Needleman thinks tablets are doomed from the start and will quickly go the way of Microsoft Bob. A useless product that will never make it anywhere. If it does fail, I predict the soon to come tablets will more likely suffer the fate of the apple genius. A product ahead of its time that fails but will become the grandfather of a next generation of devicves. My point is quite simple.

Needleman’s point about the uselessness of tablet computers is that the exclusively touchscreen interaction is a) too clumsy to make it a work computer

And typing on the screen, even if you can do it, is an ergo disaster. Either you have to keep your hands up in the air (if the computer is mounted vertically in front of you) or you have to hunch over your screen to see it.

and b) too expensive to fit in a particular market niche

So as an accessory, tablets are too expensive. If Apple releases a tablet in the rumored $700 to $800 price range, it will die. Not because people won’t love it and lust for it, but because they won’t be able to justify it.

In a nutshell, that’s what the piece is about. I think Needleman is wrong in that he doesn’t consider all the new uses that such a tablet could provide and its timely apparition on the market. To be fair, people like Arrington envision the tablet as something that will be used to surf the web in the living room and I don’t think that’s entirely correct either. While surfing the web and sending short e-mails while watching the Sex and the city movie for the 7th time is an obvious use, one much more important use will probably be to control things.

Personally, I’m what I would call a “technological retard”. I bought my first mp3 player in 2005, my largest thumbdrive is 4GB and that’s only because my fiancée got me one for christmas, I don’t have an LCD TV yet, I have no TiVO-DVR-thingie and, in an effort to finally hop on a new technology early, I almost bought a HD-DVD player. I ended up sticking to DVDs to accompany my 20″ electron-cannon powered TV. Yet, despite my mental challenges when it comes to new technology, I have a router which can be controlled via a web interface, a file server in a closet which backs-up my files and is managed through a web interface. I have a blog which is updated and managed through a web interface. The future of tablets lies in controlling things. We have DVRs that go online to fetch show information, so really it wouldn’t be that hard to put a little http server in there so that I can control my dvr through a web browser. I hear TVs are soon to start plugging directly via ethernet as well, I’m guessing they might end up with a little http server in there as well so I can control and manage the TV via a web browser. In a nutshell, browser controlled devices are coming home.

To be fair, this first coming of the net enabled devices was predicted a while back already and my fridge still doesn’t have an ethernet jack. My guess is that, given a random appliance which can go online, I was being given nothing that could control it conveniently. I didn’t want to have to walk to my desktop in my office (which, let’s face it, was the most prevalent computer in houses not that long ago) just to tell my freezer to start making ice cubes again. Likewise, I wouldn’t want to have to walk over to my work laptop if that’s the one that happens to be opened, just so I can unblock the raunchy channels on the TV after the kids have gone to bed. If my stereo, my dvr, my TV, my router, my file server all had a web interface, though, I’d be willing to shell out 400$ for a gizmo that can let me control them all conveniently and also google random things so I can settle bets when I’m drunk at a party with friends.

In the house of the future, at least according to a very authoritative me, everything will be plugged into my network. My heating system will have a little http server in there so I can program it with that thing. The lighting system in the house, the AC, the TV, the DVR… We’ve dreamt of these network enabled houses before, but we’ve never built a general purpose remote before. Now, with the tablet, we’ve started to build the perfect house remote.

Now, we just waiti until the next Steve Jobs figures it out.

Download speed: 2.38 Mb/s

Upload speed: 0.3Mb/s

ping time: 198ms

It’s actually more than usable. If I were a very frequent flyer, I might consider if they have some sort of plans with a monthly charge or something. Transatlantic flight might be more interesting. This is a 3.5 hours flight and the 13$ charge is almost worth it. If I’m not mistaken, the service price is tiered, but only  with 2 levels of service. Flights under 3 hours are 10$, whlile flights over three hours are 13$. Additionally, Service for pda’s and handhelds is 7$ regardless of flight time. I’m sure there’s a way to get linux (or possibly using firefox on windows for that matter) to make the system believe you’re a blackberry. It’d be interesting to check whether they’re only using the user-agent string to identify devices. Not that I’m advocating you break their terms of service. I know I’m not doing such a thing, but as a geek, I’m wondering how vulnerable their scheme is.

[Edit 10:01MT: Works fine with Hulu, which makes me wonder why the hell Hulu keeps freezing on my comcast connection at home.]

Amazon's download utility working flawlessly on linux

I recently wiped out my system on my laptop and installed the latest version of ubuntu. Even though the amazon website said the package was for ubuntu 8.10, I was, once again, amazed to see it work flawlessly with the 9.04 version of ubuntu. It’s the little things, you know…

Now, may this be a model for other businesses out there. It’s not that difficult! Just make it simple. Sell what people actually want (audio files that will work on any music player) in a convenient way. Don’t fuss around with making the killer app that will download my music, catalog it, make me coffee and take care of my playlists. Amazon’s app isn’t trying to disloge the itunes software thingie. I just want to buy music, just sell it to me already.

Funny how Amazon, without ever selling a single music player, managed to make a place for itself in the music selling niche while competing with the company that probably has a 90% market share in music players and essentially bundles its music store in with every player. Granted, amazon has lots of ressources, but they didn’t go hi-tech here. The lesson is simple. I have money and I want to spend it. Just sell me the darned thing already.

Now, people, quick! I need good engineers and really good PR people for my new company. My invention is the ecoTrans. It’s a new 2-wheeled mode of transportation that uses no electricity or gas but can power its own lighting system at night. As a bonus, you can plug your ipod in while you’re using your ecoTrans during the day and it gets recharged. At 8000$ each, it’s much cheaper than a car and will stop our dependence on oil! (And no, people, it’s not just a bicycle with a dynamo, it’s the answer to the world’s problems.)

As for me, I’m enjoying watching the HD stream. It’s a very intense “people-watching” experience. I can’t wait until the flower blooms and the rotten corpse smell overpowers the room.

Better World Club is an alternative to AAA. They are an environmentally friendly group and you can even purchase cycling roadside assistance. To be fair, the cycling service isn’t excessively great, but, hey, better than nothing!

Read all about it on the BWC website.