Review: Quotebook for iOS

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
– Carl Sagan

Sometimes when I’m browsing the web, or reading a book or article somewhere, I happen across a quote that strikes me in some way, and I feel compelled to save it somewhere for later. The reasons vary of course, but the most common one is simple: inspiration.

I’m not talking about the fluff you’d find on cheesy motivational posters, but rather genuine insight given to us by the great minds of the world. The kinds of teachings that show us how to be more than we are; that inspire us to achieve greatness.

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.”
– Tom Stoppard

Of course, a quote doesn’t have to be inspirational. It could be an awesome song lyric, or maybe a funny line from a movie. Whatever it is, I just like to make sure I’ve got it saved somewhere.

Being the nerd I am, I used to keep a list of these quotes in an Evernote note but unfortunately that note became a little unwieldy as I added more quotes over time. I thought about splitting them all up into separate notes, which might not have been too bad a system, but luckily I found an even better (and more specialized) solution: Quotebook.

Quotebook is an app that acts as a repository for all those nuggets of wisdom you might want to keep around for later reference. It’s more than just a simple list, though; it helps you keep everything neatly organized and searchable, it syncs between iPad and iPhone via iCloud, and it lets you easily share quotes with other people.

The main list view can be sorted either by date-added or by star rating (1–5). You can also go back to find things in the database via:

• A search bar, with live results as you type
• The list of tags you’ve created
• The names of all people you’ve attributed quotes to
• Sources for each quote (URLs, books, songs, poems, speeches…whatever the case may be)

“If you need one of a dozen reference books at any given time, your desk is no more beautiful or “minimalist” for having them tucked neatly away in an unusable way; in fact, I think it loses much of its beauty as it becomes dishonest, a clean modernist caricature of what it really should be.”
– Chris Sauve

To be fair, there is nothing here that you couldn’t accomplish with something like Evernote if you really wanted to, but let’s be honest, it just wouldn’t be as good of a system.

The tags used for quotes (for example, “Inspiration”) would almost definitely overlap with notes containing web clippings from blog posts or other inspiring things you’ve found on the web. At least, this would be the case for me, and I would rather keep standalone quotes separated from that other stuff.

I suppose I could always come up with quote-specific tags such as:

Quote - Inspiration

and

Quote - Humor

to keep them from getting mixed in with other notes, but why go through all that trouble when an app like Quotebook exists specifically for this purpose?

There’s also something to be said about how easy it can be to add quotes into Quotebook, provided you’re on an iOS device (unfortunately, there's still no web bookmarklet available that I'm aware of). Let’s say you’re reading an article on your iPad, and the article contains a quote, like so:

“Write drunk; edit sober.”
– Ernest Hemingway

Leave aside the fact that this quote may not actually be attributable to Hemingway. The point is, you can copy the quote and its author to your clipboard, head over to Quotebook.app, and it will auto-detect what you’ve copied. If the text is decently formatted, the app can often figure out which part is the quote and which part is the author, then place those bits of text into the appropriate fields. Pretty cool, huh?

Once a quote has been added to your list, you can tag it and rate it from 1–5 stars. I personally don’t save a lot of crappy quotes[1], so almost all of mine are rated 3 stars or higher. Your mileage may vary.

“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.”
– Buddha

Now, I’d like to discuss the respective designs of the iPad and iPhone versions of Quotebook. While the iPad app is quite beautiful, the iPhone app leaves a little to be desired. Compare them for yourself:

Notice the differences? You almost can’t even tell that they’re the same app.

For one thing, they share none of the same typography. I’m not enough of a font guru to know at first glance what each app uses, but clearly the iPad app’s serif typeface is different from – and in my opinion, much prettier than – the iPhone app’s blocky text.

[Just for fun though, I’d like to take a crack at each font: I’m guessing the iPhone version uses Helvetica, and the iPad version uses Linux Libertine (the font used in the Wikipedia logo)? If someone knows either way, let me know. Moving on…]

Their toolbars are also nothing alike. One might look at the iPad app’s leather accents and complain about skeuomorphism or whatever, but I think it looks rather lovely and I wish the iPhone version would match it.

This is purely an aesthetic opinion though, and maybe I’m silly or shallow for even caring. From a usability standpoint, both versions get the job done perfectly. It’s just that…I would enjoy using the iPhone version so much more if it took some design cues from the iPad app. Surely I’m not the only one who thinks this way, right? …Right? *voice echoes into the void forever*

“Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
– William Morris

Design differences aside, I really love this app and would recommend it to anyone. If you want the best possible app for storing quotes, you need to get Quotebook. It’s only $3, so check it out and share some of your favorite quotes with me! I’m always looking for more to add to my collection.

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1. I mean, why would I do that to myself unless my name is John Gruber and I’m saving “claim chowder” for later?  ↩

1Password 4.2 Released →

This is a pretty big update, if you're an iPad owner. Now you can generate passwords right from within the browser (they're calling it "1Browser" now), just as if you were using the desktop app.

They've also added 'Go & Fill' bookmarks to the iPad version, which really streamlines the process of logging into websites, saving you from having to go back-and-forth between 1Browser and the Vault.

The iPhone will be receiving both of these awesome features in a later update, but for now you can still use the other new goodies: the ability to share encrypted logins (be very careful with this) and advanced search functionality.

If you want to get the update now, click here.

Review: Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover

As my readers may or may not know, I recently took a week-long trip to Disney World[1]. I just happened to be there the week before Stephen Hackett[2], who I work with over at Tools and Toys but haven’t yet had a chance to meet in person. We flew back maybe a day or two before he got there, which, talk about timing, right? I just hope he was able to locate all the “easter eggs” I’d strategically strewn about the various Disney parks for him.

Although I could have asked Shawn ahead of time to take off from my Tools and Toys duties, I figured I could just continue posting during downtime at the hotel each night. I mean, those posts aren’t required to be insanely long or anything, and I already had a few ideas lined up. Easy peasy right?

Wrong.

Something about the trip completely messed up my immune system, and each day seemed to bring a new “gift” in the form of severe allergies, migraines, a throat/lung infection (I’m still dealing with the cough from this one), fever sweats, and general exhaustion. It was taking all my energy to have any fun at the Disney parks, and that was with frequent rests and lots of water being consumed. So…much…water. By the time we got back to the hotel, I would almost immediately crash on the bed.

I managed to eke out one T&T post, then accidentally miss a day entirely, before I finally gave in and asked Shawn if I could just have the week off. He was totally cool with it, and I’m grateful for that. But since I didn’t know any of this was going to happen beforehand, the night before our flight, I stopped by my old Apple Store (where it turns out that I know almost none of the employees anymore) and picked up a Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for my iPad.

I’ve never really needed one of these, maybe I don’t even need one now, but I figured a trip would be the perfect time to try it out. My typing speed is okay on the iOS soft keyboard, but it will probably never compete with what I’m capable of on a physical keyboard. It’s one of those things kids will someday think I’m old-fashioned for, which I’ve come to accept.

Since this was the night before the trip, I didn’t get a whole lot of time with the keyboard at home. As usual, I had waited until the last minute to get my packing done, and it was necessary to go to bed early, so I just let the keyboard do its initial full charge for a couple hours or so, and then stowed it away in a bag right before hitting the sack.

My first real chance to get it back out of the bag and toy around with it was the next morning, after we’d made it through airport security and gotten some much-needed coffee.

Over the next couple of hours, as we waited for our plane boarding time, I began putting the keyboard through its paces. First, I fired up Day One to begin journaling our trip experience, then began writing up the first-impressions about the keyboard that eventually led to this article. I also went through some trial-and-error to find out what the function (FN) keys on the top number row could do, which I’ll be discussing in a bit.

My first impressions were extremely positive. Suddenly, writing on the iPad felt like a breeze compared to when I was typing on-screen, and I enjoyed having so much more screen space to work with. Since returning from the trip, I’ve had a lot more time to spend with the keyboard. Now that I’ve given you my life story, I’d like to share my thoughts.

The Hardware

A concern of mine before buying the Ultrathin was that the keys might be too small. I’d seen lots of pictures of course, but never really had a chance to try the thing out. It’s not like they keep them out on display at the Apple Store. In my usage so far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that the keys aren’t too tiny at all. Now, they are a bit cramped together, but this rarely hampers my typing ability. In fact it’s quite a comfortable experience, much more so than I expected.

The keys feel very responsive and give a satisfying click when pressed. I had worried they might feel cheap and plasticky, but they feel great to me, and it seems like they will hold up well over time.

The case itself is quite nice too. When the iPad is in-use, it rests in a magnetic slot that stretches the entire length of the keyboard. This magnet is stronger than you’d expect; I can pick up the iPad by its bezel while it’s sitting in the slot, and the keyboard will travel with it, rather than falling off. I feel secure knowing the iPad isn’t going to suddenly tip over backwards out of the slot.

The rear edge of the case has another strong magnet, but this one is in the form of a hinge. To “close” the case, you remove the iPad from the keyboard slot and — making sure the home button is on your right side rather than your left[4] — merely lower it onto the exposed magnet strip on the hinge. The hinge will typically lift up to meet the iPad, and from there you just lay the iPad face-down on the keyboard like a laptop screen.

While it’s closed, the case’s aluminum exterior almost makes it appear as if two iPads are facing each other screen-to-screen. It also feels quite durable, although I’m not crazy enough to try any drop tests with it. When the case is opened again, much like with Apple’s Smart Cover, the released magnets within the iPad alert the display to turn on automatically.

Whether it’s open or closed, the Ultrathin has a relatively small footprint. It was the absolute perfect size to fit on every airplane tray I tried it with, and it stows away in a bag just about as easily as a standalone iPad does.

One last thing with the hardware: I’ve found myself occasionally using the Ultrathin merely as a stand for reading ebooks, watching videos, and other media consumption. It doesn’t have to be used for writing at all times. The magnetic slot holds the iPad at the perfect angle for such things, and the keyboard is small enough to stay out of your way even when you’re not typing.

Shortcuts and Function Keys

Another surprise I’ve had with this keyboard (are you sensing a trend yet?) is the fact that it supports some of the keyboard shortcuts you would use on a Mac:

• CMD+C and CMD+V will copy and paste selected text, respectively
• CMD+Z will undo the previous action
• CMD+A will highlight the entire document
• Initially I was disappointed by the lack of Home and End buttons for skipping to the beginning or ending of a line, but after playing around with various key combinations, I discovered that CTRL+[any directional arrow] will skip the cursor around this way. Left and Right take care of the same functions that Home and End would, but you can also use Up and Down to skip to the top or bottom of the entire document. Very nifty.
• The ALT button will produce all kinds of interesting results in combination with the alpha and numeric characters. For example, ALT+P produces a pi (π) symbol.

In addition to that, the entire top row of number keys doubles as a set of useful functions in concert with the fn key. I’ll list them from left to right:

• The first button in the row acts as a home button, no fn key required.
• fn1 opens the iPad’s Spotlight search page.
• fn2 switches between any languages you’ve enabled. In my case, the only option that pops up, no matter how many times I press it, is English.
• fn3 summons or dismisses the on-screen soft keyboard.
• fn4 highlights the text to the left of the cursor’s current placement, adding one word with every press.
• fn5 does the same, but to the right of the cursor.
• fn6 cuts any selected text.
• fn7 copies any selected text.
• fn8 pastes any copied text.
• fn9 plays/pauses media.
• fn0 mutes the audio.
• fn- volume down.
• fn+ volume up.
• fn+delete acts as a sleep button.

And the ones I use most? fn4 and fn5 for selecting text[3], and the media keys: fn9 through fn+. The rest are nice but basically unnecessary to my workflow.

This is only tangentially related to shortcut keys, but I’ve been relieved to discover that all my TextExpander snippets work perfectly with this keyboard. I didn’t know what to expect in this regard but it hasn’t let me down yet.

The (Few) Bummers

With almost any review there is bound to be a list of cons. I don’t like dwelling on negatives if I can avoid it, but obviously it’s important to be honest. Thankfully, this list will be a short one.

• There is no way to check the current battery status. You basically either know that it’s got a decent remaining charge, or it’s about to die. From what I understand, the way it notifies you of a low battery is a blinking red light, but I have yet to see it for myself. They claim that the battery can last for six months on a charge if used for two hours each day, so the lack of a battery status isn’t an enormous deal but it would be nice to have it.
• There is no Caps Lock indicator light, so the only way to see if it’s enabled is trial-and-error.
• Holding the delete key doesn’t gradually speed up the backspacing process the way it does when using the iOS keyboard. You’ve got to use either the fn4/fn5 system or touch the screen to use the iOS text-selection loupe.

And that’s about it. I’ve tried my hardest to look for any other “flaws” but this is all I could come up with. The keyboard is just that good.

In Conclusion

The Logitech Ultrathin has completely changed the way I write on my iPad. The luxury of having an entire screen to work with, unhampered by an on-screen keyboard, along with the ability to type almost as quickly as I would on a full-sized keyboard, is a huge boon for me. Not to mention the awesome portability of the thing and its amazing battery life.

The overall feeling I've had during my experience with this keyboard is one of pleasant surprise. I went in with somewhat low expectations and came out feeling very positive vibes about my purchase. I don't know why I didn't give it a try sooner.

For me, there is no going back from this setup. Of course, I’ll always be able to use the on-screen keyboard if needed for quick jobs, but as long as I can help it, the Ultrathin will always be nearby. I think I’m in love.

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1. From April 13th through the 20th, if you include the two Saturdays of flying.  ↩

2. His son Josiah was granted such a trip by the awesome Make-A-Wish foundation.  ↩

3. This almost makes up for not having a mouse/trackpad. Speaking of which, the way this thing makes the iPad feel like a laptop has sometimes fooled me into instinctively reaching for a trackpad that isn’t there. Completely user error, but I thought it was an interesting fact. Time will tell if this habit goes away completely.  ↩

4. The orientation matters because of where the magnets reside within the iPad.  ↩

Status Board for iPad

Three years and one month ago, the guys at Panic (one of my favorite Mac/iOS development studios) unveiled a cool project for their office: the Panic Status Board. It contained all kinds of useful and up-to-date info concerning:

• Ongoing projects (deadlines, who's working on what, etc).
• The number of support emails that are queued up for each of their apps.
• The office calendar.
• A revenue tracker.
• Even a local bus route schedule.

And what kinds of results did they see in the office after putting up the Status Board? Here's how they described it:

“Our support turnaround time is faster than it’s ever been. Just the simple act of “publicizing” those numbers — not in a cruel way, but a “where are we at as a group?” way — has kept the support process on-task and, I think, made it a bit more like a video game. (It helps that when all the boxes are at “zero”, a virtual bottle of champagne appears on-screen, and a physical one is likely removed from the fridge.)”

Fast-forward a few years to this past Monday, when Panic announced via Twitter that they would be releasing a brand-new app this week. They also added a cryptic little image to the row of iOS apps on their site.

I was excited enough just from the announcement alone, feeling anxious to try the new thing from these guys, but then later that night I received an unexpected email from Cabel Sasser, giving me early access to the release candidate! I've never been given beta access to something so high-profile before, so of course I had to check it out, right?

As you can probably guess by now, it's an iPad version of the Panic Status Board, and boy is it beautiful.

In his email, Cabel listed off several notable features about the app, but this one in particular caught my eye:

”Best of all, Status Board has one of the best setup assistants you'll ever see. I'm not joking.”

He wasn't too far off. When you first open the app, you're greeted with some quirky-but-friendly elevator music and a "manual" that guides you through a few pages of basic setup.

Allowing access to my location, calendars, and Twitter accounts was as easy as tapping 'OK' a few times, but I had to sign into an IMAP account rather than simply giving it access to my email accounts. Odd.

After completing the basic setup, I was taken to the actual Status Board screen, where a few default modules were already in use: time, weather, upcoming calendar events, etc. Here's what it looked like after I fiddled around a bit:

I'm particularly proud of the Twitter @reply calling me a moron at the lower left :)

Editing each panel is pretty simple. Just tap on the little gear icon at the upper left and then tap a module to edit it. Editing looks like this:

Any of those icons on the bottom dock can be dragged up into the grid and placed wherever you like, then resized to a certain extent by dragging on the little corner markers. Some nice touches are the little sounds and bouncing animations used when entering edit mode or tapping on the dock icons.

The first six "Instant" icons (Clock, Weather, Calendar, Email, Twitter, and News Feed) are simple to configure in various ways, while the last three "Pro" modules (Graph, Table, and DIY) require some external tinkering and a server to host CSV, JSON, or HTML files. These are where the most interesting and personalized graphs/charts can be created.

Some example uses for the Instant modules include: tracking how many emails you get each day, displaying follower counts for Twitter, listing upcoming events, scrolling through news stories from various sources (including any RSS feeds you add), etc.

Possibilities for the Pro modules are nigh endless. I imagine one popular use will be analytics for web traffic (Mint) or budgets/expenses (different Mint).

Note: Before moving anything into place , you should decide on a preferred iPad orientation; portrait or landscape (I chose portrait). Once you have everything in place, the panels dont really convert well upon turning the iPad over; they'll be all shifted around and spaced differently than how you set them.

Each module also seems to have its own specific parameters for how large or small it can become, which somewhat limits their flexibility in my mind, but this doesn't leave me with a negative impression or anything.

While in edit mode, you can tap the buttons at the top right to access other options:

• The monitor button toggles the External Display function. Your Status Board can be shown on an external monitor using AirPlay or a video cable. From what I understand, the ability to do so will require a separate in-app purchase, but details on pricing are unavailable at this point.
• The second button is a toggle between 'iPad' and 'HDTV' modes. HDTV mode just opens more space on your grid for extra modules. Since this causes modules to appear shrunken on your iPad screen, I'm guessing the title is literal and that this is meant to be used when outputting to a large external display.
• The last button allows you to share your Status Board via email (which shows a screenshot of your board gift-wrapped with a ribbon), or send some feedback directly to the guys at Panic.

To remove any modules, you can simply drag them off-screen and they'll disappear.

After playing with this for a couple days, I'm left with a few thoughts. For one thing, I just can't state enough how gorgeous and easy to use this app is. Nothing about the setup or UI has felt too difficult to deal with, and it's especially pretty on my Retina iPad.

That being said, I can't say this app has a clear, useful purpose in my life at the moment. Don't get me wrong, this could definitely be useful for small teams of people who collaborate on projects or share an office together. It's just not for a single individual like myself that isn't constantly looking at calendars or weather reports, and who doesn't own a business that needs to track sales trends.

If they could somehow get this information onto the iPad's lock screen, that would make it much more useful for me. But as a separate app, I probably won't spend much time in it except to ogle the pretty graphics from time to time.

Another way I could see myself getting more out of the app is if I can make better use of the "Pro" modules someday. As the app inevitably grows more popular, perhaps people will begin to share their custom code snippets for those modules. I can't wait to see what interesting things people come up with. Until then, I'm afraid I won't be able to utilize the app to its full potential, which seems quite vast really.

If this kind of thing interests you, then pick up Status Board for $10 on the App Store. Just because it doesn't yet fit into my life doesn't mean it can't work for you. If nothing else, buy it just to support a fantastic group of people who always do excellent work.

The iPad Apps that Power my Tools and Toys Workflow

One of the topics I’ve been most enthusiastic about lately is the idea of using only an iPad to do all my work. I’m not talking about my day job here, but rather my writing workflow, and more specifically the writing I do for Tools and Toys.

(I would love to have a nice workflow setup for Unretrofied, but unfortunately the Squarespace iOS app is pretty terrible and there are no alternatives due to their lack of an API. So while I may do some writing for Unretrofied on the iPad using Byword, I almost always publish from the back-end CMS on a desktop or laptop.)

Since Tools and Toys runs on WordPress, there are a wider array of apps I can use for publishing, which makes an iPad-only workflow more feasible. I’d like to discuss the apps I use to get the job done, but first it helps to know the ground rules for every T&T post:

• Each post must contain an image, 600px wide being okay but 1200px being better for Retina displays. Either way, the site will display the image in a 600px wide box.
• Image file sizes should be reasonable so as not to delay page-load times. The 150kb–200kb range is fine.
• These images must be hosted on the site’s Amazon S3 account.
• There are three custom fields used within the CMS: the image link, the product link, and the name of the store/website where an item can be bought.
• Stephen Hackett and I each have a particular posting schedule, so we need to be able to schedule final drafts to be automatically published at a later date/time.
• When we link to something on iTunes or Amazon, we must use affiliate links.

Obviously there’s no one app that can do all these things, but I’ve managed to accumulate a variety of apps that have allowed me to do my work on-the-go. So far I’ve managed to get the entire workflow down to a handful of apps.

The first app, Instapaper, comes into play long before I ever write anything. I’ve got a special folder set aside where I like to save ideas for potential products to write about. If I come across something cool out on the web, I save it to this folder and reference it later when it’s time to write a new post.

The next two apps I use are Safari and Mail.app. I use Safari for finding links and images, as well as researching items to make sure I know what I’m talking about when I’m writing about them. When I can’t find a nice, hi-res image of a product anywhere, I use Mail.app to ask the makers of those products if they have any images I can use. Everyone I’ve ever talked to has been super nice and helpful.

Once I’ve got an image, or a set of images, I use an app called Reduce to batch-resize them. I even have a preset stored in the app: 1200px wide, 150kb file size. I run the photos through that preset, and the app saves a copy of each image to a “Reduce Export” album on the iPad for easy management.

The way I currently upload these images to Amazon S3 is with the iFiles app, which presents the most convoluted part of my current workflow. It’s an okay app for uploading, but it seems to have no way of renaming files or copying their public URLs, which is why I’m still on the lookout for something better.

Since I can’t rename from within iFiles, what I’ll typically do is remotely login to my office PC using LogMeIn Ignition¹ and do it there. This step is technically unnecessary, but I prefer having a file name that uses the name of the product rather than something generic like “Photo02272013.jpg” or whatever.

Why is that, exactly? Well for one thing, it makes it easier to locate a particular image in our list of previous uploads if I need to. Secondly, even though I can’t copy the public link, I can simply take the url http://i.toolsandtoys.net.s3.amazonaws.com/img/file-name.jpg and substitute the file-name portion with the easy-to-remember file name I just made. A bit ghetto but it works.

Let’s just say that my life will be a lot easier if I can find a suitable replacement for iFiles.

Now that I’ve dealt with images, I’ve got to manage the text stuff. My absolute favorite app for writing and publishing to WordPress is Poster. It’s beautiful, easy to navigate around, and it features everything I need to publish a post, including those custom fields I mentioned earlier.

Next up comes the links. Regular links are easy to copy and paste, but when it comes to affiliate links I have a couple of tools at my disposal. The first one is Launch Center Pro, in which I’ve set up custom URL schemes for each link-type. They both operate based on whatever’s saved to my clipboard. Since this app was more intended for iPhone than iPad though, I tend to use TextExpander snippets to generate the links instead. Poster includes TextExpander support so these snippets are a breeze to use.

Lastly, we’ve got Dropbox. This is where I store any drafts or images I have yet to put together as final posts. I can access them from anywhere, and Poster can pull text files from Dropbox in order to create new posts. Doesn’t need much more explanation than that.

So there you have it. There are still some kinks to be worked out, and the overall process of putting things together could be a little smoother, but the sheer fact that I can do almost everything straight from my iPad is awesome to me.

Before I end this post (which is incidentally about 20x longer than most T&T things I’ve ever written), I’d like to thank Shawn for giving me the opportunity to write for the site. It’s been a blast so far and I look forward to where the site is headed.

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1. This app is incredibly expensive these days at $130, but I bought it years ago when it was on sale for $20 and I had an iTunes gift card.  ↩

Trying to Make the iPad Something It's Not

Earlier today, I tweeted in response Ted Landau's Macworld piece, Why the iPad Still Can't Be a True Mac Replacement:

"I think the problem here is that they're trying to shoehorn a desktop workflow into a place where it doesn't fit."

I'd like to expand on that thought a bit.

In his piece, Mr. Landau lists several things the iPad would need to have–or do differently–before it could become a serious competitor to the Mac:

• Some kind of backup solution
• A visible file system, however basic
• Ability to hook up more peripherals
• Better typing capabilities (this one feels a bit unexplained; he doesn't specify exactly what it is he's looking for)
• Multiple-window management

Do I think these are terrible ideas? No, not particularly. On one hand, I'm sure they would benefit certain people looking to use the iPad as their main workhorse. But on the other hand, I think these sorts of "needs" stem from old ways of thinking.

I understand why somebody would desire these features. The desktop metaphor has been an integral part of personal computing for nearly 30 years now, and it's simply what people are used to. Still, that doesn't mean we should think about shoehorning desktop-like features into the iPad.

The iPad was never intended to compete with the Mac anyway. Why would Apple undercut their own product line like that? It's possible that they see it as a transitional device that will gradually encourage migration away from the Mac and onto the Next Big Thing, but for now it's more of a complementary companion device than a conflicting one.

Of course, the iPad is certainly powerful enough act as someone's only computer if needed, but not so feature-robust that Mac lovers should be worried about their favorite computer disappearing from the Apple lineup anytime soon.

I do think that the whole desktop metaphor, one where we must manage multiple windows and external devices, is slowly on its way out. Kids growing up with iPads aren't going to care about these things in the future. Nobody is going to call for multiple windows on-screen. But still, all of that is probably a LONG way off. And by that point, there will probably be another couple of huge paradigm shifts that we haven't even imagined yet.

For now, I see the Mac and iPad sticking around together for a while. And that's perfectly okay.

My Path to the iPad

Time for another piece about my personal life! Apologies in advance if you're getting sick of these :)

As I stated recently, I've been wanting to overhaul the tech situation in my life for a while now. To recap: despite having been an Apple Store employee a while back (October '07 - December '08), and having access to decent discounts on Mac products at that time, I've never been able to comfortably afford an iMac or MacBook. Also, long-term budgeting for big tech purchases isn't something I have much experience with.

You see, I grew up in a humble mobile home (albeit a double-wide model) which was on a dirt road at the outskirts of a small town. Because of the location, the only internet connection available my whole life was 56K dial-up. It wasn't until after I moved out in my early 20s that my parents could even get a basic DSL line run to the house. (My dad now uses that connection to play World of Warcraft, which sure is...something.)

Needless to say, we weren't big computer purchasers. There wasn't much of a reason to be, honestly. I mean, we were using AOL as our ISP, with all the requisite dialup noises that were enough of a deterrent alone. Of course, this means that I missed out on a lot during Web 2.0's heyday, but overall I think it was probably a good thing because it forced me into a not-overly-consumerist mindset that is still a big part of who I am today.

My first Apple purchase only came about when I managed to scrape together enough money to pick up an iPhone 3G several months after it released. Rather than upgrading every year, I waited three years before picking up an iPhone 4S (which is still my current phone), and that's where my Apple product history ended until Friday.

When I think back on this stuff, it seems odd even to me that I would ever have thought to apply for a job at Apple, given that my only prior experiences with Macs were with the old machines at my elementary and junior high schools, and those were mostly used for playing Oregon Trail or Math Munchers. I had no real sense of what a Mac could do outside of playing games.

Let's just say I had a lot of learning to do.

To this day I've still never owned a Mac, but I certainly developed a strong interest in them while working at the Apple Store, and nearly all of the tech blogs I keep up with even now are pretty Apple-oriented.

After my cheapy Windows 7 laptop crapped out, I didn't bother replacing it with another cheap Windows machine because I was too busy salivating over the 15" MacBook Pro model of the time (not literally you guys, ew). And I still couldn't even afford that computer without cutting out a ton of other expenses and living on ramen noodles for a year or two. Didn't seem worth it at the time.

The iPad had become pretty popular by this point, but the thought of replacing a laptop with such a device seemed crazy to me. My thoughts at the time sounded something like this: "It looks nice and all, but how could it possibly do all the things I want?"

The answer wouldn't begin to hit me for several months. Many people were proclaiming the iPad as the device to lead us into a post-PC era, but deep down I never believed them. Surely they couldn't be serious.

But then, more and more people started making the switch, ditching their old MacBooks (or other laptops) and instead preferring instead to carry around an iPad exclusively, often with a physical keyboard setup. This happened to be around the time I started taking a serious interest in writing, so something in the back of my mind began to wonder if I'd been enturely wrong about the iPad.

Then, Shawn Blanc published a piece explaining how his iPad had all but replaced his MacBook Air as a mobile workstation, and Federico Viticci began writing a series of articles showcasing the ways iOS apps can work together to complete fairly complex tasks with minimal input from the user. Lots of other writers got in on the fun as well, but there are far too many to list here.

Eventually, I became convinced by these kinds of testimonials. The iPad started looking more and like a suitable and legitimate replacement for a laptop, although admittedly, it couldn't have gotten there without the help of the App Store.

The abundance of 3rd-party writing and productivity apps has created an environment where people can accomplish just about anything they want as long as they've got the right app(s) and they're willing to work within the inherent limitations of iOS. As it turns out, a large and ever-growing population of people are perfectly willing to do just that. It was quite a recurring theme throughout 2012 in fact.

Fast-forward to today. I've been at my full-time job for 4.5 years and I've got a few pay raises under my belt. My wife's Irish dance school has slowly been growing and she's got a decent number of students now. We're still not making a ton of money by any stretch, and I've grown of tired my dead-end day job, but we're at least living a little more comfortably now than our previous years of living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Several months ago, my wife and I decided that we would finally try to invest in the Apple ecosystem and we began budgeting ourselves pretty strictly. The goal was to set aside a little extra money each month after we'd paid the bills and put money into our emergency fund. We weren't always successful but over time we've managed to build up a decent-sized 'Apple Fund'. Eventually, the question became: which devices do we need, exactly?

With the iPad's newfound role as a legitimate computer replacement, it seemed feasible for each of us to get one of those for mobile use and then get an iMac for the house at some point. I considered this scenario in my previous piece:

"If we've got an always-on iMac powering things at home, we could feasibly do the iPad thing and have no problems at all. She doesn't care about getting into the nerdy stuff, and most of my usage will probably be reading and writing, so really it just comes down to how much I want to tinker with scripts and stuff on the go."

I've since decided that having the ability to tinker with scripts just isn't worth the additional expense to me. Like I said, my main uses for it will be reading and writing. An iPad is well-suited to (and more than capable of) accomplishing those tasks, and even with the additional purchase of a keyboard/case it's still cheaper than buying a MacBook Air. Plus, I can always do that sort of thing on the iMac whenever we decide to get one.

So, I took the day off work yesterday and went back to visit ye olde Apple Store. After playing around with the various iPads one last time, I went ahead and picked up a 16GB wifi-only iPad 4 w/ Retina display. I'm still a big fan of how light and portable the iPad mini is, but the bigger Retina display won out in the end.

Now that I've finally made a decision after months of consideration, what do I think about the end result? Well, I've been spending the better part of 72 hours toying with this thing and it already feels like I made the correct choice.

I still have yet to get a physical keyboard, but I've already done some writing on the device (in fact, I'm writing this piece on it right now) and it's been a sheer joy so far. I'll probably never reach 90-100WPM using the on-screen keyboard like I can on a physical keyboard (HUMBLEBRAG FULLY INTENDED), but it's noticeably easier to write with than the iPhone keyboard I've grown accustomed to these past few years.

I want to mention just how friggin' beautiful the Retina display is on this thing. I've found myself becoming lost in photo blogs, Vimeo videos and comic books. All apps just look nicer than their iPhone counterparts. Even the text I write is rendered gorgeously. Talk about encouragement to write more!

I'm also in love with a couple of the multitouch gestures:

1) "Pinch" the screen with 5 fingers to exit an app to the homescreen. I don't have to care where the home button is in relation to the iPad's orientation.

2) Swipe up with 4 fingers to bring up the app switcher tray. Much better than double-clicking the home button.

These are completely natural-feeling interactions and my workflow already feels 10x better just from using such simple gestures.

So that's where my tech situation is at right now. I will continue to gradually add new things into the mix, such as a keyboard and some sort of bag to carry this stuff around in. The iMac will be further down the line, hopefully before the end of 2013.

I'm only getting started but I'm already super excited about all this. Not to suddenly get all "consumerism is the bee's knees!" about it, but after going through life without a lot of nice things to my name, it feels nice to treat myself for a change.

Made With Paper

Paper is one of the most popular apps for the iPad, and for good reason. It's the perfect app for expressing your artistic side, and people have been able to create some quite impressive artwork with it. Developers FiftyThree obviously know this, and they've put together a gallery of some fantastic pieces created with the app that I highly recommend checking out.

I'm continually amazed by the stuff people can create with tools like this.

Overhauling My Tech Life

This morning, Shawn Blanc provided a handy Mac media server setup guide that I think is worth checking out. This particular quote at the end struck a chord with me though:

"See? For some of us, all we need to for an iOS-only workflow is a Mac at home doing the heavy lifting."

For several months now, my wife and I have been saving up some money on the side so that we can do an overhaul on our home tech situation, and an iOS-workflow is actually something I've been considering.

Some Background

Each of us owns an iPhone 4S, but we have no Macs or iPads at the moment. This may come as a surprise to some of you considering the content of this blog and the fact that I used to work for Apple, but it's not really something I've wanted to make a big deal of on the blog.

If you look back through the archives, you'll notice that I talk about iOS a lot, but not so much the really nerdy Mac stuff that I'd love to sink my teeth into. I've also had to come up with some Windows workarounds for my Tools and Toys writing workflow in the meantime, which is a bit of a pain.

All of this is going to change soon, which I couldn't be more excited about.

Current Setup

Here's what I'm working with right now:

• At my full-time job, we only use Windows 7 Dell desktops. This happens to be where I get most of my writing work done at the moment.
• At home, my wife has a Windows 7 laptop that is servicable, but it tends to overheat and gets bogged down easily.
• My own laptop completely died over a year ago and we've never had a desktop, so whenever I'm writing at home I'm either on my iPhone or her laptop. Blech.

Decisions, Decisions

We know for sure that we want to set up an office area at home with a 21.5" iMac (probably not the newest slim model but the one prior, since she occasionally requires an optical drive for burning CDs), but for our respective mobile purposes we're still undecided on whether to get MacBooks or use iPad+keyboard setups.

If we've got an always-on iMac powering things at home, we could feasibly do the iPad thing and have no problems at all. She doesn't care about getting into the nerdy stuff, and most of my usage will probably be reading and writing, so really it just comes down to how much I want to tinker with scripts and stuff on the go.

At this point she's leaning toward getting an iPad 4 regardless of what I do, but I'm still deciding between:

• 13" MacBook Pro (non-Retina, because it's too expensive otherwise)
• 13" MacBook Air
• iPad 4
• iPad mini

If I opt for either iPad, there are further decisions to make, such as what keyboard to use. I've heard great things about using an Apple wireless keyboard along with the Incase Origami Workstation, but there are lots of great iPad-specific keyboard cases to choose from as well. There's also a case to be made for waiting until a Retina iPad mini is announced later this year (as is rumored) before I make a final decision.

Perhaps I'm just thinking about this stuff too hard, but this is a seriously huge expense for us and I do not take it lightly. Any recommendations are more than welcome here.

The New 128GB iPad

An interesting thing happened today. Although we're only a few months into the iPad 4's product cycle, Apple introduced a 128GB model to the lineup this morning, which will be sold at $799 for the wifi-only model and $929 for the wifi+cellular model.

But the most interesting aspect of this isn't even the mid-cycle thing, it's the idea that Apple is pushing to reframe the iPad as a device for pros. Of course, plenty of professionals already own and use iPads for work, but Apple seems to be strongly suggesting that anyone currently using MacBooks for work should start thinking about making the switch to iPad, and soon.

And why not? A 128GB iPad combined with a keyboard case or similar accessory is certainly a compelling choice even compared to a MacBook Air. I'd wager that most people are perfectly capable of getting their work done on an iPad and have no real need for a laptop anymore. There are limitations within iOS that may keep true Power Users™ using their MacBooks even years from now, but these people are fringe cases and their numbers are ever-dwindling.

Not everyone uses nerdy stuff like Keyboard Maestro macros or TextExpander snippets or application launchers like Alfred/LaunchBar. Most people aren't writing AppleScripts to accomplish tasks. All they need is the right kind of app for a specific task, and iOS is a goldmine for things like that.

I expect the next few years to be pretty interesting, since Apple appears to be rapidly chipping away at Microsoft's iron grip on the work/productivity market.