On January 27th, 2010, Apple Inc is poised to introduce to the world the new iSlate which will change the computing world. Or it might be the iTouch. Or iTablet. Or iCostsomuchyouwanttopuke. We really don’t know. Of course, they were also “going” to do this last year too. The fact is, we don’t know what we’re getting, when we’re getting it, what it’ll do, what it’ll cost, or what it’ll be called. If it is a tablet (and most every market analyst is falling over themselves to say it is), it’s going to be big.
Head on over to Gizmodo’s collection of Apple Tablet Rumors to get a feel for whats being talked about.
My only worry is that Apple might make some of the same mistakes Microsoft made when moving to the tablet. I also worry they might try to hang to some of their existing hardware. Below is my list of ways Apple could possibly screw this up:
So, for those of you who didn’t know; Apple has a yearly sales seminar where they “announce” what will be coming out from the company for the coming year. In the tech world, it’s actually a pretty interesting event, as it lets us know what will be coming out RIGHT NOW from Apple. Many other companies (Microsoft, Intel, AMD) will often have an annual conference as well, but it’s to announce things they are working on. Some of those things may never hit the market and some might take forever to get there. With Apple’s, you know they’ve spent the last year secretly working on them and everything will be on sale as soon as the conference is over.
I, as you might expect, did not make it to the event. Not that I was invited anyway.
Allow me to bullet point everything that was covered here anyway. In my usual style, I may endlessly mock everything that was announced.
I am in a small-town tire store, waiting for my car’s flat tire to be repaired. The magazine rack is filled with old issues of Better Homes & Garden and the TV is locked onto a home improvement show that is hosted by someone who could be my old aeronautics teacher (he was nuts).
On the other couch is a very old man with his chin on his chest who might be dead for how much he’s moving. There’s a middle aged mom sitting across from me, just staring out the window at her car on the lift. The gentleman at the end of my couch has brought his work to the garage (on a weekend) and probably wouldn’t notice if a bomb went off outside.
Okay, I know that Zohner posted a few months ago about his Logitech Harmony One, but I have to add to the hype because I am a long time fan of Logitech, and I just upgraded from the Advanced model (for Xbox 360) to the 890 model
Now, on top of all of the Harmony’s hype, this model includes an RF Extender. This means that the components I don’t need direct physical access to, I can hide. I can also control my entertainment center without worrying about line-of-sight, or I can be in a different room.
Another feature that I like about this one that I didn’t have in the last one is that I can set favorite channels with customized icons. When I am in the “Watch TV” activity, for example, I have quick access to my favorite HD channels: History HD and Discovery HD.
Many of my friends have specified geeks as being people with near obsessive (or in many cases, totally) interests. They further clarify that geeks are not nerds, who are just socially defunct. It is, of course, possible to be both, but this particular definition of ‘geek’ has started to gain some ground in the general vernacular.
And then some weirdo goes and ruins it for us all.
Le Trung and his robotic girlfriend, Aiko
Yeah, so all those jokes about geeks not being able to get a girl, so they build a robot girl in their basement actually have a basis in reality now. Way to go!
First reported today over at The Sun, Le explains that he never had any time to “find a woman”, so instead he built one. Granted, the man is a robotic genius and Aiko really is an extraordinary piece of technology; you only need to see the video to understand that. But it’s his own statements about her that strike me as disturbing.
I long for a workplace where I can actually enjoy owning a Nerf gun. If I could just find a job that actually did that, I’d be inclined to get better and better weapons. Like the monster I saw in the latest toy ad!
Yeah, that’s a freaking tripod mounted, fully automatic turret! Between that, my Maverick, and the sniper rifle I want, I’d be invincible!
Half the problem is where you work, the other half is who you work with. Even if firing suction cupped darts is okay at your work, it’s not any fun if you don’t have people shooting back at you!
I personally believe, there should be a National Nerf Gun Day, where you can start an all out foam war at your place of business. They already have Secretary’s Day and things like that, why not this?
Schmidty and I were once talking about what I’d want out of a personal device; connectivity, storage, integration, navigation, and an operating system flexible enough to evolve with the needs of its user. We both dismissed this immediately, since no company is in-tune with it’s consumer base to that degree, and figured such a device will never exist.
Well, it’s still not perfect, but Garmin has gotten much closer than anyone else so far.
This thing has nearly everything I could want in a phone. What it doesn’t have, just may not have been announced yet (I don’t know). It has a better GPS system than any other phone out there (let’s face it, it’s Garmin) which ties seamlessly into Google services, and then has the Wi-Fi 3.5G and phone capabilities with it.
The HTC G1 launched today for T-Mobile (though the phone itself won’t be available in stores until October 22nd). For anyone who wasn’t paying attention when it wasn’t announced, this is special because the phone uses Google’s mobile operating system, named Android.
And what a botched job it was. Don’t get me wrong; I love Google, and I love HTC. I also have T-Mobile service. So why am I disappointed with this first phone? Well, namely because it seems like too little fanfare for something that could potentially be huge. Or, maybe because too much hype has been generated for what it isn’t doing yet. I’m not entirely sure yet.
I am an absolute technophile. I love seeing all the new gadgets that come out and what they can do for me. I love to think about how I can then modify those gadgets to do even more for me without me having to pay anything more. I’m a cheapskate, and an enthusiast.
The term “enthusiast” is not one I’ve used all that often to describe myself. If there were a scale to describe how much of an enthusiast a person could be, I’d imagine I’d be rather low on the scale. But the fact is, I’m still ON the scale. There is a very sad down side to being an enthusiast (well, there are probably a few); those same devices that you find you can’t live without aren’t usually everywhere you might need them.
My aunt is a really funny lady; she has a wonderful personality and a great sense of humor. She’s also smart enough to know when she’s doing something wrong vs. when something just isn’t working. She sent me an email and invited me to post it here.
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