I, like many others, decided I wanted an iPad on opening weekend. Like many others, I have been trying to figure out exactly in which way this device was “magical.”
On the other hand, it seems as if there are a LOT of people for whom this device is a “game changer.” I’ve read countless posts from bloggers, tech pundits, and other technology enthusiasts about how the iPad is changing their life (more specifically, how they live their life). I’m sad to say that this hasn’t quite been my experience. In an effort to further integrate the iPad into my life, I’ve decided to structure my foray by carving out $5 or $10 lists of applications that I find to be “game changing.”
I’d like to take a moment in this first post to put down some initial thoughts about my usage pattern.
- I’m a Systems Engineer by trade, which means I probably won’t be able to work on the iPad (need lots of windows open, ssh/pgp keychains, xmpp client, etc).
- I consume the majority of my video content digitally. I do have Comcast, and occasionally will splurge on a PPV, but generally speaking everything I watch is sourced off of a 3TB array.
- The website I go to the most (easily by an order of magnitude) is reddit.com. In a nutshell, Reddit is a community link sharing site. As it pertains to my usage patterns, think “open link in new [tab|window].” I also frequent other agg-sites, like popurls, etc.
- I’d like to read on the iPad, but don’t see myself paying the ridiculous prices in the Bookstore.
Total Budget: $5
With the first budget of $5, I’m hoping to get 2 or 3 apps. I’ve certainly noticed the trend of iPad apps being significantly more expensive than the iPhone, but I’m hoping there are some apps out there that have remained reasonable in price. The functionality I have chosen to focus on (not surprisingly) are:
- Reading – using the iPad as a ebook reader.
- Media – playing content off of my AFP share
- Browsing – opening multiple browser instances, easy switching
Reading: I love to read, but hate the bulk of carrying around the plethora of books that my attention span needs. Using the iPad as a reader, to me, should be one of the primary functions. The gorgeous display should be able to provide a new level of richness and detail that the Kindles and the Nooks of the world can’t compete with. While the Book reader that comes shipped is great, the content for this reader is generally very expensive, often costing as much as the paperback version. This makes keeping the variety I’d need a rather costly proposition (~$100/month by my math). A cheaper alternative can be attained in one of two things:
- Converting my own files to ePub, and syncing. This works well enough, but is a relatively time-consuming process. Plus, the converter apps are a little clunky, and the best one behaves rather unpredictably (but works well at its best). Syncing is pretty painless, except for the fact that I had to use my main desktop.
- A document viewer capable of handling 100MB+ files. Ideally, there would be a range of support file formats (pdf, chm, lit, doc, xls, ppt, txt, xml, etc). If I had to choose one, though, PDF would be the most important. Large file support is also a hard requirement, as I’ve used many reader apps on the iPhone which worked well enough, but would choke on semi-largish files.
Of the two approaches, it seems like a document viewer would be the best. The ePub converter apps are too unpredictable, and too poor at intelligently converting that it seriously degrades the reading experience. Finding a good reader, ideally with a few ways of importing files, is probably going to be the best choice.
After doing some research, the best reader app for the iPad seems to be GoodReader, with a cost of $0.99. GoodReader excels at handling large files, and lets me easily scroll through image packed 150MB+ PDF files. The best part, though, is the extreme flexibility that end users get in loading their content. Files can be retrieved directly from the Internet (HTTP, dropbox, etc), and there are additional plugins (available at an extra cost) that allow access to Google docs, IMAP, and the like. I used GoodReader to access my dropbox, and am very happy with the setup. For the most part, I would say that this setup takes care of my reading requirements until something new comes up.
Total Budget: $4.01
Media: Since I consume the majority of my media digitally, being able to easily access my downloaded content is key. Luckily, conversion isn’t nearly the pain that it was the last time I did it at home (circa 1999). It seems the best app on the market for this is HandBrake. It works exactly as touted, and is pretty easy to use. However, converting content takes a bit of time (I usually batch up a bunch of movies or shows, and start before going to bed). After conversion, files still have to be added to iTunes and synced to the iPad. This works, and since I have the 64gb model I can copy a good many movies before I’m out of space. As well as this process works, I think it’s far from ideal. Conversion takes hours for any meaningful amount of content, and I am still tied to my desktop as the “source of truth” for content. Having to store the content on my iPad is also restrictive; I have about 1.6TB of content (which would probably take 25 years to encode), and being restricted to 0.04% of my content is very prohibitive.
After doing some research, it seems that an app called Air Video might be the answer. This app purports to stream any content on a Mac or Windows machine, “converting it live” for delivery to the iPad or iPhone (once you buy it you get both versions). This app costs $2.99, which I happily ponied up for.
Total Budget: $1.02
After giving Air Video a spin, it turns out that this is the best $2.99 I’ve spent anywhere. It works exactly as touted, converting and streaming data to the iPad. The only bad thing I have to say about all of this is that the Windows version of the Air Video server seems to be a lot crappier than the Mac version. It’s clear that the Mac version was built first, with the Windows version as an afterthought. It would also be nice if they had a Linux server build. There seems to be quite a bit of people asking about it in the forums, so hopefully it will be coming soon. Air Video also has a remote streaming mode, where you can remotely access the Air Video server through a forwarded port (or UPnP). I haven’t had to use this yet but will check it out from work tomorrow.
Since I’d been on a roll, I went ahead and (perhaps foolishly) bought another $0.99 app. There’s an app that I’d been hearing about called Desktop for iPad that sounds really interesting. It basically splits the iPad display into two equal panes, which can be horizontal or vertical. In each of these panes, you can run what is basically a “widget” (think weather, iPad hardware stats, notes, calculator, etc). This is definitely a crap shoot, as there were a number of mixed reviews about this app. This wasn’t unexpected, being kind of a ‘prototype’ app. Since a widget board is something I’ve always felt that the iPad should have, I went ahead and took the plunge.
Total Budget: $0.03
Desktop for iPad, by Aqua Eagle, is kind of a strange app. It does exactly as the website claims, but I couldn’t help but feel a little let down by the execution. In all ways relevant the two panes are completely separate from each other, offering no level of interactivity (for example, it would seem logical that browser A could open a link into browser B). I’ve emailed the developers about this, and have received no response. I’m a little disappointed in this, but Safari also does this pretty well (open a link in a new window).
Of the 3 apps that I got, I would say that GoodReader and Air Video are universally applicable, and should be purchased immediately. If the end goal is to integrate the iPad into your daily routine, then having these two apps will help get you on the way. Desktop for iPad is interesting, and might be worth your $0.99, but I don’t feel as if it’s ready for public use just yet, and is missing some key UI features (resizing window panes, for example).
