AR&D Reinventing Local Media

Leave it to Apple to kick it up a notch.

Today is a big day in Apple history, releasing redesigned versions of the majority of its music and video devices. Apple unveiled new iPod Shuffles, Nanos and Touches and an updated version of iTunes. All of which will be strategically rolled out by November for the holiday season.

But the big news today was the re-release of Apple TV.

Apple has changed its position from playing movies stored on hard drives to a streaming only device. The new Apple TV box is a quarter of the size of the original and more than half the price. “The new Apple TV, paired with the largest selection of online HD movie and TV show rentals, lets users watch Hollywood content on their HD TV whenever they want,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “This tiny, silent box costing just $99 lets users watch thousands of HD movies and TV shows, and makes all of their music, photos and videos effortlessly available on their home entertainment system.”

Price was a huge part of the unveiling. Nearly every device Apple is offering has a reduced price from its predecessor. At $99 for the new Apple TV device, 99 cents television shows and $4.99 for first run movie rentals, streaming HD just become a whole new option for the home.

This is not Apple’s first foray into the living room. They tried four years ago with the original Apple TV, but the device never hit cult status like the rest of its devices.”

Jobs says people loved the earlier editions but there were certain things users were looking for. “They want Hollywood movies and TV shows whenever they want it and they want everything in HD. They would also like to pay lower prices for the content and do not want to have a computer on their TV’s.”

Jobs says only Fox and ABC networks have signed up to offer streaming television shows but believes once the other networks see the success of the project, they will follow.

The new Apple TV box, that literally fits in the palm of your hand, comes with an HDMI output, WiFi, and a wired Ethernet connection. It’s built purely for displaying high definition video and pictures and playing out high quality audio. The box also links to any existing iTunes or Apple iOS device that is on the network, allowing the user to playout everything to an HD television. Netflix subscribers will be able to stream directly out of Apple TV. User can also watch HD YouTube videos and listen to more than 4,000 Internet radio stations. In November, Apple will launch Airplay – allowing users to playout a movie from their iPhone or iPad and finish watching it on their set at home. Now that’s convenience.

The living room is the one place the computer industry has not been able to crack. Even though today’s announcement is a move in that direction, Apple and others have a tough road ahead of them. Not just against the behemoth cable and satellite companies, but consumers who capture content on DVR’s and play it back later. Nielsen recently released figures in the annual Three Screen Report that showed not only are more people connected to the Internet, but also are watching more television than ever before.

“Consumers are driven by the convenience and quality that today’s technology now enables,” said Matt O’Grady, Executive Vice President, Audience Measurement. “New mobile devices and enhanced TV quality allow viewers to engage in more content than ever before.”

More than half of US TV households now have HDTV, up 189% from the first quarter of 2008, and more than one-third now have DVRs, up 51%. High-speed broadband Internet access, now in 63.5% of homes, has created a better user experience for watching online videos and nearly a quarter of households have smartphones, enabling consumers to “place shift” and watch video wherever they are. Despite the common perception that viewers of videos on mobile phones are predominantly teens, more than half (55%) are adults aged 25-49. While mobile online video viewing is still fairly limited, year over year growth is notable at 51.2%.

For the 2010-2011 broadcast season, Nielsen estimates the total number of TV households in the U.S. will climb to 115.9 million, an increase of one million homes from last year. It is only a matter of time before the two technologies – Internet and television collide. The new Apple TV box is available for pre-order now, with delivery in four weeks.

As mobile technologies expand, smartphones are making their way into mainstream media newsrooms.

KPHO in Phoenix is one station leading the charge. The station purchased Verizon Droid X phones for its news staff and rolled them out as news gathering tools.

The Droid X has an 8 megapixel camera that shoots 720p HD video and holds up to 32GB on removable SD chips. It’s at the top of its class in video enabled phones.

In less than a month the staff began experimenting with ways to shoot video and send it back to the station for online and on-air use. They transmit the images through the phones 3G mobile connection.

Michelle Donaldson is a believer that the phones have a place in today’s newsrooms. “The X phones are great, so far. I think we’ve learned more about them and various ways to use them than Verizon knew when we were sold the phones!”

Donaldson adds, “They work great — but we love Gmail more than anything else. If your internal email system rejects large files (as ours does), you’ll want to build a work-around to get those large files into your plant. We established a Gmail destination that our editors can tap into.”

“We were able to have a significant presence from Flagstaff where the Cardinals are working out. Our competitors sent their satellite truck. We sent a guy with a phone! How cool is that? It’s not the ideal way to do things right now, but we’re still experimenting. I have a staff of McGuyvers and it’s amazing what they’ve created so far,” Donaldson says.

The station shoots video in short bursts in 16X9 format, usually about 35 seconds or less. That allows them to email the files without getting backed up in email. The clips are then edited together back at the station and ready for air.

Eric Sperling of KPHO Sports explains the process:

“Because I knew we were going to put the PKG on the air, I shot a 20 second intro and tag with the Droid camera set to the HD settings. Because the file size is so large for HD, I had to rush through when we approached the 20 second mark. For the VO portion, I changed the settings to low resolution so I could talk a little longer. I then e-mailed the files one at a time to the station and they put the clips into the Avid and did some nice movements with the pictures I sent back from camp. Again—not great—but not bad if we’re ever in a pinch without a SAT truck and editing equipment.”

Here is a link to story that aired on KPHO that night. Kudos to the Phoenix team for thinking out of the box and using new technology to solve age old issues.

Before you read further, answer this question. How many You Tube, Yahoo or Facebook videos did you post in July?

Why is that important? Because in July 2010, 178 million Internet users in the US watched online video content, an average of 14.7 hours per viewer.

comScore, the people that measure things on the web, released the latest figures this week, and as expected online video use continues to climb. Certainly being fueled by web enabled smartphones and e-readers. People just have more options now to get to the web than ever before.

Online video continues to be driven by Google sites, like You Tube, ranked #1 with 143.2 million unique viewers. Yahoo is a distant second with 55 million unique viewers. But here is the real headline. Facebook is now the third largest online video site, jumping Microsoft in the last 30 days.

Facebook, the social network phenom, continues to gain users – now with over 500 million and 50% of them log on every single day. Facebook videos are those that are usually shot and uploaded among friends, not links out to other sites.

We have suggested for years the need for stations to get onboard the online video train. It is a great way to market and reaches audiences that are potentially not watching daily newscasts, but still need and want to stay connected. Reaching out to them beyond the set, bringing them into your social camp, builds loyal viewers and online users.

There are several ways to do this efficiently. Building a YouTube channel gets you in front of the worlds second largest search engine, supplies links to post to your Facebook page and can generate revenue with partner accounts. You kill two birds with one stone with this method, getting your content in from of two of the top three online video sites.

WCMH-TV in Columbus, OH is a good example of a station that has adopted a You Tube strategy.

Ike Walker is the Director of Digital Journalism at WCMH. “Everyone in the newsroom is responsible for processing video, getting it to the sever that can feed the multiple sites. We post when we get it.. we moved to a web first mentality, very rarely is there an occasion that we say we will hold the story until 6PM. We are training everyone in the newsroom to post.”

Walker tells me their goal is to make sure they aren’t just regurgitating content from the broadcast, ” We are trying to make sure everything we are doing is in addition to our regular broadcast.”

Posting to your own site and linking to Facebook works too. It drives views back to your website and still gets you in front of a huge Facebook audience.

Either way, there should be a daily plan of moving content to these valuable platforms. I hear almost weekly from stations asking what other platforms are my viewers on and how do I reach them? 178 million online video users is a really good start.

Is there such a thing as one upping Apple? Well, it was at least a thunder stealing event today in New York as Verizon, Google, Motorola and Adobe joined to announce the “Next Generation of Droids”. On the heels of tomorrow’s launch of the iPhone 4, Verizon brought the technology world together and unveiled the Droid X.

The Droid X is a state-of-the-art smartphone that has a large 4.3 inch screen with 848×480 pixel display, multi-touch screen, GPS, bluetooth, a higher quality 8 megapixel camera that shoots 720p HD video and also provides mobile WiFi hotspot access.

Droid X could challenge Apple’s apparent stranglehold on new smartphone technology. Built on the Android open source platform, the Droid X will launch with 2.1 software and update to the much anticipated 2.2 Android software later in the summer.

“It has been an exciting time for Android momentum and global consumer adoption since the announcement of DROID by Motorola nine months ago,” said Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering for Google. “There are 160,000 new Android-powered devices activated daily and Android Market has grown to over 65,000 applications. Plus later this summer, Verizon Wireless and Motorola will update all the DROID by Motorola phones to the latest 2.2 software. For customers, this means great new features and improved browser performance. For developers, this will provide new tools such as cloud-to-device messaging and enhanced enterprise functionality.”

This phone is also fast with the same speed 1 MgHZ as Apple’s new iPhone 4. The question will be operation systems – which will win the speed test, Apple’s iOS or Droid 2.2? You will certainly hear more in the coming weeks.

The new Droid X launches with Adobe’s brand new Flash 10.1 video player. Flash leads all other video players on websites and mobile. This is a big difference to the iPhone 4, where Apple has banned flash on it’s devices in favor of HTML5 and .H264 formats.

One thing to remember in all of this… these are mobile phones and Motorola’s CEO Sanjay Jha called the performance of AT&T cell service into question, touting Verizon’s service as superior. “We pay attention to this, because we realize that people still use their phones.. as phones.”

The new Droid X begins shipping on July 15th, will cost you $199 after a $100 rebate, requires a $30 monthly unlimited data fee in addition to cell service, and if you choose the mobile WiFi hotspot service, that will set you back an additional $20 per month for 2 GB of data, go over that and you pay more. Have a Verizon contract coming due this year? Verizon takes a page from the Apple playbook and waives fees to upgrade to the new Droid X.

With so many phones being released at one time, this could probably be called the week of the smartphone. In recent memory never has there been so many advances in mobile technology released at one time.

But still, the big attention getter is the iPhone 4. Pre-orders clogged Apple and AT&T websites, selling 600,000 devices before cutting off sales after 8 hours. Those phones begin arriving into users hands today and limited availability in retail stores on June 24, but AT&T says don’t expect to actually be able to buy one in their stores until June 29th.

The latest phone is a re-design for Apple with a more sure body and higher resolution retina display. It’s also the first phone in the US capable of shooting 720p HD video. But it’s the second forward facing camera that is getting a lot of attention and the accompanying app FaceTime, which allows two-way conference between phones. This is going to be another media event, one where we will surely see people camping at Best Buy and AT&T to be first in line, even though you could pick up the phone and order 10 days ago.

The main differences between these two devices:

Apple’s iPhone 4:

• Uses the AT&T wireless network, that no longer offers an unlimited data plan.
• 4G cellular service where available – 18 current markets and growing.
• Retina display high resolution display screen
• Two cameras – Front facing camera and a 5 megapixel main camera – 720p HD video
• Exclusive FaceTime phone to phone video calls – only on WiFi networks

Verizon’s Droid X:

• Uses Verizon’s wireless network, $30 monthly unlimited data plan
• 3G cellular service
• 4.3″ inch screen – larger than the iPhone, but lower resolution
• 8 megapixel camera – shoots 720p HD video and stills
• Plays flash video from Adobe 10.1 software

There is more news expected from Verizon later this summer. The expected release of the Droid 2, replacing the original Droid. A faster processor, the same as the new Droid X, and a larger redesigned physical keyboard could very well begin challenging Blackberry devices as the smartphone of choice for businesses. The Droid 2 will have the same video capabilities as today’s new release.

Stay tuned.

The fanfare is subsiding now following this week’s announcement by Apple of the new iPhone 4 at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2010.

In case you were unconscious or just missed it, here are the headlines. Apple will begin selling the new iPhone 4 on June 24 for $199, with a two-year exclusive AT&T service contract. More on that later.

The new phone has a higher resolution Retina Display, an HD 720p rear video camera with LED flash, a forward facing camera for video chat, a new Apple only A4 processor brain, and a new operating system.

Clearly this will be a device that will set the standard for the next generation of smart phones. The push from technology companies to “one up” each other is paying off in better devices for the consumer.

But at the end of the day a phone is just a phone, or is it? I thought I would investigate what these new devices might do for our ability to gather and deliver news content, increase efficiency, and improve our overall day-to-day operations, specifically the soon to be rolled out iPhone 4.

PDF’s & iBooks

This is more a function of the new OS4 software than it is the iPhone. Apple is putting its e-reader, iBook, on the new phone. It already lives on the iPad.

Two things happen here. Media companies can now begin publishing to the more mobile crowd in the form of interactive magazines. The ability for the two portable devices to stay in sync to the pages read is pretty cool. This takes portable reading to a new level. Magazines can be the big winners here, but the opportunity is there for everyone.

From an operational standpoint, the ability to read pdf files in iBook, gives more credence to replacing printed scripts with those of the electronic version for TV news anchors. I remember when I ran newsrooms, my paper and printing costs of scripts for an average month ran in the neighborhood or 4 to 5 thousand dollars. Not to mention the cost of printer repair and replacement.

It now makes sense to replace newscast scripts with e-readers. Pdf files can be marked up and annotated just like regular paper scripts. Only the markup takes place on the iPad. Instead of printing to paper, the pdf file is transmitted to the iPad. Brilliant! There are a couple of stations around the country experimenting with this concept now, but the built in Apple app is sure to be more bullet proof, with less chance of failure.

iPhone Video & Editing

The new iPhone sports a 5 megapixel, 720p HD video camera on board. The LED built in flash should also help with low light. Granted video in a phone is nothing new, but quality and the ability to edit it, is.

Apple is integrating iMovie, its basic video editing software, into the iPhone 4. It is now possible for a journalist in the field to shoot quick video, edit out the bad shots in the same phone, and send it for online posting, or even on-air. Breaking news is not about live and satellite trucks any longer. It is about the speed to which you can move images and the iPhone 4 will apparently give us a leg up.

FaceTime

FaceTime is Apple’s new in-phone video conferencing feature. Similar to Skype, where two people can carry on a video call over an internet connection, except everything happens in the iPhone.

FaceTime would allow a journalist to video conference to another FaceTime user, anywhere in the world. So a journalist in the field, calls the content center and offers a live report via the FaceTime connection. A simple Apple supplied cable ($49) gets the audio and component video out of the phone and on-air and online.

FaceTime has some growing problems to overcome. At launch it is only available if the phones are connected to a Wi-Fi network. In other words, unlike Skype, FaceTime does not work on 3G cellular networks at the moment.

Nagging Questions

As ground breaking as the new device is there continue to be nagging issues: iPhones don’t play flash videos – H.264 is Steve Job’s platform of choice, with the AT&T network – users still report dropped calls, the lack of a tethered modem limits the ability to the use phone as an internet connection, and like many other phones no ability to act as a wireless wifi for other devices.

Then there is the question of cost of data plans, on top of the regular calling fees. AT&T just recently, June 7, changed its $30 unlimited monthly data plan to $25 for 2 GB of data. With phones now capable of streaming music and video, the demand on bandwidth will be high and wireless networks put to the test.

AT&T’s website says 2GB is about 200 minutes of standard quality video from You Tube per month. Remember, the iPhone shoots HD. Those with current unlimited plans, get to keep them for now.

I have owned an iPhone 3G for more than a year, it is wonderful device. The apps are the most impressive, along with the ability to store media.

But as much as I appreciate the device, the AT&T network will prevent me from buying into the updated model. There has been plenty of speculation about Apple opening up to other carriers. From my perspective, living with dropped calls and limited service for more than a year, that can’t come soon enough.

Stay tuned…

Since April 20 and the first word of an explosion on the BP drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, it has been all hands on deck for Gulf Coast media. News organizations are being tested each day on how they are reacting to a constantly changing story, one that has no apparent resolution.

it is a story that has an insatiable appetite for viewers too. Pew Research reports again this week the oil spill is top of mind for 49% of American news viewers, followed distantly, 13%, by coverage of the struggling economy.

WKRG in Mobile, AL is in the heat of the battle and has devoted countless hours and resources to coverage of the oil spill crisis. Mike Rausch is the News Director there agreed to answer a few questions about WKRG’s coverage.

Q: How has this story been different than other big stories you have covered in your career?

Rausch: This ‘oil event’ is challenging on multiple levels. It is extremely bizarre in the way it has placed the entire gulf coast and news organizations in a state of suspended animation. When is the oil going to get here? Where might it come ashore? What will be the impact? There are many uncertainties and even more fears relating to these issues. We’ve all heard the old Army phase, “Hurry up and wait.” At WKRG News 5 we went after the story in a big way the first weekend it appeared that doom was headed our way. We called in our main anchors and the entire staff to blanket the ‘hurry up and wait’ event. Only we didn’t know we would still be waiting today. Our newscasts have gone from an ‘all oil—all the time’ format to about 50% ‘Coastal Crisis’ stories. We haven’t seen any sign of viewer fatigue just yet, but it has to be coming.

Think of it as a hurricane that just sits off the coast spinning with no destination or an asteroid orbiting your market. Where’s Bruce Willis when you need him?

Q: How has the use of new technologies played a role in your coverage?

Rausch: Obviously our website has played a key role in getting information to the public. Although we have carried daily news conferences live on-air, we have also streamed many more live on wkrg.com. We created a special page for all information and our webmaster crafted a special oil spill widget that counts how much oil is going into the gulf (multiple estimate options included). It’s being picked up by other websites around the country. At the same time, we developed an embeddable news widget that allows sites to connect directly to our multi-daily oil/weather report updates. SEO has been important, too. If you search Google for ‘ Gulf oil’ WKRG-TV will be well represented in the top listings.

In our continuous news role, we post stories as soon as possible, although the basic completion time table still revolves around our newscasts. I would love to get smart phones into the hands of our reporters for faster and easier web and Facebook updates. I have a specific concept on how to implement that tool (but, don’t have them yet).

Fundamental journalism and creating exclusive story elements still drives the majority of our efforts. All of our reporters have computers or netbooks with air cards and that has helped considerably. During our first plane flights over the Gulf looking for oil, we actually shot the video with the Kodak Zi8 HD pocket video camera simply because it was most effective at getting the shot out of the airplane windows.

Another valuable tool has been Skype. We have utilized Skype on a regular basis to get interviews with distant experts. Using Skype, we were on the able to interview experts on the questionable oil estimates long before the networks and newspapers picked up on the story.

This is now almost a month in the making, what are the plans moving forward?

Rausch: Due to the oddity of this story, we have been making it up as we go. Our core agenda is to continue to dominate the story as we have from the first days of the disaster. That said, everyday is different. Some days there is new and important information and other days it falls to features and fears. All story elements run under our ‘Coastal Crisis’ banner and we pull information and video from whatever source we find. CBS news has been covering it everyday from Louisiana and occasionally they offer something of value. But, the network is mostly about covering this for the evening news and taking what they can from us. Sharing isn’t much of a priority for them. Interestingly, CBS was the first with really great video of thick oil floating in the gulf. I asked for as much of it as possible. It was funny to hear how that wasn’t possible until I mentioned how much they needed our daily satellite uplinks and suddenly the video was made available.

Q: Have you been able to use social media in your coverage?

Rausch: We have pushed changing events and info out to our Twitter, Facebook and text message followers. We have also benefited greatly by following all oil spill comments on Twitter. Twitter provides a flood of information. Most of it is of little value, but there are gems of good information that can come from anyone/anywhere. Our web traffic has fundamentally doubled since the spill began.

Q: What is the one thing that surprised you most during this time?

Rausch: The greatest surprise has been the simple fact that we believed oil landfall was imminent and now there’s no way to know what will happen. Doing oil tracking updates in the weather segment seems almost normal now. Our daily ‘Oil Tracking’ weather reporters posted on our website have had 600,000 hits during the past month.

Q: The staff there covered Katrina heavily, how is this different?

Rausch: This event is different in more ways than it is similar. As mentioned, this has become a waiting game of fear and trepidation. The interest is substantial, but it will impact people in many different ways. Although many local businesses could be catastrophically impacted from a financial standpoint this is not an event that takes lives or destroys homes. The coast is a major part of life here in southern Alabama, but most people can and will live their normal lives even if the coast is covered in oil. For the staff, this story is an unrelenting energy and idea drain, but it’s nothing like days of wall-to-wall coverage demanded by a hurricane that impacts everyone in the most frightening ways possible. We’ve drifted – just like the oil – into what I might call an oil normalcy.

At this writing BP and the US government are trying to determine the best method for stopping the leak. Once the  leak is stopped, this story will continue to develop as oil settles and coastlines along the Gulf are impacted. We will be sure and keep you updated on the efforts of media in the region.

Move over Qik and Ustream! Knocking Live is at the social media door and wants in. This morning I discovered a new social media app that could have some interesting results, depending on how the technology is adopted by current Apple and Android mobile phone users. (Not to worry Blackberry and others – your app is on the way too!).

Knocking Live is brand new, and may be the only, peer-to-peer video sharing app on the market at the moment. What it allows you to do is share live video from your phone, directly with someone else, anywhere in the world. All you need is a good 3G signal or wifi.

Knocking Live is outpacing Twitter and Foursquare in amount of initial sign ups. More than 1.6 million mobile users have downloaded the free app since December.

Here is how it works:  After downloading the app from Apple of Android, setup an account and add a list of friends from your contacts. (They of course will need the app too, and you can invite them). Once installed you simply launch the app – choose the friend to knock – they answer and you send live stream video from your mobile phone. Also works on Ipad, of course. Knocking Live has put together a cool demonstration video.

So what are the uses? How about live video from the field to an Ipad on the anchor desk, show the assignment desk or producers specifically what a news scene looks like, traffic reports, severe weather – where a live shot isn’t possible.   Anywhere there is 3G you can send back live streaming video.

Check it out, and if you want to reach me on Knocking Live just search for kenelmore or kelmore@ar-d. Have a great holiday weekend!

There is a new phone on the shelf of your local Verizon store that you should take a look at, The HTC Verizon Incredible. This is the latest in the Android arsenal of open source platform phones and it is going to get a lot of attention.

The HTC Incredible is thinner than the Motorola Droid, mainly because of the touchscreen and lack of tactile keyboard and little wider than the Iphone keyboard, about an eight of an inch.

It is also very fast, built on the 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Even with several of its apps open, I tested with five, the phone didn’t bog down.

Outside the new phone there is a 3.5mm headphone jack, a power/sleep button on top and a volume rocker and Micro USB connection on the left side, and a 3.7 inch, 480 x 800 pixel AMOLED screen. The screen is a little tough to see in bright sunlight.

For digital journalists the Incredible is another good option for the field arsenal. Battery life is about the same as most smart phones, with a charge lasting a full day – but down to the last marker on the battery meter and definitely in need of a charge.

The 8 megapixels camera on this phone is what is being touted as what sets this camera apart from others, but frankly I really didn’t see much of a difference. In natural light it takes vivid picture, but falls short in low light situations, even with the LED flash.

The phone camera also captures 800 x 480 mpeg-4 video. it is not HD, but the video is better than that on Blackberry’s and Iphones. You can even edit video in the phone with free Qik software from the app store.

The web browser on the phone loads pages quickly and the touch sensitive screen lets you slide and zoom into web pages that are not mobile enabled.

Conclusion

A few months back the Droid was the phone to own, but now HTC steps it up with the Incredible. It is packed with apps and handles video very well and is very fast. Verizon is selling the phone for $199 with a two year contract, but I discovered you can buy the phone on Amazon.com for just $149!  The technology on this phone will probably get you through two years of technological advances, except for two advances yet to comes 4G speed and HD video.

Specs

Processor: 1GHz Snapdragon processor with 512MB RAM

Storage: 8GB of internal storage; MicroSD slot which can handle an additional 32GB for a total of 40GB of space.

Screen: 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED

Camera: 8MP with dual LED flash; 800-by-480-pixel MPEG-4 video

Audio: 3.5mm headset jack and powered

Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, Accelerometer

Weight: 4.5 ounces

Bundled apps: Quickoffice, a PDF viewer, HTC’s Teeter game, and Peep, a Twitter client; FM Radio; Free Google Navigation ; Friendstream – keeps you connected to Twitter and Facebook.

As I write this, I am sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting for my next connecting flight. A fitting scene as I review the latest technological development from Apple. It didn’t take long for the stares to begin as I began writing this column on the new iPad. I can even hear whispers, “that’s that new iPad thing, cool!”

Yes it is cool. My pad arrived Saturday morning after a strategically timed four day trip from China. Out of the box I immediately noticed the sleekness of the device. Relatively lightweight, just over a pound, my impression was that it was indeed, a large iPhone.

Once you plug the iPad into iTunes and register, it is ready to use. I synched my existing iPhone apps – Facebook, Sling, Tweetdeck, and FourSquare. All worked as expected, though because they were all built for the iPhone the image size was smaller on the screen. Apple gets by that with a 2x button to enlarge the image.

Next it was on to setting up my wifi networks. Without an internet connection the iPad loses most of its coolness. The setup is the same as with an iPhone.   I set up two networks one for home and one with my Sprint Overdrive 3G/4G mobile wifi. The speed of the iPad is something you notice. It is fast and nimble, though like the iPhone, only runs one app at a time. I chose the wifi model only because 3G speed will soon be a thing of the past, and my portable wifi solves that problem.

My next venture was to the Apple App Store. Already there are 3,000 apps built specifically for the iPad. This is where the power of the iPad starts shining through. You soon realize the device is merely a platform for bigger things to come. I download Apples Office Suite – Pages, Keynote and Numbers, $9.99 each. I use these each day in my travels and it was comforting to find them here. A connector to the charging port will allow me to run presentations from the iPad, rather than from my larger laptop, and controllable remotely from my iPhone. Amazing how Apple thinks of these things!

But back to the apps. The New York Times has done its homework. It is easy to see how the print industry will benefit from the pad. They didn’t build their content like a traditional web page. The app is clean, built like a newspaper, easy to navigate and includes inline ads and sponsor splash pages. The ability to navigate among the content is refreshing. There is no clutter.  Photo galleries and article sharing options are included. There is video embedded in the site, but I had a problem with the stream playing uninterrupted on a clip from this morning “Today Show”.

As I mentioned the power of the iPad is the apps. Need a field teleprompter or just one for an upcoming speech? There is an app for that. PrompterPad gets it done for $4.99. It has adjustable font sizes and colors, bidirectional adjustable scroll speed and a timer. You can even control it via iPhone. Compare that to the old school field prompter costing thousands of dollars and you begin getting the sense of what this thing can do. Teleprompter+ for iPad and ProPrompter gets it done for $9.99.

Video on the iPad is HD quality and easily viewable outside. iTunes sells and rents the latest releases in movies, but Netflix is lining up to be the next killer app. The free download allows for instant viewing of online movies for no additional fee if you subscribe to their regular monthly service, as low as $5. Could this be the next model for local broadcasters?

The iPad is the game changer it is billed to be. As other companies roll out their version of pad devices — the HP Slate is already on the way — consumers will be introduced to yet another platform for content. It is all about portable from this point forward. Stations will be smart to develop IP delivered content for this emerging technology. Put it on your radar.