Tag Archives: iPad

Agency Primer: iPad Development for Advertisers & Marketers

The iPad’s been out for less than a week and already the game’s changing. Today’s announcement of iPhone OS 4.0 which will be available for iPads come opens a whole host of new opportunities for agencies and developers, which is why should probably sign up for this agency primer right now. Other things we’ll be covering include:

• What’s game changing about the iPad
• Who’s this thing for? An overview of demographics and market size
• The tech fundamentals you need to know when talking to clients (e.g. what’s a “universal app”?)

We’ll be hosting two primers one on Tuesday April 20th at 10:15AM CT and one on Thursday April 22nd at 3:15PM CT. Better RSVP now to make sure you get a spot.

A few things about the iPad

• Apple reports selling 300,000 iPads the first day, outselling the original iPhone by 30,000 units.
• BuzzFeed’s got 25 cool iPad decals.
• Someone jailbreaked (jailbroke?) their iPad by Sunday
• Lonely people with iPads just might be my new favorite Tumblr blog.
• Brandweek asks if the iPad changes everything.
• 20 Appsolutely Must Have iPad Apps for Design Enthusiasts.
• The Scrabble iPad App looks pretty rad.

And of course, will it blend? (not for the faint of heart)

Friday Links: iPads, Legos, and April Fools’ pranks

• IPad Out to Prove Itself as Gaming Platform, but Will Users Play Along?
• Also, related a round up of iPad first reviews.
• Geeky Vs Bully Logos.
• The scale of 100 Pixar characters. I think Mater’s the biggest and Dot’s the smallest.
• Activists asking for Ronald McDonald to retire.
• The 10 worst jobs in science.
• Lego: A Love Story.
• If you’re into this kind of thing, a list of the best April Fools’ Day pranks from yesterday.
• Heh heh. Chris Hardwick at The Nerdist got totally taken in by ThinkGeek’s awesome iCade.
• The Internet Explained.
• The life and death of a Gobstopper.

Friday Links: Short & Sweet since it seems most of the nerdom is at SXSW

• Can behavioral economics help agency creative? This is way more interesting and easy to read than it sounds.
• Will the iPad help or hurt news industry’s ad business?
• Whatever happened to programming.
• A Joan Holloway Barbie? Yes, please.
• Infographic of the week: Edmonton’s water consumption during the gold medal hockey game. Just check it out, it’s pretty rad.
• Milton Glaser & Chip Kidd in conversation.

Tech Tuesday: Development for (and getting our Nerdery hands on) the Apple iPad

By now, you’ve read all about the Apple’s new tablet, the iPad. You’ve watched the videos. You’ve maybe giggled about the product name; let’s be honest though, the Nintendo Wii’s name hasn’t hurt its popularity. You’ve either dismissed it as a big iPod Touch that won’t go anywhere, or, you’ve already smashed your piggy bank and have money in hand. Regardless, Apple has a pretty good track record with their latest products (iPod, iTunes, iPhone) and we don’t want our ad and marketing agency partners to be the last ones to the party.

First, the iPad debut doesn’t mean that our agency partners should stop making iPhone applications. All iPhone applications will work on the iPad out of the box.

But how does the iPad affect our agency partners who have already created applications for iPhone and now also want to take advantage of the bigger screen of the iPad? Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as hitting an Easy button (trust me, I have one) and magically all your applications are reformatted for the iPad. The user interface will have to be redesigned to support multiple resolutions. It’s also not just relaying out the design for the larger screen; it’s also understanding what the iPad is, and designing an amazing user interface to take advantage of the new user interface features.

When looking at creating a new iPad application, our agency partners really have two options: target just the iPad or target the iPhone and the iPad.  Targeting the only the iPad should have a similar development cycle and cost as developing an application just for the iPhone. If the choice is to target both devices, there will be some design layout changes, but the core of the application will stay the same. There will also be some additional time for our crack Quality Assurance team to make sure we release a great application.

If you don’t think the iPad is going anywhere, I present Steve Ballmer.

Then again, if you think Apple is infallible, I present the iPod Hi-Fi.

Either way, The Nerdery is ready to help you create great applications, no matter the platform.

Friday Links: Lady Gaga, iPads, and Super Bowl Ads, oh my!

• As Mark said, A Lady Gaga link from the Wall Street Journal? Yes, yes indeed: How Lady Gaga made her name in a digital world.
• 10 of the worst Super Bowl ads ever.
• The iPad and a generational shift in computing.
• From the headlines I will always click division comes: Unbelieveable Lego art from Nathan Sawaya.
• Newsday spends $4 million to redesign their site and put content behind a paywall only to garner 35 subscribers.
• Building developers houses instead of cubes. (via @konrness)
• Just because you can doesn’t mean you should, on using social media with a calm, clear head.
• Superhuman tape measure skills, surely you have 29 seconds to watch this awesomeness.
• Confessions of a Book Pirate.
• Audi my have Super Bowl PR nightmare on its hands. Of course, I had no idea the “Green Police” were affiliated with the Nazis but that might be because I slept through most of my History of WWII class in college.
• Now that the The Denver Egoist is expanding its empire I hope we see a Minneapolis Egoist soon.

iPad: Magical & Revolutionary?

So the much anticipated Apple tablet has been revealed to the world, and as with most any Apple product about half the people have already dubbed it the iDud and about half the people are fingering their credit cards ready to complete their transaction.

What’d you think?

The word magical seems a bit much. I’m not sure what a gadget would have to do at this point to seem magical, but I’m pretty sure the presentation of that magical device would not include spreadsheets (really, Apple).

The usual suspects have already started rolling in with their hands-on experiences (Gizmodo, Engadget, and ArsTechnica), and menstruation jokes overtake Twitter, but none of it feels magical or all that revolutionary yet.

As with most devices of this ilk, I always wait for the nerds and the fans to provide the real context. On its own a gadget is not magical, it’s what people can do with that’s magic. So far no magic, but that might be only a matter of time.

As a booknerd, I was really excited to hear about the e-book (or iBooks I guess they’re called now) functionality. I thought perhaps Apple could make me eschew books the way the iPod made me stop buying CDs and switch to downloads. So far, no dice. If there’s no multi-tasking or, that I saw, no way to annotate the iBook, I see little sense in switching since I’d still need a paper and pen to make notes. At least it looks better than the Kindle, right?

What’d you think? Are you lining up to get one, or will you wait and hope all those early adopters will bring Apple enough cash that they can announce a better, faster, cheaper version next year?