Top E-Book is iPad?

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

As I understand it, even with OS 4, there still won't be true multitasking, but an extension on the existing exceptions so that third party apps (with Pandora given as an example) can play music or download in the background, and a way for apps to easily save and restore state, to give improved task switching. I think this would be enough for me.

(posted from my iPad)

Sounds good. Thank you. I figure iPad does the basics that I want, that any free or cheap upgrades would be nice, and that I will switch if something better emerges for my needs.

I've been pleasantly surprised with iPad:

I listen to podcasts more, because I rarely bothered to load them onto my MP3 player. With iPad, I just click and listen as I find something that piques my interest, then click off and try something else if I don't care for it. Because it's instant and portable, I've ended up listening to a much wider variety of podcasts. I've found interesting lectures offered by MIT, for instance. I lounge in my hammock, look for lectures and listen when I want a break from reading.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

Sounds good. Thank you. I figure iPad does the basics that I want, that any free or cheap upgrades would be nice, and that I will switch if something better emerges for my needs.

I've been pleasantly surprised with iPad:

I listen to podcasts more, because I rarely bothered to load them onto my MP3 player. With iPad, I just click and listen as I find something that piques my interest, then click off and try something else if I don't care for it. Because it's instant and portable, I've ended up listening to a much wider variety of podcasts. I've found interesting lectures offered by MIT, for instance. I lounge in my hammock, look for lectures and listen when I want a break from reading, for instance.

Interesting. I listen to podcasts nearly every day, unless I'm using the iPod for audiobooks or downloaded college courses. I rarely listen to music on the iPod, although I did when I had a car radio interface. Most of the music is heard through iTunes on my PC or sometimes the Mac.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Interesting. I listen to podcasts nearly every day, unless I'm using the iPod for audiobooks or downloaded college courses. I rarely listen to music on the iPod, although I did when I had a car radio interface. Most of the music is heard through iTunes on my PC or sometimes the Mac.

I've never been a big user of iTunes, I admit. When I go in there, I tend to bumble around, because I forget how to do stuff (yes, there are cobwebs growing on me). I still buy music on CDs. I might've gotten more into iTunes and podcasts, but I haven't had much of a commute in years. When at home and otherwise not reading, I've been more likely to listen to audio books.

Tom, are the college courses you listen to free? I'd love recommendations if so.

[cheerio6414]

I don't really play too much on iTunes also, what can I say, still have not conformed

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

I've never been a big user of iTunes, I admit. When I go in there, I tend to bumble around, because I forget how to do stuff (yes, there are cobwebs growing on me). I still buy music on CDs. I might've gotten more into iTunes and podcasts, but I haven't had much of a commute in years. When at home and otherwise not reading, I've been more likely to listen to audio books.

Tom, are the college courses you listen to free? I'd love recommendations if so.

Some are and some aren't. The free ones I listen to are from iTunes U. They have an excellent selection of choices from major Universities and Colleges like Stanford, Duke, and Oxford. It's the only way a poor boy like me can truthfully say his education is from some of the finest Ivy League schools in the world. What a wonderful time to be alive when such knowledge is free for the taking!

The paid courses are from The Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com). Their courses are not that expensive if you catch them on sale, and the good thing is that they're always going on sale at a fraction of their regular price! Their teachers are outstanding in their field. The only downside is that neither they nor iTunes give college credits for their courses, but if its the knowledge you're after and not the sheepskin, the price can't be beat!

This week I finished listening to The Teaching Company's Dante’s Divine Comedy course (24 half-hour lessons) taught by William R. Cook and Ronald B. Herzman, and now I'm currently listening to their Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition course (60 half-hour lessons) taught by Daniel N. Robinson. Over the years I've taken many of their courses. One of my favorites was the New Testament course (24 half-hour lessons) taught by Bart D. Ehrman; one of the finest instructors living today.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Some are and some aren't. The free ones I listen to are from iTunes U. They have an excellent selection of choices from major Universities and Colleges like Stanford, Duke, and Oxford. It's the only way a poor boy like me can truthfully say his education is from some of the finest Ivy League schools in the world. What a wonderful time to be alive when such knowledge is free for the taking!

The paid courses are from The Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com). Their courses are not that expensive if you catch them on sale, and the good thing is that they're always going on sale at a fraction of their regular price! Their teachers are outstanding in their field. The only downside is that neither they nor iTunes give college credits for their courses, but if its the knowledge you're after and not the sheepskin, the price can't be beat!

This week I finished listening to The Teaching Company's Dante’s Divine Comedy course (24 half-hour lessons) taught by William R. Cook and Ronald B. Herzman, and now I'm currently listening to their Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition course (60 half-hour lessons) taught by Daniel N. Robinson. Over the years I've taken many of their courses. One of my favorites was the New Testament course (24 half-hour lessons) taught by Bart D. Ehrman; one of the finest instructors living today.

Thanks much, Tom. I'll check those out. I agree wholeheartedly about knowledge free for the taking.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by carbonize

In fact according to this article the iPad will not be getting multitasking until this autumn/fall.
.

What's your point? I shouldn't buy a computer that does most of what I want because it doesn't do all of what I want right this very instant?

I had to wait fifty years to get a computer that fits in my pocket and makes phone calls. Waiting a few months - indeed, mere weeks - to get multitasking should annoy me or something?

[J. Strnad]

Amazon's practice of buying books for $13 and selling them for $9.99 wasn't sustainable. The system had to change somehow and even Amazon didn't have the clout to make publishers lower their ebook prices.

One of two things will happen: Either the public will penalize high ebook prices by not buying the books in either e- or p- editions, or they'll cave and pay the high price, either for the ebook or the pbook.

Neither Amazon nor Apple can mandate lower ebook prices. Only the buying public can do that.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

That, to me, is one of the biggest drawbacks of the iPad. When I'm writing, I also like to be able to research at the same time. Just being able to look up subjects on Wikipedia without leaving the word processing app would be a big boon, and the additional ability to simultaneously search the entire Internet would go a long way in increasing the usefulness of the device.

Actually, what you are talking about is not multitasking. Human beings really can't multitask, at least at the conscious level. What human beings do is focus & refocus their attention, foregrounding and backgrounding various activities. The process can be so fast that it seems like one is doing multiple things at once, but it just ain't so. It's an illusion.

Devices, OTOH, can multitask (as can human beings, at the non-conscious level.) So the objection that the iPad can't multitask (with the exceptions listed above in an earlier post) is valid at the device level.

But your concern is not with multitasking, in my opinion. It is with how quickly the device allows you to foreground & background between apps. That is, you are concerned about how quickly you can do sequential activities - which I hereby dub "sequitasking."

One can quite easily move between word processing, Wikipedia, and searching the internet on the iPad right now. It just takes a few seconds longer that we have become used to on laptops, because apps don't stay open (for the most part) when a different app is opened.

When I first got my iPad, eons ago it seems now, I spent a little time with it, learning to do the typing. I got up to an okay speed - nothing like on a physical keyboard, but doable. Then I went into an Apple store & one of the sales kids (they are all kids from my perspective) started typing on the iPad at about a hundred words a minute. And I'm not kidding. I know what a hundred words a minute looks like because I've had a couple of secretaries who could do it.

Point being that I'll bet that although it seems that the time lag you experience in sequitasking is excruciatingly slow, most of the real lag is in you - that is, in how much of what you are doing has been subcontracted to a non-conscious process like typing, and how fast you can carry out that process.

When the iPad becomes capable of running two or three programs at once, it will involve, I think, some kind of gesture to switch between apps. In principle, that is no different than opening & closing apps, unless the apps are continuing to do something while we are in some other app. It will be a little faster than the current procedure, but it will seem much faster because of the sense we will have that we are "multitasking." But "multitasking" will still be an illusion.

[dmaul1114]

Yeah, it's not really mult-tasking. What most of us who want a tablet more for work purposes want are for apps to stay open and have a task bar type of thing where we can switch between them easily just like on a computer.

I want some true multi-tasking with having music playing while working (iPad does that, but just with iTunes currently), IM programs that can stay on top of my current window rather than just having push notification, ability to minimize apps to half screens so I can have two spreadsheets side by side, or a spreadsheet and word doc side by side like I do on my PC etc. Of course, the latter is all dependent on getting that dream 12" tablet I want! Not so useful on smaller screens.

[astra]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

Neither Amazon nor Apple can mandate lower ebook prices. Only the buying public can do that.

What about writers who choose what publishers to go with? Cannot they dictate some rules before they sign contract and go to another piblisher if one is too greedy? Surely, they can do it.

[carbonize]

Originally Posted by astra

What about writers who choose what publishers to go with? Cannot they dictate some rules before they sign contract and go to another piblisher if one is too greedy? Surely, they can do it.

This is what an author told me when I said to him that I bet the extra money publishers made from the price of ebooks didn't go to the author.

Generally the percentages for authors are this: HB 7 – 15% MMPB 6 – 12% whilst on an ebook it is about 20%, so yes, the author is getting a bit more. Oh and remember, when a book is sold at a discount of say 20% that comes off of the percentage the author gets. Incidentally, retailers get the books from the publisher for as much as 50% off the cover price.

[John F]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

As I understand it, even with OS 4, there still won't be true multitasking, but an extension on the existing exceptions so that third party apps (with Pandora given as an example) can play music or download in the background, and a way for apps to easily save and restore state, to give improved task switching. I think this would be enough for me.

(posted from my iPad)

This doesn't sound so great, to me. I think I want true multitasking. For example, I was having some problems with email on the iPad, so I wanted to do some data entry, switch to safari, do some entry, switch to safari. I ended up using my laptop and the iPad. It doesn't sound like "Saving and restoring state" would be a workable solution.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by John F

This doesn't sound so great, to me. I think I want true multitasking. For example, I was having some problems with email on the iPad, so I wanted to do some data entry, switch to safari, do some entry, switch to safari. I ended up using my laptop and the iPad. It doesn't sound like "Saving and restoring state" would be a workable solution.

Actually it does to me.
Nothing there actually requires multiple processes to be running at the same time. If you had a taskbar and could switch back and forth between processes, and they would each be exactly as they were when you last switched away, how would you know the difference?

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Actually, what you are talking about is not multitasking. Human beings really can't multitask, at least at the conscious level. What human beings do is focus & refocus their attention, foregrounding and backgrounding various activities. The process can be so fast that it seems like one is doing multiple things at once, but it just ain't so. It's an illusion.

Devices, OTOH, can multitask (as can human beings, at the non-conscious level.) So the objection that the iPad can't multitask (with the exceptions listed above in an earlier post) is valid at the device level.

But your concern is not with multitasking, in my opinion. It is with how quickly the device allows you to foreground & background between apps. That is, you are concerned about how quickly you can do sequential activities - which I hereby dub "sequitasking."

One can quite easily move between word processing, Wikipedia, and searching the internet on the iPad right now. It just takes a few seconds longer that we have become used to on laptops, because apps don't stay open (for the most part) when a different app is opened.

When I first got my iPad, eons ago it seems now, I spent a little time with it, learning to do the typing. I got up to an okay speed - nothing like on a physical keyboard, but doable. Then I went into an Apple store & one of the sales kids (they are all kids from my perspective) started typing on the iPad at about a hundred words a minute. And I'm not kidding. I know what a hundred words a minute looks like because I've had a couple of secretaries who could do it.

Point being that I'll bet that although it seems that the time lag you experience in sequitasking is excruciatingly slow, most of the real lag is in you - that is, in how much of what you are doing has been subcontracted to a non-conscious process like typing, and how fast you can carry out that process.

When the iPad becomes capable of running two or three programs at once, it will involve, I think, some kind of gesture to switch between apps. In principle, that is no different than opening & closing apps, unless the apps are continuing to do something while we are in some other app. It will be a little faster than the current procedure, but it will seem much faster because of the sense we will have that we are "multitasking." But "multitasking" will still be an illusion.

That's precisely what I'd like to do. Having to close a word processing app, open a browser app, surf the web, close that app, re-open open the word-processing app, then re-open my document and locate the place where I left off seems a tad cumbersome; but in all fairness, I speak as someone who has no actual experience with the iPad outside of a few minutes playing around with one in an Apple store. How's it working for you? I'm only speaking from what I imagine the experience to be like.

In truth; for what it is, it seems quite a remarkable device. I was extremely impressed with the rapid touch response of the virtual keyboard. It blows my e-ink keyboards, both physical (Kindle) and virtual (Sony PRS-600 and Nook) out of the water.