The collective internet wisdom is so far unimpressed with the iPad. It strikes me as a cool toy but not a very visionary device and nothing that many of Apple’s competitors couldn’t copy and improve on.

Asus, Acer, HP, Dell – All of them had existing tablet plans which they are slow playing while they waited for the iPad announcement. Expect a slew of tablet announcements in the coming weeks. I except these tablets to have many features missing from the iPad: accepting external storage (USB or SD), pen/stylus input, “open” operating systems and lower price points. Expect them to come in many sizes from 5″ to 12″.

Microsoft and Google – The OS divisions of both companies may be able to capitalize on some Apple’s missteps. With Windows 7 capable of running on a Atom processor and Android far more advanced than it’s horrible 1.x versions, they may finally be in a place to come up with an iPad alternative. Microsoft is going to have to rely on Windows 7 not Windows Mobile.

Jailbreakers and Unlockers – As I type this a legion of hackers are working on the iPad SDK looking to be the first to hack it. No wonder geohot is letting others do the PS3 hacking.

According to this article by the Globe and Mail, Bell and Telus may soon announce the availability of the iPhone to their customers. This is a boon for existing customers that have wanted the iPhone but haven’t switched to Rogers yet.

While this is great news for Bell and Telus customers, I think this will play out more of a retention strategy than a new customer acquisition strategy. Many of the pro-iPhone users have already left Bell and Telus for Rogers, by offering the iPhone, they will prevent more from leaving. Likely they will match the Rogers price, rather than beat it, in order to lock all users onto new 3 year contracts, right before Wind Mobile goes live. I bet the top benchmark at all three companies will be percentage of customers on long-term contracts, which will try to prevent people from leaving based on price competition from new entrants.

Google has provided a mechanism for iPhone users to get Push Email functionality. Apple is still dragging it’s feet for allowing the iPhone to support it natively, so Google has enabled mail to be synced via the ActiveSync mechanism that is available on the iPhone.

However, there is one limitation. iPhone users that already have an ActiveSync account enabled (e.g. for work email) will not be able to use this option. This is because Apple only allows a single ActiveSync account on the iPhone. This is an Apple limitation, not Microsoft or Google.

Boy Genius Report posted a great overview of the upcoming Blackberry 9700. This device will come to Rogers and AT&T in October or November so if you can wait, definitely do so. This model gets rid of the failure-prone trackball and replaces it with a touchpad. It’s smaller, lighter and thinner and will be the next “it” device from RIM. Expect the existing Bold device to be lowered in price, and this device to fill it’s pricing void.

Do these laptops look familar? They should, the design is almost entirely stolen from Apple’s Macbook and Macbook pro line. HP has leveraged the “Envy” brand from in-house gaming laptop maker Voodoo to market it’s new, sleek, aluminum/magnesium chassis laptops. Available in both 13″ and 15″ versions, these will probably be very hot sellers. With the slim (just 0.88″) 13″ for the portable market, and a Quad-core Core i7 processor in the 15″ for computing power, these two models will be on the top of everyone’s wishlist this Christmas.

They are not due to be available until October. Priced at $1699 USD for the Envy 13 and $1799 USD for the Envy 15. Canadian pricing is not available.

For years, Rogers has allowed users of their cable internet service to check their usage. Even more recently, they gave alerts to people as they neared their usage cap and about to be charged more.

Well, tracking your wireless data has now become easier. Rogers added this functionality to their website this week. If you have a data plan, definitely check this service out because it could save you a lot of money.

Better instructions to navigate to this page can be found at Boy Genius Reports.

The blogs have been noticing the switch in Apple’s references to their latest smartphone. Instead of the “iPhone 3G S” they used during launch, the nomenclature has recently been changing to “iPhone 3GS”. It’s a small change, but somewhat significant. Why would Apple make a major change to the naming of a product after it’s launch? My theory is this: Google.

Search engines work by using search terms. And by using Google to search without a space is a much more specific search and brings up more accurate references to the proper phone. Search for “3G S” and the results will include references to both the old version and the new version. The fact that Apple’s site is slowly reverting to the search friendly term on their own website seems to indicate a recent change has happened regarding the branding.

The better thing to do would have been to create a new name entirely, dropping the 3G or adding a word to it. But we’re stuck with it now. Or at least until next July when iPhone 4.0 comes out.

I love focused blogs. My favorites are on the right hand column but they include Autoblog, Engadget, Gizmodo and Boy Genius Reports (mobile phones). My lastest favorite is DisplayBlog who have just moved over to their dedicated URL www.displayblog.com. If you’re interested in a new TV or new monitor, definitely check it out.

Skype launched today on the iPhone with great fanfare…at least it did south of the border. You cannot get the free Skype app from Canadian iTunes. A report on CBC cited patent restrictions, however you can get Skype on the PC in Canada as well as for Windows Mobile handsets.

There’s some rumors going around on the blogs about the details of the iPhone OS version 3.0 that will be announced on the 17th. Here’s what Boy Genius Reports lists:

• MMS
• Tethering via Bluetooth and USB