Normally I’d write this over at Apple Gazette – your source for excellent Apple news, reviews and commentary – but let’s face it; there’s nothing geekier right now than the iPad. I originally thought that it wasn’t worth my time. There was no reason for me to get an iPad when my laptop and iPhone do everything I need them to do. I just didn’t see a fit for it in my life, frankly, and I didn’t want to spend the money.

I did this same thing with the iPhone. God, did I want the iPhone badly, but it just didn’t fit all of the qualifications that I wanted in a device. I figured that if it was an iPod and a phone in the same package, then I wanted it to replace my 40GB iPod Photo entirely. Plus there was no MMS and no other compelling reason to buy the thing – at least in my case. But I spent the next year trying it out, playing with it at the Apple store and slowly falling in love. When the 3G came out, I figured it was mostly all the way up to my requirements, so I jumped on it. I loved the thing so much that I bought a 3GS when they came out, too.

Now it’s iPad time, and I’m in a familiar situation. This time though, I know what I’m getting into. It’s a new device with limited usage. It wouldn’t replace my laptop in travel situations, nor would it be my device of choice for hammering out blog posts. But it would be nice to use instead of my iPhone when it came time to surfing the web or playing a game. For me, I figured that two things would sway my opinion: the apps and touching the thing for the first time.

Well, the apps are here. Do a search for “iPad” in iTunes and you get the screen pictured above. Take a look at WeatherBug Elite for iPad and tell me that’s not one of the most gorgeous things you’ve ever seen. Twitteriffic for iPad? C’mon. Done deal. The final nail in the coffin for me was At Bat 2010 for iPad. Seriously, I could watch the Red Sox from my desktop and have all the stats I want on hand. Brilliant.

Alright, so the Apps are a done deal. What about touching it? Well I, like everyone else out there, won’t get a chance to touch it until this weekend. But when I get the chance, I’m gonna touch it so much that it’ll have to get a restraining order. I think that it’s going to quickly become a situation where, like petting a puppy for the first time, I touch it and want it.

There’s just one last hurdle here, and that’s the price. I’ve already decided on a 3G model, so I’m instantly in the upper price range. Then there’s the memory. I said 64GB, but truth be told, 32GB might fit just fine depending on how I use it. I doubt it’ll be for playing my iTunes playlist, but it’s definitely made for movies so that will suck up some storage. Then there’s all the books and apps I’ll be getting, mostly for reading to my son and playing games. It’s between 32 and 64 for me, so now I just have to decide if the price is worth it.

But now, unlike with the iPhone, I know I want it. Now I just have to decide on the when part.

When the writer’s strike was going on a while back in Hollywood, very few things came out of that time. One of them though was the brilliant Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog [iTunes link], a three-part series featuring Nathan Fillion, Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day, all written and directed by Joss Whedon. Basic plot goes like this: NPH plays Dr. Horrible, a second-tier super villan who wants to get into the Evil League of Evil. Problem is, every time he does something to try to get the attention of the league, his arch nemesis – Captain Hammer played by Nathan Fillion – stops him in his tracks.

[Mild spoilers ahead]

Now that sounds like every other superhero story out there, but this one has a twist. Dr. Horrible isn’t really that unlikable a guy. We want him to succeed, even though we know that means doing some bad things. The other complication is that he’s met a girl and fallen in love. Her name is Penny and she’s played by Felicia Day. Of course she doesn’t know that he’s evil because he’s not in uniform, but then she runs into Captain Hammer and the love triangle begins.

The plot twists and turns a few different times, and there’s a lot of singing in there as well. Thing is, it’s not weird or goofy, it all just fits and flows really well. When you get to the end of the series, you’re left wanting more, but know there probably won’t be any. Well, turns out that’s wrong.

First, there were rumors that they were doing a Dr. Horrible movie. Good idea? Not so much. The short films worked out perfectly, but I don’t see this holding my attention for two hours. But now they’ve released an app for the iPhone, and it’s a comic book. You’ll never guess what it’s called.

“Dr Horrible.”

That’s right. Brilliant, isn’t it? Anyways, this comic [iTunes link] deals more with the backstory of the good doctor and where he began. I haven’t gotten into much of it yet, but so far it’s pretty entertaining. And at the low, low price of just .99 cents, it’s a bargain for everyone.

If you’ve got an iPhone, this is a must-purchase. Go get it now, and prepare to be entertained.

The Sonic the Hedgehog series is a lot like that hot chick you knew in high school. She had an amazing body, was super hot, and knew how to make boys like her. Then she got old, had a few kids, maybe tried to get some plastic surgery but that didn’t work out. Now it’s 10 years later and she’s got more chins than Chris Farley and a voice that sounds like she’s smoked 4 packs of Marlboro reds for the past decade. There’s just not a lot left there to love.

But if you look back and remember what made that girl hot to begin with, then maybe you’ve got something there. Ultimately, that was always the problem with Sonic. After Sonic 3, they tried to go 3-D like every other character out there, but it just didn’t work. Then they tried upping the speed and that just made the game unplayable. In fact, Sega has tried almost everything with this character, to the point that I had given up. They just needed to get back to what made the game fun to begin with. It was a simple side scroller, nothing more. Bring that back and we’ll have some fun.

Turns out, they have. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 has been announced, and it takes Sonic back to the old school days of the Sega Genesis, right where he needs to be. From the site:

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I, the first Sonic game developed exclusively for download, brings back the adventure that Sonic fans have been waiting 16 years for.  It will offer the classic Sonic moves that fans love including Spin Dash and Rolling Attack and will also feature Homing Attack, all in beautiful CG rendered environments. Packed with special stages, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I will take players through a variety of different Zones, inspired by the Genesis-era style. Longtime fans will not be disappointed as they face some intense boss battles against everyone’s favorite villain – the always devious and evil – Dr.Eggman.

By targeting the download market, Sega is making sure that they don’t invest in a physical product, just in case this Sega goes the way of the others. As of right now, it’s coming out for the Playstation 3, Wii and XBox 360, but they’re strongly hinting that it will be on other download sites as well. It doesn’t take a genius to guess that the next platform is the iPhone/iPad, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

The game will come out this summer, and we’ll keep you in the loop when we find out more info.

Yes, it’s a much more closed system than the likes of Android, for example, but an iPhone user’s experience of purchasing apps via iTunes, either from the phone or on a Mac or PC, has still been much better than many other systems.

What has let the side down is the quality of apps available in the Store, made worse by the sheer quantity of them.

New analysis from the Facebook mobile app store Mplayit has found that consumers don’t really care how many apps a certain platform has, but what they are and whether they’ll fulfil a certain need.

‘How many apps?’ is the wrong question,” said Michael Powers, CEO and founder of Mplayit. “People just want to get the job done. It doesn’t matter if there are 50 different to-do list apps on iPhone, because Android or BlackBerry just need a couple of good ones to make consumers happy.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, apps that can work across various platforms tended to do particularly well in the popularity stakes, with top apps including Evernote (Lists and Notes category) and Pandora Radio (music category).

mPlay it, which uses Facebook to display a range of applications available on each smartphone platform, is aiming at those people who may wish to switch mobile platform without giving up their favourite types of application.

It seems many consumers just want to do a few things on their phone, and to do them well. Sure, us geeks probably tend to examine every aspect of a phone and its software, but the masses maybe care rather less.

Apple may try to convince the general population that there’s an app for just about anything on the iPhone, but most just aren’t after that many.

The handset itself is still pretty important. I’ve used similar apps on an iPhone and a BlackBerry, and let me tell you the BB experience was horrendous. That’s why manufacturers need to ensure their hardware and interface is as good as it can be so users get a good app experience.