tuesdayDeveloper;

If you read what I’ve written before, you know my answer to this question: a touch-ready system must be built for touch, not keyboard and mouse, from the beginning, but that doesn’t mean that the two can be closely synchronized.

While I would prefer one touch-based system to run on all of my devices (which may or may not ever really happen) because that makes things easier to use, I understand that that is rather hard to develop. There is a reason why the iPad is so limited and it really boils down to the battery and processing power.

You may say that it is limited because it is a touch-based OS, I disagree. There is no reason why any software, program, or system that runs now on a desktop OS cannot run on a touch-based OS. True, I wouldn’t want to see the current iteration of some pieces of software on a touch-based tablet, but after it is redesigned for touch input any piece of software on a touch-based system can do the same things that a piece of software can do on a mouse and keyboard system.

In the mean time, there seems to be something on the horizon coming from Apple. Now most people are saying that this will automatically change from one OS to another and (as in the article cited) I agree that this could be implemented poorly, but there could be a way to make it work well. Imagine editing a document in Pages (for thous of you who aren’t fortunate enough to enjoy Pages, it’s a word processor that in my book is a pleasure to use, but that’s my opinion) on Mac OS X and then thinking to yourself about how tired you are of moving your mouse around all the time. You think to yourself, wouldn’t it be easier if I could just touch the place in the paragraph where I need to edit. With this new system you would just pull the screen towards you, it automatically changes to iOS with Pages running, and you start tapping away at the screen and editing as you were before. You could seam to OSs together without a seam. Now, I hope that this patent means that Apple is working on a desktop-touch-based OS, but if nothing else I think that this idea could work.

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Am I the only one who gets excited when I see a new update is available for my computer?

Today’s update: Inertial Scrolling and Three-Finger Drag Gesture.

It’s pretty cool, now I can flip through a web page the same way I would on my iPod touch. Just flick with two fingers and let go and it will keep going.

I can also now drag an open window without clicking the trackpad (something I’ve wished I could do since enabling one-click dragging has led to problems). Of course the only problem with this is that I now have to choose between using the three-finger gesture for navigating web pages or for being able to drag a window—the choice is easy, I’ll use it to navigate—window dragging isn’t that cool

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Is there any competition?

That depends on who you ask.

If I were to buy a new phone (to replace my aging Palm 700p) today, I’d get the EVO from Sprint, but not without wishing I could get an iPhone too. I’d consider the Droid from Verizon, but I’d like to steer clear of Verizon (they may have the broadest signal, but it also seems to be the weakest signal). So why wouldn’t I get an iPhone? I’ll tell you.

First, I’m terrified of AT&T. I hate dropped calls (they seem to have a lot despite the claim from Cingular who was purchased by AT&T that they had the fewest dropped calls). AT&T doesn’t seem to care about this (spoken from the mind of a consumer looking in on the outside).

Second, I’m not fond of the idea for paying data connection overages to AT&T because I don’t have an unlimited plan. Besides the fact that their plans are more expensive they also don’t offer any unlimited plans any more.

Third, I like choice too much. Yes, Apple has a lot of apps and there is a lot of choice, but those apps are restricted. They don’t allow real multitasking (which improves the battery, yes, but I’m still very limited. Also, I love Google Voice! Why can’t I use it on an iPhone?

Last, as a developer, I look at greener pastures where they aren’t restrictive, don’t cost $99 to join. If I had to choose between the two, I’d go with Google’s Android for development.

The iPhone is popular for a reason. A lot of people really like it and is very well implemented in what it does, I jsut wish that Apple would fix the few flaws that it has.

What do you think? Does Apple need to fix these flaws? Are these really flaws at all or am I crazed in the head? Let me know in the comments.

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According to Jobs, some people are uncomfortable about a “post-PC era.” He has a point. A lot of people I talk to say that they wish that the iPad was more than a “big iPhone”, that they could never imagine writing lengthy documents without a “real keyboard”, or they wonder why the iPad is so limited—in short people don’t want to limit themselves with a tablet when they could just keep their laptop and do more than a tablet can, but that is all besides the point.

The tablet won’t replace the PC overnight, but it will replace the PC. I don’t think that anyone, even Jobs himself, believes that PCs will be abruptly replaced by tablet computers. If all the computers disappeared and only the tablets remained, the world would indeed be a sad place, but we don’t need to be scared about that happening for one reason: tablets aren’t ready.

Tablets will replace computers, but not the limited-use devices that we call tablets today. The tablets that are to come will be just as full-featured, albeit simpler, than our present day computers. In fact, tablets will be even cooler because they will be more intuitive, more robust, and more wide-spread than the PC ever was. When tablets can compete with all of the important functions of the PC, then they will replace PC, but not a moment before. No one wants to move backwards, so tablets must necessarily move forward. Tablets will run all the same applications as PCs, they will just be revamped to run on a more intuitive UI, and that is why we shouldn’t be worried about tablets replacing PCs—because the PC will become the tablet.

The best part is, the tablets will still run all the same software, but be easier to use—so why worry?

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I don’t have a lot of respect for Steve Ballmer, he always seems to be speaking rashly—not to mention, he often mocks things I like. When ever I read something that Ballmer has said, it always seems that there is something interesting and new coming out and he says, “that’ll never work. We’re going to keep doing it our way because we don’t want to think about it in another way.” It almost seems like wishful thinking on his part, but maybe I’ve misjudged the guy (he makes more money than I do after all, maybe he has a point), but his comments always have a less-than-thought-out feel to me.

Steve Jobs on the other hand seems to have a more calculated approach. Last Tuesday, at the D8 conference, an obviously upset iPhone user asked Jobs when AT&Ts network problems would be fixed—it was obviously a hard question—but Jobs addressed the question with a lot of poise, I thought, though not without some stumbling. Now, I’ve been a little upset with Apple and the way they seem to close off developers, but if I had to chose a product based on Jobs or on Ballmer, I’d choose Jobs.

All this said, I thought that a remark by Ballmer on Thursday was actually somewhat true. He said it in contradiction to a statement that Jobs had made. Essentially, Jobs said that eventually everyone will have a tablet, Ballmer said that everyone will want only one device, a PC, that does it all (not a limited-use device). They are both right.

The irony is that Ballmer hit it right on the head and was completely wrong at the same time. What Ballmer doesn’t realize is that the PCs that he is talking about will be the tablets that Jobs is talking about. Jobs even said that in his interview. Yes, the iPad is a limited-function device now, but it’ll get better. I predict that in 5 – 10 years tablets will be good enough to replace most people’s need for a PC—a desktop or laptop—the PCs in a few years will be tablets.

Yes, it’s true that we’ll still have desktops and laptops, but they’ll be like trucks (just like Jobs says).

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