RomanT.net

It is no secret that Google wants to be ‘the’ company of the millennium and beyond, especially with it [Google] courting medicine. Without a doubt that you will within 10 years see Google as the dominant force in ALL advertising, be it your fridge, washing machine, television and the soon to be supposedly unveiled GPhone.

Although what does this mean for the likes of Apple? Who just recently unveiled the much sought after iPhone. Will the company that lives and breathes innovation and the ‘betterment’ of your personal computer experience come under fire from those at Googleplex?

Google’s strategy is great, and I applaud its flawless execution. They design and develop a great search engine, and with the profits buy their way into each and every foreseeable industry - thus not limiting themselves to the cash-cow that is AdWords. With each acquisition they will ‘Googlify’/tweak it to the users. Where to from here?

The Romsturdamus Predictions:

• Products
  • GPhone
  • GNav [incar navigation]
  • GOOS [Google Online OS - online/web]

• At first it will be the iPhone, and the trampling of the market-share of Apple
• It is always about the actual hardware design as it is about software; at the moment, the TomTom ‘package’ - is simply the best, software and units.
  • Either Google will partner up with TomTom (especially now that most of the maps provided to Google in Europe are owned by TomTom’s recent acquisition of TeleAtlas), or buy them out. Simply doesn’t make sense to have TomTom produce units with Google’s GNav software on it.
• Last but not least, GOS - Google Online Operating System. Sooner or later this too will happen, and what will happen to the incumbents such as Apple and Microsoft?

Google Logo - Google Inc.

Globe - PixEmonkey

I just tried out Joost - the P2P Online TV. Must say, am very impressed.

Not only at the variety of channels offered, but also the quality of the stream - mind you, a decent connection is a must.

A friend of mine I did notice that given some more unpopular channels, such as Poker - WPT, there does seem to be some intermittent dropping of video. Although this is a given, since this is only a BETA - and not all users are saturating the pipes yet.

Speaking of pipes. I noticed that having Joost running grabs at least 80-100kb/s on average, which must be the reading ahead that it does.

Unfortunately I was unable to run Joost when having no Internet connectivity. “Obviously” some will exclaim, yet the reason I wanted to try it - is, if I want to pre-buffer say an episode of FifthGear Porche review and watch it on the train on my way home, as I currently do with my Media Centre and it’s recorded programmes. Well no can do. Perhaps it’s something that might come out in the final release (am not holding my breath).

I enjoyed the experience, so should everyone else. If you’re short of an invite, drop me a line.