June 9, 2013 Leave a Comment

Design is More Than Good Looks

Steve Jobs on design:

Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

When it comes to most products, it’s always been true that functionality is more important than appearance. But there are still plenty of people who believe the outward style of Apple’s devices is the primary reason why they have a loyal customer base, one that’s steadily growing.

If rumors are correct, at tomorrow’s keynote for their annual developer’s conference, Apple execs will present new models in the MacBook Pro line. Soon after, I’ll be replacing my nearly five year old MacBook Pro with one of them.

No computer is going to be perfect, and the Mac OS has it’s quirks. However, more than any other company I can think of, I’m very sure their engineers will have sweated the details on both hardware and software to assure that the device is far more than just good looks.

Now if they can just do something about updating Aperture. :-)

Tags: , , ,
May 7, 2012 2 Comments

Work That Means Something

According to a post at Geek.com, Apple gives this welcome note to all new employees at the company.

There’s work and there’s your life’s work.

The kind of work that has your fingerprints all over it. The kind of work that you’d never compromise on. That you’d sacrifice a weekend for. You can do that kind of work at Apple. People don’t come here to play it safe. They come here to swim in the deep end.

They want their work to add up to something.

Something big. Something that couldn’t happen anywhere else.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could swap out “Apple” and insert the name of our school or district? And mean it?

Tags: , ,
March 7, 2012 1 Comment

Plenty of Choices. Just Not Good Ones.

With the next version of the iPad being announced later today, I was thinking about the way some in leadership positions here in the overly-large school district talk about using “tablets”, using the generic term when it’s pretty clear that most others are hearing iPads.

They try very hard not to lean toward a specific product since the system has also blessed the purchase of the Xoom device by Motorola and running Android. In effect, they want schools and offices to think of the two operating systems as equal and to make a choice based on needs. Or something like that.

Early in the school year when we started working with tablets in the system, I tried to be balanced when discussing which device someone should consider, with a collection of plusses and minuses for each. Now, after spending some time with the Xoom and watching others struggling with it, I’ve pretty much given up on being “fair”.

The big problem is that iOS and Android are not equal, not even close, especially when implemented on tablets.

I could go into my long list of reasons why, but instead read what Fraser Speirs, who has a whole lot more experience using mobile devices in a classroom, has to say on the matter.

His conclusion is that Android represents solid engineering on the part of Google. However, the way manufacturers deploy it – with multiple versions, confusing upgrade policies, inconsistent user interfaces and hardware integration – is a “deal breaker”.

Read the whole post which is a great analysis of Android’s problems. Speirs is focusing on a school environment but many of the points he makes will be relevant to anyone considering purchasing any mobile device.

Other than the rumors being passed around, I have no idea what Apple will show in their presentation. But I do know that whatever the products, the hardware and software involved will be tightly integrated, producing a user experience that’s just not available on any Android device.

You may not like Apple or iPads or stuff with i names. But the company’s recent successes (computers sales are also growing fast) shows that there are plenty of us who like our technology to just work smoothly without a lot of fuss.

And, of course, when it comes to tablets you do have plenty of choices. Just not good ones.

Tags: , , , ,
January 22, 2012 Leave a Comment

Split Decision

Unless you’re part of the ed-tech community, you might have missed the news from Apple’s product announcement last Thursday. After all, they didn’t have any new devices with i stuck in front of the name1, so most of the popular media didn’t cover it.

But since the event was focused on publishing and electronic books, I was very curious what they would have. The rumor sites had the company bringing a “revolution” to the textbook industry (is that even possible?).

Although not revolutionary, they did have some very good stuff to show, with lots of potential.  And there were also a few disturbing pieces and more than a few questions, especially regarding distribution. If you have time, watch the full presentation on Apple’s site.

Anyway, I’ve had a few days to play with everything and read reactions from parts of my network so consider this post a rambling collection of first impressions.

First the good stuff. The core of the announcement was the release of a major new software tool for creating ebooks called iBooks Author. Watching the demo, my first thought was that the interface was very similar to Pages and Keynote, Apple’s word processor and presentation software that blows away Office when it comes to power and ease of use. Not to mention being much less expensive.

Even better, Author is free and was available that same day2 so I was able to play with the software for a couple of hours this weekend. Not a long time to evaluate a piece of complex software but I’m already sold on the potential for easily building applications (it’s hard to call them books) that seamlessly combine text with images, audio, video, and interactive elements.

Of course creating any worthwhile multimedia project requires a lot of planning and what I was able to put together from disconnected pieces of media found on my computer is not worth publishing. However, the process was dirt simple, offering plenty of layout options. This is a potentially powerful application that I’d really love to get into the hands of some creative students with time to work.

Ok, that’s the good news of Author. The problems start once the project is ready for distribution.

The software allows you to send the final book directly to an iPad but other than that the only real option appears to be uploading it to the Apple iBookstore. There’s no requirement to charge for your work but if you do, the license agreement on the software says you can only sell it through Apple, who gets 30%.

While the EULA seems pretty restrictive (check this post for far more details), it actually makes sense from Apple’s perspective. They view these “books” in the same way as they do apps for their iOS devices. They give away the tools necessary to create apps but lock them into the Apple distribution system. They’re doing the same for the books created with Author.

It’s no wonder the big publishers like Pearson were on that stage in support of their new textbook model. They see an opportunity to continue the traditional school market for their materials, one that doesn’t allow for resales.

However, I think there are several larger problems than locking the documents created by one piece of software to one particular set of devices.

Start with the need for an open format for publishing interactive media.  Most reports say that Apple is using ePub3, a free and open ebook publishing format, but with some non standard markup code that would prevent the documents from opening in other epub readers.

But then there’s the whole concept of “textbook”, which was the primary motivator behind Apple’s presentation on Thursday. Do we really want to lock schools and teachers into more materials over which they have no control? And pay the big publishers far too much for the privilege?

In advance of Apple’s event, some people were writing about how the company was going to “disrupt” the textbook industry the same way they did with music. There are lots of reasons why it won’t happen soon3, although I think iBooks Author is a good start.

1 Anyone else getting tired of i-everything?

2 I know it’s only available on the Mac. I don’t care. Someone else can complain about it being restricted on one platform.

3 I won’t go so far as David Thornburg to say that Apple wants to kill education, but he does make some good points in his post.

 

Tags: , , ,
October 7, 2011 Leave a Comment

Here’s to the Crazy One Who Changed the World

Much has been written about the legacy of Steve Jobs over the past couple of days and I don’t know that I have anything original to add.

However, when I think about the incredible innovations he brought to the world and the major impact his work has had on my life, this Apple ad from the late 90′s always comes to mind.

This is the rarely heard version narrated by Jobs himself (instead of Richard Dreyfuss), and now ending with a simple tribute at the end.

Thanks, Steve.

Tags: , ,
July 12, 2011 2 Comments

Is This What You’d Call a “PC”?

I’ve been working on a presentation for the VSTE Mobile Learning Conferences (one next week and another the week after), which means I’m paying more attention to anything related to the subject at hand.

Like this view of the tablet business from the president of Microsoft phone division.

The use of the mobile OS would be “in conflict” with Microsoft’s notion of having the full speed of a computer in any design, including truly mobile tablets. He insisted that users would want to do PC-style activities on a tablet and saw Windows 8′s networking and printing support as being important.

“We view a tablet as a PC,” Lees said.

Interesting. I think I’m doing a “PC-style” activity, namely writing this post, on this iPad right now.

Anyway, I suppose it really depends on what you want, when, and how you want to do those PC-style activities. Certainly I’m not going to write the great American novel on this thing (not without using a bluetooth keyboard) or work with complex spreadsheets.

But I can edit video, record audio, and create music, as well as do a whole host of other things that a few years ago would be considered “PC activities”. And more functionality is being added every day, some of which would be difficult to do on your standard PC.

So, while the concept of what is considered a computer is getting fuzzier, the remarks of this exec makes very clear the distinction between Apple’s concept of post-PC devices and Microsoft’s dedication to more PCs.

I rather like the post-PC vision.

Tags: , , ,
July 31, 2010 Leave a Comment

One More Thing…

Following up on the previous post about leadership, during the interview with Steve Jobs he discussed Apple’s approach to business.

And he made this observation about the difference between producing computing devices for consumers, in which Apple has been very successful over the past decade, and the business market.

What I love about the consumer market that I always hated about the enterprise market is that we come up with a product, we try to tell everybody about it, and every person decides for themselves.  They vote yes or no.  And if enough of them say yes, we get to come to work tomorrow.  That’s how it works.  It’s really simple.

As for the enterprise market, it’s not so simple.  The people who use the products don’t decide for themselves.  And the people who make those decisions sometimes are confused.

Confused indeed!

Here in the overly-large school district, we are regularly reminded that we are not really a school system.

We work for an “enterprise” (and that we are all “clients”).

And that last part of Jobs’ remarks may offer a clue as to why the use of instructional technology is not what it should be here in the overly-large enterprise.

Picture from Wikipedia and I’m only guessing that it’s legal to link to it and not get sued by Paramount. :-)

Tags: , , ,
«Older Posts