This phone looks great, let’s see if Sony can pull it off.

Originally posted as a comment
by parkerbball
on ManualsOnline Blog using DISQUS.

Posted via email from christopherryanparker’s posterous

The iMac is Apple’s flagship product, and also it’s most expensive.  The iPhone/iPod is arguably their most successful.  A Macbook is Apple’s version of a laptop.  It’s not revolutionary, and its also not their biggest revenue generator.

The iPad allows Apple to expand their iPhone/iPod line, while at the same time create a revolutionary product.  As the iPhone os evolves, the iPad will evolve.  As iPhone apps grow, iPad apps grow.  They are connected for a reason.  These are the products that Apple is betting on for their future.

Laptops, on the other hand, only have one reason for existence.  Portability.  They are portable versions of a desktop computer.  A tablet is also portable, and even more so.  They are sleeker, easier to carry, and more intuitive then a laptop.  With the technical advances brought to the iPad, and surley it’s competitors, tablet computing could easily surpass laptop computing.

This is the “third” device, for sure.

1. iMac.

2. iPhone

3. iPad

For over 9 years, iTunes has seen tremendous growth and has all but killed the traditional compact disk, and record store alike.  iTunes, traditionally a desktop application, has roughly 500 million users.  500 million users of which surf the web on their desktops, laptops, handhelds, and soon – tablets.  500 million users of which have music, videos, pictures, and apps, and soon – ebooks, stored on their applications.

An iTunes cloud makes sense.  Users log into their account – www.iTunes.com/christopherryanparker, and can stream their songs, videos, movies, and ebooks on whatever device they choose. The question is, why now? What made Apple wait until 2010 to transition iTunes to the cloud?

The easy answer is the iSlate.  Running an iTunes application on the iSlate would not make sense.  It you would have to sync it to all of your other devices, and plus, it would take up valuable memory. But the iSlate is not the sole reason that Apple waited so long. I believe that iTunes cloud technology has been available for quite some time, well before the acquisition of LaLa (yes, this purchase makes things much easier).

Here are the three main things that Apple wants to accomplish with iTunes, all of which required them to wait until 2010.

1. Social Media – Twitter is a phenomenon, but it is new, especially the API.  iTunes will now sync with twitter in more ways then you can imagine.  Apple needed to wait until the technology and support was there.

2. Advertisements. We will see much more of them with a cloud based iTunes.  The application could not process the real-time advertisements like Apple wants it to.  Apple’s iTunes engine will now work like Googles search engine. Data will be collected, and ads will be personalized.

3. Control of all media on all your gadgets. Yep, this means iPhone and iSlate. But also the Apple TV.  I am most excited about the Apple TV’s potential.  Apple has been in talks with networks about offering low-cost subscriptions to television programs.  With an iTunes cloud you may possibly be able to purchase these subscriptions with your Apple TV and ditch Cable, and automatically be able to watch your shows on your iPhone, Mac, and iSlate.

1. Sign into eBay (already was a buyer)

2. Click “Sell” in top right corner

3. Select keywords for your item  and choose a category based on them

4. Add pictures (one free.. 15 cents additional.)

This seems slightly unfair.  As an occasional seller (thats what I call myself now), it’s not a big deal, but for people who make a living off eBay this is a pain. Here is a picture of all of my fees.

5. Add your description

This is probably the only place where I came into trouble. After crafting my picture perfect description it ended up looking garbled, like this:

6. Set up/Confirm PalPal Account

7. Confirm Post.

That’s it!  Not so bad. All in all it took my about 5 minutes, after years of contemplating. If my snowboard sells I am immediately addicted.

Buy My Snowboard!

Our iPhone already tells us what we want to do and when we want to do it, where we want to go and how to get there. This is JUST THE BEGINNING!  10 years ago cell phones were just being created, if you had a camera on your phone you were cutting-edge.

It’s easy to tangent off into iPhone paranoia, discussing where the future of cell-phone technology is headed, but I’m thinking beyond that.  I’m talking about technology as a whole.  What’s all of this augmented reality talk about anyway?  Why would I want to hold my iPhone (sorry..) up to a building to figure out what it is, or walk around waving my phone in the air to get a 5 star Yelp review? Again, it’s waaay beyond that.  Think bigger.  Think about your glasses projecting a virtual countdown to the next bus departure as you run out of your office.  Think about your dashboard on your car becoming your “TomTom.”

Let’s move further.  How about drawing a screen onto the wall in front of you with your finger, which transforms it into a computer monitor or television.  How about your desk interacting with your empty beer bottle, telling you to remember to recycle it on your way to the fridge. Yes, I’m drinking a delicious Octoberfest as I type this but I’m serious! This all can happen, and most likely will.  In 5-10 years, everything will become one step closer to being interconnected with everything else..

With that said, Google cannot wait any longer.  Times are changing, and if the company wants to keep the innovator label than it needs to embrace all of the innovation around it. Yes, I’m talking about Twitter.

Twitter is still a “niche” form of media. It is fully embraced by the masses, but is not quite there yet as far as being a fast and reliable way to find information.  It is capable of being that, but isn’t there yet. Why not? Because Google hasn’t embraced its capabilities… yet.

With Caffeine, Google is polishing up its infrastructure and getting ready to deliver some tweets into its SERPs. Caffeine is already reportedly at least 3 times faster then Google’s current algorithm, and is capable of providing real-time results. Recent press has already reported that Twitter is in talks to sell data to Google and Microsoft, and I expect that this deal will follow through.

This could get interesting. As I said, Google is an innovator.  Do not expect them to simply provide tweets as a sub-listing under a brands SERP. I expect them to fully change the game, and with Caffeine, they might just do so.

Great.  That’s good/bad news for me, since this site is still in its infantancy.  I’m not really sure that there is a call-to-action strong enough for 700 visitors, and this spike proved my theory to be correct.  Not a single person commented on a blog post.  I’m not shocked, but this confirmed my hypothesis.  Big things are in store for that site, so I’m not alarmed. It’s just slightly disheartening that 1100 visitors only yielded 13 cents from adsense.

Regardless, the Stumble Effect is real.  Apparently  it can be quite rewarding if you have a site that is monetized properly, or at least lead-capturing. Hopefully I see this again in the future, after the site is complete.