Infinite Style

I’m now entering the brave new world of iCloud. I pushed all my calendars and contacts from my Mac into iCloud. I then backed up the local files and deleted them, having my Mac import everything from iCloud. 

My first impressions is that it’s incredibly fast. Add a contact on one device and it’s pushed through to other devices immediately. Considering their user base I find this to be very impressive.

Hopefully they don’t make a mess of my contacts!

To begin with I have to say that I can’t think of any other celebrity that has passed away and has left me dealing with so many feelings. I guess I now know how people felt when John F. Kennedy or John Lennon were assassinated. 

I have always loved computers and technology. There is something about a computer that draws me to it, and I can’t seem to stay away. I remember when I was in middle school, my family had put me into a private Catholic school which I absolutely hated. I had few friends there and even the teachers seemed to dislike me. In one of the classes we had a Machintosh computer, it was the first computer I got to know. I spend what feels like most of that school year behind that computer ignoring the teachers and submerged in my own world. 

As I got older and computers became a household item I started to use PCs and there was I period were would have never thought of buying an Apple computer. I remember when we bought our first family computer, it was a Compaq. I think in the store I might have looked at an Apple, but the sales people quickly discouraged it. Then in my early twenties, nearly 10 years ago, I shared an apartment with a web designer and he owned a PowerMac G4. I foolishly laughed at it and mocked it asking him why he didn’t have a PC so he could do real work. He knew better and said “I’ll make you an account on it.”

I was hooked … IMMEDIATELY

It was everything I felt a computer should be. The operating system actually worked, you didn’t spend half your time waiting for things to happen. You could work, you could have lot’s of applications running at the same time. Coming from Windows the difference was night and day. In one world you spent your time figuring out how to fix and optimize and in the other you spent it doing the tasks you needed to. Then there were all the small touches of Apple elegance. The fact that the system was multi-lingual, you could make an account in one language and another account in another. The fact that it had a system wide spell check, which corrected type where ever you were typing. These were things that in the Windows world were a dream at the time. Even things like the Calendar and Address Book impressed me deeply because it showed a view that the computer was at the center of your life and a tool that indispensable. 

It literally took 5 minutes, and I knew that I would never buy another Windows PC again. My mind was set and nothing would divert it. My first Apple computer quickly followed, it was a PowerBook G4. From there on I was a part of the cult. It didn’t take long until I started watching Apple keynotes and became familiar with Steve Jobs. 

To be honest I can’t remember the first keynote where I heard Steve Jobs speak for the first time. I can tell you I’ve seen a lot of them, from the introduction of the iPod Nano, the switch to Intel processors, the iPhone, and the iPad. While I might not remember the first keynote I saw Jobs deliver I do remember distinctly my impression of the man. When Steve Jobs talked you believed. He had that amazing ability to convey things in a way that would convert and win over the fiercest of skeptics. 

The first time I saw Steve Jobs give a keynote presentation, Apple was still just a little company. Mocked and laughed at by people who thought this iPod thing was just a fad and that the next great device or service would make everyone forget about Apple. But I believed, I believed in Steve Jobs and I believed in the philosophy he instilled in Apple. I believed that the Apple way of making computers, controlling both the hardware and software, was the correct way. I believed that because of this they would win over their competitors in the long run.

I believed in this so fiercely that I tried desperately to get my family to invest in Apple stock which was valued at 40 dollars a shame. At the time I was a 20-something student that lived month to month and had nothing to invest. No one in my family listened to me back them, and in the years that followed Apple’s stock has climbed higher that even I could have ever imaged. And while I didn’t get to invest in the market and make it big, I’m still happy, happy that I got to along for the ride. Happy that I saw these people working, and that I understood that their vision for what computers and technology could be was the correct one. 

So thank you Steve, thanks for letting me watch your awe inspiring brilliance. I always believed in your vision for what technology could be. No one will ever be able to replace you, you are to computers what Henry Ford was to cars and for that we will always remember you. 

Last week I watched portions of Facebook’s F8 press conference and walked away very impressed with the direction the company is taking.

I’ve always believed that the biggest fear at Facebook is that the party will one day end. That users will begin to abandon the service in droves for a new service. Let’s call it MySpace syndrome.

It’s obvious to me that MySpace syndrome is something that is often discussed and studied at Facebook. There are already a large number of users that currently tolerate but dislike Facebook. Feeling unable to depart with the service because of the large amount of friends and family that are connected to it.

Last week at F8 we saw what the company is doing in hopes of making it even more difficult for you to ever pull the plug and walk away from the service.

Facebook Timeline

Your Facebook profile will soon be transformed into a timeline of your life, and for the generation that is growing up with Facebook this will create a digital history of their lives. An online and social shoebox of memories that the people at Facebook hope you will never be able to bring yourself to toss out and throw away. 

I really can’t begin to say how genius a move this is. The minor Facebook users might scoff at it, but for the heavy users of Facebook the services is going to become so much more attached to their lives that ever before. 

I activated Timeline on my account and it’s very well designed. Very good looking and polished. Really think it’s a very strong move from the company and more than enough to make most people forget all about Google+. 

I’ve been waiting a long time for a device like the Kindle Fire to come out. Not because it’s a device I need or plan on purchasing, but because it proves a theory of mine. Google in it’s haste to bring Android to the market and try to become the Microsoft of the mobile industry made some very serious mistakes. 

Those mistakes are now all coming back to haunt them. 

Google loves to hide behind their “open” or “don’t be evil” mantras, which to quote Steve Jobs are bullshit. They use “open” especially loosely, participating in open source initiatives in areas and industries where they don’t dominate while being very very closed in the areas where they are industry leaders.  I think it was Daring Fireball’s John Gruber who pointed out there is absolutely nothing open about Google’s search algorithm. 

When Google looked to bring Android to the market they turned to the idea of making it open as a means of gearing up support for their platform. This worked like a charm, companies found a free platform that would be updated and improved upon without them having to do any work. While misguided nerds everywhere immediately fell in love thinking that Google was out to save the world and the Linux revolution was finally coming. 

The reality instead is that Google is just another big company that is out to profit, and the only reason they are supporting open source software is because of how it works into their business model and how they operate as a company. Use open source software to build cheap services which they provide for free and then make money selling data about the users of their free services. 

While this “open” aspect of Google’s plan worked extremely well, they were also making serious mistakes at the same time. A lot of these mistakes being openly acknowledged and ignored by the Android team. They ripped off and included a lot of intellectual property a long the way, justifying themselves with the excuse that sooner or later they would pay for the licenses and bringing the product to market was the most important thing. Well they are paying for it now, and their partners are paying for it big time. Google is currently being sued by Oracle, and Google’s partners are all bending down to Microsoft who is demanding they pay them royalties for their patents which Android violates.

These are huge problems for Google and for Android as a platform, and these problems are a direct result of Google’s arrogance in how they operate. Openly choosing to ignore licensing issues in order to come market was a huge mistake, especially when it was documented in internal company emails as a potential problem. It represents an ongoing mentality at Google where they feel they can do whatever they want because of their greater cause. Just look at how they begin digitizing books without asking publishers, or how their Street View cars collected data on people’s personal WiFi networks without asking or even telling local governments. 

And yet these problems for Android are just the appetizer, the main course is yet to come. 

The main course is, of course, the Kindle Fire. 

The Kindle Fire represents the biggest problem with Google’s Android strategy. They developed a free platform and now a major company has adapted it in a way where Google will not be able to make one cent from it’s use. 

Here’s how it works, any company can download Android for free and build an Android device. Where Google makes it’s money is when companies choose to include Google’s line of applications: Search, Maps, Gmail, and so fourth. This works perfectly in the cellular industry because the companies building dirt cheap phones don’t provide any of these service themselves but are expected to sell devices with these services bundled. However in Amazon’s case the rules change slightly. Amazon built a tablet device designed to consume digital media they sell. Books, Movies, and Music are the primary services and Amazon provides all of these. This allowed Amazon to take the free stock version of Android built their own custom shell over it and not give to Google one cent. Plus since Amazon operates their own App Store they can even lock the device and allow people to only buy applications from them and not from Google’s own app store. 

Ouch!

The best part in all this is that just this week Samsung agreed to license patents from Microsoft for their use of Android. This is a very bad trend and one can speculate that if the Kindle Fire is a success Microsoft will come around to asking Amazon for money. In which case it would mean that Microsoft is the one making money from Amazon’s Android based tablet and not Google. 

It’s really amazing how Android which had such momentous growth is really looking like a catastrophic failure right now. All the major partners paying Microsoft money, a major company like Amazon building a device which is designed to be marketed as their own and not as an Android device.

It’s just doesn’t look so good for the promised child right about now, and I saw this coming a long time ago. The only thing I had pegged wrong was the company to make this move. I saw Facebook being the ones to do it and release a Facebook phone. 

But hey it’s not to late for them, they can easily follow in Amazon’s footsteps. Plus they have a wonderful relationship with Microsoft which should allow them to get by without being sued by Microsoft. Just imagine an Android based Facebook phone with all services provided by Facebook and search by Bing. 

This week saw the resignation of Steve Jobs as Apple’s CEO. I’ve been a big Apple fan since the first time I used OS-X so it’s very sad for me to see him go. Especially after all these amazing years where I’ve witnessed his guidance take Apple from a little under dog that would never make it to the number one technology company in the world.

The public reaction and outpouring on the Internet has been amazing and I thought I would share this Steve Jobs quote which I found on another blog.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure-these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

As of my writing this HP has just announced they will sell of their PC line and Google has announced their plans for acquiring Motorolla Mobility.

There’s no denying it, Apple has become the biggest player in tech. Against all odds, and against all the advice from one time tech leaders, the small company from Cupertino is know wearing the crown.