After about 18 months I decided to buy a bluetooth keyboard and see how it worked as a device for entering information rather than just consuming information. Attaching a keyboard has completely changed, or should I say added to the way I use the iPad. Not only can I now consume information, I can now create information with it. I’m not saying that the onscreen keyboard isn’t good… it actually works very well, but to be honest, it gets tiresome when writing a few hundred or few thousand words.

Some might argue that I should just stick to a MacBook Air or another slim laptop. The main difference with the iPad is that it’s easy to throw in a bag and use for several hours a day with no need to use it near a power source. Although using the Bluetooth keyboard does kill the iPad battery quicker, I still get a decent day of usage out of it as well as an evening of browsing or work if needed. What is important to mention here is that this setup works for me. I enjoy working this way. If you don’t agree, that is completely fine of course!

What else makes the iPad a little easier to work on is that there are less distractions. I find that working on a large 27 inch iMac screen or my smaller 19 inch Windows desktop that there’s a lot of clutter that distracts me. With the iPad, I open up Blogsy (for example) and everything else runs behind that so that I can focus on the task at hand.

Choose the Best Apps for What You Need to Accomplish

Using the iPad as a blogging tool isn’t as easy as installing an app such as Blogsy and buying a bluetooth keyboard though. The other challenge arrives when trying to work with media on the iPad. Although my blog posts are not crammed packed full of images, I do have at least an image that needs to be uploaded, edited in some cases and then embedded in to the blog post. Blogsy allows most of this to happen, if the picture is in an accessible photo album such as stored locally or online in a Flickr, Picassa or other account. But there are times when I need to crop, adjust and make changes to images. For this, extra apps are needed. Just like when installing Gimp or Photoshop on a Mac, the iPad also needs to have apps installed to work with images. The main packages I use are Artifact, Photoforge2, Snapseed and Touch Draw. Each of these works quite well and lets me save images locally or in an online account.

Occasionally I might capture photos on my iPhone, quickly edit in Snapseed and then transfer the picture to the iPad. This might be done via email or I might just leave Photostream to sort it for me.

Choosing the Right Keyboard

If you need to do a lot of typing on your iPad then you need to choose a keyboard that works well for you. After reading several reviews I opted to go for the ZaggFolio for iPad 2. The reason for it is that I liked the case and the protection it provides for the iPad. I also liked the keyboard and had read some good reviews about it. There are other keyboards and combinations of keyboards and cases out there. Before buying, make sure you look at options and perhaps visit a local store which might have several on display for you to test.

I wont go in to a full review of the ZaggFolio as it is out of the scope of this post, but in the next few days I’ll be posting a review to give my thoughts on what is good about it and what can be improved. Also, if you already have an iPad 2 and will be upgrading in the next few months to an iPad 3 (if Apple announces that soon) then you might want to hold off getting a keyboard case as the new model might not be compatible.

Final Thoughts

Over the last few months I have come to realise that the iPad can be used for so much more. It does require apps to be downloaded to achieve specific tasks. It also helps to have a decent physical keyboard with it. The benefits of using an iPad for me are enough to let me leave my laptop at home from now on. Since owning the keyboard, I haven’t taken my laptop on trips with me. The iPad can work well although I realise that for some it just isn’t enough. For you, an option could be an ultrabook, Android tablet or regular laptop. For me, it works just as needed though.

I purchased an iPad the day it launched in the UK in 2010 but found that for the last 19 months I had taken both a laptop and iPad while travelling. The reason for this is that I wanted access to WordPress. A WordPress app exists but it lacks in so many ways. Although I consumed information on the iPad and read various news items I always switched back to my laptop when I wanted or needed to work.I then came across an app called Blogsy and this changed the way I work… almost. Blogsy is a blogging app that allows you to connect to various blogs. My own config connects me to three self-hosted WordPress blogs which includes this one, my gadget blog and a technical support blog that I run.

What I like about Blogsy

• Blogsy has a number of formatting options in a toolbar located on the top of the screen. Here, you can style text, add bullet or numberd lists, create block quotes, add a more tag and change font colours. Swipe 3 fingers to the side and you can access the HTML editor to further tweak posts.
• Down the right side of the app there’s several icons for media. Starting at the top you have a slide-out Safari style browser allowing you to find content to link to and research around the web without having to jump to another app. You can also connect up to your photos and photo stream as well as your Flickr, Picassa and YouTube accounts. The sidebar easily allows you to get media content to drag in to the rich editor.
• Although past versions of Blogsy messed up formatting on complicated layouts, the latest version seems to have cracked it. Anything I create in Blogsy and upload looks absolutely correct when publishing to one of my blogs.

What I dislike about Blogsy

With the new version that launched a week or so ago, I’ve found that most dislikes are now irrelevant. Dislikes included crashing, HTML being messed up and some issues with images although each of these appear to have been resolved. There’s the occasional quirk to be found such as alignment of text occasionally gets messed up with formating images. The good news is that the Blogsy app is often updated and many bugs and updates are included in those updates.

Would I recommend it?

I certainly would recommend Blogsy. It costs £2.99 in the UK and allows full blogging on the move. Of course, Blogsy is a blogging app. If you use a lot of images in posts then you’ll also need to download an app that works well with images so that you can create/edit and save locally or on to a remote service so that Blogsy can work with them. If you have those tools and Blogsy then it turns your iPad in to a device that can be used well for blogging. Very highly recommended!

Pocket-Lint is reporting today that Apple, and other companies, are in talks with the company behind HZO and that if successful, next gen devices could be made waterproof. Although companies are discussing matters, there is no guarantee that the tech will be used. But, watching the demonstration videos below I think you’ll agree that this is a smart step forwards particularly with water being capable of causing a lot of damage to a smartphone.

The technology works by using an invisible vapor coating that protects around the components with nano-sized molecules that fill in the gaps and provide a protective barrier from water. The idea behind it is simple and it’s great to see that the company behind it has managed to get it to work effectively as it does. Take a look at the two videos below. The first shows a demonstration of a device protected and dunked in water. The second is a brief description about how the technology works.

My own thoughts are that I want the mute switch to mute everything. If I switch sound off, I want no sounds at all to be made with just a single exception to Find My iPhone and setting it to beep remotely in case I want to track it down when lost.

To get around this, perhaps the image above could shed some light on a possible solution. Just like the iPad has a switch that can act as mute or lock rotation, could the iPhone give an option to Mute All or Mute Selected items like it does now? It seems easy enough for Apple to implement and wouldn’t take away from user experience. When selecting Mute All, a pop-up message could be displayed that reminds you that alarms will also be muted, or just a simple notification that tells you when you mute that alarms will also be silenced.

Anyway, just my 2c on the mute switch debate. Obviously an easy fix and I’m sure an app will appear on Cydia for it if there’s any call for it. If there’s a lot of call for it, Apple might consider adding it. For now, just be aware that sometimes your iPhone might make noises when you don’t expect it to. That’s nothing new though as it has always behaved that way ever since I got a 3GS a couple of years back.

In a video posted on YouTube (embedded below) we can see what appears to be an iPhone 4S being rebooted and booting back up (untethered) and then loading up Cydia. There are a few things to point out with this. The first is that the iPhone 4S up till now could not be jailbroken. Also, we learn that the iPhone 4S will have an untethered boot which is also good news. Also, if the iPhone 4S can be jailbroken then so can the iPad 2.

If you plan on jailbreaking your Apple A5 device when the jailbreak is released then now is the time to update to iOS 5.0.1. Apple will be launching iOS 5.1 soon. The exact date is unknown, but if Apple release it then you’ll need to update to 5.1 and will not be able to downgrade back to 5.0.1. It is believed looking at the 5.1 betas that the vulnerability has been closed off by Apple [AAPL]. So, update to 5.0.1 now and expect to see a launch in the next few days of the untethered jailbreak.

Source

The original iPad was announced on January 27th 2010 and went on sale on 3rd April (WiFi only model). A few weeks later the 3G model launched and about a month after that the iPad launched in the UK and several other countries. The iPad 2 was announced early March 2011 and went on sale just over a week later in the US. The UK and other countries followed a couple of weeks after that.

Apple appears to be aiming for March launches with the iPad, so we expect the iPad 3 will be announced early March and go on sale mid-March as it did last year.

What Apple will bring to the iPad 3?

Apple will be upgrading a number of features on the iPad 3 although exactly what the changes are, I don’t know for sure until Apple make the official announcement. But, I can make quite an educated guess based on how Apple updates it’s products year after year.

• The iPad 3 will run a faster processor, perhaps a quad-core Apple A6 chip. Graphics will also be enhanced. Some reports are hinting at 20x more graphics power. Although that might seem far fetched, it also isn’t that unreasonable to think that.
• The iPad 3 will likely keep the same design as the iPad 2. Some rumours hint at it being marginally thicker although we think Apple will keep it the same as going thicker seems to be more of a backwards step for Apple.
• A Retina display is of course one of the favourites for the iPad 3. We expected to see it in the iPad 2, but perhaps due to lack of processing power and being able to manufacture 9.7 inch Retina displays cheap enough, it didn’t make it. This time around, expect to see a screen with 2,048 x 1,536 (double what the iPad 2 is or four times more pixels).
• The cameras are likely to get an upgrade and perhaps the biggest jump here will be the front facing camera. Apple now has FaceTime on iOS devices and OS X which hints that the iPad 3 will get a higher resolution camera on the front allowing for HD FaceTime calls. Although we expect the new tablet to have a better rear camera, we don’t see it jumping up to iPhone 4S standards just yet as the iPad is not primarily (or really at all), a day to day camera. It’s just too big to use to snap photos with.
• Siri integration: Although Siri is software based, we still think it belongs in the iPad 3 list because of how Apple launched Siri on the iPhone 4S… Although Siri can run on the iPhone 4 and iPad 1 and 2 with some jailbreaking, Apple restricted it to just the iPhone 4S. Apple could go two ways with Siri. First, they could launch it on the iPad 3 as another exclusive for iOS tablets, or the company could open it up for all compatible iOS 5.1 users (iPhone 3GS, 4, iPad 1, 2 and latest generation iPod touches).
• Gorilla Glass 2: Announced at CES 2012, it might be a little late for Apple to put on the front of a new tablet but with the glass being 20% thinner and retaining strength of the original Gorilla Glass, there is a possibility that Apple will take this option.
• Thunderbolt Port: There have been recent rumours that have floated around due to a patent that was found about bringing Thunderbolt to iOS devices. There’s a possibility that this could happen although it is less likely this time around.

I think that’s about it for what the iPad 3 will include. Rumours that are a little too far-fetched for this time around include the lack of a home button, fuel-cell batteries and wireless charging.

What about the September launch of an iPad 4: Digitimes sent a rumour around about the iPad 4 launching in September which will be about 6 months after the launch of the iPad 3. The iPad 4 (or whatever it’s called) was said to be a “Pro” version of the iPad. The problem with this rumour is that it just doesn’t fit with how Apple works. iOS devices typically are launched once a year and usually ever 11 – 13 months apart. There have been some changes to this such as the iPhone 4S being delayed a few months. Apple is unlikely to launch a second iPad in the same year as it breaks away from the simplicity of having a single device launch each year.

I might be alone on this, but I quite like that Apple releases an iPad each year and an iPhone each year. I use both and know roughly when I’ll be upgrading. When I was an Android user there were so many handsets available that I often wondered if that other handset was better than the one I had. Also, as I had older generation Android devices (new at the time), I occasionally found that apps wouldn’t work and had to root and use CyanogenMod to run a later version of Android so that an app was compatible.

Going back to the iPad 3 launch, don’t expect anything too radical. Apple will likely update the processor, screen, cameras and keep the same or similar design this time around. I might be wrong and I welcome your thoughts in the comments below.

O2 were limiting the iPhone to just one per customer although if you are a business user then you are allowed two of the phones, assuming you were in the queue from early on today. A significant change over the first iPhone is that the UK will be offering the phone for free on some of it’s plans (those for £45 and above) which is a smart move and very welcomed move.

Source – Sky News

Not only do roaming costs drop, but so do international call costs. Unless you are on a special plan with your mobile phone provider, then you normally end up paying a lot of money to make international calls. A VoIP app would be a nice addition to the iPhone 3G.

So back to the question… Who will be first? Check out VoIP Weblog and let them know!

The HTC Dream is more then likely going to be the new Android based phone which will hit the shelves the 4th quarter 2008. Three other phones will be launched along side which are the Sony Ericsson Z780, Samsung and the Motorola ZINE ZN5. Of course, these are all rumours and there is no official statement yet on this.

Via: CNet

The benefits of a Contact Coverflow or Contactflow could be to find those people you forget the names of but remember their faces. A quick scroll through your contacts would quickly find them… although if you don’t remember their names then why would you be asking them for a picture anyway?

Although on the surface it looks like a great idea, I could soon see it becoming a bit boring like coverflow. I still think contactflow should be included in the standard software though!

Via: TechAU