Mario Fantoni's Blog

9 Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime

 

1. The Post Office
Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Check
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with check by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the cheque. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The Newspaper
The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book
You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone
Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes

6. Music As We Know It
The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalogue items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

7. Television
Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. Local Storage
Many of the very possessions that we used to own now reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device.

9. Privacy
If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.

All we will have left that can't be changed are memories.

Google+: Can't Live With It, Can't Live Without It

 

Google and Facebook are both trying to gather as big a user base as possible, in order to exploit those users' identities and make lots of money in the process. Google's integration of Google+ into its core search service should dispel any illusions that the company's social platform will die the death of its predecessors. Yes, Google+ currently feels like a nerd sanctuary, and yes, the company screwed up previous social efforts such as Wave and Buzz, but Google is deadly serious about this one. Wave and Buzz were experimental. If Google+ were to fail, it would now take — at the very least — a huge chunk of Google's reputation with it. The only way in which this could be avoided is if people loathe Google+ so much that they actively disable it en masse for their Android phones, Google Search and the rest — if that happens, then Google could ditch it and few would notice. People are generally apathetic about such things, so that won't happen. 

So what does this move do for Google? The company is already king of the search world, with an 80 percent global market share. This move is unlikely to increase its share, as search, rather than Google+, remains the driver here. It may create a unique-enough experience to fend off Bing, which people are starting to realize is a decent alternative, but then again it could send people Bing's way if it skews results to too great a degree. But Bing and the Bing-powered Yahoo search collectively have around nine percent market share. Baidu has ten percent, but that's mostly a China-specific service. Google's position in the search market is not seriously under threat.

The real rival here, of course, is Facebook. And the funny thing is, despite the fact that Google+ and Facebook are both social networks, I'm not even sure that characteristic is in itself the battleground. You know that annoying thing when you install a new browser or service and the damn thing keeps trying to get you to change your homepage? That's what this war is about.  The two companies are coming at it from different sides, of course. Facebook started with social networking and is now using platform-specific apps to make sure people who want to follow a shared link don't have to leave Faceland to do so. Google, being first and foremost a search company, is coming at it from the other side. While iGoogle has its uses, it is too cluttered a portal, so Google is using the social element to keep its search engine the de facto entry point and standard browsing launchpad. It's a defensive maneuver, but it may work.

As for you and me, the users, it can at least be said that we don't have to put up with 'Search plus Your World' if we don't want to. I would certainly advise those who already grumble about Google's results-tailoring cookies to toggle the new service off.

And I'd also advise people to stop predicting Google+'s imminent demise. It could happen, but don't hold your breath.

Siri Doesn't Like Planned Parenthood

I don’t think Apple really wants to keep its customers from finding abortion services using Siri, the voice-based automated assistant built into iPhone 4S’s. Has been more than a month since the problem was reported on CNN, and Apple has been remarkably obtuse on the issue, making statements that deny intent, deny culpability, yet at the same time seem evasive. It’s time for Cupertino to learn a lesson in damage control.

Visit any Apple store and you’ll see it. Those Apple kids in their t-shirts are friendly and helpful and good at their jobs but don’t you get the sense that they’re drunk on Apple-Aid? They know what they can and can’t, will and won’t do for you and for all the tattoos and Converse sneakers they aren’t going to go a millimeter over that line. And then there’s their sense of time — AppleTime — which is different from yours and mine, have you noticed? They live in the zone, while we’re just visiting. This is fine when things are going beautifully and customers are lined-up down the block, but how well does it work when things aren’t going right, like in this Siri situation?  Badly. 

Apple comes off looking insensitive and smug. They blamed the problem on Yelp, its supplier of local business data, which could well be correct, but Apple never said "and we’ll fix it right away." Then they blamed the problem on Siri being in beta. I didn’t know that, did you?  Siri is part of IOS 5, is that in beta?  I didn’t know that and I suspect most of the folks at Apple didn’t know that.  In fact I might even go so far as to wonder if it is even true? Blaming beta software for bad performance is Google’s bag, not Apple’s.  That was a stupid PR move and stupid PR moves happen when companies panic. Which suggests a leadership vacuum of sorts at Apple. With Steve Jobs gone, the company has told itself and told the world that it won’t try to second-guess Steve’s ghost — no asking “what would Steve do?” But what happens if they don’t have a ready answer to the question “What should Apple do?” I think that’s what we are seeing here.

Ironically Apple appears to have fallen into this very abyss. They are so caught up in their own process of information and damage control that the actual problem with Siri doesn’t appear to matter to them. Their statements suggest things will improve soon. This is an example of AppleTime. Why should it take that long to fix?  It shouldn’t and it won’t, but Apple appears to not want to empower us by communicating honestly.  They want to surprise us by fixing it yet don’t respect us enough to explain the plan.

Their first thought is to dissemble, not to accept responsibility. They seem to think solely about how this abortion incident could hurt them, not how it could be a chance to show Apple’s character — a chance to have character. Everyone appears to be too busy to try to actually fix the problem. Maybe after 16 years Steve forgot his own lesson, but I’m guessing that if he read this post he’d get it right away. And Steve would learn from it, because he was one guy who wasn’t afraid to admit when he was wrong.

My First Donation to Wikipedia

How many times on Wednesday did you do a web search that led you to a Wikipedia page that then didn’t load because of that site’s SOPA protest?  I didn’t notice the effect immediately but once I did I was later able to go back through my browser history and see that I tried and failed to open a total of 13 Wikipedia pages.  Whether you give a damn about SOPA or public protest, this experience has given me a whole new respect for the role Wikipedia has come to play in my life and probably yours. As a result I made a small donation to Wikipedia around lunchtime then was frustrated the rest of the day for not being able to access it.

As for the SOPA/PIPA protest itself, I sympathize. But in my view what we have here is mainly a conflict of business models, dying industries, and really, really poor design that will work itself out over time. Remember the record album — the vynil LP?  Some were great, most were not. Too many B tracks if you ask me. The music industry has long had a problem of value.  The groups I liked sometimes didn’t have many good songs.  The record companies would put one or two good songs on an LP or CD, then throw in 10 more that weren’t so good.  All we wanted were good songs at a reasonable price, which didn’t mean the 15-20 percent yield we were getting from albums.

Then came iTunes and all those problems went away.  iTunes did more than just sell the songs the record companies were pushing: they sold whole collections of music.  As a result, more, not less, music was sold, most of it the good stuff. Music — if not the recording industry — is better as a result. Steve Jobs proved thinking about the consumer is very good business.

Now we have SOPA and PIPA.  I would like to have the same ability to build an online movie library as I have done with music, but there are big problems with this, starting with Windows Media Center and, yes, even iTunes — pretty good products in their own right that protect the copyrights of stored content.  That part is okay.  But they have very little third party support.  Then there is the problem of content.  I can buy only a fraction of what I’d like to get and it is scattered over several suppliers.  If the movie and TV industries think I am going to subscribe to 5-10 services for $10-25 a month each, they’re nuts.

The movie and TV industries are doing now exactly what the recording industry did before iTunes.  SOPA and PIPA will die but they’ll be replaced with something just as bad because politicians need votes and producers are afraid of the future — a future that’s coming no matter what the entertainment industry does.  For the money they are spending on lobbying, a design team could develop a new system that would make more money by exposing more content, not less, enabling new business models in the process.  At least that’s my take on it.

Why PIPA and SOPA Suck

In case you haven’t heard, PIPA (PROTECT Intellectual Property Act) and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) are bills working their way through the US Senate and House of Representatives, respectively.  They both propose giving the government the power to censor web sites in much the same way that China, North Korea, and Iran censor web sites today.

What? How can this be, you ask. This is America, land of free speech and due process, which are both kind of fundamental to the whole American dream thing. And yet, it’s true. If PIPA/SOPA pass in anything resembling their current form, it will have a chilling effect on Internet free speech. Here’s why:

1. The bills hold websites accountable for content posted by their users

The bills essentially do away with the safe harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the current US law protecting copyrighted material on the Internet. Under the DMCA safe harbor, sites like YouTube and Facebook are not responsible for the content posted by their users as long as they take down copyrighted material when they are made aware of it. As it stands today, if someone posts on YouTube a bootleg copy of Rob Schneider’s 1999 opus “Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo,” YouTube cannot be put out of business as long as it has a reasonable process for taking down the infringing content. Passing PIPA and SOPA will change this.

2. PIPA and SOPA would let the government compel other companies to stop doing business with or linking to offending sites

The bills would allow the government to order ISPs to shut down web sites like YouTube and Facebook that it finds have violated copyright laws by distributing or allowing their users to distribute protected content illegally. For sites outside the US jurisdiction, the bills allow the government to force DNS providers to stop resolving offending domain names, force search providers to stop returning links to offending sites, and force advertisers to sever relationships with offending businesses. 

3. The bills fail to consider the true costs of compliance

Specifically, the bills fail to consider: the technical feasibility of compliance, the  burden that compliance would place on companies, the potential damage done by errant takedown orders, and the impact that these acts might have on the underpinnings of the Internet itself. For example, if offending sites are removed from search engines, the DNS, and other directories, it would create “black holes” in the Internet.

No one is arguing in favor of copyright infringement. Such actions are clearly illegal and wrong. But the DMCA and other copyright laws provide ample protection and remedies designed to compensate copyright holders and bring copyright violators to justice. Chilling free speech on the Internet, imposing undue economic and technical burdens on non-infringing companies, inviting international tit-for-tat web site blocking, and involving the technologies and systems underlying everyone’s Internet experience in a legal tug-of-war to eradicate copyright infringement is a terrible idea.

Why Big Companies Abhor Change

There’s a great TED Talk by Simon Sinek about how great leaders inspire companies by asking "why?"  I think it also goes a long way toward explaining why big companies don’t handle change well.  It’s not that they can’t ask "why?", it’s that the answer doesn’t make sense at their scale, though it should. Times change and big companies don’t like to change with the times.

At the opposite end from big industrial companies sit startups, nearly every one of which begins with an effortless expression of "why?"  Big companies ask "what?" then "how?" but almost never "why?" according to Sinek, who I think has it absolutely right. But good startups are motivated from birth by "why?" Nearly every good startup begins with "why?" and that"why?" is traditionally quite simple — because the founders want one for themselves. A hardware device or software application doesn’t exist and they’d really like one, so they invent it. For startups "why" is easy. If it isn’t easy then you probably don’t have a good startup. If as a founder your answer to "why?" is “to get rich” you are in the wrong job. Applied to a more mature company, looking at Apple we can see the why of the iPod and iTunes was “to take your entire music collection with you wherever you go.” That sort of thinking isn’t common in big companies. Some of this is due to scale, some due to arrogance, and some to simply losing their way.  But no matter how big a company grows, asking "why?" is still vital for continued success. They just don’t know it.

Back in 1986 Adobe launched Illustrator, Adobe’s first consumer product. The "why?" for Illustrator was “because (Adobe founder) John Warnock wants a drawing program,” which is a classic startup reason. The business plan had the new consumer division with a net-net positive cash position of $87,000 after five years. Millions invested creating an entire new business for a new set of customers through a completely new distribution channel for a lousy $87,000? Most companies would never have done it. Yet if you look at Adobe’s market cap of $13 billion today probably 90% of that is based on consumer and professional software that began with Illustrator. That $87,000 grew to $13 billion over 25 years.

Adobe was lucky to have a curious founder still at the helm. It was lucky to be making enough money to risk a few million on an alternate future, too. But 2011 is nothing like 1986. Looking five years ahead for business justification isn’t done any more because five quarters is a long time in business today.  But then the average CEO tenure is also four years, so what? And that’s why big successful companies roll over and die.

Why Amazon Owns The Internet

If Apple gives up its position of industry leadership in 2012 the only company capable of assuming that role is Amazon.com. What other company is there?  In the PC space giants like HP and Dell are good followers, not leaders. Intel doesn’t even see itself in such a leadership role. Microsoft is having trouble just holding onto what it has already while Google is a herd of cats. Oracle is too enterprise-centric and everyone else is too small. That leaves Amazon.

True, Amazon lacks Apple’s design sense, but Amazon has shown through its many Kindle models an ability and willingness to learn. This is a big deal. Most companies (heck, most people) don’t really learn anything unless they are in trouble. One company can copy another, sure, but fully adopting another company’s philosophy almost never happens except in desperation, which is usually too late. Amazon is different. They are willing to do the work to get things right. Today’s Kindle Fire is far from perfect but tomorrow’s Kindle Fire will be much, much better. It took Microsoft ages to get to Windows Phone 7. Amazon can do it quicker.

Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos is the only person that can take Steve Jobs' role. Being led by a brilliant inspired founder is essential as Jobs showed through his return to Apple. Presently Bezos is the only CEO of the companies mentioned here who has the scale of Steve Jobs. Bezos is willing to make big bets on new markets. Beyond Jobs even, he’s willing to accept financial losses as a cost of making those bets. With another decade or more available to him as CEO, absent some horrible accident, Bezos is unstoppable. This is the part that many people don’t understand: Amazon can scale its business to a level far beyond anything Apple could ever have imagined.

Steve Jobs had extraordinary success at Apple, growing the company more than 300 times in market cap, but how much more can Apple grow?  Apple as envisioned by Jobs could grow to be the biggest computer company, the biggest consumer electronics company, the biggest music company, the biggest telephone company, and the biggest TV company. That’s big, but it’s an imaginable number — a number with very real limits. But Amazon competes with all those same companies and Walmart. I don't think Apple would never sell cars, for example (I may be wrong here, chack the Mini Scooter E Concept on my post below "My Favorite Tech Products of 2011"). Can you see Amazon selling cars?  I can.

Amazon is willing to do the hard work and make the big bets to assume Apple’s leadership positions in computers, music, video, and consumer electronics. Then they’ll translate that into every other customer-facing industry as well as the Cloud. Amazon.com will be the world’s first $1 trillion company — may be not in 2012, but eventually.

My Favorite Tech Products of 2011

 

iPhone 4S

It wasn't the iPhone 5 that everyone hoped for. But the iPhone 4S is a darn smart smartphone, punctuated by a superior camera and the Siri personal voice assistant. The Siri voice is cool, funny and, yep, helpful — I found no better way to set the alarm clock on the iPhone. Siri is far from a finished feature, though, which is why Apple considers it to be still in beta.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the battery problems plaguing some 4S owners, which Apple owned up to when it brought out an iOS 5 software fix.

As for iOS 5, it's at the forefront of the iPhone 4S, along with the iPad, iPad 2 and recent versions of the iPod Touch. Among other features, it provides a handy Notification Center and Reminders app, improvements to the Safari browser and, of course, iCloud, the ability to store music, photos and documents online and keep everything current across all your iOS devices.

 

 

"Sweet" Mobile Operating Systems

I'm speaking of Google's Android version 4.0, known as Ice Cream Sandwich, and of Windows Phone 7.5, known as Mango. The sweet Ice Cream Sandwich update showed up late in the year on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, initially available in the USA from Verizon Wireless. Ice Cream Sandwich boasts some neat, if imperfect, features, including Face Unlock or the ability to unlock your phone when you stick your face in front of the screen. Galaxy Nexus lets you take advantage of NFC chip technology to exploit a feature called Android Beam. With it, you can share a YouTube video, Web page, map and so on with another phone by holding the Galaxy Nexus back to back against another NFC-capable Android device. Unfortunately for now, Verizon isn't letting you use NFC to make mobile payments via Google Wallet.

Mango has a slick so-called Metro-style interface built around fresh, dynamic, colorful Live Tiles. You have the expected Microsoft tie-ins with Bing search, Xbox Live, Zune and Office. And while Microsoft still trails badly in the apps sweepstakes compared with Apple and Android, the Mango software does a terrific job of integrating apps into activities and showcasing apps in search results. Mango fixed a number of prior Windows Phone shortcomings, adding for example visual voice mail and custom ring tones. The software is or will be available on several handsets, including the new $50 Nokia Lumia 710 that is coming out next month.

 

 

OS X Lion

OS X Lion is the eighth major release (in 10 years) of the Mac's OS X operating system. This latest feline is a beautiful, finger-friendly operating system that adds 250-plus new features, from handy reading lists in the Safari Web browser to clever special effects in Photo Booth. It is no accident that with Lion, Apple takes the Mac closer to the habitat of the iPad.

 

 

Ultrabooks

Chip giant Intel is fanning the flames for ultrabooks, thin and light Windows computers that seem to have  been inspired by Apple's MacBook Air. I reviewed early ultrabooks from Acer and Asus, but models are available from Lenovo and Toshiba, with others likely on the way. Such machines are light and responsive — they come to life in a jiffy — and they promise decent battery life. Just like the Air, the ultrabooks I've seen lack optical drives and removable batteries and, at a grand, give or take, tend to be on the expensive side.

 

 

Spotify

The list of music services competing for your online listening pleasure is long: iTunes, Pandora, Slacker, Rhapsody, MOG, Rdio, Napster, Amazon Cloud Player, Google Music, on and on, each appealing in some way. And yet European import Spotify still stood out in its U.S. launch in July. You get free on-demand access to 15 million tracks. Pay $4.99 a month, and you can listen to that stuff ad-free. Splurge for $9.99 a month — still a bargain for music lovers — and you can listen on your mobile phone, listen offline and stream at a higher quality. Spotify boasts Facebook integration, easy-to-discover music and the ability to share playlists. Spotify is adding apps, including a Pandora-like radio service and an app that supplies lyrics.

 

 

Nintendo 3DS

I'm more of a casual gamer than a die-hard. But I appreciated the notion of 3-D gaming without glasses. It took me awhile to get accustomed to the stereoscopic 3-D technology on the 3DS, and I was put off by the initial $250 price tag that has since been dramatically reduced to about $170 in light of sluggish sales and competition from games on smartphones. Still, the 3DS is fun, and I especially liked some of the AR, or augmented reality, games.

 

 

 

Competitors to iPad

I believe the iPad 2 is second to none among tablets. But I welcome spirited competition, from the e-book side (Barnes & Noble with Nook Color and Nook Tablet, Amazon with Kindle Fire) or from a broader perspective.

The beautiful Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 became the first Android tablet to exploit Verizon Wireless' blazing-fast 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network. Downsides: costly data plans and disappointing battery life.

One Android tablet that caught my eye late in the year is the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the best Android slate I've seen from a hardware perspective: fast, attractive, generous with power. It has a clever dock accessory that adds a physical keyboard, extra battery life and extra ports. Android needs more tablet-specific apps. And I've never been wild about Android software for such slates. But the promise of upgrading the Asus to Ice Cream Sandwich may improve the experience.

 

Nest Thermostat

A thermostat with sex appeal? Nest takes a sledgehammer to preconceived notions of what a thermostat looks like and how it operates, whether you're in front of it or accessing it remotely from an iPhone or iPad. It takes advantage of cloud computing, and it learns from your behavior. The stylish hockey puck of a device wakes up as you approach. There is a proximity sensor along with other sensors for temperature, humidity and ambient light. It costs $249, more than your typical thermostat.

 

AND MY TOP FAVORITE OF ALL...

Mini Scooter E Concept

While Minis are well known for their small compact scale, their latest vehicle takes it to a new level because the new Mini is actually a scooter. The Mini Scooter E Concept, as it is called, was unveiled in February of 2010. The electric scooter was designed by BMW director of design Adrian Van Hooydonk. It charges through a plug-in system and features a docking station for smartphones which also serves as the key to start the engine. Special software on the device then acts as a GPS system for the scooter and also notifies users when other Mini Scooter riders are nearby...Wow!

PS. See the Mini Scooter E video here.

 

 

UPDATE (01/13/12) BY POPULAR DEMAND...

 

Nikon 1 V1

Nikon had always struggled to make a great compact digital camera, and it didn't take long for the compact SLR V1 to come out. The screen at the back is impressively bright and very responsive. The speed of the new sensor is astounding. While every other manufacturer struggled to produce an amazing new product, Nikon gets my vote for producing one of the most innovative and top-performing cameras ever.

My Favorite iPhone/iPad Apps

(Let me know if your favorite is not on the list ok?)

USEFUL

• AT&T NAVIGATOR - Not a real GPS but it works. Will get you there. $10/month.
• BUMP - Bump somebody's phone to transfer files, pics, etc. Fun - try it.
• FLASHLIGHT - Essential if you are 40+ and you need to read a restaurant's dinner menu.
• FLIGHTTRACK PRO - You will tell the airline employee when your flight is delayed. That quick. Also tells you the gate. Nice.
• MERCURY - Forget Safari, this is the best mobile browser in the market. Period.
• OPENTABLE - The app that changed the way reservations are made.
• PHOTO ALBUM- Keep your private pics private ;)
• PHOTOSYNC - Transfer your pics between your computer and mobile devices. Painlessly.
• STARBUCKS MOBILE CARD - Pay your latte with your phone. Is that cool or what?
• TRAPSTER - The highway patrol doesn't rule anymore, now drivers are connected...
• WAZE - Like Trapster but with social networking.
• YELP - If you don't use Yelp to check restaurants, bars, etc. you must like surprises.

PRODUCTIVITY

• DROPBOX - The best file sharing app, years before MobileMe (yuck!) and iCloud.
• EVERNOTE - I have 1,500 notes (and growing). INC 2011 company of the year.
• OMNIFOCUS - The best task management program in the market. Expensive but it's worth it.

VOICE, TEXT, MUSIC AND VIDEO

• ABC PLAYER - Grey's Anatomy on your iPad. Free but commercials every 15 min.
• HULU - TV killer. Small monthly fee.
• LINE2 - Call people's phone from your iPad. It works.
• NETFLIX - Manage your queue and stream videos on your iPad. A great app, very useful while Netflix exists...
• PANDORA - If you like music and you don't know about Pandora you must be from another planet. Do yourself a favor and pay the small monthly fee to avoid the annoying commercial messages.
• PHOTO SYNTH - A great free app from Microsoft (remember them?). Impress your friends with 360 panoramas.
• QIK VIDEO - Saves your videos to a server real time no matter what the police officer does to your iPhone/iPad.
• TANGO - Video talk better that Skype (no contacts added).
• VIBER - Voice and text better that Skype (no contacts added).

FUN

• DJ MIXER PRO - Come on! Be a DJ!
• GAMES: Ocarina, Glee, SoundHound, GeoCaching, Words With Friends*, Zen Bound, Cat Physics, Drop 7**, Fruit Ninja*, Tiny Wings**, Angry Birds*, DoodleJump*.
• MOSQUITO - Bug repellent for iPhone and iPad. I am not making this up.
• PIMP MY SCREEN - It does exactly what it names suggests. Way too cool.
• STAR WALK - The sky is yours. Simply amazing. 
• TED - 1,000 fascinating 20 min videos from the best brains on the planet. The most educational bathroom reading ever.

(*) I play minimum once every week.
(**) I play almost every day.

SOCIAL

• FOURSQUARE - Check in at your favorite locations and get special coupons and promotions.
• HOOTSUITE - Your social networking consolidator (single interface for all - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, etc.)

What keeps people from switching from PCs to Macs

Apple's share of the U.S. personal-computer market nearly tripled from 2004 to 2008 but hasn't gone up significantly since then, and now stands at around 10.5 percent, according to IDC. So Apple needs a fresh reason for buyers to get excited about Macs, but adding social capabilities to the Address Book is unlikely to provide that. What holds them back from switching from PC's is still the relatively high price and the limited selection of Macs and third-party software. The ads are great by the way :)

PS. I own a Mac Book Pro, an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2 so I guess I don't care about the reasons above. Or may be I am just too cool to use PCs. Probably both.