As most of my friends know, I got an iPad.

Upon announcement of the device, I thought it was a pretty stupid product–simply an oversized iPod Touch with no excuse for omitting Java or Flash Player. Then I began to consider the possibility of it being a portable drawing tablet. I figured I’d get a Pogo Sketch stylus, try it out, and if it didn’t meet expectations I could sell it on eBay at a profit to someone in some foreign country still waiting for it.

After a week or so of using it, I must say I love the iPad. It’s replaced my iPhone in cases where I want to casually search online, and typing is much easier than I expected (though I miss the tab key), which has yielded the device to being an adequate and lightweight replacement for my laptop. I still think Apple’s blockade of Flash is childish, but you can’t win all the time. Onto the comparison!

Before I get into the pros and cons of the iPad, let’s look at the current options available for artists interested in illustrating digitally:

• PC tablets. Expect to drop a good $1,500 for a full-fledged computer here, not including software (I’m talking about stuff like the Dell XT2).
• Wacom tablets. I use mine every day, but there’s a slight disconnect between drawing on the tablet and following what’s on-screen.
• Wacom Cintiq. Yes, I’m spoiled, as I happen to have one of these. They are incredible, but not mobile–and not cheap ($2,000).
• Modbook. Turn your Mac into a Cintiq. Reviews have mentioned the performance to be slightly buggy, and again, it’s not cheap ($1000+ on top of the laptop cost).
• Mobile phones. A little too small of a screen for serious consideration, if you ask me.
• HP’s upcoming Slate or Microsoft’s upcoming Courier tablet. the key word here is “upcoming”. Sadly, these products might as well be vaporware until official release dates and prices are announced (I should probably mention that I’m skeptical of hardware in which the operating system wasn’t built from the ground up with touch and gestures in mind).

Screen comparison

For starters, the Cintiq is a resistive screen, whereas the iPad is a capacitive screen. Resistive screens recognize pressure, while capacitive screens register touch (unfortunately for us artists, capacitive is what’s “in” so our options will remain limited).

The winner? Cintiq by a mile. While using the iPad, I was easily frustrated with the bottom of my hand creating marks while I wanted to draw. I also found myself intuitively attempting to apply pressure as I drew, which, of course, didn’t matter with the iPad. Granted, the workaround is to continually modify stroke weights in conjunction with brush opacity, but it’s simply not on par with the Cintiq.

To the iPad’s defense, I will say that Apple typically chooses the best screens on the market (Samsung?) and is known for having some of the best capacitive screens.

Price

No brainer here. The iPad is much cheaper.

Stylus

You can draw with your finger on the iPad (but not the Cintiq), but regardless, drawing just feels more natural with a stylus. I went out and purchased the Pogo Sketch (slightly longer than the regular Pogo Stylus, since it’s for prolonged use) for use with the iPad. The tip of the stylus is much bigger than Wacom’s pen, and I believe this is due to the fact that the iPad requires a bigger imprint to register input.

I really didn’t like that Sketch on the iPhone, but it’s much better on the iPad (this may be due to the faster processor). Drawing requires more pressure than what feels natural, and I still don’t like how pressure can force the nub around (I’m always worried the aluminum will end up scratching the glass, though it never does). Unfortunately, unlike a Wacom pen, the Pogo cant have another tip on the opposite side that can be programmed as an eraser. In the end, it’s a workable device, though not as natural as the Wacom pen due to the thick tip.

Software

I’d actually call this a tie. The iPad doesn’t have Photoshop or Painter, but I’ve found Autodesk’s Sketchbook Pro ($8.99) to be a perfect substitute that can export layered PSDs. Of course, there’s also Brushes, as well as several other drawing apps available. I hope Adobe Ideas works in new features in the future, as it currently is the only iPad entry to allow for Flash-like vector drawing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I’d disclaim to artists to not fool themselves into thinking that the iPad is a replacement for a Cintiq, but I’d definitely recommend the iPad as a drawing tool. Its portability paired with its affordable price eclipse its shortcomings, and despite some minor usability issues, the iPad has really impressed me as a drawing tool.

Personally, I had a lot of fun at BarCamp Harrisburg 2, and got to meet a lot of people in-person for the first time, which was great (I hope to see everyone again next year!).

I noticed there were a lot of tagged mentions on my topic, and I feel like I need to set the record straight. Most of the tags said something along the lines of “HTML 5 – the death of Flash” when they should have said “HTML5 – The Death of Flash?”

The idea to present on this topic revolved around Apple’s decision to omit Flash from their mobile products. In some ways, I think it’s a good decision for the iPhone but childish for the iPad. While researching the topic, I was actually surprised to discover how much HTML5 actually could replace Flash. As a Flash designer/developer, I’d love to see a standardized video format hit the Web (though, unfortunately, it looks like OGG won’t be it.

In my presentation, I predicted that Adobe will either make Flash export to an HTML5 canvas or will build a new tool that does just that. Besides that, my conclusion was that Flash isn’t going anywhere for a long time. Some of the reasons:

• Better production tools (HTML5 will catch up)
• Bigger community (HTML5 will catch up)
• Ubiquity and consistency (HTML5 will catch up, but browsers will take years to meet standards consistently, plus the HTML5 spec won’t be finalized until 2022)
• Creativity – <canvas> doesn’t appear to support filters, or tie in effects with video like Flash does
• Video cue points – not built into H.264
• Fonts – there’s the Web Open Font Format and TypeKit, but neither are a part of the HTML5 spec. Me, personally, I’d rather use sIFR over images of custom fonts.
• Browser independence – I’m not talking about Adobe AIR (which, aside from Tweetdeck, seems silly due to the double install), but Flash runs on a variety of devices in standalone form and needn’t sit in a Web page
• Code privacy – perhaps not such a good thing, but compiled SWF files protect their authoring code from being viewed. A <canvas> element would be available via view source. It makes me wonder how long an HTML page will become with really complicated HTML5 canvas-based apps…

In the end, we all ultimately choose the best tool for the job, and my ultimate point was that if you look at the evolution of the Web, innovation isn’t standard.

They give you a handy box for the four hardcover books you get with attending the seminar.

I recently attended Presenting Data and Information, a day-long seminar by Edward Tufte.

I suppose, for starters, that I’m rather surprised at how few people know who Tufte is. Of course, the ones that do recognize the name know him for his recent White House appointment, his distaste for PowerPoint, and his invention of Sparklines.

A common question I get from people after attending the seminar is “Was it worth it?” At $380 a pop, it’s definitely not cheap (add another $170 in train tickets for me on a sleep-deprived Friday), and judging from the number of attendees (estimating 400 at the NYC seminar), I wouldn’t be surprised if the pulled in a cozy six figures after expenses.

Sugarcoating aside, it’s a scheme to sell books (You receive four of Tufte’s books). Thing is, they’re four excellent books, and Tufte utilizes them as high-resolution graphics for his presentation. As soon as you sit down, you’re given a reading assignment–several pages and a few chapters–prior to the presentation beginning.

During the presentation, I found myself often looking up, expecting slide show images to accompany the topics, but often found that wasn’t the case. The epiphany for me, however, was the reminder that people do learn differently, and that a handout prior to any presentation allows students to absorb the material in a variety of ways. Tufte’s comment that people can read faster than you can speak somehow reminded me of my grad school days studying neurolinguistics.

I can't say I've ever had a bookcover autographed before.

I also collected a few new favorite quotes– “No matter how beautiful your interface is, it’d be more beautiful if there were less of it” and “Design is a resource problem, not a creative act“.

So, was it worth it? I’d say yes, though I must admit that I attended based on reputation and never picked up any of his books before. Of course, all of the material is pretty much in the books, anyway, So buying the books by themselves offers a much cheaper alternative.

There’s been a lot of talk regarding the future of Adobe Flash thanks to the blockade generated by Apple on the iPad and iPhone. It’s been covered extensively by the news media and blogs, but I figured as a Flash developer/designer, I’d chime in.

To paint a picture of my stance, I will say that:

1. I hope open-source OGG format replaces Flash video. Flash has standardized a ubiquitous video format for the Web, and it’s wonderful evolution we can’t deny. Gone are the days of multiple encodings for Quicktime, Real Player, and Windows Media, and I doubt supervision excluding a for-profit company would have succeeded. That said, I think the Web has evolved, and the fact that HTML 5 has dropped OGG as the definitive format is a politically-driven mistake. We, as the creators of the Web, should be embracing an open video format.
2. I’m not an Adobe fanboy. Flash provides a format of expression unlike any other, and while I admit that Flash work is my bread-and-butter (and that I’m coincidentally wearing Adobe-branded apparel as I write this), I recognize Adobe is a company that answers to its shareholders. Frankly, their Open Screen Project and claims of Flash being an “open” platform register strictly as propaganda to me, and I felt the need to point out this stance because of the opinions I’ve encountered at some Adobe user groups.
3. I don’t believe HTML 5 is the Messiah. I support universal formats that ensure consistency between browsers. However, formats, while well-intentioned, don’t always reach the Web–they are ultimately dictated by the market. If that wasn’t the case, we’d all be discussing XHTML 2.0 instead of HTML 5 and be visiting .MOBI sites instead of using Webkit on our phones.
4. Flash isn’t going anywhere. Flash is used for more than just the Web–it’s great for standalone applications, and its games can’t be successfully emulated with HTML + JS. Furthermore, it allows for data without browser refreshing, and provides a more media-rich interactive experience. Regarding standards, see #3.
5. I want to see Flash Player on the iPad and the iPhone, but I believe this responsibility falls to Adobe.

I think something many in the Flash community fail to realize is that Flash Player doesn’t play well on mobile, and it’s not exclusive to Apple products. I know firsthand, as I considered purchasing a Nokia N900 as a result of Apple’s embargo. I checked out Flash Player 9.4 on the N900′s browser while stopping in at NYC’s Nokia Store, and the performance was nothing short of atrocious. YouTube videos were so choppy that they weren’t viewable, and simple Flash sites crashed the browser.

I should mention that the N900 is powered by the same ARM Cortex-A8 processor as the iPhone 3GS (the 3GS is underclocked to 600 Mhz). Sure, there are videos of Google’s Nexus One playing Flash Player 10.1, however, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Nexus One’s Snapdragon 1 GHz processor is concealing Flash Player’s inherent memory issues.

Reinforcement for this argument is Mozilla’s decision to drop Flash Player support for their mobile Firefox browser just prior to launch. I’m still amazed that this hasn’t garnered as much press as the iPad announcement.

This brings me back to the title of this topic–the Future of Adobe Flash.

Personally, I wonder if Adobe might have lost its way. Their community support is excellent, and I use their industry-standard tools every day, however, they’ve seemingly become obsessed with supporting a proprietary platform instead of focusing on building excellent tools, and their evangelists seem to point outward for blame rather than looking within. As I mentioned in #5, I want to see Flash Player arrive on all of Apple’s products, however, I think this falls upon Adobe improving the player’s performance. As for my predictions:

1. Flash Player goes truly open source and somehow gets included in the HTML 5 spec. Sadly, this is unlikely, as Adobe licenses proprietary video codecs for HE-AAC and h.264. More importantly, it’d likely affect Adobe’s bottom line.
2. Adobe publishes an API for Actionscript that supports gestures. Gestureworks is already providing this, and Adobe’s not far behind. Personally, I’m holding my breath for official Flash SWF support.
3. Adobe starts building applications that publish content for HTML 5 and mobile platforms.

Obviously, #1 and #2 are less predictions than #3, but I think it’d be refreshing for Adobe to begin exploring these new mobile outlets as opportunities to provide new software. Can you imagine a software that publishes iPhone, Blackberry, and MeeGo apps–without doing translations from Flash? Now that would truly be interesting . . .

Jersey tagged me on his 5 people lunch meme, and as a good blogger, I feel compelled to answer.

My first answer would be to have lunch with five geographically-distant friends, as having lunch with famous people (who, let’s face it, would be complete strangers) would be an awkward situation for both me and the other party. Furthermore, I’m not a fan of this question because it begs you to impress everyone by naming a lesser-known, non-celebrity-but-famous-for-a-reason answer. I might as well be out tutoring some bartender on how to make “my” drink.

Since the friend answer defeats the fun of this question, I’ve answered below (in no particular order). I wasn’t sure if dead people were acceptable (otherwise it’d be Christ, Buddha, and Mohammed FTW), so I kept it with the living.

1. Shigeru Miyamoto. The Walt Disney of the video game industry deserves my thanks for a happy childhood.
2. Steve Jobs. The Willy Wonka of our generation can’t be off this list.
3. Bill Watterson. Of anyone who could tell me the joys and pitfalls of creating comics, this is the man.
4. Warren Buffett. Last year, Zhao Danyang paid $2.1 million to have lunch with the Oracle of Omaha. If offered, why turn down something so valuable for free?
5. Gordon Ramsay. Someone has to cook the meal!

It looks like this message is making the rounds, but in case any photographers around here missed it, The Yellow Wall Gallery (located in the Midtown Scholar Bookstore), is accepting submissions for their upcoming exhibit, “Summer in Winter: A Visual Escape”, February 5 – March 26, 2010. More details are available at the The Yellow Wall Gallery’s Website.

It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since I’d done one of these, until I remember I spent all of last December moving and painting.

This is one of those equations I always seem to forget, so I’m posting it here for my own selfish benefit (though it’s free for anyone to use).

It’s a range converter method that can be particularly useful for sliders, etc. (code is in ActionScript 3.0).

/**
* Translates a value between two numeric ranges.
* Usage example: trace(translateRange(0, 10, 0, 100, 5)); // returns 50
* @param a1 (Number) minimum value of original range
* @param a2 (Number) maximum value of original range
* @param b1 (Number) minimum value of new range
* @param b2 (Number) maximum value of new range
* @param num (Number) number from original range to translate
* @return Number Value of num in new range
*/
function translateRange(a1: Number, a2: Number, b1: Number, b2: Number, num:Number):Number {
var c:Number = ((num - a1) * (b2 -b1)/(a2 - a1)) + b1;
return c;
}