I'm super happy with my Griffin A-Frame Tabletop Stand for iPad
. It's well designed and very functional. It's padded edges comfortably rest the iPad in Portrait or Landscape mode. It props the iPad at any adjustable angle I choose. I like also that it presents the iPad at a slightly taller height than other stands.
It's portable, but not meant so much for portability. While I carry it in my pack occasionally, if portability is what you're looking for exclusively, try a different stand such as the Kickstand or ten dollar Menotek Stand.
Also impressed with Waterfield Designs' Keyboard Travel Case
Although a bit spendy $49 plus tax and shipping, I am pleasantly surprised with the quality of Waterfield Design's Keyboard Travel Case. Now I have one compact (not small), well designed bag to carry all my bluetooth keyboard, and MacBook and iPad accessories. (If it was smaller, it wouldn't carry everything I want it to.)
Waterfield's brochures proudly proclaim"No mass production or overseas workforce. WaterField bags are designed and made in San Francisco, where rent is high, labor is expensive and competition is intense. We wouldn’t go anywhere else!" Kudos to them! Made in America is quite rare these days and we can kiss the American middle class goodbye if we don't restore our domestic manufacturing/job base. They also sign each invoice with a personal note - a nice touch.
Impressed with the Be.ez LA robe Sleeve for my Macbook Pro
I luv my new Macbook Pro but also am quite impressed with the Be.ez LA robe sleeve. It's made out of a unique high impact compressive material that seems to add great protection while remaining light and portable.
It comes in a variety of colors and is less than $30.
For Ergonomics, Check Out the Logitech Notebook Riser
I have been very pleased with the Logitech Notebook Riser. It's portable, thin and has a number of useful features.
The clips at the bottom hold your laptop in place. It tilts at three steep angles. And, it has a rotating grippy pivot foot in the back - allowing you to move your laptop right to the edge of a table.
This stand is really best used with a wireless keyboard. If you try to type on your laptop with it, you may find the clips at the bottom poke into your wrists.
However, the ergo with this stand is quite good when used with a separate keyboard. I'm very happy with my purchase.
While Safari Web browsing, Mail and iBooks may be top killer apps on the iPad, News Readers are going to be awesome on the iPad. While they work pretty well on the iPhone today, they're going to be even better with the larger iPad screen and the new user interface controls. I'm making the assumption that all three of these applications will be upgraded for the iPad and get even better with time.
The most powerful news readers I've seen use and sync to Google Reader, rather than their own proprietary data store.
1) I've been using Phantom Fish's Byline (@phfish) for awhile now on my iPhone, so I'm a bit biased. But, after carefully reviewing the competition again - I still think it's the most powerful and intuitive choice. Byline, $3.99, does the basics well. It's relatively good at syncing while accepting input and its user interface is streamlined around common features. Yes, there's a handful of features I'd like them to add, but the lack of these extras doesn't take away from it being the most useful app of this field. Namely, ByLine only offers basic sharing and note taking features. It's missing Post to Twitter, Copy URL and Post to Instapaper, a handy mobile reader.
2) What ByLines is missing, Newsrack, formerly Newsstand offers for $4.99 - more sharing options. But, its interface is slightly more cluttered, slower and less intuitive. In an attempt to create some extra gee whiz user interface (like an actual news stand browsing mode), it loses its utility and simplicity. In fairness though, some people will possibly like this application better than ByLine. It runs a very close second.
"Newsstand solves this by incorporating pop-up exporting to almost anywhere. You can email full articles (including pictures) from within the application (no quitting to go to the mail app) or add to Instapaper, Delicious, Twitter, ReadItLater or just copy the URL, all from a pop-up screen. Better, this option persists when you browse out to websites, meaning you can navigate to a linked article and send it to Instapaper to read, say, in a bar later."
Wired also says Newsrack syncs better than Bylines. I was confused by the additional navigation options and found the application in general less responsive.
3) Finally, NetNewswire, by NewsGator, which offers a free ad supported version ($4.99 with no ads) is the third selection.
Overall, I wasn't too impressed with NetNewswire compared the ByLine and Newsrack. On the iPhone, it felt like it had too much space between items - and wasn't as usable. Some people may find this cleaner. On the iPad, perhaps with some improvement, the spacious aesthetics of this application may win out in the end.
A few last thoughts: With Apple Insider reporting that the New York Times is struggling how to price The Times iPad application - these applications create downward pricing pressure as many readers may be happy to use a universal feed reader and their Web browser as a primary news reading application. I still have some fears that sites like The Times may go too far and block web site browsing via iPad browsers via user agent strings.
I think it's important Google offer an oAuth interface since the company synchronized its logins such that most users are sharing their email passwords to use these phone applications. Not very secure. I think each of these applications should use oAuth with Twitter and Delicious, as they use Facebook Connect nicely. When the iPad and iPhone OS add multitasking, hopefully, these applications will make better user of Safari.
Quality news readers are going to make the iPad much more effective than the Kindle (which charges for RSS feeds because of its carrier relationship with Spring) and the lack of a working Web browser.
While the Kindle DX weighs 1.18 lbs, the iPad weighs 1.5 - 1.6 lbs. I expect that this is going to prove too heavy to hold for most long term casual reading.
Wired reports on this Kickback stand from Scosche (similar to it's iPod Touch stand) but I suspect the Apple integrated case & stand (scroll down) will prove popular. The nice thing about the Kickback promo graphic is that one version provides a portrait reading mode. Obviously, a case/stand that provides both portrait and landscape support will be most desirable.
The iPad's weight is going to be another factor keeping the small Amazon Kindle 2 selling well for a long time.
Aside from browsing the Web, the iPad may be the first mobile device that really makes managing tasks and to do lists easy and useful. I tried task management on the iPhone and just couldn't get excited about managing lists on the small touchscreen. The expanded real estate and speed of the iPad should make a big difference. Note to Apple: Multitasking in the next iPad OS update will help a lot too!
Here are some of the top to do list and task managers that you can check out today on the iPhone, OS X or the Web. These are the most likely task and to-do list applications to be quickly tailored for the iPad:
I've always been most impressed with Cultured Code's Things. It's an aesthetically well design OS X application also available for the iPhone. It's $50 on the Mac and $10 on the iPhone.
Both Things and Omnifocus are designed to work well with the
Getting Things Done system, a book subtitled "The Art of Stress Free Productivity". I've never been a GTD cultist - but some that I've known are remarkably accomplished people.
The next up on the list would be Apple's own iCal now called iPad Calendar. I am hopeful the larger screen on the iPad may drive Apple to make improvements to its basic task management system. Screenshots of the iPad Calendar look great - it's just hard to tell if they've done anything new with tasks.
Remember the Milk is a Web-based to do list manager with an iPhone application. The RTM Pro account is $25 annually and bundles the iPhone application for me. I began using RTM on the Web and tried it on my iPhone but found it just wasn't responsive enough for me.
Both the New York Times and LifeHacker like ReQall, an interesting voice recognition iPhone driven task manager. It'll be interesting to see how ReQall migrates their service to the iPad. It's strength is on the phone - will they come up with an iPad application that pulls everything together. It'll be interesting to see.
Similarly, Evernote, may struggle to move from the iPhone to the camera-less iPad. I could never get excited to use Evernote, but it seems like a useful tracking (list-type) service.
LifeHacker also likes Zenbe, a cleanly designed Web and iPhone to do and task management application.
Google's task list also warrants a mention - but again, it's not compelling me to switch. I just can't excited about the Web-based apps.
Update: Thanks MacSurfer for linking to us! Here are two other stylus products for iPhone and iPad. Pogo Stylus and Pogo Sketch via CNET - but still they emphasize typing not drawing, writing.
While Apple didn't include a stylus for handwriting recognition or note taking on the iPad, I expect we may see a variety of after market solutions in the coming months.
Rubber angled tip provides enough contact with screen to allow proper electrocurrent flow to replicate the use of your finger on the touchscreen. Best for typing and selecting rather than "dragging".
Therefore, it's probably not going to be very useful for taking notes on the iPad.
More likely, we'll see some updated Bluetooth pens that you write with on a surface beside the iPad - and see the ink tracked on the display. Check out the Pen-It Bluetooth Digital Pen from 2007:
When you use it to write on special paper (which has been pre-printed with literally millions of little dots), it records your strokes for later wireless upload to your Mac. Apparently the pen has a tiny camera which makes this possible. The Pen-it NOTES application on the Mac then retrieves your scribbles as vector data(!) which can be saved or further edited on the Mac. Of course, as Merlin Mann notes, this locks you into their paper, and they don't say exactly how much it will cost. It is also not clear whether this is compatible with Apple's Inkwell technology.
While this pen requires special paper, it's possible future designs will work on their own.
It's a bit frustrating that Apple hasn't provided a stylus option - perhaps it's something they'll release later. They clearly want the device to be simple and focus on multitouch.
For me, the iPad is missing a note taking application e.g. page management tool that doesn't require the multitouch keyboard.
Review of Epson Artisan 810 All-in-One Wireless Printer Scanner Fax
For years under Windows trying to scan was always a headache. When I switched to Mac OS X back in '04, keeping my trusty HP Laser Jet 3380 scanning properly never worked very well either. I think they finally killed support for it with Leopard - and I could never successfully scan over the network.
So, when something simple like scanning over WiFi and printing iPhone photos comes together elegantly and almost effortlessly, I'm kind of amazed again despite my depth of involvement with personal computers and technology.
Most importantly, I wanted a device that would allow me to replace my EFAX service (read my EFAX warning below) with the ability to scan multi-page documents into PDFs and the ability to do so over WiFi. The Artisan and its automatic document feeder does this quite well. I can scan over WiFi from my Mac over WiFi, or from the the device to my Mac over WiFi or to a USB Flash drive or compact flash drive - lots of flexibility. And, it works great in OS X Snow Leopard (just make sure you install the Epson Snow Leopard updates from the web).
The Artisan also supports the super useful and fun Epson iPrint iPhone Application which makes printing iPhone shots to the Artisan a simple one step wireless joy. I haven't really delved into WiFi printing but my iPhone camera just got a lot more interesting, no messing with iPhoto and file management, just choose the photo and click to print. The Artisan also has slots for Compact Flash, Micro SD and xSD as well as the USB Flash for printing photos directly from the device.
The Artisan's large touch screen display makes configuring the device for your WiFi network and everyday use of the device quite easy. The software install could still be a bit smoother and less annoying (pops in front - always on top - so you can't multitask during the install). The OS X software utilities could be better organized too - accessing the memory card over WiFi requires a few extra installation steps. However, overall this is an easy machine to use. The MyEpson site is actually very useful with a FAQ, handy video tutorials and mostly well organized user interface - more useful than these sites usually are.
The Artisan paper tray is actually a bit complex to use but that's because it supports both plain paper and photo paper simultaneously. So, I can literally print a paper document from the Mac, then a photo from my iPhone without changing anything around. Unfortunately, printing envelopes requires moving the paper out of the tray.
The Artisan also has automatic duplexing or two sided printing. It's a great way to save paper and now I don't have to manually print odd pages first, flip the printed pages and re-feed them and print the even pages - that never really worked well for me. It also prints 4 pages on a single page if that's readable for you.
This device has so many skills: It's a fax machine. It prints color labels onto CDs - yes, there is a CD slot - no need more those CD label printing kits any longer.
As for EFAX, it's a terrible company that provides a relatively useful service. But, fax is nearly dead. Most people I work with exchange scanned PDFs, which is why the Artisan is such a useful affordable device. EFAX is an extremely difficult service to cancel. Avoid EFAX if you can.
MSNBC reports that 73% of users are using their bank password on other Websites.
Password overlap also creates an easy end run around sophisticated banking security technology, which is only as strong as the weakest site where the password is used. Banks might enforce strong password creation requirements, for example. But if a consumer uses a bank password it at a poorly defended small site, a hacker can break into the small site, steal the log-in information and essentially crack the bank's high-tech system.
. It's well designed and very functional. It's padded edges comfortably rest the iPad in Portrait or Landscape mode. It props the iPad at any adjustable angle I choose. I like also that it presents the iPad at a slightly taller height than other stands.
for awhile now. And, it's heavy. My wrists get tired holding it. If I set it down on the table, my neck gets tired reading it. I finally found a $10 
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