A Month with my iPad
I was lucky enough to get an iPad the day it came out in the UK, and after about a month of use I’m completely hooked on it. Actually my whole family is too!
My wife is always picking it up to search for something, usually something to do with shopping but other times just to find out the answer to something. This was always done before with my iPhone (still first generation and going strong), but now it’s the iPad that is picked up first. I have the wifi only one, and find this is fine for me as I tend to be always around a connection. I can see myself getting one of Three’s Mifi devices on pay as you go for my needs when out and about.
My son loves watching mickey mouse or other assorted Bob the Builder or Fireman Sam movies, he’s only 3 and can navigate his way around the apps and games with ease. Which does go to show you that the UI and responsiveness of the device is the best you can get.
I managed to use it for work doing UI concepts with an excellent app called iMockups there’s a great review with video at TUAW found I could mock them up then email the wireframes to myself .
Using it as a photoframe viewer always turns head’s, as does using it for either radio in the kitchen or recipe guides when cooking.
Here’s is a quick list of apps I have been using.
- Dropbox
- Penultimate – not taking for the Moleskin fanatic
- Adobe Ideas
- Sorted – to-do’s
- SimpleNote – notetaking
- Explore flicker – handy for backgrounds
- Accu Weather
- GoodReader
- Doc HD – doc editing
- Early Edition – RSS reader that looks like a newspaper
- Let’s Golf – game and way to addictive
Loads more and you do find yourself in the app store looking for great apps alot.
BT Home Hub dropping Wifi connection
At one of my parents house the BT Home Hub wifi keeps dropping it’s connection, I have tried the hard reset and even pressing the Wireless association button on the back. Still wasn’t holding a steady signal for my wifi devices.
There is an excellent online resource if my solution dosen’t help you, my BT Home Hub is quite old the white one from a few years ago so your settings might be fifferent but my solution is pretty simple. You can find more help here - www.filesaveas.com/hubhelp.html
Open up http://bthomehub.home/ in your browser login (default password is either admin admin or admin password) goto Basic Config/Wireless change the channel selction from automatic to manual and select channel 11. This worked for me no more dropped Wifi..
Make your own iPad Car kit
This is a handy idea, put your iPad in a bag and attach it to the back of your front seat in your car for the kids.
Read more on how to do it here – www.tuaw.com
Downloading YouTube Videos
Looking for a free app to download and convert YouTube videos, I have used Clone2Go. It will produce the files as mp4 which you can import straight into iTunes.
http://osx.iusethis.com/app/clone2gofreeyoutubedownloaderformac
Today – iCal app
An at-a-glance view of your daily events and tasks.
With Today you can keep track of what’s on your plate for any given day without keeping iCal open all the time. Today syncs with iCal and your life’s agenda so daily events & tasks are always available via one, convenient little interface.
Looks handy check it out here – www.secondgearsoftware.com/today
Using Little Snapper with DropBox
I use Little Snapper all the time for collecting screenshots of websites and my work, it’s a great way of saving all those snippets of creativity. I use two machines my desktop and my laptop and I needed a way to keep both of these in sync. I also wanted to be able to edit and use Little Snapper on both machines, although not at the same time so that if I was casually using my laptop on the sofa it would automatically update when I used my work computer.
I do this by using Little Snapper and DropBox – If you want to do this then here’s how:
1. You will need a copy of Little Snapper
2. You will also need a Dropbox account (remember the more images you store in little snapper the more your dropbox account will expand).
3. Install Little Snapper
4. In Little Snapper go to the Preferences then Advanced choose Create New Library
5. Name the Library whatever you want and save the location to your DropBox
6. Close down Little Snapper, and go to your second machine or installation of Little Snapper.
7. On the second machine load up Little Snapper and go to Preferences – Advanced and select Choose for the Library
8. Select the Library from your DropBox one (you just created)
9. Close down the application down, now open it up again and hey presto you now have the same Little Snapper database between both machines.
The database will now sync between machines as you add new items to it, if you do this for the first time and have a large DB of data wait for Dropbox to sync completly before opening Little Snapper.
Having just the one copy of the Little Snapper database is great and it means I can use either machine to save a collate ideas into the program and will be updated to the other machine.
If you haven’t seen Sherlock Holmes yet the best thing for me about the film (including the CGI shots of London) is the opening and closing title sequence. It a master piece of illustration and design. Read more about how it was done and by who here – Sherlock Holmes opening title sequence.
Book Book – protect that Mac Book Pro
Protecting your MacBook is a top priority and it’s job one for BookBook. Slip your Mac inside the velvety soft, padded interior. Zip it closed and your baby is nestled between two tough, rigid leather hardback covers for a solid level of impact absorbing protection. The rigid spine serves as crush protection for an additional line of defense. BookBook creates a hardback book structure that safeguards your MacBook like few other cases can. Far better than any floppy neoprene bag ever will. End of story.
