iAM iPAD

God bless Steve Jobs!

2011-10-06T12:23:00.003-04:00

Dear Steve,
We never met but I'm pretty familiar with your work. Of course I'm just one of millions who lay claim to a connection with you. Full disclosure up front: I do own two iPads, and 3 iPods. In fact, my first experience with a computer at school was on an Apple IIC. Or was it an Apple IIE? Forgive me, it was a while ago.
Today, people around the world are mourning your loss but I think they forget how you'll always be with them. In fact, many people probably learned of your passing on the very devices your company created. And the "NeXT" generation who grew up with you will undoubtedly encourage the next generation to remember why Apple became so iconic.
To me, it seems like you wanted us to truly connect with our devices, almost in a spiritual sense. I know in your younger years you spent some time in India and apparently experimented with the occasional, um, organic substance. It's like you wanted technology to become part of our soul, man. Perhaps that's overstating it.

Look, I don't want to make this uncomfortable for anyone. While so many of us love our technology, Apple products included, at the end of the day it's just a bunch of ones and zeroes and silicon, right? Don't get me wrong -- I've been a geek my whole life. But I routinely question why my Apple products in particular have such a personal feel to them. And in some ways that's baffling to me since I can't open them up, I can't modify them or even replace a battery, and they're almost like a piece of delicate art. Perhaps your greatest legacy will be in recognizing how intuitive design can re-shape our lives without us even being aware of it.
Indeed, I know people are comparing you with Edison and Ford and other great American inventors and already putting you on a pedestal. And that's certainly not without merit. But I'd argue that you're unique. Like a technology that can never be replicated. Clearly you were a visionary. I've also heard you called a genius and a pioneer. I'd agree with all those, especially since you personally hold dozens of patents.
But it wasn't always easy, right? Since I've covered your career for so long, I've also heard the stories of your tough managerial style, your sometimes gruff demeanor and your well-documented ego. But I guess it all comes with the territory in some ways -- you can't make an iomelet without breaking some eggs. And I know you had humble upbringings as a child of adoption.
But as I mentioned before, all of this information comes to me secondhand. I get the feeling only a select few people really knew you. Your family and kids. Steve Wozniak. Maybe Bill Gates on some level. Some Silicon Valley contemporaries. And a trusted inner circle at Apple. But I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that you rose up to become an American success story.
You persevered through an ouster by the company you founded, you then re-built it after Apple was considered borderline obsolete and lacking innovation, and you publicly fought cancer with resolute and inspirational determination. But as you so eloquently said, death is life's change agent.
Bottom line: it's a tough day for a lot of folks. Naturally we're thinking about your loved ones and close friends and colleagues. And those of us in the tech community are speculating about how Apple's new CEO Tim Cook will fare, looking ahead to the release of the new products next week, and wondering if you were bigger than Apple or is Apple bigger than you? It's a question that can't be answered in the short term. (By the way, does the iPhone 4S really refer to "4 Steve"? I must say we were all a little bummed about no iPhone 5) In the meantime, I’m going to “think different.”

Oh, and one more thing….

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iCloud is coming!!!

2011-05-19T08:14:00.001-04:00

(from our friends at Computerworld)

The Apple [AAPL] social network for music, Ping, seems set to become something you want to use, rather than an embarrassing relative you try to ignore. That's because the company has reached a series of key major label deals to support its mythical cloud-based music services, even as its competitors -- including Google and Amazon -- fail to reach deals for their own unlicensed attempts.

School of rock

Apple last night reached agreement with EMI to offer music through the upcoming service. The company reached a similar deal with Warner last month, and CNet tells us deals with Universal and Sony seem set to be reached "as early as next week". The indie labels won't be pleased as they don't appear to have made it into the first tranche of negotiations.

With the deals in place, the technology infrastructure -- including the North Carolina data center all ready to roll -- and huge capital investments already made, Apple seems in position to launch its cloudy venture.

The company is expected to do so at its annual music product revamp in September, but with the iPhone allegedly also set to seize airspace at that event, it wouldn't be surprising to see Apple introduce its new service at WWDC next month.

If you're going to Cupertino

Given that Apple's Lion OS is expected to marshal its own cloud-based elements in the form of the new 'iCloud' MobileMe iteration, and that cloud-based technologies (a la Dropbox, but more secure) are expected to underpin the company's entire device strategy, moving forward, it would be no surprise to see service introduction at WWDC. This would give developers a chance to consider their own implementations of supporting services within Lion when it ships.

[This story is from Computerworld's Apple Holic blog. Follow on Twitter or subscribe via RSS to make sure you don't miss a beat.]

It is of course one in the eye for Google.

Google's unlicensed service launched in March without support from the labels. It is a digital vaults service, which the world's biggest search engine says makes it legal. The labels don't agree and the two sides can't reach a deal because Google doesn't think music's worth paying as much as the labels are demanding for.

That hasn't stopped Google announcing its also unlicensed Google Music service (beta). Can you imagine the reaction if Shawn Fanning had launched such a product without license?

Announcing iTunes in 2001, Jobs was passionate about music. He's a music fan (despite the desperately tragic choice of Chris Martin as the music playout at last year's iPod event). Apple disagrees with Google's assesment as to the value of music as an art form. Giving some value to content has underpinned Apple's iDevice success, after all.

iRock around the clock

This is a really good thing for the music industry, itself unwilling to see any more reductions to its bottom line. It is also a highly interesting twist of fate that an industry which has for a decade denigrated its own music service savior (iTunes) is now turning to iTunes for salvation once again.

I've waffled long enough on the politics of this, so let's quickly look at what the key element to Apple's digital locker service will be:

Key advantage: You will be able to access and stream all your music from the Apple cloud without being required to upload all your tracks. The service will scan your drive for your music collection then unlock access to those tracks on the Apple servers.
Then you'll be able to play your music on any connected device: a Mac, PC, iPod touch, iPad, iPhone or iPod/iPhone nano.
There's other opportunities. Look to Apple's social network for music, Ping. All told, Ping at present is a little 'Meh'.

One thing Ping does do is allow you to create Playlists which you can share with your followers. Nice, but not especially compelling, because at present all you or your chums can do is listen to 30-second previews for each of those songs. Why is that at all cool or interesting?

Now, introduce the notion that the iTunes cloud will also allow for a Spotify-like music streaming services, and it becomes easy to imagine that Ping will allow you to create playable Playlists to share with friends that they can listen to, share and comment upon. Imagine this as a kind of personal radio station, always available via multiple devices.

Yes sir, I can boogie

Given that this activity will be taking place inside the virtual store of the world's biggest music retailer, I can't help but visualize this as the full realization of the celestial jukebox model the industry has talked about for over a decade -- only with the added advantage of actually offering a viable business plan in which labels and -- far more importantly in my book -- artists actually get paid.

This is exciting stuff.

It is just a shame the services will likely only be available in the US at first.

This will eventually become an international advantage to support iPad sales. This is why I predict Apple will account for the lion's share of the 888.7 million media tablets IHS iSuppli expects we'll see sold by 2015.

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Did the New York Public Library Just Build the Magazine App of the Future? - The Atlantic

2011-05-19T08:01:00.000-04:00

Did the New York Public Library Just Build the Magazine App of the Future? - The Atlantic

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Adobe Connect for iPad

2011-05-10T08:16:00.001-04:00

Big news for Adobe and iPad - Adobe Connect has a version that works for iPad and iPad 2 to communicate through webinars which allows the iPad to be even more business savvy. Taking a technology class, and the instructor mentioned this program, and said that someone was going to try it with the iPad 2 and I thought I should let them know it won't work - but found it, it does work, and that will help iPad users, their employers and employees using technology to it's fullest!

http://www.macnn.com/articles/11/05/06/new.ui.two.way.video.for.ipad.2.iphone.4/

Adobe Connect Mobile updated for iOS, adds iPad features
updated 07:00 pm EDT, Fri May 6, 2011New UI, two-way video for iPad 2, iPhone 4
Adobe Connect Mobile for iOS has been updated to v1.5.9 (its second major version) and now features first-time optimization for the iPad, including an "overview" mode that allows simultaneous viewing of presenter and slideshow. The free app lets users participate in Adobe Connect web meetings on Apple's iOS devices -- view video or slideshows, type in questions, chat directly to other participants, or optionally host their own meetings. The new version also features an updated user interface and two-way video capability that supports both cameras on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4.

Adobe Connect is a system (signup required) for creating webinars and web presentations that can be viewed live on a variety of platforms, similar to sites like UStream but aimed more at business, academic and other professional users. The app allows users to join existing meetings for free, but being able to host a meeting costs money. The ability to host a meeting works over either 3G or Wi-Fi and can handle video, audio, chat rooms and slideshows simultaneously (for devices that do not have cameras, the software can also host "telephone" or audio-only conferences).

Meetings can actually invite participants by calling them, avoiding the issue of having to punch in dialling codes, and features a navigation bar that lets users enjoy an overview of all activities happening with the meeting or focus in on one aspect (just chat, for example, to make it easy to read previous questions and replies or ask your own, or just the speaker's audio or video, or just the slideshow). Slideshows can consist of conventional slide presentations such as Powerpoint shows, PDF documents, videos or screen sharing provided by the meeting host or other presenters.

The Adobe Connect system is cross-platform, allowing participants on Mac, Windows, Linux and Solaris platforms as well as iOS and Android devices along with the Blackberry Playbook to participate. The Adobe Connect Mobile app (free) requires iOS 4 or higher, and works with the original iPad, the iPad 2, the iPhone 3GS or later and the iPod Touch 3rd generation or later.

Read more: http://www.macnn.com/articles/11/05/06/new.ui.two.way.video.for.ipad.2.iphone.4/#ixzz1Lx3JuHvH

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Time Signs Agreement with iPad - Digital & Paper subscriptions!

2011-05-02T08:35:00.001-04:00

This is the beginning for the salvation of the print media with free iPad subscriptions to paper subscribers - watch all other companies follow suit

(from our friends at Apple Insider):

Time reaches agreement with Apple for free iPad issues for print subscribers
Time Inc., the largest magazine publisher in the U.S., has reached a deal with Apple to allow print subscribers of its titles to download iPad editions for free, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and Time have reached a deal, which stands as a vital turning point in the impasse between the iPad maker and publishers over digital subscriptions.

According to the report, the iPad editions of Sports Illustrated, Time and Fortune will support subscriber authentication starting Monday. People magazine began supporting free subscriber downloads last year, ahead of other titles from the publisher.

The deal has reportedly gone through in spite of an executive shakeup occurring at the company. In February, parent company Time Warner fired Time Inc. CEO Jack Griffin after just six months on the job, citing a clash of management styles as the reason.

During the search for a new CEO, which could take until at least late summer, a three-man committee of executives will lead the company in the interim, the Journal reported. Time Inc. may be in for rocky weather ahead, as analysts expect quarterly results from Time Warner on Wednesday to reveal flat revenue for the publisher.

According to the report, Time and other major publishers have not reached a deal for selling digital subscriptions to the iPad editions of their magazines. Publishers are reportedly hung up on Apple's insistence that the practice of forwarding subscriber information to publishers operate on an opt-in basis.

Maurice Edelson, general counsel for Time, told the Journal that the company's executives have held frequent meetings with Apple executives, including Eddy Cue, vice president of Internet services. The Time executives "say the latest deal to make iPad editions free for print subscribers is a sign the two sides are moving closer," according to the report.

Earlier this year, The New York Times reported that publishers such as Time Inc., Conde Nast and Hearst were frustrated with delays to Apple's then-forthcoming application subscription feature for the App Store. At the time, people close to the company's discussion said that Time had yet to strike a deal with Apple.

Apple sparked a controversy in February when it revealed that it would take a 30 percent share of income generated from in app subscriptions to an App Store app. In addition, publishers must match or better prices from subscriptions offered outside of the app and are not allowed to link to out-of-app purchases.

In response to the news, one subscription service called the terms "economically untenable," while one developer called Apple's new rules "a huge dick move." The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is in the preliminary stage of looking into the terms of Apple's App Store subscriptions.

However, not all publishers are dissatisfied with Apple's terms. Bloomberg announced a $2.99 monthly subscription for the Bloomberg BusinessWeek app in April, adding that the company was "pleased with Apple's terms."

"iPad is the most important place to be right now, and that’s where we’re focused," said Bloomberg mobile head Oke Okaro.

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Hoflander: Seniors and the iPad, love at first sight

2011-03-24T09:59:00.000-04:00

Hoflander: Seniors and the iPad, love at first sight

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Augmented Reality with the iPad 2!

2011-03-18T10:33:00.000-04:00

http://www.fastcompany.com/1738956/augmented-reality-possibly-the-ipad-2s-secret-killer-app

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The Most Technologically Advanced Book for the iPad? - The Atlantic

2011-03-18T10:17:00.000-04:00

Absolutely amazing app - great classic read updated, with the original woodblock designs reimagined!

The Most Technologically Advanced Book for the iPad? - The Atlantic

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Nursery Rhymes Storytime Reminds You Of The Blasted, Lunar Hellscape That Is Your Life

2011-03-18T10:12:00.000-04:00

Not your ordinary review of an App - definitely worth the read, and listen!

Nursery Rhymes Storytime Reminds You Of The Blasted, Lunar Hellscape That Is Your Life

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Ten tips for mastering the iPad

2011-03-07T14:54:00.001-05:00

Impress others with your iPad savviness by learning these tablet tricks
Posted on Mar 7, 2011 1:40 pm by Lex Friedman, Macworld.com

With Apple releasing a second version of the iPad on Friday, it’s easy to feel as if that tablet has been around forever. In reality, though, the original iPad shipped less than a year ago—enough time to become familiar with the tablet’s ins and outs, but hardly long enough to truly master its controls.

Not to worry—we’ve assembled this list of tips for subduing the iPad’s on-screen keyboard, managing your multitude of apps, searching through the contents of your tablet, and more. Learn these skills, and you’ll soon impress everyone with your iPad-savvy, whether you’ve owned an iPad since day one or if the iPad 2 is your first model.

1. The comma key’s hidden powers
Whether you’re a touch-screen typing savant or a two finger tapper, there’s no denying that iPad typing isn’t as convenient as using a real keyboard—especially when you want to access frequently-used punctuation that isn’t even available on the virtual keyboard’s main screen. A little-known trick can help: swiping up quickly on the Comma key will instantly insert an apostrophe; swiping up on the Period key inserts a quotation mark. That’s one quick swipe, instead of a tap on the .?123 punctuation key, and then a second tap on the specific punctuation mark you’re after.

2. Tapping and holding virtual keys
Other virtual keys hold special powers, too. Press and hold on a vowel, for example, and a popover containing accented versions of the selected character appears. (Certain consonants, like C, S, and N, also offer alternate versions when you tap and hold on their virtual keys.)

Press and hold a vowel key—the ‘i’ in this case—and the iPad will summon a popover with accented versions of the character in question.
Similarly, holding down punctuation marks can provide extra options. the standalone Period key—the one on the punctuation keyboard, not the main keyboard—hides an ellipsis. The hyphen offers an em-dash and bullet. And the dollar sign hides symbols for numerous currencies.

3. Common keyboard shortcuts
When you connect your iPad to a regular keyboard like the Apple iPad Keyboard Dock or a Bluetooth keyboard, you can use some of the same keyboard shortcuts you’ve mastered on your Mac. Text editing key combinations—like Command-C, X, and V for Copy, Cut, and Paste—all work, as does Command-Shift-Arrow key-based text selection.

You can also use Option-key shortcuts for typing diacritical characters. Other key combinations that work include Undo and Redo (Command-Z and Shift-Command-Z, respectively), and Emacs-style cursor shortcuts like Control-A, Control-E, and Control-K.

Even with the iPad 2 introducing a new design, external keyboards should still work with Apple’s latest tablet. Apple, for example, lists its Wireless Keyboard as an accessory for the iPad 2, and we’ve heard no reports of changes to Bluetooth keyboard support in this week’s planned iOS 4.3 update.

4. Auto-correction is your friend

The backspace key is for suckers—true iPad masters know to let auto-correction fix your typing mishaps.
One last keyboard-related tip: especially when you’re using the on-screen keyboard, the easiest way to becoming a virtual typing pro is simply to trust the auto-correction algorithm. The slower your iPad typing speed, the more likely it is that you make frequent use of the backspace key. Or to put it another way: slow iPad typists only allow themselves to type precisely the right keys, and delete each individual mistake.

Not power users! Power users trust that iOS will fix their typos for them. When I type “Dippieedl,” my iPad recognizes that I’m after “Supposedly.” After just “Wkeph,” the iPad knows I want “Elephant.” Fix fewer typos, and your iPad typing will ironically improve.

5. Avoiding application exits
Sometimes, you notice something you’d like to check out more closely in an app—at the same instant you press the Home button. Instead of letting the app close, then finding its icon and waiting while the app relaunches, you can tell your iPad to abort your now-unwanted Home button press. Doing so is hilariously simple: don’t let go. If you hold down the Home button extra long—just a few seconds needed—your iPad will abandon its plans to close the current app, and you tap on that enticing link instead.

6. Closing background apps
On other occasions, though, you may want to close apps that are still (quietly) running. Ever since iOS 4’s introduction of multitasking, some of your apps can keep on running in the background, even after you’ve closed them. Generally, that’s fine; the iPad does a great job of killing apps when memory limits require it. Some apps, however—particularly GPS and VoIP apps—can eat up quite a bit of memory and battery life if they remain open when you no longer need them.

To quit apps running in the background, bring up the multitasking bar, press and hold on an app, and then tap the red minus sign that suddenly appears.
To make sure power-hungry apps that you don’t need don’t gobble your battery, you can force them to quit: double-tap the Home button to bring up the multitasking bar. Then, press and hold on any one app until all the apps start jiggling. Tap the red circle on the running apps in your multitasking bar that you’d like to quit.

(Again, remember, most apps running in the background will take care of themselves. You needn’t police the multitasking bar; this tip only concerns major memory guzzlers.)

7. Track down music playback controls
With the introduction of that multitasking bar, Apple made it a smidgen trickier to find music playback controls. When you double-tap the Home button, swipe the whole shebang towards the right. Doing so will reveal several controls: playback buttons (Reverse, Play/Pause, and Skip, along with sliders for brightness and volume.

Swiping the multitasking bar to the right will produce those hard-to-find iPod playback controls.
8. Search smarter
When you double-tap the Home button, or swipe to the left of your first home screen, you enter Spotlight search. It’s a great way to launch apps, find specific e-mails, or look up an individual contact. But if you never use (or never need to search) the iPad’s calendar, or Audiobooks, or Podcasts, you can remove those from your Spotlight search results. You can also rearrange the order in which Spotlight presents search results.

Launch the Settings app, tap on General, and then tap Spotlight Search. Uncheck the categories you don’t want to search, and tap and drag on the right-aligned handles to adjust the sorting.

9. Stash more apps in the Dock
Brand new iPads feature just four apps in the Dock. Because of that, many iPad owners keep just four apps in their docks. But it turns out that the dock actually holds six apps, if you’d like it to. All you need to do to keep more frequently-accessed apps in your dock is move them there: press and hold on any app icon until the apps start to jiggle, and then drag the app you’d like to move right into the Dock.

10. Launching apps quickly

Type an app’s name into Spotlight, and you can then tap the search result to immediately launch the app.
I have too many apps on my iPad. While I can always find certain apps quickly—I remember which home screen they’re on, and where geographically the icons are located on that screen—there are many more apps that I just can’t find. Instead of paging through home screen after home screen, I use Spotlight as a virtual keyboard launcher.

Tap the Home button to get to your first home screen, and then either tap it again or swipe to reveal Spotlight. Start typing the first few letters of the app’s name, and then tap on the right result to launch it instantly. Spotlight automatically surfaces your most frequently used apps at the top of its matching results, which is often very useful.

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Will This Be The Worst.iPad.Announcement.Ever? Does It Matter?

2011-03-04T11:25:00.000-05:00

Will This Be The Worst.iPad.Announcement.Ever? Does It Matter?

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Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

2011-02-18T13:01:00.000-05:00

Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

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Apple's Publishing Model Will Win!

2011-02-17T12:15:00.001-05:00

(from our friends at Cult of Mac):

Apple announced its new plan for content publishers this week, and already it’s making money for the publishing industry by enabling wild, eyeball-grabbing headlines guaranteed to bring in the readers.

“Apple Just F****d Over Online Music Subs”

“Steve Jobs to Pubs: Our Way or Highway”

“Apple Launches Subscription System, Gouges Publishers in the Process”

“Apple Subscription Plans Anger Content Providers”

Digital-publishing-technology provider NewspaperDirect called Apple’s new policy ” unjustifiable,” “inexcusable,” “self-serving” and “ridiculous.”

The International Newsmedia Marketing Association felt “betrayed.”

OK, OK. We get the idea.

Movie critic Roger Ebert summarized another view in some quarters by tweeting: “Steve Jobs contributes his bit to the destruction of print media.”

That’s a compliment, not a criticism, by the way.

Meanwhile, just a day after Apple unleashed its new plan, Google unveiled one of its own, called Google One Pass. USA Today says the Google plan “undercuts Apple.”

So let’s collect ourselves and think this through. Is Apple’s plan really a major slap in the face to the publishing industry? Will it help kill print? And is Google’s One Pass a preferable alternative?

How Apple’s Plan Affects Publishers

So what is Apple’s publishing plan, exactly? The idea is to replace the (obviously flawed) old system of forcing publishers to send out, say, each issue of their newspaper or magazine as an individual app. The new system allows a publisher to sell daily, weekly, monthly or annual subscriptions, the content for which is delivered via the existing app over an iPhone’s or iPad’s Internet connection.

The service covers not only the kind of content that would be published by print magazines and newspapers, but also music and video.

The plan gives publishers the option to sell subscriptions from within the App Store with a one-click process.

Apple’s fee is 30 percent of the subscription price. Any pre-existing subscriptions can be served by the publisher without them paying the 30 percent. And publishers can offer subscriptions to be sold outside the App Store, but the deal can’t be better than the one offered on the App Store.

There are three beliefs or assumptions about the Apple plan that have some in the industry up in arms. They are:

1.Apple’s 30 percent cut is too high
2.Apple gets between publishers and subscribers
3.Apple will gain control of the industry
In general, my take is that the first two are false, and the third is mostly true.

The 30 percent is higher than zero, higher than Google’s take (more on that below) and higher than publishers wanted. But it’s far less than publishers are currently paying for the same services via the print model (payment processing, fulfillment and delivery, etc.).

Ultimately, 30 percent is either worth it for publishers to reach the iOS audience or it isn’t. If not, then they shouldn’t participate. If so, then they shouldn’t complain.

Everything about the content publishing business is based on pricing equal to “whatever the market will bear.” From subscription prices to ad prices to contracted publishing services — everyone is demanding every penny that a critical mass is willing to pay. Apple is doing exactly the same thing.

Publishers would prefer to pay less and get more. But Apple is offering a valuable service, platform and subscriber base and is charging a lot for it. Apple charges more because publishers get more. That’s how the publishing industry works.

The idea that Apple gets between publishers and subscribers is a red herring in exactly the same way. Publishers already outsource fulfillment, which means the taking of orders, management of subscriber databases and product delivery. Apple is simply serving as a fulfillment house.

Will Apple gain control of the industry? In a word: kinda. I think Apple’s control of the magazine industry (not necessarily the other content publishing industries) will end up somewhere between Apple’s control of the music industry (which is high) and of the movie downloads industry (which is low).

Their control will come in the form of transforming the way magazine subscriptions are marketed, fulfilled and “consumed.”

How Apple’s Plan Affects Print Publishing

The Apple plan is a dramatic improvement over the way print subscriptions are handled — for the reader, that is.

First, it’s easier. Most print subscriptions have to be paid for by check, or by filling out a credit card form on paper or on a Web site. With the Apple system, you just click “subscribe.” It will be an impulse buy.

Second, subscriber personal information (name, e-mail and zip code), is opt-in for subscribers on the Apple plan. Publishers don’t like the fact that this is optional. They tend to want much more data (gender, age and more) and they want it required, not optional.

The truth is that, like the music business, the publishing industry has been screwing subscribers for decades and Apple is offering a radical new way that favors the consumer.

When you subscribe to a print magazine, you suddenly and rapidly get two or three old issues. They do that because your renewal comes earlier. Many magazines are hard to unsubscribe from. And they tend to sell your personal information to junk mailers. Magazine fulfillment is a shady industry. Publishers keep their hands clean by outsourcing this dirty work to other companies similar to how many companies outsource collections or repossessions.

Apple’s approach is simple, straight-forward and easy. Click and you’re subscribed. Apple already has your credit card. And it’s easy to unsubscribe. You can choose to keep your personal information private. People are really going to like this approach and, as a result, more people will subscribe.

But despite this vastly superior model, I don’t think Apple will materially affect the fortunes of print publishing. Print magazines and newspapers will become a high-end luxury for older, richer or more sophisticated readers no matter what Apple does. I think the real surprise will be that Apple’s model will bring in new readers who otherwise wouldn’t subscribe to magazines.

How Google’s Plan Compares to Apple’s

Google’s subscription plan, which will be based on the existing Google Checkout service, is already available in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Media reports are making a big deal out of comparing Google’s roughly 10 percent cut to Apple’s 30 percent.

However, the two services aren’t exactly comparable. Google’s plan is really a centralized system for subscribing on multiple platforms. It’s Google’s version of a subscription model that already exists elsewhere. Apple’s system is a truly new publishing model, and one specific to iOS devices.

In any event, Google’s plan isn’t as cheap as it sounds.

In the publishing industry, subscribers pay with either money or personal data or both. Subscriber data is as good as cash to magazine publishers, because they can easily turn it into pricier advertising.

In fact, while most reports focus on the consumer or newsstand side of the magazine industry, which accepts money from subscribers, they ignore the business side.

Business publications “sell” subscriptions not for money, but for information about the subscriber. Let me give you an example you may be familiar with.

IDG publishes Macworld. If you want to subscribe to the print version, you go here. You pay money, and they send you the magazine. Macworld is a consumer magazine.

IDG also publishes Computerworld, which is a publication I also write for, and which is an example of a business publication. When you subscribe, you go to this page and fill out information about yourself. You pay no money. You pay with data. That data is worth more to advertisers than any reasonable subscription fee.

At first glance, Google’s program appears to be a better deal for publishers. They get more user data and pay a lower percentage for fulfillment. But from the subscriber’s perspective, they have to pay with both money and user data, which is required under the Google system but optional with Apple’s.

Of course, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. But the point is that user data has significant monetary value to the publishing industry.

If data is currency, which it is, then Google is charging publishers less but users more.

Why Apple Will Succeed

Publishers and others can and will complain about Apple’s terms for serving up content subscriptions on the iOS. But Apple will succeed. The reason is that the combination of the Apple demographic, the ease of subscribing and the opt-in user data will mean iOS users will be by far the best audience. They will subscribe more, pay more for those subscriptions and respond more to advertising.

It’s likely that Apple’s system will re-enforce the qualitative advantage of the iPad. Already, iPhone and iPad users tend to be bigger spenders overall than those of other major platforms. Already some publishers are saying that Apple’s share is too high, and they may be tempted to publish on other platforms, especially Google’s. The higher-end publications will be far more likely to accept Apple’s terms. The end result will be that iOS users will be viewed by the publishing industry as a “premium audience” for “premium titles” and “premium advertising.”

The result will be something similar to what happens in the cell phone industry overall, where Apple sells a tiny, one-digit percentage of all handsets but makes most of the revenue. Apple will probably end up publishing a minority of existing content publishing titles, but make most of the money.

There is also an interesting dynamic at play that nobody in the publishing industry wants to talk about. The fewer publishers embrace Apple’s plan, the more successful those few will be.

iPad users are starving for real content subscriptions. If only a handful of major magazines embrace Apple’s plan, that handful will succeed much more than had everyone jumped on board. Publisher’s know this, and they’ll all looking at each other to see who blinks.

The future of publishing is tablets. That’s where the growth will be. If publishers want access to iPad users (which does and will represent the most and the best potential subscribers), they’re going to have to play by Apple’s rules. And they will.

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iConomics: Six things to learn from Apple

2011-02-16T12:32:00.000-05:00

iConomics: Six things to learn from Apple

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Why the iPad will Beat Other Tablets: Price!

2011-02-16T11:38:00.000-05:00

(from our friends at Betanews):

Yesterday, I decided to buy the Galaxy Tab, even though Samsung announced its successor hours earlier. I like the 7-inch form factor, and the Tab seems plenty fast to me, even without those extra cores coming to the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The price is appealing, just $250 after $50 rebate. But the sales process ended abruptly, without a purchase -- not because of last-minute qualms about iPad or worries there wouldn't be enough Android apps. The problem: T-Mobile, like other US carriers, charges too much for the data plans, and they're mandatory.

Tech blogger and Rackspace employee Robert Scoble claims that iPad will win the tablet wars because of mobile applications. "The only thing that matters is the apps," he asserts. Scoble most certainly is wrong about that. What matters more is the price -- how much more people pay for one product compared to the other. As for the apps, Android has huge momentum and plenty of great apps to compete with Apple's App Store -- and more are coming. But that's a separate topic.

People do care about price. When Motorola XOOM tablet pricing leaked out as $800, Betanews readers howled in terror at the high pricing. But that 800 bucks doesn't include the obligatory data plan, something that smacked me in the face yesterday. T-Mobile has two 7-inch tablets available, the Tab and the Dell Streak. The Streak is only $200 after $50 mail-in rebate. While the Dell appeals on price and full support for T-Mobile network speeds, the Tab's construction and display makes the extra $50 a worthwhile investment. Both tablets' pricing make the XOOM seem even more expensive. To a point.

For the Streak and Tab, T-Mobile requires a data plan and two-year commitment, and it's not cheap. The two sales guys told me what a bargain $40/month for unlimited data is. "Other carriers charge $60/month," one of them said. The other expressed that I could pay 50 bucks a month at T-Mobile, but qualified for lower pricing as an existing customer. Ah, yeah, thanks. By the way, that unlimited plan really isn't. T-Mobile throttles back bandwidth after 5GB consumption during any single billing period.

The math wasn't hard. My total cost for a soon-to-obsolete tablet would be minimum $1,210 -- more when adding taxes, regulatory fees and other rip-off charges -- over 24 months. The entry-level, WiFi-only iPad costs $499. Additional costs the following month: $0. After six months: $0. The iPad might cost twice as much as the Galaxy Tab, but six months of mandatory carrier data fees make them equal.

So I walked away, remembering #2 of my late-January post "5 things every tablet needs to succeed": "No carrier commitment." These tablets all come with WiFi, which is what I prefer to use. I might squander $15/month for 200MB data transfer. But $25? No way. As for the unlimited plan, I've got one of those for my smartphone. I understand that T-Mobile and other carriers subsidize iPad-competing tablets, but shouldn't eventual pricing attempt to be competitive with the market leader? The whole data pricing thing reminds of cell phone data plans before the June 2007 launch of Apple's iPhone -- ridiculously expensive.

Apple sells iPad with or without cellular network radios. Buyers can choose WiFi only. Even if they buy a 3G model, the data plan is optional and there is no contractual or time commitments. That Verizon can sell iPad without 3G (since the radios are for AT&T), shows there is demand for the right tablet that offers just WiFi.

Apple may have more apps, and its tablet may be the early market share leader. But iPad's biggest competitive advantage is price. As long as Android tablets are sold through carriers with costly and mandatory data plans attached, iPad will always be cheaper and more appealing to the mass market. Earlier today HTC unveiled the enticing 7-inch Flyer tablet. It's smaller than iPad, like the Galaxy Tab, but has more powerful processor and more storage than Samsung's tablet. What will it cost? Any price with hefty carrier data fees will be, compared to iPad, too much.

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Multitasking on the iPad

2011-02-16T11:36:00.000-05:00

(from our friends at iPadmodo):

A while back, I posted a little guide with tips on how to multitask effectively on the iPad and use the various apps together effectively to accomplish tasks normally reserved for non-mobile computers (desktops or laptops). In that sense, as an iPad owner, you can get a lot of useful productivity done. By multitasking and really learning how to use the iPad to it’s full potential, you won’t need to connect it to iTunes or a computer as often as you think. Since the time I wrote the Appmodo guide, I’ve discovered many other apps and features I wanted to add and address so I am updating the former article. I also realized that I only posted it on Appmodo and I’m now adding the guide to iPadmodo as well.

To really be able to get the most out of your iPad you should familiarize yourself with some of these apps as it will enrich your experience with it. Do you want to be able to edit photos, transfer them wirelessly to the iPad from your iPhone, blog on WordPress and upload photos directly to your blog, or store your resumes as well as send them through multiple e-mail attachments? You can do all these tasks straight from the iPad with its apps. The multitasking abilities of the tablet really surprises me sometimes with what the iPad can really accomplish.

After reading this guide I hope you will realize just how little you really need to have the iPad sync to iTunes and if you want to use the iPad for more than just entertainment consumption you really need to know how to take advantage of the iPad’s features that allow these apps to work together in unison. So let me help you a bit and give you some tips on what kinds of apps to use for some basic multitasking. Whether to send multiple e-mail attachments, edit photos or blog, there are often many good options out there.

Organizing and storing multiple files, sending multiple e-mail attachments

If you want a great document file reader or storage-and-multitasking tool, look no further than GoodReader. with GoodReader, you can store and manage various files like ones in Doc and PDF formats, and through the management option send multiple e-mail attachments. However, if you use any of the iWork apps like Pages, you cannot send files to other third-party apps directly via ‘Send to’, or ‘Open in’ options — that many apps have as features for interconnectivity — but can e-mail them to yourself. You can use certain apps or methods Apple provides that are first-party applications though.

What I do is I create a Word or PDF document via Pages because of all the great spell-check and other productivity options it offers, and send it to myself via the ‘Email Document’ option. Once I log into my e-mail I can open the file by holding it and waiting for the option box to appear and open the file via GoodReader. Once it opens in GoodReader the file remains there unless you delete it. It can also be managed and tinkered with under the ‘manage files’ menu.

Video, image, document downloading, viewing and transfer

Update: Atomic Web Browser should now allow you to download files as well for storage and multitasking. It is also much more efficient than Downloads HD because it allows you to store them directly to the Photos app and not just download and transfer them with a multiple-step process. Also, VLC Media Player got pulled by Apple.

Another great tool and even a good browser in its own right I recommend for good multitasking is the Downloads HD app. With this app you can browse various websites and download content like movie files or documents and they will be stored under its file menu.

You can also use the Downloads HD app for image downloads and they will also be stored under files. From then on you can open them or add them to the main photos app that comes with the iOS. Then, you can edit them further with the Adobe Photoshop Express app. After doing this, you can insert the images via various apps to say blogs or social networking sites.

Becoming an artist by manipulating photos or drawing your own images

There are some other great photo editing and conversion apps out there with a lot more features and options than Photoshop Express. One that I would recommend if you want to do your own drawing and art-related work and not just editing existing photos would be Art Studio for iPad. It allows you to work in layers and use layer masks like the real Photoshop allows. Art Studio features many brushes, tools, effects, and other features that you won’t find anywhere else. It is basically Photoshop on the go. Sketchbook Pro is another great app but to utilize it fully you need a stylus.

Reading Web pages in offline mode

If you own a Wi-Fi only iPad or want to conserve your 3G coverage than look no further than the Offline Pages app. It allows you to store website data and view it offline. You have to multitasking between the standard Safari browser pre-installed on the tablet and the app itself.

Using the iPad as a camera with photo storage

If you own both an iPhone and the iPad you can connect the two and multitasking between the devices with a photo-transfer app called Camera for iPad. You can use the iPhone camera’s to take photos with this app and they will automatically transfer to the iPad for editing. It also allows you to wirelessly transfer the stored iPhone photos to the iPad. Both of these methods of multitasking using this app require the app to be installed on the iPhone and iPad together and you can link the devices through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

File sharing

Update: I realized the strengths of the Dropbox app lies really in the space or memory it saves you when you upload the PDF files not directly to the iPad but your home server. The files can be viewed on the iPad or any device you have the app installed on and there is even an online server to access the files without storage.

For document file sharing, besides GoodReader and with more options for interconnectivity among various computers and iDevices, there is the infamous Dropbox. It is a great tool that can be used for sharing and storing files between your computers and the iPad (as well as other iDevices). As long as you have the app and are connected to Wi-Fi, you can do various file-sharing and file management tasks and aren’t bound by distance to your workstations. Although it doesn’t allow me to open e-mail attachments to the app directly nor does it have any inter-connectivity with Pages and iWork. I personally stick to GoodReader but many iDevice owners and iPad users especially use Dropbox for all kinds of multitasking support.

WordPress blogging

The iPad is a great social media and blogging tool as well. For WordPress blogging, the WordPress app is a must — but I have to warn you. If you don’t want too much frustration, you will be multitasking with it and the browser-based WordPress in its html tab. Sometime the app crashes or formats your blog post into one long text while taking away paragraphs when you save or publish your post. Other times, the header will get switched with another blog post. It also crashes quite often after saving or publishing a post; but WordPress has a great auto save feature built in so you won’t lose your work.

So, to do proper blogging on the iPad you will need both this app and have the WordPress html editor opened up on your iPad browser (there are many to choose from). You should have the browser version copied before making changes in the app in case it does one of the things I mentioned, or just have it open to save over. But to upload photos you will need the app since you can’t do it directly via the browser. Also, for many drag-down options like categories you want your entry to be posted under, you will need the app as the browser version won’t allow you to drag down below a certain extend. With photos, you want to upload the images via the app in original size and edit them down in the browser version where you should change the dimensions, to say medium or thumbnail, as well as align them. It may seem like a bit of a pain, but after a while it will be a breeze and you will get a hang of this multitasking between the two versions.

Wi-Fi or Bluetooth photo transfer between iPhone, iPad

If you happen to own both an iPhone and an iPad, there is a great little app called Camera for iPad that allows you to multitasking between the two gadgets. You have to install this app on both the iPhone and iPad simultaneously connect the devices through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to be able to transfer photos. You can use the iPhone as a wireless camera for the iPad if the app is running on both devices where the photos automatically transfer are you take them or just wirelessly upload any photo from your iPhone’s collection to the iPad at anytime.

Conclusion

I hope I offered some helpful tips for the less tech-savvy, or newer, iPad users out there and there are many other methods and apps that I still haven’t covered here. As the iPad expands and new apps appear we should see constant improvements and features being addressed. I wish Apple would work closer with third parties to offer better interconnectivity rather than just their own software, but discovering how to work-around certain restrictions and make the most out of our device is part of the fun. Hope you are enjoying your iPads as much as I am mine.

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The iPad Passes the Higher Education Test

2011-02-14T09:03:00.001-05:00

(from our friends at Fast Company)

Apple’s iPad received glowing marks for its performance in college classrooms from the eagerly anticipated Reed College evaluation, according to a new report shared with Fast Company. The iPad’s smooth interface kept up with the lighting-quick pace of college lectures, helping it to overcome the very same gauntlet that killed the Kindle’s hope of education dominance a year earlier. Most importantly, the report predicts an explosion of opportunity for both Apple software developers and tablet competitors.

After extensive student interviews throughout the Fall 2010 Semester, "The bottom line feeling was that the Amazon Kindle DX was not adequate for use in a higher education curricular setting," Chief Technology Officer Martin Ringle tells Fast Company. "The bottom line for the iPad was exactly the opposite."

The most impressive iPad feature was also the simplest: a smooth scrolling touchscreen. "The quick response time of the touch screen was highly praised and seemed to be extremely beneficial in class discussions because it allowed students to navigate rapidly between texts to reach specific passages,” notes the report. In contrast, the Kindle’s joystick navigation was exceedingly slow , and "the delay broke into the natural rhythm of the discussion and therefore was unacceptable," says Ringle.

The silver-medal feature, with only a few strikes against its score, was the highlighting and annotation of text. With the exception of scanned Pdf files, the students found "highlighting was easier on the iPad than on paper;" annotation was found to be adequate, but not quite as good as paper. This was a pleasant discovery for Ringle, since the Kindle’s highlighting "capabilities were so meager" that students ditched the device and begin to "print out all of the materials on paper."

In a surprising twist, the iPad’s notoriously cumbersome application switching was too slow for recreational web surfing during class, but still quick enough for Internet research, leaving students more attentive than with a laptop. However, as devices become more sophisticated, this vacation from the distracted classroom will likely be short lived.

Apple’s new favorite child is not without its flaws. The virtual keyboard is a pain for composing anything beyond short notes. The nonexistent file system makes finding important documents difficult and sharing across applications nearly impossible. Finally, managing a large number of readings in Pdf format becomes a major time-suck. Syncing Pdf’s via iTunes was found to be "needlessly complicated," emailing marked-up versions back to oneself was "prohibitively time-consuming," and even the cloud-based storage, Dropbox, "failed to work seamlessly with PDF reading/annotating applications."

Glitches aside, the students enthusiastically developed a symbiotic relationship with the tablet, using it for much, if not all of their courses and study time. Ultimately, Reed’s stamp of approval simply demonstrates that tablets do not leave students worse off. The more exciting possibilities, such as interactive textbooks, social network integration, and field data collection will likely become a reality in the very near future.

Unlike the Kindle, some schools did not bother waiting the device to be thoroughly tested; iPad mania overwhelmed higher education’s traditional wait-and-see culture of intellectual restraint. New York City schools recently ordered 2,000 devices (for a cool $1.3 Million), Stanford Medical School requires it for first year students, and Pinnacle Peak Elementary in Arizona enshrined Apple with a digital lab of 39 iPads. Now, with Reed's data to back up the hype, cautious bystanders will have all the more reason to hop on the bandwagon.

Perhaps the most impactful discovery was that none of the iPad's strengths are unique to Apple. According to the report, “the new wave of Android-based tablets seems likely to provide an appealing alternative that will result in the coexistence of at least two competing tablet operating systems.” Additionally, since none of the available applications completely satisfied classroom needs, the field is wide open for developers to claim prime real estate in this very lucrative new market. And, if the tales of Facebook and Google are any indication, the new champions of education might not be a McGraw-Hill or Blackboard, but a couple of intrepid tinkerers toying around with their new tablet.

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Review: Murdoch's 'Daily' for iPad -- Elegant, Fluffy, Addictive | TheWrap.com

2011-02-02T18:21:00.000-05:00

Review: Murdoch's 'Daily' for iPad -- Elegant, Fluffy, Addictive | TheWrap.com

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5 Things I want from the Daily iPad App!

2011-02-01T11:49:00.000-05:00

(from our friends at Fox News):

I’m not only an avid reader, I’m an obsessive Apple iPad user. So bring on The Daily!

Of course I'm excited that my bosses at News Corp. on Wednesday will launch The Daily, the first iPad-only newspaper -- and not just for the brown-nosing points.

Through apps like Flipboard, Instapaper, The Economist and The Wall Street Journal, I'm constantly reading news on the iPad. I find myself more focused on long-form content when reading on it, whereas on my desktop computer, I'm too busy with other tasks to read. That's why the iPad lends itself so well to news -- and why I think taking advantage of this platform to completely redesign the concept of a newspaper is so brilliant.

Again, I'm not just looking for brown-nosing points. I mean it.

No one at News Corp. asked me for design tips, but if they had, I would have had a few orders. Here are the top 5 things I'm hoping to see from The Daily.

1. Innovative sharing. I'm okay paying for news as long as it doesn’t feel like I’m trapped in an app, reading by myself. Great content needs to be shared. And news becomes great when it is discussed. It frustrates me to find a great article or video and not be able to share it with my family or on my social networks.

I’m not sure how sharing will work with anyone who isn't a paid subscriber or who doesn't have an iPad. And what if I want to Tweet an article? Where does it link to if The Daily doesn’t even have a website?

2. Deep links to other content. Speaking of websites, what if The Daily wants to reference another non-Daily article? Can it link off the app to that article, or are you stuck inside of the pay-wall reading The Daily and nothing but The Daily? That's not really preferable.

My hope is that the app will be a part of what Jeff Jarvis, the director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York’s journalism school, calls “the link economy.” It needs to be part of the conversation that is happening around any given topic allowing readers to push further and further into a subject at their discretion.

3. Clippable stories. Think about how we used to clip out articles of interest from the newspaper. My father still takes scissors to the local paper and saves his clippings in his office.

If The Daily is really a next-gen newspaper, it has to allow for some kind of digital clipping and saving. I’d like to save the travel articles about places I’d like to visit in one folder. Or biographies that I enjoy in another. Or restaurant reviews on places I would like to eat. You get the picture. If I'm paying for this newspaper, I’d like to keep the content that I am paying for in one spot that I can organize by folders and search by keyword.

4. Video. I happen to know that News Corp. knows a thing or two about producing professional news video. Case in point: Fox and Friends. I’d like to see the same standards applied to The Daily.

A lot of news networks take their TV programs and chop them up into little bits and pieces for the Internet. It isn’t very satisfying to watch. I’d like to see video for The Daily made specifically for the iPad. I don’t want leftover news from the network. I want video that takes advantage of the platform.

5. All In One. I want it all. If I'm willing to pay for this app (which I am), I want it to cover its bases in all types of news -- and I want it to be exhaustive in each news category. I want to be able to understand what is going on in the world of finance on any given day by reading the finance section. The same goes for politics, technology, sports, etc.

The world of online news is noisy. Look at Google News and you’ll get a sense of how many people are talking about the same things. I don’t want to have to wade through that any longer. I want The Daily to sum it up for me expertly, concisely, and thoroughly.

And if these demands aren't met verbatim -- well, I guess I won't do much. I like my job, after all. But I'm sure eager to see what Rupert Murdoch has come up with.

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Increased Reading Due to Digital eReaders like the iPad!

2011-01-31T12:15:00.001-05:00

The rising popularity with ebooks in its many forms is kind of astounding! Amazon has just reported a few weeks ago that eBooks are outselling tangible books and retail giant Barnes and Noble is not meeting the same fate of rival Borders, due to the success of their ebook library and Nook e-Readers. A new study has been been conducted by iModerate Research Technologies and Brock Associates have determined that users that have multifunction devices; such as Blackberry, iPad, Android tablets and e-readers such as the Nook Color and Pandigital Novel have increased reading by 65% and 46% are actually buying real books.

The study found and presented at the Digital World Book Conference 2011 in New York has determined the top three reasons why Tablet and Smart Phone users prefer reading on their device. They mention the overall convenience factor of reading a book digitally to be at 80%. They also presented that over 61% of customers feel purchasing ebooks is easier then buying the real thing. One of the most intriguing factors was how people do their reading and in what environment. Traveling (72%), waiting for an appointment (72%) and for leisure and relaxation (70%) topped up the most popular methods.

“I think we can expect to see growth in ebook consumption in the coming year because consumers suggest that reading books on a multi-function device is such a convenience to them,” says Laurie Brock, President of Brock Associates. “As long as they have their device with them 24/7, they are going to read on it – especially if the price for an ebook remains reasonable.”

Not only did the recent poll determine statistical ananysis on how often people are reading and in what circumstances, they also had users offer their own experiences.

Some of the circumstances that contributed people to increase their reading habits were mainly evident to the fact that people often roll around carrying these devices in their pocket, in their car or in a bag/purse. They tended to read more during random “dead” pockets of time, such as waiting for a doctors appointment or chaperoning their kids on the playground.

One particular female whom was polled at this to say “When we’re going somewhere in the car and my husband is driving, I’ll read some. If my kid is playing on the playground or something, I’ll sit and read while she’s playing. It’s just convenient to pull out if I have a few minutes that I’m not doing anything.”

Another reason why people are reading more on their electronic devices was due to the convenience factor. The poll showed that its easier to buy, store and organizing their online book collections. Other issues cited the ability to buy more and carry more and being able to buy books on demand from various other stores.

The last huge factor that has been stimulating more people to read was the editing factor found in the iPad and many e-readers that do more then just reading. It allows people to highlight, adjust text size, bookmark pages without ruining the book.
(from our friends at goodereader.com)

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IPAD's Ripple Effect

2011-01-31T10:17:00.000-05:00

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/01/ipad-impact.html

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The iPadification of the Web | VentureBeat

2011-01-29T17:31:00.000-05:00

The iPadification of the Web | VentureBeat

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The Atavist - short Stories for the iPad!

2011-01-27T20:44:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Evan Ratliff, a freelance magazine journalist who has worked for Wired, his friend Nicholas Thompson, a senior editor at The New Yorker, and Jefferson Rabb, a programmer and web designer, debuted their first stories for The Atavist, a start-up publication focused on original, long-form journalism made exclusively for smartphones and tablets.

“The Web is obviously more oriented around instant news, and status updates, and pageviews, and flitting from one piece of information and/or page to the next,” Ratliff wrote in an email to Capital. “We're offering something that we hope is an engaging longer read, and tablets and E-readers are the place—outside of print—where people have quickly grown more comfortable with those. It's also the case that the ‘inline’ elements, as we call them—a kind of substrate to the story consisting of maps, timelines, character profiles, etc.—feels considerably more interesting and engaging at your fingertips than at a mouse click.”

The Atavist released two, 12,000-word stories in Amazon.com’s Kindle Singles store: “Piano Demon,” a story about the “globe-trotting, gin-soaked, too-short life” of Chicago jazzman Teddy Weatherford, by Brendan Koerner, a contributing editor at Wired who has written columns for The New York Times and The Village Voice; and “Lifted,” a story about an elaborate heist, by Ratliff.

A free iPad and iPhone-friendly application made by Atavist will be available within the next few day and users will be able to buy the stories for $2.99 a piece.

“The Singles store is designed to sell stories and essays that are longer than magazine articles and shorter than books (more on that here)—stories, as they put it, 'expressed at their natural length,’” Ratliff wrote on the Atavist site. “That idea also happens to be right in line with what we’ve been scheming about for the last year.”

Thompson and Ratliff started working in earnest on The Atavist in October 2009. The iPad wouldn’t debut to the public until April 2010, but they were excited about the possibilities for long-form journalism to survive—even dazzle—in an environment beyond print and the web. They brought in designer Rabb, who worked on the website for Thompson's book, The Hawk and the Dove, to figure out what that new design would look like.

While Rupert Murdoch and his team of staffers prepare an iPad-only news application and every major magazine from Condé Nast to Hearst publishes on tablets, The Atavist is one of the early, indie start-ups experimenting with publishing for the next generation.

The Atavist team has been been working out of bars and home offices, keeping their freelance jobs to pay the bills. While Rabb coded social networking features and unique design elements into a template for the stories (The Atavist plans to license their software for a fee), Ratliff had coffee with writers, convincing them to participate.

“Whether it's a friend of mine (or of another founder), or not, it's the same pitch: we offer a home for narratives of a length that's very difficult to find these days in magazines, but that's less than the full-on multi-year effort of a book,” Ratliff wrote. “We pay, and we share the story revenues very generously (that incidentally is a pitch to readers as well: your money goes directly into writer's pockets).”

Writers get a modest flat fee per story and make a percentage off the total sales (a little under 50 percent) per story. Apple and Amazon take a 30 percent share of each story sold, while The Atavist team takes what's left over.

Features that become popular online could bring in a decent kickback to both The Atavist and their writers. But that’s the bet—whether enough Kindle, iPad and iPhone users will actually pay for quality, long-form journalism to keep them in business.

“It's been fantastic to see this community grow and come up with new ideas that build off the renewed interest in longer content,” Mark Armstrong told Capital in an email.

Armstrong is the founder of Longreads, a service that aggregates long-form journalism on a website, Twitter, and Tumblr formats and prepares them for e-reader and smartphone-friendly formats, like Instapaper. He left his full-time job as director of content at personal finance start-up Bundle to make Longreads a full-blown enterprise.

“The last 15 years of online content has really only been created for workplace engagement—Monday through Friday, 5-min. increments, while the boss isn't looking,” according to Armstrong. “Thanks to these new devices and apps, content can capture a reader's attention on the couch, on a commute, or on an airplane. There's a deep level of engagement that never existed before. Longreads helps readers find and share great stories, and we also help publishers and writers reach the readers who support and love this kind of work.”

But Longreads highlights content that is available online for free. Getting readers to pay for this work is the hurdle and restricting content to e-readers eliminates a large group of potential supporters.

The Atavist is self-funded by the founders, although Ratliff says they have some interest from investors, and they have talked to a “variety of publishers” about ways to collaborate. “We're certainly open to advertising possibilities, although we're not pursuing them initially and they'd likely look somewhat different than conventional magazine or online advertising—possibly something more like a sponsorship, or ‘presented by,’” according to Ratliff. “But first we want to get the stories out to some readers and build up a little more of a community that we can discuss it with.”

How big are they hoping that community will be?

“That's the big question, indeed!” Ratliff wrote. “No one has really done this before, to our knowledge, in this way. So we had to accept taking some risk and being willing to change up and experiment further if it doesn't hit exactly right the first time. I think there is a lot of good evidence that people are interested in narratives that go beyond their daily bit-by-bit news consumption. We hope to reach those people, but we know we have to earn their money with great stories.”

As far as what other “great stories” coming down the pipeline, according to Ratliff: “We have a novelist named Nicholas Griffin working on a piece about the unusual and extraordinary scientific life of Mark Moffett, the naturalist and ant specialist. We have Mara Altman, a sharp young author and magazine writer, on a piece about engagement rings. Chris Colin, a San Francisco writer/author, has a long, hard-to-believe tale about a businessman who hits the top, takes an extraordinary fall, and then returns to the game (I can't give it away yet with more specifics). And then both Paige Williams, a wonderful Boston writer, and Jon Mooallem, a New York Times Magazine contributor, with some tales mixing crime and science. My inbox has a half-dozen promising ideas right now.”

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In the Year 3030, Everyone Will Still Read - The Atlantic

2011-01-27T12:06:00.000-05:00

In the Year 3030, Everyone Will Still Read - The Atlantic

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Buying a Digital Book at Your Bookstore!

2011-01-26T11:48:00.002-05:00

From our friends at Baristanet - link (my comments are below):
http://www.baristanet.com/2011/01/walk-to-your-local-bookstore-buy-an-ebook-heres-how/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJfLe7Ds4iI

Buying an eBook at Watchung BooksellersGot books? Well of course you do…you’re an enlightened literary human being. If you love to read, the chances are that you — like some 16 million Americans — now own an e-reader device, too. And this may be causing you a bit of book-buyer’s dilemma. You love your local bookstore, but it’s just so much easier to shop in your pajamas from home, click “buy,” and in less than a minute the text is on your iPad (or Nook) and you’re ready to read.

I love my iPad. I also adore my local booksellers. I love to walk to town, chat with other readers, and browse. I love the cozy corner chair by the sunny window, the shelves stacked with titles my friend/neighbor/favorite booksellers have hand-selected and read through.
Torn between two loves, I looked for a practical solution. Is it possible to have an e-reader and still shop locally? The answer is a resounding yes.

iPad and credit card in tow, I trekked over to Watchung Booksellers this weekend and put myself in the able hands of the store’s technical genius, Nicole Ban, and owner, Margot Sage-EL. My quest was simple: to shop locally, buy digitally, and keep the profits right here in Baristaville where they belong.

“So much of life is about setting up accounts digitally,” Nicole said. As the guru of all things digital and the de facto Buddha of e-book buying in Baristaville, Nicole made it all seem easy. First, I uploaded the Google eBooks app and set up my Google account. I don’t have a 3-g iPad and so had to log onto the store’s wireless (Nicole gave me the code).

From there it was a matter of accessing the Watchung Bookseller’s website on my iPad, and quickly setting up a bookstore account. I followed the directions (I’m pretty good at that!) and linked my Google account with my newly established bookstore account.

Then I searched for the title I wanted to buy – in my case it was Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses, by Claire Dederer – pressed “buy” and voila – easy as pie, the (digital) book was mine.

“People can come in with their devices and we’ll go through the process with you,” Nicole said. “If you want to come in and sit for the afternoon on your wireless device, you can do that, too.”

See: a friendly place where you can shop, read, visit, browse, and shop digitally, too.

The story has a happy and satisfying ending: yes, reader, I succeeded. Was it easy? Yes. Did it take a little time? Yes. Will I do it again? Most definitely.

You can do it, too. You don’t even have to go into the store; you can go online and follow the directions on Watchung Bookseller’s website, or visit Maplewood’s Words bookseller website, where buying an eBook just got simpler.

Best of all, when you buy a Google eBook via your local retailer the digital content is yours, and you can access it from any internet or wireless device simply by going into the bookstore website.

That means — yes, it’s true! — you do not have to carry your digital reader in order to access to your digitally-owned book. It’s yours. If you can access the internet through your smart phone, your mom’s computer, your daughter’s iPad, you name it – you get to the website, and you can retrieve the contents.

“That’s one of the best things about the whole Google e-Books cloud,” Margot said. “You own the content of the book, and it’s not limited to any single device. It’s yours, and you can access it through our website any time.”

One of the comments on this story was entertaining: "This is very inspiring. I plan to carry my laptop to the post office to send some emails."

I may have to check my favorite local bookstore, Horizon Books in Traverse City, and see if I can set up this account there. Will let you know how it goes!

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iPad not ready for the classroom

2011-01-26T08:49:00.000-05:00

The iPad is achieving great successes in the classroom, but adaptation will still take time, as we move beyond the early adaptors interest in novelty, and start into the "instrument for innovation" phase to assist students in their learning process. Just like anything else - it is a means, not an ends. The teacher is the driving force, and the tech is available to make the driving a little easier, and maybe a little more fun.

iPad not ready for the classroom

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Microsoft Hasn't a Clue!

2011-01-25T11:52:00.001-05:00

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/how-microsoft-plans-to-market-against-the-ipad/8513?tag=mantle_skin;content

Yesterday ZDNet posted a handful of PowerPoint slides aimed at Microsoft resellers who are trying to sell Windows 7 tablets in an iPad-dominated world. The slides give point-by-point selling tips, painting the iPad as a laggard in the vaunted halls of the enterprise, showing how Windows 7 tablets run rings around the iPad in areas of corporate security, application compatibility, line of business applications, and more.

I believe the slides demonstrate, beyond any doubt, that Microsoft -- at least the sales force -- has an incurable case of cluelessness.

The slides tell us that the iPad's great form factor, intuitive interface, and long battery life "are driving commercial appeal." We're further informed that "end user interest is driving the adoption [of iPads] within the organization."

That's exactly right.

Then we're told that all of those characteristics aren't key concerns for the enterprise. Corporate customers, quoth Microsoft, want a platform for data creation, not just consumption, with manageability, security, hardware choices and support, the power to run Line of Business applications and Microsoft Office, and a familiar user interface.

Bunk!

If you were in the IT business 20 years ago, you might recall precisely the same arguments being made in a very different context. Back then, the problematic machines -- the darned upstart whippersnapper devices that end users insisted on sneaking into the office -- were called personal computers.

They didn't connect to CICS databases, thus couldn't be relied upon for creating high quality data. They wouldn't behave like good 3270 terminals, with their familiar user interfaces and well-understood commands. Users would get all confused by these "personal" things and need new training. Worse, IT couldn't control them: Departments snuck fake line items into their budgets to buy them, or just put 'em on expense reports, bypassing IT review. Ingrates!

Heck, these toy computers didn't even run JCL or Cobol. How could they possibly be used in a secure, business-like corporate environment?

It's deja vu all over again.

Right now, Microsoft is trying to sell a decade-old bloated software design grafted onto decade-old hardware. The upstart whippersnappers have a simpler, nimbler alternative, that's finger-swiping easy to use. Sure, some applications in the enterprise need all of that bloat -- Office and SharePoint and locked-down security with giant SQL back ends -- but many people don't want the overhead, don't want the pain, don't want to waste their time learning arcane details, and just want to get on with it.

Then, as now, corporate IT departments have two choices: They can try to keep the inevitable from happening, throw up organizational roadblocks, and force their users to buy archaic equipment. Or they can run out in front of the band and pretend that they're leading it.

A year from now, where do you want to be?

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Study: University Students Pick iPads Over Textbooks | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

2011-01-24T16:13:00.000-05:00

Study: University Students Pick iPads Over Textbooks | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

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Considering Upgrading to the iPad 2? Read this First

2011-01-23T09:51:00.000-05:00

Considering Upgrading to the iPad 2? Read this First

AOL to launch iPad magazine "Editions" - May get in first after The Daily delay | TechEye

2011-01-20T12:12:00.000-05:00

And the beat goes on - have been very impressed by The Project iPad only magazine - it actually looks like it belongs on the iPad, compared to some that just look like refreshed webpages. Looking forward to the Daily from Newscorp, and now Editions from AOL. Oprah's O magazine is very interactive, Conde Nast is unique, Wired uses some of the technologies, so the floods have opened. Now we just need Apple to come up with an effective subscription service that benefits the customers and companies, and we'll all be in business.

AOL to launch iPad magazine "Editions" - May get in first after The Daily delay | TechEye

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A first look at The Daily, Rupert Murdoch’s iPad newspaper | Poynter.

2011-01-13T13:47:00.000-05:00

A first look at The Daily, Rupert Murdoch’s iPad newspaper | Poynter.

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Jesus Tablet: Savior Of The News Industry? Or In Need Of A Resurrection?

2011-01-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

Jesus Tablet: Savior Of The News Industry? Or In Need Of A Resurrection?

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Classrooms Experiment With Apple iPad | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

2011-01-09T12:45:00.000-05:00

Classrooms Experiment With Apple iPad | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

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All the news that fits ... the iPad | Crosscut.com

2011-01-04T20:18:00.000-05:00

All the news that fits ... the iPad | Crosscut.com

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Bob Stein wants to change how people think about the book - Los Angeles Times

2010-12-30T12:35:00.000-05:00

Bob Stein wants to change how people think about the book - Los Angeles Times

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Got an Apple iPad? Here's What to Do With It. | PCMag.com

2010-12-30T09:42:00.001-05:00

A lot of you have joined the ranks of the few, the proud, the Apple iPad owner! Welcome, and enjoy the ride. So now what? This seems to be one of the better websites (PCMag.com) to assist in that journey - besides this website of course! So relax and enjoy - there is a whole world in front of your fingertips - and drop my a line if you need assistance to make your iPad "truly magical" (as Steve Jobs likes to say)!!!

Got an Apple iPad? Here's What to Do With It. | PCMag.com

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Collected: Apple's busy diary for 2011 - Computerworld Blogs

2010-12-21T12:39:00.000-05:00

Collected: Apple's busy diary for 2011 - Computerworld Blogs

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The iPad - Don't Conform, Transform!

2010-12-21T08:27:00.002-05:00

Interesting article on the impact of iPad by Lisa Arthur, from our friends at Forbes:

The year is drawing to a close, and I’m amazed at how digital technology now impacts my daily routine –in ways I couldn’t have imagined just 12 months ago.

These days, I’m never without my smartphone. Earlier this year, I “cut the cord” with my cable provider at home, which means now I watch TV only online. And now, I use my iPad as much as (or maybe even more than) I use my laptop for business. My iPad helps me manage my marketing team with access to content, spend and campaign information and reports.

Of course, I’m not the only marketer to feel the impact of technology in my daily business life; technology is rapidly transforming marketing for all of us. Digital channels are proliferating. Digital data analysis has become a must-have. And over the past year, several innovative high-tech tools have emerged, too. Many marketers are now using sophisticated marketing software systems and new tablet computers, such as Apple’s iPad.

How will all this technology impact our industry in the year ahead? Which high-tech strategy best fits your team?

Last week, I discussed these issues with Dave Sutton, who is founder of TopRight Strategic Marketing, co-author of Enterprise Marketing Management: The New Science of Marketing, and a thought leader regarding technology and marketing. We focused specifically on the iPad, which Dave describes as a “killer platform” poised to revolutionize the way marketers do their jobs. Here are some highlights from our conversation:

LA: Dave, you have said that you think the iPad is much more than a fad, and that it actually signals the beginning of a transformative era for business computing. What makes this device so revolutionary?

DS: I believe that the iPad is revolutionary because it has the potential to enable entirely new business strategies. The iPad is unique because it represents:

1.Technology convergence. Tablet formats combine advanced processors and high resolution with mobility, portability and affordability.
2.A form factor shift. With more than three million units sold in the first quarter after launch, it’s clear that consumers have embraced not only the iPad’s design quality, but also its versatility and intuitive usability.
3.The maturity of iPad app development. Both consumers and businesses are now hungry for apps, and the app development community is robust, mature and credible.
LA: More specifically, how does the iPad impact marketing?

DS: The iPad and other new tablet technologies are much more than personal productivity improvement devices. Already, marketers are using iPads to create new customer experiences, monetize assets in new ways and solve complex, intractable business problems. Marketers are typically tasked with answering what I like to call “the five Qs:” Who are your customers? Where are they? What are they buying? When do they buy? How do they buy? Traditionally, technology has been able to help us answer one, two, or maybe three of these questions at a time. But, now the iPad can help us answer all of them at once. Consumers can use the iPad to provide feedback to our marketing messages. That means marketing no longer has to debate the tradeoffs of “push” versus “pull” tactics. The iPad is the embodiment of push and pull in one device. It empowers consumers, enhances the customer experience and gives marketers invaluable insight into buying behaviors.

LA: Can you give some examples? How are businesses using iPads to empower consumers?

DS: Right now, the technology is still very new, and because of that, many businesses are allowing consumers to “borrow” iPads on-site. For instance, a restaurant group we profile in our recent white paper allows customers to browse the “iCellar” and make their wine selection using an iPad. However, as tablet technologies become increasingly ubiquitous, we’ll be seeing that consumers will use their own devices for individual or self-guided customer experiences (much as consumers use smartphones now). Point-of-sale is evolving from transactional to more interactive and experiential, and iPads will play an increasingly prominent role. As an example, imagine how iPads can enhance product visualization. You can literally see yourself sitting in the chair you are considering to purchase for your home and view it with different fabrics or accessories surrounding you. Then, you can save those images for comparison, future reference, or to share through email or social media hooks. Tablet technology is also likely to transform other aspects of the customer experience, such as payment processing, loyalty programs and location-specific offers, too. In B2B, marketers are using iPads to help educate prospects, capture sales information and open dialogue both internally and externally. Pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, in particular, are already using iPads to detail prescribers, track sales activity and support sales force effectiveness training.

LA: What major tablet computer trends do you see emerging in the year ahead?

DS: I think we are going to see more attention focused on location-based offers and promotions. As tablet technology becomes even more popular, marketers will leverage location knowledge to target messages “in the moment.” Also, look for an explosion of custom app development. Up until now, developers have concentrated on consumer apps, but now companies need apps, too. Companies want apps that differentiate them in the marketplace, support specific business models and align with their particular marketing strategies. Lastly, in the year ahead, we are going to see a variety of “me-too” competitors entering the market. Among these, it’s going to be interesting to see if anyone is going to challenge Apple’s control of operating system technology. If not, Apple iOS and Google Android will probably remain the dominant players.

LA: How can marketers decide which technology is best suited to their strategy?

DS: There are no simple answers to that question. This technology is not one-size-fits-all. It’s important to think in terms of questions such as, “What problems can the iPad solve for us or our customers?” and “How will this technology align with our overall business strategy?” You also have to remember that you will need to address concerns about data security, privacy, maintenance and support. My best advice is to proceed thoughtfully and methodically. There’s no doubt that the iPad has the potential to be a transformational force, but you have to make sure that you optimize it for your business strategies and processes.

You can read even more insights in Sutton’s white paper, The iPad –Don’t Conform, Transform! The Birth of a Killer Platform, available here. The paper is also available in popular eReader formats including Amazon Kindle, Google eBooks and, of course, Apple iBooks.

http://toprightstrategicmarketing.com/files/iPad%20The%20Killer%20Platform%20WhitePaper%20copy.pdf

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How Green is My iPad?

2010-12-17T12:13:00.002-05:00

Every few years, a new technology emerges that completely changes the way we conduct our lives and transforms our economy: the car, the jet, the computer, the Internet. Tablet technology, led by the Apple iPad, is poised to change the world in the same way as these other iconic and transformative innovations.

Tablets will soon free the workplace from the desktop, and workers from their offices. They will accelerate the advent of so‐called distance learning, making it possible for anyone, anywhere to get an Ivy League quality education for hundreds rather than hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Among the secondary and tertiary benefits of these transformations is the tablet’s environmental impact.
Reducing our “carbon footprint” is a fine ambition, but harvesting energy from wind turbines or $40,000 battery‐driven automobiles is difficult and costly. But the $500 tablet on sale at Best Buy today can do so far more effectively – it’s a cheaper, more readily adopted technology that reduces the need for paper, office space and commuter travel. The resulting environmental benefits are an order of magnitude greater than anything else on offer.

Consider how tablets dramatically reduce the environmental impact of distributing media such as movies, newspapers, magazines and books. Gone if not dramatically reduced is the need for paper‐based tickets, pamphlets, brochures, booklets and DVDs, not to mention the petroleum required to make and transport them. The tablet combines all of it into one simple data transfer without burdening overcrowded landfills with packaging and production waste.

Environmental advocates are keen to replace petroleum‐based energy technology with something better. They would do well to consider how the tablet replaces paper and paper goods. The iPad weighs about 1.5 pounds and represents a compression ratio of 1000:1 or better. If you keep one in use for three years and you go through 2,000 pounds of books, newspapers and other paper goods annually, you’re replacing 6,000 pounds of carbon consuming, landfill polluting stuff.

Finally, consider the cost of ownership of a tablet as compared to, for example, Toyota’s popular Prius hybrid vehicle. The Prius has been touted as one of the most fuel efficient and environmentally friendly cars to hit the market. But, as critics have pointed out, not only is the Prius expensive to buy, in terms of its carbon footprint, it is expensive to manufacture.

According to WIRED Magazine, “…it takes 113 million BTUs of energy to make a Toyota Prius…” which is the … “equivalent to having consumed 1,000 gallons of gasoline before it reaches the showroom.”i

Of course, at a purchase price of $500, and even accounting for the electricity required to recharge it, the tablet beats them all – cars, solar panels, wind turbines, you name it – by miles, and miles and miles.

The challenge posed by these types of energy initiatives is that they are hard pressed to increase energy efficiency by the 5‐20% rate required for them to make a meaningful economic or environmental difference. Cars that can travel 10,000 miles to the gallon are simply not in the offing. And there’s no way to reduce our overall energy consumption by even 5% let alone 95%. With tablet technology, however, it is quite possible to reduce material and energy consumption for whole classes of services and media by more than 90%.

Moreover, tablet technology, unlike low‐yielding energy initiatives in wind and automotive, does not require government subsidies. Indeed, the iPad has been an explosive market place success, selling 7.5 million units in just six months. If we really want to conserve energy and material and transition away from our dependence on petroleum, maybe the best thing to do is to give an iPad to every single citizen.

It’s just a question if Apple can manage such a tall order. They’ll have help (and competition) soon enough.

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MacDailyNews - Computerworld reviews Samsung Galaxy Tab: Awkward and substandard; buy an Apple iPad instead

2010-12-10T11:54:00.000-05:00

MacDailyNews - Computerworld reviews Samsung Galaxy Tab: Awkward and substandard; buy an Apple iPad instead

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iPad 2.0 cameras confirmed, who are the iPad users? - Computerworld Blogs

2010-12-10T09:18:00.000-05:00

iPad 2.0 cameras confirmed, who are the iPad users? - Computerworld Blogs

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Branson's Pet 'Project' Adds Oomph to iPad Publishing

2010-12-01T14:54:00.000-05:00

Branson's Pet 'Project' Adds Oomph to iPad Publishing

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TheStar Roseman: An eReader is good, but an iPad is better

2010-12-01T11:15:00.000-05:00

TheStar Roseman: An eReader is good, but an iPad is better

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Why We Can't Stop Playing Angry Birds on the iPad (And Other Mobile Devices)

2010-11-30T11:32:00.002-05:00

Not since the invention of bacon and eggs has the collision of fowl and swine tasted so good.

A game called Angry Birds is dominating the best-selling-applications charts for Apple's iPhone with a simple, whimsical premise: Players turn different species of scowling birds into projectiles with which to crush a collection of grunting pigs scattered around various ramshackle structures. More than 12 million copies of Angry Birds have been sold since it went on sale late last year, most of them 99-cent downloads for iPhones and iPod touches, according to Rovio Mobile Ltd., the Finnish company that created the game.

A number of famous people are said to be fans of Angry Birds, a popular mobile game that is one of many in a growing category of casual games for phones. Nick Wingfield explains.

Why do smart people love seemingly mindless games? Angry Birds is one of the latest to join the pantheon of "casual games" that have appealed to a mass audience with a blend of addictive game play, memorable design and deft marketing. The games are designed to be played in short bursts, sometimes called "entertainment snacking" by industry executives, and there is no stigma attached to adults pulling out their mobile phones and playing in most places. Games like Angry Birds incorporate cute, warm graphics, amusing sound effects and a reward system to make players feel good. A scientific study from 2008 found that casual games provide a "cognitive distraction" that could significantly improve players' moods and stress levels.

Casual games are defined by the ease with which they can be picked up, including by players bewildered by more complex "hardcore games" for PCs and consoles, with their intricate story lines and controls. The category spans early sensations like Tetris, the Russian-made puzzle game for PCs and consoles from the 1980s, to Bejeweled, a decade-old shape-matching game that is still in wide use in mobile devices. The average mobile-game player is 45 years old and nearly as likely to be female as male, according to a survey last year of more than 1,100 customers of AT&T's wireless service sponsored by PopCap Games, the maker of Bejeweled and other titles. When asked where they play mobile games, the top answer from respondents to the survey, conducted by Information Solutions Group, was while waiting for an appointment.

Angry Birds has attracted an unusually high-brow roster of fans. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has said he plays the game on his iPad, according to Andy Payne, chairman of a British games-industry trade group, who spoke to Mr. Cameron at a group dinner in September. (A spokeswoman for the prime minister didn't return a request for comment.) The author Salman Rushdie in a recent radio interview called himself "something of a master at Angry Birds." And comedian Conan O'Brien posted a YouTube video recently to promote his new talk show, in which he boasts that he's on level four of Angry Birds.

Angry Birds falls into a category known in the industry as "physics-based games," in which basic actions like falling and ricocheting provide the underlying challenge and fun of a game. Players use their fingers on the iPhone or iPad's touch-sensing screens to adjust the tension and angle of a slingshot loaded with a bird, with the goal of maximizing the damage the avian missiles cause to the pigs.

Another physics-based game at the top of the App Store's charts is Cut the Rope. Players must figure out how to deliver a piece of candy dangling from various cords into the mouth of a sweet-hungry monster called the Om Nom. Cutting the cords in the proper order swings the candy into the creature's mouth.

Amber Strocel, a 34-year-old stay-at-home mom in Coquitlam, British Columbia, got hooked on Angry Birds a few months ago when she got an iPhone and has often played it while waiting for dinner to cook. Ms. Strocel, who says she hadn't played a game in years before Angry Birds, says she's amused by the game's characters, especially the mix of laughs and grunts that the pigs emit when she fails to hit them with birds. "They kind of kind of mock you," she says. "There's an appeal to that."

Players' infatuation with games like Angry Birds can end as quickly as it starts, often when the novelty of a game's features wears off. Ms. Strocel recently dumped Angry Birds for another reason: She completed all its levels. "It was fun while it lasted," she says.

Mikael Hed, chief executive of Angry Birds-developer Rovio, says the game's success is "really the sum of all of its parts," including the edgy-but-cute characters, amusing sound effects and simple rules. Rovio started in early 2009 with a rough idea of the protagonists it wanted to feature—a cast of stern-looking birds. It decided to make the game's villains a group of sickly-looking green pigs, in homage to the swine-flu pandemic then grabbing headlines. The reason the birds are so angry with the pigs, according to the back story of the game, is that the pigs swiped the birds' eggs to cook them up.

Rovio spent about $100,000 on the original Angry Birds and has invested more in new game levels that it offers, free, through updates to the game, a Rovio spokesman says.

Fueled by word of mouth, the game landed on the best-seller chart for Apple's App Store for Finland late last year. In February, when Apple made Angry Birds a staff pick in the U.K. App Store, sales exploded, Mr. Hed says. A couple of months later, the game became a best-selling paid app in the U.S. App Store, he says.

Like many casual games, Angry Birds uses positive reinforcement to make players feel good when they succeed: After a player lays waste to all the pigs on a level of the game, a raucous wave of cheers goes up. Other than the gentle mocking of the pigs, Mr. Hed says, "our game doesn't really punish players."

Game designers say this type of "reward system" is a crucial part of the appeal of casual games like Angry Birds. In Bejeweled 2, for example, players have to align three diamonds, triangles and other shapes next to each other to advance in the game. After a string of successful moves, a baritone voice announces, "Excellent!" or "Awesome!"

"That's a big part of" the game's success, says Jason Kapalka, chief creative officer of PopCap. "You're getting this unambiguous encouragement." PopCap estimates Bejeweled has garnered more than $350 million in sales and sold more than 50 million units since coming out a decade ago.

The length of the typical casual-game-playing session was less than 15 minutes, according to the survey of mobile-phone users. The survey also found that the primary benefit respondents said they got from playing was a "distraction from the issues of daily life."

In the 2008 study, sponsored by PopCap, 134 players were divided into groups playing Bejeweled or other casual games, and a control group that surfed the Internet looking for journal articles. Researchers, who measured the participants' heart rates and brain waves and administered psychological tests, found that game players had significant improvements in their overall mood and reductions in stress levels, according to Carmen Russoniello, director of the Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic at East Carolina University's College of Health and Human Performance in Greenville, N.C., who directed the study.

In a separate study, not sponsored by PopCap, Dr. Russoniello is currently researching whether casual games can be helpful in people suffering from depression and anxiety.

(from our friends at Wall Street Journal)

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Could Murdoch's Daily iPad Magazine be a big hit?

2010-11-30T08:58:00.000-05:00

You can be sure that whenever Rupert Murdoch does something relating to technology, people are going to bash it. And so it is with his latest venture, an iPad newspaper called The Daily. Internet luminaries have been trashing the idea since it's been out there.

Here's why we think it can work:

A ton of people want to take in news once a day in well-curated form. The reason why people don't pay for newspapers anymore isn't that they don't want curated, once-a-day news. It's that they can get curated, once-a-day news faster and for free by typing "nytimes.com" or "huffingtonpost.com" into their browser every morning. A criticism of The Daily is that, since it'll be published once a day, it won't be able to break news fast the way the web does. But most people aren't news addicts who need the news right this minute. They don't want much more than a daily intake of reasonably good news. Tapping an app icon on an iPad fulfills that function just as well, possibly better than the web. By the way, if the appeal of bloggy news is fast breaking news, that appeal is fading for us too -- increasingly, that advantage belongs to Twitter.

A ton of people are still willing to trade money for convenience. You can get all the media you want for free -- legally or illegally -- and yet tons of people still pay for music on iTunes and Spotify and for movies on Netflix, because it's fast, painless and convenient. Buying stuff on the iPad, especially with subscriptions, has those characteristics as well. It's been well established that plenty of people are willing to buy apps.

iPad owners are mostly rich, and will remain so for a long time. Tablets may be the next wave of computing, but right now people who buy a half-grand device that doesn't do everything a computer does, almost by definition, have good disposable income. And it's going to stay that way for many many years. That means they're more willing to pay for news and that they're great targets for advertising.

Links aren't the only way to promote content anymore. Haven't you heard? The web is dead. Another criticism of The Daily is that since it won't allow for inbound linking and social sharing it won't draw in traffic. But that's not the only way to promote content anymore. If you rank high on the app store, and especially if you're featured, that gets tons of people to buy your app, and has nothing to do with search engines and social media. Ranking high on the app store is not a foregone conclusion, but neither is ranking high on Google and going viral on Facebook. The point is that it's not a dealbreaker for an iPad newspaper.

Aggregation works both ways. The Daily will aggregate content form other News Corp properties -- smart. But we're betting the aggregation will work both ways. People will see news from "The Daily, the fair and balanced iPad newspaper" (or whatever) on News Corp properties. That will get people to look for The Daily on their iPad even if bloggers can't link to it.

It's a work in progress. Many of the things people pooh-pooh about The Daily are things that can be fixed. No social sharing? There's no reason why they can't update the app to let you tweet out links, maybe to a website that only lets you visit a few times a month like the Financial Times. Only updated once a day? Well, the iPad supports push notifications for apps, so maybe they'll do that. The point is that, like all startups, there's a lot The Daily can do to bob and weave, execute and be successful.

It's a good shot at a great opportunity. There are two huge opportunities that make The Daily worth pursuing. The first one is that tablets are the next generation of computing, and that apps there will replace the web. If that happens, negotiating the shift to tablets, both in terms of user experience and pricing/business model, will be as important to media organizations as the web has been, and the app that was there at the ground floor will reap huge dividends. And even if The Daily itself is only a half success, it will still yield plenty of very important knowledge that other News Corp outlets can use. The second huge opportunity is Rupert Murdoch's crusade to shift customer expectations of the price of online news. We don't think that Rupert Murdoch actually believes that he can actually get people to want to pay for all, or most online news. But we do think he wants people to accept that a big chunk of online news can be charged for -- sort of like plenty of people see nothing wrong with pay TV. He does have a not-insignificant shot at succeeding at the latter goal, and tablets are a new front in that broader war. The chance of helping to shift the needle there is also worth pursuing The Daily by itself.

(from our friends at Business Insider)

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/rupert-murdoch-the-daily-huge-hit-2010-11#ixzz16m3IbLHi

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Id's Carmack Positive Digital Distribution Will Destroy Retail

2010-11-28T21:23:00.000-05:00

Id's Carmack Positive Digital Distribution Will Destroy Retail

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Branson vs. Murdoch: Who will win iPad media battle? | IT PRO

2010-11-26T14:41:00.000-05:00

Branson vs. Murdoch: Who will win iPad media battle? | IT PRO

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Id's Rage Locks and Loads for IPhone, IPod Touch, IPad - PCWorld Business Center

2010-11-18T19:31:00.000-05:00

Got to admit - this game rocks!

Id's Rage Locks and Loads for IPhone, IPod Touch, IPad - PCWorld Business Center

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Top 15 Essential iPad Apps for Play

2010-11-11T11:51:00.000-05:00

Top 15 Essential iPad Apps for Play

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Top 15 Essential iPad Apps for Work

2010-11-11T11:50:00.000-05:00

Top 15 Essential iPad Apps for Work

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iPad iOS 4.2 -- an even better fit for business - Computerworld Blogs

2010-11-11T09:02:00.000-05:00

iPad iOS 4.2 -- an even better fit for business - Computerworld Blogs

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iOS 4.2 Update Makes iPad a Better Business Tool - PCWorld Business Center

2010-11-08T10:38:00.000-05:00

iOS 4.2 Update Makes iPad a Better Business Tool - PCWorld Business Center

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Slimmer iPad, Brings Camera & Mini USB

2010-11-04T12:27:00.000-04:00

Interesting - love my iPad - not sure if I would consider the second gen - can already move pics easily and files as well - if that's the incentive, may work for those who don't have one, but while it's lighter, don't see a need - but who knows, Steve Jobs has surprised us before!

Slimmer iPad, Brings Camera & Mini USB

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The iPad Election: Not quite ready to declare victory for mobile

2010-11-03T10:48:00.000-04:00

Being a political junkie myself, watching the elections, I did a similar experiment, with very similar results - verdict: while all have potential, they still are not quite ready for primetime (to make me want to give up the TV viewing as well). Stay tuned (literally)!

The iPad Election: Not quite ready to declare victory for mobile

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How To Try 4.2 On Your iPad Right Now

2010-11-03T10:35:00.000-04:00

It's almost here - not sure I would recommend to try this, unless you can't wait, otherwise, wait until the official update is released.

How To Try 4.2 On Your iPad Right Now

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Blurring the Lines Between Apps and Books

2010-11-02T12:23:00.002-04:00

(From our friends at the New York Times):

Blurring the Line Between Apps and BooksBy NOAM COHEN
Published: October 24, 2010

STEPHEN ELLIOTT, a 38-year-old from San Francisco, just introduced his first piece of software for sale: an app for the iPad and iPhone called the Adderall Diaries.

Readers of an app version of Stephen Elliott’s memoir can comment and see his responses. He’s not exactly a programmer — better to call him a writer. And the app that he conceived looks a lot like an electronic book. That is, most people who buy the app will do so to read the text of “The Adderall Diaries,” his “memoir of moods, masochism and murder” based on his childhood in Chicago group homes, which was published in hardcover last year by Graywolf Press.

But Mr. Elliott says he has good reasons for producing his own iPad app, separate and apart from the e-book version of “Adderall Diaries” that is for sale, say, for the Kindle or the iPad reader from Apple. But those reasons are not the artistic, meta-fictional ones you might suspect — you know, so that when characters enter a bar, you suddenly hear music and a glass dropped by the waiter, or more fancifully, you can make them turn around and go somewhere else.

Rather than exploit the multimedia potential of an app book, Mr. Elliott said he wanted to include tools that cater to a special group: Stephen Elliott readers.

“As an author, I want you to have the best experience,” he said. “People want to talk about the books they are reading with other people. Why, with everything we know, wouldn’t you include a chat room with your e-book?”

Once readers buy the app, he says, they are beginning a relationship with him and other readers; they can leave comments and read responses and updates from the author. They may even be told down the line that he has a new book for sale and then be able to buy it through the app.

This practical, business-oriented focus is something he shares with the developer of his iPad app, Electric Literature, a company with offices at the foot of the Brooklyn entrance to the Manhattan Bridge that was founded by Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum, who met as Brooklyn College master of fine arts students in 2006.

Electric Literature is a literary journal that enlists all manner of digital formats, like PDFs, Kindle, iPhone and YouTube animations. The money saved by not using a printer ($5,000 by their reckoning) goes to pay five authors $1,000 each for appearing in the journal.

In the more than a year since the company's founding, Mr. Hunter and Mr. Lindenbaum said in an interview at their offices, the challenges of marketing a digital journal -- rather than finding great writing to publish -- have taken up the bulk of their time. Early on, the novelist Rick Moody worked with Electric Literature to produce a short story in little bursts on Twitter, generating a lot of free publicity.

“We really care about the community of independent publishers,” Mr. Hunter said. “We’re publishers. We’re not going into the game to be software developers.”

Nonetheless, last weekend, Electric Literature introduced a separate service at electricpublisher.com to create an inexpensive book app along the lines of what it made for Mr. Elliott. The pricing starts at $600 for a single book app, with additional charges for creating an app-based bookshelf that contains more than one book for sale.

To create a book app, Electric Literature had to come up with its own e-reader software: before you can consider tools that allow for sharing comments or sending messages, or incorporating video and audio clips, for that matter, Mr. Hunter said, “the experience has to be equal with iBooks,” referring to Apple’s e-reader software.

And how can a little company come up with software to equal Apple or Amazon? Motivated programmers who believe in the literary mission, he said: “That’s what technology is all about. It’s a disruptive force, where a very small group can compete with the big guys.”

Right now, Electric Literature has only a few book apps either made or in development, including the journal’s. Mr. Elliott, the author of seven books, says he has sold apps only in the “double digits,” substantially fewer than in print or e-book form. Dennis Johnson of Melville House Publishing says he is working with Electric Literature to introduce an app book before Thanksgiving. He will not disclose the title now, for fear of stoking interest before it is for sale.

The attraction is obvious, he said.

“If you publish work that is hard to sell in the American market, say literary fiction in translation, this is another format to hardcover, paperback and e-book,” Mr. Johnson said. “A fourth line of revenue.”

In an interview, he imagined the possibilities, like having readers whose devotion is deeper than merely dipping into a title, who would install a piece of software onto a phone or tablet. “I love the idea of putting books on subscription,” he said, “of having a membership in your publishing house, of having a readership invested in your books.”

Of course, for all the independence an app gives a publisher, especially a small publisher or individual writer, there are tolls along the way: Apple gets 30 percent of every app sold and every “in-app purchase,” which is processed through its iTunes store. Mr. Elliott pays that charge, as well as the share his publisher, Graywolf, takes for an e-book sale. (Thus the iBooks version of Adderall Diaries costs $9.99; the iPad app $14.99.)

And Apple makes no bones about being more intrusive in dealing with apps, which it “curates,” as opposed to the books it sells. As Jesse David Hollington, the applications editor for the Web site iLounge, described last month, Apple has particular guidelines for apps developers: “We view apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app.”

Which means that to Apple, Mr. Elliott is a programmer, not a writer.

“They have some kind of rating system,” he said. Before approving the app, “they asked me if there was sex and violence, and I said, ‘Yeah, a lot.’ ”

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Connected Devices: Does the iPad Change Everything? | Nielsen Wire

2010-11-02T12:15:00.000-04:00

You may have heard of all the reports that say over a third of iPad owners do not download apps - this has been revised, though you'll probably not see these results - only 9% do not download apps - thus, 91% are using the full array of media consumption opportunities available to the iPad - so app on!!!!

Connected Devices: Does the iPad Change Everything? | Nielsen Wire

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Tech Deals: EA iPad games sale

2010-10-28T08:54:00.000-04:00

Big sale on some of your EA games for the iPad for this weekend - now if only they would update the Madden 11 for multiplayer action, life would be complete - enjoy!

Tech Deals: EA iPad games sale

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Notre Dame eReader study

2010-10-27T11:04:00.000-04:00

Wave of the future for the classrooms? Will the tablets like the iPad make the class more personable and interactive.

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iOS 4.2 beta for iPad

2010-10-27T11:01:00.000-04:00

Nice breakdown of the new update for the iPad - and this is the beta, so you know there will be even more changes by the time it's released on November 2nd - enjoy, I know I will!!!

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Kindle vs. iPad: A False Choice | Lance Ulanoff | PCMag.com

2010-10-25T19:02:00.000-04:00

Kindle vs. iPad: A False Choice | Lance Ulanoff | PCMag.com

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iPad Provides Powerful Business Tools

2010-10-25T11:04:00.000-04:00

The genius of the iPad is that it uses inexpensive apps -- tools that carry out a specific task -- to perform functions. It's a universal machine that can be anything you want it to be. Today, there are some 30,000 apps available in a wide range of business and personal categories.

Here are a few tasks that apps can accomplish:

The Basics: Hal Goldstein, publisher of Thaddeus Computing Magazine, says: ``I spend most of my time doing e-mail, Web browsing, word processing, spreadsheet work and mind mapping. All this I can do on my iPad. For my business travels, it means no cumbersome laptop to carry around, no looking for an AC outlet between flights.''

Business: Almost from the get-go, the automotive industry latched on to the iPad. Ford and General Motors rolled out apps helping you specify your next car or truck. Mercedes-Benz helps their dealers see the latest discounts and begin the credit application process.

Volkswagen introduced an interactive iPad app in the form of a digital magazine.

Sales tactics: If you rely on one-to-one sales, the iPad is an invaluable sales tool for presentations. Just load your PowerPoint materials and you're ready. Or, upgrade to a 3D presentation app that can make it easier for customers to understand.

Services: A hotel restaurant in Australia ditched its printed menus and replaced them with iPads, giving a peak at what the hotel of the future might look like. In London, the Berkeley Hotel offers guests ``your very own iPad with a range of themed apps.''

Healthcare: Electronic medical records software producer ClearPractice developed an app to help doctors manage their workflow, from scheduling to prescribing, to billing.

Education: Stanford's School of Medicine gave first-year medical students iPads for lectures and studying. Students everywhere use an app that turns iPad into a voice recording and note-taking device, great for keeping lectures and seminars.

So Andy, curmudgeon that you are, please take note. My print copy of the Herald is delivered daily, rain or shine.

Sure, I'm partial to reading the old fashioned way, the feel of paper on my fingertips. But iPad makes the transition easier, it keeps my fingertips busy to tap, touch, pinch and spread.

The iPad -- and the tablet PC revolution it is spearheading -- will make it easier to do a lot of things -- things you want to be done.

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Florida college looks to become eBook pioneer

2010-10-25T10:41:00.000-04:00

Florida college looks to become eBook pioneer

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Techtree.com India News Consumer Electronics HP Slate 500 Tablet Launched Finally

2010-10-25T10:06:00.000-04:00

Here's the first real competitor of the iPad from HP - with the windows operating system, and cameras on both sides, comparable price and 5 hour battery life...

Techtree.com India News Consumer Electronics HP Slate 500 Tablet Launched Finally

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Another skeptic converted

2010-10-23T11:48:00.001-04:00

Tech Test
How the iPad won over a skeptic
Posted: Saturday, October 23, 2010 12:30 am | Updated: 10:45 pm, Fri Oct 22, 2010.
By Peter Svensson AP Technology Writer |
NEW YORK (AP) -- At first glance, the iPad looked like a heavy, overgrown iPod Touch. After just a few months of use, however, this iPad skeptic realized that it's so much more -- it's one of those devices I've always needed. Those don't come around very often.
Most things get less interesting the more examples you see of them. If you've never seen a computer before, the first one is a revelation, but each successive model gets less and less remarkable.
Apple Inc.'s iPad is the other way around. It looks more impressive in light of what's come before it. I've seen many tablet computers of different stripes since 2002, when Microsoft introduced Windows XP Tablet Edition. The quality has varied, but they've all been failures, even the recent ones. They're a Stonehenge's worth of near-useless slabs.
The iPad finally fulfilled the promise of the tablet computer when it came out in April.
It cuts the mouse and keyboard out of the equation, giving us a straight, tactile connection. While the iPad builds on the iPhone, it feels like a bigger achievement. The first iPhone was a great phone, driven by far-thinking new ideas. But other people had made good phones before. Before the iPad, no one had made a good tablet computer. Even Apple failed with its first attempt, the Newton, back in the '90s.
When I first got my hands on an iPad for a review, I played games on it for about a month. My favorite strategy game, "Battle for Wesnoth," was written for the PC, but actually works better on the iPad, thanks to the immediacy of the touch interface. Several other games conspired to suck away my productivity, so it took me a while to realize that the iPad actually fulfills a long-time tablet vision as well: It's like a sheet of paper, electronified. That's what made me plunk down $499 for one of my own once I was done with the borrowed review unit.
I knew I was waiting for a device that could replace printouts, magazines, newspapers and books in my life. At first, I didn't think the iPad was it, because it's too heavy to hold comfortably in one hand. In particular, I need one hand free to steady myself on the New York subway. Better, I thought, to wait for a smaller device, something with a screen that measures 5 to 7 inches diagonally instead of the iPad's 9.7 inches.
I was wrong. The iPad isn't too heavy if I support it on a bag when standing. And the screen is just big and sharp enough to display decently a letter-sized document or a reformatted newspaper page with teasers for a couple of articles.
REPORT CARD
From iPad skepticism to enlightenment
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: To an Associated Press technology writer, the iPad looked like a bigger version of the iPod Touch, and there didn't seem to be much point to that. Also, it looked too heavy to hold in one hand, for comfortable reading.
WHY FIRST IMPRESSIONS WERE WRONG: The size of the iPad doesn't just mean there's more of it, it makes it qualitatively different than an iPod Touch. The device really takes the place of paper, as in books, printouts, newspapers and magazines. Also, the weight is easily managed.
SECOND CHANCES: A slew of competing tablets will be on the market before the holidays. In terms of hardware, they may match or improve on the iPad. But the software -- primarily Google's Android phone software -- may not be ready for the job.
That means the last defenses that kept dead trees relevant to me have been overcome. I canceled the print subscription for one of my newspapers and went electronic. I've also started stuffing papers I want to have with me through a sheet-fed scanner and moved the resulting files to the iPad as PDFs. It's like ripping CDs to get MP3s; the iPad is like an iPod for paper.
Replacing paper was the rationale of Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle e-reader, but the multi-purpose iPad beats it at its own game. The Kindle was revolutionary in its way because it could download books wirelessly, but it has been held back by a screen technology that's slow to react to our commands. It can display static page after static page, but scrolling and zooming don't really work, so PDF viewing is impractical.
Amazon recently launched a TV spot this week, showing a man struggling to read an iPad poolside in bright sunlight, while a bikini-clad woman next to him is reading a Kindle comfortably. It's true that Kindles are more readable than iPads in bright light. What the ad doesn't mention is that that's the only situation in which you'll be happier with a Kindle. By all means, if you spend your days at the pool or beach, get a $139 Kindle and spend the $360 you'll be saving over the iPad on a lot of sunscreen.
Other reviewers have spread confusion about the selection of books available on the iPad. It's true that Apple's own iBook store has fewer books than Kindle store. That doesn't matter, though: You can buy and read Kindle books on the iPad, along with books from a lot of other retailers, including Barnes & Noble Inc.
What about other competing devices? A lot of manufacturers want a piece of the tablet action, and we'll see quite a few options in stores this holiday season. For instance, Samsung Electronics Inc. has shown off a 7-inch tablet called the Galaxy Tab, and according to The Wall Street Journal, U.S. wireless carriers will sell it subsidized with two-year data service contracts.
From a hardware standpoint, these could be compelling options (though a 7-inch screen is now too small for my taste). Samsung and others can take advantage of the same technological advances that helped Apple improve over previous tablets. They could also remedy some of the annoying omissions of the iPad, such as the lack of built-in USB and memory card ports. They'll have built-in cameras, too.
The crux, though, is the software. Competitors are relying on Android, a free software package from Google Inc. that's done well in smart phones. It's not intended for tablets, though, and Google doesn't promote it as such. Apple managed to move the iPhone's software to the iPad without much trouble, but that transition looks more difficult for Android. It just isn't as slick to begin with. That said, Android has some compelling advantages, including PC-like access to stored files and the ability to run Flash on Web pages.
Next year, we may see better software alternatives. Google has another software package called Chrome OS in the works. It's designed for netbooks coming out later this year, and could be used for tablets as well. But it's heavily Web-oriented, and may not provide a lot of functions when used without an Internet connection. Hewlett-Packard Co. recently bought Palm Inc. and plans to use its excellent webOS smart phone software for a tablet, probably next year.
It took competitors a couple of years to start catching up to the iPhone in a serious way. The gap will probably be shorter for tablet computers, but by getting the iPad right on its first try, Apple has real head start. Maybe I'm trying to justify my purchase here, but I have a strong feeling there isn't a lot to be gained by waiting for the others to catch up.

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TWEET IT - iPads vs iPhones (Michael Jackson "Beat It" spoof)

2010-10-19T12:21:00.000-04:00

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The Cost of Building an iPad Ad

2010-10-19T11:56:00.000-04:00

From PadGadget:

Ever wondered how much it costs to build an iPad app? Thinking about developing your own app?

The revenue generated by some apps in the App Store is impressive, but only a small percentage of apps actually make enough money to cover their costs. Before taking a home equity loan or asking your family for money, and before investing tens of thousands of dollars in your idea, the following guide may give you a better idea about how much time and money your app will require.

Typical app costs
Regardless of who actually develops the app, let’s look at what it takes to build it. An iPhone or iPad app typically takes anywhere between 2 weeks to several months to build, depending on the complexity. Building an app is not just about coding, as it requires:

Design: Unless you have the proper skills to do the design yourself, design will cost you money, especially for more advanced apps. Expect weeks of work to build all the app screens, and this job cannot be off-shored. At $50 to $150 an hour, U.S. based designers will likely bill you anywhere between a couple thousands of dollars for a basic app, to several dozens of thousands of dollars if you’re building a higher-end app that requires many screens to be designed.
Coding: Similarly, writing the app’s code will usually take several weeks to several months of work. This work can be off-shored, and several outlets in Europe and Asia do this job for a living. If you decide to off-shore, you will likely save some money, however, keep in mind that off-shoring requires a lot of coordination, as you will have to manage teams that may not speak the same language, work different hours, and have hundreds of customers like you to deal with. A U.S. based team will likely cost you more, but these teams are local and are usually a lot easier to deal with.
Testing: Nobody wants bad reviews in the App Store. In other words, you will need to spend days playing with your app, trying to identify bugs and find out what could go wrong. Again, depending on the complexity of the app, this job could take one person a couple days, or five people two weeks. Expect a lot of “back and forth” between the testing and development teams, in order to get rid of all bugs identified within the app.
Infrastructure: Unless your app does not require any interaction with external servers, keep in mind that server development and infrastructure is critical for the app to succeed, as a slow server response and/or overloaded server will likely lead to bad reviews and poor sales, even if the app is great. Don’t be shy and expect to invest a lot of money on the server side of the equation, especially if you expect your app to be wildly successful. Good infrastructures do not come cheap, and keep in mind that recurring monthly fees will have a direct impact on your revenue.
Validation: When you are ready to launch, the last gate is the validation. Passing the validation could take anywhere from a couple of days to several weeks, depending on the app and depending on the number of Apple guidelines your app may be infringing.
Project Management: The more third parties involved, the bigger your headache!
For a nice but simple app, the design work will likely take a designer about a week, which will cost you about $6,000. The server side will likely require a developer about 2 weeks of work, or about $12,000. Similarly, the app could be written in about 2 weeks as well, another $12,000. Add $5,000 for project management, hosting fees for a year, debugging, unforeseen delays, and your total budget is around $35,000.

For a nice high end app, like a high-end game, numbers are usually much higher. Design will likely cost you $30,000 alone. Development will be in the $150,000+ range. Hosting fees and extras will cost another $30,000. At the end of the day, your app will likely cost you at least $200,000.

Now, if you happen to be a great designer and a skilled developer willing to spend weeks on your own app, the cost could be very close to $0…

A couple examples
Twitterific
Twitterific, the most popular twitter app in the App Store, was solely built with sweat equity. Craig Hockenberry, the man behind Twitterific, recently revealed how much work was required to build the app: about 1,100 hours. At $150/hour, Twitterific for iPad costs about $165,000 for the code only (the iPad app also used existing code valued at roughly $20,000). On top of that, the design phase cost was about $34,000. Finally, project management, testing, and other costs were around $16,000.

When you add all these numbers together, the cost to build Twitterific is around $250,000 – note that this app does not even use a backend support system, which would have likely doubled the development costs.

Twiterrific

FLUD and other news readers

FLUD, the popular news reader, was also built mostly via sweat equity. Compared to the competition, the team behind FLUD is very lean, as just like Twitterific, only two coders are behind the app. To put things in perspective, Flipboard has $13 million invested and 16 people, and Pulse News has a full-time staff of 5. FLUD has 2 coders.

The developers didn’t give much details about the cost of their app, but given the number of hours put into the app, the app would have likely cost at least $200,000, if the folks behind FLUD would have used a third party to build it.

The app costs $4 and sold about 20,000 copies to this day, so the gross revenue for FLUD is around $80,000. Nice if you do the work yourself, not so much if you pay someone to do it.

FLUD

Cut the rope
On the other end of the spectrum, the large game producer Chillingo recently launched the wildly successful Cut The Rope, and sold 1 million copies in less than 10 days. The iPhone version costs $1, while the iPad version costs $2, so the revenues generated by the app so far are somewhere between $1 million, and $2 million. If the app becomes as successful as other smash hits like Angry Birds, it will likely generate 5 times more revenue over its lifetime.

Chillingo does not typically develop its apps directly, and uses third party game studios. In this case, the UK-based company worked with Russia-based Zeptolab to build the game. The cost to put the app together is not public knowledge, but likely in the $200,000~$500,000 range. It is also likely that Chillingo and Zeptolab have some kind of revenue sharing agreement, but still, the game should already be profitable for both firms.

Cut The Rope

A few words of wisdom
Ask yourself these basics questions: Is the concept new? If not, is it vastly better than what’s currently available in the App Store? How will the app be marketed? What price points? Paid app? Free app with in-app purchases? Or a totally free app? Who will design and develop the app?
If you have a great idea, and happen to be a developer, sweat equity is the way to go, as the costs to sub-contract an app is high, even for low-end apps.
If you are unable to code, and decide to use third parties, expect to spend at least $35,000 on your app. If you have high expectations for your app, expect to triple that cost, easily. Also keep in mind that only a small percentage of apps in the App Store generate revenues of at least $35,000.
Do not forget that Apple keeps 30% of your revenues! Similarly, Uncle Sam will want his cut at the end of the year as well.
Building an app can be a fun journey for many, especially for the folks who have coding and design skills. For others, it can quickly become a financial nightmare. One simple advice: sharpen your pencils and build a realistic business case before you start pumping money and/or sweat equity into your app, to help you take an educated leap of faith.

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iPads in Education May Lead to Greater Corporate Adoption | Blogs | ITBusinessEdge.com

2010-10-18T21:29:00.000-04:00

iPads in Education May Lead to Greater Corporate Adoption | Blogs | ITBusinessEdge.com

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Game Changers: Steve Jobs

2010-10-18T12:01:00.000-04:00

From Bloomberg TV

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/63722844/

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Bram Boo’s four-seat, iPad-equipped Salsa Table looks to educate

2010-10-15T14:57:00.000-04:00

Bram Boo’s four-seat, iPad-equipped Salsa Table looks to educate

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With iPad, Apple is the biggest US PC maker - Computerworld Blogs

2010-10-14T11:37:00.000-04:00

With iPad, Apple is the biggest US PC maker - Computerworld Blogs

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Latest iPad Usage Study for Publishers

2010-10-13T11:43:00.000-04:00

From Paid Content and Conde Nast:

There have been over 3.8 million downloads of Condé Nast apps on the iPad and iPhone since the publisher began rolling them out. Over the past few months, Condé Nast has been surveying readers of its GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired and Glamour apps and has found that these users are generally not the early-adopters or Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) fanboys the publisher expected.

The company gleaned a number of things from 100 hours of one-on-one interviews and more than 5,000 in-app surveys it conducted over the past few weeks. Among the findings, participants weren’t familiar with the kind of navigation that was used in iPhone magazine apps and that interactive ads often need to come with directions, as well. But the big news is iPad and iPhone readers seem to spend more time with the digital replicas in comparison to the print versions.

See more of our latest Conde Nast coverage.

In general, print readers spend about 45 minutes with an issue each month. In contrast, readers using their iPhone and iPad mag apps spent an average of 160 minutes across all the available brands. Still, the publisher wasn’t able to determine how many issues within apps were included in the time-spent figure (for example, if a participant had six GQ app issues, the publisher couldn’t tell if a person was just looking at the August or July or some other combination of months).

In other words, once someone has two or more app issues downloaded, Condé Nast was unable to tell which issue they are looking at because Apple does not provide that level of detail. Incidentally, this is one of the frustrations magazine publishers have when dealing with Apple, because they can’t scrutinize their subscribers’ buying habits as well as they can do with their print pubs.

In an interview, Scott McDonald, SVP market research, Condé Nast, said that the amount of time spent proved at least one thing: reading apps is a “lean back activity.” And since most people in the survey said they tended to leave the iPad at home, the publisher concluded that the device probably shouldn’t be considered as an mobile device when devising an advertising campaign or content with that specific product in mind.

Since the iPad was released, the debate has revolved around whether the device is mobile or not. As my colleague Tricia Duryee has noted, mobile is generally associated with being a “personal” device. But if a single iPad is often a shared item, that dispels the notion of it being mobile.

However, McDonald was quick to note that as the iPad—or other tablet devices—evolve and become cheaper and lighter, the idea of it being regarded as more purely mobile could come into play. But right now, at least, this is something for the couch—not the commute.

According to the survey, 83 percent reported a likelihood to purchase the next month’s issue. And while some complained about initial difficulty in figuring out out to navigate the iPad in general, 89 percent felt the apps were easy to use.

The publisher has aimed the survey results mostly at advertisers. One suggestion: brands should make it easy for users to directly access and buy a featured product, rather than sending them to a marketer’s homepage.

Some of the other advice Condé Nast had for “best practices” included. For example, the publisher says to avoid reusing a commercial or other “creative assets” in your ads. This is a new medium, so do something “new.” Repetition in general is a bad idea, so marketers that have ads appearing throughout the app need to mix it up. Readers became bored when the same advertisement was used repeatedly throughout a single application.

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How Alice for the iPad Came About

2010-10-12T12:39:00.001-04:00

From our friends at Fast Company:

Londoner Chris Stevens of creative iPad app design firm Atomic Antelope found the idea for Alice for iPad at the bottom of a pitch black rabbit hole.

It was a little more than a year ago. He and his partners had trotted out a forgettable game called Twitch and Bauble, a Christmas tree "decoration simulator." The novelty app was "not very successful at all," Stevens says. "We had all these grand visions and then nothing really happened."

He joking refers to the apps biz as a get-rick-quick scheme, but the idea for Alice finally struck him and his partner when, he says, "we'd given up making any money." Developing a shakeable, touchable, enhanced version of the 145-year-old surrealist fantasy struck more than a chord with readers young and old. "We finally struck gold," says Stevens. Alice for iPad has “hundreds of thousands” of downloads to its credit, it landed a spot on Oprah, and it's still making top 10 bestseller lists in most regions. "It was success beyond what we’d imagined," Stevens says.

But did the former multimedia journalist (at CNET, Stevens was at the helm of a gadget show set in space called, Space Bubble) ever feel like he was tapping an iPad zeitgeist where literary met tactile pleasures? Stevens says no. Though he’s widely recognized as the discoverer of reflectoporn, Stevens maintains, "I wouldn't say I had a sense of any trend. I hadn't seen anything particularly inspiring in this medium, and to be honest, I thought it had died in the late '90s with CD-ROMs. The medium I looked to for inspiration was the traditional paper pop-up book," ironic, considering Stevens considers working with traditional publishers "a waste of time."

Determined to work around the establishment, Stevens sees a bright future for enhanced e-books and Atomic Antelope. Much the way Lewis Carroll bent the concept of time for Alice, Stevens blurs the lines between his past influences and upcoming projects. Here’s a look at the inner working of Stevens’ wonderland.

Oh my ears and whiskers – "I think I've worked in multimedia since I was about six years old –– I used to make these elaborate 3D geometric shapes using paper and glue. I remember crushing another kid's attempts to copy my efforts –– the first signs of my staggering, but generally well-concealed narcissism."

Off with their heads – or not – "It's important to be aware that if you have ten people in a room, 8 of them have no interest beyond keeping their job secure, one is there to criticize everything they see, and then, there's you. So, most of the room is going to be against anything that is either A) new B) risky. Since A tends to equal B, you might as well ignore the opinion of everyone in any corporate environment. Ask yourself how your manager got into the position they did? Most likely by not fucking up. But innovators fuck up a lot on the way to success, so most managers are the worst people to lead a company, they're serial monotonists."

One side makes you bigger – "I don’t want to overstate it, you have to make a good product. But it didn’t hurt that I had an understanding about journalists and I worked online, and could get instant feedback on the stuff I wrote. I had to draw in readers into the story and that structure translates into different mediums. The same principles in news stories make good fiction," and great e-books.

One side makes you small – "I mostly ignore the market, it's a distraction from the task at hand. The market is a graveyard for creative thought since you can only ever use it to look at events that have already taken place."

Eat me - Atomic Antelope is sidestepping the traditional publishers and teaming up directly with authors. "The paper publishers have clearly demonstrated that they have absolutely no acuity in the digital realm, and are stuck in CD ROM land. Working with them is a waste of energy. Imagine if Henry Ford had decided to team up with a horse stables to make the Model T."

What is the use of books without any pictures or conversations – "Parents, I don’t have an answer to the worry that kids might prefer to watch a screen instead of reading. But kids who would have never read Alice as a traditional book might pick it up on the iPad instead of staring at Grand Theft Auto."

What a strange dream – Stevens can’t discuss upcoming book projects yet, except to say they are with "authors that have made international bestseller lists." However, he’s got aspirations. "I’m not religious at all but I’d like to have a shot at the Bible. Also, there are some really amazing old anatomy guides with incredible illustrations. But perhaps someone else will do that."

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Neal Stephenson and the Digital App

2010-10-12T09:01:00.000-04:00

From USA Today:

"Best-selling authors Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear are looking back to the future. This month, they launched a story —The Mongoliad— using a 175-year-old publishing model. Their novel-as-app (or app-as-novel) is coming out in weekly, serial segments, complete with cliffhanger endings and a cheap subscription rate.
Literary luminaries such as Charles Dickens (The Pickwick Papers), Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo) and Leo Tolstoy (Anna Karenina) published some of their most popular works in the serial format in the 19th century.

Today, instead of reading serialized stories in magazines, readers will pay $5.99 at mongoliad.com for a six-month app that gets them a chapter a week zapped to their smart phone, iPad or computer. The creators hope to have the book available at the iTunes store in the near future.

MORE: Oprah picks another winner in 'Freedom'

Stephenson and Bear, along with a group of other writers, illustrators and martial artists, have embarked on a historical tale, set in 1241, about a roving band of misfits that ends up helping to beat back the Mongol hordes intent on taking Europe. The story, up to four chapters in its first month, promises to be swashbuckling enough to keep a reader's interest but intricate enough to satisfy the duo's usual readers of their historic and science fiction. It's planned to last for one year, at which point a second "volume" will begin and — gasp — the first one may even be published as a print book.

The business model is akin to the "just in time" idea behind inventory. "We're aiming for a more agile, real-time product, in which we cheaply produce small amounts of material and make it available at a very reasonable price and avoid having to take the big risks," Stephenson says.

Extras add value: A mini-encyclopedia provides links throughout the story to research and background on the period, the characters and medieval sword fighting techniques. There are even videos of fight scenes choreographed by martial artists.

About 15 people are involved in the project, including an animator, seven writers, some researchers, a videographer and a fight choreographer for the sword fights. "They'll all be paid if it starts making money," Bear says.

This isn't the only such endeavor out there. The trickle of serialized novels hitting screens large and small in the past few years, from vampire stories to mysteries, promises to become a flood. It is a big trend in Japan. The model is just beginning in the USA but looks to loom large as readers get comfortable with a format their great-grandparents knew well.

Short segments of text make sense for today's readers, says Laura Shackelford, a professor of English at the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology, who studies digital media.

"Researchers have found that the younger generation has a much shorter attention span and tends to read in a more scanning way," she says.

Though the idea of reading a weekly update on a phone instead of a book might seem odd to people in their 30s or older, it's not at all for those in their 20s or younger. In fact, for them, sitting down to read a 200-page novel may be difficult, says Shackelford.

"It's very old, and it's very new," she says.

This latest variation is part of an ongoing reshuffling of how we read and what form we read in. Writers are trying to figure out how to get readers and make money.

In 1996, Stephen King's The Green Mile was published in six monthly paperback installments. The full novel was published in a single edition in 1997.

Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves, published in 2000, first developed a cult following online as it was released in pieces, then became a bestseller when it arrived in print.

Sourcebooks in Naperville, Ill., is publishing a book titled iDrakula that's got its own app. The story by Bekka Black is told via text messages, e-mails and voice messages.

The serial fiction of the Victorian and Edwardian eras never actually went away, it just morphed into radio, films and television, says Graham Law, a professor of media studies at Waseda University in Tokyo.

The TV show Lostis a great example, Stephenson says. "They're telling a long story in a short, episodic format."

He admits that younger generations may need to be retrained to get used to cliffhangers, a story style their grandparents, who grew up on weekly serials at the movies, felt at home with. In the case of Lost, he says, "the audience didn't quite know what to do with it, they didn't want to be left hanging."

Bear says the notion of multiple writers telling a story is one Americans are very familiar with, but in a slightly different setting: Television has always used multiple writers.

Mark Teppo works as The Mongoliad's story editor. "On TV, he'd be called a 'show runner,' " Bear says.

None of this is going to make publishing go away, says Stephenson, who's got 10 well-regarded print novels to his name.

"It's become clear to us that the skills and the aptitudes of people in the publishing industry ought to translate pretty well into this model. Nobody's going to have the same job title, nobody's going to get their paycheck from the same source, so it's going to feel like a huge disruption. But what those people do for a living is they recognize work that has a potential to reach an audience, they cultivate a relationship with a network of people who care about stories and literature, they manage projects, they help writers get the work out.

"Very little of what editors and agents do is really about physically putting ink on paper and shipping it around the world, it's about intangible skills that are as valuable as ever," he says.

Another thing the Mongoliad creators like is that they can change things and make them better as they go. "You may find that a new version of Chapter 3 has been downloaded to your device while you were sleeping," Stephenson says.

"That can preserve us from the trap that serial novels always used to fall into, where they'd say, 'If only I could go back to Chapter 1 and change this one thing!' Think of it: Little Nell would still be alive," Bear says of Dickens' main character in The Old Curiosity Shop, a book published in serial form from 1840 to 1841.

This makes for a new form of writing, Stephenson says. "In the old days, you had this concept of 'You start off with rough drafts, and you do more drafts, and it gets better and better and approaches this end state.' That's an artifact of how printing presses worked. We wouldn't have settled on that production process if Gutenberg had invented the iPad instead of movable type."

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iPad Travel Hub

2010-10-12T08:54:00.000-04:00

From Pete Mortensen - Cult of Mac

"It was a month ago to the day that I ditched physical books, comics, and magazines for my iPad. A round-the-world trip for work precipitated the change. For 29 days, I would be outside the U.S., with stops in Australia, Singapore, India, and the UK. Not to mention that the India stop included three cities and four additional flights. It was not the time for a big stack of physical media, nor for a full laptop. It was time to travel light and to travel digital.

In the process, I’ve learned a lot. Some of it more boring, self-discovery kind of stuff, which I’ll save for my personal blog, if at all, but a lot of it about tablets, computers, and where entertainment itself might go.

1. The current iPad is good enough for most uses.
In spite of my promise to wait for the iPad 2, the thought of a total of 65 hours on planes quickly converted me to the quite-capable version 1.0. I really put it through its paces: web-browsing, Twitter, RSS reader, Facebook, blogging, video, gaming, and book-reading. Despite its early generation, it’s wholly adequate for most of these tasks. It is weakest, as many people have noted, for typing. If you can get it perfectly flat, as on a tray table in an airplane, it’s possible to hit a near touch-typing speed, but any other grip means going slow and making mistakes. Though some have complained about its anemic 256 MB of RAM, I found it plenty speedy for every task I threw at it. The absence of video cameras for video chat was a minor nuisance.

2. It’s possible to read an entire book on an iPad, but the weight adds up.
At 1.5 pounds, the iPad is significantly less heavy than any other computer Apple has ever shipped. This does not mean, however, that it should be considered light. My biggest task for myself was reading Jonathan Franzen’s new novel “Freedom,” a 600-page magnum opus about contemporary life and the strange trajectory of baby boomers. And, while the iPad is lighter than the hardcover of Freedom, its form gets really hard to handle after a certain amount of time. It’s both too thin and too evenly balanced — the top weighs the same as the bottom edge, which means that holding it with one hand is impossible and the two-handed grip gets exhausting. The best way to read is to rest it against a table or other surface (including your reclining stomach). I did get through the book, but I found that I had to switch to Sepia paper over time, as the white pages began to hurt my eyes. As a book replacement, the metal back is highly questionable. Going with a lightweight plastic might be a good update over time — this is the most it should ever weigh.

3. Most developers have a long way to go before really nailing gestural interface.
The most exciting thing about the iPad is its ability to support dozens of kinds of gestures for controls. For the most part, however, the current generation of applications is limited to three: swiping up to scroll, swiping left to flip pages, and using the two-finger pinch to adjust zoom level. Reeder, my favorite iPad and iPhone RSS program, tries to do additional things, like swiping to the right to go up one level of information rather than pressing a back button, but it only works part of the time. The iPad version of Twitter, also, is pursuing multiple levels of swipe to allow a more complex interaction. But these, at best, feel like novelties. There’s been a lot of talk (probably too much talk) about whether the iPad is a consumption device or a creativity device. For now, it remains more of a consumption device, outside of sketching programs, musical instruments and writers using an associated bluetooth keyboard. I now believe this is merely a fact of people making creativity apps that are trying too hard to mimic either a traditional GUI computer model or trying too hard to use an analogous interface to the real world. When and if developers create a solid model for how to use gestures for creativity, the iPad will become a powerful platform for creation — as I’ve noted before, video editing would kill on this thing. Until that day, it’s a great way to catch up on reading and watch video.

4. The iPad is a great travel companion — if you remember to collect it.
When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, he positioned it as a third device, in between a Mac and an iPhone. That’s definitely true when it comes to travel — it exhibits characteristics of both a phone and a laptop. For example, airport security the world over allows you to leave an iPad in a shoulder bag, even though every laptop needs to be scanned separately. But like an iPod or iPhone, flight attendants don’t much care if you have an iPad out early in a flight or close to landing the way they do a laptop. On more than one occasion, I read my iPad right up to touch-down without getting any guff. There is one downside to all of this, of course, which is that these qualities make it easy to forget an iPad. That’s because we don’t have an existing ritual for what to do with an iPad as you exit a plane. With a laptop, you put it back in your shoulder bag before landing. With a phone, you pocket the device. With an iPad? Well, as I learned personally, sometimes you leave it in the plane seat and need to retrieve it from Singapore Airlines a week later. Thanks, Singapore Airlines!

All told, the iPad is the best travel computer I’ve ever seen. On my next trip, I will absolutely leave my MacBook home."

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News - 'The Fry Chronicles' hit number one across five formats

2010-10-12T08:20:00.000-04:00

Hopefully, it will be released in the US soon....looking forward to the iPad format!

News - 'The Fry Chronicles' hit number one across five formats

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Apple Posts 'iPad in Pompeii' Archaeological Case Study - PCWorld Business Center

2010-10-11T11:51:00.000-04:00

Apple Posts 'iPad in Pompeii' Archaeological Case Study - PCWorld Business Center

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myFry - an application for Mr Stephen Fry

2010-10-11T11:28:00.000-04:00

Could this possibly be the future of books, or at least the beginning of the future glimpse???

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Linkin Park's Sun is Rising - Music Feature at IGN

2010-10-06T12:04:00.000-04:00

Good interview on the band - and check out all of their apps available for the iPad, and i products through iTunes - good music (latest album will be another classic), and very entertaining games! Have fun with your mobile device and be the Catalyst!!!

Linkin Park's Sun is Rising - Music Feature at IGN

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what Publishers can learn from iPad's Elements App

2010-10-06T12:00:00.001-04:00

http://toc.oreilly.com/2010/08/what-publishers-can-and-should.html

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iPad: Where the Interactive Object is Worth More than a Thousand Words

2010-10-06T11:58:00.001-04:00

Adobe’s Photoshop 3D product manager and lead engineer put out a book and as a bonus project offer a free iPad app with 15 interactive tutorials for the beginning 3D designer. This is exactly where the iPad shines and the standard print book and e-reader fail.

The book is titled 3D in Photoshop: The Ultimate Guide for Creative Professionals, by Zorana Gee and Pete Falco. It covers the 3D capabilities in Photoshop CS5 Extended.

Adobe blogger John Nack recently offered some comments by product manager Gee about the iPad app, which comprises the first chapter of the book along with the interactive animations and tutorials.

Further, the team has put together a companion iPad app that takes the first chapter of the book (basic 3D concepts) and added interactive animations to each page to help illustrate the concepts. Scrolling across will read as the first chapter of the book plus interactivity and scrolling down will introduce 15 unique tutorials (only found in the iPad app) that show you how to create all the animations directly in Photoshop CS5 Extended.

Now, this interactive chapter isn’t ground breaking. But it shows clearly the difference between traditional print/e-book content and rich, interactive content that is being offered as iPad apps. These tutorials and animations are exactly what is needed for the reader to understand the concepts.

Of course, it highlights the problems with readers like the Kindle.

An excellent discussion of what is needed for creating interactive content apps can be found in Mac Slocum’s excellent interview of Theodore Gray at O’Reilly’s Tools of Change for Publishing blog. Gray is the author of The Elements, a seminal example of rich media served up on a tablet device.

Gray says that everything in the app must serve the content and the reader. It’s not about gimmicks. He was asked about the top mistakes that traditional publishers are making in this transition.

So far the two mistakes I’ve seen are (1) not understanding that programmers need to be treated as top talent, just like authors and (2) mistaking gimmicks for meaningful interactivity.

Just adding something that rattles around on the page does not mean you have enhanced the reading experience or added to the user’s understanding of the subject. The interactivity in “The Elements” is very minimalist, and this is one of its strengths. There were a whole lot of ideas for interactivity that we didn’t put in, because they didn’t pass the test of actually making the book better.

If you’re considering working on an interactive app, take a look at this interview. It will be worthwhile and useful.

- From ZDNet.com

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WINDOWS Tablets Can't Match iPad's Magic!!!

2010-10-06T11:38:00.000-04:00

The Apple iPad went on sale six months ago. Having been lucky enough to get some hands-on time with the device before it hit shelves, I knew it would do well. It was head-and-shoulders above anything else on the market. Giving it an Editors' Choice was a no-brainer. In the days before the launch, wherever I brought the iPad, I was swarmed with strangers wanting to touch the device, swipe the screen, all imagining what they would do if they owned one. Despite all this, at no time did I think the Apple iPad would sell more than a million units month.

Steve Jobs calling the device "magic" is just goofy, however. The iPad's stunning success is completely explainable without divine intervention. Here is why the iPad is kicking ass, and why it will continue to do so well into 2011.

Not a Killer App—but Killer Apps
When the iPad launched, I asked what the iPad's Killer app would be. No one I spoke to really knew what they would do with the device, even though everyone wanted one. Reading eBooks was always high on the list, but I knew that the iPad would only be a passable eBook reader. (It is too heavy, too glossy, and too expensive to really compete directly with the Kindleor Nook.) Still, I thought it might not need one killer app. As I wrote then:

There isn't a single killer app for the iPad for the same reason that there is no killer app for the personal computer or the iPhone. The iPod and the Kindle had killer apps because they were single-function devices. The iPad is a platform, and although it won't change everything, it will change a lot.

By building backward compatibility with its existing iPhone App Store catalog, the iPad had hundreds of thousands of apps at launch. And it has been gaining more ever since. Whoever jumps in now will have a lot of catching up to do.

View Slideshow See all (17) slides

MoreSales, Sales, Sales
Bernstein Research estimates the iPad sold more than 3.3 million units in its first three months. That means it is selling faster than the DVD player did when it launched. It also means that the tablet could pass both cell phones and gaming hardware to become the fourth largest consumer electronics category in the country. At a glance, this might see like the effect of great success, but I mention it here to show the product's buzz. I have no numbers to support this, but the number one reason people buy an iPad is that they know someone that has bought an iPad.

The iPad is Better than a Netbook
Netbooks were the break out product category of 2009, but sales have fallen off in 2010 and the iPad is a big reason why. That isn't to say the netbook is dead. It is still a great way to type email and take your PC experience on the road with you. But for browsing the Web, checking in on Facebook, reading email, watching YouTube videos, and a lot of other things that people spent $400 on a netbook to do, the iPad is better. The only serious deficit it has is a keyboard, and increasingly that is only an issue for old curmudgeonly folks that don't want to learn how to use a virtual keyboard. You know, like me.

And it isn't just me saying this, last week NPD released data that showed 13 percent of iPad buyers would have purchased a PC if they couldn't get an iPad. So 13 percent of a million iPads a month—well, you get the picture.

The iPad has No Competition
Sure the Samsung Galaxy Tab looks cool. Dell has Streak in the wings. God knows, at some point HP will release the Slate that it has been teasing for the last six months. And Microsoft will almost certainly…well, I am sure they will do something. And maybe even before the holidays. Nonetheless, right now, there isn't a single tablet that can go head-to-head with the iPad. The product has been on the market for six months and no rival. At this point, its potential competitors will be lucky if they even make the holiday season. By the time The BlackBerry PlayBookcomes out next year, Apple will be releasing the iPad 2.

Wait, did you just say the Joo Joo is still available for sale? Please, I am trying to make a serious point here.

Location, Location, Location
When it wants to tightly manage its inventory, Apple sells only through its Website. When it has enough volume, it distributes to its retail stores. Only when it saturates these two channels does it expand to other retailers. The iPad has been on sale at Best Buy for a while and will now be available at Target. It makes perfect sense, Target is a place for affordable luxury and the iPad slots right into that. At a time when most tablet players are still negotiating with wireless carriers for retail floor space, the iPad will be on Target shelves next to the Eclipse DVDs and the Listerine.

In short, Apple is giving the rest of the industry a total drubbing. If this were little league, the umpire would invoke the mercy rule and prevent Apple from signing up yet more distributors for its iPad. (Too late, now you can buy it directly from Amazon!) And it gets worse. Not only is Apple making money on the iPad, it is also profiting from app sales. Vigorous app sales drive more app development, which enhances the value of the iPad platform and drives—you guessed it—more iPad sales.

There is no magic to this. Although if you are a manufacturer coming to market with an iPad competitor this holiday season, I can see how some suspension of disbelief is required.

- from PCMag.com

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What Other Tablet Makers Get Wrong About the iPad

2010-10-06T11:36:00.001-04:00

There's something not quite right with the tablet PC business. As it did with digital music players and touchscreen cellphones, Apple has created a viable gadget market where none before existed, fortifying droves of copycats. But has it occurred to anyone that perhaps Apple's iPad didn't so much create a market for tablets as much as it created a market just for Apple iPads?

There's this scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn (warning: geek drooling ahead) where Kirk is trying to thwart Kahn's initial attempt to steal the Genesis device by punching in Reliant's prefix code number. A skinny Kirstie Alley as Vulcan navigator trainee Saavik asks Kirk what he's doing, and Kirk wisely replies, "You have got to learn WHY things work on a starship."

Apple's iPad competitors have to similarly understand WHY iPad is such a runaway success, and why their initial efforts seem… wrong.

First off, other tablet makers, including the recent oddly named BlackBerry PlayBook (RIM pronounced it a "professional tablet," yet the name "PlayBook" is completely antithetical to that contention in the "drive on a parkway, park on a driveway" way), have focused on comparing macho technical endowments and iPad's lack thereof. iPad doesn't do Flash. iPad doesn't fit into a pocket. iPad doesn't multitask. iPad doesn't have USB jacks. iPad doesn't have a camera, front or back. iPad doesn't have expandable memory. iPad doesn't this. iPad doesn't that.

Obviously consumers don't care what iPad can't do, only what it does, to the tune of nearly 3.5 million iPads sold so far and around 1.3 million iPads sold a month.

PlayBook will do all the things iPad can and can't, and yet: what will it do that a BlackBerry or competing tablet can't?

Connection Dependence

PlayBook is not quite a true BlackBerry. PlayBook will run all of RIM's familiar BlackBerry Enterprise secure email and messaging functions, which you'd think requires a constant connection to BlackBerry's secure servers. But the first PlayBooks will be Wi-Fi only, with 3G and possibly 4G versions for follow. Conversely, Samsung's Galaxy S Tab, a more mainstream consumer device, will be available first for 3G only, meaning a killing-a-fly-with-an-anvil second cell subscription commitment. (Apple and AT&T understand the lesser importance of constant connectivity for iPad, so let you buy 3G connectivity on a month-to-month as-needed basis.)

PlayBook will allow 3G tethering to a BlackBerry, but that'll put a serious strain on the phone's battery. You'll also be able to use PlayBook as a BlackBerry magnifier via a secured Bluetooth link. But both of these co-dependencies call into question why you'd need a PlayBook in the first place if you already have a BlackBerry.

Which raises an additional tablet screen size gap. iPad's 9.7-inch screen is nearly eight times the area of an iPhone's screen; PlayBook's is just a bit more than three times the area of a BlackBerry Torch, and the Galaxy S Tab screen is just 2.5 times the size of the Galaxy S smartphones. What does PlayBook — or any 7-inch Android tablet — bring to the party other than a slightly larger screen? They are basically larger cellphones, yet aren't even cellphones.

RIM hasn't said whether PlayBook will run any of the current third-party App World apps because PlayBook will not run the current BlackBerry OS 6, but a new OS called QNX. Developers will obviously rush to develop QNX apps — several, including Amazon Kindle and Kobo e-readers, already have announced PlayBook versions, but there'll obviously be a dearth of third-party playthings at launch.

It's Not Just the Apps

The app gap between iPad and other tablet makers is huge, but iPad was never about its specifications or even its apps. iPad is all about its ecosystem comfort level. Even though it was brand new, iPad seemed as safe and familiar as home, thanks to consumers' nearly decade-long exposure to and adoption of iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone and especially iTunes, the country's largest music store. Apple makes things easy, and consumers will first and always be attracted by convenience.

But even more, the weaknesses in the current BlackBerry and Android ecosystems will be more exposed in the tablet world. Without voice and messaging, a tablet is far more reliant on its "fun" content than a cellphone. And without an easy way for consumers to acquire and sync these fun things, the tablet will be no more than a silicon-filled plastic slab with a screen.

For instance, I constantly quiz Android owners about what's on their phones and find many, if not most, have no photos on their phone, no video, no music, no games, no personal content of any kind because they haven't figured out how to do it (sharp DVICE readers excepted). That's because Android mystifyingly still lacks an official desktop client (DoubleTwist works, but it's not nearly as seamless or fast as iTunes). And there still is no way of buying Android apps online. And all that is fine because you can still make and receive phone calls and do occasional texts and emails, and that justifies the cost of the device and the monthly service.

But if RIM wants PlayBook to appeal beyond its core base — or even TO it's core base — it'll have to revamp its BlackBerry Desktop Manager desktop app to make it iTunes easier, not only sync contacts and email and music, but all the fun content RIM is boasting PlayBook can play in its first PlayBook promotional video.

It is these comfort, screen size, ecosystem and app gaps — along with Apple's indefinable cool factor — that separate iPad's success from the potential of these other me-too tablet attempts. Whether or not BlackBerry and Android tablets can bridge these Grand Canyons remains to be seen.

- from DVICE.com

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Tipard iPad Applications - to Make the iPad Even Better!!!

2010-10-05T12:18:00.000-04:00

From PR Newswire:

Although the news about Apple will launch 7-inch iPad is doubtful, the latest report shows that Apple has finished product design of 7-inch iPad. Sources reveal that actually Apple is developing 7-inch iPad. Earlier media reports the design of this product much more like iPhone 4.

To tell the truth, no matter the news is true or false, it will never change iPad's embarrassing status of being neither fish nor fowl. Careful readers must have noticed that on Apple's official website, the introduction about iPad's parameters describes the capacity as "flash memory", not "hard disk". As a matter of fact, iPad is not a PC, and Apple has never called it PC. iPad's parameters are much like iPhone, just much bigger than iPhone, therefore iPad is much like a smart phone. However, it can not make a phone call. What's worse, iPad does not support Flash, one of the most common applications on the internet, which causes users can not play common web games and view staple video sites.

Despite the defectiveness of iPad, crazy Apple fans never stop their pursuit. In order to make imperfect iPad to be more useful and convenient for iPad users, Tipard Studio, a leading player in multimedia software field, has successively launched a series of iPad applications, iPad Video Converter, iPad Transfer Pro, iPad Software Pack, etc., any of which can help iPad users fully enjoy their iPad without any trouble.

Among those iPad apps, Tipard iPad Video Converter can help iPad fans solve troublesome Flash problem. It has powerful converting function, which enables users to convert various Flash videos and other mainstream video files to iPad compatible video or audio formats. In addition, this iPad Converter can also convert various HD videos (HD TS, HD MTS, HD M2TS, HD MPG, HD MPEG, HD MP4, etc.) and audio files to iPad compatible formats and other formats as they like. Moreover, users are allowed to input the same source file for several times and set the different output format for each one. Then they can get different output video files with only one conversion. It is available now at $29.00. For more information and free trial about this wonderful software, please visit the following webpage: http://www.tipard.com/ipad-video-converter.html.

Another fantastic iPad mate is Tipard iPad Transfer, which has wonderful transferring function to aid iPad users in solving the problem of lacking USB interface. It can transfer video/audio/photo files from PC to iPad and backup diverse iPad files to PC or iTunes. Plus, even if the file in PC is not supported by iPad, this iPad to PC Transfer enables to automatically convert it to iPad compatible format. Apart from iPad, it also supports all iPod/iPhone devices, including iPod 1G, iPod 2G, iPod 3G, iPod 4G, iPod classic, iPod mini, iPod nano 1, iPod nano 2, iPod nano 3, iPod nano 4, iPod shuffle 1, iPod shuffle 2, iPod shuffle 3, iPod touch, iPod touch 2, iPhone, iPhone (3G), iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. This user-friendly software is available now at $25.00. For more information about it, please visit the following webpage: http://www.tipard.com/ipad-transfer-pro.html.

As an all-round iPad software pack, Tipard iPad Software Pack consists of DVD to iPad Converter, iPad Video Converter, iPad Transfer Pro, iPhone Ringtone Maker and iPhone Manager for SMS. With it, users are allowed to convert any popular video/DVD/audio files to iPad compatible format, transfer videos/songs/images from PC to iPad and backup files from iPad to PC without the help of iTunes, make custom iPhone ringtone, and manage iPhone SMS conveniently. Additionally, this iPad Software Suite provides users with powerful editing functions, which help Apple fans freely trim any segment of a video, crop the video aspect ratio, merge video pieces together, and add a watermark to any video. This multifunctional and unmatched software pack is available now only at $49.00. For more details and free trial about it, please visit the following webpage: http://www.tipard.com/ipad-software-pack.html.

In short, the main aim of Tipard iPad applications' releases is to make up for the defectiveness of iPad, so as to make iPad to be more useful and charming. For more details about them, please visit the following website: http://www.tipard.com.

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iLuv Launches First Dedicated iPad Dock | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

2010-10-05T12:14:00.000-04:00

iLuv Launches First Dedicated iPad Dock | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

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Ways the iPad Creates Content, Not Just Consume It!

2010-10-01T14:59:00.001-04:00

Ways the iPad Creates Content, Not Just Consume It!!!

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CSI cross-over, iPad app set for Level 26

2010-10-01T12:02:00.000-04:00

Okay, it's a guilty pleasure, and a creepy on at that - I recommend checking out Level 26, the book and it's multi-media platform, then check out the sequel which will be presented on CSI on October 14th, same date the book is released. IPad app will be available for the book, with an hour long movie playing off the franchise as well. Happy hunting!!!

http://newteevee.com/2010/09/30/c-s-i-crossover-ipad-app-set-for-level-26-book-2/

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iPad Memory card/USB Adapter

2010-10-01T11:55:00.000-04:00

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/093010-usbfever-releases-ipad-memory-cardusb.html?hpg1=bn

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How the iPad is Transforming Web Design

2010-10-01T11:51:00.001-04:00

http://mashable.com/2010/09/30/ipad-web-design/

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Back to School? - There's an App for That!!

2010-10-01T11:50:00.001-04:00

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/jinnygudmundsen/2010-09-30-back-school-apps_N.htm

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Trouble with iPad is just having one

2010-10-01T11:39:00.001-04:00

Fortunately, in our household, we have two - it makes sense, and while the iPads can be communal, there is something to be said about having your own, at all times...for this columnist, he may have to do the same thing!

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/10/trouble_with_ipad_is_having_ju.html

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