IPad

It’s been a year since I sold my kidneys for an iPad. It’s been fun. It has replaced every other device I own (ie, a couple of PCs and the nexus one). It’s an outright winner, when it comes to reading, especially long-form articles, and books alike. It has become my go-to machine for everyday news, twitter/facebook, and even for browsing my favorite photographers. It have however remained strictly in the realm of content consumption – until now. In the last few days, I’ve added a stylus - the Targus iPad stylus (available quite readily at most ‘best-buy’s, and on Amazon), and the iPad’s camera connect kit. If you own an iPad (v1 or v2) I would recommend that you fork out the moolah for these two. It will be the best $50 you’ll ever spend on accessories for the iPad. Forget the cool looking smart cover. These will be more rewarding than the 2 hours of thrill of watching the smart cover turn off the ipad when you close it. ...

This is a test post from blogsy, an iPad blogging tool. The interface design looks thoughtful – drag & drop of images from flickr and picasa, videos from YouTube, a built it google search and browser to get at other content. Although there is a bit of a learning curve, it makes the iPad a true content generation device. Maybe this will keep me blogging this time around. On that note, here’s a cutie pie to bring a smile to you, today. ...

If you weren’t in a hole the past few days, you would have heard about the iPad 2 launch. Here’s Conan’s take on it. I must say, the cover is a thing of engineering beauty. Kudos on that, Apple, and thanks for screwing over several thousands of your iPad 1 customers, who forked up 9.5 Billion in revenue in 9 months.

I did it. I said I wouldn’t. I said I will hold out for purely ethical reasons, but it is very hard to resist the iPad. The first impression in-store is simply – awesome. This of course is not a surprise and is something that one can expect from apple these days. Warning: This is a long post .. Here are some thoughts, after a day of use: It’s fast. Much faster than the iPhone 3GS. This is good news for the upcoming iPhone. The battery lasts a really long time. It was around 80% and I used it for incessantly until it died 7/8 hours later. The a4 processor is at this point THE chip to kill for. If you have any samsung shares, I would dump them now, and load up on apple (although they are a tad pricy these days) iPhone apps are useless and look ugly on the iPad. Don’t bother synching any of them The keyboard is a lot more usable that I thought it would be. I’m typing this post at about 60-70% of my usual typing speed. (Only true if inclined at an proper angle – the perfect angle: the one you get with the iPad case). I missed the universal back button. I’ve been spoiled by the freedom-toting nexus one robot ;) Other small annoyances include URL copy pasting between apps, and how the app store lists apps. Exiting the app store every time I install an app is also mind-numbing. I know I can use a Mac and install all apps at one go, but I didn’t spend a 1000 dollars for workarounds. Although I could type very well, creating a blog post is not this device’s forte. For one, all the switching back and forth, is a nightmare, and there is simply no way to get the links to apps for instance from the ipad. Adding images is a pain as well (which is why this is a purely text-only post). It is really nice until you want to go beyond its function as a consumption device. Even a little, and it makes you want to get to a mac/pc in a hurry. Some apps are just stellar, that make it worthwhile go through the above mentioned niggles. I don’t feel any remorse at having bought it, but at the same time, I’m not floored by everything either. That is actually the strength of the device. It is the first time a computing device completely disappears and you interact with data. The experience depends on the app that you are using. Instapaper does a great job, so does the gmail web app. ...

I turned 30 yesterday. A whole day has passed since I left my 20s. They say it is a big day. They say it is a dreaded day. It was neither. Just busy (which is good). I chanced upon [Douglas Adams’ post][1] from 1999: > 1. everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal; > 2. anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it; > 3. anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really. > Apply this list to movies, rock music, word processors and mobile phones to work out how old you are. ...

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ipad If you think that the iPad is promoting DRM of apps that will lead computing in a direction that will undermine the freedom that we currently are enjoying, freedom the seeds of which have been sown over the last few decades, the visit the link above and sign the petition.