On recent weeks, three related items have caught my attention:

1. My girlfriend asked me about the best Blackberry Twitter client
2. Hugo Chavéz called Twitter a terrorist tool
3. Twitter Co-founder said they are looking at ways to bypass country blocks

I know what you’re thinking, a Blackberry? Still, two of the above items are no big surprise.

The fact that a President, obsessed with controlling media, calls the easiest publishing/communication tool terrorist, was bound to happen as adoption grew.

On the same lines, after last year’s events in Iran, it makes sense that Twitter establishes the idea of global freedom of its service, over regional censorship. If they plan to be the pulse of the internet, they need to make it clear that real and uncensored tweets are all getting through.

However, my girlfriend installing Twitter on her Blackberry? Just amazing. I mean, this is the same person who uses Facebook as a photo sharing site, and still untags herself if the photos are public. She deletes - deletes! - email in Gmail. Even after a long conversation regarding the whole concept of an infinite expanding disk space.

So why would a person, whose default status in all chat services is invisible, be asking about Twitter?

Simple; uncensored news.

Many venezuelans don’t trust what they hear, or more importantly, what they don’t hear in the news.

Visit Twitter on a weekday and you can usually see a flurry of #FreeMediaVE, #FreeVenezuela and #TASPONCHAO tweets going by. Reporting protests and clashes with police and the national guards. With no mention whatsoever about it on local radio or TV.

All of this has lots of interesting internet usage implications. Sadly, the only one I keep thinking about, is that in Venezuela the internet will the next expropriation.

Every time Apple has an event in which they announce a new product, I need about a week to get out of Jobs reality distortion field¹ and be able to process information on my own again.

Mind you, the post-event week is not easy on us geeks. It’s an emotional and intellectual roller coaster. You go through euphoria, disappointment, hope, financial analysis and inner-discovery in a short period of time. Then you open Google Reader, and it starts all over again.

So, the iPad. It’s here. If you have followed some of the news you may have heard the following:

1. The iPad is just a large iPhone/iPod touch
2. You should wait for version 2
3. It’s probably better to buy a netbook

To which I say: No, yes, not really.

iPad and iPhone

There is no question that the iPad shares most of the same DNA as the iPhone. But so does a dolphin with an orca. Point is, the fact that something so different looks like it works in such a similar way, speaks volumes of the detail that went into making this device.

The similarities of the iPad with the iPhone are not because of laziness on Apple’s part. Most likely, it’s the results of a strict design restriction. If you own an iPhonesOS device (like other 75 million people) you needed to be able to know how to use the iPad. Which you do.

iPad and you:

Should you run out and get it? Probably not. Am I getting one? Of course. -“But,”- you say -“it doesn’t have a camera!”- I know. -“And it doesn’t even support multitasking!”- Very true. -“What about your new Kindle?”- Would you shut up and hear me out?

Ok, I got nothing. However, this is about you, not me.

There are couple reasons why should wait a little. For starters, if the iPhone and iPod touch are any indication, it’s likely Apple will update the storage sizes and maybe the prices around November. Also, unlike with the iPhone, it looks like Google “& partners” will be able to quickly deliver their own answer for this segment in the same timeframe.

iPad and laptops:

Obviously, all of this assumes that the hoopla around the tablet form-factor has legs. Which I believe it does.

If you typically turn on your TV and immediately open you laptop, you’ll eventually feel the need for the iPad. If do the same with your iPhone or mobile phone, it would happen even sooner.

Try not to dismiss the iPad (or the whole tablet category for that matter) because you feel perfectly fine with your laptop or netbook. Most people where perfectly fine with CD player six years ago, and with a basic Nokia phone even more recently.

iPad and me:

With the iPad, Apple has clearly signaled where they think personal computing is going. Or at least, where they are going to stubbornly pull it towards. Make no mistake about it, the iPhoneOS is the future of the Mac.

In desktop OSes, all complexity is staring back at you every time you use an application. My Mom can always find a way to change something once, and never be able to get back to the same place ever again. I call this UI dead-ends.

On good touch UI’s, this isn’t as common. The iPhoneOS has a great UI.

That’s why there will be an iPad in your wish-list someday. Maybe not this year, but sooner or later you’ll see how effortlessly something is done on it. A task that usually takes more than a couple clicks on your computer will be done with a few gestures.

Then you’ll know. Just like I do now. That you need one.

I like desktop applications. I like how fast they feel compared to Web apps, even when you have a really fast connection. Yet, there is no denying that the convenience of having your information in “the cloud” can’t be beat. Especially when you have a multi-computer and multi-phone environment, as I do.

There is more...

Although Battlestar Galactica’s final episode turned out a little too religious for my taste, I still enjoyed it immensely. All in all, the writers managed to create one of those universes that I’ll miss and probably revisit in a few years (like Firefly). One thing I specially enjoyed was how a lot of the story fitted together in end, which was surprising after learning this:

I do feel good that the process I always believed in and really defended — about feeling the story instinctively as you go through it, and not being tied to, “Oh, we know exactly how it’s going to end up”

Ronald D. Moore finale Q&A (NJ.com)

This “don’t over-plan” attitude reminded me a lot of:

Details reveal themselves as you use what you’re building. You’ll see what needs more attention. You’ll feel what’s missing.

Getting Real: Ignore Details Early On (37signals)

Good example of how by focusing at the “problem” at hand and not just imagining all possible upcoming ones, can actually help in creating something even better.

So say we all

The Safari 4 beta got some people talking about how some it features would make a perfect fit (or not) for a touch device. The features in question are Top Sites (basically Apple’s implementation of Opera’s Speed Dial) and Cover Flow. Although this could perfectly true, I believe these features reflect more what’s coming into the AppleTV than into the iPhone or “iPad Tablet”

A recent patent regarding the AppleTV makes it even more compelling. With a Wii-remote like controller to point at things in the screen you can see how interacting with busy applications like a browser becomes viable in a set-top box. Having Opera already installed on my Wii, I’m more than convinced of the usability and usefulness of this.

Browsing on your TV is no more unnatural than watching youtube on your desktop. Notice how with notebooks most at home browsing has shifted to the sofa in front of the TV. I don’t think that an internet browsing AppleTV will become the center of your home browsing. But I do imagine something like this happening:

You are watching TV and chatting with a friend on your mobile phone. Somebody sends you a link and instead of opening it in the phone you “pass it along” to your TV screen. You can now continue to chat, share the link with anybody else close by (hopefully the link is SFW) and shift you attention back to the original video on the same screen.

The irony of integrating functionality into one device could be that by being able to do everything, they end up encouraging the use of other devices that are better at each specific function.

Some notes from today’s Apple iPhone OS 3.0 Preview (Quotes from: MacRumors)

• In-App Purchasing: Allows developers to sell additional content from within applications. Highlighted uses include magazine subscriptions, eBooks, additional levels and items for games.

Apple keeps 30% comission, so it makes sense that they want to encourage developers to sell even more. As long as it’s not music.

• Peer-to-Peer Connectivity: Find other devices running the app via Bonjour over Wi-Fi of Bluetooth. Good for gaming, but also other applications for sharing data.

I’m concerned for Nintendo DS. May the PSP rest in peace.

• Third-Party Accessory Apps: Allowing accessory manufacturers to create applications to interface with their hardware accessories.

Huge market opportunites and very cool. Just the idea of a compact external keyboard makes me reach for my wallet.

• Push Notification: Rather than using background processes that hamper battery life, utilize third-party server to push badge, text, and audio alerts from applications.

Better late than never. Useful for some apps. But they need to release iChat pronto. Messaging creates important network effects.

• Turn by Turn: Apple will allow developers to use CoreLocation for turn-by-turn GPS directions.

Nice. Don’t have a car, but I can see how GPS sales will be affected.

• Cut, Copy and Paste: Available across all apps. Shake to undo or redo.

Welcome to 1993.

• Landscape keyboard: Available in all key applications, including Mail.
• MMS: Picture messaging now available.
• Voice Memos: Record notes, lectures, interviews, etc.

Yawn. 3rd party apps already dealt with these.

• Spotlight Search: Available across all applications. Systemwide search available from main home screen by flicking to the left.

Very welcomed. But I’m sure we still haven’t seen the full scope of the springboard updateds.

• A2DP Bluetooth: Support for stereo bluetooth headsets.

Not that relevant yet. But wireless headphones could be the future.

All in all, nothing groundbreaking. But this was a developer event and the announcements are very important for the. But still, I think a lot of people are sleeping a little bit better at Palm.

After moving to Norway I finally broke down and bought an AppleTV. I’m loving it. While I rent a couple of movies a moth, I mainly use it for TV Shows: The West Wing, South Park, The Big Bang Theory, Psych, Mad Men, etc. And although I have converted some “alternative method” downloads to play on it, I’m mostly buying them from iTunes store.

Still two Media Players and an App have caught my attention recently:

SlingCatcher:

Goes for $299. Being a Slingthingy, it streams from other slingboxes, which I really don’t care for. It also streams video from your Mac or PC, so you can be watching Lost on abc.com, SNL on hulu.com or even videos on netflix.com and you can see it on your tv. Quality appears to be great. You can play any content you put on a USB drive, which makes a very useful when you get most of your content from bittorrent and other alternative sources.

WD TV HD Media PLayer:

Goes for $129 (but you can find it at BestBuy for $99)

It only plays content from a USD Drive, but that makes it pretty straight forward. The UI doesn’t seem that elegant compared to the SlingCatcher though.

Boxee:

Free software, invite only now.

Boxee is an media center software for Win/Mac/Linux and AppleTV ¹ . Boxee fixes most of these issues in a easy way, you can play content from Hulu, CBS, etc. It also allows you to stream Divx, and other formats from your pc, mac that live on the same network. Boxee also adds a SocialNetwork layer on top of all this, don’t know how useful or cool it is. But it has the buzzword compliant feature.

You can always just connect your computer to the TV. But that would be uncivilized, wouldn’t it?

I’m loving the iPhone 2.1 update. Finally the OS, the apps and even mobileme are all working as expected. Sadly, the mobileme push mail issues have been so unreliable that I have defaulted to using the free Mail2web exchange service as my primary mobile email. The calendar sync features are still worth the investment imho, especially since I just upgraded my dad’s account a family plan for $50.

So, now that I have everything just working, am I satisfied? of course not. Now I want more features! But seriously, there one big thing missing to make the iPhone push mail really useful: a notification screen.

Right now when you get a sms or voicemail, a popup lets you know in your locked screen. But if you get an email, nothing. Not even an icon in the top bar. Hence, if miss the new email sound (which is not modifiable btw) or the vibration that comes with it, you won’t now until you check the email. This, in a ways, beats the whole idea of a push email.

There is a jailbreak application called IntelliScreen that provides a solution for this. But I felt it slowed down the iPhone a bit (no scientific tests where done). But there could be an Apple solution in the horizon. According to some patent documents:

The iPhone team’s filing instead proposes a more properly formatted notification panel — in one of approximately a half dozen potential layouts — that would not only remain visible once the phone is unlocked, but actually provide direct links or buttons to the missed communications. from Appleinsider

This will probably come when the notification service feature is made available to developers. Which hopefully will be sooner rather than later. And once available, the iPhone would be able to provide a push email experience that my crackberry friends expect.