{"id":2872,"date":"2011-02-26T15:47:57","date_gmt":"2011-02-26T21:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/polarbear60.org\/randr\/?p=2872"},"modified":"2011-02-26T15:47:57","modified_gmt":"2011-02-26T21:47:57","slug":"ipad-10-months-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/ipad-10-months-later\/","title":{"rendered":"iPad &#8212; 10 Months Later"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On the eve of what should be an announcement for the second generation iPad, I guess it&#8217;s time for another update.<\/p>\n<p>I still carry the iPad with me nearly everywhere.\u00a0 If I don&#8217;t have it with me, I often regret it and wish I had.\u00a0 These are the things I do most with it, in no particular order:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Check <strong>weather<\/strong> with The Weather Channel Max + app (requires WiFi connection).\u00a0 I can see radar imagery, past and future imagery, and forecast for the next ten days or the hourly forecast.\u00a0 Those are the features I use, but you can also get video and recent TWC Twitter feeds.<\/li>\n<li>Manage lists with <strong>Easy Note<\/strong> (no WiFi required).\u00a0 I have master lists set up &#8212; mostly for shopping.\u00a0 Common grocery list, Central TX grocery list, San Antonio grocery list, Central Texas To Do, San Antonio To Do, Rockdale General, Temple\/Killeen To Do, Lowe&#8217;s\/Home Depot, Walmart, and a few other lists for specific things.\u00a0 We&#8217;ve started logging prices for various grocery items on the master list (I can easily move items from one list to another &#8212; a wonderful feature).\u00a0 Who would have thought the local convenience store would have the best price for milk?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Calendar <\/strong>(default iPad app; no WiFi required).\u00a0 This syncs with iCal on the mini, and I have ten different calendars &#8212; one of which is strictly for meal planning.\u00a0 Another is the Spurs game schedule, which I was able to download and install from the Spurs website at the beginning of the season.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Contacts<\/strong> (default iPad app; no WiFi required). This also syncs with the Mini and keeps contact\/address book information.\u00a0 It also integrates with Bento, the flat file database program.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Photos <\/strong>(default iPad app; no WiFi required).\u00a0 It syncs with iPhoto.\u00a0 I have special albums set up to sync with so I don&#8217;t eat up all my space on the iPad with photos.<\/li>\n<li><strong>GoodReader<\/strong> (no WiFi required, but it helps).\u00a0 This is a PDF reader\/annotator.\u00a0 It&#8217;s becoming more and more robust.\u00a0 You can drag files in iTunes, grab them from DropBox, or download them directly from the web.\u00a0 There is a small fee to purchase this, but it&#8217;s well worth the investment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>HomeBudget<\/strong> (no WiFi required, but it helps).\u00a0 This is just what it sounds like &#8212; a complete home budget and expense tracking app.\u00a0 If you have an iPhone or another camera, you can photograph a receipt and save it with the expense.\u00a0 This is one reason I&#8217;m looking forward to the reported camera capability in the second gen iPad.\u00a0 And you thought I&#8217;d be holding my iPad up and snapping pictures of people at picnics, didn&#8217;t you?\u00a0 Silly.\u00a0 I have a more practical use for the camera.\u00a0 This will email a back up file to you whenever you tell it to (send it to an account you have set up on the iPad, because that&#8217;s how it recovers it) or export reports via email in either HTML or CSV format.\u00a0 This app doesn&#8217;t cost much, has a pretty responsive team &#8212; but I found what I was looking for after I emailed them, so keep looking if you think a feature you want isn&#8217;t in the program.\u00a0 It probably is there.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Train Conductor 2<\/strong>: USA (no WiFi required).\u00a0 This is a game.\u00a0 It wasn&#8217;t free, but I can&#8217;t get enough of the Grand Canyon mode on it.\u00a0 Plants vs Zombies was ok, but this game sucks me in.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Evernote<\/strong> (WiFi required at least sometimes).\u00a0 There seem to be some things that get downloaded, so I&#8217;m not sure what the requirement is.\u00a0 You can hand enter notes off line, and they will sync later.\u00a0 I do most of my work on the Mini and have a synced version on the iPad.\u00a0 For the iPad, I mostly use recipes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Things<\/strong> ($19.99 &#8212; the most expensive app I&#8217;ve put on the iPad, Wi Fi useful).\u00a0 I primarily use this on the Mini, but when I&#8217;m away from home or away from the computer, the mobile version is useful.\u00a0 It allows me to integrate David Allen&#8217;s Getting Things Done and Fly Lady&#8217;s Control Journal seamlessly in one app.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the master list for one time and recurring tasks and projects.\u00a0 If you don&#8217;t have a Mac or use Things on your desktop, there are a couple of other similar apps available that I understand are just as good.<\/li>\n<li><strong>mSecure<\/strong> (WiFi needed to sync with a desktop app).\u00a0 This stores passwords, account information, birthdays, insurance information, you name it, if it needs to be password protected on the iPad or the Mini, I put the information in here.<\/li>\n<li><strong>MaxJournal<\/strong>.\u00a0 This is a journaling app.\u00a0 You can create multiple journals with or without password protection.\u00a0 You may link photos, and it will back up automatically when you sync your iPad with iTunes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DropBox <\/strong>(WiFi required).\u00a0 This is syncing to the Cloud, and is probably the best way to share files with yourself (or others).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kindle<\/strong> (WiFi required to sync with Amazon but not to read).\u00a0 This is a color Kindle.\u00a0 If your book has color photos, you&#8217;ll be able to see them here.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the reading app I use most.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mail<\/strong> (WiFi required to update mail but will work offline).\u00a0 Set your mail accounts up here.\u00a0 I haven&#8217;t gotten Sprynet to work on here yet, but I have managed to set up all my other accounts.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Safari<\/strong> (WiFi required).\u00a0 It&#8217;s a web browser.\u00a0 My least favorite, but it works.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Index Card<\/strong>.\u00a0 A robust index card program that will, after a fashion, sync with Scrivener.\u00a0 Plays nicely with DropBox.<\/li>\n<li><strong>PlainText<\/strong>.\u00a0 A robust text processor that will also sync with Scrivener.\u00a0 Plays nicely with DropBox.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Office2HD<\/strong>.\u00a0 Will import, read, and allow revision of Office documents.\u00a0 Will also allow you to create a new document or workbook.\u00a0 Comparable to Documents to Go, but a little cheaper.<\/li>\n<li><strong>iheartradio<\/strong>.\u00a0 Allows me to listen to various radio stations over the internet.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it doesn&#8217;t work for Spurs games.\u00a0 Apparently the NBA won&#8217;t allow WOAI to broadcast the game over the internet.\u00a0 If only the NBA&#8217;s streaming worked, then I wouldn&#8217;t mind.<\/li>\n<li><strong>iBooks<\/strong>.\u00a0 The .epub import to iBooks works elegantly and easily (if not necessarily intuitively with iTunes).\u00a0 If I have the option to buy or download an .epub formatted book, I import it to iBooks.<\/li>\n<li><strong>FeeddlerRSS<\/strong> (WiFi required for sync).\u00a0 I can link it with GoogleReader, and it is a little nicer than reading in Safari.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Maps<\/strong> (default app; WiFi required).\u00a0 This, coupled with the MiFi, is great while we&#8217;re just driving around and wish we&#8217;d checked a map before leaving home.\u00a0 I turn on the MiFi, connect, find the address we&#8217;re looking for on Safari, then translate it to Maps.\u00a0 Handy little program.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dictionary<\/strong> (mostly works offline unless you want it to pronounce a word for you). Great dictionary\/thesaurus.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bento<\/strong>.\u00a0 Flat file database.<\/li>\n<li><strong>iThoughtsHD<\/strong>.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t use it much, but it syncs with MindManager on the Mini and has some good mindmapping capability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been concerned about Apple&#8217;s new subscription licensing rules.\u00a0 I figure the biggest impact to me would be a need to buy a Kindle.\u00a0 I have a couple of nook books, but I rarely use the app.\u00a0 Of course, if it turns out to affect apps like Dropbox, FeeddlerRSS, and any of the functional, productivity apps I use, that would be a significant negative for me and, at worst, could render the iPad useless, which would be very disturbing and disappointing.\u00a0 Amazon would benefit, because they&#8217;d finally sell me a Kindle (so far, with no color, sigh).<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t do much writing on the device.\u00a0 I have a keyboard dock, and if I have to do more than a Facebook entry, I use it.\u00a0 If I have to type on the virtual keyboard, my speed is about half that of typing on a physical keyboard.\u00a0 I attribute that to the lack of a tactile feel for where I am on the keyboard, rendering touch typing useless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the eve of what should be an announcement for the second generation iPad, I guess it&#8217;s time for another update. I still carry the iPad with me nearly everywhere.\u00a0 If I don&#8217;t have it with me, I often regret it and wish I had.\u00a0 These are the things I <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/ipad-10-months-later\/\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-stuff"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}