Apple, Finger Pointing and the Ghost of Steve Jobs

On the right attention Apple should now give to the emergent stylus pen ecosystem

Some time ago, and not too long ago, the world woke up to the voice of Steve Jobs, announcing the release of this new phone he called the iPhone. It is a sheet of glass with an aluminum backing. The glass has this instant-on video of gorgeous colours and real-life icons. It makes phone calls, surfs the internet and sends messages in a way that other phones could not up till that time. During the demo, Steve even searched the Maps app for "pizza" joints and mock ordered pizza from one of the search results, a real-life pizza joint near him. It was a WOW moment at the time. The cloud roared with a thunderous applause and ever since then, the iPhone marched on to become the most commonly used used smartphone in the world because of WOW features like that, aesthetics, and ease of use and most importantly but most intangible, the design philosophy. I was there listening to the live stream. At this point, I has an HP-made smartphone (which required a stylus pen to work it really well). So, when I heard Steve Jobs say something to the effect that anyone designing one of these devices and makes it require a pointing device other than the finger, then, that device is not designed correctly. And so was born one of iPhone's design philosophies: "Touch is all you should need". I was hoping this would work out as promised. I didn't want to keep buying replacement pointing devices (they were sold in sets of 3 then, as a testimony that you'd probably lose them and often too). I bought my first iPhone (1st gen) before it was officially released for Canada. So I had to get the unlocked AT&T phone from eBay and used it on my Fido service without Fido's approval. And truly, you didn't need a stylus pen for the iPhone. The calls were clear, Internet pages were true browser pages (I don't expect you to remember what mobile device browsers looked like then) and text messaging was really smooth, not to mention the fully integrated iPod music. You only needed your finger to do all those. No stylus, just touch. Steve Jobs was right. Suddenly, it began to look silly for anyone to poke his phone with anything other than the finger.

Pointing and Drawing

A few year later, the iPad was released. Shortly after which a number of graphing apps were released for it. It didn't take long for everyone to see that the finger was too stubby for drawing all the lovely art, including handwriting that these apps required. Then, an ecosystem of stylus pens that could write on the capacitive iPad screen began to emerge. Consequently, it could write on the capacitive iPhone and iPod touch screen but that was more a by-product of those screens also being capacitive rather than a clear use case for these other devices (never mind the extra-long nails and super-cold fingers). My point is that the advent of the iPad made it more and more necessary to draw than it was on the iPhone, making it more and more necessary to have a drawing device for this device. So was born a separation between pointing devices and drawing devices.

Apple Store and the Apple Philosophy

Let me put it as simply as possible: Every Apple product has a philosophy around it which defines the ways in which Apple does NOT want you to use the product. Apple Stores do NOT carry any product that Apple believes to be contrary to that philosophy. Here is a simple example: Apple will not approve an app or a device that plugs into the iPad and use the battery in such a way that you don't get 10 hours of life. Must require no daytime charging is one of the design philosophies for the iPad. Similarly, for all 'iTouch' devices (iPad, iPhone, iPodTouch), the design philosophy is that touch is enough. That is why in spite of all these stylus pens out there, there is none of it in an Apple Store.

What would Steve Do?

Steve had foresight. Apple has foresight. They would be the first to admit, nevertheless, that they can't imagine all the good uses to which their product would be put to and the creativity that their product would unleash. If Steve would think this through, he would realize that a pointing device is not quite the same thing as a drawing device. The iPad stylus pens fill a gap that the finger cannot. Just take a look at some of the great art that is possible using these styluses! The problem is that Steve can't. He is dead. And at Apple I am sure that Steve's ghost is hovering over every one (in their imagination) watching to see who would be the first to reverse those strongly held positions that Steve had. No one wants to be finger-pointed about finger pointing. Steve warned before he died, "I don't want you to run Apple by constantly asking, "What would Steve do?"". He was really a wise man. He knew that situations would arise that would cause him to change his mind on long-held positions. He sure would have once thought that MobileMe was cool. Later he agreed that it sucked! If he dies after saying that it was cool, it would be a shame to hang onto MobileMe just because Steve said it was cool, even though harsh realities indicate a need to rethink. I do believe that Steve would have thought it through. He would rightly have maintained that a pointer stick whose role is just to poke at poorly resolved pixels on the screen diminishes the innovative genius of multi-touch. But Steve would realize that this high-pixel iPad canvas is screaming for a great drawing pen to drain out the creative artistry pulsating in the fingers of the iPad user, desperately beckoning some fine, smoothly gliding, nimble capacitive pen tips to help it flow forth.

What should Apple be doing?

Apple should stop ignoring the stylus pen ecosystem. Apple should support it, help it, shape it and even compete with it. Apple should make a stylus pen out of a transparent thin tip that will totally simulate the real pen and have unbeatable feel and durability. Apple has the muscle to research into that kind of material. In the short run, Apple should open the doors of Apple Stores to let in a few of the highest quality stylus pens. There is no shame in, sometimes, following the market. It is time to follow this one.

Does Apple Care about the Customer?

The other day, I was completing an after-sales questionnaire for a branch of Best Buy, one of the major electronic retail chains, and one of the questions ran something like: Do you feel that Best Buy cares about the customer? I scratched my head quite a bit and couldn't cone up with an answer. I then entered, "I don't know". Today is different. I actually think that Apple cares about its customers.

I am sitting in the Apple Store at West Edmonton Mall waiting for my iPhone 4 to get fixed. And I thought I should just blog this positive experience and go as far as suggesting that Apple does care about the customer.

It all started this morning when my son, Pete, picked up my phone as he usually does. Then unfortunately for my phone, as I carried him to the dinning table for breakfast, he sighted something else he liked: cookies. Then Pete lets the phone go crashing to the floor. And it smashes against the metal bar of his dinning chair and the back glass was totaled.

The broken iPhoneMy first reaction was to check the Internet for "Where on earth will I find the back glass of this unit?". The options ranged from a do-it-yourself kit + instructions to special services that charges you $200. Anyway, i called Apple. First the service desk tells me it would cost $220; at which I said, "Hey! It's just the back glass, not the entire thing!"; at which she said, "Oh! OK. Give me your serial number. Wait a moment. Sorry about that. OK. It will cost $29.99. I was ecstatic. I got an appointment for someday.

Now, a few minutes ago, I arrived the Genius Bar and this smart guy Greg comes says, "What can I do for you?". And I say, "Hey men, it looks like I smashed my iPhone", pointing at the badly damaged phone on the table. And he says, "It sure looks like you did!", as he pushes a few more buttons and announces, "Ok. You've not requested service since you bought the phone so, we will just cover this damage. That means that I got a $0.00 invoice. I was even more ecstatic. It may be just $29.99 or $299.99. Whatever! It just leaves me feeling very cared about right now. Totally!

Update: About a month after the first post, I also smashed my front glass. This time, it was supposed to cost $230 ... cost of replacing the whole phone. I understand that Apple doesn't change the front glass in repair shops because it is fused into the touch circuitry. They just replace the phone, that's what the $230 is for. Well, after telling me that physical damage is not normally covered, they said they were giving me another one-time complimentary replacement. They took my shattered phone and gave me a new phone. Finish. Cost: $0.00. I went home, synced in an image of my phone from the computer and moved on like nothing happened. This is beyond overwhelming! Thank you, Apple.

iPad 2: What you can’t have

Since late 2010 rumours have been abuzz about what to expect and not to expect about the upcoming iPad 2. These rumours fall in two categories: one is a wish-list type prediction. These say, because I’ll like to see it, then I believe it’s coming. The other comes from a handful of mainstream tech journalists who claiming special knowledge from “people close to the matter”. I sit here and read them all and in some of them I go, “nah! that’s not going to happen”. And here is why.

Flash

This is the most “nah!” of the iPad 2 predictions I see online. If you know anything about Steve Job’s Apple, you’ll know that IOS will never support Flash unless those 6 issues raised in Steve Jobs paper, “Thoughts on Flash” are addressed by Adobe. And you and I know that this has not happened yet, if ever they would. So, you can be sure that Flash will not come on iOS devices anytime soon. Many web sites have been re-writing to accommodate non-flash devices and most browser manufactures (even IE) are gunning to make HTML5 more mainstream that it used to be. There would be no reason for Apple to return to Flash right now and  potentially lose the edge on that unbelievable 10-12 hour battery life. That brings me to the next group of predictions.

battery life

Just so you know, the one most unsung yet most significant success story of the iPad is the battery life. It works because the battery lasts all day. It won’t be such a great travel companion if the battery dies on you at the first airport. You won’t have carried it everywhere you were going if you needed to carry charger cables with you. There are a few key things Apple did not spare resources for during the design decision for iPad. One of them is battery life. They purchased an entire chip company and used their processor because it gives all that power and uses less battery than what the other chip makers could squeeze in. So, if you want iPad 2 to sport anything, just ask yourself: will that hurt battery life? If the answer is yes, you are not going to get it. From what Jobs said on “Thoughts on Flash”, Flash would therefore be a “Nah!”. So would some of the things people are speculating on.

lower price

Price is a big deal! So big a deal that two major contenders (HP Slate and Microsoft Courier) that started this race with iPad did not make the finish line the way iPad did and many person think that price had lots to do with it. They could not bring it in at a close-enough price and battery life. Historically, Apple’s version x+1 of any iOS device would always either see a price cut or feature bump for the same price or both. So, price is looking really good. I am putting my money on feature bump. That is, Apple is more likely to give you a larger storage space, more memory and more speed for the same price than to lower the price altogether. The main argument against lowering price is that there is no serious price contender right now and sales are amazing at the current price point.

PC-type File System

This is a tough one for me because I really want the feature for myself. But the nagging voice of reason in my head is saying something else: Apple is very consistent with design philosophies. Once something does not match the design philosophy, it doesn’t make the cut. iOS devices are designed to be non-geeky. They are designed not as computer interfaces but as consumer electronics.  Apple does not want iOS devices to look so ‘computery’ with file name and extension and file association and stuff like that. That’s the drawback for a generic file system-type interface. I am not saying the feature will not happen. I am saying that it will only happen after Apple figures out a way to make you not have to know a file name to access the space.

One possible way this could happen is to make the file system into a service that supports both standard MIME types and unique app-registerable types. The idea is that when Apple opens the file system for you, they don’t want you to identify the item by file name. They want you to see a nice view of page 1, a nice photo, an album cover or video frame. That’s what is holding back the file system and if it’s coming, it’s coming because they have figured this out. And of course, if it comes, Safari will also support the browse button and you can interact with your local or LAN network file system from web sites.

SD Card

This is not going to happen. Take a look at the iPods, from v1 to v-now; the iPhone, from v1 to v-now; and the iPad. Take a look at any of those vis a vis their competition. You’d notice that while their competition believed that you have to attach some extended memory card slot to help you expand what these devices did, Apple cannot stand people poking flat plastic devices into their computers. Funny but that’s true. They’d rather devise a file format that is so compact that you never use up all your 64GB of flash drive than to give you a slot that no one ever really uses.

USB, etc

There are three things counting against this one: Battery power concerns, design philosophy (Apple wants all iOS devices to speak to the world of peripherals through the 30-pin interface. Period). More fundamentally, Apple doesn’t really like peripheral interfaces that look so mechanical and techy and ugly. They don’t want their devices look like you could take screw-drivers to them. They don’t like people poking things into their personal devices, if they can help it. First, they spear-headed making the floppy drive smaller then got rid of it. Then, they spear-headed getting rid of the parallel port. Then, they spearheaded replacing the serial port with USB and then got rid of it. They never liked the CD tray and never had one. They had a narrow slit slot … and that’s even only on their full-scale computers. You are not likely to get any of these on the iOS devices.

Is crippling Hotmail the only response Microsoft has for iPad?

In a previous post I examined the seemingly awkward posture of Microsoft in not responding to the need for a Microsoft Word-class word processor on the iPad. Today, I am just wondering if the "once-was" giant has dug in even deeper into a seeming iPad resentment.

You may have seen this Boston Globe interview of Bill Gates on the iPad. It nearly made me puke. This guy was my hero, you know, until that day. You can go see it here. I really don't know what is going on with Microsoft. This company once had their shares trading at $120. Today, it's scarcely $26. So, it's not like I am the only one who is restive about how this company is run. Perhaps, I am the only one not doing enough about it. I have believed in Microsoft for so long that I am not willing to face the possibility that glares me in the face. I still have my meagre RRSP savings in there, un-divested! I know! And my core competencies are built around Microsoft technologies.

It was disappointing for me to find, at least as an investor that Microsoft would not produce any Office product for the iPad at launch. Little did I know that that would not be the worst. My sister, Deborah Ilechukwu was arriving Edmonton from Abuja-Frankfurt, but was not on the expected airplane. I went to Hotmail online on my iPad because I needed to search my mail into a few weeks back to pull the record locator so that the airline could help me with info on Debo's whereabouts. I had gone to Hotmail when the iPad just arrived and it worked just fine. To my deepest chagrin, I realized that the iPad browser was now being redirected to use some crippled web page designed for the dumbest phone browsers. It supported no search, it was obtuse in every way. There was no option to display the full page, as most serious sites would offer you. I dug around and found a month-old story: Microsoft claimed that Hotmail would not work well on iPad browser and is trying to fix the problem. In the meantime, they would redirect iPad to mobile phone UIs.
I am really beginning to feel that I am backing the wrong horse here. When an animal is too obese to respond to brush fire, it usually gets roasted in it. If you had 3 months to respond to the iPad and you are still trying to even understand what that is, six months after, I think some rot needs being cleaned out in there. Three months should have been enough to even rewrite the entire Hotmail. This is the only online email service I know that fails on the iPad.
I just hope Microsoft is not boycotting the iPad. Notice: the iPad is no Netscape, you know. The world has changed. You have rested on your fat behinds long enough with the confidence that no one can replace Windows. You fail to realize that no one is talking about replacing Windows any more. The automobile never replaced the hot air ballon as a means of transportation.
I hear all the desperate reorg going on at Microsoft mobile. I think you need a reorg even down to the bone. When you are morbidly obese to the point that you cannot respond to a flame held to your feet, 20 minutes of treadmill will not do it. You need a more invasive surgery for starters.

Location:190 St NW,Edmonton,Canada

Kindle makes the iPad a great eBook reader

In a previous post, I applauded the business 'nimble' by which Amazon responded to the iPad challenge to the Kindle. No one would have guessed by how much the move would bump up Amazon's Kindle business.

People are basically simple. When you change your car, everyone understands that you changed the steering wheels too. So, when the iPad was invented, everyone screamed, "Kindle Killer". It was simple to understand it that way: The Kindle is a machine plus the books you buy with that machine, inseparable.

Anyway, how it now works out is that people buy an iPad for all the cool things it does. Then, they also get two free eBook readers: iBooks and Kindle for iPad. That's all it takes to discover that you have 2 equally amazing eBook readers on your iPad. Right away, you get all your existing Kindle book synced in and available. And that's a huge plus.

Then it comes time to get some new content into your reader. Reading books on the iPad is just such a pleasure but you need to get the book in there. Right now, iBooks is at a disadvantage for content, especially for trade books, textbooks, technical books, you know ... other than novels and autobiographies. Amazon has a great head start on all those.

As a test, just search for any book in your profession on iBookstore. Then repeat the search on amazon.com's Kindle selection. Right now, I am reading a software book on my iPad and even though I tried buying it on iBookstore, I couldn't. I bought it from Kindle books for about $35.00.

And regardless where you buy it from, the pleasure of reading the eBook on your iPad is just the same kind of pleasure.

Location:190 St NW,Edmonton,Canada

The effect of cost on the uptake of new ideas

Why is the email such a worldwide phenomenon? It is free, that's why! Is this lesson enough for cellular voice and data providers to take a hint and clean house? This article reviews how telephone companies have historically priced otherwise cool ideas first into disuse and then into obsolescence.

All last week, Apple released international pricing plans for the iPhone in 7 countries. Alongside this several cellular network companies released data plans to support the 3G iPad model. Most of these plans tried to closely mirror the AT&T pricing model previously announced by Apple way back in January: A contract-free, no-overage-charging, unlocked SIM monthly plan of $15.00 for 256MB and $30 for Unlimited. Of all these service plans, two of them raised the most furor. Worst was the Japan plan that tied the iPad to a single cellular network company, contrary to what obtains everywhere in the world. The next closest angst-stirring plan was the Rogers plan of Canada.

The Rogers Canada problem

Rogers customers were livid with rage all last week and actually took it out on the Rogers Customer Service Blog, the Redboard.
The following are the key concerns, ordered from the least to the most disturbing:

• Rogers would not match the AT&T base plan, dollar per dollar even though there's dollar parity
• Rogers would not offer the AT&T-type Unlimited plan, claiming that most persons don't need it anyway. They rather replaced that plan category with a 5GB plan.
• Rogers aborted the "Add iPad to your existing data plan" plan. This plan would (for a one-time $20 fee), let you use some of your unused data from another data plan.

This last one was the one that really got people threatening to even abandon the Rogers networks altogether. First, they feel they are only using data that they already paid for; they are using it with a second machine they paid for in full; and it was actually published on the Apple site as a Rogers offering. I could give you my opinion on this specific issue but this article is not about that. But if it was, I'd suggest that Rogers should fire whoever their Spin Master is. You know what a Spin Master does, right? That's the guy that comes up with the nonsense they tell people when they do something awful. The only requirement is that the nonsense has to be logical. Now, the Rogers nonsense is not logical.
To the Unlimited plan, they spinned, "99.xx percent of our customers don't need it". I was like, "Ok genius, so what's the problem?". Why stop at 5GB then, after all 99.xx customers don't use 5GB either! Then, to the "Join iPad to your existing plan" plan they said the most stupendously retorted spin: It was an error! What? Typographical or strategic? Since when was it an error to just do the right thing?
Let me offer an alternate explanation: Last couple months, Rogers got a signal from Apple that the iPad should not be subjected to the telephone companies' typical pricing barriers to adoption. In response, Rogers started investigating how to join iPad to existing iPhone/Blackberry data plans (It's not like it's new, anyway, the 'Couples plan' joins two or more phones to the same voice plan. And the 'GSM home phone' plan joins multiple handsets to the same plan. Anyway, Rogers created the "Join iPad ..." plan based on verifiable due-diligence and proper research. Then, the day following international price announcement, "The Department of How-Much-Greed-Can-We-Get-Away-With discovers that no one else is offering this. And they go, how much money can we gouge from these suckers if we knock off that "Join iPhone thingy?". "Did you say, millions? That's it! Take it off and let's see if anyone complains ... just as we tried to take advantage of the iPhone, too". That's what I think happened. But like I said, this post is not about that.

People don't like you metering their lives: The email case study

Emailing is a way to send some documentary information from one person to another, practically instantly. It has taken over our lives in such a short time. Billions of this thing get exchanged daily. Pretty much in the order of magnitude of millions per minute!! How did it happen? It is free; The telephone company did not get it's hooks into it before the rest of the world knew about it. They did not get a chance to charge for it on a per character, per word, per cent, per page, per minute, per MB or per anything basis. The email was not metered. And it grew.
The email had an twin sibling: Text Messaging (SMS). It was born in the same era but was controlled by the telephone company. They charged you per message, up to a maximum number of characters. So, it did not take off. Not until lately, when you can now get a package of so many messages per month (often unlimited local text messaging) because it has to complete with emails that now come right into the phone.
SMS has an older sibling: TeleFax (FAX). It was controlled by the telephone company. They charged per minute. Earlier on, they even forced you to get another line for your fax, even though the two machines could co-exist on the same phone line. They no longer do today, but that practice is the order of the day. Every company has a phone line and a separate fax line. The FAX was an irreplaceable document transmittal technology (not irreplaceable anymore, though). It helped businesses to cut down post office delays. But on the personal consumer side: The FAX failed. Most humans on earth have never sent faxes from home.
FAX too has a much older pair of sibling: Telex/Telegram. It was controlled by the telephone company, it was metered by the character. Yes, you paid per character. And later, per word. A period was a word, a space between two words was a word. The Telegram was great but it is dead.
People don't like you metering their lives. Why is Facebook, twitter, or all those social networks so successful? They didn't meter people. They found business models that don't just naively draw blood from the primary consumer, so fast and so much that they would shrivel and die and the idea dying with them.

Why do they charge so much?

I once asked my Telco friend why they charged so much for the cellular phone. And he said, "Because we can. We treat it as a premium service. People pay for the social statement of having a mobile phone. It did't cost us more to provide it but we won't reduce the price for as long as they keep paying". I learned from him that cellular phone networks are cheaper to set up than land networks, and they are not more expensive to run. They made you pay more for cell phones because they figure that mobility is important to you. Take for instance, the "Rogers Home Phone". This service is based on the very same GSM service that you have on the cell phone handset. But they can price the Home phone service to be competitive with the Telus landline service. Second example: Nearly 10 years after US mobile phone companies offered international roaming as a base service on their voice calls, Canadian companies still make you pay roaming fees if you leave your little city to visit your farm 10 km away.Even in many developing countries, the cellular minute is a nationwide minute. And to perpetuate this practice, it appears that the competing companies have found a way to agree among one another on what and what they can compete on. When competiting parties agree among themselves in any sport, it's called 'fixing' and someone goes to jail for it. And we do have regulators. We really do.

How fast should you draw blood from a baby?

I have a vision for the iPad that is similar to the vision I had for the laptop. It is much easier to have your iPad with you all the time. It will give you much more on-demand access to your stuff. And you will not have to 'get home' before you can do something. I believe the WiFi-only model is just a test-the-water model. The full glory of the iPad can only be revealed when you can just turn it on and you have access to all you need. Trust me this thing is so boring to use when you have no connection to the rest of the world! And right now, only a 3G access gives you that kind of coverage. This baby will blossom and become the way to consume information in our world.
Unfortunately, 3G is controlled by the telephone company. Until a practical Wide Area Network (WAN) emerges that is not controlled by the phone company, their control is going to remain. The way their heads are wired, they would force you to get a new line even if you can share the same one, they will charge you per small unit, they will make you pay for being happy, for convenience, and just because they can. They will meter your usage until the vision is squeezed dry. Then, they will wait for the next idea to emerge. If this iPad vision must survive, the telephone company has got to take it's talons off, now!

Location:190 St NW,Edmonton,Canada

My iPad, one week after

One week after driving 17 hours in each direction from Edmonton to Seattle WA to buy an iPad, I thought you'd like to know how it's going for me.


About this time last week, I wrote to tell you guys that I finally got my iPad. I was in this hotel room in Seattle where my entire Edmonton crew was hanging out and refreshing from the first leg of the iPad adventure. I had gone along with every one: Idongesit, Victory, Samuela and Pete. Anyway, I was writing and telling you that this 32GB iPad 3G was finally in my hand and I was loving it. I will not spend much time telling you about all the first-looks and first impression stuff and is all over the Internet. I really agree with most of those balanced observations.

Buyer Remorse

First off, I've got to tell you this, and am sure you know about it as much as I do. Other than medication and basic food, there's hardly anything I buy that I get an attack of 'buyer remorse' over. It usually sets in after about 2 days of getting the item and having the initial excitement boil over. Well, I didn't have 'buyer remorse' after marrying my wife either, but let's not go there. Anyway, it's been a week and I don't have a tinge of that nagging "should I have?" thought. I am just so happy I got the iPad.

WiFi is great but 3G is important

Initially, I had thought to buy the WiFi-only option. But I'm so glad I changed my mind. This thing is specialized for consuming the Internet. Trust me. Most of the fun stuff you do with the iPad need some form of connection to the world outside of itself. So, if you can only do this where you have WiFi, it's like you're carrying a pseudo-cripped machine.
I can tell for sure because there's no iPad data plan in Canada yet (and am not about to cut my SIM card or Jailbreak this beauty). I've used a Jailbroken iPhone before (the 1st Gen) and till today, I can't upgrade it or anything. It's not fun. Anyway, if you have a choice, buy the 3G option. You'll thank me.

People at work

When I got back Monday, every one at work was like, "ahh!!" (the sound of sucking in so much air through a wide open mouth, wide open eyes and both arms reaching out to touch it). Everyone of my colleagues in the wing I worked loved the iPad. Some would not travel to Seattle for it, though, but they now understand why I would.

US Store, Canada Store

I am having fun with my schizophrenic iPad. One time, it's pointing to the Canada store (for most things movie and music), and another time, it's pointing to the US store for apps. And when it's confused about the store (because it pretends that the Canada app store does not exist), I just do the transaction on Mac iTunes and sync up to the iPad.

Little know Photo Viewer

I wonder why most people don't speak about this, but I consider it super cool! If you have pictures in your iPad, and the machine is locked, you get this pretty rose bud icon on the right hand side of the lock slider. Click it and you get access to your photos right away. You don't have to unlock the iPad to do this.

Kindle App complements iBooks

Who would have believed? The press made it an iPad vs Kindle war. But apparently, Apple and Amazon have made it (from a consumer's point of view), a symbiosis. There are books that the iBookStore don't yet have. There are many of them, especially trade books, like Computer books. In such cases, I'd just go over to the Kindle app (with it's brilliant screen) and just get the book from Amazon, and life just goes on.

Einstein's relativity: my iPhone shrunk

My iPhone now looks so small to read from. I can't even open the emails there. I just check who it is (when am out and about) and then, if it can wait, I wait and read it on the iPad. It's amazing how small the iPhone screen looks now.

What does the iPad replace

Honestly, the iPad takes a chip off everything. I kinda use everything else a bit less. And because I can take it everywhere, really everywhere, which you couldn't do with a laptop without looking out of place, the iPad has truly come to stay. Let's put it this way, you can't bring a laptop to thanksgiving dinner but you can bring an iPad. And while others are chatting about all the boring stuff or are retired to sleep, you won't have to tip-toe around grand-ma's old Windows 98 to check your email.

I crossed the border for an iPad 3G

This is the first piece of business I am doing on my new, shiny iPad 3G. And thus ends the 3-4 months of breath holding.

Last night, my whole household, filled my wife's 8-seater (people + stroller + camping stuff) and drove 1440 km due south west from Edmonton to Linwood WA to buy an iPad 30GB 3G. We set off about 8 pm Edmonton time Friday and drove all night and morning, save 4 stops for gas & bio and one 45 min nap.

I got to Seattle at about noon (Edmonton time) Saturday (11am local time) and just walked into the Lynwood store and bought one. No lines, no protocol. I also bought a $50 US iTunes card so I could purchase the key apps I needed to buy from the US store (because they're not showing up in the Canada store yet: Pages, Keynote and Numbers). I think everyone needs them to be able to open attachments nicely, at least.

This is not really a review but I must tell you, the iPad is an amazing piece of computing device. If anyone tells you otherwise, it will be nice to find out why.

I barely had enough time to configure the iPad and sync up my music and initial app purchases before yeilding my body to the obligatory nudge of sleep about 4pm (local time). Idong and the children left and went shopping and the next time I stirred was about 9pm when they returned.

My configuration went quite smoothly (except for the store localization problems. iPad does not like that I bought some apps from the Canada store and others from the US store. This happens most when you need to do an app update. But I will keep navigating that minefield with caution.

My first impression: Something huge has just happened to personal computing! And it's not going back.

Something Apple should seriously give some thought is: How should we manage the Apple store across the countries? The kind of control that was brought to bear on the music store is not really necessary for the App store (I should think). So, purchases from multiple stores should sooner begin to learn to live together more transparently. This thing is a computer. It really is (in a catcher in-the-rye sort of way).

And, yes, I wrote this blog on the iPad.

UPDATE: I seem to solve the app localization issue by doing the updates in the mothership (computer itunes) and then syncing up to the iPad.

Israel's iPad ban and the Wi-Fi specification

Everyone has been tumbling over the news item that Israel banned iPad imporation and has actually impounded a few of those at the port of entry. Everyone opinion I've read including those of even Israeli lawmakers seems to beat up that decision as unreasonable. Some blog commentaries have even suggested ulterior theories. I am using the same facts proposed by some of these opinions to argue the opposite case: that Israel may actually have a point.

It is a fact that requires no evidence that there are many iPhones and Blackberry devices in Israel. Many have argued that the iPad Wi-Fi chip is the same standard unit that is installed in these other hand-helds and so advance an argument that Israel's decision to selectively ban the iPad is arbitrary and unreasonable. An unnamed Apple spokeswoman was even quoted as saying, "iPad complies with international industry standards for Wi-Fi specifications."

When I heard that response, i wondered, "international industry standard for Wi-Fi specifications"! Up to that moment, I was also like, "Israel should relax, men, what's all that about?". But this statement got me thinking. I said, anytime a corporation equivocates, there must be a need for it. What are my problems with these statements? First, if it's just as simple as using an identical Wi-Fi chip, then, yes Israel's action sounds arbitrary. But then, turn it around and ask yourself, does the same argument not make a credibility point for Israel? Israel could say, "We don't have a problem with Apple products or mobile devices. We allow iPhone, we allow BlackBerry, we allow MacBook Pro. So, believe us when we say that iPad has something that the others do not." My issue with the "international standards" statement is not so simple to explain without some geek speak, but I'll try. The statement can be both true and false. Yes, there is one and the same set of international industry standared for Wi-Fi specifications. That set of specifications is the IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n. But what is missing in that statement is that it does not show that different countries have laws that further restrict the use of all 14 Wi-Fi channels defined by IEEE 802.11. To help you understand this, 802.11 was originally reserved for medical equipment. Later when it became successful in computer networks, it became necessary for countries to determine which channels they allow for use on internet equipment based perhaps on what channels they have already assigned to, say MRI equipment or heart pacemaker diagnostic equipment. Europe (like Israel) allows all channels except channel 14 while North America further disallows channel 12 and 13. This would look like US equipment would be compliant in Europe and Israel. Some have advanced this claim as evidence of compatibility. But wait.

Aside from specifying the central spectrum and power restrictions of each channel, there's also the little known but major interference concern of 802.11 clause 17 which restricts spectral mask. Spectral mask defines the permitted distribution of power across each channel. In essense, within the channels allowed in your contry, a station can only use every 4th or 5th channel without overlap. A theoretical simplification is that American devices may 1,6,11 while European devices uses 1,5,9 and 13. This is designed to produce signal attenuation that would produce minimal interference of devices on other channels (provided it is farther than 1 meter away and operating within allowed power levels. You can see further geek details here or see a summary here and here.

So, there are several ways that something can get screwed up for one country but not the other and if a country is prudent enough to discover it, we should not bully them for looking out for themselves.

It's not like iPad can do no wrong, anyway! I love the device, I am going to buy one but it's still built by man. For instance, even though it alse uses a well-tested, well-understood DHCP algorithm for leasing IP addresses, Princeton University has reported iPad problems on their network and has gone ahead to block some iPads from access because the devices were not playing well on that network. It is reported that Apple is currently engaging Princeton to create a patch. My point being, iPad could still use well known chips or technologies but yet have some flaws that may need to be fixed.

On a more social note, do you think we'll show this surprise if these were equipment made in Russia and impounded by US customs? We'll jump to believe the US communications people and expect Russia to clean up the problem.

So, I suggest, we give Israel a break. It's called benefit of the doubt. Let Apple engage Israel and address the problem. The Israeli market is bigger than it seems. The whole world goes to Israel quite often. It is a large tourist nation of extreme historical, political and religious importance. The iPad is going to be an ultra-mobile gadget even more than the phone, since they come unlocked. It should be configured to play well in all countries. Bravado won't do it. Just as Apple has engaged Princeton to solve the DHCP bug, they should engage Israel to study the complaint with a view to a solution.

Apple should respect non-US iPad Customers

If a company with a large and enthusiastic International following (like Apple) begins to operate so ethnically, you would think that they don't appreciate the business of the rest of the world as much. I have started a facebook group entitled "Apple should respect non-US iPad Customers" to help others sound off on this iPad release dichotomy. I am also sending this link to Apple.

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(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Apple is one of the few computers in the world that is actually loved, yes loved, by its customers. There is this comradeship among mac users. When I bought my first mac in Greenville NC, I attended a Mac user group and couldn't help sensing the bonding that was both reminiscent of a religious fellowship and a closely-knit social club wrapped in one. Today, if you brandish your shiny aluminium in public, other Apple users would nod to you instinctively especially in parks, at beaches, on campuses and at airports. You can't believe the instant connection to this hive mind. It is real.

For a living, I write software on the Windows platform but there are 10 Apple devices in my home right this moment ranging from iPod classic through iPhone 3GS to Apple TV & MacBook Pros. Now that Apple laptops can dual-boot with Windows, I even take my mac to work, and in the midst of all the grey-scale official laptops around the conference table,  the aluminium flourish stands like the scene in "Legally Blond" when the lady in a pink suit steps into Harvard Law School amidst all the black and gray of the usual business suits.

As an Apple lover, I am just an Apple lover. So is my wife, so is my 16 year old daughter. We were living in the US and now live in Canada. Then and now, we were and are just simply Apple lovers. So, don't be surprised if I say that I loose sleep over the anxious expectation of the iPad. I may even have worked myself into a frenzy.

In one of my earlier posts, I reported that days after the iPad announcement, I sold my Sony eBook Reader. I really loved that Sony reader but I sold it for less than it was worth. And then, the wait for iPad began. First, I waited for end of March. Then, we learnt that it was releasing only to the US. Canada was to wait for end of April. To douse my feeling, I started downloading iPad apps in advance and reading every review. Once or twice, I had considered and given up driving 1200 km south to go buy one. I gave it up because Canada release date was just around the corner and I really now want the 3G model, since am not getting tethering post.

A few days ago when Apple announced the iPhone OS 4.0 sneak preview when I followed by a live blog, Steve Jobs still said, "International release of the iPad is coming late April".

So, you can imagine how just a few days later, Apple announced this move back by a whole month! If they has said, "We are having problem with local content developers in some countries", or international law or something like that ... if that was the problem, I would understand. It was so annoying that they said something like, "we are doing this because US buyers just want more than we thought they'd want. And we have more pre-orders for the US that we want to fill end of April. So, we'll just go ahead and do that and push International release to late May. How audacious!

The impression I get from this is that Apple treats the rest of the world as "Consumers of the Crumbs". They serve the main loaf to the US market, even offer seconds for anyone in the US who wasn't hungry the first time around. And then, if there are left-overs, offer that to the rest of the world. One early sign that a law is too arbitrary is that normally law-abiding people begin to go around it. Imagine how many people traveled to the US from the rest of the world to buy an iPad. Even till today, I believe that beyond the initial spike, the rest of the steady rise is attributable to international purchases. Is it a surprise that all the states that have sold the most iPads judging by Chikita real-time tracking are states on the borders with high-traffic international airports?

Apple should have shown respect to non-US customers by honoring the release date they were promised. It does not matter if they have products lasting a whole month at a go. But it would have gone a long way to dousing the  passion of early, unconditional adopters. Even those early adopters should be part of a smart marketing strategy. 

I have started a facebook group "Apple should respect non-US iPad Customers" so people can to and express their opinion on the matter. You are welcome to go there and sound off. I am sure Apple will hear because I am also sending the link to them.

Why iPad and iPhone cannot tether

When the iPad WIFI edition was launched on April 3, 2010, the first thing I kept listening out for was whether it had tethering. I had previously blogged on this column that I really want tethering on the iPad. When I realized that it didn't support this feature, it began to look like the terse 'No' email reply on this subject credited to Apple CEO Steve jobs may have an element of truth in it. One wonders why the iPad would not support a service that will allow you to use your own existing cellular data plan on through gadget in your pocket but will encourage you to buy yet another data plan.

When I first got my first generation iPhone, it did not have a data plan. iPhone had just been released in the US. It would not arrive Canada for another year+ and I had purchased it on eBay. Those pre-iphone days, data plan cost more than molten gold with cellular companies. So, I mostly used my iPhone without data plan. Once in a while, I would brouse and get billed by kiloBytes and believe me, it wasn't funny. Because of this, most of what made the iPhone fun was not accessible on my phone outside my home network. In my home network, I would browse on fuller screens, anyway.

It wasn't till we got the 3GS that I slapped on a full data plan on my iPhone and the device truly came to life. The power of the iPhone is not so much as in phone calling but in its "information anywhere" concept. And you can't do that if you were not always connected. This fact is much more so for the iPad because much as you can use a data-cripped iPhone as a phone, you can't use a data-cripped iPad as much anything else without limitation. Even Amazon Kindle gets that.

Several iPhone users I know have data plans that are less that 20% utilized. The major cellular data providers in Canada provide tethering for free so you can use your iPhone data on other computers. That is why it would only have made sense if Apple allowed the iPad to consume this same available iPhone service. But then, we hear that Steve Jobs said 'No'. It looks like the bigger Apple gets, their chief spokesperson sound more and more like Bill Gates. Or even worse! Bill Gates never called Adobe and Google lazy in the same month!

Within 1 week of iPad release, it got Jailbroken and following quickly the next week is a $9.99 app called MyWi, as reported here, which provides iPhone/iPad tethering support. When I read that, it felt sad that a company like Apple, whose percieved social model over the years has been to brand Microsoft as the evil empire, is turning into a worse-than-Microsoft just after a few years of mobile device dominance. If they owned Windows, they probably would control who you married by now -- "All marriages must go through the iWed app. Every Minister must register with us and we share the proceeds 60/40. We decide which marriage to allow. We can also annul a marriage after the fact". If this sounds similar to what happens at the Apple AppStore, that's probably because it is.

I was in a conversation Saturday night with a guy that lived in Russia. This guy told me that capitalism in Russian language is transliterated as "Man's exploitation of Man". It felt too extreme then. But I believe that every iPad user who has to buy a separate data plan while at the same time has 80% of his/her iPhone data plan lying waste every month is being deliberately exploited.

This smells the same as a "pre-existing condition" in the US healthcare system. Man's exploitation of man!

The iPad era: Is Microsoft hard of hearing, or just too heavy to respond?

As a Microsoft shareholder, I have reason to be concerned. I really do. When everything else around you is moving and you choose to stand still, you make a big target. Worse still, if you are a large one. 

I will dispense with the background quickly: On January 27, 2010, Apple announced a new breed of computing devices called the iPad. Launch date was set for end of March and the item was available in stores on April 3. This thing has no need for a pointing device, no need for third party chips, no need for Windows and actually, no need for any of the things that make normal computers dove-tail into some Microsoft service.

In the 2-month period between the announcement and release, so many companies jumped on and designed something that would take advantage of the iPad. Till today, I have heard nothing coming from Microsoft. At first, I was like ... "Microsoft can't be so stupid as to ignore this. They have to have Word, Excel and PowerPoint out there on day 1. They can't afford the risk of Office devotees discovering Pages, Numbers and Keynote." But what do I know? Launch day came and Microsoft released and announced nothing. Nothing!

You know, there was that time when WordPerfect was king. It was great on DOS and beat WordStar hand-down, in my opinion. Most people may think that it was the greatness of Microsoft Word that killed WordPerfect. But I don't think so. I think it was WordPerfect for Windows that killed WordPerfect. The then WordPerfect Corporation did not respond well to the new world and people learned Word. And guess what? They like Word. 

No one would need to learn a new productivity app if the one they like is available on their platform of choice.

I am sure that some old soldiers at Microsoft are so callused in their joints that they don't know how to stay alive through agility. Before now, Microsoft was good at playing on its own field because it was a very large field but now, it needs to learn to strategize in a multi-faceted way. It needs to learn the times. It needs to be nimble at the feet. It needs to walkout more. 

Jealousy has no place in modern business. An old-fashioned way of thinking would go this way: "If we build for a non-Windows platform, we are encouraging it and hurting our main bread and butter. So, ignore it and use our sheer strength to suffocate the market place." And that's so sad, if you ask me! Amazon is my hero company in this regard. The iPad came head-on with Kindle, and the press sensationalized it. What did Amazon do? Sulk, wine and play the ignore game, wishing that iPad crashes and burns? No. It made an iPad-compatible Kindle. Apple played a similar genius game when they made BootCamp, a Windows-compatible apple machine. And believe me, there's little more to know about how well a company is run or how smart and nimble its execs are. By comparison, AMZN shares stood at $131.81, AAPL at $235.97, and MSFT at $29.16. When last did you see such a large company equity worth so little? Ford and GM kinda come to mind.

I have a personal investment in Microsoft and so I have an interest in advising them not to be stupid. If the iPad makes the iPhone OS the dominant breed of consumer OS, then Microsoft may be positioning itself for certain extinction. No one company has a monopoly control on what people like. A good company should always position itself well for every eventuality. 

Open Letter to Fido/Rogers:: Give us a data equivalent of the couple's plan

In recent posts, I have been eScratching my head about how I can make my existing 1GB data plan work well for me ... and be assessible from my iPad. And today, I've come up with a very good idea!

You know how Fido and Rogers ... and perhaps a few other networks in Canada ... have had this couple's plan idea? The plan works like this: You buy a 300 min calling time on your phone, and then buy a base phone plan for someone in your family (or honestly anyone in your local calling area). Once that person is joined to your "couple's plan", both of you would share out of your 300 min time pool for all outgoing calls from both phones + you call each other for free.

Ok. Now, am thinking, if Fido can create a couple's plan for data, my iPhone SIM and my iPad SIM could be added to that plan and all my 3G wireless usage will come off the same 1GB plan already on my iPhone.

I know, I know, the fat-fed status quo will be reluctant to do this. But with the new wave of wireless competition banging on the shores of Canada lately, someone is going to have to swim harder or start sinking. It will never be business-as-usual ever again. Just consider this a free shot in the arm, Fido/Rogers.

Wither iPad: WiFi or 3G?

In a recent ZDNet article, author Rachel King reported an AT/T CEO's analysis suggesting that most persons would be buying WiFi iPads rather than the 3G version. I agree with the AT/T analysis but I think Rachel's meta-analysis is a bit off.

The AT&T analysis is dead-on. But I think Rachel
missed the point a little bit when she said, "If
you’re already plunking down $500 or $600 on a gadget,
the last thing you want to add is another monthly
fee."

The issue is not about buying a $15 a month
subscription to support a $500 commodity! That's the
way our lives work: We buy power subscription and
cable subscription to support a flat-panel tv
purchase. We buy skating club membership to support
the purchase of expensive skates. We purchase 3G
wireless access to support iphone purchase. iPhone
actually costs about $600 as well (if not for the
contract that underwrites the difference).

I believe the AT/T analysis is saying: iPad buyers
would mostly already be iPhone users who already have
existing 3G plans with their carriers. They won't want
to buy yet another 3G plan for data on another device.

What we should all be promoting now is for tethering
support b/w the iPhone and the iPad so people could
actually use the data plans they already have on both
co-complimentary devices.

My iPad wish list : Tethering

I am getting the iPad but am getting a WiFi-only model. I expect it to come with inward internet tethering support so I can extend my existing iPhone 3G data plan to the iPad.

First off, this post is not about joining the "I want a camera on the iPad" bandwagon. Or the rant credited to Bill Gates about a poke pen, voice recognition and camera. I don't care about any of those. Actually, I do. I don't want them. I don't want to have to pay for them. No one is saying yet, where the camera should be facing: Facing me like the laptop or facing my friends like the iPhone. I don't want either of those. If any, I would rather say, make it a webcam, to face me. But then, I have to stream all that video over my little precious 3G bandwidth!! Ok. Enough of that. Please read on.

Since Steve Jobs announced the iPad on January 27, 2010, I have been preparing grounds to be one of the first to get it in my hands.

First thing I needed to do was find the money for it: I had this other Sony eBook Reader PRS-600 Touch Edition I purchased in September 2009. I had to immediately put it on eBay and it was won by this nice lady in Saskatchewan. So, I was $316 on my way. Then, my wife donated some $375 cash back she got from Costco/America Express. Money-wise I am ready and waiting for late March.

But here's the backdrop to my problem: I already have a 1GB data plan with Fido and it supports tethering. So, I can right now, use my MacBook Pro to access internet anywhere, either on the Snow Leopard or Windows 7 side of the Mac. The Macbook pairs with the iPhone in my pocket and am on my way to the internet through the iPhone's data plan.

I am getting a WiFi-only iPad 32 GB. I don't need a 3G data plan on every mobile device I have, duh! It just feels wrong! The iPhone takes up only about 200MB (max) of the 1GB data plan (and my usage is relatively heavy). I do everything else, including read iPhone kindle on the phone everyday (except stream movies) with the 3G plan all day; and when I get home, my WiFi takes over. So I never even hit 200MB a month. Fido won't give you tethering unless you have a >= 1GB data plan.

So, here's what I need Apple to have on-board the iPhone OS 3.2 (iPad OS): The Bluetooth services should include support for inward tethering (ie: just like the MacBook/Windows can find the iPhone's internet and connect to it, the iPad should be able to do that).

So, I want to have my iPhone in my pocket and transparently be browsing iBookStore on the train with my iPad on my palm, over Bluetooth. How's that? It's not a deal breaker for me, but it's going to make one really contented iPad user.

What'd you think?