Stuff Apple iPhone/iTunes Should Fix

WHAT TO FIX:
- iTunes should provide an easier way to organize the iPhone's applications (example: App Management in iTunes)
- iTunes should allow the management of iPhone application settings (for easier inputting of complicated passwords)
- Give applications the option to run in the background

RELATED NEWS/LINKS:
- MobileCrunch - 8 Little Things We Still Can’t Stand About the iPhone
- The Industry Standard - Nine really frustrating things about the iPhone
- PleaseFixTheiPhone

Stuff Google Reader Should Fix

I'm pretty sure any and all information obsessed people are using Google Reader by now. The thing though is that despite how great it is there are still some pretty annoying issues with it. A lot of these options no doubt shouldn't be added to everybody's account, but instead should be handled like Gmail with the lab projects.

WHAT TO FIX:
- Add filter options (to block unwanted news and better organize news, example: Google Reader Filter, FeedHub)
- Add an option to customize the keyboard controls
- When searching, dig deeper into articles
- Qualitatively rank news (example: AideRSS, PostRank)
- Consolidate similar news items and only show the most informative source unless I want to dig deeper
- Stop accepting article updates as new news
- Stop screwing up the times of articles, just date the article as it is posted not as I change the tags or whatever else
- Stop erasing my tags when I star an article
- Integrate a preview option
- Provide a list for reviewing which articles you just looked at regardless of when they were received
- Enable the “Send mail as” feature from Gmail
- Support password protected feeds (example: FreeMyFeed)
- Enable expiration options (for high volume blogs)
- While in "List" view mode the scrollwheel should high-light one article at a time

WHAT HAS BEEN FIXED:
- While searching allow editing of tags in list/expanded view

Stuff Facebook Should Fix

If go to the applications page you'll see that you can add a bookmark to Causes and Groups but not Pages. There's also a number of other problems that just drive me nuts which I've listed below.

WHAT TO FIX:
- Add a "Recently Added" link to the actual friends page
- Add "Pages" to the "Authorized" applications page
- Add "Pages" to the "Wall Permissions" applications page
- Add "Pages" to the tab-bar (along-side Photos, Causes, Boxes)
- Make it possible to add a bookmark to "Pages" just like you can with Causes and Groups
- Split the "Authorized" applications page with a Facebook default apps section (not a new page just add a header for default apps with all the Facebook default stuff)
- The "Wall Permissions" section lists old apps you've removed from your Facebook (they might as well rename it the history page)

NOTE: When I say bookmark I'm talking about that little bar at the bottom of Facebook where you can stick quick-access links to your Facebook apps.

Does MySpace hate the Groups feature? (Profile 2.0)

Go check out the brand-new profile editor and you'll see what I'm talking about, no groups module and no links to your groups. Practically the only way to get to the groups part of the website is through the "More" menu. Once you get to the groups page you still have to click once again if you want to see only your groups.

WHAT TO FIX:
- Add a groups module to the new profile editor (preferably make the module look identical to the "Friend Space" module)
- Add a "My Groups" link in the Profile menu
- Add a groups link next to "View My:" on your profile
- Fix the "My Groups" page, it's miscounting the number of active-groups (dead groups seem to still get counted)

Google Android - Future Devices

Since I'm having a difficult time remembering what devices are in the pipe for Google's Android, I thought I should compile what I do know. So far HTC is the only company with a product on the market and Motorola is apparently not going to have anything until Christmas of 2009.

DEVICE MAKERS:
Archos
Asustek
Garmin
General Mobile
GiiNii
HTC (T-Mobile site)
Huawei Technologies
Kogan Technologies
Lenovo
Motorola
OpenMoko (official site)
Samsung

UNOFFICIAL DEVICE MAKERS:
Nokia

Consolidation of the Linux cellphone OSs

Considering how much consolidation has took place in the last year, I thought it'd be worthwhile to make a list of all the acquisitions. So far this is as many as I've come up with.

NEWS LINKS:
- Wind River buys Mizi Research
- Intel buys OpenedHand
- Nokia buys Symbian
- Nokia buys Trolltech
- Microsoft buys Danger
- Access buys PalmSource
- Google buys Android

Web Innovations [list]

Below are some of the most intriguing innovations when it comes to enhancing productivity. I've gathered as many of them as possible but other examples exist.

DATA-RETRIEVAL/EXTRACTION:
- CoScripter
- iOpus iMacros (Firefox add-on)
- Kirix Strata
- OutWit Technologies (Firefox add-on)
- Silk

BLOG (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- DashBlog
- Tynt
- Wordpress.com Sidebar
- Zemanta

HISTORY (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- dscover.me
- historious
- Infoaxe (Firefox add-on)
- Newtiny
- Peer Belt
- Sitesimon
- Voyurl
- Wowd

AGGREGATORS:
- Flud (iPhone)
- Flipboard (iPad)
- Genieo (iPhone)
- HeyStaks (iPhone, iPad, Android)
- NewsSquares (Chrome)
- paper.li
- PostPost
- Pulse (iPhone, iPad)
- Seesmic (Chrome, iPhone)
- TweetDeck (Chrome, iPhone)
- Twimbow (Chrome)

NETWORKING (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- Greplin
- joinbox
- Wowd

SEARCH (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- Boounce
- Buzzdock
- Click.to
- CloudMagic
- FastestFox
- Glydo
- Juice
- Qitera Assist
- SimilarWeb
- Veoh Video Compass
- yolink

PHILANTHROPIC (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- Better Human Race
- Better The World

EMAIL (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- ActiveInbox
- All My Purchases
- AwayFind
- Bccthis
- Boomerang
- Boxbe
- ClearMyInbox
- CloudMagic
- Gist
- Greplin
- Gtriage
- gwabbit
- harmon.ie
- Meshin
- Mingly
- MonkeyContact
- Mozzomail
- NudgeMail
- OtherInbox
- PhilterIt
- Ping
- Rapportive
- Sanebox
- Slice
- Taskforce
- ToneCheck
- Unroll.me
- YouSendIt
- Xerox - Business of Your Brain
- Xobni

RICH INTERNET APPLICATIONS:
- Adobe AIR
- Appcelerator Titanium
- CloudStack
- Google Chrome Web Store
- JavaFX
- Microsoft - Silverlight
- Mozilla - Open Web Applications

SITE-SPECIFIC BROWSERS:
- Bubbles
- Fluid
- Gabtastik
- Mozilla Prism
- Pokki
- WebRunner

COMMAND-LINE TOOLS:
- ActiveWords
- GoogleCL
- Humanized Enso
- Keyboardr
- Kwyno
- Mozilla Ubiquity (Firefox add-on)
- PodiPodi
- Quix
- Shortwave
- SparkTab
- YubNub

PRODUCT DATABASES:
- Curisma
- Decide
- Drippler
- FindTheBest
- gdgt
- MeetGadget
- ProductWiki
- Snowboarding Definitive
- Sortable

BOOKMARK SLIDESHOWS:
- Bookmark Previews (Firefox add-on)
- BridgeURL
- Flem (Firefox add-on)
- Iterasi
- MyJugaad.in
- WebSlides

OVERLAYS:
- Apture
- bit.ly Preview (Firefox add-on)
- Cortex (Chrome)
- CoolPreviews (Firefox add-on)
- Deckkr Rollscreen
- Evri
- HHOTT (Internet Explorer add-on)
- Hoverme (Firefox add-on)
- Identify (Firefox add-on)
- iGlue (Firefox add-on)
- Interclue (Firefox add-on)
- Issuu - Smart Look
- Kikin (Firefox add-on)
- KwiClick (Firefox add-on)
- MashLogic (Firefox add-on)
- Microsoft - Gaze
- ParrotFish
- PopIn (Firefox add-on)
- Quiqee
- SearchMenu
- Snap
- stix.to
- summer
- tldr.io (Firefox add-on)
- Veoh Video Compass (Firefox add-on)
- Vysr

INTERNET TV:
- Boxee
- Chumby
- DivX TV
- Flingo
- Google TV
- LG - NetCast
- Kylo
- Microsoft - Mediaroom
- Open Screen Project
- Samsung Apps
- Sharp - AQUOS Net
- SONY - BRAVIA Internet Video Link
- SyncTV
- TVBLOB
- Yahoo! Connected TV
- YouView
- YourScreen

Why DOS was better for gamers than Windows...

I have to admit my first experience with Windows started with Windows 3.1 on an emulation program called SoftWindows, yes it was slow as hell and the first game I played was Day of the Tentacle. I grew up using Mac OS for games and when I first used Windows I thought it was pretty ridiculous that you had to go back and forth between DOS and Windows. In fact when I first used Windows 95 I thought their plans were to keep DOS around for gaming purposes. However, now that it's a decade later and I'm using Windows Vista, I know that was never what they intended. No instead I now play games for as long as Windows will let me before it shuts my game down without even so much as an error prompt to tell me why.

My reasons for a return to a DOS-like environment for gaming is simple:
- it reduces the number of system resources used to just those needed
- doesn't allow other Windows programs to prompt you while playing games (especially those pesky anti-spyware programs)
- it's brain-dead simple

Sideloading, the future of downloading

I have to give credit to Amazon and Michael Robertson for this idea. I say Michael Robertson because he created the SideLoad website which is where I draw inspiration from for this concept. I also mention Amazon because I've read articles in the past about how they are or were wanting to allow customers to keep a digital copy of all their purchases online. This will gain more relevance to Amazon as they move more and more of their inventory to digital content.

Overall the concept is simple, you go around the internet and save your purchases to a storage space in the cloud (as everyone likes to say). The difference is that this more easily enables you to share things with others to see. In some ways this conflicts with my idea that everything should be available via an unlimited subscription model. However, I'm gonna stay on the safe side and anticipate that they'll still be a strong demand for people to feel like they have some sort of personal ownership.

Does Sony's PS3 movie service really need the other movie picture companies?

There has been some talk that Sony's plan to add movies to the PS3 is in trouble without the other movie companies on board. For instance, this was mentioned on the The Game Reviews blog where they state "it is obvious that Sony will need their support in order to give the service any real weight." I have to laugh at this type of concern. The reason is simple, look at all the other online movie services (ex. MovieLink, CinemaNow). If Sony can guarantee that their whole archive of movies will be available in HD (720p at least) over the internet, they won't need anybody else's archive of movies. Then the other movie companies will be desperate to get their content onto the system just like with iTunes.

However if this is going to be another half-baked service, then yes they need other companies to offer their own half-baked archive of movies too.

Access vs Ownership

In grade school kids often make a big deal about the things they own or think they own. The same goes for some adults as well. However, the future should largely rule this argument irrelevant. I'm betting the future will consist of content distributed based on access rights instead of ownership.

Movies (example: Netflix)
Renting and buying movies will likely no longer exist in the future. Netflix currently has the best example of the future model. If you subscribe to Netflix you can get unlimited access to movies online. Yes that's unlimited just the way it should be. This also means that streaming is the best solution, it also helps cut down on the illegal distribution problems. The only problem is that there aren't enough movies available at the moment, which I blame on the ignorant MPAA and the old-fashioned movie rental businesses like Blockbuster.

Games (example: OnLive, Gakai)
These services are still somewhat unproven but both present the best examples of the future and of what to expect years down the road.

Music (example: Rhapsody, Napster, Kazaa)
Most music retailers are moving to a DRM-free model, which is great and I totally appreciate the change, but in the end I still feel an unlimited-access subscription-based model will be the best bet. Even TechCrunch wisely states, "Streaming music may be the way of the future - especially when reliable and fast wireless technology becomes ubiquitous" which is totally in line with what I've been preaching.

Magazines / Newspapers
This is probably the only thing that doesn't really need streaming but the unlimited-access subscription model certainly still applies. In the case of magazines/newspapers, digital copies of all back issues should be available to subscribers and should also be easily searched. To this day Zinio is one of the most complete digital magazine services I've used.

Advantages of Streaming
- No worries about having enough storage space
- No worries about people stealing (sure I can record my computer screen but for games that's never gonna pass)
- Fewer worries about customers having the appropriate hardware
- More environmentally friendly
- If unlimited, no worries about usage issues

Companies back from the dead

Not to sound like a jerk but I really am surprised that these businesses are coming back to life. I tend to wonder what brings some businesses back to life, after all they failed don't most people like to throw insults and dance on the graves of failures? So anyway I know there are a couple other businesses that have risen from the dead recently which I can't remember (I'll add more as I come across them). So here are the ones that I can remember. The only reason I know Bolt is back again is only because they emailed me, otherwise I haven't heard any of the usual blogs (TechCrunch, Mashable) say a thing.

Nau
This company makes a lot of well designed apparel using environmentally friendly methods/materials. While their designs were great I always questioned their pricing. Perhaps now it'll be a bit different this time around. One other problem from before was the over-use of Flash for their website design, and unfortunately they are still over-using it on the new site. Seriously people stop with the Flash. I have always felt that Flash was great for promotional purposes and I still do. However, using it for your whole website is just crazy unless your website is some sort of elaborate Flash-based application (example: Pandora).

Bolt
Overall Bolt never really offered anything that amazed me much. Nothing really distinguishes it over other networking sites. Why does that matter? I'd say because there are already several good general-interest networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. I only get excited these days when I find a well done networking site that is focused on a niche that I care about.

Sharper Image
The brick-and-mortar stores annoyed me, but their website has actually been a regular resource for me to find things I'm searching for. If they stick with just the website this time around they should do fine but the stores were tacky. Now if only Brookstone would drop their retail act. (Oops nevermind Engadget is already reporting that they will live on as just a brand. Which is practically the worst possible thing they could do.)

Moviebeam - ADDED July 14, 2008
I was kind of happy when this company went under, mainly because it required purchasing another practically useless set-top-box. These things still use wires, ya know. I'd say the only set-top-box worth buying is either an Xbox or PS3, which are game consoles that double as many other things. What gets me though is that people are still trying to make money off boxes you plug into your TV. Talk about re-inventing the wheel, there's a box that already does everything it's called a computer. If more companies would integrate software like Splashtop, then I'd hear even more people agreeing with me.

Webcam Gesture Control & Security Software

These days almost everybody has a webcam integrated into their mobile computer, so why not find more uses for it right? Below are some great tools for using your webcam as a sort of mouse-like tool. Most of the programs will track your head movement, some track eye movement, and others (like CamSpace) track any object you tell it to.

So far I haven't tried any of these but as soon as I do I'll be sure to elaborate more on their functionality. So far I've signed up for the CamSpace beta, but haven't been invited yet.

GESTURE:
- CamSpace (in beta stage)
- EyeTwig
- Handsfree 3D
- Kubree - Virtual Viewpoint
- Mgestyk
- uMouse
- VR-Wear

SECURITY:
- Crime Catcher
- Dorgem (how-to)

Application Shortcuts (Windows Start menu, Mac OS X dock)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that all operating systems have inefficient ideas about accessing applications.

Windows Start menu:
Take a look through the Program Files folder on your C: drive. Now take a look through your Windows Start menu Programs folder. Is one really any cleaner or more functional than the other? How could this be fixed? My belief is that the Start menu should access the Program Files folder directly. This means no more ridiculous shortcuts. Another possible solution is a kind of option that just searches your computer for any and all .exe files. I've had multiple occurrences where the Start menu shortcuts created more problems than they solved.

Mac OS dock:
Sure it's convenient, but only if it has just a few apps on it. Once you start adding shortcuts to everything you start making it's purpose redundant. Why not organize your apps folder into categories, which happens to be more easily done in Mac OS than it is in any other OS. Then put those folder/app categories in your dock and just like that no more shuffling stupid dock shortcuts. If you install a new application, guess what? You don't have to add another shortcut, hooray!

Overall my argument is about redundancies. Why recreate data or content constantly when you can just pull that data from somewhere else? After all it can't be any worse than out-right copying other's content.

Current Trends in Play

Below are just some of the technologies getting a lot of attention recently. Some things like GPUs are in a tight spot because of how the market is changing. Intel wants in on everybody else's turf (SSDs, WiFi/WiMax, GPUs) by bundling their own technologies with their processors. Meanwhile, companies like NVIDIA are getting pretty angry and firing back by partnering with competing CPU companies like Centaur Technology (owned by Via Technologies). NVIDIA may very well buyout Centaur Technology, so don't be surprised if some day your computer has "NVIDIA Inside" instead of Intel.

TRENDS:
- Alternative energy solutions
    - Algae fuel
    - Cellulosic ethanol
    - Solar concentrating PV
    - Solar thermal
    - Waves
- All-in-one (audio+GPU+CPU+physics) chipsets
- External GPUs
    - ATI - XGP
    - ASUS - ROG XG Station
    - MSI - Luxium
- High-Performance-Computing
    - NVIDIA - Tesla
    - ATI - Stream Computing
    - FASTRA
    - ClearSpeed
    - Tilera
    - SpursEngine
- Mobile GPU chipsets
    - ARM - Mali
    - ATI - Imageon
    - NVIDIA - Tegra
- Mobile gaming
    - StreamMyGame
    - Vollee
- Multi-Communication Processors
    - ASOCS
    - NXP - Nexperia PNX6910
- WiFi PAN
    - Ozmo Devices
    - TransferJet
- Instant-on / Web OS
    - Google - Chrome OS
    - Jolicloud
    - Moblin
    - Phoenix - HyperSpace
    - Splashtop
- Opensource smartphone OS
    - Android
    - OpenMoko