Yet Another Yawn, that is

Common sense is MIA

At the end of the day, it is what works best in the eyes of the user.

Just as users don't know or care which OS is on their cell phones, they generally don't care which OS is on their larger devices. I always thought it was the 90 percent outfit that fostered the notion that there were big differences, to scare people away from trying anything else.

Then Apple came out with the "I'm a Mac" stuff, which I thought was terrible at the time and still do. Seems to be working fine for Apple, but seems pointless other than to inflame discussions about the inherent superiority of one OS over the other. A discussion which doesn't matter to most.

Common sense people will keep flocking, or at least gradually accepting, the stuff that works best for them. Lost in the hype and the flames, that is the secret weapon of the Mac.

Secret Weapon on the Web

"You and your fellow columnists do a marvelous job of providing straightfoward, commonsense material that's enjoyable to read. I really wish more sites out there on the 'net would take that cue."

http://lowendmac.com/misc/10mr/mb0318.html

Blaine sums up what most people think about the Web as well. Too much hype, not enough real world useful. That is how Twitter beats NBC for Olympics coverage*. Big media may be too big too ever "get it". Real world netizens are not nearly so interested in the flash (freudian slip) as in simple access to the information we seek.

People care a lot about how they get their Web information, they just don't always have the choice of getting it the way they want it.

<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>

Twitter beats NBC

http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/02/golden-games-for-social-media

Which makes it perfect for many, if not most, business uses.

Apple took over music distribution, by innovating digital technology and giving people what they wanted, before people even knew they wanted it. They will now do the same thing for too many business uses to count.

Add walkie talkie capabilities to a note pad or clipboard. That way people need not run back and forth to exchange information. No papers to shuffle, lose or file. Just simple two way communications that anyone can use. Text, pictures, video, a digital paper trail. Any more would make it less powerful. People will realize soon enough, this is what they wanted all along.

We may get to see that paperless office soon. After twenty years of hype, it is about time.

Touch an album, review and play songs. Touch a toolbox, see all the tools in the box. Touch a tacklebox, see all your lures.

Instead of files and folders, viruses and firewalls, user accounts and all that stuff, just hand it out and let people use it for precisely defined needs. Just like iTunes, everything is already in place to make it happen, it was just waiting on the right tools combined with the right designs.

Fancy display of inventory for a Walkie Talkie, Touch to drill deeper.

iPad widely disparaged by pundits as an oversized Touch.

http://aaplinvestors.net/stats/ipad/ipaddeathwatch/

The same crew who lambast every Apple innovation that simplifies users interfacing with digital tech. It is a bad thing, doomed to failure, when users can interface without humbling themselves.

iTunes would never work, the iPhone doomed to failure, the Touch a useless toy, the app store too self serving, now the iPad is not enough of this or that. How many billions of all that stuff will it take to convince them? Have they noticed the satisfaction ratings of these solutions versus old tech solutions?

The Paperless Office Then

The paperless office crew is stuck in a time warp. In twenty years they have failed to fulfill the original promise of office automation. They instead created legions of geeks and techies who exist solely to service the great and mighty facade that tech is difficult. And another legion who write about it. Bells and whistles proclaim the next step forward.

They fail to realize there are greater legions, users, who after two decades of waiting, now want something that works. We have had it with the hype. Tech nirvana is near, the next great thing coming soon. Maybe it has arrived, it is just buried in a mountain of features we don't use? Hire a complexity consultant to sort it out, or get simple tech.

The Paperless Office NOW

The oversized Touch is exactly the market Jobs and Apple target. 40 million or so tiny versions of this device and OS in circulation in the course of a few years. Kids with their Touches get it. They are already paperless. The trees thank them.

Us old timers with fat fingers and tired eyes may now enjoy the top feature of the Touch, simplicity. The tiny keypad and tiny screen are transformed into something anyone can use. Simple on the big screen is the Main Feature.

Apple, Yet Another Failed Product

Actually they now are proclaiming, finally, an Apple mistake.

Make no mistake. The iFlop will be the same dismal failure as iTunes. 10 billion served. Users flock to tech that combines simple with useful.

More..

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Some manufacturers see possibilities for a table style device. Maybe a few of these will be the loaded version that suits the bells and whistles mentality..

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/ipad-could-see-50-tablet-rivals-this-year/

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/hands-on-with-the-terrible-stantum-slate-pc

It has been reported that when Bill Gates first saw it, he remarked "it needs a stylus".

The 10 percent who get Apple realize that the top feature of the iPad is lack of feature bloat. The question at each step of development and design had to be "What more can we leave out?" Apple is beyond caring about price points. They have plenty of money. They need more users. They now reach out to users:

• who fear tech
• who think that tech is mostly a geeky waste of time
• who find that cell phones are all the tech they need, but would like a bigger screen and typing surface

Why Grandma Wants an iPad

Her world has always been touching something tangible to create a visible connection that makes something happen. Pictures of grandkids are not getting developed to paper any more. How to interface her into the digital media option?

Digital picture frames were a big hit a few years ago. The familiarity of the frame was the schtick. Yet getting new pictures into it, getting interactive with it in any way, required reading a manual and learning something new. Grandma didn't do that. It just sat there running with the initial loving preload, on the default timer schedule, until it became embarrassingly outdated or stopped working. Nobody knows for sure.

If pictures of grandkids is all she ever uses an iPad for, that is enough. But likely she will gradually find her way into more offerings from the digital age. Push a big help button in case of emergency. Push a picture of the grandkids faces to summon a video chat session, stuff like that. http://instinctivecode.com/favorites/

No More Time for Geeks

Curmudgeons may remember the promise of the paperless office. Today, it takes a computer, $300 worth of software, ongoing training, and a laser printer to generate the paperwork grandma once typed up by replacing a ribbon once in a while.

Defragmentating while under attack by evil forces, always studying the next greatest solution which is oh so near, that is the 90 percent solution. Keep a paper trail just in case. Not sure anyone understands it, but small wonder nobody has time for grandma any more.

Cell Phone Simple

Cell phone simple is all the tech most need. It is also the hotbed of tech innovation. For simple needs, get a simple phone. Complex needs, more powerful phones. All require streamlined interfaces to work on the tiny screen.

The more is more crowd have choices that offer multitasking, even on a cell phone. Ubergeeks can load the system until it croaks, then hunt solutions to their problems. The iPad will remain a mystery to them.

The iPad retains less-is-more simplicity, while moving the cell phone experience beyond peering into a tiny screen and tapping tiny keys. Simple comes to the big screen. A very satisfied 10 percent "get" that.

Update:

Mike Elgan at Computerworld agrees: http://www.macworld.com/article/147090/2010/03/ipad_paradox.html

Business Week's fourth annual customer service awards just released February 2010. The study spans all indusries, and combines JD Power Data with Bloomberg surveys for 200 top brands. Full survey details linked below.

LL Bean is first, Apple third, Lexus seventh, and Ace Hardware tenth. Hotels, supermarkets, banks, insurors and restaurants are included in the top 25.

Apple's "sleek devices and user-friendly software aren’t its only innovations." Even faced with rapid growth, totally new products, totally new distribution mechanisms, Apple successfully maintains focus on what should be the top priority of every business, satisfying customers. They go out of their way to treat customers right.

Computers and Electronics, and More

Business Week puts Apple in the Computers and Electronics category. Apple does hardware and software, but they are also making huge strides in digital media and information distribution. Apple has integrated, verticalized, and distilled the information technology experience for end users down to the barest essentials.

Hear a great song on the radio, push a few buttons, the song is on your local device. Any problems, call Apple. Just that simple. Give the machine the single piece of information it does not currently know, the song you wish to purchase, let it do the rest.

Apple extends push button simple interfaces into every form of digital information acquisition.

Weather news for Instance.

• Pull the iPhone or Touch out of your pocket
• Press "Weather" button.
• See the current temperature and conditions, a 6 day forecast for your zip code.

Need more info. A few more steps to access weather via web interfaces like wunderground.com at no additional cost. Or get an app tailored to specific needs. Expert weather information, up to the minute, from essentially any location on earth, can be carried around in your pocket. Never before anything like it. Any problems, call Apple. Discover that they care about what you have to say.

No Sign of Slowing Down

Reliability, simplicity, and extraordinary customer service, with no signs of slowing down. For any piece of information needed, from wherever, in real time, there is likely "an app for that". If not, one is easily created. The talent pool of developers is large and growing.

Wunderground.com for Preston, MO 65732

http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/customer_service_2010

Behind the List

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_09/b4168044793765.htm

For just the computer industry, the latest consumer reports is out and Apple is on top..http://www.macworld.com/article/147024/2010/03/consumer_reports_apple.html

Steve Jobs is 55. 50 in this picture.

Oft characterized as a self-absorbed geek, leader of self-absorbed geeks, and a very strange duck. Commencement speech at Stanford, 2005 gives a few clues just how strange.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

"If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later."

My second story is about love and loss.

After being fired from Apple..

"The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."

My third story is about death.

"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."

Full story.. http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF TWITTER? Jack Dorsey of Twitter fame, now engaged in a new venture, SquareUP.com. Surely there was a plan to start making money in there somewhere. Hmm, get people thinking along the lines of how simple communications can be on the Web. Move it one step forward.

The Connection to Apple Server Technology

Twitter is about as pure a client-server architecture as a Web app can be. The server of choice for the Twitter founders, going forward into SquareUP, would logically be what they have found works best.

Twitter staggered under the weight of it's own success a handful of times. Servers went down, temporarily. Yet,Twitter always climbed back out from under the load, usually rather quickly. Considering some sudden massive peaks in popularity, it was an amazing feat to observe.

With 12,500 tweets logged, beginning October 2007, I can speak with a little authority on the subject of Twitter downtime. A few of those tweets were precisely for the purpose of logging dates and times of Twitter downtime!

SquareUP, Help Wanted February 23, 2010

Site Operations Engineer

Responsibilities & Duties

• Configuring Linux and OS X systems.

Hmm. The top pure play in client-server technology for the Web is using two types of servers.

Good hardware is important for laptops, doubly important for servers. Pretty obvious where squareup is investing. And if already invested in hardware, may as well leave the "pretty face" installed. OS X Server is not particularly big. Cycle consuming GUI need not be loaded if not desired. But it is still nice to know it is there, if and when needed. Not everybody knows unix. And a whole lot of people are learning a whole lot about OS X these days.

Who Could Have Guessed Twitter Would Move into MicroPayments?

Tooting my own horn pretty hard here, but I spotted some forward implications for Twitter the first time I saw it. In fact, my second application of Twitter, was for basic accounting. I built a Twitter based check book stubber.

• tweet #742 dated 2007-11-09 07:31:16 twitteraccounting table created and tested
• tweet #748 dated 2007-11-09 09:47:50 twitteracct called with ||xr, type, amt, payee, budget, refnum|| works, search swelectric for example
• x ck 65.60 swelectric utilities 5730 2007-11-09 08:53:35

Twitter, simplest possible interfaces. That is the contribution to Web communications. SquareUP is simply a next logical step foward, increasing the usefulness of the Web for everyday people.

Cheers and a big thanks to Twitter founders and the new SquareUP team for doing what they can to make the Web a simpler way to communicate.

More.. http://www.squareup.com

Old-timers remember days when the the power and reliability of unix was priced out of reach of most IT budgets.

Beneath the pretty face, OS X is unix. On the desktop, users seem to be adapting to all that power pretty well. Apple consistently tops the reliability and customer satisfaction surveys.

How well has the unix decision worked for Apple in the enterprise server market?

Scoreboard February 22, 2010

• 10 billion songs served from the iTunes store
• 3 billion apps
• 50,000 TV episodes, ready for download
• 8,000 Hollywood movies, 2,000 in High Definition, ready for digital delivery.

Unix servers in the guise of OS X, were a good decision for Apple.

The price of sharing in the wealth of knowledge gained, starts at about $1,000, including an unlimited client license. Today, unix servers can be a cost-effective solution for just about anyone. Wrapped in a pretty face that keeps getting more familiar to more users all the time.

Combine expert setup to get a server that "just works" for meeting current and future Information Technology requirements.

In Southwest MO, doug.brethower@lakedata.net

Apple Certified for Server Systems (ACTC)

Member Apple Consultants Network

Source of statistics Fortune online -- http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/02/22/apples-new-pitch-to-hollywood

More on Apple Server Systems -- http://www.apple.com/macmini/server/

2009 marked the seventh anniversary of the introduction of Mac OS X. Seven years of innovation and achievements that have transformed the experience for users interfacing with digital technologies.

In the process, Apple created an entire new class of users. Those generally not aware of concerns that 90 percent of technology users face every day.

The latest release of the worlds most common operating system demonstrates little "forward progress" in addressing these past complexities.

The knowledge gap will only widen, as a growing number of new tech users start right out with OS X, unwashed by classic intricacies. With that in mind, and following the theme of Seven, Seven things users of 7 still get to do with their technology.

1. Defrag.

Regular maintenance required to maintain the integrity of the file system.

OR

• Not generally necessary or even advised in OS X
• http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1375?viewlocale=en_US
• http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/macosx10_3_8/topic2779.html

2. Explore wide range of complex backup options.

Even within sub versions of the operating system, there are differences, choices to make.

OR

• OS X, one clearly defined, vendor supplied option - http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/time-machine.html
• Specialized third party options available for specialized needs.

3. Explore wide range of complex antivirus options.

See above.

OR

• http://www.apple.com/macosx/security/
• Specialized third party options available for specialized needs.

4. Spend weeks after upgrade learning your new system.

Everything gets moved to new places, some things work, some things don't.

OR

• There are corollaries in OS X, some things work, some things don't, some UI changes.
• Generally, throw in the disk, answer a few questions, machine does the upgrade, reboots, back to work.
• Any problems plug in a firewire backup, restart, back to the former system.
• Change always has potential to create problems. It is how quickly and easily you can recover to old, or advance to new, that is remarkably different.

5. Figure out latest registry hacks.

Learn how to prevent things like - uh - the computer automatically rebooting right in the middle of a busy work day. May be dependent upon which version you select.

OR

• No corollary in OS X.

6. Sort complex options to -HOPEFULLY- pick out the correct sub version of the version for purchase.

There may be as many choices for an operating system within an operating system as there were for Vista. Users still get to search for expert advice. Can you get by with the best deal today, or should you pay more for a version that allows full use of your computer hardware and networks in the future?

http://lifehacker.com/5386523/figure-out-which-windows-7-edition-has-the-features-you-need

OR

• No corollary in OS X.

7. Eagerly anticipate the "next" version(s).

Like all versions before, some or most of the sub versions will be the most secure, most user friendly, most reliable, lowest total cost of ownership, most highly revered by people who depend upon them not being any of that to keep their jobs, versions ever.

The choices are yours..

OR

The choice is yours.

Complexity is the enemy. OS X empowers starting simple and staying simple.

OS X works best with expert setup in the beginning. Likely about the same level of effort required to integrate each new release of the most common operating system. After that, real benefits begin to accrue in time savings and productivity, as these 7 time consuming chores vanish in the simplicity of machines designed to take care of themselves.

Apple Certified Consulting in Southwest, MO doug.brethower@lakedata.net 417-327-6673

More..

How big a complexity matrix is manageable? Tic-tac-toe..

Complexity consulting and complexity management solutions for the masters of complexity. http://www.objectwatch.com/

As if the iPad references to hygiene products weren't bad enough.

But seriously, the iPad allows people to interact with Information Technology while completely vertical. Or above their heads. On your back, or just about any position imaginable. Mobility, interfacing info on the move, is enhanced, dexterity requirements reduced, visibility greatly improved versus the Touch and traditional mobile devices.

The iPad creates entirely new categories of ways to do IT. About anywhere a pencil and paper worked, the iPad will work. Clipboards and running versus iPad and wifi.

At the Restaurant

Can your server type in an order to the kitchen on a netbook? I guarantee restaurants can copy the "push the Big Mac icon" fast food interfaces and extend the concept to their own menu items. Speed and accuracy both benefit. With the smooth, easy to clean surface, restaurants may want to attach these to a table or wall and let patrons order direct. With a couple of taps on the big screen, diners may split the bill exactly, calculate exchange rates and tips, review local attractions of interest. All from the comfort of their booth or table. Extend hospitality through technology.

In Hospitals

Remember the first time you saw a keyboard in the form of a notebook computer come in to the exam room, and thought "yeach"? Maybe it is just IT people that fully comprehend, but keyboards hold the distinction of being some of the dirtiest places on earth. Toilet rims are clean in comparison, because they can be cleaned. Start prying keys off an old keyboard to get an idea of how "nasty" accumulates over time in hard to reach places.

Health care workers now have the "clean" alternative. Plus they can interact with information while on the move. No need to sit, squat, or hunt down a flat surface. Talk about a time saver.

On Your Bicycle

Stationary bikes and big screen TV at the fitness club may keep you in shape, but no fresh air. Now you can watch movies, catch up on family photos, review presentations, follow twitter streams, while pumping away out on the open road. Could it be done with a netbook? Maybe kind of. But with a big touch screen, and a standard form factor for accessories manufacturers to target, IT mobility becomes simple.

Classrooms, Waiting In Lines, Shop Floors, anywhere you have to be able to do IT Standing Up.

Mobility, dexterity, screen size. Never before anything like it. Now Apple needs to cut the Air in half along the axis of the hinge, so it can be slipped into an inside jacket pocket, and there will not be much left to conquer in human interfaces for information access.

From the iPod Shuffle which weighs less than an ounce and can talk, right on up to some of the most powerful multimedia servers on earth, Apple has the hardware part of the human interface to technology covered. And their operating system seems to be doing a good job of keeping up.

UPDATE:

Accessibility options include voice over - making text talk to you. Ding, email is received. Then with automation, the iPad can read the message to you while the device is still in your pocket. http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/accessibility.html

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More..

http://seekingalpha.com/article/187725-apple-s-ipad-for-business-is-being-underestimated