An Apple devotee for decades and the IPud launch leaves me with this:

No camera. Does this make sense? With all the cool Iphone apps that rely on a camera, Apple comes out with a new dohicky without a camera. That means no cool Augmented Reality games or Augmented Reality GPS apps, NADA!

The obnoxious video on the Apple site. Opening line uttered by an unshaven overly hip, bald, bug-eyed Brit looking inhumanly earnest:
“You know it is true, when something exceeds your ability to understand how it works it sort of becomes magical. And that’s exactly what the Ipad is.”

Magical???? I’m not sure how my fridge works, but it keeps my food cold – no frisson there. An overgrown Iphone with no camera leaves me cold. And a pretentious Brit who claims stupidity is aspirational insults my intellect.

I love Pranav Mistry. He’s all about using inexpensive technology we already have in brilliant new ways and keeping us human in the process. Very very cool. Here he is speaking at TED India. He is a 21at Century garage tinkerer inventor, keeping it real. He makes Steve Jobs look like a huckster! PartI and PartII.

For 2010…

Mobile will remain totally chaotic, zillions more apps will be launched. A platform fight will ensue making it costly for companies developing mobile to push out new apps across multiple platforms. I don’t see that issue settling out for sometime. So if you are going mobile build to sustainable development models or simply take a vacuum to your wallet.

Facebook will remain relevant so long as it continues to be compelling to users. That means that it is in a race with itself to become more exciting.  Already we are seeing it disrupt the photo sharing market and it is disrupting the gaming market too. But to stay alive it must re-think its unintuitive interface, kloogy fan pages and make video easier to share.

Rise of vertical social networks. Yes, people have varied passions and sometimes they like to keep their lives compartmentalized. So Ning will re-emerge and become highly energized as the platform where Passionistas start their own, smaller more intimate social networks.

Engagement mechanisms and rich media will steam roll the web. Look for better video production values, more interesting games and more sophisticated applications across the board as GPS joins Augmented Reality and more. And speaking of Augmented Reality all it is lacking is great creative energy.  As I write the Camarès team has that tiger by the tail and is deep into development. More news coming soon!