Yesterday Steve Jobs announced his latest creation, the Apple iPad.

The Emperor has spoken and it’s very telling. Apple’s present and future is no longer about a fine-tuned combination of hardware and software. It’s also about being the content gatekeeper.

The announcement

We finally know what kind of tablet computer the Apple folks were cooking! Basically, it’s a blend of an oversized iPod Touch and iPhone. At the same time, it’s really a computer; the chip looks much more powerful. It’s supposedly very fast. Like any first generation Apple product, it has a lot going for it while missing a few things. No real surprises except maybe the starting price and very surprised about seeing a touch version of iWorks.

What’s more telling about Steve’s strategy is the lack of support for Adobe Flash. Not that I am very fond of Flash, but it is very telling.

It’s all about control

It’s no secret Steve Jobs is a control freak. It has worked well for him. Since the first Apple computer, Apple has had an aversion for clones. Apple wants to control the whole experience starting from hardware. Forget about having an Orange, a Pear or a Peach. Like Eve, all you need is to get a bite out of the Apple and you’re hooked. (Their logo is really telling). By controlling hardware and software combined with their sense of design and controlled user experience they’ve been able to do what most tech giants still dream of.

But today, controlling the user experience is also all about controlling content distribution.

They’ve done a really good job with iTunes out of distributing songs for people to buy. Then, Apple added an App Store to iTunes to distribute and install software. It made sense: it is more user-friendly and practical. What a success it has been!

Now enters the iPad which uses exactly the same model than the iPhone or iPod Touch. To download and install and application you still need to go through the Apple store. Oh, and you can download books now.

The excuse for the lack of Flash support on the iPhone Safari browser was that it was using too much CPU. It would deter the user experience. It wasn’t a bad excuse. Heck! Flash is known to bring underpowered computers to a crawl. But that excuse doesn’t fly well with the iPad. Those who got to try the device were all raving on how fast it is with its new Apple designed chip.

I do not care that much about the lack of Flash on Web sites. It is usually more a pain than a gain.

On the other hand, Adobe is prepping Flash CS5 which allows to build iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad applications. Who needs Flash support? Adobe is building it in some way! Who needs Adobe Air support on the iPad computer? Here’s a solution!

The thing is these Flash applications will have to be distributed by the App Store and approved and censored by Apple. There is no other way to do it unless you want to break Apple’s terms of use.

That’s why I don’t see Flash being supported natively in the browser on the iPad or the iPhone. It would be a way for developers to distribute software in a Web page without going through the content distribution gatekeeper Apple has become. Do pass go, but we’ll charge a fee on your 200$!

What’s next?

Apple’s announcement of the iWorks software suite for the iPad was quite a surprise to me. Digesting this announcement means Apple does not see the iPad as just an oversized iPhone. It’s also a computer where you can get some sort of work done. With the new screen estate, I can see a lot of exciting business applications being built for this new toy. But again, all these will have to pass through the gatekeeper.

To conclude, I predict we will see App Store support for Mac applications in the near future. It would make perfect sense when you think of it. Users get to download everything in a single place. Invoices are easy to find. You are dealing with a single company you trust. Why download and install something from somewhere else? That’s really too hard and too risky!

I wouldn’t be surprised to someday see a new computer from Apple which will make everything even easier for the computer illiterate. It will support a mouse and keyboard when touch is not yet as efficient. You will be able to get some real work done with it. It will use a blend of the Mac OS and the iPad OS to offer a seamless experience from hardware to content consumption. We almost have this device with the iPad but it’s just a start. In a future near you, your Adobe PhotoShop or Microsoft Office installations for a Mac will probably be downloaded from Apple.

Image source: Bite me in the rain by *sherryetal

Update:

Some interesting articles popped-up on the subject after I wrote this:

• Alex Payne: “On the iPad“.
• Free Software Foundation: “iPad is iBad for freedom“.
• Dave Winer: “Attn Joe: Should we trust iPad?“.
• Adobe Blog: “Apple’s iPad — a broken link?“.
• Fortune Brainstorm Tech: “Behind the Adobe-Apple cold war“.

I’ve been quite busy with work during the holidays. I had a huge mandate to complete for January 4th. This doesn’t mean I’m always at the office. I’m always looking for new way to make my office more mobile.

This is why I’ve been using an IP Telephony service (from Ubity in Montreal) for a year now. With such a service, you can plug your phones anywhere there’s an Ethernet jack.

Location, location

The location where I’m at doesn’t matter. I could be in Mexico, in Europe, wherever and when I use my phone, it’s my office phone calling locally from Montreal.

So, I have a phone plugged in at my office, I have one at home and I have another one at my cottage. When the phone rings these 3 phones will all ring at the same time and I can answer like I was at the office. When I call someone, I always look as if I was at the office. I can be at my cottage and answer as if I was at the office after a day of skiing.

Not only that, I also have software phone support. So, when travelling, I can use my laptop at the hotel to make calls: I just plug in my iPhone headphones (which as a microphone) and I still appear as being in the office when returning calls from clients!

I’ve also installed a VoIP application on my iPhone called iSip. Unfortunately, it does not allow to make calls over the 3G network yet. It only supports Wi-Fi. The cool thing is I can be having a glass of port and smoking a cigar on my terrace and use the phone to call back clients or partners while still looking as if I’m at the office!

The day I’ll move my office, I just need to plug the phone somewhere else and I’m instantly ready to make and answer calls.

Features

This kind of service has all the usual telephony and corporate voicemail features for an affordable price. Calls in North America are free (1000 minutes per months) and calls to countries the other side of the Ocean are ridiculously cheap. On top of that I have features such as “find me” where in my corporate voicemail, people can press a button in my inbox to find me. They get to speak their names while the service calls my cell phone. Then, when receiving the call on my cell phone, after listening to who’s calling, I can press a button to accept or ignore the call.

The downside is I’m extremely reachable. But I often need to be.

The upside is that I can enjoy the pleasures of life a bit more and work where it’s more practical and enjoyable while looking like I’m never leaving my office and even sleeping there!

So, I decided to join the bandwagon and give my predictions for 2010 in technology and social media.

1. We’ll see a new breed of social media curating

As we are more than ever overloaded with information, implicit filtering becomes a must. Are you able to keep up with your RSS feed? I can’t! Do you feel like you’re missing on a lot of interesting conversations shared across your networks? I sure do!
We’ve already seen a bunch of aggregators in the social media landscape as destination sites. The next wave, which will happen this year, will focus on personalized our social media streams based on our social interactions and preferences. We’ll see a lot of innovation in this space.

2. Telcos start adopting a single Android platform

Google’s upcoming Nexus One Android phone proves that Google can’t afford to have a platform where it does not better control the experience in its fight against Apple’s iPhone. I predict we will see many telcos start adopting a unified Android which will be a packaged version of the Nexus One and thelcos will start dropping other Android implementations.

3. It will be the year of BuddyPress

As more and more bloggers become media empires and as different brands want to embrace social media, we’ll see an impressive number of mainstream sites adopt BuddyPress to build their own communities.

4. Bing will integrate social shopping features

As innovation in e-commerce is stagnating outside of Amazon, social shopping will continue to boom. We’ll see major players such as Google, Microsoft and even Apple jump into social shopping. Bing, which already has some focus on shopping, will integrate social features in its search engine.

5. There will be at least one high profile lawsuit against Apple

Losers love their lawyers and success breads jealousy. A major company will have a major lawsuit against Apple. Easy prediction. There probably will be more than one high profile lawsuit against Apple. As a bonus, Apple will fend these off.

6. 2010: the year of the tablet

Another easy prediction. Everyone’s making it. I had to.

The real questions are: Will Windows 7 stand of the crowd with its multi-touch features? Will Android be majorly used? Will Apple’s tablet be great enough? As a side prediction it is sure that Apple fans will drink to cool-aid.

7. More anti-trust investigations against Google

The American Department of Justice and the European Union will open both new probes and investigations into Google’s activities. At least another high profile acquisition will be blocked. It a rite a passage Microsoft had to go through and its Google turn.

8. Facebook to become the next Paypal

In 2010, Facebook will finally launch a payment platform that can be used as a virtual currency. Eventually, users can exchange credits.

9. Facebook e-commerce applications

We will see adoption of Facebook’s payment platform outside of social gaming and we will see it adopted on Facebook Connect sites too. Want to make a donation through Facebook?

10. We’ll see innovation in e-commerce outside of Amazon

I had to make this prediction because I feel e-commerce is still at the 1.0 stage. It’s a matter of time before we begin to see innovation outside of Amazon. I’m making this prediction because you’ll have to stay tuned to Shwowp a new startup from Tara Hunt and yours truly. If others don’t start to innovate, at least there will be us! In any case, it will become true if #9 becomes true.

Image copyright: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glaskugel_CrystalBall.jpg

My friend Michelle, the most famous blogger in Quebec, recently re-opened the Pandora box (text in French) about content piracy. Her case is simple: as an avid Lost fan, she simply has no legal means to watch the first 4 episodes of this season to catch up to her recorded episodes.

Another friend, Philippe Martin, tweeted about an article from France that talks about the 3 strikes law they are looking to adopt in France. In France, some suggested an amendment that propose to intervene only when the downloaded content is already available on the Internet. Interesting idea. In another tweet, Philippe points me to “Quebecor Opens Door to Canadian Three Strikes Policy”.

With the CRTC currently investigating net neutrality and being lobbied by companies such as Quebecor for a law similarly abusive than what a few countries like France want, I decided to play the role of a legislator and ask myself:

What would be the perfect anti-piracy law?

I don’t know if it’s perfect, but I think I came up with a damn good one.

Please note that to simplify the language I loosely use the term content owner. I am targeting the music and movie industry when referring to content owners.

Here’s the draft of my perfect anti-piracy law:

• An individual can download and share digital content from any source unless:
• the content has already been made available for download by the content owner
• the content was never released for personal listening or viewing by the content owner
• the content made available by the content owner is not copy protected

I haven’t talked about any coercive measures. That wasn’t the point. I wouldn’t wish for ISPs to spy on individuals. The point is that if you make content available for download through purchase (or freely with advertising), you are answering the needs of the consumer. You wouldn’t have any excuse to pirate and it would be easier to go against real pirates (those who profit from piracy).

Such a law would be progressive because it forces the music and movie industry to rethink their business model.

For example, no more region locking. If Hollywood wouldn’t make a movie available for download in Canada but would in the USA, it would be fare game for Canadians to download and share freely. It would force them to review global licensing issues.

It would also incite Canadian content owners to offer their content for download across the globe. I think it would benefit artists and everyone involved. I am confident artists would increase their royalties through increased sales.

It’s also important to allow individuals to be able to play the content the way they want to play it. To simplify things for consumers, content should not be copy protected. If I want to play my purchased movie through an iPod, the computer, an XBox, whatever, I should be able to. If I want to play a digital movie I purchased on the TV screen instead of the computer, I should be able to. Hollywood is just realizing, though the Hulu/Boxee saga that digital content can be played on the TV and want to control how users play Hulu’s content. It’s laughable since it is technologically easy to have a browser control play content on any screen, including the TV.

I also think we should force download availability as a prerequisite of content availability. Streaming-only technology put limits on the way we can play content (we need an Internet link). So, if a content is only made available through streaming, downloadable copies should be fare game to individuals.

What do you think?

What would be your perfect anti-piracy law?

I recently went for a week to Los Angeles. I did some geeky stuff like going to the BSGCast Frak party. Plus, at the same time there was an auction for Battlestar Galactica props. So, I had to tweet and make my Facebook friends salivate and stay in touch.

The iPhone is the perfect companion for such events, but you need to be careful with the data usage.

For example, the default data roaming fee for Rogers in the United States is 6$ per MB. Since I use maybe a MB or two per day (or even more), it can add up really fast. I was glad to learn Rogers has a new data roaming plan for the iPhone which costs:

• 10$ per month
• 1$ per MB

As far as I could see, this plan is not yet advertised on Roger’s Web site. When I called Rogers a week ago, I was told this data roaming plan was just recently added.

This means if you think you will be using more than 2MB during a stay in the United States, the plan begins to make sense. You can remove the plan when you come back so you don’t pay 10$ each month.

During my trip I must have used about near 25MB of data. With the 10$ monthly fee and data usage fees, this amounts to 35$ of data roaming fees. It does not come cheap, but it would have cost me 150$ without the plan.

To further monitor and control your data roaming usage, here are must-follow tips for your next trip in the United States.

1. Don’t forget to call Rogers about voice roaming packages if you plan to make or receive many phone calls
2. Call Rogers to enable the iPhone United States data roaming plan
3. Before the plane takes off from Canada, when asked to shut down cell phones, you can activate Airplane mode in Settings
   
4. To minimize unforeseen bandwidth usage while abroad, go in Settings/Fetch New Data and set Push to “Off” then Fetch to “Manually”. This way, you will only download new emails when going to look at your emails.
   
5. In Settings/General/Network, set Data Roaming to “Off”. If you plan to use only Wi-Fi you would leave that there always when abroad. However, even if you plan to use data roaming, it’s a good idea to disable it before arriving at your destination.
6. Clear your usage statistics. Go in Settings/General/Usage and press the “Reset Statistics” button. You need to scroll down the Usage page to see this button. This will clear your Cellular Network data usage.
   
7. When arriving at destination, leave the Airplane mode and put back data roaming to “On”.
8. During your stay, you can monitor your usage statistics to keep track of how much you will be paying for your stay.
9. When coming back to Canada, put back your Data Roaming to “Off” to be sure it’s off if you ever go to Europe or another country where data roaming rates would cost you a pension.
10. Don’t forget to call Rogers again to remove your data roaming plan from your account.
11. Remember that browsing Web sites can consume a lot of data. Refrain from visiting too many graphics-heavy Web sites. Try to browse iPhone optimized Web pages or use specialized applications. You will consume a lot less data and it will reduce the extra fees that will appear on your invoice.

EDIT 2009-01-22 23:34

1. Funny thing! A few hours after my post, my wife, Kim Vallée, independently posted on the same subject here. We didn’t even knew about each of our similar posts! Of course, we had extensively discussed the subject, which explains the eerie similarity of our posts.
2. Highlighted some key words and the title after some tweets. Seems the new US data roaming plan is news to some.