When I was asked to submit my thoughts about the release of the mutant iPhone tablet, otherwise known as iPad, I thought to myself: 

 “Self, how far we earthlings have come…”   

I say this because I am both excited by the promise of this new computing revolution and fearful for my Laptop/Blackberry/iPod/Kindle existence.  Who would have thought the media debate would have changed so quickly from “hard copy vs. digital” or even “online vs. installed” to a mere question of, “One web-enabled device or many?”  We have long ago abandoned the merits of physical media and all its real-world mechanics for their virtual counterparts.  The only question that remains is:

 “Do you want the king-size super combo or not?” 

In my mind, the iPad is not in competition with your eReader, smartphone, laptop or even the iPod itself.  No…the iPad is, in fact, in competition with all of them and, very fairly, losing most of those individual battles today.  But as an aggregate platform, it will most likely win the war.  There are big holes in the iPad across all these areas, some more frustrating than others.  But you will deal with them because the sum of the parts is far greater in value.  At its very best,  the iPad can become a self-sufficient universal remote for the portable consumption of any media you can dream up.  At its worst, the iPad is nothing more than a very limited netbook tablet – too weak to replace your laptop, yet too large to eliminate your single-purpose handhelds.  Here’s the blow-by-blow as I see it:

·         Not quite as comfortable as a one-handed eReader, but an incomparable full-color user experience. (Kindle draws)

·         Not quite as powerful as a laptop and no multi-tasking, but simple to use apps and fun, yet Flash-free (?!?) browsing. (Laptop wins)

·         And sorry…but just too big to replace my smartphone or iPod.  (2 points for the home team!)

In summary…yes, I believe the iPad represents a new and exciting wave of mobile personal computing, but I also think it’s mostly an unnecessary new device that is not yet complete enough to replace all the devices it must supplant to find its way into your budget.  Presently, I think the iPad is best suited to early adopters, who can justify the luxury cost for business purposes or just plain fun, and computer novices, who value simplicity over computing power.  The iPad is a great start, but may only find its true place in the computing mainstream after a second generation and some strong competition from Google and Microsoft.  While you may decide to wait for Round 2, we can all certainly appreciate the change this latest innovation will usher in. 

The digital world is upon us… Be damned you paper products, DVDs, CDs and videotapes.  You’re not even in the discussion anymore…

Day 1 of broadcasting live at LAMP was a success.  We had a full schedule of events yesterday and they all went off without a hitch.  If you missed it yesterday, don’t worry.  The LAMP Live! Show – ON AIR and Online at www.LampLive2010.com for 2 more days.

I will be updating pics and video on our facebook page.  www.facebook.com/edulence  If you are not a fan already, join today and stay updated on all Edulence happenings.Stay tuned.

Just 10 days left until LAMP Live! goes on air from Vegas.  Into final production planning for the 3-day event now.  Programming schedule is set, just need to prep the guests, rehearse with our host a bit and start packing the equipment.  Not looking forward to seeing the shipping tab for this one…

Stay tuned at www.lamplive2010.com, view the schedule and sign up for broadcast reminders.  Visit the site from March 21 - 23 at 11am - 5pm PDT each day to catch live interviews, game shows, awards shows and a live auction.  Everyone at Edulence is super-excited for the event, LAMP Live! is definitely the first of its kind! 

Check back here daily for updates, behind-the-scenes videos and more…Go to LampLive2010.com today and see for yourself! - the edulence crew

Edulence announced today that it is partnering with GAMA International to produce and broadcast three days of live shows over the Web from the insurance association’s annual LAMP conference March 21–24, 2010 at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The live streamed video event is the first time a major insurance industry association will leverage the Internet to reach a global audience.

If networking is your game of choice, say hello to your new best friend: www.addthis.com - This site allows you to copy and paste code into any webpage that allows users to easily add countless different social networking sites from facebook, myspace, twitter, and plenty more. Looking for a way to draw more traffic to your site? Addthis is perfect for getting your site the kind of attention it deserves. It’s free and easy to use - you simply go to their website, select the kind of button style you prefer and voila, before you can utter a magic word, it reveals the code. K2 users can easily copy and paste this into a text module and you’re ready to flourish. If only you could have this much input on the traffic on your commute home… - the Edulence Crew

Here at Edulence, we are constantly looking for ways to make the most of your K2 sites. Anything that gives your site a sense of individuality and distinguishes it from all the rest is high up there in our book. Check out our review of a great website that gives you an outlet for all that creative energy we know you’ve been hiding.

www.animoto.com - Due to my extreme ADD when it comes to watching my friends’ and family’s tedious photo slideshows, this site is my new personal favorite. It allows you to create a photo montage with your own photos and audio, but with special effects and photo transitions worthy of only a highly-trained video editor. Uploading photos and an audio file (or choosing one from their own extensive selection) is effortless, and the end result (after a painless waiting time of around 3 minutes while Animoto does all the work assembling it) is a masterpiece that will leave your viewers in awe. If you have been looking for a way to spice up your slideshows and add more flavor to your pages, look no further than Animoto. Transporting your new video to your K2 site is just as easy as creating it. Users can upload their new video by choosing to export the video to YouTube and then pasting the video’s new URL into the K2 site.Then, sit back and bask in the rave reviews.

Check out my trial run with Animoto… pretty cool, right?

That’s all for now, but be sure to check back to discover more of the latest treasures of the web. – Edulence Crew

Despite the admittedly weak attempts at bringing our readers a semi-constant update on the world of K2, we at Edulence have been failing miserably at filling you guys in on the latest K2 advancements. But have no fear, because while summer brings both crowds of tourists to the city and constant taunts of ice cream trucks, it also brings a sense of renewal and determination to our office… Ok, so maybe not completely… but with so many new improvements to our site and products, we wouldn’t want to leave you out in the heat without a weekly fix of what’s hot at Edulence. For starters, we’ve just launched our brand new Support Site this week, complete with video demonstrations, updated FAQ’s, and plenty more to ensure we are giving you the best possible service with your K2 community. Also, we’ve taken some big steps in K2 creative services. New design features, including custom navigation, stylish flash banners and the ability to add customized backgrounds will make your website stand out—whether it’s for clients, prospects, or even just your family and friends. Some of the sites launched recently that we’re particularly excited about (call us computer geeks, but this is the kind of stuff we get excited about…) are definitely worth taking a look at. We are most proud of Edulence’s very own site, built with K2 technology — fresh with weekly vlogs (for those of you not up-to-date on your tech lingo, that’s video blog) and a brew of blogs from a handful of our employees.

Be sure to get your caffeine-fix at http://nydailycup.com

Also, check out two of our newest custom-designed websites, developed right here at the Edulence offices. The first is Laugh & Learn’s public website, home of the best-selling DVDs and online videos on child birth and parenting. Second is the newly transformed Alliance Advisory Group website. The links to both of these impressive sites can be found below.

Laugh and Learn: http://www.laughandlearn.com

Alliance Advisory Group: http://alliance-advisory-group.knowledgelink2.com

Be sure to check back next week for an exclusive interview with Rob Ingstad, the radio industry visionary behind the hit local news site, NewsDakota! And this time, we will be back… scout’s honor.

Enjoy your weekend! - the Edulence crew

So, it’s been just about a year since my last posting and, for the record, I declare blogging no easy job.  I think the closest comparison in the “monkey-on-your-back” department would have to be fantasy football…but without the promise of cash, trophies and virtual glory of course.  But I’m back…and this time, I make no lofty posting guarantees like last year, but I will deliver the goods on a semi-regular schedule with a smile on my face.  This time, I don’t really have a choice lest I brave Moki’s endless bombardment of marginally witty reminder emails.  So here we are…My last post was mostly about KnowledgeLink 2 first going live.  Well, I’m proud to announce today that little sprout we call K2 is now a brawny 1 year-old with lots of users, fans and to-do lists.  Funny how things seem to go so fast when you wait an entire year to post….in reality, it seemed much longer.  We’ve rolled into new markets and added features far beyond our original plans.  There’s lots of good and bad in that, but mostly it’s fun and very interesting.  As we travel to the annual LAMP conference that we’ve done every year since our founding, I think of all the great things to come in K2 and the rest of our applications.  So, stay tuned and I promise this blog will become more than old, stale bread this year.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Well, the last week has been busier than usual with our K2 launch, new website launch and annual LAMP conference all hitting us at once.  In case any of my loyal readers have been keeping count (this means you, Scharfie…), not only was I unable to keep up with daily posts, but even weekly posts have been a little difficult lately.  But things are looking up on the blog front.  Considering that you are now viewing this on the new Edulence website, I felt I owed it to our Interactive team to at least get a current post up in coordination with our splashy launch of the new site.  Hope you’re enjoying the experience so far.Anyway, we’ve just returned from San Francisco where we unveiled K2 to the public at GAMA’s LAMP conference.  We spent the last few months preparing our application, website and ourselves for the event.  Well, the turnout was excellent and the response was everything we hoped it would be.  K2 allows businesses to build and manage their own multimedia communities connecting managers, employees and customers while uniquely tracking all user activity.  So now the “fun” part begins as we work to get all these new communities up and running within one week.  Stay tuned for updates.  On another note, Edulence Interactive just won IAC’s award for 2008 Best Airline Microsite for our Welcome Runners project with Runner’s World and JetBlue.  If you haven’t already seen it, visit www.welcomerunners.com for the full experience.  We’re hoping this is the first of many awards for this innovative video site.  Our interactive team is doing amazing things with green screen video as you’ve probably noticed on our own site www.edulence.com.  This style of web design seamlessly merges the video talent with the website they live on and replaces the traditional pages of text with videos.  We believe the Internet is better suited to deliver your message in video than text.  After all, when was the last time you read the news on your TV screen. 

Come to think of it, I should be doing this post in video…