Phil's post in reply to mine was incredibly funny (http://www.nzmac.com/community-blog/why-darryn-got-the-tech-pundits-wrong.html). In it he accuses me of not reading what the pundits wrote (which I did) and then goes into a tirade that proves he never really read my post but skimmed through it and had a go at me for what he perceived I had written.

My post was purely quashing the negative comments that the pundits wrote about the iPad that were largely baseless in the first place. Many of the pundits had never seen the device so their comments were flame bait at best. Their posts were largely based on rumours that they themselves made up to get hits. They were wrong for saying the iPad failed to live up to expectations when those expectations were made up and not based on anything tangible. Phil however completely and utterly removed ALL context from my post and then made his post based on that contextless version of my post.

The context of the post was in the title. The tech pundits were spewing all sorts of rubbish that completely removed everything about existing history of iPhone OS based devices from the last three years to make it sound like the iPad is a bland device that will fail.

In my last post I surmised what the probable specs of an Apple tablet would be while also showing why Apple has a great shot at making it all work. But a tablet is only going to be as good as the software that runs on it and will only work if people see a use for it so this post is going to look at what the Apple tablet will do if it exists at all.

There are two rumours about the name of the tablet device... iSlate or Magic Slate. The latter actually is a better name in my not so humble opinion. But the name points to something bigger than just what it’s trying to name. The word “slate” conjures up the idea of a blackboard (screw you PC thugs) which of course gives the idea of writing. It’s this, mixed with the rumours about Apple’s iWork.com that provides the key as to what Apple is trying to achieve with the tablet.

Apple’s iWork application is a Mac suite in the same vain as Microsoft’s Office but it also has an online collaboration aspect since early 2009. The big problem with iWork.com was that it has been beta for the last year and also lacks many features but in its current form works well with the desktop application. iWork.com however may become more than just a collaboration tool for other iWork users. Currently you can share documents with Windows users by way of Word/Excel or PDF documents but no one can edit them online. There appears to be a move towards online editing in some form that resembles Google Docs but with a much more advanced interface a la MobileMe Mail. Throw in a mobile version of iWork for iPhone/iPod Touch/mythical tablet and you have document editing on the fly and access to documents on the fly and you’ve got a documentation system that can give you the information wherever you are whenever you need it.

Documentation on portable devices has often been poorly done with some exceptions. Documents To Go has long been a favourite of mine since the days when I had a Palm and I currently use it on my iPhone as well because it is such a nice tool to be able to edit documents on the fly and then synch back. The big problem I have with Documents To Go is that it doesn’t support the iWork format which is what I use all the time for my document editing, especially spreadsheets which I often use. It also requires a separate application to transfer those documents onto my iPhone and back again. If Apple produced a mobile version of iWork that stored everything on iWork.com then you’d eliminate the need for synching all the time because it would just work on documents stored online (a backup would be stored on the local machines though for security).

The other facet of documentation will more than likely come from Apple getting into Books. Amazon has the Kindle and Sony has the eBook Reader and there is another device called the Nook but these are single purpose devices that aren’t really that nice to use. On the iPhone there are great apps like Classics which has a beautiful interface that feels like you’re actually reading a book but there is also Stanza, BookShelf, Eucalyptus all of which have nice interfaces. I like Classics because it doesn’t feel like a computer program and that’s the problem with reading on a screen. It doesn’t move like paper it moves like a long list of text and if you’ve ever read a long list it gets tiresome and boring and you switch off. Classics however has an animation when you turn the page and the text doesn’t scroll so it really feels like you’re reading a book. Now, if Apple developed something similar and had books as purchase options from the iTunes store then Apple would have conquered the entire media sector. This isn’t a bad thing because it would force competitors to buck up their ideas instead of being stagnant in their approaches to things, especially media. Now while a device like a tablet will never replace physical books and papers and magazines it does give people more than over priced options (I mean how many books really are worth $30?) and therefore people would buy more. It happened with music and movies so there’s nothing to suggest it won’t happen with books.

But it won’t stop there. It seems to make sense that Apple will release mobile versions of the iLife suite as well. Imagine a keyboard on the screen that lets you make music in GarageBand wherever you are. Imagine being able to blog in iWeb wherever you are (handy for my site). Imagine editing your videos or keeping all your photos organised wherever you are all from a mobile device rather than carrying around a bulky laptop or being forced to do that sort of work when you get back to your desktop.

The potential for a tablet device really is huge but it needs to be done well. Apple has experience in turning sloppy technology into game changers as can be seen with the iPod, iPhone, and iPod Touch. But Apple is a software company above all else, it just happens to make the hardware that goes with it. As such Apple’s software is screaming out for a mobile outing which I think Apple will deliver on. When it delivers it will show Microsoft, Palm and Google how cloud based computing should be done. This comes not because I’m a Mac fanboi or anything like that but because of pure hard evidence. Apple has time and time again changed the way we interact with the media we have today and I can’t wait to see what this year has in store for us.

Have we lost the ability to question? Has computing removed our ability to get the information we are really looking for?

 

My questions come from the complete waste of time that is search engines. We often resort to these when trying to find information but ninety percent of the time we get information that is so completely removed from what we want. The problem is search engines do a really bad job of searching.

So my flatmate left over the weekend and before doing so he got the Phone/Internet/TV cut off and due to a stuff up on my part I can't join Telstra for another couple of years (long story). So I haven't had the Internet for a week or so nor have I had a phone (not that that gets used much anyway).

So I took the plunge and tried Orcon and ended up speaking to a chap by the name of Stefan. The whole process was smooth, quick, and helpful. All my questions were answered and although for some reason the NZMAC promo code didn't work he organised to get it added to my account anyway.

The product knowledge was awesome and when I enquired about the modem being used on my own Airport Extreme he confirmed it wasn't a problem and even confirmed they had Mac support. In fact every question I had Stefan was able to answer and the only things he had to put me on hold for was the promo code and to double check on the services that were available in my area.

 

The MacBook Air is an interesting development. Sure it's been done before but the thing that is interesting more than what the MacBook Air has is what it has left out. The DVD drive.

 

I just wanted to say Thank You so much for those that took the time to complete the site survey. The results confirmed many of the things I had in my own head about the site and also the fact I hadn't communicated other things clearly.

It also pointed out the dilemma web designers face daily...more news/less clutter...more functionality/simplified pages...more news/less text....etc etc....you get what I mean? I've always said that NZMac.com is a work in progress and 5 years on, that's still the case....but I thought I would share the plan for this year and how your feedback helped.

So I went to the Geeks, Gadgets, and Games event at the Michael Fowler Centre on Wednesday and I have to say it was a great night.

I met Jo aka Mangee so "Hi once again, nice to put a face to the name and thanks for helping to run such a cool event."

The night basically consisted of 5 speakers. I found the first two to be quite boring. It was all about what they and their companies are doing and how to make money. Frankly I don't care about that so I was biased against them. I want to learn about technology and how it can be applied effectively not how I can make m

I don’t know what made me do it, but I typed in the old www.macguide.co.nz address a few moments ago...and got a pleasant surprise...and then got confused....and then got angry...and then got spam.

It’s great to see the Macguide site finally come alive, although the redirection to a domain called “woop.tv” had me freaking out a bit. On the surface, this looked like the Macguide site I was expecting....Apple and Mac news etc.

Obviously even though it is early days, I was curious to see who was using the site and noticed a number of blog entries. Str

It's not been a great time for NZMac.com over the past month or so. More often than not, you've experienced a message that the site is offline. It's also meant hours of work, lack of sleep (Palmerston North is very quiet at 3am by the way) and new additional costs for me in order to get the site back up and running to the standard that I set for myself and that is required for site users. Things are going really well with the move to a Virtual Private Server system, but it's not all over in terms of glitches. That said, I consider most of the issues are resolved (or close to) and like life, this site will always be a "work in progress".

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for your patience during this time, to thank the advertisers for their understanding and supportive comments, and to ask one simple favour - your continued support.

This is not a plea for donations or for funds...well not directly anyway ;-)

In the past month many costs associated with the site have had to increase. Hosting costs have gone up and are now close to triple of what I had been paying a couple of months back before the site started getting IP attacks. These costs are going to be ongoing. It's been an amazing learning experience, but an expensive one at that....and one I could have done without...but that's life!

Completely ignoring the launch of the New Zealand iTunes Store and online Apple store for a moment...2006 was an impressive year for Apple. With the smooth launch and transition to Intel Macs (it seems so much longer than 12 months ago that the first was released) and the promotion by Apple of products such as Parallels on your Mac, Apple is (as ever) evolving beautifully.

Then factor into the mix local news in the December launch of an iTunes Store (finally!), lower prices than we had experienced (thanks in part of the new online store), and it really has been an amazing year of Apple news and of forth-coming promise.