Solution to a slow syncing iPad

I noticed sometimes my iPad takes FOREVER to sync. Specifically, my ipad takes forever to backup before it starts syncing. I recently stopped syncing it to my macbook pro and began syncing it on a windows 7 system - iTunes has been behaving awesome for me on Windows, contrary to frequent opinion. At first, I was careful, and only ever used my iPad cable... but it's just a USB cable, so eventually I slipped and starting using my iPhone cable.

I'm not sure what's special about the iPad cable, aside from combined with the iPad charger it is a higher power charger, but it appears that backing up your iPad (even when it has practically nothing on it - as I recently cleaned mine out) can take ages if you use the wrong cable. Facepalm. It took some reading up on this to realize what I as doing wrong. It's a double facepalm for this even being an issue - I am not sure why an iPhone 3G or 4 cable would cause slow syncing...but it looks like it does. In my case it's slow backing up...like 30 mins to an hour when nothing has even changed. Problem solved though - use the iPad cable.

iPad Thoughts, Part II

There are a couple of topics I forgot to mention in my first iPad thoughts post.

More favorites apps

The new Twitter app for iPad is awesome. There are so many great UI concepts happening, it is hard to describe. Pulling and sliding and locking important things in place. Kick. Ass.


Another app in my favorites for iPad is iSSH. It is a very solid SSH client - I can SSH into critical servers from anywhere using my iPad. While also for iPhone, the iPad's onscreen keyboard is a lot more usable (and iSSH has extra keys available). It's possible to get meaningful work done when SSHing from the iPad. And that is cool.

More games:

• Angry Birds. 'Nuff said.
• Solipskier - very simple, entertaining game where you draw slopes to ski on. 

Upcoming games:

• Epic Citadel - I can't wait until Epic releases the actual game
• Ditto for id Software and their Mutant Bash TV 

The iOS Notification System Is Lame


My only other gripe with the iPad, and this is iOS in general, is notifications. I haven't historically been a heavy enough user, so they didn't bother me much in the past. With both iPad and the iPhone 4, Apple's notification system is showing its age. It's annoying even without multitasking (e.g. current iPad - to be remedied later this month) as it will just stop whatever you are doing when they pop up. On iPhone 4 it is even more noticeable - oooh yes, you thought you could multitask away from this app...except I just froze the app you are using to show you this nice notification dialog! Foiled!


Notifications need to be fixed. Pretty please, Apple?

At this point we're at GM seed of iOS 4.2 for iPad, so iOS 4 on iPad should be a reality in the next few weeks as planned. Any day now...

More on e-reading, and the Pragmatic Bookshelf

I had some ranting the other day on my first experimentation with e-reading, but afterwards I learned something cool to offset the potential downer. I had completely forgotten that I have PDF versions of lots of books from the Pragmatic Bookshelf.

I love the Pragmatic Bookshelf. Not only is it full of awesome books, but books I bought 5 years ago in print+pdf I can now convert and put on my iPad at no additional charge. This is the definition of sweet. All I had to do is log into my account, tell the gerbils which books I wanted in what formats, and waited a minute. There are a couple of old ones that are still only available in PDF - but I can still view those on my iPad, it just isn't as convenient yet. The Pickaxe is a notable example...but I'd say more than 75% of my books had e-reader formats available. Again, iOS 4 for iPad can't come soon enough - in this case for iBooks PDF reading.

At a bare minimum, I know that I can enjoy a good set of books on my iPad going forward. Exciting. Especially since there are still a couple I haven't read yet, and some I intend to re-read soon. There are countless more that I desire...

It's high time I create a bookshelf on this site, come to think of it... I'll put one up in the next week.

Adventures in E-reading

I read my first book and a half on the Kindle reader for iPad last weekend.

Specifically I enjoyed:

• Masters of Doom - a great book primary about John Carmack and John Romero. If you are a fan of the genre, it's a great read. I stayed up past 4am reading, it was so engrossing. I remember being on the Software Creations BBS, which is mentioned in the book.
• Peopleware - Productive Projects and Teams (Second Edition) - a highly recommended book. I'm only half way done, so a full write up will have to wait, but it is a very insightful (and also quick) read. 

Why did I choose the Kindle reader over iBooks? Kindle has a much better selection of books. So far iBooks is 0 for 3 on books I have wanted. Also - the Kindle reader is available on other platforms.

I love reading on the iPad. I can read with a light on - or without. The text was very readable and my eyes did not get put off by the backlit screen even after reading for 5 hours straight as I tore through Master of Doom.  Even though I already owned Peopleware in print, I paid the 10 bucks for the Kindle version anyway. That's a testament to how much I enjoyed reading on the iPad.

All is not well in the land of e-reading though. While I had no quality issues with Masters of Doom, Peopleware seems to be full of missing punctuation, at least one blatant typo, and a chapter that is in the wrong place. I did a quick search - Apparently I  am not  the  only one. Since I have the print version, I have verified that none of the issues I have seen occur in my print copy. What is going on? Could it be that physical books are being OCR'd, or worse, re-typed by hand? What on earth??? Shouldn't digital copies already exist at the publisher?

Here is an example from the Table of Contents in Peopleware:

Actual TOC from the Paperback copy

Kindle version

The chapter appears in the wrong place in the book. Intermezzo should be between chapters 9 and 10, not between chapters 8 and 9. Also, less importantly, the titles seem to have been truncated, and in the case of #8, the quotes are missing.

I found at least several instances of missing punctuation while reading so far, as well as one glaring typo:

"The only acceptable interruption there was a fire alarm, and it had to be for a real Tire."

Somehow a lowercase f turned into a capital T...

Maybe some more veteran e-readers can tell me if they run into this a lot. I find it seriously distracting when sentences are incomplete or I find typos in books. Especially if they are an artifact of the e-book translation, and not something the original editors missed.

Is this the state of ebooks these days? I hope not, or my adventures in e-reading will be short lived.

iPad Thoughts

I bought an iPad in early May. This post is a summary of my thoughts when i first got it, up till now, 3 months later

Opening Thoughts and The First Month

First off - you really need to use an iPad to appreciate their coolness. They are incredibly slick.

I found immediately after getting an iPad that I almost never needed to turn on my desktop at home. I also didn't really need to turn on my laptop for much. It satisfies most browsing, email, RSS, and other media needs. The battery life is incredible, especially for watching video. You can read books from iTunes, Kindle, and Nook stores. There are lots of fun games for it. It's a great web browser.

It has really changed how I consume media. Let's not forget it also does Comic books - although selection is still not excellent, I have enjoyed one or two series that way.

My iPad is my first choice entertainment device wherever I go. It is also my note taking device in meetings at work. It's handy for note taking + browsing our issue tracker + continuous integration + email all in one. It rocks.

Favorite Apps

Below are some of my favorite apps.

• The Early Edition
• Twitterific
• Comixology
• Instapaper
• Netflix 
• ABC Player
• We Rule 
• Cogs HD
• Plants vs Zombies HD
• Leap Sheep!

Problems

The iPad is a device I use every day, but there are a couple of clear annoyances popping up.

1. The iPad needs the iOS 4 update BADLY. It feels like it's a second class citizen now that the iPhone 4 is out and has iOS 4 and multitasking. Apple really better have some extra features up their sleeve, or the wait just is not justified (and is crummy for early adopters)
2. It needs flash. As much as I dislike flash, I still hit websites that require it - some sites even have videos, half of which are HTML5, the other half of which appear to be flash and won't play. This is an issue for both Apple and Adobe to sort out. Adobe because I still don't think they (although as I write this, Froyo is finally out on some phones potentially) have a good, working flash implementation out on smartphones. Also - where's Linux flash support these days? 64-bit anyone? You can't claim it "just works" when basic platforms have had problems for YEARS. Also, 

 Summary

The iPad is an amazing device. Considering it is not only a first generation device, but also the first of its class - a true tablet with great battery life for browsing, reading, and watching video, I am definitely impressed. It isn't perfect - but iOS 4 should remedy my biggest issue, and it can't come out soon enough. Being able to multi task on my phone but not my iPad just isn't right - it should have launched with it. My hope is that printer support and/or a more sophisticated multitasking are coming. Time will tell...