbi and allow it to resume the gradual appreciation it halted in July 2008 in response to the global credit crisis.

I'm a little skeptical sometimes when settlements are announced, but perhaps progress is being made.  One thing I wonder about in Cotton is, what do other U.S. trading partners think of all this?  For example, how will the African cotton producers who were third parties in the dispute react to whatever "mutually agreed solution" is reached between the United States and Brazil?  Will they be satisfied with what the U.S. eventually offers?

And in the currency dispute, I guess the big question is, assuming a "gradual appreciation" occurs, will it be enough to satisfy those pushing hardest for revaluation?

Normally a humble power strip is the last thing I’d expect to cover here on Gizmag. But this one by Fujitsu offers a little extra. With built in power sensors, the power strips can monitor exactly how much electricity is being used in the workplace. ..

Tags: Electricity,
Energy-saving,
Fujitsu

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The science magazine Nature has just published a pair of articles showing how gut bacteria evolve in response to diet differences by taking up new genes from distant relatives. The articles feature the recent discoveries by Jan-Hendrik Hehemann and colleagues that normal gut bacteria can gain the abilty to digest brown seaweed gums if they are fed sushi wrapped in dried brown seaweed for a long time, presumably over centuries of time. This all happens  in the digestive canals of Japanese who have been supping on sushi for centuries.

The genes that give the gut bacteria gum digestion capabilities come originally from marine bacteria. No-one knows exactly when they moved, but it could have first been a thousand years or more ago, and it could have happened several times since then. The gum-dissolving genes are now also present in the non-marine bacterial flora living in Japanese people’s guts. The germ mating mechanisms that might make this happen are well understood by microbiologists — gut bacteria are well known to be able to mobilise and accept genes from different bacterial genera and even from creatures other than bacteria.

None of this is surprising to microbiologists but it is new to food historians, and adds something special to the venerable and tasty history of sushi.

The novel gum dissolving genes cannot yet be detected in Western guts. But if sushi continues to be popular in America and Europe, sooner of later they will.

Genetic pot luck
Justin L. Sonnenburg
Without the trillions of microbes that inhabit our gut, we can’t fully benefit from the components of our diet. But cultural differences in diet may, in part, dictate what food our gut microbiota can digest
Nature Vol 464|8 April 2010, page 837


Transfer of carbohydrate-active enzymes from marine bacteria to Japanese gut microbiota
Jan-Hendrik Hehemann, Gae¨lle Correc, Tristan Barbeyron, William Helbert, Mirjam Czjzek
& Gurvan Michel
Nature Vol 464|8 April 2010| doi:10.1038/nature08937, page 908

We love Pixar around here. Who doesn’t? Which is why this Pixar Studio Stories series is such a delight: animated, behind the scenes goodies from the company’s illustrious history—including when they nearly lost most of Toy Story 2. More »

EDITOR’S NOTE: I was invited to appear on CNN on Thursday Sometime between 8:30 A.M. and 9:30 A.M. to respond to the mayor’s statements.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa went on a media blitz Wednesday to defend his plan to shut down nonessential city agencies two days a week starting Monday despite being told he didn’t have the authority to carry out his edict.

In apparent damage control from his announcement Tuesday, the mayor got on CNN to tell a national audience what he’s up to..

“We don’t
expect that we would be closing City Hall, if you will, two days a week
beyond July,” the mayor said during a morning interview on CNN, according to the LA Times..

Villaraigosa, in the final stages of drafting his budget plan for next years, said more severe cuts in services would occur after July 1 with plans to lay off 4,000 workers permanently. He pleaded with unions most of which have contract protections against furloughs and layoffs until July 1, to take 15 percent pay cuts although police, fire, and DWP workers would be exempt from all cuts, furloughs or layoffs.

“There’s no scenario where we don’t have to
trim our services and the cost of our payroll,” Villaraigosa told CNN’s
chief business correspondent Ali Velshi.

Firefighters were knocking down a one-acre brush fire that broke out Wednesday afternoon along the Los Angeles River in the Cypress Park area.



The blaze had burned about an acre of medium-to-heavy brush near 1625 San Fernando Road but did not appear to be endangering any buildings, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. About 40 firefighters and eight engine companies were battling the fire.



The fire was a reminder that the Southern California region, despite being drenched by recent rainstorms, was not immune to wildfires, officials said. They noted that warm temperatures and relative humidity in the single digits has dried out the brush.



"We’re not out of fire danger," said Fire Department spokesman Cecil Manresa.

The cause of the blaze was under investigation.

[Updated 7:07 p.m.: Firefighters controlled the blaze and were mopping up hot spots, the Fire Department said.]

–Robert J. Lopez

Map shows area of brush fire. Credit: Times Mapping L.A.

Elkhart, IN – Today, Congressman Donnelly visited the Wells Cargo manufacturing facility of Universal Trailer to talk about his bill, the Targeted Job Creation and Business Investment Act, H.R. 4965, and his efforts to protect and encourage new jobs in north central Indiana.  His jobs plan consists of three parts: targeted tax cuts, holding China accountable for currency manipulation, and protecting American jobs for people who play by the rules.

“Jobs are my first priority, and my jobs plan consists of targeted initiatives that will work,” said Donnelly.  “The federal government should, for the most part, stay out of folks’ way and let our Hoosier entrepreneurs get to work.  There are, however, a few things we can do.  We can encourage businesses to hire, purchase equipment, and innovate with smart tax credits, which is what my bill does.  We can also assist American companies and workers—particularly in the manufacturing sector—by stopping China’s unfair currency manipulation, and we can protect American jobs by ensuring that available jobs go to folks who play by the rules.  We can help the recovery in north central Indiana by making sure our local businesses have the tools they need, and these initiatives can help.”

“Our trailer companies, Wells Cargo and Haulmark, are very appreciative of Congressman Donnelly taking the time to personally work with Elkhart County businesses in an effort to save and create jobs,” said Tom Frey, President/CEO of Universal Trailer Corporation.  “Forging programs that will actually create jobs takes substantial work. It is time consuming to meet face to face with businesses out here on ‘Main Street.’  But this hard work is critical if Elkhart is to realize the job growth we are both striving for.  I believe that the voice of Main Street must be a central consideration if the public sector’s efforts are to be successful in helping private-sector businesses grow jobs again in Elkhart County. We’re pleased that Congressman Donnelly is willing to devote the time to listen to our ideas and the work to bring them forward into a process of crafting effective legislative programs.”

On March 25, 2010, Congressman Donnelly introduced the Targeted Job Creation and Business Investment Act, H.R. 4965, which includes four tax credits designed to benefit north central Indiana businesses.  First, all companies would be eligible for a tax credit for hiring a new worker in an economically distressed area.  This job creation tax credit would refund 15% of new wage costs in 2010 and 10% of new wage costs in 2011. “Economically distressed” would be categorized as counties with an unemployment rate of 8.5% or higher, the same threshold as states that currently receive extra unemployment benefits.  All 12 counties in Indiana’s Second Congressional District would qualify currently.  The tax credit would be available only to employers who expand the part of their payroll subject to Social Security tax, ensuring that workers are not laid off in order to hire new workers to obtain the credit.  This tax credit would be available quarterly in order to encourage quicker hiring, and would be refundable in order to allow non-profits to take advantage of the credit.

The second provision in the Targeted Job Creation and Business Investment Act would make the research and development (R&D) tax credit permanent.  By encouraging investment in R&D, this credit would foster American businesses’ competitiveness in an increasingly global marketplace.  A permanent extension would give companies certainty in the tax code, which would enable them to better plan research endeavors and would encourage companies to keep their R&D initiatives on American soil.

Third, Congressman Donnelly’s Targeted Job Creation and Business Investment Act would make two deductions: the bonus depreciation and enhanced expensing deductions permanent.  The 50% bonus depreciation would allow a business to invest in equipment and speed up its depreciation, allowing businesses to more quickly recover their capital expenditure costs.  Enhanced expensing would allow small businesses to immediately write-off up to $250,000 in qualified investment for capital expenditures such as machinery, equipment, and business software.  Permanent extensions would allow companies to better plan for new investments.

Donnelly also discussed his strong support for cracking down on China’s unfair policies that give that country a competitive advantage.  Currently, China manipulates its currency by undervaluing it.  Economists estimate the yuan is undervalued by anywhere from 15 to 40 percent.  This causes not only an increased trade deficit with China, but also contributes to American jobs loss as the prices of Chinese imports are artificially held down, undercutting American goods.

Congressman Donnelly is a cosponsor of H.R. 2378, the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act, which would neutralize the negative effects of misaligned foreign currency by allowing affected American industries and their workers to seek remedies under current trade laws.  The bill also would use publicly available data to determine the misalignment in a transparent way, apply a fair and predictable standard for currency misalignment, and create an incentive for foreign governments to stop unfair trade practices to prevent similar abuses in the future.  Congressman Donnelly, with other Members of Congress, has also sent several letters to both the Bush and Obama Administrations on this issue.  In November 2009, Congressman Donnelly joined colleagues in sending a letter to President Obama regarding inaction by the Obama Administration against China’s continued manipulation of its currency. 

Finally, Donnelly spoke about the need for securing our borders and preventing undocumented workers from getting jobs in the U.S.  Congressman Donnelly is an original cosponsor of H.R. 3088, the SAVE Act, which would protect American jobs by expanding the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program, which is an Internet-based system that allows an employer, using information reported on an employee’s Employment Eligibility Verification form, to determine the eligibility of that employee to work in the United States.  The SAVE Act would make E-Verify mandatory for all employers, hire 6,000 more Border Patrol agents, and expedite the processing and removal of illegal aliens. 

Congressman Donnelly will continue to tour north central Indiana businesses today and tomorrow as a part of his jobs agenda tour.  Later today, he will visit the Entrepreneur Center in Michigan City.  Tomorrow, he will visit Inventrek Park in Kokomo, Creative Promotions in Logansport, and Rochester Medical Implants in Rochester.

###

Conscientious workers face a dilemma when making sure they’re always available for work – either carry around two phones or hand out personal numbers. Toktumi’s $14.95 a month Line2 VoIP app, now in its final stages of development, gives iPhone users the chance to bag themselves unlimited U.S and Canadian calls, cheaper international rates, and a second number that works over 3G, WiFi or Cellular networks…

Tags: iPhone,
Mobile Phone,
VOIP

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In case you hadn’t heard, Apple has released its iPad – click here if you’ve been living under a rock for the past week. But what’s an iPad without accessories and, you’ve guessed it, they’ve already started hitting the shops to make the most of the hype surrounding the iPad’s release. So far, there’s a nice keyboard dock, a camera connection kit, conventional docks, power adapters and chargers, and roughly as many different styles of carry bags and cases as there were units sold on the first day. We’ll give you a look at a few must-haves..

Tags: Accessory,
Apple,
Handheld,
iPad,
Touchscreen

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Jeff Nolan points us to an amusing article trying to dig into some questions over whether or not Domino’s “patent pending” pizza tracker is real. Launched a little over two years ago, apparently, if you order a pizza from Domino’s online, it takes you to a website where it alerts you in real-time to the status of your pizza: is it in the oven, has it been put in a box, is it on its way, etc. Domino’s was quite proud of the fact it had filed a patent for the technology, but there have been some concerns about whether the technology is real, or if it’s just a pretty flash animation connected to nothing in reality.

The “evidence” against it being real is that one anonymous commenter on a blog post about the tracker said that it told him his pizza was in the oven and then boxed before he discovered a series of voicemails from the store claiming they could not fulfill his online order because they were “out of deep dish.” The second example comes from a guy who just ordered some bottles of soda (no pizza) and was somewhat amused/horrified to watch as his order was “placed in the oven” and then boxed — only to be delivered two hours later (a bit late) after someone called him asking him if he had ordered something from Domino’s, and if so, what it was. That guy notes, of the patent application:

Is that really patent pending technology? I didn’t know you could patent bull*&%t

Well, there have been patents on anti-gravity devices, even though they’re not supposed to grant patents that, you know, violate the laws of physics — so perhaps that answers the question there. There’s also the patent on sending signals faster than the speed of light.

As for Domino’s?

Tim McIntyre, the vice president of communications at Domino’s, insisted that his company had not patented bullshit.

“The Pizza Tracker is real, and it is accurate to within 30 seconds,” McIntyre told The Daily Caller just seconds after we indicated to customer service that we were investigating the veracity of the Pizza Tracker’s sometimes extraordinary claims. Every update customers see on the Tracker except for the final ‘delivered’ update, McIntyre said knowingly, is triggered by a button press in the store itself.

He later explains that the only part that is “faked” is the delivery time. They just assume the pizza was delivered 10 minutes after it leaves the store (which I would imagine might lead to angry customers who live further away, or if there’s a bad traffic jam or something). As for the complaints, apparently there’s a bit of a “glitch” with this amazing patent pending technology, such that if someone at the store “clears” an order, the system interprets that as “baked and ready,” since, despite all the brilliance going into this patent-pending technology, no one thought to add a feature that tells the customer something’s wrong with the order.

But, of course, you shouldn’t build that yourself. You might infringe on Domino’s possible patent.

As for the patent application itself, I’ve been looking around for it and haven’t turned up anything. Anyone know which patent application it is?

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

You could be among them, but don’t delay.

Months of hype built up your expectations — like one of those Internet romances. There’s what you imagined the iPad to be, and now there is the reality. Can you annul this sorry relationship? Yes, within 14 days of purchase and by coughing up a 10-percent restocking fee.

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. You gave into the peer pressure — “Hell! Everyone was buying iPad.” But there also is a support group of returnees. You can join them, and you can be free. You can reclaim your mind from the “reality distortion field” effects. Other returnees:

Jeff Jarvis fell out of love with iPad, nearly immediately. On Sunday he tweeted: “After having slept with her (Ms. iPad), I am having morning-after regrets. Sweet and cute but shallow and vapid.” So much for the Internet romance. Ms. iPad looked beautiful on the WebCam and even more so in person. But there’s beauty and there’s depth.

Jarvis tweeted late yesterday: “I just talked with two people who, like me, are planning to return their iPads.” Tweeted today: “Sitting in the 5th Av Apple Store before a breakfast meeting, reading tweets about me saying on @sternshow that I’m returning my iPad.” To which Story Worldwide CEO Kirk Cheyfitz replied: “Is it better to have loved an iPad and taken it back than never to have loved an iPad at all? (With apologies to Tennyson.)”

Old media-turned-new-media convert Jarvis has yet to say why he is returning the iPad. Surely the saga will continue playing out on Twitter.

Michelle Alexandria “hates her iPad and is Returning it!” Alexandria has a litany of gripes — from “ridiculous price gouging” e-books to “numerous syncing issues” to “gimped” WiFi-only connection (no 3G model yet). Yesterday, I asserted the necessity of multitasking on mobile devices. Alexandria agrees: “The lack of Multitasking was irritating as heck. While downloading stuff, in the above mentioned apps, the only thing I could do is sit there and stare at the freaking downloading bar.” She’s giving up for now, but not forever:

I’m fairly certain I’m returning this in the next week or so and going to take the $80 (10 percent of $800) Apple Tax for the privilege of being able to return something. We’re launching a new iPad website so I have to have this thing, but I’m going to wait for the 3G model ??” yeah AT&T sucks, but what else can I do?

Nick O’Neill announced his qualms in an April 5 blog post:

Not only did I feel like Steve Jobs’ pawn when I walked into Apple to purchase the device, but I also spent at least 8 hours following my purchase trying to justify the expense. Ironically I find that the majority of tweets on Twitter are attempts to do the exact same thing: justify the purchase after the fact. Unfortunately though, while Steve Jobs may be able to dictate that a few million people should buy a device, I am not a true Apple cult member.

Today, having returned iPad, he gave some reasons. Apple marketing describes iPad as a “magically and revolutionary product.” But that wasn’t O`Neill’s experience: “It isn’t magical and it isn’t revolutionary.”

Jerome Nichols confessed his lover’s regret in a tweet reply to CNET’s Molly Wood — not three hours ago: “I literally just walked out of the Apple store after returning my iPad — not impressed, just a big iPod touch.” Wood had tweeted: “Why on earth can’t I edit a Google Doc on iPad? I can edit a spreadsheet, but not a Doc, in either mobile or desktop mode. Augh!” Nichols’ blog nor his Twitter feed explain why he returned his iPad.

Mike O`Connor returned his iPad “after 3 hours.” He did so with vague uncertainty: “I don’t really know why I returned my iPad after 3 hours. I guess it just didn’t deliver $600+ worth of smiles.” O`Connor rattled off some reasons, nevertheless, such as no Safari plugins, no Adobe Flash and the “whole iTunes/Marketplace sandbox,” which “weirded me out.” Cory Doctorow’s post “Why I won’t buy an iPad (and think you shouldn’t, either)” impacted O’Connor.

The simplest reason: “Mostly it just wasn’t fun. So I returned it and took the 10% ‘restocking fee’ haircut. 60 bux, for 3 hours, so 20 bux an hour.”

Marc Mercuri briefly tweeted late yesterday: “Returned my iPad tonight (wanted it for an Azure+iPad demo) because of wifi+constant rebooting. Genius bar was 5 strong with iPad issues.” Mercuri works for Microsoft, but don’t assume that as reason for the return. Wifi problems on a wifi-to-Internet only device is reason enough.

Nick Ellis bought his iPad on Saturday only to return it — along with a case. He explains why in a post from earlier today:

I took it home, started playing and something weird happened. I wasn’t blown away. It was cool and all, but I just couldn’t figure out how it fit into my life. It seemed to be an “if” device.

• If I didn’t already have an iPhone.
• If I didn’t have a laptop.
• If I had time to actually read books or watch movies.
• If I really needed it.

But I didn’t need it. If anything it was going to complicate my life. One more device to sync, keep charged and clear email from.

Ellis got a surprisingly good deal. The Apple Store charged no restocking fee (saving him $60) and he had renewed MobileMe for $30 off when purchasing the iPad.

Wrapping up, are you ready to part with your iPad? Do you want to return it, or perhaps you have already? Go ahead, confess in Comments. You’ll feel better for it.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010