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What Do You Use Your iPad For?

Last week, a co-worker spotted me in the hall and said, "I see you with your iPad all the time. What do you really use it for?"

As it turns out, my iPad and I had been the focus of a lunch table conversation. Beyond watching movies or reading books on it, people just couldn't imagine what my iPad and I do together all day long.

It's a fair question -- and one that many potential iPad owners might ask. So, in order of frequency, here's what I actually use my iPad for:

1. Reading books using the Amazon Kindle app. I also read Wired Magazine.

2. Surfing the web using Safari.

3. Tweeting tweets to Twitter (which are then automatically posted to Facebook as status updates) using Echofon.

4. Quickly browsing more than 50 web sites to find just the articles I want to read using the Reeder RSS feed reader. (And reading longer articles I've saved to read later using Instapaper.)

5. Checking and composing email. This includes blogging via email using Posterous.

6. Sharing photos with friends and family. People love looking at photos on the big, bright, iPad screen.

7. Taking meeting notes (and maintaing lists of books to read, movies to see, and music to download) using SimpleNote.

8. Drafting chapters of my next book using Simplenote (but soon switching to Chapters, once it has DropBox integration).

9. Researching vacation destinations and building a database of places to go and things to see using Evernote.

10. Keeping track of my ToDo list using Things.

11. Tracking my blood pressure, heart rate, and weight over time using HeartWise.

12. Browsing photos other friends have taken and shared using FlickPad.

13. Reading the news using the USAToday, Digital Post, and New York Times Editor's Choice apps.

14. Checking the weather using Weather HD.

15. Getting directions from Maps.

16. Reading and studying the Bible using BibleXPress.

17. Getting 50-60% off meals using ScoutMob coupons, plus finding nearby eateries with Urbanspoon.

18. Checking multiple gmail accounts with MailWrangler.

19. Doing Tarot readings with TarotHD.

20. Doing iChing readings with Yi Jing.

21. Playing Angry Birds, Osmos HD, or fiddling with Gravilux.

22. Listening to music on Pandora, generating ambient music using Somnium, playing music on the Air Harp, or interacting with music, light, and sound using Bloom HD.

23. Making phone calls via Skype.

24. Chatting with friends on multiple chat platforms using Meebo.

25. Streaming video from my desktop machine to my iPad using AirVideo.

26. Browsing YouTube video and downloading local copies of videos I like using MiTube. (Heh heh heh.)

27. Brainstorming with iMandalArt, Priority Matrix, Popplet, iThoughtsHD, or Oblique Strategies.

28. Tweaking photos with PhotoPal, PhotoFX Ultra, PhotoPad, PhotoForge, and Filterstorm.

29. Controlling the Mac Mini hooked up to our TV using TouchPad.

30. Browsing Craigslist for deals using CraigsPro.

Increasingly, the easier question to answer is, "What *don't* you use your iPad for?"

Unboxing and Review: CLEAR iSpot Mobile 4G Hotspot for iOS Devices

 

We’ve been curious about Clear’s 4G service for more than a year. We’ve also been looking for a fast mobile connectivity option for use around town.

So when Clear ran a special this week on the iSpot (their 4G mobile hotspot exclusively for iOS devices), we took the plunge. Here’s our Day 1 experience in the Atlanta market, featuring everything from unboxing photos to speed comparisons with the AT&T 3G network.

 

Another Perspective on iPad and Kindle's Impact on Reading Speed

What's more important: reading more quickly ... or reading more?

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen measured the reading speeds of people reading passages from Hemmingway in printed books, on the Amazon Kindle, and on the iPad. His conclusion -- based on the performance of 24 avid readers -- is that electronic books slow readers down by as much as 10.7%.

I'd say there's another way -- a much more relevant and important way -- of measuring an ebook's impact on your reading behavior.

How many books did you read last year?

I read thirty-six books in 2009  -- every single one of them on the Kindle. I read novels for pleasure. I read books for work. I read them while walking to and from The Company, while eating lunch, and while riding the elevator from floor to floor. I read them in doctor's waiting rooms, in hospital rooms, in grocery store lines, in jets, in hotels, in restaurants.

I don't know what impact the Kindle and the iPad have on my reading speed. But I do know this: because I can

- carry *all* the books I'm reading with me, at all times, everywhere I go,

- read during what would often be wasted time: standing in line, walking to work, riding in the car, and

- summon a new book and start reading it in less than sixty seconds, without going to a bookstore or waiting for an Amazon.com delivery,

I'm reading more.

My ebook reader's impact on the number of books I read is more important to me than its impact on my reading speed.

 

iPad: A Little "Light" Reading

Since purchasing my first Kindle more than two years ago, I have frequently indulged in the simple pleasure of reading while walking to work. (Not while crossing intersections. I'm not suicidal.)

Today, while walking home during the lunch hour, I fired up my new iPad, open Seth Godin's Lynchpin, and prepared to plow through a chapter or two. In short order, though, I gave up. At its very brightest, the iPad's backlit text could not compete with the glare of a sunny day. Worse, in full sunlight, the glossy, shiny screen of my iPad became a perfect mirror, directing sizzling bolts of brilliance directly into my eyes.

This did not happen with the humble Kindle. Its e-ink screen performs better in bright sunlight. It loves to be read on the beach.

On my way back to the office, seeking respite from the sun, I slipped into a dark Thai restaurant. To save money, the owner refuses to turn on the overhead lights, but on hot days, this transforms the place into a dark, cool retreat. I took a seat at a corner booth, opened my iPad, and began reading.

Had I been reading a Kindle -- or even an old-fashioned book -- this wouldn't have been possible; in such a gloomy environment, reflective surfaces (like paper, or e-ink screens) fail. But because I had my iPad, I enjoyed a side order of Seth Godin with my tofu fried rice.

The verdict? Indoors, in bed, or in virtually any artificially-lit environment, the iPad makes for a very pleasant reading tool. If you're a beachy person, though, or someone who reads, most of the time, under the glare of the noonday sun, you'll do better to invest in a Kindle.

iPad - Indistinguishable from Magic

My iPad arrived (really) on Saturday, and I've been licking it working with it ever since. Many, many other websites will post detailed reviews of the hardware and software. Me? I just want to tell you some stories.

Sunday Morning. I haven't been a newspaper person for years. My morning routine involves a cup of coffee and reading the news -- but I read that news online, and, up until now, that's meant sitting in the office, in front of my Mac.

Sunday morning, though, I joined Clyde and The Animals on the couch, perched my coffee mug on a window sill, and read USA Today, BBC news, and a dozen news feeds on the iPad. As we read together, we shared bits and pieces of favorite items. The Animals played. The sun rose slowly, painting the Mayfair Towers and the W Hotel varying shades of pink and purple. 

Information on a screen in front of you is one thing; that same information in your lap, on a device you can touch, is something else entirely. Reading is effortless -- and because the device is a comfortable size and shape, you can interact with it without abandoning the world around you.

At the Nursing Home. Mom's hospitalization has isolated her from Josiah, her canine companion. We've brought Josiah in to visit her, but that's just not the same as having him there constantly. Yesterday, I loaded the iPad with photos and videos taken of Josiah's most recent walk in Piedmont Park and took it with me to the rehab center.

Mom snatched the iPad, and, without any coaching or instruction, excitedly flipped from photo to photo. When a nurse came in, she sped back through the collection to show off her favorite photos. "I want one of these," Mom kept saying. "I want one!"

A high-tech device a seventy-eight year old woman can use without training or anxiety -- wow.

Old Friends in a New Light. I loved my Kindle, which remains an excellent device for reading a text sequentially from beginning to end. But the Kindle's e-ink display chokes on tables, diagrams, maps, and photos, most of which either don't display ... or display in a compressed or distorted format, rendering them useless.

What a pleasure it's been to load those books into the Kindle app on the iPad and discover that the maps in my travel books are not only visible -- they're zoomable, with details I can actually read. Tables, charts, and quizzes in the books I've been reading for work are crystal clear. Books on photography include crisp images that I can expand and reorient at will, just by rotating the iPad in my hands.

Verdict. The iPad isn't just a good device for interacting with text, photos, videos, games, email, and the web -- it's the *perfect* device for interacting with text, photos, videos, games, email, and the web. While I still want a physical keyboard for heavy-duty text entry -- for writing novels and reports, for example -- the removal of a keyboard and mouse lends a sense of intimacy to browsing media (from news to ebooks to photos) unlike anything you've ever experienced before.

With the iPad in your hands, there is also a sense that this is a little device that someone, somewhere, has stolen from our future. It is a little slice of magic, the sort of technology that Dr. Who or Captain Kirk would carry, whisked back in time to the present day. 

Or, put more simply: the iPad is a joy to use. Think about that: here's a piece of technology ... that generates a sense of wonder and awe.

How long since you've said that about a computer?

Kindle Reader for the Mac

Amazon.com very quietly released Kindle Reader for the Mac yesterday. I’m glad to be able to read my Kindle books (and highlighted passages and the reading notes I’ve taken) on my Mac. That said: this is a very ugly, very basic, quickly-cobbled-together piece of software.

There’s a nice library of full-color book covers. And the software compensates well for one of the Kindle’s short-comings, allowing me to actually see the maps and read the tables and enjoy the illustrations that my trusty Kindle simply can’t display. 

On the down side: the lack of a text search option is just lame. The fact that the software won’t let me highlight or annotate text as I read is annoying. 

But the MOST annoying thing about Kindle Reader for the Mac is the fact that it will not allow me to select and copy text. I take frequent notes as I read, and my strong preference is to store those notes in a personal database, where they can be indexed and summoned up when needed. Without the ability to highlight, copy text, and paste it elsewhere, the Kindle Reader is pretty much useless to me. 

(I did manage to get text into my database this way: using Skitch, I took a screenshot of the quote I liked. Using PDFPen, I converted that image to text. It’s not simple or easy, but it works.)

Here’s hoping that Kindle Reader for the Mac is so lame because all of Amazon’s programmers have been staying up late, creating an amazing iPad app for the Kindle. 

John Grisham Agrees There is "A Time to Kill" Traditional Publishers, Bookstores

November 4, 2009, on The Today Show - Author John Grisham, who famously refused to allow his works to be released as ebooks: "You're gonna lose publishers, you're gonna lose bookstores ... the future is very uncertain with the books ... Five years from now, how many of us are going to be reading book on Kindles and all these Sony Readers and all these beautiful gadgets? If half of us are going to be doing it, then you're going to wipe out tons of book stores and publishers and buy it all online."

March 17, 2010, on jgrisham.com: "John Grisham, one of America’s most widely read storytellers in print, is making his debut in digital. Random House, Inc. proudly announces the publication of the entire John Grisham backlist of twenty-three titles–from A TIME TO KILL to FORD COUNTY–as Random House e-books, beginning today, March 16."

In the battle of the books, evolving technology and potential profits will trump sweet sentiment every time. 

Telephones, Televisions, Desktop PCs, and the iPad

 

When I was a kid, we had one home phone: black, heavy, secured to the kitchen wall. When we wanted to talk on the phone, we sat in the kitchen. When we wanted to talk on the phone, we came to the phone. 

My nephews and their friends don’t even have home phones. For them, phones are (and always have been) personal, portable devices. What’s more, phones are less and less used for making slow, time-consuming voice calls and more and more for Skyping, typing, and texting.

When I was a kid, we had one family television: a wooden, heavy hunk of furniture with a bulky picture tube inside. When we wanted to watch t.v., we sat down in front of the television set on a schedule the network determined. 

With the exception of the occasional football game or special event, the nephew and his friends don’t watch much television, either. Downloaded movies and shows on their iPods? Yes. Hulu.com on a laptop? Yes. YouTube clips on a handheld device? Constantly. 

But network shows, on a network’s schedule, on a giant box at one end of the room? Rarely, if ever. That’s how old people do it.

The next victim of this “must be portable” mindset? Desktop PCs. 

For most of my life, PCs have been heavy, stationary boxes moored to heavy, stationary monitors. Most PCs at The Company are still desktop boxes — and even the laptops spend most of the day in docking stations, converting them to desktop PCs. 

All my nephew’s friends already carry laptops. And, not surprisingly, these kids can’t wait for the iPad, because it’s even more portable and even more personal than a heavy clamshell laptop ever will be.

When you read dire predictions about the iPad — it’s not powerful enough, it’s not big enough, it’s not got a keyboard, it’s not got a phone, it’s not got an HDMI port for playing HD video on a television screen — be sure to check the age of the prophets.

White guys over thirty-five, right? Yep. Thought so.

That Third Device

 

When I'm writing a book or composing a longer email or blog post, I want the convenience and power of a full-sized keyboard. Despite all the promise of voice-dictation technology, nothing beats the speed and accuracy of a keyboard for funneling text out of my head and into the machine.

A laptop, though, is overkill when casually (okay, okay -- obsessively!) checking email in a restaurant, or when tweeting a 140-character movie review, or when checking on the status of my Facebook peeps, or when amusing myself during a boring sermon in church. For this, the iPhone -- a device I didn't even know I needed three years ago -- is absolutely perfect. For quick tasks and basic Internet access on the go, my iPhone is the perfect mobile device.

And now, there's the iPad -- a third device -- and since its introduction, everyone is asking the same question, ad nauseum: "Do we really need a third kind of device?"

So I've been thinking about that.

Must the iPad's Arrival Doom $9.99 eBooks?

The difference between Amazon and Apple is this: Amazon is very much in the ebook business to sell ebooks. They want you attached to their platform. That's why the Kindle Reader is on both PC and iPhone, as well as the eponymous e-ink device. Ebooks are huge for them. They sell six ebooks for every 10 physical books. That's why they want to own the market. Apple, on the other hand, sells content in order to sell hardware. The iTunes Store, the App Store and the brand-new iBooks Store exist so you'll buy iPods, iPhones and iPads, which is where Apple really makes money. iTunes revenue is just a bonus, though an ever fatter one with the explosion of the App Store.

via gizmodo.com

I've loved paying $9.99 or less for new release books, and Amazon's discounts have been very successful at driving ebook adoption. (I won't even buy hardback books anymore.) But as products like the iPad expand hardware options beyond Amazon's Kindle, publishers will leverage that variety to raise the price of ebooks by denying rights to deep discounters.

I still believe that an ebook edition of a book *should* cost less than a bound copy. In distributing ebooks, the publisher doesn't incur any printing, warehousing, or shipping costs. So the question remains: as publishers force higher ebook prices, will people like me continue to feel as good about ebook purchases?

For now, I'm not sure.

Posted via web from Mark's posterous