I purposely set out to only uses my iPad for home tasks when possible for the first few days. After the first couple of days of that, I don't reach for my laptop, nor do I still carry it back and forth to work every day.

I tend to organize my thoughts much better on computer than paper. I was carrying my laptop to meetings, but carrying an iPad works out much better.

I'm still looking for the perfect note taking app or outlining app. I use OmniOutliner on the Mac, and an iPad version is coming in the summer, but in the meantime, I'm wafting. Same goes for OmniFocus. I had considered a switch to Things because their GTD app isn't out yet, but given the cost and some research, I changed my mind.

Pages for iPad is a good start at a word processor, but needs a toolbar in landscape, and more templates. It also needs to share it's documents with apps like GoodReader (an app that should be installed by default due to it's usefulness.) I feel like once an alternative app comes out, it will push Apple into making Pages even better.

I bought a Booq brand sleeve, and I'm pleased with it.

I had been looking at various stands for it, some in the over $100 range, but the perfect solution so far was suggested by Andy Inhatko in the latest episode of MacBreak Weekly: a pair of $4 rubber stoppers. They put the iPad at a perfect angle for typing on a desktop. They also work well to stand the iPad up on the counter whe leaning it against something. By itself, the iPad's metal surface makes it slide when you try to prop it up.

Yes, and there were mp3 players before the iPod, but which one is considering the ultimate version of the technology that caused it to take root?

And there were smartphones before the iPhone too. But which one is the one that finally get things right (mostly.)

I owned one of the original tablets, the Apple Newton. I loved that thing back in college. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he killed off the Newton project, mostly because it wasn't his baby. Newton had been spun off into a subsidiary company and was starting to flourish. The project wasn't making money, but it was breaking even.

Newton OS 1.0 was a joke, the handwriting technology was lampooned and with good reason. It was lousy. The product was released before it was ready. Newton OS 2.0 was no joke. The handwriting technology actually worked.

In college, I used to carry around a Newton 120 running Quicken and I would log all of my purchases into it. I would use it for taking notes in class.

On last week's MacBreak, Leo Laporte made a great point about the Newton. The technology in it was fantastic. It was way ahead of its time. They're still impressive machines to this day. But it was the perfect product to highlight the difference between an Apple with and without Steve Jobs. Apple with Jobs has a track record of finding that nexus of form and function that is so crucial.

There have been Apple tablet rumors since 2002. The iPhone actually originated as a "Safari Pad" idea:

"Apple's multitouch technology began life not as a cellphone, but as a notepad-sized skunkworks project internally dubbed Safari Pad, run by Tim Bucher, then Apple’s head of Macintosh hardware. To his credit, Mr. Jobs seized on the technology and morphed it into the iPhone."
New York Times, June 2007

Apple clearly had the technology to release such a product. Most companies in the tech industry would have already done so. This thing has been in development for years and years now. If it comes out and it does indeed look like a big iPhone, that's not necessarily a cop-out design-wise. The hype machine has been in overdrive for a long time now on this thing, so I think that the first reaction might be disappointment from the tech blogs. If they had come out with this thing with the exact same interface as the iPhone 2 years ago as the iPhone was introduced, people would be drooling. Funny how quickly what was revolutionary seems passé.

Apple stock tends to drop a little when they introduce a new product. I'm betting it drops a bit today.

I was there in San Francisco when they introduced the iPhone. A Steve Jobs keynote is a pilgrimage all Apple geeks should make. I hate that they don't do them at Macworld anymore, where the fans can attend. It was indeed a landmark day... what will today bring?

I'm predicting:

10" screen (LCD, not OLED)
Wifi
3G support (hope this doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I already have a data plan, let me tether iPhone to it for $5 a month)
iPhone OS 4.0 with new gestures
Pressure sensitive screen for sketching
No stylus, but it will support handwriting via 2 fingers gripped like a pen
Won't be named iPad or iSlate. I like Canvas.
Will support scaled iPhone apps, but will have apps that are built just for it
Front facing camera, but no rear one - do you really want to carry this to shoot snapshots?
Apple sets Bing as default search on iPhone 4.0 over Google
Google Maps replaced with Apple's own mapping app with Turn by Turn GPS
Cost? $800, which is too much, but it will drop

There are some feeds that I used to subscribe to that have such a prolific rate of posts (like Macworld, MacNN), that I just can't follow them anymore. That's where Fever by Shaun Inman comes in.

I read some about it when it was released, but I've never really had that much trouble keeping up with my feeds using Google Reader before. But as of late, I have been so overwhelmed with work, that I check news and twitter once a day, if I'm lucky. That's where Fever comes in. Instead of paring down the blogs I subscribe to down to just a select few, you throw the kitchen sink at it. It then looks for items that are getting a lot of discussion and rates them on a human temperature scale (hence the name, Fever).

I haven't been using it long, so get back to me in a few weeks for a report on if it's worth the purchase for the longterm...You do have to install it on your own web hosting account, it's a PHP app, and you need a MySQL database. There's a great iPhone version as well. Now if I have a minute, I can see what the hottest news items from all of the blogs I follow are. Click on the thumbnail on the right for a larger version.

Religion: check
genealogy: ??? Not really...
accident: no clue where that one is coming from...

Of course, this is a demo video, and real-world speed may not be anywhere near this, but I must admit that the interface in the above demo video of the Palm Pre looks intriguing. With the iPhone, Apple was able to leverage its dedicated Mac developer base to jump start app development. Palm has no such advantage.

And it will charge wirelessly—another one of those cool tricks that have been around for a while, but not implemented.

There's no way I would get one over an iPhone right now, but a little competition is good for Apple.

I can see how people would think this about Twitter.  The beauty of it is that, deep down inside, we're all a little bit weird. We obsess over our interests, and realize that in normal converstion that we'd never really get to share those interests with others, because... who really cares? But that's really the beauty of Twitter. You just share what's on your mind and if someone else cares, they'll say something, if not, they won't.

I think it really works for those of us who are a bit introverted.

That said, one of the few things I got out of the Economics class I had to take in college was the law of diminishing returns, which basically states that as you invest more and more, you begin yielding less and less from your investment.

I think that eventually we're going to find that applies to Twitter as well. As everyone you know starts using it, it becomes less and less useful. Much like Facebook and all those ridiculous SuperPoke, MafiaWars, etc. notifications that we all constantly get.

Twitter may become a victim of its own success, in record time.

Last summer, after the release of the 2.0 iPhone software and MobileMe, I had loads of complaints. Both were full of bugs when launched.

See: Dear Steve Jobs | Mobile Me - Not So Pushy

They finally got the bugs ironed out of the iPhone with the 2.1 software several months back, making the phone once again a joy to use. It's not perfect—but the missing features that keep it from being perfect could be addressed via software, and tomorrow we may get just a little bit closer.

Apple is going to demo the upcoming iPhone 3.0 OS tomorrow at Noon central. Will copy/paste finally be added to the phone? Rumor mill says yes, along with background apps, so that your Twitter client can update in the background with new tweets without having to be running, landscape mode for more apps (like Mail), and more. There's speculation that there will be an all-new touch screen device out tomorrow... Apple's answer to the Netbook. We'll see on that one. I have no doubt that they've been working on such a device, but it may never see the light of day if Steve doesn't like it.

I sure hope that 3.0's release is not really just 3.0 beta, like 2.0's initial release was.

Boxee Remote on the Apple Store

It's no secret that I'm a big Boxee fan. After weeks of waiting, Apple finally approved the release of the free Boxee Remote into the App Store. Here's a demo of how it works:

I'd be more excited about that if I hadn't already bought Air Mouse Pro [$5.99] last week.

Air Mouse Pro lets you control your mouse via the accelerometer on the iPhone. I won't tell you that it doesn't take a little bit of getting used to, but it really is a nice way to control my Mac mini. Even better than that, it has a gesture mode much like the Boxee Remote does. When I'm in Boxee, I just use the scroll portion of the screen and I can then move around in the menus just like the Boxee Remote does. The app also is aware of what program you're running and you can set up custom controls via an application running on the Mac (or PC). So when I'm in Boxee, it knows I'm in Boxee and changes the functions on the buttons.

Here's a demo:

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Dropbox

The first one isn't exactly a new one, but it's new for me. Being a true geek, I run off of multiple machines. I have 2 machines that I do all of my work on, a Mac Pro for in the office, and a Macbook Pro for home. Plus I have my Mac mini hooked up to my TV for movies and music (running Boxee, natch). I buy my music at work usually, but I archive it at home on the mini. I find sermons, audio, etc. that I want to listen to while running or driving at home, but I have my iPhone and iPods synched to my work machine. I find good media/ideas for camp at work usually, but I keep those in a folder on my Macbook Pro. So I have the need to transfer files around.

I use ChronoSync once a week to sync up and move files around. I keep my projects folder in sync at least once a week (or as often as needed). And I have been using several folders that move from one machine to another to move files around.

Enter Dropbox. Dropbox gives you a common directory that syncs with the cloud, which then syncs with any other machine you're using. Now when I find media I want to listen to, I save it to my Dropbox folder, and the Dropbox service uploads it immediately and copies it to all of my other machines.

So now when the latest episode of The IT Crowd comes out via bit torrent, I grab the torrent at work, and drop it into a folder on my Dropbox. I have Boxee on my Mac mini set to watch that folder and import any torrents dropped into it. Or if I find something I want to listen to, I just drop it into my Dropbox, and it will be there for me at work. It's way more convenient and reliable than connecting to the machine directly with afp.

The free Dropbox account allows you to stop up to 2GB in your Dropbox.

Tags

So I keep these folders full of movies, images, readings, etc. for use in worship planning at camp, etc. Maybe it's something funny that would be useful for lightening the mood at Senior High 1 at Camp Sumatanga. I find these things all year long. But how do I find them all when I need them without putting them in a folder just for that event? That's where tagging comes in.

Tags allows you to tag files and folders in the finder, bookmarks, emails, addressbook, photoshop, keynote, iphoto, MS Office, etc.

So now I find a video on YouTube that would be funny at camp, I bring up the shortcut to tag it, and I tag it "sh12009", "funny," and if I have a specific day of the week it would work, "wednesday."

Now it's searchable with those tags in Spotlight, or via the tags application.

It's also great for tagging emails related to a project. For instance, I'm working on multiple projects related to a special speaker that is coming on campus. I tag them all so that I can pull up all the info related to that project quickly. It's easy to manage the Indesign project files without tags, but not the emails or potential photos to use in iPhoto. Tagging them fixes all that. The cost is a little steep, but there's a 30 day trial, so you can see if it's for you.

It was 25 years ago today that Apple released the Macintosh computer. Hard to believe it's been that long. I wasn't using one back then, but I was aware of it. My Industrial Arts teacher in Junior High was also the computer teacher, and we would use Apple II's for progamming in basic, and running educational software. He had the first Mac I ever saw, somewhere around 1987.

I was really into the Apple II computers when I was in elementary school. My uncle likes to talk about the first time he ever saw a computer was when I brought it to my grandparent's house at Christmas. My old Apple IIc was great, but it wasn't user-friendly by any means. There was no mouse, just the keyboard.

I didn't do as much with computers from around 5th grade through 10th grade. I had friends who had IBM based PC's, but those just didn't appeal to me. They were clunky and difficult to learn/use. In 11th grade I signed up for the journalism class at Bradshaw High School. That class was a wastershed moment for me. Prior to that point I figured I would go to law school and be an attorney like my dad (humorous considering that I hate to argue.)

I joined up on the yearbook staff and we were probably one of the early adopters of Desktop Publishing for high school yearbooks. We would still draw layouts by hand, but we would produce headlines, artwork, etc. on our Macs, an SE, SE/30 and eventually a IIsi. That was my first exposure to the Mac, and after rising quickly through the ranks, I was taking the Macs home for the weekend and soaking in everything I could about them. From that moment on, I knew that I wanted to work in communications.

It's taken 25 years, but we are living in the golden age of Macintosh now. Market share continues to grow. I used to hear from people that they wouldn't buy a Mac because Apple was going to be out of business in a year back in the 90's. Truth is, they came close. When Apple purchased Steve Job's NeXT Computers in the 90's. They were a bad quarter away from bankruptcy.

Jobs was reckless and out of control during his original tenure at Apple. He needed to fail in order to learn how to succeed. And now with the Mac at 25 years old, it's got a lot of momentum. The President of the United States is a Mac user. I used to have only a few friends who were Mac users, and I would evangelize it to them over and over, but make no headway. And now I only have a few friends who are PC users. It's been an interesting 25 years. Can't wait to see what the Mac is like 25 years from now.

There are some more great videos over at Computerworld: Happy 25th birthday to Macintosh.

When I was in the Shoals area visiting over the holidays, I did notice that EDGE was way slower there than I remember it being when I was having to use it when I had the original iPhone. I could barely use the Google Maps because it took forever to get the map data to transfer. If AT&T is doing this in the Shoals area, it's ridiculous, since there is no 3G there.

The fact that they're doing it elsewhere really sucks.

The 3G iPhone rocks, I love it. I don't regret purchasing it so soon after laying out the cash for the original one at all. I routinely stream radio stations in the car, and play YouTube videos on my way to work, something that you just can't do with the original. Still... this smells of bait and switch. For a lot of of folks the original iPhone is fine at true EDGE speeds.

Here's a great idea to take advantage of the iPhone's ability to display custom pictures when people call:

Visuals for iPhone. ($0.99)

Over the last few months, I've taken up geocaching as a hobby. I picked up a dedicated GPS for it, but I started out doing it on my phone, which worked pretty well. The advantage of a dedicated unit is durability. My Garmin Oregon is water proof, you don't necessarily want your iPhone out in the elements. But for finding park n grab caches and a lot of the easier caches, the iPhone works great. The official geocaching app for iPhone is on sale for $2.99, normally $9.99.

Geocaching for iPhone ($2.99)

The iPhone is quickly becoming a powerhouse portable gaming device. Developers are learning to craft original games that really utilize the accelerometer and multi-touch controls. Even though it's a bit expensive, Rolando is worth every penny. It's a blast to play. Highly polished. In fact, you can pretty much go ahead and download all of the games that the developer, ngmoco, has released to date.
Rolando for iPhone ($9.99)

Another fun little gem for the iPhone is Sneezies. It's inexpensive and good for passing some time in line. Anna loves playing around with this one. The point of the game is to pick just the right spot to drop in the pixie dust that will set off a chain reaction of sneezing creatures to hit your goal for each level. It's really well done.

Sneezies for iPhone ($0.99)