512 Pixels

It looks pretty slick. I wish this would come to Android and the iPhone.

Robert Scoble, on what he wants to see in future editions of Windows:

I want everything I touch to be socialized. Why doesn’t Outlook know anything about Facebook? Why don’t my photos automatically get pushed to Flickr? Why don’t I have a news app on my desktop that brings in Tweets from Twitter? Why aren’t notifications built into the system at a deep level?

[…]

Why can’t my Xbox be a Windows 7 PC and vice versa? Does the world really need separate devices for all these features?

While his “we don’t need separate devices” makes sense to me, the bit about the desktop becoming more social doesn’t. What Scoble is describing almost exists today. The good thing about today’s implementations of social media on the desktop is that it’s optional. I can quit Tweetie, and I decide what photos to publish on Flickr.

I view social media as a way to shape my public image. I only post my best photos on Flickr and only update Twitter or Facebook with the messages I want people to read. Having an always-on, always-updating social media mindset muddies the water too much for my taste.

I started ForkBombr when I left Apple in 2008. At the end of 2009, I posted this, saying I was putting the site on hold:

I decided to simplify in 2010. I’ve stopped checking Google Reader religiously, and am toning it down on Twitter. I’m writing for me for the first time in years, doing some research for Operation Broken Silence, working to improve Memphis with various groups and causes and — most importantly — spending more time with my family.

A friend in an email the same night I posted that article:

Life is too short and too complicated to be halfway paying attention because a multi-billion-dollar corporation is thinking about launching a new consumer product that I can’t really afford.

So, why is ForkBombr still alive and kicking? Well, that’s complicated. I really missed writing about the tech and design industries. It’s like a drug and I’m a junkie. That said, moving forward, commentary on Apple news won’t be posted as often. It’s hard to keep up with everything, and the world doesn’t need another site re-posting Apple news. There are 1357 other sites that can do that, if that’s what you’re looking for.

So, you should expect longer, more thoughtful posts, fewer times a week. I don’t promise a new item on the front page every 4 hours. If you’re looking for the latest on all-things Apple, ForkBombr isn’t for you.

I started ForkBombr in September 2008. Since then, it’s seen impressive growth, averaging 3,000 page views a month, which still surprises me.

In the last 12 months, it’s been read in 105 countries.

Most hits come from readers using a Macintosh, although 17% of you are still using Internet Explorer.

The most popular articles have been the ones about Hackintoshing netbooks and using Dropbox to sync Safari history across machines. I’ve been linked to from various sources, including Ars Technica, MSNBC, Mac Surfer and more.

To sum it up, ForkBombr is healthy. Growth has been steady, and I’ve branched into conversations about Windows and Android more than I had planned to.

I decided to simplify in 2010. I’ve stopped checking Google Reader religiously, and am toning it down on Twitter. I’m writing for me for the first time in years, doing some research for Operation Broken Silence, working to improve Memphis with various groups and causes and — most importantly — spending more time with my family, which is growing again in August.

Simply put, tech was taking over my life, and I wasn’t comfortable with it anymore. A friend of mine put it this way:

I’ve just got way too much stuff, way too many gadgets, way too many computers, and spend way too much time wasting time on the Internet on things that don’t deserve time out of my life that I can’t ever get back.

ForkBombr, sadly, is one of those things I have to set aside for now. Despite all of the growth and good news, I’m putting ForkBombr on hold indefinitely. It may come back one day. I just don’t know when that will be. For now, I’ll be posting sporadically over at Tumblr, but mostly about things not related to the Mac.

Thanks again for everything, dear readers. It’s been a blast.

The Consumerist:

AT&T has apparently found a workable solution to the reported data congestion in New York City. They’ve quietly stopped selling the iPhone to customers in the New York metropolitan area, at least from their web site.

Mac Rumors:

With rumors of the Apple tablet reaching new highs, MacRumors has found evidence that Apple acquired the domain name iSlate.com presumably in preparation for the new device.

It’s not a great name, but it sure sounds like something the company that named a notebook computer the “MacBook Pro” would use.

Nick Bilton:

But the icing on the cake comes from a current senior employee inside Apple. When one of my colleagues here asked if the rumors of the Apple tablet were true, and when we could expect such a device, the response from his source was, “I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.”

Yet another recently departed Apple employee tipped me: “You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet.”

A former Apple employee, whose name appears on numerous Apple patents, worked on an Apple tablet five years ago and recently told me when the first version of the tablet was shelved by Steve Jobs, a lot of the technology made it into other devices. He explained that components of these early stage concepts are already out in the marketplace. If you have an iPhone, for example, you’re carrying around a mini version of an early Apple tablet. He also says that one of the barriers to producing the early tablets was the lack of software. The success of the App Store and the eagerness of the publishers show that this won’t be a problem for any new devices.

NPR:

Democrats assert that the Senate bill would fundamentally transform the health care system in the country, beginning with restrictions on private insurance companies. Obama told NPR that “a patient’s bill of rights on steroids” lies inside the Senate bill.

Various provisions would prevent insurers from dropping ill patients and denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. The bill would also require that individuals buy insurance, if they don’t already have it from their employers or existing government programs, such as Medicare.

Federal subsidies would be offered to help low-income people afford coverage. A financial penalty would be levied against people who skip coverage.

As a parent of a child with cancer, tomorrow is a big day for me. While it’s not perfect, it’s a step in the right direction.

Update: Here is a link to NPR’s interview with President Obama on the matter.

GigaOM:

It’s easy to forget that it was the magical beauty of Napster, the then-illegal music-sharing service, that spurred many of us to sign up for DSL and cable broadband connections. Napster’s popularity made it clear for the first time that broadband was a platform, no different than, say, Windows or the PlayStation. That’s because it allowed for new applications to be developed and run on top of it, applications that consumed bandwidth — and in turn, driving demand for even more of it.

This decade, the number of broadband subscribers in the U.S. jumped from 5 million to 80 million.

PC World:

From our speed tests, it’s safe to say that Apple made the right choice switching to FireWire 800 from FireWire 400 on many Mac models. Although FireWire 400 is faster at most tasks than USB 2.0 (even though FireWire 400’s theoretical bandwidth is lower than USB 2.0’s) it isn’t always, or by much. If you’re looking for speed, FireWire 800 crushes USB on both systems in all four tests we ran. FireWire 400 is a pretty good choice too in most cases, but it’s modest speed advantage might not be enough to warrant paying extra for.

I’m not sure why anyone ever doubted this, frankly.

Boy Genius Report:

We’re really going out on a limb here, but one of our very connected sources let us know that they’ve heard very solid information about Apple’s upcoming tablet. It has been widely reported recently that the size of the tablet is 10″, but there was also talk about a 7″ model. Our connect said there is 100% a 7″ Apple tablet, to be announced in January, and whether this is in addition to a 10″ model, they don’t know. Would we bet the farm on this? No, but they’ve been amazingly accurate for us in the past and as usual, Apple rumors seem to get more interesting…

This is pretty cool.

[ via Cult of Mac]