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By Dan, February 17, 2010

Hundreds of years ago as good ol’ Johnny was roaming the countryside planting apple seeds he was hoping for a couple of natural things to happen, one of the most important was rain from clouds. Seems that in the end those old clouds turned out to be pretty helpful. Fast forward to today and I think that a new apple is once again looking to the clouds for growth and nourishment.

Back in 1995 my brother came home with an Apple Newton. “This is it, right here, the wave of the future in my hand”, he stated with a large grin. Only 3 weeks later after trying time and time again to get the Newton to recognize his handwriting, he returned it to the store. Seems like a lot of other folks did the same thing. After many updates and incarnations Apple finally put the Newton to rest in 1998.

Now, almost 12 years later, Apple jumps back into the pad world, but this time they have the benefit of wireless, great iPod/iTouch technology and an amazing App store to help it along.

I have to admit that I was just a bit disappointed when in reality this thing that I have been waiting twelve years for, turned out to be just a giant iTouch. I was really hoping for more.

It took me a while before I started to think not just about the here and now but also look into the future, or should I say look up into the clouds. Cloud computing is all the rage right now (“look ma, I’m working in the clouds”), so why should I be disappointed that the iPad doesn’t have an OS – does it really need an OS?

If everything is going to the clouds (think web servers all over the world) and all I need to work in this new arena is a web browser, why would I not have everything that I need right there on an iPad? So, that’s my question, I don’t really have an answer to it yet, but come April I am going to fork out $499 trying to find out.

Sure, I think the iPad could be cool, but I also think it would be a lot cooler if it would finally recognize my brothers handwriting. I may be waiting another 12 years for that.

A litte bit about the iPad:

The iPad is essentially a giant iPod Touch: aluminum-backed, half-inch thin, with a 10-inch screen surrounded by a shiny black border. At the bottom, there’s the standard iPod/iPhone connector and the trademark single Home button. It will be available in models ranging from $499 (16 gigs of memory, Wi-Fi) to $830 (64 gigs of memory, Wi-Fi and 3G cellular). I’m hoping to have mine right before April fools day.

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By Dan, January 25, 2010

Ah, the lost art of actually making something somewhat intuitive.

Is it just me or is could some companies really use an interface designer? Take for example the case of my newest extron “touchlink” touch screen AV room control system. Now don’t get me wrong, this is a really cool product that when finished should do some great things with the “touch” of a button.

I consider myself somewhat reasonably educated about AV technology, but after almost 12 hours of frustration and only few “ah-ha” moments I am beginning to think that I may just be kidding myself. Sure, it is billed as a “configuration” instead of the traditional programming, but sometimes there is a lot to be said for just a blank notebook or textedit app and a little bit of knowhow.  Just because you can “click and point” or “drag and drop” does not necessary mean that it is easy, think for a moment of your experience trying to get to use just one remote in your living room for everything before the invention of the logitech.

In the end the frustration turned into smiles as the room became much more user friendly and the faculty were able to better utilize the technology in the room in a more interactive manner. For all of those hours wishing I had yet another cup of coffee, to see an instructor walk up to the panel and figure out the use of multiple inputs and outputs (dual projector room) in a matter of seconds made it all worth it.

I guess in some ways I still have that childlike quality that makes me forget pain and frustration so quickly in light of a pat on the back and warm thanks!