Michael's Blog

Archive for the ‘Gadgets’ Category

It’s a lazy Sunday morning, Kerry is reading a book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She likes it, tells me briefly about it and gets back to it. She is a focussed reader and I realize that she’ll be offline for a while, considering this is the first in a series of three.

I decide to read it as well, and check IBooks and the IPad Kindle app. IBooks does not have a lot of content in Australia. Amazon’s store wants me to register my Kindle before allowing me to download any ebooks. I don’t have a Kindle, I can’t find out quickly how to register my iPhone or iPad, so I move on to Kobo. Credit card registration and 30 seconds later the book is on my IPad, ready to read. I love instant gratification.

Cost is less than half of the paper edition, $10 vs $25. This is the same for most bestsellers and will certainly have an effect on the printed volumes.

The Kobo reader app is simple: adjust font size, screen brightness and there you are, ready to flip through pages. If you like, you can change the page transitions, page curl for the traditionalist, fade for the presentation fan. Pages turn instantly, no delay as on some of the e-ink readers.

The Kindle app has a couple of additional features: There are annotations and explanations in footnotes. You can also see which passages of a book others found remarkable, as they are highlighted and when you tap them, the app tells you how many other readers highlighted the word, sentence or paragraph. There is no further explanation or discussion, but it is a basis for forums and other interactivity.

The IPad is a little heavier than a paperback and that makes it difficult to read while trying to hold it with one hand, for example standing in a train. But lying on a lounge, the IPad rests on my chest and holding it is no problem. I have chosen fairly big type and I prefer to keep it in portrait, so that I don’t have to flip pages all the time. Being able to read without glasses is one of the main advantages of e-readers for vain people like myself.
Backlit pages mean you don’t need any additional light, it makes you location independent and is obviously very handy at night. The iPad does emit a lot of light, but it is surely less disturbing than an extra light in the bedroom.
Bookmarks let you find the spot you left off immediately and I never have a problem finding where I left off. The Kobo reader does not have a progress bar and does not show you where you are in the book. I notice during those short reading breaks when you look at he book instead of reading the type and contemplate what you have taken in and what could happen next. Kobo reader gives you a page count within the chapter, so you know you are on page 11 of 26 in chapter 15, but that may not be relevant to overall progress. The Kindle reader gives you a percentage at the bottom of the page, 12% read of the book.
Surveys claim that readers are faster when reading off paper, but I can’t confirm that. Once you have gotten used to the differences, the medium doesn’t really matter that much.
In fact, I finished first, compared to my control group, and now I can put the book away - though I haven’t quite worked out how to do that. One thing I definitely can’t do, is give the paper book to someone else, “you have to read this…”.

The IPad is a cool reading tool, it requires changing a few habits, but the advantages compared to printed books show very quickly. The biggest of them will be the price of the book, printed matter cannot compete with books at half their price. Other benefits are instant availability or books and the adjustability of the display. However, it is not for every situation: in bright sunlight it is useless; reading does use battery power which needs to be managed and a $1000 gadget is not to be left on the beach when going for a swim.

Anyway, time to download the next book in the series.

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).

One day after the launch of the IPad, Macmillan – one of the major book publishers in the US – announced to Amazon that they would not agree with the Amazon pricing of their content anymore. The following weekend a showdown happened that eventually concluded with Amazon giving in and changing their pricing model. This was the first public locking of horns about ebook pricing and may be symptomatic of future discussions between publishers and digital distributors.

Amazon wanted to sell books for their Kindle ebook reader at 9.95, Macmillan said they want to determine the pricing of books themselves, not undercut their hardcover editions by that much and sell at least some of them at a higher price (14.95), just like they have always done with distributors/booksellers of paper titles. Macmillan stated that they would not allow Amazon to sell their books. This was communicated by their CEO John Sargent via a paid ad in an online newsletter on Saturday.

Amazon promptly withdrew all Macmillan titles – e- and paper books – from their online store (which had the effect that Macmillan titles shot to the top of the other online retailers, like Barns & Noble).

Eventually, Amazon gave in, allowed Macmillan to set their own pricing and re-instated all titles.

In the meantime, other publishers, like the french Hachette Group, have joined Macmillan. Harper Collins have also expressed their dissatisfaction with Amazon’s pricing.

Amazon’s Kindle Team posts a letter to their customers citing a mission for inexpensive ebooks.

So this was to a big part prompted by the introduction of the IPad by Apple, who will open an ibook store in competition to Amazon, so far the dominant ebook distributor.

The Apple IBook store will work according to the “agency model”, in which publishers determine pricing of their titles, proceeds are split 70/30 between publisher and Apple. Amazon, on the other hand, operates on a low cost model, buying books at a big wholesaler’s discount (70%) from the publishers and selling them at bargain pricing.

So the result is that ebook prices are going up. In the short term. In the long term there will be competition, and many more of these battles will be fought. No publisher will price themselves out of a competitive market, and if titles are available on a variety of platforms, from a variety of distributors, this can only be a good thing in the long run.

2010 will be an exciting year in book publishing and distribution. Old business and pricing models will have to be questioned and revised, and even traditional media producers must re-think, ideally before technological advances, market changes and consumer behaviour force them to.

This week the Apple IPad was unveiled after much anticipation and speculation. There was a lot of media hype, the most entertaining of which were probably  Jason Calacanis’ tweets before the event about features he pretended to have seen on a prototype, which were taken as truth by some journalists who re-posted them immediately, further raising expectations (and showing the dilemma of confusing tweets with a respectable news source in the process).

The official video is here and the device looks definitely cool.

It does, however, not have anything unexpected, there are no unknowns, nothing magical in the device, it is a 9.7 inch screen that you can use to play games and read news, books and magazines. It is lacking a few features that were expected. It is clearly made to consume contents, not to create.

To me – and I am working in a printing company – the IPad looks like a gaming tool and like print replacement. It has the ability to make online content accessible and trendy.  Apple has used brilliant design to make technology accesible many times before, and I am sure the IPad will accelerate the uptake of online distribution and consumption of content.

“The iPad and other tablets will continue the erosion of preference for printed goods” writes Dr Joe Webb.

I don’t know if it will kick some new life into newspapers or magazines, but it will make their online content available to more traditional readers, who so far have not spent extended time with online reading.

As for books, it really depends on whether Apple can secure the content. If you decide to read for an extended period of time, say a book, you will welcome the fact that you will be able to get the exact content you want within minutes. Whether you will be able to focus on an LCD screen, whether the updates from facebook and messaging applications will not distract you, and whether you will actually have the device ready and powered up where you want to read is another question.

At least now we don’t have to speculate on what the IPad will be and we can start thinking about whether it will bring any change, what it will change and where it will accelerate change.

QR Codes are a popular type of two-dimensional barcode, which are also known as hardlinks or physical world hyperlinks. The quick response (QR) barcodes can store up to 4000 characters, much more than a conventional barcode. They may contain a variety of text information, be read very fast and even upside down and can be scanned from a screen, a newspaper or magazine, flyer or even a billboard.

QR Codes store information such as:

• A website address
• A telephone number
• An SMS Message
• Contact Details (VCARD)
• A Google Map
• A Facebook or MySpace Profile

QR codes can be generated easily and read by scanners or camera equipped mobile phones. Many Nokias have the software built in, if you have an IPhone, you can download free QR barcode readers at the ITunes store.To generate qr codes you can use dedicated software or a number of free online tools, there is a list here.

QR codes can be placed in magazine ads or on outdoor billboards, pointing to further information about products. These hyperlinks on paper help integrating paper into the information and marketing media mix, they can be found on books, McDonalds packaging, pointing to information about your burger and there is even an example where codes on a cemetery point to information about people. Another very cool application is Starbuck’s loyalty IPhone app.

The code below is pointing to this post, if you have the software on your phone you can try it out:

Update: QR codes gaining popularity:

NYT: From Print to Phone to Web. And a Sale

Since I have bought my IPhone I am trying to get by without carrying a laptop around, and that means using the IPhone for things usually done by a computer

In my mind presentations was one of the obvious thing to use the IPhone for: it stores and displays data very well, it is very good at displaying email attachments such as Word documents, Excel or pdf files and it can show videos and pictures.

So I went to the Apple Store and bought the AV adapter, which will display your image to projectors or large screens and doubles as a charger via a USB power connector.

However, it looks like you cannot display anything on your IPhone screen except for pictures and videos. This means that using email attachments is out. This also means that pdfs and office documents can not be shown.
So the IPhone for presentations only works to show videos or slides shows of the pictures. To use it for presentations it is necessary to convert your slides to rasterised images in jpg format. This is not difficult, most programs do this; Acrobat saves as jpg, Powerpoint saves slides as numbered images). These then show, however without animation or transitions. You can also not zoom in. This is a bit disappointing, as it would be really no problem to use the IPhone as a presentation platform, but for some reason Apple does not seem to let you.
The workaround via the pictures library is not really a great solution, surely there will be an application for this purpose soon

Just out of interest: the Nokia N95 comes with a composite video cable and can project anything from its screen with a projector or big display, including videos, pictures, pdfs or other office files.

So here I am thinking about e-books on the IPhone and the possibilities of communication, but a few days with a bunch of kids, a wireless network and a new IPhone 3GS in typical rainy English weather makes me realise, what one of it’s best functionalities is: Gaming.

These kids had nintendos, Playstations and all kinds of other gadgets, but the IPhone was most popular, by far, because it was easy to use and easy to update, in seconds they had downloaded another free game. Who needs e-readers?

This is just a loose list, all apps can be found in the appstore, some apps may require you to install additional software on your computer, most of them are free.

Instapaper

Instapaper is an application that allows you to read web pages on your phone offline. When you browse and see a web page you might like to read it later, and this is where instapaper comes in. The software places a link in your browser toolbar. When you click it, the web page you are looking at is uploaded to a server, and next time you start the Instapaper app on your IPhone, it will download the page and have it ready for you to read on the phone when you have the time (and possibly no connectivity). Great idea, easy app. Free and commercial version.

Some IPhone news applications now link to Instapaper, e.g. if you use NetNewsWire, you can click on a news item and it will appear in your “Read Later” list in Instapaper.

Stanza

Stanza is another reading app, the free desktop software allows you to convert any text to a number of ebook format and upload it to your phone. Stanza then acts like an ebook reader. You can also download books and magazines. This is a very versatile application, and it shows: Stanza has been downloaded millions of times and the company Lexcycle has just been bought by Amazon.

INewz

INews is a simple newsreader, it is customisable and has a clean, simple interface.

Tweetie

Tweetie is a very versatile Twitter client, which shows you tweets from people you follow, from people nearby, trending topics and it has a good search function. If you only use one twitter app, this could be it.

facebook

Oh, well.

WordPress

If you have a wordpress blog this application allows you to add and edit articles, upload pictures etc. You can write offline and then upload when you get connected again and you can administer your blog.

Shazaam

A great app, when you hear a song you would like to identify, start Shazam. It will listen for ten seconds, then send the soundbite to a server and return the name of the song and the artist. Great technology, I tried everything from German punk to Pavarotti, and it did not fail once.

Around Me and Urbanspoon

Two applications that make use of the location awareness of the IPhone. Around Me shows you nearby bars, restaurants, pharmacies, banks and other noteworthy things,and it is a godsent when you are in another city and need to find your way around quickly.

Urbanspoon shows restaurants nearby, and you can choose a style (Greek; Japanese, Modern Australian etc) and a price level (one to four stars). Urbanspoon suggests a restaurant and shows you the way there through Google Maps. Urbanspoon also shows you reviews of that restaurant, using data from other users.  A great way to find new places and be inspired.