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Mar 31 2010

Apple iPad – "This Changes Everything" – iPad SOLD OUT for April 3 (3-31-10 v11)

Category: apple,social media,tech opinion,tech reviews — jmacofearth @ 7:40 am

UPDATE 3-31-10: Even Apple is getting excited about the release on Saturday.

UPDATE 3-27-10: We are a week away, and Mashable reports that Apple is SOLD OUT of the iPad- iPad Sold Out

If you’re looking to pre-order an iPad today, you’ll notice that shipping dates have been pushed back to April 12th. What’s more, Apple has removed the option to pick up your iPad in-store. It appears Apple simply can’t supply the demand for the first week of iPads, writes Planet iPad (via 9to5Mac), suggesting high demand for the device.

How many iPads have been sold so far? Some estimates say around half a million – a higher demand than many expected.

UPDATE 3-21-10: Seriously? Almost two weeks to go? The article in this month's WIRED by Steven Levy (article is not available online yet.) does a good job of outlining why computing is about to change for the better. I am working on a more through response, but until then I can give you a tid bit. It actually came from a meeting with a potential client, looking to do some iPad development. Seriously, everyone in the room was excited by the next-generation interfaces we can come up with. My mentor was in the room and he said something that got all of us nodding.

"It's not going to be about traditional data entry. We're going to be defining new ways of engaging with the data, adding data, and manipulating information with swips, pinches and gestures." Makes me want to turn swiping and pinching back on for my MBP. But alas, my Windows 7 instance doesn't really "deal" with that type of input.

What are we about to unleash? What will the interface and UI people of the next few years come up with that will change the game? If you don't think the iPhone changed mobile computing, well perhaps you should study up on the devices all the other manufacturers are producing trying to catch GEN-1 of the iPhone. I'm afraid all the powerpoint decks in the world will not help non-Apple companies stem the coming rush of iPad transformation. I'm picking mine up at 9am on Saturday April, 3. And you know what I'm going to do first?

Play doodlejump. The game that got me hooked on my son's iPod Touch.

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UPDATE 3-17-10: Got this little note from Apple today. Have you gotten yours yet?

And don't try to pick mine up. They'll be checking IDs. (clap)

UPDATE 3-15-10: Did you pre-order your iPad on Friday? I did. I'm going to pick it up on April 3, at the nearby Apple store. I have until 3pm to grab it, or they will give it to someone else. They've even got their distribution system worked out, having dealt with the iPhone releases. I can't wait.

What's the first thing you are going to do on you iPad? I'll probably play DoodleJump.

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UPDATE 3-10-10: Starting March 12, pre-order from the Apple Online Store or reserve for pickup at an Apple Retail Store. First available April 3, 2010. Get ready, cause here we go!

Here's the latest post on the iPad and a link to the first iPad commercial that launched during the Oscars.

[When I pick mine up on April 3 I will be forever rebranded as iDad!]

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Picture 241 Apple iPad This Changes Everything iPad SOLD OUT for April 3 (3 31 10 v11)

visualizing Apple's new iPad computer - on sale April 3, 2010

I still can't pre-order my iPad, but I can tell you a few more tidbits about it.

1. It will NOT, nor will it EVER have FLASH. (FastCompany)

2. It's gonna be bigger than the iPhone. (and I mean market share rather than just screen size.)

3. Like the early iPhone days Apple will have a hard time keeping up with the demand.

So imagine, you are about to release a product and your biggest worries is inventory! What a problem to have. Not will it sell, but how can we increase the numbers we can manufacture so we can sell MORE.

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I hope you weren't holding on to a lot of Apple stock hoping the doubling was going to continue unabated. It turns out that "leading up to" and Apple big event is the best time to grow Apple stock value. And since we've all be working so hard to figure out what Apple was about to release, the "after party" is usually a bit more glum.

It's nothing to worry about. I guess if you are a speculator you'd sell all of your apple stock the day before the big party. And then buy again sometime in the following weeks as the public perception comes back to earth and Apple's business model shows it's basis is revenue and not trying to do magic tricks.

Everyone at the iPad announcement wanted a magic trick. We'd see the vizualizations (like the one here to the right). We'd see videos of what these devices would look like. There was very little that Steve Jobs could pull rabbit-like out of his hat. His two major bombs: $500 starting price (a virtual gasp in the audience, as most were guessing in the $700 – $999 range the day before the show. And ship date: 60 Days.

I'd have mine or order if there were a place to pre-order them. Amazon has a series of hilarious screens if you go to their site to order your iPad. And believe me Amazon the store wants to be in line for the gravy train of sales that are going to come out of this device. (I am putting my images into a new post that will be up shortly.)

UPDATE 1-27-10: Welcome to the real world folks. Imagine this, take your MacBookPro, break it in half and hold the screen-only half in your hand. Apple's iPad! Any questions?

UPDATE 12-26-09: So even if they are calling it the iSlate iPad, the new tablet Mac is coming in January. If we are lucky it will be on sale as early as Feb. Wow!
Apple’s New Tablet To Be Baptized iSlate? Let’s Dig A Little Deeper from TechCrunch
Here’s what I think happened, based on the evidence presented above: Apple decided on the name iSlate for a new product it was working on, whether it will ultimately turn out to be for their new tablet computer or not, in November 2006. That same month, they moved to file for a trademark for the name in the United States and Europe under disguise, setting up and using Slate Computing LLC as a shell company, and securing a couple of available domain names through Mark Monitor (islate.co.uk, islate.biz and islate.info).But getting back into the swing of it. ;-)
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Say what you will about the Kindle, and I certainly do, but Apple's entry into the netbook market is going to hurt a lot of the other players.

Kindle/Amazon (although they can sell the books to iPhones already, so the book sales are safe), Dell/HP/Acer/ARM/Asius.

Even if this visualization is not real, you know it will be here soon enough. We waited for the iPhone to finally appear for over 2 years. And look what that has done to the market. Now come the apologists for the other manufacturers who will say, "Apple is late to the netbook game, Apple will not be a factor… " And all I can say is goodnight and good riddance to a category that needed to be put to sleep.

How about this reversal, "Apple's new Netbook Killer!" Or "Apple Knocks Out the Kindle for Good!"

And to all of you who have ARM-powered netbook/laptop-wannabies, I'm sorry about that. Perhaps it's not to late to take/send it back. "Don't let your friends to netbooks."

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/apple-ipad

The latest:

The entire Uber.la Apple iPad coverage can be seen via the iPad-iWay tag.

Here's the scoop from SlashGear: Apple Media Pad tipped for Holiday launch with Verizon data subsidy
FastCompany: The iPad-Adobe Flash Argument Concluded, Completely
FastCompany: Apple iPad Launch by the Numbers
Wired: Hands-on with the Apple iPad

Tags: anti-netbook, apple, apple 2010 announcement, apple iDad, apple ipad, apple iSlate, Apple Knocks Out the Kindle for Good!, apple tablet, apple's iDad, apple's ipad, Apple's new Netbook Killer!, dell, dell slate, dell tablet, FastCompany, fastcompany.com, hp, hp slate, HP tablet, iDad, inote, ipad-iway, iphone, islate, islate domain, january 2010, kindle, netbook killer, netbook reviews, netbooks, netbooks die, pre-order ipad, pre-order iPad from Apple, pre-order march 12, tablet computing, techcrunch, the iPad, visualising the ipad, visualizing ipad, visualizing the apple ipad, visualizing the iSlate

Comments (6)

Mar 26 2010

"We Googled You" : What You'd Better Know About Your SERP on Google

Category: career,community building,executive learnings,social media,tech opinion,trust & reputation — jmacofearth @ 10:19 am

So when I say to you, "Go Google yourself," I am not making a derogatory statement.

What I am saying is Google knows and retains all that you have done and said online. If you don't want Google in your data, well… Don't get online. Sure there are things that protect you from "privacy" concerns. You can turn off your data sharing and your participation in Google's customer feedback programs. You *can* do all that. (Actually I'd be much more concerned about Facebook using a picture of you in some random ad on your friends pages. If you need help turning up the Facebook privacy selections, that we can help you with.)

Google on the other hand, with the recent inclusion of real-time search (meaning they are getting Twitter updates as they happen and displaying them on their results pages) the circle is complete. Google has everything you do.

As long as you are aware of that, no worries. But any illusion you have of keeping your Facebook account and your Linked-In accounts fire-walled, well, those are simply not possible. And let me show you why.

SERP is a search optimization term meaning Search Engine Results Page. So let me give you an example of a SERP on someone famous. Say, my favorite entrepreneur, Steve Jobs. Let's see what we get when we simply Google "Steve Jobs" and APPLE. Adding Apple just to target the content a bit more focused.

Wow, 20.8 million pages. Okay. What I like a lot is a bit further down the page:

Okay, so with Steve it is easy to see how a lot of people would be interested in information about Steve. So your results may vary.

Now let's indulge *me* for a second and look at my SERP and I will show you how the two universes of professional and private will never be separated again, as far as Google is concerned. And then we will discuss what you need to know and do to keep your Google SERP in good shape.

Again, your results might be much larger or smaller than mine depending on your activity. But here's what I want you to see.

In the olden days, pre-2008 say, your resume was your calling card. Simple things like where you went to college, did you graduate, what degree did you get and what jobs and responsibilities have you had in the past were all somewhat crafted by you. And of course you put the best spin on every possible detail. NICE.

Today when I get a new business contact, either through networking, or as a potential new client, I Google them. And what I get, for the most part is a Google googles view of their expression on line. I get to see who they are connected to on Linked-IN. I get to see what sites they publish on, or comment on in the blogosphere. And I get to see their Facebook and Twitter activity. And here's the kicker. I can see ALL OF THEIR FACEBOOK and TWITTER activity.

So this is why so many younger workers are being advised to be careful about what they say or do online.

And if, like me, you are working to make a name for yourself in social media, no party pictures will ever go away, so be careful what you share with your phone camera. Even Flickr and Picassa are indexed.

So here's what I advise.

1. Google Yourself. And do it often.

2. Set up a Google Search Alert. That way when Google notices something new that you've done online, you get an email making note of the event.

3. Clean up what you can.

4. Write with precision and passion. But be aware that EVERYTHING you write will be searchable, index-able and retrievable for the foreseeable future.

And then the best thing you can do is take control of your Google SERP. If you are in social media, then you need to be publishing. If you are IN social media and are "working the web" and you are interested in working for a company that does social media you'd better be able to show that you have been on Linked-In for more than a month. And that your participation online is more than a Facebook party montage once in a while.

Here's the rule. Everything you say and do online can and will be collected in your Google SERP. So keep it clean. Know your Google SERP, publish more content to increase your Google love, and be aware of everything you publish.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/google-u

A couple previous posts that might be helpful:

And finally, since it has just be published, here is Steven Tomlinson's TEDxAustin talk. And one of the big points that struck me and that I hold dear to this part of the work, is about the "morning pages" from The Artist's Way. You must establish a dialogue between yourself and yourself. And there are so many ways to do this. But the constant is doing it. I write a lot more than I get up on my blog. And I am getting ever more comfortable with my inner voice in these dialogues. And I'm getting more comfortable with my public dialogues too. And if you are in social media and are not being social, or "putting it out there," you might be an academic social media person. But what you MUST be is a participant.

Tags: be Google, customer feedback programs, derogatory statement, entrepreneur, facebook, facebook privacy, FACEBOOK privacy concerns, friends pages, go google yourself, google, Google for business, Google for job hunting, Google for reputation, Google for work, Google IS your resume, know your Google, love your Google, my SERP, olden days, participation, privacy concerns, reputation management, search engine results, search optimization, serp, steve jobs, steven tomlinson, TED Talks, TEDx, TEDxAustin, time search, understanding Google, We've Googled You, what Google knows about you, what you know about Google, your Google resume

Comments (2)

Mar 26 2010

An Educational Revolution: How Handheld Computing is Changing Everything Into A NEW GAME

Category: apple,social media,tech opinion — jmacofearth @ 6:48 am

My favorite new Tech Update service, FastCompany.com, has a great article on A Is for App: How Smartphones, Handheld Computers Sparked an Educational Revolution.

Here's a snippet:

As smartphones and handheld computers move into classrooms worldwide, we may be witnessing the start of an educational revolution. How technology could unleash childhood creativity — and transform the role of the teacher.

I know that I have seen amazing changes in my kids educational enthusiasm due to some engagements with technology and gaming we introduced over a year and a half ago. The fun part was I got to be a major participant and enthusiastic force in redirecting what might otherwise be tv time into game time. Yes, it's screen time, but we cannot kill the screen less we cut out kids off from the popular culture that is of critical importance in bonding, tribing and thriving at school.

But how much happier I am when my son asks enthusiastically to go to the library to get some books on "magic and crystals" for a game he and his schoolmates have been inventing over the course of the last 4 recess periods. "It's got a lot of people, Dad," he said. "And we are trying to figure out other crystal compounds that could be of use in our magic. That's what we do."

Que huge grin on my face. "Sure, let's go to the library. I'm sure they've got a lot of books that would work for your research."

FACT: Life is not a game.

Corollary: Many aspects of life are game-like. And more and more the "gaming skills" of:

exploration/curiosity
persistence
just-in-time learning
teamwork
complex system control and navigation
manipulation of 3d virtual environments
storing and recalling hundreds of directions and commands
long-range strategy building
accurate science and mathmatics
agression
non-agression (or patience)
the concept of allies
defensive vs. offensive strategy
collaborative team building
collaborative environment/world development

I can tell you the skills in that list are still ones I work on daily. As an adult in the social media and online marketing space, it is all about collaboration, allies and team building. And the team building at our level often happens with people that we may never meet in real life. But the parameters are very game like.

establish trust (friend of foe)
build a working agreement (money and roles and responsibilities)
define the objective
proceed with quest
make adjustments along the way (new team mates, people changing roles on the team, people leaving the team)
successful completion of objective
future planning for new campaigns

So the iPads are coming. And I make no secret about my predictions that the Apple iPad will change everything we know about computing.

Let me take you through my family's progression back into gaming.

In November of 2008 I bought Rockband II for our PS-2. While my son (9) didn't immediately join in, my daughter (7) jumped at the drums and honed in on a song and practiced and got really good at playing drums. While my son didn't want to pick up the instruments right away, he was content to watch and take on the "manager" role of the band that my daughter and I played in.

A few months later in January 2009, I started playing SPORE. If you haven't seen it, you might want to give it a gander.

Now I guess you have to get over the "evolution" question, but I believe even hard core anti-evolutionists can imagine that some of life evolves. I mean you can watch yeast and sea monkeys change before your very eyes. So I won't get into the intelligent design vs darwin discussion here. But what I will share is that conversations around our house started being about the advantages of being a herbivore or and carnivore. And a wonderful surprise when we discovered how to make our evolving cell into an omnivore.

Without much direction from me, the kids dove into SPORE. They both played their own games their own way. And since the game only works on a Intel-powered box (we're a family of Macs) and it was only installed on my machine we were often negotiating for who could use my machine. And one classic statement my wife heard at bed time, soon after the SPORE questing had begun, was "When you make it to land you can totally lose the flagella."

Que more large grins by both parents. I don't think either 1st or 3rd grades have been working at the flagella level.

So the final evolution, thus far was when my son saved up his money for an iPod touch. And the change this device brought into our family was even more comprehensive.

Here are a few of the over arching changes we've noticed thus far:

my son saves money for games on his iPod Touch (He is motivated by a few other things, but he is constantly asking for ways he can make money to get an upgrade or new program for his iPod Touch.)
my son is enrolled in guitar lessons and is thriving at it
my daughter is loving her piano lessons
after the addition of Beatles RockBand the kids and I have been walking around singing Beatles songs (I can't tell you what a thrill it is to hear either child break into song, and if it's McCartney and Lennon rather than Pa Pa Pa Pa Poker Face Lady GaGa then I am doubly pleased.

So the games have lead to more games, music and imaginative play that includes film making, computer game making, comic book making, and ever more exciting conversations about new games and new ideas for games that they might build rather than simply play.

And if the TV is off 100% of the time during the weekdays, well, that too makes me a bit happier. Not that I don't like iCarly, I do. But I'm not a big fan of Sponge Bob or Chowder. Ren and Stimpy are more my speed.

So will the iPad change everything? Well, as a way to demonstrate what's coming in a way that you can imagine it, dial back just a few years to the launch of the initial iPhone. Here was another device that the Mac-loyalists had been begging for and finally we had our PHONE. Big deal right?

And the captains of Nokia and Samsung and RIM were happy to tell us that their devices were coming soon. And the iPhone would be interesting but not that important over all. Replay my response to today's nay-sayers. "EXCUSE ME?"

As I was telling a fiend today it's not so much what Steve Jobs and Apple showed about the iPad that is exciting. Yes, I like the redesigned apps and the larger format games. But the exciting thing is what is going to happen after April 3rd. While I am working with an iPhone and iPad developer today, we do not know what is going to happen when we actually start PLAYING with them.

It's what happens after the iPad is released that is going to be amazing. And if things go as planned, several projects I am working on, will help a group of smart people, designers, programmers, technologists, redefine some of the ideas we have about computers and mobile devices and most importantly: the manipulation and entry of data with the touch-swipe-tap-pinch gestures that we will be trying to harness in the coming weeks and months.

Onward into the fog. The amazing and shiny future may be obscured at the moment by media hype, counter-hype and Apple-hunters, but the future will be written by the users and dreamers, not the media. And I hope to capture just a bit of the dream and maybe have a tiny part of defining a unique use or user-interface opportunity with the iPad. And a last promise: the future of education will be changed forever by the Apple iPad. Starting April 3, 2010, we begin the next chapter.

If you are interested in discussing iPad opportunities with my dev team, please don't hesitate to contact me. We'll be happy to show you what we've got so far.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://uber.la/2010/03/edu-ipad/

The latest:

From FastCompany.com: A Is for App: How Smartphones, Handheld Computers Sparked an Educational Revolution.

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