I’m going to create a blog posting today using the Dragon dictation program for the iPad. I’m really taking a look at two different technologies here. One obviously I’m looking at the Dragon program on the iPad. I downloaded this a while ago but I actually have not had a chance to do much productive with it. I’ve tried a few trivial examples but nothing substantial. The other thing that I’m looking at is the Google priority inbox. I spent a while earlier this week looking at Google priority inbox and trying to see if it makes sense for me to use it. Our office uses Google apps for education and that gives me a great platform with a broad set of e-mail to use. Priority inbox actually does seem to make a lot of sense. Priority inbox doesn’t replace the inbox in just, just adding an additional inbox view, and it was actually one of the things I was wondering about initially. I was concerned that it was going to change and replace the inbox view. One of the things that makes priority inbox more useful it is to set up several filters so that important messages , such as e-mail from your boss or others that you wish to respond to in a timely fashion is tagged as important. 

I have tried to go back and do some editing using Dragon. It’s actually not that hard to do. However, I’m switching back and forth between keyboard mode and dictation mode as I try to change precisely what I want to affect. 

Dragon actually seems to do a better job of taking dictation that I do of generating the words that it’s trying to interpret. I think that it’s very significant learning curve for the user. 

Overall I’m very pleased with the program and for the price, free, it’s hard to beat. 

Apple really tries to make things simple, and it should have been a 10 minute job but it ended up taking an hour. I wanted to extend my home wireless network, as the coverage on the patio and porch has been weaker than I’d like to have. The porch in particular was weak. I use an Apple Airport Extreme (in the DMZ of my 2Wire Uverse router) and the Apple access points have network extension settings built into the setup dialog. I picked up an Airport Express from the Apple store. Power up the new Airport and set to extend the network. ‘cept it didn’t work! The Express connected to the Extreme, but it gave an error extending the network. Looked in the log, and the Express updated its time via NTP thru the Extreme but no extension of the network. Moved the Express to the same room as the Extreme, so there was not a range problem. No good. Checked and re-checked and retyped the helpfully copied SSID and password. No good. Then, as I poked around the Extreme configuration looking for clues, there it was…a checkbox that said “allow this network to be extended.” Clicked that, and suddenly all was happy, and my network is extended 🙂

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.

As I drove home from work today, as usual I listened to the podcast of The Economist magazine. They read a story about the recent flurry of press activity and governmental proclamations around the press release from Google that Google had inadvertently collected wifi data with the street view vehicles. I have a couple of thoughts about this:

1) Inadvertent? Hah! It was not wise, but I doubt it was unintentional by the developers who loaded the code.

2) However, what’s the big deal? This was unencrypted wifi data from folks who didn’t care about the security of their data! Geez. Get over it, and worry more about changes in Facebook privacy settings, where I do think there should be scrutiny and review.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!