Week 49 of 52

This week was dedicated to a couple of interesting admin-type stuff things.

An update to The Metaning was pushed out to correct some problems in the previous versions. Additionally, work continues on the print version in Aperture.

Speaking of Aperture, a lot of time was spent on studying the videos for Apple’s WWDC conference, and the future of aperture, which hasn’t had a major update in years. Suffice to say, things are looking good.

Finally, we had the UWS Peoples Choice award presentation, where I found out that efforts are being made in earnest to get my work sold.

Review: Brydge+ Keyboard

Opening disclaimer: I was provided with a “keeper” review unit by Brydge Keyboards.

My first laptop style device was an Apple eMate 300 – a NewtonOS based touchscreen laptop. Following that were a couple of generations of PowerBooks, before I moved to Mac Minis as my primary computing platform. However, the memory of the experience of using a touchscreen laptop stuck with me throughout my PowerBook days. While the Windows ecosystem seems to be jumping on the bandwagon of integrating touch into all computers, Apple has remained resolutely against it.

The argument proffered is that fatigue from holding ones arms up to a monitor – “gorillla arms” – makes touchscreens unsuited to desktop computer use, and since Apple’s laptops are desktop computers in a different form factor, no touchscreen for them.

To me, the laptop can be a fundamentally different device to the desktop, insofar as the screen is mere inches from the user’s hands, rather than the full arms length of an iMac or standalone monitor. That should allow for some different ideas about the ergonomics of these devices.

Using an iPad with an external keyboard has been a thing since day one. Apple even launched the iPad with a keyboard dock accessory. Most keyboards are in the form of a folio, or as a slab with a slot to prop the iPad at a specific, set, angle. The Brydge line of keyboards is something quite different – a keyboard with hinges which grip your iPad and make it function in the same way as a standard laptop screen.

The history of the Brydge is an interesting one. Originally started as a Kickstarter project, the company quickly met its funding goals, and moved into production. From here things appear to have become problematic – with customer service not appearing to be able to keep up with sales. Brydge was recently purchased by a trio of Singapore-based Australians, who have embarked on a program of upgrades to sales & customer response systems, and establishing local distribution centres in major markets. For orders in the US, UK or Hong Kong they’re claiming to be able to ship an order within 24 hours of it being placed. They’ve also knocked about a quarter off the prices of the two top models. The unit I’m testing, the Brydge+ With Speakers, has dropped from $199.99 to $149.99, for example. They also have a speaker-less version of the Brydge+ for $139.99 in the brushed aluminium, and $99.99 in polycarbonate.

The Brydge+, like the entire current range, is designed for the second to fourth generation full-size iPads. The hinges on the keyboard have removable rubber linings, which suit the various thicknesses the devices have come in. While it’s not strictly designed for it, you can see in the photos here that an iPad Air in one of Apple’s leather Smart Cases will fit in the iPad 3/4 hinge size. Brydge say they’ve got a new model due out in the 4th quarter of this year, targeting the smaller form factor of the Air.

As a keyboard, the Brydge feels identical to Apple’s aluminium bluetooth keyboard in terms of depth of keystroke and “clickyness”, albeit a bit smaller in size. The top row has a number of function keys, including a very handy home key in the top left. One problem with the current models is that one or two of the keys have lost their function due to changes in iOS 7. Unless you need single key access to slideshowing your photo collection, this isn’t likely to be a major concern.

The angle and setup of the hinges is such that as you open the “lid” the screen bezel drops downwards relative to the keyboard surface, much the same as it does in Apple’s MacBook Pro line. As this happens, the angle of the keyboard is raised slightly as the cam-like outer curve of the hinge lifts the whole laptop off the desk. The hinges have a strong enough friction that they can hold the screen at any angle, even all the way back to horizontal, and the keyboard itself has sufficient weight to prevent the whole thing from overbalancing (noting that I’m using an Air, which is significantly lighter than other generations of iPads). What this means, effectively, is that this is a truly lap-top capable “laptop” solution for the iPad. There’s no straps, or kickstands, and the screen doesn’t have to sit a third of the way in to the device. You can have it flat on a desk, or sit in bed with your knees up and rest it on your thighs. Ergonomically, it’s a laptop, without a trackpad you can accidentally bump your thumb on while typing.

This model also has stereo speakers behind a centre aligned grille, which provide a diffferent audio experience to the built in speaker. To my ears they’re not as rich in bass as the Air’s speaker, though if critical audio quality is your thing, you’d probably want a dedicated set of speakers, or some good headphones. The speakers need to be paired separately to the keyboard, however they increase the battery drain.

In terms of battery life, Brydge claims the battery should last “several months” without the speakers in use. Mine arrived sufficiently charged that it hasn’t needed any charging throughout writing this review.

To conclude, the Brydge+ looks like an Apple product, and feels like an Apple product. It’s a top-notch piece of hardware – solidly built from durable materials, and possessed of the sort of heft that inspires a viscerally positive feeling in use. It does exactly what it claims to do – turns the iPad into a highly functional laptop. My personal choice would be the Brydge+ without speakers, although as someone who finds the feeling of brushed aluminium distractingly like touching something that’s electrically live, I’d also strongly consider the polycarbonate version.

If this article was of use, a donation would help support my projects.

Week 48 of 52

It’s been a bad week.

I got news that I had missed out on a grant for which it would be hard to imagine I could have been any more perfectly suited. As a result, I’ve had to pull out of Sculpture By The Sea Bondi 2014. I simply don’t have the cash to make the work, nor do I have the time to think about crowdfunding etc.

This is a real blow, as I’d been planning for and working towards this work and exhibition for over a year. Unfortunately none of the other works I have in reserve were considered acceptable substitutions, as they were too different to the original. I feel like somewhat of a fool, having been telling people for over a year now that I was slated to exhibit.

On the plus side, I’ve learned how to make big changes to the layout of Aperture printed books, and as such I’ll be able to move ahead with the fine art print version of The Metaning, which turned out to be a lot cheaper than going through a local printer. The inability to easily edit layouts on a global basis was a major problem with Aperture’s book layout engine. Its master pages setup is quite opaque compared to something like InDesign, but once you discover the knack there’s a surprising amount of flexibility enabled.

Another bit of good news is that I managed to figure out what was causing a bug in The Metaning when read in iBooks on a Mac. It seems Webkit on the iPad is a little more forgiving of errors. Problem fixed, there’s just a little bit of cleanup to do, and a new version will be submitted.

Week 47 of 52

This week was spent on admin and comics. I’m still trying to get prices for printing. It’s looking reasonably good, except the photo books are larger than a digital press can do for their covers, so that’s going to be problematic.

I made what may turn out to be a reasonably big decision with regards to the final part of Surfing The Deathline. Originally slated to be a 66 page volume, I had a fresh look through it, and realised I could split it into 32 & 42 page episodes, taking the series to 5 parts. Since all books need to be a multiple of 4 pages, I had to add 3 and 2 content pages respectively to each book in order to get the pagecount to work. Below are the extra page roughs from what will be the new Surfing The Deathline 4:

What’s most important about these images is that they’re entirely digital – drawn in ProCreate from Tasmanian company Savage Interactive, using the Adonit Jot Touch stylus on the iPad. Sketching rough pages like this was a bit of a revelation – the ability to zoom, move, apply transforms and duplicate panels while drawing on the screen itself, brings an entirely different sensation for writing.

I also tried something I’ve not done before – tweeting each image with at-mentions of ProCreate and Adonit – both of whom at-mentioned me back with messages of support, so that’s an interesting experiment in social media.

Another change was to finally upgrade my Mac to run the current Mavericks version of Mac OS X. I held off till now, waiting until Apple added back the ability for iOS devices to sync contacts & calendar information locally, rather than having to send the data to the other side of the planet in order to move it 30cm.

That done, the new system seems to be pretty stable.

Another thing, I was approached by an iPad keyboard vendor to review their product. It’s pretty interesting bit of gear, so we’ll see how it goes.

March In May

Documentation of the March In May protests in Sydney. The march moved from Belmore Park near central station, to Victoria Park at Broadway. It took more than half an hour for the entire sea of people to move past.

Week 46 of 52

So the main accomplishment of this week was to photograph the UWS sculpture. The 4am wake up for dawn photography was pretty brutal, but the pics were worth it.

Another part of this week was spent on getting together the specifications for a bunch of printing projects, which is a part of my ArtStart year. I’ve found a printer who seems to be able to function as a print on demand provider – something I’ve been looking for locally.

Continuing on the comics theme, I’ve been looking at the idea of splitting Surfing The Deathline #4 into #4 & #5. This has involved adding a few pages, so I’ve been sketching the pages using ProCreate and the Jot Touch on my iPad. It’s a pretty amazing drawing experience.

The week closed with more photography – the March In May protests in Sydney.

Visiting the Sculpture

So I left home at 5am this morning to make the 45 minute drive out to Campbelltown to photograph my work, and see how it’s faring.

The good news is that it seems to be more or less untouched by the elements. A enveloping cloud of fog greeted me as I arrived, and as the pre-dawn light grew in intensity, it became obvious that the mist was condensing onto the work, running down the surfaces, and dripping off the edges.

It would appear that I have a self-cleaning sculpture.

Another aspect of the morning was that it gave me yet another chance to exercise the Nikon D800, and my not-used-often-enough Gossen Digisky meter. The handheld meter really produces different results to the camera’s metering system, and it takes a lot of getting used to – the camera will generally expose so you can see what you’re metering off, the handheld will give you an accurate measurement of the light, and if it’s dark, your image will be dark.

Week 45 of 52

It’s been a quiet week largely spent recovering from making the UWS piece, letting my shredded hands and forearms heal, cleaning the studio, packing away the welding gear, and getting the drawing equipment ready.

One annoyance was the need to replace my modem / router / VOIP box, after the VOIP function up and died on me a month or so back, leaving me without any landline phone. The new modem seems to be pretty nice. It syncs at a higher speed than the old one at least.

The major bit of writing I did this week was to get together a guide to producing and selling EPUB comics, specifically within the context of the iTunes store.

With just 6 weeks left to go on my ArtStart Grant, it’s time I started thinking about what comes after. Hopefully the next grant I’ve applied for will come through, otherwise there’s some serious questions to be asked about how I can go ahead with Sculpture By The Sea. Over the next few weeks I need to:

  • Organise a print on demand provider for all of my photo books
  • Organise a print on demand provider for my comics
  • Produce EPUB versions of Surfing The Deathline 1, 2 & 3.
  • Draw Surfing The Deathline 4.

It’s quite an ambitious schedule, but assuming nothing else comes up, it should be doable.

A guide to EPUB Comics for iBooks

So, based on discussions with a number of local comics people, especially in the wake of the recent ComiXology Amazon buyout, and the brouhaha over the removal of purchase options from ComiXology’s app, I decided to put together a primer on how to build EPUB comic books, like the ones I’m doing, for folks who are interested in getting onto the iBooks platform.

Now, I’ve never used ComiXology, so my opinions / comparisons are somewhat secondhand, but here’s the way iBooks works.


  • You, the creator do all the work authoring the files – Apple doesn’t alter, fix, edit or optimise them.
  • You, the creator set the price – Apple doesn’t discount, give away or in any other way mess with your retail price.
  • You, the creator get 70% of the cover price.
  • You, the creator can build the preview version of your book, and the iBooks reader app will automatically display a “buy & download the full version” link on a blank last page added.
  • You, the creator upload your own choice of example screenshots.
  • iBooks / iTunes store tech support staff are brilliant – super helpful, super keen, and keep you in the loop if there’s a problem that needs to be fixed at Apple’s end.
  • As far as I know, you can pull your book at any time, and it will go off sale (no contracts granting Apple x-number of years of sales), though those who’ve bought it already will continue to be able to download it.
  • You get to choose if your book has DRM or not. Personally, I do put DRM on my files, because it ensures the reading experience is the one I created (given I use a lot of WebKit specific design and scripting) – locking the reader to iBooks on a Mac or iPad. Non-DRMed files are still watermarked to the buyer’s iTunes store account.

With comics, you’re producing what’s called a “fixed layout EPUB”, which in the iBooks reader app means your page art is edge to edge, and the controls are displayed differently. The authoring tools necessary are a text editor, and any image editing apps you already use.

A Fixed Layout EPUB is basically a website. Each page of your book is a separate webpage, with content entered using HTML, and CSS to define how everything looks. You define the size of the viewport to be the size of your page, and then you can use positioning values to place things exactly where you want them.

It’s web design, without the ambiguities of working with multiple browser engines / window sizes etc. Better yet, becuase it’s a walled garden of WebKit, you can use lots of WebKit specific CSS that hasn’t been ratified as part of CSS3 yet.

The Merchant Process

In order to sell books on iBooks you have to do the following:

  • Obtain a US Tax ID.
    • One option is to get an ITIN – this is long and expensive, requiring sending a passport to the US consulate for ID verification, plus document fees.
    • The second option is quick and cheap – call the IRS in America and get an EIN, as documented here. This takes about 2 weeks for everything to work its way through so that your EIN is recognised by Apple’s systems.
    • NOTE: income earned via the iTunes / iBooks store is taxed in America at (from memory) a 30% rate, which you can then claim back from the Australian Tax Office as a credit under international treaties against double-taxation.
  • Sign up for an iTunes Merchant account to sell on the iBooks store.
    • Free accounts can offer only free books, but don’t require you giving Apple banking & US Tax information.
    • Paid accounts require you to give Apple your bank details (so they can pay you your residuals), and the aforementioned US Tax information, buy you don’t have to pay for the account itself
  • (Depreciated – this program has now closed, and book authoring doesn’t require a dev account) Sign Up for an Apple Developer account so you can download tools and access the developer support forums. The type of account you need is the Safari Developer Program – it’s free, and gives you write access to all the forums which are to do with iBooks, and WebKit. You can read all the other forums. Needless to say, these are all NDA covered.
  • Upload your file, excerpt, screenshots and metadata (pricing, territories etc) using iTunes Producer. iTP will preflight your files, identify any problems, like code bugs, and tell you what they are so you can fix them.
  • Initial approval usually takes about 10 working days, and updates take around the same amount of time.

The Authoring Process

My first recommendation is to read the lessons on R. Scott John’s blog, starting with:

…and ending with part 7.

Then read:

That should give you all the information you need to get the basic thing up and running. Some additional tips:

  • iBooks on the Mac allows you to direct load your EPUB working files to the iPad for preview and debug.
  • iBooks Author doesn’t currently do paginated books, with zoomable art.

Any questions, hit me up in the comments. Oh and one final thing – if this is of use, go buy a copy of The Metaning on iTunes. Researching & collecting all this information together took most of my time over a couple of weeks, and there’s a lot of garbage information out there, or information that’s only available via paid sources – the “buy my ebook on how to make ebooks” type thing. Getting a few book sales would be a nice payback.

If this article was of use, a donation would help support my projects.

Week 44 of 52

This week saw the bumpin of the UWS sculpture. A pretty momentous event. It was the first time I’d hired a ute, and done the whole thing myself, without a professional mover involved.

The whole process was remarkably trouble free. The whole task took around 3 days. First bringing the sculpture to site, and situating it in place, then returning the next day to add the leaves, then a third day to add a leaf that had come home for repairs. Here’s hoping the work sells.