iPad

The name is so obvious, I am surprised I and others did not think it up soon enough. There were many other names floating. iTablet, iSlate, iBook. I was kind of thinking the name might be iSlate. But iPod, iPhone, iPad, the name just makes sense. P, P, P.

It is a new category. This is not a netbook. There is the PC - invented by Apple - there is the digital music player and the smartphone - both reinvented by Apple - there is the netbook - ignored by Apple - and now the tablet - reinvented by Apple. Microsoft toyed with the tablet idea a long time, but I guess they are not a hardware company.

Apple today is primarily a mobile company. The PC is more of a backdrop to them. Steve Jobs cracked Graphical Use Interface (GUI) before Bill Gates did. Now it is all about touch. I don't know if touch is the next big thing, but it is definitely a big, important addition to the computing experience ecosystem.

Image by tsevis via Flickr

I keep thinking of the physically challenged. Some of these advances are good for them. But we need to do more. What would be an audio-only computing experience? You consume only audio, and you only give out voice commands. And you don't miss out on any website, not on any of the key applications like email. That would be great not just for the visually impaired, but also for those whole and on the move, like when you are driving. We already got touch for those who can't hear well.

What I have noticed most is the enormous amount of buzz around the official CEO of the Decade. Google is the company of the decade, and Jobs is the CEO of the Decade. There is a lot of sizzle.

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Bill Gates

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NY Tech MeetUp: Europe Edition

The NY Tech MeetUp continues to be my favorite MeetUp in town, and the go-to event every month. When I first showed up in town years ago, I was signing up for MeetUps left and right, then I whittled it all down to one MeetUp, the NY Tech MeetUp. By now I have signed up for a few more. But I am not a regular at the few that I have signed up for. The NY Tech MeetUp is it.

And tonight they got something called The European Edition. I am looking forward to it.

Special NY Tech Meetup: The European Edition

1. From London, UK, Advertag - Tag-based search technology for classifieds and image search
2. From Bucharest, Romania & London, UK, Brainient - Helping video publishers monetize video content by adding interactive elements and affiliate marketing
3. From Warsaw, Poland & London, UK, Codility - Automated testing of programmers via the Web, saving employers and recruiters both time and money
4. From Tallin, Estonia, Erply - Comprehensive CRM, accounting, billing and inventory management for SMEs
5. From London, UK, Kukunu - A social travel planning platform to build and organize your holiday, because travel is better when you plan it yourself
6. From Paris, France, Kwaga - Makes your inbox easier to manage by intelligently screening and organising your emails
7. From Cambridge, UK, Patients Know Best - Patient-controlled medical records. First customers include the UK's largest private health care provider, and the UK's largest children's hospital
8. From Vienna, Austria, Platago - Helping game developers to publish their games on social networks
9. From Amman, Jordan, Talasim - The Comedy Channel of the Middle East, providing a space for self-expression and sharing humour
10. From Belgium, Wondergraphs - Social business analysis that saves organizations time and money with easy to use exploration, sharing and context aware search
11. From Israel, YubiTech - Enabling mobilization of Desktop application to cross-mobile platform, in a fraction of cost and time, bringing best user experience to the mobile users
12. From Zagreb, Croatia, Shoutem - Enables you to create your own microblogging community for your business or brand

The lineup for the January 4 event was along these lines.

SpeakerText - Living the NYC startup dream!
BlazeTrak - Are you star material? Find out!
UDorse - This NY Tech Meetup is brought to you by...
Artlog - This is NYC, and 2010 brings us our first art/tech startup?
1 min/NY Tech Minute pitches from:
PressLift
NYC Way
Taxi Hack
Yogoer

The after party was at the Black Door on 26th between 6th & 7th Aves. Bumped into the Hootsuite guy @quikness at the after party. And got to meet the LaunchCloud (a Crunchies finalist) @mikomercer. I just found out she is now Mayor some place as of recent. And to think I did my very first FourSquare check in last night at the Blue Note Jazz. (Jazz) It was a sold out event. I showed up early to get the bar option. Alex showed up for the 8 PM show. Tommaso showed up for the 10:30 PM show with two of his Italian friends. We ended up being five people. Around midnight we crossed the street and went to the bar there, "to wake up a little," as Tommaso put it: I thoroughly enjoyed the jazz. There was some noisy music in the basement. Alex and I stayed. The others left soon.

Alex is going to be at the MeetUp headquarters this evening for the European edition.

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