iPad -- the New Computing Form Factor! (xWinLib announces support of the iPad!)

Today I released support for the iPad in my xWinLib cross-browser library. But first:

Hello, I’m a Windows dude and I LOVE THE iPad.

That’s not a sacrilegious statement or my introduction at Apple Anonymous, it’s a statement based on anticipation, excitement, and realization. Yes, I had to have it the day it came out. Yes, I am a geek, but I also consider myself more of a Window’s guy than an Apple dude. Still, I do own a Mac Air, a bunch of iTouchs, and of course a Macbook Pro (all [mostly] for testing purposes[;-)]) --- but the iPad is truly different.



I like to think that I obsessed on owning the iPad because it represents a new “form factor” – a new paradigm in the computing world – and as a software developer it opens all kinds of new avenues. And while all of this is true – and I do think that the iPad creates an entirely new market that previously did not exist (and we didn’t even know we needed…but we do need it) – there’s more to it… the iPad is COOL!

The day of the iPad release, lines went around the block. I called my local Apple store in the Galleria mall and they told me the line went outside into the parking lot. Best Buy at Pembroke Pines had a line that exceeded their inventory. Double bummer. Fortunately I didn’t have to wait in line to get my iPad. My local Best Buy in Sunrise somehow didn’t get their UPS-delivered shipment of iPads the day before --- and boy were they stressing! I went there the day before and talked to the dude responsible for the iPad rollout at that store – he was totally stressing. The morning of the launch, the guys answering the phone were even more stressed, and they probably went something like this: “Hi, this is Best Buy, no we haven’t gotten our iPad shipment in yet but we are hopeful that it will happen today. Please call back and we’ll be happy to tell you this again.”

After lunch I went in anyway and the “iPad dude” gave me a number for “when (if) they did come in” --- I got number 18, “just make sure you come in to pick it up before 5pm” – no problem! And it wasn’t – I rolled in at 4:30 --- the shipment arrived – no line – they swiped my credit card – and I left with the goodies. S-u-w-e-e-t.

So, what’s all the fuss for what many are calling an oversized iPhone?

Would you leave your personal computer or laptop on your coffee table for others to play with? No friggin’ way. Would you pass your laptop around the room in a magnanimous gesture of sharing? Seriously? Not a chance. Yet the coffee table is exactly where my iPad sits. And that’s just one of the things that makes the iPad so radically different.

The iPad is a household computing device. A media interface. A computer DESIGNED FOR SHARING. And, as a gaming device it adds a layer of SOCIAL INTEGRATION that transcends virtual to, dare I say it, reality!

How many remotes do you have? In my house I’ve got the cable box, blue-ray dvd, TV, surround sound, and an HDMI splitter – and that’s just the family room. Yeah, I’ve tried the “smart remote” -- my son bought me the Logitech model 10billion -- and my wife still shops for wicker baskets to hold all of the remotes.

More so, are we really approaching “the year of home automation”? OK, I already mentioned that I’m a geek – and, yes, I was playing around with creating APIs for X10 device 2 ½ DECADES ago – but TRUE automation is way cooler than turning on and off your Christmas lights with a key fob.

The iPAD IS PERFECT FOR ALL OF THIS. My laptop… not so much. My desktop… definitely not. My server farm… get real…. Hence my belief that the iPad is a completely new form factor for computing – and THAT is why I had to have one… NOW. For all these reasons and more, I made damn sure that my xWinlib library (www.xwinlib.com) provides support and recognition for the iPad platform – TODAY.

And now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got to excuse myself so I can test my credit limit in the APP STORE… and I’ve got a few planes to land as I play “drag and drop” air-traffic controller…

--Steve

DataPortability 2010

As many of you know, I am a big-time proponent of Data Portability. That simple concept that enables the free-flow of information in intuitive, secure, and informed ways has been a pet project of mine for some time. In fact, many of the products I have developed over the years, including Zude, Scrapplet, FGL, and xWinLib just to name a few, posses significant components of (and hopefully important contributions to) data portability.



I have been fortunate to be associated with the Data Portability Project (http://www.dataportability.org), the International non-profit spearheading the charge of Data Portability. My involvement has grown from “just a member” to a corporate officer and member of the Board of Directors. I am humbled by the caliber of folks that I get to work with in this group and others that share a mutual passion and vision for data portability. Today, the Data Portability organization counts among its members and participants many of the thought-leaders in the technology world and related organizations including: Facebook, MySpace, Google, Plaxo, Microsoft, Adobe, and more.

It is with this in mind that I am honored to have been elected as 2010 Vice-Chairman of the DataPortability organization and again member of the board. This is especially meaningful knowing all of the good things ahead for data portability and the consumers and producers of information. I look forward to the year ahead and am excited at the prospect of positive change that data portability will bring to us all!

--Steve Repetti
www.radwebtech.com

Open Web Advocate Chris Messina to join Google

TechCrunch is reporting today that Open Web rockstar Chris Messina is joing Google!

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Chris through the Open Web Foundation (www.openwebfoundation.org) and Data Portability initiative (www.dataportability.org) and can unequivocally state that he is truly one of the thought leaders in technology today. I know he will do well at Google and all of which will mean bigger and better things for us all. My advice to Google: listen to Chris, give him whatever resources he wants, and sit back and take credit for your brilliance to bring him into the fold. (oh yeah, and don’t forget DISO http://diso-project.org/ !)

And... Happy Birthday Chris! What a great birthday present!!!

SuperTweet MetaData

Uber-blogger Robert Scoble started a lively conversation regarding his concept of the SuperTweet as a mechanism of monitization for Twitter on his blog.


I had to put in my two cents because I really think he's on to something -- but WAY beyond just advertising. Here's my response:

First, the meta-data association is BIG --- way beyond just advertising. Tagging, geo-location, and parent/child info (providing the ability to piece together entire conversations and trends – REAL-TIME), just to name a few, would be enormously useful to Twitter and 3rd-party developers. It would create a mechanism that does not mess with the magical 140 characters, while providing an extension that embraces really useful things today and things that haven’t even been thought of yet.

Addressing the monetization issue, clearly the integration of (multi-tiered) SuperTweet MetaData would benefit any advertising strategy Twitter pursues, and offer an affiliate opportunity for Twitter clients and developers. Twitter has every right to place whatever ads they want within any context they chose, just as the user has every right to ignore them or abandon the service. Twitter’s responsibility for long-term happiness (for all) is to find a balance.

It wasn’t so long ago that nobody would conceive of paying a subscription for the right to push out messages 140 characters at a time. But that was before the phenomenal growth and success of the Twitter ecosystem. There is absolutely a class of Twitter users today that would pay $2.95 per month for additional value add – whether that be no ads, higher control over ads, or premium service/content.

For everyone else, SuperTweet MetaData could help target ads in ways not otherwise available. The problem with web-based ads (a la Google), is that there is too much anonymity for them to be really useful (this is separate from privacy). If I visit a website, the context for ad delivery is the website I am visiting. Twitter, on the other hand, knows the context of the message, the conversation in which the message occurs, the originating sender, distributed recipients, relational association at each step (including location of all), plus any meta data that I may have inserted via preferences, priorities, filters, patterns, and trends – all of which occurs in real-time.

I do not believe the case for SuperTweet MetaData is about advertising, though it certainly has relevance. No, I think the real case for SuperTweet MetaData is that it reinforces Twitter’s position as the center of its universe, extends 3rd-party opportunity by an order of magnitude, and provides Twitter with numerous monetization options – including advertising and subscription revenue.

Read the full article and discussion over at Scobleizer.com

Picture credit: TechCrunch.com

-- Steve

The "Personal" Server in My Everyday life...

[Dave Winer started a great conversation about "Personal Servers" over at his scripting.com site. My comments:]

(Personal Servers have) become part of my environment – part of my “operating system”. It’s an extension whose always-on real-time availability lets me host services, communications, aggregators, consolidators, syndicators, and so much more.

I have been living daily with “personal” servers since the mid 90’s. There is one running in the background on my laptop (and most of my other machines) as I write this comment (actually, it is running multiple server instances – port 80, 7070, 9090, and 443 [ssl]. This is ALWAYS present for me. The power of dynamic content generation and JIT compiling/execution is infinitely more useful when it exists real-time in your actual environment. I can modify a file, and simply by saving it the change is instantly available on the web. Likewise, via localhost, I can develop without the burden of FTP. Code, refresh, code, refresh. When I’m ready, and need more (such as the business/commercial aspect) then after I’ve locally fine-tuned, I upload to an offsite hosting rack.

But it’s not just for development. It has become part of my environment – part of my “operating system”. It’s an extension whose always-on real-time availability lets me host services, communications, aggregators, consolidators, syndicators, and so much more. I, for one, cannot imagine my environment without this power and flexibility.

+1 for Personal Servers

Is the Droid Love Affair Over? Absolutely not, but…

I love my Droid. Simple as that. But a serious flaw has revealed itself that has the potential for catastrophic consequences for my new little buddy. It’s a problem so obvious that at first I couldn’t believe it and hoped it just went away – but it is a critical problem that could cripple the Droid, and therefore needs to be addressed.



First, let me say that I have never owned an iPhone, Blackberry, or any other Smart Phone – ever. I have been a loyal Motorola phone user for years (my phone previous to the Droid was a Razor) and I WANT the Droid to be successful for so many reasons.

The problem is with the physical keys of the keyboard. This is not an issue of whether you like the keyboard or not, or think the keys could have been laid out better (for the record, I like the keyboard, but also believe it will be refined as the Droid evolves). The problem is the keys themselves -- under a very specific circumstance.



So, when I was at the Verizon store when they opened yesterday (the first day of availability of the Droid), I got my Droid, all the accessories, and a big smile on my face. Of course I got the car charger, the car mount (for GPS mode), and the Verizon-recommended rubber protective “Bra” – this latter accessory consisting of two-piece rubber that attaches to the top and bottom of the Droid. And it is this “protective” accessory that has the potential for catastrophic interaction with the phone. The problem is that is seems the “face” of the keys on the keyboard are glued on to the keys – no big deal, except when you slide the keyboard open and the rubber bra catches on the keys – in my case the edge of the DEL key caught and started to peel up. At first I didn’t realize why the slide was “sticking” but then quickly determined that if I opened the keyboard all the way up, it would rip the face of the DEL key right off. CRAP!



If you look closely at the picture above, you can see the corner of the DEL key pulled up. For now, I have used my fingernail to push it back down and I removed the top piece of the rubber protective “bra” and everything is working fine. But I can no longer use the top piece because it will rip the key face right off. I’ll be visiting the Verizon store tomorrow to seek a remedy, but in the mean time, I would caution everyone not to use the rubber bra thingee on top.

Has this experience soured my excitement for the Droid? Hell no. I told you, I love the little guy. I struggled with even raising this issue, but it was clear to me that this is a problem that will continue, and maybe the next guy who writes about it will use this flaw to slam an otherwise fantastic device. For me, I’m sticking with the Droid… quirks, flaws, and all -- but my Droid will go topless without the rubber bra.

[UPDATE: It runs out that the BRA has a small tab on three of its four sides. It must be installed so that no tab is on the bottom side where the keyboard slides open. Regrettably, neither Motorola or Verizon provide any instructions in this matter.]

My New Droid...

So I bought my DROID today...

No line for me, but the Verizon store was crowded at 7am. I was out of there within 30 minutes with my new Droid. First observations: (1) the only ladies in the store were sales personnel, (2) Verizon did not have the software to convert my existing contacts, (3) even with 2 days of training, the staff was still on the learning curve. But, everyone was smiling, everyone was nice, and after swiping my credit card I ran home to play. 2 hours later --- I still love it! It’s HEAVY, but it is soooo cool. One note, I bought all the accessories and when the Droid is outfit with the rubber protector sleeve it does not fit in the GPS car mount.



Still, I connected it to all my email accounts, enabled universal inbox, moved a ton of pictures and music onto the SD card (via simple USB drag and drop) – and barely put a dent in the 16GB memory. I synced all my contacts from Outlook (via gmail import) and then enabled the Facebook connection. Contacts started automatically populating with their profile pictures and now I’m off and running. Call quality is awesome, the speaker phone rocks, and music sounds great (plus there’s a headphone jack). Certainly it’s not perfect, but the triad of Google + Motorola + Verizon is highly incentivized to keep things fresh. And, did I mention it’s heavy (could be used as a self-defense weapon in a pinch)? In any case – no buyers remorse here!