Hello, iPad

When I and three of my colleagues showed up for a tutorial about the Apple iPad yesterday at the Apple store at Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor, we all had two things in common besides being reporters. We were all carrying notepads and pens. And this was not lost on the man we were meeting, Matt Tunstall, a business specialist at Apple who agreed to introduce us to the iPad and help us figure out how we could best utilize the technology to better deliver news and media, and explain how our audience would be using the tool to interact with us.

Tunstall said he was surprised none us was using modern-day technology to take notes and instead turned to pen and paper. I have to admit, I was a little embarrassed. After all, I was among a chosen few who had been picked for Journal Register Co.’s ideaLab. I was supposed to be clued in to technology, and would be helping to move the company and the industry, for that matter, forward as an innovative thinker and consumer of technology and information while experimenting with an iPad, iPhone and Netbook over the next year. I thought to myself, but didn’t say it out of shame, that I could have whipped out my BlackBerry and used it to take notes, but I miss letters or hit the wrong ones on the touch-screen and it takes me so much longer than just using a pen and paper. If I would have said that, it would have been perceived as an excuse. And it was, because, really, truth be told, I haven’t totally changed my work flow dynamic to take advantage of today’s tools.

But that’s about to change.

Tunstall is the one who stressed work flow dynamic repeatedly in our conversation that rainy afternoon in the center of the mall surrounded by people sipping expensive coffee and working on laptops. He said we can buy all of the technology available, but until we change our work flow and think outside of the box, it’s not going to help us as much as it could. It’s like shoving a square peg into a round hole, he said.

So, while the group initially asked questions about how the iPad could fit into what we’re doing now, Tunstall’s words kept coming back to me. We will have to change our work flow to incorporate the iPad, rather than trying to figure out how the iPad can fit into our current routines.

For instance, we did a test drive uploading stories and photos to our newspapers’ website. While we could import text typed on the iPad by a simple cut and paste, we couldn’t upload photos as the button to upload was grayed out. So, change the work flow. Instead of attaching a jpeg, go to Scribd and upload the jpeg to get an embed code for the website.

We asked whether we could download our videos off our Flips to the iPad and produce video. We discovered we could import and export, but not play them and there was no video editing software available for iPad at this time. But, again, change the work flow. Use the iPhone to shoot video, edit and clip in down, and then e-mail it to yourself, opening it on the iPad.

And, as we all marveled, Tunstall showed us how we could use our finger to write on the iPad and an application to convert it to text. Can you imagine the time saved?

My iPad is expected to arrive in the next week and we meet again with Tunstall Wednesday. Maybe, by then, I’ll be taking notes on my iPad, leaving the pen and paper at the office and moving into the Technological Age.

Ipadio interview with local intern

In my ongoing exploration of Ipadio, I took the time to interview an intern who is working with me at our office in Saline over the next few weeks. Ipadio definitely has a lot to  offer journalists. Infact, one newspaper Web site I stumbled across in the United Kingdom, relies heavily on citizen journalists using Ipadio to conduct interviews and do their own stories. There’s also a lot I don’t yet understand from the program either. It says you can synch to Twitter and Facebook and Blogger anytime you publish a new audio recording. I tried to do that, following simple instructions, but I haven’t seen a link on my Facebook or Twitter account yet. If you use your phone, you can also upload four photos with your audio recording. I took a picture of Justin to see what the quality would be like. Apparently you do not have to use Ipadio just on a cell phone. You can register any phone with the Website and use the program as well. I talked to the Ipadio CEO and he said the program’s features are free for journalists.

Here is the link to the Ipadio intrerview: http://ipad.io/M2O

Audio Post

Audio Post Test

A visit to the Apple store at Briarwood

I paid a visit to the Apple store at Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor this afternoon. Matt Tunstall, a business specialist at the store, talked to me at length about the iPad and iPhone, and he briefly touched on a MacBook. He has offered to lead workshops with our group to help us become familiar with Apple tools and apps, and achieve our goals as part of the ideaLab. This is a free service, he said, so I plan to organize a workshop in the next week or so with our ideaLab-Heritage advisory group.

Some highlights from our conversation included using the iPad to build locater maps, report from meetings, and interface with our iPhones so we can produce video, audio and share photos as the iPad doesn’t have a video camera or digital camera built in. He said the iPad is a combination of a MacBook and iPhone, and a MacBook may be redundant in our project. However, you can’t produce a video on an iPad and you can on a MacBook, if I remember our conversation correctly, so I do see the advantage of experimenting with the MacBook, as well.

Here are some reviews of the iPad:
Ubergizmo
Engadget
All Things Digital
Geeky Gadgets

Here are some reviews of the iPhone:
Engadget
Ubergizmo

Here are some reviews of MacBooks:
TechShout.com
Notebooks.com

Experimenting with ipadio

Daniel Lai, a copy editor with Heritage Newspapers-West, experiments with ipadio on his Droid smartphone on his blog. Listen to the audio. It’s awesome. This technology has so much potential for the field of journalism. I can’t wait for our iPhone to arrive so we can experiment with this and incorporate audio links in stories online to enhance our journalism.

Minutes from our first advisory board meeting

The advisory group met July 14 at The News-Herald in Southgate for an introductory meeting and to get things rolling.

Reporter Anne Sullivan hasn’t used the Apple products we will be getting, but is excited to start. She has been frustrated while out on her beat and has an hour in between stories, but not enough time to get to the office, write it and post it. She would love to stop off at a coffee shop or another location in between assignments to file stories faster. The Netbook will allow her to experiment with this technology and achieve our goals of digital first.

Reporter Renee Cizio thinks the technology will enable her to provide more local coverage, while also incorporating citizen journalism. As she speaks with the people at the core of her stories, they can participate more in the story, whether it’s via Ustream (she is wondering if you can do live video with the iPhone). While covering a meeting, she records it and then returns to the office to translate it into notes, and then writes her article. With the new technology, she would like to explore recording audio segments for her online piece and getting her stories online faster by writing the story on the spot.

Getting in touch with the stakeholders
The following assignments were made and members plan to report back in two weeks about their conversations with other stakeholders.

Advertising representative Donna Genaw will talk to folks in advertising and marketing to see how they think the Apple products can help them in their jobs.

Online editor Jason Alley will speak with online and circulation. He said one of online’s goals is to make our websites more mobile friendly, with mobile applications.

Reporter Anne Sullivan will speak to people in the news department.

Editor Michelle Rogers will talk to production and diagramming.

Brainstorming Notes
Donna is particularly interested in using the iPad to help in advertising sales. She wants the ability to bring her customers’ ads to them on the iPad and they can physically make the changes in person, rather than marking up a faxed copy with step-by-step instructions. She wonders if there’s a program available where, in sticky note format, changes can be noted or if they can get the original ad and make the changes on the spot and send it back to production.

Donna also would like to see a program in which the user clicks one button to push her customers’ ads out to the Web, Twitter and Facebook.

Jason wants to see more options for staff and give everyone the tools to achieve digital first.

The board will meet in two weeks. Michelle will send e-mail to everyone reminding them.

In the meantime, everyone will research the products we will be receiving and discuss what they learned and what we should look into further. We feel our discussions will evolve and become more advanced as we learn more and experiment.

Agenda July 14: ideaLab Heritage meets for the first time

I hope you took a moment to read the “idea lab forms” section. Here’s the agenda from our first meeting. Minutes of meeting to be posted tomorrow (or rather later today as it’s after midnight).

July 14
Two tasks from my perspective

How to use the iPhone, iPad and Netbook to better deliver news, interact with readers, market and sell the product and sell advertising.

How will readers use the iPhone, iPad and Netbook to access news, participate in the media landscape and join the conversation.

What needs to be done initially

Research these tools and discover what they can do. Visit Apple store and talk to experts, talk to users of the products (particularly news consumers) and research online before the technology arrives.

Blogs to check out: Buzz Machine, Reinventing the Newsroom, The Scoop, Press Think.

More blogs to check out?

Talk to all of the stakeholders at Heritage: News, advertising, circulation, marketing, production and online. Find out what changes they would like to see in how they do their jobs. How could using this technology make them more efficient, creative, immediate and connected, and how they think customers will use this technology to connect with us.

Brainstorm ideas of how to better serve readers through this technology. What do readers and advertisers want? Links to audio clips to accompany stories; podcasts; live streaming video chats; ability for “key communicators” (who we give passwords and access) to directly upload local news content (community events, business accolades, college honors, engagements/weddings/births/anniversaries); more reader submitted photos and video; stories online more quickly; live chats or tweets from government meetings and court hearings; a program that allows ad reps to create an ad on the spot with business owners; create more opportunities for businesses to sell their products online (a virtual ride in a new car or chat with a doctor accepting new patients); more interactive marketing; customer rewards program.

ideaLab-Heritage participants
News: Rene Cizio, Angie Favot, Jana Miller and Lisa Allmendinger
Web/news: Jason Alley and Renee Roullier (pending)
IT: Jessica Spitulski
Advertising: Donna Genaw
News junkie and freelance reporter: Art Aisner
Academia: Michael McVey
Intern/high school student: Carlina Duan (pending)
High school student and award-winning movie critic: Ryan Michaels (pending)
More may be added