For those of you who read my blog or stumble upon it for various reason I am no longer blogging on this site but have instead decided to pour all my writing efforts onto SlashGear with both a column and an On Time Analysis featured editorial.
Head over to SlashGear for all the latest news, reviews and my analysis of all the industry related movements.
I pose this question as the topic of my latest @SlashGear article. I have been thinking about this for several years now as a part of a project we have had with a large PC OEM. This idea of a solution comprised of a powerful desktop and then many client screens has been compelling. Particularly if the tablet is fully capable of a stand alone computing experience as well.
Read the rest of the Article Here.
Ever since owning an iPhone I have had a number of experiences where having the full Internet in my pocket from an information / resource standpoint has been invaluable. I recently however had an experience worth sharing. I was so completely out of my element in this situation and being able to troubleshoot / learn about the situation in real time as it progressed was shockingly useful and invaluable to me.
Many of those who know me and read this will know that I live in a more country setting and have converted some of my land to a working small farm. We raise all kinds of animals for different purposes, however out of all our animals I am particularly fond of our goats.
We noticed earlier this year that one of our goats was pregnant. One of the things about goat pregnancy is that unless the goats were under careful observation it is tough to know how far along they are. Given that we were observing her pregnancy development we knew the time was close but not sure how close.
Over the weekend I noticed some distinct changes that caused me to pull out my iPhone and do a Google search for "signs of goat labor." I very quickly found a useful forum with 15 points designed to help someone identify signs of labor and then assist in the delivery process to ensure a safe delivery. After a quick read it was clear labor was within hours.
Now at this point its important to stress that I did not grow up in a country setting. I am very much a city boy who spent and still spends most of his life immersed in technology, farming has simply become a hobby. So here I am all alone in the middle of a goat delivery and all I have as a guide is the internet. If I was the goat's midwife then the iPhone was my midwife.
So, I followed all the steps from beginning to end and sure enough the delivery was smooth and I provided some assistance which was recommended but not required. Then a series of questions followed that I was able to address with my iPhone post birth. Things like how soon should the babies eat? What signs should I be looking for that could be problems? What should I watch for to make sure the mom is OK? I used that little device to become as educated as possible on the minutes and hours thereafter of baby goats and their mother.
The outcome if you are interested is two happy healthy baby Boar goats. One boy and one girl named Hansel and Gretel. This is a picture of me and our newest additions to the family farm.
I'm sure the outcome would have been the same regardless of whether I was there or I had the usefulness of the iPhone. What would not have been the same was my mental state which was vastly improved by at least having some information to guide me during the process and keep me informed.
I'm back from my blogging hiatus and was thinking more about the iPad and its lack of support for flash.
There have been a lot of good thoughts from both sides of this discussion and I want to highlight a few and add some thoughts.
Point #1. The iPad needs Flash to be successful.
The primary response to this point is that the iPhone has enjoyed success and it does not support Flash. This is a very valid point yet what I would counter with is the fact that the iPhone as a form factor does not lend itself to consuming long form video content as a primary use case.
Given that we are seeing great numbers of people using their PC to consume long form video content, mostly flash based, then it would stand to reason that a computing device that has targeted long form video consumption as a primary use case would support a standard to which the vast majority of content owners consider a standard for web based streaming video distribution.
So my point here is that it is Ok that the iPhone is not supporting flash, mainly because people do not expect it to and to be honest even if it did support flash I have doubts that the vast majority of iPhone consumers would spend any real time consuming streaming flash video.
It is however, given the primary use cases for the iPad, a harder pill to swallow since it does not support flash. I fully understand many of the reasons why it doesn't however I could have seen a ton of use cases where I or my wife or even my kids would have used the iPad to sit on the couch, in bed, etc and stream flash video to the iPad to watch shows.
Point #2 The iPad does not need to support flash because HTML 5 is around the corner
Now this is true that HTML 5 does hold a lot of potential with its ability to handle streaming video inherently in the browser. However it is risky to assume that this paradigm will shift from the content owners to all of a sudden either dump flash or create a HTML 5 alternative to those who don't have flash in order for them to consume their content.
The issue with flash is that it really is a CPU hog. In nearly every mainstream notebook or desktop I have the CPU fan turns on minutes into any flash stream and even sooner with an HD flash stream. This is a serious issue since that level of CPU power needed to play flash with drastically drain ones battery should it be in use not plugged in.
HTML 5 stands to assist in some of these problems by providing a lighter weight in browser player, not a plug in like flash, in order to handle streaming video feeds. This will not necessarily solve an underperformed CPU's ability to handle said stream but it will assist in making the streaming of a video less CPU intensive.
I would also not give up on Adobe's ability to make the next version of flash more lightweight. Given all the work they are doing with the Open Screen Project they are definitely learning how to accomplish a lighter full version of their product.
So that is why it is risky for Apple to not support flash without absolute certainty that the content industry will begin developing non flash based streaming solutions for their media.
As unlikely as it is I am still hope full that Apple will support Flash in the future with the iPad. It may drain the battery and it may crash the browser consistently but let's hope a collaboration between Apple and Adobe could make sense to both parties.
3D in the Home
It appears that 2010 is going to be the year where we begin to see real industry approved 3D solution entering retailers. I believe we are in the very beginning stages of this technology similar to where we were with HD displays in 1999 CES but I do feel the adoption of 3D will be slightly quicker then the adoption of HD TV.
Expect to see many consumer electronics companies demonstrating 3D capable TV sets, Blu-Ray players and game consoles / PC's.
Connected TV's / Set top Boxes
Bringing the internet in relevant ways to other devices then the PC or mobile device is definitely going to be big this year.
I expect to see many TV's, Blu-Ray players and set top boxes with internet connectivity connecting to things like Hulu, Netflix, MLB, YouTube, Flickr and more.
Smart Pad's / Tablets
There has been so much hype around Apple's tablet concept that it seems the rest of the industry is working over time to make sure they have something on the market just in case Apple does release such a device.
We expect to see a number of products from major mobile and PC companies demonstrating tablet / smart pad form factors. All of these devices will be touch centric and have a screen size between 5-7 inches.
Posted a new article on how we have started looking more into computing use cases to help us understand consumers usage with new electronics in the future.
Check it out and leave some comments.
Disney is on the right track with their launch of www.disneydigitalbooks.com. With this new initiative from Disney I think we see a glance and what is possible when we begin to think about the question of re-inventing books.
Disney is in the early stages of this development and I am sure they will continue to innovate with more multi-media over time. But the important thing is that they have jumped off on the right foot with a powerful new service at a pretty decent price point.
These digital books are online only through the browser but Disney has stated they are looking at all platforms. Keep in mind Steve Jobs is on their board and a majority shareholder.
What I love about this initiative is that Disney has now entered this market in full force and will continue to open the eyes of publishing executives about what is possible as we create what is in essence a multimedia book. These books from Disney are much more interactive and engage with the child in the reading experience by using sound, animation and more.
My initial fear with the creation of multimedia books is that it would skew too heavily on the multimedia front. I am glad that Disney has come out and said that their experience will be about reading and the media will be supplemental to the reading experience. This again is a good way to look at this transition from analog to digital books.
Disney has the marketing power to really drive this concept and create value around their assets. It is exciting to see a company like the Walt Disney Company embrace a medium, have a vision and create something truly valuable.
All though I will still be updating my blog with more informal thoughts and analysis, I am happy to announce the launching of www.creativestrategiesonline.com.
Our company will use this website for more formal articles and analysis that we will self publish and distribute through this website.
Check it out regularly and follow the twitter feed from it and other relevant tech news twitter.com/creativestrat