inputfreak.com» Musings

Mid-June Update

Dower — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:46:39 +0000

Wow, it’s been a while since I wrote anything… I’ll spare the lame excuses and just give a recap on what’s been on my mind over the last 30+ days.

First of all, it’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a year since I picked up my iPhone 3GS, and now the iPhone 4G is about to be unleashed upon us… Sadly, I’ve now succumb to Apple fandom… I confess, I went out today and pre-ordered a 4G. Yes, Yes, I know I’ve developed squat for the iPhone or iPad, but part of me wants to be sure if I do develop anything that I’m on top of what’s new. Probably stupid, but no more stupid than buying an unlocked Xperia X1 on day 1 for $800… So, let’s see if Best Buy gets my order right next week. Now it’s off to find accessories

Hard to believe Apple’s WWDC conference has already come and gone. I wish I could have gone, but alas, timing wasn’t good. I do know two people that did go. I’ll need to pick their brain to see what they thought.

I found out recently that in May, Frank Frazetta died… I know that’s got nothing to do with technology, but being slightly artistic, and growing up a gaming nerd, it’s hard not to have been influenced by him. If you’ve ever played Dungeons and Dragons or looked at any fantasy artwork, you would have come across his art. Frank Frazetta now joins the ranks of my list of childhood influential people that have passed on… Farewell Mr. Frazetta…

My iPad for Meetings Experience

Dower — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:38:24 +0000

I just wanted to jot down some quick thoughts on the iPad tonight before going to bed.
Today, I attempted to use it in some of my meetings today, so off I went to my meeting, iPad in hand. I was determined to use it like how I used to use my Compaq 2710p Tablet PC. My replacements for my Penable stylus and Microsoft One-Note was my Pogo and PenUltimate.

The result? sadly disappointing. I won’t sugar coat, the Pogo just doesn’t hack it in comparison to my nice Penable pen. Now, I won’t say that the Compaq 2710p is perfect, on the contrary, the tracking sometimes is a bit off on the corners, but overall, my 2710p and One-Note was a killer combo. PenUltimate is a nice tool, but I feel like I’m back in kindergarten finger painting large scrawling notes because my Pogo won’t track that well (maybe because of my Zagg), and at times I need to resort to my fat finger, and I’m just wasn’t happy with the results…

The Pogo, because of the soft tip, had to be mushed onto the screen almost to the metal body for it to start tracking, and because of the tackiness of my Zagg screen protector the Pogo just dragged along the surface, so it felt like painting on fly paper. The other issue was my writing/drawing style, I can’t speak for everyone, but when I learned how to write in school my hand was on the page while holding my pen. Well, I can’t do that with the iPad, as soon as my hand rested on the touch surface, a touch was registered, resulting in scribbles where my hand started to rest. So, I had to use the Pogo like a Chinese calligraphy brush, hovering over the screen. The result was an even more unreadable mess. Ditching my Pogo was a little better, at least the tracking was better, but I just can’t write with my finger. Alas, I gave up on Penultimate and went to Pages, since Penultimate doesn’t accept typing. Once in Pages, I flipped the iPad into Landscape mode, locked the rotation and sat it on the desk flat to type meeting notes; a much better experience. It did take a little getting used to the slightly different arrangement of keys on the iPad keyboard, but I was able to type pretty quickly.

So my experience with my iPad in meetings didn’t go as nicely as I wanted. Doodling in boredom in Sketchbook Pro and taking notes in PenUltimate with my Pogo just didn’t work as nicely as the same combination found in my Penable TabletPC’s. The iPad’s form factor and battery life is so incredible, but it REALLY needs a stylus, even if it’s an optional accessory… Not having one just seems like such a travesty!

iPad SDK Beta

Dower — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:09:13 +0000

Well, I downloaded the beta 3.2 SDK for the iPad. It’s interesting to see how large the screen is in comparison to the iPhone. Yeah, that’s a no-duh statement, but you really don’t get as good a sense of it until you try and build something in Interface Builder. You suddenly have this enormous amount of real estate. I’ll admit that even though it doesn’t have some of the things I would have liked to have in a tablet, there is no doubt in my mind that it’ll be a fun device to develop for. Just the potential of a screen this large that’s as reactive as an iPhone screen is exciting. I can see gaming will heavily utilize this. With a screen this large, I can easily see RTS games being a huge (no pun intended) genre here, being able to touch your troops and have them go. Yes, they have RTS games like that on the iPhone, but having it on a 10″ screen will make it a whole new experience.

Quick Impression of iPad

Dower — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:23:30 +0000

Well, it’s called the iPad, and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s less than stellar. It appears to be nothing more than a big iPhone; which to me, is a disappointment and a missed opportunity by Apple to do something even greater. Now, I may be a bit harsh in my initial judgement, but to me it doesn’t seem to fill the niche that the netbooks try to with portable computing. From a development point of view, this could be interesting, since you can probably do more with a larger iPhone, which will address the limited screen size of the iPhone. I can see some interesting apps pop up, and I’ll probably still plunk money down to buy one; if only to attempt to develop for. I paid alot to learn Objective-C and iPhone development, so I figure I might as well get in early on this. I hope I’m wrong and this thing revolutionizes slate computing.

Apple Tablet Announcement Tomorrow

Dower — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:44:52 +0000

Well, tomorrow is the day Apple let’s us all know what the big deal is with the Tablet. Let’s see if they prove my misgivings wrong and make something I’ll be really excited about.

Is Snow Leopard just a Service Pack?

Dower — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:05:15 +0000

So, it’s been a couple of weeks now that I’ve upgraded to Apple’s latest os, and I must admit that it doesn’t seem to have changed much. Understandably many of this latest version is really under the hood, but doesn’t this commercial upgrade then fall into the category of a service pack that I shelled out money to buy?

A coworker of mine made that comment, and honestly I must agree. For all Apple’s hoopla about Snow Leopard, it really is the equivalent of Vista SP1 or XP SP2. The only difference here is Apple is the only company in the world that can get away with charging for what Microsoft gives away for free!

I’ll probably get flamed for even saying such a blasphemous thing, but that’s how I see it.