The iPad event video.

Ok, so even the “day-of,” there were already many nay-sayers, complaining of no-camera, no-multi-tasking, no flash, etc. There are those who are saying the price is not worth it — why not just buy a computer or netbook or whatnot.  There are those who are saying it’s no “Kindle-killer.” Yes, there is truth in those viewpoints, I suppose, but the problem is that most people are doing what most people usually do — classify things in terms of what they already know. The problem with that approach [which is the norm, unfortunately] is that it limits thinking.  We will tend to think of the tablet as a PDA, or as a computer, or as an e-Book reader and classify it in terms of what we have already seen.  If one stops to consider the device for what it is, without the encumbrances of classifying it, it becomes more apparent that it is revolutionary.  Here are some reasons why:

• The first, most obvious reason, perhaps is that this device does most of what most computer users buy computers to do.  It is designed to use applications for web, email, photos, video, books, documents, and more (without even considering new media possibilities).  What is a game-changer is that it is intended to do these effortlessly with speed and grace while implying a physicality to things and providing enjoyment for the user.  All of this, while also doing it nearly anywhere in the world. Why buy a clunky PC, laptop, or even netbook when you can carry a 1.5 lb device that does all of these with style and an interface that is beyond any of those.
• There are many of us who enjoy a “physicality” to things — books, photo albums, paper, etc. The interface, not merely discussing the touch capability, but including the graphical layout, gesture movement, and animation of applications that have been developed and will be developed can embrace the idea of implying that physicality that we miss when moving from “real world” objects with which we interact to digital objects. The interactions with media on this device will be very appealing, as they will mirror our physical interactions that have been lacking from much of the digital world.
• Many thought that the event would focus on changing media.  The hour and a half of presentation did not do this to a large degree, but that does not mean that this is not one of the intentions behind the device. The New York Times app is only a small sample of things to come. There will be new models of digital magazines, of course, as well as textbooks and most likely forms of media that we have not yet considered. The iPad may not be a “Kindle-killer” because of cost and a display that is not quite as easy on the eyes for long-term reading.  [Try turning down the brightness on your monitor using Brightness Control or on your iPhone, to levels dimmer than you might have considered to match ambient surroundings, though, and it will greatly decrease that eye-strain]. Despite that, though, the iPad most likely is a Kindle DX-killer.  Why spend a similar cost for the DX, primarily purchased for .PDF files and textbooks, when you can purchase something with this tremendous interface. Another comment worth considering is that in many senses, the iPad helps Amazon.  They will likely update their Kindle app for the larger screen, so e-books could be purchased from Amazon or the Apple iBooks store. (Competition can be good). The design of this device will be the best thing, yet, for digital book and magazine content that goes beyond reading simple text for longer periods of time — beautiful photos, videos, and interactive content that can augment the reading experience.
• Finally, for the main reason that this is another “game-changer,” one has to pause to consider beyond the confines of current devices. There will be apps created in the coming year that can only exist well on this device.  For example, there are only a handful (forgive the pun) of apps on the iPhone that have provided a truly new experience, but those that do have been spectacular. There are simply things that cannot be done easily with keyboards, mice, separate monitors, and small screens. Several apps have demonstrated creative thinking and interfaces that would not be possible on the standard computer: Hitchcock,SketchBook Mobile, Brushes, TiltShift, UrbanSpoon, Ocarina, BeBot, Ragdoll Blast, Bump, etc. There will be similar iPad apps that push boundaries (because the developers view this as a new device rather than the things we’re accustomed to using) — using the larger touch/gesture interface, involving multiple users, displaying more visuals and more information. Over the coming year and beyond, there will be many groundbreaking new apps that we have not considered, yet.

Those are a few of the reasons that I believe many nay-sayers have not completely considered things to come. Also, those who miss the camera, a stylus, etc. — don’t worry, those things will come soon enough.  A few years from now, you’ll see a lot more people carrying these things rather than laptops.

Here’s Engadget’s live blog coverage.

Here is Apple’s video with Jonathan Ives.

For more examples of what will come, check out the tablet concept videos below.

Continuing my habit of trading-out, upgrading, and trying new photography equipment, I’ve been using an Olympus E-P1 recently. It is a great camera because it is stylish, small, capable, and it also has a wide range of possible lenses thanks to the micro four-thirds format’s small flange focal distance. Regarding this, there is impressive interest right now, and prices on 16-mm film lenses in the C-mount format have jumped quite a bit — probably enough to drive up prices, or on eBay, at least I’ve been getting into the C-mount thing a bit, but mostly I’m using by Nikon lenses and the E-P1 kit lens right now.

Also, I’ve experimented a bit with the quite flexible internal settings of the camera to output .jpg files that are to my liking. With these settings, too, the images are actually pretty close to the look of film because the mild noise pattern of the camera looks a good bit like traditional grain. I’m favoring turning off the noise-reduction most of the time while decreasing the contrast setting and increasing the sharpness setting. I leave the color at neutral. The image-stabilization seems great on stills (physical) but not so great on video (algorithmic — adds to “jello” effect at times). In monotone mode, these settings along with using the various color filters make some very nice B&W images right out of the camera.

Anyway, one drawback right now (or at least for the days or weeks until support is released), neither Preview, iPhoto, nor Aperture open the raw camera files from the E-P1. Using some superficial information from around the Net and a little experimentation, it seems that the raw files from the camera are pretty much the same as from the Olympus E-30. In fact, changing the small text chunk in one of the E-P1’s .ORF files from “E-P1″ to “E-30″ allows all these fun programs to open and work with these files. It’s a nice little find, so with that in mind, I put together a quick-and-dirty Python script to batch several files for this change.

This Python script will change your Olympus E-P1 raw .ORF files so that Aperture (most importantly) will use them.  (Please back-up your images, of course, before using). To use the code, run the script from your terminal “python changeORF.py”, and if you like put some arguments on the end. You can either place the script in the same directory as your .ORF files and run it, or you could place the script elsewhere and specify a directory of .ORF files to change and also the name of the new directory in which to place them, if you like. It will run through all the .ORF files in a folder and place new .ORF files with the same name in the new folder (defaults to “updatedORF”). Hope it helps.

As a side note, part of me always likes storing the most detail by shooting raw, but I’m actually moving a bit in favor of just shooting .jpg files most of the time since I tweaked the settings to liking. It results in a big savings of time and storage space, and since time is precious — that’s a good thing.

Here’s a link to the script file:  changeORF.py