In anticipation of the iOS 5 announcement tomorrow:
You know who could use voice commands and speech to text in their iOS devices? Anyone that works with gloves on all day. That includes laboratory scientists and hospital staff.
I've heard a number of people suggest that iPads would work great in the lab for recording experiments. Not so. Any bench worker will tell you that removing your gloves every time you need to record a bit of data is a real deal breaker.
The OS file system has a limited future. This will not be a new idea to anyone accustom to using an iPad. A novice computer user can pick up an iOS device open an app, save a new document and easily open it again later. There’s no need to remember where it was saved. The file system is abstracted away from the user and the app is their view into their documents.
I recently attended a four day conference. The subject isn’t all that important (generally, the interface of science and IT). What is important is that I decided to take the opportunity to test a number of iPad apps that I had only noodled around with previously. The experiment was really about testing the idea that the iPad can replace both a laptop and a pad of paper for taking notes. I’ll always be a pen-geek and a notebook snob.
I’ve been enjoying Dr. Drang’s tales of file format lock-in and his crusade against closed formats for his data. His stories always feel eerily familiar.
I bounce back and forth between Macs and Windows machines in my daily life. My OS polytheism goes way back. I started with an old custom built 386 PC in high school. In undergraduate, I took advantage of the steep Apple student discount and acquired a Mac IIci.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out the Macsparky.com review of OmniOutliner for iPad. He's a bit more upbeat about the release but notes some of the same gaps. We both still like using the app but look forward to the infamous Omni Group iterations on design.
The Omni Group The Omni Group has produced some of the best iPad and iPhone apps available. By “best”, I mean that they have both a highly polished asthetic quality as well as a sophisticated and inventive user interaction design. For example, OmniGraffle for the iPad is an absolutely stunning achievement. The app is better than most desktop diagramming tools. It is comprised of clever little multi-touch and tap interactions that make working with it a breeze.
Here's a quick followup to my recent post about TextExpander on iOS. You can download the snippet file from the link below by right click and saving to your own Mac. You'll need TextExpander for the Mac to import the file and share with your iOS devices. It should save the effort of having to manually create all the snippets. Notice that some snippets have changed from my last post. Trial and error testing has allowed me to refine the workflow a bit.
Reeder is a terrific, albeit unique, RSS feed reader. The unusual take on organizing feed groups into stacks of unread articles takes some getting used to. I have been using it exclusivley on iOS for some time now. However, I’m always eager to check out a new app that is garnering some attention so I gave Mr. Reader a try.
Over all, Mr. Reader is quite good.The feed organization is logical and easy to navigate.
The iPad keyboard works quite well for general typing. Where it falls short is accessing the extended keys such as @, *, #, [ and alike. Forget trying to type a tab character on the standard iOS keyboard. It’s not available in most applications. The tab requires a developer to implement a custom keyboard like Nebulous Notes (which is rare). Consequently, a user is required to tap the “.?123” key on either side of the space key to access most of the special keys.
