There’s a fascinating article in Slate this week about the ultimate ideological split between Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Where the original Apple computers were extremely open when it came to easy expansion and modification — a capability still retained by most current PCs — the Mac and its successors, with only a few exceptions, have remained extremely closed platforms. This represents the ultimate dichotomy of the Jobs and Wozniak viewpoints about personal technology.

Yes, you can still upgrade your Mac officially in limited ways, such as adding RAM and, in a very few models, swapping hard drives and even adding expansion cards. A skilled repair shop can literally take everything apart and put it together again, but the regular user is constrained when it comes to modifying the hardware.

Now even though Mac OS X runs perfectly fine in its default configuration, you have limited customization options in System Preferences to alter various settings. You can also hack your way with abandon in Terminal or with a third-party utility to make even more elaborate changes.

That, of course, represents one of the major differences between the Mac and Windows. With Microsoft’s operating system, there are so many individual settings readily available in Control Panel form, you can get into serious trouble if you click and activate the wrong option, unless you’re a power user and revel in the ability to make the changes you want. That, however, requires study and experience or ready access to a support person if you find yourself in over your head.

Little of that, however, makes you a more productive person. Most of the system customizations don’t impact how you actually interact with your applications. In the end, isn’t the personal computer a platform with which to run apps, rather than an end in itself? I mean how long can you simply play with your Mac’s system environment before you actually get around to accomplishing something?

The iPhone basically eliminates much of the separation between a computer and the end user. You interact with your iPhone by actually performing a needed function, whether it’s placing a phone call, writing email or playing a game, to name some common uses. You aren’t made aware that there is a sophisticated Unix-based operating system behind all of it. Your ability to modify your working environment is restricted to a small number of choices that you never have to actually make to gain maximum use of your smartphone.

This concept is extended to the iPad, which is thought by many to be the ultimate replacement for the personal computer, at least when it comes to its potential. Again you interact with it as a game playing machine, an Internet access appliance, an e-book reader or whatever function you prefer. You don’t need to concern yourself with organizing folders, fiddling with app windows, examining the operating system’s layout and so on and so forth. You don’t need a pointing device, such as a mouse or trackball or even a keyboard (although you can add one optionally). You simply touch it to make things happen. The iPad is very much a genuine computing appliance that succeeds in thinning or removing the window between you and the machine.

However, such gear doesn’t always appeal to the techie who craves maximum access, from opening the case to replace the innards to configuring the system to a fare-thee-well. Of course, playing around with one of Apple’s mobile products isn’t impossible. As you’ve probably read, hackers have already figured out a way to jailbreak the iPad, very much in the fashion of jailbreaking an iPhone. But remember that’s done by exploiting a security leak in order to gain access. That’s the same tactic an Internet criminal might employ to take control without your permission, so be forewarned. If you really need maximum access, maybe Apple’s products aren’t for you. The computer “for the rest of us” comes with it restrictions that you may or may not wish to accept. If that’s your position, your choices are available elsewhere.

But consider where the iPhone and iPad exist in the scheme of things. When you buy a television set, you do not expect to open it up and modify anything inside. That’s left to the repair shop if something breaks. Yes, there are setup menus with a small set of configuration options, such as choosing a screen layout for standard or widescreen content, or adjusting picture quality to suit your tastes. Beyond that, it just works.

Of course the very same thing is true about your toaster oven or even your cordless telephone. You buy them to accomplish something, not spend your days and nights fiddling with interfaces to exactly configure each and every potential option. Where there are setup choices at all, they are strictly limited to form and function. Why should it be otherwise?

That’s what Apple has figured out and it’s something other tech companies simply don’t understand when it comes to computers, whether large or small. Some may feel Apple is exerting too much control over the user experience, but most of their customers wouldn’t have it otherwise.

You know that Apple will spill the beans about iPhone 4.0 on Thursday, April 8th. Lots of speculation is out there, ranging from enhanced multitasking to an integrated email Inbox and more hand gestures. Since the answers will be known soon, there’s probably little sense speculating any further, unless you want bragging rights if your guesses turn out to be correct.

More to the point, whatever Apple announces will be available as a free download for your iPhone and iPad (yes that’s what it’s user license says) and for a modest fee on the iPod touch. You can expect that update to arrive in a roughly summer timeframe, coinciding with the expected release of the next generation iPhone.

But you also know that Apple will hold its annual WWDC event perhaps a short time before the iPhone release, where Steve Jobs will no doubt demonstrate the product and its new OS. But is that all there is?

In recent weeks, you may have come to believe that Apple only sells mobile devices. If it’s not an ad for the iPhone, there’s one for the iPad, sometimes only minutes apart on your favorite TV show. You almost begin to think that Apple is, once again, ignoring the product that made it famous — the personal computer.

Yes, the Mac. The last hardware updates occurred last year. First the fancy iMac with a 27-inch model offering an optional quad-core processor. A few weeks later, Apple added another processor option for the Mac Pro and then only silence.

Last week’s release of Mac OS 10.6.3 seems an attempt to do a wrap-up release, getting as many fixes into one update as possible, along with a slew of security enhancements. Aside from some random complaints — not unusual in such circumstances — most Mac users who ran the update have had no trouble whatever.

In recent weeks, there have been rumors that a MacBook Pro update is in the offing. The current lineup is, so far as the computer world is concerned, long in the tooth, dating back to June of last year. With new Intel “i” series processors available, including quad-core versions that consume less power, I’m sure some of you are lusting after the possibility of a souped up MacBook Pro that would challenge desktops when it comes to performance.

But where is it?

One possibility is that Apple has had problems working out the graphic chip lineup. NVIDIA and Intel have been embroiled in a legal dispute over the former’s rights to build chipsets that work with the latter’s latest processors. That would prevent the sort of twin graphics chip layout the higher-end MacBook Pros have now, based on the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor and adding the ability to switch to a faster, discrete processor when you need the utmost 3D and gaming performance.

Assuming NVIDIA and Intel don’t come together, Apple would probably have to go discrete all the way, facing higher production costs, or choose one of those lame Intel integrated graphics chips for basic display chores, and scaling up to a separate chip for anything else.

Regardless, when Steve Jobs said “Not to worry,” in one of his famous pithy responses to a concerned customer, I suppose you can be assured Apple is sensitive to the problem and will have a solution soon.

Meantime, there’s always Snow Leopard’s successor, 10.7, with an unknown feline code name — and I won’t try to guess which.

Apple promoted Snow Leopard as a leaner, meaner version of Leopard with plumbing enhancements to deliver at least the potential for improved performance, but few new visible features. Actually they were called “enhancements,” so you wouldn’t mistake them for anything significant. But apps that support the new programming tools have been slow to arrive. For the most part, Snow Leopard is little faster than Leopard for most of you, unless you happen to be using one of those 10.6-savvy apps.

So it would seem logical that 10.7 will again sport loads of feature enhancements to justify a full upgrade price. Assuming a release in 2011, Apple might deliver an early developer release at the next WWDC, to give software companies time to play with the new features and begin to update their products.

On the long haul, you have to wonder just what Apple needs to do in order to improve Mac OS X. I have talked to a number of people in recent months about a wish list, and there are precious few meaningful suggestions. This is the dilemma faced with a mature operating system. Other than making changes for the sake of change, as Microsoft has evidently done with Windows 7, just what can Apple do to boast 200 or 300 new OS features?

Translating ideas from the iPhone OS might be a possibility, but the fundamental innovations in Apple’s mobile platform relate to multitouch and other methods to simplify the system for products with smaller screens and low-power processors. Although possessing a processor with a estimated speed of a mere 1GHz, the iPad runs incredibly fast. Most functions appear to happen instantaneously. Yet even the fastest Mac, with quad-cores and better, can’t deliver instant response consistently. So maybe the things Apple has learned from a slimmer OS might translate. Then again, that’s not a feature you can sell to people who want to see loads of visible changes.

So the 10.7 wish list remains open, and I hope to see some suggestions for major improvements, not just minor enhancements. The doors remain open for your ideas.

You almost think that the tech media, beyond its obsessions with the marital woes of Sandra Bullock and Tiger Woods, had little else to write about except how many iPads Apple would sell the first day it went on sale. Estimates were all over the map, but many were in the 300,000 range.

The alleged industry analysts who produced those numbers were spooked by the large crowds at the Apple Store Saturday, and thus inflated their estimates big time, with figures ranging from 600,000 to 700,000. Understand that any reasonably accurate estimate would probably require a scientific sampling of would-be purchasers who were there to pick up the units they reserved — or just hoping a few might be available anyway. Then they’d have to calculate just how many buyers chose the online route, and those estimates have so far involved a sort of fuzzy logic I won’t bother to recount here.

In any case, Apple is clearly proud of the first day’s results, revealed to be over 300,000 in a press release issued Monday morning. Steve Jobs felt elated at the news, remarking, in that release: “It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world — it’s going to be a game changer.”

To put things in perspective, these figues cover sales through Day One. During the iPhone’s first weekend, the tally came to 270,000. However, the vast majority of the retail outlets where one might have bought an iPad were closed for Easter Sunday, making a weekend total a non-issue. The first week’s sales will loom higher in importance, and, of course, how long it takes to record one million.

Of course, there’s no playbook for how many tablet computers must leave the shelves before you call it a success. Even if Apple hits that one million level within the first month, it would be far better than the first version of theiPhone that didn’t cross that threshold until after 74 days on sale.

Also don’t forget the 3G version of the iPad won’t be available until later in the month, nor will it be available outside the U.S. until then and possibly later, depending on which country you live in. All told, this severely restricts the number of units Apple can move, and we have no idea how many were actually built. Also remember that many pre-orders actually have shipping dates of April 12th and later. We just don’t know the true connection between initial demand and the number of units delivered so far. We’ll have to wait for subsequent reports to gauge whether the iPad has legs.

Certainly the coverage from the mainstream media in the days leading up to the iPad’s debut was far and away beyond what you’d normally expect from a brand new consumer electronics gadget. Add to that the fact that loads of reporters staked out the nearest Apple Store to interview waiting customers and get some personal interest coverage. Typical for an expected game-changer from Apple, the cover of this week’s issue of Time features Steve Jobs, and there are two stories covering Apple and the iPad within. No amount of money can buy you that coverage, which was largely favorable. Apple’s mystique remains strong.

Indeed, over the first few month’s of the iPad’s existence, sheer hype will drive sales. After that, the word of mouth from early adopters will hold sway, but not just from the Apple fanatics that will buy anything with the company’s logo on it, but regular people who purchased iPads and can give honest reactions to the ongoing user experience.

Adding to the media frenzy is news that Apple will introduce iPhone 4.0 at a special media event on Thursday, April 8th. The invitation, sent to hundreds of journalists, simply says, “Get a sneak peek into the future of the iPhone OS.”

What this means is that Apple will demonstrate the new features and possible changes in the OS, but won’t deliver that upgrade until later this year. The betting is summer, to coincide with the expected release of the next generation iPhone.

This move may also help buttress sales of the iPad, knowing that some of the features that aren’t there now will be available in a free downloadable upgrade within a few months. Despite the possible conspiratorial theory that some buyers might be holding off on iPad purchases in hopes that something better will arrive, the hardware itself isn’t changing. It’s just the software and everyone who buys an iPad now can get that upgrade without paying extra. The user license says that, although it’s quite possible there will be a modest fee for iPhone 5.0, expected in 2011, perhaps similar to the iPod touch upgrade scenario.

While Apple never says much about an impending media event, you just know there are certain givens to iPhone 4.0. Indeed, one enhancement would appear to be a must, for otherwise Apple’s stock price would drop if it wasn’t demonstrated. Of course, that’s enhanced multitasking support. Moreover, there would likely be some needed interface refinements. I realize some of you would, for example, like to see a global Mail Inbox to simplify navigation when you need to check your email. Personally, I prefer to keep the Inbox separate for each account for easier management, but I grant others have a different point of view.

In any case, it’s clear that talk about Apple’s mobile platform won’t abate any time soon.

So when a certain cable TV news network featured a talking head from a PC magazine to discuss the iPad, the review touched all the expected points. The screen is gorgeous, it’s razor fast and everything works just beautifully. The interface is intuitive and easy to master without having to dig through a manual.

This very same play was acted out on other TV shows, while the media covered the iPad’s first day on sale as a major news event, sending reporters to camp out at the nearest Apple Store or Best Buy to catch the crowds and provide the proper level of human interest coverage.

They were rewarded by the presence of Steve Jobs at an Apple Store in Palo Alto, CA, where he greeted customers and did a little window shopping of his own, no doubt to make sure that the store was properly organized and the employees were doing their jobs correctly. I wonder if a few workers were also shaking in their boots over the possibility that Jobs might, for some unknown reason, take a disliking to them and send them packing.

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