A few weeks ago, a friend of mine and I were having a conversation about what Apple could release as a tablet. Here’s what I was thinking at the time.

This was before CES and the Lenovo U1, which I think is a first step in a great direction. I beleive this will lead us into an era of hybrid computers, that have different detachable components, each with a subset of possible and intended uses.

But this goes a little farther than that. Whereas I think that the Lenovo concept is wonderful, I think the better direction to go would be Android for the tablet portion of the device, rather than *nix. Here’s why.

Imagine a new breed of hybrid software. Photoshop comes with an Android version that isn’t full-featured, but will do in a pinch. Remedial versions of all our processor-intensive apps could begin to appear, each with a familiar interface so that they resemble their big brothers, which await us on our full machines. We already have smallish versions of applications that usually reside on desktops. There’s a Photoshop for iPhone. The iPhone also has rudimentary video editing functionality. The potential is endless. I could even see games that have a hybrid version, dumbing down the graphics, but allowing the quest to continue.

The real trick here, I think, is to have a software solution that allows for seamless integration.  If you take the tablet part to a meeting and take notes, then when you return it should sync up and the main unit should do handwriting recognition, etc.  Perhaps you could set up a video edit on the slate, and then once it’s reconnected to the base unit, the actual rendering of the video takes place.

Now, as I write this, I am watching the Engadget live blog of Steve Jobs’ keynote.  So far, the iPad seems to just be a big iPhone or iPod Touch.  I gotta’ say… LAME!  And a big el passo from me!  Show me something I want, Apple.