On Saturday many of my friends and peers stood in line for hours to be among the first to get Apple's newest digital device - the iPad. Some even stayed overnight in the rain. I didn't. I waited all the way until the afternoon to pick up not just one - but two - iPads, one for me, and one ostensibly for my wife and the twins to share. The entire process took about 20 minutes and I didn't have to pull an all-nighter on the sidewalk.

While I know you don't want to read the thousandth iPad review, I will be dribbling out some initial thoughts about the device over the next few weeks as I get to using it more and finding what I like and dislike about Apple's latest device.

As a MacBook Air owner and an iPhone 3G owner, the overlap for when I would use one device or another seemed high. Did the iPad even have a place for me between those two devices? Could the iPad do anything that the others couldn't, or enable me to be more productive? After battling those questions in my head, I knew the right thing to do was answer them outright by getting an iPad of my own. And the major thing I am thinking about in the first 48 hours of iPad ownership is that maybe I was looking for just a little bit more computer and a little bit less of a mobile device.

What do I mean by that?

Having used the iPhone for some time (and the iPod Touch before it), I am very familiar with the app-based ecosystem. I have gotten used to single-tasking and not multitasking, even if it is an annoyance. And yes, I have even gotten used to visiting Web sites that are optimized for the iPhone.

So getting the iPad and seeing the familiar app icons, with many of the same limitations, was not a surprise. It was comforting, but still limiting. But when I fired up Safari and ran into Web site after Web site interpreting that the iPad was a mobile device and showing me the iPhone version and not the "normal" version, it became clearer to me that this was not what I wanted.

A device the size of the iPad, with a screen as clear as the iPad, deserves fully capable Web sites. Even if I am using the iPad for content consumption and casual computing, I want to get a fair shake and the fully-functional site, not a dumbed down one for limited computers. For starters, the Twitter Web site defaulted to the mobile interface, and Google Reader did the same. Viewing Google Reader in the full display was practically unusable, sending me to reach for the MacBook Air to power through.

Meanwhile, we have the issue of apps you would expect on a computer, but don't expect on a mobile phone. Bloomberg stated that Microsoft would not be making Office for the iPad. This made me think two things - first, that this would limit functionality and force me away from the iPad more, and second, that this could open an opportunity for a competitor to get it right. Whether Apple's iWork suite is the answer or whether Google's cloud-based office is a strong enough alternative is to be decided. And yes, of course there's no equivalent for Adobe Photoshop in a world that moves beyond the desktop.

There are things the iPad does very well, and we'll get to those soon. It's fast. It plays all my iPhone apps quickly and in a much better display. Its battery life is the best I have ever seen. But I don't think I got it to act like a super big iPhone. Maybe I was looking for a MacBook Air Lite.

One of the small aggregation startups that debuted in 2008, but failed to catch on with users, despite a feature-rich and clean interface, was Mergelab, forged by a host of former Jobster executives, including the company's former CTO, Phillip Bogle, and Alan Steele, the company's vice president of engineering. The story of Mergelab was incredibly brief, launching in early beta in March and closing down only two months after, in May. The site could have been a notable competitor to FriendFeed and others, but never really had a chance.

The company's co-founders have gone their separate ways since closing down Mergelab. Steele is now director of content and search at WhitePages, after brief stops at other Web companies, while Bogle spent two years at iLike as an application architect. With MySpace having acquired iLike in late 2009, it looks like it was time for Bogle to set sail to a new venue, and today he announced he will be joining Google.

His initial work at Google is a mystery, even to him, according to his blog. He will be working out of the Kirkland office, and said he wants to be working on "something that faces end users, that it should help me learn how to take advantage of Google’s infrastructure, and that it should be important to Google’s revenue." Sounds broad to me.

So count another innovative engineer in the startup space joining the big guys. It'd be wonderful to see Mergelab functionality enter Buzz, but I don't anticipate that happening given Bogle's not joining the Gmail team. Maybe they'll at least give him a call and trade ideas. I would.

In the company's continued efforts to reduce the impact rising from the initial confusion around Google Buzz controls and transparency following the social network's initial launch in early February, which saw many claiming privacy breaches or unsavory connections related to the initial autofollow feature, Google will ask all Buzz users to reconfirm their settings tomorrow when they enter Buzz. This move, albeit a minor one, is likely another requirement to get the network's house in order after taking numerous body blows in the press - which have helped to sully Buzz's reputation and cloud its success to date.

The settings, which are already available in the Buzz section of Gmail settings, as highlighted in mid-February, ask you to confirm:

1. Who you are following
2. Those who are following you
3. If the connections can be displayed
4. How many sites you have connected to Buzz

The changes come amid the resurfacing of stories around undesired visibility of connections, labeled as "privacy flaws", and the news that congressional representatives are asking the FTC to investigate Buzz for allegedly exposing private information from Gmail to outsiders.

All the bad news, which hasn't seemed to ebb in the two months since the service debuted, has often unfortunately overshadowed the very capabilities of that network and its activity - and has made it hard for Google, a company with assumed tremendous resources, to compete more directly with Facebook and other social sites. In a note from Google's PR team tonight, they promise the setting confirmation screens will roll out gradually to users throughout the day, and a post summarizing the move will likely appear Monday afternoon. They also promise more updates in the future through a number of Google channels including their own Buzz (of course), and on their YouTube account.

In my opinion, many of the problems have arisen from standard Gmail users who had Buzz enabled, but either ignored the network or were unfamiliar with it. The promise is to show this screen upon entering Buzz, but I believe it would be even more transparent and effective to show this announcement to all Gmail users - regardless of their Buzz history. That's a big step indeed, but one that could go beyond the series of small steps the Buzz team has had to make to step away from the brink. I have sent an e-mail to their PR team to ask if that is planned.

I know who I am connected to and what I am sharing. You can find me on Buzz here: http://www.google.com/profiles/louisgray.

I've been watching the buildup around location and check-ins with some level of interest over the last year or so, mixed with some thinly veiled skepticism. While my tendency at times has been to mock the entire practice of reporting one's location from stop to stop, gaining real-time updates on friends' locations, and competing for virtual badges intended to improve one's self-worth, I've for the most part kept quiet about the whole thing - lest I find myself forced to eat my words as I doubled back and used something I might have sworn I would never do.

For the most part, the excitement around Foursquare, Gowalla and other similar applications has centered on two elements - the fun, social side that spikes when a group of mostly single friends participates in something like an informal barcrawl in an urban center, such as San Francisco, or the potential for businesses to gain information about their most-frequent customers, returning with favors such as coupons or specials for loyal guests. The expectation is that with time, Foursquare and Gowalla (and their competitors) will gain so many users battling for badges and other privileges that this mass data will become actionable and useful. And for whatever reason, users will continue broadcasting their location, manually or automatically, largely due to game theory and sheer competitiveness.


My Scintillating Foursquare History and a New Mayorship!

For me, as I've watched this phenomenon, expecting to be dragged into it kicking and screaming, fingernails digging a rut in the ground, I've always wondered if this is the front of a battle that doesn't have a place for otherwise socially active people like me who happen to be married, don't drink, have kids, and generally don't do much exciting enough to check in at constantly. In February of 2009, speaking about Brightkite, I said I wasn't using these apps because I was simply too boring, not because of any privacy risk. At the time I joked about checking in to home, church or lunch, or even at a micro-level, checking in from the couch, the fridge, or the kids' room. And after some testing of Foursquare in the last month, that's not too far off from the truth.

As I've used Foursquare exclusively in the last few weeks, the discussion will largely be framed by my experience there, and your own experience with other apps may differ.

How pervasive is Foursquare?

If you read some headlines, you would think it was a phenomenon sweeping the nation, starting with the urban centers, and flowing outward. The company reported it was rapidly advancing toward a million unique users, having grown six figures alone at the recent South by Southwest conference, which I attended in Austin, Texas. But even here in the San Francisco Bay Area, I've routinely found businesses that are unlisted in the service, or have had close to zero activity, a year into the app's existence. I've added restaurants, department stores and office buildings. I even found myself named mayor of a grocery store in upscale Woodside, California after only two visits there in a three-day period.


Other Foursquare Users Run the Apple Store and Apple Campus

If the assumption is that Foursquare is growing and being used all over the place, it seemingly hasn't gotten all the way down the peninsula. If San Francisco venues are hard to claim and become Mayor for, it's pretty much a breeze around Woodside, Sunnyvale, Milpitas and Cupertino. And in practically every case where I checked in, I was the only person at that venue, with the exception being the Valley Fair Apple Store Saturday afternoon on iPad launch day.

I can only imagine that as you move further inland toward less populated areas, you could easily be the only person using the app, effectively doing battle with yourself alone.

How accurate is Foursquare?

I have read a lot of notes talking about how easy it is to cheat on Foursquare - as people used Web tools to check in across the country, or even scripts to make themselves atop the charts for notable venues worldwide. And if Foursquare were to accurately show where people were, you would see a lot more mundane or even seedy updates. It's a wonder people never check in at strip clubs, laundromats, or adult bookstores. The truth is that many people no doubt sanitize their checkins to present a good face of who they are to their contemporaries.

Meanwhile, checking in to places where you actually haven't set foot is very simple. Foursquare does a very good job guessing your location, and if there are venues in the area, you can pull down and select from the list where you want to check in. This works even if you're driving (so long as the CHP doesn't see you). So, for kicks, I've checked in at places like Hitachi Data Systems or Palm Computing without even slowing down at an intersection. And if you have a frequent route to and from the office, it's possible you can check in enough times at a place on the way to get Mayorship. I've already checked in at the Executive Briefing Center at Apple headquarters in Cupertino twice. I wonder if I keep turning on De Anza from South 280 if I can gain Mayorship without even being invited...


Only 7 Check-ins From 5 People Made Me The Mayor After 2.

Similarly, my home location, called "LG Land", where I am mayor (Duh), shows one other guy has checked in, who I know has never set foot in my home. It could be he was going quickly and thought it read "Golf Land", for the miniature golf course down the street, but there's no way for me to log into Foursquare and negate his checkin, just like Apple can't kick me out of the records of their EBC.

Also, there are many places where it makes sense not to check in at all - such as friends' residences. We took our kids Easter Egg hunting this afternoon at a couple's home. Rather than add them as a new venue, it made more sense to check in at the park next door to give an idea of where we were, without being 100 percent accurate. Better than nothing?

How Interesting Is Foursquare?

Taking into account the above notes on accuracy and the opportunity for cheating, my experience with Foursquare has been much as I had anticipated. I am unsurprisingly mayor not only of my home, but also of Paladin Advisors Group (a new venue) and client offices in the South Bay. I secured mayorship of Robert's in Woodside after two visits, and have checked in multiple times at church, Safeway, gas stations and some parks in the area.


My Foursquare Buds Are Just As Boring As Me

My feed, just like my actual travel history, is therefore pretty uninspiring. That's a major reason I set up a parallel Twitter account (@lgloco) for Foursquare, rather than muddy my regular feed with those updates. I've tried to avoid self-mockery with the mundane nature of my updates, but instead to give it a fair shake, checking in where I really am, no matter the critical need to broadcast it.

But I'm not the only one. To be honest, the vast majority of your updates aren't that brilliant either - with stops at Ikea, Best Buy and the barber shop being among those I've seen friends update in the last day or so. So where then is the appeal of instant knowledge? I can get why you might want to know if a business is "trending" in an area, or if you guys are at a hot club and I'm not, but may want to join you. But if you're getting your hair cut, I'm not suddenly going to show up and ask for a trim and I'm not going to try and get a bulk rate on make-it-yourself bunk beds at Ikea.

Trust me, there are times where I've thought of Foursquare having real utility. When delayed at the Denver airport on the way to SXSW last month, I wondered if others I knew were in the same airport stuck with me. And I scanned the list of seven folks at the Apple Store Saturday to see if there was anybody I knew. Of course, there wasn't. But these are rare exceptions.

If you want to announce you're at a party with three friends, you can just as easily put a note on Twitter with the user names of your three buds as checking in simultaneously. And keep in mind as a boring married guy with kids, I'd be more likely to check in with my twin toddlers at home than any place else.

So Is It Me Or Is It The App?

Despite the above, I'm not resentful of Foursquare and have found some of the mechanisms fairly entertaining. If I don't take myself too seriously, checking in at a Shell station or a Taco Bell or a client site isn't too much trouble and you know I'm always smirking when I do it. And being a numbers and charts guy, I do like scrolling through my stats on Foursquare to see the day I check in the most and averages. Any time you can take activity and turn it into stats or trends, you've got my attention.


Note More than Half My Checkins Are At New Places

But I am not gaining a ton from the real social aspects of the app. I watch Brian Remmel and Brian Solis go to and from FutureWorks. I watch Denton Gentry and his family check in off the grid presumably around the East Bay. I see random Googlers frequent their favorite restaurants. For the most part, they're as boring as me.

I'm not putting on a curmudgeon's crown and dismissing the app or the trend. It seems to be taking hold, at least for the digerati, and I've wholly embraced similar publicly revealing sites, including Blippy and all the various social networks. I am enjoying being as boring as humanly possible and telling you all about it - because it's more accurate than any facade I could give you. After all, we couldn't be nearly as productive online if we were away from the computer all the time. If I really were out there checking in to bar after bar overnight, it'd be a different story, and a different person outright.

Now, if you don't mind, I need to check in at home. If you think that's interesting, you can find me on Foursquare at http://foursquare.com/user/lgloco. The "loco" is intentional.