I recently heard the well-worn words that Tablet devices are largely consumption devices; it was on BBC Click (watched 12 Feb 2011), and having lived with an iPad since the end of June 2010, I couldn't agree less.
I will readily admit that I play games on the device, and that there are few Gameloft and EA titles that I don't own. I also listen to music and watch iPlayer on the iPad. These home-based activities along with an endless supply of recipes for the kitchen are very enjoyable and engage the whole family (from 1-36). As do the multitude of music applications from bongo drums to eight track music recording. However, these fun and home-life activities are only one side to the device.
Working in publishing the iPad is essential for developing eBooks, since there is no simulator for iBooks on the desktop and since there is no replacement for learning how people will actually experience your books on the device, but this isn't the end of the device's usefulness for work.
Goodreader is an app that gets a lot of attention and for good reason, it is a fantastic tool for marking up PDFs with annotations that are compatible with Adobe Acrobat. Meaning that once a book is typeset I can email the files to my iPad and work on them without being tied to a desk, which is great for the train. It has other functions as well, and you can actually unzip, edit and rezip ePUB books if you wish to make amendments to them on the device. Technically you can also create an ePUB book from scratch on the iPad using Goodreader's text editor, although Textastic offers a better means of entering and coding text given its hinting capabilities and other useful elements.
I'll admit that GREP, regex and wildcards are notably missing from all current iOS apps I am aware of, and Pages doesn't save to ePUB as it does on the OS X version. Making a full Word to ePUB production workflow slower than on a desktop or notebook computer. However, the possibility with a few future additions to apps make the prospect of ePUB creation (or at least part creation and editing) very real.
Even at present the iPad provides a ground for experimentation where the code within eBooks can be amended and then opened instantly in iBooks removing the step of moving from computer to tablet, which saves time when trying to nail a specific style element or experimenting with a piece of code.
This holds true for web programming as well. Nothing could be easier than using Textastic with its in-built preview and ability to quickly upload to the web then instantly switch to Safari, which actually feels speedier and more immediate than on an OS X or Windows machine, where I personally would be switching between at least two or three programs to perform editing, preview and uploading to the web.
This experimentation and use of the iPad as a scratch pad or sketch book is not to be underestimated. As with the many drawing apps, the ability to sit and play around with ideas without booting your main computer is invaluable, and I have used it for many functions from writing Javascript to designing book covers.
I call it casual production, in line with casual gaming, but as with the casual gaming titles being developed, it is by no means "lightweight", but instead allows a level of creativity and experimentation that wouldn't otherwise fit into the time available in my life.
Finally to close this post, I want to mention research, because one reason to choose iOS for reading eBooks is because of the fast annotation and ability to quickly link to websites from a book, and to update your own articles in Pages at the same time, or to sit in a library and take extensive notes without adding the weight of a laptop to your rucksack.
This isn't intended as a sales pitch for the iPad, since I hope that other tablets will become just as successful and useful. It is instead a response to the false claim that the iPad is largely for consumption, because especially in the publishing industry this simply isn't true.
I will readily admit that I play games on the device, and that there are few Gameloft and EA titles that I don't own. I also listen to music and watch iPlayer on the iPad. These home-based activities along with an endless supply of recipes for the kitchen are very enjoyable and engage the whole family (from 1-36). As do the multitude of music applications from bongo drums to eight track music recording. However, these fun and home-life activities are only one side to the device.
Working in publishing the iPad is essential for developing eBooks, since there is no simulator for iBooks on the desktop and since there is no replacement for learning how people will actually experience your books on the device, but this isn't the end of the device's usefulness for work.
Goodreader is an app that gets a lot of attention and for good reason, it is a fantastic tool for marking up PDFs with annotations that are compatible with Adobe Acrobat. Meaning that once a book is typeset I can email the files to my iPad and work on them without being tied to a desk, which is great for the train. It has other functions as well, and you can actually unzip, edit and rezip ePUB books if you wish to make amendments to them on the device. Technically you can also create an ePUB book from scratch on the iPad using Goodreader's text editor, although Textastic offers a better means of entering and coding text given its hinting capabilities and other useful elements.
I'll admit that GREP, regex and wildcards are notably missing from all current iOS apps I am aware of, and Pages doesn't save to ePUB as it does on the OS X version. Making a full Word to ePUB production workflow slower than on a desktop or notebook computer. However, the possibility with a few future additions to apps make the prospect of ePUB creation (or at least part creation and editing) very real.
Even at present the iPad provides a ground for experimentation where the code within eBooks can be amended and then opened instantly in iBooks removing the step of moving from computer to tablet, which saves time when trying to nail a specific style element or experimenting with a piece of code.
This holds true for web programming as well. Nothing could be easier than using Textastic with its in-built preview and ability to quickly upload to the web then instantly switch to Safari, which actually feels speedier and more immediate than on an OS X or Windows machine, where I personally would be switching between at least two or three programs to perform editing, preview and uploading to the web.
This experimentation and use of the iPad as a scratch pad or sketch book is not to be underestimated. As with the many drawing apps, the ability to sit and play around with ideas without booting your main computer is invaluable, and I have used it for many functions from writing Javascript to designing book covers.
I call it casual production, in line with casual gaming, but as with the casual gaming titles being developed, it is by no means "lightweight", but instead allows a level of creativity and experimentation that wouldn't otherwise fit into the time available in my life.
Finally to close this post, I want to mention research, because one reason to choose iOS for reading eBooks is because of the fast annotation and ability to quickly link to websites from a book, and to update your own articles in Pages at the same time, or to sit in a library and take extensive notes without adding the weight of a laptop to your rucksack.
This isn't intended as a sales pitch for the iPad, since I hope that other tablets will become just as successful and useful. It is instead a response to the false claim that the iPad is largely for consumption, because especially in the publishing industry this simply isn't true.
Comments
Post a Comment