Late Night Haiku XXXII
XC. Soft wind of mem'ry
Blows by, though the other may
Forget what remains.
XCI. Ah! For the happy
Twist of plot to be placed by
The playwright's kind hand.
XCII. But to hope for what
Is but memory, not twist…
Such hope is tragic.
Google Earth is How It Should Be on iPad
If you need an example of what a 10” screen attached to Apple's A4 processor can do, you really should check out Google's updated Google Earth for iOS. While I thought Google Earth was pretty nifty on the iPhone and Android phones, on the iPad, the effect of using it is much more like on the desktop application.
I remember five years ago when I first tried Google Earth that it completely amazed me as I took it through the Grand Canyon and saw how it layered real satellite imagery on a 3D model of the terrain. It is something I always love having the chance to demo to people. And thanks to a well designed codebase, it usually runs at an enjoyable speed even on less than top of the line computers.
Yet, the idea of being able to see it at approximately “full size” in a touchscreen environment really changes things. It feels natural, like this is how Google Earth was always meant to be. I had a feeling if the program ever showed up on the iPad it would be amazing, yet given the current Apple-Google hostilities, I doubted the release of such a full iPad version would happen.
Great job, Google.
The View from Mudsock Heights
My fellow OFB contributor and friend, Dennis Powell, manages to deal with political correctness and issues surrounding utilities and communication services in one highly amusing piece this week. Just the helicopters part alone makes the column worth your time.
The piece does remind those of us in the city about why we have it so good, even when it might not always seem so.
Chick-fil-A
I just found out that the cows favorite restaurant chain is building a location just a few miles down the road from me. This is simply too exciting! How did I ever go through life without knowing about Chick-fil-A for so many years?
I am not quite sure, but in any case, I am really glad they are coming to St. Charles.
Highest Fuel Efficiency
Getting Organized
After years of letting my digital photo collection get out of control, I've spent today organizing it. I have a ways to go, but I've managed to at least bring some order to my 60,000+ photos. It feels great to see them in some semblance of order.
Turning to Chapter 11 of BP's Story
Matt Simmons on the future of BP:
They have about a month before they declare Chapter 11. They're going to run out of cash from lawsuits, cleanup and other expenses. One really smart thing that Obama did was about three weeks ago he forced BP CEO Tony Hayward to put in writing that BP would pay for every dollar of the cleanup. But there isn't enough money in the world to clean up the Gulf of Mexico. Once BP realizes the extent of this my guess is that they'll panic and go into Chapter 11.
I suspect he is right. I am not sure how BP can weather this short of entering bankruptcy protection. Of course, how its liabilities will ever be meted out in an equitable fashion is hard to say. Perhaps an organization ought to be formed to represent all the individuals as a class and seek to obtain a large ownership stake in BP's assets.
Given how the Obama administration (unfairly in my estimation) forced GM and Chrysler into specially packaged bankruptcies and handed off a large chunk of each to the union pension funds instead of the rightful preferred stock holders, I am puzzled that they haven't already jumped in here where such a handoff appears more conscionable. When a company severely damages the economies of numerous states, I'm not sure it should still be setting its own course.
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
-Robert Frost
Deceptively simple.
Last Minute Prediction
I think Netflix will be supported by the Apple TV and that the mysterious trackpad device that has been floating around this morning will be a potential way to interact with an iPhone OS driven Apple TV (that makes more sense than offering it as a competitor to the Magic Mouse).
Predictions for Tomorrow
Update: I have a longer story about AT&T and the iPhone HD up at OFB.
With Apple's big WWDC keynote tomorrow, I'll go ahead and throw out some predictions as usual. I think it is virtually assured we will hear of the next generation iPhone tomorrow, and I'm putting my money on “iPhone HD” for the name.
I am all but assured by those in the know that it will not be available for Verizon tomorrow, just AT&T. On the other hand, I believe that AT&T is moving up eligibility for its users — even for some or all who bought the iPhone 3GS last year — to upgrade to the new iPhone because a Verizon launch is coming relatively soon. I believe a Verizon launch early this autumn is likely and Ma Bell wants to get people tied into a long term commitment before rumors around Big Red's upcoming iPhone begin to appear too genuine.
What does extending customers out two years do for AT&T? It buys the teleco time to finish its LTE buildout. While LTE is the designated 4G upgrade from AT&T's present GSM/UTMS network, and not Verizon's CDMA2000 one, Verizon is still way ahead on launching LTE as it joins most of the rest of the world in following 3GPP.
While AT&T's 3G network has more life remaining in it, with its various HSPA upgrades still available, LTE will win if only by a marketing fiat. Don't misunderstand me — LTE is better than AT&T's HSPA network over the long term, but AT&T is right from a technical standpoint not to rush into LTE; not only are devices still not ready for it, but the capabilities for advances in its current network have not been exhausted yet. Put another way: the maximum abilities of HSPA exceed the minimum abilities of 4G technologies like LTE and WiMax. The current iPhone 3GS, with its HSDPA 7.2 support, can offer real world performance that is better than the reported speeds of Sprint's HTC Evo 4G, for example. But, consumer perception is that 4G is automatically better than 3G. Hence, AT&T needs to get as many enthusiasts locked in as possible while it awaits its own LTE network to light up about a year behind Verizon's.
I also think we'll see something else announced, especially since Jobs has promised not to disappoint people who have already seen his crown jewel thanks to the sleazy antics of Gizmodo. The next generation, cloud friendly Apple TV seems like a reasonable choice and could open the door to a prediction I made earlier this year. Such a relaunch might also make sense amidst a larger revision of MobileMe as a partially free service that is more tightly woven into Apple's iPhone OS devices much as Google's services are with Android phones. I think a reworking of MobileMe is almost mandatory if Apple is at all serious about cloud computing, given that for all of MobileMe's advantages, free services from Google, and competitively priced services from companies like Dropbox, best MobileMe in numerous areas.
Updated Mac Pros and Mac minis would also make sense, but I doubt they will get stage time. I think the main Mac mention of note, other than the requisite sales figures, will be some acknowledgement of Mac OS X 10.7, presented as something that is shaping up in exciting ways, but that will not be previewed until some future time. The key goal here will be to assure people that Apple has not forgotten about the Mac.
