I don’t know if I’m more impressed with concept that one gallon of gas could provide 7,300 charges or that our automobiles can’t seem to get consistently better than 25miles using the same quantity of fuel.  Yeah, yeah,… I understand that moving a 3,000 hunk of steel is different that filling up a 1420mAh lithium-polymer battery.

Read more, courtesy of gizmodo -

It’s true. According to Bill Colton, a VP at ExxonMobil, a single gallon of gas has enough energy to charge an iPhone once a day for 20 years. Of course, that’s never going to happen but it’s a point ExxonMobil uses to stress the fact that there is a lot of energy in gasoline.

That number is striking though. 20 years? And then you think about what gasoline is used for, fuel for our cars, and it all makes sense (kind of). Our cars which are three thousand some pounds and can hit upwards of 100 mph for miles upon miles rely on gas to work. If gas has enough energy to power that, it definitely has leftover resources to pump up our phones.

ExxonMobil goes on to say that gas is one of the lightest and most energy dense fuels there is, which I could not care less about because all I want now is somebody to figure out how to transform a gallon of gas into a chargeable resource for my iPhone.

Just in case my post yesterday appeared too pro-Apple, let me dish out a little criticism today.  Just because they’ve made some smart marketing, distribution, and product development moves over the past several years doesn’t mean that they aren’t kinda evil.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that the iPhone is now available on Verizon ending the exclusivity between Apple and AT&T.  Pre-sales for existing Verizon customers started on February 3rd and the rest of the world is free to get in on the action today.  Various reports project that that 1 million iPhone 4s will be sold in the first week of availability and 3-4 million will be sold in Q1.

What’s wrong with that, you ask?  Well, Apple is predictable in delivering product upgrades on more-or-less a yearly cycle and a new iPhone has been announced or released every summer since its inception.  Do the math - if it’s now February and we can expect our next iPhone announcement in June, then people who buy this month have just four months to enjoy having that ‘new phone feeling.’

I guess you could blame the consumer here too.  I mean, if you’ve already waited four years for an iPhone to come to Verizon, why not wait just four more months to get in at the top of game?  I digress… 

Of course Apple wanted to get this done as soon as possible in order to exploit the hype and sell a bunch of phones.  They know that they have enough fanboys out there that they’ll be able to sell just as many phones (if not more) when the iPhone 5 launches over the summer… probably to some of the same folks that pick one up this month.

In the end, there are reasons why AAPL is trading around the $350 mark today and is expected to reach $425+ in the near future (iPad 2, new MacBook Pros, iPhone 5)… hint: it isn’t because they care about their customers.  Agree?

I love the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer” and I think that most who’ve seen it would agree that the best scene in the movie is when young Josh offers his opponent a draw, saying: “You’ve already lost, you just don’t know it yet.”

When it comes to the tablet device game, this might as well be Apple’s slogan. The iPad already reigns supreme in early adoption and while other companies (Motorola, HTC, Samsung, etc.) are rushing to get their own competing devices to market, I don’t know if they realize that they’ve already lost.

Sure, they might compete when it comes to specifications - the Xoom even has the current iPod outmatched with it’s dual-core processor, higher resolution screen, additional memory, better camera, and so-on.  That pretty much concludes the discussion of where current tablets best the iPad, though.

In the technological chess-match currently unfolding, here is where the competition has already lost.

Operating System - While Android has made great leaps and bounds in trying to catch up with iOS, it still isn’t there yet.  Even when it comes to cellphones, an area in which Android outnumbers iOS, it has taken a custom-modded ROM (Cyanogen) to deliver the performance and features and experience that I want from my phone. On paper at least, Android can match what the iPad can do, but the experience is far different.

Apps / Content - First of all, there are just more applications available in the iTunes app store right now.  Because of this, game creators, media outlets, and technology companies are going to create their apps for iOS first.  Second, love it or hate it, the fact that Apple maintains a stringent approval process for applications tends to weed out more of the crap than does Android.  Finally, not only does the iPad offer more applications it also provides seamless access to all sorts of content.  I don’t think that users are going to be satisfied with only hulu, youtube, and manually managing new media on competing devices.

Price - The iPad isn’t cheap, but the fact remains that the entry-level model comes in at $499.  Other options, such as the Samsung Tab, can be found for a lower price point, but not without a $30+ monthly data plan and a two-year commitment.  The Xoom might boast impressive specs, but at $800 I don’t see a compelling case for paying up for it at this point.

Apple has made a bit of noise over the past few months regarding their efforts to buy up supplies of components well in advance.  Not only does this allow them to get parts at a discount, but it means that competing devices are going to have to scramble to find suppliers and pay more for the same stuff when they do.

Availability - This may be the most important reason of all.  The Mororola Xoom or the RIM Playbook sound great and all… but you still can’t buy one!  What happens if Apple announces and releases it’s second generation iPad (which many rumors suggest could happen as early as next month) and the competition still hasn’t gotten their own products to market?  More people who have been waiting to get into the tablet game might go ahead and pull the trigger instead of waiting any longer.  For every person that goes with Apple, that’s one less from the pool of folks that have to be split up by all the rest.

At the end of the day I know that technology companies are going to try and capitalize on any new market, but throwing yourself headfirst into a losing battle just isn’t smart.  Learn a lesson from very recent history: when Apple brought the iPod to market the boom was on.  Companies like iRiver, Sansa, and even Microsoft with its ‘Zune’ tried to get in on the game, but did any of them come close to competing?  Did anyone even turn a profit?

Competition is essential, but rushing a half-baked product to market helps nobody.

Let us know!  What are your thoughts?  Who’s the ultimate winner in your book?

A private school in Knoxville, TN will require it’s 12th grade class to carry iPads.  Students will be able to either provide their own or rent one for $20 a month.  It seems this is the latest in a series of experiments to see whether the tablet can replace the traditional textbook in the classroom.

While I understand that schools and teachers are doing more and more to keep students interested and engaged, I just don’t see this as being a realistic solution.  Here are some pros… and some cons.

Pros

• Lightweight - No more heavy book bags, no more lockers, no more back aches.
• Connected - Question got you stumped?  With the internet at your fingers it’s wikipedia and wolfram-alpha to the rescue.
• Interactive - In theory, this could keep students entertained, provide tactile learning (in addition to visual and auditory) and beats the hell out of overheads and whiteboards.

Cons

• Connected - Question got you stumped?  Why do the work when you can probably have a computer just tell you the answer?
• Distraction - Why would anyone want to do work when  you could be watching youtube, listening to music, surfing for porn, or playing games?  Of course some of this could be locked down if the school controlled the device, but for BYO - I don’t think so.  Remember what the TI-82 could do?  This will be worse.
• Expensive - At $500 a pop, you’re talking $15,000 for an average sized class and $750,000 to furnish a school with a population similar to where I taught.  Don’t even think of saying “What about the money you’ll save on physical textbooks?” because there’s no way those publishers are going to give away that new interactive content for free.  Add software, security, maintenance… cha-ching!

I think that iPads are pretty sweet, don’t get me wrong, but they aren’t the solution for our horribly broken education system.  Perhaps down the road we’ll all be enlightened enough to augment our learning with a spiffy tablet, but Steve Jobs will have to make do with fanboys until then.

What do you think?