“Last Wednesday we could see as Apple presented their hyped-up much rumoured and awaited tabled, something that had created such an expectancy. However, it was such great this level of anticipation that the presentation was inevitable an anticlimax, as the tech world so frequently used the analogy of an over-sized iPod Touch that, what Steve Jobs essentially presented to us was a large iPod Touch.” – As stated in the Spanish blog Microsiervos.

But it’s not all about the expectation. Jobs could have made a great speech anyway, no matter the product. The actual product targets a new market segment. The product is actually great, it’s just what Jobs said, and how he said it, which disappoints me.

This part 1 of the original keynote Steve Jobs gave in 2007 where he presented a “revolutionary” device, the iPhone:

In that keynote he addressed 3 separate products combined into 1. A phone, a music player and an internet communication device. It was a great speech. He talked about all the different features incorporated into this product that would prove to be one of worldwide success. He gave live examples of the product. He talked like a pro at all times. He was delivering a new product, and he knew just how to get out there.

A week ago Steve Jobs gave a keynote in which he unveils the iPad. This is the presentation he gave:

So I would like to address parts of his speech independently, to be able to critically analise what he said. After each sentence I will give my own opinion, which by no means represents the media’s view, nor the general public’s view.

• It’s very thin - Yes, that seems to be the general concept these days. Isn’t the iPod Touch also thin?
• And you can change the background screen, the home screen, to personalise it any way you want. - If it couldn’t do that it would be a disgrace of a tablet.
• You can browse the web with it. – And shouldn’t it be able to? I mean, the iPod and iPhone can.
• It is the best browsing experience you’ve ever had. – Based on the same system built for the iPhone. If it didn’t incorporate this technology what kind of a tablet would it be?
• And you can turn an iPad any way you want, up, down, sideways. It automatically adjusts. – Yeah, motion sensors. There’s no point in making them sound “new”.
• Right there holding the internet in your hands. - Uhh?

The problem is that he presented these points as if they were brand new. When he gave the iPhone speech it was impressive, he demonstrated everything real-time, and made it all seem “cool”. Addressing the same issues the same way with just an oversized iPod is not cool.

He should have focused less on the fact that it has these standard features that the iPhone and iPod Touch already have, and more on the fact that with 3rd party add-ons, OS improvements, application and OS extensibility the tablet might make a great gadget. For what? For collaborative meetings, for adding extensibility (drawing pad anyone?) to PCs and Macs.

It is also an interesting Kindle competitor. Great for working in tight spaces which makes it good versus Netbooks. Frankly I think it is a good gadget. It would be better if it had an actual OS as an alternative, or an extensible version of the OS (apart from Apps), however, with a better focus on segmentation this device will be great.

What is your opinion on the speech and the actual device?

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In a statement, a Microsoft representative said the company “is investigating new public claims of a possible vulnerability in IIS 5 and IIS 6 File Transfer Protocol (FTP)”.

Microsoft said it is not aware of any attacks using the vulnerability. “We will take steps to determine how customers can protect themselves, should we confirm the vulnerability.”

According to IDG News Service, code for exploiting the unpatched flaw was posted to the Milw0rm Web site. IDG said the exploit appears to affect primarily older versions of IIS — and only when the FTP function is enabled.

Once it is done with its investigation, Microsoft said, it will decide how to address the matter, which could include a security update as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday or an out-of-cycle update.

via IIS flaw under investigation by Microsoft | Tech News on ZDNet.

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In general I think it looks quite similar (If at all they added a few more ‘themes’). Where you really notice the difference is in the “Engine”, oh, and the fact that it uses the EXT4 file system.

When you install it, it even checks if you haves windows installed and it will import your document and settings.

There is a normal edition, and a netbook remix edition this time (As well as the Server edition). I am running the normal edition on my netbook because I wanted to see how well it performed. On my eeepc 1002 HA it has performed great! It found my webcam and other devices, installed everything necessary, and seems to be doing a great job. I will try the netbook remix version shortly to see how it compares to the normal version running on a netbook.

For now these are my initial points of view, nonetheless I shall keep you updated if there is any interest.

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1. Review: eeepc 1002 HA
2. Ubuntu 8.04… First impressions
3. First Impressions of Ubuntu 8.10

Good work Canonical!

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1. Ubuntu 8.04… First impressions
2. First Impressions: Ubuntu 9.04
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Looks great, install was easy, a few things are much easier to use than in windows. It was faster to configure than ArchLinux. It got complicated when I got down to running virtualization, and a few other things. Installing LAMP server was easy as hell. Gnome + Compiz + 3d Cube and a whole set of effects performed superb on my Centrino Duo with 2GB Ram.

I saw no glitches, no apparent slow-down, and little to no application freezing, even while virtualizing Windows XP Pro (with 600MB allotted to Windows), running firefox with 10 tabs, xchat, emesene, pidgin, rythmbox, terminal and a few other apps at the same time.

8.10 is coming out by the end of October so I’m looking forward to the upgrade already, and I’ll share you my experiences with ubuntu when I get farther down the line.

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1. First Impressions: Ubuntu 9.04
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