Mac Mini???

I started off with this thing as a secondary development workstation and now it's the only one I use, running photoshop, netbeans and all. (Did upgrade the RAM to 8GB tho).

Over the last year I've been able to use a number of devices on a daily basis, not just play with for a couple of hours in order to have an idea. I'm a software engineer and part of my job is to evaluate mobile devices of various sorts and for various usages.

My latest device is a BlackBerry Curve, which I've had for the last three weeks. Usability-wise, the device is very easy and efficient when it comes to texting and calling but anywhere else the software isn't very usable (in most places I'd say cumbersome) and the platform (running 5.2.0.67 on mine) seems very lacking compared to Android and iOS. The menu structure and navigation could have been a lot better and the phone itself isn't very inviting for app-surfing ("where did GTalk get installed now? It's not under Apps. Ah! Instant Messaging folder. But oh my, MSN messenger and Yahoo tagged along in there... oh joy"). Even within the phone app I've spotted many usability hickups.

If most BBs are similar in terms of usability, it's a no brainer that BB is taking the plunge. I haven't set my paws on a touchscreen BB, so things could be totally different there, can't say.

Previous to that I had a ZTE Blade, which for 160 euros is pretty good in terms of build and (especially) battery life. Plain-vanilla Android 2.1 is still rough on many many edges compared to iOS though. On one hand the phone was very inviting to install apps and use them, on the other hand navigation within SMSs and within the phonebook/phone UI was not exactly streamlined. Not to mention the various usability glitches and feature... mishaps still present (one proxy setting for ALL connections, anyone?).

Before the Blade I had a number of Nokias.... which I won't even bother mentioning :| Hopefully they'll make something usable out of WP7 but I'd love them to have given MeeGo a real shot :(

(and yes, my personal phone is an iPhone. The more hands-on experience I have with other platforms, the more I appreciate iOS and Apple's decisions :) )

Tablets aren't exactly competing with netbooks. They're on different target groups.

Tablets are good for and targeted at people who want to mostly use the web and do some light work / playing around without all the hassle of maintaining a full-blown computer (or the hassle of learning how to use one). Thinking of people who would want to use the web but don't know jack about computers, an iPad is the ONLY device I would recommend them.

Netbooks haven't been that successful because they're not properly positioned on the market.
Their specs usually sum up to: small but a bit thick, underpowered cpu, questionable battery life, 1GB ram, WinXP

There are three distinct target groups netbooks could have reached:
- the above group (tablets). NOT happening with winxp or any other desktop OS, not by far.
- people wanting an ultra small/portable laptop with (most of the) performance. I can't think how the above specs would ever entice a good portion of them.
- people wanting an ultra cheap pc for basic net access or to get them started into computers. Given the average netbook specs + price, it seems a no-brainer to spend another $100 and get themselves a low-end laptop (with a decently sized screen) instead.

...why microsoft isn't making ANY progress in the mobile front :)

I sure hope Mundie didn't think that about smartphones a few years back (I read TFA, I know he thinks they're the future now).

But wait a sec... they DO have the tablet market covered! It's called Win7 touch edition! YAY!!

On this one I'll side with Apple. Adoption of WHAT standard? Afaik there's no industry consensus on the matter and each group of vendors tries to push their own standard. Another HDDVD vs Bluray war.

Sure, Google is strong-arming things their way, but I think Apple is playing it wisely here by waiting it out and seeing how this one plays out. It's not like everybody out there is at the edge of their toes about NFC. Let's get real about it.

...that we would eventually get rid of all those annoying Flash ads.

I mean... have you really seen Flash being used for anything else but ads? Really. Especially those annoying ones that make all sorts of noises until you click them. The good uses of Flash I've seen are very very limited. As a developer there was even a time I was very keen on learning Flex myself. But in the end I'm very thankful Apple chose NOT to support it on their mobile devices.

I'd hate to see those ad-creators have a nice tool in their hands so as to bring their lil annoyances to yet one more set of screens.

"Job includes high altitude flights and drinking beer in free fall / a micro-gravity environment"

Only downside is you'd have to drink it in three minutes or so...

In-flight testing for this beer must have been quite a thing I guess :)

I didn't know that that many people had switched away from Windows long enough not to remember the experience...

ah... and to your experience that works the same across all browsers???

...in that MS is not among the companies deciding the future of HTML?

Today MS is harvesting all they have seeded with their utter neglect of standards in the last 10 years: they have now become irrelevant in the market. Maaaaybe they'll play nice with IE9, but they'll always be catching up, not leading the pack.

(much like in the mobile arena with WP7 and tablets running Win7... I'll be surprised if MS makes a dent on those markets in the next 2-3 years).

For all the FUD Mr MCallister is throwing, I can tell him that I've been quite happily coding HTML5 applications for over a year now without any complaints from our users, apart from those still using IE. So, we (developers, and I think I can safely speak for the rest of you) don't mind the "ever-evolving" html5 standards because they mostly and generally WORK!

I'd be more interested to hear about a language that we're currently missing: a strong alternative to JavaScript.

With more and more of the work we do being web-based, JS is currently the only real option we have to do our client-side code in.

Digression:
I know you'll mention java applets and ActionScript, but they're both plug-in based and not everybody is happy about using them.
- I'm happy with Java (being an SCJP), but not everybody is happy about the "plug-in" thing and it hasn't really caught on client-side.
- I tried to dig into AS3 but my instinct tells me it won't catch on. My hunch tells me HTML5 will phase Flash/AS out in the end. Then again, the damn thing compiles into SWF, so dead-end here.

Back in (my) topic: I mean real client-side code, that will run on a browser without any plug-ins. A language with better OO than JS and one that would allow more skilled coders to do stuff. With JS I feel it's more art than science... I feel the language can only reach *this* far and we need something stronger / more expresssive...

I dunno if anybody else shares my concerns, but if anybody is listening, I feel that this is a good time to start rolling something out...

and that's exactly the problem. The bitch won't die!

In my current job I was tasked to update programs written in Cobol *back then*... What a bloody nightmare! So we've decided to write them from scratch (in php, if you were wondering, we're moving them to a web-based front-end plus embedding a thousand or so functionality updates, which make the hassle worthwhile)

I guess many people would vote "go back a few years and pick another wife"

Personally I'd want to go back and meet some philosopher / myst ...

...the possibility that aliens are not really non-native to this planet?

That maybe some species used to live here beforehand and they sort of fly back to see how are the current inhabitants doing? Some particular theories go as far as saying we're the 24th species to walk this planet (or maybe the 24th iteration of some species ;) .
Another plausible view is that they've sort-of been around all along, but either they were out of sight well enough (Martians :P) or they can assume a human physique as desired?

I've been through all the alien-thing scenarios and all the above seem plausible, if you think outside the human box...

Then there's of course the UFO conspiracy theorists/evangelists (for lack of a better term) like Alex Jones, that actually have been warning the people for the last couple of years that this is actually about to happen and that the baddies will be the first to show up and try to pass as our saviours (hinting that the good guys might show up second...)

Anyways... there's a lot of good and bad info out there on these topics and gladly I spent the last year wading through them. For me the bottom line is to keep yourself educated and keep an observant mind about what's happening, both in terms of our "earthly" overlords and their "offworld" apprentices.