So day 2 and all is going well with the iPad.
I tried out the racing car game called asphalt today and it is incredible! You turn the ipad left and right like a steering wheel. It was such a brilliant design for the game. There are different types of cars, courses and challenges. For £3.99 it was an absolute bargain.
I stopped playing games on computers about 10 years ago because I found I would get too addicted to them. I'm really addicted to asphalt right now. Went out on my morning run and couldn't stop thinking about it.
I think it is the combination about being excited about the ipad, enjoying getting back to playing video games, liking to drive fast cars (ferraris and aston martins), and starting to get into watching formula one racing. It's all combined together.
TV BATTLES
I think the iPad and tablets generally are going to herald a whole new era of TV interactivity.
I see that apple are going to modify their Apple TV offering in response / anticipation of the android TV offering. It is looking like people will be able to control their tv screens using an ipad / iphone - so the TV becomes like a massive monitor.
The amount of great youtube content available on the ipad - it displays it brilliantly - and the the whole living room eco-system is changing radically.
It really is going to shift the living room with Android and Apple battling it out. It should become a new ecosystem where TV rights holders can finally get some content on the TV without going through broadcasters and traditional pay tv platforms.
I think it will really work if it is a kind of an over builder situation. So that the consumer can still have a window into say a sky box. So they can switch seamlessly between youtube, sky box, games, dvds, photos and browsing.
The thing that has changed too is the resolution of the tvs for displaying content. We found that if you get a particular high res tv, it works really well for showing web pages.
So the time is coming - I would say 2012 - when people have a seamless type of viewing experience via their big monitor (the television).
NEWSPAPERS
I downloaded to the iPad the "editors choice" of the New York Times - it's great for a free edition. Gives me 2-3 pages of stories that change each day. I've also got the Financial TImes until end of July as a free version (sponsored by Hubolot watches (sp?). And The Times is available for £9.99 per month. Funny, I just couldn't bring myself to pay the £9.99. I haven't spent that on the Times in the last 9 months, so I'm not going to "pay the man" for content I'm not that interested in. The other reason for not buying it is that I might become interested in it and I'm not sure I want to spend so much time reading the Times.
On the iPad application store they have the application (ie: the Times) and then they have other people's comments on the application. You have to buy the application in order to review it. Loads of people excited about the Times being available. No-one knows if it includes yet the Sunday TImes. So I logged in at 10.30am and didn't see anyone confirming / complaining about their £9.99 spend.
Now I have just logged back in to see the latest reviews. The Sunday Times was not included and there are 100 new posts today all spitting tacks. The posts on Friday and Saturday were largely 5 stars (about 40 of them). Now there are about 100 reviews giving it 1 star and telling people not to waste their money. People rule don't they?
This economy is so fast that a company needs to be able to respond within about 30 minutes on a sunday to a storm brewing. It's no good waiting another two days for business hours to commence. All that hard work by the development team has gone up in smoke thanks to poor explanations and descriptions that were left suitably vague as to what people would get with their £9.99 a month subscription.
And so to bed....
Sunday 30 May 2010
Saturday 29 May 2010
Touch Screen - the first 24 hours
All can say is wow.
As I write this I am sitting on a couch at Dukes Ave with a wireless keyboard that is enabling me to touch type 2 metres away from where the iPad is sitting.
I bought the iPad yesterday. What a revolution.
When Steve Jobs first launched it I watched the event live and I realised I was witnessing a key moment in history. One that doesn't come along very often.
A time when you can see the changing of the guard. I was astounded that so called "analysts" didn't get it. They were oogling over the things that were missing without realising the paradigm shift that Jobs had created.
The tablet has arrived.
Apple created the mouse in 1984 (?) and they killed it 16 years later in 2010.
On the day that the iPad launched in London, news broke that Apple are about to overtake Microsoft in Market Cap. Wishing I bought Apple shares back in April 2009 when I witnessed another small but significant event at the Luxembourg airport: three people in the security line ahead of me: They all emptied their pockets and they all had an iphone. I thought then - we've hit a tipping point. Soon after Apple announced ridiculously huge sales of the iPhone, way surpassing analyst predictions.
So here we have the iPad.
The reason that prompted me to start to write this blog is to track my reaction to the world unfolding and put down my vision of the world we are heading into and the changing world around us.
There are two approaches to blogging: 1) make each blog a refinement of craft. 2) make it more a stream of consciousness. I'm opting for the latter. My "uncle" Paul (he's actually Debra's uncle) learnt how to build a dry stonewall in Ireland. The trick to building the wall (which you lay by hand, one rock at a time) is to NEVER PUT A ROCK DOWN THAT YOU HAVE PICKED UP. ONCE YOU PICK IT UP, IT MUST GO IN THE WALL. My approach with blogging is similar. Let it flow, keep it running and keep going (ironically I had to fix up spelling and grammar writing this paragraph).... So the blog has got to make sense - and be entertaining.
ENTERTAINMENT - I have been playing with the iPad for a few hours yesterday after I bought it. And this morning with Henry (9.5 months old and growing into a whole new world). So I have been using the iPad to go onto the Application Store and find out about all the applications that I could load up on the iPad.
It was a great experience. But I felt like jumping on my laptop that is sitting next to me and googling the best iPad apps. So I started using my laptop and searching on the screen for an ipad application - when I found the laptop wasn't working properly.
Then I realised what I had done. I was trying to touch the screen of the laptop to open up the link on the website I was on. In that moment, I thought "silly me", "holy cow", "that was fast!"
You see what I thought when I saw Steve Jobs using the iPad all that time ago was that he has revolutionised the way that we are going to interact with the internet. A mouse is a limited 1 click, 1 hand mechanism. Life is so much more sophisticated when you can use both hands and 8 fingers and 2 thumbs to find your way around.
Here within 24 hours of getting my iPad I had adapted so quickly (and seen Henry engage for the first time with a computer) and now I can't go backwards. The laptop sitting next to me now looks so clunky. So heavy, so much wastage. A massive hard keyboard (instead of the ipads's softkeyboard) and a flat un-interactive non-touch screen.
It is like looking at a relic already. Outmoded and redundant. Not completely redundant because of Apple's closed system.
But it won't be long.
Tablets are going to be the number one christmas present this year.
Now Apple have led the charge and sold a million usits in a month or so in the US alone - everyone is playing catch-up. Android is Google's mobile operating system and it is storming ahead. It is overtaking Microsoft in the number of smart phones that run on it after just 18 months. It is going to be inside Sony TVs - allowing you to use internet on your TV as you have never been able to before. And Android is going to power the tablets of the future.
The key difference for developers is that Android who partners with all device manufacturers - is completely open. Meaning, the technology allows for a developer to write an application, integrate it to Android and run it. Android takes care of the form of the device - phone/tablet/tv. But it does it in a very smart way so developers can maximize their work.
And if you compare that to Apple's ecosystem... Apple is more like a promoter of goods. So imagine you're an entertainer, if you want to entertain all the people that Apple can get you in front of, here's what you have to do: sign up to Apple as your agent. Now Apple is repreesenting you, but taking a 30% fee for any ticket sales. They will put you in the venue, but first you have to show them your act. Lets say you're a magician. And the world's top magicians are with Apple. In fact Apple itself has a magic act. In order for Apple to represent you, you must do your act for them. But not just once. You have to do it over and over. In fact, you have to let them video your magic act. Then, (and here's the kicker) you have to tell them how you did every trick. You have to write down in precise detail andn show themm how to do your routine.
Is it any wonder that developers are hanging out for Android? In the Android world - they are not interested inlooking at your act to see how you did your tricks, but they might represent you for a fee. It's a much more open platform, leaving you to do what it is that you do best: work your magic.
As I write this I am sitting on a couch at Dukes Ave with a wireless keyboard that is enabling me to touch type 2 metres away from where the iPad is sitting.
I bought the iPad yesterday. What a revolution.
When Steve Jobs first launched it I watched the event live and I realised I was witnessing a key moment in history. One that doesn't come along very often.
A time when you can see the changing of the guard. I was astounded that so called "analysts" didn't get it. They were oogling over the things that were missing without realising the paradigm shift that Jobs had created.
The tablet has arrived.
Apple created the mouse in 1984 (?) and they killed it 16 years later in 2010.
On the day that the iPad launched in London, news broke that Apple are about to overtake Microsoft in Market Cap. Wishing I bought Apple shares back in April 2009 when I witnessed another small but significant event at the Luxembourg airport: three people in the security line ahead of me: They all emptied their pockets and they all had an iphone. I thought then - we've hit a tipping point. Soon after Apple announced ridiculously huge sales of the iPhone, way surpassing analyst predictions.
So here we have the iPad.
The reason that prompted me to start to write this blog is to track my reaction to the world unfolding and put down my vision of the world we are heading into and the changing world around us.
There are two approaches to blogging: 1) make each blog a refinement of craft. 2) make it more a stream of consciousness. I'm opting for the latter. My "uncle" Paul (he's actually Debra's uncle) learnt how to build a dry stonewall in Ireland. The trick to building the wall (which you lay by hand, one rock at a time) is to NEVER PUT A ROCK DOWN THAT YOU HAVE PICKED UP. ONCE YOU PICK IT UP, IT MUST GO IN THE WALL. My approach with blogging is similar. Let it flow, keep it running and keep going (ironically I had to fix up spelling and grammar writing this paragraph).... So the blog has got to make sense - and be entertaining.
ENTERTAINMENT - I have been playing with the iPad for a few hours yesterday after I bought it. And this morning with Henry (9.5 months old and growing into a whole new world). So I have been using the iPad to go onto the Application Store and find out about all the applications that I could load up on the iPad.
It was a great experience. But I felt like jumping on my laptop that is sitting next to me and googling the best iPad apps. So I started using my laptop and searching on the screen for an ipad application - when I found the laptop wasn't working properly.
Then I realised what I had done. I was trying to touch the screen of the laptop to open up the link on the website I was on. In that moment, I thought "silly me", "holy cow", "that was fast!"
You see what I thought when I saw Steve Jobs using the iPad all that time ago was that he has revolutionised the way that we are going to interact with the internet. A mouse is a limited 1 click, 1 hand mechanism. Life is so much more sophisticated when you can use both hands and 8 fingers and 2 thumbs to find your way around.
Here within 24 hours of getting my iPad I had adapted so quickly (and seen Henry engage for the first time with a computer) and now I can't go backwards. The laptop sitting next to me now looks so clunky. So heavy, so much wastage. A massive hard keyboard (instead of the ipads's softkeyboard) and a flat un-interactive non-touch screen.
It is like looking at a relic already. Outmoded and redundant. Not completely redundant because of Apple's closed system.
But it won't be long.
Tablets are going to be the number one christmas present this year.
Now Apple have led the charge and sold a million usits in a month or so in the US alone - everyone is playing catch-up. Android is Google's mobile operating system and it is storming ahead. It is overtaking Microsoft in the number of smart phones that run on it after just 18 months. It is going to be inside Sony TVs - allowing you to use internet on your TV as you have never been able to before. And Android is going to power the tablets of the future.
The key difference for developers is that Android who partners with all device manufacturers - is completely open. Meaning, the technology allows for a developer to write an application, integrate it to Android and run it. Android takes care of the form of the device - phone/tablet/tv. But it does it in a very smart way so developers can maximize their work.
And if you compare that to Apple's ecosystem... Apple is more like a promoter of goods. So imagine you're an entertainer, if you want to entertain all the people that Apple can get you in front of, here's what you have to do: sign up to Apple as your agent. Now Apple is repreesenting you, but taking a 30% fee for any ticket sales. They will put you in the venue, but first you have to show them your act. Lets say you're a magician. And the world's top magicians are with Apple. In fact Apple itself has a magic act. In order for Apple to represent you, you must do your act for them. But not just once. You have to do it over and over. In fact, you have to let them video your magic act. Then, (and here's the kicker) you have to tell them how you did every trick. You have to write down in precise detail andn show themm how to do your routine.
Is it any wonder that developers are hanging out for Android? In the Android world - they are not interested inlooking at your act to see how you did your tricks, but they might represent you for a fee. It's a much more open platform, leaving you to do what it is that you do best: work your magic.
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