Apple Tablet Madness and general Tech Ramble...

Seems like everyone is going ga ga over the possibility of an Apple Tablet. Why? Microsoft tried this and it tanked.... TWICE. Tablet PC's have eeked out a slight niche market and Oragami UMPC types have all but vanished. So why is the media absolutely salivating over the possibility of an Apple PC? Why are OEM manufactures pre-emptively presenting reference design tablet hardware just on the possibility apple will release a tablet?

Content consumption.

What ?

Content Consumption.

PC's have a major problem when it comes to content consumption. Even Laptops that can go with us to the sofa do. They are compromised designs that are first and foremost aimed at content creation from the OS all the way to the hardware form factors. Typing, Video Editing, etc... Think of that ubiquitous office work horse the word processor. You create content on the computer that is to this day often printed out for consumption. Reading long documents in word or other processors sucks. Mostly because the program and the systems it runs on simply are not designed for content consumption.

A laptop is a great portable content creation device... it is a mediocre content consumption device. A Smart Phone (Apple iPhone in particular) is a mediocre content consumption device and a HORRIBLE content creation device. Hence the superiority of the iPhone at producing a mobile consumption device over laptops. They both are about as good I would say but the phone is completely mobile in a way a laptop just cannot dream of. 3g has connected them to the web in a meaningful way. But they are still just middling at consumption. The smaller form factor, low battery life etc... all conspire to hinder it just enough to make people think there is a better solution.

Netbooks are cute but simply have to many problems with form factor and useability... they neither produce or consume particularly well but they show the promise of a larger screen in a highly portable form factor. The iPhone/Touch success has shown how to drop a key board and still provide enough input capability to get by.... hence the tablet form that seems to continually be pushed on a public that has routinely rejected it.

What Apple has the potential to produce in a tablet is a good content consumption device. Not a great one... that requires something more than a single company can provide... but a good one. 3g access to Apps (or some equivalent) is a neat and tidy packaged way to present content for consumption in optimized bite sized selections. The iPhone and Touch (or Pre, Droid, Win Mo super phone) small form factor has a high limitation on just how far that can go. But a handheld device as responsive as those devices with a smaller than hard back form factor has a serious potential to provide a long lasting content consumption model. The question is will the size lose to the phone based on mobility and or connectivity. Phones go EVERYWHERE and as a result are the first connection fee paid. Any other device will be secondary which quickly relegates it to 'luxury' status. Without connectivity a tablet is a non-starter in terms of mass market appeal. Because of their small market appeal nobody has yet had the ability to establish a stable market from which to grow the concept.

But Apple is now in a position to do that. They probably have enough credit with their fans that a connected tablet design will garner a considerable audience that has the potential to provide a critical mass for a tablet eco system. 3g connectivity, App Store and personal media integration (Itunes, Iphoto etc...) on a device with a much more usable screen space will be dead sexy. But the numbers to make it fly are Tough. 3g contracts are still to expensive to think double accounts (iPhone and a Tablet) will be common even with Apple fans accustomed to costly computing habits. But it is possible that a wifi connection device designed for less mobile connection options will be sufficient (ala scaled up touch) and the ability to have a 3g enabled one will be explored by those with sufficient disposable income on a smaller scale.

If they do it and it works it puts Apple on the bleeding edge of what could be the next major paradigm shift in computing. They already are riding this wave with the iPod -> iPhone/Touch. Amazon and B&N are riding a somewhat related wave (explosion of electronic Content Consumption) with e-Ink book devices. The question is where this change stops. Are phones the long term solution because we have them with us everywhere? Or is a larger device still going to be needed for replacing the likes of magazines etc... Whoever gets it right will be huge in the years to come.

I talked a while back about what I thought an ideal Tablet would be like but here goes another (probably unrelated stab)...

3g connected device ($20 or less monthly cost of connection, or included tether to phone for $5-10) on a hard back size display (10-11") that is sunlight readable, lasts 8 hours with reasonable power reserve (15-20%) , capacitive multi touch interface, GPS, USB, SD/CF memory expansion, Solid State memory, Dual Mobile Computing core (Say Dual Arm 8) with 2gb+ of RAM, Multi-band Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Blue Tooth, Zigbee, RF and IR (think most flexible wireless communications setup possible).

The use of such a device will be the consumption and correlation of content. Their weakness will be creation. The device above will be a second/third or greater device if the tablet ever actually proves a successful form factor. Ubiquity will never happen until the technology is so cheap it can become so widespread it permeates society like paper.

The concept I really would like to see is a 'phone' based computing solution. The phone provides the brains and connectivity and then we can augment it as needed according to the task at hand. Content consumption tends toward the tablet type device used in concert with the phone and content creation remains more with the traditional keyboard, mouse etc... solutions pending a breakthrough in input technology . All the connectivity between the phone and these adjunct devices is wireless (including display etc...). Ultimately this would probably end up in a silly level of convergence into the device space we use for a 'phone' today. Wallet, ID, PC, Walkman, Picture Album, Archive etc... In short it becomes your universal interface to the digital world.

Is it realistic? I don't know. I think it will be technologically feasible in a very short time. less than 5 years with the correct battery technology or efficient enough high power computing capability (ie make current batteries last...). 20 years at the most. Social uptake is another matter entirely. The sudden surge to iPhone and similar devices indicates there could be a swift move to such a technology shift... but it wouldn't take much in the way of scare stories to keep the masses from adopting such a major shift away from more tangible interactions.

Book Review: "The Gathering Storm" by Robert (Brandon) Jordan (Sanderson)

Robert Jordan's epic Wheel Of Time continues courtesy of Brandon Sanderson. As a charter member of WOT madness (books 1-4) WOT concern (5-8), WOT disillusionment (9-10), WOT semi-redemtion (book 11) and WOT depression (Loss of Robert Jordan) I must say I am not sure what I expected from this series continuation. Over the years I have re-read the series numerous times, even the horrible 8-10 books in order to prepare for the next offering. That I would buy this book was never in doubt... but I was prepared for the worst.

So what is the verdict? Well at least from this long time fan the verdict is superb. If you are a fan then pick it up. Think of this as J J Abrahms re-vitalizing star trek... only without the time travel nonsense. Sanderson picks up the threads of the story like he had been writing them all along... and he does so with the pace of the early books. He starts with this gargantuan traffic snarl of threads and pushes through solidly to the end and finally lots of progress is made. Here are the highlights (spoiler alert)...

- The willy nilly thread hopping of the last half dozen books is gone. Rand and Egwene represent some 75-85% of the story arc of this book and it is a good thing. By the time the dust settles Rand is poised to resume his rightful place as the centerpiece of the story and the Aes Sedai seem ready to finally rejoin the story as a mature entity rather than the catty fractured monstrosity that has been endemic for the last several books..

- Faile is blessedly absent but for maybe 10 pages... and in that brief time Sanderson adroitly returns her to an independent character of action. Only a paragraph or two is devoted to the dysfunctional relationship between her and Perrin.

- Nayneve is treated in a similar fashion though her closeness to Rand keeps her in the flow a good bit more... a couple of nods to plunging necklines do appear but not at the nails on chalk board repetitive nature of the last several books.

- Min only calls Rand a Wool Head once... and her character is returned to its uniqueness as Sanderson carves out a new niche for her to fill other than flouncing about as the only available booty call for Rand.

- Aviehnda is similarly low key but again her character is moved definitively towards something that will be productive. The past 3 novels of her struggling with no longer being a 'spear sister' is finally (mercifully) put to rest.

- Mat and Perrin have little time between them. This was one of the few disappointments. However I think Sanderson wisely chose not to try and do to much in this book and instead gave just enough of the two to placate long term fans... but they are still very much in a holding pattern. The next book should have two major plot elements with Mat, one involving his connection to Tuon, and the other his jaunt with Thom into the tower of Genji that will probably net a return of Moirane and Lanfear.

- Blessedly absent are almost any plot summary exposition sections trying to keep folks unfamiliar with the intricate story lines up to speed. These sections pretty much ruined books 7-10.

- Surprisingly absent are almost any sections dealing directly with the forsaken. There is one in the prologue... and a brief encounter between Semerihage and Moridin... and that is about it.

- And perhaps my personal favorite... Cadsuane is finally put in her place.

All in all Sanderson has handled the hand dealt him admirably. He is not trying to claim ownership of the story. However he is also not trying to do the impossible of channeling Robert Jordan. His own writing style flows naturally and the resulting effect is minimally jarring. The world remains familiar and the most dramatic change is the pacing of events. He did a lot to clean up the tangle of story lines and as a result has (at least in my eyes) successfully refocused the story. The next book should serve to clean up the few remaining loose ends and poise the story for its grand finale.

Kindle 2: Long Term Impressions

So I have now been a kindle owner for about 8 months. What do I think now that I have actually lived with it for a while?

The Good:

The Kindle has easily become my main source of reading material. There have only been a couple of cases where I have resorted to a bound book and that is due to having already purchased the book, borrowing, or a gift. No matter what else bad I have to say about the device (and there is plenty of irks and niggles) it is extremely important to remember this simple fact... I read on it and seek books out in a format compatible with it first. End of story.

The best element by far for me has been as a travel companion. Packing the kindle in my bag in lieu of my typical 4-5 novel load has been the 'killer app' as far as I am concerned. A close second is the fact that if I need something new to read it does not take to long to have a new file downloaded.

The So-So:

Lack of a built in light of some sort is quite annoying. It should have been simple to include a little pop out led or something to make reading in low light conditions easy.

Glare... not something I really considered initially but this has been a surprisingly common annoyance. Especially difficult to deal with when using small direct light sources such as night stands. Because it is a direct light source (aimed at the screen) the angles often mean a glare point on the screen sometime necessitating odd angles (compared to a printed page) to avoid. I encounter this same phenomenon with glossy magazines and to a lesser extent with highly bleached stocked (very white).

Wireless enabled Battery life: Let me explain this one. First off... it lasts plenty long enough for day to day reading purposes... I think it might be possible to drain it in a day if you did little else than read (9-12 hours I think...) but it would be pretty uncommon. In realistic daily reading of <>

In the same vein I wish you could set a minimum battery life at which the device will shut down if a page has not been turned. IE at 25% or something. This is because if you forget to turn the radio off 25% battery life is still plenty to read a good long time before having to charge the device up... and picking up a dead device because you forgot to turn the radio off when you are ready to read is a truly irksome experience.... especially when on travel with no real charging options to hand.

Blogs/Magazine subscriptions: They sorta work but by and large they have more problems than they should. It should be mandatory for any segmented source of material to have a good table of contents with a memory for what articles have been read and which not etc... Blogs are just to hard to keep updated and really complicate keeping the device with a usable charge. Images should be included.

Samples: First X % of a book for a sample works relatively well for fiction stories but it sucks hairy balls when searching for a good reference/education book. You should be able to choose chapters for browsing this type of material. Certainly there should be some mechanism in place to keep someone from abusing this (ie downloading different chapters as they need them and never paying).

Amazon really should have allowed for more than a single font.

Needs Improvement:

Browsing capability: This is perhaps the single most frustrating element of the kindle. Not because it is bad, but because of how much more useful the device would be if the browsing functioned at a more tolerable pace. Shopping for a specific book is simple and works fine. Browsing for new books is a form of medieval torture even if you have a good 3g signal. Why? Because loading each page from whisper net takes 10-30 seconds if you are lucky. You often go through two or three levels of category lists before you get to a list of books. The list of books only provides about 6 books on a single screen and there are limited ways of filtering them. You only get a small thumbnail of the cover, title, author and about half a line of the intro on the top level of browsing. Selecting an individual book brings up a summary page of that book that again only has about 2 sentences worth of summary information often requiring a click on a more link for another page with the full summary. So to look at the summary info (equivalent to the inside flap or back of a paperback) you have to load the store front, drill down to a subcategory (say two minimum, Books, then subcategory like sci-fi), a page turn or three to find one that looks interesting, an initial summary page and then the actual summary page. All in all it could take 4-5 minutes to get to this point for the first book you are interested in... then figure 30-120 seconds for each subsequent one. While this is still ultimately less time than driving to a store etc... it is far below par of say standing at a shelf and grabbing a likely title and scanning the back/inside flap etc... In fact this is so annoying that I often go browse for new material at a book store... and take note of what interests me for later download. Browsing amazon with a real computer is a middle ground often used as well... but still sub par to a brick and mortar store for finding interesting new stuff.

How could they improve this? Easy. They need to download their catalog or some significant portion of it locally to the device so that page turns when browsing are the same as when reading. If the whole catalog cannot be reasonably maintained then say the top 25% should be, and it should allow for readers to choose favorite sub categories to maintain full updates on. This is still slow as hell but not intolerably so. In a similar vein they really should create similar repositories for research type web sites like wikipedia or even journal repositories. I would be more than willing to suffer a symbiotic (paired with computer etc...) life for some of the more data intensive sources if whisper net would not allow for something like downloading the top 10-25% of articles on wikipedia.

Wallpaper: In my original hands on review I mentioned this as a niggle. I have changed my mind. This is a major annoyance. First they should allow you to choose a single wallpaper instead of just having random ones cycle through. Two, you should be able to pick a selection of ones you want to be randomized. Three, you should be able to include your own pictures for use. I honestly think the decision of how amazon approached this is very indicative of their mindset regarding the ownership of content on the device. And it does not bode well when you consider it that way.

Content management: Simply not enough ways to filter. They really should have erred to the side of excess on the options for arranging your books... from customized arrangements to Library of congress and the dewy decimal system. A real simple miss they had was read/unread/partially read. They also should have provided the option to have the books in your library displayed the same way they are on the web site with the thumbnail icon of the cover art and summary information of the book should be stored locally. As is you have to pull it from the website even when you own it.

Another major hole in content management has to do with privacy and the option to give up material. You should be able to pass code your device and preferably certain categories you may not want people to easily access. One obvious category of this nature is say romance/erotica material. A parent may not want this to be accessible by their children. Another area of similar problem are such things as politics and religion. The nature of this device is that others want to see it and fool with it. This can lead to some awkwardness if you have material in your library that you may want to keep private for whatever reason. Similarly you should be able to banish some information from the device. For instance I was downloading some free material and ended up with a title I found quite objectionable. I don't want it on my device, I don't want it in my archive for later retrieval or for someone else to stumble across when using my device. While removing something permanently should be hard it SHOULD be possible. Currently it is not. In short the device should be made more friendly for the management of sensitive material be it professional, prurient or just plain personal.

There should be the ability to have the Kindle pull from a remote personal library rather than just the kindle store. That way if necessary I can maintain the safety of my own library or provide access to personal libraries of information. Yes you can keep the files on your computer... I am referring to the ability to point the kindle at this store of information for retrieving books.

Lending: Electronic file ownership should not be any different than print ownership. I should be able to loan my books out to friends and family with the ability to read kindle books. Amazon already maintains ownership information on its servers so managing a loaning system should be trivial. Heck I should be able to even do loans of a specific time limit (say two weeks). During the loan period I should not have access to the material. Barnes and Nobel has understood this with the nook. Here is hoping that Amazon updates the Kindle to provide a similar capability. They should also allow for re-sale/transfer of ownership. Last but not least. Amazon needs to make damn sure they never ever touch material on an end users device again. EVER. For those not familiar with what I am talking about here is what happened. A book was sold through Amazon where the rights were not properly handled. IE someone was selling a book they did not have the right to sell. When this was identified Amazon remotely removed the copies of the book for any user that had downloaded it and that contacted amazon (IE had the radio on). Again. Ownership of a file should not be treated any differently than ownership of a printed book.

Annotations: Taking margin notes is a pretty time honored tradition with books. The kindle does not manage it well. Mostly because of the short comings of using the device for any significant user input. I doubt this will be possible to solve on the device itself. What is needed is a full up computer program that allows you to use your computer for annotations.There probably should be that ability to interleave notes in multiple methods. IE display them in line via different fonts etc... astrix/footnote notation etc... and possibly even a separate outline document that links to relevant passages... ie read from the book and go to notes and then keep going in notes back to the book etc... This is an area where the kindle should shine over traditional print but does not due to artificial restrictions in place due to piracy concerns. If Amazon really wants to get into the text book business with the Kindle they really need to sort this kind of functionality out.

Document Types: Until a universal document type is created for passing digital text documents there should be every effort made to make the device capable of reading as many formats as possible... and any document conversion should be able to be done by the end user. I have documents I would love to maintain on the kindle but I cannot because it would entail sending the document to Amazon for conversion and the information is to sensitive to handle in that way.