iSlate aka Apple iTablet - my predictions

I know that this subject has been beaten to death already but I think it makes sense to talk about iSlate / iTablet here - since I believe it will be one of the biggest SaaS enablers of 2010.

About one month from predicted announcement I would like to look into my crystal ball and share with you my predictins:

• iSlate should come with 3G / GSM module and it will be sold thru telco operators just like iPhone today.
• Most people don't understand that Apple ships ecosystems - not products - iSlate will have default mobileme.com profile to store your data online in the cloud. And sync that data among your devices.
• I'm sure Apple will announce new version of Safari together with iSlate - presenting some cool HTML5 web apps. They would stress offline capabilities of those web apps (HTML5 local store functionality). 

To be honest - I think that iSlate can be first Apple product that will make a difference in the business world - just like Blackberry did for traveling business people. It will by much more convenient to carry around then a small notebook/netbook and with 3G connectivity it'll be always on-line.

We bet on iSlate somehow - our GUI was designed to be easy to use on the tablet/touch screen device - so we will keep you posted on that subject!

Agreement between EU and Microsoft - Browser Wars 2.0

As I stated on this blog before, it's extremely important for the whole Web App / SaaS industry to have users equipped with the fastest and most standards compliant browsers. In our situation, as a software vendor which software runs in a browser, quality is simply crucial. And let's face it - one of the dominant players in this field, Microsoft, has no interest in making their browser to be better. It would be shooting themselves in the foot, wouldn't it? But there is something that may change all this...

Here comes nice Christmas present from European Union - Microsoft has to inform all their users of the possibility to choose which browser they would like to use. And since one of the 3 first logos people will see is Google (ultimately synonym of the Internet) I really do hope that they will go with Chrome.

I mean - just look at this graph - how fast Chrome is gaining market share!

Nexus One - Google phone unlocked

Yesterday I've learned that the new Google Phone rumor is actually something more than just a rumor. Turnes out that some Google employees are already testing this device and it looks like it's all "oh my god so fantastic". What else can they say??

Second rumor is that Google will sell this device unlocked, not paired with any telco service provider. Surprisingly - people think it's A Good Thing!? Is it really? I think it's not good at all!

1. This kind of device needs to be paired with unlimited data plan - who will offer it if not a telco?
2. Distribution channel and marketing - I can not think of a better sales channel then a telco.

And the last thing - it doesn't look that good.

Chrome and Speed Tracer on Mac OS X

Just a quick post to let all web apps developers know how to enable extensions, and most importantly, latest Google tools - Speed Tracer - on Mac.

You must download latest Chromium build and then go to the Terminal and change to the install dir of Chromium.
Next you should issue the following command:

Chromium.app/Contents/MacOS/Chromium –enable-extension-timeline-api


Last thing you should to is go and install Speed Tracer. Happy tracing!

Real-Time Web and Tiger Woods

I have to admit that I was always a bit sceptic about the whole real-time web concept. I mean - there are couple of areas where this thing can be useful, but I always felt that it's a bit of a fad... Until now.

Google introduced it's real-time search and immediately I found it useful - I typed in "Tigers mistresses" and here we go - live update on how many of the them he had... Latest update is that there were 10 of them. Good lord - and he still had time to play golf. Shocking!

As na IT person I immediately connected good 'ol Tiger with Accenture brand and feel sorry for my friends working there. The whole "high performance" concept has totally different meaning now, doesn't it?

And here we go with the real-time web concept again - this could be quite handy to monitor your brand. We should think of incorporating it into our platform. Stay tuned!

Xmas present from Smartupz

I'm sorry for a small delay, but yesterday was Saint Nicholas Day and I thought you may enjoy a little present.