The Steve Rubel Lifestream

Daily links, insights, photos, videos and more on emerging technology. 
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November 19, 2009

The Apple "Tablet" and Chrome OS are Meaningless - the Phone is the Future of Computing

If you're paying any attention to the techosphere today there are two stories dominating the headlines. Both involve non-shipping products.

First, Google showed off the first demo of its Chrome OS. Download Squad does a nice job breaking it down....

"So what exactly is Chrome OS? It's an operating system based on a web browser called... Google Chrome. The idea is that you won't have to (or be able to) install a single application directly on your PC. Rather, all of your apps will be run from the web and all of your data will be stored in the cloud."

Second, a mythical unicorn called the Apple tablet, which I don't believe exists - at least anymore, is rumored to have slipped to late 2010. Like Google Wave the "iTablet" doesn't solve problems so I can't be bullish about it - yet. Ian Paul seems to be the lone voice of reason ...

"These rumors are getting so ridiculous that I think it's time we accepted the truth: the Apple tablet is dead; in fact it probably never existed."

So why do I think these stories are meaningless? Simple. Your phone, my phone - any smartphone - will become our primary portable computers long before these two products catch on in the mainstream. For the more adventurous among us, it's already happening. Chris Rawson writes about 33 products his iPhone made obsolete. It's not just about the iPhone either. Any smartphone - Android, Palm (a client), Blackberry, WinMo - will soon do double duty as PCs, turning all the above two products into vaporware. 

Why? Simple. Moore's Law. Already an 64gb iPod Touch has enough on-board storage to easily hold two operating systems, OS X and OS X mobile. Apple is even billing it as a pocket computer. As processor speeds increase and full graphics systems get embedded onto single chips, the phones will soon be able to embody a PC experience as soon as they get near a flat screen TV and a keyboard. Some data will be locally stored but the rest will be in clouds - either your personal cloud or your employers. Want a clamshell keyboard and screen like a laptop? No problem, soon we'll see "dumb shells" that encase phones so they can do more on the go.

So take today's news with a grain of salt. The phones are going to be where the action is for the vast majority of users. It's good enough. And the pace of change in mobile will be rapid.

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Filed under  //   essays   mobile   trends  

Comments [27]

November 17, 2009

Ten Common Phrases That Could Soon Be History

Earlier this week Oxford University Press declared "unfriend" its word of the year. This got me thinking... now that we are entering an era of media reforestation what common phrases could soon be history? Here's 10 that I came up with. You may disagree but I believe all of these have faded or will be gone soon. (All images are from Flickr via Creative Commons and are credited.)

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Filed under  //   culture   media   media reforestation   trends   writing  

Comments [35]

November 15, 2009

Google Fast Flip Nearing Launch?

Google Fast Flip appears to be nearing a full integration into Google News. I wasn't able to replicate this in other browsers so right now this appears to just be a cookie test. Stories from Google Fast Flip started appearing at the bottom of my page - even when I logged out of my account.

In addition, Google News searches now show links to Fast Flip results at the bottom of the page. This is visible to all users.

Update 11/16/2009 - Chris from Google News notes in a comment below that this is indeed a test.

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Filed under  //   Google   Google News   UI  

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November 15, 2009

Reviews Stripped from Google Search Options

I make heavy use of Google Search options in refining my queries. I was surprised this morning to see that the "reviews" option is now gone. This was one of the more handy features. Anyone have any insight here?

Search Options before (image via Search Engine Land). Note under that "Reviews" is the last link under "All Results."


And now today...


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Filed under  //   Google   personalization   SEO  

Comments [5]

November 13, 2009

The Next Big Trend? It's All About Curation

Fact: Information sources are exploding. More information will be created in 2009 than all prior years.

Fact: Attention is finite. We're becoming media agnostic, but when we're interested in something we dig down into our interests.

This is why I and others like Robert Scoble are really excited about digital curation. Facebook and Twitter lists are one level of curation. However, there are others. Posterous and Tumblr are fantastic platforms for soliciting contributions from groups of people around a shared interest. And they're platforms that will enable all of us to curate together.

Here are a handful of places where you can see curation at work (more in the gallery below as well) ...
  • My Parents Were Awesome is a group-contributed tumbelog that honors our elders. It has received national recognition.
  • PopURLs Brown by UPS curates information all around business news (UPS is an Edelman client but we didn't build this site)
  • Microsoft and Nissan have built entire brandstreaming sites that showcase conversations around their brand (Edelman built the Nissan site)
  • Sawhorse Media is creating a next generation media company by curating tweets in different topics like pets and now lists too
  • IBM is using Tumblr to curate ideas for a smarter planet
Do you agree that curation - both automated and human-powered - is the next big thing? This isn't just aggregation. As I wrote in my initial post on the subject it's about separating art from junk online.

           
Click here to download:
The_Next_BIg_Trend_Its_All_Abo.zip (1779 KB)

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Filed under  //   brandstreaming   curation   lifestreaming   Posterous   trends   Tumblr  

Comments [32]

November 13, 2009

Simple Security in Just Two Steps

It never ceases to amaze me just how careless some people are with their passwords. These days we all need to be smart and vigilant. Farhad Manjoo put together a simple way to secure your online accounts. It has only two steps.

"Start with an original but memorable phrase. For this exercise, let's use these two sentences: I like to eat bagels at the airport and My first Cadillac was a real lemon so I bought a Toyota. The phrase can have something to do with your life or it can be a random collection of words—just make sure it's something you can remember."

and then...

"Turn your phrase into an acronym. Be sure to use some numbers and symbols and capital letters, too."

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Filed under  //   lifehacks   privacy   security  

Comments [8]

November 10, 2009

Google Makes Two Ranking Changes Per Day

Satisfied with your Google ranking? It just may change before the day is out. Marissa Mayer on Google's race against spammers...

"We have two, three, five changes every week that are visible to the end-user in the user interface. We don't [publicize] the ranking changes. We are making changes to our ranking algorithm at the rate of two per day. Interestingly, some of our competitors haven't made any changes to their ranking function for quite some time. Search needs to evolve: the user interface, the ranking function. It's a process of making lots of small changes all the time and to constantly make things better."

Now factor in personalization and that people are using more words per query and you get the sense that SEO as we know it really could one day be extinct.

 

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November 10, 2009

The Case for a Status Update Standard

LinkedIn and Twitter announced a status update syncing arrangement yesterday. From LinkedIn...

"The idea is simple: When you set your status on LinkedIn you can now tweet it as well, amplifying it to your followers and real-time search services like Twitter Search and Bing. And when you tweet, you can send that message to your LinkedIn connections as well, from any Twitter service or tool."

We're seeing a movement toward status syncing, There's this partnership but also the emergence of tools like Tumblr, Ping.fm and Posterous, which can also accomplish the same across multiple services. 

So, why doesn't Twitter and others team to submit the status update to a standards body? This will ensure that we don't see a repeat of what occurred with incompatible instant messaging services. If there's one protocol that everyone can adopt and build off of, it will make the real-time web faster, easier and more innovative. Let's hope this is a first such step.

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Filed under  //   LinkedIn   social networking   status updates   Twitter  

Comments [7]

November 6, 2009

Five Incredibly Useful Things You Can Do Without Ever Leaving Facebook

I have been spending a fair amount of time on Facebook since they updated the news feed feature, mostly because I can get a quick read on what's new. I like how they show you "trends from friends." In the process, I am discovering that it's becoming a one-stop shop for many of my day-to-day activities. Here are five things that I recently found you can do right from within Facebook without having to leave...

1) Read, search and post tweets via Twitgether, a full-featured Twitter client

2) Watch TV streams via Hulu

3) Catch up with the local weather, using WeatherBug

4) Read blog and news RSS feeds with Frontpage News

5) Follow sports scores and more via Citizen Sports

         
Click here to download:
Five_Incredibly_Useful_Things_.zip (790 KB)

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Filed under  //   Facebook   tips   Tools  

Comments [10]

November 6, 2009

Moms More Influenced Offline, While Kids Are Online

Two new studies point to a growing divide in how moms and kids communicate and are influenced...

First up, Nielsen/Pete Blackshaw's Pocket Guide to Social Media and Kids:

"In the hands of children and tweens, today’s cell phones are primarily used as text messaging devices, cameras, gaming consoles, video viewers, MP3 players, and incidentally, as mobile phones via the speaker capability so their friends can chime in on the call."

And, via AdAge, parents are relying more on offline conversations to make decisions:

"A study due out next week from the Parenting Group found that while moms are avid web and social-media users, they still turn to family and friends first, whether by phone, e-mail or in-person, when making decisions about product purchases."

More in the images below.

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Filed under  //   demographics   kids   moms   stats  

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