Yesterday's request for Betanews readers to answer "What would you use an Apple tablet, or any other, for?" has brought plenty of answers, perhaps because the post -- "The world doesn't need an Apple tablet, or any other" -- was so provocative. I wrote that post to bring some sanity to the outrageously loud Apple tablet hype. Instead, the post stirred up geek emotions and several, pointed rebuttal blogs (Marc Flores, Robert Scoble and MG Siegler, among others). I won't defend yesterday's post here. It stands or falls on its merits.

But I do want to call out some readers' responses about what they would do with an Apple tablet. As I write, there are 119 comments, which is enough for some of the best ones to get lost. I want to thank you all for sharing your enthusiasm about the mythical Apple tablet and what you would do with it. Some of the best comments were simply too long to present here; my apologies for omitting them. They could have been separate posts, and maybe they should be. The comments collected here are presented randomly.

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Apple's rumored tablet computer cannot live up to the hype, which has reached almost ridiculous levels of rumor, speculation and anticipation. The rumored tablet will fall short of expectations, because they are simply too unrealistic. What surprises me most about the excitement and early analyst sales projections: No one is talking about addressable market.

So I'll assert what should be obvious to anyone thinking rationally and not emotionally: Tablet is a nowhere category. For all the hype about an Apple tablet , it is at best a niche product. The world doesn't need an Apple tablet, no matter what the hype about rumored features or regardless of what actually releases (if anything).

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Mobile Digital TV is still about a year away from mainstream adoption, but major strides were made in 2009. Now on the last day of the year, consumer electronics company LG has announced it will finally be showing off Mobile DTV products at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The mobile DTV concept has been developing for more than three years, but only began to seriously take off in the last four months, after the Advanced Television Systems Committee approved the A/53 ATSC Mobile DTV standard.

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In an historic public response to the US Federal Communications Commission's request for comments regarding its forthcoming National Broadband Plan, due before Congress on February 17, AT&T acknowledged not the forthcoming obsolescence, but the current obsolescence of the wireline telephone system. Without shame, it even applied the once-degrading acronym "POTS" (Plain Old Telephone System), interchangeably with "PSTN" (Public Switched Telephone Network), to refer to the one-time marvel of technology that defined its predecessor, the Bell System, in the 20th century.

But the new AT&T went a huge step further than to denigrate its stepchild. In its filing dated December 21 and released Tuesday (PDF available here), the company called upon the Commission to begin consideration of a formal deadline for the transition of all wireline customers to a wireless system comprising broadband and IP-based connectivity -- refraining from referring to 3G or 4G services in a cellular context. AT&T's reasoning: Carriers can no longer afford to maintain the old network while simultaneously building out the new one.

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We segue into 2010 with rumors swirling around the biggest mega product announcement since the iPhone. If Apple's mythical tablet device -- the "iSlate," if insiders and analysts are to be believed -- is in fact announced sometime in January, Apple fans will once again dance in the streets before lining up in the middle of the night, wallets in hand, ready to buy into the latest must-have doodad from Cupertino.

Not that I'm one to make resolutions. They are, after all, pointless promises that are inevitably broken before the last bit of confetti has been swept out of the gutters in Times Square. But if I ever had to make one, it would be to ban the Apple hype machine permanently from our midst. The noise from all this speculation is hurting my head, and I just want it to stop.

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Each year, I offer a list of things Microsoft should do in the coming year, in lieu of making predictions. It's a bit arrogant to tell Microsoft what to do, but I've got a good track record of giving advice that is right. The year ahead will be challenging for Microsoft, as the company struggles against weak global economies and to successfully launch cloud services.

Ten resolutions aren't enough. I had to ignore so many others, such as keeping CEO Steve Ballmer (don't fire him!) or uniting Xbox and Zune (something already underway). The list is in order of importance, from least to most, from 10 to 1.

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This will be the toughest commentary I likely will ever write about Microsoft. It is toughest for me to compose because I see what Microsoft could have been in 2009 from where it started in 2000. It is toughest on Microsoft, more than anything I may ever write again about the company.

I dedicate this seemingly harsh post to all the Microsoft employees that privately have complained about management problems -- not because they were mad or resentful but because they desperately wanted to fix the problems. They spoke to me in confidence out of their love for Microsoft. I apologize for not speaking up for them before. I do so today, as reflection on the past to shed light on future actions. The decade 2010 could be better if Microsoft learns from its mistakes.

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The hosting of software and services in leased, private clouds is already a reality for many businesses worldwide. But the synchronization of confidential data is the next big step, and while technologists declare "the cloud" as something that is happening, like climate change, CIOs aren't always ready to take the plunge.

But services such as Microsoft Exchange synchronization are already among us. Is that a cloud app? Recently, Microsoft has been saying yes, as it rolls out its own leased Exchange hosting services to many classes of business, including SMBs. The difference between hosted Exchange and Exchange Server is that it's Microsoft that's doing the hosting. And in synchronization services such as those being constructed by Google and others, employees' data could follow them wherever they go, from their PCs to their Android phones and on the road. Almost like Eeyore, users wouldn't be able to escape the cloud over their heads.

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"The Big Fix"

With more data on hand thanks to the vastly improved and partly repurposed Windows Error Reporting service, engineers could craft more effective ways to address the root problem of as much as one-third of key categories of crashes. That's what enabled them to implement what may go down as the Big Fix.

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[The author of this article is Bob Flores, the former Chief Technology Officer for the US Central Intelligence Agency. Currently he's a private government technology consultant with Applicology Inc., and a member of the board of directors of St. Louis-based cloud computing software maker Appistry.]

Hope was a slogan and a sentiment that played a major role in the US presidential election of 2008, and hope continues to be the mindset of technology advocates pushing for cloud computing in the public sector. As a former government employee with a long history in the intelligence field, I can easily see how cloud computing can contribute to the country's security and prosperity.

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Turning the other cheek...works

Where James Plamondon's presentation to developer evangelists at Microsoft stops short of testifying to its current policy, is where the company takes the unprecedented step of declaring ceasefire. Where evangelism was war for Plamondon (who now works outside the company), the tack today looks less like Sun Tzu and more like Gandhi: sitting down in the face of a fight.

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The new year is time for reflection and planning. I've got a New Year's resolution for Microsoft: Buy Palm and use the hardware and software to jumpstart your mobile strategy. Palm the company is struggling and may not survive past 2010. But its technology is worthwhile. WebOS is a modern, mobile operating system. So what if it's based on Linux? What operating system did Hotmail run when Microsoft bought it more than a decade ago? You know the answer. Linux is better than nothing.

My list is in no order of importance, because all the reasons are important and they are interrelated.

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In a move reminiscent of Apple circa January 2007, Google today announced it will be holding an invitation-only Android press event at Google Headquarters on January 5, just two days before the International Consumer Electronics Show opens its doors to the public.

Though the invitation only describes the event as an "Android press gathering," the widespread expectation is that this will be the official launch of the HTC/Google Nexus One, an as-of-yet unreleased Android device that has been distributed internally at Google and hotly discussed in the blogosphere.

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Sync will define connected tech products released or updated in 2010 and the few years that follow. Tech companies that get sync right will set the agenda for the delivery of content and services. Right now, Amazon, Apple and Google are sync leaders. Microsoft is a player but competing in the wrong game.

In a March 2008 blog post, I asserted that "synchronization is the natural killer application for the connected world." I also warned that "should Google get synchronization right before Microsoft, it would be game over. Google would be able to extend the relevancy of the Web platform back to the desktop on its terms -- think invading army -- and across many devices or services." It's game over now, and Microsoft has lent Google a helping hand in self-destruction.

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Way back last August, the Mozilla organization's developers set their sights on November 2009 as a release timeframe for Firefox 3.6, the latest round of functionality improvements to the most popular cross-platform Web browser. That date had been unofficially bumped forward to December, but that was before the release of the earliest betas to the general public slipped past the original mid-October release window -- it ended up going live just before Halloween.

The delays in the development of Firefox happened then, not now. But with only three days left in the year, bloggers came to realize that general availability (GA) of 3.6 had slipped from its end-of-year targets set way back last summer. This despite obvious notices that a planning meeting on the subject of setting a date, was set for January 5.

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