As a keen Apple fan, I've been reading the speculation with great interest, and I have another possibility that hasn't been suggested in great depth.
Most of the suggestions thus far have been of three flavors, summarized here in (my opinion of) order of likelyhood:
Something that goes in front of the couch
The digital lifestyle product, perhaps similar to the
Nokia Media Terminal, perhaps with a DVD burner to save your home videos and recorded programs
Something that goes in your pocket
A PDA or perhaps a portable digital media device, like the iPod with a large color screen. I miss my Newton!
An upgrade
Flat panel iMacs, a really fast G5, etc. this would be disappointing, given the hype
However, my suggestion is that it might be something a bit more radical: a wearable computer. I've seen some devices, particularly at the recent Tech-U-Wear conference, that might be nearly ready for prime time, most notable the Hitachi/Xybernaut Poma - a very nice looking product.
Imagine something similar in size to the Poma - which, interestingly, the iPod is close to - running either a slimmed-down OSX or something new, an analogue to the Palm OS for wearable computing. Add to that a small wearable display with headphones. The jog dial on the iPod has already been a solution in wearable computing, it's quite an unobtrusive way to control access to data, or perhaps Apple could include some new user input device.
There's been some talk in the Mac fanatic sites (sorry, no link) suggesting that the iPod has unused outputs on the headphone jack and an empty space inside the box. Perhaps the wearable display could be an accessory for the (existing or new model) iPod! The only problem I can see with this thought is that the iPod appears to have no sensible expansion method, and you would want to add stuff to a wearable (wireless network, cell phone, GPS, etc.) Can firewire be used for that? (Oh, yeah, and the iPod doesn't have a belt clip:-)
The wearable computing industry agrees for the most part that the technology is just about ready for the mainstream, or at least close enough for a mass market announcement. All that is missing right now is a bit of development, a slick user interface and, most important, a killer app - all of which Apple is capable of providing. It would be just Apple's style to create wearable computing for the rest of us!
I've been showing computer graphics art as a member of (art)n Laboratory for over 10 years. Of course computer graphics is a fine art medium, and there's plenty of other stuff in the museums nowadays to confirm it. Go check out Jeff Koon's latest gallery show, it's all Photoshop stuff, but realized in oil paint...
But here's the problem:
The
"Art World" continues to survive in the face of irrelevance through defining itself into an ever smaller circle by rejecting anything that people actually like.
Now, I happen to like difficult art, but not everyone does. The stuff that people do like (The Matrix, Norman Rockwell, singing rubber fish) gets ignored, derided, or at best admired as "pop culture." Somehow, lots of "ordinary" people liking something and spending their own money on it doesn't make it art....
Your problem, very likely, is that your images are too attractive. Try making prints and dipping them in blood, either your own, or that of a goat.
OK, here's my thought, which the previous poster alluded to. How, precisely, could MS be compelled to follow such a court order?
In other words if the government says "You have to break up, like this," what physically prevents MS from saying "OK, make me!"
I suppose, as the other poster suggested, their papers of incorporation could be revoked. MS could, in theory, move the company to some other country (and I expect plenty of countries would be glad to have them), pay to move all the talented employees there, hire locals, and go on doing business. The government could, of course, try to prevent legal sales of the software, but their software is likely to be sold primarily directly over the Internet in the future - unstoppable, in principle.
Thoughts? You can't put a company in jail, and it's really hard to put a really rich guy in jail, someone who can, basically, buy a small country with pocket change...
Slashdot Mirror
And the third one was...?
Most of the suggestions thus far have been of three flavors, summarized here in (my opinion of) order of likelyhood:
Something that goes in front of the couch
Something that goes in your pocket
An upgrade
However, my suggestion is that it might be something a bit more radical: a wearable computer. I've seen some devices, particularly at the recent Tech-U-Wear conference, that might be nearly ready for prime time, most notable the Hitachi/Xybernaut Poma - a very nice looking product.
Imagine something similar in size to the Poma - which, interestingly, the iPod is close to - running either a slimmed-down OSX or something new, an analogue to the Palm OS for wearable computing. Add to that a small wearable display with headphones. The jog dial on the iPod has already been a solution in wearable computing, it's quite an unobtrusive way to control access to data, or perhaps Apple could include some new user input device.
There's been some talk in the Mac fanatic sites (sorry, no link) suggesting that the iPod has unused outputs on the headphone jack and an empty space inside the box. Perhaps the wearable display could be an accessory for the (existing or new model) iPod! The only problem I can see with this thought is that the iPod appears to have no sensible expansion method, and you would want to add stuff to a wearable (wireless network, cell phone, GPS, etc.) Can firewire be used for that? (Oh, yeah, and the iPod doesn't have a belt clip
The wearable computing industry agrees for the most part that the technology is just about ready for the mainstream, or at least close enough for a mass market announcement. All that is missing right now is a bit of development, a slick user interface and, most important, a killer app - all of which Apple is capable of providing. It would be just Apple's style to create wearable computing for the rest of us!
But here's the problem:
Now, I happen to like difficult art, but not everyone does. The stuff that people do like (The Matrix, Norman Rockwell, singing rubber fish) gets ignored, derided, or at best admired as "pop culture." Somehow, lots of "ordinary" people liking something and spending their own money on it doesn't make it art....
Your problem, very likely, is that your images are too attractive. Try making prints and dipping them in blood, either your own, or that of a goat.
In other words if the government says "You have to break up, like this," what physically prevents MS from saying "OK, make me!"
I suppose, as the other poster suggested, their papers of incorporation could be revoked. MS could, in theory, move the company to some other country (and I expect plenty of countries would be glad to have them), pay to move all the talented employees there, hire locals, and go on doing business. The government could, of course, try to prevent legal sales of the software, but their software is likely to be sold primarily directly over the Internet in the future - unstoppable, in principle.
Thoughts? You can't put a company in jail, and it's really hard to put a really rich guy in jail, someone who can, basically, buy a small country with pocket change...
- Robyn