It has been awhile since I’ve written and I recently read some news which got me thinking about net neutrality and the future of the internet. For those like me, who try to keep up with the internet news and what’s happening in “the cloud,” you get an overwhelmed feeling due to the effects of Moore’s Laws. My RSS feeds are cluttered with 35% more Apple news due to the upcoming MacWorld.

Headlines

If you haven’t been keeping up with headlines here is a short run down (by NO means is this exhaustive)

Old News

Google’s Android platform to come out this year - new OS for your phone. Basically it has the flexibility of an iPhone but is available for any phone (companies will just have to implement it, and it’s Google… they will). Developers can even build for it.

Microsoft realizing its defeat with search - it has been known for a long time that Microsoft’s Live search is primarily used by people who have it as their default page and just don’t know how to change it. Their hope was to buy Yahoo and remedy that issue and we know that didn’t work out. There are some who think both companies should give up search and work on something else, I agree.

Update: point proven?

Vista’s killing Microsoft - People are realizing that there are other options out there and that they don’t need to torture themselves with Vista. I’ve only heard people like Vista if they are power-users. News flash: most people are NOT power-users AND most people’s system can’t run Vista. Thus people are retreating to XP or finding a new home in Mac.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard - Mac continues to improve their position in the OS market, with the release of Leopard. It includes many new features which everyone is enjoying. Some wish they had come out with more features, but agree, it’s more than other companies are doing.

Google’s OpenSocial - a conglomeration of social networks are opening up their API so that developers can write one application that will run on all the social sites. Right now Google/MySpace/Yahoo/AOL are the main participants in this initiative.

New(er) News

Mac OS X 10.5.3 - What? Again? Yep. The new update that came out within the past week (or two?) has new features which point to more integration with the new iPhone. The newest developer’s kit requires that you have 10.5.3.

.Mac update! - .Mac is Apple’s online service. Host a family website, send pictures, update iCal to multiple computers, yada yada yada. 10.5.3 updates some of the applications to have a global variable to be able to change the name of this hosting service (it used to be hard coded to point directly to .Mac). Thus there will be (hopefully) an update in the service during MacWorld. I want it to be free… it’s probably not going to happen.

New iPhone - old news right? Well… it has yet to come out and it’s just rumors. Most likely rumors: 3G, GPS (I see this likely due to Sprint’s new phone), it’s Apple, so it will probably be thinner and have a better battery life. More rumors: video chat (I see this as a good guess, it uses 3G, and though Sprint can do it, everyone would still be amazed by it), and smaller form factor (but didn’t they do it right the first time?).

fbOpen - FaceBook Open - FaceBook’s response to Google’s OpenSocial.

Other News

You might have read about the 700Mz deal and Google’s response to the government in the aftermath. AT&T wireless hotspots. Palm’s smartphone. Windows 7. Mac to use LED backlit screens. Apple’s Back-to-School promotion.

Net neutrality

What is it? Net neutrality allows for ISP (internet service providers) to charge users in order to use their network. ISP’s own the internet: the wires that connect different servers that build up the grid known as “the cloud” or the internet. Their thought process (summed up) is, “It’s our property, and we have millions of people using these lines, why can’t we make some more money on this too? Why should Google get the money for its users and not us?”

Their solution? Charge people by packaged deals for sets of websites they might use. More sites = bigger package = more money.

Problem? It’s the internet!! It’s supposed to be free! To be rebellious. To grow fast. When you charge people for it, they will choose the sites they use most and only use those. Sites like this one will stop being public.

Our solution? Fight against net neutrality. How? Unfortunately I am not intertwined into this news platform as much as I should be. If it comes in front of the government, then call your representatives to vote accordingly. As I learn more, I will let you know. But till then, know how you want your internet (free!).

Update: Found a great video which explains it pretty well, also just search YouTube to find more helpful information.

Internet Future

I won’t share all of my thoughts on this but I will point out some of the bread-crumb-trail that will lead us into the future. I’ll do this by pointing out a few facts.

1. Less transistors = more chips - computer engineers are finding it harder and harder to put more transistors onto a single silicon disk (thus making up a CPU. More transistors ~ more power). Their solution: put more chips into a computer, thus we got duel core systems. Difficulty comes with laptops and power consumption. Thus the need for better batteries. How does this relate to the internet? I’ll take about this in future posts…
2. Social Buzz - the current social buzz is worse than the craze to add an “i” in front of every product you can think of. It’s even bigger than the yoyo craze of 3rd grade. Social networks are popping up for every type of group you could think of. Many sites are even evaluated on how social they are. Thankfully, we are on the down side of this hill. Unfortunately, it has been a very large hill, so there are many sites to come and fail before we get to the plato where we find just a few winners. Who will be those winners? Facebook and MySpace. But MySpace is dead you say? Look again, Google is helping MySpace out. Microsoft is helping Facebook out. Both will do well, these will be the Google and Microsoft of the social spectrum. Oddly enough, they will be opposite of their supporters. Or will they?
3. Mobile Platform - iPhone and Android. They will go head to head. iPhone with its beautiful interface and seamless syncing with the computer. What is going to be a wild ride is the applications that will come out for these two platforms. iPhone has an accelerometer (I’m ready to play games!!). Android has support for one, but it’s up to the manufacture to put one in. That’s the largest falling point of Android, it’s up to the manufacture to put in the specs. And the Android platform is modular, so that means you can customize your platform however you want. A developer can come out with a really cool way to view your contacts, you can use that new program. This will mean there will be n^m possible systems for the Android platform (which is completely open source). iPhone: 1 option for contact viewing. Options vs. Learning to use one very well.

My thoughts: The next couple years will have a flurry of social mobile applications. With the iPhone getting a GPS and many new phones getting GPSes (or Google’s Geo services), get ready for companies to ask you to opt into a Big-Brother-system make for you and your friends. Turn your GPS on and see where your friends are around you. But everyone is scared of Big Bro so they will try to give you as many security preferences as possible, but they will inevitably forget something. And there are going to be companies who want to push the limit and hook up with a match making site. Wouldn’t you want to fill out a 40 question survey to tell them your personality so that you can get a text message and be told to stop on a random street so you can check out a potential mate across the street who matches you at 78% vs. your current girlfriend who is only 74%? Umm… no thank you.