Posts Tagged "iPad"
Irritating Sites on the iPad
The flash revolution feels like it’s starting to happen. I have been annoyed with flash ever since I bought an iPhone and found that a lot of sites included components that couldn’t be viewed properly.
Steve Jobs actually published a position piece about why Apple is taking the stand it is today on Apple.com. You can read the full text here.
It got me to thinking about sites that irritate me in my online travels via iPhone and iPad. Here are a few of the offenders who need to smarten up and have flash alternatives:
Pretty much any restaurant site designed by menu palace, like this one. Menu Palace probably offers a cheap rate for flash design because there are a lot of restaurants in their portfolio that do not have HTML alternative sites.
CTV and Global here in Canada are both still using flash for their video, despite availability of h.264 standard.
There are over a million of us on iPads and over 86 million of us on combined Apple devices. How long until publishers and advertisers realize that we are out here and that they are missing out on their chance to be part of our site rotation. People only frequent a small number of websites on a regular basis. If you want to be part of my rotation, you had better be ready for me when I come to you the first time I come to you, or you likely won’t see me again.
Read MoreiPad Review
After less than a week with an iPad I have to say I don’t know how I ever lived without one.
I’ve been an Apple convert since I got my first MacBook Pro back in 2003. I know I sounds cliche, but I love that everything “just works”.
I’m on my second MacBook Pro, I’ve had both the iPhone 3G and 3GS, a multitude of various iPods and now an iPad.
Consider this review as definitely biased with a pro-Apple bent as I have had nothing but great experiences with my iDevices.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a few lemon devices and had to visit my local Genius Bar on occasion, but the way that Apple handles issues is far superior to most other companies.
I’m not going to bother giving the specs or other information that you can find in almost every article and blog post about the iPad. Instead, I’m going to answer some of the questions that people keep asking me about why I could possibly need this device considering that I already have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro.
A: Whenever it’s more comfortable than my other devices. Here are a few examples:
Sitting in the couch at home it is far more convenient to use an iPad than a laptop. It’s lighter, doesn’t get hot on your lap and can be used in a lot of different positions;
Same example, but comparing to iPhone. The iPad has a bigger screen and is a really clean and pretty user experience.
Laying in bed. I would never read a book on a laptop, but I have read several books on the iPhone. The iPad allows me to have much more page space on a single screen with the same font size. That means far less page turning.
Q: Isn’t the iPad just a big iPhone?
A: This answer depends what you want the answer to be. For anyone who has an iPhone, it is not an iPhone at all. The iPhone is about mobility and being able to have access to everything that you need at your fingertips while on the go. The iPhone is about location based services and being able to enhance your experience through technology. The iPad (wifi model anyway) is more about an immersive experience. You can lose yourself in the experience and forget that you’re even using a device. It feels like it was made for you to do what you want when you want. It’s great for a personal experience and it’s great for sharing with others. As an iPhone guy, the realization of how different the two devices truly are came to me when deciding which apps to load on the iPad … I have some duplication, but I want to spend my time differently with each device.
And for those who do not currently use an iPhone, yes, it is a big iPhone. It has all of the capabilities and represents all of the things that you’ve heard about the iPhone but, for some reason, haven’t been compelling enough for you to break down and get one. The difference is it’s bigger, faster has a longer lasting battery, and, most importantly, let’s you be part of the revolution that these devices have started.
Q: What’s the point of getting the wifi-only version.
A: This one’s up to you. I can get wifi at home, work, at friends homes, and at many coffee shops and restaurants so for the few times that I don’t have wifi access I’m happy to use my iPhone. Also, many apps and tasks that can be done with the iPad don’t require Internet access at all. (i.e. reading books, iWork apps, even the Reuters app downloads 1-Click away articles to read away from web access)
Q: Can you really do any work with an iPad?
A: Absolutely. The iWork apps are intuitive and the instruction manuals are interactive so you can learn how to use them quickly. I had never thought that I would bother doing any kind of work with the iPad, but the convenience of being able to pull things up and work on them as I think of them while sitting comfortably or even laying down means that I am actually enjoying putting in some unsolicited overtime. I will say that the iWork apps are not the full versions, but instead slightly stripped down versions so if you are a power user you may find some frustrations, but for 90% of the rest of us, they have pretty much everything that you need.
Q: Why is the iPad better than a kindle?
A: To answer this, we first have to ignore all the other things that the iPad can do that the kindle cannot. Let’s pretend that the iPad is only an e-reader to put the devices on even ground. Then, let’s pretend that the two devices are the same price. The iPad allows users to download books using iBooks, Stanza, or even the kindle app so you can get books from many more sources than the kindle. The iPad offers a better variety of viewing options for standard content than the kindle. The iPad allows users to have a much deeper experience with newspapers and magazines, including video, audio, photo galleries and web-based content. One look at this month’s Maxim magazine and you will wonder how long until all magazines offer a richer experience.
Q: Why would anyone want to watch video on that size of screen?
A: Video is one of my favourite features of the iPad. Generally, to watch video, you keep the iPad pretty close to you. I’ve been watching video on it while using my laptop for other things. It’s crisp and high-res and sounds surprisingly good for such small speakers. The best part is the portability. I can pick it up from the coffee table mid show and carry it with me to the kitchen to grab a snack without missing a second or having to pause.
Overall, I have no complaints about the device and the few complaints that I’ve had about the iPhone OS are being fixed with the 4.0 software update due later this year. I’m sure that the next hardware update will have a few tweaks that I will appreciate, but I’m glad to be able to have this unit now … I love it and it really works for me right in the gap it was designed for … Right between an iPhone and a laptop.
Read MoreStuff that Steve Jobs told me today
I skipped lunch today so that I could watch the Apple launch for iPhone OS 4.0. I actually watched three different feeds to make sure that I got a few different perspectives. Thanks to the folks at GDGT, engadget, and TUAW. Here is what Steve Jobs had to say:
- 300,000 ipads sold on first day 450,000 ipads have been sold as of today
- 600,000 books have been purchased
- 50,000,000 iPhones have been sold to date (85,000,000 devices that use apps if you count iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads all together)
- 1,500 new APIs for developers to integrate with.
- In first 9 months of push notifications, over 10 Billion have been sent out
- Over 50,000 games available
7 Tentpole Features
- Multi-tasking! (Background Audio streaming / VOIP (e.g. Receive a skype call when phone is locked, check out restaurant at same time) / Background Location for GPS or Social Media with enhanced privacy / Push Notifications / Local Notifications / Task Completion / Fast App Switching)
- Folders (Organize your apps in sub-folders instead of switching between screens / even put a folder on the dock / as easy as dragging and dropping one app onto another)
- Enhanced Mail (unified inbox / more than one exchange account / open attachments with apps downloaded from the app store / organize mail by thread)
- iBooks (not just for iPads anymore / buy once, read anywhere / sync pages an bookmarks)
- Enterprise Features (better mail encryption / mobile device management / wireless app distribution / SSL VPN / exchange server 2010 support)
- Game Centre (Social Gaming Network / Invite Friends to play / matchmaking / achievements)
- Mobile Advertising (allow developers to use location based ads in apps so that apps can be free / iAd keeps you in your app / deliver interaction and emotion / interactive and video content within the ap because the ad delivery system is part of the OS / Apple sells, hosts and delivers the ads / developers get 60% of the revenues / all done with HTML5 / over 1 Billion Ad opportunities per day)
A whole lot of other stuff that developers will be able to do:
- – rotate photos
- calendar integration
- Bluetooth keyboard
- web search suggestions
- loads of mail stuff
- search SMS / MMS
- 5x digital zoom
- persistent wifi
- places in photos
- tap to focus video
- upload workouts to nike+
- nested playlists
- recent web searches
- wake on wireless
- gift apps
- lots more
This OS update will be available this summer for iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch (Some features won’t work for 3G, 2G, or 2nd Gen Touch), but not until the fall for the iPad.
Read MoreOne Thousand Pages Viewed
This site has been running for just over a month and this week marks the one thousandth page viewed!
In the grand scheme of things that number is really nothing, but it’s the first milestone and I am pretty excited about it.
A few stats from my first thousand page views:
- Most visitors to this site are visiting on apple products
- The most popular post to date was about how Lindsay Lohan is NOT the Etrade Baby
- 2/3 of visitors have come back more than once
- Only 10% of visitors are using any version of Internet Explorer
- The top referring sites for links coming into this site are: 1) Facebook, 2) Google, and 3) Twitter
- This is the 29th post, not including the static site pages
Overall, I’m pretty happy with how things are going so far.
I’m really looking forward to the next release of WordPress (3.0), which will include a feature that allows users to manage multiple blogs with one installation.
I would like to have a little more focus. When I think about blogs that I really like, the one thing that they have in common is some central theme that defines a reason for people to visit. I realize that this blog is really more of an assortment of my thoughts and random musings.
The problem is that my attention wanders too much to maintain a single point of interest for more than a few posts. I love having the ability to add tags to posts because, after just 29 posts, I can start to see the topics that I like to write about the most.
So far, according to my tag cloud, my favorite topics are Advertising, Google, and the iPhone.
Advertising is an obvious area of interest for me, given that I’m in the business. The iPhone is a tool that I never leave home without so it’s got to come up pretty frequently. The surprise for me is how often I write about Google.
Going forward, I can definitely see the iPad popping up in popularity of my tags. I’ve had one for two days and I am absolutely loving it. I will write a proper review shortly, but I want enough man hours on it to be able to have a valid opinion to share.
I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to settle on a single theme for a blog so, until I do, I will continue with what I’ve been doing for another month and see how things progress.
In any case, thanks for reading and, for most of you, thanks for coming back after having read the first time!
N
Read MoreNo iPhone optimized site, Are you kidding me?
If you’ve tried browsing the internet from an iPhone, iPod Touch or, for those lucky early adopters who got their hands on one, an iPad, you’ve come across scenarios where you are faced with the blue Lego block from hell.
For those who haven’t seen this little bugger, this little symbol represents web content that has been developed in flash.
Here is an article that I just read this morning:
And this is what it was supposed to look like on a regular browser:
As you can see, I miss out on the video on this page using an iPhone, but I have no idea that this is what is missing unless I go back to the site using a different browser.
This got me wondering about how many people are having this issue so I checked the stats for this site. Looking only at visitors to this site who are using an iPhone or iPod Touch (It’s a little early to hope for iPad visitors!), I can say that, for sure, 18% of my traffic cannot see flash.
And that 18% is not counting visitors using software like Click to Flash on a Mac, intended only to view flash when it is needed rather than letting it eat up your battery power and CPU usage while slowing your web browsing experience.
My point is this: If any publisher knows that up to 18% of their users will have a crappy experience every time they see the blue Lego block from hell, why not put steps in place to ensure that there is an alternative?
The advertising community has come up with a brilliant solution to this problem. You will notice in both of the above sceenshots that the advertising banner and box ads show just fine. This is not rocket science, this is a policy put in place by an advocacy group (e.g. in Canada the IAB) that insists that all campaigns running flash provide a backup gif or jpg image that can be served in it’s place for users that do not have the flash plugin.
How hard is that? If a publisher absolutely has to have their precious flash, why not put some kind of backup to ensure that those of us who have chosen incompatible devices are able to either see what we are missing out on or, even better, offer us an alternate experience.
I think that this whole argument will be moot in a few years. I’m in the camp that wants to see the use of flash for published content go the way of the Dodo.
I know that sounds somewhat hypocritical given the sexy flash Tag Cloud you see to the right if you are not visiting on an iDevice, but you should be aware that the folks visiting us from an iDevice see a normal Tag Cloud that gives credit to the developers of the sexy flash Tag Cloud if they are using this full site. Alternatively, I have provided iDevice users the option of an iDevice optimized site that delivers only HTML content to ensure super quick load times.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that flash has it’s uses. I love flash for advertising purposes because it allows a single file to be served quite simply and, with the backup strategy already in place, quite effectively to all kinds of devices and browsers. I just think that publishers need to be cognizant of the fact that they are alienating a portion of their visitors by providing crappy user experiences.
I know that I am, and will continue to be, more loyal to sites that are aware of me and that cater to me as a visitor.
Read More