Getting It Right

As the owner of a customer centric small business, I take emails very seriously.

I read and reply to each and every one, and I usually respond as soon as I possibly can. If I'm not recording, it's not unheard of for me to respond by return, causing the recipient quite a shock, especially in this day and age when sometimes you're lucky to even get a response several days later (from other people I mean!).

I'll even field the occasional "support" email from ScreenCastsOnline members. I know I shouldn't and I know it's not part of the service, but if it's something I can answer in a line or two, then why not. Answering emails are a major overhead and time suck, but over time, I firmly believe that done well, can seriously improve both your good reputation and customer loyalty.

So I soldier on…

Yesterday, I received an email from a potential customer for the "SCOtutor for iBooks Author" application.

He is an author of children's books, and by his own admission, not very technical or computer savvy.

He explained in his email that he had seen my tutorial for sale but he didn't understand iBooks Author and he didn't understand the relationship between the Mac and the iPad. His main requirement was that he needed to get his book from paper into "something nice to show his agent".

Obviously, iBooks Author was complete overkill for him, and he didn't need to create an iBook for sale at this time.

I took his email and split it into sections and responded to each point in turn, with an explanation of iBooks Author, what it does and how it's positioned along with some further suggestions. My main advice was to perhaps just format his document in Pages to show his agent.

So basically, I advised him to consider another App, and forget about iBooks Author for now.

It meant a lost sale as far as "SCOtutor for iBooks Author" but the response back more than made up for it…

Don: That is the best reply I've ever received from anyone in the "help" world. thanks!

Ah! A good start to the day.

iPhone 5

No huge suprised due to the leaks, but some welcome refinements. Nicely summarised by Wired. 

But the thing is, Apple never just casually moves on to the next thing. It doesn’t Sony-up and release new products for the sake of releasing them. Instead, it keeps its product line focused, and meticulously refines it year after year, making everything a little bit better. Which means by four or five generations in, especially when it comes to industrial design, Apple’s products tend to hit a sweet spot, where changing them isn’t going to improve them.

Wired - Matt Honan

The Future of Apple TV now?

Very impressed with how Apple are slowly moving on their pet project, Apple TV.

I'm still not convinced a full TV set is in their sights, but last night, I witnessed a very important part of Apple's TV strategy maturing before my eyes.

The iTunes Festival.

This has been running for a few years now, but this year, the 30 nights of live music are streamed in HD across the globe.

Let me just say that again, 30 nights of music, streamed across the globe, live, in HD, with quality audio too.

Not only can you receive the live stream on your iPhone and iPad using the free app (downloaded via the App Store), Apple pushed out a, let's call it an "Apple TV App" to every Apple TV. They did this without requiring a download, they just pushed out a new icon on the Apple TV that gave you access to a free, live, HD event. No reboot required. Just boom!

Impressive enough, but as I settled down last night to watch the live elbow concert, I was blown away by the audio and video quality. The video particularly had an almost cinematic feel and was superb. I noticed a little bit of banding here and there, but I see that on almost every digital broadcast these days. No stuttering or buffering whatsoever. Apple even reinforced the fact that this was a global event by displaying the opening and closing titles in multiple languages, very smart Apple. I'd love to know what the viewing figures were and how far Apple can scale with live broadcasts. As there were no territorial restrictions, I think it will scale enormously.

The technology has come a huge way in a very short time and Apple have cracked the particular thorny issue of providing live events, one of the few remaining features that stops consumers from moving away from more traditional methods of receiving TV via terrestrial or cable.

So Apple is now well positioned to offer video via download, on demand and live video streaming across all it's devices, current and future. if it can cut the necessary content deals with the industry.

If they can crack that, I imagine we'll see Apple's hobby being promoted very soon now.

Even if you don't like any of the artists featured on the iTunes Festival, I seriously recommend you check out the App or watch some live footage on your Apple TV. Heck, you don't even have to even watch live, just watch one of the recorded segments, I can't see any difference in the quality.

Good News!

I'm delighted to announce that Apple have held true to their promise and have now approved a brand new SCOtutor title, and it's now available on the iTunes App store for both iPad and iPhone.

It's SCOtutor for Mountain Lion and it's now available on the iTunes App Store.

As usual, it's a round up of all the Mountain Lion coverage I've put out over the last few months since Mountain Lion was introduced, all assemble in one big package, with the SCOtutor player wrapped around it. ScreenCastsOnline members have already had the content and some has been republished in the ScreenCastsOnline magazine, but this is the first time it's all been available as a single release.

All the other SCOtutor iOS apps previously withdrawn from sale, are now back in with the review team and are currently "In Review". It seems to be taking a while, but I'm confident that these will be put back in the store very soon.

So, check out the new App either on the iTunes store itself, or over on the SCOtutor page

ScreenCastsOnline Monthly Magazine App Updated

An upgrade to the ScreenCastsOnline Monthly Magazine App has just been released (2.7.3) and is now available in the iTunes App Store.

The whole Newsstand architecture does tend to confuse people, so some words of explanation might be in order. ScreenCastsOnline Monthly Magazine is in fact made up of three components - the app, the content and the server backend.

The App

The app is the framework that delivers the functionality to the magazine. It controls the subscription side of things, the Home Page and what "issues" of the magazines are displayed. It provides all the functionality of the reading side of the experience - how the pages display, providing the navigation of the pages, popping up the thumbnails when you tap and hold, opening links within it's own browser, all the end user experience of the magazine is provided by the App. It's actually an iOS application, just like all your other iOS appliactions available for free via the iTunes store. Hence, it's possible to upgrade and enhance the app with extra features, just like we have done with the new 2.7.3 release. More about that later.

The Content

This is the actual content of the magazine itself. The bit you actually read or view. Each issue is produced monthly and available for purchase as an in-app purchase within the app or as a monthly or annual subscription, again as an in-app purchase within the app itself. ScreenCastsOnline members are able to get a complimentary subscription to the magazine as part of their membership. As part of the Newsstand functionality built into the iPad, everytime a new issue is published, it appears in the App, and what's really cool is if you're a subscriber, it gets pushed to your iPad automatically. So in theory, when a new issue appears, if you're a subscriber, you shouldn't need to download it, it should already be there!

I send a push notification to everyone who has the app installed, usually about 24 hours after the issue has been published.

The ScreenCastsOnline Monthly subscription works just like a normal magazine subscription. You start receiving current and futures issues of the magazine from when you start your subscription. Previous issues that were published before a magazine subscription starts are still available, but these cannot be downloaded as part of your subscription and need to be purchased individually.

The Server Backend

The server backend is the publishing platform where all the issues are assembled and published and it's this platform that is integrated with the app. The app communicates with the backend for various features and functionality. The server backend and the app itself are part of a new publishing platform called Magcast.

New Features in 2.7.3

So now you understand all of the components, I can tell you about just some of the enhancements to the ScreenCastsOnline Monthly app at this new release. There will be more functionality coming soon, once the server backend is updated, but for now:

• Better performance - The magazine feels a lot faster, with much smoother and easier page scrolling
• Locked Vertical Movement - When scrolling, the pages are locked in vertical mode - no inadvertently moving up and down. That used to drive me bonkers!
• New AirPrint option - You can now print any page via AirPrint, directly from your iPad. Just tap and hold on the page and 4 symbols appear on the left hand side of the page - Share via email, Twitter, Facebook and Print. If you haven’t got an AirPrint compatible printer, get yourself a copy of Printopia and install it on your Mac
• Bug Fixes - Lots of bugfixes and optimisation to handle older iPads and utilise memory more efficiently.

If you’ve already got the ScreenCastsOnline Monthly app installed I’d recommend you grab this update from the iTunes store ASAP.

If you’ve not subscribed to the magazine, you can grab the app for free and download the sampler issue for free too. If you decide to subscribe, you can get a free one month trial when you sign up (and save yourself 40% off the displayed price in the process). Existing ScreenCastsOnline members need to visit this page for subscription details.

There will be more functionality coming soon!