Preparing For College: Laptop, Tablet, or Both?

So your son or daughter is starting college and you know they need a computer.  Laptops have been the common decision, but this year is a bit different as tablets enter the market.  Many are wondering if they could go the tablet (i.e. iPad, Xoom, etc.) route instead.  It's a good thought and good question.  There are several things to keep in mind with this decision.

1. Check with the campus first.  The college will most likely have "basic requirements" concerning computing needs.  Ask them about tablets and see what their recommendation is.  You may get some shrugs and don't be alarmed by this.  Many many people are still trying to figure out how these fit in and how to best use them.  Some campuses also use specific software for the campus or courses (i.e. Blackboard).  
2. Keep the course discipline for the student in mind.  It's not always just read books and write a paper.  Some courses require certain levels of web access and software.  Find this out.  The other thing to keep in mind is that students need to store a lot.  Tablets are more designed for web access and not so much storage.  Unless the student is comfortable with and set up for "cloud computing" such as Google Docs or DropBox, they will have issues.  

Could a laptop and a tablet be beneficial?  Yes!  Tablets provide for a great deal of things and can be used in the following way:

1. Organization - Contacts, calendars, note taking, etc.  Some schools use applications like Blackboard.  This is a great system for organizing classes and student/professor communication.
2. eBooks - Tablets allow students to easily get ebooks they may need for their courses or personal reading.  Plus they can take notes, add highlights, etc. in the books as they read also.  They can access their ebooks on both devices.  Companies like Barnes and Noble have free applications for both and the libraries and books stay in sync without having to transfer files at all.  
3. eTextbooks - This publishing area is growing, but the selection isn't stellar just yet.  When it comes to eTextbooks you have a few options.  One option is CourseSmart which provides access to purchase or "rent" (timed access) to eTextbooks and has apps for mobile devices as well.  Barnes and Noble offers NookStudy which is a free laptop application that organizes classes, ties in with one's existing Barnes and Noble ebook library, and will handle eTextbooks.  
4. Writing papers.  This is where "cloud computing" really comes in handy because storage capacity on a tablet is very limited plus you don't want to have to worry about crashes and losing files.  Using things like Google Docs can be great, but you have to be connected to the internet.  Likewise you'll want to get a keyboard for the tablet.  

The bottom line in my opinion is that a tablet on it's own is not the way to go right now, but a tablet as a supplement can have great advantages for students especially with the ever increasing selection of ebooks and etextbooks which can offer huge savings and convenience.  

Want To Go Paperless For Contracts? Unleash The Power Of An iPad

  If you are like me, you probably hate stacks of papers and files.  They are a pain to manage, costly, and extremely inefficient.  Laptops that have the ability to sign on screen (formerly called tablet PC's) are a great solution for the business professional that has to capture signatures on forms, but they can be costly and cumbersome.  The iPad coupled with online document storage, makes going paperless today within reach of many.  So how do you set this up?

First you need just a few things:

1. An iPad obviously (Android tablets will work too, but the selection of PDF annotator apps is minimal)
2. Online document storage service.  DropBox is great way to go and is very affordable. 
3. PDF annotator app such as SignMyPad (ties in nicely with DropBox) or Annotate PDF
4. A stylus for capactive touch screens (Griffin works well).

The process is easy:

1. Create a folder for your document in your online file service or on your computer.  A
2. Add the PDF form to the online folder or email the form to yourself
3. Download the file to your iPad from your online document storage service or email
4. Open your PDF annotator app 
5. Open your PDF form in the app
6. Sign with your stylus and write in any other information you need to
7. Save the file as a PDF, email it to yourself, or save it directly back to your online document storage system.

Now you have a signed form and no need to print.  Simply attach the form to an email if needing to send to another party.  It's that simple.

Is it worth the money?  When it comes to business and tech, I look for everything thing to be an investment.  So, if you look at costs this way:

1. Printing and faxing supplies averaging $70/month or $840/year
2. If you reduce your printing by 90%, you have now reduced your costs to $84/year for a savings of $756/year.
3. Cost of a base iPad 2 (16GB and WiFi only) is $499, and the iPad first generation is now $399.
4. Cost of a stylus is $20
5. SignMyPad app is $4.99
6. Total initial cost with the iPad 2 is $524.  
7. Compare that to the savings of $756 and you have just paid for everything within the first year and then some by simply reducing your costs of printing and faxing.

What ways are you going paperless?

iPad: Is It The Solution For The News Industry?

When I was a kid I remember my Dad sitting at the kitchen table on the weekends with the newspaper spread all around him.  Sporadically throughout his reading he would point to the article he was reading and yell, "Hey.  Listen to this."  Then he would tell us the jist of the story and chuckle or offer some opposing view.  We would just chuckle too (or agree) although us kids didn't really have any clue what he was talking about.  We were just kind of pleased to be included I guess.  It was Twitter in it's earliest form, and this has always been they way with news.  We read it.  We want to share it.  We want to offer our opinion and perspective on it.  Basically, we want to interact with it. 

Although newspapers and magazines were excellent delivery forms for news and stories over the years, they had barriers to the way we wanted the news and what we wanted to do with it.  Then came the internet.  Now we could get the news almost when it happened.  We could interact with it through links and commenting.  And we can share with the masses today through social networking services.  Newspapers and magazines that had once scoffed at the internet began realizing it's where they needed to be.  (Well, that and the fact that ad dollars were shifting from their print products to online. They didn't have much choice but to follow the money).  Not only did they begin putting their stories online, they began giving them away for free expecting ad dollars online to make up losses in lagging hard-copy sales.  And, thus, the downward spiral begun for many major print news companies.

But when all seemed dim . . . along comes the iPad.  This past week, my wife actually won an iPad in a drawing and it finally gave me an opportunity to sit down and really play around with it hands-on.  The phone call itself from her was pretty funny.  She calls me at work and says, "Guess what?!  I won an iPad!"  What else could I say, "Wow!  That's great!"  Her next remark will make tech-lovers such as myself almost want to cry.  She then said, "I'm just so excited I won, but I don't have any use for this thing.  You want it?"  Truth be told, I actually don't have much use for it either (full-time that is) and we offered it to my father-in-law who lives with us.  He was really excited and being the good son-in-law I am, I offered to sacrifice my time to do the set up for him.  By the way, 'set up' takes about 20 minutes with an iTunes account.  But to make sure everything worked just fine, I stretched it out to about 3 hours.

NY Times iPad App

Anyway, back to the connection with the iPad and the saving of the news industry.  Since my father-in-law and I both like reading the news, I went looking for the news and magazine apps like the ones I have on my iPod Touch.  Most were there, and they look great.  Finally, the New York Times looks like the New York Times again.  USA Today feels like I'm holding a newspaper again with those sections denoted by the colored square boxes.  But now it was even better because I could do all that other stuff with it like share stories on social networking services or email them to others.  Newspapers and news looking the way they should look with the functionality to do with it the things we want to do with the news.  It's a beautiful thing.  Click here to check out some of the news and magazine apps available for the iPad.

So you'd think that's where the story ends, right?  Actually no, because there is one more issue the news has faced . . . since they've been giving it away for free for the last few years, will people pay for it again?  I noticed something very interesting with the magazine and many major newspaper apps (except for the two mentioned above which are both free), you can get the app for free to view the content but then you pay for a subscription or pay for individual issues within the application.  One thing (and probably the only thing) I have to agree with Ruppert Murdoch is that good journalism doesn't come cheap, and there is only so much advertising that can go around the internet.  You can't just give everything away for free and expect to remain in business.  So it will be interesting to see what the response by consumers is to these new pay options are. 

As tablets and other mobile devices take hold it will be interesting to see how local news companies also leverage this new avenue. 

Local news is primarily delivered via websites and rely heavily on ad dollars to support them.  A mobile app model with subscription or pay-per-issue delivery might be an avenue for an additional revenue stream. 

The real question is whether these news sites will begin charging even for website access and if they do . . . will people pay those fees?  This model has been tried in the past and is beginning to come around again. 

So, what do you think?  Would you pay per-issue or subscription fees to get news from the source you want via an app or website?

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Will Book Stores Go Away As eBooks Take Hold?

Barnes and Noble Nook

There is a great deal of speculation about the fate of book stores as ebooks become more and more popular.  In fact, I get asked that question a lot.  In the last 22 years of working retail and 15 years managing in stores, I've seen digital media transform businesses a great deal.  And the short answer in terms of book stores is . . . they will stay.  Will all stay?  No.  But many will and the sustainability of those businesses will depend on their ability to evolve and compete in the digital world.

Take Barnes & Noble for example.  This company has fully embraced the digital age (and the future of it) in terms of books.  Their ebook store is one of the most powerful and comprehensive initiatives for readers.  The Nook is one of the best ereader devices on the market.  And the competition knows it.  Amazon has a good brand and did a great job with the Kindle, but if you haven't noticed . . . everything they are doing now are reactions to Barnes & Noble.  This includes price (price drops twice now), device options (WiFi version), mobile apps, etc.  The biggest difference still being is that the use of Kindle does not provide users options outside of Amazon.  Nook is very open-ended and provides users more flexibility to use the device with other sources for content (i.e. libraries).

So why is Barnes and Noble 'up for sale'?  It has to do with stock price and is not about financial issues with the company.  Founder of what Barnes and Noble is today, Len Riggio (Chairman of the Board), is very passionate about the company and literacy in general.  To insure a solid future for the company, the board has decided to look at a possible buyout of the company due to some investor issues.  The feeling is that the stock is highly undervalued. The timing of this in relation to the digital evolution is more coincidental than anything in my opinion.

Borders is a different story.  They have actually been having financial difficulties for the last several years.  Their entry into the ebook market and current strategy is weaker than Amazon and Barnes and Noble due to the fact that they still do not provide their users an over-the-air delivery option for purchasing ebooks.  You have to hook up to a computer to get ebooks pruchased from them to the ereader itself.  For Borders, their issues were already present.

So what about indie stores?  Independent book stores have always found success in niches that they stay true to and are good at.  Used and out-of-print, antique books, local authors, etc.  Those that utilize the online avenues to continue to reach wider customer bases outside of their local communities will continue to do well in my opinion.  Will they have to compete in the ebook market to sustain themselves?  That depends on their business model really.  For those niche types of indie stores, ebooks is not really a factor in many ways.  Indie stores that primarily focus on new book sales will need to have a presence in the ebook market.  What's interesting compared to other digital media forms is that indie stores can get into 'play here'.  Adobe Digital Editions offers indie stores the ability to provide ebooks to their customers that can be used on a variety of ereaders.  So they do have the option to expand their selection and services to their customers.

Apple iPad

What about Apple and the iPad?  Somehow the iPad became lumped in with eReaders in terms of a device.  What most don't realize is the battle that has existed with Amazon and Apple for some time now that started over music.  Apple had an awesome grip on music sales with the success of the iPod and its iTunes store.  Amazon began undercutting iTunes pricing and lauched an application that allowed customers to purchase music that automatically dropped the file right into a users iTunes library.  So the entry into the ebook business with the development of the iPad was a natural competitive progression and also somewhat of a 'Take that Amazon' shot if you ask me.  The iPad is awesome and opens the door to some amazing new technology advancements, but an LCD display is not always the best reading experience as most find.  eInk is still the better reading experience since it provides a paper-like display.

What about the book itself?  Physical books (I truly dislike the recent phrasing of 'dead tree books' by the way) will not go away.  In fact, no projections show they will.  Actually the sepculation of them going away is the same exact specualtion that has been applied to CD's and DVD's.  Both still sell well and will continue to sell for some time.  No, the media industries can not support all of the exisiting competitors as formats change but that is nothing new throughout the history of businesses as society changes.  Companies still exist that make saddles for horses.  There just aren't as many with the invention and wide-scale adoption of the car.

It's too early to tell what the true impact of ebooks and digital media in general will be on a large scale.  Book stores will remain and continue to be great community hubs.  Yes, some may go away.  It would be naive to think otherwise.  The real truth with ebooks is that they are a truly exciting new format for the book itself and are providing some very exciting new services in the book industry such as being able to reach more readers than ever before and exciting new publishing option for new authors.  Be careful of some the news and opinions.  Positive is not always the most attractive news as we all have unfortunately come to know.