September 8, 2010
iPad Mail Flaw

I have a serious love hate relationship with Apple.

I finally conceded that in order for the iPad to work without everything feeling like a hack I would need to embrace Apple’s way of doing everything.  Fine.

Unfortunately I have found a big hole in the Apple mail system.

The iPad does not sync your mail filters or smart folders.  Doh!

First, I admit I am probably not a typical user, but still, consistency is important.

I get emails about batch jobs that run and the volume is pretty heavy (I don’t want to get them unless the job fails, but Rackspace Cloud forces me to accept an email every time the batch runs.)  This is not a problem normally, I just filter them out.  

But that doesn’t happen when I check email on my iPad.  I get everything.  No filters.  Gahhh!

Apple - not very useful.

7:59am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2k5by10m8yf
Filed under: Apple iPad email 
September 5, 2010
Must have iPad apps

The more I use my iPad the more I love it and the more I hate it.  Well hate it is a strong word.

The iPad has shown that a niche exists for a slate tablet.  It has also proved that a full blown OS designed for point and click instead of touch is not a viable solution.

If you have the right mix of apps, the iPad is a suitable 90% solution for most use cases.  It doesn’t replace large scale content creation, like development projects or presentations.

One thing that is hurting the iPad in the apps department is a suitable suite of Google apps.  Things like Latitude, Voice and Docs just don’t work correctly as web apps.

Here is my must have apps list.

RSS:  Reeder

Bookmarking:  ReadItLater/Delicious

Social Networks: Social for iPad (Facebook replacement)

Notes:  Sundry Notes (free version)

PDF Reader:  GoodReader

eBooks:  Kindle

Dictionary:  Dictionary.com app

Weather:  Weatherbug

Email/Calendar:  Gmail and Google mobile

News:  I use several because I am a news junky:  BBC News app, Editor’s Choice and USA Today.  ABC News is a fun news app, but the novelty doesn’t last long.

Wikipedia:  I use an app called Articles.

I have a few apps that I use that are iPhone apps because there are no suitable iPad versions:  CNN, Lynda.com, Chase Bank and Skype.

I have one app that deserves a special mention for being so bad in all it’s incarnations:  Goodreads - If you use a book site, Goodreads is the largest, but every UI they have used is terribly flawed.  If you need to use one, the iPhone app is the best you will get.  Their mobile web app version was a half hearted abomination and if you try to go to the normal web site you will never know when they shoot you back to the mobile site, which seems random.  Goodreads as a whole could use a good designer, but it’s what you have to work with.

The Google - vs - Apple feud has really impacted iPad users.  With any luck they will kiss and make up.

I should mention that if you are an all Mac person and do not use the cloud at all, then you will be best served to use the Apple products exclusively.  The iPad is really meant to be used Apple’s way.  But if you are truly paperless and platform independent like me, then you may end up looking for HP to release an open standards tablet in the near future or hope something like the Android Adam pans out.

2:30pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2k5by-rtQH
Filed under: iPad