Materials science and the future of publishing
Posts tagged iPad
EPUB trick and web apps on the iPad
Aug 19th
- Easier EPUB Experimenting and Updating in iBooks – Use iPhone Explorer to modify EPUB files directly on your iPad to avoid going back and forth with iTunes and syncing.
- A List Apart: Articles: Apps vs. the Web – A good explanation of the difference between native apps and web apps on iOS, and the pros and cons of each. Why is everyone today going for native apps?
iPad apps (and here comes the “Blackpad”)
Aug 4th
You can make great apps for the iPad using either Webkit or the App Store. Oh, and the “Blackpad”.
- Creating Content for the iPad – Create a photo web app for the iPad using Automator.
- Redesigning the New York City subway map – Visualizing and redesigning the New York City subway map (of course, with an iPad app).
- iPad OmniFocus Review – If you’re not bound to Outlook or another Windows solution for managing your GTD, OmniFocus on the iPad looks sweet. The desktop app was designed in consultation with Merlin Mann.
- RIM Said to Plan Tablet for November to Take on Apple’s IPad – The “Blackpad” might be a godsend for corporates who want a tablet but are limited by their IT policies.
Dragon Dictation iPhone app is genius crowdsourcing
Aug 2nd
David Pogue describes in his NYT State of the Art column how Nuance used their free iPhone app to crowdsource training its revised Dragon Naturally Speaking algorithm:
Back in December, Nuance began offering a free iPhone app, Dragon Dictation. You speak; the company’s computers in Boston analyze your snippet; within seconds, the converted, typed text appears on your screen.
But this was no altruistic move; Nuance had an ulterior motive. Its computers keep copies of those hundreds of thousands of dictated messages (no names attached, of course), creating an amazing central archive of American voices and speech patterns. Nuance engineers later exploited this gold mine, using it to test out new recognition algorithms to improve Dragon’s accuracy. Sneaky, eh?
The accuracy is so good that you no longer have to begin by reading a four-minute training text, as in years past.
Genius.
More ideas on iPad design
Jul 29th
Which is harder, designing for the iPad or having your app approved?
- Time Inc. Frustrated by Apple Over iPad Subscription Issue – Apple rejects Sports Illustrated app that would allow in-app subscriptions. Whaaat?
- An In-Depth Look at How People Are Using the iPad – The biggest category that has been affected by the iPad is that of standalone e-readers.
- Derek Powazek – Thoughts on Designing for iPad – From the article: ”Design language [is] still emerging. We’ve had 15 years to figure out a visual language for the web, and it’s still evolving. The iPad has a few conventions, but they’ll look as silly in a year or two as the candy-colored iMacs look now.”
- More Touchscreen Innovation: ABC News for iPad Launches – Another example of user interface madness spawned by the iPad.
- Newsweek for iPad – How NOT To Do a Digital Magazine – Author’s summary: “It’s crap – don’t waste your time.”
Kindle: Device or platform?
Jul 29th
Maybe the Kindle isn’t going anywhere?
- New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only version and $189 3G model available August 27th in the US and UK – Amazon looks like it is pursuing a twofold strategy:
1) Make the Kindle platform ubiquitous on all devices
2) Dominate the eInk dedicated reader niche market - Why the iPad Hasn’t Killed Kindle – Dan Lyons (of Fake Steve Jobs fame) argues that the Kindle device (as well as the platform) is actually here to stay.
Second thoughts on H.264
Jun 29th
Looking to send video to an iPad? It’s more complicated than I first thought.
- MPEG-LA Considering Patent Pool for VP8/WebM and X264 developer says Google’s new VP8 WebM codec is a mess – VP8 may have patent issues in addition to being a bit of a messy spec.
- Why Flash Isn’t Going Anywhere, iPad Be Damned – Moving from the Flash plug-in to the H.264 codec is like moving backward — from Flash to a more expensive Flash.
- HTML5 video and H.264 – what history tells us and why we’re standing with the web – “Much like MP3, H.264 is currently liberally licensed and also has a license that changes from year to year, depending on market conditions. This means that something that’s free today might not be free tomorrow. Like sending an H.264 file over the Internet.”
- No, you can’t do that with H.264 – Confusing licenses may limit what can be done commercially with increasingly popular video codecs like that used to deliver video to the iPad, H.264.
Update: After publishing this, John Harding of YouTube posted a defense of Flash as the primary means of YouTube’s video delivery on his company’s API Blog: Flash and the HTML5 <video> tag. This debate isn’t going away.
HTML5? Yahoo!
Jun 28th
The Yahoo! Entertainment app for the iPad is based on HTML5, but it looks like the hotly anticipated Sports Illustrated app falls a bit short of the promise of the concept.
- Sports Illustrated Releases Apple iPad App – Sports Illustrated shows how difficult it is to execute the iPad magazine app that we’re all (still) waiting for. The SI app is built on the same “backbone” as the Time app, from The Wonder Factory and WoodWing Software. Chris Hercik, SI creative director, also answers a few questions in an accompanying video.
- Is That HTML5 in Your App? – Yahoo! Product Engineer Travis Young gives an overview of how the Yahoo! Entertainment App for the iPad is based on HTML5.
- HTML5 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Just in case you wanted a semiofficial definition of what HTML5 actually is.
- Papers for iPad – The popular alternative PDF library app for OS X, on your iPad.
- Gourmet Magazine Revived for the iPad – Can a shuttered magazine find a new life on the iPad?
HTML, ePub, apps, or Adobe Digital Editions?
Jun 22nd
HTML, ePub, apps, or proprietary formats: What’s the best way of getting content into readers’ readers?
- E-Book Apps: You’re Doing It Wrong – Imagine that, in addition to listening to music in iTunes (or Windows Media Player, or whatever), there were some albums that you had to install. When you wanted to listen to those albums, you’d need to fire up your special Thriller, Dark Side of the Moon, or Rubber Soul program.
- Book and Beyond – Premium ebooks from Random House – The extra content is designed to be used with Adobe® Digital Editions on a computer, as they require extra processing power to display! The extra content cannot be used on the Sony Reader or other hand held devices, as they do not have the capability to display the material.
- VQR Now Available for the iPad – We have produced what we believe to be the most advanced ePub available. Period.
- iPad Revisited: 5 Topics for Publishers to Consider – Aptara CTO Samir Kakar gives an update on what may be possible with the iPad. There seems to be more possibilities for enhanced media content in the ePub format.
- Making an iPad HTML5 App & making it really fast – 7 tips for developing a fast HTML5 app for the iPad.
Five short links on designing for the iPad
Jun 14th
Is there a good iPad magazine app yet?
- WIRED on iPad: Just like a Paper Tiger… – It’s the 1990s (CD shovelware) all over again…
- iPad News Apps review – One analysis of news apps for the iPad, from somebody at the German Press Association newslab.
- Is This Really The Future of Magazines or Why Didn’t They Just Use HTML 5? – So why didn’t they choose HTML5 and build a custom viewer application around WebKit?
- Bonnier’s Popular Science+ Debuts on iPad as the Magazine of Tomorrow – The six principles that underlie the Mag+ digital platform: silent mode, fluid motion, designed pages, defined beginning and end, issue-based delivery, and advertising as content.
- Time Magazine Previews Updates to Apple iPad App – Comparing a rush job (“Project Noah”) with having time to see how users interact with a device.
What I’m reading on my iPad
Jun 13th
Here’s what’s I’ve recently finished reading on my iPad’s Kindle app:
- The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor’s Heroic Search for the World’s First Miracle Drug. Thanks to @solidstateux for the suggestion.
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. A rare science book whose title doesn’t take the form “Noun prepositional phrase: The story of the noun.“ Rebecca Skloot is also on Twitter.
- The Family That Couldn’t Sleep: A Medical Mystery. Blending the history of prion diseases with the story of a scary, rare disease.
If you have suggestions for other popular science books that you’ve enjoyed, let me know.
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