We were getting the kids situated in our cars. Shelley opted to take the Accord, since Phil’s booster seat was already in the back seat. And I was in the minivan, since Calvin’s car seat pretty much stays there full-time. I had left my iPad in the back seat of the car from the night before when I took it over to my friends’ house. Shelley found it and handed it to me while I was getting Calvin buckled in his seat. With my hands full of three-year old, I took it and placed the iPad on the roof of the van.

You can probably already see where this is heading.

I shut Calvin’s door. I forgot my keys and my wallet and I ran back into the house to find them. I got in on the driver’s side and we pulled out of the garage.

My iPad was still on the roof.

We got to the end of our street and I noticed the dome light was still on. So I parked at the stop sign, got out and re-shut Calvin’s door.

I didn’t notice that the iPad was still on the roof.

I got back in the car and Calvin (age 3) and I headed down the road.

Calvin kept jabbering away, asking questions about where we were going and what we were going to do when we got there and where was mommy and Phillip and yada, yada, yada.

The iPad was still on the roof.

We turned on to southbound Interstate 75. At the bottom of the ramp, I noticed a few police cars had pulled over someone for a ticket. So, after passing them, I thought to myself that I should pick up some speed, since the cops were going to be way behind me. I looked down and I was doing 70 MPH.

The iPad was still on the roof. But not for long.

I heard a thump! And at first I thought I had hit something. But I didn’t see anything. I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw a black object flying through the air, then landing, skidding, and sliding on the highway behind me. At first I thought, “Surely a piece of the luggage rack on the van didn’t just break off.”

Then it dawned on me. My iPad had just flown off the back of my car at 70 MPH and crash-landed on the Interstate. All I did was whisper, “No, no, no,” which I think made Calvin uncomfortable because daddy stopped answering all his questions.

My 32GB 3G iPad lives inside a DODOcase, a handmade case designed to look like a Moleskine journal notebook. There is nothing industrial or bulletproof about the materials. It’s well-crafted, but I would have never thought it would survive any sort of major impact.

A feeling of dread started to come over me. I wasn’t sure what to do. For a moment I thought about not going back to collect it, expecting to find a pathetic puddle of glass and silicon in the middle of the freeway.

My wife had just texted me something about leaving my sunglasses in the car. I shakily replied with “Guess who lost his iPad off the top of the car going 70 mph?”

Between my home exit and the next, there’s no place in the median to do an emergency turnaround. Plus, I’m doing 70. So by the time I realized that it was the iPad–I was way down the road!

I continued to the next exit, pulled up the ramp, then got going down the other ramp on my way back. When I finally got going back in the right direction, I was doing 35 or 40 MPH, scanning the roadway for my iPad’s mangled corpse. I saw it laying off to the right in the emergency lane. I pulled off to the side of the road, and backed up to it–careful not to back over it.

When there was a gap in the traffic, I got out and picked it up. I remember a twinge of embarrassment, thinking that surely other drivers passing by must realize what just happened.

Of course, Calvin was very curious what Daddy was gathering at the side of the road.

I was surprised to find the case almost completely intact. Only the top left corner of the back cover was mangled, and then only a little bit. There were scuff marks all over the back from where it must have slid to a stop, but nothing too bad. The wooden part of the case was cracked by the iPad landscape volume control. It’s good looks are spoiled but it did its job marvelously.

I opened the case up. The screen was completely intact: no cracks, no shatter. It didn’t pop out of the aluminum housing. I took the iPad out of the DODOcase for inspection: not one scratch. Nothing. No dings. No scrapes. No bumps. No bends.

Nothing.

I pushed the home button. The unlock screen came right up. I tilted the iPad sideways, the orientation changed as expected–so the accelerometer was still working. I opened Safari and I connected to the internet just fine over 3G, so the antenna still worked. I checked Google Maps and the blue dot pinpointed me at the side of I-75, so the GPS antenna was working.

The iPad that just flew off the top of my minivan going 70 MPH then landing on Interstate 75′s asphalt was as good as new.

So what does this say about the build quality of the iPad, and the DODOcase too, for that matter, who I think is the hero of our story?

Here’s what I think:

1. I would have never thought the iPad would have come out of this alive with a completely intact screen, case or no case. I saw this thing fly tumbling through the air. I mean, it had *lift.* I have demolished iPhone screens one-fourth the size, standing still from 3 feet onto concrete. The iPad dropped at least 8 feet after it flew up, and with velocity. Not even a chip or crack! Apple’s build quality of this thing is rock solid. Don’t worry about dropping this thing on your shag carpet.
2. I’m lucky this didn’t kill someone behind me at worst, or smash a windshield at best. After it was airborne, it stopped being consumer electronics and became a 1.5 pound projectile of glass and aluminum. Luckily, it flew into the emergency lane.
3. Bravo, DODOcase! I know they claim that their product isn’t an “impact” case in their site’s FAQ, but you could have fooled me. This is now the singular iPad case I will recommend to everyone. You saved the day.

PR hater and TechCrunch Editor Mike Arrington took notice of the emails as well, and wrote, “There’s no shaming this industry [PR] into normal human behavior.”

Of course, one can’t help but point out that “normal human behavior” at TechCrunch has recently included having a 17-year old intern ask startups to give him free laptops in exchange for coverage on the site.

I understand looking for some way to throw someone under the bus to deflect the topic away from your industry. I also get wanting to beat up Mike Arrington with your blog. I totally get it.

But to suggest that Arrington’s TechCrunch made their intern do this is ludicrous. The intern in question did it of his own volition and Arrington fired the intern as soon as it was discovered, and deleted all of his content.

The PR industry is trying though. Some of them.

The game was not broadcast live. Well, that’s not exactly right … it was broadcast live on Canadian TV, so a few people up near the border saw it live. But most of the country — almost all of the country, really — saw it on tape delay, in prime time. The game had ended less than an hour before it was broadcast.

Funny, a lot of people still think they saw the game live. But I know that one of my strongest memories — confirmed by the tape — was of Jim McKay saying that it was tape delay and that if even one person did not know the outcome, well, he wasn’t going to be the one to break the news. I have seen polls through the years that suggested most of the people who watched the game on television did not know the outcome. I know that my father and I did not. That shows you how long ago 1980 was in terms of technology. There’s no way you could keep that a secret now.

Very true. It would have been Twittered out the you-know-what.

Joe Posnanski: 10 Things About The Miracle On Ice

From the Google-translated version of the Danish Information’s cover story:

Nor does 2009 look like a very good year for newspapers. While newspapers have lost over a billion kroner in ad revenue in recent three years, new figures show that the years of declining circulation for newspapers accelerated in 2009 when the Danes bought 26.5 million. fewer newspapers than the previous year – which corresponds to a decrease in average 73,000 newspapers daily.

Wow. I’m not sure that the iPad is the answer to the newspaper industry’s problems. Just my opinion. Still, extra distribution of their online content to living room couches, breakfast tables, morning train commutes and coffee shops–where I predict iPad (and other coming tablets) use will be widespread–can’t hurt, right?

The Unofficial Apple Weblog: Danish newspaper fakes iPad on front page

We do not tell persons who have a legitimate claim to wait until the time is “right” and the populace is “ready” to recognize their equality and equal dignity under the law. — Theodore B. Olson

Why this is even an issue anymore escapes me. I so hope that he succeeds.

Newsweek: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

New Orleans’ The Times-Picayune editorial cartoonist, Steve Kelley, nails it, as does their editorial board:

Sunday’s game was about much more than Xs and Os for us, because since Hurricane Katrina the Saints are much more than just a football team — they are a civic cause. The storm transformed our region into a metaphor for despair and tragedy in the eyes of the world, but the Saints gave us reason for optimism. They embodied our resilience and our unity. That’s priceless for a region still in recovery.

It was a great game.

The Times-Picayune: Merci beaucoup, New Orleans Saints

I’m in the middle of writing a larger post about online achievement systems, but I wanted to share this cool resource at Yahoo! Developer Network about design patterns for collectible achievements, as well as this resource for design patterns for collecting points.

The only part I understand is what went into the creation of the strip. What readers take away from it is up to them. Once the strip is published, readers bring their own experiences to it, and the work takes on a life of its own. Everyone responds differently to different parts.

–Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin & Hobbes, interviewed by The Cleveland Plain-Dealer

I’ll say how it impacted me and how I responded: I named a child after it.

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer: Bill Watterson, creator of beloved ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ comic strip looks back with no regrets

Microsoft should just get out of the smartphone business and the tablet game. It wasn’t invited in the first place.

–John C. Dvorak, writing for PC Magazine, January 4, 2010

Dang, John. Okay.

PC Magazine: Microsoft is Ruining Smartphones and Tablets for Everyone

Are your websites comfortable?

Certainly, your sites look oustanding on desktop displays. You’ve all been hard at work getting your sites to conform to rich, large screens. The desktop and laptop views are great.

And over the past few years, you’ve done an awesome job making utilitarian, slimmed-down user interfaces for handheld mobile devices.

I guess what I really want to ask is, “are your websites ready to be curled up with?”

We know about the big(ger) screen view, be it on the desk, lap or conference room table, and what that needs to feel like. I think we have a good idea of the 3- to 4-inch screen — either walking around starting at it or speeding down the road at 70 m.p.h glancing at it — and what that view needs to feel like.

So, what does the balled up on the couch, one-and-a half foot away view look like?

It really is going to be an awesome age to be involved in experience design.

Via Letters of Note

Sex is something I really don’t understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it – the same night, as a matter of fact.

–Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye

Yeah. You could say the book made an impact on me.

The New York Times: J. D. Salinger, Enigmatic Author, Dies at 91

I think I did pretty well handicapping today’s Apple press event (video of the keynote available here). Let me quickly run through the iPad results vs. my iPad and event predictions. (I’ll use my own 1 to 10 point grading curve, thank you very much.)

1. The tablet…erm…iPad screen is 9.7″ diagonal, with a 4:3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio. The screen resolution is 1024×768, at 132 pixels per inch (full tech iPad tech specs here), which is slightly less ppi than the iPhone (but still pretty high density). It supports H.264 720p video at 30 frames per second, and the video should look gorgeous (and it certainly does from the demo and the first hands-on reports that are emerging). The screen ratio though will put some massive big black bars at the top and bottom when viewing letterbox video. The ratio has to be a tradeoff though, since it seems like this thing was designed for reading in portrait mode. My score: 10.

2. Wow. It’s called iPad. I thought for sure they’d move away from “i-” prefixed products, but really what do I know? iPad is certainly better than iSlate or iTablet, from Apple’s perspective, in my opinion. Gimme a zero.

3. Nailed this one (but c’mon, it was a no-brainer). The cross section looks remarkably like a thinner version of the newest MacBook Pro bases. I like how it’s beveled off and aluminum.  10 for 10 here, please.

4. Duh. Another no-brainer.  A lot of folks are criticizing the size of the black bezel around the screen. To that end, I say it makes sense since you have to hold it by the screen. A little extra margin just for fingerprints isn’t a bad thing. And oleophobic too, thank God. I expect Apple to move the screen further out to the edges in future releases. 10.

5. Of course. But who would have expected a keyboard dock accessory? Wow. Very un-Apple, who is historically opposed to notebook computer docks. Of course, this isn’t a notebook now, is it? I’ll take a 7 here, since they are shipping a hardware keyboard. Also, isn’t it cool that you’ll be able to use you’re existing Bluetooth keyboards with it?

6. Yes. 10.

7. 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR. How about this optional 3G connectivity via AT&T? Never expected that. I’ll take a 5. I never suspected that they’d create another kind of relationship with AT&T. Still, it’s nice that it’s no-contract.

8. Apple unveiled a new SDK for software developers. I was very, very surprised to see that existing iPhone applications will run at launch on the iPad. No need to re-purchase or re-download apps from the App Store. The game demos looked awesome by the way, as well as the demo by MLB.com. 10!

9. App Store will be available at launch. Zero. Grrr. I mean…grrr-eat!

10. Access to the filesystem isn’t entirely clear, but it looked to me that content is pretty well sandboxed by their respective applications. I’m going to take an 8, because there’s got to be a way to get content like PDF and office documents on to iPad. We’ll see.

11. Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. I’ll take a 10. I should get an 11.

12. As far as content relationships go, Jobs really emphasized the new deals with book publishers and the new iBooks bookstore. The book reader app looks great. Amazon has their work cut out for them and their Kindle. Still, Amazon shipped a Kindle app for iPhone, so presumably it will run on iPad. May I have 8 points here?

13. Here’s where everything fell apart for me, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I thought for sure that this would come in at $1,000 (I’m on record for predicting higher). Are you kidding me with $499 as the entry level price? The goal is obviously to get it in as many hands as possible. Zero points for me on this one. I’ll take it.

So…that’s my fast run through my iPad predictions. 88 out of 130 possible. Is my math right? 70%? Hey! I passed.

That said, here are a few of my predictions for Apple’s new product as well as a few other things we might learn at tomorrow’s announcement. (This is also my inaugural blog post, so I thought what better topic than this to start writing.)

I have no insider knowledge (how would I?) nor any contacts at Apple to speak of. This is all just me handicapping while standing at the betting window. Here are my picks.

1. It is indeed a tablet computer with a screen size greater than seven inches diagonally but smaller than eleven inches. The screen will be a glossy OLED with a very high pixel density per inch. Prepare to be able to watch 720p video on it.

2. Forget iSlate or iPad. I predict Apple will lean away from the “i-” prefix on this one. Look for them to call it simply “Tablet.” The long shot name in this race is “Canvas,” where I’m making my bet. The more I say Apple Canvas, the more it rolls off my tongue. It’s a razor sharp name. (Deep in my heart, I wish they would resurrect the name “Newton.”)

3. Apple will stick to their product design motifs that we’ve seen in their most recent iMacs and MacBooks Pro. Look for small screen bezels, where the screen approaches the very edge of the device, like the newest iteration of iMac. Think giant iPhone, but differentiated in more ways than size alone. A milled aluminum unibody design will provide a nice sturdy form factor, that feels easy and safe to carry around, particularly since people might feel wary about slinging around such a large glass screen.

4. Speaking of the screen, it will be a glossy, capacitive, multitouch glass surface that will dominate the front (top?) of the new device. I can’t wait to see the third-party after market book covers, cases and sleeves that will be announced next week. Make sure whatever you carry your new Apple tablet in, you have some microfiber wipes–that screen will get greasy with fingerprints fast. Unless Apple ships an oleophobic screen that is oil-resistant much like the iPhone 3GS screen.

5. There will be no keyboard, except for a virtual keyboard, a la iPhone.

6. A discreet 30-pin dock connector will connect it to iTunes on your Mac or PC, which will be the exclusive conduit to sync content to the device.

7. As far as wireless connectivity, there will be fast 802.11n, Bluetooth and 3G wireless connectivity available via iPhone tethering which AT&T will finally get out the door. Here’s a long shot to tempt the bettors out there: free token 3G connectivity provided by Verizon, a la Amazon Kindle’s Whispernet service. Don’t expect much though. This device is going to have a voracious appetite for bandwidth. Certain apps on the device might be allowed to access the free bandwidth though. Maybe a book reader app, or the iTunes store apps?

8. Speaking of apps, Apple will unveil the SDK for developers to get to work creating applications for the new tablet tomorrow. If you’re used to coding for iPhone and Mac, get ready for a great hybrid experience. There will be slightly more horsepower under the hood to take advantage of in the tablet, but developers will already feel right at home with iPhone-esque APIs.

9. It will take devs some time to ramp up, but not much. Still, the App Store for the tablet will not be available at product launch. So, expect a wave of full screen web applications first. I’d even consider a long shot wager here that the preferred SDK is web-based, much like the Palm Pre. Game developers won’t sit still for that though. They want some access to the bare metal that native APIs provide. And this thing will be an awesome game platform, with multitouch and accelerometers exactly like the iPhone.

10. Just like the iPhone, don’t expect much access to the filesystem, if any. Files will belong to their apps, and you won’t have much awareness of where they’re located on the device. And the only way you’re getting apps on this machine is via the App Store. If you want to distribute your app any other way, then build a web application, and charge for access to it via your own gateway if you want.

11. No camera on the front or back. Believe it. This adheres to Apple’s less-is-more design approach. You wouldn’t carry around a legal pad-sized camera around, would you? Plus, with how folks will sit and use this device, there’s no comfortable way to capture video of yourself with a front-facing camera. There will be a kick-ass photo management tool, similar to iPhoto on the Mac. But you’ll be working with photos you sync or download.

12. Look for Apple to announce awesome content deals tomorrow. All of our old media will be represented: film, television, books, newspapers and magazines will all be represented tomorrow. Sadly, not terrestrial radio. I’m not certain the experiment of putting a radio tuner in the iPod Nano recently generated much excitement or buzz outside the radio industry. Plus, Apple is interested in expanding streaming iTunes options with its recent acquisition of Lala. Long shot bet? A built-in book reader app where you can buy titles from major publishers via iTunes. Bah. That’s not a long-shot. Safe bet all the way.

13. The tablet will go on sale in March. Which means end of March. Look for it to cost $799 (32 GB) or $999 (64 GB). Sound pricey? It probably is, and there will be a lot of gnashing of teeth if it’s any higher (which it may very well be). Apple wants to protect its strong profit margins though, and 30-ish% margins on hardware is where they make their money.

That’s all I’ve got folks. If I keep writing, they won’t be predictions anymore. I expect the product, presentation and resulting hype to be remarkable. I don’t think we should latch on to the concept of tablet, slate or whatever the form factor is (though I think that’s what everyone will want to talk about most). Instead, this is a replacement for a very large segment of personal computing, with a big emphasis on personal.

You should follow the live blog coverage at Engadget or TUAW tomorrow, starting just before 1 p.m. ET. I’ll be tweeting the parts I find awesome.