I was struck today by how fast the information age is rolling out. It is like one of those sped up movies of flowers bursting open. And then more, and more and more. There were several prompts for my thoughts.
One was a change of use for my Calendar in the cloud.
It happened this weekend, suddenly we are using Google calendar in Kate Tapley Horse Treks for bookings etc. That means Kate is using the online calendar, and the Google Calendar I made for our joint events about 5 years ago she now also uses! That is a big change. A social one. (I imagine it is not just Kate but millions of people who are not that into tech doing it as they have broadband, iPhones, a real use for them, and friends who help them.) The technical change is not the main one. Look at Wave, the tech is there, but it did not catch on. iCal is in, I imagine the user graph will soar to vertical in 2012, (though I can’t find any data on this).
So while I’ve had a digital diary since the first Palm, it was not in the cloud and not shared… that last step is the change this week.
Pulse
Just got the Pulse App for the iPad. It is an RSS reader that works with the charm of FlipBook, in other words like a magazine. I have a huge pile of feeds in Google reader, and use it to manage info like podcasts, but not so much as a reader since links from my Twitter feed too over. But Pulse might change that again. It lets me pick feeds from my Google Reader too. The key is the “Master / Detail” user interface. Why doesn’t Google Reader have that on the web? It will come. It is so strange that these things develop on the iPad… or maybe not so strange as one can read the iPad in the body posture one would read a magazine.
Books
I’m on my third novel this week in the iPad… I hate that I can’t share them all three were from Amazon. they are about a a half or third of what they would cost here in paper. If I could find them. I’ve done it on the Palm, the iPhone, but there is nothing like the iPad, I’d even get a kindle to add to the mix, a screen for every occasion.
Note: With the advent of more “master / detail” readers I am back to sharing the whole post in RSS. Means you might see badly edited posts again!