iPad on a holiday

Follow-up to iPad, one month on from Rudo's blog

I took the iPad with me on a holiday (lovely, thanks). Loaded it up with (i) work stuff such as PDFs and (ii) in-flight entertainment such as movies, podcasts and songs and also (iii) books.

On the plane, the iPad was *much* better than any laptop. It is so small and slim that it is no problem to take out of a bag when sitting down and quickly back in after landing. During the flight, it easily fits into the seat-storage. The flight-mode setting is also easily accessible. Watching movies/podcats/etc during the flight is easy, the iPad can be held in various positions which makes the whole experience very enjoyable. Same during the airport waiting times. A bit of a problem since Wifi was not available, so the initial download of data was needed.

During the holidays, it was a great advantage to have just one iPad and not many heavy books and papers to carry. Read a 500+ pages book (Lee Smolin, "Trouble with Physics") and half a dozen scientific papers (PDFs). All worked great and was a pleasure.

No Wifi during all of the 7 days of the trip, but had downloaded enough off-line content before to be quite content.

Summary: the iPad is great for travel, particularly when you need to read manuscripts, papers and more as well as books.

Rudo Roemer : 31 Jul 2010 20:10 |  Tags: Ipad |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

iPad, one month on

Follow-up to Dropbox on the CSC linux machines from Rudo's blog

Just back from a conference. Except for the presentation, I needed no laptop at all and in fact left it in the hotel room. But I did take my iPad. With the iPad, I could easily keep in touch with my research group, do pretty much all of the necessary email work, browse the web and do my editorial (hence serious) work. In addition, it was great for taking notes at the conference talks (which I could then with a simple click share with the people at home).

Originally, I had also planned to use the iPad for the presentation itself. For this, I invested in the [Keynote] app, Apples presentation software. But since I did the original presentation under MS Powerpoint, I needed to convert. In principle, Keynote can do this, but the result for me was appalling: format and position of material in the slides had been changed, no video play seems to be available in keynote, etc. So if you do presentations with PPT and then want to convert, expect unpleasant surprises. If you use fancy transitions and animations in PPT, again these may not work in Keynote. For more static content, this might be ok, but then why not use the PPT to PDF conversion and simply show PDFs via GoodReader?

Don't get me wrong, I expect that when one imports a Mac Keynote presentation, then things will work ok. It's just that with PPT, the current conversion is not good enough. Oh, and one more thing: presentation import has to be via iTunes, Keynote does not support DropBox, googleDocs or any other free service. I expect it will work with meMobile or iDisk, but then I do not use these Apple products.

What else? As the iPad does not have a USB dock, transferring files onto it outside of iTunes (and when you are travelling, you cannot simply expect iTunes to be installed everywhere) is a pain. Now I am using the FTP server [freeftp] which turns the iPad into a WiFi FTP server. So one can quickly move files onto the iPad and off again as long as WiFi access is assured. I also have some movies installed on the iPad via iTunes. Was watching them while on the train coming back from the conference. Works rather well and is a good way to entertain your tired mind on a train.

Rudo Roemer : 17 Jul 2010 17:39 |  Tags: Ipad |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Dropbox on the CSC linux machines

Follow-up to iPad week3 from Rudo's blog

Dropbox, the 'it just works' file syncing service, released their Linux client recently. Unfortunately, it has a heavy Gnome/Nautilus dependency. If you don't use Gnome, you can get Dropbox to work without that baggage with these steps:

1. Download the closed source Dropbox Linux client from http://www.getdropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86 (x86_64 for 64 bit)
2. Extract the contents and you should get a .dropbox-dist folder out of the archive. Move the folder to $HOME
3. Run ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd.

The first time you run the dropboxd daemon, a wizard will prompt you to configure the client for your machine. By default, Dropbox syncs the contents of the ~/Dropbox folder and as long as the dropboxd daemon is running, it will transparently sync that folder with your Dropbox account. To ensure that the daemon runs whenever you use your computer, just add a symlink to it in your ~/.kde/Autostart/ folder or equivalent location.

You don't actually need to do anything beyond that since it 'just works'. But if you feel like getting hold of some of the info that the Nautilus client provides, you can download this command line utility that some kind soul has written. Hopefully, someone out there is working on KDE integration even as I write this!

(comment taken from http://antrix.net/journal/techtalk/dropbox_kde.comments and reproduced for all our benefit here. I tested and yes, got it to work just now.)

Rudo Roemer : 05 Jul 2010 13:00 |  Tags: Ipad |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

iPad week3

Follow-up to iPad Week 2 from Rudo's blog

Just thought to let you know this as well: use of https://mywebmail.warwick.ac.uk via the Safari browser on the iPad works. Of course only with the Outlook-light client, i.e. similar to a Firefox browser, etc. But still, it does work.

Of course I am using the iPad's built-in email client. However, the university webaccess to the Outlook eXchange system allows to set things such as rules, auto-reply, etc. Hence it is useful to know whether the iPad can be used to access it

Rudo Roemer : 30 Jun 2010 21:20 |  Tags: Ipad |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

iPad Week 2

Follow-up to iPad days 5+6 from Rudo's blog

Right, I am now moving to weekly reports. Much of the novelty has worn off and I should be able to report on emerging patterns of usage during the coming weeks.

Over the weekend, I took both iPad and laptop home as I had to work on a PhD proposal. But I ended up writing the proposal on the large desktop screen which I have at home, then slightly revising with the laptop while in the garden and then finalizing and sending off to colleagues from the iPad. So, the iPad [via the DocumentsToGo app] is useful to revise documents, once these have been written by a deskop/laptop. Of course one can also start writing a document on the iPad, but I would presume that everyone would want to have a look at the final layout on a desk/laptop befroe sending it out to professional colleagues. Still, I found the editing, both of MS Word and MS PowerPoint documents to be useful and easy. In particular, the PPT features mean that one can take a PPT for a presentation on a trip, modify/revise somewhat if necessary and then deliver the talk on the day [KeyNote needed, or WiFi/3G connection to upload the changed file].

Also, I used the iPad today for "checking" exams. I am not sure how widespread this policy is in the university, but in Physics, we have a second examinar check every exam for additions as well as marking accuracy. Here it was great to have the eXel spreadsheet on the iPad when I could easily mark (in green) right and wrong (orange) additions. No more paper needed, and the results could be send with a few touches off via email.

I installed [Adobe Ideas], a free scribbling program, perhaps useful to take down some graphical notes.

[Wikipanion] is Wikipedia on the go, with full Wikipedia integration.

[GoSkyWatch] is a lovely app to point the iPad towards the night sky and have all the stars, plantes and other "shiny" objects explained. Should be great for amateur astronomers. Certainly saves me having to print out the night sky charts when using my telescope.

I also watched some downloaded TV shows. The quality is great on the iPad, but I did not yet try to have it display on my TV at home (which I would only do for test purposes).

Last, upgraded my iPhone to iOS4. This solves an issue with the email client: now emails can be copied/moved across email accounts. Would be good to have this on the iPad as well, looks like I need to wait until September for it.

Rudo Roemer : 28 Jun 2010 17:44 |  Tags: Ipad |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

iPad days 5+6

Follow-up to iPad Day 4, Sunday from Rudo's blog

I had to give a talk on Monday which I had prepared via PowerPoint. I could not get it to work on the iPad although I used DocumentsToGo (which allows you to edit/create/etc Office documents). Apparently, they do not have the VGA module included.

So, workarounds on the google space are (1) save the PPT as a set of figures and (2) save as a movie/video. Then use iPad onboard tools to display via VGA adapter.

But then yesterday, I also installed the GoodReader which in version 2.8 can display PDFs via the VGA adapter. So now, I can simply convert any PPT to PDF, put it on the Dropbox and then display using the GoodReader. It works, quality is ok, but of course one misses those interactive PPT gimmicks. But I hardly ever use those, so not much of a problem, I think.

Also, it seems that the [Pages] App should do a similar thing, i.e. be useful for presentations.

Summary: Yes, I can now use the iPad for presentations! And hence, I am beginning more and more to see it as an alternative to the laptop.

Rudo Roemer : 23 Jun 2010 22:04 |  Tags: Ipad |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

iPad Day 4, Sunday

Follow-up to iPad Day 3 from Rudo's blog

Main item: [Dropbox] This is a lovely tool (see John Dales comments) which basically connects a free 2GB cloud/skydrive resource with your WinPC/MAC and the iPad/iPhone. Put any document on the PC/MAC and you can find it on your iPad/iPhone ready to synchronize (and also the otherway round!). Assuming that you have network access, then you have those files available for download.

Which means that I now have the tools to have my library of PDF papers inside my dropbox with easy access from the iPad, the iPhone as well as my Win7 laptop and my Vista home desktop. I tried and tested it and "yes", it works quite well over Wi-Fi (as I do not have a 3G SIM available to the iPad, I cannot test the speed on this connection type).

I also used the iPad outside in the sun. This works, but the screen is reflecting, so it can get annoying after a while. Still, the screen is *better* then a normal laptop and hence the iPad would be my preferred device for webbrowsing and email.

Also, installed [iSSH], an ssh client which also support X Windows. Tested it on CSC machines, made a connection to foo and godzilla. All works, even the X11 comes up after you type "startkde" or "startkde3". The speed on the X11 is not great (after all, this is not an NX client) and the mouse integration seems questionable. Still, I managed to get some jobs running on the CSC PBS queue and to check their status. Again, a useful application of the iPad.

When the weekend ended, I had not missed my laptop at all. I think I will now leave it at work mostly.

Rudo Roemer : 21 Jun 2010 16:24 |  Tags: Ipad |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

iPad Day 3

Follow-up to iPad Day 2 from Rudo's blog

Day 3 and it's the weekend. Installed some more Apps [Google, Free Wi-Fi, Google Earth, AccuWeather and ClassicFM]. I ended up spending much of my time browsing for nice free books on [stanza] and then reading until late at night. For me, the iPad works well as an ebook reader, both for actual books as well as scientific papers. This is excellent! If your work is reading many papers, books, etc.  then this can be quite a useful gadget for you.

Battery life seems to be about 2-3 days on average use, 2 days when reading a lot. One problem which I can see is that upon reading late at night, I really do not want to get out of bed again to plug the iPad into a charger. So this is a device which is crying out for a simple to handle cradle-type of charger.

Rudo Roemer : 21 Jun 2010 15:12 |  Tags: Ipad |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

iPad Day 2

Follow-up to iPad Day 1 from Rudo's blog

OK, day 2. Actually, still in day 1, I ended up reading with the iPad for about an hour one of their free ebooks. There are quite a number of ebook readers offering free content (70+ years old books mostly, so classics). No problem reading in bed, did not feel heavy in my hands and I have found a reader with a good "night" mode [WattPad].

Right, so now to day 2.

Battery at about 70% level at the start.

Back at work. eduroam works nicely, but I just cannot seem to get hotspot to work. I get the login screen up, type my credentials, but then nothing happens. People in the office say that this is also an iPhone problem. Not good. VPN also does not work, but this could be because it would need the hotspot to connect first. This is of course a big problem: trying to access any journals does only get me to the entry pages, downloading PDFs is out as the eduroam is not recognized as a Warwick U IP address and hence I am being asked for money to pay for downloads!

Installed "papers", an App which Mac users tell me works great on the Macs. Works fine for the iPad, except I can't really test it with published online PDFs because of the non-authentication issue (hotspot not working) above. Seems "papers" will seamlessly synchronize with Macs and iPhones, but does not do it for me since I have a Win7 laptop. Still, if you own a Mac, you will like this, I expect.

Then I got "PDF Reader Pro for iPad" which is a simple PDF reader, but which also allows you to simply (via iTunes) download PDFs onto the iPad.

Which highlights the BIG issue: my iPad has 60GB storage, but I can only access this either via direct download of data from the Web (browser) or by synchronizing with iTunes. So this is not useful as an external storage media! You simply cannot drag-and-drop anything from a Win7 laptop onto the iPad without going thru the iTunes application first. And going thru iTunes is not nearly as intuitive as the iPad itself.

Still, going back to the "PDF Reader", via iTunes I managed to make my PDF library available on the iPad. Sadly, PDF Reader is not as flexible as the "papers" app, e.g. no automatic extraction of bibliographic data, no search within the PDF documents, etc. It is in the end, simply a PDF viewer. But viewing it certainly can: two-column journal formats fit nicely onto the iPad, both in portrait and landscape mode. So this *is* useful as a scientific paper reader!

I then found myself in a meeting with a PDRA and two students, discussing a research project. Very naturally took the iPad and typed some notes into it. Easy to do, keyboard is quite workable althought the 10-finger system is not what it is made for. Still, had a set of notes at the end of the meeting which I managed to then send to all participants via email (one click). Great! This felt very natural, perhaps I can continue doing this! Tony Arber (a Macxpert) even suggested that there might be an App like "Mac Journal" to help me do this even better. Perhaps I'll give it a try soon.

OK, next I went up to Physics coffee to "show-off" the iPad to the other Physicists. Everyone was curious, got a good number of laughs out of it. But at the serious level, we were discussing how this could be useful for research and teaching. After some deliberation, we found that it might lead to replacing laptops. Afterall, much of what we do with laptops these days is emailing and web browsing. Here the iPad is clearly capable of both (good for email, great for browsing) and much easier to handle (both from a software as well as hardware angle - small, relatively lightweight, etc.). I guess this is particularly true for heavy computer users or theoretical people such as myself. One the other hand, I see that many of my experimental colleagues use their laptops also to have their data with them when they go on travels. And data analysis is something which the iPad will *not* do (just try transfering it from your PC!).

Last, I ventured to put the theory to test: I went home in the evening for the first time in many months *without* my laptop! Just the iPad this weekend for me. So stay tuned and see how I will fare.

PS: I do of course have a desktop at home for serious stuff.

PPS: Just spend some enjoyable minutes doing the weekly email leftovers on the iPad without having to go upstairs to the desktop. Although "enjoyable" is relative, did this while watching the game. Not a good day for Englands football (or Germany's for that matter). Battery level at 20%, needs recharging (the iPad, I mean).

Rudo Roemer : 18 Jun 2010 23:10 |  Tags: Ipad |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Day 1b

Follow-up to iPad Day 1 from Rudo's blog

By the way, I am having to write this blog from a standard computer. The iPad's safari browser seems incompatible with the Java editors in SiteBuilder. I checked that this is not just a blog problem, it's the same for all SiteBuilder pages. So if we want iPads at Warwick, I am sure this is something which eLab will have to tackle.

PS: The raw HTML editor works. But it feels cluncky to have a 21st century device editing in what feels like a 19th century mode.

Rudo Roemer : 18 Jun 2010 22:24 |  Tags: Ipad |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem