Not Really an Early Adopter

As I've been getting a lot of slack for getting an iPad right after its release and how I'm such an early adopter of technology I'd like to clarify a few things...

My 1st iPod: gift from my Slacker Bro
My Wii: gift from my Slacker Bro
My 1st iPhone: gift from my Slacker Bro (and the lovely SP)
My DVD player: gift from my Slacker Bro
My Roku box: gift from my Slacker Bro
My flat screen TV: hand-me-down purchase from my Slacker Bro
My Kindle: gift from my Slacker Bro

Are you sensing a pattern here? While I enjoy embracing new technology and do get pleasure from the occasional tech toy, the real tech geek, the real early adopter, is my Slacker Bro. I'm just super lucky he loves me enough to hook me up with all this techno goodness. Oh, and though I may have broken down and gotten an iPad just 2 days after it's release, I don't see it as some revolutionary device, but rather an extension of an already proven user interface made popular with the iPhone and iPod Touch...

As to other news, the keynote speaker at SunGard Summit 2010 was Chris Gardner, the man behind The Pursuit of Happyness. He was a great speaker; engaging, motivating, inspiring. I'm really glad I had the opportunity to hear him present.

And just because...

-- Posted via the SnarfffPad

Friday Night: Me & the SnarfffPad

So, here it is, Friday night and I'm chilling out at home watching a Clint Eastwood flick and catching up on some blog postings via my new RSS Reader (FeeddlerRSS) that I just downloaded from the App Store. Well, downloaded about 2 hours ago and now that I'm all caught up with my feeds, capping it off with a little of the CO.



I would have preferred being at Taraval Osaku-Ya with MamaJ snarffing some salmon rolls and guzzling some chilled sake, but a late afternoon migraine interfered with those plans. The SnarfffPad has been comforting me.

As have the kittens in all their cuddly goodness. Speaking of kittens, it seems Katja is happy to use the new giant scratching post as a lounging so ace, but not for actual scratching. So typical.



SunGard Summit starts this weekend so I shall be spending several days immersing myself in workflow sessions in the hope of learning something useful. I actually enjoy Summit. My creative work juices always get flowing. If only we had the time, money and resources to implement all the things we'd like to!

Continuing my assessment of the BlogPress app I'm using... Auto save isn't impressing me. I accidentally tapped on the post listing on the left of the screen and not only was I not prompted to save before leaving my draft but the draft didn't save automatically - at least not recently. My post was already four paragraphs and only the first one had been saved, and that not even the complete paragraph. Haven't figured out how to ad a link without hard coding the html and I'm still cleaning the post up in the actual Blogger interface after I post via BlogPress. Not ideal, but using the app is still better then trying to do it all in the Blogger web interface.

-- Posted via the SnarfffPad

1300 Deliciousnesses

Went to 1300 Fillmore (not an iPad friendly website) for drinks after work with my friend and co-worker tonight. Yum. Wine, hush puppies, duck rillette, friend chicken... Sigh.

And I think I made an iPad convert. She's not a tech person and ended up being very impressed with the simplicity of the interface. She's a good candidate for this device because she travels a lot and is looking for a light, easy tool she can use on the road.

And a pic for your viewing pleasure... A pup on the lookout. Lucy and I came across this cutie when we stopped in Occidental for brunch one weekend.



-- Posted via the SnarfffPad
(cleaned up post posting)

Look How Pretty!

Okay, I'm trying out BlogPress in the full on create and post via BlogPress mode. I did notice last a night that I couldn't quite figure out how to edit a post after I posted it so I ended up going back into the Blogger web interface to do that. But the key thing right now are pictures...

Oh, look, it's my pretty little iPad at work. Please disregard my messy desk.




Oh, look, it's a jay-walking mountain goat!




Oh my goodness, kitty paws! Shocking!





Update: So, there are some spacing issues I can't seem to resolve in BlogPress. I'll either have to live with them or edit some other way. Also, when I look at the HTML it isn't as clean as I would like, but I suppose these are small prices to pay. Clearly pictures loaded fine. Even typing on the idPad keyboard wasn't too terrible, though of course it cannot compare to the standard keyboards. I'll continue to make use if BlogPress and see how it goes as I user if more.

My iPad Cans and Cannots

So, now that I've been using the iPad for all of, oh, one day, below are some of my observations. To naysayers and Apple-haters, I say, get over yourselves. Buying a new gadget comes down to like, need and want... If the iPad doesn't float your boat, doesn't meet your need, or you don't want it, well, don't get one -- hello! Sheesh!

Cans:

• Watch movies, both those I have stored locally or streaming through Netflix. Quality is great (as long as the video itself is good) and streaming is fine as long as the connection is a good one. I actually watch movies on my iPhone and iPod quite a bit, so this is really nice for me - no need to hold the thing right up to my face. I know I'll be happy when I'm on that 11 hour flight to Holland in the fall.
  
• Update my blog, with a little workaround (see below for more on this). I can't promise I'll blog MORE because I have the iPad, or that my blogs will be more interesting.
  
• Read all my Kindle books, mostly (see below for more).
  
• Play kick-ass high def Plants vs Zombies and Scrabble.
  
• The usual calendar and email stuff - the interfaces of both are really visually appealing and functional on the iPad.
  
• Web browsing: way way way better on the iPad then on the iPhone -- bigger and faster and generally cooler, mostly (see below).
  
• Type: I've seen a lot of critiques about the digital keyboard, but it's really just fine for what it is. I'm a touch typist -- I can type over 100 words a minute -- but I never expected that sort of capability on the iPad. If I want to write a novel, I'll do it on my computer (I sure as heck wouldn't buy an iPad so I could write a novel on it -- hello, function!).

Cannots (either I really can't do it or I just haven't figured it out yet):

• Upload pictures for my blog via the Blogger/Picasso web interfaces -- I have to use a workaround of emailing the pic to my blogger account, then copying the url from the automatically created blog and then deleting the automatically created blog and going to the blog I'm actually writing and pasting the link there. An annoying work around, but tolerable for now as I'm hoping I'll either find a solution or, if not, Google will provide one. Basically, if I'm in my blogging edit window and I click on the button to insert an image the button used to navigate to the image is not usable. I could still update the blog the same way I did on my iPhone, which is just doing it through email, but I like being able to preview and do other things that are easy to do in the blogging web interface. Or I could use a 3rd party app like BlogPress.
  
• Read my Kindle books outside in the sunlight. I knew this wold be the case -- afterall, it's the case with my iPhone and with my MacBook Air. But still... maybe I can try some sort of protective cover to help minimize the glare? We'll see. For now, the Kindle stays.
  
• Okay, I know Apple is thumbs down on the whole Flash deal, but still, it's so widely utilized on the web not being able to use it when surfing on the iPad is a bit annoying. Perhaps this will be the push web developers need to establish alternatives.

Still to explore:

• Hmmm, how will I do my off-line travel journaling? Not using the built in notepad - that app still irritates me. I'll have to look around for options.
  
• GoogleDocs? Still not sure of the solutions for creating and editing Google documents since I've read that you can't create GoogleDocs via the web interface. I've heard of some Memeo app to view them off-line, but I'm more interested in creating and editing them online and off. A good app would be a GoogleDocs app that lets you create and edit on your iPad and synch to your GoogleDocs account when ready. While I don't plan to write a novel on my iPad, I do like to journal, especially when I'm traveling, which points me back to the first bullet in this section.

Confessions:

• Yeah, okay, the fingerprints looks way worse on my iPad then on my iPhone. Guess I'll just have to carry a little iPad cloth in my purse.
  
• Not sure if and when I'll buy a book through Apple's bookstore. I'd just as soon as keep using the Kindle app or my actual Kindle device. The exception might be books that have maps. I love stories that use maps and frankly the Kindle versions of these have crappy suck-ass maps that you can barely read (example, George R. R. Martin's series "A Song of Ice and Fire" - awesome maps, completely unreadable on my Kindle device or via the Kindle app on my Mac). If the iPad/Apple versions of these books have good maps, that could be a motivator for me.

Worth the ridiculous dollars? The Snarffable Jury is still out.

Are you asking yourself, "Hey, Snarfffable, did you write this freakin' monograph on your iPad?" Um, no, not this time... but only cause I was in front of my computer when I decided to start jotting down ideas on what to write. But, I did edit it on my iPad and post it via the iPad with the app my Slacker Bro found for me called BlogPress.

iPad: I'm Not Proud

Ok, it's true I told myself I would wait until the summer before I would consider getting an iPad. And yes, it's true that I now have one and it's only day 3 since the iPad dropped. And yes, it's true that I'm not proud. But I am pretty darn giggly as I sit here blogging about my new freaking iPad - from my iPad! I'll have to wait a bit before I can provide any real feedback on the little thing, but so far I'm digging it. Got a bunch of pics loaded, movies, updated apps, email and calendars set up.

Here's my home view with a background from my London trip photo collection:

The iPad may not be the be-all-end-all, but I think it has a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to new apps designed specifically for the device. More later!