Disruptive

Patrick Rhone:

Dear Anyone Else Who Thinks They Have A Chance In The iPad Market,

You don’t. The iPad is the fire that sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Apple zigged and you guys are still trying to figure out what a zag is. It’s sad really, to see companies that were once at the top of the NASDAQ stumble around digging for pocket change in your high-end sofa cushions.

It is time to stop looking and, like HP, face a simple truth – you can’t win playing the iPad game. Because it is not the tablet game. It is the iPad game. And you can’t make those. You can’t even manage to make something as good as those, at least not at that price. Apple has the channel locked up price wise. Tim Cook saw to that. You will never be able to build at the same cost they do and produce anything even close. And let’s just skip the whole integrated end-to-end platform discussion because you guys are just not built that way.

[…]

Apple did not beat you with the iPad. They beat you with the iPad market. A market they created out of the ashes of burning netbooks, low cost laptops, and PCs that no one really liked or wanted in the first place. There simply was no other option at the time available for them to buy otherwise. Apple created that option.

This whole thing is worth reading. It is hands-down the best plain-English analysis of the tablet iPad market I have read yet.

Perspective

Shawn Blanc interviewed Thomas Brand about why he uses a Newton MessagePad as his primary writing machine. Brand had this to say, among other things:

Using a MessagePad as my primary writing machine more than ten years after its untimely demise keeps my thoughts about technology in perspective. While staring into its monochrome olive colored LCD I can’t help but take a step back from the technology I am reviewing and decide wether[sic] or not today’s story is really such a big deal. Technology platforms come and go, but it is how we use them that makes a difference.

I wonder if similar things will be written 10 years after the original iPhone.

The Morning of the Week

For those who work with their mind, Mondays should be for dreaming and planning. They are the morning of the week, and each Monday brings with it a new beginning, a fresh start, and a sea of potential.

Mondays are my favorite day of the week for the same reason the morning is my favorite time of the day. The morning is when my mind is most clear — there is not yet the accumulation of “mental clutter” from the activities and worries of the day and the whole day looks like a blank canvas.

A wonderful piece from Shawn Blanc last Monday. It's true that the weekend is always a news lull, which is good and relaxing. And then comes Monday with a torrent of pent up articles and news. It can be overwhelming at times. They say once something is put on the Internet it will always be there, even if it is promptly "removed". Remember that. Use Monday as a blank canvas to create for Tuesday through Friday.

So long, webOS

Speaking of streamlining, a press release from HP:

…HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.

And here I thought RIM would be the first iOS competitor to crack.

MiniDock

The MiniDock by Bluelounge looks like a fantastic piece of kit for frequent travelers. I can't tell you how many times I actually do set my iPhone on the floor to charge when traveling.

A New Look for Full-Screen Browsers

One of my favorite features in Lion, as a laptop user, is its take on full-screen apps. This works especially well in apps like Mail & iCal, where the interface gracefully uses every pixel of the screen.

However, not every app utilizes full-screen fantastically. These apps pretty much just expand all their UI elements to fit the screen. Safari, while I enjoy using it full-screen, has too much travel when using the mouse to reach certain areas. Also, having the address and search bars separated is so 2008.

Henrik Eneroth took it upon himself to reimagine the full-screen browser into something more usable. It's ideas like this that should be coming out of Cupertino. His mockup is fantastic, and I think almost everything he touches on is spot on.

[via The Brooks Review]

A Mouse Only Accountants Could Love

I love Canon cameras…but is this even the same company? Are there really people out there that feel the need to have a basic calculator shoe-horned into a mouse?

[hat tip to Ross Nelson]

One Million Lions

It kind of sounds like the beginning to a joke, doesn't it? Well, no joke, but Apple had over a million downloads of OS X Lion in 24 hours. At 3.7 GB per hit, that's 3.7 petabytes of data — or 3,700,000 GB if that helps your perspective. All through the Mac App Store.

Patrick Rhone on OS X Lion

Patrick Rhone on minimalmac:

Here is my short review having never laid eyes on this thing… It’s great. How do I know? Apple doesn’t do less than great. If you have a Mac that can run it, get it.

Like Patrick, I didn't sign up for the developer program to access the developer previews. I am downloading OS X Lion as I write this. And I share the exact same sentiments as Patrick — if you're Mac is able to run it, get it. And maybe get a Magic Trackpad if you're still rocking a mouse.

Shawn Blanc Reviews the HP TouchPad

Shawn Blanc went out and spent his own money to review the HP TouchPad. This gist of his review:

I could not find one feature or function that was significant or compelling enough to take the TouchPad seriously compared to the iPad.

It's a shame, really. Just like when the Palm Prē came out, I had high hopes webOS would be a worthy contender against iOS. I obviously love iOS, but competition is what keeps the gears moving on all sides. Instead, HP's first major take on their webOS acquisition was a cheap feeling tablet with half-baked software.

If you want to see what I mean, read Shawn's aforelinked review.