Friam

iPad

Classic

List

Threaded

4 messages Options

Owen Densmore

iPad

Administrator

I was surprised to get mine yesterday, I thought we did not get
Saturday UPS deliveries, but apparently Apple paid for doing so.

It really is different, that's for sure. And it will take the iPhone
apps folks a couple of months to figure out how to migrate.

Several new UI features are shared amongst the apps. One is a
combination of menu and panel .. using the larger screen to drop down
a menu-like selection but with buttons and sliders in addition to the
menu items. Great use of the screen space.

Another innovation is the portrait/landscape transition. Several apps
use portrait for a smaller media window plus controls, and the rotated
view becomes the "full screen" media mode. YouTube does a great job
of this.

iBooks is great fun. Currently it is not built in, you get it for
free from the Apple store. Not sure if that's to be nice to Kindle or
Lawyers or just it was too late to be on board. Comes with a free
Winnie the Poo book.

The Kindle app is surprisingly complete, they must have had a team
working on it for quite a while. And it makes the iPhone version
better too. They actually have an advantage over iPad for a while ..
they work better on phones due to having small screen support.

Photos are incredible. Music as you'd expect, although without cover
flow for some reason. iTunes synch much the same as for iPhone. I
bought Keynote but haven't played with it yet .. hard to believe a
full bore app for only $10. And naturally mail and web quite
impressively good.

Pdf's were a biggie for me because of school and digital books. There
is no pdf reader like Preview on the Mac. But the core is there ..
send yourself an email with the pdf as an attachment! There are a few
doc reader apps for the iPhone, one that even had an iPad version
(Goodreader) ready for the launch. I'm sure there will be dozens.

One important stunt for TeX-pdf files: you should "save as" from
Preview before sending them to your iPad. This is to make sure all
non-standard fonts are embedded in the pdf, not relying on local
fonts. TeX uses several unusual critters, but Preview is clever
enough to pack them into the .pdf if "save as" used to build a second
copy. Slightly larger.

iPhone apps that are not converted to iPad still work surprisingly
well. They show as half size, and you can click on "2x" to make them
fullscreen .. jaggies and all. Actually not an issue: I have an
Italian dictionary and found its use just fine.

iPad is far more of a "lap" device than the laptop is .. you find
yourself curling up with it, and naturally "touch" interfaces are far
more immersive.

Typing on the larger screen is much, much easier. All the pundits are
writing their first post using it. (I'm clearly not a pundit .. this
is from my laptop!) You end up typing with a two-finger-per-hand hunt
and peck. I think it won't take long to master.

Overall, I'm surprised that it seems to be so effortless to learn and
use. iPhone, and likely Android, users will feel comfortable with the
touch interface. It is strikingly gorgeous. It really is a new class
of computing, creating it's own niche. Certainly for most mobile use
it is fine, and at 1.5 lb, that's saying a lot! .. or maybe little? :)

-- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Douglas Roberts-2

Re: iPad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=653UcqY2Xqs&feature=player_embedded

--Doug

On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 9:19 AM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

I was surprised to get mine yesterday, I thought we did not get Saturday UPS deliveries, but apparently Apple paid for doing so.

It really is different, that's for sure. And it will take the iPhone apps folks a couple of months to figure out how to migrate.

Several new UI features are shared amongst the apps. One is a combination of menu and panel .. using the larger screen to drop down a menu-like selection but with buttons and sliders in addition to the menu items. Great use of the screen space.

Another innovation is the portrait/landscape transition. Several apps use portrait for a smaller media window plus controls, and the rotated view becomes the "full screen" media mode. YouTube does a great job of this.

iBooks is great fun. Currently it is not built in, you get it for free from the Apple store. Not sure if that's to be nice to Kindle or Lawyers or just it was too late to be on board. Comes with a free Winnie the Poo book.

The Kindle app is surprisingly complete, they must have had a team working on it for quite a while. And it makes the iPhone version better too. They actually have an advantage over iPad for a while .. they work better on phones due to having small screen support.

Photos are incredible. Music as you'd expect, although without cover flow for some reason. iTunes synch much the same as for iPhone. I bought Keynote but haven't played with it yet .. hard to believe a full bore app for only $10. And naturally mail and web quite impressively good.

Pdf's were a biggie for me because of school and digital books. There is no pdf reader like Preview on the Mac. But the core is there .. send yourself an email with the pdf as an attachment! There are a few doc reader apps for the iPhone, one that even had an iPad version (Goodreader) ready for the launch. I'm sure there will be dozens.

One important stunt for TeX-pdf files: you should "save as" from Preview before sending them to your iPad. This is to make sure all non-standard fonts are embedded in the pdf, not relying on local fonts. TeX uses several unusual critters, but Preview is clever enough to pack them into the .pdf if "save as" used to build a second copy. Slightly larger.

iPhone apps that are not converted to iPad still work surprisingly well. They show as half size, and you can click on "2x" to make them fullscreen .. jaggies and all. Actually not an issue: I have an Italian dictionary and found its use just fine.

iPad is far more of a "lap" device than the laptop is .. you find yourself curling up with it, and naturally "touch" interfaces are far more immersive.

Typing on the larger screen is much, much easier. All the pundits are writing their first post using it. (I'm clearly not a pundit .. this is from my laptop!) You end up typing with a two-finger-per-hand hunt and peck. I think it won't take long to master.

Overall, I'm surprised that it seems to be so effortless to learn and use. iPhone, and likely Android, users will feel comfortable with the touch interface. It is strikingly gorgeous. It really is a new class of computing, creating it's own niche. Certainly for most mobile use it is fine, and at 1.5 lb, that's saying a lot! .. or maybe little? :)

-- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Owen Densmore

Re: iPad

Administrator

Blush! I didn't see the hidden cameras.

-- Owen

On Apr 4, 2010, at 9:24 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=653UcqY2Xqs&feature=player_embedded

--Doug

Sarbajit Roy (testing)

Re: iPad

In reply to this post by Owen Densmore

Dear Owen

I am glad you are happy with your Apple I-products.

OTH, as someone who lives in a notionally 3rd world country, I (and many
other people like me) find Apple products to be so complex that they simply
don't work here. I thinks its possibly due to the uber-brainy conditioned to like
Apple from birth dummies who design and test Apple products

My young son got an Apple Ipod Shuffle. The Apple Store assured us it would
work on Pentium-4 desktops PCs running Win-XP. For the last 3 months
they have been unable to get it to work. The system simply does not recognise
the device. The excuses ranged from "non-standard USB 2.0 Hi Power port".
(Despite my Motherboard manufacturer claiming theirs was a USB 2.0 HiPower,
I added an additional plug in card - no luck). Then they said the I-Tunes version
was too recent for XP, so I installed an older version - no result. after that they
advised me to replace ("upgrade") my motherboard and install Vista / Win-7.
They privately informed me much later that Apple had inadequately tested
their product on all the flavours of Win XP ("since hardly anyone uses it nowadays")
- incl non-US versions.

In the end I simply threw their product away, bought him a Hong Kong MP4 player [http://jxd.cc/en/product_view.asp?id=298] at US$27 a quarter of Apple's absurd price,
and got a camera / DV player/ recorder "free of cost" (vis-a-vis Apple) which works
flawlessly and has great sound quality.

If Apple can't manufacture a "simple" product like a MP4 player and get it to work
for me, then I probably wouldn't take a chance on their "complex" stuff (no matter
how many "cool" features it has) till the Chinese have cloned it.

Sarbajit

On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 8:49 PM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

I was surprised to get mine yesterday, I thought we did not get Saturday UPS deliveries, but apparently Apple paid for doing so.

It really is different, that's for sure. And it will take the iPhone apps folks a couple of months to figure out how to migrate.
:

Overall, I'm surprised that it seems to be so effortless to learn and use. iPhone, and likely Android, users will feel comfortable with the touch interface. It is strikingly gorgeous. It really is a new class of computing, creating it's own niche. Certainly for most mobile use it is fine, and at 1.5 lb, that's saying a lot! .. or maybe little? :)

-- Owen