I have tested the developer build of Chrome OS. I’ve read many articles about Google’s latest creation. I tried to believe Google.

For me, Google Chrome will be a fail.

So, turns out Google wants to push all our computing life onto the web: every application is a webapp, you login with your Google ID. This is a good thing, everyone wants to be more connected with the internet, and this is where the industry will move. The problem is, what Google is developing and plans to launch next year, could only happen in a perfect world. In the real world, the world where many people still have a fucking dial-up connection, the world where my dad is barely able to open a Word document, the world where people believe the monitor is the computer, this is impossible. Well, not that impossible, it’s just a fail. Or at least, this could work fine for a few people.

Let me explain better. Say you’re a professional graphic designer who needs Photoshop to be open all day plus tons of other apps. Google wants you to push everything into the web. Google wants you to use an online image editor.

WTF.

Yeah, pretty much what I was thinking. Now, let’s calm down and think about: I don’t think Google is that stupid. They know that people who know how to use a computer will use Chrome OS. Just like the Nintendo Wii, their target are casual users, those who stand between my dad (total n00b) and my friends (average users). And obviously, Google fanboys (pretty much nerds). But let’s make a step backward: I said “I don’t think Google is that stupid.”.

Hmm.

What if Google actually believes Chrome OS will become the system of choice for everyone? Or , what if Google really believes the web OS can replace a desktop OS? Let’s quote this Mashable post:

“Google cares more about the browser becoming the OS than it cares about Chrome OS being the OS of choice on the computers of the world”

Indeed. They want the browser to become the OS. Ok then, this could be deinitely interesting, but it will fail. I told you before, this could happen in a perfect world where everyone has a 200Mbit connection and where webapps allow you to work with 2GB documents. Google is building a skyscraper upon a big foundation of mud. By mud, I mean Internet in 2009 (and it won’t be so different next year) where webapps (earth)  are good - no doubt about it - but they sure can’t replace desktop apps in most situations (water). I can surely send my invoices with Freshbooks, but I can’t manage MacStories with an online version of Coda (which by the way, doesn’t exist). I can manage my photos with Picasa, but I can’t work with Final Cut Pro Online. I could, with a faster connection and better webapps. Google seems to ignore that fast connections are not so common, that’s an elite thing. Maybe they have a blazing fast connection in Mountain View, but we haven’t.

So, who’s Google’s target?

Hope.

And ignorance.

Grackle68k is a Twitter client which supports Mac OS 6 to Mac OS 9. Here are some screenshots:

And here’s a mockup of Tweetie running on Mac OS 9:

I remember I heard of someone many years ago who was tryin’ to port Nintendo GC games to the old NES. They called him “crazy”.

Is this the beginning of retroapps?

Very interesting blog post from Louie Mantia, icon and user interface designer working at the Iconfactory.

Here’s an excerpt:

“We’re quick to blame the App Store for not having an easy way to browse thousands of applications, but we never had that on Mac OS X, and our products sold just fine over there. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t “browse” websites for software. If I need some software for my Mac, I search Google for keywords on what I am looking for and find relevant results. So I don’t think there’s much browsing on the App Store as we all seem to think there is.

So what’s the problem? Why are we worried about the App Store if it’s just a download link? Well, simply put, I think we’re all jealous. We’ve seen “success” stories of people who have developed apps that made it into the Top 10. We’ve seen ridiculously stupid applications make it up there and make “tons of money,” but how is that different from any other kind of business?

In my hometown of Webster Groves, there’s a nice local bar and grill type of place that has some really great burgers. They’re like $5-10 or something like that, depending on what kind and what toppings you get. Quality stuff. But right across the street, there’s a McDonald’s. Now, of course, that McDonald’s has people rushing through the drive-thru and walking in and out of their store, bags in-hand. Those burgers can cost from $1-5, for example. They’re not really quality, but they’re a cheap, faster alternative.

My point is, just because that McDonald’s has all these people buying up their cheap burgers doesn’t mean that place across the street can’t sell deliciously better seven and a half dollar burgers. They might not sell as many, but it’s not about that. Again, success is measured when you can turn a profit. As long as those guys are making money and can run their business, they’re successful.”

Overall, I agree with Louie. Many developers seem only able to complain about the flaws of the AppStore instead of working hard to create better applications and better websites. Sure, the AppStore may have many problems, but the change should start from you developers, guys.

There’s been an interesting debate with my followers on Twitter these days: which one is the best uploading / quick sharing app for Mac? Going deeper, the fight was between Cloud, “the wet dream of every Mac user” which is still in private beta, and Tinygrab, the application powered by the latest MacHeist nano bundle.

I’m totally against useless internet fights but you know, it’s an interesting subject worth an in-depth article.

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AppleInsider link

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, is reportedly an Apple fan who uses an iPhone and Mac laptop. He also denied that there is a rivalry between his company and Apple, noting that attempts to create one makes him “uncomfortable.” But Iwata also allegedly sees the iPhone as enough of a threat that Nintendo must work to stand out from it and devices like it.

“If we can’t make clear why customers pay a lot of money to play games on Nintendo hardware and Nintendo software and differentiate ourselves from games on the mobile phone or iPhone, then our future is dark” .

Now, I’m quite curious to know how Nintendo will move. I’m a fan of Nintendo since 15 years, I have almost every Nintendo console ever released, but this time I’m very skeptical about the future.

How are they gonna explain to their customers that they should play $40 for a game when they can have a game on the iPhone at $5? Well, hardcore gamers know the difference between a full featured console game and an AppStore.

But  casual gamers, those who bought the Nintendo DS and Wii like bread 2 years ago, are slowly switching to Apple’s iPhone as their mobile gaming platform. Nintendo is in a very difficult position: should they start a new marketing campaign aimed at casual gamers and explain them why consoles are different from mobile devices, or should they finally release products for hardcore gamers? But again, the problem is that many hardcore gamers switched to Microsoft’s Xbox years ago, and I don’t believe they’d like to change console again.

This is a big mess Nintendo. When we told you shouldn’t only think about casual users, this is what we were talking about.

Link

I’ve heard artists say that you can’t wait for the magic to happen, you have to sit at your desk in your office and make it happen. So I sat there looking at my clamshell iBook’s screen for about two weeks, trying to rid myself of the torpor. I was using Microsoft’s Office X at the time, which was very old school. At the bottom of your document window in Word you had this row of winkie blinkies with cryptic labels like REC, TRK, EXT, and OVR. I thought, “What are those things? Does anybody know?” People where complaining then about the endless rows of tiny icons you had to deal with in Word. Dozens and dozens of them. Back then, there was almost no other option for a Mac word processor. Microsoft had crushed all of its competition.

Interesting interview to the developer of Bean, a nice word processor for Mac OS X.

How many times before did I say I love Tweetie? Both in its Mac and iPhone versions, I think it’s the best Twitter client out there, even better than many “professional” online services. Read my article “10 Reasons Why You Should Buy Tweetie 2..and What To Expect From Tweetie 3” if you missed it.

Today I had the chance to chat with the man behind the revolution, Loren Brichter. He works at atebits and he’s the developer of Tweetie.

Enough said, time for the interview!

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