On the RIM Tablet

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Jared Newman over at PCWorld has posted a piece titled “4 Ways a RIM Tablet Could Smoke the iPad, Galaxy Tab.”

Obviously, a loaded headline. Let’s take a look at this:

1. Blackberry Messenger

One feature that both the iPad and the Galaxy Tab lack is a quick and simple way to communicate with others. Messenger could be a cornerstone of the BlackPad, allowing people to stay in touch with Blackberry phone users. Businesses who use Blackberry would love it.

True — people who use Blackberrys get to use this app. I know people who love it, but I don’t miss having something like that on my iPad or Droid.

2. Cool Software

RIM should use this as an opportunity to bundle some really great software with the device, and not just the standard e-book reader, calendar and maps that the iPad and Galaxy Tab include.

While Apple’s built-in apps only cover the basics, the App Store offers thousands and thousands of apps to choose from. The same thing goes for Android. RIM may have to bundle more apps because they don’t have any developers to create the variety they need.

I’d really like to see an advanced notetaking app that brings together text, images, video and audio and syncs them to the cloud.

As much as I hate it, Evernote can do most, if not all, of this. I for one, don’t want all my junk on RIM’s cloud.

3. Cheapness

Pardon the obvious point, but all signs point to an expensive Galaxy Tab. And while the iPad seems reasonable at $500, the price hits $700 if you want the most possible storage, and $829 if you want 3G coverage.

I’ll give him this — the iPad is pricey, but this is just a rehash of the “Macs are more expensive” discussion. You get what you pay for. A cheap tablet will look, feel and perform like a cheap tablet.

4. A Kickstand — No, Seriously

Is it really too much to ask that tablet makers include a built-in, simple way to prop the device upright? Sure, you can buy external stands for the iPad, but then you’ve got to carry them around, marring the device’s portability. Apple also sells the iPad sleeve that becomes a stand, but it’s a floppy, sloppy mess.

While I don’t use a case on any phone, I do on my iPad. Most iPads I see have cases on them. Having an integrated kickstand would be rendered useless by most cases anyways.

And yes, the Apple case isn’t great, but there are hundreds of other options out there that are.

Conclusion

Will RIM smoke the iPad? No. Will it smoke the Galaxy Tab? Probably not. While it may be a hit in the business world — and that’s a big maybe — I don’t see it going mainstream.

The iPhone marginalized RIM in many markets, and I don’t think a tablet can change that.

Marco Leaving Tumblr

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Marco Arment :

After four years of my serving as Tumblr’s lead developer, Tumblr’s technical management needs have evolved to require types of experience that I don’t have, and my independent career has offered a lot of opportunities that I haven’t had the time to take full advantage of.

Bad for Tumblr, great for Instapaper.

Revolution, Then Evolution: The Titanium PowerBook G4 and the MacBook Air

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The Apple II was a revolution. It took the computer out of the hands of the corporations and the goverment and gave it to the people.

The Macintosh was a revolution. It turned computers from mysterious boxes waiting on text-based commands to GUI-powered appliances.

The iPod was a revolution. It made portable music easy and fun.

But what about the Apple IIc? The Macintosh SE? The iPod mini? All of these devices — while important in their own ways — aren’t considered as important to the history of computing as the revolutionary products from which they evolved.

Apple loves the pattern of revolution, then evolution. It brings something game-changing to the market, then spend years tweaking and improving it. Since the company began, that’s been the template. And for over 30 years, it’s continued to be effective.

The Titanium PowerBook G4

My first Mac was the 1GHz Titanium PowerBook G4. With 1GB of RAM, a SuperDrive and a 60GB hard drive, it was the best notebook money could buy in 2003. It’s 15-inch widescreen display was stunning, and it’s razor-thin case boggled the mind. With all the ports in the back, it even played nice on a desk.

Compared to the black, chunky plastic PowerBook G3 line before it, the Titanium PowerBook was a piece of art wrapped around some killer engineering. It had a slot-loading optical drive, tons of ports and was just an inch thin. It was the first time anyone had managed to pack a G4 into a notebook. By the time my 1GHz model rolled around, it was the fastest notebook on the planet.

At Macworld 2003, Apple announced the new aluminum PowerBooks. For months, the TiBook existed next to 12-inch and 17-inch aluminum models, until the new 15-inch was released in September of that year. With ports down either side, a larger screen bezel and an all-metal enclosure, it seemed that the Titanium PowerBook’s design was a thing of the past.

The aluminum PowerBook design language lasted all the way through the Early 2008 MacBook Pros. In summer of 2008, Apple announced the unibody MacBook Pro. But more on that in a minute.

The MacBook Air

Leading into Macworld 2008, it was rumored Apple had a new notebook in the works to sit beside the plastic MacBook and the MacBook Pro. When Jobs pulled a unbelievably thin, 13-inch notebook out of a manilla envelope, he reminded the world Apple could still ship ground-breaking new notebooks.

The Air had lots of firsts. It shipped with a Multi-Touch trackpad, based on the technology found in the iPhone. Apple and Intel partnered on creating a Core2Duo that was much smaller than the processor packages found in other notebooks. It the first notebook from Apple in a decade to ship without a built-in optical drive.

The MacBook Air has been through a couple of revisions, but the basic recipe of “less is better than more” hasn’t changed. It’s a recipe that works for only a select segment of Apple’s customers, as the Air doesn’t seem to sell well.

Today, the entire notebook line (sans the MacBook, which continues to feel more and more out of place) is built like the MacBook Air. Remember when Jobs and Ives brought out the unibody enclosure a few years ago? That started with the Air.

Evolution

Usually, Apple’s revolution into evolution philosophy is fairly linear. The iBook G4 was an evolution of the iBook G3, based on the revolution that was the Clamshell iBook.

However, these two machines are exceptions to this rule.

While the unibody evolution took place after the MacBook Air’s launch, it had far more to do with the revolutionary Titanium PowerBook than the Air itself.

The TiBook and unibody MacBook Pros both have black keys, thin displays and large trackpads. They both enjoy premium display panels. More importantly, however, the machines are very closely related structurally. The unibody design allows all the internal components to built into the top case, with a thin metal plate forming the bottom plate. This makes the machine very rigid and strong, just like the TiBook. They both run warm and unfortunately, the first generations of both machines suffer from nasty hinge breaks. It is no accident the hinge system on the unibody machines is similar to what debuted on the aluminum PowerBooks.

The unibody is an evolution of the Titanium PowerBook. The TiBook had painted sections, that ended up looking shabby after a few years, and suffered from stress fractures around the edges of the case. The unibody, being one slab of aluminum, has no such issues. It’s a superior iteration of an existing idea, which is what evolution is all about.

Bonus Material

Be sure to check out some photos of a TiBook I got my hands on last year. While this particular machine wasn’t my first Mac, that notebook was still running last time I talked to its current owner.

The Best GTD Advice I’ve Heard Yet

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Joshua Schnell:

So here’s my suggestion to you: find a system that works for you; don’t place yourself into someone else’s system. If you find your brain works better while you doodle with a pen in a notebook, embrace it. Write your ToDos by hand instead of using a computer or an iPad. This is the system that works best for me, and I don’t expect it to work best for you.

The goal here is to get something done, not create more hurdles to doing the things you need to do. For me, a Moleskin, a pen, and Notational Velocity work best, but for you, it could be something else entirely.

I think this explains a lot about why I tend to bounce around between Things, Remember the Milk and pen and paper. Getting too wrapped up in how I manage my tasks doesn’t leave me any time to actually do my tasks.

Android Continuing to Gain Market Share

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Stephanie Lyn Flosi at comScore:

53.4 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in July, up 11 percent from the corresponding April period. RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 39.3 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 23.8 percent share. Google saw significant growth during the period, rising 5.0 percentage points to capture 17.0 percent of smartphone subscribers. Microsoft accounted for 11.8 percent of Smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.9 percent. Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.

What’s the most impressive here is the nearly 5% market share Palm has — that hasn’t changed in the last several months.

VLC Out For iPad

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Applidium:

After 2 weeks of review, VLC for the iPad is eventually available on the AppStore! The release date is set to Tuesday, Sept. 21, so depending on your timezone, it should be available pretty soon.

Yet another example of Apple’s relaxed App Store rules in action. This is great.

[via Mac Rumors]

Those Stickers on PC Laptops

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David Pogue:

When you buy a new Windows PC, as you probably know, it comes festooned with little (or not so little) stickers on the palm rests. There’s one for Windows, one for Skype, one for Intel, one for the laptop company, maybe an Energy Star sticker and so on.

[…]

A.M.D.’s research shows that consumers hate the stickers (duh). But they’re not going away, for one simple reason: There’s big money involved. Intel, Microsoft, Skype and whoever else is represented by the stickers actually pay the computer companies for the billboard space. That’s why H.P., for example, would tolerate gumming up its laptops’ good looks with crass ads. (Apple refuses to put Intel stickers on its computers, even though there’s Intel inside. In doing so, it leaves millions of dollars a year on the table.)

I’ve always seen these stickers as a sort of benchmark for computer manufacturers.

Historically, only Apple has refused to give in to the temptation to pad its bottom line with sticky advertisements on its products. It isn’t surprising, given the company’s obsessive focus on design. It is also not surprising the companies that ship sticker-covered laptops are the same companies that dump loads of crapware on their Windows boxes.

In short, products with stickers are made by companies that care more about money than product design. Makes perfect sense.

GV Connect on App Store

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Greg Kumparak:

Google Voice applications have had a pretty tumultuous history in the App Store. At first, Apple approved them, and the people rejoiced. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, they were pulled, with “duplicating features that the iPhone comes with (Dialer, SMS, etc).” cited as the reasoning. The people were, understandably, pretty friggin’ mad.

Over the past few days, the developers of at least two such applications have been indicating that they’d been hearing good news from Apple, suggesting that the Apps would be making an Apple-approved, no-jailbreak-required return. Sure enough, they’ve just started popping up in the App Store.

I guess Apple was serious about their recently-posted App Store rules. This is a huge milestone, and makes my iPad the largest mobile VOIP device I can think of.

[via 9 to 5 Mac]

Update: The more popular (and better-looking) GV Mobile + is out now as well.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Release Detailed

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Joanna Stern:

Samsung’s gotten all four of the major US carriers in its court — and just as we’d heard, the 7-inch Galaxy Tab will be heading to Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile sometime during the October / November timeframe.

Sounds like Samsung has gone where the Nexus One couldn’t — to every major US carrier. Additionally, they will be offering a no-contract Wi-Fi only version.

The big issue is that Android hasn’t really been on a major tablet yet, and Google itself has said the OS isn’t ready for such devices. While Samsung’s TouchWiz interface may be able to patch things up, the truth is that Android hasn’t been made to scale as smoothly as iOS does.