[Image courtesy of Nick Bilton/The New York Times]
I've read about the new iPad but, as usual, Apple is commanding a premium price for a very proprietary product and tying it to a very expensive subscription plan through AT&T. I hope a totally new iteration of the Kindle would have the ability to download content from an App Store without an expensive cellular subscription (especially since my house is located between two range of hills that virtually blocks cell access) but with the capability to have a "go phone"-type pay as you go cellular access capability for traveling.
I would also love to play some of my favorite iPhone games on such a device. I'm actually using my iPhone more for portable gaming while I'm waiting for appointments or an airplane than I use it for making phone calls anyway. Although my iPhone worked wonderfully when I was in Italy to call home (I turned data access off because of the outrageous international charges), here in the States, AT&T's coverage is really spotty. It really irks me to be required to pay $30 per month for data access when there's so many places here in the Northwest where you cannot get a signal or the signal strength is so low that you drop calls. At the time I signed up for my iPhone I needed a phone I could use overseas and Verizon didn't have any at that time. Perhaps by the time Amazon rolls out a new Kindle based on Touchco's technology, I can go back to Verizon for cellular functions and just use my Touchco Kindle for everything else. Having everything in one device is convenient but you shouldn't have to pay such a high price for it.
