First off, if you have been following my blog, and if you haven't been why the heck not, you will know that I have been reviewing and looking for a really good task management app and I believe I have found it.
Taska is a task pad, put simply. It allows you to organize and manage your tasks, and also supports projects, which themselves can have sub tasks. This is something that all of the other apps I reviewed were missing, the ability to make my own category, and then add tasks to it. I use this to manage my staff and have what tasks they are working on, the priority of the tasks according to that staff member and the due date for the tasks.
I haven't got all of the kinks out yet, its only day 3, but the main dashboard/landing pad where the app opens is also awesome as it shows what is due or overdue right up top, along wih items that are coming up soon.
A friend of mine tells me I am too negative on my blog, but I tell it how I see it, so on to the bad things about the app. There aren't many, and really they are quite small, but you cant move a task once it has been added. If I need to reassign a task to someone else, I have to re-enter it (Edit: Yes you can, one of my collegues read this and showed me how).
Also would be good if the system would automatically hide completed tasks, or at least provide a filter that would hide completed tasks. The problem being that tasks that have a due date that are complete, still show above tasks that have no complete date...
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
iPad: screen protector myth
So, I, like many, bought a screen protector for my precious iPad.... Now, what is a screen protector? Its basically a piece of plastic that acts as a shield for your screen, keeping the dust, finger prints and world off of your screen. That's the theory....
What have I noticed so far? If you have pets, children, a house, or are breathing air, then installing one of these things is impossible... You Need a negative pressure room, white hazmat suit and then you might have a hope in he'll in installing it without some hair or dust sneaking underneath... It's like installing your own window tint....
If however you are going to go ahead with it anyways then here's a tip... You don't need to buy three or four of them as some people have indicated. They stick to the screen using surface tension, they don't use any kind of glue, so while everything in the cosmos seems to stick to them like they were coved in glue, you can just run them under warm water to rid yourself of the debris and then try yet again (in vain) to get it to stick to your computer without having something slide in underneath...
Do you have any tips for getting one of these things on without crud underneath? If so let me know. There is nothing worse than staring at a bubble caused by a hair, under the middle of your otherwise perfect screen, and knowing with absolute certainty that if you take it off to scrape the hair off, you will have 4 hairs when it goes back down again...
What have I noticed so far? If you have pets, children, a house, or are breathing air, then installing one of these things is impossible... You Need a negative pressure room, white hazmat suit and then you might have a hope in he'll in installing it without some hair or dust sneaking underneath... It's like installing your own window tint....
If however you are going to go ahead with it anyways then here's a tip... You don't need to buy three or four of them as some people have indicated. They stick to the screen using surface tension, they don't use any kind of glue, so while everything in the cosmos seems to stick to them like they were coved in glue, you can just run them under warm water to rid yourself of the debris and then try yet again (in vain) to get it to stick to your computer without having something slide in underneath...
Do you have any tips for getting one of these things on without crud underneath? If so let me know. There is nothing worse than staring at a bubble caused by a hair, under the middle of your otherwise perfect screen, and knowing with absolute certainty that if you take it off to scrape the hair off, you will have 4 hairs when it goes back down again...
Monday, April 26, 2010
iPad: Desktop app revisited
None of the apps out there that I have seen have as much potential, sheer raw potential as the desktop app for 0.99$. Price aside, this app let's you run several tasks at once, several limited tasks... What this got me to thinking, this and reading a PDF during a meeting and being forced to go old school and write on, gasp, paper, was what if you could house another app inside this one? What if the developer opened it up so that goodreader or memeo could be inside of this app? Goodreader and memeo are now integrated with one another, so why not?
If you could open more than one thing at a time what would you want to open? The obvious ones are taken care of already, you can already listen to music and read a book, but reading a PDF and taking notes seems to be a no brained... Before you tell me that pages and keynote can do it, I'm sure they can, but their reviews have been all over the place so I am steering clear for now... That's 20$ that could buy 10 other apps for me to review...:)
Reading a book from any source and taking notes would be good, but iBook being the primary interface for books is not going to allow its self to be run in some other app, but... Think about it mr developer of the desktop app, and get back to us would you? Beat apple to the multi tasking game, and better yet, do it better than they have thought of... Even with the multi tasking that is coming in the fall you can't open two things side by side and work on them at the same time like you can with the desktop app. The desktop app just needs apps that are actually useful and it will kick butt.
If you could open more than one thing at a time what would you want to open? The obvious ones are taken care of already, you can already listen to music and read a book, but reading a PDF and taking notes seems to be a no brained... Before you tell me that pages and keynote can do it, I'm sure they can, but their reviews have been all over the place so I am steering clear for now... That's 20$ that could buy 10 other apps for me to review...:)
Reading a book from any source and taking notes would be good, but iBook being the primary interface for books is not going to allow its self to be run in some other app, but... Think about it mr developer of the desktop app, and get back to us would you? Beat apple to the multi tasking game, and better yet, do it better than they have thought of... Even with the multi tasking that is coming in the fall you can't open two things side by side and work on them at the same time like you can with the desktop app. The desktop app just needs apps that are actually useful and it will kick butt.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
iPad: desktop/laptop replacement?
This is the debate, can the iPad replace your desktop or laptop? Does anyone actually need an iPad? Does anyone need a laptop for that matter... Traveling people will say yes to the laptop, and recently I went on a business trip to a convention and took my iPad instead of my laptop.
After getting through all of the oohing and ahhing the iPad brings to the meeting, and being hands down the largest nerd in the room, I was able to get down to work and found myself enjoying the iPad experience tremendously. When taking notes on a laptop the screen is constantly a barrier, perceived or otherwise, to colabortaion with the presenter. You always feel like you need to tilt the screen down to talk to the presenter... With the pad, no problems. I took far more notes than I normally do, because it was always on and just sitting there waiting for me to type something (and maybe, just maybe I was trying to justify bringing it...)
In any event what I was most concerned with was the battery power, would it make it through a day? No problem at all, I made it through a 4 day convention without ever dipping below 30% power or charging it mid day... Can you say the same of your laptop? I also greatly appreciated the weight when schlepping through the airport, and the fact that I didn't have to take it out of my bag at the security check points... All in all a positive experience. One item of note, call ahead and make sure they have wifi wherever you are going, and get a remote app like logmein to connect to your desktop when you need something the iPad can't do YET...:)
After getting through all of the oohing and ahhing the iPad brings to the meeting, and being hands down the largest nerd in the room, I was able to get down to work and found myself enjoying the iPad experience tremendously. When taking notes on a laptop the screen is constantly a barrier, perceived or otherwise, to colabortaion with the presenter. You always feel like you need to tilt the screen down to talk to the presenter... With the pad, no problems. I took far more notes than I normally do, because it was always on and just sitting there waiting for me to type something (and maybe, just maybe I was trying to justify bringing it...)
In any event what I was most concerned with was the battery power, would it make it through a day? No problem at all, I made it through a 4 day convention without ever dipping below 30% power or charging it mid day... Can you say the same of your laptop? I also greatly appreciated the weight when schlepping through the airport, and the fact that I didn't have to take it out of my bag at the security check points... All in all a positive experience. One item of note, call ahead and make sure they have wifi wherever you are going, and get a remote app like logmein to connect to your desktop when you need something the iPad can't do YET...:)
Friday, April 23, 2010
iPad: where's my hotspot
If you are like me, you love your iPad and are finding more and more engenius ways to use it. I was using it at work to avoid bring documentation with me whenever possible and to do so I had brought in a wireless router so I could work (we don't have wifi at work, barbaric I know). This came to the attention of my networking partners, who quickly disabled my port and kept me stranded without so much as a hey, don't do that...
Without wifi the ipad is really not as useful as it can be... In a world of nearly free wireless connectivity this is frustrating, and the 3G option would resolve that, but for the recurring cost...
Enter peer to peer networking... Acording to this you can make your laptop broadcast it's signal and share it with your pad. I am interested but waiting to hear back from my network peeps if this would be allowed, so as to not loose yet another network Jack, and fall another rung of the list of favorite people to deal with....
Check out the link out if you have the same problem, but check with your security folks first. My understanding of this is that it is ok because you are still on your domain, and will not light up their intrusion detection software...
Without wifi the ipad is really not as useful as it can be... In a world of nearly free wireless connectivity this is frustrating, and the 3G option would resolve that, but for the recurring cost...
Enter peer to peer networking... Acording to this you can make your laptop broadcast it's signal and share it with your pad. I am interested but waiting to hear back from my network peeps if this would be allowed, so as to not loose yet another network Jack, and fall another rung of the list of favorite people to deal with....
Check out the link out if you have the same problem, but check with your security folks first. My understanding of this is that it is ok because you are still on your domain, and will not light up their intrusion detection software...
Monday, April 19, 2010
iPad: darkflow reviewed
This app was another of the free games out there designed to help you while away many an hour in the airport, and I have to say, it fails... The controls are counter intuitive, the graphics remind me of those horrible games we all grew up with, despite being 3 D this "space" game is all about flying around the devastated remains of earth and tractor beaming up little balls.
You have to constantly maintain your vertical thrust, and tilting the iPad controls the direction you fly in. A monumentally frustrating game that you can't take your eyes off of for a second or you crash, this really is not worh the trouble of downloading. Thankfully it is free, or I would really be upset...
You have to constantly maintain your vertical thrust, and tilting the iPad controls the direction you fly in. A monumentally frustrating game that you can't take your eyes off of for a second or you crash, this really is not worh the trouble of downloading. Thankfully it is free, or I would really be upset...
Sunday, April 18, 2010
iPad: tesla wars reviewed
Ok so if you know what a Tesla coil is, then you understand the basic premise of this game already. If you don't go look it up, we'll wait for you to get back.
So yes, Tesla did invent the battery, and he had some pretty interesting ideas on how to use that stored energy, the primary one being a coil which could discharge a lightning bolt and fry people. Old time gamers will remember this from command and concur. Nothing took out those double tanks as fast as a Tesla coil..
In this game you are the coil, fending off the hordes of unruly stick people who want to ... Break your fence. This brings a new meaning to get off my lawn, and is really amusing, thigh completely pointless. Gavyn really enjoyed it up until level 10, after which he was overwhelmed by the stick people and gave up. I on the other hand managed to get to level 15 before the chainsaw wielding lunatics over rand my carefully placed mines, airstrikes, and xray lazor beams.
This game is fast to pick up, and wildly addictive, it will be added to my arsenal of, I have 15 minutes before the next meeting, games that is for sure.
What about you? What games have you been staring at for the last two weeks?
So yes, Tesla did invent the battery, and he had some pretty interesting ideas on how to use that stored energy, the primary one being a coil which could discharge a lightning bolt and fry people. Old time gamers will remember this from command and concur. Nothing took out those double tanks as fast as a Tesla coil..
In this game you are the coil, fending off the hordes of unruly stick people who want to ... Break your fence. This brings a new meaning to get off my lawn, and is really amusing, thigh completely pointless. Gavyn really enjoyed it up until level 10, after which he was overwhelmed by the stick people and gave up. I on the other hand managed to get to level 15 before the chainsaw wielding lunatics over rand my carefully placed mines, airstrikes, and xray lazor beams.
This game is fast to pick up, and wildly addictive, it will be added to my arsenal of, I have 15 minutes before the next meeting, games that is for sure.
What about you? What games have you been staring at for the last two weeks?
Saturday, April 17, 2010
iPad: I actually found something wrong with it...
We.l after a 4 day business trip wih nothing but my iPad, I found one minor problem with it on the way home... This item occurred exactlym9 minutes dyer then plane pulled away from the gangway, and the not too unpleasant person from continental airlines said, excuse me sir you will have to turn that off now...
Hrm, electronic books don't work when the flight attendant wants you to turn them off... That means that for 10 minutes you have to talk to the person next to you, or look out the window... Copmpletely unacceptable.
Ok true, this isn't something wrong with only the iPad, but with all e readers, and it's only 10 minutes, but still!!! Totally not worth buying.
All kidding aside however, the trip was a raging success. Not only did I make some new friends with my iPad, I was able to complete all functions in the meeting, as well as remote through my home computer and then to the office and execute the regular items that plague my day when Madhukar is off getting married...
What have you learned about the iPad? Have you even tried open yet?
Hrm, electronic books don't work when the flight attendant wants you to turn them off... That means that for 10 minutes you have to talk to the person next to you, or look out the window... Copmpletely unacceptable.
Ok true, this isn't something wrong with only the iPad, but with all e readers, and it's only 10 minutes, but still!!! Totally not worth buying.
All kidding aside however, the trip was a raging success. Not only did I make some new friends with my iPad, I was able to complete all functions in the meeting, as well as remote through my home computer and then to the office and execute the regular items that plague my day when Madhukar is off getting married...
What have you learned about the iPad? Have you even tried open yet?
Thursday, April 15, 2010
iPad: over seas release date delayed.
Apple officially has pushed back the release date for the ipad overseas by a month. Currently it will be available The end of may to those of you who are so unfortunate as to not live in the land of the big PK.
Of course, there are quite a few enterprising citizens who have them for sale on eBay, so if you simply can't wait, you can get one there. I have heard that is real is banning the iPad, not sure what the deal is there...
What apps are you looking for? I'm looking for a centralized request location for apps, I personally would like a notepad type application that would allow me to sort and organize the notes in folders...
I have thus far been unimpressed by both iTunes on the iPad, and the web site for finding new applications... Why is there not something that I can easily and quickly see what apps have been released in the last 24 hours... I want the new applications when they are new, not when I read about them on tuaw or bgr...
Of course, there are quite a few enterprising citizens who have them for sale on eBay, so if you simply can't wait, you can get one there. I have heard that is real is banning the iPad, not sure what the deal is there...
What apps are you looking for? I'm looking for a centralized request location for apps, I personally would like a notepad type application that would allow me to sort and organize the notes in folders...
I have thus far been unimpressed by both iTunes on the iPad, and the web site for finding new applications... Why is there not something that I can easily and quickly see what apps have been released in the last 24 hours... I want the new applications when they are new, not when I read about them on tuaw or bgr...
iPad: it does more than I thought it would... I probably should have waited for 3G
When I originally bougt the iPad I was really looking for a video player wi a big screen for my time on the bus. I commute from nj to ny every day, and that 1 - 2 hour each direction commute is a lot easier to deal wih when you have something to do.
I figured the iPad would be better than an arches 7 because it had a bigger screen and the app store. Say what you will about the app store and Apple's sometimes archaic methods for accepting applications, but the app store contains an almost limitless source of ideas and functionality that makes the iPad a truly amazing device.
That being said, if I knew what I know now, hind sight being 20/20 I would have waited for the 3 g model. The additional functionality, even at the surcharge and monthly cost would be worth it. If however you spend time in an environment that has wifi, ie at home and at work you have wifi, then I wouldn't bother. My office, as I have lam tended in several posts in the past, does not have wifi, so it does hinder how much I can get done making the 3G version that much more enticing.
What about you? Do you wish you bought the 3G version? Or are you happy you jumped on the iPad boat early?
I figured the iPad would be better than an arches 7 because it had a bigger screen and the app store. Say what you will about the app store and Apple's sometimes archaic methods for accepting applications, but the app store contains an almost limitless source of ideas and functionality that makes the iPad a truly amazing device.
That being said, if I knew what I know now, hind sight being 20/20 I would have waited for the 3 g model. The additional functionality, even at the surcharge and monthly cost would be worth it. If however you spend time in an environment that has wifi, ie at home and at work you have wifi, then I wouldn't bother. My office, as I have lam tended in several posts in the past, does not have wifi, so it does hinder how much I can get done making the 3G version that much more enticing.
What about you? Do you wish you bought the 3G version? Or are you happy you jumped on the iPad boat early?
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
iPad: Angry birds reviewed
The angry birds app is an interesting use of applied physics, you are on the side of a bunch of angry birds who's eggs have Been stolen and you need to be able to use the correct brid for the job, the robin can break anything, but only one at a time, the wood pecker, you bet, he can kill lots of wood and has hyper speed.
The graphics are interesting if simplistic, but by the time you get through keel one you will want to reach out and slap the smug smile off of the pigs face when it realizes that it's going to live and you are going to lose...
The kids love this game, very good waiting room material as well as rainy day or car ride, takes not time at all per level so it's not one of those, I can't come to dinner games because I have to kill the pig, but it Is heavily addictive...
The graphics are interesting if simplistic, but by the time you get through keel one you will want to reach out and slap the smug smile off of the pigs face when it realizes that it's going to live and you are going to lose...
The kids love this game, very good waiting room material as well as rainy day or car ride, takes not time at all per level so it's not one of those, I can't come to dinner games because I have to kill the pig, but it Is heavily addictive...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
iPad: multi tasking revisited
So the pundits have complained about a couple of things since the beginning of the iPad, one of which was the inability to multi task. While the new os that will be out in the fall will let you complete that, one thing I noticed last night was that the music player continues when you close it....
"I want to be able to listen to music while reading a book or surfing the web" guess what? You can.... Double clicking the home button shows you which song is playing and has a stop button in te event that its getting annoying that you can't get the song to stop no matter what you do....
So while multi tasking isn't here yet, your really big iPhone can allow you to listen to music and surf or read a book at the same time...
So what do you think? Does this change anything for you? How may of you have your iPad and are secretly or openly happy you bought it?
"I want to be able to listen to music while reading a book or surfing the web" guess what? You can.... Double clicking the home button shows you which song is playing and has a stop button in te event that its getting annoying that you can't get the song to stop no matter what you do....
So while multi tasking isn't here yet, your really big iPhone can allow you to listen to music and surf or read a book at the same time...
So what do you think? Does this change anything for you? How may of you have your iPad and are secretly or openly happy you bought it?
Monday, April 12, 2010
iPad: Netflix app reviewed
Of course since Netflix is free I a reviewing it, but it is really lacking right now. Managing your queue is hit or miss, I accidentally delete something because it was highlighted when I clicked delete on the item I wanted to delete, then I couldn't undo the deletion as you can on Line...
So don't manage your queue, alright, we were watching a movie and it crashed a total of 6 times during the movie, whenever I moved, or jenn moved, the app would crash. Changing screen orientation, crash, try and zoom by double tapping or pinching, crash... Once inside of a move there does not seem to be a clean way to get back to browsing, you can of course just pinch, double tap, change orientation, or click the home button to get out in a hurry...
It does what it should do, you can stream video to the pad, and search for things to watch, as long as you dont mind repeating yourself repeatedly... Dont do any intensive deep dive searches that will be hard to replicate, the general instability of it is really annoying. Looking forward to a patch soon that makes it more stable.
So don't manage your queue, alright, we were watching a movie and it crashed a total of 6 times during the movie, whenever I moved, or jenn moved, the app would crash. Changing screen orientation, crash, try and zoom by double tapping or pinching, crash... Once inside of a move there does not seem to be a clean way to get back to browsing, you can of course just pinch, double tap, change orientation, or click the home button to get out in a hurry...
It does what it should do, you can stream video to the pad, and search for things to watch, as long as you dont mind repeating yourself repeatedly... Dont do any intensive deep dive searches that will be hard to replicate, the general instability of it is really annoying. Looking forward to a patch soon that makes it more stable.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
iPad: logmein for the pad?
So I'm getting ready to completely screw myself this week,,,, going to bring only my ipad on a trip to Florida for a convention. Preparing for that, I got logmein on a trial basis to see if I could connect to my computer at home from work, and that went swimmingly. From e house computer I can then VPN into work and have access to whatever I want. It's pretty slow, but it will work...
Logmein its self is excellent as a tool, allows you to do everything you could want. You can do everything in the application that you can do in safari, pinching to zoom, the keyboard is excellent, there is an extent ion to show special keys like the function keys etc. I'll write a more complete review on my return from my trip, but I am really looking forward to traveling carrying a 1 lb, laptop around and no paper work... Now if only I could find an apple case somewhere!!!!
Its not all sunshine and roses, i did notice on my brief tour from the iPad was that the mouse is disconnected from where you touch, you have to drag the mouse cursor around. It would be a lot easier to use if the mouse cursor would just snap to wherever you are touching.
Anyways I will give you a more complete review once I have a couple of hours under my belt.
Logmein its self is excellent as a tool, allows you to do everything you could want. You can do everything in the application that you can do in safari, pinching to zoom, the keyboard is excellent, there is an extent ion to show special keys like the function keys etc. I'll write a more complete review on my return from my trip, but I am really looking forward to traveling carrying a 1 lb, laptop around and no paper work... Now if only I could find an apple case somewhere!!!!
Its not all sunshine and roses, i did notice on my brief tour from the iPad was that the mouse is disconnected from where you touch, you have to drag the mouse cursor around. It would be a lot easier to use if the mouse cursor would just snap to wherever you are touching.
Anyways I will give you a more complete review once I have a couple of hours under my belt.
iPad: Memeo app reviewed
Ok so I am an app nut, and have been looking through the app store for new apps on a daily basis, I came across a post on tuaw about memo and decided to give it a try, heck it's free so why not right?
If you don't use google docs, again I ask you why not,... But if you don't then this app won't interest you much..of course if you are new tot he iPad and are already irritated with getting files onto and of of the pad then...
Memeo bridges a gap for us wifi only iPad users. I work for Coach and we don't have wifi in the building I am in, this means that anything I need that is online I have to get before I get to work, or sneak down to Thirteens floor and borrow a signal, but regardless this tool let's you sync up e content of your google docs site with your iPad, anything you can view online you can now view on your iPad in native former. It's a viewer only mind you, so don't get too excited. If they come out with a writer version of it I would drop the 40. $ to pick it up that's for sure...
Pages, keynote and numbers are turning out to be duds, and there are no other office type productivity suites currently available for the iPad that I have found. If you have one, know of one, anD would like Me to review it, drop me a line. Since these applications are fairly heavy sights, and costly, I will not be reviewing them all unless someone gives me a free pass...:)
If you don't use google docs, again I ask you why not,... But if you don't then this app won't interest you much..of course if you are new tot he iPad and are already irritated with getting files onto and of of the pad then...
Memeo bridges a gap for us wifi only iPad users. I work for Coach and we don't have wifi in the building I am in, this means that anything I need that is online I have to get before I get to work, or sneak down to Thirteens floor and borrow a signal, but regardless this tool let's you sync up e content of your google docs site with your iPad, anything you can view online you can now view on your iPad in native former. It's a viewer only mind you, so don't get too excited. If they come out with a writer version of it I would drop the 40. $ to pick it up that's for sure...
Pages, keynote and numbers are turning out to be duds, and there are no other office type productivity suites currently available for the iPad that I have found. If you have one, know of one, anD would like Me to review it, drop me a line. Since these applications are fairly heavy sights, and costly, I will not be reviewing them all unless someone gives me a free pass...:)
Saturday, April 10, 2010
iPad: it's been a week, do you still love it?
So I've had my revolutionary device for a week, and what have I learned? I have so far learned that I work with a lot of closet geeks... Bringing this to a meeting really brings out the nerd in people.... Very nice to see people interested and illuminated but something as simple as a tablet device, but there you have it...
Couple of things so far that I have had problems with are the crashing.. I've been thus far blessed with not having any of the wifi connectivity issues, but I have had the keyboard crash at the worst times when trying to demonstrate it to my boss.. If you are patient, which I am not, it comes back to life, but as anyone who has ever demonstrated anything can tell you, seconds feel like minutes when you are trying to show something off.
No, the iPad was not purchased for me by work, my loving wife bought it for me as a birthday/anniversary gift.
She also figured out where the rented movies go when I was too dense to figure it out... For those of you who are curious, unlike the iPhone they are not in iturnes, nor are they in your iPod icon, they are in the new video icon... We Rented a movie twice before we did a search on the entire ipad (neat feature by the way, hit the home button while the home screen and you can search the entire device) and only then did I realize where it was... Yeah yeah make fun of me later..:)
I find one thing missing so far, and it's really annoying for someone who does a lot of typing, the arrow keys are nowhere to be found. I don't yet know how to go to the end of a line quickly or move back several words. Before you say it, yes I know it has a great big touch screen, but I a,so have great big fingers and no patience so waiting for the magnifying glass to pop up and hide behind my sausage fingers is less than optimal.
All in all, there are a couple of key Apps I would say you need, depending of course how you are going to use it, I am using it as a cross between a work and entertainment device, but as entertainment is a very personal thing you can Wade through my reviews of everything I buy/try. Here I will stick to some productivity apps.
1. Bento, if you have a Mac this program is even more impressive, I unfortunately do not. It's a really good organizer, task management type tool that is fully customizable and allows you to add classifications as well as fields.
2. Document editing app: before you rush out and buy pages from apple read some reviews... All of their prpductivity apps are gettting really bad reviews except from people who have never used an office suite before...
3. A printing app, yeah no one talks about this, but you make all these documents, you can access all these web pages, but you can't print... it's wifi enabled, so is my printer, so what's the hold up.... There is one out there (name pending) but I haven't tried it yet. The reviews are mixed and I don't want to spend money on something and then find iot doesn't work... Every app should have a light version, sink e hook then reel us in..
4. Netflix, contingent of course on you having an account his is pretty much the only way, other than point 5 for you to watch tv shows...
5. Terminal emulator, sorry, its not a pc.. But you can connect to your Mac or pc with vnc, rep, or logmein and do whatever is missing like watch hulu. There are several apps out there for this, all of which are pay apps so I will select one carefully and review it....
Accessories you really want
1. Get the apple case, it's the only one I have seen that has the build in angle stand to allow you to type on a flat surface. I tried holding it on my leg and crossing my legs, but my foot keeps fallingn asleep. Holding it in your hand is good., but not for 90 words a minute.. The apple case acts as both a stand, case and typing desk if you will... Definitely worth the effort. I borrowed a friend of mines to test drive it as I had not yet bought a case not being sure what I would want or need... Will be buying one now if I can ever find a store that has it in stock... If however you buy the case DO NOT buy the iPad keyboard or regular dock... It takes two people to get the iPad out of the case, and the case doesn't fit in the dock without some liberal modification...
2. Don't know if they sell them, but a longer USB cable... The 2 ft one that comes with the iPad is weak to say the least. Yes you have a good battery life, no it does not appear to last 10 hours, unless of course I am doing something wrong... I end up having to charge it every night, though at times it is at 30% (note: went to the apple stsore today and they do not infact sell them, was directed to radio shack to buy an extender for USB devices... Classy.)
That's about it really. You already have some kind of bag, with the case the iPad fits nicely in there, or since you are holding your wives purse anyways, just toss it inside....;)
Couple of things so far that I have had problems with are the crashing.. I've been thus far blessed with not having any of the wifi connectivity issues, but I have had the keyboard crash at the worst times when trying to demonstrate it to my boss.. If you are patient, which I am not, it comes back to life, but as anyone who has ever demonstrated anything can tell you, seconds feel like minutes when you are trying to show something off.
No, the iPad was not purchased for me by work, my loving wife bought it for me as a birthday/anniversary gift.
She also figured out where the rented movies go when I was too dense to figure it out... For those of you who are curious, unlike the iPhone they are not in iturnes, nor are they in your iPod icon, they are in the new video icon... We Rented a movie twice before we did a search on the entire ipad (neat feature by the way, hit the home button while the home screen and you can search the entire device) and only then did I realize where it was... Yeah yeah make fun of me later..:)
I find one thing missing so far, and it's really annoying for someone who does a lot of typing, the arrow keys are nowhere to be found. I don't yet know how to go to the end of a line quickly or move back several words. Before you say it, yes I know it has a great big touch screen, but I a,so have great big fingers and no patience so waiting for the magnifying glass to pop up and hide behind my sausage fingers is less than optimal.
All in all, there are a couple of key Apps I would say you need, depending of course how you are going to use it, I am using it as a cross between a work and entertainment device, but as entertainment is a very personal thing you can Wade through my reviews of everything I buy/try. Here I will stick to some productivity apps.
1. Bento, if you have a Mac this program is even more impressive, I unfortunately do not. It's a really good organizer, task management type tool that is fully customizable and allows you to add classifications as well as fields.
2. Document editing app: before you rush out and buy pages from apple read some reviews... All of their prpductivity apps are gettting really bad reviews except from people who have never used an office suite before...
3. A printing app, yeah no one talks about this, but you make all these documents, you can access all these web pages, but you can't print... it's wifi enabled, so is my printer, so what's the hold up.... There is one out there (name pending) but I haven't tried it yet. The reviews are mixed and I don't want to spend money on something and then find iot doesn't work... Every app should have a light version, sink e hook then reel us in..
4. Netflix, contingent of course on you having an account his is pretty much the only way, other than point 5 for you to watch tv shows...
5. Terminal emulator, sorry, its not a pc.. But you can connect to your Mac or pc with vnc, rep, or logmein and do whatever is missing like watch hulu. There are several apps out there for this, all of which are pay apps so I will select one carefully and review it....
Accessories you really want
1. Get the apple case, it's the only one I have seen that has the build in angle stand to allow you to type on a flat surface. I tried holding it on my leg and crossing my legs, but my foot keeps fallingn asleep. Holding it in your hand is good., but not for 90 words a minute.. The apple case acts as both a stand, case and typing desk if you will... Definitely worth the effort. I borrowed a friend of mines to test drive it as I had not yet bought a case not being sure what I would want or need... Will be buying one now if I can ever find a store that has it in stock... If however you buy the case DO NOT buy the iPad keyboard or regular dock... It takes two people to get the iPad out of the case, and the case doesn't fit in the dock without some liberal modification...
2. Don't know if they sell them, but a longer USB cable... The 2 ft one that comes with the iPad is weak to say the least. Yes you have a good battery life, no it does not appear to last 10 hours, unless of course I am doing something wrong... I end up having to charge it every night, though at times it is at 30% (note: went to the apple stsore today and they do not infact sell them, was directed to radio shack to buy an extender for USB devices... Classy.)
That's about it really. You already have some kind of bag, with the case the iPad fits nicely in there, or since you are holding your wives purse anyways, just toss it inside....;)
Friday, April 9, 2010
iPad: Wifi issues abound.
So looks like I spoke too soon about not having any issues with my ipad and the wifi, today everything was normal, all apps were working fine I was in the app store and playing around, then decided to kill an hour and go watch a show on ABC's app.
Pull up V and start watching it and 5 minutes in it hangs. I reboot the ipad, and try again, the ABC app won't even launch anymore, it just sits at the start here screen. I then went to the app store, and it lagged out, and couldn't load. Reboot the device, turn off the wifi, turn it all back on again and try again and nothing that has anything to do with the internet doesn't want to work well. Utube is slow, app store is slow, loading GOOGLE is slow ffs...
The ABC app seems to have broken my apple ipad... Now even sitting next to the hotspot I only get two bars whenever a web app is open. Close everything and get back to the desktop, and wham full bars.... I hope that this isn't a permenant situation, but if it is, ABC's going to get a strongly worded email...
As jenn pointed out I am not American yet, so I can't sue... But dammit I want to...
EDIT: after leaving the iPad off for a couple of hours, and by off I mean well and truly off not the sleep mode... Hold the hold button and home button together for 10 seconds and it shuts down... It seems to be back to normal,nbut I am really hesitant to use the abc app now...
Pull up V and start watching it and 5 minutes in it hangs. I reboot the ipad, and try again, the ABC app won't even launch anymore, it just sits at the start here screen. I then went to the app store, and it lagged out, and couldn't load. Reboot the device, turn off the wifi, turn it all back on again and try again and nothing that has anything to do with the internet doesn't want to work well. Utube is slow, app store is slow, loading GOOGLE is slow ffs...
The ABC app seems to have broken my apple ipad... Now even sitting next to the hotspot I only get two bars whenever a web app is open. Close everything and get back to the desktop, and wham full bars.... I hope that this isn't a permenant situation, but if it is, ABC's going to get a strongly worded email...
As jenn pointed out I am not American yet, so I can't sue... But dammit I want to...
EDIT: after leaving the iPad off for a couple of hours, and by off I mean well and truly off not the sleep mode... Hold the hold button and home button together for 10 seconds and it shuts down... It seems to be back to normal,nbut I am really hesitant to use the abc app now...
Thursday, April 8, 2010
iPad: Goodreader app reviewed.
Those of you that have an iPhone know how hard it is to get anything onto or off of them, it's a real pain. Well Goodreader has fixed that for the iPad at least. I believe there is a version for the iphone, but as I never used my iPhone as an actual phone, it hasn't seen the light of day since I lit up my iPad on Saturday...
In any event this little application allows you to download from a web site, email, google docs, you name it... With a built in word, PDF, excel viewer, it even supports .mov files. The ui is a touch confusing, and there are times when I am not sure what I need to do and where, but once you get the hang of it, it's really a must have app. The price is incredible for what you are getting as well.
Setup was simple, I already had a google docs account, and to be honest, if you don't have one your missing out on something.. If you ever wished you could share documents with a friend or family member but didn't want to have to deal with large email files or your own personal FTP server, then google docs is for you. The tool automatically browses the google docs site, shows you all your folders and files and even let's you create your own new folders. Downloading a file is a synch, just click it and you have a local copy. Once done, copy and paste it back up and you are all set to go.
Our corporate mail does not allow smtp or pop protocols, bit of a pain, but since you can browse from within the tool, you just click the link in the email, and tell it to download the attachment, problem solved. Now I can walk to my meeting with the agenda, PDF attachment, and summary from last meeting, all without having to kill a single tree...
In any event this little application allows you to download from a web site, email, google docs, you name it... With a built in word, PDF, excel viewer, it even supports .mov files. The ui is a touch confusing, and there are times when I am not sure what I need to do and where, but once you get the hang of it, it's really a must have app. The price is incredible for what you are getting as well.
Setup was simple, I already had a google docs account, and to be honest, if you don't have one your missing out on something.. If you ever wished you could share documents with a friend or family member but didn't want to have to deal with large email files or your own personal FTP server, then google docs is for you. The tool automatically browses the google docs site, shows you all your folders and files and even let's you create your own new folders. Downloading a file is a synch, just click it and you have a local copy. Once done, copy and paste it back up and you are all set to go.
Our corporate mail does not allow smtp or pop protocols, bit of a pain, but since you can browse from within the tool, you just click the link in the email, and tell it to download the attachment, problem solved. Now I can walk to my meeting with the agenda, PDF attachment, and summary from last meeting, all without having to kill a single tree...
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
iPad: Bento reviewed
Bento is basically an over powered todo list. As I am not a Mac user, and didn't get much mileage out of my iPhone this has been my introductions to the application and I must say u find it really useful. The ability to create as many fields and classifications as you want is really useful, don't like their format or fields, create some of your own, no problem.
I'd want to be able to automatically hide completed tasks, ideally, or like msn contacts be able to group them together by two fields, either who the task is assigned to, or it's status... Having completed tasks around is handy because I am often skef, when did we finished such and such project,,, if I an using bento to track that, I would have to delete the task in order to ensure that I can tell which tasks are which.
It's easy to use, and for anyone with any experience wih vb, access, or those basic web design tools, creating or updating the screens is fast and simple as well.
I'd want to be able to automatically hide completed tasks, ideally, or like msn contacts be able to group them together by two fields, either who the task is assigned to, or it's status... Having completed tasks around is handy because I am often skef, when did we finished such and such project,,, if I an using bento to track that, I would have to delete the task in order to ensure that I can tell which tasks are which.
It's easy to use, and for anyone with any experience wih vb, access, or those basic web design tools, creating or updating the screens is fast and simple as well.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
iPad: Castlecraft reviewed
Also from the Freeverse family Castlecraft follows in the footsteps of Age of Empire, only you don't get to choose where you want to start. You are a medieval prince/ess and are tasked with rebuilding your empire after a devastating attack.
The interface well thought out. Commanding your army is pain staking, and a little strange in that you can only send out one army at a time. That army can be 10 people or 1, and once they capture whatever they were sent for, you cannot use that army to capture something else. You have to recall them back home, and then send them out again.
The hardest part of the game is managing your resources. I found that two lumbermills and three gold mines allowed me to keep up with everything. If you complete the quests in a logical manner, and check what they yield as rewards, you can progress very quickly to the point where you have to subscribe or quit. The game starts out free, but for 4.99 a month (5.99 for 3 months, there is a 12 month plan but the cost eludes me) you can take advantage of all of the benefits of the game.
The Good:
- The graphics are interesting.
- Resource management is always a fun challenge, but if you blow it you are going to wait a long time to get it back.
- You can sell something for exactly what you paid for it, a level of recycling that far exceeds the time frame... This does however come in handy as you can build farms as a bank of sorts to store money and avoid the cap.
- Its an MMO! The first (as far as I know) MMO for a mobile device, so its bound to have its wrinkles, but this brings a level of complexity and diversity to the game that no developer can ever match.
The Bad:
- Expanding your empire is almost impossible, one of the larger quests is to take over a neighboring city! However, you can't attack another player and win. While this is a positive, since you can go away from the game for a week and come back and your city will still be there, it makes some of the game a little pointless. There are NPC cities, but you can't tell them apart from the players.
- Dragon crystals are a blatant money grab, while they do form naturally, and are used to excelerate building/research, they are hard to come by. Naturally you can buy them for additional funds, but since you can't lose your city you could just wait it out.
- Being able to attack only one thing at a time limits game play and makes it more of a turn based, attack and come back later game, than a real time strategy.
NPC activity should exist, presently there isn't any. You never get attacked by a dragon, or wandering evagilist...Add a traveling merchant with strange wares for large sums of gold to add some spice.
- Its an MMO! I know I said this was a positive, and it is, but since we are all stuck with Wifi only iPads right now, you can only play it in hot spots.
I liked this game at the start, but it started to wear on me. I have reached the point where I have to subscribe or quit and I haven't decided if I will take it further. Timo, one of the developers of the game, was online taking comments from us all so they are definately working hard to develop it and expand it, and it is a relatively cheap game, but...
The interface well thought out. Commanding your army is pain staking, and a little strange in that you can only send out one army at a time. That army can be 10 people or 1, and once they capture whatever they were sent for, you cannot use that army to capture something else. You have to recall them back home, and then send them out again.
The hardest part of the game is managing your resources. I found that two lumbermills and three gold mines allowed me to keep up with everything. If you complete the quests in a logical manner, and check what they yield as rewards, you can progress very quickly to the point where you have to subscribe or quit. The game starts out free, but for 4.99 a month (5.99 for 3 months, there is a 12 month plan but the cost eludes me) you can take advantage of all of the benefits of the game.
The Good:
- The graphics are interesting.
- Resource management is always a fun challenge, but if you blow it you are going to wait a long time to get it back.
- You can sell something for exactly what you paid for it, a level of recycling that far exceeds the time frame... This does however come in handy as you can build farms as a bank of sorts to store money and avoid the cap.
- Its an MMO! The first (as far as I know) MMO for a mobile device, so its bound to have its wrinkles, but this brings a level of complexity and diversity to the game that no developer can ever match.
The Bad:
- Expanding your empire is almost impossible, one of the larger quests is to take over a neighboring city! However, you can't attack another player and win. While this is a positive, since you can go away from the game for a week and come back and your city will still be there, it makes some of the game a little pointless. There are NPC cities, but you can't tell them apart from the players.
- Dragon crystals are a blatant money grab, while they do form naturally, and are used to excelerate building/research, they are hard to come by. Naturally you can buy them for additional funds, but since you can't lose your city you could just wait it out.
- Being able to attack only one thing at a time limits game play and makes it more of a turn based, attack and come back later game, than a real time strategy.
NPC activity should exist, presently there isn't any. You never get attacked by a dragon, or wandering evagilist...Add a traveling merchant with strange wares for large sums of gold to add some spice.
- Its an MMO! I know I said this was a positive, and it is, but since we are all stuck with Wifi only iPads right now, you can only play it in hot spots.
I liked this game at the start, but it started to wear on me. I have reached the point where I have to subscribe or quit and I haven't decided if I will take it further. Timo, one of the developers of the game, was online taking comments from us all so they are definately working hard to develop it and expand it, and it is a relatively cheap game, but...
Monday, April 5, 2010
iPad: Warp gate reviewed
Day four of iPad ownership, other than going to Medieval times last night with the wife and kids (where I was spotted with the iPad and generated some interesting nerd envy) I have pretty much spent all my time on the pad. I played a couple of games from Freeverse and will review them here. The first one I picked up was warp gate.
When demonstrating the iPad to people who come into my office asking, "So? What do you think, was it worth the wait?" this is the game I pop open. The graphics are amazing, the UI is very intuitive and the buttons placed so that when holding the pad in two hands your thumbs can hit all the critical buttons.
The Good:
- The games graphics are amazing.
- The brief tutorial at the beginning of the game takes any guess work out of what you need to do.
- The starter quests are interesting and lead you down multiple paths allowing you to develop your character in one of three directions.
- The mining is genius, for anyone who played eve online in the early days, and wondered why they were paying 14$ a month to sit with a puny laser aimed at an asteroid 24 hours a day, you'd love this. You basically deploy a bot on the asteroid, and it mails you gold wherever you are in the galaxy. Might actually be too easy, and they should think about limiting the number of droids you can "control" to 10 or something...
- The news feature allows you to run trade routes and scope out deals.
- If you are horribly impatient, for 1.99$ you can buy an advanced ship with higher capacity for armament and cargo, and yes, I did buy it though there was a problem in shipment and I have yet to receive it.
The bad:
- The starter quests dead end pretty quick and you are stuck trying to get to systems that you can't access because their warp gates are locked for unknown reasons.
- The battle sequences are very short and automated. You basically have the ability to fire your weapons, but your ship does everything else.
- The bad guys hit really really hard.. making most fights last less than 5 seconds. Ideally a battle should last 30 seconds, giving you enough time to think, you know, maybe I should run from this fight...
- You're alone... Horribly, Horribly alone... This would be a very interesting game if you could get into a section that was MMO and fight it out with a friend. Of course the positive side of that is that it doesn't need an internet connection to play.
All in all, this game has me captivated, so much so that I interupted a raid in WoW last night to regale everyone about how cool it was, what? I was dead at the time? Warp gate is a cross between Eve for the graphics, and Trade Wars (does anyone even remember that game?) for developing trade routes and finding the deals that will make you the most money with the least number of jumps. I just have to remember to put the game down and review Castlecraft for tomorrow.
When demonstrating the iPad to people who come into my office asking, "So? What do you think, was it worth the wait?" this is the game I pop open. The graphics are amazing, the UI is very intuitive and the buttons placed so that when holding the pad in two hands your thumbs can hit all the critical buttons.
The Good:
- The games graphics are amazing.
- The brief tutorial at the beginning of the game takes any guess work out of what you need to do.
- The starter quests are interesting and lead you down multiple paths allowing you to develop your character in one of three directions.
- The mining is genius, for anyone who played eve online in the early days, and wondered why they were paying 14$ a month to sit with a puny laser aimed at an asteroid 24 hours a day, you'd love this. You basically deploy a bot on the asteroid, and it mails you gold wherever you are in the galaxy. Might actually be too easy, and they should think about limiting the number of droids you can "control" to 10 or something...
- The news feature allows you to run trade routes and scope out deals.
- If you are horribly impatient, for 1.99$ you can buy an advanced ship with higher capacity for armament and cargo, and yes, I did buy it though there was a problem in shipment and I have yet to receive it.
The bad:
- The starter quests dead end pretty quick and you are stuck trying to get to systems that you can't access because their warp gates are locked for unknown reasons.
- The battle sequences are very short and automated. You basically have the ability to fire your weapons, but your ship does everything else.
- The bad guys hit really really hard.. making most fights last less than 5 seconds. Ideally a battle should last 30 seconds, giving you enough time to think, you know, maybe I should run from this fight...
- You're alone... Horribly, Horribly alone... This would be a very interesting game if you could get into a section that was MMO and fight it out with a friend. Of course the positive side of that is that it doesn't need an internet connection to play.
All in all, this game has me captivated, so much so that I interupted a raid in WoW last night to regale everyone about how cool it was, what? I was dead at the time? Warp gate is a cross between Eve for the graphics, and Trade Wars (does anyone even remember that game?) for developing trade routes and finding the deals that will make you the most money with the least number of jumps. I just have to remember to put the game down and review Castlecraft for tomorrow.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
iPad: Abc app reviewed
Ok, now granted it's the second day, but some aps hit the mark and some missed ever so slightly... The abc player is cool, let's you watch your shows on abc! Wis hulu had one, since abc is one of their share holders you wonder why they don't, but anyways the application it self is cool, quality is very good, it acts
Just like their web site and allows you to review the shows, find one, watch it etc. Once you start watching it let's you switch to landscape format but there are a couple of thugs wrong with it..
In full daylight it doesn't. Compensate at all like the native iPad does, it's impossible to watch tv in sunlight on that particular app... Maybe all of them, stay tuned...
The commercials were pixilated, who cares right? Well they should, makes them look cheap and wrong on such a crisp clean device... It was actually very distracting when watching them, to the point where I don't remember the commercial at all, just the pixilation. Now this is something I have also noticed on hulu, so it might just be a symptom of new technology and apathy on the part of the advertising community...
If you have to leave the show for whatever reason it remembers where you are, but unlike hulu I can't tag a series as something I care about so that I can be reminded when I come back later that there is a new episode... I have a horrible memory, for just about everything, so having something remember what shows li like and show me when there is a new episode so I don't have to remember...
Over all a good app, does the minimum it should and I am sure with later versions they will make it a little friendlier to use.
Just like their web site and allows you to review the shows, find one, watch it etc. Once you start watching it let's you switch to landscape format but there are a couple of thugs wrong with it..
In full daylight it doesn't. Compensate at all like the native iPad does, it's impossible to watch tv in sunlight on that particular app... Maybe all of them, stay tuned...
The commercials were pixilated, who cares right? Well they should, makes them look cheap and wrong on such a crisp clean device... It was actually very distracting when watching them, to the point where I don't remember the commercial at all, just the pixilation. Now this is something I have also noticed on hulu, so it might just be a symptom of new technology and apathy on the part of the advertising community...
If you have to leave the show for whatever reason it remembers where you are, but unlike hulu I can't tag a series as something I care about so that I can be reminded when I come back later that there is a new episode... I have a horrible memory, for just about everything, so having something remember what shows li like and show me when there is a new episode so I don't have to remember...
Over all a good app, does the minimum it should and I am sure with later versions they will make it a little friendlier to use.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
I will spare you the sordid details.. But my ipad is here
After what seems like months my iPad finally arrived today. For those that know me well they will know that this is like three or four Christmases rolled into one, you see I am a self procrlaimed geek, though I am sure others hold that opinion as well....;)
The first thing I noticed About the ipad was that it wasn't as big as I was afraid it would be... It's smaller than a magazine, the screen is amazingly sharp. I was just outside playing with it in the full sunlight and there were no problems seeing the screen. Typing on it is also next to natural, the landscape keyboard is very natural feeling! Even the portrait one is easy to get used to. You do have to put it down if you want any kind of typing speed, and my pinky keeps hitting the enter key but other than that it is really amazing. The adaptive text, it probably has a real name but thats what I will call it, is also amazing, it allows you to keep typing and guesses the word that you meant to type, for sausage fingers here, that's a good thing because I don't always hit the right keys..
I downloaded a bunch of apps so I I'll review them as I get more familiar with them, started out with some of the free ones, but there are all kinds of terminal emulators (geek speak for, I can remote control my computer downstairs if I want to and watch hulu since the ipad doesn't support flash.) and other software. One thing that I have found so far is that iPhone apps, while they might work, are very pixilated and I am not sure I would bother buying any of them if I were you.
The speaker in the pad is amazingly loud, for those of you with a first gen iPhone, its nothing similar, you get at least 5 times louder than the iPhone which makes it a good media device for sharing with people... Please share responsibly, last thing I want to hear is someone elses tv show while I am trying to sleep right jenn?
The first thing I noticed About the ipad was that it wasn't as big as I was afraid it would be... It's smaller than a magazine, the screen is amazingly sharp. I was just outside playing with it in the full sunlight and there were no problems seeing the screen. Typing on it is also next to natural, the landscape keyboard is very natural feeling! Even the portrait one is easy to get used to. You do have to put it down if you want any kind of typing speed, and my pinky keeps hitting the enter key but other than that it is really amazing. The adaptive text, it probably has a real name but thats what I will call it, is also amazing, it allows you to keep typing and guesses the word that you meant to type, for sausage fingers here, that's a good thing because I don't always hit the right keys..
I downloaded a bunch of apps so I I'll review them as I get more familiar with them, started out with some of the free ones, but there are all kinds of terminal emulators (geek speak for, I can remote control my computer downstairs if I want to and watch hulu since the ipad doesn't support flash.) and other software. One thing that I have found so far is that iPhone apps, while they might work, are very pixilated and I am not sure I would bother buying any of them if I were you.
The speaker in the pad is amazingly loud, for those of you with a first gen iPhone, its nothing similar, you get at least 5 times louder than the iPhone which makes it a good media device for sharing with people... Please share responsibly, last thing I want to hear is someone elses tv show while I am trying to sleep right jenn?
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