1. You don’t need it, do you?
Maybe this is the reason to why the tablet-pc-business has failed ever since microsoft and pc-vendors tried to market it in the beginning of 2000. You don’t need it, right? You _can_ manage with the original pc-style of working…

… The iPad is definitely something you can survive without and it will never be a replacement of your PC/Mac/Laptop. It is too constrained and more like a thin client. It is, however, a completely new way of doing computing… It is the easiest gadget on earth that is a complete web-station with everything you need regarding media viewing/web/email/messaging/sharing/caring. It is also the best gadget on earth if you want to show stuff over a table.

2. Why should you have it if you don’t need it?
The iPad could be pretty handy if you want to show pictures to a friend on a café, read an e-book, browse the web in your bed, read news in the bus. It is also complementary to your smartphone since you can write emails faster and get benefits from the bigger screen.

3. Why not just bring a netbook/notebook
Sure.. do that… But you won’t get the same flexibility. An iPad is just like bringing a lab notebook with you. It’s thinner, sleeker and more robust. I own a netbook (eeepc 901 9″). It’s great and of course it has some really great advantages compared to the iPad but it doesn’t enable: Web browsing on the run, instant access to the email with the same simplicity as my smartphone, 10h battery time (even more since you don’t use it 10h in a row), simplicity of touch.

4. Tell me one killer use-case tht is enabled only by the iPad
I can give you 2 use-cases:

5. I have an iPhone/Smart phone so I don’t need an iPad
The smartphone is for other use-cases. The smartphone is by name a smart phone. It is optimized to maximize the number of use-cases you can bring with you in a pocket. The killer use-cases for a smartphone is: Phone , Smart messaging (sms, mms, email), Camera, photo editing/browsing/sharing, music player, Managing your Social Networks by telling where you are and what you’re doing.

The iPad is mostly for browsing the web, reading RSS news, reading e-books, magazines, reading and writing longer email, working while on the run, creative working, showing your pictures for your friends on a café (you can show one picture to seveal people instead of passing around your smart phone), showing presentations while on the run. Basically it’s a merge between a phone and a computer.

You don’t need it but you will smile when you’re using it! I think this is the new way of using computers. You are mostly browsing the web anyway. Why don’t you do it in your most comfortable chair in your favourite book-reading-position The big touch-screen enables thousands of new use-cases. I think it is perfect for DJ-applications, controlboards, media centers and cash register machines for waiters. It could also be a better device for elderly people that doesn’t understand or want a computer.

blogged from my iPad

"Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things" - Randy Pausch

Around 2 years ago I browsed the google video site for interesting video clips that i could download to my upcoming long flight. A lecture by Randy Pausch was on the top 10 next to some MTV videos and a conspiracy video about how the 9/11-twin towers could collapse the way they did.

The title “Randy Pausch, a dying 47-year-old professor gives last lecture” scared me a bit but in the same time I was very curious about why you want to make that kind of lecture. Actually Mr. Pausch was not talking so much about his problems. He wrapped up the good things from the past with great humor and enthusiasm. As he said in an interview: “If I were a musician , I would have composed music. But I am a lecturer. So I lectured”.

Please tell them about having fun, that’s the way I remember you for.
That’s like letting a fish talk about the importance of water.

I don’t know how to not having fun. . .right. . .I’m dying and I’m having fun.. And I will keep having fun every day I have left…

A wonderful inspiration and tribute to life and to being optimistic. I suggest that you give Mr. Pausch one hour of your time and listen to his very inspirational and touching lecture with the subject: How to achieve your childhood dreams… And help others to achieve theirs.

If you don’t have an hour, i recommend you the ten minutes version he made at Oprah

During this lecture Randy talked about his childhood dreams and how he achieved them. He talked about inspiring people and things that mend a lot to him. He also summarized his lessons learned.

Lessons learned

• Bricked walls let us show our dedication. They let us prove how badly we really want things.
• Don’t bail; The best gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap
• Decide if you’re a Tigger or Eeyore
• Never loose the child-like wonder. That’s the thing that drives us
• Help others
• Never Give Up
• Loyalty is a two-way street
• How to get people to help you
  • Tell the truth
  • Be earnest
  • Apologize when you screw up
  • Focus on others, not yourself
• Get a feedback loop and listen to it
• Show Gratitude
• Don’t complain, just work harder
• Be good at something: it makes you valuable
• Work hard…
• Find the best in everybody; no matter how you have to wait for them to show it
• Be prepared: “luck” is where preparation meets opportunity

After the last lecture, Randy made the book “The Last Lecture“. In the book Randy goes through his life and how it changed when he got diagnosed with cancer. It is very clear that this book isn’t about death, a wrap-up or a “hey, look at me” biography. It is a tribute to the hard challenges in life, how to make impossible things or not be limited by low expectations or bricked walls. I strongly recommends this book. It is an inspiring tribute to life. Sad but uplifting in the same time.

Almost all of us have childhood dreams; for example, being an astronaut, or making movies or video games for a living,” said Pausch. “Sadly, most people don’t achieve theirs, and I think that’s a shame.

Have fun, it should never go away!
http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

The Wired CD was shipped together with the newspaper in november 2004 with the sloagan: “Rip. Sample. Mash. Share”.

These musicians are saying that true creativity needs to be open, fluid, and alive. When it comes to copyright, they are pro-choice. Here are 16 songs that encourage people to play with their tunes, not just play them. — WIRED magazine, November 2004 issue (CD was included with magazine.)

Wired highlighted a license form that is very common when it comes to photos and videos thanks to sites like Flickr.com. However, it haven’t succeeded in the music world. Maybe piracy can be one reason?

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that increases sharing and improves collaboration. You can Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally.

During one cold night in August i decided to try to find all the creative commons music i could.

I found a site Jamendo.com that was pretty good. A lot of music gathered. I downloaded about 10 albums that I liked but that was pretty much it.

The amount of music available with creative commons license is still very small. I don’t think it will be a hit. We will get free music anyway with services payed by commercial or monthly fixed fees (Spotify/Pandora/last.fm). Creative commons will still be a niche.

But the 10 albums i found was great!

First of all I must point out that i am not organized when it comes to personal appointments and such but I’m really working on it. I think it is more interesting to find out solutions that make it impossible for me to not organize. These posts are the result from my investigation in some tech that will make it easier for you to organize your life…

Today we have lots of devices around us. Mobile phone and at least one computer. It should be able to control your calendar items in all of them. I think that the web-page-calender-solution is not good enough and want to use calendar applications and sync them all together.

This is possible by using one mother calendar that all your devices sync from. My choice is Google Calendar or Yahoo! Calendar because of their syncing abilities. There is a standard called CalDav that is supported right out of the box in many calendar software and mobile phones . Both Yahoo and Google calendar supports CalDav.

Mac OsX: iCal sync out of the box with CalDav. guide

Windows and Linux: Mozilla thunderbird or Sunbird (calendar only). They support CalDav.

Mobile device: I use goosync and it works great with my SonyEricsson G900! Another solution to use googles own google sync that should work with many different mobile phones.  Iphone supports CalDav right out of the box.

Widgets: Many widgets are available for google calendar or yahoo calendar. I use an Opera Widget at work to check the upcoming activities.

All the calendars will be in sync. If you change in one device, all will change the next time you sync them with your online calendar. Hope this was helpful for you.

By the way .. this solution does not require any cables.

I get the question once in a while.

David, why do you blog…?

Yes, why do I? It’s actually a good question.

The first reason, reason 1: I like blogs, so I want to contribute!

I spend hours reading other people’s blogs… It’s a new great way of getting information from other people. Some blogs are personal and other are about things and interests. They are inspiring and informative. Even if they are about “things” they feel personal. .. . I would gladly meet all these people for a cup of coffee (or two) and discuss, share opinions and information. . . . But, since that’s not possible, I can share my thoughts, (hopefully) inspire some and contribute with my blog.

The second reason, reason 2: I want to write things “off me”.

It is easy to inspire me.. I can find a lot of things interesting. Right now I find technology trends extra interesting. Mobile industry and the rapid Software development give me some busy hours after work. There are not so many people around me that find the subject that interesting to talk about… So I use my blog to write these things “off me”.

The third reason, reason 3: The second thought

If you want to blog about a subject, you also need to give it a second (or third) thought. The world looks different when you walk around with a camera around your neck…

The third reason, reason 4: Control

With my own blog, published on the domain of my family I feel safe. My word is mine. Even if my site is mirrored and stored on Google, Yahoo and so on I still have the control of the database and all the files. I also upload images to my site and they are copyrighted by me and only me

However, i don’t blog because i want attention… I don’t care if I have one million visitors per day or just a few… The joy is all about contribution to the great world of blogs…

I have been thinking a lot about preparing a list like this. When i started to use a Linux based netbook i suddenlly realised that this kind of list does not exist.  Yes. .. .now…..

My main OS is MacOSX for private usage. I use Windows XP at work and have Linux Ubuntu installed in my Netbook. My goal is to give you a complete guide of applications for the all thre operating systems that has the same functionality and is needed for your daily computer usage.

I have all these programs installed in my computers and find them very helpful.

Cheers!
David

Did I say it was swedish?

Spotify is entering the group of listen-to-streaming-free-music. There is a lot of competing solutions as last.fm, pandora, web-radio, podcasts and so on. Great services, but all with one problem: You cannot choose the song yourself.

Spotify is basically an iTunes ripoff but with a huge music-library that you can use directly. You can create playlists, search for new music, listen to webradio etc. Everything is fast and seamless. It’s almost like all the music is on your local computer.

There are 3 different ways to subscribe to spotify. Free, 1-day and premium. Free is free, but with commercial between the songs. You can pay for one day or monthly to skip the commercial.

I only have 1 minus point. The most of the music is old, and no new album that i have checked has been added. Maybe this is something that will be changed now when the application is released as a public beta.

Give it a try at: www.spotify.com

• New UI showing album covers instead of the old “list” that showed every music in your library.
• Genius playlist-function : Analyzes your music like the web services last.fm and Pandora but in your own private music library. When listening to one song, you can simply press the “genius button” and iTunes will generate a playlist of songs that are similar to that song you are listening to. This is a feature that has been on my personal wishing list for a long time and my music library has never been better. The function works perfectly.
• Genius music-recommendation : When listening to one song, iTunes will recommend songs from it’s music store. This is a funny feature and i think i will get a lot of inspiration from this feature.

So, i recommend you to go to iTunes download site and download iTunes. Even if you have an iPod or not. ITunes works perfectly even with other mp3-players. You simply “drag-and-drop” songs from iTunes to the mp3-player.

/David

“Chat is by no means a new concept, as instant messaging systems have been around for over a decade. But just as other features on Facebook have allowed friends to communicate more efficiently than before, we hope Facebook Chat will make it easier to connect instantly.”

The biggest question for me is why we need another im-client. The history tell me that we don’t… When everybody switched from ICQ to MSN, it didn’t take long before there were multiple applications like Trillian or Gaim that supported both the networks.

There is already some applications that supports Facebook Chat. For windows, the best alternative is Digsby. It supports all the biggest networks, some mail accounts like Gmail and Hotmail. It also supports Facebook and Twitter. For mac users that loves Adium, you can download a release of Adium that supports facebook here.

So, what about Facebook chat. It’s the simplest on the market (only chat, nothing else)… But it surely has the amount of active users to succeed. Facebook with chat support is a big competitor to MSN. It is already confirmed that facebook chat will support the open jabber protocol. That will make Facebook an even bigger threat because it will work right out of the box with most of the IM messengers like iChat, Trillian, Adium and Gaim.

If the facebook users will stay online and the users are not stuck with the web-client on the site, the success is guaranteed. Maybe we can get rid of this ugly MSN once and for all…

I was interested in adding a simple (maybe flash-based) addition to my self made photo-gallery written in PHP.

Piclens is a plugin for Safari/Firefox/Explorer
that enables full-screen thumbnail/picure viewing. Before, it was only compatible with big picture sites like flickr, facebook or google image. Now, they have added support for any website.

How does it work?

Read the official webmaster-support site at piclens.

The piclens-plugin works by reading a custom-made RSS-page that is very simple. I simply made RSS-wrappers that created the piclens compatible RSS-stream. A link to the RSS-page
is placed in the header of the page.

That’s it!

If you want to watch the output from my simple RSS-stream
, check: http://david.fredh.net/image/showallimages.php.

So, I’m waiting for you to piclens your site too!

Take Care!
David