So is the iPad the new desktop? Well, no. What’s important to understand here is that the current iPad is just the first version of a product that will get both better and cheaper over the next few years. It’s also the first product of a renewed attention to the tablet market.

The iPad is not perfect, but what I can say is that it as totally replaced my MacBook pro for browsing, Facebook, Twitter, RSS and many other reading activities. The upcoming iOS 4.2 for iPad will bring a lot of the stuff that’s missing on iPad like printing, folders, unified inbox and many other stuff. Combined with the support for Bluetooth keyboards that 3.2 brought us, it makes the iPad a very cool device for people mostly consuming data on their computer. As a developer, I obviously need my desktop, but my mom has been using her iPad 95% instead of going to her iMac. It’s pretty obvious that she could easily live without a desktop.

Is it more limited than a desktop? Of course it is. Some of these limitations will go away with new versions of the hardware and the software, but what many are forgetting is that these limitations are not always a bad thing. The iPad is a much, MUCH easier computer to use than a regular desktop for a normal user. The app store alone makes it much easier for people to install applications than normal mac os x.

Many of my friends are dubious of the usefulness of the iPad and while I can’t say that the iPad itself will win over the desktop in the next few years, I do believe that tablets in general will replace the desktop for many less technical users soon. When you can buy a touch screen tablet for 199$, many will opt for that option.

(written on my iPad)

There’s a couple of things to mention here. First, this might finally make people realize that the Mac OS X operating system is not secure. Now before you get upset at me, I do realize it’s a much better architecture than a typical Windows version, but as this trojan shows, regardless of what the OS does, there’s nothing you can do to prevent user stupidity. And yes, I do consider downloading a random disk image from a random server somewhere and installing it (while, of course, giving the installer your admin password) stupid.

The second thing is that this really shows to me that no matter what businesses do, some people will always pirate the software. In the gaming industry, there’s a lot of arguments from pirates that games are pirated because the DRM is obstrusive and that if they would remove the user annoyances they would buy it. In this case, Apple removed the only “protection” on their $79 office suite — a serial number — so that it’s easier for the buyers and the first thing people do is upload the disk image to the net and at least 20,000 people then download the image.

That’s just sad. What’s the reasoning behind this? It’s not as if the office suite is overpriced. It’s not as if it comes with DRM that will annoy you a lot. It’s not as if it comes from a company we hate.

No, it’s just that some people will steal just about anything online because unlike in the real world, they get to do it anonymously.

Steve Jobs’ recent letter to the media and his decision to take 6 months off for health reasons has once again made all the rumors and speculations about his future and Apple’s future all the more relevant. John Gruber recently pointed to a great CNN Money profile on Tim Cook, the man Jobs once again chose as his replacement to handle the day to day operation at Apple while he his away. CNN did a great job on this article. It’s a great read if you have some time.

For better of worse, Steve Jobs *is* Apple for many people. Most of us can’t imagine what the company would be like without him and we remember what happened last time Apple fired his founder : the company went through years of hell before he came back in 1997 and returned the company to greatness.

Steve Jobs, just like Bill Gates will go down in history as one of the most important people in the history of computing. He’s done some great things for sure and I have no doubt he’ll do many more before he retires. He may not be in the best shape of his life, but as far as we know, his condition is not life threatening and until we hear otherwise, I will assume he has every intention of coming back. His prior battle with cancer in 2004 made it so that many people on the Web just assumed he was doomed and started speculating on what that meant for Apple.

Let’s give him the time he deserves to get better and the privacy any human being deserves with situations like this. Apple is lucky to have a number of very brilliant executives to handle the situation. Tim Cook is one of them, Phil Schiller is doing a great job as the “public face” of Apple while Jobs is away and younger execs like Scott Forstall (iPhone Software) are making sure Apple comes out with new and interesting products in the coming months and years.

Some of my current iPhone apps

The lastest proof of that is the Application Store for the iPhone platform (including iPod Touch). I’ve been buying a lot of stuff in there these past few months, but it’s evident that there’s a lot of quality software in there. I still remember the not so distant days when I was trying to buy Palm OS applications on Handango or worse still, Blackberry apps two years ago.The App Store has really changed everything in that regard. Just take a look at the launch for the Palm Pre— the first thing Palm did was to say there would be an integrated App Store at launch. Google did the same when it launched the Android platform a few months ago.

While there’s a lot of free applications in there, there’s also a ton of paying ones too and their associated success stories we’ve been hearing these past few days (iFart for example). The $0.99 price point is proving to be quite popular and quite a money maker. If you rank #1 in the iTunes Store on any given day, you are probably selling around 15-18K copies of your software per day. If you consider that most of these apps are developed by a single person or a very small team, it doesn’t take a long time to recoup your investment.

If you’ve got an iPhone or iPod Touch (and who doesn’t these days?), check out the “Best iPhone games” according to TouchArcade or maybe even the best iPhone apps ever or, better yet, my list of favorites:

• Crayon Physics Deluxe (amazing physics simulator in a game)
• FieldRunners (desktop tower defense done well)
• Labyrinth (best demo of the iPhone accelerometer I’ve found)
• Now Playing! (movie theater schedules — free)
• Rolando (A PSP-like level of quality in an iPhone game)
• Tweetie (so far, the best Twitter application)
• Things (goes perfectly with the desktop version)

Apple has a way of handling small details that makes all the difference. For one thing, if you pay by credit card (who doesn’t — plastic for the win) you can pay directly with the person helping you, no need to wait in line to pay at a cash register. If you’ve bought from an Apple store before (who hasn’t) the card is recognized and the invoice emailed to you a few minutes later. What a great system.

Here’s a forbidden shot from inside the store looking at the logo. Apparently, you are not allowed to take such pictures. Who knows why? Apple and their secretive ways…

Nothing to report so far. Looks like Steve Jobs isn’t in Montreal but Apple Inc did send a VP here. The store isn’t as big as the New York stores but it’s a big step up from the Laval store that opened in 2006, here in Quebec, Canada.

Here’s a pict of the line so far.

That being said, I think it’s great to see an app like this free one for the iPhone. There’s also a free one for Typepad that’s out there but since I haven’t used Typepad in a few years, I haven’t checked it out yet.

Of course, there’s also the free Facebook application that now allows you to write on your friends’ wall. If you got that one right after launch make sure you grab the update since the first version didn’t allow you to write on walls.

Here’s a picture if for no other reason than to see if it works.

So that’s what we get for Bill’s last CES Keynote. No product announcement, a few demos or technologies we already know about and a funny video about his last day in the office. I mean, come on Microsoft. Where’s that XBox 360 Ultimate SKU everyone was talking about. How about at least a comment on the ongoing HD format war. What about a shiny new product that I can get interested in ?

Bill is an insanely intelligent guy, very successful, but he’s no Steve Jobs when giving presentations. On the positive side, that presentation gave me the opportunity to test Microsoft’s Silverlight on Mac and it works great. It’s good to know that Microsoft’s ‘Flash Killer‘ at least works well on the platform.

Hey, we got the Zune in Canada. Yawn…. Now Steve, could we please get a canadian iPhone? I’ve been a good boy all year and bought all your products and I swear I’ll continue to do so. Please?

There is so much more to do to do it properly. I will have to list the url in the major search engines so “bot” and “spiders” eventually tickle its content. I will have to refer to it in web properties I control, or enter in a referral partnership with others.  And finally, I will use the url as an add-on in my forum signatures or in emails I sent. I have to be careful though because I want pertinent visitors interested in the content. Wouldn’t want a gamer to get here as gaming on the Mac is so bad.

I guess these steps are also important to document, so I’ll keep you posted on what I do in this sort of “out of line” category for the blog on working on a Mac.

EDIT: I completely forgot about Jaiku from Finland. A nice and simple way of keeping in touch. Your messages *have* to be short. I just posted about the blog there and if more people join I will have more Jaiku contacts and I will write more Jaikus… My name is Macouno there. And I guess the competing service is Twitter and MSN Messenger and iChat and…