A little over 24 hours to go until Apple releases their next device which is going to end world hunger.  Not really, but the press build up seems to indicate that what is coming is worthy of such epic proportions.

Most likely it will be a game changer but while many people are thinking that it will be a business-focused device, I’m downright sure that it will be an entertainment device, along the lines of a game machine with some possible benefits of an e-reader or other media device.  If anything has flourished on the iPhone development platform, it has been gaming.  Apple has opened up a new type of device in a market with no to little other competition and Nintendo has shown that focusing on the arms-race between processor power and graphic display isn’t always the path.

Apple is looking down the same highway, seeing little to no other competitors and looking to combine their unibody engineering experience, the new built-in battery, and the flourishing development of the iPhone & iPod Touch into a product that answers the two most salient questions, one from John Gruber and the other from Steve Jobs:

1. Per John Gruber and his epic Tablet post of 2009: If you already own an iPhone and a MacBook, why would you want to own this device?
2. Per Steve Jobs: What good is a tablet device for other than web browsing in the bathroom?

A standard tablet computer, developed by Apple, doesn’t answer those two basic questions. But if refocused as a platform that is designed for entertainment, you have a device that can tie directly in to the record sales and growth that the gaming industry has enjoyed for years, including 2008 & 2009, when just about every indicator showed businesses hurting throughout the global downturn.  Oh, and you get a device that fills a niche between your Macbooks and iPhone, and is good for email when you’re pooping.  (Yes, I used pooping in a journalistic speculation article – quality!!!!)

Per the Entertainment Software Association data on 2009, computer games sold $701 million worth of games at 29.1 million units, there was a record $2.1 billion in portable software sales, and the most popular genre was “Family Entertainment”.  It makes a clearer case why Apple might want to ignite the fuse on their not so dark-horse gaming platform with a hardware upgrade that is as sexy as they can make it.

Given this is something I feel passionate about and have had numerous experiences in selling hundreds of copies of the InBloom Shop Solution, built in Filemaker, I feel I can throw my hat in the very empty ring, not to steal the limelight, but to begin the dialogue.  There’s much to figure out, namely the cost of your solution, plans on distributing your solution, support, software-networking, and more.  So starting in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be waxing poetic about this very topic and if you’re interested, tune in.

If you have any ideas or things you would like to see addressed, then chime in on the comments section of the blog.

The building also managed to break a number of records:

• Tallest building in the world
• Tallest free-standing structure in the world
• Highest number of stories in the world
• Highest occupied floor in the world
• Highest outdoor observation deck in the world
• Elevator with the longest travel distance in the world
• Tallest service elevator in the world

Video of the Opening Ceremony:

Thanks to Abduzeedo for the link

“The question isn̻t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”

So for the avid followers who may have noticed a difference in the posts of late, I’ve cross-linked and syndicated the posts from the InBloom Shop Software website into the SWL blog.  At the very least, this helps the many readers that bounce between the two blogs and sites.  This was wonderfully easy to set up using the FeedWordPress plugin.  This simply sets up some rules to download posts from the InBloom blog automagically onto this one.

There’s much more to come in the new year with InBloom, Secret Weapon Labs, this blog and this website, so stay tuned!