Lexcycle strips USB book sharing feature from Stanza app for iPhone at Apple’s request – If You Use Stanza for iPhone w/USB, don’t upgrade to new Update. Which, to me, I don’t understand, and have never used Stanza that way. I load up PDFs via WiFi, why do it via USB? If you do it this way, please let me know.

However – the real story here is Apple demanded the USB function to be stripped. Now, this is where it gets funky: you would have had to have a third party app called iPhone Explorer in order to move files back and forth direct from iPhone to desktop – circumventing the iTunes software. Any developer knows that Apple clearly states, this is your sandbox, you have to stay in it. They have a long history of restricting the way you move files around on the iPhone. So – taking that into consideration, the Stanza app made a workaround that created a security loop-hole. Of course Apple would find fault with it, them’s the rules baby.

Of course the web is all up-in-arms over this, claiming Apple is slamming down it’s “Iron Fist” again with it’s control-freak ways. Well, maybe – but maybe they are actually righting a developer program wrong that has gone on for too long. Maybe there’s a reason it has the rules in place, for like, I don’t know…security, bug and hacker prevention? It is really that simple – you sign an agreement, you agree to play by the rules, and if you don’t you get caught.

One of the main reasons people are raising a stink is that this company is now owned by the iPad’s biggest competitor – Amazon purchased Lexcycle (creator of Stanza) in April of 2009. People are screaming that it’s all being done out of malice, etc. Yeah sure…more like out of protecting their domain and millions of dollars spent on this product called iPhone.

It’s crazy to see all of this massive action on the e-book front these days, most if it leading back to Amazon. All of it seemed to start after the iPad announcement. Intriguing…I really can’t wait for Apple to finally start defending their Touch patents, when is that going to start? The Google phone Nexus One just got it applied on their device with a software update. I say, now the fight between Apple and Google really begins.

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Looks like we get a crumb or two before iPhone 3.2 – iPhone OS 3.1.3 is available now through iTunes.

Engadget reports that we get fixes for apps crashing at start-up, improved battery level reporting with iPhone 3GS, and something to do with Japanese keyboard issues…we’ll take what we can get!

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And the battle ends almost as surprisingly it started. Amazon has now buckled to MacMillan’s demands. From Mashable:

Now Amazon has made its own statement on its forums. The gist of the message: you win, Macmillan.

Specifically, Amazon is giving into Macmillan’s demands because it “has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.” Clearly Amazon is going along with this unwillingly and believes that consumers will prove that Macmillan’s new prices are unreasonable by not opening their wallets.

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Mashable posted this great info-graphic from Viralheat for the chatter this past Wednesday. After all, did you notice the State of the Union and Apple’s iPad announcement were on the same day? Of course you did!

Mashable points out:

Here are some state about the Apple Event:

- Total mentions in social media: 496,842
- Tweets: 322,974
- Impact on Twitter: 22,001,377 (Unique people that were exposed to one of the above search term on Twitter)

In the 48 hour time period, there were 112 tweets per minute about the iPad and the rumors surrounding it.

Now, compare it to chatter about Obama’s address:

- Total mentions in social media : 68,201
- Tweets: 50,984
- Impact on Twitter: 13,571,805

Jobs looks like he won by the sheer numbers, but he did have the rumor mill burning up the inter-tubes the two weeks+ beforehand. Obama didn’t have that advantage. However, the President did get the most praise. Wonder is part of the positive loss on Jobs was the fact that really, nothing could have lived up to that fever-high bonfire anticipation.

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Hundreds of Uses, Dozens of Business Fields to Rock

Architecture, salesmen or saleswomen, retail floors, inventory, healthcare, education, design, artists, realtors, hotels, restaurants, gaming…the possibilities are endless.

Medical

Many reports have surfaced that the iPad team has met with many medical professionals in hospitals in the Cupertino, CA area. The medical filed could have all sorts of uses for such a device. Viewing CAT-scans, pulling up a patient’s history with the touch of a finger, and have that information always on and updated.

The medical field has spent billions to become paperless. Read Write Web reported that Kaiser Permanente alone spent four billion. However, just like the smart phone market the software and devices are clunky and the tablet could upend this market. Apple’s intuitive platform, and the iPhone developer SDK provided a springboard for a remedy. Already there are iPhone apps that are beginning to make this shift happen. As Read Write Web reports, there’s Airstrip (allowing a doctor to monitor a patients vital signs from afar) and Haiku, which is the likely killer app that will succeed in the hospital field.

Education

Education is another field that is not only important to Jobs and Apple, but is a field that is prime real estate for tablet adoption. Text books have always been heavy, costly and often outdated quickly. You can imagine a college students text books all on one tablet. This is a field that could explode into a new direction, making way for living documents and textbooks that are updated via WiFi when synced with the iTunes iBooks store just like apps are now.

Depending on your age (and this could be true still today) you may remember history books were outdated, mostly because the books were purchased years in advance and used for far too many years to save money. Schools have historically been strapped for money, cutting many needed programs such as Physical Education and the Arts so budgets could allow for costly textbook upgrades.

For example, a University of Florida study found this:

“Students are learning about Christopher Columbus from books that refer to the native people he encountered as heathens and savages, according to a new University of Florida study.

Most books in elementary school libraries and classrooms have outdated information and outright distortions about the explorer’s expeditions, according to UF researcher Donna Sabis-Burns. She conducted the study for her doctoral dissertation in UF’s College of Education.

Sabis-Burns sent an online survey, receiving responses from 189 teachers and 89 librarians who provided a list of 182 books. Six out of 10 books failed to identify the native Taino people whom Columbus encountered by their tribal affiliation, instead calling them such things as “gentle heathens” and “naked, red-skinned savages.”

Take this example and multiply by 49 states and you can see the problem with analog books is massive. Fortunately, there have been measures taken by some states to switch to e-books, most notably California due to their now famous bankruptcy. Governor Schwarzenegger stated,

“It’s nonsensical and expensive to look to traditional hard-bound books when information today is so readily available in electronic form,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “Especially now, when our school districts are strapped for cash and our state budget deficit is forcing further cuts to classrooms, we must do everything we can to untie educators’ hands and free up dollars so that schools can do more with fewer resources.”

To Be Continued…

Coming Up in Part Three…the other fields and a big kahuna; Gaming.

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Amazon and MacMillan (one of the largest publishers in the US) have been in disagreement for over a year, the dispute being on the rice of its e-books. Amazon today pulled all MacMillan books off the Amazon store until further notice.

The New York Times explains:

The publisher’s books can be purchased only from third parties on Amazon.com.

Macmillan’s imprints include Farrar, Straus & Giroux, St. Martins Press and Henry Holt. Popular books, including “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah, “Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel, “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides and “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen” by Janet Evanovich, could be purchased only from third-party sellers on Friday night.

MacMillan is one of the publishers onboard with Apple Inc’s iPad iBooks store. Unlike Amazon, Apple’s store gives publishers more leeway in pricing their content. The Times reports and others have speculated that the pricing will be closely tied to hard cover books, in the $12.99-$14.99 range, as opposed to $9.99 for the Amazon Kindle.

One of the ways those higher prices could be justified are the unlimited ways to add value to e-books on the iPad – such as adding video interviews with the author, animation at certain plot intervals, or with education – a chart the is alive, and changes with a constant link to the store/web.

Steve Jobs told Walt Mossberg in a rapidly deployed video shot just after the iPad presentation that “publishers are actually withholding books from Amazon because they’re unhappy.”

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Steve Jobs and gang pulled the cover off the Apple tablet named…iPad! Ta-Dah! We’ll get used to the name, even with the MAD TV skit being replayed over and over again.

What really dazzles is what we got – the price alone was worth the wait: starting at $499! for the 16GB version. Here’s more specs: 32GB is $599 and 64GB is $699; All Wi-Fi versions. With 3G, add $130 to each model. $629 $729 and $829. AT&T 3G can be purchased with no contract and can be canceled any time, $14.99 for min. use, $29.99 for unlimited. Battery life is 10 hours, not sure if that is Apple hours or not. The other surprise: A Keyboard Dock ($69) with a normal keyboard grafted on to the front of a plastic dock. Vertical or horizontal settings.

Most people immediately point out that there’s no camera – ah-ha…there’s a accessory for that! For $27 there’s a camera attachment. As with the iPhone and iPod, accessories will be streaming in by March for certain.

For the software: You have a brand new version of iWork, all touch compatible, each one for $4.99 each. The biggest thing people have been waiting for is the book, newspaper, magazine publishing arm of the iTunes store. That’s called iBook – where you can buy anything you can buy for your Kindle and more. The Maps application is amazing, though we’ll have to see the video of the keynote to really speak on that.

Overall – We have turned a corner – we’ve now approached the Star Trek era – the mouse will be eventually phased out. Th iPad literally is a new product category, and changes the way we use computers. More to come soon…Oh and our last thing? We keep hearing people that seeing it online, or in the keynote doesn’t do it justice, it must be touched…must hold it in your hands to get the magical aspects of it.

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Well – I’m obviously too busy sometimes to get all the dirt when it happens – but looks like Seth Godin probablt saw the blooper on CNBC – the CEO of Magraw-Hill talked all about Apple’s Tablet – here’s what he said:

Yeah, Very exciting. Yes, they’ll make their announcement tomorrow on this one. We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable. So what you are going to be able to do now is we have a consortium of e-books. And we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format. So now with the tablet you’re going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific.

And…there you go folks! Like we didn’t know, but still – and I’m guessing that Apple can’t really get mad at the guy – since they are firm partners now. Your thoughts? Gizmado has more

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Wow! Seth Godin jumps the gun and announce the tablet – the froth that was turned to butter is now becoming spun sugar…I think the next few hours are going to be interesting – if Seth does this, who else will? Here’s what he says:

There’s going to be a lot of hoopla this week, some of it on this very blog (three posts already today!).

I want to be the very first author to announce a new project for Apple’s tablet…

Steve Jobs will probably never speak to me again for announcing before his launch. That’s okay, he never speaks to me anyway.

the whole post is here

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I seriously don’t see iPad as the true name of Apple’s new tablet – but then again, college humor aside – it does match nicely with iPod-iPhone-iMac – iTablet has three syllables…Hmm…but I do think the commercial’s fake, notice the left side has a nice border of black, and the right does not…

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