With the iPad1 came the Apple black folio case. There was an abundance of them. They pretty much encased the iPad with the exception of the needed strategic openings. While it wasn't stuffed with protective padding, it did add minimal protection.
With the iPad2 came the SmartCover; that "covering" with the cutesy peek-a-boo feature that puts your iPad2 to sleep and wakes it up and folds. Well, fine, thanks, but I prefer to have my iPad2 encased and protected, even mininally. Unfortunately, fellow blogger Jack reinforced that notion with his recent mishap.
I looked for a replica of the original Apple black folio case for the iPad2 and found that that wasn't as easy as I expected it to be. Every vendor, it seemed, was trying to mimic the new SmartCover.
Even at the local stores that carried iPad2 accessories, vendors were exercising their creativity when it came to cases. Some cases ranged from expensive flimsy and useless, to expensive bulky—making the iPad weigh three times its original weight, to expensive and nice—but way too expensive, to hmmmm. Online was pretty much the same experience.
Finally, after lots of searching and a little waiting it out, HardCandy has come up with a folio case for the iPad2 that resembles the original iPad1 folio case; same fold and tuck.
The CandyConvertible iPad2 Faux Nubuck Flip Folio Case gives you the experience you had with the original iPad1 folio case, made for your iPad2.
The nubuck finish has a nice soft feel, but not slippery to the hand, and the iPad2 fits very snug inside. Colors are (jet) black and (bright) red. These cases are priced at $44.95.
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Apple released Final Cut Pro X yesterday (along with Compressor 4 and Motion 5).They are only available in the Mac App Store as downloads – no disc version is available. Yet again, Apple is cutting loose from the past, and once again, some are saying – is it too soon? (Well, ok, at least I'm saying it…)
Was anyone ready for the end of the floppy drive? Of course, they've only been phased out on PCs in the last few years, but Apple did it with the original iMac back in 1998. Back then, it was a revolutionary move. Nowadays, I can't even remember the last time I used a floppy disc, even on a Windows machine. But it certainly caused consternation back then.
But now we're cutting the cord to the optical disk (and, with iOS 5, cutting the cord to your Mac and its hard drives, if you want). This certainly doesn't mean the end of CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray disks any time soon. DVDs are mature, but Blu-Ray is still in its infancy. But that infant won't make it out of the crib on Macs – it's obvious Apple will never equip a Mac with a Blu-Ray drive from the factory. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation of MacBook didn't come with an optical drive at all, just like the MacBook Air.
Apple is moving on and daring us to follow. But can we? Should we? Not everyone can, for one. According to a study published last year by US Department of Commerce, 30 percent of households have no Internet access. Worse still, nearly 40% of the population does not have broadband access (which is not to mean they can't get it – some can't – but just that they don't have it). However, only 4.7% of households are still on dial-up.
If you are one of those unconnected (or virtually unconnected if you're on dial-up) users, how do you buy something like Final Cut? How do you upgrade to Lion, which will also only be available via a download from the Mac App Store? Apple says come on down to the store and use their WiFi. Well, that's probably not going to work out too well if you have an iMac or a MacPro. Also, you'll need an hour or so to download Lion, especially with others in the store doing it too. That's if you live close enough to a store to make that practical. While you could head to a local coffee shop or other free WiFi provider, I'm not sure they'll be thrilled to have you killing off their connection to download an OS. (And please don't buy it at a MacGroup meeting, either! The WiFi is already slow with so many people on it as it is.)
Another bad part of this trend – while Apple, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and the like are trying to get you to pull down more bytes, your ISP is throwing on caps. Comcast added a cap last year for most users (OK, they always had one, but it was a secret – you didn't know what it was or how close you were to it – now you can find out both). Other cable providers have also added caps. AT&T capped off their data plans for the iPhone, and Verizon is poised to kill off their unlimited plans. So on one hand we have content providers making it harder to do things off-line, while on the other hand ISPs are trying to tamp down the amount of data you use. And it only gets worse with high-speed data. For example, if you are on one of Verizon's new LTE devices, which have speeds that rival DSL, you can burn through your month's allotment in a few minutes. As broadband speeds improve to houses and businesses, you'll see the same sort of thing happen there.
So where will this trend take us? Hopefully to faster broadband with much higher (or preferably no) caps. But how does that infrastructure get built? Because the US already had an extensive communication structure in place for a long time, we're saddled with a legacy system (the landline phones) that can't really deliver high speed data (after all, they weren't designed for it) and are too costly to replace. Countries with younger infrastructure and/or smaller countries have much higher broadband speeds on average. They haven't got a huge, ancient infrastructure to replace.
Is it too soon to wave good-bye to the optical disk and rely on the Internet? Maybe. But maybe, like the death of the floppy, we just need someone to give us a swift kick in the behind and move on.
Last week I mentioned that I would finally have to part with Quicken 2007 when Lion becomes a reality. I also mentioned that I was testing out iBank 4 as a viable replacement. Well, I tried it and moved on. It had no problem converting my Q2007 files (after exporting them in QIF format), and it had no problem producing the summary reports that I rely on at tax time, but data entry was slow. No automatic saves, like Quicken. No tabbing to a new entry. Too many extra key combos and mouse clicks for me.
While looking at reviews of other programs, I found that Intuit had fixed many of the things that caused negative reviews of the initial release of Quicken Essentials. OfficeMax had it on sale for $39.99, and as Intuit offers a 60-day money back guarantee, I decided to give it a shot. I'm glad that I did. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot, but it's better than I expected.
Converting my old data was kludgy, at best. While other software will import a QIF file that has been exported from Q2007, Essentials has it's own converter app that turns the .QIF file into a .QFX file that you can then import. And the interface for doing the converting and importing is confusing, to say the least. On a positive note, it did import my multiple accounts without losing a thing.
Entering transactions is pretty much like always with a couple of exceptions. Tabbing across fields is the same except for the date field. It used to be a matter of using the plus key to advance the date, then tabbing to the check number field. Now, you can still use the plus and minus keys to change the date, but you then tab from month to day, day to year, then year to check number. Hopefully, they'll get this back to the old way of tabbing. And while it still saves automatically, tapping the Return key does not bring up a new transaction. Now — Command-n. Minor things, but they slow me down. I will admit that it is faster than it's predecessor, probably because it's native and not running under Rosetta. Another positive — I can create custom summaries and save the report formats. They can't be customized like similar reports in QuickBooks, but you get what you pay for, and this is a lot less expensive.
I can't speak for how it handles online banking data transfers. I've been a trial balance bookkeeper for 4 decades, and a control freak to boot, so I've never gotten into that. Conflicts with my own system of checks and balances. I still use spreadsheets to compile my tax data, but I have at least gone from paper to Excel and Numbers. All in all, I'm satisfied with Quicken Essentials, and if the changes and improvements in v. 1.5 over v. 1.0 are any indication, I think Intuit is listening to the complaints.
One other thing I mentioned last week was ArchDetect, an app to find all of those old Classic and PPC leftovers in your folders. While it does a good job on most things, it apparently runs into some things that confuse it. Some newer apps are tagged as PPC when they really aren't, and a few are showing up with no designation at all. So, if it flags things you haven't used in eons, feel safe to dump them. If, on the other hand, it's something recent and you really use it, double check before deleting it.
And on that note, a favorite video:
Our MacNews site is powered by WordPress. While the experience is good on a destop browser and pretty good on the iPad it wasn't really optimized for the iPad. You could always use our iPhone/iPod touch App, but that App wasn't designed for iPad either. With an update to our WP Touch Pro plug-in MacNews is now a bonified "web app" too.
What's the difference between a web app and a native iOS app?
For those of us old enough to remember when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone back in 2007 he touted "web apps" as a way to get custom Apps onto the iPhone. That didn't go over too well with developers that wanted to access native functions (APIs) of the device. So Apple opened the doors to native App development for those wishing to create Apps using Objective C and distribute them on the App Store. Hundreds of thousands of Apps later, that was definitely the right thing to do. However, the fact of the matter is that web apps are still useful when the task isn't as complex as some native apps. With a web app you now can get the "feel" of a native App but without the need to actually write a program using Objective C. Web Apps are built with HTML, Javascript, CSS, and JQuery Mobile. These open standards not only mean that anyone can develop an App (using tools like Adobe Dreamweaver CS 5.5) it also means that the App doesn't have to go through Apple's (or anyone else's) App Store approval process. The other advantage of a web App over a native App is that the developer only has to write one App that will work across all platforms including, dare I say it, your desktop/laptop too.
What's the difference between a web app and just adding a website to your home screen?
In iOS you can go to any website in Safari and add an icon (bookmark) to that site right on your homescreen. This will give you a one tap access to load that site in Mobile Safari. That's great, but all it really is is a button that accesses a bookmarked URL. With a web App you navigate to the site first in Mobile Safari as you always did, but when you save that site to your homescreen and launch it from that icon it launches like a regular App and you don't see the Safari interface around it. It functions like a true App with the ability to remember things like where you left off in the App and you get the same kind of animations during navigation that you would in a native App. Also the Web App can take advantage of things like a different layout for horizontal viewing vs. vertical viewing and even some of the hardware (ie. camera, acelerometer, etc. just like a native App.
Try it for yourself
Load MacNews on your iPad (or iPhone/iPod touch) in mobile Safari. Then tap the share icon to Add it to your Home Screen. At this point you can also name the App whatever you like ie. "MacNews". Now go to your Home Screen and launch it like you would any other App. I am still tweaking the performance, but otherwise it should be good to go. Keep in mind if you don't like it you can always access the site via mobile Safari as you always did. In Mobile Safari just scroll down to the bottom of the page and turn off the mobile theme and you'll be back to the regular site.
Well welcome to Friday once again.
Normally I would be elated about now but I am still at work this evening and it's been a long day so far.
Anyhow, one might ask what does this title mean and how does this relate to backup. Well let me tell you.
Everybody is all a titter about the announcements about the Cloud services being offered. What I think is going to happen is that a lot of folks will fail to do their "due dilligence". It will put them into that lazy mode of trusting that everything is backed up and then the day comes that they have to do a restore, they will have a problem finding that they don't have a good backup.
Also, you are encumbered by your internet speed as to haw fast you can restore your drive on your computer if you have everything in the cloud.
Here's what I am saying
The cloud is a good idea, and it's part of the total overall package of one of many good backup schemes. But having your own physical, controllable backup is the best defense from data disaster. You need to keep some form of your backups local. It makes for not only quick restores, but quick backups as well.
Let's just keep it simple and sweet this week.
Have a great up coming week
That stack of DVDs that you have near your computer, in the boxes, the drawer; do you remember what’s on them?
You’ve got a pretty good guess. But, when crunch time comes and you are looking for that specific file, I bet you’re rifling through them all the same. Loading them in and out of the DVD drive. If you’re lucky, you may have a label on them, but DVDs can hold thousands of files, your label probably could never be large enough.
Since OS 9, there has been a software app that has followed us along through OS updates, to help us catalogue our many files, on the many forms of media we own. AutoCat
AutoCat is ease and elegance when it comes to cataloguing media. This utility program catalogues your CDs, DVDs, external disks, and if you still have them, floppy disks, by creating an alias. What’s really great is that AutoCat works right within the Finder of the Mac OS.
Getting past the particulars of downloading, launching, and the shareware screen, you are presented with simply a small un-intrusive window for you to drag and drop your CD, DVD, volume, etc., onto.
AutoCat will then process and catalogue your disk, saving to an AutoCatalog folder containing the aliased information to your specified location.
No files are ever transferred or copied. Everything remains exactly where it was on your disks, but you now have a way of searching for content on those disks even when they are not mounted on your desktop.
I dragged the AutoCatalog folder to the Finder sidebar, to create an easily accessible alias of the AutoCatalog folder, so that I can view or specifically search catalogued content from within the Finder window at anytime drilling down or using Spotlight.
AutoCat is shareware, with a price of $15 for a single user license.
If you want to know what's on your media, AutoCat is a good step in that direction.
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So I finally had time to sit down and listen to the whole Apple keynote from last week. I had read several articles about what was new and changing, but it's important (at least to me) to hear it directly and get my own take. I think some of the most interesting bits to many users is what was not said.
MobileMe is being replaced by iCloud, and the MobileMe service will be shut down in about a year. In the keynote, it showed how your Calendars, Contacts, and apps would all be synced up for you. But what about the things that sync today that weren't mentioned? Looks like no more sync for Keychains, Preferences, and Mail Rules. Even though it has its quirks and sometimes requires re-syncing, I like having my Keychain synced up between all machines. I use the Mail Rules sync too, but not the Preferences – but I'll bet many of you do. At least I'm using 1Password now for my passwords, encrypted notes and the like, so I'm covered there.
Currently, my PPC machines and my Core Duo iMac can participate in these syncs too. But it looks like that's not the case with iCloud. So not only has Apple pretty much written off the PPC Macs, they've written off the initial Intel Macs as well (Lion won't run on those systems according to the Apple web site). That iMac is in a critical place in the house for updating a shared calendar – maybe there will be a web page equivalent, like in the current MobileMe, to do that. If not, I'm not sure what I'll do – I hate to buy a new Mac just for that. Maybe I can remote into one of my Macs running Lion and do my updates that way.
You need to hang on to a Snow Leopard (10.6) partition if you plan to run any PPC apps via Rosetta – that software doesn't exist in Lion (at least according to several sources on the web). Hopefully, you've found replacements for those apps by now – if not, plan on either keeping 10.6, not upgrading, or hanging on to an older machine.
Apple is a company that likes to move ahead without baggage from the past. Lion and iOS 5 are looking more and more like each other (not surprising, considering iOS started from OS X at the core). Looks like it's finally time for me to buy a trackpad for my desktop so I can use all the gesture-based features.
One iOS feature I am excited about is the lack of computer required to use an iOS device. I know of a few people that an iPad would be the perfect computer for – but right now, it's not a good choice, because they need a computer to attach to. With the new iOS, the iPad becomes a viable option for some of these folks. The only caveat in my mind is the fact that those people will need to rely on Apple for their backups. And, if they are without an Internet provider, as they may be since they have no computer, they will have to either run to a WiFi hot spot every night or have a 3G version – in which case they may go over their allotment of cell data very quickly. At least for those of us with computers, we can back up to a local system (hopefully, we can back up to either or both for maximum choice).
Those of us who have the unfortunate need to be on the cutting (bleeding) edge of technology are now counting down to the release of OS X 10.7, aka Lion. As with any major upgrade, some software will fall by the wayside. In this case, all PowerPC apps are going away. There will be no more Rosetta to run them on the Intel architecture, so if you have something that you absolutely must run and it only runs in Rosetta, then you are either stuck where you are or you need to find something else. I'm still using Quicken 2007 for my banking needs, but it's PPC so it needs to be replaced. I've heard negative reports on the current version, so I'm currently looking at iBank 4. (More on that next week!)
IF you have a Mac that will run Lion (Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 or Xeon processor) and want to upgrade, it's time to start looking at your installed software to see what will work and what won't. You can do it with System Profiler, but I found a nice piece of freeware that does a nicer job, ArchDetect. It's faster, and it only scans what you tell it to scan. System Profiler is slower because it scans every drive attached. The only way to stop it is to unmount your extra drives.
I've had an iPad since day one and nothing makes me happier than to see an iPad version update for one of my favorite iPhone Apps. While the vast majority of iPhone/iPod touch Apps work on the iPad, it's soooo much better when there is a native iPad version of the App that takes full advantage of the iPad's screen size and capabilities. This is better than relying on the "screen doubling (2x)" feature that basically blows the App up to the iPad screen size. This usually results in bad looking text and other pixelization.
Three Kinds of Apps
There are basically three kinds of Apps on the App Store:
- iPhone/iPod touch Apps
- iPad Apps
- Universal Apps
The original iPhone/iPod touch Apps were designed around the screen size of the iPhone and iPod touch. Like I said, these Apps usually work just fine on the iPad, but they also usually look really bad when screen doubled on the iPad. You can always run them at their normal size, but then it's a small app running in a window.
Facebook for iPhone running on the iPad. They haven't released a native iPad version yet and they don't appear to even be working on an iPad version.
Even Apple's own Apple Store App is currently an iPhone/iPod touch App and hasn't been made to be iPad native to date.
iPad Apps are designed to work on the iPad ONLY. These Apps won't even install on an iPhone or iPod touch.
TiVo App for iPad. There is no iPhone/iPod touch version to date.
Lastly there are Universal (+) Apps that are designed to work on ALL iOS Devices. These Apps work and look good on iPhone/iPod touch and also take advantage of the iPad's screen size.
HBO Go is a FREE Universal App that works natively on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch
The problem is that developers take different approaches to releasing iPad compatible Apps. Some developers make Universal Apps. These are my favorite because you get one App that works on everything. However, some developers choose to release Apps on both platforms instead of making a Universal App. Usually this means that the developer wants to charge a higher price for the iPad version and that's fine because it's up to you to decide if you want to pay that price or not. Also it means that the iPhone/iPod touch version is usually cheaper.
The one scenario that bugs me is when a developer makes two versions of their App and both are FREE! This is the one that I don't understand and this is the one that frustrates me because there is no way for you to know that that the iPad version is available. If the developer makes a separate App then there is no way for your current iPhone App to alert you that the other App exists unless they build that in as an Ad or special alert. Lately I've been stumbling upon iPad versions of Apps that I had no idea existed because I was still running the iPhone/iPod version on my iPad and they didn't make the iPad version a Universal App. Recent examples for me were Grocery Gadget Free, Bank of America for iPad, Cardstar for iPad, and iheartreadio for iPad. All of these Apps have both iPhone/iPod touch versions AND iPad versions. All of these Apps are FREE. As soon as I discover them, I immediately download them to my iPad and dump the iPhone/iPod touch version from my iPad.
The only justification I could come up with is to keep the file size of the Apps down. Otherwise???
I wish I could end this post with a magical way of finding out if there is an iPad version of your favorite App, but sadly I don't have a method other than manually searching the App Store. Best to stay tuned to bestappsite.com for continous App reviews and perhaps you'll see iPad versions of Apps that you didn't know existed.
Entrepreneurs and the self-employed of the world rarely stop working long enough to take much needed breaks…
But, whatever entrepreneurial endeavor you might pursue, there is one constant: To keep track of your billable time and invoice it.
Unfortunately for some, that process may go something like this, “Let’s see, I worked a few hours on this Tuesday, 8 hours on that yesterday, 5 hours on this today…” Then out comes the pencil and paper. Or there’s the looking around and under items for those scrap pieces of paper with the hastily written information. Sound familiar? How’s that working for you?
Well, if it’s not working very well there may be hope for you yet. Keeping track of work hours is a lot easier if you have some type of automated tracking system. On the Job by Stunt Software may fit that bill nicely.
On the Job is time tracking and invoice generating software that is very straight-forward and easy to use.
You can set up client profiles, create a job, create a task, click the start button and On The Job will automatically keep track of your time spent working on a project. There are four basic categories: Timed, Fixed Cost, Quantity and Mileage. Data tracked within those categories range from Hours, Cost, Start and End Dates, Notes, and Description.
Even with its many features, On the Job ‘is only human.’ It can’t push the start/stop button for you, nor can it automatically detect that you forgot to switch while working between multiple tasks. With that in mind, On the Job does allow you to easily edit your data. And, you can lock tasks to make sure they aren't accidentally selected.
If you happen to step away from your computer, say, to take a coffee break, On The Job detects when the computer is idle and will stop the tracking process (after a predetermined idle interval is reached, set from the preferences). When you do return, the idle time detector will alert you, giving options of removing that time (if you were on a break) or keeping that time (you were just away from the computer but still working on that task).
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