Twas the night before Apple, and all ’round the net,
All the rumors were flying, but no real news yet.
Speculations were read, with the utmost of care,
With the hopes that the keynote, soon would be aired.

Apple faithful were restless, their iPhones held steady,
In hopes that Cupertino soon would be ready
To announce a new tablet, for which they’d been fawning,
Ever since Newton left consumers, well. . . wanting.

A capacitive screen, is a definite must.
Since fans of multi touch gestures are us
A size 10″ screen is most likely, “Yes.”
But a front facing camera, perhaps GPS?

Wifi is a given, and the app store is too,
As for syncing iLife, well now that’s nothing new.
Perhaps unlocked iPhones, for non AT&T folks
Since that network’s the butt of quite a few jokes.

Then fanboys will come from within every city
To post about how Apple’s business is shitty.
More rabid than wolves, to the forums, they’ll fly
And tear apart lie after lie after lie.

So iPad, iSlate,
or whatever you’re called.
(I’ll admit that these names
have me somewhat appalled.)
On the web I will read
and on printed news too,
“Apple tablet is out!
It’s brand spanking new!”

So tomorrow I’ll find, on my usual sites
News about Apple with included soundbites.
I’ll witness his Steveness, his demeanor quite proud
About Apple solutions, he’ll talk to the crowd.

But then he’ll announce, how much it will cost
As banks everywhere groan from cash reserves lost.
But there’s always a point, in my ears it will ring,
“Thank you all for coming. But there’s just one more thing.”

Well, it is.  I was switching apps, zooming around the photos, starting up the calendar, sms, and mail apps, browsing the web and going back to the home screen just like they do in the videos.  We’ll see once they get loaded down with custom apps and widgets.  And of course, bandwidth will be different when you’re out in the field, but at least the UI is as fast as their videos portray it to be.

Protip:  to delete SMS messages, swipe your finger from left to right on the message you want to delete.  A delete button will show up for that message.  It makes you feel like you’re in the future.

Typing wasn’t as horrible as I thought it was going to be and I think it would get easier over time.  It’s an interesting experience tapping on glass rather than plastic.  I didn’t think it would feel different, but it is, since you use your finger instead of a stylus.  The only other time I’m using a finger for an interface is on a laptop touchpad, and even then, I’m using my thumb and not using it on the screen itself.

The screen looks fantastic, but of course I didn’t get to see it in the sunlight, so that little detail is still up in the air.

Coverflow is great for browsing your music and the two finger touch zoom is great when both browsing photos and the web.

Overall, I’m waiting for Rev. 2, but for right now, I feel like this would be a little expensive, coming off Wednesday’s acquisition of a 15″ MBP.