When I got the iPad2 (my first iPad), I had the same initial wow response as most. But I knew it would mostly wear off soon and it did. My 8 year old daughter was logging more time on it than me (and she was only allowed to use it for 20-60 minutes a day). Then I bought the Zagg Folio Keyboard/Case for it. It was suddenly as close as you can get to a traditional laptop and once I downloaded various productivity and writing/coding apps, the thing became incredibly more useful to me and I loved taking it places now... knowing that I could actually TYPE and WORK on it. I have since bought a MacBook Air since my old MBP was becoming problematic. The Air is probably my favorite computer, ever. But I have constantly speculated that Apple's next significant product will be... needs to be.... the MacBook AirTouch. I see absolutely no downside to having the Air screen be a Touch screen and being able to toggle iOS and OSX. In fact, I believe thats what Microsoft has done (2 OS on Surface RT). I can see how having a 2 OS admits to an incomplete vision in a way. A perfectionist might cringe at the idea. But realistically, if UIs are tuned to different usage modes then it is an acceptable approach to dealing with Touch and Non-Touch experiences. The future will lead to a harmonious single OS core that handles a variety of experiences tuned to certain devices and form factors. Apple and Microsoft and Google are heading in that direction. They have to. The only problem will be in how much new restriction is built into this new era of computers.... Post-PCs or whatever. New walled gardens and app ecosystems that allow these companies to better leverage and monetize what is built for what they build. Pros and cons. Anyway... I seriously would love to own the MacBook AirTouch ;-)

well said. every year, i think on this issue as well. it was most noteworthy in my online life back in 2007 when some of the more intimate mailing lists/groups i was a member of started to grow too large and lost that special tight-knit vibe. i attempted to restore digital intimacy with others who sought it as well with a new, albeit short-lived, group that was named 'forthoseof.us' (http://groups.google.com/group/forthoseofus/about). i know that email is not exciting to talk about but it seems that i fall back on mailing lists as probably the ideal way to handle digital social intimacy among friends and family. the new revamped facebook groups was a smart move and has proven to be useful. for instance, i setup a group for a segment of my neighborhood where a group of us are friends IRL. FB Groups are like using group aliases in email. Twitter could/should incorporate private groups. It would be a big success as many people want that or would be happy to have it once it exists. It might even work as an enhancement to the DM component. Could be similar to FB Groups. as for shiny new Social Network Services offering cutting edge privacy and friend circle management.... they sure have their work cut out. Early adopters will join the best (hyped) products but in the end, a bit of Product Development effort and focus by FB, Twitter and even Google(me) will be enough to shake the shit out any competition. Sure, you can build an impressive product and be part of a talent acquisition. but "The Next Big Social Network" would need to have a flood of user joins and i'm not sure that any feature could be stand-out enough to lure folks in and/or to abandon the familiar space they have already invested time in. i'd like to see how the Federated/Distributed Social Web evolves so that digital intimacy can be achieved across networks as opposed to only having a few behemoth solution providers in this space. we, the users, should care more about owning/controlling our tight friend circles using open and secure standards rather than by default feeding these social machines all of our activity data for them to crunch & store & profit. either way, simplicity wins. but decentralized social infrastructure continues to evolve.