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One week ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPad. Here are my reasons why I want an iPad and why it will be a big hit for mainstream consumers.

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January 2010 won't go quietly, nor will Techweb's Chief Content Officer, David Berlind and I in our second podcast version of The Fritz & David Show where we give some of our final thoughts no the Apple iPad, and summarize the announcements coming from Oracle this week.

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Being one of the lucky few to have scored a press pass into Apple's highly secretive launch event today, I will be live blogging the announcement with text and photos as it happens. So, starting at around 11:30 AM ET, be sure to refresh this blog entry (and refresh often) as I frantically attempt to bring you all there is to know about Apple's tablet (or whatever it is) in real time.

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On the eve of one of Apple's most yet anticipated product launches in history, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw pre-empted Apple CEO Steve Jobs when he let slip confirmation on CNBC (video below) that Apple is indeed launching a tablet later today (Jan 27, 2010). McGraw revealed that it will run on the iPhone OS as well as details of the company's dealings with Apple. Separately, tech gadget site Engadget.com has what appears to be some very convincing photos of the device which it estimates to be 9 or 10" in size.

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If you live in one of the six cities participating in Global Social Media Week, next week is jam-packed with parties, networking and educational events.

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Here's how I use a variety of online review sites to help determine if I should purchase a product I am interested in.

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Following my post on the impact Android is having on usage of mobile web sites, I was contacted by Denis Stypulkoski, executive vice president and chief information officer at Tygris Commercial Finance, who noted the critical need for Google and Verizon to quickly add support for ActiveSync Provisioning Protocol – which is a prerequisite for e-mail security in Exchange shops -- in the Android OS.

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The big chatter this past weekend was, once again, about Facebook's privacy changes. Why shouldn't Facebook do what nearly every bank in America does?

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For one of the few times in memory, the industry hype – in this case, surrounding Android smartphones – appears to have been warranted. In just two months, Android has emerged as the second most popular platform used to access InformationWeek’s mobile web site, pushing aside BlackBerry and taking a meaningful bite out of Apple’s iPhone.

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Why should enterprises have all the fun? Sure, big companies are important, but small and midsize businesses constitute more than 99% of all U.S. businesses and employ more than half the U.S. workforce. And SMBs need sophisticated technology too, they just don't have the same level of resources and expertise. And SMBs can often get more upside out of new technology than can enterprises burdened with legacy investments and infrastructure. That's why we're introducting InformationWeek SMB, a new site aimed at the tech needs of Small and Midsize Businesses.

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Yesterday, on the way home from my interview of Free Software Foundation founder and president Richard Stallman, I listened closely as Slate's Farhad Manjoo told NPR's Neal Conan the facts about Apple's forthcoming tablet PC: that there are no facts. Well, there's one. Apple's brand has gotten so powerful that everyone including the stock market is putting faith in pure vapor as though the tablet mode of Microsoft's Windows 7 doesn't matter. Nary a mention. What gives?

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As social media grows as a traffic driver to blogs and news sites, will 2010 be the end of the full public RSS feed?

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This is my last essay for InformationWeek, as we're putting things on hiatus so I can focus on writing my next book in 2010. There are a few things I want to say before I go...

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Two outages for BlackBerry users around Christmas prompted many complaints and threats from angry users via online forums, blog posts, and tweets. I'm not sure if there's really an issue here.

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It's that time of the year again when everyone provides their predictions for the upcoming year. I'd like to take a look at five predictions for 2010 related to tech startups.

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A good number of kids will go to bed tonight thinking at least two things about the traditions of Christmas: first, they'll consciously be thankful and thrilled about their presents and, unconsciously, they'll have been further indoctrinated into the miracles of technology.

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I've been reminded recently that a few of the leading technology brands have added expert counsel -- lawyering and PR-ing up -- to deal with emerging public policy issues. I wonder why they don't just tell the truth.

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After watching the news about climate change from Copenhagen last night, I turned off the lights and realized that all those glowing little red dots on our entertainment system meant we were doing our part to help destroy the planet.

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A blogger who calls himself "Fake Steve Jobs" wants disgruntled iPhone users to organize into a flash mob to cripple AT&T's 3G network at noon on Friday. AT&T has responded. It's all much ado about nothing.

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I keep my list of items I need to complete on a piece of paper. Actually a few pieces of paper. A new application launching this weekend aims to help me (and you) increase our effectiveness.

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IBM has announced a new chip that could help a supercomputer achieve 10 petaflops, which is calculating power tantamount to the speeds Nature uses to form bubbles in sea foam and keep planets in orbit.

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Vevo, a presumed successor to MTV, debuts today to much less fanfare than its progenitor, what with video having killed the radio star over 25 years ago. Do you think the world needs a for-profit web site that plays music videos?

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Earlier this week Google announced the launch of Google DNS. I'd like to share my two predictions for DNS in 2010.

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Apple's new 21-inch iMac was October's best-selling desktop computer, according to retail analyst firm NPD. While sexy, the sales success was partially due to a slowdown in sales of competing PCs prior to the launch of Windows 7.

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I am still dumbfounded by Comcast's decision to buy NBC, and I'm not sure it's because I know too much about the past...or have to little faith in the future. Or both.

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What does it mean when the nation's largest Internet Service Provider, like Comcast, buys one of the biggest content creators in the world, like NBC? For one thing, it means the already contentious issue of Net Neutrality is about to get even more heated. Hopefully, it will galvanize the FCC to create and implement Net Neutrality rules that protect the interests of other companies doing business on the Internet.

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Business advisory service IDC issued a series of predictions for 2010 on Thursday and managed to say nothing at all that's surprising.

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What Twitter client do you use? TweetDeck is a favorite of many people who use Twitter for professional purposes. I've been an enthusiastic user of Tweetie for the Mac since it came out more than seven months ago, because I love its powerful, simple, and easy-to-use interface. However, TweetDeck now supports Twitter features that Tweetie doesn't, so I figured I'd give TweetDeck another try. And I'm liking it.

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With the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention this week reporting widespread H1N1 flu outbreaks in 32 states, many companies are dealing with or anticipating the need for staff to work remotely in the months ahead. This can present a challenge for IT organizations that haven't in the past dealt with large numbers of remote workers.

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I am ashamed to admit it but I am a deal hunter. I'd like to share my top resources so you can save actual money on Cyber Monday.

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As families and friends gathered across our great country yesterday, we were celebrating the merits of low tech. I think it should teach us something about how we conceive, build, and deliver any tech.

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AOL is offering up a tantalizing taste of its post-Time Warner business strategy: a new brand identity, which it plans to formally introduce when it lists on the NYSE on December 10.

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Earlier this month talk-show host Ellen began following me (and other tech people) on Twitter. Did her move display something more than just a simple follow?

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CERN's Large Hadron Collider ("LHC") restarted this morning without a hitch, after a year of kludgy delays and nutty rumors that time travelers had sabotaged it. It's time to ratchet up the quack science.

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Atari and Cryptic Studios are going to launch a MMORPG based on the Star Trek universe in early February, and reading about it has made me rather teary-eyed for the old days of Empire.

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It seems the hot Twitter news these days is that the service might be slowing in U.S. traffic growth. More importantly, is Twitter continuing to creep closer to FriendFeed's feature set?

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HP announced its takeover of 3Com Corp this week, and the media covered it as 1) a battle in the war with Cisco Systems, and 2) further evidence that tech giants are consolidating to provide "one stop shops" for corporate clients. Are you buying it?

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In perhaps unwitting participation in the publicity campaign for Columbia Pictures' upcoming doomsday flick "2012," NASA has posted a promise on its web site that "nothing bad will happen to the Earth." Gulp.

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A new player has entered the Intranet and collaboration space. OfficeMedium aims to help small businesses with their team business and communication needs.

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Google CEO Eric Schmidt is out making the media rounds in support of the Android launch, and during a Fox Business interview he touched on the issue of data privacy and control. It got me thinking that the subject was the real reason he's out and about.

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Ever since Avis made it respectable for a brand to be #2, there have been many really good examples of trailing entrants into product markets that achieve success, especially in the technology world. Is Motorola's new Droid the latest example?

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In a moderated discussion at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, Booz Allen Hamilton VP Art Fritzson and senior associate Walton Smith shared their experiences integrating social and collaborative software into their consulting business.

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Now there's a way to read bedtime stories to your kids without actually being there. Jason Kottke calls the system "slick." I call it sickening.

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Highlights from the Enterprise 2.0 Conference from San Francisco will be available live, via streaming video, beginning at 8:30 am PST on Tuesday. We kick off with keynote speaker Tammy Erickson, president of the nGenera Innovation Network. Watch by clicking here.

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Internet Explorer is slowly losing market share to its biggest rivals, Apple and Google, for reasons as disparate as they are significant.

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The news that WhiteHouse.gov relaunched this week running open source Drupal software raised eyebrows and hackles among knee-jerk anti-Obama types and a small cadre of ignorant bloggers.

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The Internet turned 40 yesterday, and it got me thinking about its relationship to the time and place in which it was invented. The happenstance of its first message belies why it wasn't just an innovation or improvement, but a truly disruptive technology.

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We've seen how social media like Twitter and Facebook can be used as part of a winning election strategy, but the same tools don't seem to influence elected officials or public policy.

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I've read that most of the plug-in electric vehicles under development have been designed to mimic the "feel" of driving a combustion engine car. I'm not sure that's even possible, and I don't know why they'd try.

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Maybe folks are simply trying to talk themselves out of the recession (which would be a good thing in itself), but it seems like the conversation around cloud computing is shifting from cost-cutting to unleashing innovation.

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