“The middle doesn’t exist,” Saedi said. “It’s either poor or rich. There’s no financial variety in New York City.”

Verizon Communications Inc. President Lowell McAdam works a few miles from the New York auditorium where he announced yesterday’s deal to offer Apple Inc.’s iPhone. It took him four years to get there.

Great article from Bloomberg Business Week about getting the iPhone onto Verizon.

Apple’s own Phil Schiller assured the press that Verizon would not be loading up the device with crapware, too. “We want the experience to be the same for every iPhone user. So there are no special Verizon Apps preinstalled,” Schiller told Ars.

Verizon Wireless and Apple® today announced that the iPhone® 4 will be available on the Verizon Wireless network beginning on Thursday, February 10. Qualified Verizon Wireless customers will be given the exclusive opportunity to pre-order iPhone 4 online on February 3, ahead of general availability.

Exciting stuff:

Here at CES we’ve already seen two speakers from iHome, the Zeppelin Air from B&W, and a trio of speakers from the previously unannounced AirPlay partner Klipsch rolled out. And this is just the beginning.

According to Jordan Watters, AirPlay devices could ultimately dwarf “made for iPod” audio docks by 2x to 4x.

I really want to know if we’ll start to see amplified home theater speakers. I’d like to be able to do 5:1 surround with five wireless (no speaker wires, anyway), AirPlay-enabled, amplified speakers.

Great two-year-old blog post from Microsoft’s Stephen Toulouse explaining why so many Microsoft products don’t connect with normal people.

The Redmond Reality Distortion Field:

The field that influences Microsoft employees and product designers to make wildly incorrect assumptions on the use of technology, computers and devices by the world.  The field is caused by the fact that Microsoft employees tend to be far more affluent and have free access to technology than the general population.

He’s written a book about this phenomenon and other aspects of a 15-year Microsoft career.

Love this:

All the fireplaces are ventless, requiring no construction, chimney, or gas lines. There are models that are wall mounted and others that are placed on a floor or any steady surface. Using the appropriate liquid or gel fuel, they create beautiful real flames.

Appropriately, each model is named after a New York City neighborhood.

Microsoft and its partners rolled out a number of new devices at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), ranging from several new Windows form factors, to a new Surface device, to new avatar capabilities on Xbox, to a new multi-touch mouse.

Interesting:

Walking the line between tablet and laptop, the Iconia has two 14-inch screens, both of which are multitouch-enabled. The bottom screen can display content, a traditional QWERTY keyboard, or a variety of other control surfaces.

I’m curious to see how well typing works. If it works well this idea might have some legs. It would further move multitouch into the traditional desktop/laptop realm.

Note: This is not to be confused with the Acer Iconia Tab, an Android tablet.

Microsoft really needs to pull this off, and soon: it’s in terrible danger of missing a cycle once again, and this one might be for all the marbles

The ARM technical shift makes sense, but it plays a supporting strategic role. There’s no real response on tablets.

On a more general note, Microsoft seemed more low-key at this year’s CES. The ARM transition is a ways off, but it’s a technical shift, not a vapor product. There were no trial balloons like last year’s slates. If the Windows Phone 7 messaging is any indication, it seems we won’t hear about any big things until they’re reasonably close to shipping.