iBooks Unleashed!

In late August, 2010 an update to Apple's Pages application introduced the ability to easily export documents you create to  ePub, the primary file format used in iBooks on iPods, iPhones, and iPads.  This is a powerful feature that was, unfortunately, limited by the iTunes sync cable as only way to get your content to an iOS device.  That probably worked fine if you were just moving your own content to your own devices, but if you were looking to distribute to a larger audience--there just really wasn't a convenient way.

December 15th, 2010 saw the advent of iBooks 1.2 for iOS devices.  Color illustrations, collections, printing, and email were the new features that received the top billing.  Unheralded, however, is the new ability to bring documents directly into iBooks through a web link.

1. Place an ePub document on a web server.
2. Publish a link to the document.
3. Have anyone with iBooks 1.2 click on that link in Safari for iOS.
4. After the file has downloaded, the user will be asked if they wish to have the file moved into iBooks.
5. If the affirmative option is chosen, the document is transferred into the user's iBooks library for future use (even in the absence of a network connection).

Why is this significant?  Your content can now be easily and conveniently distributed to as large an audience of iOS users as you would like.  No iBooks Store, iTunes, or even any other type of computer is needed.  Business, education, and government institutions can create their own web-based storehouses of their own documents; all ready to be quickly loaded by users onto portable iOS devicesfor future reading and/or reference.

If you would like to try downloading a document directly into your iOS iBooks, make sure that you have installed iBooks 1.2 .  Then click on this link ( http://bit.ly/f6X9GG ) in Safari on your iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone to download this brief, sample ePub document.

It should also be noted that the exact same capabilities also work for PDF files.  In fact, viewing any PDF document in Safari on an iOS device should present the user with a button to move the document into iBooks.

So use your imagination as to what you might want to create and distribute to your audience of iOS users; anything from boring corporate policy manuals to exciting new fiction to endearing student-created products.

DirecTV Beware! We Got a Roku Box Today

DirecTV is dangerously close to forfeiting the ever-escalating financial blood-letting that they extract from us every month...our $59.95 Roku box arrived today.  That little device, combined with my $8.99 a month NetFlix subscription (drastically cheaper than DirecTV), offers me more instantly-streamed TV shows and movies than I could ever hope to watch.  Looks like NetFlix is continually adding to their selection as well.

Old television shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Columbo, Rockford Files, and others are what I would much rather watch than the stuff that is indiscriminately pumped at us through our current satellite system.   The level of control that the NetFlix/Roku system offers is fantastic as well.

When I was picking the device from the lineup ($59.99, $79.99, and $99.99) I was worried that the least-expensive one's slower wireless networking would produce a problem with quality.   From our initial experimentation it doesn't look like it will be an issue at all.  I am glad I went the cheap route on this purchase.

Some might ask why I opted for the Roku over the newly-released AppleTV.  Yes, the Roku is $40 cheaper, but the real deciding factor was the presence of regular, old, RCA outputs.   Our "legacy" television does not have the port necessary to work with the HDMI-only Apple device.

Initial set-up of the device took a little while (maybe fifteen minutes).  The device software had to update.  I had to create a Roku account to pair with the device (code #1).  Also had to pair the device (code #2) with my NetFlix account.  Overall it was not too bad;  but it is not a process that is technophobe-ready.

Today is only Day 1 with the device.  Perhaps buyer's regret will set in later--but I don't really think so.  Watch out DirectTV, you might be losing a customer.

A Commuter Rediscovers the Joys of Podcasts

According to Google Maps, my drive between home and office is 27.5 miles with an estimated elapsed time of 43 minutes. Estimated total in the month of September: 1155 miles and 30.1 hours.  In addition (according to my records), last month the little blue car also travelled 180.1 miles between buildings in the course of performing my job.  I'm sure that there are others who commute more, but that is still quite a bit of driving.

Growing tired of news, talk, music, and especially commercials I have recently been driven (pun intended, I guess) to break out the old iPod classic,

my old TransPOD FM radio tuner (designed specifically for the original iPod Shuffle),

 and the wonderful technology of audio podcasts.  I had been a heavy-duty podcast consumer for quite some time.  I had enjoyed it a great deal, but somehow I "fell away".

 It might have been the result of something as simple as loaning my mini-phono to mini-phono cable from my car to someone else in the family and it not getting returned promptly.  Even small things like that can interrupt the habit and get one back to listening to commercial radio.

There is indeed a "activation energy" that needs to be put into consuming podcasts: sync the iPod with the laptop, remember to bring the iPod to the car, and take the time to hook the iPod up to the audio system (yes, even when you are running late). Listening to the radio requires little to no activation energy--just turn one knob.

Nonetheless, in the words of Randy Quaid in the movie Independence Day (and again pretty recently according to this news story ) I say to those tech podcasts :

          " Hello, boys! I'm back! "

My favorite podcasts that feed my inner geek are from IT Conversations.   These episodes are recorded from various O'Reilly and other technology-related conferences that are held around the world.  Am also starting to listen to some of the TEDTalks podcasts.  I would likely never take the time to sit down and specifically listen to things like this, but it is pretty easy (and ultimately very enjoyable) to let my iPod help me pass the time while I'm driving.

No hotel, airline, and restaurant bills associated with this learning, either.  Free is good.  My only question now is whether or not I can put these items down in my professional development record.

Preparing and Putting a PDF File onto an iPad

Note: Throughout the entirety of this post, references to iPads should also be able to be generalized to the newest iPhones and iPod Touches.

Prior to the more recent iPad OS updates, it was quite difficult to move a PDF file onto an iPad for reading or reference.  It has now become very easy...as long as your iTunes and iPad software are up to date.

This is a great advancement. Any electronic document that you can save as a PDF is now available for easy digital storage and reading on an iPad.

By default, iBooks on the iPad will display the appearance of the PDF document's first page as its cover.   You can easily use Get Info (select file--then FILE: GET INFO or Command-i)  in iTunes to modify the name and author of a PDF.  In my experience (at the time of this writing), however, similar attempts to add cover artwork to the file will fail.

To work around this problem, use Pages (any word processor should do) to create a cover sheet for the document.   Making the font as large as possible to fill up the page, put in the title of the document, the author(s), and even the document's date if you wish.  You can even paste in an appropriate graphic--whatever you think will be helpful in identifying the PDF document on the iBooks Library shelf.  Here is an example of a cover sheet:

The file can then be saved out as a single-page PDF file.  Open it in its own window in Apple's PDF viewer Preview, and then open the main PDF document in its own window.  Make sure the navigational sidebars are showing on the right of each document.  Drag the cover sheet page from that file's navigation sidebar over to the top of the main document's sidebar.  As this is done, a blue horizontal line should appear at the point of insertion:

Once released, this page will become the new first page (and as a result, the visible cover of the document).  Save the change made to the document.

 Once your PDF document is ready and your software is up to date, simply drag your target PDF file onto your iTunes icon in your dock or into your iTunes window.  Don't worry, iTunes will put it in the right place (the "Books" section).

Once the PDF file is properly in iTunes, you may wish to use GET INFO to specify the author and title  the document displays in iTunes.

Connect your iPad to your computer and sync it.  If your sync settings are configured to "sync all books" (I believe this is the default), your new PDF document should now show up in iBooks on your iPad.  A button for PDF's should appear at the top of your iPad's Library screen.  Select it to see any PDF's you have moved onto your iPad.

Recent updates to Pages now makes it possible to export documents in the ePub format that iBooks uses by default for its electronic books.   This may have some advantages, yet when it is important just to quickly get a document on to an iPad with a minimum of effort and worries about formatting, using PDF is the way to go.   In fact, if you don't care about the appearance of the PDF on the iBooks bookshelf skip all the other steps in this post: just drag it into iTunes, sync, and read.  This is about as easy as can be.