Why the iPad makes it clear it's time for Apple to move it's iTunes storage to the clouds

This isn't a review of the actual iPad device since, like 99.9% of people, I don't have one yet.  Whether or not I get one now, later (after gen 2 appear) or never is yet to be seen.  The review by people who's opinions I trust and respect is impressive and I do believe that some form of multitasking is in the offing with a later OS upgrade, remember how long it took for 'cut and paste' to appear?

What seems to be really obvious is that the iPad has been aimed less as a MacBook or even netbook replacement, but rather as an all-in-one content consumption device and that where the rub lies.

For me, at least, to be truely useful a content consumption device needs to be able to download content when I'm away from my 'mother ship', i.e. my home PC.  That the iPad will do that is unquestionable, however, what happens when I need to delete content to load more (I agree with most that the 16 gig model seems to be the 'sweet spot') ?  I'm referring to downloading movies/books to the unit for trips (I'm a road warrior and have spent weeks away from home in the recent months in hotel rooms etc.).  If, while getting ready to board the plane, I realize that I forgot to reload a book I wanted to read again what happens? On a Kindle or Nook the content is a few button pushes away since the companies who provide the content keep a record of my purchases and let me redown load them at will, on the iPad it seems I'm out of luck.  Likewise if I load up on 3 or 4 movies while on the road and then decide to remove them to make room for more unless I wait until I get back I've lost the content forever (this is based on past experience with my iPod touch, audio books downloaded and then deleted from the device before syncing cannot be reloaded later unless I repurchase them or go crying to Apple that I deleted the content by mistake).  For Apple to maintain a user database of purchases via the device is something they've proved that they can do easily since an app bought on a Touch or iPhone can be deleted and then redownloaded without being charged again.  For them to extend this to to their music/audiobook/e-book/movie library would not seem to be too far of a stretch especially in these days of wifi enabled devices.  This is especially true for people who are not 'tech savvy', right now the iPad seems to be a great device for people who don't want a pc/iMac but rather just a simple device to do e-mail, browse the web and consume content.  If the iPad needs to be synced to a PC/iMac to save the content the advantage for them is lost.  This came home to me with my mother, I'd given her a Kindle and she called me one day in a panic saying that she'd accidentally deleted a book, I told her don't worry, talked her thru the content manager and got her book back with all the bookmarks intact.  On an iPad, at least for right now, I'd have to tell her she's out of luck and would need to repurchase the content if she hadn't synce to a local computer.

Please be clear, I'm not asking Apple to store content I've purchased elsewhere (Audible, recordedbooks.com etc.) nieither Amazon nor Barnes & Noble do that either, but rather allow for the iPad to become a device that, with the exception of OS updates, might NEVER need to be synced to a computer.  This, in my opinion would make the device an ideal content consumption unit.

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MacMillan trying to impose an "Apple Tax" on other E-Book readers?

It appears that another shot has been fired in the latest E-book reader wars.  On at 5:30 pm EST, January 30 John Sargent published a letter via Publishers Marketplace, explaining that they were, at least temporarily, terminating their sales arrangements with Amazon. http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/macmillan_30jan10.html

In the letter Mr. Sargent explaned their position which appears to be "We wish to raise the price of your e-books to the same price we will be getting from Apple.  Since you'll be getting more money that way we don't see what the issue is."  Apparently Mr. Bezos and the rest of the Amazon staff replied with a resounding "No" and proceded to say "Ok, we don't want to raise prices to our customers.  If this means we can't sell you books, so be it"  Amazon then proceeded to remove all MacMillan books, in any format except audio, from their website.  In fact you can still order MacMillan books thru Amazon since they are honoring their comittments to third party sellers who supply MacMillan books.

Why did this happen? In my opinion this is an attempt by Macmillan, and possibly Apple, to impose the "Apple Tax" on electronic books and remove a competitive advantage from Amazon and the Kindle.  From the beginning I was a bit amazed that Apple planned to charge up to fifty percent more that other e-book sellers.  Considering the initial price of the iPad will be higher than the majority of e-book readers it would have made more sense for Apple to price e-book content more competitvely.  Since they apparently won't do that the plan seems to be raise the prices to all the other retailers.  I do not know if this is a decision made soley by MacMillan or was 'forced' on them by the content agreement with Apple. The whole event feels like it will turn in to a similar event as the Google Voice debacle where AT&T said it was Apple's decision and Apple said it was AT&T's request. I wonder what the documents will show if this case comes to litigation?

Personally I applaud Jeff Bezos and the rest of Amazon for having the courage to take a potential huge revenue loss in order to honor their committment to their customers and keep the prices as promised (i.e. $9.99 for NY Times best sellers).  I believe that this decision on MacMillan's part is shortsighted and will backfire on them.  Right now they have lost a MAJOR retailer for their content and it will be at least 2 months or longer before they can hope for any significant revenue from Apple iBook sales.

I hope that this is resolved soon but also hope that other e-book distributors such as Barnes and Noble take the same road as Amazon and refuse to allow MacMillan to raise the price of content to readers.

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What is required for any successful textbook e-book reader including the iPad

Much has been made of the potential for e-book readers such as the iPad or Kindle to replace traditional textbooks.The e-book has many potential advantages over traditional books these include:

• E-books can be produced less expensively
• E-books can be updated more frequently and corrections issued making it less likely for a text to become 'out of date'
• Multimedia options can be added to the text enhancing the learning experience.

With those advantages in mind it is now time to consider what needs to be done to make a successful e-textbook.

The first thing to remember is that most textbooks at the high school level and beyond, with the exception of some literature, and sociology books, were never meant to be 'read' but rather to be studied and used as references. If you need an example of what I mean all you need to do is pick up a high school math or science text and try to read it. In even the best written textbooks any attempt to read them in a linear fashion is doomed to fail. It is a format which requires continual 'flipping back and forth" between pages to review examples, look up formulas, charts and tables as well as the need to make annotations and highlight important passages. You also need the abilty to skim textbooks to pick out points and issues you wish to review. As an author and co-author of medical textbook chapters (my latest published one was as the co-author of a chapter on quality management issues in the The A.S.P.E.N. Nutrition Support Core Curriculum: A Case-Based Approach - The Adult Patient) and a reviewer of articles for peer reviewed medical journals I have become acquainted with the requirement of what makes a good book chapter or article. 

I have had a Kindle since soon after it's release and, besides using it as my primary fiction and non-fictional reader,  used it's 'download' function to put on textbook chapters and articles I was reviewing for publication.  Very rapidly I realized that the format was not acceptable for technical textbooks.  Although it does have the ability to 'highlight' and annotate it fails in the ability to 'put  your thumb in' at a reference you need to continually refer back to to understand the content presented. Skimming is also an issue due to the slight delay between 'page turns' which tends to break your concentration. I have looked at the specs of other readers including the Nook and so far none of them include these necessary funtions.

When I head about the iPad and it's proposed ability to have a e-book store I started to think what would required to make it a successful e-textbook reader.  In my opinion these include:

• The ability to highlight and annotate (not shown on the demo but I can't believe that Apple would leave that basic functionality out)
• The ability to bookmark pages and to rapidly retrieve them this would be greatly benefited by the creation of a 'bookmark' sidebar similar to the sidebar available on the Adobe Reader so that you could quickly 'flip' back and forth to review references, charts, etc. To date this functionality does not exist in any e-book reader
  
• The ability to have a pop-up calculator for technical purposes (N.B.  the iPhone/Touch does not have this ability, to use the calculator you have to close the current app. I would presume that would work in the same fashion on the iPad which, at present uses the iPhone 3.x firmware)

Items which would be 'nice to have' would include

• The ability to 'tear out' charts, tables etc, and park them on the screen so that they would be rapidly available (this would, of course, require a larger screen or a smaller book area)
• The ability to link to a webpage in a pop-up/out to review on-line content (in the case of the iPad this would most likely mandate flash support for the viewing of on-line media an option which we have already been told does not exist)
• The abiity to view imbedded multimedia

I would hope that the designers of the i-Book reader on the iPad have taken in mind these considerations in mind.  If the textbooks presented on the iPad are just 'electronic copies' of print books I believe it will be difficult for public school systems, based on their current several year cycle for textbook acquision (books are not replaced yearly but only where there is a change sufficient to require the new expense) to justify the purchase of hundreds of iPads and e-textbooks.  It is true that over time this would likely occur but does the iPad have sufficient other functionality to survive for the 3 - 4 year time period required for the schools to require new books and to justify it's purchase.  For college students who are responsible, in the large part, for purchasing their own textbooks the time cycle does not apply but the expense does.  Remember that many college students already have 'smart phones' and MP3 players and are 'required' to have laptops so that they do not need the iPad to replace those functionalities. Particularlity since the iPad will not replace a laptop in it's current configuration. The e-books will have to be priced competitively with used texts otherwise cost considerations would mandate the purchase of the 'dead tree' book.

I believe that the iPad has potential for a textbook replacement but not in it's current configuration and with the limitations imposed on it by the use of the iPhone OS.

 

 

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What Apple needs to do to make the iPad a truely functional medical device

Disclaimer: This post is based on the publically released specs of the new iPad.  I have not personally seen the device nor used it.  I have, however used, and continue to use an iPod Touch and have experience with the iPhone, MacBook Pro and iMac.

Like many others I watched the Apple annoucement with interest.  I had heard many reports about potential medical uses for the new device and was eager to see what was being released.  Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by what was released.

On the positive side the size and shape of the device is right to be easily carried from room to room and will easily fit into a messenger sized bag.  The screen is the right size to examine X-rays and other radiographic studies and the listed resolution is more than adequate to produce easily interpretable pictures.  In addition the docking port opens up a wide range of possibilities for monitoring devices to download patient information.

With that being said here is a list of the issues that I believe need to be resolved

1. OS 3.x is not adequate for such as device.  I have, over the years, written multiple patient databases for use in calcuations and tracking and have come to the conclusion that there is no way, at present, to write an all encompasing patient case application which will cover all needs. 
   This is important to realize because in the case of OS 3 multitasking is not fully possible (push notifications & some background processes will run).  Health care practitioners will need to simultaneously run several applications to do data acquision, calculations and then using 'cut and paste' enter the data into the medical record.  Under OS 3, in it's current configuration, each application closes when switching to the next one making this extremely difficult to perform the switching back and forth needed to easily encorporate data into  the master record. 
2. To date I have been unsuccessful in getting either an iPhone or iPod Touch to be able to log into our institutions VPN which uses a Juniper Network, Citrix server configuration. No such issues exist for any netbook/notebook/desktop using Linux/OS X.x/Windows.  This issue will need to be corrected in the software before the device will be usable as a remote access portal.
3. A touch screen raises issues of infection.  When a health care provider makes physical contact with patients proper infection control mandate that adequate barrier precautions be taken.  These can range from simple hand washing before and after contact any provider who makes contact with patients will have to continually clean their hands or change gloves to use a touch screen.  A stylus with  a disposable cover would solve this issue but based on Apple's history such accessories will need to be supplies by a third party.

I would need to try out the virtural keyboard before making any comments but a keyboard will be essential for the entering of patient data into records and the keyboard dock does not meet the need.

With the above comments in mind and before trying one in the local Apple store at present I have no plans to purchase the device for use as a medical tool until the above issues are addressed.

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