Two Months with an iPad - the journey continues

Ok - two months in and what can I add to the mix.

Well, firstly I can report that the lack of multitasking is in fact a bigger pain than I'd like - the fact that it is pretty quick to change between applications makes it bearable - but only just.

The lack of corporate tools to manage and navigate through firewalls and filtering systems is a pain - made more so by the fact that my office on the ground floor is beautifully sheltered from any sign of significant 3G coverage by the concrete that surrounds me - so heading out over 3G needs me to move location.

Last gripe is Vodafone's 3G coverage - prone to drop out far too often for my complete liking - might investigate Telecom or 2Degrees in another few months. That said, I have been surprised at the fact that I have not used the full 3GB of data I pay for each month ...


Blogging tools   (that I've found so far) are average - they allow me to do some basic stuff like text and images, but I want more.



But that's about it for the negatives ... the positives are ....

I can access my Google account via Google's mobile app - email, docs, etc. The shame is that I can't edit or create Docs or Presentations - but at least I can edit Spreadsheets if I need to ... but that's where ...

 Docs To Go comes in. I have had a few issues getting documents created in Google Docs to even open in Docs To Go - the issue seems to have been some of the newer versions of Google Apps - but this appears resolved now and for the last week I have been able to pretty easily create new and edit existing documents on the fly - so I'm happy with this.

The mobile version of Google Earth is awesome - we used it to find our way to places we had no idea about during a recent motorhome holiday - the awesome detail coupled with 3G access was brilliant - don't need a GPS in the truck to do this!!

And while I am still not overly happy with the file structure and management the iPad offers (maybe I just need to accept there is another way of arranging stuff than my untidy way of filing on my other computing devices!) But DropBox works well for me shifting stuff between my PC, Mac and iPad - so this all works OK.

My worst purchase to date is the Apple Keyboard doc - thought I'd need it - haven't used it since the day I bought it.

Best purchase - the iPad itself, the Apple case for it and everything else I have installed.

Best use to date - recording feedback directly onto a Google Doc (via Docs to Go) as the students were presenting their research - laptop and tablet both too heavy and awkward to do this - iPod Touch too small, iPad - just purrfick!

Next best app - Feedler - my RSS feed (or my way of a reading my Google Reader account at the moment). there is still something missing from what I think I want - just haven't found a better way yet.


Basically I love the iPad (well, love is a bit strong ... but it is way cool) - haven't even thought about trying to print anything from it - no need to. Just add the document to my iBooks library and read it when I want.

My next exploration will be to sign up for some digital magazines via Zinio  - have resisted the temptation so far, but can see that is where I'm heading.

A Week with an iPad

I picked up a 3G iPad ahead of their release here in NZ exactly a week ago. Resisting the temptation to post an initial impressions type entry, I've held off until now. So, what are my impressions one week into the exercise?

Positives:
1. the size - I've had an iPod Touch for a while, and one of the things I've not liked about it was it's small screen to use with the on screen keyboard. The iPad has a look and feel about it that suits my big fingers. The size is great.
2. The battery life - quite simply I can get a day's useful life from a charge. That beats the best laptop I have used by several hours.
3. Instant on - no wait for extended bootup times on a PC. Just turn it on and you are in action. Certainly makes it easy to do that last minute forgotten task - like booking the movie tickets I forgot to do last night. Took no time to do compared with having to reboot my PC - which inevitably takes 5 minutes to be usable.
4. Applications launch instantly. Get working quickly.
5. Screen - awesome clarity.
6. Weight - you hardly notice it. I've longed for a device that was both light enough and had enough battery life to allow me to read RSS feeds and the like from the comfort of the couch - this is it - light as a book - I've read more this last week than I would have with my laptop a much more.
7. Availability of applications to do work.
The App store makes it pretty easy to spend money! I splashed out on the iWork suite (Keynote, Pages and Numbers)for around $40NZ






and last night decided I couldn't be without editing access to my Google Docs accounts so paid another $19 for Docs to Go.






Other than that - all the apps I have so far are free and while I haven't spend that much time looking - there are literally tens of thousands available. The low cost nature of so many of them is both a good and bad thing in my view - low enough to entice me to pay for them without plenty of research.
8. Diigo has an iPad app - just found this yesterday and have enjoyed using it. It seems to work just fine with all the usual Diigo features.
9. Blogpress - decided that I just couldn't use the web version to edit my Blogger account so splashed out the $4 for BlogPress - already worth the spend by being able to insert graphics. Still need to sort out video and some other formatting basics though.

Negatives:
1. No multitasking - having to head to the home pages each time to launch a new app is slight drag - if therr is a mitigating circumstance it is that the instant switch from one app to the next is bearable.
2. No folder structure for organizing apps - so I have several home screens that are kind of in an order that I like, but I'd much rather have a few folders on one screen with my apps organized - I know that both of these issues will be fixed with iOS 4 (which I have installed on my iPod) - but I want these now!
3. No Flash. Yes, like most others I've read the press about Apple and Adobe and their very public falling out - but I'd be a lot happier if all the web sites I wanted to use were fully functional. No Flash is a pain.

There are still a number of things I need to get used to. I'm typing this on the iPad - and am about to go back and try to put in the links for this post - this is where multitasking would be handy and I don't have it! BlogPress makes is a bit easier.

My aim is to make this my main tool for most of my work ... So far I'm pretty happy with the functionality, but there are still a few things I need to resolve before I can go completely over to my iPad.

I have now completed my first KeyNote presentation and am more than happy with how that application comes together. But my biggest issues seem to be that I have yet to completely master editing my blog posts and that moving files around is not as "intuitive" as I might like.

Location:Christian Rd,Waitakere,New Zealand