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Jan
28
The iPad Cometh…
Filed Under Apple News, Fun, Tech News, Very Very Cool, iPad | 1 Comment
“Our most advanced technology, in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price” – Steve Jobs
So, the big day has come and gone and the world now has the Apple iPad. Was it good for you? Did it meet our collective expectations? Was it even possible? Will you remember where you were when it was announced?
I was asked by quite a few people to comment on this new thing-a-ma-bob right after the announcement. I felt I really had to let it all sink in, let it wash over me, process what really was revealed.
I initially followed the keynote on a live blog feed, but that didn’t really do it justice and the blogger’s point of view left out a lot and interjected their initial impressions which coloured my first take. That take was that this technical manna seemed more like a big iPod Touch – just with more functionality. I guess that’s a way of looking at it on one level.
However, upon watching the actual presentation by Steve and company online the sense that something deeper was going on here took over. I’ve been following the rumours like many out there and although I don’t think there is a revolution a-foot I do think this product represents something significant. Steve Jobs has positioned the iPad as something between a smartphone/iPhone and a laptop. He asked aloud about what kind of product could fit in that space. It would have to do certain things better than either of these types of devices to make it even worthwhile introducing such an offering:
Jobs framed the new iPad as being in between its iPhone and MacBook products. But in order to succeed, he pointed out, it would need to do some things better than either. Today’s netbooks don’t do anything better; they’re just cheap and small notebooks, he said.
It was widely expected that Apple would release a 10″ iPod touch, and that’s essentially what the iPad is. However, that’s really only the case in hardware. The iPad’s larger screen, which melds the MacBook’s beautiful IPS LCD display with the iPhone’s multitouch sensitivity, provides so much extra room that it enables iPhone apps to grow up in sophistication from being mostly information browsers to being full blown desktop apps driven primarily by a multitouch interface.
I think this will be a wonderful device to carry around in place of a laptop most of the time for many people. I love my iPhone, but many times I wish it could do more or enlarge itself to deal with some of the applications I use everyday. I typically carry around my phone and laptop with a power supply etc…and my bag gets heavy. I used a MacBook Air for a while and loved it for it’s weight reduction to my load. The iPad is half that of a MacBook Air weighing in at 1.5lbs with much longer battery life (up to 10 hours).
The addition of iWork for iPad is a huge bonus for business users and users in general who want something that can actually do more than surf the web. It’s also going to be a killer presentation tool – for creating them using Keynote and for controlling the display of them via the iPad itself (adapters for connecting to projectors will be available). I also love the idea of having my tech manuals handy in case I need to refer to them for something as well as access to the net on demand without having to plug in a cellular dongle (3G iPad). Home users will love this thing for it basic communications feature set (web, email) and the fact that it’s a killer digital photo frame – a stand-alone device that people pay big bucks for and that only have one use – is an amazing bonus. I can see users buying 2 or three for the house just for that – and you can read your morning paper with it too!
The iBooks Store really excited me too. I was thinking during the presentation this could do a lot for the written word as it makes reading easy as well as book, periodical and newspaper purchasing fun and extremely accessible. It will be interesting to see how different generations approach the iPad. I think younger people will take to it easily. They’re used to these kinds of devices and this will be a great gaming platform. The potential for the education market and students is huge in terms of text books and I’ve seen some amazing proof of concept developments in this area such as this one which I think will come to the iPad:
Older people who are more comfortable with traditional forms of reading papers, magazines and books may be reluctant to migrate to the newer technology coming our way, but Apple’s iPad may just win them over. It’s intuitive ease of use and tactile interface may convince and make using a computing device fun – and fun is really important.
The iPad’s strength and advantage over it’s competitors will be similar to the iPhone’s – the massive infrastructure of Apple’s iTunes store and it’s relationship with it’s now built-in iPhone operating system developer community. I mean, there are already 140,000 applications that are compatible with it from day 1! Only Apple could have produced this device. They designed the unit, wrote the software, made the processor, developed the ideas – they have leapt ahead of everyone again:
Even with all their hardware partners, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile haven’t been able to attract the same kind of attention from developers or software buying users. Apple’s new iPad is unique on many levels, and demonstrates a formidable new challenger in a the formerly lackluster tablet computer market. For competitors to match it, they’ll need to catch up not just in hardware but also in media distribution, in developer tools, in customer base, and in raw component technology, and all at a tremendously aggressive price.
It appears iPad launches Apple as far ahead of its peers as the iPhone did at its unveiling. It remains to be seen if the market will respond and buy up this $500 tablet revolution as quickly as it snapped up the similarly priced iPhone and iPod touch.
When you look at current eBook readers, even really cool ones (and this is so much more) they now look dull in comparison. Am I going to buy one? Absolutely! Which one to get, that’s the big question. There will be two models with different specs – a WiFi only and a WiFi/3G cellular model. Each sports a 16, 32 or 64GB solid state drive configuration. The sweet spot will probably be one of the 32GB variants (I like to subscribe to video Podcasts and I think a lot of the new iPad applications are going to take up more space due to the larger repertoire developers now have). No one knows what deal Apple will strike with the carriers here. AT & T in the States will be offering an unlimited data plan for $30/month – I hope the oligarchy of cell phone companies follow suit in Canada.
Will it be a success? I believe it will and I also believe it will subtly infiltrate our lives through other technologies and applications that spring forth from it and from other companies’ responses to it in ways that are not yet apparent.
Update: reviewers are weighing in – the NY Times has an article and I especially like David’s Pogue’s first impressions.
Jan
21
I couldn’t resist:
Jan
18
The Latest Creation
Filed Under Alerts!, Apple News | Leave a Comment
So, the reveal date is officially announced. We all get to find out what all the hype is about next Wednesday beginning at 1pm EST/10am PST. From Engadget:
We’re not ones for wild speculation, but the inclusion of splatter paint and the use of the word “creation” could suggest that if we do see the long-rumored Tablet at this event, the focus could be slanted towards art, music, and movie-making. Maybe we’ll finally figure out what the point of an Apple tablet is! On the other hand, that might just be a bit of wild speculation. Feel free to generate your own kooky concepts in comments — we promise not to judge you.
If you want to get a good recap of all the rumours that have been circulating: Apple Tablet Rumours
Should be very fun and interesting. I suspect this will be Steve Jobs’ coming out presentation – they wouldn’t dare give this to Phil Schiller would they?
THIS JUST IN: Fox News reporter Clayton Morris is reporting that the event may also introduce a new version of the iPhone OS 4.0 as well as iLife 2010:
I spoke to a source at Apple this morning, before the invite hit my inbox, who said the event would likely focus on three projects: The tablet device, iPhone 4, and a new round of iLife 2010 software. While we won’t see new iPhone hardware just yet, we will see the next-generationsoftware.
Whoopie!!!
Jan
16
The Local Is Global
Filed Under Views | Leave a Comment
The recent earth quake in Haiti has devasted millions of lives and put a country that was already on the edge on a part of it no one thought possible. Future generations will be affected by this event and the fate of the country itself is in question.
And the world is responding. The power and reach of the new Communicatons – the Internet, Twitter – and the ability to spread the word and enable the donation of millions of dollars and mobilize governments and aid agencies in just a couple of days is truly amazing.
Online maps, mobile phone donations, wikis and a slew of websites are being deployed as telecoms firms, technology giants and startups set aside their rivalries and put the latest tools to work to help earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
People are donating money through their cell phones by SMSing organizations supporting this. For example, Rogers and FIDO customers can text HELP to 1291 and $5 will be added to your bill for the donation. Apple in the US set up a special page in iTunes to donate to the American Red Cross. CBC has posted a page where people looking for missing friends or family members can post pictures and information about them.
The flip side of this nearly instantaneous global digital response is that the physical world moves much more slowly. Planes have to fly, roads need to be cleared, runways fixed, ports made usable, distribution of aid set up, emergency shelter coordinated, access to medical attention and clean water made available, agencies need to coordinate their efforts…the click of a mouse can’t do that. And who’s to say this won’t happen again or happen somewhere else?
The local is global – we are Haiti. We must not only respond to this tragic occurrence but also begin to rethink how the world’s resources are spent. So much energy is given to our strange propensity to distrust one another, judge one another, squaring off with one another over mutually opposing truths and percieved interests. When something like this happens everything stops mattering. The playing fields are levelled as so directly reported in the Times:
Earthquakes do not respect social customs. They do not coddle the rich. They know nothing about the invisible lines that in Haiti keep the poor masses packed together in crowded slums and the well-to-do high up in the breezy hills of places like Pétionville.
And so it was with the devastating temblor that tore through Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, last week, toppling houses large and small, and trapping and traumatizing residents no matter where they stood on Haiti’s complicated social scale.
The human project is a long-term affair. So much continues to expand and evolve and we’ve come a long way, but we have far to go. The poorest among us always tend to bear the brunt of disaster and our worst qualities can play out when we’re forced into situations of degradation.
We prepare for war, but not for peace. Gandhi said that we should be the change we want to see. The onus is on each and every one of us.
To donate to the relief efforts in Haiti (and other places) I have found the following to be quite reputable:
Avaaz.org is an excellent citizen-based socially caring organization I use a lot. They suggest:
Based on expert advice from leading humanitarian NGOs who have been working in Haiti for over 30 years, we’ll offer donations to trusted local organizations, including:
- Honor and Respect for Bel Air, a big community-based network in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, which is also supported by our friends at the respected Brazilian NGO Viva Rio
- Coordination Régionale des Organisations de Sud-Est (CROSE), which brings together some of the most active community groups in the South of Haiti where the earthquake struck hardest. These groups include: women’s groups, schools networks and local cooperatives
Doctors Without Borders – Their donation portal is HERE.
CBC has set up a Haiti Relief page with links to many legitimate organizations.
Jan
14
Hello World…Very Soon
Filed Under Rants, Rumours | Leave a Comment
Well, it looks like we’re getting closer to one of those Apple moments – the one where Steve Jobs slowly descends from the mountain and introduces the world to a new device that changes everything – at least that’s the general sense if you follow this type and this hype of thing – there are over 13 million references on the web to this as yet seen revelation. Yes folks, I’m referring to the elephant in the digital room, the Holy Grail in King Arthur’s notebook bag – the Apple Tablet (aka iSlate – who knows what it will ultimately be called).
I’ve held off commenting on this because nobody knows what this thing is going to be or do. Rumour mills are churning – it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s an iPhone on steroids! It has a camera! No, wait a minute, it doesn’t have a camera! Deals are being made with publishers, TV networks and newspapers. Bounties are being offered (I’m serious) for true pictures or videos – even one offering up to a $100,000 to play with one for an hour! Ridiculous.
Apple has booked a space at the Yerba Centre in San Francisco for January 26th – the day of the big reveal – with a commercial availability of the product in March. Much much more to come. I vow to only comment on it’s pre-release again if something truly worth sharing emerges. Until then, ssshhh!
Jan
3
All You Need…
Filed Under Fun, Views | Leave a Comment
Hello all and Happy New Year! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. For those of you who don’t know my wife and I have been travelling through India for the last five weeks and have finished off our time away visiting my brother Rob and his kids in Copenhagen over the New Year’s holiday. I’ve kept up somewhat with the technical goings-on at Apple – yes, a tablet appears to be coming to an Apple Store near you – more about that in the next few days.
For now I just want to wish everyone a healthy, happy new year. Travelling in a country like India always gives one much to reflect upon. It is a country with extreme contrasts and although it presents itself to the world as a powerful emerging and growing economic player there is still tremendous poverty and suffering and issues our little country (population-wise) just doesn’t have to deal with. That said, it is also a place with tremendous energy and good-will and it holds a special place in my heart. I came across the following video (just click on the photo) sponsored by Starbucks of all companies:
The video was made on December 7, 2009 at 1:30pm Greenwich Meridian Time. All the different musicians in 156 locations started to sing the song at that time, with the same tempo. They did a good job: When the results were assembled in a single track, everything matched.
The event was organized by Starbucks to help raise awareness of AIDS in Africa for the (RED) foundation.
It’s always inspiring to see initiatives like this and I wanted to share it with the subscribers to this blog. Again, I wish you all a happy, safe, healthy, successful and inspiring New Year – it looks like more big things are coming!
Namaste