iPad Scribbling

In almost a month of using the iPad 2 it hasn’t yet proven to be the bonanza I read and hear about almost daily. The biggest worry prior to purchase is now taking on real shape with fears it might turn out to be nothing more than an expensive toy that requires feeding with regular tidbit apps from iTunes. Certainly numbers of enthusiasts will disagree, but productivity on the iPad is hard without laying out the money for a bunch of apps that will boost the device to its full potential. Out of the box it’s a cool-looking, whiz bang game console that does few of the things you see on iPad commercials. For that you’ll need a handful of outlays on your credit card.

The other day I noticed someone in Starbucks scribbling away on his iPad screen with a small black stylus. The words, or in his case math formulas were flying across the page just exactly as if he were writing on a piece of white paper with a pen or pencil. Perfect legibility, and as I looked on over his shoulder, he tapped an icon at the top of the screen and erased some numbers, tapped again and resumed his calculations. If I knew any math higher than Roman numerals I would have been able to read and understand every mark on the ‘page.’

I got the name of the app from the man and within five minutes pulled it up on iTunes. Three minutes after that I was scribbling lines on my own iPad. The program is called Noteshelf and comes from Fluid Touch for the reasonable price of $4.99. It is currently in version 3.0, is compatible with the iPad running iOS 3.2 or later. It is English and Japanese capable and has an average user rating of 4½ out of 5 stars.

Noteshelf has an incredibly rich set of features that make for easy writing and note taking in a wide range of places, situations and options. A few of my favorites:

• Choice of seventeen ink colors and line widths from fine to broad

• Templates of seventeen notebook styles; paper choices include blank, ruled (wide or thin), graph, music score, journal, day planner, task manager and more.

• Embed and annotate photos or other images with a couple of taps.

• Export options allow notes to be emailed or saved in Word or PDF files; printing is also possible.

• Apart from the eraser, Noteshelf offers unlimited undo/redo steps.

• Backup/restore function included.

• Easy to follow User’s Guide

• Wrist protection feature

Writing with the finger is easier than you might imagine and with a half hour’s practice the words begin to flow like fine ink in an expensive fountain pen. If you prefer, instead of your finger use a stylus. The Targus stylus works very well, though it costs four times the price of the Noteshelf app.

This type of app is not completely new. iShodo is a similar Japanese app for the iPhone, but then how much note taking is possible on a small iPhone screen? A couple of days getting used to the feel of Noteshelf and chances are good it will enhance productivity on your iPad.

Growing Apples

Going back to 1990, the purchase of a just released Macintosh Classic computer began my long-running love affair with Apple products. Before that time computers in my experience were all ugly boxes with black screens of lime green text, possessing no characteristics or features that held any interest for me. A suitcase heavy black Sanyo word processor with an inside roll of paper for printing, and capable of producing English and Japanese served well enough. The Mac Classic though was a whole new ballgame and with its sidekick StyleWriter printer sent the word processor straight into hibernation.

New Mac models were released, I upgraded to something a little bigger each time, and in 1994 got a Newton Message Pad 120, representing a whole new direction in personal data management. It was the first of the PDA devices, and while the core idea was sound, the hardware was clunky and the operating system full of holes. An earlier Scriblets post explained this device in more detail, but to shorten the story let’s just say the Newton didn’t live up to Apple expectations and by 1998 was history.

In 2007 Apple did the expected, carrying vastly improved Newton Message Pad technology into the design and operating system of the iPhone. That was quickly followed by the iPod Touch release, more of the same technology. Didn’t take me long to buy an iPhone when it was first released in Japan, and once again I was Apple-dazzled. The next big thrill came with the purchase of an iMac, a design that deserved all the awards that eventually came its way. Sleek, classy, smart and beautiful—Apple could do no wrong.

Then came April 2010 and the ultimate device, another one that owed it’s initial development to the old Newton. Enter the iPad. But for all the whiz-bang fireworks and glamour this one didn’t grab me, didn’t leave me with tongue hanging out. No sale. I chose to watch the iPad for a while, to wait and see what would happen in a year or so with a later model. From its unveiling and the press releases that followed, the iPad impressed more as a toy than a device that would increase, speed up or improve productivity. The first thought was that it had a “get more-spend more” idea built into it, a concept that would have users regularly feeding Apple and the App Store with a desire for more apps, more games, more ‘cool’ stuff. That notion left me resistant to the idea of owning an iPad.

On March 2, 2011 Apple unveiled the iPad 2. After almost a year of looking, reading and thinking about the the iPad I was ready to take a hard look at the iPad 2 with an eye toward buying one if it impressed me as having usefulness above and beyond playing games, checking Facebook and watching YouTube. At the end of May I placed an order for the iPad 2.

It arrived five days ago and slightly disappointed is the verdict. Compare the photos here of the iPhone and the old Newton Message Pad. The iPhone photo was taken with the iPad, the Newton photo with the iPhone. The camera on the iPad 2 isn’t even close to the iPhone camera. For me the biggest attraction on the iPad 2 was the email, offering a fourth option for checking, writing and sending email apart from the iPhone, laptop and iMac. Basically, the email works just fine; fast and dependable. I also like the way I can slant the iPad by folding the cover, making typing very easy on its large keyboard. Definitely a big plus. On the other hand, the spellcheck is clunky, there is no option for bold, italic or underlined type in email—or if there is, I have not found it in five days of searching. There is also no option for colorizing text, sometimes a useful function. Most troublesome was having to input all my contacts manually, since syncing the iPad with the iMac skipped the address book. Is that really supposed to happen? What does sync mean, if not copying and aligning data on two separate devices?

Using Safari on the iPad is also less than smooth. Here there is a good possibility that I will come to understand it all better in time and find moving between websites easier. With Safari the iPad doesn’t impress me as being as intuitive as what I’ve come to expect from Apple. The hope is that more practice and experience will open a few doors, reveal a few shortcuts.

The iBooks app and the downloaded books are beautiful, much more so than eBooks on the Kindle, and I do like most of the features, but miss the dictionary that is a part of the Kindle. I also miss the lightness of the Amazon eReader. The iPad 2 is a whopping 1.33 lbs (608 grams) and feels like reading text off a brick. The Kindle is also clear and easy to read in bright sunshine, a quality missing in the iPad. The search text feature is good, the page numbering much better than Kindle, a choice of fonts and sizes is available and the brightness of the page is adjustable, but there is no one-tap dictionary like that in the Kindle.

Am I sorry that I bought the iPad 2? Mmm…probably not. I depend upon Apple’s superior technology to either show me the way or to fix the clumsy bits in future iOS system upgrades. Meanwhile, I will give the new iPad a run for the money and hope that Apple is not holding its breath waiting for me to begin purchasing apps in their humongous profit generating App Store.

Technology: Battles & Bait

Consider for a moment Associated Press technology writer, Peter Svensson’s analogy of having to buy a new set of CDs every time you buy a stereo system.

For all my faithfulness and consumer support for Steve Jobs and Apple, I sometimes fear he and his company are leading us to just such a crippling state of affairs. The soon to be released (and totally awesome!) iPad is an example in point. Lurking beneath the sleek ‘cool’ and handheld power of this new device is a recipe for even greater technological addiction, one which includes increased consumer spending, and a battle of alternate operating systems.

But make no mistake about my own two-sided position in this issue. Since the 1990 Macintosh Classic computer I have owned a least a baker’s dozen Apple computers, a Newton, more than a few iPods and the now the iconic iPhone. I have all but worshipped at the altar of Apple technology from the very beginning, but in recent years have had to admit to some fading of the rose. I now see questions where once I jumped with complete trust at everything coming out of their warehouse doors.

Two examples may illustrate my disillusion. Many users, including myself, look forward to, and quickly buy system upgrades from Apple. How rare is it to discover that the latest upgrade frequently makes one or two installed applications obsolete? Nothing for it but to shell out for application upgrades. That may be small beer when the software application is an inexpensive one, but another altogether when it’s one with an upgrade costing hundreds of dollars. My experience on two occasions. (I’m still getting over the Snow Leopard OS upgrade.) Then there is the fabulous iPhone, which becomes not so fabulous when you travel abroad, or move to another country. In such cases the iPhone becomes a basically useless toy. Without paying overseas rates there is no phone, no email, texting, YouTube, Apps Store, navigational maps, or anything Internet connected. A Tokyo acquaintance recently spent a month in Australia, where he used his iPhone as freely as he does at home in Japan. He later received a bill in the thousands. Pleading ignorance of the system fell on deaf ears. Unless you’re rich as Croesus, outside of home ground your iPhone becomes a glorified iPod.

The dazzling new iPad now threatens to ignite an e-reader systems battle between Apple, Amazon’s Kindle, the Sony e-reader, and the Barnes & Noble Nook. All but Apple and Amazon (including libraries) use an Adobe system for their e-readers. Apple is nearly infamous for its reluctance to collaborate, and Amazon claims the leader’s position. So where does that leave me if I want to transfer my Kindle books to an iPad? In the end it will surely leave me spending more money for something that should have been designed to include an element of collaborative spirit.

I doubt that Steve Jobs would lose much sleep in learning that the iPad is not on this follower’s shopping list. Sort of leaves one to wonder about the Orwell-Huxley dilemma wherein we are killed by the things we fear, or on the other hand by the things we love.