Michael's Blog

Archive for the ‘Life stuff’ Category

Ok, I have now been the proud owner of an IPad for a couple of weeks. As expected, there is a lot to like, here are some of my experiences:

Excellent: data abroad

I bought the 3G model. Wireless is faster, but especially in Australia not ubiquitous, so if you need a connection, you may be looking for a while and then paying quite a bit. And connection is what this gadget is all about. It is also finally a solution for data overseas. The iPhone is a great travel companion, but the price of international data cripples it severely. You cannot use urban spoon to find nearby restaurants, any map costs you dearly and don’t even think about social networking. The price of data is way too high from any of the Australian provider. Plan b would be to get a sim in Europe, but that means that you change your number, or need to divert. Taking a second phone is an option, but not a good one. With the IPad, a sim change is easy, and with pay as you go data plans that allow you to pay by month, data on the road has just gotten a lot cheaper. No more paying 10 euros at some airport for one hour of wireless to collect your mail.

The iPad shines when traveling. It is small, so even in an economy seat you can use it, and if you fly virgin America you can be online at 30.000 feet and work through your mails. It also does not need a massive power supply, just the USB cable will do the trick in most airliners.

Laptop replacement?

The iPad is often defined as a hybrid, not quite net book, not just e-reader. If you rely on it as your main computer, there are some limitations to consider: the keyboard is not comparable to a proper physical keyboard, however, if you want to type you can connect Apple’s wireless Bluetooth keyboard, which beats the dock and keyboard accessory in flexibility and weight.
With 1024 x 768 the resolution is below your average modern pc screen, but on par with netbooks and sufficient for most things, one at a time. It cannot multiple task, but hey, neither can I. You sometimes wish you could just flick over to another app, but since the a4 processor is very responsive (much more so than the iPhone’s), this is not that big a problem.

Needs work: File management

One of the things that distinguishes the iPad from a net book is the absence of a filing system, be it a finder or windows. Files are saved by the applications, sharing and managing them is difficult at this point (os 3). This means that you do not have access to your document library, unless you store it in the cloud. Files are often transferred via email, and that means duplications and version control. Maybe there is a good synchronization tool on the horizon, iTunes does not do it.

IPad as an e-reader for books and magazines: things to come

The iPad has a brilliant screen and is very suitable for browsing and reading. For books there are a number of applications to receive and view content, one of them is iBook, Apple’s book store, another one is the Kindle app, which synchronizes with the kindle or the app on a phone (Apple is bringing out iBook for the iPhone with the next update). There are a number of other apps for books, some make public domain libraries like Gutenberg accessible, some are just one book apps. Reading books is feasible, but I would still rather read longer texts from a paper book, if available.
The iPad is not great in sunlight, unlike the kindle. The iPad is also a bit heavy to hold it up for an extended period, for example in bed.

The iPad’s screen is a definitive plus when viewing Colour and multiple media content. An example of what this can look like is the Alice in Wonderland book, it has pictures and interactive elements that let the reader play and experience while reading. It shows, what is possible in kids’ books and in educational publications, where pages can come to life.

Even more than books, the IPad seems suited for magazine display. The popular first Wired magazine app hints at the possibilities and illustrates why print editions will be endangered. Rich content in editorial and ads offers an extended and definitely different reading experience and requires a re-definition of magazines. It also requires content that is often not (yet) available to magazine publishers. Wired is not there yet, not even close. Pages look static and the odd button to a video is not interactive. But it is a start, and once content is prepared with publication on an e-mag reader like the iPad in mind, possibilities for magazine like publications are endless and it will change the market for publishers.

Web Browsing: Safari, Atomic and others

Web browsing is great on the IPad and probably the most useful application. The screen resolution is high enough for most sites (1024×768), the processor is fast enough to render pages quickly, Safari is a solid browser and synchronising bookmarks is a breeze with MobileMe. There are other browser options, one is Atomic, which offers tabbed browsing and a host of other features. Unlike safari, Atomic is often recognised as a mobile browser by web servers, which can be a good thing at times (and usually you can change to the high res version of a site).

Great applications for an IPad: note pad and presentation tool

The iPad is a fantastic notepad, take it to a meeting and you can jot down ideas, draw charts. With one of the free drawing apps, post a quick tweet or look something up online. IMeeting is a free app that even has sound effects like applause etc.
For presentations to a small group nothing beats an iPad with keynote. A PowerPoint or other presentation is quickly transferred and the iPad on a stand is a great little screen.
For bigger presentations there is a VGA connector to plug the iPad into a projector or plasma. For high def video the Apple component cable can be used. No doubt there will soon be some other presentation apps (I could use one that let’s you display the same presentation on several pads simultaneously).

News (i.e. Twitter) this evening is buzzing with news of the potential withdrawal of Google from China.
Matt Drummond, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, posted A new approach to China on the Google blog, declaring that Google will take a stand against censorship.  “We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn”, he writes and then “We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China”.

This is a monumental and courageous move. Every other western corporation in China is trying to build relationships and capture the world’s biggest and fastest growing market – Google sticks to its principles and says: not with us, or our collaboration. Everybody else may play along as the government pursues dissidents, imprisons them and disregards values we regard as fundamental like freedom of speech. Or is it about business rather than morals? Figures from the Chinese market indicate, that with 15% gain of market share (to 43%) in the last five months alone, Google was very successful and rapidly gaining ground against competitor Baidu.

Another opinion by Susie Wee, her “main point is that any government has good points and bad points, so we must take a balanced view”.

Paul Carr questions Google’s moral motivation in Soul Searching: Google’s position on China might be many things, but moral it is not, if Google had morals, they would have made this call much earlier, not after four years of censorship. MG Siegler defends Google and states that “it’s never too late to do the right thing”.

So is it more important to be right, or to be effective? Is this a loss cutting exercise, disguised as a moral act? Whether a move like this is effective or not will only show in time, during which the goal of this effectiveness may be re-defined several times. Trying to be right or “to do the right thing”, is a values question, and often a very immediate decision to be made. For Google the point for this decision came after repeated intrusions, they made it and nobody knows, what the implications will be in the long run and how much it will hurt their business. What they do know, is that they stood up and did not tolerate an environment that compromised their practices and values.

The reaction in the traditional News, in blogs and on Twitter: See translated tweets at the China Digital Times.

I spent most of Monday in a Sydney local court, waiting to act as a witness in a negligent driving case. The defendant had no legal representation and was not sure whether to plead guilty, so while he sought advice, the witnesses had to wait.
I was watching the constant coming and going in the court room. Open door, bow to judge, find a seat. Get up, go to door, bow to judge, leave. A number of cases were adjourned, the ones that the judge deals with are mostly first offences and range from traffic offenses to assault.

9 out of 10 offenses were alcohol related.

There is the pub owner, who met some mates on the way home, had a few beers and got caught DUI. He cannot afford to loose his license and has installed a breathaliser in his car that won’t let him drive after drinks. He gets six months without license and 18 months with the breathaliser, it’s not his first offence.

There’s the guy who assaults his girl friend after coming home drunk, telling her in no uncertain terms what he expects of a good girl friend. They are both here together today, she loves him, he gets off on probation and will have to join a course on anger management.

There’s the guy that threw a bottle out of a car at another driver and lucky for both did not cause any damage, there’s the guy who attacked a bouncer who didn’t want to let him into the club and there is the jealous boyfriend who bashed the guy who talked to his girlfriend.

It’s all alcohol. The judge starts another sermon. She mentions the maximum penalty everytime. She stresses the seriousness. She lets most of them off on probation and fills the anger management courses. Chance that they won’t do it again are below 40%, however, they most likely will not get caught.

A very sobering experience, should be compulsory life education.