That there is the all new Cisco Cius, an ultra-portable ‘mobile collaboration business tablet‘ that ‘offers access to essential business applications and technologies.’ At least, that’s what Cisco reckon. And I’m inclined to agree.

Various people around the industry are describing it alternately as an iPad-killer, an iPad-rival and so on. I think it’s certainly an interesting device concept. You see the phone up there on the left? That’s your standard all-new Cisco IP device, right? But when you leave the office or leave your desk, you simply pick up the Cius screen there which becomes a stand-alone tablet.

It’s not running some proprietary nonsense, either. It’s Android-based so you can access and use the wealth of current and future Android resources on the Android Market.

The most important thing point about the Cius, however, is that it’s got a Cisco label on it. Which means it’s most, most welcome in enterprise. Nobody ever got shot for buying Cisco. There will be a considerable number of CIOs who will relax and smile during the product evaluation discussions between iPad, various other Android tablets and the Cius. Not only have you got the backing of the global connectivity giant that is Cisco, you’ve also got the ability to access products and services from the Android market. Or, to put it another way, you can get yourin-house development team to start developing custom applications and services for your Cius estate using industry standard and easily accessible technology.

Aaand… let’s have a look at the other specs:

Applications Capabilities:

• 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, 3G/4G data and Bluetooth 3.0 help employees stay connected on and off-campus
• HD video (720p) with Cisco TelePresence solution interoperability for lifelike video communication with the simplicity of a phone call
• Virtual desktop client enables highly secure access to cloud-based business applications
• Android operating system, with access Android marketplace applications
• Collaboration applications including Cisco Quad, Cisco Show and Share, WebEx, Presence, and IM

Tablet Highlights:

• 7 diagonal, high-resolution color screen with contact-based touch targets delivers an elegant, intuitive experience
• HD Soundstation supports Bluetooth and USB peripherals, 10/100/1000 wired connectivity and a handset option
• Detachable and serviceable 8-hour battery for a full day of work
• Highly secure remote connections with Cisco AnyConnect Security VPN Client
• HD audio with wideband support (tablet, HD Soundstation)

You can hear a little more about the specs and the thinking behind the Cius from this video featuring Cisco’s Kara Wilson, VP of UC & Collaboration Solutions Marketing.

Of course since this is Cisco we’re talking about there are whitepapers galore. There are case studies. There are use-case-analysis concepts. Try this page for starters.

I think it’s a fascinating move by Cisco and I can hear the CIOs lining up to deploy thousands of these across their respective organisations.I think it’s what a lot of companies have been waiting for. Oh, you can go out and buy 5,000 Dell Streaks or 5,000 iPads for your executives, but how do you manage them?How do you handle security? How do you deal with unified collaboration? What do you do about VPNing? How do you make sure that videocalling actually works? And most importantly, how do you control the devices, your device estate and the related user policies?

The Cisco sales teams are going to be having a very, very busy time this year.

Related posts:

1. Cisco shed’s boring rep by taking us into The Realm
2. Has the iPad killed tablet innovation? Chris at SlashGear says yes!
3. Copilot Live HD for the iPad 3G is coming soon; looks *amazing*

We had a chance to sit down with Ken Case, CEO of the OmniGroup, during the recent WWDC. We talked all things OmniGroup including the process they followed bringing their apps to the iPad, their plans for OmniFocus, and what else the future might hold.

Q (Jeff Scott – 148Apps): Tell us a little about how the decision was made to start bringing your applications to the iPad.

A (Ken Case – OmniGroup): When we started hearing rumors about Apple doing a tablet, we thought that could be interesting. We didn’t know if it was going to be Mac OS X based or iPhone OS based. The touch part made us lean toward the iPhone OS, the larger screen size had us leaning toward Mac OS X. Didn’t really know what to expect. So we decided to just be ready to evaluate it when it comes out. And when we saw the introduction and particularly when we saw the Keynote demonstration we knew yeah, this is a place we can put some real apps. So we made a decision that day and started working that week to bring some of our apps to the iPad. From the time we saw the announcement to the time we had to submit the apps for launch day there were lots of 18 hour days. One interesting way to measure how the apps were progressing was how long we went between code commits. There was a period there where the longest we went, between code check-ins, was 37 minutes. It was a lot of hard work obviously, but a lot of fun. It’s not often you get a chance to do something like this for a new platform.

Q: One of the most interesting aspects of the release of OmniGraffle for the iPad was that you utilized the device to the edge of it’s capabilities without ever seeing a device.

A: We were pretty worried about that. The QA team particularly. Apple did some testing and we asked them how well it works. They could tell us that it launched and that it worked, but they had no time to do any real testing of the performance.

Q: Let’s talk a little bit about OmniFocus for the iPad. As far as I’m concerned you can’t get it done quick enough!

The plan had been to submit the final version to Apple around June 18th, but some things got in the way. It will still be submitted soon.

I wasn’t expecting the pixel doubled iPhone apps to look as as bad as it turned out. I was hoping that they would have done what they are doing on the iPhone 4 and pixel double the artwork but scaled the text. Perhaps once iOS4 comes to the iPad they will clean up some of the edges. Certainly going forward, everybody who is developing now for the iOS is expecting a whole range of screen resolutions which should make it easier for Apple in the future.

—

We got a little more information from Ken about future plans for OmniPlan and OmniOutliner for the iPad. But those plans are all still really early and we’ll get back in touch as those get closer.

For now they are going full steam ahead on OmniFocus for the iPad — and I can’t wait for it. OmniFocus 1.7 for the iPhone/iPod Touch was just released with iOS4 updates to support local notification, some background processing, and instant application resume.

$19.99

OmniFocus

iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Our Rating: :: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2008-07-11 :: Category: Productivity

[ Quick Conversation with Ken Case from OmniGroup on Developing for the iPad is a post from 148Apps ]

If you’re of a certain age (an age which will remain unstated, for my own mental health if no one else’s) you fondly remember Pop-a-Matic boardgames, where the dice were enclosed in a little plastic bubble in the center of the board and you only had to press the bubble down to achieve a dice roll. The games, like Trouble for instance, were simple and easily learned, and keeping the dice enclosed in their little bubble insured at least some of the parts wouldn’t be lost when taking the game along for a trip.

Jump to 2010 and there is a surprising return of the Pop-a-Matic games of yore, this time on the iPad. Playing Ludo, a new game app on the iPad app store, I was immediately reminded of the many childhood hours I spent playing games like this. Unfortunately, what was fun as a child seems terribly boring today.

The basic mechanics of Ludo should be familiar to almost anyone who grew up playing boardgames. Like Trouble or Sorry, the object of the game is to get all of your colored pieces around the entire circuit of the board and into “home/safe positions” before the other three players. Landing on another player’s piece sends them back to the starting line. That’s pretty much it. Oh, I forgot to mention that you have to roll a six before you can even begin moving a piece around the board. The first time I played Ludo, I spent a good five minutes or more waiting for one of the players to roll a six. What fun, huh?

Graphically, the game is straightforward and simple. Don’t look for any flashy animations, though the piece movements look and feel like an analogue boardgame. Likewise, the sound is pedantic and utilitarian at best. There’s little to no real style apparent in the game. It’s a very basic translation of a very basic game, and as such it’s difficult to recommend.

Ludo can be played by four human opponents on one iPad, so I suppose this could be played with younger children on a trip, but it probably won’t occupy them for long. There is the option to play against computer opponents, but with a game as basic as this there is little appeal in playing against AI.

Even at the low price point of $1.99, I think users should demand more from an app. I understand that the game mechanics are what they are – there’s little changing that – but it’s the little touches that could make a real difference here. As it stands, Ludo is a game that just doesn’t pop like it ought to.

The iPad has been heralded by many as the future of magazines and the savior of the publishing industry. Magazines like Newsweek are losing circulation and being purchased at fire sale prices. The iPad provides a blank canvas for publishers, content producers, and anyone who wants to innovate. The problem is that the opportunity has not yet been realized.

I remember being thrilled at the prospect of iPad magazines even before the device itself was announced. Sports Illustrated has showcased a great teaser video of their application, and Bonnier’s Mag+ platform also appeared to have potential. The arrival of the iPad shows unrealized potential. Reading apps, like iBooks and Stanza, have shown great ability at translating the book reading experience for a tablet.

PDFs for iPad?
Many publishers have simply translated their magazines to the iPad by making them into PDFs of the print version. Some, like Wired, have added custom UI layers and slight multimedia additions to spruce up their publications. The vertical and horizontal reading interface present in magazines like Wired show that publishers are trying to think out of the box, but they haven’t quite succeeded yet. Unfortunately, the current workflow may not work. A series by Ad Age this week shows that magazine publishers are taking the content from their print editions and dropping them into templates for the iPad. What would happen if magazines were custom designed for the iPad? If the content was specifically designed to take advantage of the iPad’s features? I hope we’ll be able to find out in the coming months.

A Roundup
I’ve reviewed six iPad magazine apps so far, each with their own set of pros and cons:

Wired: An interesting first attempt that falls short due to download size, quirky navigation, and its underlying architecture.
Time: Interesting effort tying live content (News Feed) with magazine content but this is essentially just a PDFed magazine.
Newsweek: The iPad-only edition it includes makes boastful claims, but the app itself can’t compete with the others listed here.
GQ: The men’s interest magazine’s first iPad edition includes a bizarre navigation system but some useful innovations.
Zinio for iPad: The popular and experienced magazine digitizers bring their platform to the iPad and make it one of the few viable options for those interested in magazines.
Popular Science+: Like Wired’s app, bizarre navigation makes Pop Sci difficult to enjoy on Bonnier’s Mag+ platform.

Conclusion
So far, it appears that even lackluster efforts are producing success for publishers. There is clearly more potential for the medium and I’m sure content producers aren’t resting. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

[ Magazines on the iPad: A Round Up is a post from 148Apps ]

Can we designate a new sub-genre of iPad apps as stopgaps or placeholders? You know the kind of app I mean. It serves a purpose, is workmanlike in its execution, and will be utterly forgotten once a larger company releases its “take” on the app. Maxi Dice is one such app.

Maxi Dice is currently one of a handful of Yahtzee clones on the iPad app store (they call the game “Yatzy”, just in case you’re not sure what kind of game you are playing). No, there’s no official Hasbro Yahtzee release at this point, though with their iPhone Yahtzee Adventures app already out, it’s a fair bet that it’s only a matter of time. Until then, though, if you are just jonesing for a game of Yahtzee, either solitaire or against a human or AI opponent, Maxi Dice is one of the few options available.

To call Maxi Dice workmanlike is probably doing the app an injustice. For a small-scale app from an equally small developer, the game does show some potential and some polish. The interface is clean and simple and it’s easy to jump right into the game, even if, like me, it has been years and years since you last played a game of Yahtzee. The background images used during the game are pleasant and peaceful, and the music is relatively innocuous (it does get old and repetitive so be advised that you probably will turn it off soon after playing a game or two). It would be nice to be able to customize the look and feel of the game with backgrounds taken from your photos or music pulled from your iTunes library, but there’s no facility to do that yet. Perhaps in a future iteration of the game?

Gameplay is…well, it’s Yahtzee, plain and simple. In the basic game, you roll five dice and try to maximize your points using semi-poker lingo like full house or four of a kind. Maxi Dice includes another version of the game called – you guessed it – Maxi Yatzy, where you have six dice and a few more dice rolls each turn. You can play against up to three human opponents using the same iPad (no online multiplayer available) or against up to three computer-controlled opponents. The AI isn’t stellar, but it is serviceable. There’s also a solitaire version of the game included, if you are so inclined.

Is Maxi Dice a great game? No. Does it play a decent, easy to control game of Yahtzee? Yes. The real issue then is the price of this app. $4.99 is simply too much to pay for a simple app like this, and one that will soon be replaced by a vastly superior version from a major company. Were this a $0.99 app (or $1.99 universal app), I’d recommend it without pause. But $4.99 seems like an attempt to cash in before Hasbro gets their game out. If you just HAVE to play Yahtzee on your iPad right now, then I guess you could do worse than Maxi Dice, but, really, is there anyone who is that obsessed with Yahtzee?

[ Maxi Dice for iPad Review is a post from 148Apps ]