MyAnswers: Top likes and dislikes of Apple iPad 2

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I decided to start documenting my top likes and dislikes of Apple iPad 2. There are some great features, but also many limitations that for some that might kill off the iPad 2 as a choice for them.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

HP TouchPad webOS Australian release date

I’ve been watching with interest what HP is doing in the tablet area. There was an earlier, what I’d call a false start with the Windows 7 Slate, but once HP purchased Palm and their webOS operating system, it was obvious the focus for HP would be on its own operating system.

The following is a paragraph from the Palm blog and we can see Australia is well down on the list in terms of the release schedule.

The Wi-Fi version of HP’s first webOS tablet will be available in the U.S. on July 1, followed by the UK, Ireland, France and Germany a few days later and Canada in mid-July. And continuing HP’s phased rollout, webOS fans in Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore and Spain can expect to see HP TouchPad later this year... Read More

Whilst I am interested in HP’s webOS TouchPad, it will be interesting to see what HP brings to the table. For me, HP has an uphill battle ahead of it. I sell and support HP equipment, but it has never been because of HP software, but because of Microsoft’s Windows software. For me it would be a very hard sell to promote webOS to clients.

I do think HP has an opportunity but I don’t currently like their chances of success. However there is one thing that would appeal to me that would make me take webOS seriously, but I don’t know if HP could bring themselves to do it. I enjoy technology so you could call me a techo. My real bent is to deliver solutions to business rather than technology for the sake of technology. If HP made webOS available for older PCs for a relatively low cost (perhaps around $29.95), I’d seriously consider installing the operating system on older computers. That could give HP a foot in the door. A modern lighter operating system for PCs a couple of years old would appeal to me. I don’t think they can do it, but I’d encourage them to. In my opinion HP need to think different, if they don’t, I don’t like their chances of success. I wish HP the best of luck with their webOS.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Apple iTunes Match legitimising pirating?

I watched the presentation by Steve Jobs last night for the World Wide Developer Conference 2011, but what really stuck in my mind was the pause by Steve Jobs at about two minutes before the end of the video.

Steve was presenting the iTunes Match service. As I understand it, this service will scan your hard disk, locate all your music tracks and then upgrade your music to 256kbps for $24.99 a year.

To quote Steve from the presentation, "most of our customers won't need this because they've already bought a lot of their music from iTunes, but for those that do, it's, ah, an industry leading offering, let's put it that way."

The pause and the phrase "let's put it that way" for me, begs the question which industry is making the industry leading offering. Is it the music industry, or is it the cloud based music service industry?

I honestly don't know what to think. Is the music industry using this as an opportunity to take those who have pirated music in the past, convert them to legitimate users, making some money each year for past behaviour with the yearly subscription, and perhaps hoping future purchases will be legitimate. If so that's a significant event in the music industry.

Personally I find the copyright laws to be a mystery. I've tried finding out more about what you can and can't do in terms of copyright, but mostly it seems like they won't let you know what you can do and try to scare you into thinking you can't do anything. I'd really like to see something from the Australian government written in plain English on the things people can do.

I just can't help feeling a little concerned this might expose many people in some way. For example, all of those who use this service will now able to be identified as to what music they have. Imagine if you've produced a song and made sales of say 10,000 to only find out you've now got hundreds of thousands of people with a copy of your music, should you be compensated? What protection is in place for those who use the iMatch service?

To me there are too many unknowns. The statement "let's put it that way" really should be clarified. This is a great opportunity in many ways. I can't help but feel this may be the start of the move of the music industry to a subscription service, a change in how music is consumed, charged for and musicians rewarded.

I will watch this area with interest.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Posting pictures to Twitter from an iPhone a hassle

Today I attended a cloud data storage seminar. To make the seminar interesting the organisers had organised a treasure hunt where you took pictures of six objects and post the pictures using Twitter. I'd previously used Twitter but didn't find it offered me much value at the time. I decided to give the competition a go. Take a couple of pictures during the breaks, what could be easier.

As it turned out it was amazingly difficult. Taking the pictures was easy. Setting up a Twitter account was easy. But Tweeting the pictures didn't work with Twitter's app on the iPhone which took quite some time to isolate and identify. Trying another app showed the Twitter app was the issue. However even this second app only worked for every second picture and the other pictures had to be done again. To ensure it worked I needed to double check all tweets as others would see them. That should not be necessary.

I thought this was a particularly poor experience with Twitter and something I'll avoid exposing my clients to. For me this was a real time waster. I'd have given up, but I felt knowing what was going wrong would enable me to assist clients in the future if they experienced a similar problem.

If you are going to add technologies to your client interaction it is a good idea to test it yourself and also on others around you first. Make sure the technology is easy to use and doesn't get in the way of your message.


- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: If you blog expect your content to be copied.

With the recent post on the Apple iPad 2 (http://justlocal.blogspot.com/2011/06/apple-ipad-2-doesn-work-with-google.html) I noticed within 24 hours my blog (or part of it) had been copied and used by another site. The site purports to report US news and trends. There was no original content on the site and the only purpose I can see for the site is to promote Amazon ads as a affiliate so as to earn commission.

Unfortunately if you’re a blogger, or a business sharing your information and putting in your time and resources to create blog content, the reality is your information will often be copied by others to profit off. You’ll gain no benefit as these sites will rarely link back to your content.

What interested me in this latest post is I really found it interesting to see how a site not only took the content from my site, but then also decided to run it through an automated process to change the words slightly. I suspect in an attempt to make the content sufficiently different so as not to be detected as a copy.

Here is the start of my original content.

For some reason Apple has decided not to deliver the full browser experience for users of the iPad 2 (even if we ignore Flash). I decided to check out Google docs and Microsoft's Office web apps.

Here is the copy which has been modified by another site.

For some reason Apple has resolute not to deliver the full browser experience for users of the iPad 2 (even if we ignore Sparkle). I resolute to check out Google docs and Microsoft's Office web apps.

The word decided had been changed to resolute and the word Flash to Sparkle. Obviously the software product Flash has nothing to do with Sparkle.

In fact whilst the text looked visually similar, if we checked the source code many characters had been changed, perhaps to make a direct text comparison even more difficult. The following is the source code of the copied material on the site.

F&#959r &#1109&#959m&#1077 reason <em>Apple</em> h&#1072&#1109 resolute n&#959t t&#959 deliver th&#1077 full browser experience f&#959r users &#959f th&#1077 <em>iPad 2</em> (even &#1110f w&#1077 ignore Sparkle). I resolute t&#959 check out Google docs &#1072n&#1281 Microsoft&#39;s Office web apps.

The aim of sharing this information is to help others who are blogging and wanting to advance their business on the internet. Few people when they start blogging realise the level of copying on the internet. Most people will feel it is OK to copy a short amount of text and provide a reference back to the site, but that isn’t the way the internet or even many businesses tend to work.

Make sure if you’re providing content via the internet that if it is copied by others and used as their content, you’ll be OK for that to happen. If not you’ll need to put into place a strategy which helps you achieve your objectives.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

 

Apple iPad 2 doesn't work with Google docs or Microsoft Office web apps

For some reason Apple has decided not to deliver the full browser experience for users of the iPad 2 (even if we ignore Flash). I decided to check out Google docs and Microsoft's Office web apps. Whilst it is possible to purchase word processing, spreadsheeting and presentation apps, if you're a person using multiple computers (iPad, iPhone, desktop, notebook etc.) then having your document stuck in one device is very limiting.

To my surprise the online applications made available by Google and Microsoft are not useable at all on the iPad 2. Even my $400 netbook handles them without a problem.

My advice is if you are going to purchase an iPad 2, test all your current applications and make sure you know what you're getting and what you are losing. What the iPad does do it does well, but you'll be surprised at what you think it should be able to do but it doesn't.


- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Apple Keynote, Pages, Numbers now available for Apple iPhone and iPod touch.

1 June 2011—Apple® today announced that its groundbreaking iWork® productivity apps, Keynote®, Pages® and Numbers®, are now available for iPhone® and iPod touch®, as well as iPad®. ... Read More

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au