The personal computer era lasted from 1977 until 2010. Nowadays, we're in the Post-PC era, the tablet era.  That, like the netbooks, shall also pass. What's next? More importantly, what do we want?

The idea that Macs should become simpler, more fun to use, and more like the iPad has its limits.  There is a proper place in our technical society for awesome computational power, intelligent agents, elegant complexity and power tools on the desktop. That computational power, so far, hasn't been fully exploited by Apple.

The corporate, high-tech struggle to earn money and thrive means a campaign to drag us all into technological entanglements. But if we are too busy doing something that matters, and if we carefully pick and chose what to dabble in, we won't be overwhelmed.

Apple's customers highly approve. They are joyously emerging from Apple stores with armloads of products. Sales per square foot considerably exceed Tiffany & Co. Analysts like the numbers and think Apple is doing fine. So why is there an undercurrent of disenchantment amongst some Apple observers? John Martellaro thinks he knows why.

Scott Forstall has been the driving force behind the look and feel of iOS. However, stories have surfaced that trouble has been brewing, and that other senior Apple executives opposed the direction Mr. Forstall was taking. Notable amongst the opponents has been Jonathan Ive, who is now in charge of Apple's interface design. But there’s also a larger issue of Apple’s overall OS direction at stake. What kind of changes can we expect?

It was exciting to hear that Apple would talk about education in the Oct 23 event. But what we got were just tiny bits and pieces, crumbs. And not so great iPad mini pricing for our schoolkids.
 

Steve Jobs had a strong personality, one that wasn't amenable to second guessing or uninformed criticism. Notably, Tim Cook has a calmer, easier going personality. Social norms, our hero fixation and Apple bashing all combine to set Mr. Cook up for continued, unwarranted criticism. A deeper analysis is called for.

It's been a year since Steve Jobs, the greatest technical visionary of our time, passed away. How has that impacted us and how has Apple evolved in the meantime? What's in store for Apple now?

On the Mac, finding the location of an app has always been trivial. However, in iOS, finding the exact location of an app isn’t so easy. And it’s getting worse as the iPhone screen grows and the number of apps we have increases.  The whole apps-on-a-page system needs a tune up.

Apple is so big that the company provides endless opportunities for observation and discussion. The problem is, readers don't have endless time to read about it all. What can Apple customers do?