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Currently I am playing with the 64 GB 3G version of the iPad I won at the RSA Conference in San Francisco thanks to Tripwire. The features are very nice. The screen is crystal clear, although a little hard to see in the sunlight. It works well on wireless for videos and web browsing. Unfortunately for me, the AT&T coverage in my area is not 3G so not worth the 2 offered plans currently available. But… “How do you get around this” you ask. That is simple. Turn your phone into a wireless access point through various means of apps, hacking, or whatever. I used an app on my HTC Touch Pro 2 carried by US Cellular (3G locally now, ) and now have 3G access to the iPad via wireless through my phone. The best part is that it’s not really tethering so you don’t need the associated plan.

So with that the iPad is great. In my area I don’t need the 3G so I might sell it and get two of the standard wireless ones cause my wife loves it too. The apps, the games, and the possibilities, all right there at your multi-touch finger tips.

Until now I didn’t like Apple. Not because I grew up on PC’s. No. Just because I didn’t know them as well as I know PC’s. But after 2 weeks with the iPad I’m definitely a fan of the iPad and it’s possibilities with future releases. I hope to do more testing and possible a run with the AT&T 3G as it is available in a town about 30 miles away form me.

Just a quicky to consider the latest twitter bug as referenced on Mashable.

What do you think would happen if our numbers ceased to show, permanently? What would the so-called guru’s base their expertise on? Better yet, how would they set themselves apart? What would happen to the social media we have a love/hate relationship with?

I’d really love to find out. Hm….I wonder.

Just got through reading one of Robert Scoble’s opinion pieces on privacy. He makes some good points but more than that, it made me consider just what it is that most of us really mean when we talk about privacy. Have a look at his post and then let’s talk. http://scobleizer.com/2010/05/08/much-ado-about-privacy-on-facebook-are-we-protesting-too-much/

I don’t necessarily always agree with Robert but he definitely makes me think. I don’t think a locked down website is what most people want from Facebook. I know that’s not what I want. It is what everyone says they want, but maybe we should ask ourselves to really consider that. I think we want something else entirely.

You all know I’m female. Like it or not females are addressed by a certain segment of the world population differently than males are. While it doesn’t happen often, I have certainly had my share of requests for friendship by people who send a message telling me I’m ‘hot’ or asking for my IM so they can contact me directly. Usually they want me to use Yahoo, which sort of tells me something must be in yahoo I am not privy to because while I have a yahoo account for Flickr, I do not use yahoo.

So with these experiences, and a long term account on Facebook as well as a long term life online, it caused me to really think about what I would like on the web regarding privacy.

I want control of who has the ability to communicate with me. That’s all. I want people to treat their online neighbors as they would their next door neighbors and not expect they have the right to write derogatory things on their ‘walls’ or send mail that is inappropriate. I don’t want strange men or women to publicly hit on me, I do not want them to come to my place of business, ie email, linked in messages, blog, or wherever else i may be conducting business to ‘call me out’ like a high school bully. I expect to be treated on my public spaces the way I would were we in the same physical space. With dignity and respect. I think typing has emboldened us for some reason and I think we should step back and really consider when we all got the right to be mean and insensitive to one another.

I have recently had to block someone on Facebook. I blocked them because they were sending messages I don’t appreciate receiving. It’s not that I care if they see my profile, I only choose to not receive messages from them because they apparently struggle with the common courtesy I talked about above.

Since I’m writing this on my iPhone, I’ll end now. But think about it. Is it really privacy or simply some measure of control that has been missing from online life?