Spurred on by Ernst putting me on a list of web communications bloggers, my own guilty conscience for not blogging nearly enough and an experiment I’m conducting at the moment, it’s time to revive the blog. I’ll do so, with a post on a *cough* game changing *cough* device, and what it means to me on a day to day basis.
For a couple of weeks I’ve been the lucky owner of an Apple iPad. Well, lucky may be a bit of an overstatement since I paid for it in full, but still.
I bought it mainly because I’m sick and tired of hauling my big-ass MBP to and fro the office, and I find myself not using it that much at home, since my phone works wonders when it comes to tweeting, replying to emails and checking Facebook and what not. But there’s still stuff I just can’t do on the phone and I was kinda hoping this was where the iPad would take over. So far, it has.
To test out my idea I decided to park my laptop at the office and only use the iPad and phone at home. Here are some of the apps that allow me to do office-like-stuff on the pad.
Presentations
A lot of what I do revolves around presentations. Whether they be for teaching, pitching, fascilitating workshops. Thus the app I was expected the most from was the Keynote app. There are certain limitations when it comes to importing presentations from your regular machine, and it takes some getting used to, to work efficiently in the app, but now that I’ve gotten the hang of it, I’m absolutely loving it. I actually find that the limitations in some respects are healthy. Nice little restrictions that help keep me on track and to the point.
Downsides: Anxiously awaiting Danish keyboard support (and this goes for practically all use scenarios) and really missing the option of integration (flash) videos in pressos.
Writing
I went through a couple of notepad like apps before deciding to buy the Pages, but now that I have it, I’m glad I did. It feels every bit as intuitive as the Keynote app, and I’m pretty amazed at how easy it is to adapt to writing on the screen.
Downsides: Same as with Keynote. Except for the video-bit 
I don’t know why, but I actually prefer emailing from a mobile device (iPad/phone) to using the computer. Unless of course it is an email that needs to go on for pages and pages, but I suspect the addition of a bluetooth keyboard will fix this.
Downsides: Since introducing iOS4 for the iPhone, I kinda miss some of the same features on the iPad. Mostly the unified inbox.
Wireframing
At $49.99, the Omnigraffle app is pricy! But for simple wireframing it really gets the job done, and is worth every penny!
Downsides: I would love for it to be simpler to add stencils to the app. It is a bit of a hazzle right now.
Notes:
If you’re not using Evernote (regardless of which platform you’re not using it on) you’re really missing out. It is a beautiful service, and the iPad app does not dissapoint. Syncing notes, voice notes, screenshots (indexed), pictures is as easy as can be, and one of the reasons I can leave the laptop at the office without worrying about missing stuff when I get home.
Cloud storage:
Another service/app that ensures that vital files are with me regardless of which platform I’m on is Drop Box. Being able to effortlessly up and download files and share selected ones with others is awesome. Just awesome.
There are other good tools for doing some serious work on the iPad (Quick Office and GoodReader to name a couple) but the ones above are the ones that get me through a day of working from home or an early morning or late night work session. One app, that is bound to be just around the corner and that I’m really missing, is a decent, iPad sized Yammer app, for that in-house micro-blogging stuff.
Next up: entertainment and reading apps, communications tools, and good apps for small kids (yes, my two-and-a-half-year-old has a couple of favourites lined up!)
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