Tag Archives: Technology

Quick iPad Overview

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Features

  • My book in iBooks

    User friendly computing device: no need for complex OS or file system knowledge

  • Great book reader
  • Better than netbook or laptop for travel or in the field without a desk
  • Touch keyboard works good, but may want to connect wireless keyboard for extended work
  • Storage space isn’t much of an issue with streaming including Netflix
  • iWork Pages works well for writers

I purchased the iPad primarily as a reader and doing light work. This is the first time I’ve purchased a first generation device. I usually wait, but the iPad is nearly the computing device I’ve been dreaming about for years. This is the first step towards truly user friendly computing. It’s also nice to carry Steven King’s Under the Dome with me to work. The physical book is too large to carry on my bicycle.

iPad beside a book

iPad beside keyboard and iPod Touch

Why iPad

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“For years we’ve all held to the belief that computing had to be made simpler for the ‘average person’. I find it difficult to come to any conclusion other than that we have totally failed in this effort.” -Speirs “Future Shock“

Since the iPad announcement a number of posts, comments, and articles appeared bashing iPad. Some include colorful language in titles like, “epic fail.” While the iPad may not be what everyone expected (it’s exactly what I expected,) some of the anti-iPad reasoning seems to be about clinging to old methods.

The iPad is not an iPod Touch, but familiarity of the interface improves understanding. If you have never tried an iPhone or iPod Touch, please borrow one and give the following a try:

  • Photos: try swipe, pinch zoom, tilt
  • Stocks
  • USA Today app (free)
  • Stanza (free) or Kindle for iPhone app
  • Play a video

“These new devices allow ‘computing’ to get out of the way of what users really want to do: interact with data.” -Eaton, comment on “Flash, iPad, Standards” at Zeldman.com.

Common complaints about iPad

  1. Only 1 connector and it’s USB.
  2. No camera (future possibility.)
  3. No Adobe Flash support.
  4. Limited storage/don’t like copying files.
  5. It’s just a big iPod Touch.
  6. Not eInk.
  7. Doesn’t replace laptop.
  8. Where’s the innovation? Old netbooks do that.
  9. Phone/Nintendo DS/organizer has touch. Big deal.
  10. No multitasking.

My Short Response to Common iPad Complaints

  1. Wireless and sync. Reducing connector dependency is the goal.
  2. Camera might be nice for video conference, but phones and PCs do this.
  3. Adobe Flash must improve or watch something else take its place.
  4. Sync and streaming. You don’t need to carry everything with you.
  5. Not quite. Wait to see future apps.
  6. eInk isn’t ready yet. Needs faster refresh and color.
  7. iPad is not a PC replacement.
  8. Innovation brings the user closer to the content. See the two quotes above.
  9. Try an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. See the difference?
  10. Unnecessary for casual use, and we’ll see it in the future.

Now let’s look at some of the complaints in detail.

No Adobe Flash

This is a strong argument since Flash is well entrenched on the web. How many iPhone users complain? Many don’t miss it preferring apps instead. Flash consumes resources and sometimes crashes browsers. If Adobe addresses these issues, we may see it on the iPad. We may also see another solution, HTML5, or specialized apps may take over.

Old Habits Die Hard

Read the quote at the top of the page. Give it careful consideration. Not convinced? Read the entire “Future Shock” by Speirs.

People take comfort in the familiar. Before computers, most people didn’t know why they would want it until they tried it. Old habits die hard. General hardware and software hasn’t changed much in decades. We learn about file systems and complex hierarchies in order to use computers.

Big File Storage: Demanding enough storage for a copy of everything on every device surfaces from the chore of copying our music and movies to devices. We must understand file systems and capacities, and most devices make it difficult to copy. So many make a habit to copy everything and leave it.

Netbooks and Notebooks: They work like our desktops. The lid makes it difficult to carry and use and sometimes the field doesn’t offer a nice table to set it on. Short battery life limits portability. Many want a tablet without giving up the familiar interface, file system, and connectors. Many of us want our portable computers to do everything a desktop does. Some of us don’t want change.

Personally, I want a portable computer to be truly portable. I do most of my work sitting at a desk.

Computers require extensive knowledge. Even some of the self-proclaimed computer experts manage to get their operating systems mangled or overburdened by poor applications. So much technical skills are required in order to design software that often the user experience gets pushed aside. We end up with clunky software that requires hunting through menus using an absurd number of mouse clicks. These become habits and users learn to accept it.

This must end.

The goal of a computer is to remove the complexity. We have been going backwards in some cases. Many older office software products were faster and easier. We need to give control back to the user. As a software designer, I make this my personal quest.

Conclusion

The iPad may not be the computer some consumers want, but that doesn’t make it a failure. It may seem underwhelming. Major changes shock consumers, and products with too much change sell poorly. The iPad fills the gap between a dedicated computing system and a phone. Apple carefully steps in the right direction by making progressive changes to products already entrenched in the market. The future will bring new devices and better computers.

Why iPad? It’s a step in the right direction.

Will you buy an iPad or wait to see what the future brings?

What others are saying:

The eBook Test provides a list in “Must-Read Pro-iPad Posts.”

“The iPad isn’t what you think it is” at Mainly Thinking.

“Why I See The iPad As An Epic Ereader Fail” at Indie Author.

Lamarche of iPhone Development says, “for many people, a regular computer is both overkill and frustrating.” in “Same Ol’ Same Ol’…”

Chris Rawson on “Adobe speaks up about Flash on the iPad”

PC World: “iPad Study: The More You Know, The Less You Want One”

Ars Technica: “Survey tries quantifying iPad hype, suggests interest waning”

MarketWatch: “Disney CEO: iPad ‘could be a game changer’“

E-Readers: DOA

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Dead on Arrival

The eBook is a digital copy of the physical book, same concept as in 1971 when Project Gutenberg was founded. Much has changed since 1971 including the Web where we may find many eBooks in formats included text, PDF, HTML, XML, ePub, Kindle, Open eBook, and more. PDF is great layout for print, but not as useful on the screen. Some modern eBooks contain hyperlinks, but otherwise remain the same as the original concept.

The eBook is trying hard to be like print.

Current eBook readers are lost in the past. Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Stanza, Zinio, and others are simple print replacements. They offer nothing functionally new and few of them do better than print. Some readers present books poorly lacking the nice format we are accustomed to in print.

Single function reading devices like Kindle come with big price tags at $250-$400, but Forrester Research shows that consumers want to pay under $100 for a single purpose reader. E Ink produces a paper-like display, but even after they add color, a quality view isn’t enough for the price.

Students hate lugging stacks of textbooks, but carrying multiple devices is not much of an improvement. And some publishers are trying to rent textbooks (eBook only lasts 180 days; see Mashable “3 Reasons Students Aren’t Ready“) at print prices.

A few readers try to mimic print exactly. The Zinio reader uses a layout approach presenting magazines on screen where the reader gives the feel of the printed magazine including animated page flipping. Why does a digital version need to mimic print? Format for reading devices.

Future digital books will bring new concepts, new ways of telling stories. At basic level, an eBook must support connecting common items including linking related stories, jumping to author biography, finding similar books, going to and from an appendix. Hyperlinks accomplish this, but digital books need more. Imagine an instruction book including optional video clips. Vook is video embedded book, and this is only the start. Educational books may include sounds, connect students together, import new material, quiz the student, or provide alternate instruction. New ways of telling stories will go beyond the eBook.

New digital readers supporting other functions will push basic readers out of the market, and they are just around the corner. Even better, other functions allow storytellers to deliver new forms. What about consumers that just want to read a traditional story? New readers support that as well. And there’s always print.

Gizmodo shows a sample of Microsoft’s Courier, a dual screen device based on a traditional organizer. The video gives us a peek at the near future. These smaller devices will replace notebook computers as the business travel companion. Heavy work can wait for the office while those with mobile offices may prefer keeping their computers. By including other functions, the Courier may have a future in storytelling.

Apple may introduce a multifunction device like a larger iPod Touch aimed at reading. Applications allow future formats revealing new ideas to fit right in. Consumers want to see Apple’s attempt at doing e-reader right.

Future digital books will kill current readers. The old eBooks may survive as free content to support print books, future digital books, or other products.

Just as they gain popularity, eBook readers are dead on arrival.

What others say:

Consumers Pay for Content

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In the essay, “Post-Medium Publishing,” Paul Graham claims that consumers never pay for content. He begins with the observation that publishers set prices based on the cost of production and distribution of the format. The essay offers some consideration about the future of book publishing.

Do consumers pay for content?

I have never heard of a consumer paying for unwanted content.

Let us assume the consumer wants the content, and that the essay does not infer that consumers are unwilling to pay for content, simply chasing after the cheapest form of the content, otherwise libraries would have put bookstores out of business years ago. The consumer wants the content and is willing to pay. But does the consumer actually pay for the content?

Consider this question from the essay:

If audiences were willing to pay more for better content, why wasn’t anyone already selling it to them? There was no reason you couldn’t have done that in the era of physical media. So were the print media and the music labels simply overlooking this opportunity?

Art is subjective. Not everyone agrees on what makes good content. Many titles target an audience. Even the experts can’t always explain why a certain title sells as much as it does.

The reason publishers set prices by cost of production is profit. Graham points out that the idea is to sell the content as cheap as possible. Competition forces a publisher to keep the price as low as possible earning profit in number of sales.

Publishers take chances on unknown artists often losing money from sales too few to cover production and distribution. Sales of popular titles cover the losses. This results in poor selling titles priced too high. Consumer are more likely to purchase better content reflected in number of sales.

Some titles are priced too high for the content, and consumers are less willing to pay the asking price.

New release prices are nearly the same for a format, but look at older titles. Prices tend to fall as a title ages, faster for some mediums. Video game prices fall after a few months, the most popular titles remaining at their initial price for over a year. Look at releases from October 2008: Fallout still sells for initial release price (as of today: $50 for the PC download) while Fable 2, Dead Space, and Golden Axe have fallen in price.

Popular content maintains higher value.

Consumers may purchase entire video games without any physical media. Additionally, they may purchase downloadable content (DLC.) While some DLC adds more length to a game, others are there merely for aesthetics such as additional costumes for characters including LittleBigPlanet, or the Horse Armor for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Pure content; nothing physical, and consumers pay.

Graham states that free copies online compete with the publisher’s distribution. This is not true given that titles are available online for free. Consider classics available at Project Gutenberg, and many consumers still purchase the physical books. Some authors give away stories for free while selling physical and digital copies on Amazon. Will this change in the future?

Neil Gaiman pointed out on Twitter (here and here) that his novel, The Graveyard Book remains on the New York Times “Best Sellers” (Chapter books, #8) after a year even though a free copy is available online. Take a look at his blog post on this topic.

Graham claims that prices will continue to fall once writers realize they don’t need publishers. This is not entirely true. Publishers need to change since writers will still need marketing, editors, and all the little things that sell stories. Authors may choose between self-publishing and a digital publisher. Prices will fall.

Amazon is already driving prices down by selling many of the big new releases at a loss trying to increase Kindle adoption (read more: Beliefnet.) However, publishers may combat this by delaying eBook release after hardcover much like they do for paperbacks. Since the cost of production and distribution of an eBook is lower than the printed book, we see a greater range in price. An eBook by an unknown author may sell for $1 or $2 while new release eBooks by established authors go for $10 on Amazon. Will the cheaper eBook titles force prices of titles by established authors down?

Graham calls iTunes a “tollbooth”, a gateway to the iPod. Apple’s iTunes is a software product. The iTunes Store is a store. No tollbooth here. The consumer doesn’t need the iTunes Store. Audiophiles and prefer using iTunes as a tool to push uncompressed original CD tracks into their iPods. Consumers may also choose other stores for their music purchases. Apple’s store is popular because it’s a good, convenient store. If it was all about getting content as cheap as possible, everyone would download pirated copies.

Graham implies that businesses pay for software due to laws. This is not true.

Software applications are tools like hammers and wrenches. Tools may include content, but tools are not content. Workers use the best tool for the job. Photoshop CS4 allows the user to edit images. Gimp, an open source product, also edits images for free. A graphic artist may choose to pay for Photoshop CS4 for productivity and special needs not available in Gimp. Commercial software may also come with services. Consumers want to pay for quality tools that help them get the job done. Otherwise everyone would pick free open source software putting Microsoft and Adobe out of business.

Consider this point from the essay:

What happens to publishing if you can’t sell content? You have two choices: give it away and make money from it indirectly, or find ways to embody it in things people will pay for.

The music business struggles in the transition to digital delivery, trying to sell content. They have gone after iTunes Store demanding performance fees for the 30 second samples (read more: cnet.)

Benefits to giving away content:

  1. Piracy is not an issue.
  2. Increase awareness about the artist.
  3. Drive demand for products.

These benefits may convince artists and publishers to give away books and music to make money indirectly from concerts, merchandise, and future distributions of content yet to come.

Some books are overpriced for their content, and consumers choose to pay for better content. Popular content maintains value selling at higher prices. Consumers pay for games without physical media, DLC, and music from iTunes Store. Therefore, consumers pay for content.

The future may bring new forms of storytelling (read more: The Huffington Post,) and the stories we know today may be given away free. Better AI may bring video games and storytelling closer. Imagine the idea behind Storybird blossoming into some new forms of interactive storytelling.

Whatever the future brings, consumers will pay for the content.

How-To: Make a 3D Photo

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Magenta/Green 3D Chess Photo

Magenta/Green 3D Chess Photo

Red/Cyan 3D Bike Photo

Red/Cyan 3D Bike Photo

Use Magenta/Green 3D glasses to view the chess photograph or Red/Cyan 3D glasses to view the bike photograph. Click on an image for a larger view. 3D quality depends on your monitor’s color settings. The chess photo ghosts a little on my Macbook screen, but appears perfect on an external LCD.

Items list

1. Digital camera
2. Tripod for digital camera
3. Photo software supporting layers such as Photoshop or Gimp
4. An interesting subject for 3D
5. Red/Cyan or Green/Magenta 3D glasses.

You can find 3D glasses with home movies such as Coraline, with activity books for children, or make your own by purchasing supplies at an art store. Gimp is available for free, which the instructions here will follow. Software that tries to do the modifications for you exist, but doing it yourself allows greater control over the results.

The Science: How do 3D glasses work?

Each lens has different complimentary colors acting as a filter for each eye. Colors are complimentary when the combined color is neutral such as red and cyan. Two photos taken from slightly different vantage points (like your eyes) aimed at the same point are colorized opposite of the respective colored lens. For example, my green/magenta glasses has green over the left eye so the photo taken on the right side needs to be colorized green. The green lens filters out the green portions of the image so the left eye does not see the right vantage point. You could also put the two photos side-by-side, left image on the right, and cross your eyes. The 3D glasses make it easier looking at a single combined image. Other 3D glasses technology includes shutter glasses viewing flashing images and scanning glasses for viewing images stacked in narrow lines. All work on the same principle, one lens blocks what the other eye should see. The rest is depth perception.

Step 1: Take two photographs

Mount the camera on the tripod and take a picture of your immobile subject. If outside, make sure the wind is not blowing the leaves around. Keep track of the position and the aim using the lens guides. If your lens has a center marker, note its exact position. When planning the shot, you might choose to aim at some distinguishing mark on your subject. In the chess image, I aimed my center mark at the groove in the dark knight at the center. Note this photograph as the right image (or left if you find it easier to move right.)

The distance you move the camera depends on how far away your subject is and the size of your lens. Move too much and the subject may pop out, the subject appears nearly 2D floating above a 2D background, or the image may become disorienting. For my chess picture, I used an 18-55mm lens positioned about four feet away, and I moved the camera about a half of an inch. For the bicycle, positioned thirty feet away, I moved two inches. The bicycle appears to pop out a little, so a smaller distance might have been better. Move the camera, perpendicular to the subject, and aim for the same position on your subject. Take the photograph and note it is the opposite eye to the first.

Step 2: Load the two pictures into photo editing software

Load both photographs. Select the entire image of one photograph, copy, and paste into a new layer in the other image. Label the layers according to the eye (left or right.)

Step 3: Modify the images

The goal is to colorize each image the opposite of your lenses. For Green/Magenta 3D glasses with green over the left eye, colorize the right image green by editing the color balance for all ranges (shadows, mid-tones, highlights.) There are two methods to colorize, one by adjusting the color balance and the other by editing the color channels. Try both and see which works best.

Colorize by adjusting color blance: In Gimp, find the color balance window under Colors on the menubar. Uncheck Preserve Luminosity checkbox. Move the Magenta-Green slider all the way to the Green for each of the three ranges. Do the same process to the image labeled, right, but move the slider all the way to the magenta. You should have two images appearing similar to the green and magenta images in the layers image below.

Colorize by editing color channels: Some software forces global color channels for all layers requiring a screenshot and paste into a new project file. Software that allows independent layer channel editing allows edits within a single file.

Layers Panel in Gimp

Layers Panel in Gimp

For Red/Cyan glasses, turn off the blue and green channels for the red image and turn off only the red channel for the cyan image. Take screenshots of each and paste into layers of a new image.

Now adjust the opacity of the top layer to 50%. This allows you to see through to the lower image. In Gimp, find the opacity slider control in the Layers window as seen in the screenshot at right. For brighter results, you may adjust both layers to 50% with a white background. Notice the colors of the individual layers. Try looking at the layers panel with your 3D glasses, closing one eye at a time. The green image should be nearly invisible peering through the green lens and closer to normal color peering through the magenta lens.

If you see ghosting, you may need to adjust the colors. Try both colorizing methods to see which works best for you.

Step 4: Save output

You may want to save the project in the default format for editing. Try your 3D glasses to find any problems. To share with others on the web, export the picture to JPG keeping the quality as high as possible. Too low quality (too much compression) will degrade the 3D appearance. For an uncompressed image, save in TGA format.

Put on your 3D glasses and enjoy. Share your 3D images on Flickr, Twitpic, or on your own page. And tell us where to find your creations in the comments.

The Path Review

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Every once in a while, something comes along that makes me think about storytelling. The Path is such an item. Even though it is marketed as a short horror game, one thing became certain to me upon completing the story.

This is not a game.

The Path box art

Box art © Tale of Tales

The Path is an interactive story about growing up created by Tale of Tales, designed by Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn available for the PC including Mac. For the price of a movie ticket, the reader may enjoy five hours of interactive story entertainment inspired by Little Red Riding Hood. The beauty in The Path is in the storytelling through imagination using atmosphere, implication, and metaphor. Making up six chapters, each of the six sisters are given a simple task. “Go to Grandma’s house. And stay on the path.”

The best stories reside off the trail. Following the instructions, the girl may reach Grandma after a very short uneventful trip. The reader is then presented with a failure screen with a hint, and the girl restarted back home. Nothing lures the girl off the path. The reader must take the initiative to leave the path. Besides, why would any young adventurous girl follow instructions?

The reader is in charge. Using simple controls, the reader explores the forest with the aid of visual cues. The atmosphere is dark including music and interactions. Running limits visibility. Even the path disappears adding to the lost sensation. Some may find the mechanics clumsy and finding things in the forest frustrating, but the experience brings the reader closer to the character. And the reader is not required to do anything at all. Helping the reader find the way, the Girl In White prances around the forest visiting points of interest. If the character sits still, the Girl In White will come and guide the girl back to the path. Freedom of exploration allows the reader to switch sisters, go to Grandma’s house, or collect items that reveal the story. Even the dangers within the story must be initiated by the reader.

The girl initiating all of the terrible things is an important part of the story taken from old folklore, The Grandmother’s Tale that inspired Charles Perrault’s Little Red Riding-Hood. The girl’s actions lead to bad experiences.

The sisters, ranging in age from 9 to 19, have their own personalities and interests. Each girl has her own personal wolf. Facing the metaphorical wolf ends the chapter by fading to black before placing the distraught girl on the path before Grandma’s house. Fading out leaves the terrible things to the imagination of the reader implied by the context of the situation and the background revealed by interactions with items and special places.

At the end of each chapter The Path presents the reader with a score screen counting items found and secret rooms uncovered. But this turns out to be a joke meant to discourage gamers. Anyone trying to earn points misses the point. Returning home the reader may choose from the remaining girls until the epilogue.

Finding Grandma’s house is simple and dull. The things hiding in the forest shapes us into the old person resting in the house. Remember to step off the path and get lost once in a while before finding the one wolf none of us can avoid.

Telling a story through open interactive medium is not a simple task, but Tale of Tales pulls it off using atmosphere and implication. They also leave plenty for the reader’s imagination. Love or hate the experience, The Path is a marker in the evolution of storytelling. I will spend a few days in the forest pondering this.

More to explore: An article by Terri Windling about Red Riding-Hood history.

[I purchased The Path from Steam.]

Alternative Reading Tech

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I enjoy reading from a traditional book, but I sometimes use digital media for traveling light, quick reference, or text searching. A digital reader is my preference for magazines and journals. Less paper. In conjunction with a textbook, a digital copy allows text search and quick reference. The book is still a great reading technology, and completely wireless.

Digital readers should meet the following goals: organize texts, portability, text search, and easy reading. Other benefits include multiple bookmarking and personal annotations. Below I list a few digital readers and organizers.

Stanza on iPod

Stanza on iPod

Stanza by Lexcycle is a reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Select titles by list or cover flow. Organize selections by title, author, subject, and recent reads. Supports multiple bookmarking, adjustable font, and zoom by pinch. Search for titles online from ebook services. The optional desktop tool allows the user to add selections from existing collections or export to Kindle. Stanza is free from the iTunes App store.

Amazon Kindle 2 is a wireless tablet reader supporting bookmarking, text search, and annotations without the need for a computer. It uses EVDO network (a data network used by some cell phones) covered by the original purchase price. A grayscale screen, but try Kindle for iPhone to enjoy color. The Kindle 2 price is equivalent to over forty paperbacks.

Zinio is a reader for digital magazines. The interface includes page turning animations and allows embedded media and hyperlinks. Magazines maintain their look including ads. A few magazines, such as PC Magazine, now only deliver in digital format. With a 22 inch monitor, many magazines end up life-size allowing full page reading. Supports text search, annotations, and reading your library on the road with an iPhone.

Papers for Mac, iPhone, and iPod touch is a PDF organizational tool aimed at those with hundreds or even thousands of PDF documents. Organizes by author, journal, title, or user created categories. The current version (1.9) lacks text searching, but includes annotated notes and keywords for search. Besides keeping organized, Papers aids in locating research papers through online repositories such as Google Scholar, Citeseer, PubMed, ACM, ADS, and IEEE Xplore. Papers is best suited for researchers, students, and anyone that regularly refers to many PDF documents. Casual readers may prefer Stanza or Kindle.

Need more to read? Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort providing free ebooks of titles with copyright clearance including many classics.