This is the last iPad blog. Sheldon the FedEx guy delivered it nearly two months ago. It’s been one of the more compelling experiences with technology since I placed the original and somewhat useless 128K Mac on my desk in January 1984 and all my friends came over to stare at it and play with the mouse, which no one had ever seen before.

When Steve Jobs said the iPad was a “game changer,” it was easy to dismiss the comment as more Apple hyperbole. I certainly didn’t know I wanted a tablet computer until the iPad marketing assault began. Walking down Michigan Ave. in Chicago, every single bus shelter advertised it.  I thought I was well served with two laptops, Mac and Windows, an iMac desktop and a Blackberry.

Well, Steve, you are right—again. The iPad is a game changer. But it’s also a tabula rasa, a blank slate, which doesn’t reveal its secrets until some time passes. Also, if you are not already an iPhone user, there is a learning curve with the keyboard and touch technology. It could defeat some potential users.

I had elected to stay with my Blackberry when the iPhone came out, with some trepidation and craving for the other product but I have to admit, it’s one time where the utilitarian, efficient BB met my needs better—though when the next upgrade comes around and the iPhone 4 problems are solved, I probably will switch. Despite Mac synching software for the Blackberry, I’ve had a lot of trouble with keeping calendars and contacts intact on both.

Along with the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, I believe touch technology could surpass laptops and the previous generation of mouse and point-click interface. The tech isn’t perfect, particularly in its word processing applications, but it is highly functional for basic document entry, editing and emailing. It’s a trade off—size and portability versus functionality.

Here are the ways I am using my iPad:

1. The Big Surprise: the plain vanilla Apple Notes app. While there are improved versions like the $1.99 NotePadPro, the basic version has made my note taking efficient in ways I couldn’t imagined. On my office shelf right now, there are a pile of legal pads I’m about to throw out. I will never buy one again, saving all that paper and expense. This is how the iPad pays for itself. I go to a meeting, give it a name and that’s recorded as the file name on top. I make notes and can email them or refer to them in a list later. Fantastic.
2. Media: one of the reasons I bought the iPad was to get rid of daily newspaper delivery and I did—no more daily Globe and Mail and Sunday New York Times, for the first time in more than 30 years. It took a lot for me to do that, especially the Times to which I am ultra loyal. Neither app is perfect, and one wishes more from the NYT. I’d be willing to pay for it, when the time comes; so far the Globe is terribly behind the Times, unlike the Wall Street Journal whose app is both fantastic and totally annoying, peppered with pleas for subscriptions when contact is locked.  One does receive enough of the Journal to learn from it.
3. Books: The Apple reader is coming on line in this country, as copyrights are straightened out and will be useful but mostly I’ve gotten stuff from Kindle. I really like the sample idea, where you receive a chapter or two and then can download the rest if you want—it’s no different than a bookstore, where you can practically read the whole book if you are willing to sit there long enough. The reading surface is fine; you don’t need the “ink reader.” The book app has made a huge difference; I take the iPad with me on the subway and don’t have to struggle with a book or a paper. I haven’t been on a plane yet with it but I am looking forward to that too. If you have an iPad with books on it, you can read just about anywhere and don’t have to plan in advance. I just love it. A huge plus in efficiency and environmental concern
4. Music: I play guitar and the music-related apps have been a revelation. I didn’t think anticipate that these would be so important and life changing but they have. Previously, I had notebooks full of songs and they’d fall out or rip or whatever: total disorganization. With an app like Totalguitar.com, I can reproduce my song collection, including tabs, for finger positions, in alphabetical order, without paper! Also game-changing; coupled with Guitar Scales and Guitar Tuner, I have a portable gig set up and can play happily on my porch with everything I need. GuitarTab was free but a waste.

Other apps I’ve downloaded include (with comments)

• Guardian Eyewitness, fantastic daily color news photos and photo tips
• The Weather Channel, which I am highly dependent on; hourly weather and radar
• Instapaper, a great app for repurposing web stories for later reading or circulation
• Streamitall radio, not so hot, very limited supply of stations
• Urbanspoon, great restaurant locations
• FatSecret, keeps track of food, which I must do better with
• Twitter and InstantMessenger, both work well
• Flipboard—this must be very popular already, as there is a waiting list to add email addresses for incorporating Facebook and Twitter
• Skype—well, Steve, no camera makes this one less that perfect but the voice works just fine. Get a camera, OK? And a phone, too!
• Pages—Apple’s word processor. A few features missing but it works well, given the medium’s limitations.

I have my eye on more iWork apps, Scrabble and Wired—but another time. The case is also well worth purchasing; let’s the pad stand up and holds it in one place.

Complaints: why doesn’t iTunes have radio, just like the desktop/laptop version? Why no camera—it’s silly. Just withdrawing something because the iPhone has it? There inevitably will be a phone too; you know it and I know it, Steve.

Absence of Flash so far hasn’t been a major problem—can’t listen to the my favourite radio station, Q107 Classic Rock, as it’s player doesn’t’ run without it. WiFi is adequate most places but when the signal is faint, it’s a problem. Works great in Starbucks but not at Humber College.

To draw a picture of how I use it, it’s something like this:

• Sit on porch, read, play guitar or write and correct papers
• Mealtimes, particularly breakfast: read Journal, Times, Globe
• Public transportation, catch up on books
• Bedtime, books or IM
• Random emails or web searching around the house
• Meetings: take notes
• Encounters with the uninitiated (even with a pretty girl on the subway): demonstrate it, show it off. Even the rabbi wanted to see it and took an hour reviewing it. He wants one too.

Thanks, Apple and Steve. Now why didn’t buy the stock?

Tags: Apple Inc., Editing, good writing, iPad, Public Relations, Steve Jobs, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg, Writing

by Richard Rotman

Professor of PR, Humber College and PR Writer Extraordinaire

Here’s some ways I’ve used my iPad in its first week…

Walked into the Dean’s office at the college where I teach, and dazzled him with simply having an iPad a day or so after launch and he also appreciated its many fantastic features. Also showed the all-female media faculty the machine, with one person saying, “I didn’t think I’d get to see one for several weeks.” Another faculty member already had one from a U.S. purchase.

Sat on my front porch on a nice warm summery night, answering emails with my new case, which came separately, securing the pad. The case is useful; makes it a bit heavier but the feature by which it’s propped up makes it easier to type and to use as pad for notes when giving a talk. It came separately and when Sheldon, the FedEx guy delivered it, he asked what it was, as each iPad owner received a second shipment. I told him and then asked, “Did anyone show it to you?” and then told him to sit down on a chair next to me and showed him what magic he’d been delivering.

I am definitely in the habit of reading the media in the morning at breakfast with the iPad. I haven’t missed my daily newspaper delivery and in fact now believe the iPad is more convenient than a big broadsheet. I’ve read it on the subway, on a bus and well…in the bathroom.

Today, I had to deliver a talk to a small group of people and it wasn’t feasible to use a projector. I outlined my talk in Word, emailed to myself, then opened it in Pages—a great App, all for $9.99. It was a great way to have a prompter, as I flipped up the pages with my fingers and kept talking. I also looked quite au courant to media studies teachers.

Starting to replace some Blackberry usages with it, too. Calendar for sure. A calorie counter to watch my weight. Blackberry mail is great and convenient but do I need it? My kids and a close friend use Blackberry Messenger. But I could do without it. Thinking of cutting off those usages with Blackberry as much as I love them. Saved on newspaper purchases and on telecom too?

So after one week, what do I think of it? I agree with Walt Mossberg even more. It could “profoundly” change personal computing. Its size is very convenient and it’s so much better to use in a meeting than a laptop—and for sitting on a porch using WiFi, it’s not only less obtrusive but also more convenient. The main reason for which I purchased it—media and books—will come to pass. I like it. I wonder what the next improved versions will be like?

Tags: Editing, good writing, iPad, Public Relations, social media, Twitter

by Richard Rotman

Professor of Public Relations, Humber College

PR Writer Extraordinaire

Part I

It arrived from China as scheduled but not on time. I had been tracking its journey from Shenzen to Anchorage, Alaska. It then flew to the FedEx hub in Memphis and on to Mississagua, ON, where it arrived at my home office at 2:00 pm. Sheldon, the FedEx delivery guy, said his station delivered 500 iPads and that he personally was responsible for 30.  Sheldon added that often no one is home when he must obtain signatures. I asked if he knew what he was delivering and he said, “Yes, I do and everyone is home today.” Immediately sent my kids a photo of it out of the box.

Is it the future of computing?

As was once said about Bruce Springsteen and the future of rock ‘n’ roll, I have seen the dawn of something new in computing and it’s called iPad. I agree with The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg that the touch entry could take over the mouse, which has dominated computing since the Mac’s intro in 1984.

Why do I have one? Because I had the very first Mac the first week it came out and two Apple Newtons, the first ever PDA? Partially but I believe that this venture will ultimately mean more.

I spent much of the first and second days exploring and opening my eyes to how it works.

General observations:

1. It is as good as the hype: seeing the high-resolution photos and fast processor at work is remarkable.
2. Some things are so amazing they are freakish: turning the pages in the Apple library and seeing how they wrinkle and can be partially turned is almost too dazzling. It comes with a copy of Winnie the Pooh, one of my old favorites; it almost makes me want to read it again.
3. The Kindle app from Amazon simply moves the pages forward with a finger. I downloaded a chapter from Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists, a journalism novel, and read it in bed at night. I wanted to read the third book in the Dragon Tattoo series but Amazon said it wasn’t available in Canada. Boo!

Apart from participating in the technology, my main purpose in getting an iPad was two-fold: read media online and eliminate paper; read books and reduce paper. On both those counts, it does appear to work as promised. As I cancelled my newspaper subscriptions, this is important.

App review:

• New York Times: great but not enough stories; still need the online version. No doubt I will be paying for the iPad version soon.
• Globe and Mail: Haven’t worked out the paid app but the one for Blackberry/iPhone is a masterpiece and it works on the iPad.
• Guardian Eyewitness (all photos) and BBC, both wonderful.
• Best app so far: Instapaper: This killer app repurposes web articles by eliminating ads, graphics and links and then turning the entire article into a news story with a headline and saving it for later reference.

Part II: people’s reactions, Apple’s Pages and Notepad.

Tags: Blogs, Editing, good writing, iPad, Public Relations, social media, Writing

iPads went on sale early this morning at big box electronics retailers but the real early adopters–those who put their order in on May 10 for the presale–have not received them from FedEx in most cases. FedEx says it might be into the evening even though all week long the delivery has been promised for before noon on Friday. In fact, the FedEx CSR said she could not guarantee any time at all because the delivery was now an ‘exceptionality.’ Apple demands that each package have a signature won’t release them without one’s John Hancock. You can’t leave your premises; waiting and waiting. No iPad. Jon Steward was right: sometimes Apple has become ‘the Man.’ Chaos out there, even people camping out overnight at the retailers. I want my iPad!

Tags: Editing, good writing, iPad, Public Relations, social media, Writing