morloc.com: Timothy Kline Talks Technology

Everyone agrees: He created great gadgets. But, some note, he didn’t cure cancer, end apartheid, or bring about the fall of communism

Since Steve Jobs’ death Wednesday night, emotional tributes have been pouring in, proclaiming how the Apple co-founder changed the world and revolutionized computing, capitalism, and the way we consume media. But while fanboys weep and the media pontificates, some are wondering if we’re going overboard and mourning a CEO as if he were a saint. Are all the tributes and tears too much?

He wasn’t Jesus: ”Calm down people,” says Hamilton Nolan at Gawker. “A tech genius has passed on,” and it’s a “devastating loss to Steve Jobs’ close friends and family members, as well as to Apple executives and shareholders.” The rest of us need to get a grip and save the grandiose displays of public grief for those great figures who have unselfishly worked to cure disease, end wars, or fight poverty. Yes, Apple products are cool, but “they are not heroes, and neither is their creator, no matter how skilled he may have been.”

[Read more by visiting TheWeek.com]

Dear Chrome,

I love how you always offer to translate a website that isn’t in my native language, but I really do wish there was a way to set that to Automatic so that when I visit, let’s say, a German site, I have the option of bypassing your prompt for translation by allowing you to do so automatically, when detecting a foreign language site. Wouldn’t this improve the browsing experience overall, by retaining the natural flow of the experience? If needed, you could even allow for an option to have an icon appear in the address bar, much like your Bookmark Star already does. This would allow a person to revert to the original language of the site, for example a person who is comfortable reading that foreign language. The icon would allow for reversion, and offer the option of filtering that particular language form then on—if the user so chooses.

Anyhow, will you at least think about it?

Yesterday, word broke across numerous news sites featuring tech news that HP’s Touchpad™ tablet was being clearanced out at $99 for the 16GB model of the market failure for HP. The resulting “fire storm” sale of the Touchpad™ has demonstrated to every other company what most of us have known for a long time: Sell your tablets for $150 and under, and people will grab them. Then, make sure you have the apps available through your online store that will help you earn the losses you incurred on the initial sale. Even if that person sells the device later, the next owner will want to come through that market as well, and you’re repeating sales on down the road.

How long would it really take to pay for the loss incurred on each initial sale (tablet) through a properly envisioned app store and cloud storage service where your share is something any developer would jump at, while still earning the money to pay off the tablet?

Take it a bit further. You expect to release the next model right around the time that the first model is paid for through residual sales through the sale of apps and cloud storage. The person upgrades to tablet v2 and the cycle begins again. Better apps for the v2, enhancements of the cloud storage feature, and the v1′s pass to others to now earn you profits (the loss is now paid for, remember) and you’ve increased your revenue source by as much as your sales of the v2 fared.

Apple has used built-in obsolescence for years, and there’s no reason why the same principle cannot be applied to tablet PCs. By the time that you’ve brought tablet v3 onto the market, owners of v1 should be making the hard decision about whether to be stuck with their v1, which will no longer see updates or enhancements, or upgrade to a new model—ideally, the new v3, because the v2 group will also be looking to upgrade, and will themselves be looking for buyers among the v1 owners, and therefore you will be competing more for the v1 owners’ dollars than for the v2 owners’ dollars.

By the third year, you’re in the black and just in time for the next evolution in computing and technology.

That’s how it’s done. And any competing manufacturer of a tablet could do the same.

First let me say that I’m nearly 95% sold on Chrome as the browser that I’d recommend. I’ve been a mozilla user since Netscape was a viable and competitive web browser here and abroad. I did use Opera for a period of time, before Firefox came along and stole my heart until the last few months, when I became so fed up with the growing sluggishness of Firefox—with or without addons. It felt like the Windows of our day as far as web browsers were concerned.

Chrome, as I write this, has been a very efficient web browser. Is it for everyone? I don’t know, as I can only speak from my own usage and expectations.

But I might recommend one feature in particular that may be the answer, and this is my open letter to Chrome’s developers.

Again, speaking from my OWN usage, I tend to start Chrome at the Bookmark Manager. I treat my bookmarks exactly like a file manager. I have folders, just as if I was on an extended drive. In those folders, instead of files, I keep URLS or bookmarks. I retrieve the shortcut just like I would a file off my system, except it’s its own “program” (read: website).

In other words, developing a web browser must keep in mind the philosophy that every website out there is a “program” with a set of instructions (HTML, CSS, Java, Flash, HTML5). Loading a website is no different, philosophically speaking. The web browser is the operating system standing between that program and the end user. Everything is run from this ginormous hard drive called the internet. That IS the bottom line, isn’t it?

The Chrome browser should consider the Bookmarks Manager the "desktop" for end users, the first thing they see as they prepare to access the internet.

Setting that aside for now, there have been countless times when I wish there was a better array of viewing options when it comes to the Bookmark Manager. For me, the Bookmark Manager is a primitive OS that allows me to interface with and run virtual programs that in the common vernacular we call “websites.”

Now, look at how Windows Explorer handles file management. As you are moving around your system, you are given the open at every point to change your view of the folder you’re in: Details, List, and Icons. It’s this last option, Icons, that is especially lacking in Chrome. Addons like Speeddial are hacks to bring that functionality to Chrome and Firefox, but fall short of being the “Windows Explorer” of the web browsers. And, if you follow the logic to its reasonable conclusion, it also opens a way for Google to offer cloud storage and file backup services to users, easily handled through the Bookmarks Manager and a few lines of code.

Chrome should be to internet access what Windows Explorer is to local computing.

I can’t tell you how much I miss being able to, at times, switch to icon mode when it comes to my Bookmarks that I track and maintain. Seeing a large icon, for example, can often gain a faster response than having to scan down through a list. This easily carries over to Android OS, which does this currently when browsing folders of pictures. All it would do in the case of the web browser is “snapshot” the bookmarked site upon last visit.

Like Windows Explorer, the Chrome user should be able to see their internet access in diverse ways. As an example, being able to see the details of their bookmarked sites, such as how many times they've visited it, when was their last visit, and similar relative information.

Another feature sorely needed is to have a Details option in Bookmark Manager that allows the end user to see the date a site was last visited, how many times it’s been accessed, etc., along with a way to do quick-sorts by the column, ascension and descension.

While many people, by default, have their home page set to whatever was on there when they first ran it, I have little doubt that by having Chrome open to the Bookmark Manager, with the idea of serving as a GUI for the user on the internet, that it will achieve a whole new level of appeal. Or at least allow the option, perhaps at first run, along with a brief word or two about ideals of each for the end-user.

Having a way to view one's bookmarked sites as thumbnails is often a faster, more efficient way to speed up web browsing, rather than having to scan through lists. A thumbnail of a bookmarked site could be built or refreshed upon visit, and then on the Home page where one had their most-visited, the thumbnails can be refreshed upon loading the browser to key the end user to information they may want to know right at the starting gate.

Windows 8: Microsoft's Big Mistake?

This past week saw the release of official information from Microsoft regarding the anticipated follow-up to Microsoft Windows 7, which is itself enjoying a growing adoption across the PC community. Windows 7, in fact, is arguably the best OS release from Redmond since Windows XP, an operating system that continues to enjoy a prominent place on desktop PCs across the world—and for good reason: it’s solid and stable.

Back in December 2010, I wrote two articles (Windows 8 – Is Microsoft ready for the future in computing? and a follow-up article, Windows 8 – The Virtualization Solution, Continued Discussion) addressing what Microsoft would need to do with Microsoft 8 if it was going to survive in an industry that shows more diversity in Operating Systems than in years previous. I have yet to see any hope that Microsoft gets it when it comes to the current developments in the way that people do their computing.

For one thing, computing has become mobile. Cell phones and tablets will inevitably become the method by which people perform tasks that formerly required a desktop or laptop PC.

There’s no question—at least in my mind—that “cloud” computing will continue to make in-roads as the go-to method for people, for better or worse.

Still, is Microsoft’s development of Windows 8 a suitable response to a changing industry based on “cloud” computing and storage? Not if what I’ve seen so far from news outlets and geeklogs is any indication. In fact, a recent article from renowned John C. Dvorak asked rather pointedly whether Will Windows 8 kill Microsoft? and the points he brings out are the very ones that I’ve been concerned with since early leaks of information about the operating system made their way across the internet back in late 2010.

I think Windows 8 is shaping up to be a BIG mistake, however.

For one thing, there should be no Windows 8. Period. At least not to address the above-mentioned issues.

Microsoft is not Apple, nor should it try to either shoehorn itself into the Apple OS release model where every year has to see a new operating system in order to appear “hip” and current to its market. Apple typically releases a new OS either in response to its parallel release of new gadgets and hardware “updates” (read: component upgrades), or in preparation for said releases. This business model is fine for Apple because it manufactures the hardware upon which its OS runs. A result of this marketing model is that Apple can force obsolescence in older hardware, in effect drawing a line and compelling people to purchase newer gadgets and hardware if they want to enjoy the newer operating systems that Apple releases every year.

Except Apple isn’t releasing new operating systems—they are simply updates with enhanced or new features, attached to catchy names like “Tiger,” “Leopard,” “Snow Leopard,” and the forthcoming “Lion.” Clever marketing, to be sure, but beneath the sheen remains the familiar way of performing tasks, the operating environment or system in which the user resides. So, Apple really hasn’t changed how computing is done, which is the role that an operating system plays: it just markets each subsequent OS as though it has changed computing.

Microsoft would do well to note this and stop being so insecure in its own software development process, which results in rushed products that end up costing Redmond more in PR repairs and criticisms than they spent in development itself. Windows ME® and Vista® are the biggest snafus to date from Microsoft, but if Microsoft continues on this development course, Windows 8 will be the next one—regardless of what it finally names the OS it releases in 2012.

Microsoft: Rethink Windows®

The first thing Microsoft needs to do is drop Windows 8, at least for the foreseeable future.

Period.

Windows®, as an operating system, was born and bred for the desktop/laptop computing environment. Period. It has no place in mobile computing because the way that the user interfaces with their device to perform tasks is completely different from the way they interface with their desktop/laptop PC. Mobile computing has become tactile in nature, with various functions performed through swipes, lingering presses of the finger (or multiple fingers), and even voice command. The Windows® paradigm is unsuitable.

Equally unsuitable is redesigning Windows® in any fashion in order to fit the mobile computing world. Resorting to colorful tiles and a sliding UI screen doesn’t alter that fact.

Microsoft needs to rethink Windows in this respect, realize that reality dictates a check, and forego any and all efforts to force-fit Windows to the mobile computing world when it belongs with the desktop/laptop computing world. Further, it needs to start fresh and have confidence in its ability to put together a UI that takes the best offered by Android, iOS, and the rest of the mobile-based operating systems, and then take it to the next logical level.

Microsoft Zune is an ideal example of potential where mobile computing is concerned. Microsoft has gone on to adapt the Zune OS to its Windows Mobile Phone line, of course. This has resulted in accolades from most critics and with good reason: it’s a reasonable interface for mobile computing.

What Microsoft needs is to develop an OS that builds on that used on the Zune/WMP7. Call it Microsoft Touch™ and develop it with cloud-based computing in mind, making it convenient for the end-user to access their personal data whether they are on their cell phone, tablet, or desktop/PC. Windows Live Essentials is a starting point, philosophically speaking. So is the cloud-based version of Microsoft Office.

Microsoft has the elements already at-hand to put together an amazing UI for the mobile computing community, but evidently lacks the vision and direction to implement it. It lies far outside of my knowledge why this is so, but it is unfortunate.

Windows 7: Second Edition

Taking Microsoft Touch™ and its cloud-based aspects a bit further, Redmond could also put together the means to interface in the same way as the Touch™-based devices will do, right from the desktop, seamlessly. Release this ability in Windows 7: Second Edition.

The reader may recall the significant advancements in internet integration that came with Windows 98: Second Edition. From a development point-of-view, we’ve arrived at a very similar evolutionary stage where the world wide web is concerned. Developing a Second Edition of Windows 7 makes sense, especially if it were to include the tightly-integrated features associated with mobile access to personal data. It would also afford Microsoft an opportunity to refine Windows 7 itself and clear up remaining issues in consistency and stability. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that we should be looking forward to a release of Windows 7: Second Edition rather than anticipating Windows 8, which is clearly the next debacle to come out of Redmond unless they drastically change course between now and 2012.