Listening Post: Tap and flick
When I was at the NPR Digital Services “Road Show” in Rochester a few weeks back, I was filled with lust watching all the folks in the room cuddling and communing with their new iPads. So much so that I left my clunky brick of a 2005 Gateway laptop under the conference table in shame, and set my respectably new iPhone in front of me instead.
But now an iPad has come into my life, purchased at the insistence of the web team (that would be me and Bill Haenel) strictly for the purpose of testing out the iPhone/iPad app in development for the station. Purely a research tool—honest. Of course I had to take it home with me to widen the testing pool, and had to download a whole bunch of other cool apps–but only for comparative purposes. We wouldn’t want to miss out on a neat new feature.
Screenshot of the NCPR iPhone/iPad app playing the live broadcast stream
All the Apple hype aside, there is a marked difference in using a device that is designed to operate by touch. Smart phones and tablet devices of all types are so seductive because of their intimacy. A keyboard is 19th century, a mouse is 20th century. In the 21st, it’s all tap and flick. Sort of like when you pretend to conduct the orchestra on the radio, but in this case, you actually make them play.
While some folks at the meeting had little stands and accessory keyboards, the iPad is designed to operate in your lap like a child–a stiff, rectangular and literal-minded child–but kind of cute when its yours.
The NCPR iPhone/iPad app is scheduled to be out in a week or so. It’s testing well and needs only a few last tweaks. The Android version will follow in a couple more weeks, and an integrated website player that will work with our mobile apps will follow some time after that. Flick, tap–It’s String Fever. Sweet.
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Fantastic! I have been playing with the same new toys the past few months…needed lessons at the Apple Store and still learning and playing. I look forward to playing with the new NCPR app when it is ready! Wheoo! 🙂
As a person who hates Apple and Steve Jobs, I wouldn’t own an iPad if it were given to me.
Why? If I want to watch TV, I’ll watch TV on a large screen. If I want to go online, I’ll go online with the Dell lap top I’m now using.
Phones? Since cell phones don’t work when the power is off, I’ll keep my land line. Although I do own a cell phone, I hardly ever use it since I don’t want to be bothered with a phone when away from the house.
Apps? A great idea to use up bandwith and gobble up your dollars.
I view Steve Jobs as the current version of Timothy Leary. Instead of using drugs to turn on, tune in and drop out, Steve wants us to use electronics to drop out from actual physical human contact and substitute virtual contact.
Thanks Dale – looking forward to the ipod app – but I still like my 19th Century keyboard.
Pete – Disagree. I am most certainly of the opinion that time away from electronics is much needed – I do not take my phone or other gadgets (ipod, laptop,etc.) with me into the woods when I fish, hike, camp, etc. One must always unplug from time to time!
However, I am also a software engineer, and website developer, and I see these new mediums as providing a much needed bridge to otherwise segmented communities. As technology advanced over the last century, families became less dependent on the community and much more independent. As a result, many people do not know their neighbors well, and have had little or no need to plug into the community as a whole.
Times are changing, many of us realize the disconnect and are becoming increasingly involved in our communities and with our neighbors, much of which is happening online. Like this blog. Like this radio station, and with applications like Facebook and linked In we are beginning to rebuild connections and reach out to others using these mediums. I truly believe this mode of communication, all be it different, is actually helping to STRENGTHEN the human connections and communities we participate in. I feel much more engaged now than I did during my high school and college years. I feel much That’s my two cents!