Let the holiday sales begin! As some of you know, when the holidays roll around applications in the iTunes app store start going on sale. This is a huge win for consumers and a win for the developers too.
With that in mind, iAnnotate, one of the premiere PDF annotation applications available for the iPad is now on sale at a drastically reduced price. Normally priced at $9.99, the developer has dropped the price to $1.99. If you were considering using iAnnotate for coursework or simply wanted to check it out but were put off by the cost, now is the time to jump.
Additionally, if this is an app that you are considering asking your students to have for next semester, consider contacting them to let them know about the sale.
I’ll try to keep up on the holidays sale and post them here. I big shout out goes to Dr. Cullum in Biology for the heads-up on the sale.
There are essential applications that I have on my iPad. Everyone has them. Some applications you might use only every once in a while but the application is so critical or useful it becomes an essential application; 
There is nothing quite like being thrown into the deep end with little to lose. Forcing yourself to figure something out for the challenge to see if you can sink or swim. Well, I decided to develop a session that is almost entirely hands-on; requiring attendees to use their iPads in group activities and even do a homework assignment before the session. I wanted to face the challenge to see what I could come up with, are you up to the challenge of attending?
There are always interesting new applications added to the App Store everyday. Some apps I use and evaluate and sometimes I share my thoughts with you here. Others I decide to avoid for various reasons; time or cost is the most common. But there are a segment of applications that I will not post about and that is medical applications.
In case you missed my last post you might not know how excited I am about the enhanced “Open In” function in iOS 6. I love it so much that I think that folks with the original iPad should storm Apple HQ and demand a small update to iOS 5 to include the functionality.
Microsoft toys with our “Office” emotions
But, at this point though I’m not even sure Microsoft® knows if they are going to ship a version of Office for the iPad. Initially we heard reports that Microsoft® is planning on announcing Office for iOS and Android next March. Sounds good, right around the time Apple might bring the next iPad to market. Excellent timing for Microsoft® announce that Office is available as well.
But not more than a few hours later another executive at Microsoft® said the previous reports were “not accurate.” Spectacular. At this point I have to wonder at what point everyone will realize that they don’t need Office and that the file formats; .docx, .pptx, .xlsx, is all anyone really cares about. It is about interoperability. You don’t need Office, you just need an application that can read and save to a file type supported by Office.
And there are plenty of applications in the App Store that are glad to oblige, starting with Apple’s own iWork suite, Pages, Keynote and Numbers.
Some have suggested that Microsoft® is apprehensive to allow Apple to take 30% of there sale. But Microsoft® isn’t complaining about every retail store in the world doing the same thing. Retail isn’t about selling an item and not getting a cut, it is all about getting a cut; and that cut is usually 30%.
The upside of the App Store is that Microsoft®, or any other developer, doesn’t have to pay the cost of pressing millions of DVDs with their software, designing and manufacturing the packaging for their software or paying to have software shipped around the globe. You just submit a file and Apple takes care of the rest. Including providing millions of customers willing to purchase software, and a buying experience that is nearly fool proof I’d say if that isn’t worth 30% it is pretty damn close.
Steve Balmer recently stated that Microsoft® is going to perform a major shift of focus and strategy, looking to adopt the Apple model of developing the software and hardware for their products. Surface, it seems, is just the first step. Good for them. I hope it works. But they are still leaving money on the table. As of now they are a software company. The only hardware Microsoft® manufactures that makes money are mice, keyboards and the Xbox, and it took the Xbox 5 years to start making money. Right now they have a brand in Office that enjoys ubiquity across the globe and it seems foolish to forfeit that position and ignore two dominate mobile platforms.
I guess I look at it this way; I might ask to have a Kleenex® brand tissue to blow my nose, but do I care if it is Kleenex® or just that it functions like a Kleenex®? Now I don’t need Office, I just need software that can read and save in Office format. What happens in the middle, the software I use, can be anything that approximates Office.