However, at long last, I think I’ve managed to put all my thoughts about the iPad and the emerging device class of tablets and media pads into one 900 word post. You can read it in its entirety at Mashable.com. However, I’ll provide an excerpt to try to entice you to care:

What’s different about this new wave of tablet devices is that the intended use cases for the device have evolved into something completely different. These new tablets are not being presented as a replacement for the existing computer but for an ancillary type of platform. The new tablets are also not being primarily targeted at business users, but at home users instead. The usage cases are more tightly defined as well. The new tablet devices are about accessing and consuming web content.

If that sounds eerily familiar, that’s because I totally ripped-off my own writings from this blog back in November, when I both reviewed the 27″ i7 iMac and discussed Google’s Chrome OS. I articulated far more verbosely in that personal blog post the problem I see with netbooks (in terms of being a target for an alternative operating system like Google Chrome) and why I was convinced then, just as I am convinced now, that a new class of device is needed for the original purpose of netbooks to actually take hold.

This is what I wrote a little over two months ago, again, in relation to Chrome OS, but also applicable to the idea of the new wave of tablet computing and media pads as we will know them:

Here’s where netbooks end up causing their owners problems. The netbook has better hardware than the iPhone, but because it has a bigger screen a bigger keyboard (and the screens and keyboards are getting bigger and bigger all the time), people expect it to be faster than it is. Thus, you get people wanting more from the device than it can offer. That’s why netbooks, at least Atom-based netbooks are probably going to disappear sooner rather than later. On the low-end you’ll have ARM and on the higher-end, you’ll just have low-priced, lightweight actual laptops…

Anyway, I think the push for ARM in netbook style computers is going to be met with utter disappointment from consumers — especially if Flash isn’t hardware accelerated when they launch. Since this is Chrome’s target, I think that traditional laptop styled devices are not going to work.

This is what I see: Something like a tablet but with a more defined purpose: like call it a media pad. Something you could use as a remote control, for instance — an eBook reader (that isn’t as good as eInk) and a visual TV guide. Yeah, you can watch online content and surf the web, but it’s designed to sit on your sofa and be like what we use phones for now — but bigger and with the understanding that you need to be online at all times.

In any event, as Chrome OS stands now, it really isn’t useable in any test form, other than for shits and giggles, but the fact that it exists is pretty cool.

I will write one original thing here for my own blog, and that’s about Flash.

The Flash Problem is Overblown

I’m not going to totally get into the whole Flash debate — I think I made a very good case in the first episode of Dan Benjamin’s new show, The Conversation (subscribe now!) and Dan made his own solid case in episode 2.

But just to put it in a tiny bit of perspective, let me give my opinion, mostly as an observer and web-user of what has happened with Flash over the last decade and why what’s happening now shouldn’t surprise anyone, least of all Adobe.

OK, so Macromedia introduces Flash in 1996, according to the Wikipedia, buying it from some guy who wrote the Flash precursor in college for the PenPoint OS and then ported it to Windows and Mac and then sold it to Macromedia, who renamed it Flash. It was used primarily for web animations and effects and navigation and whatnot.

Then in 2002, Flash 6 came with flash video support, which made it easy to do web-video without having to rely on shit like Realplayer or Windows Media or even QuickTime (though as we’ll see, QuickTime’s day would come again). The real power of this type of video really wasn’t exploited until YouTube launched in early 2005. Suddenly, Flash, which had been a dying component, came back and it came back big time.

In essence, video was Flash’s saving grace. When the iPhone debuted without Flash support in June 2007, YouTube worked to convert its videos to H.264, so that they could play on the iPhone. In December of 2007, Adobe added H.264 support to Flash 9. This was a very, very prudent move and it was done because Adobe could see the writing on the wall: Web video was all going to go H.264. Not only is it the best compression standard that’s available in terms of size/performance now, but there is tons of hardware acceleration support and the new crop of consumer cameras records in it natively. If Flash can act as a container for that format, Flash can stave off its extinction in the video space.

Well, HTML5 and continued smartphone adoption patterns is going to finally make content providers question why they are suing a Flash container when they can just display the same video natively, without the container. Forgetting about Mozilla’s refusal to get on the ball here (and really, I’m just going to say this right now — I have no desire to get into any meaningless arguments over “freedom” or the “potential” of Theora with anyone. Do that on your own time. I don’t fucking care and neither does the rest of the rational world. I like the Xiph project, I don’t think Theora, which is based on old-ass technology should become the standard just because toe-jam eaters like Richard Stallman hate anything that doesn’t conform their insane standards. Want something truly “free” to take over — develop something new.), HTML5 has tons of promise because it makes sense to serve the content directly rather to put in a wrapper.

As for sites like Hulu that require Flash now — if they have any brains at all, they will have an iPad application available at launch.

And let’s not forget that the problems of Flash are not limited to the iPad. Fennec, the Firefox Mobile browser that currently runs only on the Nokia N900 — yeah, they had to drop Flash support because it degraded performance too much. The HTC Hero supports Flash, it fucking sucks and is a terrible experience. Flash 10.2, which will FINALLY bring some hardware side optimizations to the platform, making it viable on netbooks, is only for x86 processors. ARM is out. ARM derivatives like the A4 are out. If Flash isn’t optimized to work on the next crop of mobile devices, why are we all shrieking over the fact that rather than offer shitty support, Apple (and other smartphone makers) aren’t supporting Flash?

This is where, if Microsoft were smart, they would start compiling Silverlgiht to run and run well on EVERYTHING. That way if you want a framework (and not just a container for a video player) that can work on multiple devices, you have an option.

But now I’ve written far more than I intended to write. No one said I wasn’t opinionated.

Out.

That’s why I’m joining Project 52. I WANT to write more here and more personal writing, ‘Im just so busy with work and because my work IS writing, it’s hard to find the energy to dedicate to my own site.

But it’s important. It’s important because it is a good outlet for me. For nearly seven years, I used my LiveJournal as an outlet for my thoughts and feelings. It became more dormant about five years in, but that journal continues to be an archive of my life in college and it was an important outlet for me to express myself, even for no one reading.

It’s harder for me to write more personal entries now. More people know who I am, which is awesome, but that also means that I feel like I have to restrain or hold back some of my thoughts (which is why I might start a private journal again, that’s just for me). I guess I don’t have to, it’s just a limit of what you want to share. I’ve been pretty arms-length in some regards, but pretty open in others. I really want to just write more about what I’m feeling and thinking and fuck what other people think. Like seriously, fuck it.

I’ll put a big disclaimer that my blog does not reflect the thoughts or opinions of my employer and blah blah blah, but you know, it’s just time to get back to being able to write for myself. Write as catharsis.

So that’s why I’m joining Project 52. Because it’s important for me to write.

Out.

I loved by time at both TUAW and Download Squad and will always be grateful for the experience, the people that I met (most importantly, Grant), and the opportunities that have come my way as a result of my time with WIN.

So for two weeks now I’ve been at Mashable and I’m just so excited and overjoyed to be part of such a cool team. Sharon, Adam O., Jenn, Ben, Barb, Stan, Adam H., Tamar, Frederick, Brett, Josh and of course, Pete are all AWESOME. And I’m not lying. Hand linking all those Twitter accounts was a pain in the ass.

So I’m writing full-time at Mashable, doing The Flickcast and doing another project that I desperately want to discuss but must continue to keep silent about (it’s awesome, it’s movie related and it’s tons of fun). Here’s the important thing: I’m at the point in my life where I can actually say that I’m a full-time working writer.

The fact that I can say this at 26 is really, really amazing. Two years ago, when I was finishing school and trying to kind of decide what to do next, my end-goal (in the back of my mind) was to be able to carve a career for myself writing about technology or film or popular culture.

That isn’t to say that I wouldn’t love the opportunity to sell a screenplay or work on a television show (or hell, become the megalomaniacal studio boss that I’ve always fantasized about being — I really am only half-joking when I say I want to be Rupert Murdoch without all the evil — a Christina Media Empire would be freaking awesome), but realistically, in my heart of hearts, what I want to do — what I’m good at doing — is writing about the latest news, reviewing products and services and sharing my love of film, pop culture and technology with anyone willing to take the time and read my stuff.

I’m truly blessed that in two years, that has now started to become a reality.

Today is Labor Day in the US, and I have the day off. I’m upgrading our remaining Macs to Snow Leopard (life is busy and it hasn’t been easy to find time to do that sort of stuff) and just enjoying knowing that I have a great job and great people to work with tomorrow.

Not only am I lucky enough to get to do what I love, I have the most amazing, most supportive and most loving partner a girl could ask for. Somebody pinch me and tell me I’m not dreaming!

Out!

We recorded episode 4 earlier today (well, technically yesterday) and our shows go live on Wednesday’s. So we’re three weeks in. While the response has been really positive (and love it or hate it, we’d love to get your feedback), we’re realists and know that building any sort of audience or momentum will take some time.

So imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail from Matt a few minutes ago with the subject: “HOLY SHIT!!” and the photo below featured (click for full-size):

Yeah. That’s us. In the TV & Film section of iTunes Podcasts. Under New and Notable. That sound you just heard? It was me waking up my obnoxious upstairs neighbors (who sound like elephants, despite being quite small in stature and get home from work after midnight so they make it hard to go to sleep), because I was whooping like a hyena.

SCORE!!

The ego-centric nature of this post made me question whether or not I should post this, but then I thought, what’s the point of having a blog if you aren’t going to be all navel-gazing and self-aggrandizing?

Exactly.

YAY!!

Call it what it is: You’re willingly accepting a license that will result in the developer earning almost no money.

Therefore, you’re not really supporting these developers: you’re telling them that you don’t value their work enough to pay full price, but you’re going to use their software anyway.

Their compliance with the MacHeist deal is irrelevant.

Most software is an incredibly good deal, especially the applications that you use every day or as part of your business. For example, given that I make all of my living by using TextMate, and it was developed entirely by Allan Odgaard over (probably) thousands of hours, it would be ridiculous for me to haggle its €39 price. Why seek discounts on something that you want to support and that you believe is already a great value?

I refuse to purchase MacHeist for the same reason I respectfully decline license discounts or App Store freebie coupon-codes from other developers (that I occasionally receive because of my roles in Tumblr and Instapaper):

I believe in supporting software developers by paying full price for their applications.

MacHeist supports MacHeist’s staff extremely well, but it’s not a way to support its applications’ developers.

I buy a LOT of Mac software. A metric shitload. Almost always at full price. People assume that because I write for TUAW, I’m getting tons of stuff for free. That’s just not true. We go out of our way not to accept full licenses of stuff unless we can either give it away afterwards or it is a NFR and we need it to test all the features. Almost everything we review (for OS X apps anyway, it’s more complicated with iPhone apps since there are now promo codes), we buy.

So as someone who buys lots and lots of software, I don’t really appreciate the guilt-trip that because a developer or software company decides to take part in a bundle, me buying that bundle somehow means I don’t support developers.

I won’t lie; there are plenty of apps that I get with bundles that I either never use, ever, or won’t pay to upgrade to the next version. But there are plenty I’ll pay for — even if they don’t offer upgrade pricing. 1Password, for instance, which I got from MacHeist or MacUpdate last year, will totally get the entire amount of money from me whenever the time comes. It’s just too valuable to me. The same goes for CSSEdit, RapidWeaver, and any other number of apps I find myself using day in and day out.

At this point, especially with MacHeist, developers know what they are getting into. If they choose to offer a product through MH, they have their reasons. If Realmac, a company and a community I have lots of respect for (and Nik Fletcher is like my brother, seriously), don’t want my business if I happen to get something of theirs through a bundle, I trust they won’t offer it in a bundle to begin with.

Panic, who makes some of my favorite Mac software, doesn’t do bundles. I did, however, save $10 when I bought Coda because I also bought Transmit. I saved 10% on TextMate because I bought it as a student. Should I not have taken advantage of those discounts? Does that make me unethical or unsupportive of software developers? Of course not!

So why does buying something in a bundle make me a bad person? I respect Macro’s unyielding support for developers, but I prefer to live in a world where I’m less pious and don’t have to walk around with a stick up my ass.

So Grant and I are driving this year. After last year’s hilarious, yet ultimately awesome snafu with the whole having to drive from Dallas to Austin with friends I made at the airport bit last year, it made more sense for us to drive this year. Especially when we booked our hotel in November, you know, before flights got so cheap. Le sigh.

The awesome, Corvida will be road tripping it with us, and we plan on having a blast. Chris, the brother of the AWESOME Kimberly, of Regator fame will be driving back with us. Geek trip!

OK, so I’ll be in Austin, God-willing, from Thursday — Wednesday. DM me on Twitter (@film_girl) so we can meet up if you’re in town.

Also:

Be sure to check out my StudioSX interview with skinnyCorp’s Jeffrey Kalmikoff on Saturday at 3:00 PM. You can also watch the video online afterwards, and I’ll be sure to pimp it out — you know, unless I royally fuck up or something. Just kidding, even if I fuck it up I’ll still pimp the hell out of it.

Victor is leading a Core Conversation about organically growing a fanbase and Grant and I will both be giving some of our thoughts.

I’ll also be moderating a panel on The Convergence of High-End Design, Fashion and Technology at 5 PM.

And of course, I plan on attending as many parties, meet-ups and drinking sessions as possible.

Oh — and because Grant has to have something attention-grabbing at anything he does, we created imamarketingjackass.com to coincide with his new brand: social media “expert.” Really, it’s just a play on all the people that brand themselves as experts in marketing or social media or this or that, but really have no qualifications or ideas on what is actually required. Plus, it matches his business cards. Which I also designed.

OK, my jeans are done, the reds are in the wash and I’m off to do like 50 other things.

See you in Austin!

Out!

I’m psyched.

I’ll be in San Francisco from today (Sunday, January 4, 2009) until Friday (January 9, 2009). If you are in SF or you’ll be at Macworld, please give me a shout.

You can send me a message on Twitter (either direct or @ messages), e-mail me at blog at planetchristina dot com (or use the contact form on this site) or call my Grand Central number:

If you aren’t going to be in San Fran, but want to keep up on any Macworld goodness:

• TUAW’s Macworld coverage
• TUAW’s Macworld specific Twitter feed
• My Twitter account — natch

Alright, I’m out!

On Saturday, Grant and I officially celebrated our six month anniversary. Six months! I try not to write too much about my personal personal life here, but I’m making an exception because I am just so freaking in love. I have never been in a better relationship, nor a more wonderful person.

We started to kind of have feelings for each other at SXSW, but we didn’t act on it until after we got home — you know, wanting to make sure it was for real. It is for real. I am infinitely grateful to have him in my life.

2008 Emmy’s

Tonight, starting at 6 PM EDT, I’ll be one of the StyleListers liveblogging the Emmy’s pre-show for the new StyleList Blog (nee StyleDash). Tune in if you want to see, intelligent, funny and sassy coverage of what everyone is wearing.

For the last few years, I’ve liveblogged the Emmy’s at my old journal. Last year, I actually didn’t do it — because I was watching with someone else, but I tried to post about it using some of the Mac programs (it was how I first tried MarsEdit, though I have to be honest, ME is MUCH better at WordPress and other blogging engine than LiveJournal, at least when compared to the Windows standard, Semagic), and got just too frustrated.

I suppose you could say the Emmy’s was one of the final catalysts for me to start my actual website after years of just putting it aside. After doing work for other people, it is still insane that it took me so long to get my own public public outer-image intact.

Anyhoo, I’m uber-excited about both joining my other SLers to discuss the fashion at the Emmy’s. And I might pick up the actual show on this blog, depending on my stamina. I’ll say it right now, if the fucking Amazing Race wins best Reality Show again, I’ll go apeshit. Like, four years ago, back in the era of Colin and Christy (best race team EVER), fine, it made sense. But when you compare TAR against “Project Runway” and “So You Think You Can Dance” — shit, even “Top Chef” — it is just nuts. That PR didn’t win was totally unfair. And that Cat Deeley didn’t get a nod for Best Reality Host and SYTYCD didn’t get a nom for best reality show was the snub of the year. There, I said it. Heidi Klum or bust.

As for the real awards, I’m actually quite happy with most of the big award categories. I think “30 Rock” and “Mad Men” will probably win their respective categories. I’d prefer “Dexter” to win over the AMC thing, but I know where this is going and am OK with it. I mean, as long as “Two and a Half Men” loses, I’m happy.

John Adams will sweep the miniseries awards, just like it did at the Creative Emmy’s — but that is far from surprising. It is this year’s big HBO production. If it didn’t sweep that would be the travesty.

Part of me would like to see Christina Appelgate win just because I’m a sucker for a cancer story, especially when it happens to someone as genuinely funny and seemingly nice as Applegate. Kelly Bundy FTW. Though I think Tina Fey or Julia will take it. I’m actually fine with any of the lead actress nominees. The fact that Amy Poehler got a nod for SNL, for Best Supporting Actress comedy is pretty huge too. Like, whoa, what?

Anyhoo, I’m out for now.

In fact, Atlanta is so frequently left-out of the Web Conference mix, I didn’t even KNOW that Webmaster Jam Session 2008 was going to be in my own backyard until like two weeks ago!

But thanks to CoffeeCup’s J. Cornelius, I not only KNOW about it, I’m also going to be speaking on a panel about web visibility! I’m so excited!

So many genuinely cool and awe-inspiring superstars are going to be there, Jeff Croft, Dan Rubin, Nathan Smith — my Austin roadtrip hombre Keith Robinson — I’m really, really thrilled about the whole event.

If you’re going to be in Atlanta (or want to be!) on October 3rd and 4th, and you are interested in web technologies, design, SEO or social media, this should be a fantastic conference! Spots are limited, so register now — oh, and if you use the code “REDCAT” when registering, you’ll save 20%!

If you’re going to be in town or are interested — give me a heads up via e-mail or Twitter — I’d love to meet up with you!

I’d like to thank David Chen and Devindra Hardawar for inviting me to join them — I can’t wait! Oh — for anyone who isn’t familiar — Dave and Devindra are responsible for the uber-awesome Always Watching blog. It kicks total ass!

So again, tonight, 10 PM EDT — join us live in the UStream.tv chat. I’ll post the podcast link later in the week when the recorded version goes live.