What might the iPad mean for me?

I have yet to actually see an iPad but there is already so much to read about it.  Some love it, some hate it.  MacUser magazine have just published a nicely balanced article on the iPad - in advance of it's UK launch.  It really placed the iPad into context for me.

The points they made were simple and practical:

• fast Apple apps and web browsing
• small text is easily readable without zooming as on the iPhone
• books and magazines look really good
• illustrations look great
• colour text works well

But:

• you need to have some means of propping it up when reading
• it wont wirelessly sync
• videos are displayed in 4:3 or letterboxed 16:9
• there's no alarm clock
• holding and typing is awkward
• the iPad uses iTunes to sync and store most material.  So you still need a computer
• it can't ise Adobe Flash
• (at the moment) it can't multitask (that comes with the next OS upgrade later this year)
•  

They conclude that there probably isn't an over-riding need to buy one at the moment if you already have an iPhone or computer (3rd party apps that may well change this).

The ring fencing via iTunes is regretable.  The same limitation exists for the iPhone - adding the problem of trying to sync to 2 macs each with separate iTunes installed.  (The Dropbox iApp is one great way around geting material onto your phone.)

This week I have been asking my media students what they think of the iPad.  They generally said (in this order);

• they wanted one
• it'll be useless for editing

None really thought about what they could publish or broadcast on it. As MacUser states

"...the iPad is about consuming media."

I would add that it's about presenting media. As a keen photographer, and with an old fashioned love of radio, the possibilities of delivering these in some multi media form on the iPad, and it's Android equivalent, look awesome.  Content may be king but finding compelling ways to present and deliver that content is also important.

What the iPad does is to advance the quiet innovation that Apple ushered in with the iPhone - an easy system of making micro payments. They recently extended this further by permitting micro payments from within the applications.  All of which raises the rather basic question - what exactly is an application?  What is the difference bwtween a website, a magazine and an application?   Could the answer be 'money stream'?  Is this the reason for the publishing world's frenzy over the iPad?


How should my teaching and the materials I generate reflect the likely development of these platforms?  Is the iPad robust enough to be used in education?  I replaced the battery in my MacBook this month.  It cost £100.  If the iPads are similarly priced then running costs might well be rather high.

I look forward to using the iPad in the UK soon.  The UK price of the iPad is yet to be released.  I suspect that the price break will be keenly sensitive.   I also think that without a deal with Adobe over the implementation of Flash on both the iPhone and iPad, Apple will lose the initiative in this new market they've created. See more from MacUser.  Things are going to move very quickly in this new market and we may well know by this time next year.

Celtx Studio or Adobe Story?

As Adobe gallop ahead of Apple with CS5, Adobe's Story is worth looking at. Here is Adobe's introductory video.

I have been using Celtx for a number of years now with students and for my own work. It's been really useful, robust and simple to use. The software has been steadily updated over the years - the last addition of a sketching facility was especially welcome. Celtx also offers a collaborative function called 'Celtx Studio'. This is a paid for service that allows an administrator to set up 'seats' so that collaborators have an individual log in. Then Celtx projects can be worked on by the group, with changes noted and tracked. Updates are saved to the 'Studio. I have been working with 4 students like this for about 4 months. There is a useful chat function so that communication is separate from the writing. All the writing is displayed with the usual industry standard formatting. This makes it more practical under most circumstances for screenplay writing that the excellent EtherPad. Importantly for me Celtx also include a whole suit of planning and tagging for schedules, locations, prop lists etc to help with the production planning.

'Story' from Adobe is an AIR powered application. You will need to have an Adobe Log in here. Once you have logged in and opened Story in your browser you can install the desktop application. I strongly suggest you do. The ability to work offline is very handy. You can sync it later with the online versions of the projests. In fact switching from on to off line is easier than I found with Celtx.

First impressions are excellent. Story looks great. Anyone familiar with Buzzword, Acrobat.com or Photoshop.com will feel at home in the Adobe style environment. Naturally Story is designed to integrate with a future releases of the Adobe production premium suite including the latest CS5.



Adobe have seen the value of metadata and activly worked out how control of such data can be embedded into the production process. Imagine loading a QuickTime movie and being able to search for a line of dialogue, location or character.




Celtx will allow you to paste text into it. This text will then require formatting - which is quite quickly done with the application. Story will permit Importing a script as text or from Word or Final Draft etc. But since Adobe owns of the PDF format it's not surprising that it also allows PDF import. Not only that but the script is broken down on import. That's really impressive. If you find a script online you can now import it and then edit it with all the formatting preserved and generate all the production reports you need. (For some reason it fails to identify the title page.) It doesn't embrace the production functions of Celtx, staying focused on the script. So it lacks the production tools that Celtx provides. eg calendar/scheduler, storyboarder, sketcher etc but at least for the short term it has plenty to offer.

Where is does better, immediately, is that you can collaborate without charge. All collaborators need Adobe IDs and you just share your project with them. Privileges can be set by the administrator, very easily. I expect to use both together since there are few script changes on the short films I work on once into production.

The Photographer's eye by John Szarkowski.

Photographic gems from 'The Photographer's Eye'.  Published in 1980 and still valid!

I recently read Mark Galer's book Digital photography in available light.  It's an excellent book and one that manages to offer new instruction in a market full of other books on the same subject.  In the book he quotes from John Szarkowski's book 'The Photographer's eye'.  As luck would have it the University's library has a copy of this, much older book, on it's shelves too.

The book is a fantastic collection of photos from the early days of the art to the 1960's.  There are few words, instead the images are left to speak for themselves.  They are artfully arranged so that they relate to each other.  The words that are included are understated and insightful, contrasting painting with photography.  There is plenty to think about. 

The book attempts to describe the nature of photography - it's relationship to reality.  The role of the 'significant detail' and of symbol over painterly narrative.  It explores the importance of the frame, it's ability to define content, create relationship, present juxtapositions and quote out of context.  It raises the fundermental Photographer's question - What should be included what should be excluded?  He proceeds to sum it up beautifully;

"This frame is the beginning of his picture's geometry.  It is to the photograph as the cushion is to the billard table."

He then unpicks the relationship of photography to time and the 'decisive moment' (Cartier - Bresson).  In order to impose some meaning on an image, to make it a picture, the Photographer is obliged to arrange the elements by moving the camera.  The issue of vantage point is therefore raised.  All the while the points made are illustrated with a great selection of photos.

See more images at JPG magazine.