First week with the iPad

I've been a bit of critic pre-launch of the Apple iPad but thought I would reserve my judgement until after I've had the chance to really use it. It's been a full week now and I like it much more than I did the first day but I'm still not entirely sold on this version... yet.

The iPad definitely doesn't have the same WIFI range as my MacBookPro but so far I found it to be tolerable. This past week I've used the iPad to check news and email, follow a recipe using the Epicurious app (very nice) and use the Pandora Radio app to get some tunes in my room. It was nice not to have to bring my MacBookPro into the kitchen while I was cooking... the iPad was perfect for that.  The ABC Player app is very nice although I don't happen to watch any ABC shows. My three year old son loves the FirstWords: Animals app. It's a fun device and will be great on our plane trip to Seattle in a few months. It'll keep the little ones busy! Although the iPad won't come close to replacing my MacBookPro, I would consider leaving the now bulky laptop at home and taking the iPad along on future trips. The iPad, as of now, is not a device I will pack along with me daily as I do with my laptop. I'll mostly use it at home for now. We'll see.

What's good about it:

• The screen - It's very clear and sharp. Viewing video and photos are stunning and it's easy to read emails, articles or books.
• Speed - The UI is very responsive, especially when compared to my iPhone 3G. The apps run very well.
• Mail app - The Apple Mail app on the iPad is very simple but quite elegant, especially in landscape mode. It's great to have messages on the left and the message content on the right unlike the iPhone mail app.
• Sound Quality - The sound quality is quite remarkable for such a little device. We don't have a stereo in our room (unless you count my laptop) so we've been using Pandora on the iPad to pipe in music. Sounds great.

What's not-so-good:

• Size - It's a great size for the content on the screen but it's a bit awkward to hold it in your hands.
• Camera - There isn't one.
• Typing - This will take me some time to get used to as it did with the iPhone. You can't hold the iPad and type at the same time unless you use one finger which I can't imagine anyone doing. The only way to type is to put the iPad down on on your lap or table or somehow prop it up. Typing is a bit strange because the keyboard is obviously smaller than a regular computer and some of the keys are hidden. It's doable but not anywhere near the speed and efficiency of a computer.
• I'm going to drop it - Seriously, the case is so slick!
• Kids - My two kids love it. My oldest is three years old. The iPad was $500. Just not a good combo.

Full article

Posted via email from Jason Buscema

Adobe Exec slept w/ Steve Jobs's Wife

Alright maybe it's not true but lately it sure seems like Apple is out with a vengeance to take Adobe out of the game. Yesterday the NY Times published an article about the upcoming Apple iPhone OS 4 due out this June. There is a paragraph about APIs and functionality which seem to have targeted Adobe specifically. Adobe's latest multimedia creation software can generate iPhone and iPad applications, however the new developer agreement implies this is now against Apple's rules. 

Developing an app using Adobe Flash would be much easier for many than developing the app in C,C++ or Objective C. The pros to Apple supporting this would be a greater influx of creative Apps for the Apple mobile platform. The obvious downsides though are potential lack of control and revenue for Apple and poorly developed Apps by the average Flash developer.

For the past few years I've been fairly vocal about my dislike for Flash especially on the Mac platform. I'm impatient and won't wait around for a full Flash experiential website to load. Performance has always been an issue for the Flash plugin on the Mac platform. We are seeing the Internet be more about accessibility across many various platforms and devices as well as across multiple channels and search engines. Adobe Flash sucks at this. Building a Flash based website, for the most part, means having to be really creative to allow search indexing and to integrate with all the social networks out there. Sure it can be done but is the extra work required really worth it?

I'm all for competition and want the best technologies to prevail but I'm happy to see Flash taking a major beating lately and I'm looking forward to see what HTML5 and other technologies will bring to the table.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Jason Buscema

Santa Fe Christian Lacrosse vs San Dieguito Academy 3/27/2010

The boys lacrosse of Santa Fe Christian Eagles play host to the San Dieguito Academy Mustangs. See all the photos at www.sidelinestudios.com. This game was shot using the Canon 1D Mark III body and the Canon 400 2.8 L lens. It was a very warn day with full sun at 1pm which always makes for challenging shooting conditions. I shot in full manual mode and tried to only photograph the players in one area of the field to get the exposures correct. Most of the photos shot with the sun at my back were shot around ISO 200, f/3.2, 2500th. When the sun was in my face I changed the ISO to 400 to compensate and maybe dropped the shutter down to around 2000th.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Sideline Studios

Mac "Blue" Screen of Death?

Twice in the past week my (very dirty) MacBook Pro has kernel panicked on me. I always make fun of the notorious Windows BSOD and I'd like to keep doing so without being hypocritical. At the time of this panic I was running OS X 10.6.2. I was obviously using Mail.app and I most likely had Safari or Firefox and TextMate open at the time. The one application that could be the culprit is Quicksilver. Since this panic I did upgrade to the latest yet still beta version of the application. Hopefully the panicking will come to an end and my Windoze bashing can once again return to full force.

Perhaps the computer is simply trying to politely tell me to clean it's screen!

Posted via email from Jason Buscema