The latest iOS 4.3 beta 1 includes some interesting hints at what might be coming in the future. For one, there is a feature called “Media Stream,” and another called “Photo Streams.

One way to instantly make both Ping and Mobile Me relevant, useful and not complete utter failure - streaming media. Dig this, homes -->

Mobile Me becomes your online media library. Upload your music, movies, etc. Plug in Ping so you can actually share + like the music/movies/etc. you own. Add links back to iTunes so you can buy crap your friends like (which loads automatically into your Mobile Me library).

Damn I'm good.

When the news went out this morning, there was a collective, wincing “Fuck.

Tim Cook == Charlie? Let's hope he knows how to run the Apple chocolate factory.

It will have hotspot capabilities.

Ouch. Down goes Frazier...

I like the future. There's going to be some neat stuff there. Unfortunately I'm not, nor will I ever be, immortal. So I'm primarily concerned with the near future. That's why things like this irritate me. The chances of us ever seeing, let alone interacting with, a Microsoft Surface device are near zero. Which makes me instantly hate it and question it's existence. Stupid future.

Without your BlackBerry, there is no native email or calendar app—just access through the (admittedly good) web browser.

Maybe they're hoping a 3rd party developer will step in and write the email + calendar apps? This tethering idea is awful and will make this thing DOA.

Since we launched Hulu Plus, it’s been our goal to continue to add more platforms and devices to the subscription service

It doesn't matter how many platforms or devices you're on when your lineup consists mainly of cancelled shows no one watched in the first place.

But do people really want their TVs to act like already app-ified computers or mobile phones?

We already have apps on our TV's. It's called VIDEO IN. What we want is easy access to content at a reasonable price.

Users won’t care that your slate doesn’t run Android or iOS if you can provide them with a surprisingly short list of apps that turn a slate into a useful tool. Office apps, Netflix, Pandora, book readers, apps that plug the user into their cloud storage accounts, and a handful of media apps will cover most of a user’s need

People don't care about 100,000 apps or how "open" your tablet is if it doesn't cover these, and cover them very well. Nail the basics, and I mean nail them not just half-ass them (Google Docs), and you're in the game.

Perhaps the best thing to say is that this looks more or less nothing like Android

Very nice. Can't wait to see it on an actual device.

Android’s market may not be terrible in comparison to Apple’s App Store for paid applications just because Google hasn’t yet finished it; rather, discouraging paid applications on the Android platform is in Google’s interest

It's creepy when the end goal isn't "to get more people to buy our product" but "to sell lots of ads".