What Apple should have introduced the other day.

Here is what truly would have revolutionized the technology world the other day. If I were CEO of Apple, this is what I would demand from my team.

1. A touch screen device that can interlock with another one, so they could be oriented like a keyboard/screen. This means you'd have one on the desk, flat, and the other one vertical on its wide edge held in place by the flat one. You could then have visuals by your hands using the touch screen to move around and manipulate the one that is vertical as a screen. They would interlock on any side, making all different kinds of combinations for use cases. Iphones could also interlock with the larger one for use together. Simple interlocking hinges use a "slide in" mechanism to hold themselves in place.

2. It should come with a bluetooth or wifi keyboard and mouse. AND the mouse should be flippable so it converts into a trackball.

3. The device should have the best possible CPU, Graphics, SSD memory, and power supply, and each of these major components should be easily removeable and replaceable without having to dismantle the entire thing. You should be able to exchange the CPUs of different devices for specific uses at any time. They should be mounted so they are similar to small plastic blocks with no visible pins when detached.

4. The device should include slots for every major kind of interface, including USB 2, RJ 45, optical, SSD cards, compact flash, memory stick, firewire etc.

5. The device should run every major operating system possible. Windows 7, Mac OS, and linux. The device should be capable of running an emulator for Mac OS 9 prior to carbon.

6. If the device could do all this, running the iPhone OS as an emulator would be trivial.

7. the device should have a camera that allows it to work like a transparent window, that is, you could hold the device up, see a picture, and capture that picture exactly as you see it framed by the device.

8. The device should be multitouch, be able to recognize cameras and download pictures from them when the camera is simply placed ON the device. It should also be able to synch contacts with any blue tooth capable cellphone.

9. The device should have an integrated cell phone, that allows one to keep the device in a backpack or on a desktop flat, while the user simply talks into a small bluetooth headset, which again comes with the device as standard equipment.

10. The device should support DVD's read/write and they should slide into the device's thin edge.

11. The device should cost NO MORE than $300 US. AND the device should be free for people who make less than $1500 a year via various charitable programs.

Unfortunately, all the big companies are developing products selfishly...constantly thinking about how the devices they offer will bring them profit, instead of thinking about how the device will make people's lives better. The Apple iPad is a primary example of this, as is the XBox, the Playstation, the iPhone, iTunes, Sony Home, pretty much every money-grubbing, locked down, proprietary platform that only "improves" in the direction of shareholders bottom line.

Many of us are disappointed because we know Apple can do better. Here's hoping they do!

Hello, I'm a PC, and I'm a PC.

Today I am writing this blog in Safari 4.0 for the PC. I started out as a mac person because of the superior hardware, speed, and processing power offered at the time, using the now defunct "clone" called a "Supermac". When I left the mac platform to move to the PC platform, of course my fellow mac developers have heaped nothing but endless scorn on me for my choice, and invariably sent daily links to articles pointing out the obvious inferiority of the Windows / Intel based platform I use.

Eventually, the Mac succumbed to the Intel based chipset and I thought the game was up, and finally the Mac would simply become a flavor of windows offering distinct hardware and interfaces for all software, but take advantage of the windows platform in the back end (thus benefitting the end user). This didnt happen, and the Mac platform instead has worked tirelessly to lock the OS and its applications down to ensure continued control even though it has entered the world of the Intel platform, where up to then, the OS didnt care what apps you ran or what hardware you used.

Apple did not win the OS wars, and now with the impending release of Google's "Chrome OS" the competition has clearly changed altogether, that is, it is now between software that is an "Asset" vs software that is a "Service". Apple and Microsoft make billions of dollars by selling software as an Asset. You buy windows or OSX like you would buy a car, a chair, or a blender. You own it, you can resell it, if you had enough you could presumably borrow against it.

As the economy becomes increasingly abstracted to a service based model, and the internet bandwidth growth increases, the game is changing to a battle between which asset to buy, rather, whether or not "owning" software is a good idea in the first place. A real zinger is the recent plethora of online image editing "services" made using "asset" based software Adobe Flash that ends up competing directly with the "asset" based software called Adobe Photoshop and its incarnations.

So, as we see Safari 4 available for the windows platform, it becomes increasingly apparent that the Mac is slowly and inevitably going to migrate to the windows platform, and go into partnership with Microsoft to join forces and fight the new business model being signalled by Google and other service based software companies.

Microsoft continues to make $17 billion dollars in profit every year, and the Apple platform largely owes its very existence to continued support for the Microsoft Office Suite-which MS could end support for at any time. If Apple were running on top of a microsoft platform (now it runs on the UNIX platform), however, the threat of Microsoft pulling the plug on Office support would become moot, and Apple could continue to offer the same great hardware and interface elements that its customers love, PLUS eliminate any objection to "switching" to mac, because both platforms would run all the same software, and you wouldnt have to buy seperate licences for both platforms just because you liked using the OSX interface at times.

On top of that, Apple could then licence and distribute game software, and perhaps even release a gaming console based on XBOX technology, which would be a massive profit center for Apple.

Safari on the windows platform may only be the beginning, but the real competition to come will be the Asset vs Service model for software, and if MS, Apple, Adobe and the Gaming industry join forces, the Service model will have an even more difficult time becoming viable, as if MS werent a formidable enough enemy by itself.

So I'm a PC, and I'm a PC may be what we can expect in the near future. I always thought the PC guy was funnier anyway.