Gratuitous Luddite Observation

A puff piece about Apple's unveiling of its new "tablet" today:

The long-anticipated Apple multimedia tablet is expected to take center stage this morning as the Cupertino computer maker unveils its next new thing for the tech-hungry masses.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs arrived about 9 a.m. in a black Lincoln outside San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Reporters and analysts started had gathering about 7:45 a.m. for the 10 a.m. event. In the lobby, long tables draped with black tablecloths were topped with silver MacBooks. Apple employees were taking pictures with their iPhones of the growing media crowd.

Anand Rudraxi of Fremont, a 30-year-old software engineer, arrived at about 7:45 a.m. hoping to get in to the invitiation-only event. "I would like to know
Live online Wednesday what Steve Jobs is presenting," Rudraxi said. "It's exciting for me."

McGraw-Hill's CEO spoke on CNBC on Tuesday and appeared to confirm speculation that Apple will indeed unveil a tablet computer running on iPhone software during a highly anticipated media event this morning.

Harold McGraw, the company's chief executive, was discussing his company's earnings on the cable television business news channel. When asked about the tablet, McGraw said Apple will "make their announcement tomorrow on this one" and that "the tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system."

Yes, but what exactly is it supposed to do? Looks like a whole lot of sizzle and not much steak to me.

A friend at the Metro this morning said it means the end of paper publishing. I said they can have my books when they pry them out of my cold, dead fingers.

Feh.