Endangered species

When I was a child newspapers were recycled for everything.
If you bought fish or vegetables they came wrapped up in an old newspaper. If you painted you’d put newspapers on the floor. You could make carnival masks with paper and water, or build paper boats that would float.
The list of possible use of old papers was endless.
Even if color photos and glossy paper are making the day there are still real papers available, and there are still plenty uses for them.
When I peel potatoes, like I did tonight, I always spread a newspaper on the table.
It makes cleaning up the peels so much faster and easier afterwards.

That’s when I started thinking of the iPad and other Kindle like devices.
And I realized what i have known for some time, without really it really sinking in.
Old newspapers belong to  an endangered specie !
Obviously as new newspapers are disappearing there will be no more old newspapers!

I have been tempted to stop my subscription to the paper version of “Le Monde”, in favor of a subscription to the web based edition.

Then tonight I realized that I did not have the courage to kill an endangered specie.

And by the way. Without old newspapers how will I light my stove next winter?

iPad The first killer features

A new device has seldom created as much buzz as the iPad.
Now that it is out in North America, and in the rest of the world in a couple of months the big question is: “Is it worth it ?”

What are the killer features of the device, if any?
After using it for a couple of weeks, traveling and at home I have identified a few. (In a later post I’ll list some features that I find are missing from the iPad.)

I’ll list three that I have found so far.

Startup:
It was announced by Steve Jobs during the initial presentation of the iPad in January that startup was immediate.
It is. The iPad might look like a big iPhone, but feature wise it resembles more to a computer.
Only when you want to use it, you just pick it up and it is ready to go.
Enormous it must be experienced to really understand how it feels.

10 hours of battery:
As above it is a new experience to have the iPad ready at all times, and not having to run to the nearest plus after a few hours of use.
I have been using computers for more than 20 years, and I have never 10 hours of battery life.
It leads to a new type of usage. This time you really have the information at your fingertips, and immediately available.

Share-ability:
The form factor gives an ability to share what is on the screen with others in a natural manner.
You easily look at the screen together with your family or friends.
You pass it across the table, run up the stairs or go into the garden with it.

These are my early killer features. It redefines my perception of computers.
This feels so natural and normal that I will surely have forgotten them in after a few more weeks of usage.

iPad The missing application

In the previous post I talked about the missing application.
What I want is an electronic version of my Moleskin book.
Notes are available on the iPad. Pages is a nice word processor. Think is the perfect GTD application.
But none of these allows what the moleskin allows.
I want to be able to draw, handwrite, maybe paste something from elsewhere.
I also want the context to stay.
What I mean is that when I’m looking for an address that was on the same page as the drawing I made of a horse, I want to find them together again.

Flipping through the pages I’ll recognize the drawing a lot quicker than an address scribbled down.
In short I want the unstructured information that I enter to remain that way.
It might not make sense for you, but for me it does.

Some interesting applications does part of this and are available for the iPhone.
NoteTaker from Software Garden is such an application. It enables handwriting or rather finger writing as well as drawing. It is a very interesting application, but unfortunately the iPhone screen is too small for me.

I hope that an iPad version will soon arrive. I’ll be amongst the first to try it.

You also find wondrous drawing applications for both iPhone and iPad. I highly recommend Brushes, but there are many other good ones out there.

I think that this is what Microsoft attempted with OneNote, without really succeeding. I think that it is more due to hardware than to the actual implementation of the concept.

One can hope that Apple has something like this up their sleeve.

iPad How to type on the iPad?

Many people questions where the iPad fits in between laptop and smartphone. I think that the answer lies directly with how usable the iPad is.
Of cause the iPod is very useable, I’m not trying to launch a sterile discussion about the usefulness. No what I mean is “How useful is the iPad for taking notes?”

I would like this product to be my companion at all times. In order for it to achieve this I need to be able to take notes easily, to a drawing whenever I want to. Replace my sturdy notebook which today is my companion, and my extended memory when away from my computer.

For this to become reality I need a solution to my keyboard problem, and the missing application. (no there is not yet an application for that).

The keyboard problem*.
The iPad keyboard is available in portrait, and in landscape.
In landscape the keys are nice and big. You cannot thumb type like the iPhone as the keyboard is too large. If you want to type with both hands you need to lie the iPad on a flat surface. If you opt for typing with one hand you’ll quickly develop a tennis elbow. So much for typing in landscape mode.

In portrait it is a little bit better for one hand typing. Thumb typing however is still difficult, maybe for a person with bigger hands. For two hand typing the keyboard is too small.
This is what I’ve learned after a few days of use.

My conclusion is that the iPad is to be used with one hand to hold, the other to type. This is the general use, of cause there are occasions when you may type with both hands and in landscape.

Then I had an idea.
Why not provide an alternate keyboard, where the letters were placed in a manner optimized for one hand typing?
I see three good reasons for doing this :
It is easy to prove this kind of keyboard.
It would speed up one hand typing on the device.
Existing habits learned on classical computers are of no use here.

By the way, do anybody know of a method to learn typing with one hand?

Hopefully Apple will provide this in a future version of the iPad**.
(I do not think that direct modification og the system wide keyboard will be accepted on the AppStore)

*Yes I know that a bluetooth keyboard can be connected to sped up typing. But it does not provide a solution to MY problem.

**This post was written on my iPad.

Lucky

Came back from my trip to Houston this Thursday.
Only hours after the airport in Paris closed, following the airports in northern Europe

Changed the header to a photo of the Island volcano “Eyjafjalla” that causes quiet airports all over the continent.

iPad my iPad

Apple initially announced iPad availability in Europe for the month of April only, the date of availability has later been pushed to the month of May.

It seems that the magnitude of the success was unexpected. Certain deems that it is due to manufacturing shortages. I tend to believe the former. Did anybody really expect the iPad to sell 250 000 in a couple of days.

Living in France I was traveling to Houston on April 6 Th. , and was lucky enough to be able to get my hands on one. I bought the 64 GB model, the 16 and 32 ones were sold out.

I wanted one for a number of reasons.

Of cause because I’m a geek.
Because the iPad has been giving me a feeling as something new in a way I have not felt since Windows 95.

The concept of tablets is not new, but this time it carries the promise of being something larger than tablet PC’s. I expect it will conquer new usages for portable computing devices.
I’m certain that I’ll have to un-learn a number of things and acquire new habits.
At a first glance it seems to cover the same scope that we traditionally cover with a laptop. Will I still think this after using it over an extended period ? More on this to come.

At this point I have no regrets whatsoever.