The World of Scott Mindeaux

So it’s Been Over a Week…How’s the iPad?

So alot of readers have been emailing me this past week asking how I like my iPad so far. I wanted to spend at least a week with my iPad before I started putting my thoughts on paper (or on the pad in this case…)

After waking up late on Saturday, April 3, I can still say 10 days later that I’m still a happy iPad owner. Here’s what I have to say so far:

1. Since I got my iPad, I’m using my iPhone for just phone calls now. The experience on the iPad is so much richer. It’s not just the larger screen. Working with iPad developed apps, you find yourself in a different world from your iPhone/iPod.

2. What are my main uses? Email, browsing, note taking and watching movies. When I’m at work it supplements my laptop. I take the iPad to meetings and use that for taking notes. When at my desk I find that I have the mail app open 80% of the time. In addition to Exchange support, I have my MobileMe, GMail and Pop accounts on there. I can check all my email in one place. I don’t have any personal email on my work laptop, so this is perfect. Before the iPad, I had all of these capabilities on my iPhone. Exchange support on my iPhone has allowed me to stay in touch with the office even when I”m at home. There are still many people out there that say that reading email on the iPad can’t be so much different that on the iPhone. That’s probably true. But, I like that I can read my emails without having to resize every time. The speediness of the iPad also allows me to flip thru emails and scroll much faster.

3. Let’s talk about speed. This thing is FAST! Upon the first swipe of your fingers across the screen you know that this is wicked fast. Pull up Google maps and your swiping and pinching and expanding in lightning speed! Its like those multitouch screens on NCIS Los Angeles and CNN.

4. But it’s just a huge iPod Touch right? No. I can’t say enough that this is MORE. Yes, it can run the thousands of apps already written for the iPhone/iPod. But that isn’t where the magic is. The developers that have already written apps specifically for the iPad know where we want to go. I would say that the majority of iPad developers did it right by re-writing the app and taking advantage of larger real estate on the screen. Those that simply “exploded” the app miss the ball. It’s only a matter of time before those same iPhone apps are re-written for the iPad.

Some of my favorite iPad written apps?
WeatherHD - for the simplicity that it is. The subtleness of the videos is awesome
Epicurious – Recipes, recipes – need I say more?
The Elements – the way the Chart of Elements was meant to be shown. I would have taken more interest in science if I had this in high school.
GoSkyWatch – hold your iPad up to the sky and see where the constellations and other heavenly bodies are.
Zinio – my portal so some of my favorite magazines including Macworld and Saveur.
Asphalt5 – I’m not much into games, but I like this driving game as I race against the clock, using my iPad like a steering wheel
Autodesk SketchBook – drawing, layer support. It’s not Photoshop, but it can export to it. Tons of brushes, effect and the ability to have up to 6 layers. WHen you’re done you can export it to Photoshop thru a special interface in iTunes.
Netflix - movies, shows all streamed to my iPad.
ABC Player - all my ABC shows like V, Brothers and Sisters and Flash Forward all streaming to my iPad.

There are so much more! I can RDC into our servers, I can VNC into my Macs at the office. I can stream non-DRM videos from my MacPro at home over the net. Another nice app? Craigsphone. See Craigslist in a way you never have.

So battery life? I can make it thru an entire day on my iPad and still have some room before I plug in at night. It’s nice to know.

So what don’t I like about my iPad?

1. Where is the damn TAB key?
2. It’s hard to hold when its not in a case, its slippery
3. When you have to hold it in a grip in your hand for long periods, it can be taxing.
4. When you hold the iPad like a pad of paper, your thumb is on the “screen”
5. When in landscape mode, you have a close to full size keyboard. Problem is that you want to lay your fingers on the “keys” like a regular keyboard. It took a couple of days to learn to “hover”
6. Some of my favorite iPhone apps haven’t been Padisized yet (is Padisized a word?)

Wishlist?

1. Tab key
2. SD Slot for storage of files
3. There are others, but most will be addressed in 4.0 of the next OS release.

So I mentioned that I don’t use my iPhone that much anymore. That’s not true. I don’t take my iPad everyone I take my iPhone. So when I”m in line at the grocery store or stuck in traffic or out having dinner, the iPad is my bag or at home. Do I wish I had 3G? Sure, but I don’t need it, it would be a nicety. Where I need to get a quick data fix while out n about, I have my iPhone.

There is still so much more to say about the iPad, but my head hurts and my recent sleeping habits make it hard for me to concentrate. I’ll get more of my thoughts down over the next few days.

So overall on a scale of 1 to 10 where do I rate my iPad. I’ll say an 8+. I use it everyday, so it has become a productivity tool for me. App developers are just hitting the tip of the iceberg on what the potential this device can have. I can’t wait!

GLEE: Sue Sylvester in Vogue

Sue Sylvester…..in VOGUE! In anticipation of next week’s much anticipated Madonna episode, we got a peek at the end of tonight’s episode of GLEE!

I’m so glad they’re back!

Video courtesy of HULU!

My iPad, My iPad

So after all the craziness from yesterday – I felt like I was in the episode of ABC’s Modern Family. Phil’s wife, Claire set her alarm to wake up early so that she could get in line and buy an Apple iPad for her husband’s birthday that day. However, the alarm went off and she fell back asleep. She finally woke up and snuck out of the house and spent the day looking for an iPad – everyone was out!

My alarm went off at 7am and I didn’t wake up until 9:30. Oh no! I missed the launch moment. Yes, I had one on reserve, but I wanted to be there for the opening of the doors and the Apple employees clapping and cheering on the guy that brought his couch to sit in position #1 in line! I wanted to be, at least, in the Top 20 that would walk out fo the store holding that white Apple bag with my iPad in it.

By the time I got to the store, it was around 10:00am. There were two lines. One for those who reserved and the other for those who didn’t. The “other” line was aobut 2x longer than my line. I got into line and Jay, a cute Apple employee (aren’t they all cute?) was coming down the line and checking reservations. Meanwhile I had gotten an email from Lisa Lohnes saying she couldn’t find her confirmation email. I emailed her back and tried to call her but I got the numbers mixed up and left a really long message for some poor woman. Sorry about that. Anyway, Jay comes up to the group in front of me and he asks if they have a reservation and they say no. Jay sends them to the other line. Haha. No, seriously, it was sad. So he comes up to me and I give him my last name and he says, “Scott?” I said yes and he was just about to walk away when I asked if I can inquire about a friends reservation. I asked if he could check for Lohnes and he said “Lisa?” and I said “Yes!”. I thanked him and immediately called Lisa. She was still at home waiting for an international video Skype call from her daughter Elise who is in England this semester.

By the time I got into the store it was about 10:35. Not bad, not bad at all. Keon was my assigned sales person. I told him I had a 16GB iPad on reservation. Now at this point I said I had a 16 and wanted to upgrade to a 32. Keon waved a manager over and asked. After about 1.5 seconds the manager turns to me and says they can’t accommodate upgrades, but if I wanted to stand in the “other” line I could get one. My other option was to purchase my 16 and then return it. However, if I opened it, I would be subject to a 10% restocking fee – $49.95.

What if I had not ever mentioned that I specifically had a 16GB model. From what I could tell, the only person who had the “list” was Jay on his iDevice (I couldn’t tell if he was on an iPod Touch or iPhone). Could I have walked up to Keon and he would have asked me which one I had on reserve and if I said 32 would I have gotten one? I guess I’ll never know, but regardless of the fact, I got my 16GB iPad and never been happier!

Keon asked me about accessories. Note to Apple store on the next big launch. Don’t squish all the accessories in one place. Throw caution to the wind and spread the accessories throughout the store so  that 25 people aren’t crowding the little wall space you created for it. Then in a couple of days, you can place the inventory in its final resting place in the store. I got the dock and a case. The Apple case  you ask? No. I opted for a case by InCase. Why?

The Apple case was very disappointing to me. It was very flimsy and not as rigid as one would have hoped. To me it was like a thin layer of neoprene around a piece of cardboard. There was a “flap” in the case that just looked like it would tear at the seams in just a few uses. Sorry Apple, I had to go with a 3rd party solution. The Incase case was much thicker, in leather or faux leather and secured my iPad in it much better than Apple’s. It also allowed for three different viewing angles when being propped up for landscape mode. It also sports an elastic band to keep the lid closed when in transport.

So I picked up my items, paid for them and then walked out of the store. I wanted to hold my hands up in the air in victory when I walked out the door, but the moment was lost when I woke up late…

The first thing I did was to call my friend Scott in DC only to find out that he was on his way to the Clarendon Apple Store in Arlington. He had to take the Red Line from Dupont, transfer at Metro Center to the Orange Line. I told him I had mine in hand and told him about my decision on a case.  After that I got in the car and rushed home.

First thing to do was to unbox.

Next was to connect it to iTunes for initialization and to register my iPad with Apple. Now once the initial setup was done I was presented with a list of apps. Both iPad and iPhone. I made the mistake of syncing without first realizing what I was doing. So next thing I know is that all my iPhone apps are now on my iPad. I didn’t want any of my iPhone apps on my iPad. So I started deleting apps from the iPad on the iPad itself. A task that would have gone much faster in the screen interface on iTunes. Haha.

Now I was ready…

Update: iPad

1. Yes I have one.

2. I’ve been using it non-stop all day yesterday

3. Yes I have a review coming… just compiling my thoughts

4. Will have my take on the iPad posted today

5. Yes, I’m happy!

Happy Easter!

iPad Day is Coming

April 3 is just a couple of days away! I have my iPad on RESERVE at the Irvine Spectrum Store and need to pick it up between 9am and 3pm or it will be put in the general inventory and sold.

TOday the first of the reviews started to come out on the web towards the end of the day. The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Chicago Sun Times, TWIT and a handful of others started posting their reviews of the iPad. Many of the larger outlets have had their hands on one for a week so these reviews come with some experience using the iPad.

TWIT (This Week in Tech) hosted a LIVE video feed with Andy Ihnatko and they actually demoed the iPad in front of thousands of viewers. They are repeating the feed at live.twit.tv. Andy was quite happy with the iPad and they demoed quite alot of things with their iPad.

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal said

“After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop.”

Edware C, Baig of USA Today said:

“The first iPad is a winner. It stacks up as a formidable electronic-reader rival forAmazon‘s Kindle. It gives portable game machines from Nintendo and Sony a run for their money. At the very least, the iPad will likely drum up mass-market interest in tablet computing in ways that longtime tablet visionary and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates could only dream of.”

Tim Gideon, PCMag.com had this to say:

“Aside from Apple enthusiasts, many of us wondered who would drop hundreds of dollars for this not-quite-computer. But having used the iPad for some time, I can tell you that the device just makes sense. When you combine basic-but-essential work tools with iWork, an improved browser, e-mail, iPod, and photo applications, a well-executed e-Book platform with iBooks, and throw in thousands of downloadable apps and games, and package it all in a gorgeous, slim slate with a beautiful 9.7-inch touch screen, you have yourself a winner.”

I already have a list of iPad specific apps that I would like to try on Saturday:

NetFlix – Yes Netflix has a custom iPad app and will have the ability to stream video

iTap VNC – the first full featured VNC/RDC client. I’ll be able to remote to a workstation from my iPad!

Twitterific – an iPad size version of the popular Twitter client

Brushes – drawing program

ABC Player – ABC has a player for all its shows to be viewed on the iPad – hopefully the other networks will follow their lead.

Flickr – access to your Flickr account

TED – yes a non-flash player for access to all their videos!

Amazon and Kindle – additional apps to read their DRM books

Filed under: Apple, Inc., iPad