The Gadgets Page

As hard as I’ve tried, I haven’t been able to get paper out of my life. Although I now keep a journal with my iPad instead of writing on paper, I have one weekly goal sheet that I still use. I also get handouts from Weight Watchers every week and I am continually ruining them because they don’t have a nice place to go in my iPad.

I’ve finally found a iPad case that is just as good as the Apple case AND has a spot for my papers and even a pen.

• Acase Deluxe Leather multi-view Case/Folio with Stand for Apple iPad at Amazon.com

The case easily holds a 5 1/2″ X 8 1/2″ paper, which is what I use in my journal. It could hold a 8 1/2″ X 11″ paper folded in half as well. I have some 7″ X 9 1/2″ composition books that looked like they would fit, but they are a little too thick to slip into the pocket. My 5 1/2″ X 8 1/2″ composition books fit perfectly, however.

There were plenty of pictures of the case on Amazon, but they didn’t answer all the questions I had about it. In particular, I wondered how the case propped up. Was there velcro? Did it just stay there? I have a pretty clear picture showing that feature.

If you look carefully, there are grooves on the case that allow the flap to stay in one place. There isn’t much variation in the viewing angle, but the Apple case only had ONE choice, so this case is better than that.

The entire case is fatter than the Apple case, but it stands on a table with more stability than the Apple case does, so I feel like that’s a fair trade-off.

When closed, the Acase isn’t as simple and pretty as the Apple case. You can clearly see the grooved section here. What it gives up in beauty, it gains in stability.

I really appreciate the pocket for papers and the smaller pockets would be nice for ID or credit cards if you wanted to use this case as a wallet and a planner.

I was worried that the flap would flop open all the time, but there is a nice little magnet in it that keeps it in place when you’re not using it. It sits so flat that I barely notice it unless I need it.

On the whole, I’ve been pretty happy with the Acase Deluxe Leather multi-view Case/Folio with Stand for iPad. Until I can completely excise paper out of my life, a case like this is very helpful.

This week’s postcards from PostSecret told a couple of interesting stories. Here is the first one:

It reads:

I liked you better before you got your iPhone.

But the second one tells a different story.

It reads:

I’m automatically more attracted to you if you use Apple products.

I found the dichotomy of the two interesting and even laughable. Our computers and cell phones are TOOLS. They shouldn’t make us more or less attractive to others, but they DO. Why?

This strange attraction (revulsion) might go as far back instinctively as our Cro-Magnon days. Those early humans started using tools and the best tools guaranteed survival. Mating with a human with better tools might be like mating with a human with a healthy glow in their skin or wide child-bearing hips. It assures survival of our progeny.

I find it interesting that Apple is able to elicit two very different instincts in people.

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PostSecret’s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

I bought a netbook a little over a year ago. I thought it would be perfect for conferences because it was so small, but the battery life was so unbearable short that I was always searching for an electrical plug. At the last conference, I ended up going back to my trusty Macbook because at least the battery would last six hours. I endured the bulkiness in exchange for the convenience of not having to find electricity in every room.

With the iPad, however, there is a perfect marriage of long battery life and portability. It’s smaller than my netbook and the battery lasts easily ten hours. I haven’t fully acclimated to the onscreen keyboard and I prefer to have a real keyboard. The Apple Bluetooth keyboard works perfectly and even when I have to carry both around, they are still about the size of my netbook.

When we bought the iPad, I looked forward to reading books, playing video games and watching movies with it. I had no idea how good it was going to be for taking notes and actually working!

I ordered the iPad keyboard when I bought my iPad, and it arrived today. The keyboard is amazingly heavy; it’s carved from a single block of aluminum and seems to weigh about five pounds. It holds the iPad firmly, and is just barely heavy enough to stay put when you pull the iPad out. It would be awkward for carrying around. If you want a portable option, a wireless bluetooth keyboard is your best option to take a keyboard with you on the road.

The keyboard itself is basically Apple’s keyboard with a few extra buttons where the function keys would be:

• Home
• Search
• Dim
• Bright
• Photos
• Onscreen keyboard
• A blank key that does nothing (!)
• Rewind
• Play/Pause
• Forward
• Mute
• Volume Down
• Volume Up
• Lock

The iconography is quite obvious. Otherwise it’s a typical Mac keyboard, option key and all. One difference is that Alt-delete is not interpreted as backspace–this is a key I miss. Might be a good use for that blank key if the right set were shifted left so it could be placed above delete. The key feel is superb, just like a Mac keyboard, and I can type on it as fast as any keyboard I’ve ever used. I really wish there was an additional dock connector on the long bottom axis so the iPad could be used in landscape mode. I check my email in landscape mode, and I tend to do all of my “producing” work in that mode. I wrote this review in Pages with the keyboard, and I’m quite impressed that the iPad and this keyboard could actually replace a desktop for light users.

The keyboard makes the iPad far more useful when not wandering around, and will allow it to replace a laptop for many users. I consider it to be a mandatory buy for iPad owners.

The iPad came out Saturday morning as my family and I drove from San Diego to Cape Canaveral to see the Shuttle Launch. Using my trusty iPhone, I determined that we’d be in Baton Rouge at noon, so I picked one up there. The line had been about two hours long, and I arrived at the tail end of it. My wait was ten minutes.

I synced it in the car outside a Winn Dixie, got it connected to my Verizon MiFi, downloaded a few apps, and synced some kids shows to it. The first thing I noticed was the awkward size: too big to really be mobile, and too small to set down anywhere convenient. It’s the same problem I had with my Newton fifteen years ago.

The built-in apps are great–better looking and more seamless than their iPhone or OS X counterparts. iCal is looking seriously stale compared to the iPad Calendar.

The available apps are even better–Pages is a marvel, although how useful it turns out to be is debatable, and the various news readers are fantastic–by far the easiest way to browse traditional news content.

Dragon Dictation [iTunes Link] works well and is free. It’s a must have for text input. I look forward to a future edition that would work as a keyboard.

Omnigraffle is an interesting fail. The app works just fine, but for $50 they should have provided their full suite of stencils. The very basic shapes they provide are a flat-out rip off compared to price of competing apps, and unless they up the ante they’ll be out-competed in short order on this platform. I want to drag and drop network diagrams as I survey new customer sites. For lines and boxes I can use a $5 sketch app. Omni Group needs to either price to the casual market or provide a professional tool. Right now they’re doing neither. As it stands, I’ll be requesting a refund.

The Video player is everything you’d expect: the best mobile video player on the market in any format. Couple that with on demand rentals and the amazing Netflix app, and you can pretty much waste the rest of your life watching movies on it. The built-in mono speaker is adequate for the backseat, but you’ll want a Bluetooth audio system for home use or headphones anywhere public.

Games are awesome–driving games are much easier to control because there’s weight in that steering wheel. Strategy games now have enough map. The 2X iPhone app magnification is awkward and pixelated seeming for utilities, but in colorful games it’s just fine, and preferable to playing them on the iPhone. The mode worked well with everything I tried except Call of Duty Zombies, where the button appears incorrectly rotated and doesn’t function.

Is it useful for business? Unlikely. If you create for a living, forget it. The onscreen keyboard is okay for the occasional email but it won’t replace a laptop, ever. For email it’s fine but not substantially better than an iPhone. For niche work where the form factor allows standing data entry there’s a real niche, but this device is for entertainment through and through.

I checked the tracking. Last night, it was in Kentucky. Overnight, it boarded a plane, had a layover in Colorado and then hopped another plane to Salt Lake City. By the time I was awake, it was on a UPS truck and “In Transit.” It required a signature, so I put a sign on the door so the UPS driver wouldn’t leave before we could get to the door.

I didn’t need the sign, however. I waited at the window until the UPS truck pulled up and even met the guy at the porch when he walked up with my delivery.

“I was worried that I might miss you, so I’ve been waiting here all morning. It’s an iPad. I’m REALLY excited.”

The UPS driver nodded. I expected him to act like I was crazy instead of perfectly normal.

“Yeah, everybody’s pretty excited,” he replied nonchalantly.

I was surprised at his answer. “Have you had a lot of deliveries this morning?”

“About 28 just in this neighborhood.” I gasp with shock and curse openly. The clean cut Mormon tried to ignore my vulgarity and continued. “I delivered the stock to the Gateway store. They got over a thousand.” Then he rushed back to his truck to deliver more iPads to my neighbors.

We’ve been using our Konnet iCrado to dock and charge the iPad and it’s working great!

The email came some time in the evening.

My iPad has been shipped. I won’t be waiting in line at the Apple store for it, despite the fun that can be had from that experience. My pre-ordered iPad will arrive at my house with a flurry of fur from my dog, who is certain that every delivery is a bomb or rabid animal.

I have three days to sytematically reload the tracking number into the system over and over, watching its progress from where it is to where it should be.

My behavior is beyond my own comprehension and I wonder whether my excitement is unwarranted.

My iPad is pre-ordered and I’m eagerly awaiting its arrival. So much so that I created a papercraft iPad to test my Konnet iCrado dock. It looks like my new gadget will work with the iCrado perfectly! I’m so glad that the high back will be enough support for my iPad.

The nice people at Konnet gave me an iCrado while we were at CES this year to test and review. I have been using it for the last three months and I have to honestly say that it’s my favorite iPhone/iPod/iPad dock I have ever used.

It comes in a wide variety of colors and they had them all on display at CES. Because there are so many colors to choose from I literally locked up and couldn’t choose on my own, so they chose a yellow one for me.

What I like best about the iCrado is the way it connects to the computer. Instead of including the highly changeable and proprietary Apple Dock Connector, it has an open space to insert your own. I REALLY like this feature because if Apple suddenly decides to change how their gadgets accept dock connectors (like they did with the iPhone 3GS), then I can just change out the cord.

One note on choosing cords to use with the iCrado. Make sure you use a cord that doesn’t “lock” in place. You know, the kind where you have to press the sides to release the phone. Since the cord is housed in the iCrado, you won’t be able to press those buttons, so make sure you use a connector that doesn’t lock (like the one pictured above).

I have thoroughly enjoyed the iCrado for the last three months and I’m eagerly awaiting my chance to sync my iPad with it.

Update 04-03-10:

We just received our iPad and are so pleased with how it works with the iCrado. Since the official iPad dock isn’t available yet, the iCrado is the best dock out there. Here are a couple pictures.

Back when the Apple Newton came out, my friend, Chuck, tried on every leather jacket in Burlington Coat Factory until he found the one with an inner pocket big enough to hold the Newton. It was a memory that has stayed with me for over fifteen years.

If you are planning on carrying your Apple iPad with you wherever you go, you won’t have to try on every coat in the store like Chuck did so long ago. All you need is the SCOTTEVEST.

At $100, they cost almost as much as Chuck’s leather jacket, but with 22 pockets, an earbud conduit system and a pocket especially for your iPad, it’s hard to argue with their usability.

I love that you can wear the vest to the airport, take it off for security and just put it back on when you’re done with your cavity probe. It makes the idea of disrobing for security a little less arduous.

They also make the SCOTTEVEST for women. Suddenly, the idea of a purse seems so old fashioned when I could carry everything I need in my jacket. The only problem I can see with that is the 100 degree weather we get in the summer.

Back in the early Nineties, we thought Chuck was crazy to choose his coat based on whether or not it could hold his Apple Newton. Now, the tables have turned and I’m suddenly feeling like Chuck did so long ago. “Does it have a pocket for my iPad?” is now a valid question when choosing a coat, jacket and purse. Clothing and accessory manufacturers, take note!

This year at CES, there were so many companies showing off their new eBook readers. With Amazon, Sony and Barnes and Noble in the eBook race, it seemed silly that these companies were trying to compete. These are only a few of the companies showing off their eBook readers.

iRiver

WiseReader by Hanvon

Bookeen Cybook Opus

Hanlin by Tianjin Jinke

Now that Apple is coming out with the iPad, these all look like toys now.