May 2010 – Page 3

On The Box

The television and film industry has always been a bit of mystery to me. It seems to me that people have ideas for programmes, write them up and convince someone in a studio to do a pilot. Then they take that pilot and shop it around some distributors and if they get a bite then that convinces the studio to make the rest of the production. Or something. (And yes, I’d love to hear something from people who make television or films to clarify the process)

To be honest, I find it hard to engage 100% with television or movies. I am one of the Tri-Screen Viewers. When watching television, I am also faced by my MacBook Pro/iPad/iPhone. The experience of viewing is enhanced by the presence of these additional screens. Whether I’m hitting IMDB or Wikipedia, the addition of this information source really improves the experience of viewing television. Adding Twitter into the mix creates an interactive medium which changes the whole viewing experience. This has proven to me that television is not a dead medium and there is certainly some traction by integrating social media and relevant tangents to increase viewership.

According to new forecasts from ABI Research, the estimated 19% of flat panel TVs shipping with Ethernet in 2010 will grow to 46% in 2013 – Digitimes

But tonight I’m sitting in our new family room and there’s some nonsense on the box. On Twitter and on some of the other television channels, the world is discussing the current UK election. The polling stations closed half an hour ago and the count has begun.

What I want is a channel-based app, not a company-based app. I want the BBC1 app to contain information on what is on right now. This means when I’m watching BBC1, I launch the app and it not only gives me the option to watch the content live, a la TVCatchup, embedded in the page but also hooks me into Twitter feeds via pre-determined hashtags and provides links to relevant web sites which render ‘in-page’. Tonight it would be displaying the cool election infographics live and while I’m watching Doctor Who, it would show me links to the Tardis Wiki and embed information culled from the continuity about the Weeping Angels or River Song. And the same for BBC2 when I’m watching Wonders of the Solar System or Brian Cox’ new series, Universal (coming not soon enough!), displaying information about Mercury or Pluto or Alpha Centauri. It will allow me to tweet from within the app and it’ll tag my tweets appropriately.

Channel 4 report that web site hits start on Embarrassing Illnesses before the programme ends. There is appetite for this sort of programming and yes, the iPad (and other tablets to come) are the perfect vehicle for this sort of entertainment. And building this sort of thing in HTML5 will mean everyone can view it.

This is the 360° play. It’s not just about building the web site. It’s not just about putting together an iPhone app in support of the programme, it’s about taking advantage of the programming, making the best of the schedule. You know what is on BBC1, you know when shows will be broadcast, you have legions of people who will help you generate the content. You know they’ll be watching, you know they’ll be online and you can help make them watch the programming when it is broadcast rather than time-shifting it by adding in the most compelling content: the social context.

Repeat for all the channels. Give me what I want. I will pay for this.

Adobe is trying to bring in the Feds

From Bloomberg.com U.S. antitrust enforcers are considering an investigation of Apple Inc. following a complaint from Adobe Systems Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. Adobe says Apple is stifling competition by barring developers from using Adobe’s products to create applications for iPhones and iPads, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity … Continue reading “Adobe is trying to bring in the Feds”

From Bloomberg.com

U.S. antitrust enforcers are considering an investigation of Apple Inc. following a complaint from Adobe Systems Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

Adobe says Apple is stifling competition by barring developers from using Adobe’s products to create applications for iPhones and iPads, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to discuss the case.

The complaint triggered discussions between the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission over which agency should review the allegations of anticompetitive behavior, the people said. Neither agency has decided whether it would open an investigation, one person said.

The problem in Adobe’s plea is that Adobe’s products can certainly be used to develop for iPhone and iPad. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, even Premiere, can be used to create compelling content for iPhone and iPads. Acrobat’s PDF format has long been a first class citizen on the iPhone platform and comes into it’s own on the iPad.

Just not Flash.

And for those of us who choose to use Click2Flash, we can see why. As Adobe have failed to deliver a good experience of Flash on Mac OS X and has no plans to enable Flash on iPhone (note their project was for a cross-compiler, not something that would make Flash on iPhone just work).

This is all about control. It’s Apple’s platform, not Adobe’s. Adobe wants to be everywhere and they’ve asked the Feds to force Apple’s hand here.

Keyboards

Fraser Speirs is back in the iPhone app game which is good but the most poignant writing comes from Brian Hayashi on page 2 of the comments. Brian writes: the iPad’s manufacturing process has completely re-engineered 20 key notebook computer sub-assemblies, such as the keyboard, that have resisted further savings from economies of scale so … Continue reading “Keyboards”

Fraser Speirs is back in the iPhone app game which is good but the most poignant writing comes from Brian Hayashi on page 2 of the comments.

Brian writes:

the iPad’s manufacturing process has completely re-engineered 20 key notebook computer sub-assemblies, such as the keyboard, that have resisted further savings from economies of scale so long as we were stuck in the tired old notebook/netbook paradigm.

The keyboard has always been an intricate piece of subassembly (learning from nearly a decade of running an Apple Service Provider and being in IT for nearly a decade before that). It collects the detritus and filth of the human condition, be that skin flakes, hairs, food crumbs, the grime from your fingers. It is a portal to the delicate, moisture-sensitive insides of the computer as evidenced by dozens of hapless but repentant computer owners who have spilled their hot, sticky beverages on the keys and are seeking forgiveness (and repairs). It’s a bed of strange little plastic pebbles that a child or pet can manage to remove irrevocably and leave the owner again repentant but also strangely angry at the repairer

So, frankly, I’m glad to see it disappearing.

Looking at the average PC laptop – there are a myriad of little catches and switches, ports and holes which are just totally redundant for the vast majority of the home computing market.

I’m really glad to see the keyboard going.

Office2 HD testing

I’ve been playing with Office2 this week. It’s a Word/Excel editor for iPad which not only allows the opening of attachments from email but can also connect to MobileMe, Google Docs and other WebDAV instances. I’m also using the Universal version of WordPress on iPad to compose this. Related posts: Rickshaw. Golly, Oh Gosh, Oh … Continue reading “Office2 HD testing”

I’m also using the Universal version of WordPress on iPad to compose this.