Seems like we went from being impressed by things getting smaller, to impressed by things getting bigger. I guess it depends on how you look at it. I consider it a larger iPod Touch, while others consider it a small computer. Sure, it’s a cool device, it offers most of the features of my iPhone in a size more suited to reading, writing, and movie watching. But I cringe everytime I hear someone say it is going to replace the laptop computer. Here’s why I say that’s rediculous:

A) Multitasking – whatever your taste in OS is, whether it be Windows, Mac OS, Linux, those systems have spent years perfecting multitasking and file management for both business network users as well as home users. The iPad, while a user friendly device for simple computing, is a huge step back on these important features.

B) I cannot run any of my professional applications on it. It doesn’t have the computing power or multitasking flexibility for Adobe Creative Suite or any video or 3D modeling/animation software. Also, no matter how neat Apple’s word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation stuff is, there’s no way it will replace Microsoft Office in the average workplace. The iPad OS is just not suited to these types of business applications.

C) Even if it did have the computing power to run that stuff some day, I don’t like the idea of downloading the software from an App store. I want full access to the system and software I purchased. Its like getting a car and being told you aren’t allowed to open the hood. The dealer has to make all installations and upgrades. If you can’t open it, you don’t own it, I say.

D) The whole refusal to support Flash thing. This should be evidence to any power user that the iPad/iPhone platform is bad news. It’s not just about being a personal supporter/user/designer of Flash content, it’s about the principle of the whole thing. What if Steve Jobs decides he doesn’t like some other technology, is he going to just say that isn’t allowed on the device? As the owner and user of the device, I want the freedom to be able to use whatever technology I see fit. You can’t claim that the “possibilities are endless with the iPad” and then pick and choose what is possible on the device. Not to mention, Flash is still important, whether Steve Jobs believes it or not. A lot of popular websites use it. My son Maxwell will be very dissapointed that he can’t visit disney.com with his iPad.

The iPad definitely has a place in the business, but not as competition to the Personal Computer. If I were in the market for a book reader like the Kindle right now, the iPad would be my choice. If I were looking for a portable device for watching movies, I’d probably go with the iPad even though I still prefer having a physical Blu-Ray disc over a DRM-protected digital file.

It’s a cool device, but please don’t call it the laptop computer replacement. Because if this is the future of computers, I’m a little worried.

Congress is going to hand the operation of the Internet over to AT&T, Verizon and Comcast. Democrats are helping. It’s a shame.

Don’t look now, but the House Commerce Committee next Wednesday is likely to vote to turn control of the Internet over to AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and what’s left of the telecommunications industry. It will be one of those stories the MSM writes about as “little noticed” because they haven’t covered it. (Click here to read the rest of the article…)

Like many people, I feel like this bill would be more than just “turning over control” of the internet to companies like AT&T, Verizon, or Comcast. It would be the end to any and all internet Democracy that has existed up until now. It’s turning web content into a service only a few can afford to provide, where the little guy is not only crushed, but is not even able to start up.

If we aren’t careful about things like this, in 5 years the internet won’t be a public medium. You’ll pay for “Comcast internet” or “Verizon internet,” each of which will offer you access to a limited number of sites under contract with Comcast. For example, they’d slow down your connection to Yahoo, if Yahoo didn’t pay them a “high speed premium”.

If you don’t think this threat is real, check out this site for more detailed information about it. From the site:

The telephone and cable companies are filling up congressional campaign coffers and hiring high-priced lobbyists. They’ve set up “Astroturf” groups like “Hands Off the Internet” to confuse the issue and give the appearance of grassroots support.

Congress is now considering a major overhaul of the Telecommunications Act. The primary bill in the House is called the “Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006″ and is sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), Rep Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Rep. Charles Pickering (R-Miss.) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.).

The current version of the COPE Act includes watered-down net neutrality provisions that are essentially meaningless. An amendment offered in a key subcommittee by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), which would have instituted real net neutrality requirements, was defeated after intense industry lobbying against it.

But it’s not too late yet. A full committee vote on the measure — and another opportunity to save the Internet — could happen as soon as April 26.

The Senate is moving more deliberately on the issue. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has introduced the Internet Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, which would ensure net neutrality. And Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (R-N.D.) are expected to introduce bipartisan amendment supporting net neutrality when the Senate takes up its own rewrite of the Telecommunications Act later this year.

But neither chamber will support the free and open Internet without widespread public pressure. To keep the Internet free and open, Congress needs to hear from millions of Americans right now.

Ever since the development of paper and the printing press, corporations have been able to make tons of money from mass communication. Now with the internet, data is cheaply stored and cheaply moved around. Huge corporations, from music and movie studios to companies like AT&T and Comcast feel that they’ve lost control of communication and aren’t making the kind of money off of it that they supposedly ‘deserve.’ So they’re trying to take it back, and they have the support of our elected leaders. Instead of merely being a service provider, they will be a censor that can retake all that lost revenue by having total control.

This is nothing but selling the heart and soul of American Democracy in order to allow corporate powers to cash in on the movement of information. It’s disgusting and it’s wrong. Everyday corporate powers and congressmen sponsored by these nuts chip at the foundation stones of Democracy to fill their coffers with cash to pay their spin doctors.

Now maybe I’m falling into a big foolish overreaction here and I’m just being another doom-sayer, but this kind of crap has been happening behind our backs for far too long. Guys and girls, it’s never too late to take to the streets.

Adobe Photoshop vs. Macromedia Fireworks is a fairly obvious one. Photoshop is hugely popular, and much further along than Fireworks. The only thing that I can really think of is that Adobe should be able to grab a few nice features from Fireworks, especially for it’s ImageReady application. In fact, they could probably just get rid of ImageReady, and replace it entirely with Fireworks with just more of a Photoshop look and feel.

Adobe Illustrator vs. Macromedia Freehand is also a pretty easy one to call, Illustrator is as huge as Photoshop and is a much better program than Freehand. In fact, I can’t personally think of too many things that Adobe can really take from Freehand, as Adobe already does everything better in their own vector-based application. The best thing they can do is to integrate Flash into Illustrator, which is something I’m extremely excited about.

Adobe GoLive vs. Macromedia Dreamweaver is the one that worries me the most, and I think it’s also the toughest one to call. Adobe seems to be pretty proud of their GoLive application, they always have been, and no one knows why. Hopefully, Adobe will be smart and recognize the larger market share of Dreamweaver in addition to realizing how much more powerful a tool it is for Web developers.

Adobe After Effects vs. Macromedia Director is another one than concerns me, because I personally prefer Director over After Effects. However, I know that After Effects has more market share and they are more likely to dump Director. Hopefully they’ll combine some of my favorite functions or take some things from Director, so that the transition isn’t quite so hard on long-time Director fans like myself. Ultimately, I’m really going to hate to see Director go.

We all know Flash is going to stay, we’ll just have to get used to calling it “Adobe Flash.” So at least that one small part of Macromedia is sure to continue into the future. But I’m concerned about all the smaller Macromedia developments that have come up through the past couple years–Flex, Breeze, Contribute, FlashPaper, what’s going to happen to all these little gems?

Historically Adobe’s focus has been on graphic designers, and I have to wonder how good of a job Adobe will do in keeping Macromedia’s strong developer base. Graphic designers have a much different set of requirements than developers, and Macromedia has tried to capture more developers and has been successful. This is the one thing that Adobe can either help or ruin.

As I said before, it will be a shame to see less competition in the industry. The new Adobe will kill companies like Corel. If that happens, I’ll be really ticked, as Corel Draw 8 was the first graphics program I learned how to design on. It has sentimental value, I guess. On the bright side, the Adobe-Macromedia merging of software should really streamline things for those of us who have been using both Macromedia and Adobe products over the years. I’m sure there will be things we’ll all hate and have to learn to deal with, but there are going to be things that will be so cool that we’ll forget about all the stuff that we miss.

To be honest, I sort of wish that Adobe would have bought Quark instead, ending that dinosaur we all know and hate – QuarkXPress. Eh, QuarkXPress 6.5 isn’t so bad. It’s a little better. It’s still pretty tedious compared to InDesign. I suppose we’ll just have to wait for Adobe to kill off Quark the hard way. InDesign 2.0 and CS have made some huge blows to Quark so far. Will CS2 finish this fight off once and for all? You all know who I’m rooting for.

Personally not much is going on right now. I’ve had a really quiet weekend. Relaxing, but kind of boring. I’m taking Friday afternoon off this week to get my Minnesota Drivers License and register my car in Minnesota. Yeah, I’ve been kind of putting that off. My ND tabs expire at the end of the month, so I definitely need to get it done on Friday. And my auto insurance company is dropping me at the end of May. Apparently they aren’t licensed to insure in Minnesota. So I’m going to have to find a new insurance company, and the rates I’ve been finding so far haven’t been pretty. Good thing I got a raise last week.

Not much else going on in my world for now. May will be a good month. Big Cinco De Mayo party coming up, that should be fun. Oh, and next Sunday my favorite show, Family Guy, is making it’s big return from being cancelled for a couple years. And of course Episode III on the 19th is another long awaited premiere. Lots of big new music albums coming out, too. But for now I gotta get out of here and eat something, so I’ll see you next time.