- People are Walking Architecture — presentation by Matt Jones of BERG, taking a new lens to this AR/ubicomp/whatever-it-is-today world. “[Mobile phones are] a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities ….”
- Lexicalist — insight into geographic and age distribution of language use, based on Twitter data. (via Language Log)
- Advanced Visualization Techniques — nice overview of some non-standard visualization techniques. Short shameful confession: I love polar dendrograms with a passion. These techniques are to visualizers as algorithms and data structures to programmers: each is used in specific circumstances and compromises some things to gain in others. (via Flowing Data)
- iPad Usability Report (Nielsen-Norman Group) — 93-page report based on user studies. The iPad etched-screen aesthetic does look good. No visual distractions or nerdy buttons. The penalty for this beauty is the re-emergence of a usability problem we haven’t seen since the mid-1990s: Users don’t know where they can click. For the last 15 years of Web usability research, the main problems have been that users don’t know where to go or which option to choose — not that they don’t even know which options exist. With iPad UIs, we’re back to this square one. (via Andrew Savikas)
"iPad" entries
The iPad and immersive computing
Multitasking on the iPad could prove to be a limitation, not an asset.
The iPad apps and features that Marc Hedlund most looks forward to are those that make immersive computing experience more ubiquitous and useful.
Four short links: 20 May 2010
New Take on Ubicomp, Language Insight, Sexy Viz, and iPad Usability
Yes the iPad is sexy, but global sales are the real ebook growth news
A deep look at the ebook growth opportunities in global markets and how direct sales can offset print book cannibalization.
Actually, half of all iPad Books are Fiction
Suggestions to my previous post inspired me to normalize our metadata1 for titles available through the U.S. iBooks app. A comment prompted me to rollup iBooks publishers into publishing conglomerates2: Comments from other readers gave me the idea to map the 100+ iBooks categories to the more familiar BISAC categories. Doing so means over half of all iBooks titles are…
iPad 3G and the vacancy of the connected textbook
The iPad 3G takes a small step toward fulfilling the promise of connected textbooks, but there's a lot more work to do.
The iPad in Europe (the English speaking part at least)
Editor's note: This is the first in a series of posts exploring the reception–and potential impact, of the iPad in locations other than the good ole USA. In today's entry, Eoin Purcell chimes in from Ireland. ~ Kat MeyerIt can be hard to envision the impact a device will have when you have only demo videos and second hand reports…
A few weeks in, a third of iPad Books are Fiction
Measured in terms of number of titles, half of the over 46,000 (paid and free) books available that we detected as being offered through the iBooks app are from 6 categories1. Fiction & Literature alone account for close to a third of all available iBooks titles: The current set of titles is indicative of the publishers (and/or imprints) that Apple…
Five reasons iPhone vs Android isn't Mac vs Windows
Competitive lessons from the PC era don't always apply to mobile
It's human nature to look to the past to predict the future. That's why it's unsurprising to see knee-jerk conclusion that Apple iPhone vs Google Android will mirror the PC wars. Here's five reasons why this time, it's different.
Where do developers draw the line with Apple?
Two developers, one out of iPhone development and the other still in, examine the App Store.
Dan Grigsby and Dan Pilone have both developed iPhone applications. Both have concerns about development restrictions, too. But only one remains within Apple's ecosystem. Here, the developers examine the App Store from two viewpoints: one that's in and one that's out.
Cookbooks: The highest priced iPad book category
Just like the iTunes app store, the iBooks app on the iPad spotlights the Top Paid (and Top Free) books within each category. Here are some charts that compare the average price (by rank)1 across the major categories. The average price of the Top 50 titles across the major categories range from $7-$15. Cookbooks, History, Biographies are slightly higher priced,…