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7 posts tagged ipad
Difficult And Impossible
The next time someone says “You are being difficult” remind them that Apple thought Steve Jobs was being difficult and they fired him.
He then went off and created this little animation company called Pixar.
Apple asked Steve Jobs to come back in 1997 when they were about 90 days out from bankruptcy. Steve nixed the Newton, created a partnership with Microsoft and refocused the entire product line.
Almost exactly 14 years later, in August 2011, Apple’s value exceeded that of ExxonMobil.
The next time someone says “it’s impossible” think of how Steve Jobs changed our world.
In 2001, as we recovered from 9/11 and later saw our country go to war, who could possibly have ever even considered the implications of a soon to be launched MP3 player called the iPod. Or the iPhone. Or the iPad. It is not just about the devices. It is everything that feeds in and out of the devices and how we communicate and share.
So if you want to call me “difficult” and tell me that my beliefs are “impossible” then the only thing I have to say to you is “Thank-you, I am in very good company.”
Thank you, Mr. Jobs for your unfaltering belief in your vision and making “difficult” and “impossible” something to be incredibly proud of.
What will Santa bring this year?
Reblogged from 
“Wacky” is the word Jakob Nielsen uses to describe the experience on the iPad. In this study (download the 93 page report here), the usual suspects re-emerge full-force - lack of consistent user cues, lack of standard navigational elements, sacrificing user experience for design, etc. Net net - because there is no consistentcy in the design of Apps, users are forced to guess and relearn every time they interact with something new.
Obviously, the iPad hasn’t been around long enough to create specific usability guidelines - we need to see how use of the iPad evolves before any solid recommendations can be issued.
Better buckle your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
As mentioned in my earlier post, the iPad has so many possibilities beyond entertainement. And glad that future thinking is already in play. Via Mashable:
“A hospital district in Visalia, California, has ordered 100 iPads to provide staff with access to rudimentary applications like e-mail, as well as X-ray images, EKG results and patient monitoring programs around its five sites.”
Future Forward
So I got my iPad last week (didn’t cross my mind to pre-order and I just won’t wait on lines anymore unless someone can figure out how to pay me for the lost time). Happily playing with it. Yes - gorgeous display. Amazing content delivery system - movies, books, email, Internet…it’s all there. Touch keyboard is totally fine. It is what I thought it would be - a few steps up from the iPhone/iTouch.
But when people ask me “What do you think?” and I launch into the future possibilities of the iPad, their eyes glaze over. It’s like they want to hear about what it can do NOW. Well, it does all of things that have been outlined in almost every tech review, blog post, article, demo video and oh, yeah, Steve Jobs’ keynote.
I am thinking about what it WILL do - as I play with the iPad and think about how we can us it now, I envision a future where medical staff in hospitals will be able to seamlessly share patient information - from the lab to the bedside to the OR - from a simple and easy to carry device. I see uses in education, where special needs children will have access to interactive materials that can help them grow and learn. I see the creation of a stronger market for digital textbooks. I see school districts being able to provide materials for all students, versus having to share books in the classroom. I see art and design students provided with a new medium to create in. I see video-conferencing capabilities for business execs - set the iPad up on its stand, click and bam! Face-to-face can happen anywhere.
Are there “things” that can do that now? Yes. But will this do it better? I believe so. Even with the restrictions the app developers face, the possibilities are endless.
So yeah, right now, it’s a cool little toy. But if you REALLY want to know what it can do, think ahead.
