I’m wondering… of those claiming they’ll never wear this kinda thing – do they currently have a smartphone? Did they say the same about that technology or was that somehow different? Because I’m about 99% convinced that wearable tech is going to be the next big thing and that eventually… not having some kind of wearable tech on your person – be it a Google Eye or an iPod Nano watch – will be as rare as not having a smartphone is today.

I do share some privacy concerns over all of this and occasionally wonder if there’s a point where we (as in humanity) could go too far. That’s a healthy fear (which increases as I get older, possibly due to mortality reason)… contemplating the dark sides of it all. But then there’s the positives… the practical, the enrichment of life that technology brings. I like to think about it in utterly simplistically terms – as I take some comfort in this – for every damaging application of technology invented…. a compensating applications of technology can be invented to balance it out. So for example if a cheeky Google Eye developer releases an x-ray vision app, instead of fearing a world where everyone can see everyone naked, consider that someone somewhere will bring out out a new clothing material to block it!

Society adjusts. Sometimes it’s painful and it takes time and education. Most things run at a pace far behind the technological curve. Take the millions of Facebook users that have been handing over tons of their personal info to Mark Zuckerberg every day. There are consequences to that and they can be damaging to some that weren’t aware of how the information could be used (now or in the future). But awareness is now spreading, the next generation will be educated by their parents and teachers and laws are catching up to put in place more safe-guards. So again, society adjusts. Until it does though… it’s very natural to fear new technology and new ideas.

It’s very scary for me to think about it now but maybe Mark Zuckerberg is onto something when he claims privacy is (or is going to be) dead. I believe he has been caught saying as much (off the record perhaps), going so far as to label it an old-fashioned idea. There are plenty of others out there that believe the same. Perhaps it is, or will be, and we’re all just in the very early transition stages of moving to a new open-society model. Imagine if you’d been brought up in a world and environment with much less privacy? The next generation will probably be more familiar with that and they’ll therefore probably care a little bit less about it all. When they’re used to seeing everyone walk around with Google Eyes capturing anything at any time, it’ll be common and second nature to them. They’ll adjust.

There are those arguing such greater accountability in the world will make us all behave a lot better. They’re probably right.

And of course… wearable technology is just the stepping stones towards full bio implants and nano-bots swimming around inside our bodies. That doesn’t sound crazy to me at all anymore. Give it 10-15 years to happen (during which fear towards it will be at its highest and society will have to adjust), then 30-40 years to be the new “normal”.

A further question then is… what’s after that? What will quantum computing bring? Will we invent true AI? Will the lines of man and machine blend further and further? Will we ascend like in Stargate!? (Now I’ve gone too far….)

I’ve been harping on about it for a while saying it’s gonna be the next big thing. Here it is…

This is going to disrupt things big time.

A few predictions:

• This could well start to chip away at Apple’s reign (unless perhaps they respond with Nano watches and convince everyone they’re better). But I’ve already got the Android SDK installed and will be diverting my attention there more over time. I’m sure other devs will start thinking the same.
• This further convinces me that Microsoft is just too slow these days and will continue to fall behind the pace.
• The media will jump on this negatively due to privacy concerns and that’ll be the greatest obstacle for Google to overcome getting this to market.
• Design will be important (if they look geeky, uptake will be slow). The first version we’re seeing here ain’t bad imo but I’m sure others will disagree. Regardless, I imagine they’ll release this in the same model of Android smartphones… i.e an open OS/framework for anyone to manufacture to. So we’ll eventually see designer Project Glass D&G prescription/shades etc. and then it’ll impact the mainstream.
• Goes without saying this will impact smartphone sales eventually. For some these may even be enough to get by on their own (especially if voice input grows with it – and Google is working on that Siri competitor remember). However I think the most likely user-case will be a combo of glasses/smartphone or glasses and some other kind of bluetooth input device (mini keyboard).

I’m just surprised the whole TV thing is taking so long to establish. I guess R&D takes time and Apple is behind closed doors trying every combination of hardware, design, software (inc. SDKs), UI, … etc. I thought the Apple TV would have apps by now though. That 8Gb of on-board memory is still un-tapped.

It’s clear they’re heading there though, eventually. The latest Apple TV update, which looks a bit naff in my opinion (unlike of Apple to do that) is obviously starting to introduce the idea of apps with them big, ugly icons. When an app store is released and the devs pile in (especially the mainstream publishers like iBBC, Netflix, …) then it’ll really start to take off. And at that point, if I can use an app like AirServer to stream my local video library, as well as BBC, and other app “channels”… well I doubt the traditional TV stuff will get much of a look-in again.

Bandwidth will remain an issue until network infrastructures catch up. That will give terrestrial TV and other forms of lounge-media (DVDs, Bluray) a while longer… but I still think they’ll start to fade. On-demand, schedule-free and an even playing field for publishers will win out. Not entirely, but I think there’ll be parallels between what’s going in the games industry right now. Big game development studios are losing out to the new micro-apps industry where anyone – indy or company – can publish to everyone in the world. It’ll be the same thing on the TV front… the mainstream networks will take a hit when everyone has an AppleTV (or GoogleTV) and is a button press away from YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix and Angry Birds – The Cartoon Series (it’ll happen). There will still be a place for big-budget players and decent TV episodes will still cost millions to make but they’ll need to adjust their sales models.

One thing I was wrong about… AirPlay. I look at that now as a stop-gap:

1. I think it’s too complicated for many users. They really don’t get it. And,
2. In practise, it really doesn’t lend as well to the living room as I’d imagined. It occupies your phone when streaming for start. And it’s still a little too cumbersome compared to a simple remote.

To some extent, I don’t think the tech or software surrounding AirPlay has matured enough yet and maybe it will… but I think Apple should concentrate on getting an App Store on the actual Apple TV now, and not focus as much on AirPlay. The devs really didn’t pickup on it either which didn’t help.

Welcome to my new blog. It’s about my 10th. The chances of its long-term survival are bleak I’m afraid. The good news is that you’re reading the very first post so my enthusiasm and itch-to-write is currently completely disguising the time-investment required to keep on posting! I’m also, once again, under the utter disbelief that this time will be different. I guess we’ll see…

The itch is now scratched. It’s time to do something different around here. This will be the last post to this blog.

My reasons are:

Who am I talking to? I appreciate those that took the time to comment on my posts but (personal) blogging platforms just aren’t a place that reward feedback or ongoing conversation. Social networks are where that happens. I get more response from a tweet of 140 characters than I do a 200 word article that took me an hour to write.

Social noise is becoming extreme these days. Everyone’s following Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, all their favourite news sites, e-mail, instant messages, iPhone alerts, … it goes on and on. There is a never-ending and increasingly overwhelming amount of information to interact with and consume. It’s crazy. And it means folk only have time to focus on the most relevant and the most important (to them). My day to day activities qualify in neither category in the vast majority of people’s minds. I won’t beat myself up about that because that’s the case for 99% of us in this world.

I may as well leave industry commentary to the journalists. There are writers who get paid to comment on and report industry events to the extent I sometimes try. They have the advantage of time and reputation on their side. I do enjoy writing and that’s often enough (to express myself/opinion) but perhaps I’d be better seeking out an already-established avenue to do that – or simply surpress it and focus on bigger goals.

Which brings me onto the primary reason for this decision… I’m going underground to focus on pet projects. I’ve got some interesting ideas that I’ve been developing lately and I plan to push a few of them over the line.

I’ll be updating this website soon to be more project portfolio, less blog.

Update: I’m now redirecting my root domain elsewhere. I’ll leave this blog in place for the time being. Maybe I’ll come back to it someday.

Update 2: I’m back :)

This post is part of my WWDC and E3 2011 commentary.

For me, the most exciting news at WWDC 2011 were all the new features packed into version 5 of Apple’s mobile operating system. These will be rolled out as free updates to everyone who owns an iPhone or iPad in a few months time. There are over 200 new features – too many to discuss in one post. Here are the 5 I think will impact the most…

1. Notifications

This was top of Apple’s list at the keynotes and received an applause from the audience. It was long rumoured and even longer anticipated. I think a lot of folks sighed a big relief when it was finally confirmed.

Here’s a fact: iPhone’s notifications currently suck! They takeover the screen, they can only show you one “popup” message at a time and there is no way of finding past notifications that you may have missed. Android phone owners have enjoyed an awesome notifications system now for a long time – in fact, it was the most stand-out feature I preferred about Android when giving it a go. Well now Apple has taken some notes from that and is bringing us a (rather similar) Notifications layer for iOS.

So soon, no more modal popups that take over your screen bang in the middle of a critical game of Angry Birds! Instead, a small indication of the notification will slide in at the top of the screen, then slide back off if you don’t react. Then later, if you want to look at all your notifications you can simply slide-down from the top of the screen to reveal the new notifications app. Bravo!

Couple that with the new “Reminders” app Apple is bringing in with iOS5 and now you have the perfect combo to never forget anything. It even has location aware reminders so it’ll remind you to pickup a jar of coffee when you’re within range of a grocery store. As someone who lives by ToDo lists, I’m glad to see this gap in Apple’s app arsenal finally plugged.

My only slight reservation when getting so excited about the new notifications and reminder systems is battery life. Apple have focused enormously on ensuring their devices all have some of the best battery life. I place high value on this… there’s no point having crazy features in your hand if you can’t use them for more than a couple of hours (a problem I associate with Android). I need my phone to last at least a full day of active use. Additional background services for notifications (especially geo-location ones that will be using the GPS hardware) can only mean more drain on power so let’s hope Apple can reduce the impact of that as much as possible before release.

2. iPad 2 Mirroring

I’ve been harping on about Apple’s stealth invasion into the living room for a while now. Well, they’re edging in further still with what I deem to be the second most important new feature… iPad 2 Mirroring.

In typical Apple rollout style, they’re limiting this feature to their most recent model of iPad only – the iPad 2. I’m fairly sure the iPad 1 could handle it (and the iPhone 4), at least partially, but Apple does like to separate the capabilities of their line to encourage upgrades. Grr.

Anyway, I think this YouTube video below best demonstrates how it works… over wifi, without any cables, and at full 1080p HD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2S0f16fwQs

Watch out Wii, watch out Playstation, watch out XBOX!

3. PC Free

Another new feature that was received well at the keynotes is what Apple’s terming “PC Free”. You’ll now be able to use your iPhones and iPads independently of a PC and/or iTunes. That’s right… no more plugging in to activate, sync or update. Everything will work over-the-air via wifi. From the moment you open the box to the day you flog it off on E-bay, you can go without ever needing a computer.

This is very much in line with Apple’s direction for iOS… i.e. pushing their mobile devices as complete solutions and not just extensions of a PC. I’m sure there are already millions of users who rarely need anything more than their iPhone or iPad now. My wife falls into that category. She hardly ever syncs her phone because it’s a pain to do. It takes time out of her usual routine which currently, doesn’t involve sitting down at a desk in an office. Every once in a while she’ll get me to do it so she can update her apps, music and podcasts… so this new PC Free architecture is ideal for both of us!

I wonder too whether this will bring in a few more sales from the Windows crowd who just hate iTunes so much that they’ve refused to get in on the iOS fun so far? Now, you really don’t need to like iTunes or even Macs to have a completely independent experience with an iPhone or iPad.

4. Twitter

This one was really interesting. Apple decided to pick Twitter, not Facebook for deep social integration into its mobile operating system. Woah!

At first that seemed a little strange to me. A good strange – I’m an active tweeter and not a big Facebooker. However just recently TechCrunch revealed that Facebook are working on a secret project called Project Spartan. Project Spartan is a mobile web-based framework of their own that’ll work on iOS devices through Safari (as well as in web browsers on other mobile phones/tablets) and leverage their own social architecture across. Importantly, it’ll use their app architecture and their “credits” payment mechanisms. Not the App Store. So if this got some momentum behind it, it could threaten Apple’s success with native apps on its own platform! Users could start to abandon the “App Store” icon in favour of launching a Safari bookmark that jumps straight into the world of Facebook. I’m skeptical (so far web-apps haven’t really proved themselves against native, certainly not on iOS) but Facebook shouldn’t be under-estimated. Maybe they are the ones to change that.

TechCrunch deduced – probably correctly – that all this puts Apple, iOS and the App Store in their direct line of fire. As well as Google and the Android Marketplace. It looks like Facebook is getting a bit concerned that mobile is the future, and that they rely on both Apple and Google (and Microsoft) to service their users in that space.

Whether Apple knew about Project Spartan or not, Apple seems to know their goals are at odds with Facebook’s and so they’ve opted for Twitter integration instead. And even more interestingly, they’ve recently been discovered patenting social networking ideas for their mobile devices.

I think we’ll see a lot more from Apple in the social networking space over the next few years. And the competition between Facebook and Apple escalate. I wonder… if things go nicely with Twitter, would Apple consider buying them out? (Long shot!)

5. iMessage

iMessage is a replacement and evolution of the Messages app on iPhone and will now be available on the iPod Touch and iPad too. Its main feature is that by default, it will try to send messages through the cloud and only fallback to SMS if a data connection was not found. Or if the person you are sending a message to doesn’t have iMessage at the other end.

From what I’ve seen in videos it’s fairly seamless. It handles photos and videos too (I think making use of e-mail/MMS as fallbacks for them). So there’s a kind of intelligence that does all the hard work for you when deciding how to send a message depending on the contact the other end. I can’t comment on how well it works yet – there have been a few mixed reports but what’s significant is how the tech and financial industries have responded and what this means for carriers.

I’m not overly familiar with RIM and Blackberry phones but I do know that one big appeal of them that remains over iPhone (other than RIM’s focus on security) is its messaging app. Any Blackberry phone owner can send unlimited messages to any other through the cloud bypassing SMS gateways and carrier limits/costs on texting. Soon iOS users will be able to do the same so Apple is taking away a significant advantage RIM has over them. It could be enough to sway more Blackberry users across.

It surprised me just how much media coverage this got. In fact, the reaction was so great, RIM’s stocks took a tumble! Ouch.

This move by Apple is also taking further control away from the carriers who make a lot of money on texting services. If more people get used to pushing texts/messages over wifi instead what will be their response? More and more telco carriers are becoming data roaming ISPs. I expect some day, all traffic – be it voice, text, video or photo – will simply be internet data traffic and traditional technologies for voice communications and SMS will fade.

Summary

So that’s my big 5 for iOS. There are lots more exciting features… a fuller list is available at http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/features.html

No, there was no iPhone 4S/5 or iPad 3 announced. I’m sure they’ll be revealing more on that front in September, probably to coincide with the public release of iOS5.

On a final side note, it’s a little worrying that Apple has (perhaps unavoidably) damaged some of the most successful app developers in this round of updates by releasing 1st-party competition to their products. They’ve obviously looked at what’s working out there and built their own version to give away for free (e.g. there are a large number of Reminder/ToDo list equivalents and Twitter apps). While it’s good for the mainstream consumer to have something embedded into the operating system, supported by Apple, and free; I’m sure there are a few disgruntled app developers out there now. I hope they don’t give up on their own apps.

It has been an exciting time for technology enthusiasts lately. Two, huge events took place in the same week. One was Apple’s WWDC (Worldwide Developer’s Conference) where Steve Jobs and co. revealed their future plans for iOS (the iPhone and iPad operating system), Lion (the Mac’s operating system) and iCloud (a new service for storing your data online).

The other event was E3, the biggest annual entertainments expo at which all the games developers, publishers and console manufacturers pack into one space and try to wow the press and public with what they’ve been working on. It’s a place for big reveals, immense amounts of hype, and cutting edge tech. I absolutely love it.

The problem (and it’s a nice problem) with having both WWDC and E3 in the same week is that it has taken this long to absorb everything new that was announced. I’ve been watching all the keynotes and trailers, reading up on all the technical info and figuring out what’s hot and what’s not.

So what were the biggest announcements? What’s most likely to shake up the industry in 2011-2012? What is going to end up in the hands of average Joe Punter? I’ll be sharing my opinions in a series of posts over the next few days and weeks…

• iOS5 Top 5 New Features
• More coming soon…

Update: We’re past the point where it’s worth me writing anymore about WWDC and E3. It was some time ago now and the world has long since moved on. I think it’ll be better if I concentrate on my own life/projects here from now on, rather than try to commentate on everything else. That’s what news blogs and social media are for.

I’ve been getting more and more needy-greedy for desktop real estate lately. I’m now up to four displays in my man cave at home (more if you include iPads and iPhones, which I don’t) and five in the office at Linc (two of which aren’t currently in use but soon will be).

I blame the person who first dumped a second monitor on my desk and suggested I give dual-screen a chance because “monitors were going spare”. I didn’t need a second monitor back then… my desktop habits were perfectly organised into a single space: four borders, no neck action required. Now I can’t comfortably make do without at least three screens to flick between, cross reference and feed me information from multiple sources.

Being on Macs, having more than one two display isn’t easily achieved from the one machine. In fact, I’m actually achieving my current tri/quad display setups using two Macs and a piece of software called Teleport (free). Teleport lets you use a single mouse and keyboard from one machine and “teleport” your mouse across to another desktop on a different machine and control that. It works really well for me… I transport my MacBook Air between home and work as my consistent terminal, then use teleport to take control of either my home Mac Mini or the office Mac Pro. This allows me to maintain a lot of useful tools and data that I need both ends on the Air but offload a lot of the hard work onto the beefier desktop machines. It’s a powerful setup that I highly recommend (if it fits your needs).

Anyway, I was there the other day in the man cave with just a three display setup. A good number for me. But I had a fourth quite-nice LG flat screen going unused and started to wonder what use I might put it to. The answer occurred to me: “Feed Junkie TV”.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a feed junkie. RSS news feeds trickle into my Google Reader account from 100s of sources 24 hours a day. So much so that I can’t possibly keep up with it. To that end, I have created a “NSFAL” (Not Safe for Anxiety Levels) folder which I ruthlessly place many sources into and simply mark as read before starting on the important stuff at the top of the heap. If by some miracle I ever get a big chunk of time to sit back, kick up the feet, and just surf, or I go on a long journey somewhere, then I’ll take a peek in the NSFAL folder.

Still though, it bugs me that I have a lot of good posts passing through my NSFAL and I so very infrequently get a chance to look at them. Sites like Boing Boing aren’t focused enough for my attention on a daily basis but by never looking at them I’m not exposing myself to the things that go on outside my sphere of interest. And that’s not too healthy either.

So, combining the spare monitor, my desire to get at least a passive glance at some of those NSFAL articles, a little Mac tool called Fluid and Google Reader’s “Player” feature… I now have my own TV channel of outside-interest feeds slide-showing every minute. I can glance over occasionally at them between concentration spells and maybe pickup something particularly interesting that I would have otherwise missed. At the same time the slide-show isn’t distracting me. I’m ok if I miss 80% of the slides – I’m still seeing 20% I never would have otherwise.

You can see the setup in the first photo above – the top screen is the Feed Junkie TV, raised above the rest so it’s lay-back glance-able when sitting down, and head height when walking about and catching a glimpse.

If you’re interested setting one up yourself, here’s how I did it on Mac:

1. Click on the drop-down icon beside a feed or folder in Google Reader. You’ll see the option to “View in Reader Player”. Click on that.

2. Google Reader will launch the Player in a new window and the URL will look something like this…

http://www.google.com/reader/play/#item/user%2F-your-id-%2Flabel%2FNSFAL/0

3. You need to add a couple of unofficial parameters to that URL. First, “autoplay=1″ to set the slideshow going on launch. Second, “interval=60″ – 60 being the number of seconds between slideshows of your articles. I’ve found about a minute to be a good time but you may want to increase/decrease it. Here is where to add the parameters…

http://www.google.com/reader/play/?autoplay=1&interval=60#item/user%2F-your-id-%2Flabel%2FNSFAL/0

You’ll find a brief blog post from Google on the available Player parameters here… http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2010/05/little-bit-of-polish.html

4. Next, launch the Fluid app and copy your modified Player URL into it, give your app a name (and an icon if you like – here’s a good one).

Click the “Create” button.

(Then the “Launch Now”.)

6. You now have your Feed Junkie TV app. Stick it on the spare monitor, full screen it and you’re done.

Note: you may need to login to your Google Reader account if it’s the first Google app you’ve setup with Fluid.

7. Optionally, you might then want to alter the appearance of the Fluid app window in the its preferences. I find a black theme to the window looks best against the style of the Player.

I just caught a glimpse of an awesome tornado video from New Zealand on YouTube via my Feed Junkie TV. Dom 1 – NSFAL 0.

Pro tip: this kind of setup might be neat to have in an office environment, delivering relevant industry news to staff in a communal area.

If, like me, you walk into a JB HiFi (or equivalent) anytime soon, with a bit of cash in your back wallet, looking around at what new gadget you can treat yourself to (as you do), you’ll see there are currently two pop-out options.

1. Nintendo’s latest gaming handheld, the Nintendo 3DS.
2. Apple’s iPad 2 (or the older, iPad 1 if you haven’t got one already).

Which should you get? There’s an easy answer… the iPad 2. Unless perhaps… you already own an iPad 1. Which I do. So I got the 3DS…

First of all, is it fair to compare the 3DS to an iPad (1 or 2)? Probably not, the iPads are more expensive. However, I’m going to assume if you’re about to splash out $300 (AU) on a 3DS, and a game to go with it (another $50 AU)… you’re open to the idea of spending $400 on an iPad 1 (sale price) or even $579 on an iPad 2 (plus say, $10 on a couple of apps/games to go with it). There’s not a huge difference in it up front ($350 vs $410/$589) and as you build up your software library on either platform, it won’t be long before you’re saving on the iPad with its $1 games economy vs Nintendo’s $50 RRPs. There’s also a massive, massive catalog of iPad apps available for you from day one, compared to a handle of (mediocre) launch-ready 3DS titles. And of course, the iPad is capable of much more than playing games.

I suppose iPads are bigger. (Much bigger.) If you already have a decent phone though, that’s already likely to be your primary carry-around (the device that never leaves your side). So given that, I don’t consider that the 3DS or the iPad need to be as-mobile. Either/both will spend more time at home than anywhere else and when I go on road trips (where I will take them too), I’ll always have a bag with me so the size difference really isn’t much of a factor (in my circumstances).

Anyway, I could go on with reasons why I think you should get an iPad 1/2 before you get a 3DS but instead, I want to highlight some of the 3DS’s strengths, because it’s a great little device too.

The primary feature of the 3DS – its 3d glasses-free screen – is immediately “wow” (and it’s something you can’t get on any Apple device – not quite anyway). I’ve yet to use it in any way that I felt was necessary to the experience but it’s still a superb novelty and an added level of immersion.

There are downsides to the 3d though. It really does strain the eyes. I’m not one to have problems with motion sickness, eye strain, headaches or any of the other side effects some folk complain about when playing games, staring at screens, riding roller-coasters, etc. But I do feel the pinch here. And by “pinch” I mean a literal pinch behind the eyes as this screen attempts to trick my eyes. In the built-in photo editor you can ramp up the 3d effect to extremes and it adjusts radically right in front of your eyes… I’ve got no idea what it is doing behind the scenes, but I feel the strands behind my eyes tightening and loosening in response! It’s borderline concerning actually. I’ve been very pick-up-and-play with my 3DS so far, with frequent breaks, so I’m yet to feel like I have to switch off the 3d into 2d (done via a slider at the side) but I do wonder whether that’ll eventuate as I play for longer periods at a time.

Nintendo has included all kinds of fun apps built into the 3DS out-of-box. I already mentioned the photo editor which taps into the 3d capability in all kinds of ways e.g. push/pull parts of you photos in/out. You’ll have tons of fun just messing around that.

The built-in AR (“Augmented Reality”) games are the best I’ve seen. I’ve tried plenty of AR apps on iPhone but none are a patch on what Nintendo has come up with here. Coupled with the 3d, it’s just amazing to peer down into a hole on your table and then watch a giant dragon pops up out of it. It’s the kind of multi-tech combination that, when put in the hands of your grandma (or even your mum), will simply boggle their minds. It’s magic, and I want to show it to everyone.

And then there’s StreetPass which is the first experience of NFC (“Near Field Communication”) I’ve had. What that means is when you’re out and about with the device in sleep mode it’ll communicate with other 3DSs as you pass them by on the street. You can setup a brief message that gets sent to the other person by your Mii (cartoon avatar – see mine above). You’re rewarded with gold coins and other special hook-ins to encourage you to take the 3DS and your Mii out more.

I wasn’t expecting much entertainment from StreetPass but when I flipped open my 3DS and got introduced to my first StreetPassed Miis, it was surprisingly fun. I don’t know why it was, but it was. It felt like I’d connected with someone without even trying. However… as I’m unlikely to be taking my 3DS out everywhere I go (as tempting as StreetPass makes it) the feature will likely be lost on me. I can’t wait for future iPhones to include the tech though!

The one retail game I bought for the 3DS was Super Street Fighter 4 3d. I read a few reviews of the other launch titles and most didn’t fair well. The collective opinion seemed to indicate SSF43d was the best of the bunch. That may well be… but I’m bored of it already. Don’t get me wrong… it’s a great game but I’ve played so many iterations of Street Fighter over the years, this is just another one as far as I’m concerned. It’s a good demonstration of what the hardware can do though… great graphics (not far off a 360/PS3 console experience) and they’ve implemented the 3d well. However, the game really doesn’t need 3d so I’m still left waiting for a game that demands it as an intricate component of the gameplay.

The 3DS will get future firmware updates (I’ve already performed one) and in them Nintendo are going to roll out new features such as a web browser, 3d movies and an online store from which you can purchase classic Gameboy games. The web browser could be interesting… not because I need yet another device that can surf, but because Nintendo may integrate some of the native hardware into it. Maybe web developers will be able to embed 3d content or render 3d HTML5/canvas apps or something. That would be very interesting to play with if they choose to include that. It’ll be a missed opportunity if they don’t.

Overall, the 3DS is a nice bit of hardware but the lack of software for it right now means I’m already back to playing on my iPad 1 while the 3DS begins to collect dust. It’s immense fun for the first few days but after that, interest will probably fade. Meanwhile, there are new 99c bundles of fun on the iPad App Store for you to download every day. That’s what it comes down to really.

I should point out I collect Nintendo handhelds though (see photo) so I was always destined to buy the 3DS. For my museum’s sake I don’t regret the purchase. Would I have otherwise? Possibly… I’d recommend to most that you buy an iPad first, then wait for the 3DS price to drop and its software lineup to (vastly) increase.

Below is my QR Mii code. Apparently you can snap this with the 3DS camera and then I’ll popup in various places. (If you want a mini version of Mii lurking on there that is!)

The new iOS 4.3 update for iPhones/iPads was released yesterday. I was tinkering with it last night and with (what I believe to be) one of the most exciting and potentially impacting features: AirPlay.

If you’ve got an Apple TV, AirPlay lets you beam any video/audio in an app out onto your big TV in the living room. I’ve been anticipating this feature since 4.2 when a (disappointing) partial version of it was first rolled out, limited to just some of Apple’s own apps. Now it can be used by 3rd party apps too such as InMethod’s AirVideo (screenshot above) and I’m happy to report, it works really well.

Apple is also releasing a Digital AV Adapter for the iPad 2 soon, one that’ll mirror the entire screen onto your HDTV… another (stealth-ish) move to get their mobile devices pumping out content into the living room.

Between these two additions (and other new features such as iTunes Home Sharing), they could really begin to expedite the shift of the TV industry over onto the Internet. In Australia, there are already a number of TV apps in the App Store from ABC (iView player) and Channel 10/11. Each offers catch-up services to past aired episodes. In the US and UK it’s already much further along with the BBC iPlayer and Hulu/Netflix apps providing tons of content (enough for early adopters to start thinking about dropping their cable/satellite plans).

I’m expecting a shift in publishing control, similar to what has occurred on the apps front… a few years ago, only big development houses could reach millions of end-users with software. You *needed* publishers to hit mainstream audiences – to distribute, market, advertise – only the big players had the resources to pile into this. Now, a kid in a garage can develop an app, publish it to the App Store, bypass the traditional publishers (in favour of Apple’s famouse 30%) and earn millions. Apple are leveraging that model across to other industries (books, newspapers, tv), but it’s being careful – it doesn’t want to damage its relations with the big content providers and publishers too much (yet at least). It is trying to give them time to adapt, but there really is no choice in the matter.

I also wonder how long it is until we see less ABC, Channel 10, Channel 7 apps, and more “Neighbours – The App”, “Doctor Who – The App” – individual show-based apps that are dedicated to streaming down specific interest episodes (and possibly extra interactive/social elements alongside). Or perhaps we’ll see a “Dom’s Show” – a TV app dedicated to creative techno-tinkering. Individuals now possess the power to run their own TV station. I guess I already have that reach with the current architecture in place (video camera, YouTube, App Store and iDevice). But soon I’ll have the power to reach millions of end users in the living room too. Apple will continue to relentlessly leverage their App Store success like that. And Google and others will be following alongside.

A lot of this still depends on what the developers do with AirPlay and how the TV industry responds. They didn’t like Google TV very much (and blocked a lot of it) but I think Apple has approached it better, subtler. They’ve switched off AirPlay video by default in 3rd party apps so content publishers can decide themselves whether they want to allow users to watch app-video on a big TV. That’s a choice Google tried to deny them. Bandwidth is also an issue (video content needs a lot of it) but I guess the media giants will have the cash to host their own, and the garage kids will hop off of YouTube and other media sharing services.

I wonder also whether Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are worried about the new Digital AV Adapter. Because with that, games are another thing Apple has just opened up into the living room (and there are plenty of them in the App Store). An iPad 2 hooked up to a big TV now kind-of compares to a video games console such as the Wii, XBOX360 or Playstation 3. Ok, it’s not quite the same, there are some limitations (output resolution amongst them), but for mainstream casual audiences, they may be entirely acceptable trade-offs compared with buying an expensive console and games at $70 each (vs the $1 economy in the App Store).

There are already a few apps (such as Apple’s own Keynotes) that can apparently split the on-screen interface and output signal, essentially turning the iPad 2 into a controller. So for example, I think it’s now possible for developers such as Firemint to push out their Real Racing car game onto your TV, whilst letting you tilt your iPad 2 (now with gyro) from side to side to control the car, simulating a steering wheel. We need to wait and see what they and other developers can actually do with the new SDK APIs but they’ve already hinted at it and I bet they’re not the only ones thinking about it.

So in summary, watch out for iOS in the living room. This is only the beginning. Apple keep saying Apple TV (and the TV space in general) is just a “hobby” project to them. And that they don’t see the business reward in that space. But I suspect that may be a cunning ruse so as not to spark off a more immediate reply from competitors and those who would lose out in a world where Apple had a big steak in TV. It makes sense to carefully nudge their way in so the rest don’t know whether to feel threatened (and respond) yet or not.

And on top of all this, let’s not forget that sneaky 8Gb of memory on board all those new Apple TVs being sold. That’s not even being utilised yet. That has “Apple TV App Store” written all over it. Stealth.