[Tim Wilson]

[Craig Alan] “Would not mind one for the IPhone though it would make the back cover less than lick my smooth seamless perfection.”

Are you saying you like the back of your iPhone? Don’t do that with your computer.

I have a kickstand on the back of my HTC Thunderbolt (OH NO!!! THUNDERBOLT!!!!), and I think it rawks. It’s oriented horizontally, but works dandily in both landscape and portrait. I use it all the time.

Since MSFT has seen this with a bunch of phones, I’m going to assume that they were thinking about it.

Stop by your local Best Buy and take a look. It’s nicely recessed and designed in a complementary way with the rest of the phone. While the back of the phone isn’t lickably smooth, I happen to find licking textural things appealing in its own special way as well.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Tim Wilson]

And re: ecosystem, the key component for your device environment isn’t a Mac. It’s iTunes. If you use iTunes, and are thinking about non-iDevices, you’re asking for pain. The majority of iUsers are on Windows, including the handful of members of my family who don’t bleed Apple rainbow colors. Works great. Don’t let your computer or its OS factor into your other ecosystem choices.

As is mentioned here often with other software, once you’re in iTunes, platform doesn’t really factor in.

Of course, I don’t have iTunes installed on my computer at all, so that doesn’t really factor in for me either. LOL

[Tim Wilson]

I didn’t mean to say that you personally misrepresented me, just that I don’t want to be known as the guy who cares a whole lot about roadmaps. Me personally? Not the tiniest bit.

Even when I was running nothing but Macs, and running large general interest Mac user groups where we took time every week to mock everything about Windows and the clueless dolts who use it – even then, I trusted Apple not at all, based on personal experience going back to 1980.

To this day, no single computer has had the market share of my beloved Apple II. The System 6/7 transition remains the hallmark of miserable computing experiences.

Among the Apple products I personally owned that were killed, in some cases before they could be repaired or replaced by Apple with even working refurbs or something: several of my printers, a scanner, the 17AV monitor that was never grounded right, and the QuickTake camera. (Raise your hand if you owned one of THOSE bad boys. Version 1 built by Kodak as their first foray into digital photography.) I didn’t own a Newton, but I know people who did. So over $20,000 I personally spent on gear left without support or repair options.

Man, i keep thinking of more. Claris Works. AppleWorks. Did you buy Apple hard drives? I did,.including the ProDrive, which was 5 MEGABYTES for $3499. The Pippin game platform, developed with Bandai!!! Once again, raise your hand if you owned one!

9 to X? Nuff said.

Removing slots while killing compatibility with expansion chassis (thankfully temporarily on the latter).

Remember when almost nobody in the development community was ready for an OS and architecture that was so new you had to run some software under emulation not that many years ago? Apple not working with its partners boded ill…except oh yeah, they’d already killed a bunch of IO vendors, and that’s not even counting the clones…

…none of which was a deal breaker, because I’d rarely gone more than a year or two without Apple “innovating” some critical part of my workflow. I was used to it, and assumed it was never going to stop.

THERE’S your roadmap.

I’m not being anti-Apple. I’m just saying that if your 5yr business plan didn’t include Apple “innovating “ you or one of your favorite vendors, I assume it does now.

And still, I don’t think any of this reflects poorly on Apple. They’re very good at offering fair value at buying time, and their stuff mostly lasts a long time. There’s nothing else you can ask for. Well, you obviously can, but….

…back to my original point. Their obligation to you ends when the warranty runs out. No matter how badly you want or need Apple in your future, Apple doesn’t feel the same about you.

And again, I have no problem with this.

It’s not the same as a roadmap, but for navigation purposes, you now officially have more than two points that you can use for triangulation.

And to get perilously close to back on topic, for all we know now, Surface is the next Newton.

[Tim Wilson]

[Jeremy Garchow] ”
I’ve had the conversation with Tim Wilson before about roadmaps….Even if I was an all Windows shop, it would do nothing for me.”

Sorry to keep the off-topic groove, but I don’t think I’ve been accurately represented.

The thing is, I don’t care about roadmaps. Not even a little. My feeling is that the manufacturer’s obligation to you ends when the warranty runs out. Don’t let iTunes hit you on the ass on your way out the door.

Not just Apple. Anyone. I pay ’em. They give me a product. Transaction complete, forever and ever, Amen.

My one and only point has been in response to people who say “nobody” offers roadmaps. The biggest software and hardware vendors in the world, who make products used by people at the COW every day DO release roadmaps.

The fact that it’s typical, even expected, from other major companies (and it is, and it is) means nothing. Apple’s not typical. They don’t do what’s expected. It’s not fair to expect them to change the behavior that has gotten them here.

I’m pretty sure that this’ll be the last time I talk abou it…unless I talk about it again. Not fair to expect me to change the behavior that’s gotten me here.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Tim Wilson]

[Steve Connor] “I wouldn’t, that’s not what I want a tablet to do”

You don’t want the tablet to have a tablet-optimized, touch sensitive OS that can do more than it can do, run full versions of every application you’ve ever owned AND can run all your fun iOS apps?

I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe that if such a thing was offered you’d say, “Forget it. I’m not in this for the Mac OS. I only want iOS. You can keep this full-version nonsense.” There’s not one person on earth that will say this.

Ballmer’s a moron, but if Tim Cook showed something like this, this forum would be on fire. Again. iPad sales would skyrocket even faster.

Besides, if you believe Apple for a single second when they say that something like this isn’t coming, I’ll point you to Steve Jobs quotes less than 3 years before the introduction of the iPad saying that Apple would never do a tablet because Apple people don’t want tablets, and people who DO want tablets are completely different than Apple customers. It’s amazing how strongly he denied this…oh yeah, and getting into the phone business.

So get used to it now. Soon, Apple will bring you an Apple-flavored version of exactly this. Today, a pony is on the line.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Tim Wilson]

I don’t think it’s worse. I think it’s better. I think you’ll see 2D movies with subtitles in 3D. you preserve the integrity if the picture and make them easier to read. Have you actually seen any? I have, and I love it.

That didn’t mean it’s not difficult to create them. I don’t have any advice for you except to say that it’s worth the effort for you to try to get this right.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Tim Wilson]

I like goofing around, but I’m not kidding about the kickstand. I use the one on my phone ALL THE TIME. speakerphone, playing music or video, etc. Love it.

Netbooks are great, and I can’t believe more people don’t use them. I swear that two thirds of the people who think they prefer a 15 inch laptop for anything non-work related and maybe half who use a tablet for anything but specific apps will be amazed at how much more they prefer a netbook.

That said, we’re talking about tablets, which have their own awesomeness, and this one seems to address some real usability issues.

It’s really not fair to say that msft looks for how to solve problems with Windows. That’s what Apple does with iOS…but I bet if there was a tablet-optimized, touch-sensitive version of the FULL Mac IS with the same processor that’s in an iMac, you’d be hailing it as a breakthrough, and a good number of people here would have one on order, not as a computer or laptop replacement, but as a cool tablet that can do far far more than tablets can today.

And for Surface, the tiny handful of people who use Windows -and I get it, it really is just a tiny handful of people who use Windows -they’re going to look at this, look at some of the fun stuff, and think, hmm, this might work for me. This is going to hit some sweet spots for, again, that single digit minority of people who use Windows.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Tim Wilson]

One thing that kinda stuck out to me is two cameras. The one facing toward you is for, well, capturing your fave for video chat, naughty stuff and what have you. The camera on the other side is meant to record meetings, events, interviews and what have you.

I know that iPad has whitened it’s way into the enterprise because it’s fun and cool, but this is the kind of feature that’s potentially fun and practical. I’m glad to not need such a thing anymore, but if I was stool in the bidness world, that would be one of my favorite features.

That and the kickstand.

While the lacko’apps will be a massive, insurmountable deal killer, man, I look at the ability to run real Office products, real VPN, etc, and the practical aspects (including the kickstand AND the integrated keyboard) jump screaming out at me.

Re the keyboard, msft doesn’t get enough credit for their keyboards and mice. (note too that the keyboard includes a built-in TRACKPAD.) Makes sense when your software is such a major contributor to RSS.

one apps workaround I see is a real browser, with a CPU that could make a lot of web multimedia more practical….when connected. It’s not like there’s a web based version of the most popular games on either iOS or Android. There’s still a few months for this kinda thing to get worked out, but color me curious….

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Tim Wilson]

[Jeremy Garchow] “What??? It has a kick stand???”

I would pay any amount of money for this if it had a kick stand.

Wait. What?

First one to get a full version of OS X running on this wins a free pony.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Tim Wilson]

[Jeremy Garchow] “[Steve Connor] “…..and it has a kickstand””

Y’know, my phone has a kickstand and I use it all the damn time. I love it.

And I’m not just saying that because I have a kickstand and now make use of it. I’d wanted one before, and I gotta tell ya, even cooler than I thought.

(BTW, that thing on most iPad covers? Not a kickstand. It’s a FLAP.)

tw