The Apple iPad

Ok, so it’s been a couple of days since Apple announced the latest gadget that’s going to be “revolutionary,” or perhaps this one is “game changing.”  Whatever it is, the iPad, which many had very high hopes for appears to be a big dud.

People have been clamoring for Apple to enter the netbook/tablet market for some time now, at least an hour after the Asus eeePC started gaining popularity.  Well, they finally got their wish this past week.  Unfortunately, it’s a big dud.

Take an iPhone 3GS, make it bigger, slap a huge bezel around the screen, and take away its ability to make phone calls.  Blammo, you now have the iPad.  I’ve got so many questions about this thing, and the choices they made in its design, that I’m not entirely sure where to start.  How about the CPU?  Apple went and designed their own, rather than do something sensible like use the Intel Atom.  It boggles the mind.  Ok, so it plays HD video.  So does the Atom, when outfitted with a proper graphics chip, like the Nvidia ION.  Rather than put all that effort into the CPU, they could have done so much more with the hardware.  And despite touting it as able to play HD video, it’s got a 4:3 ratio screen, rather than the widescreen aspect ratio it deserves.

No front-mounted camera.  Apple loves to trot out the latest iChat video stuff during keynotes.  Why not on this thing?  I thought it was supposed to be “the netbook, but done right,” or something like that.  Then the OS, the iPhone OS?  Blech.  Multitasking anyone?  Sure, I understand their attraction to the fact that it runs iPhone apps out of the box, but that’s bound to be problematic.  Consider games for instance – those are designed down to the pixel on the little screen of the iPhone/iPod Touch.  Now suddenly they’re on a bigger screen.  Is there resolution independence, or will developers be doing hoop jumping to support the iPad?  We’ll find out, eventually.

Then there’s the price.  Wow.  $500 for a 16GB tablet that’s only got wifi?  Yikes.  Want that 3G?  No problem, just add another $130 to the price of an already overpriced gadget.  If you wan the big dog model (64GB) with 3G, that’s going to run you a cool $829.  Oh yeah, and then you still get to pay the monthly recurring charges for your carrier’s data plan.  Since it’s free of contract pricing and you can start and stop at-will, why not just simply sell it unlocked?

Lots of folks are up in arms that it’s yet another device bound for AT&T’s network, but I completely understand (and agree with) the choice.  You want to minimize your build costs to maximize your profitability.  Just like the iPhone, that means GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS 850/1900/2100, guaranteeing your ability to sell the product pretty much anywhere globally.  Especially perturbing to many is that it isn’t available for use on the Verizon network, for the reasons I just gave.  Honestly folks, everyone’s moving to LTE-based networks, even Verizon, so you’ll just have to wait a few more years, then you can get your iLove on the VzW network.

Last, but most certainly not least – the adapters.  Want to pull pictures from your digital cam into iPad?  There’s an adapter for that.  You still need the special dock cable to connect it to anything as well.  I get it – I understood the use of the dock connector back in the day.  It’s time to abandon it in favor of the Micro-USB connector that everything else is either using, or moving to.  My Nokia E72 uses it, as do all the newer BlackBerrys, as does the Kindle, as do many newer digital cameras.  Join the rest of us in the land of “only 1 cable for all these devices.”

Will people flock to this thing?  Probably.  But, I just don’t see the attraction.  Maybe after 3 or 4 revisions it will be cooked enough, but in its current state, it needs more time in the oven.

It’s that time of the year again kids.. For some reason, I didn’t do this last year.  Here we go, my 10 predictions for technology in 2010.

1. Netbooks – huge.

You thought 2009 was the year of the netbook?  You ain’t seen nothing yet, kid. 2010 will bring a whole new crop of them, this time with the Nvidia ION chipset, allowing you to watch HD content on your little netbook.  We’ve already started seeing better screen resolutions like 1366×768 (instead of the older 1024×600), giving you greater than 720p on the display.  This will continue, though I don’t think you’ll see 10″ screens grow much more in resolution.  Apple’s rumored to release something early in 2010, possibly called iSlate, which will be a hybrid netbook/tablet device.

2. Home Virtualization

In 2009, with VMware ESXi being free, geeks started doing bare-metal virtualization more and more, dumping host-os solutions like VMware Server in favor of better performance.  This trend will accelerate in 2010, and we’ll see someone introduce a virtualization product targeted at the so-called “pro-sumer”.  It will be interesting to see if it’s specifically marketed as such.  What’s it for?  Aggregation of lots of different home network services onto a single hardware platform.  Maybe it’s all a dream for us geeks, but I think something will pop in 2010.  Remember, everyone said the same thing about NAS, and now those are everywhere too.

3. Gigabit Ethernet for everyone

People will stop buying routers and switches for the home that are only 10/100 devices.  The driving forces?  NAS and 802.11n.  As people replace old computers with new, they come with shiny stuff like 802.11n wifi cards instead of crusty old 802.11g.  This means a jump from 54 Mbps to 300 Mbps.  Obviously, 300 Mbps > 100 Mbps, and nobody wants to have access to their data on the NAS to be that slow.

4. Android Cleans House

I admit it.  I like Google.  I love the idea of a common-source OS that’s open for mobile devices.  I’ve got serious technolust for something running Android right now.  I’m doing my best to be patient though.  I want to see the latest batch of devices, hopefully with 1 Ghz Snapdragon processors and Android 2.1 first.  After that, if it’s got AT&T 3G bands and wifi, I’m in.  I predict that people will finally start falling out of iLove with their iPhones, though certainly not in droves, and move to a more capable platform that does “more.”

5. Another new iPhone

As it’s older siblings before it, it will be buzzword compliant, but probably only with stuff that isn’t cutting edge.  You’ll get your 5MP camera (that I had on a phone 2 years ago), you’ll get HSPA – but won’t be able to use it.  What’s the big prediction here?  New headphones that use Bluetooth, sort of like the ones that Nokia sells.  They’ll be optional, and work with the 3GS, but I’d bet they won’t work with the 3G and certainly not the original iPhone.  Nothing earth shattering, but they’ll be Apple-branded, and tightly integrated with the device, so you’ll see stuff like song titles and caller id info on an OLED display, possibly color, using buddy icons from your address book.

6. Another iPod Shuffle down-size

Because they’re not small enough, right?  This time, it will be a single piece of hardware, integrated into the headphones.  It will also see a price cut to $49 for a 4GB model.  Just an incremental change in the end.

7. More gigantic technological misnomers

Like LED TVs.  I had a discussion with someone not long ago who insisted that these were not LCD TVs, and were in fact LED TVs.  He just couldn’t get past the idea that the display technology is largely the same, possibly some incremental changes, but the real change is in the backlight.  LCD TVs that were purchased a couple of years ago were certainly backlit using fluorescent bulbs.  These “LED” TVs use LED bulbs for the backlight.  That’s the limit of the changes.  These are not self-illuminating screens like OLED or AMOLED.  Now an AMOLED screen – that would be HUGE.  What will the misnomer be about?  Who knows?  It’s coming though.

8. A “major” newspaper will fail to make it to 2011

We’ve been talking for years about the impending death of the newspaper, in favor of Internet-based news channels.  I think back to our experience with the local paper earlier this year.  We subscribed purely for the reason of getting coupons.  We subscribed to the weekend package (so Friday – Sunday).  Total cost was about $10 a month.  The problem?  We only netted about $5-6 worth of coupons per month.  After 2 months, we canceled the subscription.  Ad revenues are already in the toilet for newspapers, and will only continue to decline.  Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee, Mr. Newspaper Man.

9. Compressed hydrogen will start moving.

Sure, Honda’s got their prototype Accord going in California.  But, we’re going to start seeing a real compressed hydrogen delivery network being built.  Hydrogen is arguably one of the most abundantly available elements on Earth.  The vehicles emit water vapor as their exhaust.  Not so bad, eh?  Please, don’t confuse me with a climate change fruit loop.  I don’t subscribe to cooking the books in order to support my points, as is the case in the climate change circle these days.  But surely a car that emits water vapor can only be a good thing, when compared to a gas or diesel vehicle.

10. A usable water-based fuel cell

This thing is the big dream.  You fill it up with water, and the hydrogen is used to power the device.  It’s completely sustainable, and free to “recharge.”

iPhone 3GS

Well kids, it’s that time of the year again.  iPhone season.  Last week, Apple announced their latest move in the iPhone marketplace – the iPhone 3GS.  The new member of the iPhone family is a small upgrade from the existing iPhone 3G that’s been beating the street for the past year.

What’s the new kid bring to the table relative to the existing 3G?

• HSDPA 7.2
• 3 MP auto-focus Camera
• Video Recording w/editing on the device
• Voice Control
• Slightly better battery life

Obviously, anyone would be happy with more battery life – though the additional capacity doesn’t amount to all that much.  Video recording is a nice addition as well.  Voice control is a neat toy, but isn’t used too much in general.  Phones that run S60 have had voice control features for years now.  Same goes for many other manufacturers as well.  Is the feature a killer app that’s used all the time?  Nope.

E71 HSDPA Speed

HSDPA 7.2 is a nice addition, vs. HSDPA 3.6 on the 3G.  However, consider that most AT&T HSDPA customers never see 3.6 Mbps download speed, does 7.2 Mbps really matter?  Check out the screenshot on the right from my Nokia E71, which also supports HSDPA 3.6.  This is fairly representative of the mobile speed tests I’ve done on the device.  In the past, I have seen as high as 1 Mbps, but have never come anywhere near close to 3.6 mbps.

Upgrades from the 3G?  Certainly, but marginal, at best.  All of the other iPhone 3.0 OS features are also present on the iPhone 3G as well.

Has this stopped a torrent of iPhone 3G customers who seemingly cannot go on living without the shiny new iPhone 3GS?  Nope.  There’s a gaggle of people signing a Twitter petition in what will be a vain attempt to get AT&T to repeat last year’s exception to AT&T’s standard policy regarding pre-term upgrades for existing users under contract.  Kids, think about this.  Last year, with the move from the iPhone to the iPhone 3G, AT&T changed the game.  The original iPhone used a $20/month data plan that also gave 200 texts.  Contrast that with the iPhone 3G, which carried a $30/month data plan and included no texts at all.  If you wanted to add those 200 texts back, that’s another $5/month.  Effectively, the customer had to cough up an extra $180 a year to maintain the same level of service when they moved from iPhone to iPhone 3G.  This increased revenue level allowed AT&T to make an exception to the upgrade policy, allowing users that were only half way through their contract to upgrade with no additional cost above what a new customer would pay.

Still don’t get it?  When you buy a phone from a carrier, you’re getting it at a lower price because of your commitment to a contract term of 1, 2, or sometimes even 3 years, though 3 year deals aren’t common in the US.  The carrier is partially subsidizing the cost of the device because you’re locking yourself in for a period of time.  For original iPhone customers, only being a half way through the contract, AT&T had not fully recouped the subsidy provided on the iPhone.  However, since allowing those original iPhone customers would result in an additional $360 above and beyond current revenue levels, it was financially feasible to allow the early upgrades.  It was even in the best interest of AT&T Wireless.  The fact that customers benefitted from the move was secondary – don’t confuse it with good will from AT&T.

So here we are, another year later.  The iPhone 3GS comes at an even lower price tag than before, but uses the exact same plans as the current 3G models.  This time around, there is no benefit to AT&T in allowing early upgrades at no additional costs, so they’re not.  This year, there are 3 levels of iPhone cost:

• Fully Subsidized – $99 for the 8GB 3G, $199 for the 16GB 3GS, $299 for the 32GB 3GS, comes with a 2-year contract.
• Partly Subsidized – Early Upgraders (12-18 months into contract) are eligible to upgrade for a $200 premium above the fully subsidized cost.
• No Subsidy – If you’re less than 12 months into your contract, you can upgrade, but face a $400 premium above the fully subsidized cost.

Herein lay the source of angst for the twittioners.  Kids, get this through your heads.  Your phone company is not your friend, and you’re their friend either.  You’re their customer – who sends them money in return for services.  You’ve agreed to be bound by the terms of a contract.  You cannot alter the terms of the deal just because you want the new, shiny toy.

It’s MacHeist time again.  Big bundle of Mac apps, low price, lots of charitable contributions from the guys running the thing.

Go have a peek.  It’s definitely worth a look.  If you use 2 of the apps, it’s a worthwhile deal.

For years now, I’ve been kidding myself, hiding behind my secret envy of Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates, opting to use Macs & Linux at home, as well as Symbian-based mobile phones.  I just can’t stand living the lie any longer.

I am a PC!

I’m reformatting our Macs at home, and they will henceforth run nothing but Windows Vista.  Ultimate 64-bit, of course.  No Boot Camp, VMware Fusion or Parallels.  Just Windows Vista.  The sheer beauty of the Vista desktop, laden with all of those oh-so-cool gadgets, the Aero Glass look, and the Control Panel, oh, the sheer bliss of it all!  So what if I’ll need to run full-time anti-virus and anti-spyware apps to protect us and our data?  Honey, I’m home.

And the server, what a colossal mistake it was running Ubuntu’s Intrepid Ibex 64-bit release on there.  What on earth was I thinking???  All of that idle CPU time just going to waste doing nothing.  Why, by installing Windows Server 2008 on the system, I can give that CPU an actual workout.  You know what they say about muscles that go unused..  I figure the same thing applies to the CPU’s power starting to atrophy from lack of use.  So what if I run my phone system out of Asterisk, and have a VPN server that runs in a VMware Server instance?  Again, I’ll have the blissful joy of Windows at my disposal.

And the phones.  We’ve suffered for too many years with S60 devices.  Back when I worked at Nokia, I didn’t have an excuse, but now I can finally break free after all these years!  By moving to Windows Mobile devices, I can now take the nirvana that one can only experience with that stunningly gorgeous Blue Screen of Death out and about with me, right in my pocket.  That BSOD is so invigorating, I think we should change it to the BSOL, Blue Screen of Life!

˙looɟ lıɹdɐ  ¡ʇɥƃıɹ ɥɐǝʎ

First, to the eeePC fans, it was fun while it lasted.  My eeePC 1000 has moved on.  Joining it in the “no longer mine” column is my old friend the MacBook Pro.  Having purged both systems, I’ve replaced them with a single one, the latest & greatest MacBook.

Apple made a point of being tree-hugger friendly this time out, calling to attention the fact that these new units use 35% less packaging, and are all around more eco-friendly.  No joke there.  If they keep this up, we’ll wind up with a generation of computers that come with no packaging.  Bring your carrying case of choice to the store with your wallet…

I opted for the 2.4 Ghz model, which retails for $1599.  Working for a company that has an Apple Employee Purchase Program, I wound up out the door for about $1500, plus tax, less than the total I got back on the eee and nearly 2 year old MBP. First impression?  It’s fast.  Really fast.  Due in no small part to the CPU clock speed upgrade (marginal upgrade – 10% for me), but also to the swap out of DDR2-667 for DDR3-1066 RAM.  This thing really flies.  256MB of the stock 2GB is consumed by the onboard graphics chip, the new Nvidia 9400M chipset.  The 9400M chipset does much more than just video in this system, it handles all of the other stuff the former Intel chipsets were doing.  I may spring for the 4GB memory upgrade at some point, but thus far haven’t felt the need to do so, though in truth, I’m only on my 3rd day of having this thing.

The neato things here are the LED backlit screen, and the new “all button” glass trackpad.  It’s got multitouch, with lots of neato gestures that can even be used to activate Exposé or switch applications.  It’s also easy on the battery.  Stated time is about 5 hours, though I only saw 4:35 before I was on reserve power – pretty great by all accounts.

My knocks?  Not thrilled with the lack of Firewire onboard.  I can always pick up a USB to FW converter, but it’s yet another cable.  Only other knock was not including Xcode in the box, though again, I can understand why they’d leave that out — not exactly what you’d expect Joe MacBook to be downloading.

I’ve got my Pantech UM175 working as well, though it’s using Mac OS X’s dialup networking, rather than the WWAN extension.  I’m still a bit tweaked over that, but I’m sure Apple will catch up in an update sometime before too long..