July 2, 2010 by Joel.

I had the occasion to participate in a GoToMeeting session today. Pretty normal stuff, except that I did it from my iPad using the GoToMeeting app. I was very pleased with the crisp updates of the slide deck and the rock solid audio, even as I walked around the yard, iPad in hand.

I’ve also used the Citrix XenApp receiver to test, but only with the Citrix backend infrastructure. However, it works nicely. These are two good apps. Looking forward to a chance to use the receiver with a pilot Citrix deployment UNCG is putting in this summer.

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May 23, 2010 by Joel.

An article in today’s NYTimes magazine has me thinking about the state of the Internet. While I understand the author’s concern about the segmentation of the ‘net experience, I think that this is a natural evolution. I’ve been running web servers since 1993, and have watched things evolve from “gee, isn’t this so cool that it works” to “OMG, how do we keep the bad guys out of our workstations and servers.” Read Fatal System Error to get a picture of who’s behind the malware on your computer. The key for a successful walled garden is to provide an effective tradeoff between protection and restriction. Is Apple’s too restrictive? If so, vote with your wallet and move to Android. I think that Android will provide the measure of healthy competition that will keep Apple innovating and which will keep them from too much lock-in of functionality. The problem is that today’s personal computers (PC and Mac) are too complex and configurable. The industry is maturing, and becoming more appliance-like. The next few years will see more people eschewing traditional home computers for appliances - tablets like the iPad and the cascade of Android tablets that will appear soon, TV’s with network media consumption abilities, smart phones, and more. We’ll have a computer in the home for keyboard-centric activities, but not one per family member, as the appliances will take on “personal” computing roles, and that’s itself a transient condition.

Don’t be wistful about the Internet of yore, as this is not the “beginning of the end”; this is the “end of the beginning” of the personal digital revolution.

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May 11, 2010 by Joel.

I’ll admit to being a bit skeptical about this, but as I think that “citrix-type” desktop virtualization is one of the best ways forward to maintain reasonable protection of organizational data (it’s just too darn hard to protect dozens, hundreds or thousands of full featured desktops in an organization), I decided to download the free iPad app and take a look. I’m pretty impressed! They let you create a demo account (not sure how long it persists) that gives you access to a Windows environment with Microsoft Office 2010 and some other tools. It took me a few minutes to figure out navigation, popping up the keyboard, “right” clicks, “Ctrl” key sequences, etc. I actually read the help and it was quite helpful!

Using Word was straightforward, though you do have to switch between scrolling and non-scrolling mode to scroll the display pane rather than move the screen. Pinch and zoom works to make small features easier to click. I went thru a Powerpoint presentation, even “right clicking” to back up slides. I did not try to see if it works with the VGA output.

I think that we’re going to continue to see an avalanche of useful business and productivity apps on the iPad…and with Android tablets right around the corner, Apple’s going to have to keep pushing the iPad platform aggressively, and to do that, they need to court the developer community…a virtuous cycle!

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May 9, 2010 by Joel.

I’ve been loading several apps on my iPad over the past few days as I work on getting things set to support my use of the iPad. I’ve found that many of the apps from the iPod/iPhone world are not needed due to the improved browser capabilities of the iPad. Facebook is a good example, though they could create a cool app that would beat the browser interface.

Of the free apps, the ABC app is cool, but I don’t use it. I really like the NPR app and I do use that one, as well as the Reuters News app. Accuweather is another nice one.

I splurged and bought the iWork apps, and I like them quite a lot. I think that Keynote and Pages will be the ones I use primarily. They are slick and full-featured. VGA output on Keynote is very cool, with good quality 1024×768 output thru the dongle. One of the apps with the best value for the money is Goodreader. This app allows access to WebDAV servers, etc, and makes it simple for me to read and write to iDisk, for example. Also, it has the ability to access zip files (open or create) which is very handy.

Continuing this random list of things I’ve found is Topomaps, which is (for a boy scout like me) a highly cool app. Download any USA topo sheet, and once downloaded you don’t have to have a connection to view the map. Uses the GPS to allow you to locate yourself. Can store waypoints. Doesn’t integrate with the compass yet, but I emailed the developer (who responded in 15 minutes!) and he’s planning to add that feature in a future release.

I’ll post more app thoughts as I have them!

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May 2, 2010 by Joel.

I got my own iPad on Friday the 30th, so I’ve had it three days now. While I had the opportunity to use Jan’s some over the last month, it’s not the same as having your own. I can safely say that I’m just as pleased as I thought I’d be, and my expectations were high. I’ve synched my old iPod touch apps, but many of the old apps aren’t going to get much use. They are ok, but there is a big difference in an app designed for the iPad. I have bought the iWork apps and they are very elegant and amazingly functional. I’ve loaded my music library, a few movies/TV shows, some podcasts, etc. It’s wonderful for email, outstanding for web browsing, and a pleasure to hold and use. Battery life is phenomenal.

There are a few things in the browser that are awkward or don’t work, but very few. When you consider that this is the first release of the iPad, it’s incredible how well it hits it’s design goals. Version 4.0 of the OS, due in the fall, will be exciting.

My office laptop will stay docked, and I’ll be carrying the iPad. Viva la difference!

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April 24, 2010 by Joel.

It’s been 3 weeks since Jan got her WiFi iPad. My 3G+WiFi arrives next Friday, 4/30. Can’t wait. As you know if you read this blog, I first commented on the iPad back at the end of January when it was first announced. After having seen and used Jan’s iPad for a few weeks, I’m even more convinced that I’m right about the device.

Let’s talk about several aspects of the iPad.

Performance. The A4 processor delivers snappy performance. As you rotate the iPad through a 360 degree turn, the screen morphs quickly to each new orientation. There is no up or down to the iPad. Web pages render quickly and crisply. I don’t have an iPhone, but I do have a first-gen iPod Touch. It too is an elegant device, but pages on Safari render slowly, unlike the iPad where it’s just there. Multi-touch zoom is so fast that it feels entirely natural.

Form factor. The iPad feels “right.” The screen is big enough for most web pages, but the device is comfortable the size of a thin book (Jan has the Apple case on hers, I have the case but no iPad ). Weight is minimal, esp. when compared to a laptop. I’m looking forward to not lugging my laptop around campus.

Battery. David Pogue said that he could get 12 hours of video playback. We’ve never even gotten the battery level on Jan’s down do 50%. Other pundits have said that 10 hours is conservative, too.

Apps. Yep, you can download zillions of apps. Most are not iPad optimized (and it does make a difference), but you can you iPhone/iPad apps quite happily. They work well, just not with the video resolution of the iPad native apps.

Security. OK, so the browser on iPhone OS was cracked at Pwn20wn, but so was everything but Chrome. It’s still orders of magnitude more secure than using MSIE under Windows. The Walled Garden is a good model. With Citrix apps, support for 802.1x authentication, VPN support, etc. for the iPad, it’s a device that can play in the enterprise. It’s not as open as Android, but each app that’s available to a non-jailbreak device is vetted to some degree by Apple, and that oversight is not a bad thing as I reflect on the state of computer insecurity these days.

Functionality. So you can’t run everything on it. But with 150,000 apps, geez…you can generally find what you want.

So, what’s not to like? it’s not a laptop. Don’t try to make it one. However, it will so so much that folks use laptops for. I’ll convert my work laptop to a virtual desktop (i.e. it will stay in its dock) and I’ll carry the iPad. Typing works reasonably well, but it’s not a physical keyboard. If you really need a keyboard, get an Apple bluetooth keyboard for use with the iPad and you are set. It’s not a phone. You can’t make calls with it and you will carry your phone. However, the iPad is a “cloud portal appliance” and it excels at that (raspberries to Google for not supporting docs editing on mobile Safari browsers).

Am I happy I’ve ordered one? You bet! I enjoy the 10 minutes per day that Jan lets me play with her iPad and I can’t wait until 4/30!

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March 15, 2010 by Joel.

I just left a meeting, and in the post-meeting discussions, I was talking with a colleague about computer security. I wanted to write this down, as I’m getting more passionate about limited functionality, walled garden devices.

I wear the hat (among many others) of managing the UNCG information security office, and I’ve seen the challenges we’ve had coping with the deluge of new threats and system problems of the last couple of months. It’s not just here, but a part of a larger phenomenon. I am much less sanguine, day by day, that we can protect the “organizational” (corporate, university, etc.) general purpose computing device at scale. Sure, you can do a decent job protecting some, but it’s very labor intensive and takes a lot of user education. I talked with my colleague about thin-client solutions being our likely future, and I think that this is true. Now, on to some more radical thinking. I believe we’re seeing the beginning of the end of the general purpose device as the standard end-user tool. As I walked back to my office, I was reflecting on my recent iPad order, and I believe that such devices (the iPad won’t be perfect, but it’s a great example of the class of device I’m describing) are what we’ll be using. Reasonably extensible via easy-to-install applications, and applications vetted by a central entity. Reasonably flexible in what you can do, but very hard to shoot yourself in the metaphorical foot. I believe in net neutrality, and I believe in the need for general purpose devices, but not for everyone. They are complicated, a lot of work to maintain and patch, and far too easy to compromise.

The future is with thin client/tightly managed desktops in business, where it harkens back to my old mainframe terminal days, and for personal computing, cloud-based services accessed via a walled garden appliance. Think about it. It’s coming…

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March 12, 2010 by Joel.

Today’s March 12th, the day to place iPad pre-orders. As you know, I’m a fan of the iPad concept, and am eagerly looking forward to its arrival. Jan is getting a WiFi-only model (baseline 16GB model) and I’m getting a 3G model with 32GB. That means she will get hers first, and I’ll really have a jones for mine in about 3 weeks.

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February 14, 2010 by Joel.

I signed up for the current Google/Eye-Fi promo, pay $50 for 200GB for a year across Gmail, Picasa, and Docs, and receive an Eye-Fi card. Not a bad deal. Do I really need 200GB of Google storage? Likely not, and I will probably drop back to 5 or 10GB next year at either $5 or $10 annually (but still a customer, oh clever Google!). The card is a 4GB SD that supports both pictures and video; the card seems to be functionally equivalent to the Share Video model listed for $79.99 on the website, though the label looks slightly different. I had no trouble getting it to work in my Canon A590, looks exactly like the 4GB card I took out. Amazing that they can get the WiFi functionality in there, but I’m easily amused . So far, I’ve taken just a couple dozen pictures. They appear automagically on my Mac in iPhoto. I had the first batch go to Mobile.Me but I have it configured right now to send to Picasa. I figure I might as well use the storage I’m paying for. I’ve configured it for three networks so far, my home network, the network at the beach house, and the network config that’s in use at my sister’s house and my parent’s house. We’ll see how it works from another location. It’s supposed to actually dump the pictures back on my home Mac (assuming it’s turned on) when I upload from another location, as well as the web upload. So far, so good! I’ve always wanted to try this, and it looks like it’s going to be a success.

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January 30, 2010 by Joel.

OK, I’ll confess up front that I am predisposed to like Apple products. We’re a Mac household (with a legacy PC holdover from Apple’s pre-OSX days in the wilderness). I’d have an iPhone, but my carrier is Verizon. I do have an iPod Touch that I love. However, I don’t think of myself so much as a fanboy but as one who appreciates the design, integration and operation of the Apple ecosystem.

I’ve reflected on the iPad and the more I think on it the more I believe that it has really hit a niche that it will very successfully exploit, though I think it’s going to be the Christmas season of 2010 before it really rockets. It will take a while for folks to realize what this is. Let’s talk about it, but first let’s talk about what it’s not.

1) it’s not a phone. It’s too big. You won’t carry it everywhere, but you will carry it with you wherever you’d carry a book, a newspaper, a magazine, etc., and at home, it will likely live on your coffee table or end table.
2) it’s not a laptop. Don’t try to make it one. You’ll access media, messages, and richly formated information. You won’t use for mondo spreadsheet modeling, for writing your thesis, or for doing your taxes.

It is, as Jobs said, the third device. You’ll carry a phone. However, with the iPad close by, you’ll need to use the tiny screen of the phone less often for serious email, browsing, etc. Demographics will help Apple here, so bear with me. No matter what you do, the size of the screen that you can put in your pocket is limited. Us “boomers” with eyes that don’t focus as quickly, as crisply, etc. as they used to will just not ever be as able to do a bunch of work on the screen real estate of a smartphone. I carry a Blackberry and use it for a number of things, but mostly for quick info fixes or quick notes. Anything extensive (like writing this post) and I want to have more space to see and input data. I love my iPod Touch, and think it’s really (with the 140,000 available apps) a true pocket computer. I think that these devices, and the new Android phones and others like them will be our constant companions. However, they have limitations, and you have to realize that. Heck, I had Newtons, Palm Pilots, etc., so I’ve been trying to figure out these pocket devices for a long time. Size is their strength. Size is their Achilles heel.

The next device you’ll have is your computer. It may be a desktop or laptop. That’s a matter of preference, but I’m tending to think that the iPad will continue to push me back to the desktop and away from my Macbook. I use an iMac as my “primary” home machine, with a Mini as a media center machine. The Macbook is a work computer but I am edging toward a desktop environment there as well. I spend a lot of time in meetings, and while I often take a laptop, I don’t do much more than updating google docs, quick web-based email, or adding to web-based task lists. Let me keep it in the cloud! All lightweight tasks for which I schlep 5 pounds of computer around, plus a power brick.

Here’s where the iPad comes in. One and a half pounds, the size of a notepad. Effective for taking notes to cloud-based services. Google docs, Evernote, etc., or to the iPad-native notes database (which can be synched with Mobile Me, I’m sure, as it can on the iPod/iPhone). Effective for web-based email. Effective for quickly browsing up a few facts during the meeting.

When you head home, it has your digital music for the drive (or podcasts of magazines in my case), or streaming via Pandora (or your favorite). When you get home, you put it by the sofa. After dinner, you’ll chill watching CSI and multitask by doing email or casual web surfing. Oh, you want to watch something else while your spouse is using the main TV? Do so right on the iPad with a nice sized screen (using only one of the ear phones so you can hear your spouse!). Want to read a book? It’ll be great on the iPad (and you can even read your Kindle books through the iPad Kindle app). This morning I looked at the 6″ of snow at the end of my driveway and the trackless cul-de-sac and my lack of a morning newspaper. Would have been nice to read it online on his and her iPads rather than the his and her Macbooks that we used. More room in the lap for the cat, too!

It’s the third device…not the phone, not the primary computer, but the cloud portal information appliance. Don’t try to make it your smartphone (but you can Skype). Don’t try to make your laptop (but you can use iWork and have VGA output). It’s a new category that neatly fills the gap. It will catch on. The key, and I think the reason that Apple configured it the way they did, is the existence of the 140,000 apps and a zillion developers extending functionality. Some apps are trivial but many are very useful; a whole ecosystem of apps. And, yeah, you give up configurability and it won’t run your laptop apps, but that’s missing the point. It’s not a Netbook, which is just a smaller underpowered laptop with all the complexity. The iPad is simple. Pull it out of the box and use it. Hard to mess up. A closed system so you don’t have to worry as much about malware. A new class of device. I can’t wait!

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