Links for Friday January 15^th, 2010

• Dreaming of an Apple Tablet: While this is a cool idea, the problem is that the entire Macintosh experience is built around the keyboard and mouse, while the iPhone experience is a completely different UI, built around touch. In order to have a tablet that docked into a desktop form factor, Apple would have to create a UI which works for both touch and keyboard / mouse, which doesn't seem possible. It would be cool, though. (via Daring Fireball)

• Firefly to live on in new book of short stories: Oh hell yes.

• Google Hack Attack Was Ultra Sophisticated, New Details Show: Amazing details of the cyber attack that Google cited in their reason for ceasing censorship of search results in China, including this:

  "...the attack was well-timed to occur during the holiday season when company operation centers and response teams would be thinly staffed.

  The sophistication of the attack was remarkable and was something that researchers have seen before in attacks on the defense industry, but never in the commercial sector."

  One of the vectors used to attack was a zero-day flaw in Internet Explorer. I wonder if Google will ban the use of Internet Explorer internally as a result?

• Here's to the crazy ones: a decade of Mac OS X reviews: John Siracusa's Mac OS X reviews are the reason why I switched to the Macintosh in late 2001. Apple owes him a great debt — because I'm sure my story isn't unique.

• Apple vs. Google: Pretty decent look at the growing rivalry between Google and Apple. Even just a year ago, I wouldn't have said that Apple would go into direct competition with Google. Now, I'm not so sure. Which is what makes watching the tech world interesting.