Last year continuing into this one, rumors have been flying about an upcoming Apple Tablet.  As this month continues and we get closer to the Apple event on the 27th, bloggers and even the mainstream media are on fire about a gadget that we don’t even know exists.  So many tech commentators are predicting that the Apple Tablet will be announced, while others are still unsure.

So, really how is this announcement going to leave us feeling afterward?

Shock and Awe

The biggest thing that Apple has to contend with is itself. When you release a revolutionary device, and it actually revolutionizes an industry, you have one hell of an act to follow. Most business people, investors, and geeks expect something HUGE on the 27th. We will need something that will shock us and make us believe that we must have the product immediately, no matter the cost.

Too Big to Fail?

I have a small feeling that Apple will announce something completely different than what everyone is talking about and here is part of the reason.

The New York Times reported that the Apple Tablet was basically a done deal and this is what will be announced and demo at this event. Isn’t it funny that the NYT is a company that would LOVE to be able to distribute their overpriced media on something new and fresh, just in time to save their dying industry? Call me paranoid, but there is nothing wrong with a great conspiracy theory.

I digress. If Apple doesn’t announce the tablet or something that is revolutionary, many, many people will be disappointed. It sucks that we have to rely on this one company for the next best thing in consumer tech, but they have set themselves up for it. Really though, with all of this anticipation and the possibility of no delivery, Apple could take a small hit in the stock department, but I have a stronger feeling that they will announce the infamous tablet and make all of us fanboys and girls happy ones.

So, how are we going to feel about this thing? Are we going to run out the day it’s released and buy it with no thought that it may just be a huge iPod Touch? Or are we going to be skeptical this time around?

After watching the TED talk on SixthSense for the 10th and reading this post on jkontherun, I noticed something that needs to happen very soon with mobile technology. Mobile tech needs to be easier to use, make our lives easier, productive, enjoyable, and work how we work.

We shouldn’t have to “get used” to the way a device works; it should be intuitive and be able to be used the way that we want to use it. I like the idea of augmented reality and the way that we can use something like that in work and play. The SixthSense idea seems to be the closest thing that we have to Minority Report technology (not the crazy, creeper procogs, but the awesome tech that makes you want to be Tom Cruise for just a second. Just a second). It is awesome to be able to take something from the real world and put it to the digital world and vice versa and this seems to be the correct move for mobile tech.

CES is going on right now, actually as I speak the Microsoft keynote is streaming, and so much mobile tech is going to be unveiled for release this year. E-readers and tablets are cool, powerful smartphones are neat too, but I still feel like we have a long way to go where our lives aren’t being bogged down by a crappy mobile experience.

Something like SixthSense is the answer. Can you imagine wearing a small pin on your shirt or jacket and having all the functionality that SixthSense portrays? That is an intuitive way to work and play. So, we’ll keep watching CES this week and see what type of Mobile experiences are going to be offered. At the end of the week I’ll have a summary of what seems to be the most important mobile tech of the year, but I guarantee it will not be some crazy cool Minority Report tech.

With today’s news about the Nexus One, how it may or may not bet an iPhone “killer”, and how Google is challenging the way that we purchase cell phones in this country, I need to write this letter to both Google and Apple to let them know that they could potentially take over the mobile landscape:

Ok, I know that you guys are two different companies and everything, and that you are in competition with each other, but I think that your real problem here is the cell companies, not each other. You both can obviously create some awesome platforms and devices so now I need you to create an awesome network to go with them.

Yes, Verizon is grand (my current carrier) and the others are OK too, in most places, but I need some ubiquitous, fast, inexpensive coverage of this country pronto. You both have the money to do it and I am sure that the ol’ FTC wouldn’t mind if you just took over some white space as long as you grease their palms a little.

So, this year just do it. Your current and future devices require some awesome coverage. How will you make your money advertising this year without it? No need to rely on these bloated and slow companies anymore. Just let them know who’s boss.

Thanks.

This doesn’t seem too absurd, does it? If any tech company could do this right now it would be Apple or Google. Google seems to be closer to doing something like this than Apple, mostly because Google is a company of engineers that enjoy some creative destruction and have little to no PR skills.

With the coming of the Apple Tablet and Apple’s purchase of Quattro, we can see that advertising as well as app stores are important to them as well as Google. This is obviously where the money is going to be made this year as regular online advertisement is not doing so hot. What better way to make sure that you make some money than controlling everything yourself?

Maybe there is an easier way than destroying huge corporations to make sure that your platform runs at full speed? Maybe not.

I purchased an awesome ebook last night about blogging, motivation, and “making it big”, called Beyond Blogging. It is rather inspirational. You can check it out here. This book has got my head spinning.

Anyways, I was thinking about the state of blogging and tech blogging in general and thought about what I like about becoming a tech blogger, what is challenging, and what I completely dislike about it. Tech blogging and the tech media industry is extremely saturated with sub-par writing and a bunch of copykats (really a lot of blogging is this way). One of the things that have stood out after reading some of this ebook is the idea of what tech bloggers are going to have to do to stand out this year and in the future. Just blogging isn’t enough anymore.

What will us tech bloggers have to do? Here are some things that I think are needed to stand out in this crowded niche:

Find a “sub-niche” of tech. “Gadgets” is even too broad.

This is something that I am trying to figure out right now. “Tech” is way too broad, especially for one person to cover. Just take a look at a site like CNET for instance. They have about 20 different podcasts and a ton of different editors. They cover “tech” well because they have the resources to do it. A one man blog like mine and many other tech bloggers can’t cover the entire industry. That is why we need to find a niche in tech and stick to it.

Podcasting and screencasts are almost necessity

Almost any decent tech blogging outfit has some sort of screencast or podcast. It seems anymore that simple writing is really not enough. People need information, yes, but they also need to be entertained a little. This will definitely keep them coming back.

One of the best tech empires I can think of is TWIT (Leo Laporte and friends). Leo has really figured it out with ways to inform and entertain at the same time. If you haven’t listened to any of his podcasts or watched any screencasts I highly suggest them, especially if you want a model for the best way to approach it. Leo has been online forever and has been doing video and podcasting for a long time. Nowadays, these platforms are pretty much necessary to stick out at all. Everyone just writes.

Creating excellent content that is different

Sounds easy, huh? Not in the slightest.

Tech blogging is an extremely snarky industry, just read anything on Gizmodo or Engadget to see what I mean, and because of this you really can’t be a dry writer. It is important to write well about important things to you and others and somehow put your own spin on it. I can’t tell you how to do it really, just that it needs to be done. Without having your own voice in tech blogging you will be seriously buried.

Also, tech bloggers seem to have a little ADD. They take one thing, analyze it, comment on it, and then never come back to it. If you want to really stick out keep a theme going for as long as you can and make sure to adapt and add to your content all the time.

Hopefully 2010 is Tech-Hacker’s year to make some headway. If you can think of any other tricks to stand out in this saturated niche, please let me know. Unless you want to hog it all to yourself.

• A Helicopter made from Christmas lights. I said, A HELICOPTER MADE FROM CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!! Thank you. @kylejudkins http://bit.ly/8ve2Pj #
• Make sure to check out the Top 10 LostInTechnology Posts of 2009 http://bit.ly/4RQBFQ @kylejudkins #
• I really like how Twitter just makes fun of itself when it can't handle all of the people on it. People search is "stressing out" right now. #
• Check out some ways To Backup All of Your Holiday Photos for Free Online http://bit.ly/8i8vp9 @kylejudkins #
• Hey, start off your 2010 right by learning How To Benchmark Your PC http://bit.ly/7pDM2b @kylejudkins #
• What Mobile Tech Will You Buy This Year? http://om.bit.ly/4Dsk1P @jkontherun – I am going for some type of tablet/ebook reader. You? #
• Check out Engadget's first impressions of Nexus One http://bit.ly/7gD07Q #
• Don’t Forget About the CopyTrans 4 Giveaway at LostInTechnology http://bit.ly/5Z335e @kylejudkins #
• Want to rule your Windows 7 experience? How To Enable Windows 7 Secret God Mode http://om.bit.ly/8o2Kow from @jkontherun #

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This week wasn’t too too exciting mostly because everyone is widing down from a long year. But here are some links to keep you warm, that is if you are cold like me.

• Exclusive: Google Nexus One hands-on, video, and first impressions via Engadget Mobile
  • Excellent piece of tech here, although I do not feel extreme lust towards it for some reason. Maybe the Droid is helping curb my gadgetite.
• Apple pulls iPhone app that upset Hollywood via CNET News
  • Apple has to stop playing the police in regards to their app store.
• Jobs to unveil Apple Tablet new month ex-Google exec says via Computer World
  • With CES and the beginning of the gadget year, hopefully Kai-Fu Lee is right and we will get some news about this Tablet.
• AT and T is the latest to drop Woods via NYT
  • I guess since Luke Wilson is doing such a wonderful job looking kind of stupid, AT&T decided to drop Tiger Woods. Or I guess it could have been that whole cheating, drunken, beating, mess thing.
• Notion Ink tablet first with Pixel Qi Display via Crave Blog
  • I want to see how this gadget will pan out. LCD / e-paper screen? Awesome. Just let me write on it and I am in.
• Leaked Nexus One Documents: $530 Unlocked, $180 With T-Mobile via Gizmodo
  • I guess this isn’t very surprising. That is a pretty decent deal at $180 for this piece of hardware. $20 cheaper than the Droid on Verizon, plus T-Mobile plans are cheaper than Big Red’s
• 2010: the year of Cloud Computing via CNET Open Road Blog
  • I don’t know. I think that 2008 was my first real year of “cloud computing”. Where is everyone else at? Hopefully 2010 will be the year where businesses and the masses get more comfortable with the idea of making your life easier.
• AT&T resumes online iPhone sales in New York via CNET
  • This was sort of weird, but for a whole day New Yorkers couldn’t buy an iPhone online. AT&T has still not issued any response about it.
• Dell, Toshiba and Gateway Core i3 laptops get revealed early, joined by Pine Trail netbooks via Engadget
  • I cannot wait to get my hands on a notebook that has this new chip in it. Hopefully we some some battery life gains without loss in performance.
• What Mobile Tech will you get this year? via jkontherun
  • I think that this a really good question. Especially once CES comes around. Then we will have a much better outlook on what’s coming up.
• Fast Company Geeks of the Year: Jon Rubinstein via Fast Company
  • This is awesome! Rubinstein basically saved (well sort of saved) Palm from destruction with webOS and the Palm Pre and Pixi.
• Quake Ported to Palm Pre via PalmInfoCenter
  • Not just a port, but hardware accelerated. That is the important part. This means that the hardware can handle some decent 3D graphics and games.
• Predictions for 2010? via Engadget
  • This is just way too funny to pass up.

If you haven’t been on the interwebs and tech blogs in the last six months, you may have missed the passion (or obsession) with the idea of the Apple Tablet and what that piece of technology will look like. If you have been reading all of the blogs you may have become extremely annoyed by the idea that people are talking about a product that doesn’t even exist. Even though “people close to the matter” have “said” that an Apple tablet is completely real, we have no idea what it is going to be like. Since we don’t know it seems natural to ask the question; what do we really need in a tablet?

First, I am just going to make a quick list of my needs and wants in a tablet device:

• At least a 10′, capacitive touchscreen that has the ability to be written on with a stylus
• It would be nice to have a dual screen like the Microsoft Courier Prototype or the Entourage eDGe (but sexier)
• lighter than 1 pound
• at least 7 – 10 hours of battery life
• a camera (3MP or greater)
• Wifi and possible 3G integration
• 16GB or more of memory
• able to read any type of text from ebooks to PDFs
• a fast interface (iPhone OS would be OK, but I would really like a modified version of Android)
• good browser based on Webkit
• $500 or below

I’d say that is pretty good. I think that if a tablet comes out that promises and delivers these features it will do relatively well. Something that I see here though is that Apple may not meet these criteria with their tablet, if any of the proposed features of the Apple Tablet are true. One of the big features of my proposed tablet, sub $500 price point, seems cannot be reached by Apple’s premium pricing. So, I may have to wait for a different company to produce the tablet I am looking for (c’mon MS, where’s your Courier at?).

What would a tablet have to have for a non-regrettable purchase? Do we think that Apple will hit the mark? Or are we going to have to wait for another company to rock the lust-worthy tablet?

You have to admit, 2009 was a big year for smartphone and mobile applications. iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, webOS, and even Windows Mobile (or Windows Phone now) all have some sort of offering for applications. This trend is something that any cell phone manufacturer in the future would be stupid not to implement into their phone. The biggest problem is, is that with more and more different types of operating systems on phones, the more application formats are needed to reach each platform.

“App stores” are extremely “in” right now and they have shown to be extremely profitable and popular with the iPhone and Android operating systems. Consumers want to be able to customize their phone with different applications that they need for home, work, and play.  The problem with phone app popularity is that consumers almost expect their new phones to be able to run tons of applications. Obviously this isn’t the case.

Make

The iPhone App Store had done extremely well with over 100,000 applications and over 2 Billion downloads. When consumers and cell phone companies see this they both want a piece of the action. Android’s Market is doing well too with around 20,000 applications thus far and further shows that consumers want to be able to get useful applications on their phones.What this shows to me is that app stores are a necessity when it comes to smartphones. I know personally that if my phone doesn’t have a Remember the Milk and Evernote app then it will not be as useful to me.

iPhone OS and Android OS are the dominating mobile operating systems right now when it comes to breakthrough and innovative mobile applications. These operating systems will continue to flourish as the others will seem to clump along until they decide to innovate.

Break

App stores or the lack-there-of are going to break certain phones popularity and adoption. Like I said before, the more smartphone operating systems there are, the more application formats are needed for the operating systems. This presents a huge problem.

Most application developers are not going to have the time or resources to apply their applications to all smartphones. Because of this the development tools for each platform have to be easy to use and should provide the developer an easy way to port their applications to the new platform. Here is the reason that most smartphone platforms are going to fail; they do not provide the tools necessary for developers to do their job efficiently and the reach of the platform is not widespread enough.

It seems that Palm’s webOS may have some struggles to get more and more applications added. Even though the platform is built on web technologies (HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.), the Pre and the Pixi are not widespread enough for developers to flock to the new OS. Palm’s webOS may be the only operating system besides iPhone and Android that has a chance to pick up some adoption because of it’s innovative operating system.

So, you thought 2009 was the year of the “app”? Wait until this year pans out; it won’t only be smartphones, everything will have apps. But it is easy to see that having a successful platform and application store is something that is needed for any new mobile operating system. Some of these OSs are going to die because of the lack of innovation. Will their be any in 2010 that go by the wayside?

I have been watching this story unfold in the wings for a couple of weeks now. Mostly because it didn’t seem like anyone knew what the heck they were talking about and I just wanted someone to get to the bottom of it. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe any of the reports, it’s just that something seemed fishy.

According to Wired, it now seems that Google will be having a press conference on January 5th, the day that many a blogger proposed would be the release date of the infamous “Google Phone”, Nexus One. At this press conference we may see what Google is going to do for their plan to market and sell this phone.

The Nexus One may be sold a tad differently than normal US handsets. Rather than being subsidized by a specific carrier, the phone may be sold directly by Google at an unsubsidized price. The phone would then need to be activated on a GSM carrier such as AT&T or T-Mobile. Yet some others are speculating that since Google has a good relationship with T-Mobile, that the Nexus One will be available at a subsidized price through them. This is where the Nexus One doesn’t seem to add up but here is what we know so far.

Killing Industries

If Google decides to release their own phone (it’s actually HTC hardware) they will potentially alienate their partners such as Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile. By providing a their own handset at an unsubsidized cost they are essentially taking the middle man completely out of the picture.

What I personally see happening is pure “creative destruction”. Google is trying to change the face of mobile and cloud-based technology; they are releasing a device and just using the cell phone carriers as “data-pipe” for the Android user experience. This means that in the long run Google will try to create and sell (or even give away for free) new devices that run on any network. This could be a nightmare for smartphone manufacturers and even the carriers because as 3G penetration grows and becomes more reliable only cost will matter in the long run when consumers decide what carrier to go with (here that Verizon?).

Contention, you better believe it

As Google’s mobile takeover pans out in the near future, we will see how protective cell phone companies and handset makers are over their fragile businesses. I am sure that if Google keeps moving forward with their mobile takeover (which they will) eventually these companies are going to sue or make their fears known to the US Government where they will have to battle some type of anti-competitive suit.

So, will Google actually release their unsubsidized Nexus One on January 5th to start a mobile takeover of the United State? Probably, yet they are definitely in store to fight some older industries over their disruptive business behavior. These are some exciting times and it will be interesting to see how this pans out in January.

This week was filled with cell phone carrier news, “reliable sources” telling us something that will happen that probably won’t, Dane’s trying to turn themselves in for ripping their own purchased DVDs, and Intel gives us a taste of 48 cores (picture). Enjoy!

• Leak: The Google Phone is a “certainty” via Gizmodo
  • I think that this post is funny. Gizmodo is saying that Google will produce hardware for an Android phone and that it is a certainty because that’s what they heard from “reliable sources”. I say no on this one. If there will be a Google phone, it will be a “developer” phone that Google will use internally.
• Black Friday sale up 11 percent from last year via Comscore
  • 11 percent seems like a pretty big jump and it is. I wouldn’t say that this means that our economy is out of the woods yet, but consumer electronics spending is through the roof.
• iPhone may go to T Mobile next via TheStreet
  • Ummm I guess this sort of makes sense. The only reason that this may happen would be because Apple doesn’t want to create brand new hardware until Verizon has rolled out their 4G network.
• Google’s 2009 Zeitgeist via Google
  • Check out what has been searched for the most this year. They’re aren’t too many surprises
• AT&T gives up Verizon ad lawsuit via CNET
  • I have a feeling that AT&T’s lawyers just felt more and more ridiculous everyday trying to defend against the truth.
• Sprint fed customer GPS data over to cops 8 million times via Ars
  • This was all over the place this week though I think that it is not as bad as it seems. Ars has a great post about it that isn’t filled with too many conspiracy theories.
• Dane who ripped his DVDs demands to be arrested under Dane law via Boing Boing
  • How funny is this. A Danish man rips his DVDs and because he is unsure if he broke the law or not turns himself in. The authorities didn’t even take him seriously even though it is technically illegal!
• Intel crams 48 cores onto stamp-sized processor, wants to do what Cell did via Engadget
  • 24 dual cores on one small-ass processor. This is amazing. And it actually uses less wattage as the Xenon processor. Hopefully this will be in my next phone.
• Microsoft’s Bing goes down via CNET
  • Who did they think they were Google? Oh wait, Google goes down all the time. So, yeah, I guess they did.

Passing out the link love!

• Measure and Analyze Your Website Stats With Woopra via LostInTechnology
  • This looks like a great alternative to Google Analytics. I feel that Analytics is sometimes extremely confusing and maybe even a little overkill, at least for now.
• How to use tearable tabs in your browser via Castellini on Computers
  • Yet another nice, quick video post on Rick’s site. I didn’t know that you could do this in Firefox!
• Bittorrent Explained: A Guide For the Beginner via WillINeedIt
  • Seriously, if you don’t know what Bittorrent is, this is THE guide that explains it. Matt did a very excellent and thorough job on this one.
• 11 Ways to Listen to Music Online for Free via The 2.0 Life
  • Need some free, legal music online? David gives you 11 ways!
• Reading eBooks on Phones: It’s all   in the settings via jkOnTheRun
  • After taking a look at this I may not get that eReader I have been mulling over. May just learn how to format for the Droid and be happy with it.