Why I don't use the iPad for serious writing - Charlie's Diary, article.
Yes. I've been railing against the lack of arrow keys on the iPad's keyboard since the second I realized it didn't have them. What a Steve-Jobs-decision. "We don't need arrow keys, they are old technology, people are supposed to use the touch screen". While nicely repressing the fact that with fingers, placing a cursor precisely in text is a very clumsy task.
I admit that even if all of Charles Stross' attack points were fixed, I would probably still not use the screen keyboard for more than short emails. It just doesn't work for me. (I've seen people type really fast on it, I wonder how they do it.) I need a touch keyboard for real writing, which limits the iPad, obviously.
And since, for my current big writing project (a book about Domai), exceptionally I do need access to emails and web pages to get snippets, a desktop or airbook will probably be a better deal anyway.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
"Amazon's Hit Man"
[Thanks to TKC]
Amazon's Hit Man, long article.Even more awkwardly for publishers, Amazon is their largest retailer, so they are now in the position of having to compete against an important business partner. On the West Coast people cheerfully call this kind of arrangement coopetition. On the East Coast it’s usually referred to as getting stabbed in the back.
I love that. Whether or not it's more common in some geographical areas or not, it's a great difference in outlook on life and business: you can see it as a cheerful game, you-loose-some-you-win-some kind of thing, or you can see it as a deadly competition, only the last to stand is the winner, and everybody is an enemy unless they're a temporary ally...
It must be a very joyless life to have the latter kind of outlook. I mean, how can you possibly win? Even if you get to be King of the Hill like Microsoft once was, suddenly a new platform is the big new thing, and they jog past you. How much more fun to not care if you're the biggest and baddest, and instead just enjoy making good stuff which makes your customers happy. If you have that and it keeps bread on the table, that's the good part. Grinding the faces of competitors into the cold mud on the way seems a bit of a cheerless game.
---
Of course the fears can be understandable:
Book publishing, an inefficient industry if there ever was one, seems ripe for reimagining. According to a recent report by the Association of American Publishers, sales of adult paperbacks and hardcovers fell 18 percent between 2010 and 2011.
Ouch! Eighteen percent! That should give pause for thought amongst believers that paper will never go away. (Well, it probably won't, but it'll be marginalized dramatically, like music on vinyl. The upshot is that we may see some really beautiful works of art in future paper books, because they have to make most of the medium.)
But trying to stop your little ice floe from melting won't help. Sooner or later you have to set out for a different life support. You may find one, or not, but the ocean doesn't care, sad at that may be.
Monday, January 23, 2012
"History Won’t be Kind to Apple & Textbooks"
History Won’t be Kind to Apple & Textbooks, article.
When Phil Schiller came on stage last Thursday, he was a serious man. He said, “Education is deep in our DNA.” His somber and thoughtful approach suggested that Apple intended to make things different and better in education. Apple is in a position to call some shots in the industry, and that kind of power should not be taken lightly. Mr. Schiller behaved, on stage, in accordance with shouldering that burden.
Only later did we find out that it was going to be the same old line; Apple gets its not inconsiderable piece of the action, 30 percent. And, as we know, the lock in with iBooks Author to the iBookstore.
I kind of agree. Apple could make a huge difference in education with the news software et al. But loosening up the licence and easing off significantly on the profit cut (especially when they set a price limit of $15 for everything) would look much better and be much more in accordance in the strong "we want to help" vibes.
"Here's some free software to help children, please give us 10% if you sell through our store" sounds better than "Here's some free software to help the children, you're not allowed to charge for your books outside our store, and inside we'll take 30% and we will ooooowwwn the textbook market in five years, bwaah-haaahaahhh!"
Heck they could even charge for the software if people want to sell outside the iBook store, I'm sure nobody would mind that. But the thirty percent always sounded pretty high to me, and for economically priced textbooks it's just squeezing the lemon too hard.
When Phil Schiller came on stage last Thursday, he was a serious man. He said, “Education is deep in our DNA.” His somber and thoughtful approach suggested that Apple intended to make things different and better in education. Apple is in a position to call some shots in the industry, and that kind of power should not be taken lightly. Mr. Schiller behaved, on stage, in accordance with shouldering that burden.
Only later did we find out that it was going to be the same old line; Apple gets its not inconsiderable piece of the action, 30 percent. And, as we know, the lock in with iBooks Author to the iBookstore.
I kind of agree. Apple could make a huge difference in education with the news software et al. But loosening up the licence and easing off significantly on the profit cut (especially when they set a price limit of $15 for everything) would look much better and be much more in accordance in the strong "we want to help" vibes.
"Here's some free software to help children, please give us 10% if you sell through our store" sounds better than "Here's some free software to help the children, you're not allowed to charge for your books outside our store, and inside we'll take 30% and we will ooooowwwn the textbook market in five years, bwaah-haaahaahhh!"
Heck they could even charge for the software if people want to sell outside the iBook store, I'm sure nobody would mind that. But the thirty percent always sounded pretty high to me, and for economically priced textbooks it's just squeezing the lemon too hard.
E-Book fast-page-flip Prototype Demo
To be frank, I don't know if this will be a huge step forward, since in ebooks you have search and usually a scroll bar, and in any case you can only really see about two pages at a time, so how many you can flip back and forth at a time is how valuable?
But it looks nice and quite intuitive, so it might work for some books and users.
It's only a prototype yet, though, and doesn't even use Apple's own software bits, so don't expect it this year.
But it looks nice and quite intuitive, so it might work for some books and users.
It's only a prototype yet, though, and doesn't even use Apple's own software bits, so don't expect it this year.
Tablet ownership doubled over Christmas
US Tablet ownership doubled over the 2011 holiday season, article.
Surely the Kindle Fire is responsible for a lot of that, with a million sold per week, but it's generally agreed that the iPad is still holding its top of the hill position. And of course they are hardly interchangeable. [Update: Apple says they sold 15M iPads in the holiday quarter.)
But anyhoo, from zero to 19 percent in two years... And from 10 to 19 percent in two months! That's gotta be the fastest adoption rate of a new technology ever.
Oh, and by the way, according to other studies, the number one use of the Kindle Fire is: reading! I admit I would have hesitated to guess this. I think this is a good score for abstract thinking version sensual "thinking".
I am interested to see how reading will look in a mere ten years. What with thinner, lighter, cheaper ereaders, small and hopefully some bigger too for graphics-rich reading, and probably no turn of the rising trend of printing and distribution costs of paper publications, surely tablets and readers will by then have taken over a huge lump of reading duties in developed countries. And then (or well before), like with mobile phones, it may go even faster in less-developed countries, due to poor traditional infrastructure.
Surely the Kindle Fire is responsible for a lot of that, with a million sold per week, but it's generally agreed that the iPad is still holding its top of the hill position. And of course they are hardly interchangeable. [Update: Apple says they sold 15M iPads in the holiday quarter.)
But anyhoo, from zero to 19 percent in two years... And from 10 to 19 percent in two months! That's gotta be the fastest adoption rate of a new technology ever.
Oh, and by the way, according to other studies, the number one use of the Kindle Fire is: reading! I admit I would have hesitated to guess this. I think this is a good score for abstract thinking version sensual "thinking".
I am interested to see how reading will look in a mere ten years. What with thinner, lighter, cheaper ereaders, small and hopefully some bigger too for graphics-rich reading, and probably no turn of the rising trend of printing and distribution costs of paper publications, surely tablets and readers will by then have taken over a huge lump of reading duties in developed countries. And then (or well before), like with mobile phones, it may go even faster in less-developed countries, due to poor traditional infrastructure.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Behringer iPad docking mixers
Behringer iPad docking mixers.
The iPad is used for screen and storage.
Sounds pretty neato. Though they keep it a deep secret what this thing actually costs, so I can't share that, sorry. I can well understand why they will hide the price so well, it's so the competitors don't find out, of course. (Oh, there goes my finely tuned sarcasm again, golly.)
The iPad is used for screen and storage.
Sounds pretty neato. Though they keep it a deep secret what this thing actually costs, so I can't share that, sorry. I can well understand why they will hide the price so well, it's so the competitors don't find out, of course. (Oh, there goes my finely tuned sarcasm again, golly.)
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Apple education event
Apple has posted the video of their big Education Event today 19.1.2011. They introduced iBooks 2, which is centered around rich, advanced textbooks for schools.
There is a new Apple app, iBooks Author, to help people create these multimedia books (not only for textbooks). And it's free, but the books will only work with the iBooks store, where Apple gets 30% of sales. It's a pity it's one-store-only, particularly since iBooks only has a minority bite of the market. It's a Mac app and requires the Lion (10.7) OS. (Unfortunately. I still have not replace all my non-Lion-compatible apps.)
And a new iTunes U expands the often-free iTunes-delivered education programs.
TidBITS has an article with an overview of these things.
A more speculative question is what will happen — particularly in certain subjects where collaborative scenarios or access to specialized equipment aren’t important — to higher education n general if it becomes possible to take most courses online in this fashion. Will the intangibles of a college education — maturation, networking, exposure to opportunities — and the eventual diploma be seen as worth the skyrocketing tuition costs?
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There is a new Apple app, iBooks Author, to help people create these multimedia books (not only for textbooks). And it's free, but the books will only work with the iBooks store, where Apple gets 30% of sales. It's a pity it's one-store-only, particularly since iBooks only has a minority bite of the market. It's a Mac app and requires the Lion (10.7) OS. (Unfortunately. I still have not replace all my non-Lion-compatible apps.)
And a new iTunes U expands the often-free iTunes-delivered education programs.
TidBITS has an article with an overview of these things.
A more speculative question is what will happen — particularly in certain subjects where collaborative scenarios or access to specialized equipment aren’t important — to higher education n general if it becomes possible to take most courses online in this fashion. Will the intangibles of a college education — maturation, networking, exposure to opportunities — and the eventual diploma be seen as worth the skyrocketing tuition costs?
-
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
3rd generation cameras are the future?
DSLRs are a dying breed – 3rd gen cameras are the future, article.
Look, I hate to say it! I’ve spent loads of money on DSLRs and lenses for my Nikon. I’m not going to be using any of it in five years.
This is why the first decision is always a big one. Canon or Nikon. I don’t really get into that argument. But, I do agree that once you commit to one, you’ll be buying a lot of lenses and just swapping out the body. That’s why that first decision is so key — and it is the reason that I won’t buy any more Nikon bodies or lenses — because I won’t be using any of them in the future.
I think he has a lot of good arguments, even if, as he admits, generally the "mirrorless" cameras are not quite up to pro standards in some respects yet. (The Fuji X-Pro1 is a strong move in this direction though.) And it will take some time before such cameras, for example, has the richness of lenses available to them that traditional (D)SLRs have, it's very expensive to develop new lenses, obviously.
It hurts to think of the wonderful and expensive Canon glass I have becoming obsolote at some point. But times and technology march on, and actually Canon L lenses are no longer as exceptional as they used to be, in image quality terms. And they and the cameras are awful chunks to transport.
Look, I hate to say it! I’ve spent loads of money on DSLRs and lenses for my Nikon. I’m not going to be using any of it in five years.
This is why the first decision is always a big one. Canon or Nikon. I don’t really get into that argument. But, I do agree that once you commit to one, you’ll be buying a lot of lenses and just swapping out the body. That’s why that first decision is so key — and it is the reason that I won’t buy any more Nikon bodies or lenses — because I won’t be using any of them in the future.
I think he has a lot of good arguments, even if, as he admits, generally the "mirrorless" cameras are not quite up to pro standards in some respects yet. (The Fuji X-Pro1 is a strong move in this direction though.) And it will take some time before such cameras, for example, has the richness of lenses available to them that traditional (D)SLRs have, it's very expensive to develop new lenses, obviously.
It hurts to think of the wonderful and expensive Canon glass I have becoming obsolote at some point. But times and technology march on, and actually Canon L lenses are no longer as exceptional as they used to be, in image quality terms. And they and the cameras are awful chunks to transport.
Monday, January 16, 2012
"Filesharing bugs me"
The Other Side of SOPA and PIPA, TidBITS article.
Similarly, “stealing” doesn’t precisely fit the act of making a digital copy — no one loses anything other than the opportunity to make a sale when digital content is copied, if the party who made a copy would have otherwise purchased it.
All that said, I hate it when I see our ebooks show up on file sharing sites for anyone to download in their entirety. I can’t measure whether it hurts our business and thus our authors. Nor can I say that it helps in any way. But I can say that it bugs the hell out of me...
I find that very interesting. Most people, when something bugs them, justify it immediately and forever. For example: if filesharing scares them, it must be because it hurts their business, and so they will go to alarming lengths (like trying to change laws) to stop it. Mr. Engst here has an exceptionally big perspective: he can see that rationally, it probably neither hurts nor helps his business any when their books are shared for free, but he just hates to see it. That is sound and honest.
One might say, if he could just handle his emotions on the thing, it would save him much time and aggravation with no downside. But that's all speculation, it's not trivial to change emotions, though it is sometimes done successfully. What's important here is that we all gain when we can separate emotional responses from facts. Which also is a surprisingly difficult matter, as witnessed by soooo many things, for instance that public nudity is illegal in most of the world, with no evidence whatever that it has ever hurt anybody.
Similarly, “stealing” doesn’t precisely fit the act of making a digital copy — no one loses anything other than the opportunity to make a sale when digital content is copied, if the party who made a copy would have otherwise purchased it.
All that said, I hate it when I see our ebooks show up on file sharing sites for anyone to download in their entirety. I can’t measure whether it hurts our business and thus our authors. Nor can I say that it helps in any way. But I can say that it bugs the hell out of me...
I find that very interesting. Most people, when something bugs them, justify it immediately and forever. For example: if filesharing scares them, it must be because it hurts their business, and so they will go to alarming lengths (like trying to change laws) to stop it. Mr. Engst here has an exceptionally big perspective: he can see that rationally, it probably neither hurts nor helps his business any when their books are shared for free, but he just hates to see it. That is sound and honest.
One might say, if he could just handle his emotions on the thing, it would save him much time and aggravation with no downside. But that's all speculation, it's not trivial to change emotions, though it is sometimes done successfully. What's important here is that we all gain when we can separate emotional responses from facts. Which also is a surprisingly difficult matter, as witnessed by soooo many things, for instance that public nudity is illegal in most of the world, with no evidence whatever that it has ever hurt anybody.
Friday, January 13, 2012
diFeltro Fold, Italian handcrafted bag for iPad
diFeltro Fold, Italian handcrafted bag for iPad. (And one for iPhone.)
This is clearly a luxury item, but I think it's tasteful and nice looking. Simple design. Felt and leather, nice materials. Four colors.
This is clearly a luxury item, but I think it's tasteful and nice looking. Simple design. Felt and leather, nice materials. Four colors.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
SJ comic
A Steve Jobs bio in comic book form.
I suspected I wouldn’t like it, and I don’t think I did. No surprise, it’s virtually impossible to make a photo-realistic comic and do it well. Even if the artist is perfect, photo-realistic drawings look frozen in time, which works against the time-flow of the comics medium.
Gender swap is common in Japanese comics, so here's one artist's version of the Real Steve Jobs:
I like hir. At least it would take the edge off when s/he would be chewing your ass.
Thanks, Stephen.
Gender swap is common in Japanese comics, so here's one artist's version of the Real Steve Jobs:
I like hir. At least it would take the edge off when s/he would be chewing your ass.
Thanks, Stephen.
The TekChick
[Thanks to TMO]
TekChick designs. The founder is thirteen years old, but has been in business all her life. Taylor makes art and jewelry from recycled computers. Very kool.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
The issue with web mail
"Hacked!" article.
Did you know that Gmail accounts are attacked a few thousand times... per day!?
Did you know that if you don't use an email app but rely on your web browser for email, in the worst case all your past mail could be lost? (An actual email app (examples: Outlook or Apple Mail.app) will store the emails locally on your computer too.)
My pal Adam from Tidbits uses Gmail and I knew he uses the web interface (it has some advantages I'm a bit hazy on), so I asked him how he makes local backups. He said: "I launch Apple Mail at least once a week and let it download."
Web mail has advantages, of course, it's very handy to be able to access your email from any device with a web browser, and it is much better at getting rid of spam (I'm not sure of the technical reason, something about being able to check links and see if they lead to spam sites).
Did you know that Gmail accounts are attacked a few thousand times... per day!?
Did you know that if you don't use an email app but rely on your web browser for email, in the worst case all your past mail could be lost? (An actual email app (examples: Outlook or Apple Mail.app) will store the emails locally on your computer too.)
My pal Adam from Tidbits uses Gmail and I knew he uses the web interface (it has some advantages I'm a bit hazy on), so I asked him how he makes local backups. He said: "I launch Apple Mail at least once a week and let it download."
Web mail has advantages, of course, it's very handy to be able to access your email from any device with a web browser, and it is much better at getting rid of spam (I'm not sure of the technical reason, something about being able to check links and see if they lead to spam sites).
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Cracking the Apple iTV
From the Jobs bio:
“He very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant,” Isaacson wrote. Isaacson continued: “‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”
I got it from this forum, and the comments again demonstrate just how stupid people are:
"Yeah - its called a TV with internet access. No walled garden required. I cracked it too."
So many people just don't see the difference between what the garden-variety company does, and what Apple does. If not for that difference, tablets would have been mainstream for ten years instead of two. And If the secret of the iTV was simply a TV with Internet access, then the living room would already be revolutionized, because we have that, my boxes have had iNet access for a couple of years. But nothing worthwhile to connect them to, and lousy interface. In short, worthless.
I'll bet that will be the differences, some of the main ones for sure.
“He very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant,” Isaacson wrote. Isaacson continued: “‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”
I got it from this forum, and the comments again demonstrate just how stupid people are:
"Yeah - its called a TV with internet access. No walled garden required. I cracked it too."
So many people just don't see the difference between what the garden-variety company does, and what Apple does. If not for that difference, tablets would have been mainstream for ten years instead of two. And If the secret of the iTV was simply a TV with Internet access, then the living room would already be revolutionized, because we have that, my boxes have had iNet access for a couple of years. But nothing worthwhile to connect them to, and lousy interface. In short, worthless.
I'll bet that will be the differences, some of the main ones for sure.
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