Limbo Bits

I posted my initial impressions about the iPad a while back so I thought I’d take a minute to update my thoughts now that I’ve had it for exactly a month.

It’s safe to say that it’s my main Email/Twitter/News reader. Honestly, it’s my preferred method of reading just about anything. Yes, I would love to have a higher resolution screen (after reading several full books on it, the text isn’t quite a crisp as I’d like.) It’d also love for it to be about 1/2 of its current weight…maybe a little more. I’ve really enjoyed reading books on it - most have been programming titles from PragProg.com, but reading any kind of book should be just fine. The weight makes it a little harder to hold while you read it…at least for an extended period of time. I also end up hitting the “home” button quite a bit as I move my hand around to get a better grip. It’s not unbearably heavy, but 100 pages in or so and you’ll be getting a pretty good workout if you don’t prop it against something.

The rumors about WiFi reception are 100% true - my laptop gets a very strong signal from anywhere in my house. My iPhone gets a very good signal from anywhere - although not quite as good as the laptop. The iPad, however, has a hard time holding on to a signal when I’m in the front of the house (my main router is in the back). It usually connects, but it barely has a signal and it frequently drops out. I have a second router in the front of my house, so I can just switch to that one and things are ok - but I can see having issues in hotels or public areas where WiFi reception on laptops is less than stellar.

One of the areas the iPad *really* shines is photos. The LCD panel on this thing is fantastic. I didn’t think having an IPS panel would make *that* much difference, but it really does. I really, really enjoy looking at photos on this thing.

I bought a Pogo Stylus not too long ago. I thought it would help take notes. Technically, it does help, but it’s still nowhere close to a Wacom tablet or even a Tablet PC. Of course the iPad doesn’t support pressure sensitivity, so that’s out, but in order to minimize accidental touches, the iPad requires a pretty large area to be touched. The impact of this is that the Pogo Stylus is about as big around as the tip of my pinky…that’s not huge, but it’s large enough that it just doesn’t feel right to me. Without question, the stylus is much more accurate than a finger and drawing/writing is easier. I know a lot of people are really happy with the Pogo, but I still keep reaching for my pen & paper when I need to write something down or sketch out a quick design.

Otherwise, my initial impressions are still valid. Apps cost a lot (some are great, some not), battery life is excellent, TONS of fingerprints on the screen (only visible at an angle or while it’s off though), keyboard is serviceable to good, and the app store itself is still a bit of a jumbled mess (as far as finding apps outside the top 100 list).

I still this this device will open up a ton of new experiences and ways of interacting with a touch interface, but I’m really disappointed the Microsoft Courier and the HP Slate aren’t happening. Apple certainly has the lead on touch devices right now, but it’s always good if there is some real competition happening. Hopefully Google will come though with something slick. I really wish *someone* would make a tablet with capacitive multitouch + a real stylus (pressure sensitive Wacom style tech) - it just feels like the iPad would be so perfect if it had a real stylus. Oh well, maybe on version 2.0…

I bought NetNewsWire for iPad on launch weekend and I’ve been pretty satisfied with my purchase.  I saw there are quite a few negative reviews and I can see how the software isn’t for everyone (yet) - so here is my take on NNW at this point:

Pros

Simple, clean interface focused on your RSS content.

Syncs without a hitch with Google Reader.

Integrated Instapaper support.

Integrated web browser so navigating links within a feed item doesn’t take you out of the app.  (You can still open the link in Safari if you want though.)

When in portrait mode, the whole screen is the feed item with a small toolbar at the top with a few options (such as move to the next item).

Post the current item to Twitter or Email.

Support for marking items as “starred” in Google Reader.

Cons

It’s $10 - this wasn’t that much of a con for me, but I know $10 for an RSS reader is a bit high for some people.  (Maybe there will be a lite version of the iPad app soon…)

You *must* use Google Reader - you’ll need an account to sign in with when you startup NNW…without it, you get nada.

You can’t add/remove feeds from within NNW - I have my list pretty stable, so I don’t expect I’ll be needing this much, but if you like to change up your feeds

No Tumblr support - I’d like to be able to post an interesting item to Tumblr instead of Twitter.  

Minor bugs - the iTunes reviews make it sound like there are a ton of bugs, but there is only one bug/issue I’ve noticed so far.  The “show next” button doesn’t automatically enable itself until you click on an item (so when you download 30 new feed items, you’ll need to touch one to start off…then you can just “next” your way smoothly through them).

Not a universal iPhone/iPod/iPad app - it seems reasonable that this app would be a universal app since it should work largely the same on all Apple devices, but it looks like you’ll still need two apps if you want it on both types of devices.

Overall

For me, NetNewsWire works great.  Reading feed items is almost as nice as reading a page from a book in iBooks or Kindle.  I already manage all of my feeds via the Google Reader web interface, so I don’t mind some of the features being missing.  I do expect NNW will get plenty more features in the long run - all of the apps were rushed out the door for the iPad launch, so it’ll take a little time for them to get all of their features in.  If $10 is a bit too much for you or you want more features (at the expense of a bare bones, but serviceable UI), then NewsRack looks like a good choice at $5.  I think most people are going to be happier with NewsRack until NNW steps it up feature wise, but NNW works for me and I’ve really enjoyed using it.

Don’t buy an iPad unless you plan on spending a good bit on apps up front…otherwise, you won’t be able to make the most of the device.

The keyboard is better than I would have expected when in landscape mode. I still like to attach the Apple Bluetooth keyboard if I want to type a lot - but the built-in keyboard certainly gets the job done. If you don’t type many numbers or special symbols, it’s possible to type at a really good clip.

Book reading is fantastic - both in iBooks and Kindle for iPad. iBooks is the prettier app in general. I love the Kindle background image though - it changes based on time of day. As expected, Kindle has a *much* larger selection. If I buy new books, I’m probably going to lean toward the Kindle for portability reasons. Importing ePub books into iBooks works fine and they look very nice - so I’ll still use it to read my books that are purchased outside of either store. If you need to read a PDF book, you’ll want to look at GoodReader (or other apps)…the PDF reading interface in GR isn’t as good as iBooks or Kindle, but the text is perfectly readable and it gets the job done.

Battery life is pretty fantastic - it looks like I can get 2 days of moderate use on a charge. Very happy.

The official Apple case is good, but overpriced. I got it because it has a mode to angle the iPad like a keyboard and it really does help. It also has a way to stand the iPad up so you can watch movies or make a virtual laptop (with the Bluetooth keyboard). I definitely prefer with a case to without it, but the case itself just doesn’t feel quite up to Apple quality construction wise. The seam around the outside is super large and annoying sometimes.

The screen collects tons of fingerprints - it cleans up quick and easy, but if you look at the screen on an angle or in bright light, then you’ll notice them quite a bit. I haven’t found them too distracting, but they are there.

This is the first iPhone OS product that I’ve really wanted multitasking on. It’s not a laptop replacement as a whole, but certain things are better than on a laptop/desktop..but it would be even better if multiple background apps could run.

The app store is a bit of a mess right now - Apple is actively changing it each day, but it’s still hard to find apps In the store without knowing the app name. It was far worse on Sat, but it’s still not quite there.

All in all, I’ve very happy with the purchase. I do still want a stylus though - I just can’t take notes with my fingers and the keyboard isn’t quite fast enough for me. If I have a Microsoft Courier plus an iPad, I think that will be everything I need for my mobile productivity. We’ll see - I’m excited to see what new apps come out in the next few months…some pretty amazing things are possible now, so it will be awesome to see them. And yes, this whole post was written on the virtual keyboard on the iPad…and it was a pleasant experience. :)

Here is my first round of iPad app purchases:

Pages

Keynote

Numbers

Sketchbook Pro

Expense Tablet 

Magic Piano

Wolfram Alpha

Weather HD

iMockups

Sketchpad HD

Things

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I’ve got about 20 more than I’m going to think about over the weekend - mostly games.  I think tower defense and RTS games are going to be fantastic on iPad…specifically interested in Red Alert…but I want to see some reviews before I plunk down the $13 (since I’m not a huge gamer).

So, my Paypal account was hacked a few days ago apparently.  I reconcile my financial records with my bank & credit card accounts at least once a week…this week, there was $1700 missing from my bank account.  I made the mistake of linking Paypal to both my credit card and my bank account.  I had my reasons for adding my bank account (it used to bypass fees and a few other things), but I never expected it to be a problem since Paypal seemed trustworthy.  

Well, I don’t know how it happened…it wasn’t a phishing scam, or my giving out my account info (intentionally at least) to friends/family or anyone else.  Somehow the hacker was able to get into my account, update my credit card address to his, and then order a PC from HP online…and then cancel the order and get the refund sent to him.  Paypal never sent me a payment confirmation email like they normally do, but my email address is still the only one on the account (at least it was when I checked).  So I’m surprised I didn’t know about this earlier.  I’m also surprised they didn’t validate the update to the credit card billing address (since it’s used to confirm a shipping address).  Maybe my CC company said it was valid, but it wasn’t…totally different city, state, and street address…  

I’m a bit miffed at this whole thing - I do conduct business online, but I’m pretty careful with anything financial online.  I’ve tried to extend trust proactively to a handful of sites that I found useful…Paypal, Mint, and a few others.  I think that was a mistake now - I’m going to go back and make sure any online account never has my checking account info.  The only exception will be my mortgage and utility companies…at least for now.  I really don’t want to mail in bills for those…so I’ll proceed with caution there.  I don’t really believe all of these services at automatically insecure due to this one issue with Paypal, but it just made me thing about it and every copy of my account info increases the chances of a security breach.  

I’m not worried about getting my money back - I feel confident (at this point at least) that Paypal will get everything sorted out and fixed up within a week or two.  This isn’t something I want to deal with again though - I don’t normally keep a ton of money in my checking account, so if this would have happened a few months ago, it would have been a huge issue.  As is, it’s just a wake up call and an annoyance.  It’s a good learning experience at least.

Today (March 14th, 2010), I’m kicking off my 365 iPhone Photo Project. Lots of people have done this before (watching Patrick’s project finally inspired me to give it a go), so it’s nothing new to the interwebs, but it’s something new for me. I’m going to follow a few self-imposed guidelines for my project:

• Any subject is fine - random images are important.
• All photos must be taken, edited, and uploaded from my iPhone.
• 365 images are required to complete this project - ideally, they are consecutive, but I’d rather have 365 images from a year and a half instead of 200 images over 365 days (if it comes to that.)
• All photos must be made public - including being open to comments.

That’s it. I intentionally chose to use only the iPhone to force myself to deal with its limitations and imperfect photos. I love the fidelity of my DSLR cameras…the iPhone camera is relatively grainy, high noise (if not in bright daylight), and generally soft. The goal here is to look at the world in at least 365 different ways and embrace the imperfect. I think it’ll be fun. If you’re interested in following along, all photos will be going up in this set on Flickr account.