Last year, when the first iPad was launched, I predicted that the lines on launch day at Apple stores wouldn’t be as crazy as those for a typical iPhone launch. One of the major reasons for this was that Apple was allowing people to pre-order an iPad for a guaranteed launch-day delivery to your house. Why wait in line when you can just wait for the FedEx guy from your couch? And if you didn’t trust that day-one delivery promise, you could also reserve an iPad for pickup…

> The Xoom tablet is trim, light, and very pretty > … but when you place it next to the iPad 2, it looks as though it > was designed and built by angry Soviet prison labor instead of by > Motorola. via [instapaper.com](http://www.instapaper.com/go/135636816/text)From Andy Ihnatko, of course.…

I’m surprised at the lack of speculation about the scheduled Apple event tomorrow. Sure, the rumor mill is going on full steam as always, but everyone is assuming tomorrow’s event is all about the iPad 2. It certainly will be partly about that. But I think there’s more to this than most people think. What has most people thinking “iPad only” is the invitation Apple sent out to the press, which shows a calendar date of March 2 peeled back to reveal an iPad underneath. Fair enough.…

> right now it’s a small island in a sea of phone titles — and the majority of those titles do not look right on a 10.1-inch screen at this resolution. via [engadget.com](http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/23/motorola-xoom-review/)Funny, I don’t remember anyone saying this last year when the iPad was released. Oh yeah, that’s because there were thousands of titles available at launch that were native. Because Apple released the SDK to developers long enough before the iPad shipped. Honeycomb is just getting…

> Honeycomb is the first version of Android designed for tablets and is eagerly anticipated. Motorola’s Xoom tablet will launch on Thursday as the first to run the software, but initial versions won’t come with Flash support. Verizon, which is putting the device on sale, previously said Flash would be available in “spring 2011.” > > The vague time reference had people fearing Flash wouldn’t be available until the end of the season, but a posting on Adobe’s blog points to a slightly earlier release. > > “Consumers are clearly asking…