Apple Flash-killer

This is the time for Apple to launch its own Flash-killing media viewer. 

No Flash availability on iPhone, slow Youtube streaming on phone-speed networks and pressure from Google's own sandboxed, fast browser (yet to be tested), means the time is right for that special Apple magic. With talk of a special iTunes deal with certain bands including additional media options with the download of their music, well how are you going to view this media? Using youtube on your iPhone is possible, but hardly revolutionary.

I predict a new media player, an additional platform for moving images and sound, a new software framework for AppleTV, a Joost-like online TV from any source, BBC iPlayer done properly.

Add this to the iPhone and Apple will take another evolutionary leap with its product range.

Add a sim card to your Macbook Air, or tether your iPhone to your laptop to connect online content through this new, miniscule, compressed data transfer route for media access anywhere.

...Or maybe just a new iPod?

[update] Hmmm... There is no word on the street about this guaranteed new feature. Google's new Chrome browser has the speed, could Apple be waiting for Chrome advantages to port back into Webkit before launching their player? NO. My considerably reliable sources tell me it will be available from tomorrow. Definitely. Yes. It will be. Tomorrow.

dot me authorised device sync

I have a syncing feeling about the dotmac iphone news all about us. 

I can currently use iTunes to sync info (contacts, calendars, mail accounts and safari bookmarks)  on one mac and sync all other items (ringtones, music, photos, podcasts and video) from another mac. While this is ostensibly manageable, I find that I sync music etc at home in the evenings, but Podcasts throughout the day, whenever my laptop is online - iTunes subscriptions are good for that. This means when I sync my music (home machine), I wipe all my iPhone podcasts which have been synced after quietly seeping  into my laptop. Inevitably I only find out when I'm already on a train, with time to soak up the seepage.

So why do I have to connect to one or another mac? Why connect at all? My mail is collected by my iPhone directly from .Mac, no wires, no messing. Just let .Mac soak up all my tabbed resources from iTunes and deliver whichever tab I require to any of my authorised devices, wired or wireless. I can save local drive space AND have my info/music/audiobooks/tv shows/films delivered to where I happen to want them. Now that might well be worth the subscription. Just get me a Flash-like player for all that video and nevermind the bandwidth or better still get me an Apple version Flash-beating video streaming codec with stunning compression and forget about the bandwidth.

[UPDATE] It seems some of my reflections were not all illusions. Push data from Apple and SimplifyMedia have provided more, but not all of the above features. At least SimplifyMedia means iPhone memory is of little consequence within a wifi environment - as much music as I can store on my home mac, all served and searchable in a pocket sized 8gb.

iPhone for Business

With the demise of my current basic business phone, I need a replacement. BUT... i have an iPhone for personal use which is more than capable of all my current business requirements. I don't really want another device to carry.

I wonder if Apple are considering business phone account models which suit ordinary people; you know, the ones with full-time life-partners and children, and family and friends as well as part-time business-partners and colleagues and customers. What I could really do with is an iPhone account with two faces and two numbers. One device, two personalities, (just like me).

Now I know the billing arrangements might be complicated for corporate businesses, but if this were split by the network operator, it need not be too onerous. At least there could be a clear demarkation of personal and business uses, but it would need to be set up between Apple and the networks for it to work properly. Can you imagine the demand from users who want an iPhone for both home and work (what other kind of user is there?).

And what a scoop for employers, competing to look after their staff. "We will provide you with the best communication device currently available to maintain contact with your loved ones, you just pay for the call time to them". I can see the Apple advert now - busy worker breaks off to video conference with family while away from home. "Happy birthday". 

Last chance post

Whew, I do like to get at least some predictions in vague terms out before Macworld SF. Just made it on the following items published today. 

Looking forward to an iPhone update so I can find where I am at any given moment (even if it's not where I should be). And just hoping that App knitting gets another step closer this year.

Happy new year.

Squeak.

Compact computing

This is a term for “not really a laptop”. And I suggest that it is not really (a current concept of) a laptop that we desire. Consider mobile computing for a moment. It needs more than anything to be lightweight if one is walking about with it. To slide easily into everyday compact bags with other everyday “stuff” and remain light enough to carry about, all day.

It has threfore to be inherently robust with few moving/breaking parts. It needs a reasonably sized visual interface easily manipulated (like the iPhone touch sceen), and ubiquitous data capture i.e some form of keypad but not necessarily permanently attached to the screen, perhaps part of the (rubber) cover? Wifi and usual wired connectivity to go, together with add-on options for data storage - USB sticks, firewire hard drives. Oh, and a docking option for home or office base use with additional drive capacity and ability to run other more demanding applications.

I really want to take all my communications with me on the road, some of my applications, those that allow note capture, visual presentation and contact and task management, but leave all my heavy-lifting high-memory-overhead applications at my home base or office. And yet why would I want two machines with all that syncing and potential for data mismanagement? When I get back to my base I just want more oompphh less compromised ergonimics and a wider (read “giant”) monitor with instant backup for all that external effort.

Data defectors

And what about data detectors in Leopard Mail. They are available, but hardly intuitive. Many years ago I cobbled together an Applescript which copied a name from any application using the clipboard, looked it up in the address book, then updated the clipboard to deliver all address, phone and email details back to the original application, in fact any application that could use the clipboard. Clunky but functional. 

I was looking forward to a similar but system pervasive “dictionary” style lookup in Leopard for any “person” so that data could be attached to people - I would call it “body tagging” but that has too many negative, morbid undertones, but you know what I mean. Tag a person to any data and when you look up that person you can view any system wide info, emails, notes, documents with their name in etc. Weren’t computers supposed to be able to handle such relationships easily? Type in a name, why look up data, get phone or email linkages instantly in a contextual pop-up derived from the address book app. System-wide Bento. I just cannot understand why data is corralled in such narrow confines, especially when the system databases are blatantly able (Bento, CRM4Mac) to work seamlessly together.

Monitor as Camera

Whatever happened to the “my monitor as camera” patent that Apple supposedly registered more than twelve months ago? The one that uses your monitor as a lens, with software to adjust the optics. Is it due to emerge in the rumoured compact laptop offering?

It would fit well with the iPhone, especially if it would allow VOIP. It might even be secreted away as a hidden application in the existing iPhone OS. Imagine speaking and viewing at the same time. Ichat on the move, now that would be cool. I just can’t imagine that Apple have not got iChat working on the iPhone.

Not that any recently contracted network provider would be too keen, but just hold your scepticism for a moment and imagine the convenience, the low cost, and the sheer magic of it. Communication for the 21^st century or what? It’s bound to arrive in some future version of the iPhone even if it is not a hidden feature in the current offer. I live in hope