Problem with Passwords

We’re Human

People use simple passwords that are common words, names, or are patterns of keys such as ‘qwerty’ or ‘asdfasdf’ because they are easier to remember. Many people also use a small number of passwords to login to hundreds of websites that they visit each day. I would also guess that many people use the save password feature with their browser in order to save from typing their passwords in each time they visit a site that requires it. Anyone can walk up to your computer and login to any website for which you have a saved password. So we use simple passwords,  and reuse them, and store them in our browsers. How can we prevent ourselves from this inherently insecure behavior?

More Secure Yet Memorable Passwords with an Algorithm

In order to create better passwords you need to both make it less guessable, and also unique per application or website.  Others have discussed a simple idea that can help with both ideas. The first thing to do is create your base password.  It is smart to have this base password also be fairly hard to guess by adding in numbers and special characters. After you have your base password you need to come up with a simple method for creating a unique password for the given application or website.  For example you might use the first 4 letters of the application or website name. So for ebay.com I might use a base password of ‘Steve#12′ and add the first 4 letters to the beginning of my base password: ‘ebaySteve#12′.

Generating Secure Passwords

If you want to make sure that your password is as secure as possible you need to make sure that it has an adequate length, has all types of characters from lower case, upper case, numbers, and special characters, and finally it needs to be randomly generated. If you use a management tool or form filling plugin there is likely a password generator in their tool set. This password generation website might also come in handy. The main reason people aren’t as likely to use these types of passwords is that you really can’t remember more than a few of these in your head, and thus they really should be used for financial accounts, your main email accounts, and as the master password to unlock your stored passwords (either within the browser, or using a management tool).

Trust No One (TNO)

Common sense would tell us to never trust a password with anyone else. Yet we freely give out our email password so that this new web service can check to see if any of our friends also using the service. This is where Facebook Connect, Twitter xAuth, Google OAuth, Windows Live, and OpenID/OAuth can help to allow that service you want to use to access your information without giving out your password. Keep this idea of trusting no one in your mind while you think about managing your online presence in a secure and safe manner.

Before we move on, please note that just because you don’t give a website your password doesn’t mean that they don’t have access to all your information. Let’s say you login to TwitPic and Twitter presents an option to Allow or Deny this website from accessing your account.  Well this is good because they don’t have your password and therefore TwitPic can’t impersonate you and login to Twitter to change your email address. However, TwitPic now has full access to your account and can do anything that twitter’s API allows them to access. Just because you didn’t give out your password does not mean that you should allow any website you visit to authenticate you through one of these services (Twitter, Facebook Connect, Google Profile, etc).   Also you might want to checkout your connections that you have allowed to access your account.

Check Twitter Connected Applications

Check Facebook Connected Applications

Check Google Connected Applications

Extended Security with The Second Factor

In order to help prove that you are actually who you say you are, a second factor of authentication can be used.  This second factor should be something you have to carry with you in the form of a dongle, cell phone, or written password grid.

RSA’s website states, “RSA SecurID® two-factor authentication is based on something you know (a password or PIN) and something you have (an authenticator)—providing a much more reliable level of user authentication than reusable passwords.”

In order to use a second factor you login as normal, and then you will be presented with a question asking for the other factor which is usually a set of digits or simple PIN or word. You either press a button on the dongle or token generator, or read from your cell phone via SMS message, or otherwise find using the system you have chosen for your second factor. The use of something you have is very important in the banking industry, accessing a company VPN, or for other higher priority information and access. Unfortunately there’s no real great 2-factor solution for all websites, as some of them cost money (Verisign, SecureID), and other’s only work at specific websites (PayPal, Ebay)

Verisign’s VIP – Used to be free openID provider after purchasing the dongle, but it looks like it’s now meant more for the enterprise.

RSA’s SecureID – Mostly used in the enterprise for accessing company resources.

PayPal’s Security Key – useful to login to PayPal and Ebay securely.

Perfect Paper Passwords – usually custom  implemented for your company’s intranet for example, but LastPass.com is setup to use it, and possibly others.

YubiKey – generic USB device that behaves like a keyboard and spits out random 2nd-factor passwords – in conjunction with a web service) or a static password – which is added to a password you type in – less secure, but creates a very secure single password, and you only have to remember part of that password.

Password Management

One you have devised a strategy to generate unique passwords, you might consider having a way to manage and store them all without having to remember them all in your head. This is where a password manager can help you out by letting you create and memorize one very secure password that unlocks all the other passwords you have saved in your digital password manager. There are a handful of options, and I’m sure a quick search would present a plethora of other options, but I’ll cover three of them here.

If you use Firefox or Opera you can specify a master password which you will enter every time you open the browser that encrypts all your saved passwords. Do not use a browser’s store password feature for any sensitive accounts unless you unlock that store with a password that you enter every time you launch the browser. This is definitely a good tool for not having to remember all your passwords, it only works for that browser on that computer.

Just remember to be conscious of the fact that now there’s only one password to protect all of your other passwords. It might be a good idea to store your financial accounts or sensitive email accounts separately, or maybe to not store them at all, and when you can use 2-factor authentication.

KeePass

This is where a password management tool can help by remembering the passwords for each site for the user. This allows the user to create a strong unique password for each site that requires it without having to remember all of these impossible to remember passwords. I decided to start using KeePass as my password management tool of choice, and it still is very good option, and highly secure if you use a strong master password. The KeePass tool can be run from a thumbdrive, which does allow for it to be portable, and the database file can be shared across multiple computers using a synchronization utility like Dropbox. For a long time this program has been a key part of my software utility belt – that is until I found LastPass, which I instantly fell in love with and immediately began storing all my passwords with them, after a careful look at their technology. There are other similar solutions – such as 1Password – but I haven’t used them and can’t really speak on their behalf.

LastPass

LastPass is a online password management tool that stores all your passwords on their servers which allows access to them from any computer or device that allows javascript in the browser. That might sounds like a horrible idea, but they have implemented a Zero-Knowledge (TNO) system which prevents them from being able to decrypt your passwords, and having full deniability if the government were to come knocking at their door as even if they wanted to they have no means to give them your encrypted data. I still use KeyPass where it doesn’t make sense to store passwords off-premise – most notably at work.

A Look Under LastPass’ Hood

Steve Gibson recently discussed the details how LastPass security is implemented on his podcast Security Now episode 256 and confirmed my belief that this really is a safe, secure, and brilliant solution. The system works securely by using a 256-bit AES key to encrypt and hash all the passwords locally on the client machine before sending across HTTPS/SSL to the LastPass servers effectively providing a fully Trust-No-One (TNO) solution that can be used from any browser that supports javascript, or through plugins, or mobile applications.

LastPass Technology
Support FAQ

Final Thoughts

Remember that with security there is an inverse relation to convenience. In general, the greater the security the less convenient and the more convenient the less secure. Try and secure at least your main email account (the one that “forgot my password” emails are sent to) and your other sensitive accounts such as your bank, work VPN account, and think about using the algorithmic approach to generating a password for each of the websites you visit. Hopefully I’ve convinced you to at least view your passwords in a more serious light.

I’d love to hear and comments on how you manage your online accounts, or if you have any security issues related to this post.

</steve>

The initial naive solution I implemented initially for testing was to have the computer choose a grid position at random checking to make sure it is a valid position, valid meaning that it had not been used before.

do {
position = gridPositions [ random() * N ];
} while ( ! valid(position) );

After testing on the iPhone device it became apparent that this was terribly inefficient, and it was possible this loop could continue indefinitely. The next iteration I used an array of all possible positions that would be randomly selected from, but after a selection was used it was removed from this array.

validPositions = gridPositions.clone();

// selection
position = validPositions[random() * validPositions.length];
validPositions.removeElement(position);

This solution was adequate, but there can always be improvements, and now that I am storing information in a second array, how can it be used more efficiently. Thinking about the problem further it became apparent that this was akin to listening to a playlist on shuffle. Which then gives the light bulb moment that instead of thinking about random selection with no repeats I should just shuffle the array of positions, just like having a deck of cards and removing a card for each turn, noting it’s value (ie: grid position). After a little searching I came across the Fisher-Yates shuffle algorithm, and found an efficient and unbiased implementation:

// setup
int currentPosition = 0;

for (int i = gridPositions.length; i > 1; i--) {
  // Pick a random element to swap with the i-th element.
  int j = random() * i;
  // Swap elements.
  int tmp = gridPositions[j];
  gridPositions[j] = items[i-1];
  gridPositions[i-1] = tmp;
}

// selection on each turn
position = gridPositions[currentPosition++];

This solution generates an array of possible positions which are then shuffled, and finally an index into the array is stored where the next position can be read. Each time the position is accessed from the array this counter increases to always point at the next position. There are other solutions that would work, but this seems to be a good final solution for my problem.

The following is a list of many of the shows that I tune into. Some I listen to weekly, but most of them I only listen to the episodes that interest me. I find podcasts are especially beneficial for when I’m working out and traveling, and if you have a long commute I’d imagine they’re a lifesaver.

Revision 3 Network

Diggnation

From tech to drinking to sex and everything in between, it’s the Wayne and Garth of the Web 2.0 era, looks like it’ll be ending soon though as the guys grow out of this stage of their lives.

Totally Rad Show

Love this show, all about movies, video games, tv, and comic books, and Dan becomes a man, with some miscellaneous stuff thrown in the mix.

Film Riot

I know I’ll never be a filmmaker, but I have always had a desire to make a movie and have even attempted some very lame ideas as a child.

Tekzilla

A modern version of the old school TechTV show The Screen Savers giving tips and tricks on tech, gadgets, and computers.

Digg Dialog

Q&A with many famous people including Adrian Peterson, Ozzie Osbourne, Matt Damon, Al Gore, Richard Branson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to name a few.

The Digg Reel

A look at a handful of the best Digg videos of the week.

Hak 5

If you’ve seen the movie hackers, its akin to the Hack the Planet, sort of, maybe, well if you want to find out go have a look.

GeekBeat.TV

Cali Lewis brings you a quick look at the latest gadgets and technology.

Other Shows

AppJudgement, Bytejacker, Food Mob, The Game Show, Unboxing Porn, Scam School, HD Nation

Twit Network

Windows weekly

Latest news coming out of the Microsoft Camp with Paul Thurrott from WinSuperSite.

Macbreak Weekly

Latest news of all things Apple discussed by a handful of Apple fanboys.

This Week In Google

All things Google and cloud computing with Gina Tripani and Jeff Jarvis

Security Now

Steve Gibson discussing all things security. Recently every other episode is a Q&A based on listener feedback. Checkout the past episodes if you want to take a free course in networking, security, and how a computer works from the transistor to the multi-core universe.

net@night

Amber Mac talks with Leo about what’s happening on the ‘net right now.

Other Shows

Tech News Today, iPad Today, Green Tech Today, NSFW, Home Theater Geeks, This Week in LAW, Futures in Biotech

This Week In Network

This week in Startups

The original that started the network giving advice on starting a business and entrepreneurship, as well as bringing on guests to discuss their success and failures.

This week in Mobile

Originally about Android, but now is about everything mobile.

This week in iPad

Self explanatory, discussion about apps and news with guests talk about their company developing for the iPad.

The Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show

Kevin Pollak has great discussions through interviews, mostly with comedians or at least people with a comedic background, in what amounts to an online talk show.

Other Shows

This Week In: Mobile, Poker, Video Games, Music, Books, Movies, and coming soon Cars, Fantasy Sports, Health & Wellness, Cause, Music

Other Podcasts To Check Out

For those with similar interests, and for a few of my non-tech related interests, check out a look into the variety of podcasts that are out there.

TED Talks

Videos of talks given at both the main TED official conference, as well as sponsored conferences held all around the world.

ESPN Radio

Mike & Mike in the morning, Pardon the Interruption (PTI), among other shows on ESPN.

KFAN  Sports Talk

To keep up with all things sports in Minnesota

Freak-n-omics

I think this show has ended, but an interesting look at the “hidden side of things” spawned off by one of the book’s authors.

Herding Code

A round table discussion mostly on .Net, but they also bring up Ruby on Rails a bit more recently.

Hanselminutes

Scott Hanselman interviews various people on topics mostly related to Microsoft and the .Net platform.

Google Tech Talks

Google brings in guests to talk about technology and programming by experts in their respective fields or areas. Great for the serious learner.

Channel 9

Interviews with Microsoft Developers

Stanford iTunes University Course Lectures

A free resource of video lectures from Standford including the iPhone development course.

Stay classy Internet!

</steve>

Ever since watching the first Harry Potter movie, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of having newspapers with video and continually updated content. I have always hoped that someday we would have the same experience, and the iPad is the first gadget to finally succeed in bringing us this reality. After using the iPad for a few months now, I think that it is still a luxury consumption device that could definitely fit between the laptop and phone markets. It really is just a larger iPhone, and with similar resolution to the new iPhone 4 Retina Display ™, but it’s amazing how having a larger form factor makes apps and games so much more enjoyable to use. While it is currently meant for consuming content, the addition of a bluetooth keyboard and more powerful apps will allow for creating content such as drawing, composing music, documents, presentations, and writing screenplays as just a few examples.

While it can replace the Amazon Kindle for most people, I still enjoy reading on the Kindle due to it being very light to hold, and it’s excellent for reading in bright sunlight. But, if you only want to buy or carry around a single reading device, then the iPad is definitely the device to have. It is a great replacement for reading books, magazines, newspapers, and cookbooks. It works very well as a PDF reader, especially with the new support in the Apple’s official e-reader app iBooks. It can also be used for playing games, watching movies, viewing photos, browsing the internet, looking at maps, and much more.

Hands-On Using the iPad

Watching video is definitely what I use the iPad for most often with apps for Netflix, ABC, iTunes Video, and soon, Hulu. The resolution of the iPad is 1024×768 and while it looks great and can be viewed from a wide angle, it would have been awesome if it were somewhat higher resolution. The aspect ratio is 4:3 and not 16:9 or other widescreen ratio. Personally I think this was a smart move because this device is meant to be used for running applications and web browser as well as watching video, it is not meant to be solely used to watch HD video. Video can be zoomed in similar to how it works when watching various widescreen format movies or television on a big screen HDTV and it supports a VGA output for apps that support it, including Apple’s Keynote presentation app.

Gaming is one of the killer features of iPad, and it really shows where just having a larger screen is enough for it to be much different than the iPhone. So far I’m very pleased with how well games play, especially when written with touch and more casual setting in mind.  Plants vs. Zombies is definitely one of my favorites, it being a unique take on the tower defense style of game play. Reading on the iPad is a pleasant experience in most situations. It does have a highly glossy screen so it can be difficult to see the text in bright sunlight or a room with a lot of lights or windows that reflect off the screen. The brightness of the device can be turned up high enough to use in direct sunlight, but is not well suited for reading at length in that environment.

Typing on the iPad was better than I expected, especially after hearing many reviews, both in portrait and landscape mode. In portrait mode I was able to use two thumbs and in landscape mode I can touch type just like a regular keyboard with surprising accuracy. Apple could possibly improve the current setup with alternative keyboard layouts, however, I think the current keyboard more than adequate for things like normal-length email responses, Twitter posts, filling out forms, entering a URL, or even writing a short-to-medium-length blog post. You can also pair a bluetooth keyboard which brings the typing aspect of the device up to par with a laptop, but of course a dock or other means of propping up the iPad to a desirable angle is necessary to make this a viable option. I’m writing this using the onscreen keyboard with the iPad in my lap on a laptop stand angled at roughly 20-degrees and I am typing at about 80% speed with high word accuracy, partly helped by Apple’s correction suggestions. Beware of some small odd characteristics of the on-screen keyboard, most notably not having a tab key.

Final Thoughts

This is definitely a first version of a new product, but it is a quality first version. Most people who will likely buy a device like the iPad in the next few years should probably wait to see what other devices come out, or at least wait for the iPad 2 (whenever it comes out). This will also give you time to see what apps are worth buying, and give time for developers to implement the capabilities that you might want. Anyone who already has a netbook or laptop necessary to do work and doesn’t mind taking it along while traveling does not need an iPad and would likely find it costly and limiting.

After spending a few months with the iPad I can honestly say that it is a great device that I will continue to find new uses for, but as a programmer I am going to use my laptop for a majority of my work. However, I will use the iPad now when I travel, when I’m watching TV, while I eat breakfast, as a digital photo frame, and especially for reading, watching movies, and playing games. It is a luxury item right now, but eventually the costs will come down a little bit and the increasing capabilities of the apps you can buy for the device could easily allow this to replace your netbook or even a laptop for many people. If you haven’t bought one yet, you might consider waiting for the next version of this device, or even for an Android or other platform with the same form factor, but I think you’ll be pleased with the iPad if you purchased one today.

Apps The I Use

Video / Music

• Netflix – Free (Requires $9+/mo subscription)
• Pandora – Free (To remove ads $30/yr with Pandora Pro account)
• Last.fm – Free (Advertisements)
• Air Video – $2.99 (Stream video from a PC or Mac over the LAN or Internet)
• ABC Video – Free (Most shows delayed by one day)
• Hulu Pro (Requires $10/mo – coming soon)

Social Networking

• Twitterific – Free ($3 pro version removes ads)
• Gowalla – Free (Well designed iPad app for location based check-in)
• IM+ – $9.99 (great multi-protocol messaging client)
• WordPress – Free (blogging editor and management for WordPress sites)

Books / News / Info

• BBC – Free (great app with news and video)
• iBooks – Free (Allows reading of PDFs as well as ePub formatted books)
• Bloomberg – Free (Stock information and charts)
• Instapaper – $4.99 (read saved websites and content for offline reading – free version also)
• Wikipanion – Free (view wikipedia pages)
• IMDB – Free (checkout info on movies and tv shows)

Productivity and Office

• Evernote – Free (Offline support with $5/mo premium subscription)
• Good Reader – $2.99 (Manage and Download files from variety of sources including dropbox, google docs, etc)
• Dropbox – Free (sync your dropbox files)
• Wolfram Alpha – $1.99 (Mathematica-based calculator of sorts – website)
• Ebay – Free (Better experience than through the browser)

Games

• Plants vs. Zombies – $9.99 (a linear style tower defense game with humour and high replay value)
• Flight Control – $4.99 (touch paths to guide air craft to land safely without crashing)
• Harbor Master – Free (similar to flight control with ships, and just as entertaining)

Art and Drawing

• Sketchbook Pro – $7.99
• ArtStudio – $2.99
• iDraft – Free
• Adobe Ideas – Free

Misc

• Epicurious – Free (Cooking, recipes, instructions, shopping lists, etc)
• Kayak – Free (Search kayak.com for cheap fares and hotels)

Resources and Related Content

• DIY Stands
• iPad Blank Slate – Why Is That Important?
• Paul Thurrot – Take On The iPad
• Game Changer
• John Gruber – Kids are all right
• John Gruber – The iPad
• Farewell Keyboard Generation I Will Grow Up On Touchscreens
• Secrets Of The Biggest Selling Launch Ever
• Obj-c vs. Web
• iBook and ePub
• iPad Part 1
• Crunch Gear’s Review
• Yet More iPad
• Genius In Apple’s Vertical Platform
• My Weekend With iPad

</Steve>

Back in April I ventured to Boulder to participate in a event called Startup Weekend, founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde. The idea is for people with different backgrounds to gather together to form a startup company with the hope of having a working prototype to present by Sunday evening. The focus of the event is to pitch ideas, then form one or more startup groups and create a product or service based on the selected ideas. However, it also gives people an opportunity to network with other locals who share a similar interest in entrepreneurship, as well as with a few venture capitalists or other mentors and sponsors who are willing to share their expertise and experience, as well as ideas and comments on the various projects.

During the drive down to Boulder I wasn’t sure what to expect, but was excited and anxious to find out what the weekend had in store. After arriving on the CU Boulder campus, everyone gathered for some food and drinks and met each other, having the usual small talk and sharing some project ideas. Then we settled down and were given a brief introduction of what to expect for the weekend, with discussion about the theme for the projects for that weekend: Triple Bottom Line – people, planet, and profits. There were around 12 ideas pitched, and 6 were selected by voting. Once the 6 were selected everyone wandered around deciding which group to join. I decided on the idea that Terry pitched – where you can rate how you feel at any given time and associate other information that can then be tracked, graphed, and correlated. This project would eventually be known as FeelAwesome and was also joined by Ami, Dan, Eliana, Matt, Thad, and Zack. The other groups that were formed were EatMyStuff, Ferment-In, PadSpark, ThePluginLife, and Twlp.me.

The remaining time on Friday was spent on introductions, fleshing out the original idea, deciding who would work on each aspect of the project and final pitch presentation. It was decided we were going to do a mobile app, so I would be working on developing an initial working iPhone app. Since I hadn’t received my new macbook yet I did what any self-respecting computer geek would do and brought down my 25″ monitor and MacMini for the next two days. Similar in spirit to a hack-a-thon, we mostly spent the time working while taking breaks every so often to socialize and eat. The final day was mostly spent getting the app to the point where we could share screenshots of the functionality. The other members who were not developing were busy creating the slides, marketing on twitter and facebook, and otherwise getting the final presentation ready.

The final presentations were 5-10 minutes with each team presenting their ideas and products while answering questions from the other groups and sponsors. Our team came in 3rd place, just behind the winner Twlp.me and the runner-up PadSpark. It was fun to see everyone’s results, and it was surprising just how much can be accomplished in such a short period of time.

A big thank you to the sponsors: Twilio, Hosting.com, and AskYourTargetMarket.com for helping to keep the costs down and offer prizes to the winning teams.

The book gives you an insight into the life of Tony Hsieh, whom many have only heard about through the recent acquisition of Zappos by Amazon. He discusses his adventures in entrepreneurship – from worm farms, through building a customer service enterprise – in his pursuit of delivering happiness to the world. Along the way Hsieh dabbles in the art of making and selling buttons through a mail-order catalog, running a pizza business during college, building Link Exchange and selling to Microsoft for $275 million, and finally, through the survival of Zappos during a period where they were walking within inches of financial bankruptcy.

Just the story of Tony’s life is an interesting read in and of itself. You learn of why he acquires a love for the peace-love-unity-respect (PLUR) culture after attending a rave for the first time, why he sold his million dollar loft after throwing a massive birthday bash, why he left a stable well-paying job at Oracle, and of course, the journey from an initial investment in ShoeSite.com to what we know today as Zappos.com.

Our Brand, Culture, and Pipeline are the only competitive advantages that we will have in the long run. Everything else can and will eventually be copied. – Tony Hsieh

Of course there’s much more than just an interesting story. There is also a look into the culture of a company dedicated to delivering the best possible customer service both to its customers, as well as its employees. Throughout the last half of the book there are excerpts written by employees, vendors, and customers that give insight into the company.

I can easily recommend reading this book, especially those in charge of managing and running a business, as it’s a great guide to building a great company culture and having excellent customer service. If you are just starting a company then definitely check it out now before your company grows too large – it’s worth learning Tony’s mistakes, failures, and successes.

The main thing to keep in mind is that the iPad hasn’t been released, has only had a limited hands-on time for a handful of people, there will be a version 2, and most of my thoughts could be somewhat translated to another appliance-like tablet device.

That Really Is The Name. No Joke.

There have already been hundreds of jokes and parodies about the name, some recent, a few in the past. Will we continue to mock it 6 months from now? Probably not, as either it will have failed as a product, or the name will fade into the background as almost every name does (think Microsoft, Bing, even Google for that matter). Sure this name may sound the most ridiculous right now, and there is merit to women being upset that it wasn’t thought out even a little.  But over time it will just be the name and in six months it won’t matter anymore.

Hyper-Hyped Up Beyond Imagination

Is it even possible that Apple’s reveal could have lived up to most of the hype showering the internet? I don’t think so. It may have been short of many reasonable expectations, but the hype was definitely an impossible goal to be reached (especially since Jobs did claim the device to be magical). I think I can safely say that the version they showed off at the event was not magical, and really was just a larger iPhone. That said, I think Apple delivered a product very similar to the first iPod, something that initially is a letdown, but with lots of potential.

My Netbook is Better

Yes, netbooks obviously have more capabilities and power, as they are meant to be a cheaper and smaller laptop. I personally enjoy my 14” laptop over working on a 10” netbook, and anything I want the ultra portability for I have found the iPhone to be sufficient, and I have started even to not bring the laptop on trips. Again, a netbook can do more – much more – in the traditional sense of computing, but really a netbook is a laptop. This is where I think iPad seems to fit nicely between a full laptop and a smart-phone. Whether or not there is a market there is of course another matter.

There will be plenty of people who want a netbook or convertible tablet to work as they always have with a keyboard, USB ports, flash, and most of the features of a modern computer. But I can see myself sitting on the couch using something akin to the iPad while watching TV. I think this is a big part of what the iPad and similar devices will be meant for, the casual computing around the house.

No Multitasking

Being able to listen to Pandora while an app for tracking my run would be nice, I hope they eventually enable this in a future version of the iPhone OS. If you sit back and think about it this really is only an artificial limitation, the iPod can already play music in the background, along with email, and mobile safari, so why not any other app? What if I want an alarm clock app, or maybe a location aware app to notify when I’m near a Starbucks. Do I need full multitasking like netbooks or the nexus one? Probably not exactly, but why not give us some form of a real background app? Maybe limit it to a set small number of allowed background apps. This is probably not a huge deal for me, since I’d have my iPhone with me to play music, video, etc.

No Camera

Not having a camera isn’t a deal breaker for me, but I think that the possibilities that would come with both a front and rear facing camera, or even two front cameras for non-touch gesture recognition, or even object and facial recognition. I’d be surprised if the cost of the camera prevented it from being added. However, there’s possibilities of 3rd party cases that include a rotatable camera, or a stand that is angled for the tablet, with an extended camera above it. I think that a front facing camera  right in the bezel isn’t necessarily the most elegant solution. Also, I’d rather take my point and shoot or iphone to take photos. Sure it’d be nice to have the photo camera for those few times you only have the iPad, but is it really a necessity? I think not.

No Flash

Flash is ubiquitous, so why doesn’t Apple support it? I believe it’s an issue of controlling the ecosystem and elegance of interacting with the device. Some claim it’s due to performance or stability which is likely some part of Apple’s decision. If you use it for video, Apple will tell you to switch to H.264 and the HTML5 <video> tag, or better yet make an app. If you use Flash for animations, games, or an interface Apple would tell you to make an app instead.  They might also have decided against allowing Flash since it was not originally created with a finger touch interface in mind, much less multi-touch.

Advocates of open operating systems allowing installation of any application will of course not enjoy this control that Apple has on their devices, but those who support web standards would like to see Flash be replaced. This will hopefully push development of SVG and Canvas further, and Apple could do its part in this by funding it.

This does not push Adobe out of the way, they just need to share their focus of their developer tools to publish to both Flash and other open standards. They are moving this way with CS5 and will enable iPhone Apps to be produced from their flash tools.

Hulu is probably the most prominent example of flash that I use, but when I think about it do I really care? I might if I’m at an airport, or coffee shop, but really I watch Hulu on my HDTV for the great viewing experience, so I’ll stick to using a media server for Hulu instead of an iPad.

No Deal

If you wanted Apple to include at least one of the missing features and you won’t be buying one because of this, make no mistake, with Steve Job’s claiming this to be one of the key products he’s created, there will be a version 2 of the iPad. My guess is that it’ll be on similar to the change from iPhone 2G to the iPhone 3G with OS 3.0. I hope they include similar functionality as just discussed, but for me these aren’t necessarily deal breakers.

My hope is that the iPad both improves itself overtime, and also improves the usefulness and ease of computing tools in the future.

Glimpse To Future Computing

According to Fraser Speirs people are having Future Shock in the sense that they aren’t comfortable with the likely shift to purpose driven computing – or task-based interface computing. I think I agree with John Gruber of Daring Fireball that the iPad, and similar devices in the future, will be like driving an automatic transmission car:

That’s where Apple is taking computing. A car with an automatic transmission still shift
s gears; the driver just doesn’t need to know about it. A computer running iPhone OS still has a hierarchical file system; the user just never sees it.

There will definitely be a percentage of the population (probably 5%) that will want to have full control and use of a computer. Similar to those people that like to work on their car and use a manual transmission to fully enjoy the driving experience, some people like myself will want to customize and utilize the full power of the Computer we now today in PCs and Macs. Many of these people will be developers, and some will be hardcore computer users who still enjoy building their system hardware, or installing and compiling their own Unix-based kernel, or just enjoy the open nature of the PC platforms.

That said, it doesn’t mean the iPad specifically is the computing device of the future, but rather the idea of more appliance style devices that are intuitive, easy to use, and get out of the way when not using them. Even Microsoft had this idea of a docking device – see video “Microsoft’s Vision For 2019” – that you could hook up to a monitor, carry with you, and is surprisingly similar to this iPad device.

Also, if you think about where Chrome OS is taking us, you might come to a conclusion that the iPad and Chrome OS are on two different paths heading toward the same convergent point. This convergent point will hopefully bring computing devices that will enable you to use the applications you love without configuring every separate computer you use, instead you will access everything from the cloud where you will synchronize and cache data locally allowing you to use the device as a tool. The iPad is bringing us a step closer to this idea of simple task-oriented computing.

The Price is Decent

$499 is much better than $800-1000, and while 16GB isn’t that much space, you could still sync enough content for a week on there. There are more expensive options, with more storage, and 3G/GPS, but the price will only drop over time. Many people will still compare the iPad to netbooks and not buy due to the cost, but they weren’t going to buy an Apple product anyway. If you want access anywhere, it’ll cost you a few hundred more and you currently have to use AT&T (which many people hate) but who is offering the data plan with no contract, which along with the price is a great precedent being set for mobile data access. The pricing will be $15/mo for 250MB and $30/mo for unlimited is actually very good considering most data plans, even those capped, are more like $60/mo. Some people are hearing rumors of Verizon joining the iPhone or iPad, and I hope they are true, but it seemed like Apple is going to continue holding hands with AT&T for the foreseeable future.

Multi-Touch That Just Works

The Nexus and other Android-based devices can support multi-touch and hopefully will soon officially be supported in Google’s apps. However, the experience is much better currently with multi-touch on the iPhone. Partly due to stringent UI guidelines, at this time the SDK for the iPhone supports touch that is better integrated with the default UI elements. There’s also a possible patent issue that Apple might have, but some people are saying it wouldn’t hold up in court. Regardless so far from the phones I’ve used, including the Nexus One, the iPhone is still the superior multi-touch device in my opinion.

It’s All About iTunes – Content and Apps

Finally we get to the last, but not least, item of importance and discuss the iTunes store. While the iPad will definitely have a better web browsing experience than the iPhone, it still doesn’t support plug-ins, and thus there are many websites and applications that won’t work on the iPad in the browser. Also Apple has created the iBook application for ePub format books, and like apps Apple will take a cut of the revenue from all content and applications delivered through iTunes. This is really the success of Apple’s new mobile strategy and focus.

New media content from books, magazines, and newspapers will be available on the iPad device, and it will probably be a very good device for reading and consuming this type of content, and I think is one of the core areas they think the device will be used. Think about the concept video of the Sports Illustrated magazine.

Even without the camera, there are already applications that the iPad will be useful for, including reading reference material like programming pdfs, board games with iPhone integration, navigation tool for hiking, stargazing, tracking stats at an event like baseball or horse racing, photo frame, simple sketching canvas, configurable user input for DJs and media editing, diagramming, editing video, editing photos, there really are a lot of possibilities even with this current version’s limitations.

Developer Story

The iPad uses the same SDK and OS platform as the iPhone, and thus writing an app for both will be relatively easy. There will definitely need to be some changes made to the UI, and some apps and games will work fine with the 2x scaling, but some will want to make an even better version specifically for the iPad. Similar to how there are slightly different capabilities between the various iPhone versions, so will the iPad have some as well. These can be coded in a way that checks the device for the capabilities and allows an app to be run on any of the devices. The iPad does bring with it a separate binary and thus Apple has created Universal Apps similar to what happened with the PowerPC/Intel transition. I also am not a huge fan of objective-c, but as with any language, you just learn the syntax and live with it if you choose to program for the given platform.

There are also some new View Controllers that allow the split screen view, and a popovers view. These are specific to the iPad because of the screen size. Here is another area Apple is going for convention over configuration in that you can’t resize the split views, it’s meant to simplify the UI and learning curve to using the iPad applications.

I do have some issues with Apple controlling the submission process, and the idea that my app might not be allowed is something that I continue to think about, but I believe I will continue to develop as long as they have a large market. I am also going to make sure my apps run on Android, and hopefully HTML5 becomes more ubiquitous so we can get more native-style capabilities within the browser. Also some tools and frameworks have been written to write once – usually using
HTML/CSS/JavaScript – and compile to any device or platform, which I plan to research more in the next few months.

Due to some of these limitations, I expect an open Android device to be better suited for some tasks and applications. It’ll be interesting to see what 2010 has in store for developers with new types of devices springing out of nowhere, and new marketplaces and app stores. As a developer, I am actually pretty excited about the future, even if the iPad is not part of it, and even if it just means making some kickass HTML5 applications on top of the ever more ubiquitous cloud.

60 Days For Improvements

The iPad will probably ship as the same device that people were able to get their hands on at the Apple event. However, they could come out and introduce a new Touch OS (likely it would be OS 4.0) with support for multitasking. It’s possible they even deliver a camera in the device at launch, maybe they didn’t have time to add the camera in the shipment of devices to be ready for the event. I doubt any of this will come to pass and they will wait for the 2nd version to bring anything new to the iPad, but there is an opening here for them to possibly do something before launch.

I Won’t Buy One At Launch

At the moment I have no intentions of buying the iPad, but I will go to an Apple store and try one out when I get the chance, and see if holding it changes my mind. Even though I think the price is reasonable, it is still high enough, similar to the kindle, that it’s a want and not a need. If someone gave one to me I would happily use it, and I think it would fit well as a media and internet device around the house, during short trips, and at a coffee shop or park. For me, a netbook is just too small and underpowered for what I use my laptop for and the iPad would fit quite nicely as the device between my laptop and my iPhone.

There is much more that I could discuss, but there are many others who have already commented on every aspect of the device so I’ll just finish by saying don’t write off the idea of what the iPad will bring us in terms of computing in the future. It definitely won’t be this first version and maybe not even an Apple product, however there will be a move toward appliance computing, even Google is attempting this with their GoogleOS.

Related Videos and Discussion

Apple

- Apple ReDefines A Market with Demo Video

- Apple’s 1990 Tablet Concept

Microsoft

- Future Home Concept

– Future Vision: Health Care Concept

– Courier Tablet

Other Concept Videos

- IKEA Tablet Concept

- Sports Illustrated Tablet Concept

Humorous Videos

- Keynote In < 180s Using Only Adjectives

- iPad Made Me Poop Bricks

- The Ultimate Browsing Experience

- Hilter’s Reaction To The iPad

- iPad vs. Etch-a-Sketch

Discussion

- iPad Technical Specifications

- You Can’t Multi-Task (Aza Raskin)

- Five Reasons To Wait For iPad 2.0

- Apple iPad Downsides

- iPad: What’s Missing

- Could The iPad Be My Next Trave Computing Device?

- Paul Thurrot’s iDud Review

- Alex Payne On The iPad

- David Pogue First Impressions

- If Flash Were An Open Standard

- Web Developers Can Rule The iPad

- What Features Competitors Should Have

Install Not Required

Open a brand new computer, start the browser, access a website, and finally close the browser. No more 5-hour reformat process, only to then have to install ten or more applications which can each take quite a while. Now you just access the application by URL and login. That’s it, nothing to install, no keys to enter – just register, pay if required, and login. Now you are not tied to a single machine, but instead can use any computer device that has a browser. Also, beyond just not needing to install anything, you also always have access to the latest and greatest version of the application, even if this does allow companies like Google to keep their apps in perpetual beta.

View Source FTW

The internet would not be as fast and open if it weren’t for the simple fact that HTML – and its modern partners CSS and Javascript – is delivered to the user in its source format. Most web developers even today get their start by looking at other sites, learning from them and copying their markup and code. I seriously hope that the web continues to stay open with the majority of websites and web applications using plain-text (not binary) markup and code. While I am one who appreciates the capabilities that Flash, Java, and Silverlight give developers, it seems that having a single, open environment that every device implements will be extremely useful. Hopefully a concept of viewing the source is still available amongst the changes and innovations.

Google and their Apps

Google has really redefined how we think about the web, especially for developers as they have pushed HTML 5 forward and Javascript to new levels of performance. While I do think Google will be visited by the Department of Justice in the next year or two, I still can’t help but love every successful solution they have created. Their office suite is decent, but its killer feature, of course, is the ability to collaborate in real-time, and it’s extremely useful. Google Voice has changed how I receive voice mail and text messages, the chat history in Gmail chat has come in handy more than once, and I have been using Google Reader to easily read through hundreds of blogs. It’s undeniable that Google will remain a leader in the browser ecosystem.

Cloud Computing and Synchronization

It’s great to be able to post my photos to Facebook and share them with anyone in the world, or upload a document to Google Docs and edit it with another person. Keeping a local copy of your data is not only smart, but is something I think will be a standard practice even if others say you’ll just store everything in the cloud. I believe that synchronization is key ingredient and differentiates from the cloud computing of the past – namely thin-clients and dumb-terminals – by utilizing computers as smart-clients. Applications have started to utilize these mechanisms to bring offline capabilities. Solutions like DropBox or Microsoft’s Live Mesh are bringing synchronized storage solutions to the world. With these solutions you now have access from any connected computer to applications and data, but also high performance computing from your synchronized machines.

Javascript and its Frameworks

Coming from an academic background, I found Javascript to be a little under-powered when I first started developing websites, but now realize that it’s mostly the DOM that’s the problem. Even five years ago it was still just a scripting language. However, it has matured and grown up into a very powerful language that is breaking out from its dynamic HTML past. Incredible frameworks have been written – jQuery being my go-to tool of choice – that abstract away browser differences and make working with the DOM mostly tolerable. After Google came along with V8 in Chrome, the other browsers followed to make Javascript fast enough to emulate Flash. Even server developers are testing out Javascript end-to-end to allow writing functions that work on both the client and the server. Overall, I’m surprised how much I enjoy the language and it only gets better each day I use it. There is still a long road ahead for HTML, CSS, and Javascript to catch up to the performance that Flash or Silverlight can bring, but it’s catching up quickly with Canvas, <video>, local storage, and even 3D APIs that can be accessed using Javascript. It’s time to embrace the fact that Javascript is here to stay and one must either get on board or watch as the train leaves the station.

#5 Window Dressing

Ironically, one of the features I love about owning a Mac is that you can also run Windows at the same time using virtualization. I wish the opposite were true, but alas Apple holds the keys to Zion close to its chest. Just having the option to run Windows makes the purchase of an Apple machine much easier, as I know that the same machine can be used for anything I would need OSX, Unix, or Windows for.

#4 Quality

Most people regard Apple as the ultimate example of product design and quality. I have to agree – the products feel like quality and look like something you’d want to show others. Apple really is a status symbol amongst the younger generations. They also put User Experience first before anything else, and this is why they have captured the hearts of consumers. The quality that their products have helps to retain value and offers their consumers products that resell at close to the original new price, which actually eliminates the effective “tax” you pay as a premium over other products.

#3 Unix

After OSX came out I began to look seriously at the Mac platform, but didn’t really take it seriously until the Intel transition. After experimenting with many Linux distributions I have decided that while Debian (and the Ubuntu shell) is still my favorite, I really enjoy having a beautiful modern user experience that OSX gives me while having the ability to access a full featured Unix system. I can finally use git natively with ease along with all the powerfully simple Unix commands for editing, searching, and much more. It really is close to an ideal setup with form and function.

#2 GarageBand and iLife

Recording music from a keyboard isn’t too difficult, but GarageBand makes the process simply enjoyable. I am finally able to record and edit without hassle. There’s a lot more that you can do with other instruments, voice, and audio loops, but I just appreciate that it came pre-installed and does what I need. I’m also using iPhoto a little bit (still deciding between Google’s Picasa) and when I take video I use iMovie because it feels almost like the other professional software applications but without the complexity and cost.

#1 iPhone Development

The main reason I took the plunge and purchased an Intel MacMini was for my interest in getting started developing for the iPhone, which I proceeded to immediately take apart and upgrade to 4GB RAM (which I highly recommend). Developing with XCode on the Mac is not my first choice, but it’s the only option. I probably wouldn’t have started using OSX if not for the iPhone, but it’s been mostly a good experience (after modifying many of the keyboard shortcuts). With the new virtualization tools and boot camp, I think my next computer purchase will be a Mac so that I can enjoy all three major systems on one machine without rebooting.

#5 Custom Build

Not long after learning what a computer was I found out how to take them apart, upgrade the memory and processor, and ultimately build an entire PC from scratch. It’s one of the great aspects of the PC market, as opposed to Apple, is being able to choose from a wide range of components and parts, which also means lower prices due to competition. There was fun in figuring out how powerful a computer my money could buy. It seems that this era of hacking together a machine is slowly coming to an end as the computers of today are becoming more specialized and built in smaller form factors.

#4 Inexpensive

Compared to an Apple computer of the same exact hardware usually the PC can be bought for close to half the price. It’s difficult for me to pay the Apple Tax, as many call it, when I’m a power user in the Windows world. This is definitely one of the reasons that I’ve continued to build and own a PC over a Mac. Some argue the quality of the Mac’s parts are better, and in some cases it’s true, however you also can’t get a top of the line component for the Mac since you have to go with the limited options Apple gives you.

#3 Gaming

Most computer games on the market are geared for PC, and more specifically, Windows and DirectX. This is a fact and any self-respected gamer will confirm this. I can still remember fiddling with the autoexec.bat file to get the Sound Blaster audio card working for the X-Wing Star Wars game. I remember getting Doom from Software Etc and being amazed by the graphics, leading me to reading 3D Game Programming books and attempting to make a video game. Thus gaming is a big reason why many including myself own a PC.

#2 Choose Your Own Programs

Once Windows became dominant in the marketplace, the application developers followed closely behind, eventually developing millions of programs – many of which were not very good and similar in function. This gave users a lot of choice, which we now know can lead to a lot of decent, but not great, products. Compared to the Mac where I can hardly find a program

#1 QBasic

In 4th grade I learned how to program a little turtle with a language called Logo, which sparked my interest in what I later learned was called programming. At the time we were just trying to make cool art.  A year later I started learning QBasic, reading the help documents to learn the language which Windows was founded from, and have been a programmer ever since. After QBasic I fell in love with Visual Basic/C++/Interdev and finally, Visual Studio 2005-2010. I’ve always wanted to know how everything works, and this pushed me into learning to love telling a computer exactly what I wanted it to do.