my glass eye • words

I am getting frustrated with continuing arguments over whether the iPad, or tablets in general, are capable of ‘content creation’ or whether they are only good for ‘content consumption’; and what ‘post-PC world’ even means when PCs are still the most used device in professional computing.

The whole “is it any good for content creation?” question needs to be taken out back and quietly disposed of – for one thing because the answer is “Yes” (that’s why there’s so many text editors, photo editors, drawing apps and music apps available in the App Store), and for another thing because the question is a classic strawman, limiting respondents to a binary answer that doesn’t accommodate all the options.

iPads are, I would wager, largely bought by average members of the public. How many average members of the public ‘create content’ on any device at all, even on their desktops and laptops? Just because a lot of people don’t create content on the device does not by any means relegate it to being purely a consumption device by default, and yet that seems to be the argument so many critics subscribe to.

A much better question to ask, if we’re going to analyse how the iPad is used, is “how can it be used to assist you in your job or hobby?” or to spell it out, “how can it be used for things other than reading books, watching videos, listening to music, and other activities typically referred to as ‘consuming content’?

(And don’t get me started on the glibness of reducing the appreciation of an artists work into mere ‘consumption’ of their ‘content’ – I imagine the sorts of people who use the phrase willingly as soul-less shallow husks of humans. Just so you know.)

Off the top of my head, here’s a few that are neither creation nor consumption as usually defined in this argument:

• using it as a teaching aid
• making photo selects during a shoot
• taking payment via Square
• flogging wares on eBay
• running a stocktake from a spreadsheet
• using a reference book/app specific to your vocation (hello doctors and pilots!)

Why ask this question of tablets, anyway?

Let’s take an average multi-functional office in an average industry that doesn’t focus on creation (think ‘The Office’ if it helps) in which everyone uses a computer for variety of officey-things, such as analysing finances, making purchases, organising shift patterns, closing deals, chasing leads. Whatever. I don’t work in this (or any) office so I don’t have much experience, but you can’t tell me that everyone in that office that uses a computer in some way for their work would categorise everything that they do that isn’t ‘consumption’ as, by virtue of it being the only other option, ‘creation’. Their computer is a tool.

If you wouldn’t demonstrate a computer’s validity as a tool by asking “But can it do content creation?” why is it appropriate for a discussion of tablets?

Of course, just because you can do something work-related on a tablet doesn’t always mean you would want to. I could perform tweaks to my RAW photos on an iPad using Snapseed, but unless I need to in order to send a client a shot quickly, I’d rather just wait till I got home and put them through Lightroom due to the extra power, screen space, functionality and finesse of control.

Instead I use my iPad on a shoot to transfer photos, review them with the client and make selects there and then while still shooting. I’m not creating content with it in this instance but it’s still a valuable work tool and far more than the dumb consumption device it’s often made out to be purely because a sizeable segment of users do nothing else with it.

(I could do this on a MacBook Air and gain powerful on-site editing, but I rarely need the editing, it’s harder to pass around, and the client navigates it less intuitively without my guidance, so I don’t.)

The Post-PC World

That’s another phrase that’s getting everybody riled up for nothing, “the post-PC world” – it’s a currently-hot phrase often used by those looking for a zippy buzzword to tie their computing article to, but it’s been mis-appropriated or at least misunderstood ever since it was handed to them on a platter by some cunning tech man (Steve Jobs?) looking to neatly highlight the shift in computing trends towards tablet-like devices.

The way it’s being mis-used to portend the imminent death of the desktop or laptop is not how it was intended, in my opinion. It doesn’t mean we are in a ‘PC Is Dead’ world, because it’s clear the PC is not dead at all. It means we are in a world where PCs are no longer the only way to compute. Tablets, particularly iPads I guess because that’s all I really know, are computers that have adapted to a new way of using them: with our fingers. So are smartphones, frankly, in so far as they are computing devices that allow you to do computery stuff.

So ‘post PC world’ to me means ‘post All-Computer-Stuff-Must-Be-Done-On-A-Desktop-Or-Laptop world’, which clearly isn’t as slick.

Am I making any sense at all? I do to me, but sometimes I lose sight of what I’m saying as I spew it across the screen. Feel free to get involved in the comments.

(Test link to Skimlinks)

When was the last time you were blown away by amazing customer service, and who was it? For me it was yesterday, and Moo.com.

It’s the start of the year and I’m planning to take my event and fine art photography business up a notch, so my website is down for a redesign and I’m in the market for new business cards.

I only trust Moo with my business cards these days. I discovered them a few years ago when the only other well-known option for small order business cards was Vistaprint (yuck) and Moo’s cheerful website, design flexibility and all-round friendliness won me over. But the real draw is their business cards (and stickers, labels, postcards and minicards!), which are beautiful quality and very affordable.

This really sounds like a sales pitch but honestly, they’re great. I always get a compliment when I hand one of my cards out, which each carry a different photo full-bleed on the reverse. Given that most business cards end up in a bin eventually, that “Oooh!” moment when I produce them from my pocket really matters.

Well this weekend my mum, who has been on their mailing list since she discovered their sticky labels and minicards, sent me a 30% discount code she’d just received in one such newsletter. I’ve been unsubscribing myself from anything that isn’t important in an effort to de-clutter my inbox so I didn’t get that newsletter but I could certainly use the code. Over the next couple of days I settled on 30 new reverse photos, uploaded them and went to order 100 as well as a couple of holders that display the cards in a fan arrangement – very useful for embellishing that “Oooh!” moment.

Plans: foiled

Except – tragedy! The code didn’t work; it turns out everyone had received their own code, locked to their own account. And I didn’t have one. That’ll teach me for hitting Unsubscribe.

The offer was due to end in a few hours – what to do? Try and send the designs to my mum via Dropbox and have her upload them and order? (That was bound to end in strained family relations) Sign up to the newsletter and leave my order until the next discount code? (Maybe, but there’s no time like the present, seize the day, etc) Chalk it up to experience and order anyway? (And miss out on a potential £15 saving?!)

Or email Moo Support, explain the situation and cheekily ask if I could have my own discount code to replace the one my mum was never going to use, pretty please?

I’m becoming a believer in at least giving the milk of human kindness a chance, so I went for the last option, then closed the browser window and forgot about it.

Just a few hours later (the same day!) Moo support got back to me:

Dear Owen,

Thank you for getting in touch with the MOO Team.

Yes that’s fine! Please use the following code for 30% off your order:

(my secret code was here and it’s all gone now :D)

This one-time use code expires one year from today. Enter this code when you reach the payment screen during checkout. Be sure to enter the code before you input your payment information.

Please feel free to contact us again if you have any further questions.

Best regards,

Ron C
MOO

Now that’s customer service. They didn’t need to do that – they could have apologised and suggested I sign up for the newsletter (which I have done anyway). Instead they guaranteed a sale, saved me some money and increased my loyalty to the point where I’m now writing this blog to share the love, like the corporate shill I most definitely am not.

When was the last time a company’s customer support blew you away like that?

10% off your first Moo order

Full disclosure – the links to Moo.com on this page use my referral link – you can get 10% off your first order and I’ll get a credit towards a new pack of cards in return – thank you! Alternatively if you prefer to pay full price, you can use this plain link.

They don’t just do business cards – there’s minicards, stickers, labels and postcards, all customised with your own designs or some of their free templates. Use them to seal your customer packages, or put your website address on and hand them out in the street – there’s plenty more suggestions on their site.

Enjoy, and thanks for visiting!