Tag: Apple

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 Real Geek’s Primer on Computing, Part Deux

Preface: I run Windows 7 (the newest operating system that was just released 2 weeks ago) on my 2 computers, a main desktop and secondary laptop. I dual-boot Ubuntu Linux on my main computer with Windows 7. I’m considering an Apple laptop to replace my secondary laptop (a 17″ HP dv8300 CTO) for a few reasons that really pertain just to how I use computers. Specifically, there are a few Apple-only pieces of software I’d like to try using, and my secondary computer is only used for basic tasks that are almost entirely done in a browser – thus, my OS choice doesn’t matter much. I should also note that I use and adore my iPhone, as it really is a mini-computer. So I am dipping into Windows/Mac/Linux products across the board.

#2 – Operating Systems Do Not Define Who You Are

Most people use Windows because that is what is installed on everything, and you find almost every piece of software at least has some Windows version. Some Apple people like to be smug because they think they bought a better computer (depending on what they use it for, then it can be true or false that they indeed did buy a “better computer”). Some Linux users like to be even more smug sometimes (at least it seems that way), but luckily almost no one uses Linux so you rarely see it. Moreover, Linux users at least earn the right to be a little smug because they generally know what the fuck they are talking about. I’m about to be a smug Windows user, but only in an effort to undo all the smugness about operating systems because it really is just ridiculous.

Ironically, many of the reasons presented are the ones that show they have no idea in what areas their OS excels at computing over Windows. Hopefully, this will set the record straight about what Operating Systems do things better than others without all the bias.

The truth is, the different computers and operating systems out there all have their strengths and weaknesses. Saying one brand sucks over another, or dismissing all products from one company because of who they are is simply stupid and limits choices that might make sense for you. I’m going to present a few strengths, and then my own observations and things that you should stop saying:

Windows/PCs Strengths:

• Best at gaming – hardware for gaming is designed for PCs running Windows, and any real computer game (as in one you install and play, not something browser-based) almost certainly uses DirectX, which is software made by Microsoft to make it easier for game developers to build games. Microsoft built DirectX specifically to get game developers to make Windows their #1 choice and it worked. The Xbox being designed and made by Microsoft is also helping bridge gaps between PC gaming and console gaming.
• Most customizable hardware – You can build and rebuild a computer over and over if you really wanted to, although at some point upgrades are just a waste of money and you might as well buy/build a new system. Still, buying a $100 video card that gives you the final bit of power you need to run that new game is a lot easier than buying a new computer. As a side note, it might cost as much as a new computer if you ask Geek Squad or some other horrible service to install it for you – it’s easy to do yourself! All you need is a screwdriver and enough time to slide the side of the computer’s case off, unscrew 1 screw, slide the card in, and screw the screw back in place to hold the card in the slot. It’s a 5 minute operation.
• Most software – I use A LOT of software. In fact, I used a program to track what I used, and between web applications and real pieces of software, I have used over 300 different tools at some point in the past 4 months or so. Some are one-time use, where I need it for one specific task and then I forget about it. Others I download in groups – recently I was trying to find a program to check my e-mail within specific parameters, and I wound up trying about 6 different applications to see which one worked best. Nonetheless, the point is that Windows gives me the most options here without trying to use all sorts of workarounds to get something running.
• Most familiar – Having such a gigantic market advantage is a benefit. If you sit down at a computer, chances are it runs Windows, and chances are you know how to use it already.

Mac Strengths:

• Best at multimedia – While Microsoft focused on gaming, Apple went after designers. Graphic design software, audio software, etc. is where Apple reigns. There is a ton of industry standard software that is made just for Macs, and even the ones that are cross-platform usually work a bit better on Mac (Photoshop for example). Not only is Apple software made to perform better here, but their hardware is tweaked as well (they can do that since they build both the software and hardware).
• Best at being simple – If you just need to check email and go on the web, an Apple is your best bet. To be quite honest, Apple is/was made for people who don’t know about computers (which is the irony of hearing some Mac users talk about Macs as if they knew much about computers). I’m not trying to bash Mac users or call them dumb, and this isn’t to say that the computers suck or are watered down. On the contrary, if you know about computers, then you can do just as much (or more in some cases) to a Mac as you can to a PC, and if you are ready to spend $4000+ you can get some absolute behemoths when it comes to building a Mac that is faster than lightning. But plainly speaking, Macs make it easier to get up and get going with minimal effort to do anything, and another advantage to controlling so much of their own software as well is that they can make it play nicely with all the other parts of a computer. With a PC, this is a bit harder since you have so many 3rd party developers and less quality control.
• Best hardware design – Let’s face it, all Macs are pretty sexy. PCs can be too – there are a bunch of cool light-up cases, modded cases that look like R2-D2 or a toaster oven, and even some of the designs out of Dell and HP don’t look all that bad, but Mac is sleek, sexy, and cool. They win here.

Linux Strengths:

• Open source and runs on anything – You can load some version of Linux onto anything that has a circuit board it seems. You don’t need to buy overpriced hardware, in fact Linux likes to remain simple and therefore usually runs best on the crappiest/oldest hardware.
• FREE – Not only are most Linux distributions free, most software is too, and the software is as simple as clicking and downloading it. Unfortunately, you usually getting something akin to the ‘generic’ brand in grocery stores. For example, Linux has “GIMP” instead of Photoshop. While it does most of what Photoshop can and looks/feels much like Photoshop, it is a free and inferior product. This isn’t a slant on it, but you cannot expect this program to compare to one that is sold for $1000 and is used by every real graphic artist in the world. The same goes for OpenOffice compared to Microsoft Office – OpenOffice can do all the basic things and then some, but eventually you do come across the file that is formatted specifically for a certain version of MS Office, and OpenOffice can’t read the file. That is how it goes for most Linux software.
• Great OS for left-brained people – Seriously though. People who are analytical, especially programmers, who don’t care about beauty and aesthetics like Linux because it presents information plainly to them.

Now for a few of my own thoughts:

1. No OS is better at avoiding being hacked. Each has it’s own insecurities. The reason why Windows is more vulnerable to virii is because of the sheer market size it has. There are virii for Macs, and they are quite hackable. You just never hear about it because most effort is focused on what the world uses. It isn’t that Macs are necessarily more secure, it is just that hackers and people who come up with virii don’t give a shit. If 9 out of 10 people coming across a virii use PCs, then why would you write a virus for Macs? Wouldn’t you want to affect 9 people instead of 1?
2. No OS is clearly better at basic computing tasks. I have used all 3. They all have their ups and downs when it comes to what you use them for. Windows might be better at one thing, Mac at another, and Linux at yet another. On a personal level, I prefer Windows 7 that has been modified to have all my programs be easily launchable from a dock along the top of my screen (I like dual taskbars, one at the top and one at the bottom of the screen, much like Linux but with all the benefits of Windows). I don’t like how Macs work where there is a constant menu bar along the top that changes depending on which program you have highlighted – this has annoyed me in the past. However, I do like the Mac Dock a lot and it is something I kind of emulated on my PC.
3. No computer “just works.” I know I am hating on Mac stereotypes, but these are facts that should be known before you go buy something that costs thousands of dollars. I have had to do tech support for Macs before. I have friends with Macs who find getting help even harder because less people use Macs, and therefore information on tiny problems is not magnified by the number of users like it is for Windows. If you use an obscure program on Windows, chances are people have had the same problems you have, even if it is just a handful of 20 people or so. This isn’t the same for a Mac. The truth is, all computers have problems from time to time, whether something stops working or it fails to start in the first place. The very fact that Apple has a “Genius bar” in all their stores and a tech support number just go to show that it will not always “just work.” Don’t let this be a deterrent though! Macs do have much less problems overall than Windows systems – I’m just saying don’t expect it to never fail!
4. The internet, browsers, and “the cloud” are leaving operating systems behind. It doesn’t really matter if I use Windows 7, OS X, or Ubuntu to get my mail if I use GMail in Firefox, which is available for all 3.
5. For every good selling point that any brand or OS has, an equal counterpoint arises.
6. Many of the good selling points don’t even make sense. It is hard to take someone seriously when they talk about how much better their brand is (not just Mac, but PC brands too). This is because those brands all put in parts from the same companies. Apple uses nVidia graphics processors just like Dell does.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t enjoy your computer and it’s operating system if it makes computing fun to you, or suggest products or services to friends that you find useful. I’m just giving short, quick tips that everyone should know about when buying or discussing computers. If you know these things, then you should have no problem making the right choice when it comes to what you (and possibly others who will be using the same computer) need when it comes to buying a new machine.

Blogs that I have to talk about

So tonight I decided to just wander around the web and follow links wherever they may take me. This is a great way to waste 5 hours after you spent a few toiling over some hickory-smoked country style ribs. The wife said they were too smoky. My counterpoint was that there is no such thing. I feel I won that battle easily.

Anyway, for some reason I stumbled back to zenhabits.net. I’ve talked about this site briefly before. One thing that seriously caught my eye was the amount of self-promoting commenters. I mean, these people whore themselves out with such shallow and useless 3-sentence comments. Not that brevity is a bad thing (I sure could learn a bit about it). However, saying things like “Great post again, Leo. Zenhabits is a fantastic site!” when you should have noticed that the first fucking sentence talked about it being a guest post make those of us who have brains think that you and your site are too stupid to bother with.

I mean, some of these people even comment and go “I talked about this very thing on my site, -link-” and close saying they are done with their shameless self-promotions. While I appreciate the honesty, when over 50% of the comments are useless drivel designed to get backlinks, it really ruins it for the rest of us who only post when they have some actual insight or a question about the topic.

I did wind up clicking the link to one of the sites, just to see what it was. Then I clicked and checked out a few more sites. And immediately I was ashamed of my pet project, ilifehack.com, which I gave up after the first few days for one specifically great reason: My heart was not into writing fake productivity articles that I don’t truly believe in. When I write on here, it is because I am inspired to write about it. For example, this very post is chronicling things I found interesting on the web in the past few hours and how I got to them. These are things I don’t want to forget any time soon, and I learned quite a bit (as I usually do). I think things like ‘StumbleUpon’ have their uses, but I find that I usually do much better in learning a lot via the web during these surfing sessions by filtering out all the crap I don’t want that I see linked to from a trusted source, and then exploring that which I do find interesting.

Seriously, let’s take a look at Marc and Angel Hack Life. The issue with a blog like this, compared to Zen Habits, is that it is disingenuous and it basically steals from all the real “lifehacking” gurus like Leo Babuta (of Zen Habits), Timothy Ferriss, Seth Godin, so on and so forth. This is something that I caught myself doing, which is why I stopped updating ilifehack, and I was ashamed because I didn’t realize just how many of these crappy rip-off blogs there already were. I did read one post about 40 must-read non-fiction books, which was great since it was a list right up my alley as far as productivity and lifehacking and all that go, but many of the titles were repeated in other lists like ’30 books you must read before you are 30′ and the millions of other “x amount of whatever you need to see/do/read/watch/listen to/have sex watching/invest in/etc.”

Even worse, those lists can be found probably on all the other rip-off sites that are backlinked from the comments. Speaking of the comments, you might be asking what comment prompted me to actually click on their link? Here you go:

“Simple practical advice indeed.

Eat clean and exercise regularly. Done.

;-)”

Really? I know the article was chock full of stupid in the first place (seriously, 3 printed pages to tell me that fad diets don’t work, eating healthy is a lifestyle choice, and get off your ass and exercise is just a waste of my time and I stopped reading after the first few paragraphs), but do we really need to whore ourselves out like that?

Anyway, with that said, I for some reason clicked the “links” link which took me to tumblr page for ZH. Here is where the real gems lie.

First of all, there was a link to the 37signals blog, Signal vs. Noise, which I regrettably have not read regularly up until this point, and I really need to. I did read “Getting Real” which was a fantastic book about how to approach software (especially web app) design by throwing out all the conventional methods. The initial link was just to some comparison of library designs, but it led me to a fantastic post about the idiocy of freemium apps (this does not include ad-driven sites), and it had a great video of David Heinemeier Hansson that led me down another rabbit hole.

First off, the post was great because the bar really is set too low and this new wave of web apps is going to be the next dotcom bust. Mind you, I love the idea of many of the apps. However, Evernote only makes $79,000/month in revenue and doesn’t expect to be profitable until 2011. That’s 2 years away, and Evernote has already done a good amount of programming and has been around awhile. This is what is being touted as the next best thing? Please.

Now for the video. Immediately I identified with DHH (I’m only typing his full name once this article) as far as personality goes. He is often accused of being arrogant, with a ‘my way or the highway’ approach, and obviously is satirical and employs the use of dry humor. On top of instantly seeing a lot of myself in him, what he said was brilliant and allowed me to change my own outlook as far as starting my own company and such. It is easy to get caught up believing you have to be the next Facebook, or sell out to Google in 2 years, but the fact is if you can take like 2000 customers, charge them $40/mo. for a service that you yourself recognized the need for, and can make a million a year on it, why wouldn’t you? Why do we need a $250 million company? Not that my intention was to ever go that high, but still the point being made is great.

Of course, I also recently started trying to learn Ruby, and by extension, Ruby on Rails, because I appreciated the no-nonsense approach of the language and what the developers are aiming for, so I was quite aware of who DHH was even if I didn’t really know much about him. Eventually I got to his blog, and there are two posts that I loved regardless of how short and silly they might seem.

The first is “I’m an R rated individual.” In 5 simple paragraphs he managed to sum up my outlook on life and why I try to take the approach of “Well, if you can’t accept me for who I am, then I don’t need to know you anyway, so kiss my ass.”

The next is “Potty mouths.” Cursing is something I feel very strongly about because it is insane to me that people actually act like it pains them to hear curse words. I know it doesn’t, because I hear and say curse words every day, and quite honestly “shit” has the same mental and physical effects on me as much as saying “oatmeal.” I curse like a sailor as well, “fuck” weaves it’s way into my daily language, and it is not because I am unintelligent or do not have a strong vocabulary – I do. However, I’ve said time and again that when you watch a movie and something horrible is about to happen, the lead character yelling “Oh fiddle sticks!” simply doesn’t convey the true emotion that “HOLY FUCK!” does. I’ve read about someone’s college professor saying he would curse until someone could come up with a word that equals the emotion behind the curses when he uses them, and I have to agree with that as well. And quite honestly, I think it is just asinine that saying “The F-Bomb” is perfectly acceptable on TV yet “Fuck” will get you a huge FCC fine. Everyone knows what they are really saying, it isn’t as if “F-bomb” suddenly makes people think of rainbows and ponies and “Fuck” makes them think of AIDS and starving African children. Thank god for the internet, for awhile I felt like I was the only one who thought these kinds of things were horribly stupid.

So moving on, I clicked a pretty picture of a spinach salad that led me to Iowa Girl Eats. Everything about this blog should scream at me that I should hate her because of how “suburban America” it is, but this girl comes across as genuine and really lives what she is preaching. It also doesn’t hurt that she is a cutie, and she isn’t an idiot when it comes to writing. Peppered throughout the articles are “What is your favorite whatever?” in bold, and it makes you feel like for a fleeting second she might actually be talking to you. It engages the reader and hooks them, and I’m all in. It wasn’t long after reading a page worth of posts and clicking the “Older Posts” link at the bottom that I found myself 8 pages in.

As mentioned, I think it is all about how genuine she comes across. I think she truly loves what she does and wants to share her passion with everyone, and this is what separates a great blog from the rip-off artists who comment on every post made on Zen Habits.

The food looks great. I intend to try some of the recipes, and it isn’t about eating all natural, organic foods because that is the chic suburban thing to do, but rather it is a cornerstone of her healthy lifestyle. It centers around using raw ingredients, especially ones that are in season, to create some really great, simple food. Even more impressive, she photographed a trip to the grocery store that cost around $51 and got tons of great, fresh food to cook with, so it can be economical too. And I love the variety, even simple stuff like a grilled peach with barely sweetened ricotta cheese topping for dessert. I intend to keep reading just to try to simplify my own food. All too often I am caught up in using a myriad of spices to get complex flavors or to try to liven up a healthy dish. What is great about the blog is how well she is able to pair food items so that their flavors play off of one another.

There were a few other things I saw tonight, but none really of note (although, this makes me want to buy a Mac and redesign my office just so I can be cool too). Still though, I have to hand it to Signal vs. Noise and Iowa Girl Eats if you are looking for great blogs on either general software and tech design or easy to make culinary treats.