Artist's Depiction of Apple Tablet
It’s been fun and frustrating trying to sift through the hype and hysteria surrounding Apple’s forthcoming tablet device. I’ve got some ideas about what I’d like to see — and what I think we will likely see — from Apple. Maybe I’ll throw some predictions into my next post. This post is about names.
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(Note: I wrote this on July 9th, the day after Google announced Chrome OS, but didn’t get around to publishing it right away. Google confirmed many rumors and some of my speculations since then.)
As I surmised in a previous post (Restrospectives on 2008 and Prognostications for 2009), Google announced a new Internet-oriented meta-operating system in 2009. OK, well, I predicted that they’d release it, not just announce it. An announcement is nearly as good as the real thing, right? Microsoft does that all the time!
It’s really a bit freaky. Last night I was discussing the upcoming operating systems, including Google’s, with my wife, Jen. (That’s right, guys, be jealous. She’s a gorgeous blonde and she tolerates my geek side.) The freaky part is that we were talking about it at the exact same time that Google made their announcement.
OK. It’s not that freaky. Statistically, it was even probable. I talk about operating systems almost every day, and non-IT people (like Jen) talk about how much operating systems suck almost every day. At the time, she was wishing that her MacBook Pro’s OS was more like her new iPhone. She said something like, “Is Windows this daunting, too?”
(I assured her it was worse. Either she accepted that as fact or she smartly decided not to debate it.)
She continued, “The iPhone is so intuitive. Everything is so easy to use. Why can’t computers be like my iPhone? I don’t really need all of that other stuff.”
“Ah ha!” I said. “That’s exactly what Apple and Google are working on…”
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A must-read post on my other blog: 10 “Must-have” skills for Front-End Developers.
If you’ve logged into Facebook lately, you couldn’t have missed the new design. This design brings some much needed features. I especially appreciate the ability to filter my News Feed by friend group. Since I already keep my friends in separate groups (a painstaking process), this was a freebie for me.
But overall, Facebook disappoints for several reasons. I’ll start with the non-technical reasons so I won’t bore my non-geek readers.
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Looking back on 2008, it’s clear that browsers took a giant leap forward. Some claimed that 2008 would be known as the Return of the Browser Wars. I think they’re right. But unlike the last browser war, this one wasn’t plagued by the unfair and illegal actions of Microsoft. It looks like 2009 will be much like 2008, but this time it won’t be browsers at war…