Piers Jones

Playing with the iPad

New York Times app on iPad at launch at San Francisco Apple Store 141, originally uploaded by Steve Rhodes.

I managed to borrow an iPad from a colleague last night. Just for work related research you understand.

So here were my first impressions:

• Of course the Guardian eyewitness app is beautiful and I'm really not just saying that
• Its much easier to read with on a train than a laptop, the touchscreen means that you are no longer 'all elbows' with the person sitting next to you. Even if the iPad changes dramatically over the next few versions, touch screen interfaces are here to stay and just make sense when you start using them on a larger device.
• Pictures and video look great, games are even better.
• I wasn't so impressed with all the page turning animation in the books app, it seems unnecessary to pretend that this device is made of paper. Its really easy to read text in long form though I've never tried using a kindle or e-book to be able to compare the experience.
• It feels a lot more sharable than a 'mobile device' I always feel like I am handing someone my wallet if I give them my phone for something, its just very personal. Not so with the iPad which I can see as something that you could share with family and friends.

Then I handed the iPad over to my 4 1/2 year old son. He picked it up instantly and within seconds he had found the labyrinth game that he liked and was moving everything around the screen. Then straight onto Youtube and asking me to find him dinosaur videos. There is no barrier to using this type of device at all, like needing to type the right letters or use a mouse. That makes it perfect for younger children or maybe older people that have never learned to use a computer.

Even though I was very impressed I still don't think I'll be buying one for a while yet. It's really nice, just too expensive for me for what it does and I'll wait to see if the price comes down. I can get away with doing most of the things I need to do on myiPhone for now.

Magazines on a tablet

With the arrival of hardware like tablet PCs people will be able to consume news and media in new ways that build on how they read print but take advantage of the capabilities of online.

I can't help thinking that the iphone user interface has had a major part to play in shaping how that might look for the next few years.

I like this concept  for reading magazine content on a tablet called Mag+ from from Bonnier and can imagine myself reading a magazine like this on the train. What do you think?

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

thanks to one man and his blog for finding this over a coffee

eco-friendly packaging

Sennheiser CX 300 - eco-friendly packaging, originally uploaded by spjwebster.

It's not often that I notice the packaging for any product. Apart from the fact that there is far too much of it, it just gets thrown away and is a complete waste.

One exception to the rule is the Sennheiser in-ear headphones which I recently got for my iPhone. They were posted (via Amazon) in a really cool cardboard box made entirely from recycled paper.

I hope other manufacturers follow suit and do away with all that unecessary plastic stuff.

Simple ideas work best - number 1

3 simple ideas that I have seen lately that have really impressed me;

• Having white roofs and lighter colour pavements could help reduce global warming
• A great simple tool for working out whether a website is down for everyone or just me? (via Lloyd Davis on Twitter)

• Probably the most successful idea from tv series dragon's den is a plastic cable tie, that just got a £36m order

Yep, the simple ones are the best.....

The history of digital community

I really enjoyed this video (via Kristine Lowe) of Ethan Zuckerman presenting the history of digital community in less than 7 minutes. Well worth a watch.

Dell ideastorm and open innovation

One of my first jobs after leaving University was working for First Direct Bank looking after a project that they called Quest. It was a staff suggestion scheme where everyone in the company was incentivised to submit suggestions of how to improve their products. My job was to work with each internal team, encourage them to submit ideas and then feed through the results into the projects department. During my time looking after the project there were some good wins, particularly around improving the usability of back office systems. Overall though it was really hard to make work. Why? Well it was tricky to identify the ideas that would deliver the biggest benefit, most suggestions tended to be either very difficult to implement or of a small scale and of dubious payback. There were also so many ideas to work through and that was just from the staff, not all the customers as well.

Now I see that the suggestion scheme has come of age with the application of social / web 2.0 principles. I was taking a look at Dell ideastorm today which is based on the salesforce platform. Over 20,000 customers (or potential customers) have voted to standardise power cables for laptops. Which has got to be a very powerful insight for Dell's new product development. Even better though is that the wisdom of crowds has sifted through over 8,900 ideas to choose the products and features that people really want.

Jeremiah Olswang from Forrester has got a write up of the launch of ideastorm here.

This type of approach has to be a big part of the future of new product development, engaging with your community of customers and giving them an opportunity to collaborate and participate in new product features. Easy to knock, hard to pull off. Well done Dell.

UPDATE: Although as others have pointed out that you have to act on the results of all that information if you are going to be taken seriously. I certainly hope that's the case here.

links for 2008-03-19

Server farms running on wind power a professor at Cambridge University has the idea of locating big server farms near to sources of wind power as data is easier to transmit than electricity and will reduce carbon emissions.

Lessons for software development from a curry house those masters of 'less is more' at 37 signals wonder what would happen if you put Gordon Ramsay in charge of your software development.

The shedworking blog described as the lifestyle guide for shed workers, this blog has some rather nice sheds (if you like that kind of thing!)

Big trends for 2008

It is good to see Read/Write web outlining some big trends in their toolkit for 2008.

Their suggestions for the areas to watch this year are;

• Open Data - a good call perhaps given the recent Facebook, Google and Plaxo  Data portability announcement

• Recommendation - another great area, I particularly like trustedplaces in the UK for that

• Semantic web - still waiting for the release of twine

• Mobile and

• Visualisation

I would add vertical/niche social networking to the list.

 

Thinking bigger and Zeppelin comebacks

I'm really hoping for a Zeppelin comeback this year; no not that Zeppelin. After watching the Golden Compass over Christmas I found myself asking; Why are more people not getting around in airships?

After all there is a lot to say in favour of this form of transport;

• a low carbon way to fly
• less constraints on space than modern aircraft
• what I imagine is a relaxed and glamorous flying experience (I'd love to give it a go)

If people's safety fears can be allayed now that they are no longer filled with combustible gas, then why not? There is even a UK company who apparently have a model that can land anywhere aiming for a world tour later this year.

Probably the reason that the Zeppelin / Airship comeback hasn't really taken off yet is that it's a big idea.  One that's going to take plenty of mistakes along the way to make successful. One that could completely fail, but if it does 'take off' could really change the world. The type of idea it might be hard to find a financial backer for. It would probably seem easier to go after those small incremental ideas which in the end don't amount to much.

In the online world it would also be good to see some really big bets this year. I loved this post from bubblegeneration on 'think bigger' being a principle for 2008. Let's hope that all that talk in the press  about an economic slowdown doesn't stop entrepreneurs and their backers making the big bets that will really move online forward.

So what is the Zeppelin comeback of Social Media? Any big ideas?

UPDATE: Here's an excellent transcript from BBC Radio 4's our own correspondent  who recently took a Zeppelin flight

Innovation that is Proudly Found Elsewhere

I came across this innovation case study of Procter and Gamble this week. They have a mantra of innovation being 'Proudly Found Elsewhere' which is their antidote to 'Not Invented Here' syndrome.

For any organisation, however large their development or R&D budget (and P&G apparently have 7,500 dedicated R&D scientists) the reality is that innovation is likely to come from outside an organisation. So P.F.E, a great mantra to have...