More Words, Deeper Hole

I strongly suspect that this is where that particular market segment will settle: micro tablet computers that are approximately the size of a trade-paper back book in HxW and about 0.5" thick. There are rumours flying around that Apple's designing a solid-state laptop-like device that uses the same touch-recognition code in the iPhone and iPod Touch, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if that's what will come out the back end of that research. Such a device would probably have WiFi and Bluetooth radios in it, but not cellular, and would be your portable document reader/web browser/video watching device that you can tote about your house and take to the coffee shop (where you can use their hot spot).

If you need/want to use a keyboard/mouse with it, you can use your Bluetooth input devices while the tablet is propped up on a small stand to act as a "display", or you can use the Touch onscreen 'keyboard' that's part of the iPhone/iPod Touch interface.

I'm hoping that they do really produce such a thing, because it's what I would probably purchase if it were available. Of course, being Apple, it may not be exactly inexpensive...