Archive for the 'iPad Gaming' Category

After about 4 weeks with the iPad 2, I’m really surprised at what I’m using it for.

I thought I’d use it for:

1. Videos – To watch recorded shows while exercising.
2. Browsing – Casual browsing and news
3. Games – On airplanes
4. Apps – Like Weight Loss
5. E-Mail

What I really use the iPad for

1. eBooks – Read and Exercise (when I’m on a machine)
2. iBooks – For reading Market Research PDFs
3. Facetime – For video conferencing with the family
4. E-Mail

I’ll explain why I love the above 4 items after I look at the cons

What I’m puzzled by (Semi-negative input)

1) Browsing -  I’ve found browsing the web to be cumbersome, I think because when I search, it seems to take longer to find and scroll through lots of lines of search.  I’m simply not enjoying reading the news on the iPad for some reason.  This may change if I subscribe to the WSJ via the Kindle.  An application called Flipbook is pretty good, but I’m concerned about privacy so I don’ t use it with my Google RSS fed.

2) Games – I’m just not interested.  I mean the kids love it.  What is interesting to me as a Marketeer? Games, high quality games, that were made a few years ago can run on the iPad 2.  Publishers can extract more dollars, without the cost of media or advertising from their best titles.  Without physical media or inventory, Apple has created a market for IP that otherwise would be wasted.

Okay, now the fun stuff.

1. eBooks – I’ve spent probably $30 on eBooks using Amazon’s Kindle App.  From self-publishers to traditional books.
   1. Free Books – Lots of free books like “Alice in Wonderland” or “Tom Sawyer” can be downloaded for free using the Amazon Kindle store.  I’m sure these are available in some Google store also.
   2. Self Publishers – These writers publish their own works and sell them for $1 to $5.  I think they only split the proceeds with Amazon, so they don’t need to charge a lot.  The Amazon community rates the books, and they either do well, or they don’t. Again, a market that thrives with the help of both Amazon and Apple, but didn’t really exist 5 years ago.
   3. Traditional books – I find myself paying more for a digital copy of a book than for a good used copy.  This means that publishers don’t even need to print a hard copy, they get a bigger margin.  In fact, I’m considering buying more digital copies of books I already have, just so I can read them at the Gym.
2. iBooks for PDFs – I’ve found this is the best way to read PDFs.  There’s a zoom feature so I can focus in and increase the font to make it more readable.  It’s simply fun to read on the iPad.
3. Facetime – I’ve come to rely on this to communicate with my home.  Since my family members always seem to have an iPad or iPod within reach.  It’s also easier to use than a phone. And “free”

   I visited some relatives in China, connected to their WiFi and had a FaceTime Video Call up and running in about a minute with my parents. (Picture below)  I’m thinking of getting an iPad for my mom just for video conferencing.

More next time. And, expect me to buy 1-2 Apple products a year going forward.

SUBSCRIBE

Send this URL onto your friend. and tell them to
Subscribe to this Blog, one option to subscribe is as follows:

• Go into Outlook
• Right click on “RSS Feeds”
• Click on “Add a new RSS Feed”
• Paste in the following “http://feeds.feedburner.com/synopsysoc/ToUSB?format=xml”
• Click on “Accept” or “Yes” or whatever the dialogue box says.

Okay this really isn’t USB Peripherals for iPad.  It’s like a USB Docking Station.  That base has a USB 2.0 Host in it.

Game players, Party Game players take a wireless controller and play trivia type party games.

On the back, you see the various Video outs.  I’m betting the iPad screen works fine, but if you want to hook it up to your Sony/Samsung 3D display, it will let you do that too..  I assume power is available to charge your iPad also.

More pictures at TouchArcade here of the Griffin Party Dock.

Shameless Advertisement – If you like my blog, send it off to your Facebook friends, your real friends, your coworkers, your parents.  If you hate my blog, send it to someone you don’t like, your sister, your brother, your in-laws, or your competitors.

I will get the satisfaction of more readers.  You get the satisfaction of either helping those you respect, or hindering those you detest.

Do the following:

1) click on the Orange graphic under “Subscribe” in the upper left.

2) Send the Blog address to someone else Right Now

3) and Read on

You could already play 2 player games on the same screen, or multi-player games where you pass the iPad around.

Basically, Apple has launched either an expensive, or a cheap gaming console.  Games only cost about $5-$20 dollars.  $20 dollars on the high side.     You download games directly from Apple.  This compares to games for the XBox 360 for download for $8-20.   But, the XBox isn’t as portable or contain a screen.  Games on the PS3 are comparable in price.  I just thought it was interesting that as the iPad processing power increases with each generation, each year, it may be able to grab more gaming marketing share while the XBox and the PlayStation renew every 5+ years.  I don’t know about hard core games, but I know it’s really easy to download new games to an iPad from any WiFi connection and it includes controls and a screen all in one.

Here’s a screen shot of the famous Unreal engine running on an iPhone (not even an iPad)

More pictures here http://toucharcade.com/2010/09/01/unreal-engine-3-tech-demo-epic-citadel-available-for-free/

This would enable hard-core gamers to play HD first person shooters (FPS) like Call of Duty (potentionally)

If the iPad can stream games the way you stream games on the PC through Facebook or movies through YouTube or Netflix, then the processing power could be elsewhere.  You could play other hardcore games on your touchscreen iPad.  Below, you’ll see the game World of Warcraft being played/demoed on an iPad.

For those of you who don’t know, World of Warcraft has about 11 million PAYING subscribers at about $15 a month.  Expansions can be bought for $60, but you need to buy the base game for $50 bucks, then the subsequent expansions.  If you do the math, this game generates about $165M a month in revenue.  I’m not kidding.  So again, do the math, that’s over $1 Gazillion dollars a year.

World of Warcraft addicts call the game WoW or World of WarCrack, or just WarCrack.

The Touch Arcade article on streaming WarCraft can be read here.  Several streaming technologies could be used.

Send this article on to your best friend or worst enemy.