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The 264dpi screen is a big deal. I was at a workshop with Edward Tufte this week. He extoled the virtures of using paper for information-rich data transfer. Hav

The 264dpi screen is a big deal. I was at a workshop with Edward Tufte this week. He extoled the virtures of using paper for information-rich data transfer. Having paper-like screen resolution is an obvious advantage for disseminating information. I'd like to see a startup take on PowerPoint by releasing software to compose iPad-friendly presentations. Think one-pagers full of text, graphs, and figures. On an iPad they could be interactive, annotated, and linked together. Every iPad-toting meeting goer could scan a QR code on the way in to get on the same page, and then sit and discuss the content. Gone will be the days of presenters doling out bullet points at excruciatingly slow pace. Having read Isaacson's biography of Jobs, it seems that Apple may be gunning to disrupt the textbook market. Having paper-like resolution is a great step in that direction.

WiseWeasel 15y ago
Apple sells their Keynote presentation software for the iPad.
- tomkinstinch 15y ago
  Keynote is great, but it's still slideware. People need to think about the iPad as a printer for dynamic content. It's smart paper. Edit: Thanks to gte910h for pointing out iBooks Author. I wasn't aware of it! http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/ http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/
  - gte910h 15y ago
    You're thinking of the iBooks app (seriously, check out the free apple iBook creator). It's very dynamic content.
    - philiphodgen 15y ago
      For publications you will use locally on the iPad, maybe. If you're intending to publish via Apple, I'd say wait. After two weeks of waiting for Apple to approve a book I yanked it and am having the manuscript converted for Kindle sale as we speak. The conversion from the .ibooks file to anything usable in the real world was a giant pain. All of which was predictable and I knew that going in. But as a book-writing tool it is great. I wrote an entire book on a direct flight from Los Angeles to Dubai. Edited it on the way back. Way, way better than Word. Now I'm using Scrivener.
      - trotsky 15y ago
        Doesn't Creator's license restrict you from publishing a book authored with it on a different platform?
        _frog 15y ago
        Yes but the output format used is proprietary superset of the ePub standard so it wouldn't be possible to view them on other platforms anyway.
        deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
        gte910h 15y ago
        Not the book, the output of the program. You'd need another tool anyhow because of the extensions.
  - WiseWeasel 15y ago
    Time to bring back Hypercard? : P Web standards are probably your best bet as a smart paper API.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
th0ma5 15y ago
When I was at Eyeo Casey Reas stated that print is like using a static version of a dynamic display from the future (or something to that effect) ... This talk about retina perception of pixels is indeed compelling and true, but 1200dpi is still "nicer" in many ways that I wouldn't want to try and prove on HN :P
nextparadigms 15y ago
Won't this make it hard for developers to develop apps on Macs that still have only 1920x1080 displays?
- tomkinstinch 15y ago
  As mentioned elsewhere, Macs may see similar resolution bumps soon, along with resolution independent UI.
- aaronblohowiak 15y ago
  the simulator already offers multiple levels of zoom
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
rhplus 15y ago
Huh, what about the meeting goers who aren't toting iPads? Couldn't your interactive presentations be achieved with content built to web standards?
- tomkinstinch 15y ago
  Sure, maybe the output of the composer app is a web document. The point is that it should think like a book in terms of composition and layout, and less like a website.
baconner 15y ago
There are quite a few bi tools that do pretty much what you're describing on the ipad and other mobile devices now. Share a link, pulls up an interactive dashboard for everyone that they can play with and discuss in the meeting. Many also let you build a slide deck in PowerPoint with interactive dashboards on each slide. Now if you could have the ppt (or whatever) allow attendees to collaboratively interact with the current dashboard slide then you'd really have something. Maybe I should get to work on that!

WiseWeasel 15y ago

Apple sells their Keynote presentation software for the iPad.

tomkinstinch 15y ago
Keynote is great, but it's still slideware. People need to think about the iPad as a printer for dynamic content. It's smart paper. Edit: Thanks to gte910h for pointing out iBooks Author. I wasn't aware of it! http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/ http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/
- gte910h 15y ago
  You're thinking of the iBooks app (seriously, check out the free apple iBook creator). It's very dynamic content.
  - philiphodgen 15y ago
    For publications you will use locally on the iPad, maybe. If you're intending to publish via Apple, I'd say wait. After two weeks of waiting for Apple to approve a book I yanked it and am having the manuscript converted for Kindle sale as we speak. The conversion from the .ibooks file to anything usable in the real world was a giant pain. All of which was predictable and I knew that going in. But as a book-writing tool it is great. I wrote an entire book on a direct flight from Los Angeles to Dubai. Edited it on the way back. Way, way better than Word. Now I'm using Scrivener.
    - trotsky 15y ago
      Doesn't Creator's license restrict you from publishing a book authored with it on a different platform?
      - _frog 15y ago
        Yes but the output format used is proprietary superset of the ePub standard so it wouldn't be possible to view them on other platforms anyway.
      - deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
      - gte910h 15y ago
        Not the book, the output of the program. You'd need another tool anyhow because of the extensions.
- WiseWeasel 15y ago
  Time to bring back Hypercard? : P Web standards are probably your best bet as a smart paper API.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

th0ma5 15y ago

When I was at Eyeo Casey Reas stated that print is like using a static version of a dynamic display from the future (or something to that effect) ... This talk about retina perception of pixels is indeed compelling and true, but 1200dpi is still "nicer" in many ways that I wouldn't want to try and prove on HN :P

nextparadigms 15y ago

Won't this make it hard for developers to develop apps on Macs that still have only 1920x1080 displays?

tomkinstinch 15y ago
As mentioned elsewhere, Macs may see similar resolution bumps soon, along with resolution independent UI.
aaronblohowiak 15y ago
the simulator already offers multiple levels of zoom
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

rhplus 15y ago

Huh, what about the meeting goers who aren't toting iPads? Couldn't your interactive presentations be achieved with content built to web standards?

tomkinstinch 15y ago
Sure, maybe the output of the composer app is a web document. The point is that it should think like a book in terms of composition and layout, and less like a website.

baconner 15y ago

There are quite a few bi tools that do pretty much what you're describing on the ipad and other mobile devices now. Share a link, pulls up an interactive dashboard for everyone that they can play with and discuss in the meeting. Many also let you build a slide deck in PowerPoint with interactive dashboards on each slide. Now if you could have the ppt (or whatever) allow attendees to collaboratively interact with the current dashboard slide then you'd really have something. Maybe I should get to work on that!