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Why replacing newspaper photographers with iPhones may not have been the best idea
At the beginning of June the Chicago Sun-Times fired its entire photography staff. Their reasoning? Well, all the reporters now have iPhones, and therefore they can shoot photos to accompany stories. Ignoring for a moment what this says about the Sun-Times' view of the photojournalists, how is that working out for the paper? Has there been a noticeable drop in the quality of their reporting or the images used to illustrate stories? A new Tumblr has been set up to help answer those questions. SunTimes/DarkTimes collects examples of how the paper's coverage has changed since the switch over to iPhone pictures taken by untrained photographers. It's worth heading over and getting a look at how startling the difference is. We've included one example below that should strike particularly close to the hearts of Chicago Blackhawks fans. The first image is the Sun-Time's cover page following the Blackhawks' win of the Stanley Cup. The second is the cover page from their competition at the Chicago Tribune. We're big fans of the iPhone here at TUAW, but it's no substitute for a trained and experienced newspaper photographer. [via Daring Fireball]
Walgreens employees use iPads to aid customers
The next time you visit your local Walgreens store to get a prescription, find pain relief, choose laxatives or buy "Walker Balls," you may get help from an iPad-toting Walgreens employee called a "health guide." Walgreens, based in Deerfield, IL, is testing a new service in 16 stores in the Chicago area where a full-time employee carrying an iPad wanders the store to help out customers who are seeking assistance. To quote Colin Watts, the chief innovation officer for Walgreen Company, "The concept is meant to create a pharmacy and health care 'help desk' where customers get solutions or referrals for their personal health questions." According to a recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times, the company has an ulterior motive. The health guide keeps customers from taking up valuable time with pharmacists for routine issues, allowing them to provide more one-on-one care with patients. The health guide app on the iPads was prepared by M-Healthcoach, another Chicago-based company. M-Healthcoach CEO Aamer Ghaffar said that "We are trying to not only improve people's quality of care, but also to reduce the patient load on doctors, pharmacies, and emergency rooms," with iPad-based mobile health apps. The health guides use the iPads to access information from government databases to physician ratings, and can also get full access to "blue button" medical records available to U.S. military personnel and government employees and retirees.
Andy Ihnatko: iPad is pure innovation, one of best computers ever
Uncle Walt has weighed in, and most of the other big tech pundits are starting to weigh in on the Apple iPad. The Chicago Sun Times columnist and Mac geek extraordinaire Andy Ihnatko has offered his input, not only in the first of what he says will be many posts about the device, but also in an interview on Leo Laporte's TWiT Live MacBreak Weekly. The headline says it all -- Ihnatko says that the iPad is one of the best computers ever. He starts his review by saying that the iPad meets or exceeds all of the hype that preceded the release, and then goes on to mention that "it's a computer that many people have wanted for years." As in Walt Mossberg's review, Andy comments that it can easily last 10 hours on a charge, it can hold just about any piece of media you ever want to carry with you, and that it does the "dull compulsories of computing (Mail, the web, and Microsoft Office-style apps) so well" that the iPad will, in many cases, take the place of a standard laptop computer. Ihnatko, who has had the pleasure of playing with an iPad for the last week, gushes about Apple's innovation, saying "I'm suddenly wondering if any other company is as committed to invention as Apple. Has any other company ever demonstrated a restlessness to stray from the safe and proven, and actually invent things?" The result? As he says, "The iPad user experience is instantly compelling and elegant... It's a computer that's designed for speed, mobility, and tactile interaction above all other considerations." Ihnatko thinks that Apple got the design of the iPad right because "the excitement slips away after about ten seconds, and you're completely focused on the task at hand... In situation after situation, I find that the iPad is the best computer in my household and menagerie." During his TWiT Live interview, he stated that "battery life is frickin' incredible." With the most aggressive use, he was able to get 6 - 7 hours of use, but when he set the device for more sedate battery usage (volume and brightness both turned down), he was able to get over 11 hours of use. For those of you who are used to getting your laptop scorched by a Macbook, you'll be glad to hear that the iPad never gets warm. Ihnatko was demonstrating web browsing on the device, and was amazed at how fast scrolling occurred. We'll try to get Andy's TWiT Interview link up a bit later for your viewing pleasure.
Games vs. popular media: the debate
Gamasutra reports on a panel held this weekend in Austin entitled "Games: the bastard children of popular media". Responding to Roger Ebert's comment last year that video games don't measure up to the standard set by other popular media, the panellists' debate covered movies, youth culture and even the moral situations of Ultima IV, pointing out that:Games, being interactive, are meant to tell stories in a different way, by giving their audiences a participatory experience. Instead of watching a movie about the horrors of war, a gamer can play Civilization and see what happens to an area of the world.An interesting point brought up in the report is that of longevity--will we be playing the games we play now in 500 years' time, just as Shakespeare's plays are still studied and performed? It's unlikely; printed paper, unlike today's consoles, probably won't become obsolete. Perhaps what survives of today's games might not be code and sprites, but characters, stories and concepts, with Mario becoming as time-honoured as Hamlet and Macbeth.
