While everyone else is getting tired of talking about the iPad, I couldn’t get enough–especially when I heard that Skype is possible with the new iPad.

Think about it: a tablet, just 1.5 pounds and 9.7 inches square, with internet/microphone?

Tell me it’s too good to be true!

Skyping on such a piece of machinery is akin to the futuristic phones on Disney’s made for TV movie “Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century” that my 12-year old girlfriends and I all coveted, but knew we couldn’t have (“but maybe our children will,” we said).

Then as I read about it closer, my heart sank. It turns out one key element is missing to get a pure Zenon phone: the video recorder at the top of the screen.

Get on that, Apple, and I’ll buy iPad/Zenon phones for myself and all my friends.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is going to unveil its revolutionary touch tablet later this month at a conference in San Francisco.

Apple’s tablet would retail for around $1000 and be equipped with a 10- to 11-inch touch screen, according to WSJ. The tablets may come with a nationwide WiFi plan. Tablets will be shipped in March.

The product sounds like a large iPhone to us, without the phone. Will it replace laptops? Only time will tell.

This year, toast the new year on your own [virtual] Waterford champagne flute with Waterford’s Clink-Clink iPhone application. It’s free, and features a picture of a champagne glass that “clinks” when you tip your phone.

If you “clink” with an iPhone of a stranger with the application, you will exchange contact information.

It certainly is a fun idea, but how many of you will be carrying around a virtual glass of champagne in place of a real one?

What do you think about the iPhone? Is it what it is all cracked up to be? Would you prefer an iPhone or a Blackberry? Those are a few questions I think about when I look at the current trend and the intentions of both Research in Motion and Apple’s iPhone. Apple is trying to bust in on Blackberry lovers, but do you think they will be successful? Maybe.

I currently own an iPhone, and honestly because I love Apple products. They are well made, easy to use, and a joy to have. The iPhone is not the most functional phone when you think about it, but it does what I need it to do, and does it well. Beforehand, I owned a Blackberry. Quite functional if you ask me, but Blackberrys’ just don’t give me that wow-factor that the iPhone has and that is what I like in addition to functionality for my needs/wants.

Make no mistake that the iPhone has shaken up the industry. In just the last three months of 2007, smartphone shipments shot up 60 percent from a year ago, according to industry research firm IDC. And RIM doubled sales of the Blackberry, adding 6.5 million subscribers in its last fiscal year, double the previous year. As the market has grown, the Blackberry’s market share has dropped from 45 percent to 40 percent while the iPhone took 17.5 percent in the second half of 2007.

To compete, RIM is working on a so-called “Apple killer” — a device with a touchscreen and lines suggestive of the iPhone. But AT&T is said to have delayed its introduction of the new phone because of problems with call quality — and delays hurt RIM as a new 3G iPhone is rumored for release this year.

I think it is not so much if it is a better phone, but the fact of the matter remains who offers more. I think RIM will have to offer applications and other things to stay in the game. Apple’s appeal to third-party developers could easily overwhelm RIM. Apple has said it will launch a new version of the iPhone software to enable third-party applications on the iPhone and the iPod touch. Apple also says more than 200,000 developers are working on applications for the iPhone.  

It is still clear that the Blackberry wins the hearts of many, but RIM is shaking in their boots and they know their comfortable position is about to be compromised unless the step up. Regardless, both phones are amazing and I think each one will have their chance to be at the top. Take a look all over the web, and you’ll noticed the issue of which is best is highly prevalent. Don’t get too worked up about the issue because, inevitably, the competition is here to stay – at least for a little while.

We are partnering with SugarSync to give away a MacBook Air.  This is the sexiest laptop on the planet, so check out the contest details and enter to win over here.  Good luck.