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As much as we see and depend on Flash everyday, well, it is becoming increasingly irrelevant as HTML5 is being rolled out across the webosphere and support being implemented into web browsers. Soon, with an HTML5-compliant browser (Currently there’s only Google Chrome and Safari that supports it), when you’ll visit YouTube the embedded media player won’t be a poky Flash player anymore but instead something speedier, lightweight and no need for extra proprietary plug-ins such as Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight to run; that’s what HTML5 will bring.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’d be an hypocrite to deny Flash entirely since my own site has a little bit of it and when used moderately its nicely acceptable but what kills me is when I see sites built entirely in Flash, taking forever to load, unstable, just freakin’ annoying. And of course there’s advertisement banners all over the web in Flash, jumping in your face or auto-maximizing inside my browser; drives me nuts!

Anyhow, I don’t think Flash will disappear overnight but it’s good to see measures are being taken to make the web faster, more accessible and without the need of proprietary crap. Amen.

Ladies & gentlemen, let me break it down for you – The PC as we know it today is on the way out.

Now, you don’t need a crystal ball to figure that out; laptops are everywhere, smartphone sales keep rising, netbook sales are rising and so Apple’s iPad and other similar mobile device will only further this reality very soon. But of course, there will always be people in need of a full computer tower with a kick-ass video card for gaming, graphic artists, musicians, and geeks that require mo’powa!  But the PC will no longer dominate households. Instead they will be replaced by more compact devices that require ultra-fast boot times, no pointing device and no local software installed other than the operating system; all software needed will be…in the cloud – look that up it’s fascinating ;-)

Some of you reading this may be thinking I’m hallucinating but I bet you a thousand bottles of tomato juice that within 5 years you will do most of your computing stuff on a “lite” computer of some sort, either on a tablet computer, smartphone or whatever else.

Now, the questions beg, who will lead the new computing era? Microsoft? Apple? Google? For me, I can tell you that I do not have my money on Microsoft. Why? Well they’re already losing ground to Apple (iPhone OS) and Google (Android and soon Chrome OS). I know this week they presented the new & upcoming version of  Windows Mobile v7 now dubbed Windows Phone 7 Series in Barcelona but, well, with little fanfare. The product looks alright but it just may be too little too late for them; the launch is actually set for October 2010. Oh and it won’t be an actual “Windows Phone”; they will be licensing the OS to other vendors, such as HTC and Samsung I suppose. Same bullshit as they did with Windows but only this time it just won’t work. Which brings me to my next point…

A lot of people bitches that Apple have a very “locked-down” ecosystem, both for the Mac and the iPhone. And you know what? It’s true. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad either. For Apple, having everything locked down allows to, not only insure a perfect synergy between hardware and software but also avoid having crappy $299 Mac clones that works like shit like their Windows counterpart. Apple works that way, and more than ever it seems like the right model to follow nowadays – and it is. And Microsoft could learn a thing or two from doing that. A matter of fact, Apple’s renewed success of the past 10 years is owed in part to Microsoft’s failure in the new computer era (post Windows 95/XP).

And as for Google, now that’s a question to ask ourselves isn’t it? Those guys are getting BIG! and fast too!  But I am skeptical about that Google Chrome OS. Why? Well the fact that it’s another Linux distribution I’m afraid it might become just that – another Linux distro. And Linux has “geek” print all over it. However, Google are not retarded and I doubt they’ll introduce another geeky Linux distro that we really don’t need. The following video shows exactly what Chrome OS will be and it looks very interesting:

Well anyways, I think the next 5-10 years looks very exciting and promising as ever.

As you may know, Microsoft is preparing for the launch of Office 2010 which is scheduled for release in June. But like many of you I have downloaded the very workable Beta and that’s great because it will be fully operational until October 2010. Thanks Monkey boy..Steve Ballmer.

Anyways, personally I did not like Office 2007 at all. The much bloated and busy interface, overlapping light blue menubar with a blue border and blue menu items was just too blue for me. I still believe Office 2003 is the best version they’ve released.

I have been playing around with this Beta for about three weeks now and, indeed, Microsoft cleaned up the menubar. It’s still a bit thick like the 2007 version but at least the colors are right this time. Word also defaults to DOCX instead of DOC which drives me nuts (and Excel to XLSX) but you can customize all that. But my favorite Office app is still Outlook; it is still unbeatable for handling large quantities of emails.

Either way, I’m bored, so I don’t really feel like writing a complete detailed review; Gizmodo, ZDNet and CNet already done that so head over there if you want more information OR just download the Beta and try for yourself. Like I said it’s pretty stable and will give you a free workable version of the software until October!

Like many of you gadget lovers I followed Apple’s keynote today for the presentation of the mystery device called…iPad. So, first off, what in the name of gawd were they thinking with the name “iPad” ?! It’s just terrible. Oh and the Apple iPad was previously released in 2007 for woman only!! Don’t believe me? Watch here

Second off, a lot of people complains that there aren’t any HDMI, USB and so fourth. That is a bummer indeed (although there supposed to be separate connectors included in the box), but what really annoys the hell outta me is that there is no file manager, no home folder, thanks to iPhone OS because, no, unfortunately it’s not running Mac OS X. That’s a bit sucky. So, it really is more like a giant iPod Touch than a MacBook “Lite”. Either way, I will give this thing a try when its released in the spring and see for myself.

Updated February 1: OK I have carefully watched Steve Jobs keynote again and been reading about articles all over the websphere and realized something: Many many people are totally missing the point on what iPad is about I think. I think Apple may have hit a home run!

Apart for maybe missing a web-cam, this thing has a bright future lying ahead. Think what it can do for publishers (paper journal, magazines, books), doctors, schools, the service sector, etc, etc. It’s nuts! I get it, this thing is not for IT managers, power users and computer geeks. It’s for people doing real work in the real world. It’s for my parents who were always scared to use a mouse and a computer! It’s for the casual folks sitting on the couch and reading a book on Sunday afternoon. It is the easiest and fastest way to get on the web!

For years we have been hearing about how computers have evolved and are much “easier to use” than ever but that’s bullshit, they’re not! People still have to deal with anti-virus software, drivers, reformatting the hard drive, disk cleanup, fragmentation, slow boot time and shut down. My mom and dad don’t want to deal with this shit! They just want to pick the damn thing, press one button and boom they’re in!  No boot delay, no disk managing required or updating video and sound drivers. Nothing. I think iPad will save a lot of people a lot of time and trouble. True ease of use finally for everyone else and that’s why it’ll be a hit. Perhaps not at first, but once the ecosystem settles in it will take off, just like the iPod did has it changed the music industry. With iTunes and the AppStore at the center of it all the iPad will shine, I’m sure.