Apple will continue to rock, but it will never be the same.

Back in the day after Netscape had been long gone and Opera's install file grew bigger than 1 Mb, I used to be a happy Firefox user. Unfortunately somewhere during version 3 it got slow and bloated, it used a lot of memory and took a long time to start up.

Then came the Apple's Safari and Google Chrome, which both kicked its ass. Since Safari and Chrome share the same WebKit engine, they both were a lot faster than Firefox - and both shipped with Web Inspector. Web Inspector was pretty good, but I really missed Web Developer Toolbar.

Luckily, Firefox has been under heavy development and the newest version is fast. By fast, I mean fast. It's the Firefox it used to be.

If they keep this up, I might not be jumping from one browser to another. Time will tell, I guess.

We were given some review samples of a new technology called "paper" earlier this week. Paper is a natural material that can be produced in bulk, relatively cheap, and some people think it will replace e-readers such as the iPad and Kindle.

Feels like the future.

Product Review: Will 'Paper' Replace E-Readers?

Lately I've been using an app called Friends, which has support for Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, but that's okay because the name doesn't contradict with the features.

I don't like multi-purpose apps in general. Apple's Mail and Safari both have a built-in RSS reader and either of those doesn't do a particularly good job. Microsoft Outlook has a calendar, but that's okay too, because the apps name doesn't contain "Mail" or similar.

I can see that Facebook is very a popular service, but after a developer has picked a name for their app, they should stick with it.

Read the TweetDeck's announcement

(via MacStories)

Since the basic functionalities, like placing phone calls and sending SMSs has been around for years, this got me thinking: why mobile operating system manufacturers couldn't completely separate the user interface and the basic phone functionalities? Could they replace the whole UI with just one application: a web browser?

I Tap, You Make The Call

Let's take the phone call as an example. To make a phone call, you have to search for a number or a name, and then push a button or tap the screen to make the call. Since the actual phone call itself doesn't have pretty much anything to do with the user interface, the user's action would trigger a phone call request using an API.

If a user wants to send a SMS, he or she types the message, selects the recipient and hits send. Again, hitting the send button would trigger a request to the SMS API.

Phone calls and SMSs are pretty self-explanatory, but could the mobile phone UI be built entirely with HTML, CSS and Javascript?

Easy To Develop, Improve And Update

To build an app, manufacturers could actually build a web app and style the whole UI using nothing but CSS stylesheets and images. They could build and test it with a browser in their computers.

If they want to make a new functionality (that doesn't affect the APIs itself), they could just make changes to the files, and eventually push those files as an update.

After a year, if a manufacturer decides that the UI needs an complete overhaul, they could do it in matter of days – or weeks at most. On top of that, 3rd party developers could build their applications using the very same techniques.

I took a good look in my iPhone's apps and thought which app would be impossible to make as a web app. I couldn't think of any.

It's All About The User Interface

Today's mobile phone race is nothing but a competition who's operating system has the best user experience and who's is the easiest to use. In that race, you need to be competitive, to be able to follow the trends (or create trends) and react quickly.

HTML, Javascript and CSS is probably the easiest way today to create beautiful user interfaces – and at the end, UI is all the user sees. Also, the UI is the most important thing when deciding if to buy a phone or not.

What do you think? Could OS manufacturers just make the OS itself a bunch of APIs and a web browser? Drop me a line in Twitter: @jarilehtinen

What's changed?

About a year ago, I wrote about what went wrong about the first iPad.

A year later, home screen still looks the same, but they brought multi-tasking with an OS update. It's now thinner, so it's a little bit more portable. It now has total of two cameras, and video calls with Facetime. Still no wireless controller to make it a true wireless gaming console.

So, a majority of those things on my "wishlist" has come true, but will I reach out for my credit card to get one? I'm still not sure.

Do I need it, is the wrong question

I realized that it might not be a matter of need, but a matter of want. Owning an iPhone and a MacBook, I still can't say if I have a place for it. I know I can live without it, but do I want to?

At the end of March, it will be available for order in Finland. Until then I must make up my mind. I'll let you know.

Now the Sparrow team has released a Lite version on Mac App Store. Lite version supports (only) one account and has some ads for your pleasure. If you haven't yet tried it out, now is a good chance.

Yesterday Apple published some more information about OS X Lion, which includes a new version of Mail. Mail 5's user interface has been completely renewed, and what I can see from the screenshots (more screenshots), it just might took it's place back as the #1 email application. Time will tell.

Wasting Light

In August 6th 2010, Foo Fighters told in Twitter that the recording of their new album would start in 10 days. This time around they were recording using tapes to achieve a different sound. From that day on, they mostly posted photos from the recording sessions.

Few days after started recording they possibly gave a hint that their new album would be called "Wasting Light".

Few weeks ago they announced a teaser site called Foo Fighters FM, which contained bits and pieces from the upcoming album and an interview.

"Rope"

Today, while driving to pick up our kids, I heard their new single "Rope" on the radio. Although the radio signal was really poor, I instantly picked up that the album would be the familiar Foo Fighters, rocking hard with some twists and nice touches. They've put up a website for their new song, so head there and listen to Rope.

Can't wait for the album to hit the stores on April 12th. I'm there, clicking my mouse as soon as it does.

Wasting Light on Wikipedia

Ps. To celebrate their new single, I borrowed their background image, just for this post.