Great points about the lack of journalistic rigor in tech coverage.

Well, it looks like Samsung really did deliberately copy the iPhone feature by feature. Of course anyone paying attention at the time leading up to and immediately following the iPhone’s release should know how all the other cell phone makers went back to the drawing board to change their devices after it was clear the iPhone wasn’t a flop.

I’m guessing that a lot of the people who mistakenly think this lawsuit is about patents on rounded corners didn’t own pocket PCs and smartphones prior to 2007. For those of us who did (me: Handspring Visor Edge, Toshiba e330 Pocket PC, Sidekicks), it was clear as day how much the iPhone changed everyone else’s devices.

It was no mere coincidence, as Samsung claims, that iPhone-like devices were going to become the norm without Apple anyways. That is absolutely ridiculous.

Gene Marks’ trots out the dead corpse of an idea that catering to business customers, with gadgets and corporate services, is the long-term future for tech companies. So he thinks Google will fail because they’re expending too much effort targeting consumers. And while they’re distracted Microsoft will destroy them because the upcoming Surface will be nice for consumers but be a god-send for businesses.

The big problems with this argument are:

• An entire movement called “The Consumerization of IT” – the most successful devices right now are those that resonate for consumers firstly, and these people are either bringing their personal gadgets into work or demanding them from their corporate IT staff. This is a widely accepted fact.
• Specialized software and services that cater to businesses are no longer essential. Although Google Docs hasn’t given Office any major competition, there are myriad cloud services that sync my documents to my laptop, iPad and phone – all of which work for business or personal stuff. Why would we need a separate “corporate-centric” version of these services?

But the biggest reason this theory is DOA? The prime example of a company that focuses more heavily on the corporate market in the tech product and services space is RIM. It was recently estimated by comScore that The BlackBerry, once an essential tool for “serious” business people, has now slipped below 10% market share. And they repeated this same platitude all of the way to the bottom.

It seems like everyone is expecting Apple to release a brand new iPhone – the iPhone 5 tomorrow. Alas all we know for certain is that a slightly upgraded version of the iPhone 4 – an iPhone 4S – is being shown off. Hopefully Apple has some other things hidden up their sleeves. Here are a few possibilities that could sweeten the bitterness of an MIA iPhone 5 tomorrow:

1. Surprise new features in iOS 5 (the next release of the iPhone software due this month):

a. Voice control and recognition system-wide. This would ape another Android feature but if the rumors are true, Nuance is involved. Nuance is best known for Dragon Dictation software but if they’re involved, it could be a game-changer.

b. Apple=branded maps and navigation. Aping yet another feature of Android, although given the typical Apple polish this could also surpass its predecessor.

2. NFC – Near Field Communication for purchases with just your cellphone. We know Apple’s been working on this (due to patent fliings) and Google has already begun their (very limited) test of NFC with Android.

3. iCloud music streaming. As announced (and as currently running in beta), Apple’s “iTunes-in-the-cloud” service only allows users to re-download previously purchased songs But if they allowed streaming, this would realize its full potential. Otherwise they’re not even competing with Google Music and Amazon’s music locker.

Unfortunately at this point it seems likely that only one new iPhone will be announced tomorrow. I hope I’m wrong. But if I’m not, there’s going to be quite a chorus on “mehs” afterwards.

This is incredible: a recording from Apple’s 1997 World Wide Developers Conference.  Specifically, the post-keynote Q & A session with Steve Jobs where he takes questions from anyone in attendance for over an hour and revealing the present future of the company and its products today – over 10 years later.

In this exchange he reveals his vision for the things that eventually materialize as iCloud, mobile apps and simplified application development and more.  He also sports some awesome 90s jeans with patches.

The juiciest spots:

6:30 – Media over-blowing effect of so-called Brain Drain as Apple managers leave and the company (particularly prescient for the last couple of weeks)

14:10 to 17:10 – iCloud (network-based storage and backup)

19:00 – Having integrated software and hardware is not a liability, it’s a key benefit as it allows fast transitioning to new technology (WinTel = 93-headed monster)

24:50 – Apple’s need to promote apps through marketing (became foundation of iPhone marketing)

52:23 – Philosophy: start with user interface then work backwards to the technology (customer’s needs first, then engineering, instead of beginning by asking engineers ‘what can/should we do?’)

1:01:10 – iPhone foreshadowing: Newton sucks and will fail because it’s a 3rd set of system software BUT it missed the boat by not being connected to the internet.  Otherwise it’s just “a little scribble thing”.

1:10:05 – Embrace change at Apple and support it with app development because Apple laying groundwork to be able to zoom ahead of the rest of the industry (which has been true to Apple’s sales alone for the past few years).

[via John Gruber]

If Twitter is integrated system wide in iOS 5 , how do you just create a plain text tweet? All screen shots so people attaching photos or links.

I realize that the lines are blurring but this is a smartphone with an awesomely large screen, you could hardly call it a “tablet.”

This new magazine “format” for the iPad (and other tablets) might look cool, but man does it seem useless for actually trying to read articles.

Imagine a magazine’s pages stretched out across a DVD menu, with small angled copy appearing in only a few paragraphs at a time. What a nightmare.

You know why banner ads are still so maligned? Because when I’m trying to read there’s a bunch of crap moving on the page distracting me. They can have their flashy “interactive magazine” format, I just want to actually read.

Bonnier’s concept seems way more useful, too bad it isn’t real yet.