Maalim, my adoptive rhino, is doing very well lately. He sure has grown!

Today was my last day of work here at AIER and the staff surprised me with a nice going away lunch.

Working at AIER has been a wonderful opportunity. I started out here as a lowly marketing assistant and gradually moved my way up the ladder to the director of marketing and communications position. I count myself extremely lucky to have had such a great job at this point in my career. Obviously, it also opened up the door to another great opportunity.

I will miss all the friendly faces I have grown to love around here. It's a great group of people and I wish the organization nothing but the greatest success in the future.

So, I take it everyone has seen Google's first attempt at social networking, Buzz. While it seems to be nicely integrated into Gmail, I'm not sure if I see what makes Buzz different from Twitter or other microblogs.

However, more and more I'm becoming convinced that social networking isn't as much about the particular software or site that you're using, but it's more about the fact that you're utilizing social networking. For instance, my website is powered by Posterous. When I create a Posterous blog post, it's also sent to my Wordpress site, Twitter and, from there, sent to Google Buzz. In addition, Facebook takes the text of whatever I've written and makes it my status. It grabs any images I've used in my Posterous post and makes a Facebook album. Finally, Flickr takes the images I used in my post and uploads them to my account.

So, by writing just one post, I'm publishing to my website, Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, Flickr, and Wordpress. I can even link my Twitter account with my LinkedIn profile.

The key here is that no matter what the rest of the world is using for social networking, the important thing is just to stay active on all of them and see which ones actually take hold.

Oh that's just too cool. Check out the slopes with Google, before the games begin (make sure to click on the link to see a larger map and then use street view. You can go down the slopes!)

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Check out this great article at Touch Arcade on Reiner Knizia and the iPhone. For those of you who don't know, I'm sort of a board game geek (along with the rest of my family) and we all regard Knizia as the master of creating fantastic games. His trademark style are games where your winning score is the total of the weakest element of your strategy--ignore one aspect of the game and you're going to lose. It's all about balance!

Now he's developing for the iPhone, which is great news for all.

Reiner Knizia holds a PhD in mathematics, and is credit with publishing over 500 different puzzle games, many earning various awards worldwide. Developing his first game at the age of 6, Knizia left a job as a boardmember of an international bank in 1997 to pursue game designing full time. Since then, he has been admitted to the Gaming Hall of Fame and redeveloped several of his old games along with creating new games for the PC, home consoles, and iPhone.

His latest iPhone game, Topas [$1.99], tasks players with placing colored domino-like tiles on a game board in three included game modes. To place tiles, you drag them around with your finger, and tiles can be rotated by tapping on screen with another finger. Tiles are placed on the board following a few simple rules: They must be placed with the whole tile fitting on the game board, every tile must be placed next to another, and the aligned gems on the tiles cannot total more than 8. Points are awarded for the number of gems lined up with each tile placed, and Topas has Agon online leaderboards for each of the game modes.

Dear Apple,

Ever since you revealed the iPad, I've been thinking about my current computer setup.

I think I've got some good news for you: I'm ready to give up my current lifestyle. I don't use discs anymore because of your great iPhone apps and iTunes Store--everything I buy is digital. And, for the most part, I really don't need a big setup anymore. So I'm ready to switch to your iPad. It's going to give me basic word processing, spreadsheet editing, and presentation making tools. Plus, all the iPhone apps are already compatible, including some great, easy-to-use video editors (speaking of which, when are you porting iMovie over?).

However, for me to switch, I need you to meet me halfway. I don't necessarily need a USB port on the iPad, but I do need to be able to backup the iPad wirelessly. And I have some options for this: 1) Let me upload all my music, photos, and the rest of my files to MobileMe and let me sync my iPhone and iPad wirelessly or 2) Let me backup my iPad and iPhone to something like your Time Capsule and also let me sync wirelessly when I need to.

This is really not that complicated. I know cloud computing is coming and I'm willing to meet you there. I'll give you all my files (and my wife's files) for you to backup to either your paid online service or your expensive wireless hard drive. Then, we'll buy all the Apps and content we'll ever need, directly from you. I'll have my iPad and its fancy keyboard dock when I need to do heavy typing, but I'll always keep my iPhone on me. I just need somewhere to backup the files and sync my 2 devices. You've got options!

And as a final request, can you create a wireless disc burner? That way, if I create a DVD using your new iPad iMovie and iDVD apps, I can quickly burn a CD without needing a computer. Of course, I'll want to backup an image of that file on either the Time Capsule or MobileMe, but I'm sure that won't be a problem.

I really don't think this is an unreasonable request. You're building all these great tools for me to use and I want to take advantage of them. I'm tired of backing up my computer every night and constantly dealing with annoying computer problems. I just want the iPad/iPhone combo with some sort of wireless backup for retrieval and storage purposes.

Thank you for listening!

Ryan

I went to bed on Wednesday pleased with Apple's big announcement, but somewhat discouraged that it didn't really have a place in my digital life.

Then, the following morning, it hit me! What if the iPad replaced my laptop? Afterall, I don't use CDs or DVDs ever, there are very few applications for which there doesn't exist a good iPhone app alternative, and I like the idea of a tablet.

But, this morning, I realized why I can't do it. Yet.

1) How does one backup the iPad? Once I get everything on it, don't I need a laptop to back it up? Can I use time machine?

2) What if I need to burn a disc? Can I hook up a MBA-type drive to the dock and use it that way?

Those are my initial reasons. Does anyone have a solution? Because I like the idea of a tablet. I just can't seem to make it work...

On February 22, I will be starting my new position as the director of communications for the Workforce Development Institute.

With 8 regional offices across New York, WDI supports organized labor and working families. The organization provides workforce intelligence: education and training programs, cultural activities, family support services, information, and referral, economic and public policy research, program development and advocacy.

Obviously, I have mixed emotions. I'm thrilled about the opportunity, but am saddened to say good-bye to so many great people I've met at AIER. I wish them the very best of luck in the future.

You can go to Engadget for the latest and greatest coverage on the iPad:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-first-hands-on/

But, assuming you already know everything about it, here are my thoughts.

• I like the new iBooks store and functionality--it's a great way of getting competitive in a growing market.
  
• I love the fact that this is really just a large iPhone that has better, more complex apps and, because of the increased real estate, a better user interface.
• I really love the idea of a $29 unlimited data plan that is not contract based. That's just wonderful if and when you need it. And it's a heck of a lot cheaper than cable or DSL. Plus, it's available anywhere.
• I'm not such a big fan of the lack of a camera on the device. There should be a forward facing camera.
• I'm really, really not a fan of the lack of multi-tasking. That's just an epic fail. I already want to be able to use multiple apps on my iPhone, but I really can't imagine being restricted to using just one on the iPad.
• Finally, it should have been called the iSlate. iPad's sort of lame.

Here's the bottom line, however: the iPad starts at $499. That's insane. When you consider the 10-hour battery life, the multi-touch interface, the iWork apps, the amazing video processor, the gorgeous screen, and the compatibility with all existing iPhone apps, this thing is going to sell like hotcakes.

And I stand by my prediction. Just like the iPhone wasn't perfect, the iPad isn't either. But it is going to change the media world. We're just beginning to see how.