Predictions for the Apple Spring Forward Event

I love writing prediction pieces, it is fun todo and gives me a chance to imagine what I would design or like to use if it was made available. We already know Apple is going to talk about details of the Apple Watch. We will finally get pricing on the mid range and high end watches, as well as ship dates and pre-order dates. I can't wait to line up to get my Apple Watch.

Analysts are predicting 5 million units have been made, I think that will not cover the opening weekend demand for the new device. I bet sales will be strong and supplied constrained until summer. The entry level watch and mid tier the big sellers with just a few high end watches being sold. Estimates that the high end watch being around $5,000 is probably not far off base. For that price Apple I believe will announce the devices to be the most upgradable device ever with internal component upgrade options in the future for a substantially more modest price or the Edition and maybe the mid tier watches.

The demos will of course include some highlights from developers doing some amazing things with the watch software. I hope some of the health information rumors are just that rumors, I hope the device has the ability to monitor stress levels and remind the wearer to calm down. I know this writer could use that reminder from time to time. I will be surprised to see if it can monitor blood pressure but heart rate should be fairly simple.

I will say that accessories for the Apple Watch will also sell very well. I would bet that most owners of the mid tier and edition models will probably choose two or three band options and the price of the magnetic bands or more modern clasps will certainly be higher than what we see with traditional watch band tech.

Overall I expect that Apple watch to be a huge hit and outsell the rest of the smart watch industry and likely take the traditional watch industry by surprise. Even if a small percentage of iPhone owners buy Apple Watches it will still be a huge market.

The big surprise will come in the form of the One more thing. Apple never just rolls out one item at these events. The rumor mill has been loaded with talk of a pen, a 12" iPad, and a 12" Macbook Air. I am just seeing a flashback to the iPhone announcement when Apple announced three new products and they are all the same thing.

My prediction is the iPad Pro 12" and the Macbook Air 12" will actually be the same device. A

modified version of iOS and OS X, with better multi-tasking and enhanced UI for better touch interface. When docked with the keyboard it would behave like a Macbook Air, when undocked it would behave like an iPad. The ability to run both OS X and iOS Apps. Not with emulation but by putting both an ARM processor and Intel processor in the same machine. Toss in a high quality pressure sensitive pen and you have a strong competitor to the Microsoft Surface tablets. Which I have used and find them to be likable devices. Some elements of the UI are still too small to be effective for touch but I am sure Apple UI designers would address and correct that.

I could envision the workflow being something like quick communications and notifications coming in on the watch. Slightly longer interactions and light work, pull out the 10" iPad tablet for single tasking work and entertainment. Then the larger tablet for serious work, multi-tasking and laptop replacement when traveling for days and the large desktop machine for the heavy duty computing tasks and large amounts of data storage.

I hope to see a new announcement regarding AppleTV. Something that will give the cord cutters a reason to rejoice and some new technology around home to make home automation easier and more user friendly. They may even throw in an announcement on upgrades to iCloud for enhanced security and maybe a new feature or two.

Trouble with iMessage, FaceTime or Push Notifications?

There have been some anecdotal reports online that have indicated issues with iMessage on iOS. Below I have a few fixes that may correct the problem. I ran into this personally with one iPad and one iPhone in the last few weeks. Both times I had to resort to deactivating and reactivating. 

Some users have reported that turning their iOS devices off and back on fixes the problem, while others indicate that the solution has not worked for them. In testing with my devices experiencing difficulties, the following steps didn't fix the issue but could and are simple: 

1. Turn off iMessage in Settings > Messages 

2. Reset networking settings in Settings > General > Reset 

3. Reenable iMessage in Settings > Messages 

iMessages do not appear to be failing back to SMS when this happens either. They just eventually appear as a failed to send in iMessage. Or if it is right after an update awaiting activation will appear in the iMessage and FaceTime System Preferences panel. 

If these procedures above don’t work. Download Red Sn0w to your computer and perform the following steps:

Get RedSn0w here http://www.iphonehacks.com/download-redsn0w

1.) Connect device via USB cable

2.) Open RedSn0w

3.) Click on Extras

4.) Click on Even More

5.) Click on Deactivate

6.) Phone will show activation screen again. Open iTunes on the computer

7.) iTunes should detected the device and attempt to activate it. 

8.) Device will reactivate with new tickets and Push, iMessage, and FaceTime should go back to normal. 

Hopefully this should resolve any issues you may have with iMessage or FaceTime. 

Air Display Review

AirDisplay is a great app if you are looking for an extra screen while you are working on your laptop.  AirDisplay can even turn a users Macbook into an extra display for an iMac. However if you are running an older Macbook Pro with Nvidia graphics there are some known issues with the graphics driver that can cause the device to not be able to drag and drop files etc. until the user has disabled Air Display.

AirDisplay costs $19.99 and is available on the iTunes store for iPad and iPhone. The software that installs locally on your Mac is free and instructions for where to get the software and how to install it are included in the AirDisplay app.

Once the app is installed on the iOS device and on the Mac they auto detect one another as long as they are on the same network and connect. Once that is completed users can open Display Preferences to decide which side to place the extra display on. The touch screen still reacts like normal on the iOS device. If the user has an application with tool bars like Photoshop it is a convienent control surface. Reach over tap the tool you want and return to work without having to move the mouse to the other screen.

I recommend using the AirDisplay app while plugged into external power to preserve the battery on the iOS device. This is a great application that grants road warriors a second screen while on the go or a convenient extra screen while working on a desktop.

With AirDisplay and Mavericks in the future a user could have a multi screen laptop completely wirelessly. The main laptop screen, a second iOS device screen with control surface and an AirPlay Display hanging on the wall. The flexibility becomes limitless.

For the $19.99 price tag AirDisplay is the best among the remote screen applications and well worth the investment.

The Value of AppleCare Plus

I have mentioned this before both on the podcast and in a number of Mac User Group meetings I have spoken at in the past. I do feel the need however to post about this again this week for reasons that will become abundantly clear in a moment.

AppleCare plus for your iOS devices is a must have for people on the go that rely on their devices. For $99 users get two years of coverage against device defects and against accidental damage. Let messy that one more time for emphasis. If you accidentally damage your device apple will replace it for $49 dollars. For the two year coverage of the device if you drop it on the ground and it breaks or if it falls in water Apple will replace the device for $49.

I just happened to be talking to a friend last Monday about AppleCare and stated I never really use it in the six years I have carried an iPhone or the three years I have carried my iPad. The very next day my phone slipped out of my hand and fell on its edge on a concrete parking lot. The result was disastrous.



After getting over the initial shock and surprise I didn't worry about it. I just picked up my phone opened my Apple Store app and through the cracked screen booked an appointment with a genius. I went right up to the store on my way home and they swapped it out in about twenty minutes. I paid for my replacement and bought a case to make sure it doesn't happen again. As soon as I got home I restored my phone from my iCloud backup and within about four hours of breaking my phone I was back in business and no one would have known it even happened if I had not posted it on Twitter.

Finally a few years ago I had my trusty 2007 MacBook Pro that was my primary computer. In the three years I owned the machine it went back for service for a few issues. One was a recall for a bad graphics chip, next a bad battery, later another motherboard for a different issue, then a broken lid latch that was keeping my machine from closing. Finally one night the hard drive started acting up so I Carbon Copy Cloned my hard drive to an external and booked an appointment.

Due to the number of issues I had experienced with this one machine Apple opted to replace my computer with a brand new 2009 MacBook Pro. Thanks to my AppleCare warranty I got a new machine and immediately bought a new warranty. Laptops and handheld devices go with us everywhere and sometimes take a beating. Again I can't stress enough the importance and peace of mind The AppleCare plus warranties bring for someone who constantly relies on technology for daily life.

A Little Something to Share Event

Apple sent out invites to the press and in an atypical move decided to live stream the event. I certainly hope they continue to do this going forward. It makes it much easier for me to cover as a blogger. They started with the numbers. More than 5 million iPhones were sold on opening weekend. Over 200 million devices are running iOS 6, making it the fastest upgrade rate in history. Over 125 million documents have been uploaded and stored in the cloud in the last year. iMessage users have sent 300 billion messages in the last year. Currently iMessage averages about 28,000 messages per second. Over 70 million photos shared with Photo Stream sharing. Finally in the area of numbers Mac has out grown PC for six straight years. Apple now has the number one desktop and the number one notebook computer in the US. Apple has also been rated number one in satisfaction and reliability. In new news Apple is releasing a new version of iBooks for the iPad. In addition to the traditional page turn they have now added a continuous scroll option for those who would prefer vertical scrolling. Ties to iCloud have been improved with better bookmark syncing and the ability to update books. Also with new social media features quotes can be shared with Twitter and Facebook. iBooks also now has support for 40 languages. Also iBooks Author has been updated with additional themes and the ability to embed fonts. Apple started with revving the 13” Macbook Pro dropping one pound of weight, adding dual microphones, dual Thunderbolt, and USB 3 ports. Also adding a Retina Display to the line up and tossing in an HDMI port. Now apple has two Retina Display notebooks in the lineup making them both the highest resolution laptops made. The 13” display has a resolution of 2560x1600 with four times the pixels as the previous model. The new display has a 178 degree viewing angle, and with the new laminating process glare is reduced by 75%. The 13” comes with an Intel HD Graphics 4000 integrated graphics card and no discrete graphics card like its 15” sibling. The new 13” has shed some weight, thickness and the optical drive. The updated Mac mini gets the Ivy Bridge architecture with an Intel HD Graphics 4000 card, USB 3, up to 1TB hard drive or 256GB of Flash storage, and Bluetooth was upgraded to 4.0. Entry price $599 and the server version is $999 with 2 1TB hard drives. The Mac mini is the most energy efficient desktop made today. The iMac is truly a thin, fast, and drool worthy machine. Sporting an incredibly thin 5mm edge and utilizing a process called friction stir welding to fuse the back and chin of the machine together. Friction stir welding is apparently a method used in aero space, and other industries. Also by making the screen thinner and removing the air gap between the glass and the LCD panel improves color, reduces glare, and makes the over all image look better. To top it off Apple is now color calibrating each individual panel in the factory. Finally they have added dual microphones to the iMac for beam forming. The system supports up to 32GB of RAM and up to a 3TB hard drive or 768 GB of Flash. The Apple Fusion Drive is a build to order option on the new iMac. It pairs a 128 GB Flash drive and 1 to 3 TB of spinning storage to take advantage of the speed gains of SSD while keeping the large capacities of traditional hard drives. There is some software magic going on under the hood with this device. According to Apple Mountain Lion evaluates and moves programs and data between the flash storage and the hard drive to optimize performance. According to the benchmark numbers the Apple Fusion drive is only slightly slower than an SSD alone. Hopefully it will be nothing like the disappointing hybrid drives we have seen from Seagate. Finally even with more power and a brighter screen Apple has managed to reduce the power consumption of the iMac by 50%. 100 million iPads have been sold since the launch of iPad in 2010. 2,500 schools are using iBooks in their curriculum as replacements for standard text books. Over 80% of the High School Core curriculum is now available on iBooks. Apple introduced a minor update to iBooks Author to include embedding of fonts, new templates, a mathematical expressions module and multi-touch widgets. The iBooks app itself now includes updates so books can be updated after they have been downloaded to a device. In a stunning move Apple introduced a 4th generation iPad just seven months after the launch of the retina iPad 3rd generation. With a beefed up A6X CPU, improved graphics chip, FaceTime HD Camera, expanded LTE capabilities, improved wifi performance using MIMO, and sporting the new compact lightning connector. It doesn’t seem like a huge update just an incremental change mostly aimed at getting rid of the aging dock connector. The new 4th generation iPad is priced at the same price point as the previous iPad. Also new adapters were announced a USB, Secure Digital, HDMI, and VGA to lightning connectors. No surprise at all is the new iPad Mini. With an all new design it is as thin as a pencil and weighs the same as a pad of paper at .68 lbs. LIke the iPhone it is available in white/silver or black/slate. It is a 7.9” diagonal screen with a resolution of 1024x768. It is the same pixel count as the iPad 2 in a smaller form factor. This is a 162 pixel per inch display which isn’t quiet retina. It seems strange as Apple pushes retina displays into every product the newest one is missing a retina screen. It is also interesting they didn’t take the opportunity to make the Mini-iPad a 16:9 screen. It was never mentioned if either of the new iPads contain beam forming microphones to improve performance of audio pickup for Siri and dictation. All new Apple products in the handheld or tablet categories are at least coming with Siri.

The New iPad

The iPad is just starting its third year on the market and now the third iteration of the hottest tablet computer in the world. At first glance this revised iPad may seem a little ho-hum. But after a weekend of using it, I just can’t get over how amazing the graphics look. iOS 5 has made this not just a content consumption device but has made this a device that is just as capable at creating content. For most users they may not even need a laptop anymore.

In the announcement just over a week ago, Apple announced they had sold more iPads than HP, Dell, or Lenovo sold computers. This device is perfect for reading email, reading books, watching movies on the go, and creating content.

Equipped with a 42 watt hour battery almost double the battery of the previous generation we still get 10 hours on wifi or 9 hours on 4G. It does take longer to recharge this much larger battery. I just toss it not he charger when I am at my desk or whenever I think about it. I don’t want it to run totally dead anymore due to the amount of time recharging takes. For the enhanced graphics of the retina display and performance of the quad core graphics it is totally worth it.

The Retina display is just stunning making movies look crystal clear on the 9.7” display. Text looks as sharp as a printed page. You truly have to hold on in your hand and use apps that are designed with the new retina display in mind.

The camera while most people might feel silly holding up the iPad to take a picture has an astounding camera. Great if you are caring it along and you need to take a quick shot. The large screen really shows you immediately the quality of your image in a way a small screen on a pocket camera or smart phone just can’t seem to quiet capture. Who hasn’t taken a picture and thought it looked good on the camera screen or smart phone screen, only to load it on your computer and find something wrong with it? The lens process designed for the iPhone 4S paired with a 5 megapixel sensor makes just magnificent images.


Since the device is only 1mm thicker than the iPad 2 existing cases will still work with the tablet so there is no need to give up your favorite case to upgrade to the new iPad. Apple also delighted the press by announcing the 16 GB iPad 2 will be sticking around at a lower price point. People buying their first iPad can now get one for $350.00. I think this will pretty well kill most of the Android tablets slated to come out this year. If Apple shaved another hundred off the price they could likely kill off the Nook, and Fire tablets while they were at it.

Don’t get me wrong I want to see other tablets in the market and would like to see them do well. It pushes Apple to keep innovating and making a better tablet for those of us who use them. I am just not sure any other tablet maker has something ready that can compete with it.

The 4G LTE chipset is smoking fast with 10MB down and 5MB up speeds on Verizon. In a series of surprise tweets over the weekend I was pleased to learn that if you buy an AT&T or Verizon iPad you are not stuck with that carrier. A simple microSIM swap and you can use either carrier. If you happen to travel to Europe you will be relegated to 3G speeds since Europe’s LTE network uses different bands requiring different chips. Hopefully someone will come up with a Global Chip that can handle them all to solve that, perhaps in a future iPad.

In a test a few weeks ago I attempted to spend an entire work day while traveling to just spend it on my iPad and not breakout the laptop computer. I found that on the iPad 2 I was able to work a little over a 10 hour day. Keep up with my email, configure about a dozen airport extremes, remote control several computers, update support tickets, have a few Skype calls, do some writing, and iMessage with several people all throughout the day and had no problem doing it. Once I mastered the four finger swipe left and right to jump between apps or the four finger swipe up to select an app that was used several app switches ago, I got quiet quick at moving around and was able to get a lot of work done. WIth more AirPrint printers being made I was even able to print documents without my computer. During one trip the hotel printer on the wireless network had AirPrint and I was able to print my boarding pass right to it with no hassles at all. I was able to go the whole day without my laptop. With the new iPad this should be even easier.

As far as early reports of heating is concerned, I haven’t noticed a problem. I don’t play a lot of games on my iPad and when I do they tend to be casual games and not particularly graphics intensive. I may pick up a game for testing purposes of course and see if it really does heat up. But I have not yet noticed any such problem under normal usage in average temperature conditions.

So I would say the new iPad is a hit and Apple’s numbers today seemed to prove it. Over three million iPad’s sold on the opening weekend and availability in more countries in the next couple of weeks. It seems Apple is poised to break more records yet.

If you have an iPad 2 don’t worry. Unless you want the higher resolution screen or LTE network capability the iPad 2 is still supported and should remain popular at the lower price for a long time. The original iPad is still supported but with only 128MB of RAM may start seeming sluggish as newer apps demand more memory. So if you are on the iPad 1 this might be a good time to think about upgrading. If you are on the iPad 2 you could give it another year if you aren’t particularly eager for the new features.

Overall I am extremely pleased with my new iPad and look forward to what other announcements Apple has up their sleeves for us next.

One parting question for my readers today. How do you use your iPad? Is it a work tool? It is a toy? Does it replace your laptop? Feel free to leave your comments in the comments field below.

Hulu Plus, Netflix, and iTunes replacement for cable?

After a few months of testing I can say I have a pretty good feel for Hulu Plus. First the application runs fine on the Mac, not quiet as nicely as Netflix with its Silverlight technology and ability to run in full screen on an extra monitor while you work on other monitors, but it runs fine if you are just looking to watch TV on your Mac. The iPad and iPhone applications are fantastic for watching TV shows while you are mobile. The picture quality is a little lower on 3G but still watchable.

For comparison I tried Hulu on the Mac, iPad, iPhone, and PS3. The PS3 was just a bad experience. Every time a software update comes out Hulu gets stuck on the login and will not open completely or close to allow the user to update without holding down the power key and rebooting the PS3.

On the iPad and iPhone It is a completely different experience. Just tap the app and you are ready to watch TV. The search is a little non-intuitive and new full episode availability is still limited. The older series library is growing constantly allowing viewers to revisit old favorites or even discover old series they missed for the first time Recently some content has starred showing up as web only not allowing it to be viewed by anything but a Mac or PC. Since there is a $7.99 a month subscription fee i should be able to watch any content on any device I own. That has been a problem for several shows I watch.

At $7.99 a month for Hulu it isn't a bad deal if you want some TV on demand or your DVR missed a show, but I am not throwing out my satellite TV just yet.

Netflix is another TV / movie on demand service with a large selection of movies and a $7.99 a month streaming only option. The system recommends movies based on what you watch and how you rate movies. It is easy to discover movies you may never have heard of before. Or if you happen to be at home and in the mood to watch a movie you can just flip through and find something without having to go out of the house or buy a movie from the cable or satellite company.

Netflix on the Apple TV, iPad, and iPhone are great experiences. Again on the PS3 the User Interface changes every time you sign in making it a little confusing to use. I keep hearing that Netflix is trying to find the right UI and getting feed back from customers on the three leading ones. My recommendation is let us choose which one we want to use and don’t assign a random one.

While Hulu is focused on TV Netflix is definitely focused on feature length movies and a few older TV series on DVD.

Netflix will also for an extra dollar a month will mail DVD's to you. The entire catalog isn't available for streaming yet but, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says they plan to have the entire Netflix collection online in the next year and sees an end to mailing DVD's in the not to distant future.

iTunes has come a long way since it’s early days of just syncing the iPod. Adding a music store, a movie store, and a TV shows in addition to the app store. iTunes became one stop shopping for programs and content. In the early days we could only purchase content which was a little expensive for just watching a movie. Later they added rentals and HD content. Now with the Apple TV2 renting movies is simple and competitively priced with cable and satellite. The 720p HD stream looks great and it is most of all totally convenient. The only thing Apple is missing now is a subscription service to let you watch all the movies and TV’s you want for a low monthly fee. Maybe a few content deals from networks and we could see competition with cable and satellite. I don’t think that is likely to happen since most of the networks own cable companies as well. It would be good for consumers as it gives us choice. What is more likely and will be slow coming is independent content creators will start making their own deals and getting themselves into iTunes, Hulu, and Netflix and start making the big production companies and cable networks less relevant. Much like the Internet has given everyone a voice to share content they have created we could see the same thing come to streaming services in the future. This would give consumers more choices and more diverse content, give advertisers a less expensive medium to get the word out about their products and give us access to content anywhere, anytime, anyplace.

For the providers of content it is time to get on board with streaming from iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, or even your own app that is available on multiple platforms. Just last season my DVR had an issue and stopped recording a series I watch. I didn’t notice until the end of the season and missed several shows. Not wanting to get lost in the story I stopped watching and started looking for the season once it ended. It isn’t available in any streaming format and is coming out on DVD but really not worth me going out of my way to get it and to buy it. So the network just lost a regular viewer due to a technical glitch and their inability to make the show easily available for me to catch up and resume watching on my DVR.

So I am not quiet ready to give up satellite TV yet but Netflix, Hulu, and network TV apps that deliver content to any digital device might make a compelling argument for leaving cable behind. Particularly for road warriors who are on the road frequently and don't always get a chance to watch their favorite shows.

Windows 7 driver update breaking iPads and iPhones

When updating your iPad or iPhone be careful with a possible issue involving driver updates with Windows 7. By default Windows 7 will look for driver updates automatically when connecting a new device. While it is searching for the drivers it will temporarily disconnect the device. If you are updating your iPhone OS or iPad disconnecting the device at that start of the upgrade can corrupt the software update and leave your iPhone or iPad in a state requiring it to be reconnected to iTunes and restored.

If you connect your iOS device frequently to your computer and backup your settings, apps, music, videos, books, etc., you should be fine. When the computer restores it will restore the backup it does right before the installation runs. If however you are upgrading from a computer you don’t backup your device on or for some reason your App syncing isn’t turned on you could lose data.

To make sure WIndows 7 doesn’t disconnect your iOS device during the upgrade follow the steps I have listed below.

 

1.)    Click Start and choose Devices and Printers

2.)    Right Click on the PC Device and choose Device Installation Settings

3.)    Then select No, let me choose what to do.  Select Never install driver software from Windows Update and select save changes.

This will keep WIndows 7 from disconnecting your USB devices and looking for new drivers when you plug them in. The easier option is of course to use a Mac and it won’t disconnect your device while looking for new drivers.

Blogging on the Mac

Blogging on the Mac can be as simple or as complex as you choose it to be. Blogging can be a lot of fun and a truly rewarding experience. The first thing you have to decide is what you want to blog about. Pick something that is interesting to you and that you can write about on a regular basis. It took me some time to learn this important tidbit. Regular blogging is very important to getting repeat visitors to your site. My first six months of blogging I could have lunch with all of my readers because I wasn’t writing on a regular basis. As soon as I set a deadline for myself and started sticking to it I saw an immediate increase in traffic.
I started off by purchasing a domain name through godaddy.com. www.macguy.info serves as my home page and blog.macguy.info is redirected to paulmacguyscott.blogspot.com where my blog is hosted. Next step was to signup for blogger using my gmail account. Once I had the blog site setup and configured the way I wanted it to look I setup blog.macguy.info to redirect to my blog page.
Next to see what kind of traffic I am getting I went to Analytics.google.com and setup an analytics account so I can see how many hits a day I am getting, how my visitors are finding me and what country they are from. This is just of interest to me and it is only very general information but it gives me an idea of who comes to my site and sometimes what pages they are visiting.
Really the best source of feedback is comments on the blog itself, emails, or tweets I get from my readers. Some of them even give me ideas for future posts. As a part of regular posting process I started planning what topics I am going to write on ahead of time. Currently I build my schedule about two months out. I plan topics around certain dates that might be relevant. A review of study software in August right before students go back to school, or a look back on technology when a company hits a mile stone anniversary. Of course sometimes I shuffle things around if a big story breaks or an important issue comes up that needs to be covered.
Planning these ahead of time allows me to start researching and writing ahead of time as well. I can start putting my notes together or interesting bits I think of I want to write in file so i can keep track of it when I am ready to write it. I am also trying to write several articles a week and hold them until it is time to publish so taking a vacation or being busy with my day job doesn’t throw me off my scheduled posts.
Another option when news breaks is to just add an extra story for the week to my blog. Since this is all digital I don’t have to worry about a real deadline or how much space I take up. I can always add a bonus story if I like or just move the schedule around. Currently I plan about two months in advance what I plan to write so currently I just move stories around, eventually I might add extra stories to the blog as I have more time to write.
After the first few months of writing my blog in the web based editor on blogger I decided I wanted a better way to post. So I started looking at different programs that might help me focus on my writing and post my stories. I settled on MacJournal from http://marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=85. It is a nice software priced at $39.95 and versatile. In addition to being linkable to several blogging platforms like Blogger, Word Press, Type Pad, and Live Journal you can create private encrypted journals to share your personal thoughts and writings for just yourself or perhaps a memoir for the future.
MacJournal lets me keep a local copy of all of my blog entries so I have a copy on blogger and a copy on my laptop that is also backed up to Time Machine and Mobile Me. For those keeping score that is four copies of my writing in three different locations on two different kinds of media. In a future post I will do a piece on backing up in depth.
MacJournal also allows you to add your tags and set publishing dates right in the Inspector. This saves time when uploading your blog post. You configure your site settings under share and when it comes time to post your blog you just click share, Send To “Name of your blog here” and it uploads and shows you the page in Safari once it is loaded. The only weak point I have seen with MacJournal so far has been it can’t upload images to Blogger. Any images I add to my blog I have to do on the web after I have uploaded the story. I hope this is something that can be fixed in a future revision. Once I have uploaded the images I can re download the story into blogger and update my local copy and it does download the images just fine although it doesn’t hold the formatting as it is displayed on the web.
If I am traveling and have a need to post in my blog I use BlogPress on my iPad and iPhone. http://blogpress.coollittlethings.com/ This is a great piece of software that allows me to blog while away form home. In April i wrote a story reviewing the iPad while on a cross country flight. Since the plane had WiFi I was able to write my story and post it right from plane. Writing a 2,000 word review of the iPad on the iPad was a good experience and one that showed me short of software development I didn’t really need to carry my laptop with me anymore if I was only going a few days. Now with Remote Access software I hardly ever have to carry my laptop anymore unless I just want to for some reason or I need to sync my iPad with my computer. BlogPress syncs right up with blogger and was the first iPad Blogging tool available on the app store. I just open it up and start typing. I even can add images right to blogger from the iPad. At the time there was on editing software for photos on the iPad so I wasn’t able to rotate the image the way I wanted the screen shot to look but it worked in a pinch.
If I don’t have my iPad with me but I am carrying my iPhone BlogPress runs on the iPhone as well. Now I can take pictures and write a story right in the field. With a Bluetooth keyboard it is easy to write from the iPhone. So now I can take my writing with me wherever I go. BlogPress will even let you save movies to your YouTube Account and link them to your blog. So no we can do pictures, movies, and text all live from wherever we are.
I blog because I like to write and I like to share information with people. I get a great deal of satisfaction knowing people are reading what I write and getting something out of it. For that I want to thank each and every one of you for visiting my blog and enjoying and learning from what I have written. Please keep the comments, tweets, emails, and Facebook posts coming. I couldn’t do what I do without you all.

WWDC 2010 Keynote

Well we have all by now heard the news from Apple about the upcoming iPhone 4 and new iPhone OS now to be known as iOS. I will just give you a quick highlight recap and then talk about what I think is even more interesting. What wasn’t mentioned in this weeks Apple Keynote.
iPad
First Steve made a quick mention of what a huge success iPad has been selling over 2 million units in just 60 days. Now with international shipping underway that number is sure to skyrocket just as fast as Apple can make these fantastic devices. I think John Dvorak is going to loose his bet toLeo Laporte on Apple selling five million iPads in the first year. We will probably make that number in six months.
The iBooks application already has a 22% ebook market share in just the first 8 weeks. Amazon got us excited with the Kindle and whetted the publics appetite for e-books and while I still like and use my Kindle the iPad just does so much more and now that is the device I never leave home without. Now Apple is adding the ability to read PDF’s right in iBooks on our on PDF Bookshelf and giving us the ability to take notes right on our PDF’s and Books as well as bookmarking and highlighting the text. iBooks is ready now to be the killer app for education in the 21st century. Apple has also included wireless syncing of all of our books, PDF’s and our data between iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and I am hoping someday a desktop app which will allow me to consume my content where ever, when ever and how ever I choose.
App Store
In Steve’s speech he mentions that iOS supports two platforms HTML5 and the App Store. HTML5 is a fully open and uncontrolled platform. Anyone can develop anything they like and run it in the Safari browser. The App Store is a curated platform where Apple vets the Applications before they are placed in the store for sale. Apple gets 15,000 apps a week that are submitted in up to 30 languages. According to Apple 95% of apps are approved in 7 days. Steve went on to mention the top three reasons an application doesn’t get approved.
1.) The app doesn’t function as described by the developer
2.) The developer used private API’s which could result in a program failing after a software upgrade
3.) The App Crashes.
Still there are issues with a few apps that get pulled for strange reasons such as the political cartoon application which was rejected for reasons of content and later was put back in the store when the developer appealed the decision. Or the Pulse Application for the iPad that was pulled because The New York Times demanded it be removed for containing copyrighted material. It was taken down, the developer removed the sample RSS feed that pulled New York Times content and the app was back in the store later in the day.
I would like to hear from any developers that read this blog about their experiences submitting to the app store. Both positive and negative to get the perspective of those that deal with the App Store on a regular basis. If I turn it into a follow up column later you will of course be anonymous.
New Apps Coming Soon
Netflix for the iPhone coming this summer for free. Netflix is using adaptive bit rate technology to adjust video quality based on network speed and allow you too seamlessly switch between wifi and 3G.
AT&T capping data will really put a damper on this application. You can stream movies over wifi with no problem but just a few movies on the Pro plan and you could blow your data usage for the month. I have and I am keeping my unlimited data plan for my iPhone which is good for me but with multi-tasking and NPR streaming apps, Pandora streaming apps, and Netflix streaming those that have to spend a lot of time on 3G might find they get unreasonably large bills from AT&T or don’t use the capabilities of their phone for fear of going over their cap. This is just another way AT&T is holding up the progress of technology and failing their customers. I have already gone over that in depth in Is AT&T Business plan to give away all of their customers to the competition?
Zynga is bringing everyones favorite Facebook time waster FarmVille to the iPhone. Now you can work your farm while you are in line at the bank or out at a bar with your friends. Send a friend a gift in FarmVille with them sitting right next to you. Zynga has 35 million players playing games daily and over 70 million players of FarmVille per year. Over 200 million gifts per day are given in FarmVille and will be on the iPhone by the end of June. We are evening getting an option for a tractor and a pet Snow Leopard for iPhone FarmVille players.
Guitar Hero is also coming for the iPhone. The demo may have not done it justice and since I myself have never played Guitar Hero at all I didn’t really understand the game play experience they talked about in the demo.
iMovie is going to be available next month on the iPhone 4 for $4.99 and give users the ability to edit their videos, add transitions, add titles, and edit the audio in your video before uploading it to You Tube, sending it via email, or other uploading options.
iPhone
Neilson Statistics reported that the Smart phone market broke down in the following way:
35%         RIM
28%         iPhone
19%         Windows Mobile
9%                 Android
9%                 Others
For just being around three years now starting on their fourth year to be second only to RIM maker of the Blackberry line of phones is an impressive feat. Particularly given the fact AT&T seems to really be holding Apple back on sales. In a recent report 16% of Verizon customers would buy an iPhone if it were offered on Verizon’s network. That is a huge number of potential customers untapped due to AT&T’s exclusivity deal with Apple to carry the iPhone.
Once the agreement ends and iPhone becomes available on other carriers iPhone could potentially control the smart phone market.
iPhone 4
The new iPhone sports a glass front and back with a stainless steel band around the phone. The new iPhone 4 is 28% thinner than the current 3G and 3Gs iPhone making it the thinnest smartphone on the market. The new glass front and back is made from the same glass that is used in helicopter canopies and high speed train windshields. That with a new process to strengthen the glass is supposed to make it 30 times stronger than plastic. Hopefully that means our phones will not scratch as easily. While my phone screen has never been scratched the plastic back is pretty scratched up from my keys in my pocket and the dock connector in my car.
The new Retina display just couldn’t be fully appreciated on the video. Apple had a special high resolution projector installed for the presentation so people in the audience could see the difference between the old displays and the Retina display. The new Retina display at 326 pixels per inch is such a high resolution display most people can’t differentiate the pixels at 12 inches from the phone. With 4 times the number of pixels and the IPS LED backlit screen on the new phone the screen is sure to look stunning.
With the new A4 chip in the the iPhone the new phone will be faster and more power efficient. With the speed of my iPad I can’t wait to get my hands on the new iPhone 4. While the phone is slimmer they were able to increase the size of the battery to give us about 7 hours of talk time, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of wifi, 10 hours of video playback, 40 hours of music or 300 hours of standby.
The antennas are part of the phone structure. The frame of the phone is the stainless steel band around the outside of the phone also serves as the two antennas. One antenna is for the Bluetooth and 802.11n WiFi and the other antenna is is for the cellular and HSDPA which no supports 7.2 Mbps down and 5.8 Mbps up when carriers upgrade to support those speeds.
There was no change in storage capabilities, the iPhone 4 comes with 16 GB or 32 GB of storage. With the explosion of downloaded music, movies, applications and the addition of a higher resolution camera and the ability to record HD video I think extra storage would have been helpful. Hopefully we will get some streaming options in the future for iTunes content we own so we don’t have to store everything on the phone.
The 5 Megapixel backside camera has an LED flash or the LED can be left on for shooting 720p HD video. The sensor is larger so it works better in low light conditions it is also backside illuminated to work better in low light situations. The iPhone software includes a 5x digital zoom and tap to focus in both still and HD video. iPhone 4 also adds Geo location information to the video while it is being recorded so you can remember where you took the video. The travel template also uses Geo location to give you the Indiana Jones sort of intro showing a pin on a map of where the video was shot.
A GPS, Accelerometer, compass and gyroscope for 6 axis motion sensing are available to the new core motion API. This will give the phone more information about where it is in space and make the iPhone more aware of its environment. This is going to be huge for gaming and advertisers will be able to tap into these functions to give users more useful information about the world around the phone.
Apple expects to sell 10’s of millions of iOS devices this year. The iPhone pre-orders start on June 15th and we will be able to pick up our iPhones on June 24th. Apple has dropped the 3G iPhone and moved the 8GB 3GS into the $99.00 spot and added a $199 16 GB and $299 32 GB iPhone in Black or White.
iOS 4
The new iOS 4 has 1500 new API’s for developers and over 100 new user features including multitasking done right. Even Steve pointed out while they were not the first to have multitasking they did it right. Double tap the home button to access the running applications. The apps when they are not in the foreground are saved out to the flash storage. If the application needs to keep some parts running like audio for Pandora Radio is controlled by Core Audio when the application interface is in the background. This way you get multitasking without sacrificing battery life. Part of these new API’s include a right swipe gesture on any app to reveal the audio controls for which ever app is sending audio to your headphones and allow you to fast forward, rewind, play, pause, or adjust volume.
With the explosion of applications and the ability to display 16 apps on a screen and 11 screens for a maximum number of displayable apps of 176 apps that just isn’t enough for the modern iPhone. So now we have folders. Simply drag an app onto another app and it will automatically name it the same name as the genre of application it is and you have a folder. You are free to rename the folder or add more applications if you like. Now we can have thousands of applications available on our iPhones.
Unified Inbox now gives us the ability to look at multiple inboxes at the same time. So we don’t have to swipe back and forth between our personal and business email accounts we can manage our digital lives in just one inbox just like on the Mac. To help keep everything organized they have also added message threading so you can keep track of a specific conversation. In keeping with the big business theme iOS 4 also includes better enterprise integration, better data protection, improved mobile device management, wireless application distribution, SSL VPN, support for multiple exchange accounts, and support for multiple search engines, now Google, Yahoo and Bing are options in iOS 4.

FaceTime is what is going to make the iPhone the must have device. Realtime video conferencing on the iPhone with a few initial caveats. iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 only and only works where there is WiFi in 2010. The good news is no setup required, works in portrait or landscape mode and can use the front or rear camera. Apple has already announced they are submitting FaceTime as an Open standard so that other phone manufactures and other software companies can opt to use it. I can see a world in the next two years where we can make video calls to iChat users, Skype Users, Android Phone users, Cisco Video Phone users and even Microsoft Live users and be able to have a face to face chat. Even the applications for the deaf are going to be astounding. The iOS upgrade will be available June 21st and will be free for all iPhone 3G, iPhone 3Gs, iPod Touch 2nd generation and newer, devices for free.
Accessories
Apple will be offering a new iPhone dock for $29.00 not any different from the 3G dock just shaped to hold the iPhone 4. Apple is also attempting their own case for the iPhone called bumpers and it wraps around the phone and come in five colors. Front and back are open to show off the iPhone 4.
What wasn’t said
Almost as interesting as what was covered in the two hour keynote is what wasn’t covered. No announcement of iPhone being opened to other carriers in the US. I remain convinced that will happen in the near future. That is why I think AT&T increased there early termination fees from $175 to $350. AT&T caping bandwidth, charging premiums and providing substandard voice services are pushing customers to want to move to other networks and keeping some people from buying iPhones in the first place.
Also Apple didn’t announce a new MacBook Air, Mac Pro, or iMac all of which were do for a refresh. There were also mentions of a new Apple TV which didn’t materialize and no mention of what the data center in North Carolina is being built for. Apple promised some big announcements this year right after announcing the iPad. Also conspicuously missing at the Developers Conference was any mentions of OS X 10.7. If Apple holds to their release schedule we should have an updated OS available between February 2011 and August 2011. So probably Apple will hold that announcement back for the next developers conference and give developers time to update applications prior to the release of 10.7. It would still be nice to see what they have planned. I expected there to be more announcements at the developers conference than we got.
Apple has the Moscone Center booked again later in the month, perhaps Apple has more announcements planned this year keeping them front and center in the news. January we had MacWorld, in February Apple announced the iPad, April and May the iPad is released with a lot of media coverage. Now June we have the iPhone 4 being released which will surely be heavily covered by the media. I am sure Apple will have more announcement this year that will keep them front and center in the public eye through 2010 easily.

10 Quick iPad Secrets

Below are a few important quick tips every iPhone and iPad user needs to know to get the most out of their device.

1.) Press the lock and home buttons together to take a screen shot. This is helpful if you are giving instructions how to do something on the device or just need to show someone what is on screen.

2.) Hold your finger on a key on the virtual keyboard for special characters. Such as ü or ā. This is much easier than trying to find these on a regular keyboard.



3.) Google map uses iPad’s built in magnetometer to orient map. Just tap on the target at the top of the screen to activate. (Note: You may have to walk in a few figure 8's to calibrate.)

4.) Hold volume down key to instantly mute the audio. The iPhone mute switch was replaced by a rotation lock on the iPad. So this trick gives you a quick way to kill the audio should something start making noise in your next meeting.

5.) iPhone accessories like the component video dock is compatible with iPad video out. I was able to output 480p video to my television using the iPhone cable I got last year.

Also if you have keynote in presenter mode you get a laser pointer onscreen wherever you touch the iPad. It was never mentioned in the feature list but is very cool.

The Cisco WebEx meeting application also supports output to external monitors allowing you to put the meeting on a larger screen.

6.) Holding the Lock button and home button will restart your iPad just like on the iPhone.

7.) Four taps on text will highlight an entire paragraph.

8.) If you are on a very long web page tapping on title bar of safari to return to the top of the page instantly.

9.) Solve wifi problems. You can eliminate some issues with joining wifi networks by making sure if you have a dual radio 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz base station that each network has a different name. I also just added the iPad to the 5 ghz network and removed the 2.4 ghz so it only tries to join 1 network.

10.) Customize home button. You can set the double tap to go to the home screen, activate the iPod or jump to spotlight search. Don't get used to this because iPhone OS 4 is going to use that for multitasking on the iPhone this summer and the iPad this fall.

11.) I know I said 10 but this one was just too good to pass up. While you are reading books in the iBook app any citations that are marked in a passage are hyperlinks. If you touch the citation it will take you to the bibliography page. At the end of each entry there is a return to page option that will take you back to the page you were reading.

These are just a few tips that happen to work on both the iPhone and iPad's. The more time I spend with the iPad the more attached to it I become. It is a great device for content consumption as well in the future for content creation.

This post is being written on a cross country flight. After getting settled into my seat I checked my email, Twitter, Facebook, copied my notes from the notes application into Pages and started writing. Even taking the photo above and putting it in the document. As the iPad spends more time in the wild I am sure we will see more content creation options but that is for a future post.

Note: Italics indicate and edit made to the article after publication. I found this tip right after I posted the article and thought it was just too good not to add.

-- Post From My iPad
Location:US Airways flight 1490 somewhere over the US

10 Must have iPad Apps

Now that I have spent a week with the iPad and enjoy it thoroughly.  I can't wait for iPhone OS 4 to ship later this year to see what new features besides Multitasking that we will get.  In the meantime here are a few must have applications to make your iPad the envy of everyone at the local coffee shop.

1.) Netflix, the application is free but you do have to have a Netflix subscription that offers Internet streaming.  The quality of the streaming video is good however it is standard definition currently.  The CEO of Netflix stated in an interview that starting this year Netflix will start introducing High Definition streaming this year.  It is great for watching movies anywhere anytime you have time and a network connection.

2.) Twitterriffic is as you might guess used for sending and receiving your tweets on Twitter.  It is a free download and is more feature rich than the desktop version and was designed with the iPad in mind.  It looks great on the big screen and makes Twitter fun to use.

3.) GoodReader is for reading PDF's and is only $.99.  It allows you to download the PDF's to your iPad from a number of sources.  It can be connected to the MobileMe iDisk, drop box, Google Docs, box.net, FilesAnywhere.com, any Generic WebDav server, or even search for shares on the local network.  GoodReader will even allow you to turn your iPad into a web server to share your PDF's with other iPad users or PC's or Macs on your local network.

4.) USA Today is a great free application for getting the current news.  It looks like the news paper and is up dated every time you open the application.  I can now get the news in the morning without even going to the front door to pick up the paper.

5.) NPR is another free app that let's you read the news and listen to NPR stations all over the country live.

6.) The iBooks app free from Apple gives you access to the iBook Store and allows you to download ebooks and read them on your iPad.  The User Interface for the iBook application looks just like a real book complete with page turns.  Unlike a real book you can change the print size, font, and brightness of the page.

7.) Amazon Kindle for the iPad is a free application so you can buy books from Amazon and read them on your iPad, iPhone or Kindle and keep all of your bookmarks in sync no matter which device you are using.  So you can have all the ebooks available on Kindle and Apple's bookstores right at your fingertips.

8.) iTap RDP is $11.99 and for those that might need to take remote control of a Windows PC this is a native iPad application so the Windows Desktop looks great on screen.  Pinching and Zooming gestures allows you to get in close to a section of screen.

9.) Star Walk is $4.99 and is a great educational application if you are interested in astronomy.  Star Walk uses Location Based Services to find where you are and show you what the sky looks like as you hold the iPad up and look to the sky.

 10.)Pages, Numbers, & Keynote are $9.99 each and allows you to create documents right on your iPad. If you have to write a paper, create a spreadsheet or enter data into a spreadsheet or give a presentation you can do that all with the iPad.  Apple has some more work to do with these apps getting data in and out more quickly and easily.  These are first version applications and I am sure they will mature in time and be as useful as their desktop counterparts.

You can run any iPhone application on the iPad in regular mode the applications fit in the middle of the screen.  There is a 2x mode that allows you to double the pixels to blow up an application to full screen on the iPad.  Some games and applications look good being pixel doubled.  Text usually looks blurry being doubled but is readable.

Many applications for the iPhone are being rewritten for the iPad's larger screen.  Some developers are offering the upgrades for free while others are writing whole new applications and charging for them.  That is being left up to the individual application developers.

This is just the beginning of the applications that are going to be coming out for the iPad over the next year.  As more developers get the iPad in their hands we will see more innovative applications coming down the road.  Remember the iPad has only been in the publics hands for only a week.

iPad First Look

IPad First Look

Apples new iPad is a revolution for the tablet computer and is likely to do for the tablet market what the iPhone did for the wireless market. The iPad is already shipping with quite a few apps optimized for it's bright sharp 9.7" LED backlit IPS (In Plane Switching) display. the screen is nice to look at and easy to read. That coupled with a 10 hour battery life really makes the iPad a work horse that easily outshines most net books with a few easily correctable limitations.

Display

The display on the iPad is bright and clear. It looks great even outdoors while wearing polarized sunglasses. Without the sunglasses you get a lot of glare on the screen but next is still readable. The downside of the display is finger prints. Despite a oleo phobic finger prints and smudges occur all over the screen. They are not really visible until you turn off the display. Clean up is easy just wipe the display with a soft cloth or against your shirt and the smudges brush right off. Apple should have included a micro fiber cleaning cloth with the iPad like they do with all of their other notebook computers.

Keyboard

The on screen keyboard is certainly useable and while I can't quiet touch type on the screen like I can on a real keyboard i think with a little practice I might come close. I am actually writing this review in Pages for the iPad with the on screen keyboard. With built in bluetooth you can also use a physical keyboard if you have a lot of typing. Holding iPad in portrait you can reach all of the keys with your thumbs. In landscape they keyboard is nearly the size of a real keyboard so laying the iPad on your lap or placing it on a table and typing is the easiest way to use that keyboard.


Movies

It has been great for watching movies even without headphones in a quiet room the speaker sounds surprisingly good for a device that is that small. It is thin and light weight although without a stand it does get uncomfortable to hold after about an hour. Netflix is the killer app in this category at the moment. Being able to stream any movie that is available in their library to any device is a cool feature. Currently I can stream Netflix to my iPad, PS3, Wii, Mac, and coming soon iPhone. The CEO of Netflix has already commented they look to not have a need to mail DVD's to customers in the next couple of years. They also announced HD streaming coming this year.

Sling Player is also available for the iPad and rumor has it that Hulu will be coming to an iPad near you soon.

Books

The e-book reader is an elegant app that gives you a very book like feel. I quickly forgot about the device and just settled NGO by book and started reading. Just tap on a word to see it's definition and double tap to set a bookmark. When you are done tap library and your book flies onto shelf and remembers where you were. The ebook store opened with 60,000 titles about 30,000 of which are free titles from project Gutenberg. pricing is about the same as what we saw on Amazon but the navigation on the iBook store leaves much to be desired at the moment. The search feature will take you right to the book if it is the library. They do not yet seem to have a way to add an ebook to your wish list or to gift a book to someone. The good news is if you use iTunes home sharing your books are shared with other members of your household which is s plus. 

The Amazon Kindle Reader for iPad doesn't look as nice as iBooks but it is functional and syncs with the iPhone Kindle app, the Kindle and the Kindle for Mac and PC giving you more flexibility about how and where you read. Plus you can buy Kindle ebooks on the Amazon store on the web and they just appear on all of your devices via whisper net. I am sure Amazon will work on the visuals to make the app more attractive on the iPad. I am not ready to get rid of my Kindle in favor of the iPad. At this time it will be another device I will use to read books in addition to the iPad.

Apps

Quite a few apps have been available on day one. I have loaded about 30 so far with more coming every day. With the extra screen real estate it has allowed developers to really get creative with what is possible in the User Interface. There are a few things the iPad does better than the iPhone due to it's size and a few things it does better than a laptop due to it's size, portability and touch interface.

Kleiner Perkins has also offered $200 million to iPad app developers as an investment into new and innovating applications. I think the run away success of this device will come next year when developers really have a chance to re-imagine computer human interaction.

The News

I woke up first thing this morning and without having to step foot out my front door I picked up my iPad and perused USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and AP Newswire all over mooring coffee and never hand to step foot out my front door to pick up a dead tree edition. While I am reading I can post interesting articles right on Facebook, Twitter, or send it out in an email wit ever having to leave the application. USA today looks just like a newspaper down to the saw tooth page edge at top but updates based on location so I just see my local weather. Stock updates will be coming later right on the Money page. Wall Street Journal looks like a news paper but includes when it was updated in the tag line and also integrates video right into the page. It isn't quite the auto updating smart paper in Minority Report but we are getting close. The AP Newswire took a totally different approach with summaries floating in little boxes on the bottom of the page you can slide around and video clips you can tap and play. All these options are great approaches to sharing the news and if local papers jump on board and keep subscription prices under the print editions this might actually help save the news paper business after all.

To 3G or not to 3G

That is the question. In order to get one in my hands quickly I opted to go with wifi only. On the first day we took our iPads out to eat. The rester aunt we choose happened to not have wifi seriously limiting what our iPads could do. That being said I use fairly little 3G data monthly with AT&T since most of the time I happen to be around wifi. Most of the time I will hardly notice the lack of 3G and GPS in the wifi model. First to have the 3G I would have to wait another month and pay an extras $130 for the device. Plus buy a 14.95 250 GB monthly plan or 19.95 a month unlimited data plan (no contracts) but still I already pay for a data plan for my iPhone why not just use tethering? AT&T is not allowing us to tether any device to our iPhone. I don't want to pay for a data plan for three devices iPhone, iPad, and Macbook Pro so if I decide I need to use the iPad for data when wifi is not available I will look at alternatives like Sprint 4G Overdrive or Verizon mi-fi cards where I can tether my laptop, iPad, and usually up to 5 devices to get online. Also jail breaking the iPhone and tethering is an option for those who wish to do so.

Web Surfing

The web surfing experience is good on the iPad. The browser is fast and pages load quickly. Sites are quickly creating iPad optimized versions that are free from Flash and Brightcove the company that provides streaming video to many newspaper sites announcing they are moving from Flash to HTML5 we should see fewer and fewer of those missing plugin icons as Flash slowly goes away.

The Good

With an amazing screen, processor speed, and battery life the iPad is a very capable and reasonably priced device that will have a prominent place in my daily work flow. While on my desk it can be a large digital photo frame, while at Coffee Bean it can be my word processor, web browser and place to store notes. I always have my library of books at the ready in case I have an odd moment to read. I am waiting to see some nice audio recording apps for mobile podcasting on this platform. The sky is really the limit with this device.

The Bad

I have to harp on Apple for the closed file system and no built in PDF reader/editor. you can open and view PDF's in email but that is it. When I connect my iPad to my computer I don't get a drive on my desktop to drag and drop files. That is a huge oversight I hope to see corrected. I would also like built in access to my iDisk so I can store documents on MobileMe and move seamlessly between working on a document on my desktop, laptop, and iPad. Getting documents out of Pages on the iPad and into the the computer isn’t very intuitive at all and could easily result in having multiple versions of a document. I haven’t seen a way to auto sync them yet. This feature is going to need a lot of work yet.

No iPad, iPhone sync to iTunes over wireless. We have been asking the iPhone to do this for years and we do get wireless updates for contacts, calendar and email but I want to see music, movies, and data work this way. I want to play Plants vs. Zombies on my iPhone while waiting in line for my coffee and when I return home my iPhone tell my computer it has an update and then update my iPad so when I pick it up I can pick up where I left off.

Every Apple display and laptop ships with a camera to use Apple's iChat program. It is a useful cool for chatting and collaborating with colleagues. While we do have AIM text chat on the iPad and Skype will be coming soon to the iPad I really feel the iPad is missing out on the ability to video conference from anywhere. How cool would it be to be able to see and hear anyone from anywhere anytime? I could be sitting on a tropical beach somewhere and with a tap of my iPad call up a friend and show them where I am hanging out at the moment or share live so breaking news or historic event.
Finally with all of the power the iPad has, multitasking for all apps needs to come to the iPad and maybe a beefed up iPhone sporting this fast Apple A4 processor.

Conclusion

The iPad is extremely intuitive to use and if you have an iPhone or iPodTouch then you know how to use this device. The iPad will certainly change the way I work and the way I am entertained. I will likely carry it with me almost everyday and sometimes even opt to leave larger laptop at home. It is certainly worth every penny and is almost a good replacement for net books once we have video cameras and printing built into the device. Apple said this isn't meant to compete against the net books but it really does and within a year has the potential to make the net book irrelevant if they can just give us a few more features.

For the haters out there who have been criticizing the iPad without first holding one and trying it for yourself you do not know what you are missing out on. Once you have had some time with it and imagine how you can use it you are going to love it.

Why I disagree with "10 Reasons to pass on iPad" and 10 reasons I want an iPad

I read this 10 reasons to pass on the iPad on Tech Republic this morning http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1324&tag=nl.e101  and just had to write the 10 things that refute the argument of why to pass on an iPad.

1.)    Physical Keyboard, there is an accessory dock that has a physical keyboard or you can connect via a Bluetooth keyboard.  (This person didn’t pay much attention in the presentation)

On Screen size the larger size is a convenience that is better than the iPhone for viewing and not as cumbersome as a 17” notebook.  As long as the device does some things better than an iPhone and some things better than a laptop around the price of a net book it is going to be a hit.

2.)    The Net books don’t have usable track pads and require mice to be attached.  Also lack the CPU power and battery life the new iPad offers.  IF you want a 10 hour battery your net book would weigh about 3-5 lbs.  For 1.5 lbs. you would only get about 2 hours out of it not 10 hours the iPad offers.

3.)    Running iPhone OS there is software to allow you to remote control your Mac from the tablet.  So you get the Power of a desktop in the palm of your hand through Remote Desktop.  iPhone OS is OS X with a touch interface on top.  They do restrict what apps can be loaded and only allow what is in the app store but that could be altered in the future and it creates an app ecosystem most developers like and was responsible for the smash hit the iPhone became despite bugs in the process.

4.)    There is never enough storage.  No matter how much you put in someone will always want more.  64 GB is a good starting point.  A net book with more storage would have a mechanical drive or a much more expensive SSD drive.  As the price of flash drops and tech improves we will get more storage.  The iPhone grew from 8 GB to 32 GB in two years.  Two years from now the iPad will probably ship with 256 GB of storage and my laptop will have 2 TB of storage.

5.)    Again not paying attention.  I don’t have HDMI on my iPhone either but the Dock Connector can output 480p to my Television, and guess what the Dock connector accessory for the iPad can output 720p to a Television via a 30 pin to component video output that will be available day one.  I agree not having the camera kind of bites.  I was looking forward to video conferencing with it and there is a space for a camera in the hardware but for some reason Apple didn’t include it.  It could have been price or another technical issue.  It will come in the future I have no doubt.  (The iPad SDK includes Frameworks for Camera support in the Address book and other places, as well as Cisco wrote the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator client to use a Camera for their iPad version). 

6.)    I didn’t know they were going to have a USB adapter for the dock connector.  That is kind of cool.  Keeping it thin and light they had to leave out the USB.  It still has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.  There is no reason you couldn’t access remote storage via Wi-Fi.  I have 20 gigs of storage on my iDisk and I bet I will have access to that via the iPad.

7.)    Flash card access is available via the dock connector and to keep it thin and light something had to give. Most users wouldn’t use the Flash card slot anyway.  You can’t put one in for every format and keep the thing .5 thick.

8.)    It costs Apple $259.00 for the parts to build an entry level unit.  So if they sell them at cost they could make this guys target price.  Acer has already announced they can’t make a competitive product at that price point and make a profit on it so they are not going to even try and compete with Apple.  The pricing is really good for the device and you get what you pay for.  If you want a low performing slow net book then great spend $299 and use it as a photo frame.  If you want fast and do many things including a really sensitive touch screen $499 and you are in business.

9.)    It was unveiled a week ago.  I am sure third party manufactures will be quick to start making items for the iPad just like they did the iPhone.  I have a Belkin Tune Dock in my car, a Kensington charger in the truck, third party headphones for music, cases made by InCase, and a charger/speaker system from iHome.  This will happen for the iPad too once it hits the market.  How many people really carry spare laptop batteries or phone batteries with them?  How do you keep them charged?  Currently Mophie makes a Juicepack that plugs into the iPhone and recharges the battery to double the life of your phone.  I am sure there will be a Mophie iPad case to allow you to go 20 plus hours and not need to recharge.  Then you can recharge your device while you sleep.  The iPad CAN run Skype in fact Skype runs on the iPhone so that will be available day one.  Flash isn’t available that is correct.  HTML5 looks nice and You Tube is already testing it and rumor has it Hulu is heading that way too.  I can already view You Tube and UStream on my iPhone without flash.  Flash is a processor and battery hog that slows my laptop down when it runs and spins up the fans.  Why would I want it on my smart phone or iPad?  It is time for the world to move to HTML5 and the iPhone and now the iPad will push that trend along.

10.)  Wi-Fi is almost everywhere now so getting access shouldn’t be that tough if you use the Wi-Fi only model.  The iPad 3G is unlocked which means ANY GSM providers microGSM card should work in the device.  AT&T was just the first one announced, I am sure T-Mobile and others will be along soon.  Besides you can also just carry a MiFi device and connect through the Wi-Fi to any carrier you choose and your laptop can get on as well.  Sooner or later tethering will come to the iPhone as well and they will likely add a way for Wi-Fi iPad users to communicate with the Internet via the iPhone in their pocket via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.   

Now the 10 reasons I would own an iPad.

1.)    Sitting on my desk in a stand it will make a beautiful Electronic Picture Frame for my photos.  A Kodak EasyShare 10” Digital Photo Frame is about $175.00

2.)    Color Ebook Reader.  My Kindle isn’t color but still currently costs about $489.00 for a 9.7” DX model.

3.)    Watch movies while traveling and even be able to rent them from the iTunes store while traveling and download to the device.  Sony 9” portable DVD player is about $169.00 rentals of course if you can find a place to rent a movie while traveling.

4.)    Work on Documents and Presentations while on the go.  Sony Vaio 10.1 inch screen and 7 hours of battery life with Windows 7 $459.77

5.)    Read the Newspaper while on the go.  Ok this one is only .50 - $1.50 depending on the newspaper but it doesn’t update and isn’t good for the environment.

6.)    Play Games while I am out and about.  Sony PSP $241.00

7.)    Take notes in meetings.  Could use a computer or a notebook but it is much easier to find electronic notes later. 

8.)    Share You Tube Videos with friends on a larger screen.  Plus I don’t have stop my video to take a call.

9.)    The E-mail looks far more readable and manageable on the larger screen without being stuck behind my laptop

10.)  Remote access my Mac and PC’s for work.  It would be nice to be sipping a latte in Starbucks and get a call on my iPhone that someone needs me to fix something real quick for them and I just close my book on my iPad and open up a remote desktop and using the virtual keyboard and touch screen fix the problem and then go back to my book right where I left off.

There are obviously other devices that can do what the iPad does, not as attractive and not as user friendly.  To buy all the devices to do what it does would cost about $1,535.27 or about the cost of a 15” Macbook Pro.  So it is quite a value for what the device is capable of.  The iPhone grew in its first two years of life and added features and functions as I am sure the iPad will as well.  I think this is going to revolutionize how and where people work.

I would like to see a camera for video conferencing.  I was really hoping to see that on this version so that video conferencing could really go mainstream.  I would like to have multi-tasking or something like freezing an app in a state when it gets back grounded so I can pick up right where I left off when I return to it and use Push Notifications to tell me if an app got an update.  But above all I want the device to be fast, stable, and have a good battery life.