Paul Jacobson

I have been resisting the urge to speculate about the iPad since it was announced. I have a history of seizing upon the latest Apple/Nokia gear and proclaiming it to be the next best thing since the printed word (or the last Apple/Nokia gear). I have generally been wrong about just how awesome the device initially appeared to be and so I have decided to avoid the repetitive speculation about the iPad (except for the speculation below) until I have had a chance to actually fondle one.

The one topic I can’t resist writing about is the iPad as an eReader. My interest in such a device would be largely as an eReader as well as a general tablet Internet device. eReaders seem to be pretty special beasts. The biggest issue seems to be the screen which needs to be as close to paper while remaining versatile enough to handle a variety of publications. We have all had eReaders in front of us for years now, we call them laptops and desktops, but they haven’t been convenient eReaders for a variety of reasons including size, portability, orientation and, well, the screens themselves. I haven’t done a lot of ebook reading on my MacBook but the little reading I have done isn’t really as comfortable as a paper book.

One of the apps on the iPad is the iBooks application which is only available in the United States. Apple has signed up a couple publishers and the iBooks demo showed me a beautiful user interface, typical of just about anything Apple does. Steve showed us how turning the page is an experience in itself and the swish looking bookshelf. I don’t think I was the only person who cringed a little when I saw the Kindle on that big screen behind Steve right before it transitioned to the gorgeous looking iPad. There was obviously some clever psychology behind that Kindle portrayal and, having spent a good portion of the Stevenote looking at this gorgeous new device, listening to Steve’s superlatives, the Kindle does look a little dated and clunky.

Having said that, I wonder just how effective the iPad would be as an eReader. I haven’t heard anyone say that an LCD screen is as good as or better than the e-ink displays you find on modern eReaders when it comes to visibility in varying lighting conditions, general comfort or even power consumption (10 hours is still pretty respectable on the iPad and you can recharge the device). I came across a conversation thread on gdgt about LCDs compared to e-ink displays as an illustration of the general consensus. So the iPad may present a better looking interface for ebooks but will it be a good experience if you are going to use the device as your primary paper book replacement? The Kindle, for example, is often touted as pretty close to paper and so readable in every lighting condition a paper book works in, you probably won’t look back at your paper library again. That sort of thing makes a difference. On the topic of paper books, also remember that they tend to be pretty simple in terms of visual aesthetics and our reading experience need not be all that different. Of course our expectations will change when publications become more dynamic and start incorporating multimedia elements which e-ink devices currently don’t support all that much.

One big factor pretty much takes the iPad out of the equation as an eReader for anyone outside the United States. The iBooks application looks like it will only be available in the USA and, as yet, unspecified countries. If the iBooks’ availability is limited to those countries that support the iTunes Store then those people with illicit US iTunes Store accounts will probably be able to benefit from the application nonetheless. That still leaves those people with the question whether the iPad gives bibliophiles the sort of experience they would have on a Kindle?

Just to add to the debate, also consider Amazon’s Whispernet (free data wherever the Kindle is supported which is almost everywhere there is a GSM connection) and its catalogue (I am sure Apple will also boast a substantial catalogue soon enough).

I have had my eyes on a Kindle DX since they were first announced and I’ve been that much more excited about it since the global wireless version was announced last month. It is pretty big compared to the Kindle 2 (based on size comparisons) but my line of work makes it more useful to me. I really haven’t made my mind up about the iPad and probably won’t till I get to play with one. At the same time I am still pretty keen on the Kindle DX, even with its monochromatic screen and clunky form factor.

If you are going to buy yourself a Kindle, please consider doing so through the banner at the top of this blog. Any purchases will be tied to my Amazon affiliate code and will help support this blog and my own Kindle fund!

I really like the “Getting Things Done” methodology and while I am still reading the book I think I have picked up enough of the methodology to create a fairly workable productivity workflow. The methodology itself is fairly straightforward and the challenge is making a concerted effort to do what you need to do to integrate it into your day to day life. You can implement GTD using a couple folders, pen and paper but I like to have everything digital so my weapon of choice is OmniFocus. I bought a single license about a year ago for $79 (I was silly, I should have bought a pre-release license for a lot less) and that investment makes it worthwhile spending time with OmniFocus getting it working for me.

I’ve just spent a little time this morning looking at how I have been using OmniFocus (or not, which is the problem). I started by watching an introductory video I have in iTunes (don’t know where that specific video is online but here are the OmniFocus tutorials). I have a number of folders, projects and tasks in OmniFocus already but when I opened OmniFocus in the past my eyes just glossed over and that isn’t very good. The system you use to manage your tasks needs to be user friendly and even fun if you are going to keep going back to it.

I noticed that one of the things I was doing was creating folders for specific clients, unhelpfully labelled projects within the folders and then all my tasks. I decided to change that straightaway and ditched my old folders and poorly named projects and created new ones. One of the things I was doing in the past and which I am now remedying is that instead of treating projects as overall goals, I just gave them case names. This was a little too bland and non-descriptive so I have given them names as if they are goals (which they are, really) and all the tasks in those projects are the incremental steps towards achieving the goal (as I understand it, this is the whole idea). As you can see the from the image to the right, I created a little demo project to show you how I am setting up my projects and tasks. Please feel free to give me pointers. The screenshot below is what you’ll find in the project “Show Steve the light”:

I don’t know if I am describing the tasks well enough so it is very much a work in progress. OmniFocus is fairly flexible and I am still messing around with perspectives and views to get my lists set up in a way that works for me. I am also about a year overdue on a decent review session so I am going to set aside a couple hours to sit and do that. Working as an attorney makes it vital to be on top of what is going on in my files because there are a number of things I need to deal with and many of those are time sensitive. The time sensitive tasks go into my calendar (I can schedule stuff in OmniFocus but I’m not sure I want to put those tasks there … what do you do?) and the general tasks will go into OmniFocus.

I think the big challenge, for me at least, is developing the discipline to look at OmniFocus when my day begins and keep referring back to it as the framework for my daily activities. While I have a fetish for developing these sorts of systems, my challenge is remaining engaged in the systems I develop. I also get a little lost in developing the systems and I forget to actually get the work done. Creating a new GTD workflow isn’t the same as actually getting that stuff done.

I thought I’d just share some of my thoughts about this as I go here. Please feel free to share any tips, tricks and processes that work for you. I am still pretty new at this and am always interested in ideas that can help me become more productive.

I have an Audible account and have purchased a number of audiobooks which I have enjoyed tremendously. I alternate between audiobooks and podcasts on my iPod when I am driving and when I am just taking care of arbitrary stuff at home. I decided to buy Anathem from Audible rather than buy the physical book. I seem to get through audiobooks quicker than physical books and Anathem is a really big book (the paperback runs to more than 900 pages). I went to Audible to look for the book on the site and couldn’t find it. I know it is there because I have heard Leo Laporte talk about it a number of times so I ran a Google site specific search and found it but with this little notation:

This sort of thing seems to happen fairly often with the books I look for on Audible and I believe it has to do with the book publishers themselves. I may be wrong about this but this seems to be a licensing issue. The book publishers don’t license companies like Audible the right to sell these audiobooks to people in certain countries because of the publishers’ existing distribution channels and media available in those countries.

Anyway, I thought I would look around at the options. Along the way I took a look at what iTunes charges for the Anathem audiobook and found that it charges about $42 which, at the current exchange rate is roughly R420 or so. Fair enough, the audiobook is over 32 hours long. Audible sells it for a little less, $34 for members or 2 credits, but that option isn’t available to me.

I took myself off to the Exclusive Books and kalahari.net sites for some local comparative shopping and found the following:

Exclusive Books:

kalahari.net:

Notice the prices for the CD version of the books? I am not sure how much CDs cost but R800 for pretty much the same thing as the audiobook from Audible in a more inconvenient format?? This just reeks of profiteering and protectionism to me. Are the publishers trying to protect CD and physical book sales by preventing us from simply buying the audiobook version from Audible? It appears so. This is the kind of mentality which makes it easier for people to pirate content: stupid business models designed to maximise the publishers’ bottom line and do little to give the customer what the customer wants (in this case an audiobook version of a powerful new book at a price that isn’t prohibitive).

I wound up buying the paperback.

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audible, itunes, kalahari.net, profiteering, anathem, exclusive books, publishers, book publishers

I have a problem with legal publishers generally. They rip customers off with high prices and profit by denying meaningful access to legal materials and knowledge to the people who need that access the most.

I was flipping through my friendly attorney’s magazine, De Rebus, when I came across a review of what looks like a fascinating book titled “Defamation and Freedom of Speech” by Dario Milo. The book sounds fascinating and the kind of book I want to add to my library because it is focussed squarely on one of the main themes of my work as a new media lawyer. The book is actually a modified version of Milo’s PhD thesis which I believe he completed at Oxford university so I have little doubt this is a great book to have. The catch is that the book costs around $100 on the Oxford University website (or £55 at the UK Amazon store) and is advertised for R700 in De Rebus. Kalahari.net is selling it for the reduced price of R642.56 which is a little lower than a direct exchange rate conversion price. The book has about 270 pages and Kalahari.net is selling it in softcover. Maybe I am just a little bit cheap when it comes to these sorts of books but that strikes me as pricey and despite how much I’d like to have the book, I don’t think I want to spend that much money on a book!

I am all for supporting our academics and paying for their books but paying this much for these books goes a little beyond the supporting them, covering costs and earning the publisher a modest profit (unless I misunderstood these sorts of things?). Another example of this is the wonderful book my friend and colleague, David Bilchitz, wrote a little while ago titled “Poverty and Fundamental Rights: The Justification and Enforcement of Socio-Economic Rights“. It is an important book written by one of our brightest academics and social thinkers and it goes for R527.81 on Kalahari.net. David’s book should be read by as many people as possible given its vital message and yet it is practically out of reach of most people. If this is just the cost of such books then what about a free or cheaper digital version? Digital versions don’t carry the printing and distribution costs of their paper siblings so why not make it available for less (or even nothing?). Lock it down in a PDF but make it available.

On the topic of digital versions, there is a legal diary published by Hortors which is pretty handy. It contains a directory of lawyers and useful information about the courts and other offices. I used it a couple times in the past just for the directory info. It is a solid, thick diary/directory and well put together. I received an order form for the 2009 edition today. Here are the prices:

I don’t really mind the physical diary prices but the so-called “eDiary” price is just nuts! R750 for a digital version of the diary? That is just profiteering. It could be a lot cheaper and be used by just about every lawyer with an Internet connection and instead it is just another example of how the publishers exploit the legal community.

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legal publishers, profiteering, hortors, dario milo, academic publishers, kalahari.net

Man, I am not so fanatical about Exclusive Books’ Fanatics at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I use it every time I buy something from Exclusive Books and I think it is great that I have it. It incentivises me to buy stuff almost exclusively (excuse the pun) from Exclusive Books.

What bugs me is that I have to call the call centre to retrieve my PIN which I use to print my vouchers which I receive depending on how much I spend in the stores (you basically earn loyalty points for every specified amount you spend – can’t remember if it is R5 or R7.50 or some other amount – and those points translate into vouchers). I don’t go to the site very often because vouchers are only issued quarterly and that is the only use for the site so I tend to forget my PIN. For some reason no-one has expressed to me, there is no way to request a PIN online like you can do with countless other websites, you have to phone the call centre which is only open certain hours a day and an operator will give you your PIN over the phone (imagine a bank worked like this?).

I called the call centre to get my PIN this morning (I had 2 vouchers waiting) and was given my PIN over the phone. I suggested to the operator that it makes a lot of sense to have a self-service option so I can get my PIN by email whenever I want. Her response was firstly that she doesn’t think that is possible and second that if I don’t want to lose my PIN I should perhaps write it down.

Sure that makes a lot of sense if I am firmly rooted in a paper system, but I am not. The thought of writing my PIN down is just plain nuts for reasons ranging from me having to maintain a paper based system which I have to use to find the PIN (and presumably all my other PINs) to a security risk because I have my PIN written down somewhere and a voucher thief could use that together with my card number to presumably steal my vouchers. To add to this, what kind of answer is that?! I mean, sheesh, is this company aware of the Web beyond an online voucher printing interface?

Allan Kent speaks about how mobile phones can be used for vouchers and all sorts of things we do on paper the old analogue way. What about an mms with a voucher code we can just have scanned at Exclusive Books or even an option to have a pdf voucher emailed (the print interface wreaks havoc with Safari). Heck, an option to retrieve my PIN myself via email would be dandy too.

Mostly I’d like to see Exclusive Books get with the digital age and perhaps spend a little money on a decent web front for its customers who don’t want to be told to go write the PIN down or for Fanatics’ office hours to even have that experience.

“… write it down … ” !!

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exclusive books, fanatics, pin, write it down, online, self-service

Seth Godin has a new book called “The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)” which looks at how to get unstuck. Basically. According to Godin’s lens on the topic of the new book:

What really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you’ll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.

Godin also has a brand new blog dedicated to The Dip and what it talks about right here. I am looking forward to taking a look at this book at our local bookstore. Godin’s books are up with with a collection of books I would really like to take a week or two off to read. I think they are that important.

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seth godin, the dip, getting unstuck

When you are starting out you often don’t have many resources to get you going so you find you have to make the most of what little you have to make a success of your new venture.  If you are one of these people, one of these bootstrappers, then there is a manifesto just for you on ChangeThis.  It is called, predictably, The Bootstrappers’s Bible and was written by acclaimed marketing guru, Seth Godin.

The Boostrapper’s Bible is available as a free download.  It is 1.1MB in size and well worth the read.  While you are at it, take a look at the many other manifestos on ChangeThis.  They could change the way you do business altogether.

Tags: changethis, seth godin, the bootstrapper’s bible, boostrapper, manifesto