IPad, interrupted

Well, I did it. I could not take it any longer. I went to Best Buy and bought an iPad. I know, I know, I said that it was crippled, and I would wait for the 3g version.  But it is so cool!

The iPad is defiantly techno-chic.  When you use it, you feel you have stepped into the future.  The best thing is when you touch the home button and it turns on instantly, it is ready to check mail or google something.  No waiting.  Hello?  I have been waiting for this one function in a computer for 30 years.  I have wasted hundreds (thousands?) of hours of my life waiting for computers to boot up.  I am old now, I want to use every hour I can doing something fun, not staring at a boot screen.  Thank you Apple, for a computer that is already on.

Things that surprised me about the lowly crippled step-child of an iPad.

1. It has a digital compass chip in it. When you go to Google maps it knows North and the map can spin to orient itself.  How cool is that?

2. Its wi-fi psudo-GPS is remarkably accurate. The thing knows where it is on the map within 50ft without  a GPS. Which means it can know where it is inside a house with no need to have a clear view of the sky.  This is getting closer to a magical thing that Steve keeps talking about.  I need to tether it to my phone and see how accurate the fix is..hmm.

3. It has a good speaker.  iTunes has way better sound than a iPhone or iTouch.  I think the entire back plate must act as a resonator.

4. The processor is really fast.  It has a snap to its function that I have always wished for in a computer.

5. It has a good microphone. You can talk to the Google App and it listens and looks stuff up. The Dragon Dictate app also works better than I thought it would.

Now those are not all the good things about the iPad, and none of the bad things. There are some of those as well, they are just things that surprised me.  I guess it is not really crippled, it is perhaps just a country cousin to the shiny 3g metroPad that I am still waiting for to come the mail.

When I do get my 3g, I think I will let the others in my household have their chance to play with (fight over) this one.  I guess I am like a digital lion,  I make the kill, eat, and move on, leaving some digital goodness left for the rest of the pride.

T.eco.s

Ok, the name I picked for my blog is so cool, so I thought I share:

I just found out Toikos can also mean, "one who is born"

So I have:
Toikos - One who comes to dwell with others
or

Toikos - One who is born

or

Toikos - T for technology + 'Oiko' or Eco + S for sigma which is a greek suffix used to designate future tense.

So you see Toikos can represent the idea of a Technological Eco-Future.

Neat?!  Well I think it is very clever...

Tipping Point

I know that many people here in the USA have decided to not believe in climate change.  To me just to type that sentence is crazy,  the concept of using belief as a test for global warming is really far out there.  There is good science that shows that the ice is melting.  It is not a belief.  If someone has a different hypothesis on what is happening I think they should raise some money and do some science to prove their ideas.  Then we can talk intelligently about what is happening - instead of just name calling.

If we don't do this soon. It might not matter.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/02/05/tech-climate-arctic-ice.html

Commercial Archetype

I was just thinking about the iPad.  I still don't have mine, it is locked up somewhere in the bowels of the Apple Industrial Complex, or more likely, not even produced yet from its assembly line in China.   I am impatiently waiting for the 3g version.  I have almost gone to Best Buy three times to get the crippled one, the lowly wi-fi only version.  But so far I cant bring myself to do it.

I admit I belong to the cult of Mac.  For the record, I am not the one that actually stirs the cool-aid, but when the cups come by on the tray,  I might just take a sip.  But that is not what I was thinking.

With all the hype that has been stirred up about the iPad,  I realized that the iPad is not a giant iPhone or iTouch on steroids.  The iPhone is actually a miniature iPad with a phone in it.  This is important.

There is no one within the cellular industry that does not take the iPhone seriously because of its huge market share.  The iPad will be bigger, well it is bigger,  but you know what I mean.  The iPad is the essence of the iPhone, and its release is the materialization of a commercial archetype.  This 'thing' is a portable window into the vast new world of data through which you can see almost anything.  Apple realized that for this use, smaller is not better, because the iPad is big enough to see clearly, yet small enough to carry.  When it hits its stride, it will be at the top of several markets.

Just for starters, and not in any order of importance:
1. it is functionally a Wi-Fi and bluetooth enabled iPod
1a. plus, a big screen touch remote for Apple TV (Yes, I have a apple TV, I even like it.)
2. a mobile broadband connected scheduler with email and a calendar that looks like a real DayTimer.
3. a color internet connected touchscreen GPS with digital compass!
4. a portable personal movie player
5. a mobile broadband web browser
6. a touch screen video-game system (Imagine what would happen if they made a case with a game slot!)
7. a portable data input device with audio and video out. (think word processor, spreadsheet, and video presentations)
8. an omniBook reader, because it reads iBooks, Amazon Kindle books, Barnes and Noble Nook books, free eBooks and personal documents.

What is amazing is that It does all these things well if not better than most other devices.

There are more, and some haven't even been thought of yet,  but through the App Store they will come.
If I made a product that did anything on the above list,  I might want to start a little hedge and buy some Apple stock.  For Apple at least, this thing really might be "Magical".

Trains, planes and automobiles.

Well just trains and automobiles.

I was at breakfast today at a local diner when a friend of mine asked a good question.

Why trains? Hi-speed rail is all the rage again. First trains helped in the western expansion of the USA. Then they went bankrupt. Then they converted to freight. Then went bankrupt again. Then passenger trains became common, then they went bankrupt again. Lately we started to declare trains a constitutional right, then we try to strike them down as illegal because they are too expensive and unnecessary.  Now they are on again - as public works projects. Hi speed rail. It will take billions of dollars to build. Looking back at history what do you think will become of hi-speed rail?

It seems to me and to my friend at breakfast, that here in the United States that rail might not the answer for intracity transportation. In Europe, with their limited road systems and complex social geographies trains are perfect. Trains act as accumulators from rural to metropolitan areas. But trains are a 150 year old technology.

Here in the USA we already have roads, we have lots of roads, and lots of cars. Don't we just love cars? Cars are an extension of our personalities. What I want is a smart car. Not one of those tiny little sneakers of a car, but a really smart car. One that can drive itself; circle the block and pick me up when I run in for Chinese food. Or go park itself in the far end of the lot after it drops me off under a canopy out of the rain. A car that can drive itself down the turnpike to Miami while I watch a movie or play cards with the kids.

I remember a book as a kid that showed a car that would make this possible. The front seat spun around with a table in the back, it was called a saloon car. So I'm not making this up by myself, someone has thought of it before. I want it, doesn't anyone else? As long as we are spending billions, why not spend it on something we want.

If we make smart cars and smart roads, and sell them to the rest of the world, we will be doing something to make the future. We here in the USA are individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit lets play to our strengths and not build more 150 year old tech that we know will need a bailout or face bankruptcy like it has done so many times before.

Toikos

In Ancient Greek, 'Toikos' simply means, "one who comes to dwell with others." Isn't that why we are all here in the first place?

When I was just a kid I came to the conclusion that the only way humankind could survive in the universe is if we worked together to live in a technological eco-future. First I imagined a society that valued creation above all else and used technology to protect nature. Secondly, I imagined new technologies that could serve our wants and needs in accordance with the first principal. I have been waiting.

Things are very different now than they were when I was a kid. We have advanced technology, but as for the eco-future...

That is where I have come from, but now I am asking, what if we tried to make this future instead of waiting for it to come? What should it look like? What could we actively do to make it happen? What is being invented now? What needs to be invented? I want to explore these ideas, and I want it written down for all to see.

Lets make a place where the future is created.