There has been a lot of posts about what will happen to print material over the next several years with the introduction of the iPad and other already existing devices like the Kindle and Nook. Although my mother clings dearly to them, I know for me, it’s probably been a good six or seven years since I last opened an actual dictionary to find a definition.

Encyclopedias? I don’t think I stayed in school long enough to really grow accustomed to using them. The internet seems to do the trick nicely.

Well, today, as I was browsing the net, I came across this image on thereifixedit.com. It seems to serve as what might be a pretty accurate omen to the future of most print material.

The Encyclopedia Britannica, conveniently modified into a broom to brush away debris on the floor.

Having little higher education, and not having read too much up until about four years ago, I personally have no attachment to the printed medium of literature. Well, other than the fact that I don’t really want to sit in front of my computer screen to read. But, with the advent of a versatile digital media device like the iPad, I can foresee a time when I don’t have a single book shelf in my home and all of my books are consolidated into one little digital media portal. Not unlike the way we’ve ditched shelves and shelves of DVD and CD cases.

I have friends who decry this attitude of mine. Clinging to the nostalgic feeling of several hundred pages bound together to tell a story or communicate an idea.

But a post of Craig Mod’s blog seems to sum things up pretty nicely. Well, for the immediate future, at least.

He argues that a huge amount of our familiarity with the written word will be challenged. Nothing is necessarily sacred. Just because we have lived for hundreds of years interacting with books on a page-by-page basis, doesn’t mean we will continue to. In fact, a digital medium will explode the formatting potential of our literature. Hopefully, in a good way.

As someone with no attachment to the analog methods we’ve used for centuries, I say bring it on!

If I may, I would like to take a moment to voice my frustration. Not with anything particularly important. But frustration nonetheless.

Usually, I’m a big fan of competition between business. It usually leads to lower prices and better products and I’m all about that. (Come on wireless providers, someone take the plunge into affordable wireless PC connections!). But sometimes, companies that compliment each other well and together offer something great, do something stupid. Like trying to deliver the whole package themselves.

See, like people, companies are often good at one thing, while being weaker at something else. Hence wonderfully symbiotic business relationships. But, when those companies decide they want to compete with each other, rather than work together, I, the customer, lose!

Who else could I be talking about besides Apple Computers and Google.

I’m a huge fan of both of these companies. Apple does the whole personal computers and handheld devices really, really well. And Google does pretty much everything internet really, really well. Maps, docs, calendars, wave, voice? Hello! It’s freakin’ amazing. Google’s integration on the iPhone couldn’t be any more convenient. Google is even Safari’s default search engine. Of course, because that’s the search engine we all use and love.

But now, Google has gone and done something stupid. They decided they wanted to make their own browser (Chrome, which is pretty great), and their own OS (also Chrome, which is kind of a joke), their own mobile OS (Android, which the jury is still out on) and now their own branded handset which goes head to head with the iPhone (the Nexus One). By the way, did you know that Google doesn’t have call centers ready to answer people’s questions about their products? Yeah, even the $500 Nexus One handset. And of course, now customer service satisfaction is at a dismal low. Probably because it doesn’t exist.

(Interestingly enough, you know who does have call centers and one of the highest customer service rankings anywhere? Apple Computers.)

Of course, Google couldn’t just stick with what it was actually good at. Instead, they had to move into this whole new realm of physical devices and thereby forcing Apple to make other plans. (Possibly even with Microsoft!)

Now, Apple has bought a maps related company. Presumably in anticipation of edging Google Maps off their devices in the future. And, there’s even talk of replacing Google as the default search with Bing. Bing! Are you freaking kidding me? I know, it sounds crazy, but that’s what the rumor sites are saying. That steaming pile of crap they call a search engine is not what I want to use. I want to use GOOGLE!

And seriously, Apple, are you going to send thousands of camera equipped vans all over the world to give us street views for your maps application? No! Of course not! You’re product isn’t widely adopted enough!

Ugh!

So, Apple—please don’t be afraid of Google. Continue to embrace what they do well and give us what we want. Integration with Google and it’s horde of amazing products.

Google—Your web stuff is awesome. But your whole cloud computing, netbook, ChromeOS thing isn’t going to work out unless you also plan to give everyone dedicated, 100% internet. I spend too much time away from a wifi hotspot. ChromOS, useless. Stick to what you do well and don’t run my mobile computing experience into the ground by making other great companies choose lesser solutions.

Microsoft—Just start over completely.

In Conclusion

Competition isn’t always good.

This rant has been brought to you by my frustrations with the unfolding situation between Apple and Google. Now that it’s out of my system, hopefully it won’t come up again any time soon.

A video blog by me, of me, about five things I love. Can you pick out which of those statements wasn’t true? I’ll bet you can.

(Can’t see the video? Watch it on YouTube!)

I know that this isn’t a technology blog, but after watching this video I’ve decided to post about it anyway.

People have long complained about iPhone lacking ‘multitasking’. An now, similar complaints are arising about the upcoming iPad. Trouble is, other mobile device makers have attempted ‘multitasking’ in the traditional computer sense and they have all missed the mark.

The idea of ‘multitasking’ on a desktop or laptop computer is fairly straight foreword. But on a mobile device it’s just not so simple. Check out this video which pretty thoroughly explains the problem and why the solution isn’t as straight foreword as we think.

(Can’t see the video? Watch it on YouTube.)

I sometimes sit and think about how strange a time it is to be alive. In the world of technology, more has changed in the last 200 years than in all the time leading up to it. That’s pretty incredible. It means we have to be willing to look at everything with fresh eyes.

Even though there may be things that were true of the human experience for a very long time, they may very well not be true any more.

I was thinking especially about cameras. They’re less than 200 years old. In terms of an art medium, this is one that is extremely young. Even though we’d have difficulty imagining life without them. Which makes me wonder what kind of affect the advent of cameras has had on growing up.

It wasn’t until 1900 that the first camera was mass produced, and shortly after that it became something of a household staple. Regular families started having pictures of their kids. It wasn’t long before they started having pictures of their vacations, too.

What was it like for the parents seeing their children grow up with this crazy device that freezes a moment in time and saves it forever? It must have been fascinating.

The advent of personal video cameras, I’m sure, was a similar experience. When I was growing up, my family didn’t own a camcorder, but I was fascinated by them. I imagine that it would be a surreal experience for me to watch a preteen version of myself on screen. Yet millions of people now have that experience and don’t think twice about it. It just is the way it is.

Now it seems like something similar is happening again with the introduction of social media. Search YouTube and you will find millions of videos people’s children. There’s practically an entire generation of children that are growing up on YouTube. That’s bizarre.

It seems impossible to predict the effects of a rapidly mutating social and technological culture on Children. But part of me wishes I could start right now and experience it for myself.

So I’ve had my iPhone now for about four months. Anyone who knows me in real life knows I’m practically a zealot for the thing. I absolutely love (just about everything) about it.

A little over a year ago, I had switched from Verizon to AT&T so that I could get my hands on the iPhone 3G. Well, Verizon managed to lure me back with a series of pretty outstanding incentives. During the short time I had the phone, there were a handful of complaints that I had about it. The usual of course, (no picture messaging, no video capture, no landscape texting). Finally, with the 3GS, all of my complaints were addressed, and frankly, I can’t really think of anything I wish was there that isn’t! So, naturally, I abandoned Verizon and moved back to AT&T.  (And I don’t know what you all are talking about, I don’t even notice a difference in service).

So, as I have been planning on writing this for a few weeks now, the time has come. This is a list of my absolute favorite applications for the iPhone. These are all apps that I use on a regular basis. They appear in no particular order.

Vlingo
Lets up update multiple social networking sites at once. I use it for Facebook and Twitter. But the best part is, it has built in voice recognition so that you can speak you updates rather than typing them. Perfect if you on a long car ride or something. Vlingo is free.

Rowmote Pro
Rowmote lets you control your Apple computer with your iPhone. It has a built in touchpad for the mouse (full control and gestures, just like the Apple touch pad), a full keyboard, and an Apple style remote for media control. It also has built in support for lots of different applications—not just Apple’s Front Row. Among them are VLC, Plex, Last.fm and even Safari. Rowmote Pro is $4.99. It may seem steep, but when you add up all the different apps you need to do what Rowmote Pro does, it’s actually quite reasonable.

Dictionary.com
I like to avoid general web browsing in Safari when there’s a specialized app alternative. The Dictionary.com app is just that. It also includes a thesaurus. But best of all, all the info is localized in the Phone. The app predicts which word you’re looking up, and results are instantaneous. The only drawback: it takes about four seconds to start, which feels like an eternity. Still faster than Safari though. Dictionary.com is free.

WifiTrak
WifiTrak is a wifi scanner that will look further than the built in one. And it really does work. It can be set to refresh constantly which makes it perfect for scouting out open wifi networks in a pinch. And, because it’s in your phone, it can be used while you’re driving (something you can’t very well do with an open laptop). Once you find a network, then you can pull out your laptop and get to work. WifiTrak is $0.99.

The Weather Channel
The lite version and the paid version are the same, but one has ads. The Weather Channel app is more complete that the native weather app—namely with hourly and weekly reports. The Weather Channel is Free, or $0.99 depending how tolerant of ads you are.

Shazam
Identifies songs. Hear a song, open the app and find out what it is. Works about 90% of the time. I use it to identify music in movies and tv shows. The app also provides a portal to online stores selling the songs. Shazam is free.

Apple Remote
Browse and control iTunes on your computer. I love it because it lets you browse you iTunes library like it’s your iPod. See album art, rate songs. It’s pretty much all there—except coverflow. It also supports song requests by other iPhone users who are guests.

Movie Genie

Once again, I like to avoid Safari when there’s a specialized app. Movie Genie browses the IMDb website for movie and television information. It has about 90% of the website’s functionality. Movie Genie is $1.99, but it should be noted that there is now a free app put out by IMDb, but I know nothing about it’s functionality.

Cheap Gas
Pretty self-explanatory. Uses your current location to find the cheapest gas. Also provides a quick link to directions and a weird augmented reality function. Cheap Gas is free.

ProCamera
Among other things, it adds zoom and anti-shake to your camera. In fact, it makes the camera down-right usable. It has video function, but there are no special features for the video, which is kind of a blower. Perfect for photos though. ProCamera is $0.99.

RedLaser
RedLaser is a barcode scanner. It’s way faster than any other barcode scanner in the app store and it’s product search is far more thorough, even including local results. I thought this kind of app was useless until I found RedLaser, and now I rarely shop brick-and-mortar without using it. RedLaser is $1.99.

SmartSync

Syncs your phone contacts with your Facebook account. This is good for the compulsive people like myself who want to have all the last names and pictures possible for the contacts in their phone. It works fast and has plenty of options to keep you from accidentally overwriting information. SmartSync is $1.99.

Dragon Dictation
Simple voice recognition and interpretation. But the key is that it’s really, really good. No need to over-pronunciate. Just speak normally and Dragon figures it out almost every time. It doesn’t do anything else, but offers quick links to copy text and jump to email and text messaging. Best part is, Dragon Dictation is free.

Last.fm

Everything we love about Last.fm radio, on the iPhone. I use this all the time to find new music when I’m away from the computer. I recommend it over the Pandora app. Last.fm is free.

A few days ago I wrote about the changing landscape of business and education thanks to the availability of information and the unprecedented level of connectedness we have to that information. Well, I just watched an incredibly interesting video on YouTube which details some of the numbers and figures that make those speculations all the more compelling.

Check it out.

Can’t see the video? Watch it on YouTube.