I've been an Apple fan since the dawn of OS X. I like the products, and I used to like the aura. Over the course of my fandom, though, I've seen the rebel outsider turn into the establishment. Not that the products aren't great, but their carefully-crafted marketing image doesn't work on me anymore.
In the case of this nabbed prototype, I'm not sure where the pieces fall legally, but I applaud the finder (who knew what he'd found) and Gawker Media (despite knowingly paying for properly they knew had a very interested owner somewhere) for making the device public. It's become a big game to "out" Apple's tightly-held secrets, and this time the outsiders (the *real* outsiders) prevailed. When Steve shows the new device, with the usual Keynote presentation, everyone will know the story and the details, and there will be a little uneasiness in the room.
Oh, and this all comes on top of Apple's "iAd" product, where advertisers pay them big money to embed ads inside their applications. That's the end of any semblance of Apple's radical, crunchy affectation. Now they're just like all the other big players.
But anyway, I'm looking forward to the arrival of my HP-16C tomorrow. I'll have to put the iPad aside for a while.
Edited: 5 May 2010, 7:52 p.m.