An overview of many, many GTD (Get Things Done) iPad apps, including developer Scott Hasbrouck and his featured app Paperdesk. Also multiple Exchange accounts in 4.0 (and currently in jailbreak) and how to print from your iPad with Print Central.
via The iPad Show
First Steps with Windows 7
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my iMac’s hard disk packed it in and I had to replace it. Once I had restored it, I was faced with the question of what to do about the Boot Camp partition I had on it before. I used to have a Windows XP partition, essentially because I refused to install the utter horror that is Vista; but now, I had to re-think. I’ve ordered Windows 7 Ultimate, but have yet to receive it. That’s when I made an interesting discovery: You don’t need to enter a Product Key when installing Windows 7! Contrary to all previous versions of Windows, you can actually skip entering the Product Key during installation — you just have to enter it within the 30-day grace period Microsoft gives you for product activation. If you don’t do this, your Windows installation will die a horrible death, and you may have to reinstall everything. So this is what I did. I got hold of a Windows 7 Ultimate DVD and installed the 64-bit version on my Boot Camp partition. After some fiddling getting the Apple-specific drivers (for Bluetooth, Apple Keyboard, built-in iSight etc.) in there, I had a perfectly-running Windows 7 installation. The first thing I noticed was how easy the whole thing had been. Almost as easy as installing the Mac side, in fact. And, compared to my girlfriend’s PC, which is a considerably faster and bigger machine than my ageing iMac, the sheer speed of 7 versus the Vista Ultimate running on her box just blew me away. In fact, purely subjectively (I don’t have any way to benchmark this anymore), I’d say 7 reacts just as fast as XP ever did on that machine. Faster, if I take into account the software rot my XP installation had inevitably suffered since being installed. And 7 recognised the iMac’s Macintosh OS-formatted partitions off the bat, making it that much easier to shuffle documents back and forth between the two partitions! Hooray! Next, I’ll be: And if I don’t forget, I’ll be posting about these experiences on here. Never thought I’d say this, but thank you, Microsoft, for getting an OS out there that doesn’t totally suck! ;)
I Love Time Machine!
So my iMac’s hard disk packed it in. It was strange, the machine started getting slower and slower on startup (under OS X – under the Windows Boot Camp partition, it didn’t seem to have that problem), until it then went to a strange mode of going to sleep while starting up.
Long story short, I looked around for the Apple dealer closest to home (Echallens), and found Comac in Yverdon-les-Bains. They’re located just opposite the train station, so there’s handy parking really near by. A definite advantage when you’re wandering about town with a 24” iMac slung under your arm!
They diagnosed the machine and installed a new hard disk for the paltry sum of CHF 250 (90 of which was for the actual installation. Given how much of a bitch this is, I think it’s very reasonable.
Upon getting the machine home, I immediately plugged all its disks and other goodies back in, and am now restoring it from Time Machine.
I must say, having that tool just chugging away in the background, and never having to think about backing up, is a total boon. I love it, I love it, I love it!
Nice, in-depth review of the iWork apps on the iPad (Pages, Numbers and Keynote), with notes on compatibility and so on. Here’s the introduction from their review:
With the iPad, Apple also introduced three new “apps” derived from the company’s iWork product for Mac OS X but recreated for the new tablet: Pages is a word processor and lightweight page layout tool; Numbers is a spreadsheet app; and Keynote is Apple’s presentation tool. Unlike the $69 iWork suite for Mac OS X, these three apps for iPad are priced separately at $9.99 each.
The iWork apps’ ability to work with Microsoft Office documents, combined with the remarkable mobility of the iPad, promise productivity for roving professionals, students, and anyone else who’s on the move — particularly when optional iPad 3G networking is available in the absence of WiFi.
We’ve spent the past few weeks using iWork apps with both business and personal documents, learning the ins and outs of file exchange, features and compatibility. In doing so, we’ve gained a better sense of what iWork iPad apps are good at, and what they’re not. None of the three apps have all the features of their desktop versions. Apple seems to have followed the 80/20 rule: Implement the 20% of features that get used 80% of the time. Is it enough? That depends. But first, let us consider how different the iPad is from a Mac….
Another guide found over at Redmond Pie that explains how to run iPhone Apps that don’t have an iPad equivalent (e.g. Facebook) in full resolution, i.e. without pixel doubling.
Requires a jailbroken iPad and some hackery, so if you’re averse to things like SCP and UNIX command lines, best stay away. Hopefully someone will come up with a little App that handles the modification for you sometime soon, since it’s not all that complicated if you know what you’re doing. :)
Easy-to-use guide on how to tether your WiFi-only iPad to your iPhone so you don’t need to get an iPad 3G with a separate data plan. Note: this requires a jailbroken iPhone and the $9.99 MyWi app (available on Cydia or The Rock).
Redmond Pie has a nice little list of iPad Apps (some for jailbroken iPads) that they update from time to time.
iPad Pre-Ordered!
So I pre-ordered my iPad (64GB, WiFi only — more on that below) this morning at 09:00 sharp, since that’s when the Apple Store lines opened. I can’t believe that nobody ordered one over the web before I did it on the phone, but according to the kind lady who took my preorder, I was the first customer! So, hopefully, it’ll arrive on the 28th, as promised.
Why not go for the 3G version? Well, I reckon that most of the time, I’ll be using it at home, where I have WiFi, or in an office/café, where there is also WiFi. If worse comes to worst, there’s always the $10 MyWi application for iPhone (no, unfortunately not on the AppStore) that would let me surf using the iPhone’s 3G data plan. I really don’t see the point of getting yet another mobile subscription.
I hope Apple sees some sense and adds iPad-iPhone tethering sometime in OS 4.x!
