Tablet Wars just Heating up with Google Nexus 7

With the Microsoft Surface announcement and now the Google Nexus 7, it would seem we have all the major players entered in the big tablet competition. But wait, there's more! As CNET reports via Boy Genius Report, Amazon is readying two new Kindle tablets for an end of July release. So you may want to wait on that Nexus 7 purchase for a month just to see what the options are.

Nexus 7 Review
CNET has a complete hands on review of the Nexus 7. Basically, a beautiful looking tablet with great performance for only $199. The Nexus has no expansion capabilities (no SD card slot or memory options beyond 16GB). But unless you have a large movie or music collection, this is gonna be just fine for most people. The fact that it is Wifi only should not be a surprise given the price.

There are a couple of key points for me.

• Media - Can Google compete with Apple and Amazon on movies and books and such. To me, there is no clear advantage to going with Google in this area. While there are for Apple and Amazon Prime. My idea. Buy Netflix and offer it for free or at a big discount on your devices. That would get some attention.
• Voice - Can they do better at voice than Siri. I'm waiting for more info on this. Some of the reviews seem to imply you can do voice dictation without an Net connection. That would be cool if it turns out to be true.

Anyway, things are getting very interesting in the summer of 2012!

HTML Learning Tools from Mozilla

The Mozilla Foundation has setup its Webmaker site to help folks learn how to code HTML.
The site includes:

• Thimble is an online HTML editor you can use to create web pages. It is a simple split pane with your HTML code on the left and the resulting output on the right. You can publish the page to the Webmaker site so it can share it with others. The site includes a number of projects designed to get your started learning.
• X-Ray Goggles is a tool for exploring the code on a web page.
• Popcorn is a tool for creating Video

All the tools are online which is pretty cool. The site could use a starter video or project that gets really basic. From my experience, you can't just throw tags at folks and expect them to "get it". But I would definitely give the Mozilla Foundation and A for effort.

The Register has a detailed review here.

960px Grid Design

What is a 960px grid design? I had the same question myself. I stumbled across this concept when a co-worker wrote a post about Twitter Bootstrap. This is a HTML5 and CSS3 framework for developing web applications using 960px width and a 12 column grid. So why 960px and why a 12 column grid? Well the answer to that is a bit complicated. I found the 960 Grid site which provided a little more information.

What is a 960px Grid system?
A process for designing web sites based on classic print typography principles. The width is based on a common minimum laptop display size of 1024x768. The 960px size fits well on that screen size. In addition, 960 gives you a number of options for creating grids to lay out your page on. At least that is my understanding, I have a lot more reading to do.

Why use it?
Bottom line, you get beautiful design. If you go to the 960.gs site, they include a number of examples. It just seems to give sites a nice balance and weight to the layouts.

Site Redesigns
This perked my interest as I am in the process of redesigning my sites for HTML5 and mobile devices. It is still early days, but I have some preliminary stuff up. I have only applied the 960 grid to the Blue Sky example, I have not got to it yet on Abbey Workshop.

• Blue Sky Workshop: Java Pages
• Abbey Workshop: Misc Pages

Anyway, as I make progress I will try to make some additional posts on the subject.

Why Siri Matters

Read Write Web has this great post on "Why Siri Matters". I'm a big believer that voice will be the killer interface for all things mobile. We are just in the very beginning of voice interfaces and I don't think we can even conceive the amount of change this will bring to our lives.

The most obvious implications are less reliance of desktop computing. What does that mean for companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft? With agents like Siri will most web searches go through Google? Will you do all your work processing with voice?

Microsoft announces Surface Tablet

Well the big Microsoft announcement is here, and what do we find behind the curtain... a tablet! (see details on the Verge) The Microsoft Surface is a 10.6 widescreen tablet with an optional keyboard cover (very slick). Unlike most tablets, it is running Windows 8 on Intel chips. So what was missing from the be launch event?

Price
Microsoft stated the new tablet would be priced competitively with other ultrabook offerings. That is very interesting given that you can get an iPad starting at $399 and most ultrabooks cost around $999. If the device is overpriced I just don't see it selling.

Voice
No mention of a Siri type agent or anything like that. That would seem to be a big oversight.

Battery Life
Running Intel chips, one wonders what the battery life will be. But given that the new Macbook Air runs for about 7 hrs on battery, I would think this is probably not gonna be an issue.

Summary
An interesting device. Will it dethrone the iPad, probably not. Will we get some slick keyboard covers for our iPads? Hopefully!

Firefox coming to the iPad

Well not Firefox exactly, but the Verge has a story that the Mozilla foundation is working on a browser for the Ipdad. Based on the article, this sounds very interesting.

Tablet browsers could use a rethink. It seems like gestures usage could be a whole lot better. Their idea of combining tabs with browser history also seems to have some merit. I'm looking forward to at seeing what they come up with.

Microsoft includes Ads in Skype! Woo hoo!

Ars Technica has this story on the wonderful new feature in Skype:
Ars Technica: Skype calls to feature ads big enough to interrupt any conversation

So here is the long and short of it, on any Windows Skype to Skype audio calls (Windows client), an image ad will appear along with your picture. To quote the Skype blog, "think of Conversation Ads as a way for Skype to generate fun interactivity". That is how I think of all ads in my private calls, fun interactivity. lol. They also stated that the ads will have no affect on call quality. We will have to see if this claim remains true.

Did any of these geniuses ever use Skype? After I start an audio call, I never look at the interface. In fact, Skype is usually running in the background. I could see them sticking ads into the video chats, but audio calls? Seems pretty silly. Heck ads in a phone calls seems like a really bad idea.

Maybe Microsoft can make Skype Windows only! That would be really awesome! lol. Expect a lot of competing Skype like startups very soon. And, if Microsoft keeps adding "fun interactivity" to Skype, expect it to be replaced by something better in a year or two. It amazing how badly large companies can mismanage great products.

Microsoft's Pricey Tablet Gamble

Business Insider has this story on Microsoft's plan to charge vendors desktop prices for Windows 8 on tablets. The end result of this would be all Windows tablets would cost $100 more than their iPad counterparts.

I got agree with the story, if Microsoft doesn't change their stance, their tablet efforts are doomed before they even start.

Apple announcements galore!

Apple made a ton of announcements today at their World Wide Developers Conference. Here is a link to the Verge's summary:
The Verge: Best of WWDC 2012
The biggest announcements appears to be the new MacBook Pro Uber. A crazily loaded 15 inch machine with a retina display for $2200. That is a pretty amazing price for what you get.

The new IOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion announcements were interesting but didn't really measure up to the MacPro Uber! Though I should say, Siri will be included with IOS 6 and expect some functionality updates. Siri being very sports aware was the biggest example given.

Nice Web WYSIWYG editor built with JQuery

If you are looking for a nice WYSIWYG editor for site, you may want to check out Redactor. Although it is not free, it is fairly inexpensive and looks nice.

The TV Business is about to Collapse

I found this post from Henry Blodget at Business Insider earlier this week. I just didn't have time to post until today.

The story is a really interesting read. It points out some key issues with the TV industry today including:

• No one watches TV live any more.
• No one watches ads any more.
• We can watch movies on our laptops and tablets.
• The majority of money we spend on cable is wasted.

That last point is a really important one. Right now you can't buy your content ala carte. In my case, the only reason I keep cable is to watch English soccer, the NBA, and some other sports. If I could get this content in another way, I would drop my cable tomorrow. I know a lot of people that have already cut the cord or feel the same way.

Another point, TV as an experience is just getting worse. There are sooooo many commercials now it is hard to enjoy anything. You know how you used to be able to flip between to channels? When a commercial was running on one, you could watch the other? Now it seems like all the networks are synced up! When you do that, everyone is running a commercial at the same time. So surfing your TV for new content becomes less and less useful. Because of this, I would much rather look for new content on Netflix where I can just search for it and play it.

Also have you noticed how bad most ads have become? We have gone from "I wish I was an Oscar Mayer weiner" to erectile dysfunction and a myriad of other ailments. Only the ads created for the Superbowl are any good. Most of the year, we end up looking at 95% total crap when it comes to ads.

So at this point, I have to agree with Mr Blodget. Things don't look good for the TV biz.

Finally, a better battery?

The Verge has a story on a new battery technology that could supplant the iron grip of Lithium Ion batteries. The new technology is called Iolyte, and has a number of advantages:

1. It is not flammable
2. It holds 10 times the charge given the same size

The product's manufacturer, Boulder Ionics (based here in Colorado), expects to have commercial products ready by the middle of this year.

New Chrome OS and Devices

The Verge has a detailed review of the new Chrome OS, Chromebook and Chromebox.
The Verge: Chrome OS and Device reviews

So I don't get it. The hardware looks really nice and seems to be well priced. However, why do I need a crippled version of Linux? I understand why you would add cloud features to your OS. I understand why you would want to make the UI easier to use. But from what I can read and understand from the review, there is no terminal, no command line stuff, no development tools if any kind, etc...

It just seems to me that geeks/developers would be the most likely early adopters. Why make a machine that developers can't really use?