This has been a busy week for Hulu bids. Ten days after Bob Iger confirmed that the current Hulu owners (which include Disney, NBC Universal, Fox and a private equity group), Bloomberg reported that Hulu was looking to entice bidders by promising 5 years of content rights to programming from its current owners and a two-year exclusivity deal (with the exception being the networks own websites). In that same article, Bloomberg discussed the number of companies currently in talks to buy Hulu, mentioning Microsoft, Google and Yahoo by name.

Today, the Wall Street Journal adds Apple’s name to the mix. Frankly, of the four, I think Microsoft would actually make the most sense — go with me here, it’s not about Microsoft as a Windows company, it’s Microsoft who owns Xbox 360 and has already discussed its ability to turn that into the set-top box of the future.

Still, I think a Yahoo deal is untennable, I don’t think that Yahoo has the capital to make a good bid. Google, well, Google has a fundamental misunderstanding of content and content ownership. Look at the failures of creating a real Google Music store. Look at how YouTube has flailed with enticing commercial partners, despite having such a large distribution platform. I know we’re all in love with the big G on Google+, but Google fails so hard at the entertainment and set-top box space (Google TV is maybe one of the most shitty products I’ve ever had the displeasure of using, sorry Google, it’s true. It sucks.), it would kill Hulu dead in the water. Not as much as Yahoo would, but still.

But Apple, Apple is interesting. If Apple were to buy Hulu, obviously they would have yet another distribution platform. The thing is, Hulu, and TV Everywhere and subscription streaming as an idea, fundamentally goes against Apple’s approach to content. Apple sells content a la carte, not because it makes money that way (it really doesn’t), but because that content sells devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod.

In the subscription streaming place, indeed, in the TV Everywhere space, the iPad is the number one most coveted target. Full stop. That’s why Hulu was on the iPad and iPhone first. Same with Netflix. Same with most cable company apps, same with second screen apps. The iPad is having a huge impact on the way consumers watch TV. It’s insane. Moreover, the engagement with the iPad, even with the same services available elsewhere, is higher and better, which makes advertisers love it.

Why then, would Apple need Hulu? They already have a Hulu app in their App Store. Other than as a defensive move, I don’t see why Apple would buy the company. Plus, something tells me that a deal would include a provision that the new owner has to continue to support the growing number of Hulu Plus devices. That’s something Apple doesn’t like doing.

Still, I’d rather see Apple own it than Google, because Apple at least knows how to work with content companies.

What I don’t understand is why we haven’t heard anything from Netflix. Netflix would be the perfect owner. It would increase the library size and get access to previous-day content. Netflix’s biggest hurdle is in fresh content. Hulu’s biggest strength is fresh content. Win/Win.

I just fear that whoever does buy Hulu won’t know how to keep it running well. Hulu has singlehandedly forced the major media conglomerates into the 21st century and to lose it would be a huge step backward.

Edited to Add: Amazon actually is the buyer that makes the most sense and is the buyer I would most like to see. Amazon gets content, Amazon gets making deals, Amazon gets how VOD works. It would be a great way to expand the Amazon Video on Demand model and offer additional incentives for subscribers or Amazon Prime members.

As always, these are my opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of my colleagues or employers.

So the article in question is from Giga Om — a site I like and respect. I truly don’t mean to pick on the author, Colin Gibbs (which of course just means that’s exactly what I’m going to do — sorry Colin — it genuinely isn’t anything personal) — but the entire premise behind the article, titled “Why Apple should Consider a Seven-inch iPad” is just so severely flawed.

The size of the iPad has been a topic of discussion recently because it looks like all of the viable would-be iPad competitors (and by that, I mean products by companies that have actually shipped something before and aren’t embarrassments like the JooJoo or vapor like the Notion Ink Adam, or as I like to call it JooJoo2) are targeting a form factor of seven inches rather than the 9.6 inches of the iPad.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab, the BlackBerry PlayBook and the thing from ViewSonic — not to mention a number of other would-be tablets (including Barnes & Noble’s tablet/e-reader hybrid).

Now this factor in and of itself might not be worthy of reflecting upon in context of the iPad if Steve Jobs hadn’t called-out the seven inch form factor during Apple’s last earnings call and had he not basically eviscerated the choice of going below 10 inches (we’ll let it slide that Steve consistently referred to 9.6 inches as 10-inch). Because Apple has a history of denouncing a product or denying the need for a product — only to show up with said product later — it isn’t shocking that some would question Apple’s secret plans of a seven inch sibling to the iPad.

I think that these people are wrong. As Dan noted on a previous episode of Briefly Awesome — this didn’t sound like Steve bullshit — this sounded like he genuinely hates the idea of a seven inch tablet. He also had data to back up his choice.

But let’s just assume that Apple hadn’t decided to forego the smaller form factor, moving to a smaller size for the iPad — especially at this early stage, would be utterly asinine. Here’s why:

• One of the reasons that all the other manufacturers have to go to the seven inch form factor isn’t one of choice; it’s because Apple has all the 9.6-inch panels (well, IPS panels anyway) locked up.
• The so-called price savings for going for a smaller screen doesn’t matter when the iPad is still kicking its would-be competitors assess price wise. The Galaxy Tab is the same price as an iPad ($30 difference equals same price) unless you buy it with a contract. None of the tablets that have managed to ship are coming in any lower than the iPad, except for the upcoming NOOKcolor which is really more an e-reader with tablet-like features.
• Steve Jobs nailed the problem with the seven inch form factor when he called them “tweeners.” They are too big to be truly portable and too small to be a good tablet.
• The 9.6 inch size really is perfect for reading, for zooming in on objects and for watching video. Go smaller and you end up losing a lot of the pizazz, especially when it comes to magazine apps, games and watching video.
• Seven inches works well for an e-reader, it really doesn’t seem to work well for a tablet.

On that last point, I want to use my mother as an example. I got my mom an iPad 3G for her birthday this August. She loves it. It has only taken me my whole life, but mom finally has a gadget that she loves.

My mom is representative of why the iPad is so revolutionary and why it has shaken up the entire industry. By that I mean, she’s not an early adopter (unless it was as a by-product of having me as a daughter). My mom’s only other Apple product is an unused iPod nano that I got her for Mother’s Day like 3 years ago. She’s not who people thought the target market would be. She rarely gets all that impressed or excited about technology or gadgets.

When my mom saw the iPad, she lit up like a child. Just playing with mine, she very clearly fell in love. I relented and didn’t get her one for Mother’s Day but refused to listen to her protests and got her one for her birthday. She’s constantly talking about how much she loves it. It’s more or less replaced her computer for 80% of what she does.

It turns out, an awful lot of people like my mom got iPad fever. That number is only going to increase now that people can get the iPad for Christmas.

A huge part of the iPad’s appeal IS its size. The critics can claim it’s too big for one handed use or that it can’t go in a jacket pocket. First, that’s so sexist. I fucking hate any argument about a gadget that ends up being all about how men can carry things. The iPhone 4, one of the slimmest smartphones on the market, can fit in my back pocket but really doesn’t work in 95% of my pants. The idea that I could somehow even consider pocketing a DROID X is just laughable.

Likewise, it’s sure cool that guys who where jackets with inside pockets can carry a 7 inch tablet. Guess what — most women can’t. And even if I could — I wouldn’t because there is nothing lamer than a Scott Vest. Nothing.

So let’s just forget this whole “pocketable” concept now — you’re going to need to carry it in a case, pop it in a purse (and incidentally, my iPad does fit in my mid-size handbag just fine) or carry it in some sort of sleeve — seven or 10 inches.

Next, let’s talk about how your fingers work on a device. I have small fingers — so does my mom for that matter. I’d feel cramped on a seven inch tablet. I know my mom would.

Beyond that though, the iPad is also a device that you can use, like a notepad, to show off to other people. The 10 inch form factor works perfectly for that for meetings, for showing an outline, etc. When you go smaller, you lose a lot of that. You turn a multi-user object into something single user. That inherently impacts usability, as well as utility.

Again, I’ll agree that for reading text — seven inches is a good size. I think the Kindle is an excellent size device and I think it is very good for what it does. But even Kindle had to go bigger for the DX to encourage reading newspaper or magazine content.

Reading a magazine on the iPad just feels right. Trying to cram that stuff smaller just means you’d have to pinch zoom on columns and images and lose the flow of what makes the A4 style of the iPad so great.

For composing content too — it’s weird, I can be very effective typing on my iPhone 4. However, I think I’d be less effective on a seven inch device. That’s because you either need to have something that is small enough to be thumbable — like a BlackBerry or iPhone or whatever — or you need to be able to have near full-size keys. This is that tweener aspect in play. You can’t go halfway, go big or go small — your fingers don’t like the middle ground.

So this is all the logical stuff of why from a consumer perspective, the device doesn’t make sense at 7 inches. However, what really made me go “what the fuck are you smoking” was the argument that because of increasing competition, Apple needs to offer a wider range of product and more “variety.”

Dude. Just. Dude. I mean, seriously? Seriously?

First — another screen size would mean yet another target for app developers — something that I doubt many would really appreciate. Juggling iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad is one thing — add a second iPad size and yeah, that’s must asking for shitty apps to get made.

Second, this actually assumes that people are going to view 7 inches as an advantage over 10 when it comes to picking a device. As of now, you don’t get a cheaper price for a smaller screen — so what exactly is the point of a trade off? I hardly see a “road warrior” begging and pleading for a seven inch iPad because that 10 inch model is just too big. Again, you can’t stick the seven inch in your pocket so what’s the point?

This also ignores the very real business advantage Apple has over its competitors: Apple has the bigger screen. Why in the hell would they do a smaller screen unit just so they can have one less differentiating feature? It boggles the mind.

Look — maybe someday there will be an actual use case for a non-e-reader seven inch touch device. That day is not today.

I didn’t buy an iPhone in 2007 for two reasons: AT&T and lack of apps. The power of the apps and my love of the second gen iPod touch forced me to capitulate and move to the iPhone 3GS. My love of the 3GS (plus work, admittedly) is what pushed me to the iPad.

I’m typing this on the on-screen keyboard in the serviceable (but not perfect) WordPress iPad app. Despite the imperfections that come along with touch typing on a touchscreen, I’m doing OK. Also, while I got a 32GB iPad at launch, it’ll be going to Grant as soon as my 64GB 3G iPad ships. Hey, I wanted to go big or go home. Plus, I can already see myself loading this thing with content.

I think that all of the pundits bitching about this or that aspect of the iPad are off-base. If I never did anything else but surf the web in bed or on my couch, read eBooks or watch Netflix, I’d feel I had my monies worth. Simply put, it’s just so nice to have such a low profile and usable media pad. This is something I’ve wanted for years and years. As nice as laptops are, they aren’t great for curling up in bed and they don’t have the battery life to go days without charging.

My mom is getting an iPad for Mother’s Day and for her, it will likely be her primary computer. No more slow bootups, crashes and battery issues. She can take it and the Bluetooth keyboard and case and just go crazy. I can’t wait to see her use it.

Doing links in this app is annoying so I’ll have to update later, but here are a few of my favorite apps so far:

* GoodReader — loved the iPhone app, equally love the iPad version. It can do so much and I can’t wait to see it get better (like open files from Mail). The way it connects to Google Docs is just awesome.

* Things — Cultured Code did a stellar job. If you have Things for Mac, it’s well worth getting for the iPad.

* Netflix/ABC — both apps are awesome for video.

* Evernote — I haven’t been an Evernote fan but the iPad app and its easy multi-device sync convinced me to do the premium upgrade.

Too many games to mention. I just want apps like WriteRoom, TextExpander and Pastebot to get iPad versions so that I can get a really solid productivity flow.

So this is just my iPad update. I’m off to continue to enjoy a rare day off!

Out!

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.

So, I’ve neglected my blog. I made it not even three weeks into my whole “write once a week thing.” Oh, well. In my defense, I’ve been insanely busy. That business is probably what led to my out-of-nowhere outbreak of intestinal yuckiness that can best be described as “three days I wish to never relive.” I’m still afraid to eat solid food.

But on to better things! As you can see by the title and the little banner graphic, I will be going to Miami next month for the Future of Web Apps! I’m so excited for so many reasons. I’ve long admired Carsonified and am so thrilled to be going to one of their events! Even better, I’m going to get to cover the event as a reporter and podcaster for both Mashable and 5by5.tv!

My good friend Dan Benjamin just officially embarked on making podcasting and interviews and heck, Internet broadcasting as his career. It’s so awesome to get to see him fulfill a longstanding dream, especially in an area that he is immensely capable — and Dan is capable of so many things, but he really rocks at this!

I’ll be joining his show The Conversation to provide news and maybe some witty banter and we’ll be interviewing anyone and everyone at FOWA! By the way, listen to the first episode of The Conversation here. It’s a total iPad dissection by some really smart people. How I got included in the mix — man, someone pinch me.

Anyhoo, FOWA has a freaking amazing lineup and if you are looking for a good conference to go to where you can actually you know, put down your fucking phone and pay attention and learn shit — this is that conference. I’ve heard nothing but stellar stuff and just looking at the speakers, you can see Carsonified doesn’t fuck around. They get the goods.

I can’t wait!

Given that I’m actually able to call writing my career — which is amazing — I’m pretty OK with the fact that my personal blog gets neglected. But that’s why updates are few and far between — because I’m getting to write about technology and movies every day as part of my job.

OK, so since I last posted, a few things have happened in the world of technology, let’s go down the list:

• Apple announced its new product line, including what I have been waiting for: a Quad-Core iMac, and at 27″ wiht an LED IPS screen no less!
• I ordered said 27″ iMac i7, waited 18 days of delivery, was in love and beside myself with excitement — until I tried to hook it up to a second monitor and found out the miniDisplayPort was broken. So my beloved beauty must go back to Apple and they are sending me a replacement. I won’t get the replacement until around the 4th of December because the demand is high (and as I said, they didn’t even ship the machines until a good three and a half weeks after they were announced, for the i5/i7s anyway). Apple is letting me keep the defective one until then, but I won’t be able to be fully comfortable with my new toy for almost two more weeks.
• Google finally unveiled it’s much hyped Chrome OS and the whole technology world has gotten itself into a tizzy over what it is and what it isn’t and what it could be and all kinds of other shit.

So before I talk about Chrome, let me talk about the iMac.

27″ iMac i7 Review, Take One

As I said, I couldn’t help but be like totally, totally disappointed that I have to send my beautiful machine back, especially after waiting for it for so long. I bought the 27″ i7 as a 27th birthday gift to myself and got it just one day after my birthday.

Aside from the miniDisplayPort issue, the machine is amazing. The screen is beyond compare — and the thing is fast. How fast? Let’s just say that coming off of my two-year old BlackBook, I’m simply amazed at how much faster certain tasks are. If a program has been optimized for multi-cores AT ALL, it really shines. For instance, doing screencasts of live web video used to be a laborious process. Like, it would take hours to export the result from either Camtasia or Screenflow. On the i7 it literally flies. It’s amazing. I can’t wait for Adobe to come out with Photoshop CS5 that actually takes advantage of this stuff. Likewise, I can’t wait for more and more apps, especially multimedia apps, to really take advantage of multi-cores, hyperthreading and other awesome stuff.

I opted to install an extra 4 GB of RAM myself in the machine (I paid $60 shipped to get the RAM from Newegg, whereas it would have been another $200 or so if I got Apple to do it) and I have to say, the installation process couldn’t have been simpler. Before I even turned my Mac on for the first time, I put the new RAM, giving me 8 GB of DDR3-1066 RAM. I’m in heaven.

I got a Magic Mouse a week before I got my new iMac, so I was familiar with that — but I have to say, the combination of the screen and the mouse is really nice. I can’t wait for more gestures to get written into the Magic Mouse. I know that a lot of people I respect have panned the mouse, and the Logitech MX probably is a better pointing device, but the Magic Mouse is sexy, easy to use and feels good in the hand. Plus, I have my Wacom tablet if I need to do any precise, precise stuff anyway.

The alumnium keyboard is the same as what I’ve been using for a year with my MacBook hooked up to an external monitor and it remains a joy to type on.

Sound from the speakers is excellent, though I’m looking at getting a separate set anyway. The machine is amazingly quiet for all of its horsepower. I mean, according to the GeekBench results, this thing is very closer if not better than a base level Mac Pro. So I’ve got a Mac Pro (minus the expandability, yes, but I don’t care about that more than for RAM) inside one of the nicest displays available on the market.

I really can’t say enough about the screen. I know that once I get my working unit I’m going to really be able to see the difference between my $220 HP w2338h and this beauty — which is why that display will be relegated to holding my e-mail, Adium and maybe Campfire. I’ll leave the big screen for everything else.

As for why I need two screens when 27″ is so big? It’s not so much for size, but because I like to segment and separate some of my tools. I like having my mail up at all times, but I don’t want to have to battle with it and other windows. On my old setup, my MacBook screen simply served as a place for Mail.app to live. Because the smaller display will now be 23.5″ and 1920x1080, I can put a lot more on it and thus leave my beauty for TextMate, Photoshop and web browsers, which are the three programs I have open at almost all times (well that and LittleSnapper).

A lot has been written about the Apple Tax and the value proposition and whatnot, but I think that with the new iMac lineup, even at the 21.5″ level, but especially when you look at the i5 and i7 machines — it’s hard to argue that you aren’t getting your money’s worth.

Yes, I paid $2600 for my computer ($2660 with RAM), but I’m getting something that I couldn’t get anywhere else, and at Dell, two separate pieces, with a monitor that isn’t as good, would cost me MORE money.

I’m in front of a computer for at least 8 hours a day (10 is more accurate), having something fast, reliable and with a great, great screen really makes the difference, I just wish there was a Blu-ray option already. I hate that I can’t use this to watch my growing Blu-ray collection. But that’s OK, I have the amazing LG BD 390 Network Blu-ray Disc Player for that! Seriously, if you are looking for a Blu-ray player this Christmas and you don’t have a PS3 (or don’t want one), this is the one to get. It has Wireless-N, Netflix, VUDU and YouTube support (I think Pandora is coming soon), can connect to your PC or Mac or NAS setup to stream media and has great, great quality. $260 for what is almost a complete home entertainment hub.

I’ll do something more in-depth after I get the final iMac in and I transfer everything over officially (I’m in this weird limbo space now where about 90% of my files and docs are transferred, as well as my most-used apps, but most of my media files are still on other drives and I haven’t installed all my programs. When I figured out the first day I actually was going to use this thing for work that the DisplayPort didn’t work, I kind of stopped doing the big transfer. I mean, I have to do this again anyway so why bother?

And here’s my unboxing gallery. Forgive the quality, I couldn’t find my digital camera and so I had to use my iPhone which is just not good with my office’s lighting.

Chrome OS Thoughts

This should probably just be a separate blog post, but I really just wanted to discuss in a non-Mashable setting some of my thoughts on Chrome OS. The day it was announced, I quickly got my geek on and compiled the source image (which first required having to download and install the latest Ubuntu and run that in VMWare Fusion 3), which wasn’t difficult, but was long and laborious.

Then I had to create the VMWare image — figure out how to get the file from my VM to my desktop (not as simple as you’d think — I ended up just DropBoxing it which was faster) and then created a new VM from that image.

After playing with it a bit, I did like 5 screencasts, and sadly, this was the best take — despite my umming, uhs and actual technical problems. Whatever, I was on a deadline. I will say my ass-busting paid off because we had a hands-on first look at least 6 hours before any other major site (or minor site that I could find). I also got to flex my geek muscles (hey, compiling the kernel and building the image wasn’t difficult, but come on, that’s still totally geeky!), which is always nice.

So my first thoughts, which I shared on Twitter, was how disappointed I was that what we saw in Google’s demo wasn’t what the source was. It’s not that that isn’t completely and totally typical, but it just makes even contemplating developing anything for Chrome OS hard if you can’t even get a true baseline of how stuff works.

But the bottom line is this, everyone calls this a big threat to the desktop as we know it and representative of a big paradigm shift and blah blah blah, and you know, in another 10 years, that might be true — hell in 5 we might be closer to fruition, but as it stands right now, I can see Chrome OS succeeding, but where it will succeed will be in a completely separate and new class of device.

Gruber made a comment about how Chrome might be considered as a bicycle that replaces that second, rarely used car — and you know, that would be a very Larry Ellison way of looking at stuff — and maybe someday that will be true. However, right now, I don’t see it as a bicycle replacing a car — I don’t think it’s robust enough to be a bike. I think it’s a VESPA you get to tool around in but that you don’t ever seriously consider using for more than just certain things. It isn’t going to give you the flexibility of a bike, in terms of where you can take it (subways, winding trails, various terrains) or give you the exercise benefits, but it is a fun excursion and can often get you someplace faster than a car or a bike could depending on where you are and what you are trying to get to.

For the foreseeable future, I don’t think I see Chrome OS as something — that at least as it exists now and as it will exist according to Google’s demo — as something that even netbook owners — and netbook owners are used to making lots of compromises for perceived price/weight/convenience advantages — would be willing to compromise and use with any frequency.

This is why:

First, while Chrome OS and Android are often compared and conflated (and maybe eventually they will even morph into the same product), they are very different. Android, while deeply flawed (and I say that as someone who was a strong advocate and wants it to succeed if only to offer Apple real competition in the mobile space) in many of the ways it is executed, is still a fully robust platform. I may not like the default UI decisions, I may think the decision to basically take JIT, do something in the compiler so that it isn’t JIT by the legal definition, is stupid because I think Java is what is really limiting a lot of the development ideas and innovations and I might question the already splintering market of sub-Android brands, but Android is a platform.

Right now, Chrome is not a platform, it’s a thin client built into a Linux kernel. It has the potential to do web multimedia extremely well — especially with Flash and Silverlight both getting more into utilizing GPU and hardware acceleration — and the web in general very well, but despite our reliance on the web, the web still isn’t everything we do with computing. Don’t get me wrong, I could not survive without some sort of Internet access. I mean, I could literally, but I couldn’t work and most of my communication methods would be severely limited.

That said, I’m writing this entry in Mars Edit, not in WordPress’s window, because I both don’t like and don’t trust WordPress not to crash on me. I write my Mashable and AMC posts in TextMate (and Mashable uses WordPress, but the different linking and other stuff I like to do works better in TextMate, whereas I prefer Mars Edit for my personal writing) for the same reasons — and because I get added functionality that just isn’t available in a web-based text editor yet. Maybe someday, but not today. I do all of my graphics work, even light stuff, in Photoshop. I edit my photos in Aperture or LightRoom. Granted, I’m not the average user, but I would still rather my mother use iPhoto than Picasa or Picnik.

Google actually talked about stability and security as a perk when it comes to Chrome, but as I said on Twitter, in the more than two years that I have used Mac OS X full-time, I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually LOST data when it wasn’t my own fault (like when I’ve deleted my iTunes library not once, but twice — or when I’ve incorrectly closed a window without saving). However, I can’t even count how many times I’ve had web browsers, be it Firefox, Safari, Camino, Opera, Internet Explorer or even Google Chrome crash on me and take everything I was working on with it.

Firefox is often the nastiest culprit for that one — though that’s on the Mac, on the PC Firefox is much more stable — but even Safari pre 10.6.2 was pretty crash-happy too. Even Chrome, which is designed to like kill one window not the whole browser, often doesn’t do that — at least in my tests. So if I’m going to rely on anything to keep my data for me after a crash, it’s not going to be a web browser. Sorry.

Then there’s the issue of speed. Chrome is going to be fast because a) there’s almost nothing to it and b) they are going to require it to use SSD drives in the beginning. Now that’s smart, but that’s only part of what defines speed for users.

It’s pretty much accepted that the iPhone 3GS is one of the fastest smartphones on the market. The N900 may or may not be faster, the Droid is about the same speed, though the iPhone loads web pages faster when the network isn’t a defining factor. The iPhone 3GS is no slouch in the speed department, but even on WiFi, loading web pages can sometimes take a bit of time. This doesn’t bother me because I understand that my phone is not going to be as fast as my computer. The smaller size of the screen and the compact nature make it totally easy to rationalize and justify differences in speed.

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. Grant has an Acer that has a Core Solo and can take up to 4 GB of RAM, that thing is great — and was only a little bit more (we’re talking under $100) more than a netbook. And it came with Windows 7 Home Premium!

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.

And yes — at long last, the mammoth blog entry comes to a close.

I’m out!

I’ve written so much about the iPhone and its platform over the last two years that it is pretty laughable that I haven’t had one as my primary device until now. I mean, I’ve had an iPod touch 2G 32GB and played with more apps than I care to recall (like, it makes managing the shit in iTunes difficult — even with the new features of iTunes 9), but now I FINALLY, FINALLY have one as my primary device.

Bye, Bye BlackBerry

After a nice honeymoon period, all was not love and sunshine with my BlackBerry Curve. See, the phone either had some sort of major malfunction or I just expected too much out of it. While I was at TUAW and DownloadSquad, my e-mail count was pretty high, like, I’d often get over 100 messages a day. If I wasn’t constantly deleting them from my phone, the damn thing would run out of memory reading a newsfeed or loading a webpage and I’d have to do the whole three-finger BlackBerry salute (where you restart the phone by pressing three buttons) and wait 5-minutes for the phone to restart.

Then there was the whole issue of fucking crashing while a call was trying to come through. This started to get more and more frequent and because I often do interview or calls with PR people, that’s embarrassing. And inconvenient.

The abysmal amount of on-phone memory allocated for the OS and the data really is to the device’s detriment. I’m sure that newer BlackBerry devices have addressed that issue, but from where I’m standing, the fact that I have to make sure my cache, e-mail, and other little areas are all clear just so I can install an application from the shitty BlackBerry App World is just unacceptable.

Even when I had almost NO third-party apps on the phone, the crashing and freezing and lockup issues didn’t go away. Again, I could have dealt with this if it didn’t have this great tendency to do it while trying to receive calls.

Now, I might have still considered getting a new BlackBerry, except at this point it’s not longer really financially advantageous to do so. When I got my Curve 8320, I paid a lot for the phone, even with the two-year contract, but I got what I still consider one of the BEST data/minute plans out there. 1000 minutes, unlimited BlackBerry data, unlimited text messages — $60 a month.

It was a great, great plan. Unfortunately, T-Mobile in its infinite wisdom decided to get rid of it. Now, the replacement plan is not a bad deal still — it’s 1000 minutes, plus unlimited night and weekend, plus the unlimited data and texting for $85 a month. That’s not a bad deal, however, if you don’t consider that the voice minutes (which I rarely use that many of) are the only difference, that’s $25 more a month — or $300 a year — so $600 over two years. Why do I mention this?

Well, had I gone with a new phone, I wouldn’t have been able to keep the old plan. I would have been forced to move to one of the new plans. When I first started seriously doing the calculations back in June, the current offering with unlimited night/weekend/mobile-to-mobile in addition to the base 1000 minutes wasn’t even an option.

Plus, even if I waited for my upgrade date, I would still end up paying as much for a new BlackBerry as I would for a new 16GB iPhone.

So here was my thought process, part of my rationale for not getting the iPhone 2G was that I couldn’t see paying nearly $1000 more over two years. As I said then, “that’s a new MacBook.”

However, if I’m going to have to pay that money anyway, I’d rather get the phone I really want: the iPhone.

Hello, iPhone 3GS

It’s interesting to look back at how much the mobile landscape has changed in the last two years. I would challenge even the most ardent-iPhone hater to seriously argue that the bulk of that innovation hasn’t been because of or in direct-response to the iPhone. As I said on the TUAW Talkcast at the end of the year in both 2007 and 2008, the iPhone continues to be the biggest story not just in the Apple-sphere, but in technology in general.

The first iPhone, though revolutionary for its interface and industrial design, was not an overly innovative phone. Sure, the web browsing was really, really nice — but that was just about the only feature that wasn’t already out there. Again, the interface and industrial design are revolutionary in their own right, but if you are a gadget freak and a reformed smartphone junkie like myself, the actual featureset wasn’t really any better than the competition.

That all changed in July of 2008. The App Store, has quite frankly, changed everything. It has taken the iPhone from the sexy device that you want, but maybe can’t justify the expense of — especially with the shittier carrier and the options available elsewhere — to the phone that nothing else comes close to touching. The apps are just amazing. They changed everything.

I got my iPod touch 2G 32GB last year and have loved it. As a gaming device, as a pocket computer, as a reference list, as a just general fun machine — the device is just the tops.

So even before I’d reached the end of the first year with my Berry, I was having some misgivings about continuing on the BB course. Because Grant had a G1 (and now a MyTouch 3G), I’ve been in the unique position of using the iPhone OS, the BlackBerry OS and Android all at the same time. Having compared them all back to back, it just isn’t a question, the iPhone wins. It’s not just the number of apps (though that is impressive), the quality of the apps is just unbelievable. Look at the Facebook App for iPhone. Now look at the newly-released Facebook for Android. No comparison. None. I’ll give you that Android is capable of much more, but almost nothing compelling has been done with the platform.

So after realizing I needed to get a new phone — to stop the freezing insanity if nothing else — and after realizing that I’m going to be paying between $70 and $90 a month for my cell phone anyway, I put my AT&T hate aside and got an iPhone 3GS.

First Impressions

Well, as I said, I have an iPod touch. So the device isn’t anything new to get used to — other than the larger size (the 32GB iPhone 3GS is way thicker than the absolutely svelte iPod touch — but I’m actually totally OK with that — it feels more secure that way). Still, the whole thing is class.

And I have to give both AT&T and my beloved T-Mobile some credit — my number was ported super, super fast. As in, I finished checking out at the Apple Store — he went an activated my phone in iTunes. I went to the car with Grant. I picked up my phone while we were driving home and got instantly got a text message saying my number had been ported over. Like 5 minutes. Or less. Not bad.

I got the new Marware SportShell Convertible for iPhone 3G, 3G S (Black) as a case and I highly recommend it for 3G/3GS users looking for versatility.

I’ve had several Marware cases over the years (the SportSuit Convertible for the iPod — for several iPods actually) and quite like them, but I really like the SportShell. It’s a really solid quality plastic casing, with the option of either a belt clip or just a smooth back — and it can also connect to an armband (which I’ll never use — that’s why I also got a new iPod nano at the same time as my iPhone — for a new workout iPod). Plus it came with screen protectors, which saved me having to get some cut to fit the iPod 3GS. You can also just get the case without the armband for less cash (Marware SportShell for iPhone 3G, 3G S (Black) ) and Amazon has them for way less than the Apple Store (though overpaying for accessories is just part of the Apple Store experience and I wanted to leave with a case).

Call quality is great, I haven’t had any crashes (knock on wood) like with the Berry and obviously, it does without saying that the Mac compatibility is in another league.

Yes, yes, BlackBerry Desktop for Mac is very, very spiffy — and it is much needed — but it was still too little, too late for my needs. Because I couldn’t export a straight CSV or log of VCF files from the Mac version (thanks for the leak CrackBerry!), I still had to result to Windows Vista VM hell, as my Twitter followers are all too familiar.

We All Knew This Would Happen.…

I’m not surprised that I caved to AT&T, and indeed, the fact that I waited until I could get out of my contract by having to pay as little money as possible is a credit to my own resolve (a resolve I often don’t have), but it always seemed like a foregone conclusion that I would get an iPhone. Come on, I’m completely Apple’s bitch. This is fact.

Hey T-Mobile — thanks for almost 9-years of pretty decent phone service and great customer support!

Now I’m off to do some work and play with my toy!

I had an amazing time, and I met so many incredibly cool people. The fellow speakers on my panel, Jeff Croft, Dan Rubin and Garrett Dimon are all amazing, and it was a true honor to meet and speak with them. Seriously, you guys rock my world. Thank you to everyone who was nice enough to attend our session and for your feedback and comments.

J. Cornelius at Coffee Cup and everyone from Blue Flavor were such amazing hosts (Keith, Nick, and Jeff again — you all rock).

Over and beyond that, I met so many awesome people and attendees, I can’t adequately list them all now.

I’m going on vacation for a few days with Grant, so I’ll have plenty of time to write stuff up more coherently.

Suffice to say, I had an amazing weekend, met great people, drank great drinks and learned a LOT. Oh — and Grant finally saw the beauty in Django. So we can now be nerds who hack together. Yay!

Out!

Once again, Chris Murphy is the man…it just cannot be said enough! When I finally got off my ass nearly nine-months ago and actually started doing something with my website, I was truly fortunate to come across Chris’s amazing Lemon Twist theme. Not only does it have a look that I still really enjoy all these months later, it was so well-coded and feature rich that in the process of modifying it to fit my own needs, I learned tons about WordPress in the process.

I figured out how to successfully widgetize the first version of Lemon Twist that I used on this site, but when Chris updated it to be even better, my workaround broke (well, it worked but it was weird, I had to set the widgets in another theme first and then enable it). I really didn’t care enough to figure out WHY it wasn’t working, mostly because I was content to just create my own PHP sidebar elements to do stuff like Calendar, Twitter statuses, etc.

Well, Chris being the awesome designer/developer dude that he is DID care enough — so he widgetized the theme. It turns out that the functions file needed to be in a different directory (the main theme directory not the sub directory). Even better, he created some widgets that kept the customized sidebar elements he built before intact. You know, so that things like Categories and Bookmarks don’t look like total ass. He also made a stylized Twitter widget specifically for the theme that I want to publicly thank him for. Chris, THANK YOU! You can follow him on Twitter @farfromfearless

Chris was nice enough to send me his widgetized files before putting it live on his site (it is still amazing how many e-mails I get from people who love Chris’s theme and like what I did with it) and while I updated the CSS late last week, an emergency MacBook reinstall put updating the widgets on pause. I had a chance to do that tonight, editing the sidebar stuff that I changed to include my own brand of panache. I think that the latest version of WordPress allows variable sidebars to exist on different pages, but I’ll look into that later in the week.

Anyway, I just wanted to shout-out a huge thank you to Chris and also do my duty in promoting his awesome work. In this age of premium and paid WordPress themes (and I will say that I think Chris Pearson’s Thesis is flat-out AWESOME — Adii’s WooThemes are great too), Chris’s work more than stands-up — the fact that he has made his themes free out of his own personal goodwill is just another reason I’m so thankful I ran across his theme.

Nothing has made me more sad than the total lack of a blogging application for the BlackBerry. Within two weeks of launching the App Store, both TypePad and WordPress. Meanwhile, I’ve spent like 4 and a half months trying to find a decent WordPress or other blogging app for BlackBerry, with no luck.

Thanks to the always wonderful Twitter, I was alerted to the fact that SixApart actually released a TypePad app for BlackBerry back in May. So close, yet so far (if it were 2003 and I were looking to migrate from LiveJournal to a hosted service, I would have probably gone to TypePad — but it is 2008 and I want my own software installation — I’m sticking with WordPress unless Expression Engine 2.0 blows me away or I decide to roll my own Django thing). Fortunately, I decided to try Google again for BlackBerry blogging apps. Although the BlackBerry market of good third-party software is woefully underdeveloped, I am excited to say I have discovered a workable MetaWeblog API solution.

The program is called BBMetaBlog and as best I can tell, it was developed as a blogging tool for the Lotus Note and Lotus Domino servers/platforms. As such, things like categories and tagging is all handled by a different application that is designed to run on Lotus Domino servers. However, because Domino/Notes uses the MetaWeblog API for its blogging engine, any XML-RPC capable platform, meaning WordPress, can take advantage.

Neato. There are a few caveats:

• Because this was developed to work with a pre-existing blog system, tags and categories don’t work. I haven’t messed around with it enough to find out if you create a default category if that will pass through or not. If it will, I might just make my default category “BlackBerry Mobile” or “Mobile Posts” to help keep things clean.
• While it appears as if you CAN edit past entries, those entries don’t actually show up to be able to see them to edit.

Still, it’s better than nothing.

To get this to work (and I’m running everything off of a BlackBerry 8320 running 4.2.2 (they haven’t updated to 4.5 in the States yet, at least not at T-Mobile)), download the program using the OTA link above. Run the application and click on the “Configure” button. Enter in the username and password for you WordPress blog (or other MetaWeblog API blog software) and leave Location and Category at their defaults. On the line that says access URL, for WordPress users, enter in: http://www.yourblogdomain.com/xmlrpc.php — other MetaWeblog API programs might have a slightly different syntax, so check with your software.

That’s it.

Now you can create new posts and send them straight from your BlackBerry!

Note about WordPress 2.6 and later If your first installation of WordPress was version 2.6 or later and you have never used a third-party blog client before, you need to enable Remote Blogging from the Settings –> Writing tab:

Just make sure you select XML-RPC.

If I knew anything about programming for BlackBerry, I’d try to take on this thing (since it is Open Source) and modify it to work better. Until then (or until a better option becomes available), this will suffice.