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iPad the Model For Others to Beat

// January 28th, 2010 // Comments // Mobile

I’m sure everyone and their brother has seen the news of the new Apple iPad. Its touted as being a revolutionary product. Apple says its to fill void between a laptop and a smart phone. It runs off the iPhone 3.2 OS and as such has alot of the same features of the iPhone minus the phone of course. Here are the main features:

I’ve read alot of the commentary online about the advantages and disadvantages. How its just a bigger iphone/ipod touch. How there is no multi-tasking or camera. No Flash in Safari, just like the iPhone.

I believe the iPad is not a netbook but a really polished internet appliance. This is a media consumption device. If you need the features of a netbook, Apple has those features already in their macbook line. I believe apple wants a polished device for doing one thing, consuming media. I think if Apple added multi-tasking, flash, and other “computer” related function, you would get a lesser experience. I do agree that will give the Amazon Kindle a run for its money. At $499 if I had to choose between a Kindle or iPad for an e-book reader, I’d choose the iPad.

I think that now that the world has seen what this device can do, it will become a model for other manufacturers to strive to beat, a benchmark so to speak. The iPad’s launch is similar to when the iPod came out back in 2001. There were other MP3 players in the market but Apple thought “existing digital music players are ‘big and clunky or small and useless’ with user interfaces that were ‘unbelievably awful’.”

As Steve Jobs mentioned in his keynote announcing the iPad:

“Netbooks aren’t better at anything. They’re slow. They have low quality displays and they run clunky old PC software.”

Apple is again trying to build a product different from the rest of the pack that others will try to emulate or surpass. Only time will tell if Apple’s gamble will pay off in the tablet market.

Sources: [Wikipedia] [iPad Keynote]

Posterous wants to be like Tumblr with Post.ly

// January 21st, 2010 // Comments // Internet, Social Media

Posterous has done a relaunch of their URL Shortening site Post.ly. This site was used previously to shorten URLs from your posterous blog before sending to Twitter. Going to http://post.ly did not have this slick interface in the past. Now you can interact with the site directly as a quick and easy way to post to Posterous and Twitter.

This new simplified site’s look is a complete 180 from the normal posterous site seen below:

This may be an answer to the simple look and feel of Tumblr, posterous’s direct competitor. Is this article written by Peg on Tech, one of the reasons for Tumblr’s popularity is the landing page is much less cluttered. Here is a quote from the article about Tumblr’s landing page:

Sign up is dead simple. Can you imagine the conversion rates they get out of that page? Moreover, they have one of the best taglines of any service: the easiest way to blog. What else is there to explain? They don’t brag about features like “like”, “reblog” or (ugh) “tumblarity.” Tumblr is the easiest way to blog. Anyone, your mother included, can understand that.

Posterous with their new Post.ly page is trying to bring that simplicity to them as well. Techcrunch has an article on the announcement. I personally have a tumblr and posterous account. I seem to use posterous more because I like their feature set. I will definitely give this a try and see if I like it better than using their main site.

Sites I Like: Gawker.TV

// January 20th, 2010 // Comments // Internet, TV

Gawker.TV is where I got to get my daily Tube news, gossip, and stories. The site has a great mixture of internet meme, TV Gossip, Show commentary, clips, links and more.  They have a great section of their site called “What were Watching Tonight” where the reporters tell you their best picks or assignments are for the night.

This week I’ve been fixated on the Late Night Wars between Jay and Conan, where the fate of  The Tonight Show is being decided. All the late night shows have something to say or make fun of the controversy and I don’t have the time or inclination to watch all those late night shows in one sitting. Gawker’s staff watches all the shows and records the best clips and saves them on their site. You get David Letterman’s crazy rants about Jay and Jimmy Kimmel’s clips where he dressed like Jay for an entire show.

So what is your favorite site for TV News and Gossip? Let me know in the comments.

Swell Season Performance and Interview

// January 18th, 2010 // Comments // Music

You’re probably wondering who the hell is Swell Season and why should I care? Well if have seen the movie Once, then these are the two main characters in the movie who have started a real band together. If you haven’t seen Once, what’s wrong with you??? It’s a great little film I highly recommend it.

I watched this interview and performance on BoingBoing Video and had to share it. I love the two’s chemistry together and it makes for great music. Watch the video and take a listen. If you like what you hear, check out Swell Season’s album, Strict Joy.

You sample some of the album here:

Source: BoingBoing

First Guest Podcast

// January 16th, 2010 // Comments // Internet, Social Media

Did my first guest podcast, well actually my first podcast of any kind. The podcast was the Average Joe Show, hosted by Corey Charette and Ward Miller. It was a pretty entertaining show. In this episode we discussed the following news stories: sickness from BBQs, toy gun store robbery, long hair suspension, Army mom refuses to go, McGwire used steroids, Spider-Man 4 is a no go, and a sex robot. Ya we covered a varied array of topics. Give it a listen here.

Thanks again Corey and Ward for the opportunity and I hope to be on more shows in the future.

Sites I Like:Reflection of Me

// January 15th, 2010 // Comments // Internet

ReflectionOf.Me “of you and of everything that surrounds us…”

is rated as one of the Top100 Posterous blogs. This is a blog I go to frequently throughout the week. The site at first glance might appear to be artsy but take a closer look or you might miss some cool stuff. Like this collection of Avant Garde hairstyles. The site can be informative as well like this post showing which countries have the highest inflation rates. I love the off-the-wall finds on this site that start my day on a light note. Like this collection of food art or this funny webcam video.

Most of all I like Clementine’s collection / comparison posts such as:

The results are the same alcohol or yogo which do you prefer?

Steve Jobs Magazine Covers throughout the Ages

There are many other internet gems to find on this site from surreal artwork to clever adverting campaigns. This is definitely one site to check out daily.