BlogPress for iPad Experiment

Whilst overall the iPad still continues to impress, there are some niggles. The web browsing experience is good and the extra screen real estate over the iPod Touch makes all the difference - as I had hoped - and avoids all that pinching and zooming; however, there are some sites that just don't behave themselves as expected. Obviously the absence of Flash is one part of this - although I haven't missed the crashing - but there are other issues and Blogger has some of them. The most obvious is that the blog posting page doesn't work properly with the normal text entry box not accepting input - you can only do it via the HTML entry box - and scrolling within the boxes is somewhat challenging. Given that one of my proposed uses for the iPad was write as well as read blogs and that both of my blogs are hosted on Blogger, this presents something of a problem. Enter BlogPress...

BlogPress is a blogging tool that appears to cover most of the main blogging platforms - including Blogger - and seems to address my posting problem. It isn't a free solution - currently £1.79 in the UK App Store - but it seems to cover what I need along with photo and video posting (not that I can generate either of those from the iPad itself) along with Twitter and Facebook integration.

This is my first post using BlogPress so I clearly haven't yet had any chance to find its foibles as yet but as I continue to trial it I will keep you updated.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

First Weekend with the iPad

So I splashed out and pre-ordered an iPad. It arrived on Thursday morning, a day earlier than expected, but since I was at work all day and then out in the evening I didn't have much of a chance to play with it. Fortunately, this being a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, I have since managed to get quite a few days with it and so I thought I would post my first impressions.

The device is pretty much as I expected, but then I already have an iPod Touch, so I had a pretty good idea what I was getting. "If you've got an iPod Touch, why do you need an iPad as well?" might well be a sensible question. The answer is simple, more screen real estate. I have spent lots of time with the iPod and, whilst I have been very pleased with it, the small screen has alway been very frustrating to use with a lot of websites. The iPad gives you so much more room (enough to avoid having to pinch and zoom on most pages) and is so much more responsive. The bigger screen also provides for a decent on screen keyboard too.

What about the lack of flash, I hear you ask. It's not been a huge problem for me as I was used to not having it on the iPod. It is a nuisance especially as some sites I would like to be able to use are flash based but it's not made the device unusable that's for sure.

The interface is familiar and easy to use and it is very responsive. The battery life is very good and some of the apps being released are starting to show what can be done with the device. Plus the BBC has updated the iPlayer site to work with the bigger screen too.

I am also using it as a PDF reader which is so much easier than having to print out the multitude of PDFs I have (and better for the environment and storage!). But I have yet to be sold on it as an eBook reader, not because it isn't capabable - it is - but more because I am yet to be sold on eBooks themselves.

So overall it has fulfilled my expectations and is proving to be extremely useful for the use cases I had already identified and that will only improve once more apps are released.

It certainly does have some significant limitations, no flash, no printing, limited connectivity, no camera etc but, whilst these would all be useful, none of them undermine the role I intended it for. If you are considering buying one you'll need to consider whether the same would be true for you.

Should I get an iPad?

I have been pretty pleased with my Asus EeePC netbook but there are a few niggling issues with it (speed) and there are some use cases it just doesn't work well for (PDF reading for example). Equally my iPod touch is extremely useful but the screen size really hampers its use for web browsing.

The new Apple iPad seems to fit right between these two devices. It's smaller and lighter than the netbook but has a decent sized screen to enable it to be useable for web browsing and PDF reading should be no problem. Plus all my existing iPod applications will work on it.

The big question is how much will it cost when Apple eventually release it in the UK (now slated for the end of April)?

MobileMe: Not for me...

I decided to take up the MobileMe free trial to see if it was something I'd be happy paying £70 per year for. Initially I was impressed with how it looked and how well it integrated with iLife and the Mac and iPod generally; however, after about six weeks I've decided not to take up the subscription after all.

The main things that made up my mind were:

(1) Mail - slow and unreliable. I just found that my other mail services had less downtime and were quicker to respond/update. I also had problems when it told me it couldn't send a message and to try later but actually had sent it - so I ended up sending it twice.

(2) Back to My Mac - won't work with my HomeHub. Ok the initial problem isn't MobileMe - it's the crappy uPnP implementation on the HomeHub; however, the Apple info to allow you to get BtmM working without uPnP isn't exactly easy to find. In the end, after much experimenting with manually opening ports etc., I just gave up.

(3) I can get it all elsewhere for free.

So whilst I liked the way it looked and it was well integrated MobileMe simply didn't perform well enough for me to justify the subscription. I can get other, in most cases as good (or better), equivalent web services for nothing. They may not be integrated but that's something I can live with.

Another Mac Convert

I spent yesterday helping my Mother-in-Law replace her aged PC with a brand spanking new iMac. We went down to the Apple store at Bluewater and the service was excellent. The new machine was, as expected, a doddle to set up and works flawlessly. Of course having played with it and see the display I now want one! At first I thought the limited number of USB ports (only 3 - which isn't much if you don't go for the wireless keyboard and mouse) and the stingy mouse cable were drawbacks but then I found the other two ports under the keyboard after they were pointed out to me (doh!).

Now if only I could get Back to My Mac working with my BT HomeHub so that I can support the machine remotely. Her BT Voyager router was no problem but I just can't get the Hub to play nicely at this end. Better go off and practice more Google Fu...

Apple iPod Event

OK, so I didn't cross the pond for the event. Which, on reflection, was probably a good things since there wasn't anything announced that hadn't been leaked earlier. Is the iPod end of Apple becoming more sieve-like or what? Anyway, whilst there were some interesting products to think about for Christmas presents (i.e. the new Nano) and the iTunes 8 update has a rather useful new Genius feature there wasn't any one thing that really floated my boat.

I downloaded the new 2.1 software for my (now first generation) iPod Touch and the iTunes 8 upgrade pretty much as soon as possible. You do have to look hard for some of the UI improvements (particularly on the Touch) but they're there. I'm not sure about the bug fixing for the Touch in this upgrade as recently mine has been pretty reliable. iTunes 8 has a new grid view for album art, which works well for podcasts as it shows you the number of episodes you haven't watched in a circle at the top left of each icon (like the mail notification on the Touch) and it also has Genius. It's this last feature in one guise which I will probably use most as I'm basically lazy and can't be bothered to make my own playlists, in its other guise (purchase recommendations) I can see it getting rather expensive so I may not pay much attention to that one. As to playlists (and this feature also exists in the Touch 2.1 software), Genius creates a new playlist from a specified track using other "connected" tracks from your existing library (or the sub-set on the Touch). I don't know how the algorithum works (and the iTunes implementation supposedly learns from data send up by each user) but it seems pretty decent to me. I've already started listening to stuff I'd forgotten I had.

All in all, not an earth shattering event but some nice polish to some already decent products.

A message from Apple?

If I was a PC user I might take offence at this...



This is a sign we saw several times at a zoo we visited yesterday. Obviously they've either got a Mac user with a sense of humour or have no idea where the logo was sourced from!