I have to admit, after a full month and a half of an embraced lifestyle with my iPad, it has finally endeared itself to me as a loved pet of sorts.  I’ve been fascinated by the iPad ever since it was delivered, but wasn’t sure about loving it.  But that has all changed now.  One of the findings that recently increased my iPad  ”love” ratio vastly concerns music.  While I’ve always enjoyed music, I don’t listen to music while I work.  I only wear a headset and a music gadget when on the treadmill.  I record music onto a handheld XM Radio device and then save favorites in a playlist.   Infrequently, at night, after my chores and tasks are complete, I might visit an online music account (lala.com was a favorite but shut down as of May 31, 2010) and listen to new tunes to find some new faves, as well as to purchase single mp3s I’ve heard on the radio.  The only other time I listen to music might be on rare occassions when I watch CMT Channel.  Other than that, music is mostly an enjoyed media when I’m driving in my car, either via radio or CD.

Recently my mother was visiting and we were preparing dinner one evening.  I brought my iPad down to play her a few new tunes I had downloaded to my iPad.  The iPad generally remains protected by the black rubbery case that I purchased as an accessory.  The black case has a few features enabling the iPad user to angle the iPad into various positions for typing or blogging or sitting upright to be viewed like a mini television.  So, I taped on the iPod button and setup the iPad to play a few songs.  I suspect that big music fans may find this next discovery of mine to be more of a reverie, a “doh” moment.  It was that evening, dancing around in the kitchen with mom as we made dinner, that I realized, my iPad had morphed into the customized stereo I had always wanted, but never felt was practical enough to actually purchase. 

 The iPad as a mobile stereo allows me to select the music I want to play, the songs that represent my favorites, and I’m sure I’ve not discovered other ways that I can randomly select different songs to play – if that type of option is available.   Wow, a portable, customizable stereo that is small enough to setup on a bookshelf or on a window sill that plays my favorite tunes, and requires zero cords or separate speakers.   I can carry it anywhere and I’ve got an instant music machine.  Love is in the air!

Speaking of speakers, I’d like to mention also that the iPad speakers put out a very quality level of sound with adjustable volume.   I would not purchase speakers for my iPad for the same reason I’ve determined a wireless keyboard isn’t in the future for me.  Adding more accessories means carrying around more stuff, or a bag of stuff, which really does reduce the simple portability element of the iPad as a singular gadget with a built in virtual keyboard as well as decent speakers.  The portability of the iPad is a priority to me.  Once you start to add gizmos and gadgets, it would seem to diminish the simplicity of the iPad, and the dynamics of carrying one little notebook sized item is part of the joy of iPadship.

If you enjoy music, perhaps sitting out on the deck, or on a picnic with a certain type of music available for easy listening, I highly recommend the iPad for portable enjoyment of your playlist.  You’ll fall in love.

I haven’t blogged here for a while.  Life gets busy at times and through prioritization (putting the important items in front of less important items) I’ve been choosing to simply gain more experience with the iPad, and to receive and learn more about the accessories before blogging a bloated bit of blah.

I can now report that the iPad Case is an important accessory to own.  The iPad Case is value priced.  My husband conferred with me as to the price, and wasn’t able to digest that the case was $39.  He bet on the price being $69, and this was following receipt of the case, visually inspecting the quality of the product.   I checked my orders and sure enough, the iPad case was $39.

I’ve had some problems however.   While the iPad case protects, and has handy built in mechanisms to set the iPad on its side or in a slanted position for blogging, as well as cutouts for all of the iPad ports, I didn’t seem to have luck getting a battery charge when I set the iPad, embraced by the black case, on the iPad dock.  I didn’t spend a ton of time on it, but from initial attempts, I just didn’t see that the iPad was making the connection with the case surrounding the docking slot.  I will try again soon.

I just recently received the Camera Connector accessory and slid my SD card from the Nokia D40 into the SD port and into the slot on the iPad.  I assumed it would recognize the card presence, but nothing happened and I could not figure out what to do next.  So I put that aside to prioritize for a later time when I can focus and possibly read the iPad handbook, wherever that might be.

I purchased Roxie headphones from the Apple store that are providing excellent audio with the full ear cushion instead of buds being pushed into my ear.  I can use the Roxie headphones with my XM handheld radio when I’m on the treadmill, and on the computer when I’m taking a Lynda.com course.   So the headphones were a great value at $69 and are colorful, fun and include a nice zipped bag to store the headphones.

Another bit of discovery I’ve been enjoying is browsing through the hundreds and probably thousands of apps.  I’m not one to run out and buy impulsively just because something looks or seems cool.  { … oh ah, well,  the iPad?  Hmm, yea, the coolness factor may have played a role. But as a web geek, I do have a responsibility to stay in the forefront of technology, so it was really more of a business tool.  Right.)    I’ve been focusing on the FREE apps initially, and have a few ideas for possible paid apps that I may purchase once I’ve read all the reviews.  I’ve always needed a fitness and nutritional log.  There are some really neat looking fitness and diet/nutritional logs designed to help track progress and possibly even calorie and fat intake for a bit of effective weight loss.   There are some FREE game apps, and I’ve dabbled there, but I’m not one to spend time playing games at all.  I have too much work to do, keeping up with customer projects as a web designer.  In my free time I tend to prioritize the fitness regimen, household chores, gardening, pet health and well being and whatever else might be presenting importance at the time.

One app in particular that I seem to reference frequently is the Weather Channel.  The radars and local weather reports, graphics and other fun visuals are an enjoyable way to track the weather.

So in summary, a few things I need to investigate and learn more about include:

1.  Figure out the SD Camera Connection gizmo and how it works.

2. Figure out why it seems that when I sync my itunes install on the PC with my Apple iPad it wipes out any new apps I’ve installed on the iPad.  There must be a way to show which device takes precedence.

3. Figure out if I can charge my iPad on the charging dock while safely in its black case.

4. Isolate the fitness and nutrition app to begin a disciplined log of food I consume as well as the exercise and cals, carbs burned as well as overall time of fitness routines.

I posted an RSS feed for the top 10 FREE iTunes Apps on the right column of this site.   I’m also going to be gleaning through those RSS feeds to find if there are others that might be a nice resource to add to this blog site.

…. enough of blogging this morning.  Time for work…..  

Ok, so if you’ve read my first two articles, you’ll know that this blog powered by Wordpress is all about the iPad journey.  Naturally I want to be able to blog from my iPad to share new experiences and discoveries, on MaryMangold.com.  This article will help alert fellow iPad Wordpress Bloggers to the need for a Wordpress App.   Here is the link where the App can be downloaded:  http://iphone.wordpress.org/

So the story goes, after redesigning MaryMangold.com to serve my blogging urges as a guide for my new iPad experience,  I visited the blog using iPad.   The blog appeared formatted on screen perfectly, so I was happy with the preview.

Next, I visited the login page of my Wordpress Blog and logged in to write the second article of the series in my iPad blogging journey.   Now in edit mode, I started a “new” blog post,  tapped the title field and the keyboard appeared, where I entered the title of the subject matter I had decided to blog about:  The Virtual Keyboard.   Next, I tapped on the body of the post and thats where I ran into problems.  Tapping on the body of the post would not pull up the keyboard on screen.  So I tapped the button for “entering Notepad” text, that brought up a small screen and I was able to tap with my finger, with the keyboard appearing, and Voila!   However, I realized, this would not suffice.  I didn’t believe the method I used to type my blog would be the end all.  The edit screen was tiny and it just didn’t seem right.

I decided to search Apps for a “Wordpress App” and thats where the light came on.  The Wordpress App was designed for iPhone users and had fortunately been updated for iPad users as well.  Yey!  I downloaded the App, installed it, and was pleased to see a nicely formatted post page where I could type my blogs.  There are no formatting buttons such as what are present in the standard PC version of Wordpress, so if formatting is needed, I will either try html or editing while on my PC.

Right now I am typing this blog on my PC to save time, and to get to what pays the bills – customer website projects.  I decided to pick up my iPad to open the App and tune into any other observations, but I’m struggling a bit.  Not having been an iPhone or Apple users, my habits are still in the “memory training” phase.  I’ve forgotten how to access the Wordpress App.  Furthermore, I think my iTunes sync last night may have wiped out my Wordpress App install.  Well, I’ll have to continue this blog a little later when I have time to delve into this mystery…. oh where, oh where could my WP App have gone….   Oh where, oh where could it Beeeeeee?

Later….

iPad Virtual Keyboard

Since a week ago, I’ve been using the virtual keyboard that pops up on the iPad screen whenever there is a field or content window.  The keyboard intelligently appears and flips vertical or horizontal, depending on whether you’re using the iPad in a landscape or horizontal position.

I have ordered a number of accessories, among which you probably assume will be an external keyboard.  Well, I have to admit, while I’ve forged ahead to order accessories from the Apple iStore (an iPad case, a good headset, an iPad Dock, and an iPad Camera Connection Kit) I decided to resist the temptation for an external keyboard.  Now this all hinges on my thought that if I don’t at least try to use the virtual keyboard and gain some familiarity with its small size, I never will once I have an external keyboard to lug around.  This just seems to complicate matters.  I’m not pledging never to purchase an external wireless keyboard, but for right now, the purist in me wants to accommodate the built in virtual keyboard.

TYPING ON THE VIRTUAL KEYBOARD

iPads keyboard is intelligently designed with keys that can be toggled back and forth between letters or numbers and characters.   However, you’ll find it is impossible to type fluidly on the iPad virtual keyboard like you might on the desktop keyboard.    I can type very fast and can carry on a decent conversation even while my fingers are typing at my desktop, almost like my fingers are capable of a second language.   Not so with the iPad virtual keyboard.  My husband always teases me about having little monkey hands.  They’re small hands, and even then, my hands can be as clumped together as possible on this iPad keyboard, but still, the typing is cumbersome.    I think a person who has never learned the proper way to type would probably do better with the iPad keyboard because the style of typing is more of a peck and poke rather than using a position for the fingers.  Poking the keys would be natural whereas I still want to lay my fingers out as we do on all keyboards using the QWERTY method of typing.

CORRECTING TYPING MISTAKES

Until a friend who has an iPod showed me the technique for expanding the text on the Apple screen, I was struggling with the size of fonts especially when trying to make a correction.  Now that I’ve figured out it takes the thumb and middle finger to make a “spreading” type slide of the fingers to enlarge the fonts, I can now easily point to a spot where I’ve mistyped, and correct it with the fonts big enough for 49 year old eyes.  Then I can shrink the fonts back down to continue my typing.  Before, I was struggling to use my finger to precisely tap on what seemed like a microscopic spot where the cursor should go so that I could use the backup button (which deletes), and correct a mispelling.   So expanding the text and shrinking it back is almost a necessity, especially when typing text of any length such as on a blog, where accuracy is important.

REMAINING MOBILE AND UNCLUTTERED

I like the simplicity of not having to drag an extra piece along if I take the iPad downstairs, or back up to my office and anyplace I might find myself using the iPad – such as a jaunt outside on a nice spring day  – on the deck, or perhaps even in the garden.   Therefore, I will try to remain positive about my relationship with the built-in virtual keyboard for the iPad.

The iPad is a tool that I am infatuated and fascinated by.  The keyboard is not blowing my skirt up, but in time, I may be able to adapt to the size and the format and hopefully will gain some speed.  For now, if I”m interested in a quick blog post, my desktop computer is where conduct all of my business, using Adobe CS3 applications for web design, logging into various websites, checking email, etc.  I’ve been typing for over 40 years - and while I will find many productive uses of the Apple iPad, my desktop computer won’t be replaced anytime soon.

Having determined I would start a blog series about the iPad is essentially anchored in my desire to use the new  tablet PC widely, testing out the advantages, pitfalls and general productivity trends that surface.

First things first though.   I’m at the end of my first week of a discovery experience with – not only the very first Apple in Mary history, but with an iGadget I feel confident will lead to a very rewarding monogamous relationship between myself and the new technology I’ve sworn myself to, for better or for worse.

As a freelance web designer and techie, I possess an inherent desire to ride the wave of the iTsunami.  Where digital media is currently absorbing tremendous momentum, swelling, and moving ashore relatively undetected by the mainstream, my gut instinct tells me with a great amount certainty that a monolithic force of potential energy has sucked back from the shoreline and is now reversing its flow to crash upon our modern way of life with innovation that could change landscape  of  digital advertising media as we know it today. 

Therefore, my self studies in the digital arts and media will be inclined toward anything that may resemble uncharted territory for the iPAD.

As far as general use of the iPAD, this blog will provide a helpful collection of articles designed to guide other iPad adopters to productively use and enjoy this new grown-up toy.   I will fulfill my fetish for accessories and apps and  share all to anyone (or no-one) who chooses to follow my blog.