Tag: apple

Commodity Devices?

Microsoft recently announced their tablet would be donated to 10,000 educators attending this year’s ISTE conference and the device would now be sold for $200 in the education market. You wonder whether this is a way to get rid of inventory that will not sell, a clever long-term marketing strategy, or both. Anyway, these announcements got me thinking about why it would matter which device I use and which I would recommend. Have we reached the point that price should be the deciding variable?

This question has frequently been framed as whether tech hardware (e.g., laptop, tablet) has become a commodity. My interpretation of this term, given my ag background, is that the value of different products is roughly equivalent (e.g., corn, milk) so the expectation is the cost to purchase should be very similar and because of competition low. A Mac Pro would not fall into this classification. The question, if you are an Apple advocate, is whether the term should be applied to the iPad and say the Air.

I assume the coming days will see comparisons of the iPad, Nexus, and Surface. I do not own a Surface, but I have both iPads and a Nexus. My consumption and production needs can be accomplished with either. I still find the iPad a little easier to use and there are apps I prefer on this device. I admit in nearly all cases there are alternatives or I assume developers will eventually get around to making unique apps cross platform should the number of competing products reach a critical level.

What I happen to value now is that a device get me to the things I want to do in the cloud. Frequently, I need to work with Google apps, but this access could also involve Feedly, Evernote, DropBox, Box, Flickr, Diigo and probably a few others that do not come immediately to mind. Both Apple and Microsoft seem to be attempting to ramp up their cloud presence – the cross-platform opportunity to use iWork apps and Microsoft Office 365 seem promising (as long as the work better than Mobile Me). I bothers me a bit I do not see the revenue stream in all cases, but I leave that to the companies to work out.

For those of us who work to support classroom use of technology, a commodity mentality would discourage such a great focus on the identification of the next new thing and a greater focus on creative and productive ideas for using a core set of tools. Consider the popular conference sessions during which several well-known presenters attempt to wow the audience by demonstrating services and devices few know about. Entertaining, but not that productive. Interesting activities for classroom use would end up being far more helpful.

That all sounds like we are moving into an era of DULL. What could be wrong with commodity devices? The concern I think is the lack of motivation to improve capabilities rather than reduce cost? You might imagine this as the Dell vs. Apple approach. Where will the profit margins necessary for innovation come from?

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We are from Apple and we are here to help

I am preparing for a presentation that concerns the hidden potential in Kindle services. In preparing to discuss the options for viewing documents uploaded to Kinde (e.g., pdfs of content I might want to read on various devices), I discover that in addition to the “mail to my special Kindle email address” option, there is now a PC or Mac app dedicated to this purpose. This sounded more practical than remembering the weird email address I am supposed to use.

I download the app to my Mac (running the newest and greatest OS) and I see the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I admit this confused me and it took some time to figure out why. I interpreted the message to indicate that I could not download the app. This seemed to be what was happening. Actually, I was downloading the app, but the message was generated when the OS then automatically attempted to launch the app after download. I was also confused by the message itself. Somehow I assumed that Apple would be aware of Amazon and Kindle products.

OK – here is what you may find useful.

Should you receive such a message when downloading software from an unknown developer, open security preferences and rest the download option to download from anywhere. This may be a bit deceptive – look in downloads and see if the offending download is not already there and simply needs to be opened. Once, finished reset your security settings. You make your own decision regarding whether from app store or from identified developers means different things,

 

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Hardware, platforms and corporate strategies

I just purchased a Google Nexus 7. I bought the 8 gig version because my prepurchase investigations had convinced me that it would be all I would require for my personal needs and because I have multiple devices in the same “space”. The following image displays several of my options (iPad, Nexus 7, Galaxy Nexus). I do not really need all of these devices. Perhaps owning all of this stuff is a bad thing, but I write about the applications of technology and I prefer to really use the devices and services I write about rather than parrot what others say. I have been an Apple advocate since the beginning. However I also believe healthy competition is key to innovation and fair treatment of consumers. I wanted to understand for myself if a $200 device can get the job done even if I can afford the iPad. I need to spend more time and I realize it depends on what “the job” is, but so far the Nexus 7 satisfies my needs for browsing, email, reading, etc. Early on the knock on the iPad was that it was a consumption device. This was a short sighted view, but if most of your activity is about consumption or if you have another device for production, my first reaction is that a $200 device works.

One of the activities I tried on the iPad, the Nexus 7 and the Galaxy Nexus was reading a Kindle book. Ironically given the focus of this post, the book was Age of the Platform. It is an interesting read examining company strategies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google) to compete for our attention and dollars. My take on the book (after a couple of chapters) is that it explores the distinctions between and interdependencies among hardware, platform, and content. Perhaps it might be claimed that Apple has created a great platform to sell hardware. Google has explored hardware to encourage various companies to develop similar hardware products and encourage access to the Google platform. Amazon offers content, needs a platform to do so, and puts just enough into hardware to keep customer options open. Facebook is pretty much all platform.

More and more as a content creator, I am a fan of companies that prioritize the platform without attempting to control it. I do not want a given company to control hardware, content, and platform. We are finishing a book (actually a book and other stuff) and while creating a content product for the Apple platform (an ibook) would have been a relatively easy translation of our content, such a product would leave out those with other hardware. This is why I am pleased to have had the experience with the Nexus 7 that I have had. I see tablets as a big deal in education, but I hope the Amazon/Google model of flexibility in the hardware that can be used to experience content (Kindle reader) will emerge as the hardware, platform, corporate strategy of choice.

I have nothing to say about Facebook.

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The legend steps down

Most probably expected today’s announcement from Apple Computer and Steve Jobs was coming. Mr Jobs was obviously in failing health and even with access to the best health care available his appearance seemed to indicate that he was struggling.

Jobs has always been a personal hero despite what seemed to be an obnoxious personality in more recent times. Perhaps this is what intensity and a refusal to settle for less look like close up.

Watch the video by Walt Mosberg at the end of this piece

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Initial Comment on the iPad

Everyone who has an iPad seems already to have posted something to explain their initial impressions. I guess this should not be a surprise – there seemed to be a great deal of commentary, both pro and con, before anyone actually had the opportunity to use one themselves. Why would this change when the iPad became available. I have been trying to determine what I might add based on my brief experience with the device.

How about this – a pre-experience issue within the educational community concerned whether the device would encourage production as well as consumption. In other words, it seemed obvious that the device would be a great way to read books, explore web resources, and watch videos. However, information consumption according to some is over emphasized in education – for some reason listening to lectures is too passive and even reading books seems to be on the outs. Man – seems like just a few years ago we were worried that Johnny could not read and now we are concerned that learning from books is over emphasized. Experiences relayed from experienced and recognized authorities are possibly less valuable than personal experiences. This post is not about this “discussion”.

What about the production capabilities of the iPad? Well, it is widely known that you cannot take pictures or video. You can record audio. I was disappointed that I was unable to write in Google docs and I am not sure why. You can actually enter data in a spreadsheet (use the desktop and not the Google Mobile option), but I cannot find a way to enter text in Google docs. This disappoints me – I do most of my writing in docs. You can do gmail, Twitter apps, and blog entries (with one of my blog apps I could enter text in HTML, but not WYSIWYG mode). I do not understand these inconsistencies. I have been impressed by Pages (the $10 word processing app from Apple).

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Here is a comment I have not seen addressed elsewhere. What about the ease of entering text? You can add an external keyboard, but what about the build in keyboard? I find that it was as easy and possibly easier to enter text using the on screen keyboard than from the keyboard of my netbook. Neither, in my experience, is as easy as using a standard keyboard. I had a hunch about why this was my experience so I lined up the iPad with my Lenovo S10. I would suggest that the iPad keys are larger and more widely spaced on the iPad. If you look at the image I have provided, you should be able to see why this is the case. The netbook keyboard is a bit wider, but the netbook “wastes” this extra space and more on keys the iPad does not have. The letters on the iPad are actually larger and more widely spaced.

Do note the size of my hand relative to either keyboard and it is probably obvious why I do better on a standard keyboard. Both the iPad and netbooks force me out of my well practiced keyboarding style. Still the iPad is a reasonable device for text input at least equivalent to a netbook and superior to mobile handheld devices (smartphones) some are willing to argue are effective in an educational setting.

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