The hype for the release of the Apple tablet is at an all-time frenzy lately. Not since the release of the iPhone has there been quite so much buzz for a product. When you have Steve Jobs claiming, “It’s the most important things I’ve ever done”, it’s bound to create delirium amongst the Apple geeks. This Wednesday it will all come to a head when Apple releases what’s likely to be the Apple tablet (or iSlate as some are referring to it).
A long-shot would be a new custom interface, but it would have to be super intuitive and honestly, what’s more intuitive than a keyboard? My money’s on a virutal keyboard much like a larger version of what’s on the iPhone. It’s a paradigm that users are familiar with, doesn’t require an extra piece of hardware for use, and in my opinion, is the easiest/most intuitive way to enter text into a device.
Who knows though, I wouldn’t put it past Apple to throw everyone for a big loop and invent something completely new. With the best UI designers in the world I wouldn’t be surprised.
CBS’s 60 Minutes recently aired a spot about a virtual fence that was being constructed between the US and Mexico in order to monitor the border and ensure illegal immigrants and drugs weren’t making their way through. Great idea, except Boeing, who took on the contract to build the fence, never checked with the Border Patrol to find out what exactly they needed to do their jobs better. Boeing over-promised and consequently set themselves up to under-deliver.
Boeing wound up building the surveillance system in a vacuum and ultimately the tax payers paid the price. Some examples of mistakes made include not factoring in weather conditions and the impact they would have on the equiptment and not appropriately specing out the right equiptment for the job.
“I’m just kind of amazed that they’re building this, what’s gonna be a multi-billion dollar system for the Border Patrol, and nobody asked the Border Patrol. What… they needed or wanted, or what would be helpful,” Kroft remarked.
“What we didn’t do was iterate with them and said, ‘Okay. Well, we heard that you’d like to be able to see what’s going on the border. How about a little of this?’ How about . . . we didn’t do that. And that should have happened,” Borkowski replied.
Borkowski acknowledged it was a “huge mistake” and that currently he’s responsible for it. “And we’ll just leave it at that. That’s my job now, to fix that.”
This just underscores the importance of really listening to your audience, finding out what their problems are and developing solutions towards fixing those problems. Sounds easy, but too often we gets lost in the vacuum of what we think they need, rather than what they actually need. Boeing fell into this trap and it wound up costing a billion dollars for what amounts to a failed prototype.
Ok this isn’t quite a tech post, well, it sort of is. One of my a favorite radio programs is American Public Media’s “Marketplace” which is a nationally syndicated daily program recapping the days business news. It airs across the country on NPR (National Public Radio).
A few weeks ago they had a segment on how the US government, intending to stimulate the US economy, set aside money to fund green projects in the US. In actuality it was stimulating work in China in order to produce the parts for wind turbines and other green initiatives instead of having American workers take on the tasks.
I felt compelled to respond with the following comment on the Marketplace website…
Outsourcing isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as companies use their moral compass. Too many companies use outsourcing as a cost-saving move, rather than using it to find a particular skill-set they’re lacking.
The government should tax US companies the difference in savings that the corporations are receiving when they outsource. That way the only benefit for a company to outsource would be if they’re having trouble finding a particular skill-set, not to save a buck by putting another American worker in the unemployment line.
I received an email from a Marketplace Producer asking me if I wouldn’t mind recording my comment for the airing of Marketplace on January 5th.
In all honesty though, I’ve been a part of an outsourcing project and it was very difficult to see longtime friends and colleagues jobs leave for a cheaper overseas alternative. It’s really this thought that compelled me to comment on the story. I’m really glad that the comment made it on the air and hope that maybe if nothing else, it helped some people think about what the true cost of outsourcing is.
Check out this promotional video that Sports Illustrated put together with The Wonder Factory.
It’s a glimpse into the future of magazine publishing through the use of a tablet.
As slick as that seems, Nick Bilton in the NYTimes Blog I read about it in mentions some drawbacks nonetheless; some of them being finding suitable battery life to power such a device and the cost to actually produce it make it a challenge to market. However in my opinion those are both challenges that new technologies often face in the advent of their time. Apple will undoubtedly throw their hat in the ring and set the consumer demand which will drive overall production of the tablet down.
Either way, the SI demo is an eye-opener and something to keep tabs on in the future.
Recently my wife and I started looking for a new house. Between the Real Estate market and the interest rates these days it’s a helluva time to buy. In the past we’ve just used the William Raveis website for all of our real estate searches, until we stumbled upon the Google Maps Real Estate layer.
It’s truly the best way to search for a new home. Agents and sellers have the ability to add their home info and price points and they show up on the map. What better way to search? Have a town in mind with a price point? No problem, Google will show you all of the homes that meet your criteria, agent independent. You might have one home that’s represented by William Raveis and the home next to it could be represented by Coldwell Banker. Working with the broker websites alone only shows you what they want you to see. Google flattens the playing field by showing you everything available.
And for those looking to capitalize on others misfortunes, the Google Maps Real Estate layer shows foreclosure properties as well. Carpe Diem to those more fortunate!
I know, I know. It’s been a long time coming. I work on the web as a developer, I should have a blog already. I’ve missed blogging about so many great things happening in the industry….Google Chrome, Facebook, all the amazing iPhone apps. Well not anymore, I’m drawing a line in the sand and throwing my blog hat in the ring, and whatever other cliches you can think of.
Hopefully I’ll be interesting and you’ll be following along. Only time will tell! (crap another cliche)
CBS’s 60 Minutes recently aired a spot about a 
