Michael Arrington over at Techcrunch has a video showing some new experimental Google features.

It allows people to vote and comment on search results.

This works very much like the Social News website Digg where people can vote, promote and comment on stories.

This could just be a sandbox experiment for Google or an early peak at the future of user driven Internet search.

User created input/content is at the heart of popular web sites like Wikipedia and Digg so the concept is well established.

At the core this turns Google into a popularity contest. It will turn Google search results into a Ebay style rating system where “98% of people think the link is good”.

There is nothing better than a personal recommendation, so would user input on search results make for better search?

Overall I would say yes.

Check the video fascinating stuff.

Link: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/16/is-this-the-future-of-search/

Today Apple announced that the iTunes music store has now sold over 5 Billions songs.

As if that wasn’t enough they are now the No.1 Music retailer in the US.

I can’t be bothered to complain about DRM/Quality or Cost.

No I look on today as a tiny bit of history.

Vinyl > Tape > CD > Download.

Bricks and Mortar > Digital.

Game over Cupertino wins.

By the time my Kids grow up and want to purchase music the world will be a different place.

By far and away the best digital distribution model available today is offered by Steam. If I buy a game from Steam I can play it on any computer I sign into and install the Steam client on.

This iTunes model of Download, License, Backup or Else is just plain dumb in comparison.

I would imagine a subscription based model is the next big thing.

Link: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/06/19itunes.html

Asus eee PC

It wont be long before these small form factor laptops become more mainstream.

Today these are either underpowered (the HP) or too plastic (Asus) however there is a lot of buzz around low cost mini laptops.

If the HP Mini came with an Intel dual core I would probably spring for one.

I want small but powerful. I have discounted these new “mini” laptops for the moment because of the lack of power and heat problems.

Dell have nothing in this sub 10″ market. They only recently launched a tablet based Latitude. A good few years behind the other large OEM’s.

I think these mini’s are going to be very popular especially with younger people. The prices range from £200 to £500.

From £269 to £169 but still on the relatively expensive lengthy monthly contract.

A number of things are happening here.

1) The iPhone isn’t actually that popular in the UK. This is based on their choice of network provider (O2) and cost of the hardware.  Outside of some Tech friends I haven’t actually seen an iPhone in the wild.

2) Apple are about to announce a hardware revision. I would imagine the discontinuation of the 8mb model and the introduction of a 32gb to partner with the existing 16gb version. So O2 don’t want left with a load of 8gb stock they cant sell.

So even at £100 off this is still too expensive over the life of the contract.

As for the hardware revision, the worst kept secret in tech is the inclusion of 3g. One of the biggest stumbling blocks for adoption of the iPhone, particularly in Europe.

When you download an application you should be given the full disclosure about what is being installed on your equipment and given some options/choices.

If you download the latest version of iTunes for Windows what you are really installing is:-

iTunes
Quicktime
Apple Mobile Device Support
Apple Software Update
Bonjour

If you decide to uninstall you are faced with 5 separate uninstall’s from the control panel add/remove programs.

Nice touch for a user who changes their mind. A unified uninstaller would be welcome.

To cap this off the Apple Software Updater then suggests the additional download of the Apple Web Browser Safari 3.1.

The motive behind the web browser install is ad revenue. Apple have an inroad to 100m windows PC’s. How very opportunistic of them!

Where do Apple draw the line on this issue?

You may think why does this matter?  I look after hundreds of PC’s and I care what gets installed right under my nose.

Take Bonjour for example. This is Apples networking protocol that makes connecting devices easier (PC’s and Mac’s)  It operates on UDP Port 5353. Now as a network admin what if someone were to design an exploit that does something bad with Bonjour for Windows.

Do I now have to wait on Apple to fix it or run around frantically getting it uninstalled. I hope I don’t have to find out.

Dealing with Microsoft security is bad enough. Do I really need to worry about drive by installs from Apple, a company that really should know better.

For those who like a conspiracy theory why is Bonjour in this software bundle in the first place?  Why now?  I suspect we will find out in 10 months time at the Macworld 2009 keynote. But it doesn’t take a genius to see it has to do with networking PC’s and Macs.

I finally made it to the end of the video version of the roadmap presentation from March 6th.

The video was so long (78 mins) I was watching a bit here and bit there due to being very busy.

Well all I can say is I am surprised this isn’t getting more news.

Apple clearly are heading for Enterprise and business customers. Their big untapped markets.

Its simple to shrug off the iPhone as a consumer gimmick but some of the business applications shown in the roadmap presentation were very compelling.

Example: The Salesforce.com application, beaming new leads to remote sales people then tracking the new contacts location with Google maps all within a new finger gestures.

All Apple need to do is keep going and they seem to be pretty good at delivering on promises.

The next problem is the iPhone/iTouch form factor but that can be solved by making a  12″ tablet version with multi-touch and it’s game over.

If you have  iTunes installed you can use the link below to download the video (its about 800mb).

This is proper next generation stuff. No one else is innovating on this level.

iTunes Link: Apple March 6 Event_ iPhone Software Roadmap

Fibre to the kerb is the future for consumer Internet access Its the only way to get super high speed at a low cost.

BT are starting the first consumer trial in the UK.

Fast forward 10 years, this this will be a typical connection speed. 

I do a lot of remote backups and I would love a high bandwidth connection to speed things up.

Link: http://news.google.co.uk/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=uk&ncl=1126140969&hl=en&topic=t

Note the video is not in English, but you get the idea of what multi-touch is and how it might apply to you as a laptop user.

Multi-touch allows you to do multi directional input with your fingers.

I cant see a reason that in a few years time this wont be a standard part of a laptop track pad.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-touch

I hate quoting myself but..(Link see Comments 31/10/2007)

One company could end the debate over formats in a heartbeat and that is Warner Brothers, if they chose a single format instead of supporting both, the game would be over.

Yesterday January 4th 2008 Warner Bros have announced they are going to pick Blu-Ray over HD-DVD, thus ending the raging format war between the two camps Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

Just to point out the obvious they waited a full 10 days after Christmas 2007 to announce this, milking the last out of early adopting HD types.

Being a PC guy I would have chosen HD-DVD as my preferred choice. Microsoft also chose this format for PC and Xbox 360. So I would have guessed wrong but I would have been in good company. Microsoft, Toshiba etc.

Interestingly both Dell and Apple chose the right format (Blu-Ray). I think HP offered both.

Well the good news all the format nonsense is now over. Sadly there are millions of consumers stuck with the “Betamax” of this century.

So lets look at the lay of the land.

Standard Def DVD: By far the most dominant by miles. It looks great and is inexpensive to buy titles and players.

Blu-Ray: There is no and I mean no low cost route into Blu-Ray. You need either a Sony Playstation 3 or a dedicated Blu-Ray player. These are currently going to set you back £250 upwards. Until the hardware is between £49-£99 your average consumer is going to run a mile.

Digital Downloads: Hi-Def streaming and downloads are just around the corner. In the UK Sky have just signed up major movie studios so this is going to take off in 2008. Likewise Microsoft will weep momentarily about HD-DVD then fill the Xbox market place with more HD content for download. Finally iTunes will start renting movies this year.

The Blu-Ray HD format is now dead in the water. It is going to be beaten savagely by the aging Standard Def DVD format in the coming years. During those years Digital Downloads will slowly take hold.

The HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war a good thing, it kept driving down the cost of Hi-Def to the consumer.

Blu-Ray is the new laserdisc, Standard Def DVD is the new VHS

If Apple shipped with Windows a lot of PC companies would be in serious trouble.

Not that I believe in conspiracies but:-

Apple Run on Intel CPU’s

Apple hardware can run Windows Via Bootcamp or Parallels

If Apple wanted to enter the “Windows” market they could, the general population is ready. Their brand is strong, they have established Internet and retail sales channels.

With Apple’s OSX Leopard being the sixth version of OSX how many more times can keep redoing essentially the same thing.

Gates and Jobs are publicly all touchy feely:

http://d5.allthingsd.com/20070530/d5-gates-jobs-interview/

Importantly Gates is retiring, so no industry ego issues to worry about.

If I was an Apple shareholder I would saying “Why ignore that huge Windows market”.

Look at the iPhone, back Apple HQ they must have thought will this/wont this work. Now they have sold more than a million into an established market that didn’t exist for them  6 months ago. The product is considered a success. So what’s next?

Call me mad (Use the comments) but I predict Apple will start selling Windows PC’s in the coming years.

What does Jobs call iTunes “The best Windows Application ever”.

The highest percentage of iPod/iPhone users are Windows users.

Therefore Apple’s customers are now predominately Windows users, why ignore their needs.

Please feel free to taunt me about this post in the future (say 2012 ish).