Apple Event - Live Blogging/Streaming Coverage

[deltop]

Originally Posted by Harmon

...and that would be...(please don't say txtr...)

What's wrong with txtr?

[dioib]

Originally Posted by BWhite

I believe you have put some thought into it and this is a good prediction. I like it.

Where I am at is wondering if the iPad processor has sufficient power to run a high-quality handwriting recognition application - not electronic ink, but actual handwriting to digital character conversion.

I think the problem is with the nature of capacitive screens rather than with the processor. I honestly don't have much knowledge on this but I think even if you use a stylus you won't have that kind of precision that Wacom displays, for example, offer to users. So if this is true, then users won't be able to input that amount of info/words per page to justify a reasonable note taking pace for real life applications. But as someone else mentioned here, as long as all your input is in the form of words only, no symbols, then the touch screen keyboard should serve you fine.

[DawnFalcon]

Why do you think that, Harmon?

Do remember to get most apps useful to medical professionals on there you'd need to jailbreak, since Apple (understandably) dosn't allow them on the store.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by deltop

What's wrong with txtr?

I find it klutzy & non-Apple-like. But then, I have the same problem with Evernotes, which all kinds of people like. So it's probably just me...

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Why do you think that, Harmon?

Do remember to get most apps useful to medical professionals on there you'd need to jailbreak, since Apple (understandably) dosn't allow them on the store.

I was under the impression that a lot of docs use the iPhone/iPod for medical purposes. I could be wrong about that, of course. Maybe it's only reference purposes - pharma dictionaries, etc.

But the Newton is another matter. If the Newton functionality is in the iP OS, and with the push to electocute...uh...I mean digitize medical records continues, a MedPad is a natural. It is big enough to have routine forms on it, and charts, and if it's wifi it will interface with the hospital network (hmmm, any effect on pacemakers...?)

What are these apps useful to the med profession but not alloowed on the iPhone?

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I'm wavering on the 3G issue, mainly because I seem to be traveling more these days, and might like to take advantage of the 15 dollar offer to do netsurfing & keep my email from getting out of hand. But I have no sense of what 250 gig of download means. Someone needs to make a gig-o-meter app so we don't go over the download limit...

On your iPhone, you can check your usage stats in Settings-before I went overseas, I was tempted to get AT&T's international data package for a month, thinking I wouldn't go over the 50 Megabytes total the plan offered.

I tested it out by resetting my statistics, then checking them a week later....suffice to say, that 250 meg 14.99 deal isn't going to work for how I use 3G..i'm more an unlimited data candidate

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I was under the impression that a lot of docs use the iPhone/iPod for medical purposes. I could be wrong about that, of course.

Corporations can join the Enterprise Developers Program to develop proprietary apps for in-house use...that could be what some are using.

[deltop]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I find it klutzy & non-Apple-like. But then, I have the same problem with Evernotes, which all kinds of people like. So it's probably just me...

I know what you mean, I find this to be true about lots of apps even popular ones. Most apps seem to lack the well designed feel of Apple's own apps.

But I'm guessing more effort will be put into an iPad version simply because the platform has much more potential, even if only because it has more screen real estate.

[DawnFalcon]

Oh sure, a MedPad is almost certain. But it'd be a rather different device to the iPad - locked down in what you can load on it, with encryption for patient data and so on. If there was a camera with a bar code scanner, you could swipe it across a code on each bed/trolley, and if you're authorised it brings up the patient case history, for example.

And you can't put any apps in the store which would potentially create medical liability for Apple (or for medical use the GPS at all, actually - that's explicitly banned). As Harmon says they're likely using enterprise-level development if they're systematically deploying iPhones.

(Also, as I understand it most of what my GP does with his smartphone is web-based, since the local health service doesn't assume its doctors have iPhones and they can ensure the data is saved centrally and the connection is encrypted!)

[nikkie]

@PilotBob

The B&N eReader supports Adobe ePub, but there is no way to import books from other sources to this app that I have found. Because it uses its own catalogue and directories, I simply see no way "file picker" a Sony ePub from this app.

I haven't been able to view Sony ePubs at all on my iPhone yet. I'm waiting for somebody to figure it out.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by nikkie

@PilotBob

The B&N eReader supports Adobe ePub, but there is no way to import books from other sources to this app that I have found. Because it uses its own catalogue and directories, I simply see no way "file picker" a Sony ePub from this app.

I haven't been able to view Sony ePubs at all on my iPhone yet. I'm waiting for somebody to figure it out.

Hmm... bummer. Did you try Kobo?

BOb

[BWhite]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Hmm... bummer. Did you try Kobo?
BOb

I am by no means an eReader expert but a few points...

o Kobo is working on a new version for February
http://blog.kobobooks.com/2010/01/27...kobo-is-ready/

o the iPad is not an iPhone and the new SDK (which some have looked at) is being reported on the web as treating the iPad as a "shared folder". No way of knowing if they have that correct.

o for the point above - I am understanding that no one has yet seen the iPad demonstrated leashed to a desktop? I hunted for such yesterday on the web and could find no photos, no video, no article. So I cannot even say the iPad can even be connected (relevant for the next point).

o on some eReaders I have used in the past (may have been MobiPocket) the 'importing' of eBooks into the mobile eReader app can be accomplished via the desktop side - *if* you know the target folder on the mobile device

So in the past - and I am guessing you already know this - the 'importing' was counter-intuitive because you do not really 'import' so much as feed. Sometimes this process requires matching desktop software, and sometimes it does not.

I am glad folks on these Forums mentioned Kobo because I am intending to keep an eye on Kobo's Blog.

[nikkie]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Hmm... bummer. Did you try Kobo?

BOb

Yes, same deal - so far as I can tell, there is no way to add books to your Kobo library which you didn't purchase from them, and no way to open a book (in an email or other) in a specific application. It's possible there might be a way around this by downloading a third party file picker that you can specify which app "opens with", but I haven't found an app yet for it.

The only app that lets you read books not directly purchased from the app maker's library is Stanza, so far as I can tell. Stanza will let you read books from any source - email, website, stanza desktop, calibre catalog xml, etc. This is great, except that Stanza doesn't support Adobe ePub DRM. They were going to at one point, and then they were purchased by Amazon and the dev plan was dropped.

The only way I've found to read Sony ePubs on the iPhone at this point is to break the DRM and use Stanza.

I have heard well-substantiated rumblings, though, that Sony is making an app.

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by kilron

cool! i honestly have no idea what those models or brands are. maybe i'm just not educated about the lesser known brands i guess. what percentage of all global sales of all dedicated eReaders do you think those couple models together represent?

Onyx is a very small slice still maybe top 10 but PocketBook now being PocketBook Global (merged with Netronix) is in the top 5

[BWhite]

Originally Posted by nikkie

Yes, same deal - so far as I can tell, there is no way to add books to your Kobo library which you didn't purchase from them, and no way to open a book (in an email or other) in a specific application. It's possible there might be a way around this by downloading a third party file picker that you can specify which app "opens with", but I haven't found an app yet for it.

The only app that lets you read books not directly purchased from the app maker's library is Stanza, so far as I can tell. Stanza will let you read books from any source - email, website, stanza desktop, calibre catalog xml, etc. This is great, except that Stanza doesn't support Adobe ePub DRM. They were going to at one point, and then they were purchased by Amazon and the dev plan was dropped.

The only way I've found to read Sony ePubs on the iPhone at this point is to break the DRM and use Stanza.

I have heard well-substantiated rumblings, though, that Sony is making an app.

Okay. I approached this from a different angle since I used to purchase eBooks in the olden days.

It *appears* that the old way, updated for the iPhone still work. The old way being "conduits".

If you go to Fictionwise you can purchase eBooks in ePub format. That is just the book. If you go check on the software Fictionwise suggests for the iPhone they reference you to eReader.com, this would be the Reader.

FAQ on eReader.com suggests you go to the iPhone App Store and download the eReader app onto your iPhone. FAQ on eReader.com suggests the book will be yours if you keep it on your PC.

So what I think I am understanding is there will be an eReader App on your PC, which will be the master library, and there will be an eReader App on your iPhone and you can read books on your phone - I think, could be wrong here - from
B&N.com
Fictionwise.com
eReader.com

Within the PC app, if you dragged a Sony ePub Book into your eReader Library - I have no idea what would happen.

The above is the olden way of doing things, and of course in 2010 it may all be broken.

Do not know if the above experiment accomplishes what you were trying to verify.

*** EDIT ***

What the above is talking about is purchasing directly onto your PC.

And that is how the new ways vary from the old. The portable devices have grown in power to where you can purchase directly onto the portable device, and once you have done that - I have no idea if you can recover.

Maybe? Maybe not?