> The ideas are only mock-ups, but Google has established itself as a real if not dominant force in the computing industry. Its Android mobile-phone operating system is increasingly influential, and its Chrome browser continues to steadily grow in usage. > > The tablet mock-ups show a variety of Chrome OS tablet ideas, including a virtual keyboard taking up the bottom half of the screen or detached and floating as a separate window. Also included are a slideshow mode, an application launcher, sidebar-mounted browser tabs, and a pop-up contextual menu. I don’t know about you, but this strikes me as desperate and a little sad, even. It actually reminds me of what Microsoft did with the surface a few years ago.

Apple announces AND demonstrates a fully-functional, real product that will ship in 60 days, and Google responds with some video of a prototype that may more may not make it to market in a year or so, in an attempt to divert attention away from Apple and cause a few users to “wait for the Google Tablet” instead of buying the Apple one.

“Look, we’re working on a tablet, too, and we even posted these videos of it two days BEFORE Apple announced its completed product.” As if the two days sooner proves in some way that Google wasn’t copying Apple on this. It’s been common knowledge that iPad was under development for years now.

Good luck selling Chrome netbooks, now that you’ve just told everyone that Chrome tablets will be coming along a few months later, by the way. You clearly didn’t learn anything from the Droid/Nexus One debacle.

It’s as if Google is still following the Microsoft playbook to the letter, despite clear evidence that this strategy is failing.

> **Physical evidence pointing to a forward-facing iPad camera was found in the frame of replacement enclosures for the device.** > > Evidence for the possible existence of a forward-facing camera in the iPad was [uncovered](http://blog.missionrepair.com/2010/02/01/ipad-camera-rumor-becoming-a-reality-we-think-so/) by repair company [Mission Repair](http://www.missionrepair.com/) in a shipment of replacement iPad enclosures it acquired on Tuesday. > > A “spot” that closely resembles the holes present in the Unibody Macbook exists within the iPad frame. Mission Repair confirmed that the camera from the Macbook does fit into place on the frame, with the lens, LED, and ambient light sensor all lining up. You now have two pieces of conflicting information:

1. Hearsay from an unknown repair company that claims to have evidence that the iPad could have space for a front-facing camera.

2. Video of an event at which Steve Jobs and other execs at Apple showed off the iPad with no camera in it.

Common sense dictates that most people would take those bits of information and come to the conclusion that there’s no way that iPad will ship with a camera. But unfortunately, many Apple fans toss common sense to the side in favor of pipe dreams.

The result: Apple will be blamed for not including a feature they never promised in this device. Which is exactly what Apple-hating members of the press want to happen.

Apple’s worst enemy has always been, and will always be, its own fans.

Are we really forgetting that just a few months ago, Apple shipped an iPod Touch that has a space for a camera, but no camera? Clearly, Apple thought about putting a camera in there but chose not to. I wouldn’t be surprised if the iPad were in a similar situation. Prototypes probably had all sorts of features that were later removed in order to meet price goals, or because the software wasn’t ready to support it, etc.

I’m watching in dismay as many well-respected Apple supporters, even, are stirring up this whirlwind of anticipation that Apple will add “secret” features to the iPad at the last minute before shipping. The reason: glass screen and better battery life than anticipated on the iPhone weren’t announced until just before shipping. But better battery life and a glass screen are hardly equivalent to adding a camera. Remember, the iPhone was far from finished when Jobs showed it off that January. Members of the press were told not to touch the calendar app, because it was just a placeholder icon. Somewhere along the line, software optimizations probably led to slightly better battery life than they had anticipated. That didn’t cost Apple anything.

Believe me, if Apple had any intention of putting a camera in the first shipping version of iPad, Jobs would have demoed that functionality, rather than watch the iPad get bashed in the press for two months for not having it.

Hiding features in the most hotly anticipated product of the year is not good marketing.

> A number of outlets received supposed second-hand reports from Apple’s “town hall” style meeting with employees last week. For starters, I hate reading stories like this one. I used to work at Apple way back when, and I understood that what was said at private company meetings was meant as a rallying cry for the troops, not something that should be quoted back to the press.

I have no idea exactly what Jobs said at this meeting, but I can say that if there is any truth to the rumor that he said Google’s ‘Don’t be Evil’ mantra is “a load of crap”, I can’t disagree with him.

‘Don’t be Evil’ is marketing, people. If you think any corporation is capable of not being evil, you really don’t know what a corporation is. Corporations are evil by definition. They exist to make money for stockholders at any cost. And being evil always makes more money than being good.

And as far as Adobe being lazy, and Flash being a dead technology, I have to say, I’m happy to hear that Steve believes that, because I do, too. Adobe made its power play, concentrating all of its efforts on making Flash ubiquitous, so that it could literally own the web. And it almost got away with it.

But along the way, Adobe stopped innovating where it traditionally did best, and failed to comprehend the importance of the emerging mobile market.

Let’s face it, Photoshop hasn’t really gotten any groundbreaking new features since layers were added in version 4. It’s a giant, convoluted mess of code at this point, that leaves it years behind when new technologies come along. How long did the port to native OS X Carbon take? 64-bit is still not there on the Mac side. The big feature in Photoshop CS4 was that it takes less time to start up. That’s just sad.

It’s obvious that Adobe’s attention is elsewhere. Otherwise, by now it would have done what Apple and Microsoft did with their operating systems recently; start fresh and dump the old code for something sleeker, more powerful, and easier to maintain. Instead, Adobe was busy adding more ways to embed ads into Flash videos.

They’re lucky no one with enough money has come along to challenge Photoshop in the meantime. There are plenty of good apps out there like Pixelmator; if Apple were to buy one of them and make a true pro product out of it, Adobe could find itself with some serious competition for the first time in years.

The sooner Flash dies, the better off the world will be. I just hope Adobe sees the writing on the wall in time to shift focus back to its core strengths.

> Historically, closed platforms are typically limited in terms of scale and are confined to niche markets,” the report said. “Apple has built is business out of carving its own niche, which means that while Apple could see success with devices like the iPad, other players are unlikely to be able to replicate its result simply by copying, Lin noted. Copying Apple is a recipe for failure, in other words. Smart man. He’d rather concentrate on his company’s strengths than try to beat Apple at its own game.

RIM figured this out about a year or two ago, when it stopped trying so hard to make “iPhone killers.” What it learned is that you’ll hold on to more of your market share, and even increase it, if you stick to what you do best, and innovate within your own niche.

There’s a lesson for Microsoft, and especially even Google there. Google in particular, is quite capable of creating very good products of its own. But if it tries to outdo Apple, it will just embarrass itself.

People keep thinking that history is going to repeat itself with Apple handing over power to its biggest competitor. They haven’t figured out yet that the Apple/Microsoft wars were lost by Apple, not won by Microsoft. Apple isn’t as naive and smug as it once was.