The dust has finally settled and rumors have been confirmed or laid to rest – yesterday Apple officially announced their latest shiny object, the iPad.

The transformative nature of this device has been discussed over and over again by tech industry experts, bloggers and pundits leading up to the event. Apple is billing it as “magical” and “revolutionary.” After watching video of the Steve Jobs keynote last night, I’ve formed a few opinions of my own on how I see this thing getting used.

(Side rant: The name “iPad” is a yawner. I would have preferred Tablet or Slate.)

There are hundreds of thousands of voices out there dismissing this device as just another eReader, a super-sized iPhone, a laptop lid without a keyboard, etc. – many of these are legitimate comments. Meanwhile, hundreds of people are getting busy brainstorming applications and building stuff for the iPad, and figuring out opportunities for how it will fit into their industry. That’s going to be the focus of my post.

Just to recap what the iPad can do right now: Web browsing, eBooks, email, music, video, photos, games and the iWork software suite. Lots of devices can do these things, so let’s go deeper.

Textbook Publishing

Jobs briefly touched on the textbook market during his keynote, and by “briefly touched on” I mean he spent about one second on it. I think textbooks are one of the first industries that the iPad can disrupt. Think about the textbook business as it exists today: College students end up spending hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars, on heavy books for their classes that get used for five months and then discarded. I’m envisioning a future where students purchase digital books through the iTunes store for anywhere between $9.99 and $29.99 each.

Calling them “books” might be a mistake – these could potentially be very interactive pieces of content that include motion graphics, video, audio and social interactivity intertwined with the text itself. Make this device affordable and accessible to a generation that grew up digital, and I think the iPad can have a huge impact on how textbooks are purchased and read.

Today a student in my internet marketing class (@ Drake University) asked: “What about people who like to highlight their texts?” I love it when a common-sense perspective like this completely stops me in my tracks. We can’t dismiss the tactile quality and experience that tangible books give us – the eReaders will have a hard time replacing this aspect.

Healthcare

Every day we get closer to medical records being 100% digital and stored in the cloud. I see huge potential for touchscreen tablet devices being used among physicians, nurses and psychiatrists. Custom-built applications would allow them to pull up patient records on the screen, add annotations, cross-check details against other information databases (drug reactions, symptoms, etc.). Don’t be surprised if some kind of visual-based translation software gets built for the iPad – helping doctors and nurses communicate directly with patients who speak a different language, without needing to pull in a third party. You can expect Rosetta Stone to make a play here.

Everything I described above would require note-taking, so the iPad is eventually going to need some sort of add-on stylus pen and sophisticated handwriting recognition. For instance my wife, a licensed therapist, is going to want to take hand-written notes during session and have them automatically transcribed and synced to systems elsewhere.

Television

The infrastructure to completely disrupt television networks is *almost* in place with on-demand services like Hulu, Netflix and iTunes. Apple knows that every day people are firing their cable company and consuming TV content on their laptops, smartphones and/or services like Boxee. (We just did and we’re saving $70/month.)

What’s missing is a device that can replace those cumbersome laptops that we crawl into bed with to watch The Colbert Report. Apple believes their iPad fits this niche. There’s a strategic reason why Jobs did much of his keynote from a couch. I’m a firm believer that watching television shows will be one of the biggest uses of tablet devices, for those “in-between” moments: In bed, on that couch, riding on the train or sitting in the airport. (Yes, portable DVD players officially died yesterday.) Of course, Apple will want you to watch TV via episode purchases or subscription through their iTunes choke point.

Much to the dismay of many geeks like myself, the first iPads will not support Flash, meaning that watching Hulu is out of the question – at least right out of the gate. It remains to be season whether HTML5 (currently in its “last call” stage) will solve this issue, reducing the need for browser plug-ins that display video.

I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there. Yes, Apple is going to create this new market, but I’m not yet convinced that the iPad will reign supreme as *the* ubiquitous device as they have done with the iPhone and iPod. For instance, publishers and content-owners are fighting already back with their own innovations. Hearst just launched the Skiff (an eReader with a flexible display, shown to the right) which is very intriguing. I’m going to have a blast watching this space evolve.

What are your thoughts? Does Apple have something here, or will someone else do it better? Do you see yourself using this device, and what industries do you think it will disrupt?

Today we interviewed Julia Rosien, Director of Communications at Natura World, about how she’s using social media to build the brand of a mattress company. We chose to highlight Julia to prove a point – that smart, strategic use of social networks can benefit any business, regardless of the product or industry.

The discussion also touches on the FTC’s recent guidelines for blogger outreach and disclosure, and the importance of transparency within Natura’s marketing efforts – differentiating them from other organic businesses that might dabble in less-than-honest “greenwashing.”

You can listen to the podcast below, or subscribe in iTunes. Thanks for listening, and let us know if you have ideas for future guests or content.

 

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We’re only one week into Foursquare being available here in Des Moines (and every city), and already I’m seeing a large volume of chatter from people who are confused by it, scared of it, dismissive of it and don’t see the value. This is a classic symptom of a “hot” social network.

In fact, many of these conversations are very, very familiar. We had the same ones about Twitter in early 2007 (I was one of those confused voices) until we each had our personal “a-ha” moments, and then we suddenly got it.

Last week I wrote about Foursquare’s potential for local businesses, but let’s step away from the biz angle for a moment and discuss the personal and social reasons behind why I use it. Please note: This is not a command that you must start using it, or that you should use it in a similar way. I’m writing this for the “I don’t get it” folks – those who are confused by the whole thing and want some clarification.

Broadcasting your current location

When you “check in” to a specific location on Foursquare, the application allows you to auto-broadcast your current location out to your social networks. One misconception about Foursquare is that this is all users will ever do, and the fear is that our friends’ Twitter feeds and Facebook updates will become an endless barrage of useless “I’m at Venue XYZ [LINK]“ updates. This is a legitimate concern, and it’s the reason why I turned off the auto-broadcast feature in my settings. I want to check in to locations to rack up points, compete with friends, and move up the Foursquare Leaderboard, but I’m assuming my Twitter followers don’t need to know about it every single time.

There are circumstances where I do want people to know where I’m at and what I’m doing. For instance, during last Friday’s Des Moines Tweetup I used Foursquare to announce that I was there. (This is something I would typically tweet about, anyway.) People were using it at the Central Iowa Bloggers meetup that same morning in a similar way, saying “Hey, I’m at this cool event, and you’re missing out if you’re not here.”

I left auto-broadcast switched on for announcing that I’ve become the Mayor of a venue. This is for bragging rights. I want people to know who I’ve dethroned. It’s part of the competition, part of the gimmick.

Handling friend requests

Right now there’s a lot of conversation surrounding this issue: “Who do I accept as my friend on Foursquare?” Social networks have forced humans to deal with all sorts of new social mores, and to further complicate things, our connection preferences in each network are going to be different. Bryan Person wrote a great post about his own selection filters, plus his readers’ perspectives. Here’s my rule: If I’ve actually met the person in real life, I’ll accept the request. Yes, in a few circumstances I’ve bent this rule both ways. This is similar to my Facebook filter (IRL connections only) but very different than my Twitter filter, where serendipity rules all.

Managing privacy

If you are legitimately concerned about privacy, you do two things: 1.) Avoid Foursquare altogether, or 2.) Use the settings and filters described above to control updates and select who gets into your network. It’s your world.

So, that’s how I’m currently use it, and why. What’s been your personal Foursquare experience thus far? Please chime in below!

Image credit: dpstyles via Flickr

In our latest podcast, we spoke with Sarah Lacy about entrepreneurship in the developing world, the upcoming Facebook movie, and recent Mashable / AOL acquisition rumors. Sarah is the editor-at-large at TechCrunch and author of Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good.

Personally, I loved her story about the entrepreneur in land-locked Rwanda who started a business making toilet paper and now supplies the majority of the country’s product. It’s the common theme of starting a business – discovering a need and filling it.

You can listen to the podcast below, or subscribe in iTunes. Thanks for listening, and let us know how we’re doing!

 

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Hello world, we are now podcasting! Patrick O’Keefe joined us for our first episode. (He’s the founder of the iFroggy Network and author of Managing Online Forums.)

We talked about the ins and outs of successfully fostering digital communities such as blog networks, forums and discussion boards.

 

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Huzzah! The location-based social network Foursquare is now available to everyone, everywhere.

I’ve already declared my inevitable Mayorship of the East Village Jimmy John’s. (Who’s going to challenge me?) Others have made their claim on Mars Cafe, which will certainly be a hot spot. I also expect the tweets and check-ins to be flying from Raccoon River during Friday night’s Des Moines Tweetup.

Oh, if you don’t know what Foursquare is yet, please refer back to this earlier post.

So, what do local businesses need to be aware of? First, your customers are going to broadcast that they’re at your location / store / venue. Be ready for this by being findable. Go ahead and add your business as a location before someone does it for you. Earlier I used Foursquare’s web interface to add Lava Row. Just click on “add things” in the top navigation menu and then click “add a new venue.” Fill out the information including address, cross streets, etc., and you’re good to go!

Foursquare is emerging as a platform for businesses to reward their Mayors (people who “check in” the most often) with special deals and discounts – loyalty-based marketing at it’s finest. For more information about Foursquare’s beta advertising platform, check out Foursquare for Businesses.

How will you get creative with your business on Foursquare?