Slacy’s Blog

Tomorrow is the inevitable release of the Apple iTablet iSlate iPad iWhatever.

Generally, I don’t follow this iHype, and it mostly makes me frustrated at how easily Apple can whip up the online tech community into a frenzy.

But, I’m genuinely interested in watching Jobs’ presentation on this thing tomorrow.   Why?  Because I’d like to see how he’s going to position it.  From what rumors I’ve read, this thing could be any one of the following:

• A media device.  It sits in your living room, streams from iTunes video, and replaces your TV with a close-range viewing device.  You can download videos to it and view them on the go.
• A phone.  It has 3G, works with Verizon, Sprint or AT&T (2 or 3 different models?).  Comes with a bluetooth headset and you use it pretty much like a giant iPhone.  But wait, I need a second monthly fee for the wireless on this thing too?  Can I tether it to my iPhone for 3G connectivity?  Can I do that over bluetooth so I don’t have a cabling nightmare when I’m on the go?
• An input device for your computer.  It’s a keyboard, touch pad, and LCD display all in one.  It sits beside your computer giving you extra screen real estate, connects via bluetooth, presents itself as a  keyboard and Mouse.
• A way to run iPhone apps “on the desktop.” But wait, it’s not on my computer desktop, it sits physically on my desktop and runs applications, and talks to my computer via wireless.
• An e-reader.  You can download books from the new “iTunes book store.”  It competes directly with the Kindle and Nook.  It stores textbooks (for college students use).
• A portable gaming machine.  It’s like an iPhone on steroids, and it mostly focuses on applications that need more screen real estate.  Web browsing (of course) but games also need more real estate to be compelling.  What will the battery life be like with full 3D accelerated games running?
• A really great phone.  But wait, it won’t fit in my pocket.  How does it interact with my iPhone?  Am I compelled to carry both?  Does it come with a slipcover, backpack, or otherwise?
• An off-desk web+email device.  For when you want to read e-mail and surf the web, but either you don’t have a desktop, or you’re doing it in the kitchen, living room, or bathroom (and want a bigger experience than your iPhone.)

The thing is, I think the device will be all of the above, and I think that’s hard to sell.  It has too many functions.  Jobs is always selling a lifestyle.  He wants to sell you “With the iPad, you can _____”.  It needs to be simple and succinct and easy for anyone to understand.  Both the iPhone and iPod were billed as “great” versions of existing devices.  What is the iPad a great version of?   I’m not sure, and that’s what I’d really like to hear. I think it’s going to be a beautiful device that’s hard to pin down.  I think everyone is going to say that it’s “revolutionary” and then realize that it doesn’t quite fit into any niche. I think “Too big for my pocket, too small for my desk.” is going to be the unavoidable ultimate conclusion on this thing.

I’ve been curiously watching the developments (or lack thereof) surrounding Adobe and the use of Flash on mobile platforms like the iPhone and Android handsets. Here’s my summarization of the situation as it stands today:

• No browser (mobile or otherwise) has Flash built in.  All browsers require a “plugin” provided by Adobe to play back Flash content.
• Mobile browsers are behind the times when it comes to plugin support, but even though, Adobe isn’t providing mobile phone manufacturers any sort of mobile flash experience. (FlashLight excepted, but this isn’t on major mobile platforms)
• Adobe got the short end of the stick when it comes to Flash.  Their playback platform powers the worlds largest sites (youtube.com) but they don’t see a dime of revenue from it’s popularity, because most users consume flash content but don’t produce it, and flash producers are who Adobe has previously marketed their products to.
• In all likelihood, Adobe wants to be paid for porting Flash to platforms like the iPhone and Android.  I don’t think that either Apple or Google would have any part in paying Adobe for such a “right” to use flash.  As proof of this, I present the YouTube non-flash applications on iPhone and Android, which offer a rich non-flash experience that could easily make it’s way back to the desktop browser.

Assuming that Adobe stands fast, and Flash never becomes an integrated part of the mobile browser platform, and, as the mobile platform base grows, sites that rely on Flash for their user interface will be locking out the mobile browsing platform.  So, these sites will realize that they would reach a larger audience if they offered a non-flash mobile-friendly experience.  Thus, they’ll port their flash user interface to AJAX, which works on both desktop and mobile browsers.   Flash usage will begin to decline.  As Adobe gets more anxious to squeeze the dollars from Flash, then the free mobile-supported alternatives will arise.  Greater use of SVG graphics, more AJAX, and possibly even some open-source flash-like technology that will be free and usable for mobile browser developers.

Did I mention HTML5’s <video> element?

Did I mention ViXimo?  This is just the beginning of mobile-enabled flash alternatives, and proof that the above is coming true already.

Many of my friends know that I’ve had a T-Mobile G1 “Google Phone” for a couple of months now, but I haven’t yet blogged about my experience with it.

For some context, I was already a big “Google” user, with my e-mail through Google Sites, and I use Google Reader daily.  I was once a big iGoogle user, but I sort of tapered down on that and just have e-mail as my “Home Page” on my browser.

So, the great thing about the G1 is the way it sync’s all your e-mail and all your contacts straight from GMail.   When I first got the phone, I transferred all my numbers into the GMail contacts area and the phone automatically sync’d them.  Now, any time I need to add a new number or address, I just use the web interface of GMail.  This is a really nice change.

Notifications on the phone when I get a message to my GMail account are nice, but I actually find that I usually use the phone in “read only” mode.  By that, I mean that I seldomly reply to messages on the phone.  It’s usually because I’m out and about, and not that I don’t want to reply, it’s just that I’m never quite in the right place.   The downside is that the message(s) are left “read” and I then have to sort through them again when I want to really reply.   Nonetheless, just being able to read and archive things on the go is pretty useful.

The web browser is pretty great as well.   The integration with Google is minimal other than the homepage, but the mobile-formatted Google sites are great.  Reader is great, Google News is pretty good, m.reddit.com formats great, etc.  The screen is bright and readable.

For me, there are two big drawbacks of the phone.

First is the touchscreen.  The display is great, but the touch interface is sometimes a bit off.  I’m frequently clicking on the wrong link, or having to use the trackball to navigate where I want, which is usually cumbersome.  Sometimes things at the bottom of the screen are particularly hard to click on.  The “zoom” controls of maps and the web browser are more annoying than useful.

The second biggest drawback is the performance.  For single tasking, the phone works great.  But, when you start switching between e-mail, Web, Maps, and YouTube, it starts to get pretty slow with each switch to a new application.  Sometimes it takes nearly 10 seconds to return to the Home screen, which is pretty annoying.

But, other than those two things, the phone has some really great features.  The app store is simple but effective, and there are some really interesting addon applications.  Compare Everywhere is great, as are lots of other simple tools that let you do things like toggle WiFi, etc.

I’ve also been using Loopt on the phone, which is a location-aware version of Twitter.  I find it pretty neat, and surprisingly accurate most of the time. Rumor sites are reporting on an upcoming “OTA” (Over The Air) software update that will add lots of new features.  I haven’t yet seen it, but it does promise to really fix a bunch of the rough edges, which will be quite nice.

Thats about it.  I’d heartily recommend a G1 to anyone who’s already a big user of Google services, particularly GMail.  If you’re not a big GMail user, or you’re not interested in switching, then it might be a tougher call between the G1 and the iPhone.