Counternotions:

Suppose you were the CEO of Apple in 2005 when a couple of intergalactic visitors with time-warping technology offered you this bet:

Design and manufacture a small mobile device that seamlessly combines the functionalities of a cellular phone, a web surfer, an audio/video player and a small PC, and your company will double its market cap and establish a third mass-market computing platform after Windows and Macintosh.

Would you take it?

Before you say, "Are you nuts, why wouldn't I?" ponder just a few of the issues involved.

With the iPhone being so saturated in the world today, it's easy to forget how truly daring and revolutionary it's launch was.

Steve Jobs took that challenge by the horns and made it his bitch.

This chart by Ryan Jones is the reason why I sold my first-gen iPad yesterday.

Some people still have doubts because Steve Jobs infamously once said that 7" tablets are "dead on arrival." I, on the otherhand, am still betting on the iPad mini because of three reasons:

• this won't be the first time that Steve Jobs has backtracked on one of his bold statements.
• the iPad mini can produced cheaply by using the same touchscreen as the iPhone 3GS.
• the market and business opportunity is there. It wasn't there back then but the success of the Amazon Kindle has proven otherwise.

So I'm calling it now:

Apple is going to reassert its market dominance. It's gonna address that gaping hole under its price umbrella and be the hottest seller this Christmas shopping season. It's going to change the way an entire generation of children will learn in school.

The iPad mini is coming. It's gonna completely suck out all the air from the room and suffocate the competition, just like the iPad mini did to the mp3 player market.

I can't wait.

I'll admit, I had some serious doubts on App.net. At the time I was still close-minded and thought of it as a Twitter clone.

Then I came across this post by Andrew Chen:

• To build a feed within your app, you’d publish every action that any of your users do within your product, and then you ask App.net for the subset of the global feed that was published with your application.

• To build an API to let other apps publish on your feed, you don’t have to create your own API. Instead, you would just configure your app’s filter of the global feed to show posts from other applications, and voila, they would show up.

• To post to other feeds, you would just write into the global feed, and then ask the other apps to allow posts of your type into their feeds.

• To build a reader client for any other app or collection of apps, you would just filter the global feed based on posts from those apps.

That's the part that caught my eye.

Today we have cross-posting across multiple social networks (and mini-social networks), which is awesome. I can post on Instagram and have it go to my Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, etc. But as more of these mini-social networks pop up with cross-posting abilities, our various newsfeeds get flooded with more and more duplicates.

How many times have you seen a friend do this:

1. post on Instagram
2. Instagram pushes to Twitter
3. Instagram pushes to Tumblr
4. Tumblr auto-pushes to Twitter
5. Tumblr auto-pushes to Facebook
6. Instagram pushes to Facebook
7. Facebook auto-pushes to Twitter

That's the same Instagram post published seven times. I don't know about you but I still see that happen. And that annoys me to no end.

The more I thought about this, the more I started to appreciate the dream behind App.net.

What if everybody just published everything into this giant river and then developers give us the ability to selectively choose exactly what we want to see? Sounds to me like that could be the next generation of real-time information.

From a non-developer standpoint, going back to my original thoughts of App.net, I was concerned about none of my personal friends forking over $50/year. But you know what? Just because a technology isn't mainstream doesn't mean it can't change the internet.

Just look at RSS. I would say that 95% of my friends -- including the social media saavy ones -- don't have the slightest clue of how to use RSS feeds. But for geeks and influencers of the tech industry, RSS feeds are CRUCIAL. And its these influencers that eventually have an affect over the mainstream.

So on second thought, I was totally wrong about App.net. Instead of thinking App.net as "another Twitter" that will never go mainstream, I've embraced the idea of it as potentially becoming the next generation of RSS feeds for the tech industry. Even if it never grew past the 10,000 initial backers of the project...that 10,000 could be the most influential people on the internet.

And that would make it worth the $50/year.

Pledge App.net

MG Siegler:

We’ve seen this story before. Indenti.ca was going to be the “open Twitter” before App.net was going to be the “open Twitter”. Diaspora was going to replace Facebook by giving it back to the users. OpenID. OpenSocial. Open. Open. Open. Free. Joy. Wonder. Peace. Perfection.

As much as I love the idea of technology being open, the reality is it takes a big boss at the top to call the shots and direct the innovation. It takes a Steve Jobs, a Bill Gates, or a Mark Zuckerberg to say, "fuck you, this is how we're gonna do it," for any technology to reach the top.

You just can't do that with "open" because you simply just can't please everyone.

Marco Arment also commented:

But the bigger problem is that I just don’t see a social platform growing quickly enough to overcome the network-effect barrier when it’s not free to join, especially when the goal is effectively to replace an existing, free, extremely successful network.

I totally agree.

I'm an early-adopter-type. I'm always down to sign up for any new service or app that comes my way. But to put a $50 cover charge on a small party that doesn't have any of my friends in it? Sorry, that's not gonna happen.

The reality is this:

1. people will always choose the path of least resistance.
2. people will stick with wherever their friends are.

And App.net is on the losing end of both of these.

TUAW summarizes Mat Honan's night:

They used that access to reset his iCloud password, reset his Gmail password, gain control of his Twitter account (which in turn gave them access to Gizmodo's Twitter feed and 400K followers) and generally wreak mayhem.

Unfortunately, Honan's iCloud account was tied to his iPhone and iPad, which both had Find my iPhone/iPad turned on. In the attackers' hands, the FMI utility was turned against Honan and both devices were remotely wiped. It got worse: his MacBook Air had Find My Mac enabled, which meant the hackers could erase his SSD... and they did.

Ouch.

I've always believed that your email should be they most secure password out of all your accounts. But man, it never occurred to me how much havoc can be caused when someone hacks your iCloud.

Lesson learned.

For the longest time, I used my blog as my personal diary (saving my diary posts as private, of course).

And then I started to get lazy and just wrote everything on an endless, totally insecure, text file. I would tell myself, "at the end of the month, I will paste my entries onto my blog."

Two things sucked about this process:

• There were a couple times when I accidentally published a diary post as public.
• For a solid 2 years, I stopped moving my diary entries from the text file to my blog.

When Day One for iOS/OSX came out, I debated for weeks on whether it was worth the money. Ever since I bought it, I've wished I had this thing 10 years ago.

One thing I love about Day One is its more in-tune with my journaling habits:

• I tend to write diary entries in short, tweet-like bullet points.
• Lots of times I want to write something private on the spot, not when I get home.

And now, with today's update, Day One supports photos and Foursquare places.

Photos is a really, really awesome feature because a photo really is worth a thousand words. And sometimes all you really need for a diary entry is a good photo of that precious moment. As a bonus, when you attach a photo to Day One, it'll automagically time- and geo-stamp the information to that diary entry. I just added a photo from this past weekend of my friend dancing with his mom at his wedding, and BAM, Day One already sets the date, time and location for it

If there's one thing I wish Day One had, it would be the importing of all my social networking activities. I still have this iPhone app called Momento which imports data from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Foursquare and more...but the developers of Momento don't show nearly as much dedication as the Day One guys.

Download from iTunes

General Rules

• Always keep one row empty to keep the screen uncluttered and give me a natural spot to swipe there when switching homescreens.

• No bright wallpapers for the homescreen and especially not the lock screen. iOS keeps the lock screen at full brightness, regardless of your brightness settings. This takes a toll on the battery when push notifications come in throughout the day.

Apps

• Calendar app is at the top-left and requires farthest reach for my right thumb. Its my least-used app on the homescreen, but I need it there to quickly see today's date.

• Maps towards the top-right because I need them easily accessible while I'm driving. (Looking forward to the upcoming turn-by-turn feature in iOS6!)

• Foursquare, Facebook, PostMate and Tweetbot are my most-used, most-accessible apps, placed strategically where my right thumb feels most comfortable tapping.

• PostMate is an app I designed. I use it to quickly draft & post to my Twitter accounts, Facebook Profile/Pages, and Foursquare all in one shot.

• ProCamera is on the dock because I take a lot of photos (of my food, lol). Its image stabilization mode is my favorite over all of the other camera apps out there.

What's Missing?

• Phone — moved off-screen because I use Siri to initiate 95% of my outgoing calls and the lock screen for calling back missed calls.

• Weather — moved off-screen, thanks to Siri and the Weather widget in Notification Center.

• Mail, Facebook Messenger — I hardly initiate conversations on the iPhone so I just use Notification Center and the lock screen to stay up-to-date of new messages.

• Google Voice — I have GV text messages forwarded to the Messages app; this saves me a LOT of battery compared to using the official GV app for text conversations.

• Reminders - I use Siri to create tasks and location-based notifications to stay on top of them.

• Music - moved off-screen because with Siri on iOS 6, I can launch this app, specific songs, and specific playlists by voice command. I mainly use this app while I'm driving anyway.

What does your homescreen look like?

Share on Homescreen.me

It's ridiculous how much time I spend on organizing my homescreen, lol. But hey, the smartphone is the most personal computer we'll ever have. So it's only right that this much attention is spent on personalizing it.

Last night I got an invite for Homescreen.me and it's nice to see a community of iPhone users that believe in the same thing. Here's my first post on there:

General Rules

• Always keep one row empty to keep the screen uncluttered and give me a natural spot to swipe there when switching homescreens.

• No bright wallpapers for the homescreen and especially not the lock screen. iOS keeps the lock screen at full brightness, regardless of your brightness settings. This takes a toll on the battery when push notifications come in throughout the day.

Apps

• Calendar app is at the top-left and requires farthest reach for my right thumb. Its my least-used app on the homescreen, but I need it there to quickly see today's date.

• Maps and Music at the top-right because I need them easily accessible while I'm driving. (Looking forward to the upcoming turn-by-turn feature in iOS6!)

• Foursquare, Facebook, PostMate and Tweetbot are my most-used, most-accessible apps, placed strategically where my right thumb feels most comfortable tapping.

• **PostMate is an app I designed. I use it to quickly draft & post to my Twitter accounts, Facebook Profile/Pages, and Foursquare all in one shot.

• ProCamera is on the dock because I take a lot of photos (of my food, lol). Its image stabilization mode is my favorite over all of the other camera apps out there.

• Voxer is docked, keeping it handy for communicating with friends while I'm driving.

What's Missing?

• Phone — moved off-screen because I use Siri to initiate 95% of my outgoing calls and the lock screen for calling back missed calls.

• Weather — moved off-screen, thanks to Siri and the Weather widget in Notification Center.

• Mail, Facebook Messenger — I hardly initiate conversations on the iPhone so I just use Notification Center and the lock screen to stay up-to-date of new messages.

• Google Voice — I have GV text messages forwarded to the Messages app; this saves me a LOT of battery compared to using the official GV app for text conversations.

• Reminders - I use Siri to create tasks and location-based notifications to stay on top of them.

Inspired by Michael Arrington's 2009: Products I Can't Live Without, here are my vital tech products of last year:

• iPhone 4S — specifically the 8 megapixel camera, iCloud, and Siri. I take a LOT more pictures now. iCloud has saved me a couple times when I had to hard reset my iPhone while on the road. Siri has allowed me to move several apps off of my homescreen, including Phone, Find My Friends, Reminders, Notes, Clock, Weather.

• iPad — to save money, I limited my traveling and stopped paying for the 3G data plan. The iPad became more of a household device that I'd use in bed or on the couch. I also started using it as I stretch before my morning runs to make the stretching routine more enjoyable.

• Google — Chrome, Gmail, Reader, Voice

• Flipboard for iPad/iPhone — still, by far, the best way to stay up-to-date with Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and now Tumblr.

• Trillian — Replaced Adium as my default chat client because of its seamless chat syncing and chat logging in the cloud. While chatting, I could easily switch to a different device and not worry about missing any IMs.

• Instagram — started using this even more when I got the 4S (8 megapixels, baby!)

• Tweetbot — the best Twitter iPhone app out there; its push notifications replaced my Boxcar app

• Facebook

• Instapaper — because I was overseas for 10 weeks in a country with spotty internet, I started downloading articles and blog posts to read offline. Also kept me amused on my 16 hour flight.

• Tumblr

• Skype — absolutely necessary for sharing intimate moments with someone that you can't be with physically.

• Dropbox — came in really handy when I constantly needed to share large files with my friends.

Honorable Mentions: Backblaze, Find My Friends, PostMate for iPhone (shameless plug), Slingbox

Heating Up for 2012: bitcasa, iTunes Match, Siri, Voxer

Cooling Down: BlogTV, Foursquare, Path

Dismissed: Adium, Boxcar for iPhone, Mozy, TokBox, Twitter for iPad, Hootsuite

Last year I attended two reunions -- one with my childhood friends and the other being my High School reunion. While I've done a pretty good job of keeping in touch with my childhood friends, most of my high school friends I hadn't talked to since graduation.

But if there is one thing that I have in common with both groups of friends, it's Facebook.

It came up several times in conversation. Friends would tell me how much they loved my status updates.

"Mel, I saw your status about a bee attacking you while you were peeing. HILARIOUS!"

"Mel, I love your food pics! Keep posting those!"

Sweet! I'm e-popular at my high school reunion, hahah. But not all of it was positive. One of my friends came up to me:

"Mel, I don't fucking understand half of your status updates. What the hell is 'RT'? And what's up with the '@' signs? And what are the #'s for?"

At the time I was pushing all of my Tweets from my personal account straight to my Facebook. I spent 15 minutes trying to explain to her the concepts of retweets, hashtags and @mentions...but she ended up even more confused and walked away.

So that's when it hit me. That is when I realized that even though most of my Twitter followers are my personal friends on Facebook, the two are very different audiences. Or rather, different social graphs.

The reality is we have a social network for just about every possible social graph these days:

• Personal friends? Got "˜em on Facebook.

• Colleagues and business contacts? Got "˜em on LinkedIn.

• Friends that enjoy my food pics? Instagram (for me, anyway)

• Local friends that wanna know where the party is at? Foursquare.

Even with Twitter, I have two very distinct accounts. One that is for professional topics and the other for personal tweeting"¦kinda like having a Facebook Profile for personal friends and a Facebook Page for fans.

It's something that I started doing because I realized that most of my personal friends don't have an interest in my professional/geek side. The few friends of mine that are interested? They'll follow both of my accounts. And the few times that a tweet overlaps both social graphs? I'll tweet it on one and retweet it on the other. Or I'll just tweet the same thing on both.

@AndyBudd once asked, "[is there a right way to tweet?](* http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2011/03/is_there_a_righ)"

My response? There is a time and a place for everything -- the wisdom comes from knowing when and where.

Before you start whipping me with "it's my Twitter account, I can tweet whatever I want!" ask yourself this:

Do my Facebook friends really care about #FollowFriday?

Do my Twitter followers really care if I check into a gas station to fill up gas?

Do my Twitter followers really care to click a non-descriptive "Photo: http://tumblr.com/asdfghj"?

There are so many damn social graphs, some of us don't know what to do with all of them. But, these graphs are separate for a reason, so we should treat them as such.

If a person is really interested in your location, they'll follow you on Foursquare. If they're really interested on your Tumblr posts, they'll follow you on Tumblr.

So disable all that cross-site auto-posting stuff. Be selective when cross-posting on Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, and Tumblr. Realize the context of who are you talking to, why the follow you and what you are sharing with them. Or simply, before sharing anything on any social network, just ask yourself:

"Who would care about this?"