With Google, however, the philosophy is that file creation itself can be migrated to the cloud. An online office suite is “good enough,” if not as good, as a native one. And “good enough” will win due to ease of use. With almost a completely opposing view, Apple’s iCloud is doing the reverse: bringing the capabilities of the cloud to the richer, more robust native apps. This includes not just office apps in iWork, but through the use of developer APIs, it will extend to any apps that need to be iCloud-enabled. Although today, iCloud support is more limited for third-parties, the APIs will improve in time. Eventually, any app running on the Apple platform (desktop or mobile), will have the tools to move data between its different installations.
Apple’s approach makes a lot of sense to me. Their solution plays to each platform’s strengths. Native apps can offer more polished interfaces and increased performance, while the cloud can be used to enhance the user experience by offering functionality such as syncing.
I spend a good portion of my day helping instructors work within my school’s learning management system. It’s surprising how frequently browser issues cause problems for everyone. Many of these problems could be solved if a native client was available to handle the UI, local saving of data, etc. The web portion of the system could essentially be reduced to a set of APIs that would allow customers to better customize and brand the product. Just a thought …
A lot of people seemed upset with iBooks Author’s EULA after Apple’s announcement of the program. Basically, it gives content creators the ability to distribute free books in just about any way they’d like, but specifies paid books are only available though the iBooks store. The author of this article brings up some good points:
Folks are calling the software “Author” but its real name is “iBooks Author”. That kind of sums it up. This is software designed to help you author books for iBooks.
Apple isn’t giving us a new piece of software to create enhanced eBooks. It’s giving us an easy way to create great looking iBooks for sale in the iBooks store.
The author also points out that while the EULA limits your rights to sell iBooks through other avenues, it does not claim any ownership over the actual content of your work.
In addition, if you want to give your book away you can use Apple’s tools to produce a book that you distribute any way you want. I don’t have those rights when I write for any other publisher.
Apple invites media for ‘education announcement’ in New York, next Thursday, Jan. 19
While an iBook/textbook announcement probably makes the most sense, how great would it be if Apple released a learning management system? They have some of the key components already in place with iTunes-U, iBooks, and their suite of media creation tools. As I spent the day battling D2L errors (my school’s LMS), I kept thinking, “what if there was a system that just worked … “
Another ridiculous video from Samsung. I totally understand the need to distinguish your product from others on the market, but these commercials bother me for a few reasons:
- They make fun of potential customers.
- They tell potential customers next to nothing about the actual product being advertised.
- They are illogical. In this particular commercial, iPhone customers are apparently waiting in line to purchase iCloud or iTunes Match, which has to be bought online anyway.
