iPad

David Pogue at NY Times has a non technical review of the Ipad – check it out here.

The post has a video component as well, I am embedding it here – scroll down and push the play button (you’ll have to endure a gruesome 20 sec Toyota ad though).

Here is an excerpt (emphasis added) – my focus is on the non-tech segment:

The Apple iPad is basically a gigantic iPod Touch.

The simple act of making the multitouch screen bigger changes the whole experience. Maps become real maps, like the paper ones. Scrabble shows the whole board, without your having to zoom in and out. You see your e-mail inbox and the open message simultaneously. Driving simulators fill more of your field of view, closer to a windshield than a keyhole.

The new iBooks e-reader app is filled with endearing grace notes. For example, when you turn a page, the animated page edge actually follows your finger’s position and speed as it curls, just like a paper page. Font, size and brightness controls appear when you tap. Tap a word to get a dictionary definition, bookmark your spot or look it up on Google or Wikipedia. There’s even a rotation-lock switch on the edge of the iPad so you can read in bed on your side without fear that the image will rotate.

If you have the cellular model, you can buy AT&T service so you can get online anywhere. (Cellular iPads aren’t available until next month; I tested a Wi-Fi-only model.)

But how’s this for a rare deal from a cell company: there’s no contract. By tapping a button in Settings, you can order up a month of unlimited cellular Internet service for $30. Or pay $15 for 250 megabytes of Internet data; when it runs out, you can either buy another 250 megs, or just upgrade to the unlimited plan for the month. Either way, you can cancel and rejoin as often as you want — just March, July and November, for example — without penalty. The other carriers are probably cursing AT&T’s name for setting this precedent.

Here is the video:

Given Adobe Flash’s ubiquity, the lack of Flash support is certainly one of the biggest turn-offs for potential iPad buyers. On the other hand, some of leading publishers are sidestepping the issue by providing alternative video streaming methods.

For example both Brightcove platform which enables them to detect the visitor’s operating system and to route the appropriate video stream accordingly.

So, let’s say, if an iPad user hits the publisher’s page, Brightcove will detect Apple iPhone OS on the visitor’s system and will stream H.264-encoded video renditions optimized for iPad screen resolution via html5. Problem solved.

Here is Brightcove’s sales pitch to publishers:

Ready for Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Reduce the cost and complexity of delivering and monetizing video on current and future generations of Apple devices that support the HTML5 standard. Deliver the best possible video experience to iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users.

Automatic Device Detection
Brightcove automatic device detection dynamically switches between Flash and HTML5 player templates to suit the viewer’s device capabilities.

Native HTML5 Player Templates
New HTML5 templates provide multi-title playlists, analytics tracking, social sharing controls, advertising insertion, and other capabilities to provide a customizable video experience built on open standards.

Gorgeous H.264 transcoding
Brightcove’s cloud transcoding engine converts virtually any source file into H.264-encoded video renditions optimized for multiple encoding profiles, bit rates, and screen sizes.

Pricing and Availability
The Brightcove Experience for HTML5 is provided at no charge to customers with subscriptions to Brightcove Professional, Enterprise, and Express $499 editions. An early version of the automatic device detection and HTML5 player template are available in the Brightcove Developer Center. Additional capabilities will be provided in future versions released throughout 2010.

Apple continues to expand the iBookstore offering – NYT is reporting today that Pegasus and Workman Publishing groups have singed a distribution deal with Apple. The two will be joining Hachette, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins and Penguin Group in the rapidly growing iBookstore shelfspace.

(Apple)… has just signed a deal with two more independent publishers to sell electronic versions of their books on the new device.

Perseus Books Group, a large independent publisher that also distributes works from 330 other smaller presses including Grove/Atlantic, Harvard Business School Press and Zagat, signed a deal last week with Apple, following five of the six biggest publishers that have already signed such agreements.

Separately, Workman Publishing Company, responsible for the “What to Expect” series, novels like “Water for Elephants” and the Silver Palate cookbooks, also signed a deal with Apple.

• Doubleclick opens a message, PDF attachment viewed, Keyboard demo.
• Video play demo, Chapter switching, double tapping zooms into the video and making it full screen, doubletap to get out, single tap calls the controls, speakers next to 30 pin conector, microphone view, on/off switch, volume on/off.
• New Yorker page previewed, New York Times page previewed, Bookmarks icon click, double Tapping fills the screen.
• Calendar a week view as well as a single day view.
• Bookshelf concept previewed, Tapping a book opens fullscreen, Page-dragging works, book font size changeable, single tap opens controls.
• Facebook app fills the screen, Starwalk (app lets you view and identify stars – star tapping idenrfies a star).

Here is the video (PC Mag via YouTube):