T minus five days, and counting

Approximately five days hence, Steve Jobs (almost certainly) will take the stage at the Yerba Buena Center to host what will (almost certainly) be the most significant product introduction for Apple since the 1984 release of the original Macintosh, surpassing even the introduction of the iPhone.  I say this not so much because I believe that Apple's tablet device, whatever they call it, will necessarily be more significant, for Apple or for the world, than the iPhone has proven to be, but because Apple's plans for such devices and their overall strategy have firmed considerably over the last three years and the tablet device won't arrive in a vacuum, but already integrated into the rest of Apple's product line and into the plans of quite a few other companies.

This will be the proverbial dropping of the other shoe, arriving as a resounding stamp, sending ripples outward in all directions.  The world will never be the same again.