At last someone has produced a Photography Magazine that makes good use of the features available to iPad users!
I wondered when it would happen and now it has thanks to publishers Ilex.
If like me you have subscribed to a few online magazines only to be dissappointed when presented with a PDF type version of the printed copy of the magazine? Not only that but often every other page appears to be devoted to advertisements, even more than in the hardcopy.
Well if you follow this link you will be able to download this excellent magazine through iTunes and on to your iPad.
I can thoroughly recommend this great initiative – if you do try it let me know what you think?
The iPad isn’t a laptop or desk based PC or even a MAC. We use it in an entirely different way to how we would use a traditional computer. There is no mouse or trackball. No five minute wait to actually start using it.
It’s use is instictive and people who haven’t used a computer before – not many I know – but think older generation or even three year old children, they will pick it up and start playing with it in no time at all. You touch and interact with it. iPhone owners will already be aware of how this feels more natural than pushing a mouse around to get to the content they want.
The iPad is all about content not computer files in the traditional sense. Like the iPhone and even the iPod before it the iPad’s about the content, not what lies behind the content; i.e it is about music, video, photos or images ….. not mp3 files, jpeg files etc .. you don’t even need to know that stuff, PCs try to hide it but not very effectively.
It is a brand new way to make content more natural and easy to use …. that’s the whole point of it. Many people especially the critics haven’t seen this yet. It loads in seconds, you just press the button as you would on an iPhone, no waiting around for your PC to “boot up” and load it’s operating system and a dozen and one other utilities and virus checkers as well … no waiting , it’s easy to use, it’s all about usability !!
The iPad is set to turn the publishing world upside down with the possibilty to publish and sell, books, magazines and all manner of content rich publications through iTunes.
Just think how iTunes has changed the distribution of music over the last few years, through the ubiquitous iPod, iTouch and more recently the iPhone.
The iPad could be the perfect platform to really allow for the selling and publishing of still images and / or moving images in a way that has not been achieved before. Multimedia content on a “tablet” device hasn’t been widely available until now and if the iPad becomes as popular ( or more popular ) than the iPhone / iTouch there will be a whole new market opening up.
The big publishers are already on to this in a big way!…
Connect to a Camera
Apple are already selling an adaptor that allows the downloading of images straight from the camera or via SD camera cards.
I am sure that there will also be a whole host of third party add-ons that will expand on this facility.
Once connected it would make a very useful backup and display device.
Perhaps there will eventually be a ‘live view” type of utility with the iPad acting as a portable viewfinder, although there would most likely need to be some form of hood in bright sunshine to enhance the viewing conditions.
Display Your Portfolio
The battery on the iPad is claimed to be very good compared with the average laptop so what better device to display your photographs and images on.
The display is crystal clear and with the ability for your viewers to hold it in their hands and flick through images or click on a slideshow or even play video presentations you have the perfect portable display device.
If you have an online portfolio via your own website or through one of the many photo and video sharing sites you can show that via a wi fi connection or through 3G if your iPad is equipped with it.
Here is an interesting link to a blog post by Greg A. Lato of Latoga Photography on the same subject. I agree with his view that the biggest plus of the iPad at this time is for the consumer of photography rather than as a photographic aid per se. Another very interesting post from Dave Beckerman….
