Design Exercise 11 :: Ipod and beyond

Research and evaluate three distinct platforms for digital design display. Compare & contrast

The Ipad

Lets start at the Ipad shall we, this is going to be the first digital design platform i am going to be looking at. I'm a PC rather than a Mac but i'm going to discuss it anyway because its a new peice of technology and quite popular at the moment even though you can't buy one.

Is it really that new? I don't think it is, lets take the design and the main features, well its a rectangle don't get me wrong i think they've been around a long time now so the shape of the Ipad is definatly nothing new. The Ipad also has a touch screen, again nothing new, it allows the user to use their fingers but whats wrong with a stylus surely if they included a stylus they could make it a iSketch to rival the graphics tablet. The most successful touch screen platform on the market would have to be the Nintendo DS, which could still probably do more than the iPad. Lastly the third main feature i consider is the app feature which is nothing new and was all on the iphones which can't even run multiple applications. The ipad is nothing new!

So after establishing the iPad is nothing, new what are the social and political implications for the Ipad? On the social side there will be a monthly subscription for the Ipad required for Wi-Fi internet access, this won't include telephone calls. I don't see how it makes sense to buy an iPad over a laptop, with a laptop (no i don't mean net book) you have hundreads more features and they cost less and the user with a laptop would probably end up paying for a internet connection anyway which would cost less than the monthly subscription Apple charge. Socially the iPad can be used for facebook checking emails and probably some instant messaging client. The thing i have noticed while researching the Ipad is the lack of a camera, if the Ipad had included a camera then it would open up more ways for the ipad to allow users to communicate with each other, a fantastic example would be face to face video messaging, it would then justify why Apple never included a telephone feature and would probably kickstart the way we make phone calls in the future.

Political implications for the ipad, i can see the ipad becoming exclusive for information where companies and buisness start creating their content solely for the iPad. A example of this in the future could be news companies will start charging for their content with a small fee for iPad users. This would elminate a lot of lost revenue by giving away content for free.

[Ipad Vs A stone]

The Ipad is clearly lacking alot of features compared to Laptops one of the major features it is missing is the flash plugin. So any content off the web which requires flash won't run i belive flash to be very important in the future and will disccuss why further in this article. They might of done this to prepare for HTML 5 but HTML 5 won't be ready until at least 2012 which is still a whole two years before it is released (HTML 5 will play video without flash etc). Apple still won't allow flash, but that doesn't stop them from false advertising! All these features the Ipad lacks will obviously encourage hacking the ipad, because ipad users will want to view all the content they can't view. Hacks will ultimatly be deterimined by how popular it is if its popular then there will be lots of hacks aviable if not then ipad users will be left with limited view of the world and the web.

With so much restrictions on the Ipad; no flash, monthly subscriptions, subscription news services the Ipad becomes another tool controlled by the big corparations when they only let you see what they want you to see and therefore control the information. The only real upside i see to it if another rival company develops a tablet computer to rival the ipad and make it a stand alone piece of hardware then allow open source or other companies to develop software/operating systems then the potential for a tablet computer could be huge, rather than restrict access like Apple is doing. Theres so many things i could say about how bad the ipad is but i think i'll leave it at that.


Flash for TVs and set-top boxes

The second digital design platform i'm going to look at is for televisons. For so long televisions have been a one way form of displaying information with very limited interactivity like pressing the red button. For a long time now televisons have focused on the hardware and its only recently with set top boxes that manufacturers and broadcasters have thought about developing better software and applications for televisions.

Last year adobe announced they had done a deal to put its Flash software into many of the chips that go inside TVs and set-top boxes. It will enable developers and content providers to create applications to deliver web-based content such as news, weather and share prices to TV screens.

The implications for this technology are huge and will revolutionise the way we watch and interact with televisons in the future. The social implications of this technology are probably the greatest of all, it will allow users to interact in a whole new way and make it more like browsing on a computer with information at the end of the remote. I can see it bringing people together again because familys will sit down infront of the television and watch their favorite shows and be able to interact at the sametime, with the development of flash for set top boxes i imagine this will eventually become real time. At the moment its at a early stage of development with plans to release set top boxes with flash chips built in later this year. I can easily see ways how it would dramatically enhance the users experiance, take for example all the reality talent(or talentless depending on your viewpoint) shows a interactive voting system could easily be set up to vote for a favorite or to evict someone, rather than the system now when viewers can call in. This would increase the amount of votes any show would get because alot of people who watch phone in shows do not phone up, in turn this would give a more accuate opionion of what people actually like with more people voting. Then it wouldn't be hard to program some nice real time graphics to show the stats of everyone voting. This is just one of many examples i could see how it would improve viewing experiance.


The political implications i can see are taking alot of power away from the big companies and broadcasters and making it easier for users to generate their own content. With the development of flash for the set top boxes the television will become more like the web and how we use it will change. All it will take is a flash based browser to allow streamed content off the internet on to televisons. Rather than users watching channels provided now there will be even more choice with access to the internet, such sites as youtube and other video hosts. With sites like justin.tv and livesteam, it will be very easy to broadcast your own shows and rival the main chanels.

User live show ---> Host it on livestream, live ---> Flash browser ---> Stream on tv

I can only specualte as the technolgy isn't at this stage yet but within the next 5 years i would definatly expect to see something like it. It can be done today but does not use any of the flash ideas mentioned in this article.

There is so much potential with flash for televisions and this is what i do not understand why Apple are not willing to use it? Adobe are willing to develop it for apple products, i belive it has been developed for the iphone recently not just the lite version. But in the end i see televisions emulating what we see on the web allowing more user generated content which will be fantastic and take away alot of the controlled media. We'll probably also see that televisions become home entertainment systems and will be a all in one device. With this development televison has secured its place as a peice of technology everyone will have in the future and ideal to create and develop for.

Related links
Adobe Flash secures set-top deal
Flash moves on to smart phones


Smart Phones

Third and final digital design platform i am going to discuss is going to be the smart phones. Smart phones are the new breed of mobile phones with easier access to the internet and alot more interactivity than conventional mobile phones. They have become more accessiable to the masses literally within the last year because of falling hardware prices and becomeing cheaper to produce and lowering the price, also contract plans have become cheaper.

One of the smart phones main selling feature is the PC like functioning, that you can run applications like on a computer but don't have to be at a computer which makes them an ideal mobile browser with the internet to log on to social networking sites and update everyone what your doing every minute of everyday. And unlike the new Ipad they still have the abiltiy to make phone calls and keep in contact. With alot of the smart phones they also include Flash so are able to run flash applications and games, even the Iphone has the flash plugin even though it took abit of time to actually get it.

The social implications for the smart phones have already been witnessed over the last few years they allow users more access and plenty of ways to keep in contact with each other. But they are not just for keeping in contact most of the smart phones now have GPS and can use map finding applications a common one being Google Earth on many smart phones. There not just for looking top down though they can also use their camera and point it at certain spots to find information about a certain place or object. This is ideal say while travelling in a foreign city or viewing pieces of art without descriptions. The Smart phones also have the abiltiy to run numerous applications and theres a huge market and demand for them, some considered userful and others i see really no point to them but there there anyway here is a example of one.



[App controls a car]

Poltical implications for smart phones, there are ALOT of smart phones on the market and coming to the market this year all to rival the Apple Iphone which is the most sucessful smart phone at this moment in time. There are plenty of hacks for smart phones and the iphone being the most popular their are more hacks for that which allow flash plugins and allow even more access to the web because Apple like to limit it. One of the ways other smart phones can rival the smart phones is to allow users the abilty to edit the source code and create new apps and intrest in there phone i belive the google android have done this.

The future for smart phones will only grow and grow because no matter where we are in the modern world everyone has a mobile phone and there will be plenty of opportunities to develop and create new phones. I do not see a fall in in intrest for smart phones anytime soon they are here to stay.

In Conclusion

One Years time i see flash playing a huge role in developing interactive software and applications for televisions and smart phones across the industry. The ipad will probably sell alot for those who want a limited view of the world and the web, i think ive justified not buying one for myself in the near future. The potential for televisions is huge and we are only at the begining i see there being plenty of oppitunitys to design and develop this type of media in the near and distant future again like the smart phone the television will only become more popular.