Sent From My iPad

Archive for April, 2010

I am still looking for the perfect RSS reader, and it just isn’t out there yet but I have two “Newsrack” and “The Early Edition” that I have just recently switched my order of preference. I had been using “Newsrack” which is a very serviceable reader looking very much like the $5 more “Netnewswire” but reading in it instill a poke, poke, poke affair if you want to see the images that accompany the articles. That’s where today I decided to populate the “The Early Edition” (TEE) feeds with the same feeds as my other reader.

What a difference the presentation makes, TEE places all the articles in a format reminiscent of a real newspaper with images sprinkled liberally throughout the pages. See an article that looks interesting and poke it, then it opens up in a full screen view complete with all the images. Want to see it as it appears in it’s original page a button at the top of the page takes you to that. Too long or actually looks like reading you may want to do later, shoot it to instapaper. Then hit done and your back to the previous page, swipe from right to left and your on the next page. This is one area I wish I had some control over, it is a bit unresponsive thus far. I get trying to minimize errant swipes, but your not going to need to worry about that with the app currently, it should respond faster there.

Promised in the next release is googlereader integration, which will be great, but there is another bigger opportunity for the developer. Customized editions, let me group my feeds into folders that become editions. Currently my 30+ feeds are creating a 26 page paper, i might prefer to see that paired down a bit, or at least let me create sections of the edition so my bloggers aren’t thrown willy nilly in with my hard tech news, or friends blogs.

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I like it already, if I could make the editions it would be a 5 star app.
$4.99 at time of purchase.

So in the world of high tech gadgets sometimes it helps to look outside the box. Sure you can buy cast aluminum that has been lovingly sculpted to present the iPad in all it’s glory, for $129, or you can look at the Bookgem for $14.99. Now I like the Joule and all the others, but they are heavier, and they cost quite a bit more.

The Bookgem is made for reading books and has two folding legs and two spring loaded arms that hold a book or an iPad firmly in place.  The flexibility of the device is it can hold your iPad in one of four positions, all of which make using the iPad on a table or surface much better that just the  case.  It also works with out the case, but I have found once you have your iPad in the case getting it out is pretty unpleasant, so better to get a small portable stand and just leave it in it.

Update: After using it for a while it is not all that I will ever need. It is serviceable, but I am again looking for a good stand, the angle of the iPad causes it to slip (and possible come off the iPad) if in the case and jostled significantly.

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If you liked Words with friends on the iphone you’ll like it on the iPad, but you’ll wish the authors would allow for a landscape view as well.  Opening the game and starting a new game is similar to the iphone version only you now use a menu that overlaps the board to do so.  You can still play with your other version on your iphone and both devices will update, so you can easily handoff the game from the iphone to the iPad when you want to.  Sometimes in our house I would like to play on the iPad but it’s not available, so I use my phone until it is

the board on the iPad is large enough that you should never need to do the tap to zoom in like you did on the iPhone version.  Though it does have a zoom view, just not one that appreciably make the view larger, just one that you need to scroll a bit to get from side to side.  I like the overall view better on the iPad, it just looks cleaner I suppose due to the size.  The push notifications work well with the unit, if your in the middle of browsing or editing something with Office HD,  you can instantly hop back to make your move or ignore the notification.

If you like scrabble like games then this is a plus and it loads and plays faster than the official Hasbro scrabble game.  Check back soon and I will show it in comparison.  Overall I would say if your trying to choose Scrabble or Word with Friends (WWF), I would go with Words.  I paid $2.99 for WWF HD and $4.99 for Scrabble and I end up playing WWF usually everyday.  Another component that makes it such a great deal is if you don’t know anyone with the game you can pick up a Random opponent and get a game going anytime.  Not that you’ll need to, if you show anyone you know with it that hasn’t seen it the game pretty much sells itself if they like turn based games.

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Until they release a landscape capable version.

Shredder for the iPad is an incredible chess game providing this mediocre at best chess player a whipping on the standard settings. The program has a great feature that allows it to adjust it’s level play to your own level, so the next game it lowered itself some and I had a chance, by the third game I gave a much better showing of myself.

In addition to being a great chess game, it also includes 1000 built in chess puzzles, and while playing will coach you if your moves are strong or weak, and actually tell you “are you sure about that” if your move is goofy.  I really liked this game and it will eat up your time if you let it.  Multiple boards and pieces make the game visually appealing and all those that have seen me playing it are impressed with it’s smooth movement and crisp sounds.

If you buy the app currently you also get a discount on the mac/pc version, if you enjoy chess this is a great app.  At the time of my purchase the app was $7.99

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