Is the iTablet the next Segway?

All the talk these days is about Apple's new tablet device. One thing I know, is that I won't buy the first version. Apple is notorious for hyping big and screwing the early adopters. I am typing this post on a laptop that has a physical defect that is well known. Apple fixed it by changing the next model. I am an Apple fan but I didn't drink the Koolaid. Every device they make is supposed to change the world, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. iPod yes, iPhone yes again. Tablet?…we'll see. Remember the Newton?

A number of years ago we were told by an inventor named Dean Kamen that his Segway would revolutionize transportation. I live in a tourist area where there are Segway rentals. I don't see them that much. Dean made a cool device but there are limitations. You can't drive it on the street, it overwhelms the sidewalk, blocks the bike path and you can't carry anything. Dangit!

The new "iTablet" is kind of a computer Segway, somewhere between a laptop and a cellphone I have heard. I am curious to see if the public really likes it or just gets caught in the hype. The answer will be a few months down the road.

In the beginning, most new toys are at the forefront. Kind of like kid's and Christmas presents. What will be interesting to see is if after owning an iTablet for 3 months, will you reach for it, grab your cellphone, use your laptop or sit down at your desktop and peck away. If you are old-fashioned you may turn on TV, ancient read the newspaper. We forget that there is an alternative…silence.

Sometimes I turn off everything and lie back in quiet. Yes, this makes sponsors mad, but soon they will be advertising to us in our dreams.

Are you planning on buying one? How would you use it?

Back up your work

I'll tell you, finishing this game has been one son-of-a-gun. Little things keep cropping up and we are stuck at 99.5%. Unfortunately, if certain shortcomings violate Apple's rules you will get rejected. The problems we have now fit in that category. I spent the morning working out details including the re-write of the press-release announcing the game to the app community. While typing away, suddenly my monitor turns off. Like anyone you curse first, leading to minor panic followed by quick disaster planning. We were in the middle of a huge rain storm. I looked at the floor in my office and I was 1/2 inch deep in water. My back-up power supply was filled with water and turned off like it is supposed to. I spent the next 9 hours dealing with the flood and I was lucky. It ends up the city had a back up of the entire system.

This brings up another point, back up your work and have a back-up power supply! Here is what I do.

I use a Mac Pro tower with a 23" monitor plugged into a back-up power supply. Two internal drives, one external. I have Time Machine backing up hourly to the internal drive, Deja vu backing up daily to the external. I also have a portable drive I keep in another location in case of disaster. Back-up came into play during the last few months, I'm glad I was doing it.

Come hell or high water I am finishing this app. More storms are coming, so I better watch what I ask for.

AdMob Cross Promotion?

I have had to wait for the programmers and exercise my patience. Old problems find their way back into the app and appear in testing. This time it is faking a malady to the phone, a screen crack. This will get you rejected. I took it out long ago. Good things seem to happen when I slow down. Though I am aggravated somewhere I know things will work out. It is part of the "letting go" process.

I row on weekends, mainly sculling in a quad. Four people, two oars each. The idea is to get your oars in and out of the water at the same time. My buddy Ed says that you can find yourself at a standstill if you row fast enough. Sometimes we row 19 strokes a minute and go faster than when we do 22. It's about patience and timing.

While waiting, I read a Linked-In post on the www.iphoneintouch group. It was suggested to use a free version to earn credits to spend on paid ads on AdMob. You cross promote for FREE on their network of other admob enabled ads, it costs nothing and you can then up-sell to your main app. Plus, you earn 20% more to take ad credits instead of money.

There are downsides. Admob requires a web connection plus people leave your app and never come back at times. I have to think about this.

Crystal Ball to the American mobile future

It's almost the end of 2009. Mobile has come a long way since the turn of the century. The progression of mobile feels similar to the era when desktop computers first hit the internet. Speed and bandwidth were the issue, just like mobile. Let's take a quick look at mobile phone history from my perspective.

Picture the set of "The 70's Show". Little league parents were an excellent barometer for new trends back when I was a kid. They were pushing or dragging 30, had 2.5 kids and had a decent job. In the beginning doctors had pagers, followed by policeman and drug dealers.

One Saturday morning as a game was about to start an over-tanned yuppie dad showed up in the stands with a large metal briefcase. Slowly he freed himself of the restraints of his Hawaiian shirt and oiled himself around his gold medallion liberally. He spread out reflective material and kicked back wearing expensive sunglasses. He reached to his right, popped open the case and took out a telephone. The cheering that followed had nothing to do with the game. The children were fooled into believing they had just gained parental approval when in reality it was the birthing of their electronic leash. Bernie was mobbed by little league mom's, never to be seen again. What happened that evening is 70's legend.

The next versions of the cellphone were the size of walkie-talkies and weighed 20 lbs. Power was an issue and your car has a battery. The logical move was to have a "Car Phone". Having a phone in your car was a big thing. People faked like they had one just to look cool. Thieves would totally mess up a sweet ride to get a hold of a nice car phone.

In America, really cheap phones were offered with expensive long term contracts. SMS would become the huge moneymaker for the telcos, they had no problem giving away devices. Cameras would become more commonplace and people were itching to go online. PDA's became doorstops as telephones improved.

Someone asked Einstein his phone number. His answer was, "I don't know", I don't worry about things I can easily look up." How right he was, everyone with an iPhone and Wikipedia is a genius these days. In the 70's, when you left the house you made sure you had your wallet and your keys. Now add the cellphone to the pile, the cellphone has reached worldwide acceptance.

Things move extremely fast these days, but one thing holds true… Europe and Asia are two years ahead of what we do. We have progressed to the point of smartphone adoption in the US but the services available in other parts of the world surpass our expectations.

If we look to Europe and Asia they will give us a crystal ball to 2012. I would expect to see mobile TV in the the US in the very near future.

Platehead

The second time I went to Japan we watched the first bombs drop in Iraq on a little bitty TV with rabbit ears at the top of a temple in Japan. The temple had dial-up but they barely used it, we would have to wait till we get back for more information. Many of us wanted to go home because things were about to change. Our karate teacher who is Japanese didn't understand our angst, he insisted we stay. I remember going through the motions, testing for my belt and getting home to find out the state of the nation and the world.

Today, rabbit ears (TV antennas) in America no longer work. If you don't have a digital convertor you get no picture. That trip to Japan in 2002 I had a film camera and didn't think of bringing my cellphone. That was about 8 years ago. If you have ever watched the TV show "Kung Fu" the opening has David Carradine snatching a pebble from his master's hand. That scene is similar to my training as well as how fast mobile technology is changing.

I eventually got home and found a slightly different attitude than I expected. People were aware of the war situation, but not really effected. Life just kind of went on. In the background you knew something was up but the news delivery at the time did not feature the war every day. Wartime for me always looked like John Wayne movies. One for all, all for one, people rally together to defeat the enemy. The average citizen would conserve and contribute. When a soldier was carted away after an injury, someone sticks a cigarette between his lips and shakes his hand for his service.

Our guys were getting blown up in Iraq and they made sure we didn't see pictures. Mr. Bush urged us to shop and pretend everything was fine. The mission was accomplished and he had a handle on things.

At the time, I had a handyman that worked on my house that I had nicknamed "Platehead". He was a former Navy Seal that had a metal plate in his head. He always wanted me to touch it… no fricken way. He was super patriotic, very loud and drove a truck that had a custom rear paint job with these words, "Support our troops or kiss my ass". Platehead rides a Harley and watches Nascar, you could describe him as Joe Lunchbucket, a typical American. His sentiment was how American's were pushed. Support the effort or you are unpatriotic. While all this was happening I was wondering how we are paying for this war monetarily and psychologically. Platehead was busy ruining the patio.

Commercials on TV told you that renting an apartment was stupid. Buy a house with no money down. Idiots were stock experts, companies like Enron turned off energy to increase the price then their executives stole the cash and ran. Everyone was a homeowner, SUV's ruled the road, big stores became clubs that sold toilet paper by the truck load. Excess was good yet the war was going on.

From a mobile perspective we were in transition. One do-it-all device did not exist. I carried a telephone, a camera and a PDA separately at the time.

2002 makes me think of karate, cellphones, metal enhanced craniums, and the beginning of the war.