The Teckki Says

Based off of what I am reading about the Apple iPad that everyone wants, I have come to the understanding that I already have much of what it will do based off of owning an iPod Touch. Since the first models coming in March will be wifi only (as Touches are), I have noted some frustration as an owner, and having looked for apps to make up for deficiencies. Here are five things that and iPad won't do:

(1). An iPad won't replace a Windows or Mac-based computer. For all of you iPad droolies looking to ditch the computer or laptop for an experience of bliss, figuring that all computing should be this way, you will find yourself frustrated, if not disappointed. PC's have gotten us used to switching back and forth between applications, and in many cases, sharing files between them. My experience with the Touch has produced a sore spot in this area, having to purchase several applications because the last one didn't do everything I thought it would do. A particular pain was the lack of file sharing between applications. Most of you are used to using Microsoft applications, and if you do any special tricks, like using Excel to edit table data in a Word document, stick to the big box or laptop.

(2). There isn't always an app for that. Apple tightly controls the environment apps run in, and coming from the Palm Pilot world, I found that I was leaving superior applications and settling for serviceable ones. A database program I had on the Palm allowed extensive customization to suit my needs. I didn't bother to get its Apple edition, which for $10 was seriously lacking, and a large trail of reviews loudly bemoaned this. The developer cited the restrictive environment Apple required as the reason it could not carry over many of the features that made its software so popular on the Palm, no consolation for those of us who ditched a pretty good Palm in favor of the iPod Touch

(3). No direct hard-drive access. After thirty or so years of accessing C-drives and folders, this has become innate for most of us. While accessing a drive directly may sound geeky, it had the advantage of allowing you to put ANYTHING there for storage. Apples’ logic appears sound on this one - if an app can't view or use it, it doesn't need to be there. However, when I am archiving files, I am precisely looking for storage, and nothing else. This is actually a step back to my iPod Classic, which I have attached to my Apple Airport network box, and use the hard drive to wirelessly store files for all of my computers to share. Heck, I can even stream iTunes from the Classic by loading the iTunes software on the PC, leaving the music on the device.

(4). Play Flash. You really don't know how much Flash is integrated into the web until you get an iAnything. From animated buttons to slide shows to video, Flash powers most of them, and they don't show up on an iPhone or iPod Touch, and they won't show up on an iPad. I took the opportunity to look up Disney on my computer, then on my Touch. The site knows the difference, shunting my touch to the mobile version. The graphics are beautiful, but they don't come close to the Flash version. You won't be this lucky most of the time, as most sites don't display Flash content at all, leaving wide spaces of website pages white with a plugin symbol in the middle.

(5). Running multiple applications. Sometimes you want to check your email while in the middle of typing a letter. If my touch is any indication of how this is going to work, we’ll be back to the era were we hit the save button every five minutes, or at least when we switch applications. On a Mac, you can type a letter, check your email, play a song, and go back to typing the letter. In the Touch world, and I suspect the iPad world, such multitasking is not allowed. Most applications run one at a time. The music player seems to survive the switch to another app, but if you are responding to an email, you could lose your word processing document.

In many ways, my Touch was a big step forward, albeit some small steps backward. There were some things that were never going to be replicated on the Touch, and I adjusted. My advice to you is to thoroughly check out everything you want to do before you buy this must-have device. $500 is a lot of money to plunk down on a device that won't adequately replace your current device, no matter how much you want it. If you are looking to run some heavy video editing application or downloading your pictures to this device from your camera, forget it, because that's not what this is for. However, it should do much of what you want it to do in style!

I believe that in general, we all know the difference between yelling "fire" around one or two people in an open field, and yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. What I am not so convinced is that whether we know if we are in an open field or a crowded theater. A recent post on my Facebook account bears this out.

A friend of mine, who has a gazillion friends on a social networking site which I am one of, expressed an exasperation many of us city dwellers have - an inconsiderate neighbor who allows his pooch to potty on or near my friends' property. In Chicago, where we both reside, this is not only inconsiderate, it is illegal. However, my friend creates a post that I will be kind enough to describe as a hypothetical question: what if the pooch expires from a premature, poisoned death?

By the time I got to the post, there were a number of answers, many expressing the same frustration, if not outright goading to follow through. I'm sure my friend meant no harm, and in some way is blowing off steam. However, on social media sites where you have gazillion friends, you are not conversing with two people in an open field, you are speaking to a crowded theater.

Now, if the pooch ends up popped, who's the number one protagonist that the police will pursue (was that enough P's?). I would argue that suspects one through fifty are a part of that post. One might argue privacy, but electronic media, especially when issues are posted in such a public manner, erode the expectation of privacy, thus rights. For the commission and investigation of a crime, police have been granted broad powers, and innocent posts can become part of a broader net of evidence against someone.

It's been said a million times, and will be said a million more, be careful of what you post online. Even emails have limited protection because of the use of public lines to transmit messages from one person to another. If you would not say it in a crowded theater, think carefully about saying it online.

While we are all waiting to see the Big Game between New Orleans and Indianapolis, there's another battle of titans that's going on between electronic and the publishing industry with Amazon.com and Macmillan Publishing Company. Seems that Macmillan got tired of watching its first-run, New York Times best seller list books being sold on Kindles for $9.99, and felt the digital versions were worthy of a field-goal point price bump or better. When Amazon blocked the attempt, Macmillan took its ball (I mean its books) off the field. Amazon then decided it could not play the game without Macmillan. This was a nice goal-line stand by a publisher, but in the end, its' ball control strategy will fail, because Amazon, and a walk-on player named Apple, control the field. No one controls the clock, but it appears that time does not favor the publishing industry.

Maybe it takes a genius to understand that whoever controls the delivery system eventually controls the game, but that genius doesn't have to understand much. The publishing industry seems to think that it can dictate though content, and to some extent, it can. It may help to remember other titans who clashed with digital to see how the publishing industry will eventually fare.

The Music Industry. Who can forget, as they saw their business model fail so completely? They'd like you to believe that piracy more than anything eroded their industry. It might have been the train, but it rode a delivery system that the labels no longer owned, and couldn't control. When that didn't work, they thought that suing their customers was a road back to profitability. They were wrong.

The Print Industry, as defined by newspapers and magazines. They actually helped their own demise by putting their content online, made it free, and now want people to pay for it. If they were an ATM charging me to get to my money, their plan might work, but unless they all decide to make all of their content subscription at the same time (anti-trust and collusion laws would prevent this), they can kiss that dream goodbye.

The Motion Picture Industry. They have tried to pre-empt and modify the delivery system through devices, copy protection and legislation, but the net effect this could eventually have is to suppress the market, in the same manner the Digital Audio Tape player was killed by the protectionist music industry. The jury is still out on the Movie Industry, but music CD's once enjoyed a no-copy world before their demise (see earlier paragraph).

Macmillan's defensive stance may have kept Amazon from scoring points, and has no doubt emboldened other publishers to run up the score as well, as they are now pounding Amazon with their new ground game. Amazon punted, and Apple appears to also be giving up yardage as to not be burned by the big pass play.

For now, the Publishing Industry appears to be winning, and it would be great if the game was decided on downs or half-time scores. But holding or raising prices is like trying to keep a score tied. You eventually have to either get into the end-zone, or give up the ball. Because both Apple and Amazon sell more than books, there's a lot of time left on the clock, and they control the field.

This is the last of the series of What Your Website Should Have.

If, as an organization, you don’t have a website, you feel the heat of one question, "What is your website address?" Then there’s the mad rush to get a site, any site, that will allow you to avoid the further embarrassment of answering, "Uh, I don’t have one." However, in your panicked rush to get something up and going, usually on the cheap, you leave yourself open to having your site visitors ask another embarrassing question, "What’s the point?"

There is a song that my daughter and I really enjoy, Children's Story, by the Hip Hop artist Slick Rick. As a song, it is a wonderfully told bedtime story about a kid who is led down the path of crime and the consequences of that choice, with the moral of the song to stay straight. Its' poetic rhythm made it a favorite of ours. Although it is an old song, it recently prompted us to look up the video on You Tube. The song was so well written that it should have served as the script. I really emphasize SHOULD have, because in their efforts to put out the video, someone was rushed, lazy or clueless, as the video oftentimes barely resembled the song. Being a Hip Hop piece in the traditional sense, I guess the urge to inject scenes of sexual imagery and self aggrandizement were too much to overcome, rather than leaving it as a brilliantly-told story. It left me asking, "What's the point?"

Is THAT the question you want your website visitors and prospects to ask? Remember, the question you get asked is IF you have a website, not what's on it. You aren’t there to answer that question.
Maybe your in-person sales pitch is like that song – smooth, appealing and well done. We all have to blow our own horn to a live audience. If we hit the right notes, perhaps they will be impressed and want see the video, er, your website. If the two don’t match, I should not have to tell you what that means.

You get the point.