Another technology dilemma: tablet edition

About a year ago, I wrote about my difficulties in choosing a new cell phone. I ended up with the Android-powered Samsung Captivate, and with the possible exceptions of no physical keyboard and an excruciatingly long upgrade cycle to Froyo, I couldn't be happier with it.

Now I want to buy a tablet. The iPad 2 is the default choice. It has a commanding lead in the apps I care about (think online newspapers and magazines), a nice size and shape, superior battery life, and a price that's inexplicably better than similarly powered tablets.

So why not just buy one? First, rumors of a sharper-resolution model this summer makes me want to wait a few months -- the main appeal of a lightweight tablet for me is e-reading. At the same time, I want to see what Android alternatives might be available by then. One possibility is the Nook Color, which is supposed to be getting a big upgrade this month. While I don't know whether I can live with the measly 7-inch screen, the idea of a low-cost Android tablet appeals to me. I do think Android is going to dominate the mobile market in the long run, and dealing with just one interface would be easier. (I already find myself looking for Android buttons on my wife's iPad.)

I wish someone could refute the iPad 3 rumor and just let me buy something already.

General update

Between my Flash class, apartment hunt and pregnancy (Andrea's pregnancy, actually), I haven't had much time to do any real writing. Today, I'm at a venture capital conference in Half Moon Bay between sessions. Anyway, here are a few odds 'n' ends:

• My iPaq 6915 died. Or more accurately, it stopped syncing to PCs through the USB connection -- which for my purposes, is the same thing. A repair and badly needed battery replacement looked like it was going to be $100 or so, and who knows what else was about to go wrong with it? So I replaced it with the AT&T Tilt, which was going for half price Thanksgiving Day weekend. I'll write more about it later, but it's a pretty nice phone -- powerful and 3-G network ready. My data plan went up another $20, but it connects at true broadband speeds, dulling the financial bite a bit. I can even share the Internet connection with my laptop over Bluetooth. So no more hunting around for Wi-Fi.
• Andrea has reached the 7-month mark of her pregnancy. She's starting to feel the physical discomfort of having another person inside her. The baby is very active, which is a good thing.
• Google Maps has added a "send to GPS" feature that lets users send a destination to their TomTom device. I haven't gotten it to work with my TomTom Navigator 6 software, though.
• And in other Google Maps news, the mobile version of the service added a feature that shows your approximate location without GPS. It triangulates your position using information from your phone carrier's cellular transmission towers. Kind of handy, but a little creepy, too.
• And this is a little old, but Microsoft's Live Search mobile application has added a feature that lets you use voice input. It works pretty well and comes very handy in certain situation.