Rafe's Radar

The iPad. Perhaps you've heard of it. Now there are hundreds, maybe thousands of posts and podcasts up about this product, and whether it's worth buying, and what's with the stupid name. But for this podcast I have two smart guests with me with whom I want to step a bit beyond these immediate concerns and talk about what the iPad means to Apple as a company, and the tech industry at large.

First, Peter Burrows, senior writer for BusinessWeek. He's covered Apple since 1995, starting with a cover story on the company's near-demise called "Fall of an American Icon" to a story earlier this month entitled "Google vs. Apple: Why They Can't Be Friends?" He also wrote "Backfire: Carly Fiorina's High-Stakes Battle for the Soul of Hewlett-Packard" in 2003. Peter, thanks for joining us. (See Peter's blog, Byte of the Apple)

Also in the studio with us, Donald Bell, CNET senior editor for MP3 and Digital Audio, author of MP3 Insider, and podcaster on our show of the same name.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

The iPad in its keyboard dock.

(Credit: Apple)

Steve Jobs said, in introducing the iPad, that it fits in the market between smartphones and computers. It does more than a phone, less than a full computer, at a cost in between those products. This an interesting and difficult sales prospect, since few people in this economy are looking for yet another class of computing product to spend money on, especially one in the too-big-to-pocket and too-small-to-do-work-on category. Putting economics aside, the iPad is certainly attractive. Bring the real world back into the picture, and the iPad looks like an indulgence--a luxury product for geeks and Apple fanboys.

This is what I believed while I was watching the iPad announcement. But eventually the iPad will be seen as something quite the opposite. The $499 iPad is Apple's lowest-price computer (The Mac Mini is $599, without a monitor or keyboard). With the $69 keyboard dock (or a Bluetooth keyboard and a plate stand), it'll make a decent general-purpose computer for a family's common room or kitchen. And it's small enough and has good enough battery life to chuck in a briefcase or bag so the owner can consume some media or get some low-effort work done when away from home.

The iPad, in other words, is clearly Apple's answer to the Netbook, not a play to breathe life into the 10-years-dead tablet market. The iPad is cheaper than a standard Mac, does less, and is easier to maintain than a full-on Mac. These are the same selling points you get from Netbook makers. Sure, they'll say, a Netbook does less than a full Windows laptop, but it's only $399.

There are worse selling propositions. The typical Apple premium (the fee you pay for the Ives design, the media-handling capability, and the integrated software) make the iPad too expensive to steal market from the truly cheap Netbook category, but give Apple time to lower the Apple tax. The iPad is not a one-off experiment but rather the opening of a new front for Apple: the battle for the low end of the computing market.

The two primary ways Apple is innovating in the battle for the low end are the form factor and the operating system. The tablet shape and function make the device sexy. It's easier to want an iPad than a cramped and clunky Netbook. Even if the iPad does a lot less than a Netbook that undersells it by $100, plenty of buyers will want it a lot more.

The operating system is also a key part of the Netbook strategy for Apple. Putting OS X on the product would have meant adding support for multitasking, USB, and other ports, and making all Mac apps work well on a machine with a touch screen but no mouse. With the iPhone OS, Apple can also funnel all app sales through its App Store. This gives Apple not just the capability to disapprove of bad apps (in Apple's estimation) before the public sees them but to get a piece of the sales dollars for each app sold. More importantly for consumers, App Store apps sell for less than OS X apps. Long term, loading up an iPad with software might cost less than doing the same thing on a MacBook. Earliest case in point: The suite of three iWork apps for the iPad will be $30. It's $79 on OS X.

Jobs said of Netbooks during the iPad announcement, "They're not better at laptops than anything, they're just cheaper." But being disdainful of a product category doesn't mean you don't want to win its market. The iPad is in fact not yet better than a Netbook at doing what Netbooks do. Apple has work ahead of it to make the iPad as useful as most of the products in that category. But it is clear that Apple is no longer content to let the low end of the computing market get away from it.

Twitter has added a new feature that can make the service more relevant. In the right-hand navigation bar, under "Trending," you can now select a geographic region to see what's hot on Twitter in one of a few cities.

What's hot in San Francisco, according to Twitter.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

Only 15 U.S. cities and five non-U.S. countries are on the locality list, although it's very likely that Twitter will add more locations shortly.

Twitter last year rolled out a geolocation API, which lets posts from Twitter apps--but not the Twitter.com site--tag each Tweet with the location where it was made. Presumably,Twitter posts from the site itself inherit their users' static location from their profile page.

This new feature is a nice fillip on Twitter, but it could be better. If it automatically located you, so you always got what was happening around you instead of what you said your home city was, it might be a very valuable ad-hoc guide to wherever you're opening your laptop. That would require the browser return you location. HTML 5 has geolocation reporting, but support for HTML 5 is only beginning to roll out. Fortunately, some mobile Twitter apps, like TweetDeck, already allow you to see Tweets that are geo-tagged as near you. Also, Twitter would be wise to put this feature on the Twitter.com pre-sign-in home page, to make it more clear to new users what Twitter has to offer them.

The new Google Voice Web app can dial out directly and make the receiving phone see your Voice number in the Caller ID, but resorts to a minor telephone hack to do so.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

Google Voice just got a little better on the iPhone, thanks a new Web site for iPhone users, google.com/voice/m. As iPhone users will painfully recall, Apple last year rejected Google's iPhone-native Google Voice app, leaving those who wanted to use Google Voice with what was at first a bare and limited Web-based app. But one of the big advantages of the new HTML 5 spec, which the iPhone's Safari browser supports, is that it lets Web developers bring more application-like functionality to Web apps. The new site is proof of that. (News story)

The new Web service works on iPhones running the 3.0 operating system. It also works on on Palm's WebOS for user with the Palm Pre.

The new mobile-specific Web site for Google Voice is app-like in key ways. It's fast and it can use local storage, so it doesn't have to load in your entire Google Voice inbox every time you launch it. There's a dialer and a directory (tied in to your Google account) for looking people up. And, finally, you don't have to deal with Google Voice's dial-around service (where, to make a connection, the Google Voice service dials both the person you are calling as well as your phone). Through some telco trickery, Google Voice dials out from your phone, and displays your Voice account's phone number as the caller ID the phone of the person you're calling.

Google Voice gives you an integrated inbox, with both transcribed voicemails (transcription quality still varies) and SMS messages.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

The app does a nice job of displaying transcribed voicemails, missed calls, and SMS messages in one inbox. You can also send SMS messages from the app for free, which trumps AT&T and its ridiculous fees on text messages.

But even a great Web-based app still can't get deep into your iPhone the way you'll want it to. The new Google Voice app can't access your phone's native directory, for example. The Google Voice native apps available for Android and BlackBerry can also highlight words in transcribed voicemails as they play them back. On the iPhone mobile Web site, voicemails play through the browser's linked media player with no visual cues.

If you have a Google Voice account and an iPhone, this new site makes using Voice a much better experience than it was before. But Android and BlackBerry users still get much neater, better-integrated real apps. There remain some things that even good Web sites cannot do.

This week: charity in a connected world. The January 12 earthquake and humanitarian disaster in Haiti had an important technological component: Through the text message giving program, the Red Cross raised $26 million in funds in just nine days. That's not just a large amount of money to be raised in a short time, it's an unprecedented level of participation. Was this a one-time outpouring of goodwill, or the beginning of a trend in global humanitarianism made possible by technology?

To talk about this and related issues on the Roundtable, I'm joined by Caroline McCarthy from our New York office. Caroline has been covering the online giving program for CNET. And from the Red Cross itself, we have Jonathan Aiken, director of media relations. Before joining the Red Cross, Aiken was a Washington correspondent and an anchor for CNN.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

On Amazon's DTP site, publishers must now select DRM options before upload. There is no default setting.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

When I put my self-published book, "Pro PR Tips," on the Kindle store last week, there was a little option to enable or disable digital rights management. This is a new choice, stealthily introduced last week right around the time I was putting my book on the store. But it's not, Amazon says, a new feature.

Rather, an Amazon spokesperson says that publishing DRM-free books has always been the default for publishers using the Digital Text Platform, a site that allows independent authors and small publishers to put their own works up on the Kindle store. The DTP site lets people upload HTML, Word, text, or PDF files as well as mobi files, which the Kindle reads natively. The site converts uploaded files as needed to the mobi format, now with optional DRM if desired, and puts them in the Kindle store.

The help text on the option box is not very helpful.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

Larger publishers submit their books to Amazon already in mobi format, and they appear as copy-protected on the Kindle if the mobi file comes to Amazon already protected, or open if not. It appears that nearly all books from mainstream publishers are protected. To see if a book is unprotected, look for a line that says, "Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited" in the product details block on the Amazon page for a book.

When DRM is enabled, Kindle files cannot be shared with other users, and there may be a limit on how many separate devices a buyer may load a book onto. When DRM is off, a book's file, which is easy to get by looking in the My Kindle Content folder on a PC if the Windows version of the Kindle Reader is installed, can be sent to other people for viewing on any app or device that reads the standard mobi format, including the Kindle and other e-readers. The files have the .PRC extension on a PC.

In the Kindle store, cryptic text indicates an un-DRM'd item.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

As to the decision for making my book free to copy or not, it was easy: I did it. Yes, I want to be paid for my book sales, but for me as for many independent authors, this book is a personal branding effort as much as anything else. Or as Cory Doctorow says, quoting Tim O'Reilly, "My problem isn't privacy, it's obscurity."

As least one other CNET author has a book on the Kindle store. Tom Merritt told me he just turned off DRM on his book, "Boiling Point." He says he wasn't aware that doing so was an unnecessary move.

Disclosure: I profit from "Pro PR Tips" book sales on Amazon. Readers can get all the content in the book, and more, for free at the Pro PR Tips blog.

Seesmic, which makes Twitter and Facebook apps for AIR, Windows, and mobile platforms, on Thursday is launching Seesmic Look, a new product designed for the Twitter watcher much more than the Twitter contributor or participant. The app lets you scan the feeds of popular Twitter celebrities, or show feeds for specific topics, like the NFL or Wall Street business. It can display tweets as they come in, or it can go into "playback" mode to let you catch up on what you missed.

Red Bull sponsors this sports page, part of a Seesmic-run category list.

(Credit: Seesmic)

Look is a pretty, touch-enabled app. Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur says Look is optimized for a touch interface, "and therefore, tablets." Look is a Windows app now, but Seesmic will presumably port it to a Mac slate as soon as possible.

Le Meur believes that Look will help bring Twitter to a wider audience by making it easier to view Twitter streams. It's a smart move, considering that most Twitter users watch but don't tweet. Le Meur also thinks a Twitter-watching audience will be attractive to advertisers and sponsors.

A big part of the Look pitch is that you don't have to log in to Twitter to use it, reinforcing the point that it's designed for lurkers. It's a lean-back TV-watching experience for what most geeks think of as a highly participatory platform. But Look doesn't do a anything that Twitter.com does not do itself. It won't show you tweets that you wouldn't seen on a Twitter client like Seesmic or Tweetdeck. It's just a more approachable way to watch the Twitter world go by, without being reminded that you're not actually contributing.

Seesmic has its own categorized list of recommended accounts to follow in Look, and the company is also offering special channels to paid brand partners, like Red Bull. There's a search function, if you want to track a topic that's not in the category list.

If you do log in to Twitter on Look, you can also contribute to Twitter from it, even though it's clear that that app isn't designed for power users. If you're already a Twitter junkie, you'll be better-served by Seesmic Desktop or its competitors.

If you log in to your Twitter account, you can do things like post items and see your lists.

(Credit: Seesmic)

The creative and attractive desktop replacement app BumpTop is coming to the Mac. Launched last year on Windows, and a CNET Download Best of 2009 app, BumpTop makes desktop items act more like they're physical. You can fling folders, files, and notes around the desktop, smash them into each other, give them weight, and pin them on the 3D "walls" at the edges of your desktop.

The OS X version is an upgrade from the Windows app. The code's been re-written from the ground up, CEO Anand Agarawala says, and there are some UI tweaks that work really well with a Mac's multitouch trackpad.

I found the app entertaining, if a little claustrophobic on my 13-inch Macbook. On a larger Mac or a touch-screen device, I bet it'd be a lot of fun.

The basic app is free. The paid, Pro version has extra features, like support for all the gestures. The Pro version is a free upgrade to the first 100 people who sign up at this special page: http://bumptop.com/press/cnet.

BumpTop for OSX has the same features as the Windows version, but the UI is cleaned up a bit.

(Credit: BumpTop)

The BumpTop business

But the interesting story here is the business for BumpTop. While a desktop replacement app like this might make a few bucks in onesie-twosie sales to enthusiasts, the real money is in direct deals with vendors. BumpTop has that on Windows: The new HP TouchSmart tm2 touch-screen convertible comes with BumpTop. Licensing deals like this are key to BumpTop's survival and success.

So why do a Mac version? Agarawala told me he has no deal with Apple. There's no upcoming Apple product that will have the BumpTop bundled with it. If you want the app on your Mac you'll have to find it and download it yourself. Furthermore, Apple has applied for its own patents on a 3D interface that look an awful lot like BumpTop's product. Apple's also a week away from the likely release of its own slate or tablet computer, which will quite possibly feature a user interface that draws from these ideas. Agarawala says his patent applications pre-date Apple's, but a legal battle with Apple over this issue would likely be a dangerous distraction for the small company.

The reason for the Mac version, Agarawala says, is that BumpTop ultimately will become a social platform and an online tool. In future versions, you'll be able to share documents among your computers simply by pinning them to the back wall. You'll also be able to join your desktop to your buddies' setups, and fling files to friends. BumpTop needs to be multiplatform for this strategy to work, hence the Mac version.

But the app is, still, just a replacement for traditional operating systems' desktop, which raises another objection: Who cares about the desktop? We work online, we work in file folders, we work in apps. The desktop, for many users, is just one piece of the workspace. Fortunately, future versions of the BumpTop, Agarawala says, will at least be cloud-friendly. You'll be able to see your online files and resources on your desktop, group them, work with them, and file them as you can currently do with local resources. He says that he's working with cloud storage companies (he wouldn't say which one or ones) to make this happen.

Agarawala agrees that a tool that just replaces the local desktop will have a limited future. He says, "we're making the desktop useful again." With BumpTop, the desktop is certainly fun. But I have to withhold judgment on utility until the sharing and cloud features make it into the product.

CES overloaded the industry with 3D TV hype, and it's time to bust it. This week on the Roundtable, I interview CNET's own John Falcone and HDNation's Robert Heron on the practical realities, and likely future, of 3D TV.

See also: CNET's FAQ on 3D TV, and TV industry turns blind eye to non-3D viewers.

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