Category Archives: Technology

iPad Reflections

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Saturday was the day that thousands of users obsessively checking UPS.com for their package status  finally got their gleaming white box of iPad.
With an entry price of $499, Wifi networking, a fast custom A4 processor made by Apple, and 16 Gbytes of storage, the iPad promises to be a compelling media consumption device. I say consumption, because it doesn’t come with a camera at this time nor does it come with any removable storage for expansion.
So does the iPad meet the hype? In the first 12 hours of use, I’d say yes it does. And it has great implications for traditional print publishers.
First the very basic physical aspects: it’s a 9.7″ 1024×768 pixel screen, or about the same screen size as a respectable laptop of a few years ago. The difference is, this is thin, portable and held vertically. It’s a classic lean-back instead of lean-forward experience. With no physical keyboard, you naturally hold it in portrait mode, about a foot from your face. That gives the pixels much higher impact on the eyes as it fills your visual senses.
When it comes to operation, one cannot underestimate the value of the intuitive direct manipulation interface — scroll by swiping, zoom by pinching, enable by tapping. There really is no manual for this thing, because you can learn everything you need to know in about a minute of experimentation.
Apple boasts the device can go 10 hours on a full charge. Most  testers have found Apple was modest, and have exceeded that in real world tasks. One caveat: because the battery is so capacious, one really does need to use the included 10 watt adapter to charge the iPad in a reasonable amount of time. Plugging the tablet device into a computer’s USB port will charge it much less slowly, taking up to four times as long and not being able to charge overnight.
The screen is plenty bright in daylight, as that’s something Apple perfected some years ago. However, since we’re used to screens that stand almost vertical, putting this down on a table, even at an angle, will bring up lots of glare, especially outdoors. The keyboard is usable, but not for touch typing. For brief bursts it’s fine, and more pleasant than using the miniscule iPhone or iPod touch virtual keyboards.
Content
In some ways the iPad is a retro concept. With a fixed well-known screen size for content developers, and apps that need to be installed before one can experience rich content, the iPad model is reminiscent of the golden era of CD-ROMs. That was a time where every pixel on the screen could be manipulated, and any mode of interaction was possible with rapid-fire crisp response because everything was local to the computer. This resulted in great tools and content, including Voyager CD-ROM books, Apple’s Hypercard and multimedia encyclopedic content from Encarta and Britannica. Strangely enough, iPad may bring us back to recapture that cutting-edge 1995-era multimedia technology.
Contrast that with web pages viewed on a general purpose computer, which has been the focus of “interactive content” since 1995. While basing the dot-com revolution around Web browsers and Internet-hosted content certainly allowed for great advances in connected applications and collaboration, it was lacking for rich media experiences. Macromedia (now a part of Adobe) pushed the envelope by giving us Flash, but even then most sites amble along awkwardly with a mishmash of dynamic HTML, and give us a but a small window of interactive Flash.
The situation changes quite a bit with iPad.
Right now, the two choices for content creators is to go the “app-ian way” or to innovate with web content. Remember: the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch don’t support Adobe Flash.
Apple doesn’t mind closed solutions but only if *it* is the purveryor of the proprietary product. Therefore, Apple didn’t want to give entire swaths of its prized iPad real estate to another company. The other solution that has developed is the HTML5 spec, which has been trumpeted as the way to replicate Flash’s video and advanced multimedia capabilities in a standard way, and is supported by the Apple’s Safari browser.
The apps released so far for iPad have been impressive, which has invigorated the art of visual news design, now that designers (unshackled from HTML and CSS) have the entire screen the play with. The content from NPR, Match (France), Yahoo! Entertainment and even the usually bland Associated Press all show promise that go far beyond what you see from their respective web sites.
In the coming months, look for news outlets to experiment heavily with both approaches.
So far the range of iPad apps exhinits a curious mix of charging for the app, charging for the content, or making money from advertising.
Consider what we have right now on launch day, you can find an array of models from various news organizations including:
Pay for app, pay for issues (Time)
Pay for app, free content (CNN, ESPN ScoreCenter XL)
Free app, pay for content (Wall Street Journal)
Free app, selected free content, ads (NY Times, subscription forthcoming)
Free app, free content, ad support (IMDB, Yahoo Entertainment)
Free app, free content (NPR, BBC)
Tablet style computers have been around for years now. So what makes Apple’s move interesting? The allure for publishers is that Apple has tackled the problem no one in media has been able to solve — micropayments. Apple’s iTunes Store system has suddenly made even $0.99 transactions possible and profitable, since people are already signed up, credit card in hand, and comfortable with pulling the trigger to pay for ephemeral content. That’s a major cultural shift traditional media organizations are eager to join.

Saturday was the day that thousands of users obsessively checking UPS.com for their package status  finally got their gleaming white box of iPad goodness.

Specs

With an entry price of $499, Wifi networking, a fast custom A4 processor made by Apple, and 16 Gbytes of storage, the iPad promises to be a compelling media consumption device. I say consumption, because it doesn’t come with a camera at this time nor does it come with any removable storage for expansion.

So does the iPad meet the hype? In the first 12 hours of use, I’d say yes it does. And it has great implications for traditional print publishers.

First the very basic physical aspects: it’s a 9.7″ 1024×768 pixel screen, or about the same screen size as a respectable laptop of a few years ago. The difference is, this is thin, portable and held vertically. It’s a classic lean-back instead of lean-forward experience. With no physical keyboard, you naturally hold it in portrait mode, about a foot from your face. That gives the pixels much higher impact on the eyes as it fills your visual senses.

When it comes to operation, one cannot underestimate the value of the intuitive direct manipulation interface — scroll by swiping, zoom by pinching, enable by tapping. There really is no manual for this thing, because you can learn everything you need to know in about a minute of experimentation.

Apple boasts the device can go 10 hours on a full charge. Most  testers have found Apple was modest, and have exceeded that in real world tasks. One caveat: because the battery is so capacious, one really does need to use the included 10 watt adapter to charge the iPad in a reasonable amount of time. Plugging the tablet device into a computer’s USB port will charge it much less slowly, taking up to four times as long and not being able to charge overnight.

The screen is plenty bright in daylight, as that’s something Apple perfected some years ago. However, since we’re used to screens that stand almost vertical, putting this down on a table, even at an angle, will bring up lots of glare, especially outdoors. The keyboard is usable, but not for touch typing. For brief bursts it’s fine, and more pleasant than using the miniscule iPhone or iPod touch virtual keyboards.

Content

In some ways the iPad is a retro concept. With a fixed well-known screen size for content developers, and apps that need to be installed before one can experience rich content, the iPad model is reminiscent of the golden era of CD-ROMs. That was a time where every pixel on the screen could be manipulated, and any mode of interaction was possible with rapid-fire crisp response because everything was local to the computer. This resulted in great tools and content, including Voyager CD-ROM books, Apple’s Hypercard and multimedia encyclopedic content from Encarta and Britannica. Strangely enough, iPad may bring us back to recapture that cutting-edge 1995-era multimedia technology, which kind of got lost in the shuffle of “the net.”

Contrast that with web pages viewed on a general purpose computer, which has been the focus of “interactive content” since 1995. While basing the dot-com revolution around Web browsers and Internet-hosted content certainly allowed for great advances in connected applications and collaboration, it was lacking for rich media experiences. Macromedia (now a part of Adobe) pushed the envelope by giving us Flash, but even then most sites amble along awkwardly with a mishmash of dynamic HTML, and give us a but a small window of interactive Flash.

The situation changes quite a bit with iPad.

Right now, the two choices for content creators is to go the “app-ian way” or to innovate with web content. Remember: the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch don’t support Adobe Flash.

Apple doesn’t mind closed solutions but only if *it* is the purveryor of the proprietary product. Therefore, Apple didn’t want to give entire swaths of its prized iPad real estate to another company. The other solution that has developed is the HTML5 spec, which has been trumpeted as the way to replicate Flash’s video and advanced multimedia capabilities in a standard way, and is supported by the Apple’s Safari browser.

The apps released so far for iPad have been impressive, which has invigorated the art of visual news design, now that designers (unshackled from HTML and CSS) have the entire screen the play with. The content from NPR, Match (France), Yahoo! Entertainment and even the usually bland Associated Press all show promise that go far beyond what you see from their respective web sites.

In the coming months, look for news outlets to experiment heavily with both approaches.

So far the range of iPad apps exhibits a curious mix of charging for the app, charging for the content, or making money from advertising.

Consider what we have right now on launch day, you can find an array of models from various news organizations including:

  • Pay for app, pay for issues (Time)
  • Pay for app, free content (CNN, ESPN ScoreCenter XL)
  • Free app, pay for content (Wall Street Journal)
  • Free app, selected free content, ads (NY Times, subscription forthcoming)
  • Free app, free content, ad support (IMDB, Yahoo Entertainment)
  • Free app, free content (NPR, BBC)

Tablet style computers have been around for years now. So what makes Apple’s move interesting? The allure for publishers is that Apple has tackled the problem no one in media has been able to solve — micropayments. Apple’s iTunes Store system has suddenly made even $0.99 transactions possible and profitable, since people are already signed up, credit card in hand, and comfortable with pulling the trigger to pay for ephemeral content. That’s a major cultural shift traditional media organizations are eager to join.

In Brief: Google’s China Move

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UPDATE: A more detailed version of this Backgrounder for news reporters can be downloaded as a PDF version.

Google announced today in a blog post that it has redirected visitors headed for google.cn to google.com.hk.

So earlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong.

As someone based in both Beijing and Hong Kong for significant periods in the 2000s and has been asked to comment on Google-China previously, here’s a backgrounder with some basic questions I’ve answered for reporters about the issue.

  • Google.cn servers are located within the borders of the PRC, and are subject to the ICP (Internet content provider) licensing scheme. Google had been self-censoring its search results to retain its ICP license. In the PRC, it is up to the operating entity to make sure it does not run afoul of the content guidelines put out by the authorities.
  • This morning, California time, Google changed things such that traffic to google.cn started to be redirected to the google.com.hk site, in the simplified Chinese character mode. (Hong Kong and Taiwan use traditional Chinese characters, while the mainland uses simplified. They are somewhat mutually intelligible, but it does require some adjustment in reading to  get used to the other system. More info here.)
  • Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) while technically part of China, is completely separate in terms of free speech, expression and rule of law. (See “One country, two systems.”) After it was handed over in 1997 by the Brits, it has had its own chief executive and Legislative Council independent of Beijing. Rule of law is strong in Hong Kong, with PRC dissidents and naysayers operating freely and in the open.
  • Hong Kong’s Internet service and content providers are not subject to PRC’s censorship regime. The Great Firewall of China also does not play a part in content coming into or out of Hong Kong with the rest of the world.
  • Google.com.hk results are not censored to conform with PRC ICP guidelines because being located in Hong Kong, it is governed by HK SAR laws.
  • Content between Hong Kong and the PRC *are* subject to filtering by the Great Firewall, because HK is considered outside the mainland’s domestic Internet. For that reason, even though Google.com.hk is not censored by Google, the HTTP stream (ie. Web traffic) going between HK and PRC may be interrupted by the Great Firewall, based on content. This is often seen as a “Connection reset” by the user.
  • It is possible that in the future, the Google.com.hk domain name or Internet protocol address may be blocked as a whole, but they don’t appear to be so right now.
  • While Google.cn Search, News and Images are now being redirected to HK, the Video, Music, Maps and Translate sites are not, and still seem to be hitting PRC domestic servers. (Google Music has gained notoriety because it provides free, legal downloads of popular music via top100.cn).

China’s just waking to the reality that Google.cn (now Google.com.hk) is now subject to the Great Firewall. Let the commenting begin.

SXSW 2010 Day 1

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Great blue sky weather greets attendees today coming to Austin, TX for South by Southwest 2010. The interactive, film and music festival has gained the reputation for being the most interesting conference around for creative folks of all stripes.

Ties and suits are frowned upon here, while Chuck Taylor sneakers, scruffy beards and muted T-shirts rule the scene. Attendees find any electrical outlet they can, plop themselves on the ground, open what is typically an aluminum Mac laptop and start searching away:

Where’s the best party? What’s the next interesting session? Where’s the best party? Who’s at what bar? Did I mention, where’s the best party?

Some reflections before things get fully underway:

This Sunday I’ll be giving a talk on Wikipedia, one year after I launched my book at SXSW 2009 (The Wikipedia Revolution). The title: Can Wikipedia Survive Popular Success and Community Decline? Not exactly the most optimistic topic, but it’s a necessary look at the significant statistical shift in contributor numbers, and perhaps introduces a new phase of Wikipedia’s existence.

Even though the SXSW sessions haven’t started yet, there are some interesting trends just from people-watching:

  • This year is the coming of age for Digital SLR HD video. The number of “rigs” being carried around SXSW is pretty impressive: Canon EOS 5DMkII full frame and EOS 7D crop frame video systems are prevalent, often with external audio recorders to capture better audio than the auto-level input allows on the camera. I’m eager to hear from filmmakers at SXSW how much DSLR HD video is changing their industry. Just think, for less than $3,000 you can get a jaw-dropping 1080/24p quality video. In the past, you would have to start in the five figures to get access to the same type of lenses at that resolution. This is a rather interesting twist in the DSLR wars — for a while it seemed Nikon finally had found its edge over Canon, by creating better professional gear at reasonable price points (ie. D300). But with my experience at last week’s Venice, CA, Philip Bloom meetup which paraded an amazing array of Canon video gear setups, I’m convinced long term Canon’s experience in video (and Nikon’s lack of it) will lead Canon’s comeback punch in this area. It could very well be why Canon dominates again.
  • There’s a more commercial feel this year. Pepsi, Chevy and AOL are taking up the premier spots in the lobby area where attendees tend to hang. Not bad on its own, but Chevy’s displaced the legendary LEGO Pit! What used to be front and center, entertaining kids and adults alike, is now a lounge with leather seats and power plugs. Each day the Lego Pit used to be the meeting point for folks to go to dinner. No longer. SXSW has always been about play — last year there were spontaneous fusillades of elastic foam finger rockets in the hallways. I hope it keeps that character. The LEGO Pit has been spotted elsewhere, but not nearly as central to the “freeway” of SXSW.

    Lego Pit always a crowd pleaser at SXSW

    Lego Pit always a crowd pleaser at SXSW. It's been moved to lower traffic location.

  • FourSquare maturity. The location-based, game-themed social networking service is now fully entrenched as a way to find out where the good parties are. Many bars and hotels here show over 100 “other” people there, and you can get an instant readout as to how long lines are at the popular places. CNET’s Buzz Out Loud calls FourSquare old news at SXSW, with last year being the big splash. Other mainstream outlets are just catching on. Gowalla is making a play in this space too, and I’ve seen more than a few references to it by users here.
  • Badges at SXSW now carry a QR code (2D matrix code) so you can quick scan someone’s badge with an iPhone or Android app and it will save it to your my.SXSW list of folks you met. So you should be able to do away with business cards, says SXSW. In theory, at least. It scores a FAIL since it uses a service called DUB in between, and requires a user to enter a username/password to my.SXSW before it works. Most people will likely just give up because it’s too much of a hassle. I did. Not a good user experience to present a blank white screen with username/password. As I told CNET’s Dan Terdiman, at least some basic user info should show up to spark that “Aha!” factor to convince you it’s worth your while. I predict the abandonment rate will be quite high, and few will use the QR scanning feature. The tactility of business cards, especially among creative types, still has resonance.

    Example of a QR code on the badges of SXSW attendees

    Example of a QR code on the badges of SXSW attendees

That’s just from walking around before the conference starts.

More to come as the day goes on.

NBC LA Review: Cables!

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Ever wonder why the weekly ad circulars for Best Buy and Radio Shack use valuable space for promoting expensive HDMI cables, right next to $1000 flat screen TVs and BluRay disc players? The not-so-secret secret — cables are one of the highest margin products in electronics retailing, with markups of 80% not uncommon.

Best Buy/Magnolia advert for a 4 foot HDMI cable: $149

Best Buy/Magnolia advert for a 4 foot HDMI cable: $149

Back in the analog era of turntables and 1st generation CD players, there was some reasonable debate about getting high end, $200 speaker wire, stereo RCA cables or coaxial connectors. In today’s digital age, there is very little to this argument. With digital interconnects, it either makes it or it doesn’t. For any connection less than 6 feet, you should never be paying more than $15.

This week on NBC LA TechRaw, I talk about HDMI cables, used to connect your consumer HD camcorder or BluRay HD DVD player to your flat screen TV. Outlets where I found good cheap HDMI cables for less than $10 include Amazon.com and their AmazonBasics line, Frys Electronics and even Ross Dress for Less. Others in the tech sphere have had luck with Monoprice for their cables.

The bottom line is that you should never be paying the $149+ for digital interconnects (with the very rare exception that you’re doing long runs of 50 foot home installation cables behind walls)

View more news videos at: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/video.

NBC LA Review: iHome IP88

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While most gadgets are “Toys for Boys,” I reviewed one that you can share with your spouse. Literally.

The iHome IP88 is an iPod clock radio alarm and speaker system setup for his/her iPod charging. While the sound quality isn’t spectacular, it is nice to have a compact, functional way to charge and play from two different iPods or iPhones. It can even sync the time from your handheld device. Price of $149 a bit high, but if you’re a CostCo member, it can be had for $99.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/video.

NBC LA Review: Panasonic LUMIX

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This week on NBC LA TechRaw I review the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-ZS3 which has the trifecta of what I’m looking for a compact point and shoot:

  • Wide angle and long zoom lens (25mm to 300mm in film terms)
  • 720p high definition video, optical zooming works while recording (!)
  • Beautiful optical quality (Leica lens)

It finally is a decent all-in-one package for journalists in terms of visual quality. The only missing element is an external microphone jack for great audio interviews. It lists for $349, and can easily find it for less than $300 at online retailers.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/video.

Wikimedia response

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The Wikimedia Foundation has responded to the recent press attention started by the WSJ piece about Wikipedia participation on the decline.

The main takeaway from chief data analyst Erik Zachte and deputy director Erik Moeller is that the decline has happened since March 2007, but the number of participants seems to have stabilized at around 40,000 making at least 5 edits a month. (The English language Wikipedia seems to have a slight downward trend over the last two years, but this may not be statistically significant)

This is in contrast with researcher Dr. Felipe Ortega’s numbers, where he measures a participant as someone with at least one edit, which would of course make for a much more jittery number. He calculated a departure of 49,000 editors. His stats aren’t wrong, but is the interpretation of them right? This brings up the question — what does it mean to “depart” Wikipedia?

There is a Missing Wikipedians page that has been maintained for many years now, to document people who haven’t been seen for a while. It’s often a big guess as to whether people are dormant, coming back, or long gone. Wikipedians typically do not depart with a definitive reason or declaration of their disillusionment.

Even with a stable number of “active” contributors, what does this mean as the number of articles keeps growing past 3 million? Journalist Jennifer 8 Lee of the NY Times asked me in Twitter, is the ratio of editors per article important, or is editors per number of edits?

How do bots, and other technical features such as semi-protection and autoconfirming editors aid in relieving human editors from the drudgery of vandal fighting, and augment editors’ ability to add useful editorial content? The role of bots is tough to measure, but merits more research. With roughly 2 edits per second in the English Wikipedia, human efforts alone cannot keep up with the traffic. It is possible the technical systems implemented during the decline since 2007 have compensated for the community decline. There’s lots for further study here.

Wikipedia in the WSJ

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Today’s WSJ has an article by Julia Angwin and Geoff Fowler: Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages and the associated Digits blog post. It’s one of the best reported stories so far on the dropoff in numbers in Wikipedia (and it’s not just because they quoted me).

The article taps all the right folks: founder Jimmy Wales; WMF’s Sue Gardner and Frank Schulenberg; WMF board of trustees members Sam Klein and Kat Walsh; and many researchers of the project ranging from Mathias Schindler to Ed Chi. It’s hard to argue the plateau is something that can be dismissed lightly.

Perhaps the greatest fear is that Wikipedia will decline not with a bang, but a whimper. Why? Wikipedia has usually made its big strides from reacting to massive public relations “bangs.” Whether it was the Seigenthaler incident that restricted anonymous editing, or upped the requirement for verifiability and reliable sources, Jimmy Wales has been able to push through tough community changes in reaction to obvious public problems.

The alarming thing about a slow decline in Wikipedia’s quality is that there may be no flashpoint to rally around. A slow, low-level infiltration of spam and non-neutral edits may be occurring that the shrinking community may not be able to police.

At SXSW 2010, I’ll be doing a solo talk on this exact topic: “Can Wikipedia Survive Popular Success and Community Decline?” I welcome any and all theories related to this question, either in email or as comments to this post.

Here is an extended video interview I did with the Journal’s Angwin about this.

Review: Apple’s Magic Mouse

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Today I did a video review of Apple’s Magic Mouse for NBC News Raw (video to be posted later), but here’s a more detailed overview.

Apple’s had a bad modern history with designing mice.

It stemmed from Steve Jobs’s stubbornness from the 1980s to avoid a second button on the original Mac mouse. When Apple finally relented in 2005, and a second button capability was added, it wasn’t a physical switch but a finicky touch sensitive part of the surface of the Mighty Mouse. In an attempt to provide scrolling capability, it sported a small “scroll ball” about the size of a ball bearing, which proved far inferior to the scrolling wheels on much cheaper mice.

Magic Mouse side profile

Magic Mouse side profile

That brings us to the Magic Mouse, which promises to transcend the physical shortcomings of mice past by making the entire top “Multi-Touch” and promising iPhone like functionality from an external device. Its features are impressive but its fashion forward design undercuts its usefulness.

There’s no doubt about it, this is a beautiful device. With a low curved plastic piece on top of a rather heavy aluminum base, it’s certainly $69 worth of quality. The mouse body is not much thicker than an iPhone, which is one of its problems — you find your hand is not very comfortable manipulating something so flat, curved and narrow. While Logitech and Microsoft have optimized their generations of mice to create thicker, more hand fitting shapes, Apple’s gone the opposite way by making something resembling half of a Dove soap bar.

As a Bluetooth mouse, it communicates with modern Macs without a pesky USB dongle and pairing it with your computer is simple. The left mouse button and right mouse button work as expected once you configure things in the System Preferences. If you swipe a finger down the middle of the mouse, it scrolls down any web page or list. You don’t get the positive physical feedback of a true wheel, and it takes some time to get used to. Swiping with two fingers across the mouse while keeping it stationary with your thumb and pinky takes a bit of practice, as it’s a motion no one has ever had to do before. If you’re successful, it helps to navigate web pages by moving forward and backwards through your browsing history. This is where the Magic Mouse’s heft comes in. With an aluminum base, this is one heavy mouse for its size, but it means it doesn’t slide too much when you’re swiping its surface. Gone on this mouse are the two side squeeze buttons that came with the Mighty Mouse which could be configured but typically brought up Apple’s Dashboard utilities. It’s odd to see Apple remove features like this it previously touted.

What the mouse lacks is Windows support, the ability to simulate a third middle button and any type of zooming functions by pinching gestures on the touch surface  (ala the iPhone). There is a “momentum” feature that does mimic iPhone functionality by simulating the physics of page scrolling, but this is only possible in MacOS Snow Leopard 10.6. It uses two AA batteries and Apple claims that power lasts up to four months.

In the end, is it a worthwhile device? People who love using mice with the Mac will probably be happy with the Magic Mouse, and perhaps those in graphic arts who use Photoshop and other design programs. For everyday use, however, the position of the flat and low mouse is awkward, and I can see getting cramps and a gnarled hand.

Like women’s high heeled shoes, this mouse is beautiful and dazzling, but questionable for long term wear (Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo come to mind). Just finding a Magic Mouse in stock was actually tough in the Los Angeles area. In the end it was at the Apple Store at The Grove, among high end boutiques and fashion stores that had one unit reserved for me. And perhaps that’s exactly the way it was meant to be.

NBC LA Review: nook and kindle

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This week I’ve started doing a brief five minute TechRaw gadget review for NBC LA’s NewsRaw channel. The first feature comparing the new Barnes & Noble nook to the Amazon Kindle can be found at the NewsRaw site, or as an embedded object below.

I’m impressed with the nook so far. Some features like 14-day book loan to a friend, secondary color screen, and it’s Android pedigree will turn a lot of heads. More importantly, customers can handle and test it out in person at B&N stores, something that Amazon cannot boast. It will be an interesting competitive race between them.