iPad for Life . . . in General

Ok, finally I got around to getting an iPad, snazzy new iPad 2 and iPad 3 just around the corner, anyway, after immersing my self with the iPad, I would like to shed some light on the matter. A lot of people have bought an iPad and really don't know how to use it. So here goes.

The first thing I thought of when I saw an iPad was wow - I can now have all my portfolio, including web site designs, video and everything else on this. In my head was this scenario, say I went to a job interview and there were twenty candidates sitting in the foyer, since this was a job for a creative role, all the other candidates were well groomed, dressed in suitable attire with polished shoes and such. In their hands were leather bound portfolios of twenty of their best works. Me, I just have a thing which looks like a big wallet clasped casually in my hand. So after all the interviews were done, guess who got the job ?

Ok this is just me using my imagination, I really wouldn't be waiting in a que to work for the man, but here's the reason why I would get the job. Well you see, instead of wearing polished shoes, I would be wearing my iPad in a very very fine and luxurious and oh so corporate Sena leather case. Trust me - Spend the $100 bucks or so on this case - it's worth every penny. It holds cards, my cheque books - I had to have the deposit book guillotined ( Westpac make smaller size deposit books ), a cloth to wipe the screen ( and my glasses ), any paper notes books and such, all the buttons accessible bar the front facing camera ( minor ) and a stand - it's looks the goods, cause it is the goods. Nuff said. Now when I got to the interviewing stage, instead of having my twenty best pieces, I handed over to the prospective employer, my entire world, all of it and not only that, he or she could interact with it, browse websites I've built, interfaces I have designed, videos which I have edited and creative which I have created and they are like wow - this guy is from another planet, we like the way you think, you got the job ! So number one - presentation, presentation, presentation. The ultimate No.1 accessory - Sena Leather Case.

Arrow Quiver

Now you do need a pen to write this stuff down, my only gripe with the Sena case is that - it doesn't have a slit / holder for a pen, no biggies I just cut one in the pocket bit ( OH NO ALDO !! YOU JUST CUT A HOLE IN A SENA CASE !!! - Aldo - yeah and ? ) and now my parker pen sits like a arrow in a nice tight quiver, ready to write out cheques or deposits and notes and drawings while I'm supposed to be paying attention in boring meetings.

Ok so this was all sorted, so I carried my iPad around in my hands for a week to see how it felt, how quickly I could whip it out for a presentation and set up the case with the stand, I went to bed with it, I even went into the toilet - sure beats trying to read a newspaper on an iPhone or a real paper for that matter !

The Pen is mightier than the sword

Then I began to get serious, my aim was to get rid of my enormous planner / filofax / diary or whatever the hell you people like to call those things ( I'll refer to it as my diary ). So in my diary, I could easily jot down notes and stuff, uh oh - can't do this with the pad, well you can, with your fingers, but really it just doesn't cut it ( I'm sorry Steve ). So problem number 1 the instant satisfaction of hand writing, found an app called Penultimate and problem solved, handwriting on the pad was now a reality ! But hang on a sec, you still have to use your fingers, trust me I tried to use my fingers, but it's totally unintuitive for hand writing, I'm not in kinder, I'm doing serious work here ! So began my quest to find a stylus. I tried them all, to the point of frustration where I went - stuff this - i'll make my own damn pen - but not the usual one with a capacitive sponge thing you see people make on youtube - trust me - I went to the umpteenth degree, researching capacitive touch, polymers, van der graf generators, electronic engineering, physics, magnetism and at the end of every avenue I cam to a dead end - why ? Well because even if you make a fine tip stylus that works with a capacitive screen - it is the iOs software that limits the registration of a touch - which is a minimum of 6mm - so the finest point you could possibly ever achieve with the pad is 6mm in diameter. Ok. Then I came across a Dagi pen - it looked good - I ordered one straight away, then Wacom released their Bamboo - I had to go through hell to order one of these - but eventually both these pens arrived a day apart - then I was awake for almost three days straight putting these pens through its paces - my verdict ?

These two pens are the Ultimate form of expressive hand writing you could hope to achieve on the iPad, the Dagi feels like a pen, a mechanical pencil, or a fine tip drafting pen, is light and precise, the elliptical tip doesn't seem to effect my depth perception or accuracy in hand writing. The Wacom Bamboo, very high build quality, much heavier than the Dagi in a very good way, this is the pen for artists as it feels like a lead pencil, marker or fine art instrument - hand writing is also very good with this. Really you guys ought to buy them both, together they are worth about $55 - do not buy a wacom bamboo off ebay for $68 - or $78, you can find one for its real RRP of $35 from heaps of places if you look hard enough, I think the Dagi they ship from Taiwan so shipping takes a while but it's worth the wait. My next purchase is going to be on the Nomad paintbrush, but this article is not about doing masterpieces on the iPad so I'll save that for another time. But really, these two are a pair and you really cannot criticise, totally different design on both and totally different feeling on both, if I only had to choose one, I'd probably go with the Bamboo - only because it versatile as a art & writing tool and has a bit of give on the tip which enhances tactile feedback  - the Dagi is for precision and well suited for writing, technical drawing and comic art - use them and you will see, you too will be rocking these two pens in no time.

The Finder and File Management

Now feeling very very happy that I can ditch paper for my cravings of doodling in my diary my next task was file management, in this section, the pad beats my paper diary by a mile. Goodreader is basically a finder and file management for your pad, not only that, it allows you to write on documents and email them, put them in folders and so forth, my only two annoyances with this at the moment is that you have to use iTunes to transfer your files to and from good reader, not only that but iTunes only allows you to transfer single files - that is one at a time - you can't drag a folder - this sux ! But I can live with it for now, a neat trick is to zip a folder and then transfer the zip file, you can open the zip file on your iPad in Goodreader. The second is how files are managed within good reader - you have to tap a " manage " button and select files then, tap a " transfer " button to put them in folders - where the hell is the drag and drop I say - this is a touch device - not a tap device. But aside from that its still pretty good me thinks, things only get better in the future.

RIP Dear Diary, Hello Organizer HD

The final nail in the coffin for my paper diary comes curtsey of a little app called Organizer HD, it took me ages to find this app, I really wanted to kill my paper diary but the freedom of being able to write a note in it was a strong point, I solved that with Penultimate, but yearned for a planner. I use iCal as a diary, but it's quite cumbersome on the iPad, I also wanted a diary app which I could write in with my new styli that I bought, I looked high, I looked low why was this such a hard thing to find ! Then after a week I came across Organizer HD, it had it ALL ! - we almost ALL. This app is literally like a diary / planner / filofax etc. The best feature of this is that it syncs with iCal - so you can manage and plan on ical on your mac, then sync and this will load all events into Organizer HD, you can create an event in Organizer HD and this will be synched to ical and visa versa, you have to configure the options in Settings on the iPad - but this is pretty much set once and forget. Now this has hand writing capabilities also, but it's not what I was really looking for, what would be really cool would be, if you took the handwriting from Penultimate and mated this with Organizer HD and iCal - so iCal events could encapsulate hand written notes in its events as picts or notes even through mail - but that is just wishful thinking at this stage. The new iCal on the pad under iOS 5 looks killer and makes it pretty much on par with the desktop version, I am so looking forward to wireless and iCloud synch, now everyone can synch with your events globally which is really cool !

Ok, so now I have got rid of my paper diary and all I have is a compact little folio with my Pad and my office things, literally, I am carrying my entire business in the palm of my hand, the only thing left is for me to be able to carry my entire accounting system in the palm of my hand but I am developing that as we speak, will let you know when it's available, something along the lines of iAccount - but not actually iAccount if you know what I mean, more on that later.

Ok business is the most important " serious " thing, and my story above is a basic overview of how one would utilise an iPad for " General " business day to day activities, really the main point of focus to make the iPad a viable alternative to lugging around a laptop was:

1) Instant Input with Tactile Response via a Input Stylus

2) File Management

3) File Input and Output

4) Planning and Organization

Communication

For communication, you can hook up Skype and have telephone conversations any where in the world, I also tried video chat over 3g and it works ! ( but it's pretty crappy over 3G - but good on wifi ) - But really we need better communication infrastructure - like 4g or newer, then you could use face time as it was really intended - so go and complain to your government to have a better communications infrastructure in place so you too can video chat from any mobile device just like they do in the space moofees ! My " iPad " " Plan " is with Telstra ( Australia ) - why Telstra ? Well they are not the evil overlords that many claim them to be, ( all other folks you can bitch about your own evil telco overlords in your own country ) really, there just used to be Telecom, then the others came on board later and really the others are leasing their communications from Telstra in the first place. Why Telstra - well cause they have the larger network coverage - which means that if I decide to go for a hike or drive out in the bush, I have my phone line and my 3g working all the time, not only that, you can get a 12gig data pack for $150 which doesn't expire for a whole year - so if you really use you pad for work rather than play - that is a LOT of data bandwidth, think about it, a lot of the time you will be on wifi areas, so 12 GB of 3G is a huge amount for sending emails and stuff and ok, you can even download some videos as well - but in moderation ! And it's really fast 3g !

So there you have it folks, how to use your iPad for business. Yeah, but what about life Aldo ?

Well ok, quickly here's a list of apps I use for day to day things :

• Banking - most banks have their own App which is really convenient, it's like having a bank terminal in your hand that doesn't give out paper money, but you can transfer funds, pay your employees and manage your money any where you are even from the throne.

• Social Media - Get you social media freak on and talk shit and waste company time talking shit while you should be doing work all conveniently from the palm of your hand - the usual suspects - FB / Twitter / Google+ etc. etc.

• Publications - Zinio - almost every magazine in the world available through this app on subscription, time , national geographic money and the rest

• Publications - Flipboard - Internet Articles, digested into Magazine like volumes and categorized, the latest info from all over the internet on literally any topic ! Excellent !

• NewsPapers - I think every news paper has got a app version and if they don't they really need to get with the times or get left behind !

• Books - iBooks - where the hell is the Comic Book category ??

• TV - You Tube & ABC iView is damn great ! I always miss The Gruen Transfer and great documenteries, but not any more thanks to this, just awesome ! The other free to air television stations should be taking notes from the ABC.

• Art and Design Tool Box - Sketchbook Pro | Brushes | Procreate | ArtRage | Mannequin | 123D Sculpt •

• Comics | Marvel |DC | Image | Dark Horse

• Sales | Ebay | Flowcart ( Thats my shopping cart software see here : Link )

• Games ( currently Playing ) | Touch Hockey HD ( I love this game I love this game !!! ) | Sprinkle | Space Invaders Infinity Gene | New Puzzle Bobble HD and others

• Other useful utilities - Australia Post App | Maps | Calculator

Well, thats my rig at the moment, I like to keep it short sharp and with just the useful stuff, no clutter, highly efficient, some other apps I'm waiting on, a story boarding app, so I can go and jam with the pixar storyboard artists . . . . well . . . and thats pretty much it, the rest of the stuff is being addressed with the iOS 5 update and with the release of iPad 3.

So you see from the basics of setting up you iPad for management, you suddenly realise that this is so much more than just a tablet, I purely looked at it from the perspective of how I would like to utilise this as a day to day thing and how this device could help me manage and organise my business first and foremost, before I utilised it for any leisure activities which is the life bit. Suddenly it dawned on me that I also no longer needed a laptop, for presentations or to work with clients, create ideas and concepts or do anything else that I needed a laptop for so far as presentation and client liaison goes. That is it's real power. Really, if there is something that you need the pad to do, chances are that someone, somewhere out there has developed something for that very thing, and hey, if they haven't then Apple has given you all the tools to make it do what you want it to do, by yourself or with like minded people and even earn a bit of crust or go all the way big time.

Get your show on the road. Get yourself the pad !