My iTablet predictions

A good number of tech writers are reporting on the basic specifications of this new tablet from Apple, or at least what they either think they are or say they heard from a source. One article I read today talked about how Steve Jobs is saying this is the most important thing he’s done so far. So I thought I’d write up my predictions for the new tablet, or at least ideas that I would love to see implemented into it.

I think we all know this device has to be universal in its approach and appeal to everyone, much like the iPhone. The iPhone is great because with all the apps available for it, the machine can be whatever you need it to be. Apple would be silly not to continue this experience, so it was no surprise that this new device is rumored to run the same OS that the iPhone uses.

It only makes sense that this tablet, built on the iPhone OS, will have strong interaction with the iPhone/iPod Touch. For example, the tablet could play a movie sitting in a stand on your desk while the iPhone is your remote control. This is just one very basic idea, but if you use your imagination you could easily see how the iPhone could become a gamepad that is completely on the touch screen, and play a full-screen game on your tablet.

It is surprising to me that no one has talked about this device being possibly subsidized by wireless carriers. Any truly next-gen device that is important and this connected to the web has to be able to connect from anywhere and not just limited to wifi hotsports. Verizon Wireless has told their employees there will be a big announcement for them tomorrow as well. While this probably partially relates to the iPhone being available on their network, I wouldn’t be surprised if the tablet is also announced as available through them and other carriers as well. This tablet could also use the hybrid GSM (AT&T, Tmobile) and CDMA (Verizon, Sprint) chips reported for the next iPhone. It seems that many rumor reports are suggesting that these devices will have 3G chips, so I doubt I’m wrong here.

This means the rumored $1000 price tag would drop by a few hundred dollars. Even getting it down to $600-700 would bring in many more customers for Apple, who is getting its money anyway from the carriers who are taking a hit on the device to lock people into a contract. Carriers already sell netbooks from HP and Dell in stores, it seems that they could sell the tablet just like both AT&T and Apple stores sell the iPhone as it is. As this isn’t a phone, it may be able to do data only, making it even more accessible to people who might otherwise have netbooks or laptops. Much like the iPhone, within 2-3 years the older versions could be reduced in price to only $200-300. Given that iPhone sales doubled in the past quarter to bring Apple record profits, I think it is clear people are willing to pay that. However, as I’ll mention below, I think including voice would be a good idea.

For the record though, I think the device by itself without being subsidized will not cost $1000.  This is simply too inaccessible for most people, and Apple surely wants this to be as big as the iPhone. I think with subsidies from the carriers, a price of $200-300 is more realistic from the start if they want to achieve iPhone-like success.

Still, Jobs says this is important, which makes me think he is trying to revolutionize how we connect to the rest of the world. A front-facing camera is something that is rumored and I think Apple would be silly not to include it, since it would act as a webcam which is already becoming a standard on any type of device bigger than a phone or mp3 player. I think Apple could really be revolutionary with a device that allows for video chat like this. While the device will probably have a speaker and microphone, a bluetooth headset could easily be used to make this able to act just like a cell phone and give you some privacy. If this tablet runs the iPhone OS, there is no reason that the dialer and all that couldn’t be put on the tablet as well. You might even be able to have the iPhone use software to forward the call to your tablet or vice versa. I think including the capabilities of connecting to a wireless voice network would be a good idea for this reason.

As a sidenote, the next iPhone should also have a front facing camera. This is something people have been wanting for years for this very reason. The iPhone could be the mini, portable alternative when your tablet is too big to bring along somewhere.

I say all these predictions because I think this is the ultimate way of our personal communication technology as we go into the future. It will only be a matter of time until cell phones devolve in size and scope into what are currently bluetooth headsets, and we all instead have some type of ‘tablet’ device for everything we need as well as an interface to the headset. I think this could easily happen within 10-20 years (certainly within 40), as we have already shown how the cell phone has gone from a giant-yet-still-portable analog device that looked like a walkie-talkie in the 90s to the current sleek, sophisticated mini-computers capable of rendering 3D games and connecting you to biggest assembled collection of knowledge the world has ever known. One drawback is the tablet may be a little bigger than a cell phone and more of a burden to carry around, but we already carry around laptops and netbooks which are arguably bigger and heavier than what I expect the tablet to be. All you would ever need to carry could be your tablet. Paper, books, etc. would all become obsolete.

Ray Kurzweil recently suggested we would have glasses which overlay information, and while I still think that may be possible, the only way you could input data would be either a mini-keyboard on a strap around your wrist, or verbal instructions (where you are forced to say everything you need out loud, thus risking privacy). Still, I think we will all just have tablet devices as an all-in-one notepad, media device, communicator, book/newspaper/magazine reader, PDA, internet device, and so on. It just makes the most sense to have this all in one flat, universal device that is always accessible for you. If you need to call someone, you dial on your tablet and your bluetooth headset does the rest. A device that is a little bigger than this Dell device shown at CES, which is still at least managable on your hip or in very big pockets, could be the perfect fit between being portable and small enough to bring anywhere, yet large enough to do everything short of serious work that requires a desktop/laptop (such as writing novels).

Moving on, I think this new tablet may make devices like Kindle a bit more obsolete over time. I know e-ink is great because it doesn’t strain your eyes, but if you need to spend hundreds of dollars, you might as well get the device that does everything all in one. The iPhone screen is too small to effectively use the Kindle software or any other ebook reader. I’m sure much time was spent on the exact dimensions to make the tablet large enough that it can easily display pages of books, newspapers, etc. The screen already seems like it will be bigger than the Kindle, so at that point it just becomes really hard to justify spending $250 on a black and white device that only reads books. I think Amazon, along with other ebook reading devices, will need to dramatically lower their prices to continue selling within 2-3 years, maybe even to the $50 point as we start to make everything digital. At that point though, there is no reason the Kindle can’t still turn a profit as it is a very basic device. This is not to say it is cheap, but it certainly doesn’t require the same type of advanced chips and horsepower of an iPhone or Google’s Nexus One phone, and the prices of both the Kindle 2 and Barnes and Nobles’ nook are currently a bit ridiculous when you consider what you are actually getting hardware-wise.

I must admit that I really can’t fathom how data entry will work. This device seems too big to have a keyboard that you could easily tap with thumbs. Holding the device with one hand and typing with the other seems like it will become a bit of a pain in the ass and would be very slow. A great way to alleviate this would be have an iPhone/iPod Touch “keyboard” app that simply has a full-screen keyboard connected to the tablet over bluetooth. This way you can use the touchscreen of the tablet to click around and work as a mouse, and the typing would become a bit faster by using the smaller device just for a keyboard. This also means that the keyboard won’t take up space on the tablet and it could be propped up and work more like a traditional computer monitor or more similar to the many large touch-screen all-in-one computers being produced (like the HP TouchSmart series).

As for what I hope it isn’t: Just an iPhone with apps that are tailored for the bigger screen, that make things like newspapers and games a bit more accessible due to the added size and horsepower that is likely to be under the hood. I know everyone is already in a frenzy over this thing and no one has seen it yet, but I think it would be a big let down if it is just an oversized iPhone.

I guess we’ll see tomorrow.

A post of adoration for the Maine Steamer Clam

Tonight I was lucky enough to cook a nice lobster and Maine steamer clam dinner for my wife and I, courtesy of my Dad having an order sent down to me from MaineLobsterDirect.com. I got the Fantasy Lobster Dinner with two 2.5lb lobsters, 2lb. of steamers, and some jumbo shrimp cocktail. First, I really have to speak up this company as the food was excellent. It came in a big gold tin can that I cooked the lobsters and steamers in, the shrimp were tasty and the cocktail sauce was as well although it could have used some more horshradish (which was a good thing as I was lacking horshradish on hand to make my own, though I would have definitely added some if I had it on hand), the lobsters were very sweet, and the steamers were delicious.

Tracy and I had actually received the package yesterday, but it didn’t come until 7PM. Luckily as it had not arrived in the day time, I decided to order a pizza as Tracy and I were both starving which wound up arriving before the lobsters did. I had skipped lunch in preparation for the meal both days, so it really had to be kind of an early dinner. The lobsters were both alive and, remarkably, every steamer opened. There was only one that tasted a little off to me which I had to spit out, but this is pretty remarkable given they were shipped by FedEx overnight and probably tossed around quite a bit and were out of water for 2 days.

We slept in, got breakfast a little late, and spent 3 hours from 4-7:30 at my in-laws house opening presents and snacking on some finger food like crackers and dip and a fantastic edible bouquet of fruit that was sent by my Mom to us. As I got home, I decided the plan of action would be to cook the lobsters, and while they were cooking get the shrimp cocktail on a plate and time a bag of frozen vegetables that steam in a bag. This time it was red potato and green beans in rosemary butter sauce.

The meal was fantastic as I already mentioned. I separated the lobsters and steamers because both get cold very fast, and there is no way I could prepare it all, serve, and eat an appetizer and main course at the same time. Since Tracy was hungry it was just easiest to go with the main course first. I thought the chardonnay I had with it was a decent match as well.

Really though, Maine steamer clams, otherwise known as the soft-shell clam, pissneck clams or simply “steamers” if you are from the Northeast (if you order this expecting normal littlenecks that have been steamed or grilled while in New England, you will be in for a surprise) are my absolute favorite food ever.

There are a few foods I really love: a really good pizza (either NJ boardwalk/normal pizzaria style, or wood-fired oven gourmet-like pizza), lobsters, my mother’s chicken français (and her parmesan too for that matter), pho tai, and wild cherry Nerds. But when I say I love steamers, I mean love as in I once ate them 5 nights in a row on a trip to New Jersey a few years ago. I stayed with my favorite aunt for a few nights and each night was a different restaurant that had steamers as an appetizer. Each night I just asked for 2 orders of the appetizer. For years now at our family dinner ( which takes place at a seafood restaurant), I have ordered these an appetizer, and this is not the first time these have been shipped down to me as a present :)

There are very few pages about exactly what you do with these things on the web. A few pages have instructions on how to cook, one great one shows how to eat them kind of, but I don’t think any really pay attention to this fantastic food or try to further it. I would really implore anyone who orders one of these lobster dinners to try the steamers instead of the safe route of mussels, clam chowder, or shrimp. Here is a photo from the cover showing some decent detail of them after they are done cooking:

I cooked the steamers in the same can as I cooked the lobsters in with about an inch of water and some of the chardonnay. I usually have a metal steamer basket to keep the clams out of the water but I couldn’t find it. Either way though, they take roughly 8-10 minutes to cook. Shellfish cooking is tricky. This is something you set a timer for. If they are undercooked, you could be in a lot of pain after eating them, and overcooking even slightly will give you rubbery food. As they are cooking, you should have some drawn butter (or just melted butter if you don’t have flour or are just slacking) being melted on the stove as well. I also setup the area I’ll be eating at since it requires a little bit of a system to eat these.

From left to right, we have the bowl of cooked steamers, an empty bowl for the shells and the skin that covers the tails, broth/cooking liquid from the pot, and some butter. I usually squeeze the lemon right into the butter rather than try to get some on each clam for the sake of simplicity. As we are dealing with dipping wet food in multiple bowls, paper towels or newspapers are a great idea. I setup on my kitchen counter since I was eating alone and it was easiest.

First, peel away one side of the shell, grab the tail near the base where it connects to the clam shell, and try to begin ripping out moving inwards towards the ‘meat’ of the clam. Keep it intact as best as possible, but often this will rip in some way. What is important is the middle fleshy party remains intact until it goes in your mouth. If this bulbous part is punctured, the guts spill out and the steamer is basically wasted. Then, pinch the black skin from the same area on the base of the tail where it was connected to the shell, and pull back to remove. The best way I can describe this is as if you are removing a condom.

The finished product should hopefully look something like this. With this clam, the middle part is actually separated a bit from the siphon ducts which lead to the tail, but still relatively intact including the fleshy bulb part that is hanging on the bottom. The tail starts off as tan like the rest of the clam, and fades to black by the time it gets to the tip.

From here, dip in the broth and swirl around to remove as much dirt as possible. Then, hold it over the broth for a bit to try to get all the broth off. You might also slightly tap it against the side of the broth bowl to get excess liquid off. This is kind of important. Although 1 steamer going from the broth to the butter doesn’t move much water over, often by the time you are halfway through you can easily have diluted the butter to have this murky, gray water mixed in, which just kind of ruins the rest of the meal in my opinion.

Some people grab by the tail and only eat the clammy part, and then throw the tails away. I see this as a waste, though in their defense the tail is very chewy and not very tasty. For me though it provides a nice contrast to the very mushy and tasty part.

The journey for me this time around was arduous. I had been snacking on food at the party, came home, had a huge lobster dinner with shrimp, vegetables, and wine, and now had 2 pounds of steamers ahead of me.

Still, there is no way in hell I am letting any go to waste. Finally, the last one was eaten.

After this, I poured the last glass of wine the bottle had to offer, came here to write this, and will now be promptly passing out in my bed.

I hate drive-thrus

I am fucking cursed with drive-thrus. It never fails that my order gets fucked up.

Tonight, the first time I ever go through a Subway drive-thru, I ask for 2 vegetables (onions and bell peppers) on my sandwich (a Philly cheesesteak) and they somehow, someway manage to use olives, which I can’t stand eating, on in place of the onions. I get that they sound similar, but this happens all the goddamn time.

I’ve worked in fast food for 2 years starting when I was 14 years old. I know this shit is not difficult. They purposely make it so simple so they can hire the dumbest motherfuckers. If monkeys were eligible to be hired, they would take them instead of humans because it is easy enough and there would presumably be no minimum wage for monkeys. And they would still do a better job then the fucking rejects that somehow are scheduled to work every time I go through a drive-thru.

I just don’t understand why I’m cursed like this. And I’ve had enough missing straws and items to know to check the bags, but I can’t very well open the entire sandwich as I’m driving away.

Maybe this is just a sign to stop going anywhere near places that make food in less than 10 minutes.