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Last month, Android's user experience lead, Matias Duarte, spoke to The Verge's Joshua Topolsky about the emerging design ethic for the mobile operating system, which Google hired him to help create. At that time, Duarte told Topolsky that there's a special difficulty in maintaining a single design ethic that must be applied to multiple variations of an operating system simultaneously. "You want to be sure that your design ideas will survive, and also allow for customization," he said.

Topolsky's story inspired Slate's Farhad Manjoo on Monday to write that even Android 4.0, whose design was influenced by Duarte's contributions, does not have a consistency of overall experience that evokes an experience, as Duarte described it, of "love." "Of the three major smartphone operating systems," Manjoo wrote, "Android is still by far the most confusing. It's also the least likely to inspire joy." (For those of you keeping score at home, the #3 system on Manjoo's list is Windows Phone, not BB OS.)

Potentially clearing up some confusion regarding HP's intentions concerning its Slate tablet, HP Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley said yesterday at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference that the Slate would be an enterprise focused device running a Microsoft operating system. The announcement follows PC World's discovery a device called the "Slate 500" is being listed on HP's web site.

Several sources have reported that Palm has ditched its Windows 7 tablet, Slate, and is now tuning up a new tablet that will run the Palm webOS.

The new tablet, to be possibly introduced in Q3, is code-named Hurricane and will run on Palm's mobile operating system. HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion last month.

With the iPad's arrival this weekend, a holiday weekend for many Americans, this new iPad owner had the chance to see the device in action. In fact, "see" is the operative word here. Not, "play with myself," as is the case with most new tech gadgets I purchase. Instead, I simply watched from a distance as, over the course of the day, the iPad found its way into the hands of nearly every family member from ages 4 months to 87 years old. The incredible thing? No one walked away confused, frustrated or disappointed. It did precisely what they wanted it to do and with such ease that my tech support was not required - not even once - allowing me to sit back and relax...with an old-fashioned, paper-based magazine.

Apple's "iTablet" - whatever it may be - could be destined to transform our care delivery system in a major way. For years, key hardware vendors like Panasonic, Toshiba, HP and Intel have been working hard to embed tablet computers into hospitals.

The promise of improved clinical information systems, based on real-time information updates across patient touchpoints could be a workflow game changer. If the tablet becomes the tool that is carried with a nurse or doctor on their travels from patient to patient, it will save time, money and lives by enabling the first "always updated" system.