CloudShare

I don't personally have use for this right now, but I think it's pretty amazing, I did not see this coming. Running a personal computer in "the cloud" (on distant servers which are not your own) and even on an iPad.

eReader amazement

It's funny and interesting: the power I feel from my eReading device, currently an iPad 1, is just immense. I strongly experience a quantum leap in communication. Perhaps not on the scale of the Internet itself, but far bigger than one would imagine a "larger iPod Touch" should ever have.

It is Reading To The Nth Degree.

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(I'll emphasize again that I consider it essential that an ereader deals well with text from many sources on the Net, not just ebooks. I want web articles made readable by Instapaper, and magazines presented beautifully by Zinio, etcetera. The iPad currently does this much better than the Kindle 3 or any other device I've tried.)

A geek and his iPad

Story from the new Tap magazine, which is about the iOS and apps.

(Click for big pic.)

iPad screen type?

I mentioned that the iPad's screen, despite being very good, looks a bit fuzzy when compared to the screen on the MacBook Air. I thought it would be resolution, but now I hear that the resolution is about the same on the two devices, around 130 PPI*.

So the difference must be because the iPad has a traditional LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) whereas the MBA has the LED-backlit type (Light Emitting Diode) display. This also explain why the new iMac has a screen of such amazing clarity. I am quite surprised at the difference this makes, one would think that the same resolution would look equally sharp, but clearly not so.

If the iPad 2 comes with higher resolution and an LED screen, holy mama, that'll be a sight to behold. It'll need a faster processor too of course. (I wonder if it'll be more expensive, perhaps they'll keep iPad One around for a while.)

The many millions of screens Apple is buying is surely allowing them to get great bulk rebates, making it harder for other brands to compete.


* Pixels per inch, often confused with DPI, dots per inch. One pixel has four dots, a red, a blue, and two green. 

iPad 2 super res screen and why?

Thanks to John DL for tipping me off to this article explaining why and how the iPad Two may have a vastly higher screen resolution.

One thing it will change is reading. The iPhone 4 is very good for reading despite being small, and I think it can only be the absurdly high resolution the screen has.

And of course many other things, photos, art, art books, and comics can benefit a lot, if the files are delivered in high enough resolution.

On a Mac or PC, the interface elements get smaller with increased resolution. This is not true of the iOS, that's why it can be done without disadvantage.

Oh, that 27-inch iMac

I saw the new(ish) 27-inch iMac in a store today. Now me, I am used to the largest professional screens, and also the last model iMac, and yet I was just hypnotized by this new iMac. The speed, the beauty, and the exceptional quality of the screen. The sheer Godzilla-size of it. Holy mamafunking sheet! If you can't afford one, don't go look at one!

And by the way... when the iMac first came out around 1997, it was a good machine, but clearly an entry-level, or amateur computer. It is not so anymore. Except for people who need terrabytes of disk space or special sound cards or such, it's hard to imagine anybody who couldn't use this one professionally. One of my friends use it for professional HD video editing. 

eReader floor stand

Bookholder have made an adapter for ereaders for their floor book stand. I love my book holder, though I use a Hold-It which is heavier for better or worse. I think this adapter will work with Hold-it also. [Update: yes, it works perfectly.]

Until now I've had velcro on the back of the iPad, I think I can get rid of it when I get this adapter. It seems the corners are velcro'ed on and can be sat to adapt to various sizes of ereaders.

A book holder is great for voracious readers, especially for heavy books or devices like the iPad. Also, it leaves both hands free so you can drink your coffee and gesture angrily at the author at the same time.

Glif, an iPhone 4 stand and tripod mount

Glif, an iPhone 4 stand and tripod mount. I really like it. It gives the ability to mount the iPhone 4 on a small or big tripod for photos or videos, and it makes a handy stand for reading or watching video on the iPhone 4.  Handy product for both uses, and good quality material.

I have combined it with the the tiny GorillaMobile tripod. I leave one glif on the tripod and one on the phone, and it's super-quick to change it over.

Annual Tech Show Had Some Surprises and Same Old 3-D

Annual Tech Show Had Some Surprises and Same Old 3-D, article by David Pogue, NYT.
“These companies are like 6-year-olds on a soccer team,” one company representative told me. “The ball goes over here, and they all run after it in a blob. ‘Tablet!’ ‘Tablet!’ ‘Tablet!’ ” [...]
The second theme of C.E.S. was, once again, Technologies We Desperately Wish You’d Want. For the 417th straight C.E.S., the industry trotted out yet another vision of the Connected Home (your appliances, home theater and other gadgets all on a big network). And for the 417th straight year, nobody in Americaland will have any interest.

It's pretty strange all right. Where's the applied intelligence in all those companies? How do they make their money?

iPad 2, wireless sync?

Here's my prediction for the iPad two: I think it will finally allow wireless syncing to your computer. This is a bad hangup for many people, and I admit it's a bit silly to have to move your iPad and plug it in every time the computer has auto-downloaded new podcasts and such. It should happen continually in the background.

Or heck, why even be dependent on the computer at all? Why can't the iPad stand alone? To sell Macs? I just don't know, maybe it's just inertia, for sure Apple has been busy.

Rumors say it'll arrive in February 2011, but I really don't see why Apple would do that, when version one is still selling like hotcakes. Seems more likely they will go for a yearly update like the iPod and iPhone. (The first one came in April last 2010.)

Geekbeat TV

A tip if you like to follow the general tech world, and appreciate a perky and enthusiastic presenter: Geekbeat TV.

Ancient tech explained by children

Ancient tech from the '80s explained by iPod-era children, article and video.
Perhaps the funniest moment comes when the kids are presented with a floppy disk, which they guess is everything from a camera to a credit card.

(Slightly off-topic for this blog, but fun.)

11 tablets worth looking at

Ray found this article, which includes several interesting videos showing newly introduced tablets. I find the Asus Slider (second video) with the slide-out keyboard to be promising, for example.

ibis Reader

I'm testing the ibis Reader, which is quite interesting, basically an online ebook reader, you have your library on their server. But they are also saved to your device for offline reading. It works, impressively, with a normal web browser, and with Android and iPhone, and iPad.
It is a commercial app of a kind, but it's free to use, and seems to be some kind of labor of love on their part.

(I'm writing ibis in all lower case so the first i is not confused with a lower-case L. Sigh, semantics.)

iPad battery life...

I went to a café this afternoon and had a leisurely cuppa coffee and cake. I'd brought my iPad and I sat there for... not sure, but it felt like far off an hour, watching video podcasts. I even connected via my Mifi device and downloaded a few more (in smaller versions though, otherwise there would have been some waiting, over the cell phone network).

After I came home, I plugged in the iPad to charge, and I noticed I'd only used about seven percent of the battery charge on that adventure! Durn impressive when one is used to notebooks, where you're lucky to get maybe four hours total.