Technology Way Back Machine: 1996

For those of you older than 15 - here's a reminder from whence we came: a couple of pictures of a Best Buy circular from 1996.

That's right! You can buy a pager (Google it!) for only $70!



Need an upgrade in your computer memory? No problem - we have 16 MEGAbytes (not GIGAbytes) for only $130! Need more storage - score this massive 3.1 GB hard drive - only $399!



In the market for a new craptop laptop? Check out this baby: 8 MEGAbytes of RAM, 810 MEGAbye hard drive, a whopping 11.3" COLOR display! Now only $2,500!



Oh, and for those of you who are still using any of the items pictured here - ummmm... "perhaps" it's time for an upgrade.

SOURCE

Fred Flintstone Tech in White House

I was reading a story in the Washington Post about President Obama's campaign team was met with Flintstone-esque computers and software on their first day in the White House.

It seems that the Mac-loving staffers were greeted by outdated computers running a 6 YEAR old version of Microsoft Word, no cell phones, were forbidden to use outside email addresses, forbidden to use IM, were told they couldn't use Facebook... and were basically cut off from their digital "life lines."

Yeah, that's the kind of welcome you're hoping for after running one of the most tech-savvy campaigns in history.

NOT!

I can only imagine the let down and the general de-motivation they felt (and probably still are). First of all, for a Mac user to be forced to use a PC is bad enough - but a vintage one running vintage software to boot? Oh yeah, on a DESKTOP machine (whatever that is!) - say it ain't so!

Now, I get the need for the White House systems to be secure, and for there to be processes and regulations regarding what can and casn't be done. I'm also aware that all the "official" work has to be saved under the Presidential Records Act. I have no problem there.

But, one would think that one of the technological superpowers of the world - a country in which the computer revolution was invented - a country that touts one of the most innovative hardware and software epicenters (Silicon Valley) - maybe, perhaps, could get a freaking clue.

After the moronic here's-some-money-with-no-strings-attached bank bailout (version 1.0), and the ill-conceived billions more thrown at antiquated, stupid and wasteful car companies - maybe there's no money left to update the hardware to run Vista - that part I can understand.

However, I'm sure that Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, William Amelio, or Mark Hurd could would be more than willing to cough-up some hardware - and probably Mr. Jobs and Mr. Ballmer would trip all over themselves to offer up a few gratis licenses of their current software.

Make a phone call, people! Oh, that's right - you can't. Well, borrow a quarter, drive to a 7-11 and use something called a "pay phone" ( TIP: Call collect and save the taxpayers some dough, while you're at it) - but make the call.

As for security - we have a couple of little-known agencies called the "FBI" and "NSA" and "CIA" (all with secret budgets, by the way) that just MIGHT be able to help you get some secure phones, secure laptops and can PROBABLY work out how to keep the Viagra spammers from getting the launch codes even though you use Gmail and Facebook. Call them, people!

Barak Obama is the President of the United States of America. One of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. He has promised a new era of transparency into the workings of government, into updating our national infrastructure. We're going to spend over 1 TRILLION dollars helping rescue the economy from the effects of corrupt, stupid and greedy business people - and the Chief Executive's staff can't get a laptop and a cell phone?

Yeah, America - at least we have our priorities straight...

Apple's Recession Pricing

I tried - I really did. I wasn't going to blog about Apple today - but after I put out a "status update" on the social media sites that I wasn't going to blog - I got some Mac-type fans asking me to do so - so... here goes.

First of all - either Apple is unclenching a bit - or their security really sucks - because most of what they announced today was pre-announced by all the gadget sites last week (for a good view of the event today - check out Engadget's coverage).

They did a "refresh" of their entire laptop line - new MacBooks, new MacBook Pros, and a refresh of their 17 inch and 24 inch Cinema displays, and they're really, really proud of a new "unibody" construction process.

YAWN! There was one bright spot - they've replaced all the trackpad with a new, bigger, glass "touchpad" that is gesture-aware. This means that you can now give Apple "the finger" multiple times per day. But seriously, you can use 2, 3 or even 4 fingers to map gestures to common commands. And rather than having buttons to click - the hole trackpad is a button. I'm not sure how that will work with click and drag... but I have to assume they worked it out somehow.

They added a new NVIDIA graphics chip to increase graphics performance "...up to 6 times..." - and they knocked $100 off the low end MacBook.

Yeah, $100.

Everyone was hoping for $200 - to make the thing $899 - but I guess they really, really wanted that extra $100 per unit. It makes sense if you stock fell 40% in two weeks... but really - $100?

To be fair they knocked off $700 from the next-from-the-bottom MacBook - new price $1,299... but the one that people will actually want (with a bigger hard drive and backlit keyboard) is $1,599 - so, in reality, they only did a $200 cut there.

So, it's interesting. They've cut the price points a bit - but in my mind they should have cut them a bit more. If they could have hit the $899 level for the low end MacBook and then priced the next one at $1,199 and the "feature-packed" one at $1,499 - I think people would have just flocked to the stores.

It's only $100 per unit (and I don't know their costs on the thing - but I'm guessing they still have a pretty nice margin) - but the perception by consumers would finally be that Apple "gets it" when it comes to pricing.

As it is, at least they're consistent. They've trimmed a little bit of the price, but if you compare it to other hardware - and the new ultra-cheap "netbooks" - they're still in the elitist, don't-care-if-there's-a-recession, standard Apple pricing mode.

Which is good - if you're Apple.

Bob's Cystal Ball: PocketTops

With the run-up to the iPhone 3G introduction and the changing of the guard over at Microsoft, I got to thinking about the future of computing and about what the landscape will look like 3-5 years down the road.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that within the next couple of years we'll see the decline of the laptops and the increase of mobile devices that will be able to function like our laptops do today.

I think that Apple is trying to build more than just a mobile device - I think they're trying to build an entire platform. The little iPhone has it's own operating system (based on Linux), it's own SDK, and it's linked in to millions of copies of iTunes.

So people will start writing the default applications: games, crm links, word processing, spreadsheets, etc. Apple is moving toward the online synch and storage (mobileMe) and AJAX-ifying it's own applications in the cloud for use anywhere on any platform. They also announced wireless FireWire.

It makes total sense that the iPhone would become a true mobile computer in your pocket - or a PocketTop. I can envision on the road with the "normal" iPhone (and the smaller screen) when on the plane; it would wirelessly connect with a monitor and keyboard in my office; would wirelessly connect to my car's audio system; would allow me to wirelessly connect to a projector in a meeting room; etc.

That would be a device I'd buy in a MINUTE. And, I think a lot of others would as well.

To be sure, there are some technical hurdles - like processor power, battery life, solid state storage and faster mobile (4G) networks that need to be solved before this can happen - but I think we'll see these advances in the next couple of years.

In fact, handhelds are advancing faster than laptops - in terms of memory and CPU prowess. Laptop memory capacity typically doubles every two years, while pocket devices are those gains annually.

To be sure - there will always be room for bigger "real" machines in server rooms, etc. - but I think that about 85%-90% of people who are using laptops today would buy a PocketTop with similar capabilities - assuming they could use it everywhere.

Now I only hope I don't lose it...