Michael Arrington posted on TechCrunch two days ago that he'd like to see a simple web tablet produced for around $200, and wants help building it.  Named the Firefox Tablet (at least for now), it would bypass any desktop interface and be used primarily for browsing and Skype.  If you think about it, everything from instant messaging to e-mail to wordprocessing can now be done from within the browser, and with an iPhone-style touch screen keyboard, it would probably be all you need for your away-from-home computing.  It'll be very interesting to see where this goes.

As a side note, Loren Feldman thinks he's delusional!  I look forward to his expanded explanation later.

TechCrunch posted a story yesterday announcing Tesla's unveiling of their first showroom.  I have to say I'm not very impressed.  The showroom isn't jaw-dropping; it's bare, and not in an Aston Martin "minimalist luxury" kind of way.  In addition, I'm really disappointed with their first car.  Those in the technological "know" correct the rest of us who say it's simply a rebadged, electrified Lotus Elise, but that's still the concept it's derived from, and the dimensions are almost the same.  I was really hoping for a car that rivalled the Mercedes Benz SL550 or other gas powered convertibles in its price range, but the car doesn't even come close to offering similar features.  In my mind, for hybrids, the Honda Insight was an impractical experiment, the Toyota Prius was a more reasonable experiment with extra seats, and the first solid, respectable example that I would actually buy was the Lexus LS600h.  I can't help but feel that it will take a very long time before the first electric car capable of servicing a properly discriminating customer will ever be built.

If you've ever wanted to sign up for a web account or newsletter, but didn't want to share your real e-mail address because of privacy or spam concerns, you may have already used a temporary e-mail service.  The best one I've ever used is GuerrillaMail.com, and I'm not being paid to say this.  I've found it to be significantly better than its competitors because it never actually asks you for your real e-mail address, and all your temporary mail is delivered to the online interface.  The account also automatically expires in 15 minutes, but you can ask for more time.  It may not work as well for someone who wants a longer term inbox, but nothing beats it for the quick stuff.

I had another topic all ready to go for today's blog entry, but then TechCrunch asked people to speculate on what Facebook would announce at their F8 Developer Conference next week.  I decided a few minutes of creativity was an appropriate price to pay for a shot at fame and a TechCrunch T-shirt, so I'm forecasting that they'll be announcing their own Fphone to complete with the iPhone and Gphone.  Okay, it's a long shot.  However, would it ever work?  Apple iPhones are a must-have item for the tech crowd, but what's the must-have item on a college campus?  Other than beer, for the last few years it seems to have been a Facebook account.  With Amazon releasing the Kindle, could Facebook be the next web property to experiment with hardware?

I can't believe I'm posting this, but the "fun" factor can't be denied.  TechCrunch alerted us to a simple little product in an embarrassing post about Google Trends a few days ago.  It's a very basic tool that allows you to flip any text upside down and backwards, then copy and paste it anywhere you please.  Click here for hours of fun!