Remember coffee before Starbucks? Coffee used to cost pennies, now costs dollars. What did Starbucks do to convince people to drive out of their way, stand in line, wait for coffee to be made, then shell out $4 for the privilege? Mike Elgan thinks Apple is doing the same thing.

Starbucks transformed a generic commodity into a brand-name experience that people seek out. But the miraculous bit is that they changed American (and later, global) culture. Coffee is still coffee. They didn’t change the product as much as they changed the customer.

To move computer users away from the standalone keyboard and standalone screen, Apple introduced the touch screen iPhone. Step One in a series of steps to change popular culture, ala Starbucks.

They’re forcing those of us who want to use an iPhone to accept the on-screen keyboard. Later this year, when the rumored Apple touch tablet is likely to ship, everyone will be so happy with a larger version of the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard. Had they shipped the tablet first, we no doubt would have complained about that keyboard. But since they’ve lowered our expectations with the iPhone keyboard, we’ll love the tablet’s.

I’m not convinced that Apple lowered expectations with the iPhone keyboard. Changed expectations, perhaps. Elgan carries the premise too far, too fast.

I think the initial tablet will feature a 10-inch touch screen. The keyboard will probably span the screen. Then they’ll ship a 13-inch tablet. Then a 15-inch. By the time they ship a 27-inch desktop touch tablet (used at an angle like a drafting board), we’ll be just giddy with excitement about how wonderful the on-screen keyboard is.

Sorry. That won’t happen. Touch screen desktop PCs have been around for 25 years and have yet to make a dent in the market. Why? It’s mouse and hand vs. shoulder, arm, hand, and fingers. The mouse does the same thing and does it easier, better, faster, more precisely (with the exception of standalone kiosks, of course).

Apple led the mob that practically killed off the audio CD by getting us all into the habit of shopping for music in iTunes, rather than at Tower Records. Their tablets will lead a similar attack on renting movies at Blockbuster. Instead, we’ll download movies from Netflix and iTunes via our tablets. I believe they’ll also drive the Huluization of television, which is where TV is something that exists in a searchable online database, and shows will be something you “subscribe” to.

This reminds me of the old Popular Mechanics magazine articles which highlighted future products, most of which never saw the light of day. Subscriptions? Don’t we have that with Cable TV already? Music subscriptions haven’t exactly taken the download world by storm, either.

But the iPhone, and later the tablet will change our thinking on software even further. Rather than thinking of a software application as some massive, do-everything product, we’ll increasingly view software as apps, widgets or small features that are cheap and instantly available all the time. We’re already experiencing this with the iPhone. It’s getting to the point where its easier to download an app than find one already installed on your own phone.

We’ve been buying software online for many years. That’s not new, but Apple’s App Store makes the process wonderful on the iPhone. Will Apple move the same model to the iTablet device? That’s a given.

Five years from now, your PC will be an all-touch, no-keyboard giant tablet that replaces your cable box and DVR and facilitates the downloading and installation of software one small feature at a time. Apple is already working on the technology. And—don’t look now—but Apple is working on you, too.

Such prognostications sound plausible. I use my hand and fingers (and thumb) to navigate my iPhone and any one of nearly 180 apps, games, utilities, widgets, yes. But that’s a requirement due to the device’s size. A keyboard for a cell phone, handheld computer, et al, is silly, yes. Even a wireless tablet (think very large iPhone or iPod touch) can get by for multimedia use, and act as an excellent digital magazine, newspaper, or book. Even video and audio conferencing via a tablet seems ready to hatch.

No keyboard or mouse required, right?

Unfortunately, pocket and tablet devices will not replace my Mac or PC, but must learn to peacefully coexist. What about email? Database entry? Reports and documents? Spreadsheets? Graphic design? Multimedia development? Sorry, until voice recognition gets a whole lot better, we’re stuck in the 21st century with 19th century tools—the keyboard. And a 20th century tool. The mouse.

Tablets and pocket-sized devices trade precision and efficiency (try writing an article on an iPhone keyboard) for mobility and convenience. Five years from now we may use handheld devices far more than now, but the new doesn’t easily eliminate the old.

Apple is not training us to use new touch technology to transplant the Mac and PC experience with keyboard, mouse, trackpad, and screen. They’re training us to use new tools in new ways and to buy more of what they make.

PC Magazine on the differences between how Apple and Microsoft release a new operating system version. It’s night vs. day.

Microsoft releases the public betas in order to get feedback and telemetry from testers to improve the product. Apple, on the other hand, will drop its new OS down from heaven (or, rather, Cupertino), without soliciting a word of feedback on in-development code from ordinary users.

Known major changes in OS X Leopard: 64-bit kernel, QuickTime X, Grand Central, support for Microsoft Exchange servers. Add to that my prediction of no support for PowerPC Macs, and a new user interface theme, ala iTunes.

A new study has determined that walking in high heels is better than jogging in running shoes, but bare feet is better.

While the shoes protected the runner’s feet well, they put excessive strain on hip, kneee and ankle joints, found the study authors. Knee joint twisting was about 38% higher than running barefoot, for example… Walking in high heels is easier on your knees and ankles than jogging in running shoes.

High heels look better than jogging shoes, too.

Is blogging in the 21st century as transformative as the telephone was in the 20th century? Everyone has a blog and everyone has something to say, whether anyone is listening or not. Media mogul Barry Diller in 2006:

Self-publishing by someone of average talent is not very interesting. Talent is the new limited resource… There’s just not that much talent in the world, and talent almost always outs.

Scott Rosenberg paraphrasing Andrew Keen’s, The Cult of the Amateur:

The existing institutions of the publishing and broadcast world are already doing an efficient and thorough job of finding all that talent and giving it a platform. And all this other stuff that’s spewing forth from the Web’s profusion of blogs and podcasts and videos? It’s just dross that obscures the real talent’s output.

I blog, therefore I am not talented?

The latest exoplanet to be discovered is the M-dwarf GJ 1214b, a watery planet barely 40 light years from earth. John Trimmer in Ars:

...the latest discovery comes from some pretty mundane hardware—a collection of 40cm telescopes—and has some very compelling properties: a super earth that’s likely to harbor liquid water, and orbits a star that’s close enough to allow current observatories to image its atmosphere.

How special is earth compared to a super earth far away?

Depending on how reflective the planet’s atmosphere is, it may have temperatures as high as 555K, or as low as 393K—the latter figure is only 20°C above the boiling point of water. That’s far and away the coolest planet we’ve yet spotted, and a far cry from the only other super earth we know much about, which is hot enough that its atmosphere probably contains vaporized titanium oxides.

Ouch.

Since the iPhone’s launch in mid-2007, AT&T has been roundly criticized for poor network performance, both with dropped calls, and slow data speeds. Is it AT&T’s fault? Or, are network problems caused by the iPhone? Colin Gibbs on GigaOm:

AT&T isn’t the only operator whose network shortcomings have been exposed by data-hungry iPhone users. O2 — which until recently was the only UK operator to carry Apple’s gadget — said it will spend $166 million over the next several months to shore up its network to meet ever-increasing demands from smartphone users. Additionally, the carrier said it will build 40 new cell sites in and around London in advance of the holiday season.

It’s the iPhone phenomenon.

The best thing I’ve ever read regarding Search Engine Optimization, from Derek Powazek. First, the con men:

And so, like the goat sacrificers and snake oil salesmen before them, a new breed of con man was born, the Search Engine Optimizer. These scammers claim that they can dance the magic dance that will please the Google Gods and make eyeballs rain down upon you.

Do. Not. Trust. Them.

The One True Way to build web site traffic?

Make something great. Tell people about it. Do it again.

That’s it. Make something you believe in. Make it beautiful, confident, and real. Sweat every detail. If it’s not getting traffic, maybe it wasn’t good enough. Try again.

Then tell people about it. Start with your friends. Send them a personal note – not an automated blast from a spam cannon. Post it to your Twitter feed, email list, personal blog. (Don’t have those things? Start them.) Tell people who give a [censored] – not strangers. Tell them why it matters to you. Find the places where your community congregates online and participate. Connect with them like a person, not a corporation. Engage. Be real.

Then do it again. And again. You’ll build a reputation for doing good work, meaning what you say, and building trust.

It’ll take time. A lot of time. But it works. And it’s the only thing that does.

Amen.