ThomAllenWeblog

YouTube Video Marcus Miller – Burning Down The House

One of my favorite Bass players.

I just got an email from Google stating that starting March 1st, their web applications will no longer support older browsers, instead, pushing the new HTML5 standard. Here is what they said;

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology.  This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5.  As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 ​as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser

I applaud this. As a web developer, trying to create sites that work with a dozen web browsers is nearly impossible. I hope more companies take this stance, and help push new technology along. Google has a strong enough presence with their own applications (i.e. GMail and Docs), that they can control what browsers they will support and which they won’t. Here’s hoping others will follow.

Here we go, please take a ride with me as I search out the ultimate mobile developer machine. Why mobile? Because I hate being tied to a desk. I have desk top machines, but I want something with equal power I can take with me. Here is what I am looking for:

Nothing larger than a 15 inch screen. Yes, 15 inches. Any bigger and it’s like lugging around a desktop.
At least 8GB of memory. I would love to have the ability to upgrade to 16GB or even 24GB. Memory is a developers best friend. Next to CPU speed, it’s the key to all goodness.
A hard drive fast enough to keep up with the RAM. I really like what is happening in solid state drives (SSD).
A CPU, well, let’s look at 4, that will allow me to compile in a split second, let me stream video, rip a DVD, all at the same time.
I would love to have built in 3G connectivity, but the more I think about it, the more I would hate to be tied to a specific carrier. So maybe just a USB card will work.
Ability to read just about any memory card. At least 4 super fast USB ports.
Lightweight. This is a mobile machine, remember?

Honestly, that’s about it. Nothing spectacular. The real trick here will be to find one that doesn’t weight as much as your Mothers Cadilac, and doesn’t cost as much as my last Child.

There are really two flavors, an Apple Mac, like a Mac Book Pro, or a PC which can run Windows or Linux. Since I do a lot of Windows development, Linux probably isn’t a viable option. And I don’t want to own a MBP just so I can run Windows on it. You think the simple choice is to go with a PC. But there is more too it than that. I have to make some additional choices, to make the right choice.

First, will I choose to stop developing Windows applications. Honestly, that’s the key question. I can develop everything but Windows applications on a Mac. I know, I know, running Parallels or VMWare Fusion gives me a Windows machine on the Mac, but I don’t want to do that. It doesn’t work all that well on my iMac, and I know it doesn’t do any better on a MBP.

Throw my hat in a ring, and stay there for a while. Honestly, I’m not sure 100% which ring the hat will fall in today. OK, enough of that, off to find The Ultimate Mobile Developer Machine.

What would you recommend?

[... I had written about two thirds of this post on my iPhone using the WordPress app, while I was sitting at the bar in a Chilis restaurant. I saved the post as a draft, but when I tried to reload the post to finish, all the content was gone. All of it. This is the second or third time the WordPress app for the iPhone has failed me. I won't make that mistake again. I'm finding something else. Is there something else? Evernote?]

The killer iPhone apps just keep getting better and better. Yesterday I introduced you to the Ustream Broadcaster iPhone application. Today it’s KnockingLive. The KnockingLive’s approach is a little different. It uses the same technology to capture video, the iPhones camera view, but adds the ability to share video with a specific user or users. That’s right, you can stream private video to other iPhone users. And the other users even get a “knock knock” on their phone when you want to share something.

There is also an incredible sister app that allows you to share photos, or albums, and the receiving phone can choose to save the photos to their local phone. Wow. I’ll about this one next.

One thing this company has done is create a website that shows you how to use the features in several scenarios via videos. Very cool.

I’ve had the UStream Broadcaster iPhone application for one day and I am calling it the best application of 2009. Why? Because my iPhone 3G doesn’t have a video camera, but UStream has managed to over come that by streaming what you see out of the camera before you take a snapshot. Basically streaming the looking glass.

Here are a few screen shots

If you notice the above image, you can send a link of the video to Twitter and Facebook, and also upload directly to YouTube.

Streaming isn’t too bad. I watched a stream my brother was broadcasting, and the quality wasn’t too bad.

I’m marking this app as one of the Killer Apps all iPhone owners should have. And best of all, it’s free!