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Posts tagged "iPad"

Style Sheets verus the Native App

After having some time to play with Untappd’s new service it was greatly refreshing to see this service going completely free of the Apple approval process, app store, etc, and instead using HTML5 and Style Sheets for it to look like a full blown iPhone app, just via the web. I’ve struggled with these conversations in the office about when, and when it is not, appropriate to bake a full blown mobile app. Everyone is App happy for no apparent reason, they see that it is a hot trend and only know to get on board. What they don’t seem to realize is the costs associated with a dedicated mobile app, working with the app’s marketplaces and the single OS they support. Untappd’s service automagically supports iOS, Android, BlackBerry, WebOS, Symbian (Meego, whatev), Windows 7 and the next TBD OS to come to market - No marketplace, no app approval process and no hand in on your profit.


The next bonus to this build is scalability, Apple is showing consumers that no longer will it be only on an iPhone screen. The conversation is shifting to what size piece of glass you are interacting with (e.g. phone, tablet, laptop, TV). When looking from this perspective, it becomes challenging as a designer to build an iPhone, iPad, iTV scaling app… but think about when you look at Android and all the iterations of screen sizes and vendors that it runs on = UI/UX nightmare. Granted this will challenge web based apps as well, but that is where Style Sheets offer the ability to find out what browser dimensions are and offer the best applicable fit for the interface. One build + All platforms.


So there is a drawback to only being in the cloud: no internet = no app… but open any of your native apps on a plane and you will quickly realize the reliance that most any app has on the internet. And granted, web versions is not the answer for every application in the App Store, Marketplaces, etc., but some time should be spent looking at the service to determine if the resources you need are only available by via a native solution.


I hope to see this trend influence some of the decision makers in companies as they start having talks about how to deliver their product to the end user.

11/14/10

1 note

application  iOS  Apple  iPhone  iPad  iTV  HTML5  Android  WebOS 
Crap app idea of the day: iPad Mugshot Board So yeah, editable board with date, county (maybe by GPS), etc. Might be fun at parties. Anyway, I get a free copy if you make it. via Flickr

Crap app idea of the day: iPad Mugshot Board

So yeah, editable board with date, county (maybe by GPS), etc. Might be fun at parties. Anyway, I get a free copy if you make it.

via Flickr

09/24/10

10 notes

App  iPad  Apple  Design  Idea  concept 
The recent release of Pulse for the iPad seems to best what was to be Nik and my next product, which was code named Oatmeal. Code named Oatmeal cause it was to be, “the only thing you need in the morning”. So sad, but glad to have a great option out there… now we just need a better Twitter app for the iPad. Above is a mock-up of the app and it’s interactions.

The recent release of Pulse for the iPad seems to best what was to be Nik and my next product, which was code named Oatmeal. Code named Oatmeal cause it was to be, “the only thing you need in the morning”. So sad, but glad to have a great option out there… now we just need a better Twitter app for the iPad. Above is a mock-up of the app and it’s interactions.

06/25/10
Massie Design Studio  Apple  iPad  Design  applications 
Transparent Productivity As we move forward with technology, I expect that the next primary way to access your enterprise data will be thru an icon - It will be with you, will all your other things just in different capacities. On your iPhone, on your iPad, and an icon on your laptop. While you’re out doing the things you need to do, you can access work on the devices that are already with you. There are two factors at work here - When you want to work, and with what type interface. As carpenters have a tool box of appropriate tools, you’ll leverage the most desirable input methods when looking to work. You may only reference data on your smart phone, but then go back to your desktop to leverage peripherals, heavy data input, larger screen size, etc. Smart phones, tablets, laptops, desktops - these are vessels to the content, not the content themselves. In discussions I have had with Good Mobile Messaging in 2007, I expressed that I wanted a Mac version of their app - A sandboxed application that accessed my work email, calendar and contacts. - Perfect! As I traveled, I wanted the ability to just take my personal laptop to do the things that I want and need personally, but also to access my work too. Its not an option knowing that I would never want to allow the company that I work for, to come in and install anti-virus, firewalls, endpoint protection, VPN software, let alone all the office tools just to get email while I am away. But if you took that and shrunk it into a little app that sat on my desktop alongside my personal productivity tools, that only got in front of me when I wanted to get into the enterprise - that is a more desirable model. Just like it does in a sandbox on my mobile device. I don’t want Grandma’s birthday or my friend from High Schools bachelor party, stored on some Exchange server, backed up indefinitely in the vaults of the company that employs me, nor do they want NDA’d conversations about strategy on my MobileMe calendar. So maybe we have come far enough where desktop virtualization will allow us a different looking icon to link us into the office when we ready to get some work done, offering us our suite of productivity tools and access to all the files and applications necessary to do our job thru a pane of glass. I got that app, but it is in the form of a virtual session, thus allowing me full access to all my companies facilities on my personal platform BlackBerry and ActiveSync, for example, want to control the device, not just the data - which makes a lot of sense… to security people - but doesn’t make sense when an enterprise wants to cut back costs. So instead of competing for space in the employees pocket, or purse, why not go with what they have already. More people are carrying smart phones, as is, and are more likely to access work if it’s convenient. You don’t want to add a phone, voice and data plan for a device that will sit in the briefcase at home, while your resource is out and about. Just leverage the tools that they already have with them. Facts have proven that employees that have access to outside resources (pay bills online, check personal email, etc) are more prone to stay in the office and continue to get work done. So what is to say this wouldn’t be true when flipped the other way, if the company was always with you while you were running around, at the cafe, etc, what’s to say you wouldn’t be more prone to open the app and knock out a few emails as the ideas arrive, instead of waiting till Monday morning and face possibly losing that momentum. I look forward to the opportunity that I can pop in an out of the office electronically with my closest device to capture a brain dump while stuck in the laundromat and then back out to catch some YouTube clips.

Transparent Productivity

As we move forward with technology, I expect that the next primary way to access your enterprise data will be thru an icon - It will be with you, will all your other things just in different capacities. On your iPhone, on your iPad, and an icon on your laptop. While you’re out doing the things you need to do, you can access work on the devices that are already with you. There are two factors at work here - When you want to work, and with what type interface. As carpenters have a tool box of appropriate tools, you’ll leverage the most desirable input methods when looking to work. You may only reference data on your smart phone, but then go back to your desktop to leverage peripherals, heavy data input, larger screen size, etc.

Smart phones, tablets, laptops, desktops - these are vessels to the content, not the content themselves.

In discussions I have had with Good Mobile Messaging in 2007, I expressed that I wanted a Mac version of their app - A sandboxed application that accessed my work email, calendar and contacts. - Perfect! As I traveled, I wanted the ability to just take my personal laptop to do the things that I want and need personally, but also to access my work too. Its not an option knowing that I would never want to allow the company that I work for, to come in and install anti-virus, firewalls, endpoint protection, VPN software, let alone all the office tools just to get email while I am away. But if you took that and shrunk it into a little app that sat on my desktop alongside my personal productivity tools, that only got in front of me when I wanted to get into the enterprise - that is a more desirable model. Just like it does in a sandbox on my mobile device. I don’t want Grandma’s birthday or my friend from High Schools bachelor party, stored on some Exchange server, backed up indefinitely in the vaults of the company that employs me, nor do they want NDA’d conversations about strategy on my MobileMe calendar. So maybe we have come far enough where desktop virtualization will allow us a different looking icon to link us into the office when we ready to get some work done, offering us our suite of productivity tools and access to all the files and applications necessary to do our job thru a pane of glass. I got that app, but it is in the form of a virtual session, thus allowing me full access to all my companies facilities on my personal platform

BlackBerry and ActiveSync, for example, want to control the device, not just the data - which makes a lot of sense… to security people - but doesn’t make sense when an enterprise wants to cut back costs. So instead of competing for space in the employees pocket, or purse, why not go with what they have already. More people are carrying smart phones, as is, and are more likely to access work if it’s convenient. You don’t want to add a phone, voice and data plan for a device that will sit in the briefcase at home, while your resource is out and about. Just leverage the tools that they already have with them.

Facts have proven that employees that have access to outside resources (pay bills online, check personal email, etc) are more prone to stay in the office and continue to get work done. So what is to say this wouldn’t be true when flipped the other way, if the company was always with you while you were running around, at the cafe, etc, what’s to say you wouldn’t be more prone to open the app and knock out a few emails as the ideas arrive, instead of waiting till Monday morning and face possibly losing that momentum.

I look forward to the opportunity that I can pop in an out of the office electronically with my closest device to capture a brain dump while stuck in the laundromat and then back out to catch some YouTube clips.

06/1/10
Mobile  Productivity  iPad  iPhone  Work  UI  UX  Tec 
iPad & Content Sovereignty The iPad is the beginning of a whole new way of computing - The whole idea of cloud computing, or content sovereignty - this giving us the option to access the data from anywhere, on any device, rather than the here-and-now device, is where we’re headed. If you look at my most important apps:  Evernote, Things for Mac, and Instapaper - All these things offer device independence (and also early to the gate with iPad versions - much to my delight). iPhone was not about to challenge the laptop/desktop space, but I think you will start to see much less laptops casually out in the wild because of devices like the iPad - The Coffee Shop is going to have a much different look over the next year. I am excited to see what Apple does next with MobileMe. This creates an environment where all my data can be accessible on the most convenient platform for the task. There is a lot of talk about cloud computing, but this is really the first time that leaving the content in the cloud is being rationalized by the everyday consumer.  ex: In Tweetie (for the iPhone) I can push a URL, that was tweeted, directly to Instapaper for later reading. Now in the morning, I can tap on my iPad and read all those articles that I grabbed earlier. No matter which device I have in front of me, the content is current. Desktops/Laptops will still be the place for your peripherals (for now) , but as things like Eye-Fi automatically push to your cloud, you don’t loose everything - cause you forgot to sync, or haven’t gotten home to cable up. Just my thoughts.

iPad & Content Sovereignty

The iPad is the beginning of a whole new way of computing - The whole idea of cloud computing, or content sovereignty - this giving us the option to access the data from anywhere, on any device, rather than the here-and-now device, is where we’re headed. If you look at my most important apps:

 Evernote, Things for Mac, and Instapaper - All these things offer device independence (and also early to the gate with iPad versions - much to my delight).

iPhone was not about to challenge the laptop/desktop space, but I think you will start to see much less laptops casually out in the wild because of devices like the iPad - The Coffee Shop is going to have a much different look over the next year.

I am excited to see what Apple does next with MobileMe. This creates an environment where all my data can be accessible on the most convenient platform for the task. There is a lot of talk about cloud computing, but this is really the first time that leaving the content in the cloud is being rationalized by the everyday consumer. 

ex: In Tweetie (for the iPhone) I can push a URL, that was tweeted, directly to Instapaper for later reading. Now in the morning, I can tap on my iPad and read all those articles that I grabbed earlier. No matter which device I have in front of me, the content is current.

Desktops/Laptops will still be the place for your peripherals (for now) , but as things like Eye-Fi automatically push to your cloud, you don’t loose everything - cause you forgot to sync, or haven’t gotten home to cable up.

Just my thoughts.

05/5/10

3 notes

iPad  Mobile  Content  Apps 
Print isn’t Clickable It was a discussion I was having this afternoon with a friend Scott that really brought home why I love  magazines (that is not yet there) on the iPad. My magazine reading sessions always require me to have a laptop accompaniment. Reading  Inc Magazine is a prime example: I can’t read the print version of Inc without my laptop - companies, people, business deals are all unsearchable in print, therefore I always have my laptop on hand to google, wiki, whatever, more about the subject at hand. Especially to find out about new start-ups and check out their web presence. There has been a lot of talk about the potential for magazines on the iPad, and tablet space in general, but this was my moment about the real value add in the next general on something that would directly effect me and how I interact with the topic.

Print isn’t Clickable

It was a discussion I was having this afternoon with a friend Scott that really brought home why I love  magazines (that is not yet there) on the iPad. My magazine reading sessions always require me to have a laptop accompaniment. Reading

 Inc Magazine is a prime example: I can’t read the print version of Inc without my laptop - companies, people, business deals are all unsearchable in print, therefore I always have my laptop on hand to google, wiki, whatever, more about the subject at hand. Especially to find out about new start-ups and check out their web presence.

There has been a lot of talk about the potential for magazines on the iPad, and tablet space in general, but this was my moment about the real value add in the next general on something that would directly effect me and how I interact with the topic.

04/18/10
Technology  iPad  Print 

Cloud Bookmarking - what content providers can learn from Instapaper

Since I have started taking a commuter between campuses at work I have been relying more on Instapaper to hold my unread articles posted on Twitter (via Tweetie). This way I can retrieve them later to finish reading, either on the desktop in the office, or again on the phone on the way home. I also read the NYTimes, on my iPhone on the commute in, but am only offered the option to save on the device for later viewing. The trouble with this is that I am confined to a single platform, to retrieve my article, and pick up where I left off. The challenge for Netflix on the iPhone will be even more obvious - ex: I am on the bus watching a movie and then pause when I get home - The ideal finishing scenario will be to turn on my web enabled TV and finish watching my movie… right where I left off. The same from the NYTimes - I save an article upon getting home and open my iPad/TV/Laptop to finish reading. As we drift more between platforms there is a desirable opportunity for our content providers to be able to bookmark to the cloud, offering us the ability to pick right back up no matter what type platform we walk up to

03/20/10

3 notes

Cloud  iPad  Technology  Twitter 

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