Yesterday Apple premiered their television ad for the iPad during the Oscars.

It struck me, as it did John Gruber, that the iPad commercial is quite a bit like many iPhone ads. End users are the focus and we hear no explanations of what you’re seeing or how it works or why it’s there. You just hear a rock song and see people in comfortable, informal situations using the iPad with ease.

In Adobe’s demo video for HP’s “Slate Device” (I hope they come up with a better name than that. Or at least better than “iPad.”) the focus seems to be on the content providers rather than content consumers. Sure, there are references to real people using the device. But there’s a saturation of seller-oriented themes in there about content publishers, developers, content distribution channels, and “branded site experiences.” A user likely won’t mind opening a separate video player to watch a clip if the transition is executed well. But MTV doesn’t want you to miss those Flash ads “in context of the site.”

Adobe also uses Alexa metrics to indicate how many top websites use Flash and how much web video is served up using Flash. Users don’t care about these numbers, sellers do. Users might want Flash video, but with so many people unaware of what a browser is they probably don’t know that they want Flash either. They just know they want to see that skateboarding dog on YouTube.

I noticed a specific ding against iPhone’s/iPad’s lack of flash in Adobe’s video when they mentioned the ability to consume content without the need for downloading a separate application. This is pure conjecture (though I’d love some real numbers), but I bet that’s not a real problem for end users. Not all downloads from the App Store are fart apps and games.

Okay, so it’s not a completely fair comparison. The Apple ad is a TV spot and the Adobe video is a demo spot and not necessarily a commercial. It should also be noted that I haven’t used either device and, if it wasn’t already clear, I hope you know that I’m not commenting on the quality or performance of the gadgets – merely the messaging and my perception of each message’s audience.

It just seems strange that one of the earliest demo videos for this device would focus on content suppliers/sellers. Maybe it’s because Adobe doesn’t have to convince users to buy the “Slate Device.” That’s HP’s job. Adobe wants to sell Flash to content creators. Last I checked, though, content consumers outnumbered content creators, so I hope HP has another partner company lined up to shill this thing to the people who are supposed to use them.

So this is it. Whiskerino 2009, and Whiskerino in general in its present form, is over. I participated every day, met some great people, honed my photography skills a bit (and learned to sit REALLY STILL), and had a total blast.

Just in case you need a review (as if you cared), check out my archives.

This weekend was the Whiskerino 2009 Throwdown. We had home-made beer. There was a little break dancing. Bowling. Tacos. A gigantic party/concert/party to wrap it all up. And of course, there was meeting a host of guys that turned out to be as quirky, interesting, and fun as their photos implied. It helped, of course, that we all started from the same baseline of nerdiness for having jointly participated in this Internet beard growing event. None of it would have worked had there not been a pile of decent human beings willing to push awkwardness aside and go hang out with a bunch of near-strangers for a weekend. But Sunday morning, there were a lot fewer near-strangers and a lot more new friends.

There’s only a week left until the whole Whiskerino is over, but this weekend will go down as one of the best I’ve ever experienced.

I finally have a wide angle lens! This is my new AF NIKKOR 24mm f/2.8D, and you can expect to see it in use for the remainder of Whiskerino and many shots beyond.

This is also one of my first experiments using some light-reflective material (in this case some heavyweight white paper) to provide some fill light.

Pumped!!

More info on Tuesday, hopefully.

FACE from ploafmaster on Vimeo.

Espresso, Intelligentsia from Department of the 4th Dimension on Vimeo.

(via simplebits)

I’ll watch Conan on any network, any time slot, and I respect his decision not to participate in the sinking of a great ship as executed by an aimless network with a management team that seams to be as creative as GM’s design department.

Tomorrow I return to work after a nearly 2.5 week absence. I also start my second semester of business school. I’m not excited about going back to work at all, but truth be told I’m rather tentative about my first class of the week, too.

I’m trying very hard not to be cynical about things – after all, I was loathe to take an accounting class but ended up loving the course because of a fantastic teacher – but this is a bit different. It’s a course on marketing. And one of our books is about “leveraging social media.” Be still my lunch.

What I’m worried about is that we’ll spend a significant amount of time hearing about how “social media” is a magical nebulous tool that all businesses must learn to harness lest they fall perilously behind their competition. I’m afraid my classmates will leave the course believing that they need a Facebook page or Twitter account for their entrepreneurial endeavors. I’m afraid it will be more Comcast than 37 Signals.

I’m afraid it will further contribute to the sour image many have about MBAs, especially in the web-centric side of the IT community.

But what do I know? This is likely just anxiety, and I hope to be terribly wrong. I hope if, unfortunately, my expectations are even halfway met, that I will see it as an opportunity to research sound material for classroom discussion. I’ll start to get a better sense of this tomorrow evening, I suppose. Until then…