interesting iPad usage stats, consistent with my own experience

There are some interesting stats in the attached article on iPad use - not very promising as the future of mobile computing.  My own experience is consistent with use as a media device and for reading the paper and magazines.

I watch movies and TV shows when I am on a train or plane, on the treadmill, working out, etc.  This is probably my number one use for the device.  The iPad is clearly a better iPod than the iPod.

I also use if for some web browsing but this is difficult since sites with flash are a problem.  Apple's claim that they provide access to the whole internet is not remotely true.  Too many sites use flash, not just for video, but for menus, etc.  It is far too frustrating an experience to get hung up by this missing functionality.

I use the WSJ app a few times a week, when it is not as easy to read the actual paper.  I love the quality of this app.  I also love that they integrated the iPad app with the website so that articles saved on either go into the shared folders you have in your online account.

Magazines are also very readable on this device, more so then on the Kindle.  This is because you can scale the pdf's on the iPad and can not on the Kindle, color is also a key differentiator here.  The problem here is that unlike the functionality of cycling TV shows to and from the device as you finish them, many of the readers do not have this functionality so this is less then a smooth experience to manage.  Of the various apps for magazine, I like Good Reader the most.

I find book reading to be cumbersome on the iPad, reading on the Kindle is a far better experience.  The iPad weighs twice as much and the glare of the screen bothers my eyes over time.  Since I tend to sit down and read for a few hours at a time, this is a real issue.  It is also unreadable in the sun which is not an issue for the Kindle.

Here is the article with the stats:

http://www.mobiadnews.com/?p=4850

Here is a link to the Amazon Kindle Ad:

http://www.youtube.com/v/HGmRKSds9OY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

-hb

Good place to start would be an intro to Android

I figured a good start would be some background for people that know little or nothing about the Android phones at this point.  There seem to be lots of guy oriented commercials (with a techno angle) from either the manufacturer of a particular model or the carrier but not a lot of specifics other than there is a world of apps ie: the rotating globe of the market place.

Yahoo News' Gadget Hound did a pretty good job on the Android basics at the link below. So instead of reinventing, I will provide a link to their fine work on the basics.  My goal was to highlight usability and differences based on what I encounter in my use of the Apple 3GS and 4 (on the iPhone side) and htc Incredible (on the Android side).  Perhaps I'll even touch on a few iPad items as well.  That said, when there are other resources or tidbits I catch in my daily reading and browsing I'll post links as well.

Bullets 4 and 5 do a pretty good job on the Why or Why Not for an Android phone vs iPhone and I will go into more specifics on this over my next couple of posts.

Yahoo News - The Gadget Hound For Android newbies: 10 questions, answered

In an age of buy buy buy, is there a future in reuse, recycle for that which is otherwise lost?

In last Sunday's NY Times Magazine (didn't get to this week's yet), the back page article brought back some memories for me, both good and sad. The good were in line with the dispose, find it, take it and reuse it thoughts of the author. What our parents "recycled' from someone else when we were kids, be it from curbside, an old style flea market, the dump - one person's garbage or even just what didn't work for them anymore, could fill a need for another and/or even become a treasure (perhaps with a little work). When we were teenagers and young adults going out on our own, every possible "gift" was well appreciated whether it fit in with the decor or not and many items, especially in the furniture category made it's rounds, many times even among friends. There was a nostalgic feeling each time you visited a friend and sat on your old couch to watch tv way past the time it was useful or the center piece of perhaps your own apartment or house, living room, tv room, etc. I still miss a particular recliner and especially one glide rocking chair that were my favorites, perhaps currently somewhere at my sister's house or beyond.

A Discarded Chair Finds Its Way Home Again

Intro - iPhone 4 v htc Incredible

Ok, so it has been about a month since I upgraded my 3GS to an iPhone 4 and a little less than that for my entrée into the Android world with the htc Incredible. This blog is not intended to bash one platform or the another or even one phone or the other or for me to actually pick a winner. As a company executive with experience in small, US public and global public companies with a software developer background,, my goal is more to note and perhaps explore the differences from a slightly different angle than just a cell phone or smart phone user without similar experience would otherwise. My hope is that this will inform others and create and engaging dialog that will either lead to improvements or further evolution of the platforms whether from the platform developers themselves or independent developers looking to make a living, perhaps one app, a million users at a time. With the opening up of the cell phone as a development platform it is an exciting time for both cell phone users and developers alike. This is a new frontier for innovation with only the smallest possible capabilities yet explored. It is an exciting time in mobile computing with so much at stake for all the players as they fight it out for market share and platform presence. Blackberry, Microsoft, Apple iOS, Google Android, Perhaps even Snac will help us to utilize and evolve threes tools in ways previously never envisioned and even today not entirely foreseen. Let's see where this takes us.

Harvey

I already know what I know, so I am not interested in what you think and have to say ...

Tom Siegfried had a great comment in the July 31st Science News (in the magazine, but the site for them is (www,sciencenews.org). I love this magazine and have been a reader for a long time. I love that it's today topical and cover's what's out there as well as doing their own stories. It comes in a short format magazine, but in depth reporting and stories with links to background and more info on their site should you want to explore more on the various topics they report and write about. Anyway, in his editorial he said that "science is not the sum of past research as recorded in textbooks, but the active process of continuing to question nature even if those books say the answers are already in." He was by example talking about recent research finding that the proton may be not as big as has been thought in well-established scientific theories. and it's potential effects on what we currently believe. This was a timely read for me because this exact topic came up while visiting a friend of mine in the hospital last week. We were talking about scientist's lack of interest in ideas that buck the norm (or as Tom put it, what's "in the textbooks"). Bruce recently asked whether we were living in a computer simulation in his book "Reality is Virtual". His goal was to get the discussion going on the science behind his explorations into this idea. It is not like there isn't anyone asking, thinking about or discussing this topic since a search on Google will return numerous sites and dialog on this (although interestingly, not Bruce's). But at a quick glance, nothing mainstream science. It seems to me that we need to keep our minds open and challenge what is 'known' because it may not be what we think. There are other examples of this Bruce and I discussed, in 1915 when Alfred Wegener proposed his theory of Continental Drift (plate tectonics 'proved' in the 1960's), and more recently (1982 but recognized in 2005 with a Noble Price) Dr. Barry Marshall's discovery that ulcers can be caused by H. pylori. and the painful way he went about to to prove it when no one would listen.

the internet never forgets - thought provoking reading ...

The more I read The New York Times Magazine, the more I like it. Perhaps it was because I slowed down a bit while suffering through injury the last few weeks, perhaps it was the med's, who knows; but Jeffrey Rosen's "The End Of Forgetting" article seems so relevant for all of us. Though many of us have discussed some off these topics regarding our kid's posting without thinking about the bigger picture which they don't of course yet fully understand, we too must be aware. NYT keep up the good work.

kept telling myself i'd get my new blog setup

i kept telling myself i'd blog when i have my new blog up, as part of my site. just have not been able to get it done and can't keep saving stuff to post later.