KB, I am assuming that your Sky connection is NOT fiber. This means that we are talking speed in the 10-20Mb/Sec range max. Couple of things you can try:
Knock the wireless level down to a/b. This should let your base station transmit/receive better.
Try running with a lower encryption level. Turn it off entirely for a check but remember to turn it back on.
Relocate the WAP to a more central location. Most of the time I find that folks put the router in a lead box then complain that it doesn’t work. If you have a 100+ year old house that is still lath and plaster (like mine) your only bet is a location that is equidistant from the points at which you will do the majority of your work.
I’d second the Airport system, though in my experience, I can’t add an airport express (original 8.11g) to a network based on a third party router (Netgear).
Here in Xiamen, I have a Time Capsule and two Airport Expresses, even though I have a small flat. One of the A-E’s is in the “Study”, and has my Brother laser-printer, and a set of JBL “Animal” speakers connected to it; the other A-E is in the living-room, and currently has my Epson SP350 and a JVC mini-hi-fi system connected. It means I can have music playing from iTunes on the MBP in the study — or wherever it happens to be — and hear it anywhere in the flat, and I can print to either printer from both the MBA and the MBP, and from wherever I happen to want to be. And the signal is good everywhere, and the iTouch has no problem. And setting up the whole thing is as easy as falling off a log. Actually, I plan to re-organise the study when I have time and energy, and then the Epson will be connected to the Time Capsule … at the moment, there’s no surface to put the printer on in there.
In London, we have a Netgear 8.11g router (More difficult to set up originally, though not too bad) in the living room on the ground-floor right at the front, as that’s where the phone/data socket is. My wife’s iMac is in our bedroom in the converted loft two floors up, and has no connection problems, nor do any of our laptops wherever we are, including out in the garden with the whole house (1901 — brick shell, lath and plaster/plaster-board inner walls) with living-room, dining-room and kitchen in between. iTouches connect anywhere.
But I took my two original A-E 8-11g units back to London. When I’ve tried to hook them up to the network there, they have never been able to find it. But when I go home finally, I’ll take my Xiamen kit with me and set it up, with maybe a couple more A-E units, so that we can have music all over the house from the wife’s iMac.
To stick with Wi-Fi on the iPad: although it’s fast, it doesn’t seem to use much bandwidth; tonight I was working on it constantly while web-streaming Avatar and then later Yankees vs Detroit. The router is the Airport Extreme, which I highly recommend.
Non sequitur: I have now used the Multi-touch interface so much that I find myself reaching out to the screen of a laptop or iMac to scroll or create an insertion point. I really find writing and editing much easier here; if MT comes to lap or desk tops, Apple will have a superb interface.
I was just laughing at myself the other day for doing the exact same thing. I had been working on a docked iPad for a while, flicking around and periodically typing. Then I switched to the MacBook Pro and found myself with a fingertip on the screen, and wondering why nothing was responding. It just goes to show how deeply wired some of this stuff is—after having only had a touch screen interface for a few days, that just felt like the natural way to use my computer—even though I’ve been using a keyboard for almost three decades, and a mouse for two. I think it’s more that this is the natural way humans interact with things, and that both devices are “computers” in different senses makes little difference to the mind, the iPad’s interface is tapping into a much more evolved and instinctual area of the mind. If we have some photographs on a desk, how do we move them, we reach out and push them around with our fingers. That’s just how things have always worked, and now suddenly there is a digital interface that responds to that physical reality.
I’m not saying it is necessarily better (there are a lot of clunky things you have to do on the iPad to get around the whole lack of modified clicks for one), for all things especially, but it definitely is more natural in a human response sense, and a big contributing factor in that whole “digital feeling analogue” thing discussed earlier in this thread. As an augmentation to a keyboard and mouse, I can’t think of a better move that Apple could make for their 2011/2 laptops or even iMacs. It isn’t something you’d want to do all of the time—obviously, your arms would get tired pretty quickly—but for some quick tasks it’s a great way to express what you want to do.
I check the iPad Productivity category to see what’s up for writers & researchers. You can see how developers are responding to the machine and seeking ways around its limitations. Some of the latest:
iBrowse Duo: two-paned browser, for reference or copy/paste
Fast PDF: fast reader for large PDF files
ableNote: make collages of text/image note pages, store as thumbnails
Database for iPad: make personal DB files, if you don’t have/want Bento
Keyboard Upgrade: rotate, drag/move, resize, split the virtual keyboard
BrowserNotes: write notes while browsing Web or reading PDF and other files
Note Taker HD: write notes & diagrams with finger, stores in small format
Most of these are 99 cents and new releases. If you try any, please let us know?
The web site has an easy log-in; supply an e-mail address and a password.
The editor is quite basic: no choice of font or style, but standard Cmd keys work.
For copy, cut, paste, clone, and restore text.
The Extras page has links to other apps and scripts helpful to users.
These include DashNote, Notational Velocity, Nottingham, and JustNotes.
Several work with both SimpleNotes and EverNote.
In the section called Extensions, Scripts, and Plugins there are various tools
that permit SimpleNote sync “with any software that can access text files.”
So it looks like there are several ways to get notes to and from the iPad.
And the same is now true with NV; sync its notes via SimpleNote.
You set that in the Preferences for NV.
I’m sure you would’ve seen it by now if you’ve got an iPad, but in case you missed it, I’ve written an app called Story Tracker that runs on the iPad. It allows you to keep track of all your story submissions, and the app also works on the iPhone and iPod touch.
Story Tracker supports backup/restore and import/export over WiFi to your Mac or PC, and I’m in the process of adding CSV import/export. That’ll finally allow you to view and edit the submission data in the spreadsheet program of your choice (whatever supports CSV, like Excel or Numbers). I’m investigating adding Dropbox support, but I’m not sure just yet whether the demand is there for such a feature. You can read more about Story Tracker at andrewnicolle.com
My iPad should be arriving by next week, so I’m looking forward to seeing more iPad app suggestions for writers in this thread
I doubt you’ll be seeing much formatting choice in many applications, to be honest, given that Apple still don’t provide a rich text editor to developers (they wrote their own for Pages). The only other rich text editor I can find - thanks to Ioa - is Office2 HD. I’m not sure how they’ve done it, but presumably they have their own text engine given that they are multi-platform; I don’t know. It’s certainly far from trivial to implement rich text on the iPad, so I doubt you are going to see too many independent writing applications that allow bold, italics etc for the time being. Maybe an enterprising third-party will come up with a text engine (no trivial matter) they are willing to licence out, or maybe Apple will add one themselves next year sometime (it’s not looking likely for 2010). It’s a real shame that Apple implemented this for Pages, thus giving users a taste for what it could do, but have then limited third-party developers from being able to match user expectation.
(Although plain-text only.)
Simplenote is rather nifty. I signed up for the Simplenote API and it’s remarkably easy to put a Cocoa wrapper on it using Cocoa’s NSURLConnection classes (I’ve spent the past two days doing just that, in fact). I now have a text little app I wrote on my Mac that can sync plain text notes with Simplenote on my iPad. Simplenote could be a nice little interim solution for Scrivener users, although of course formatting would be lost in files edited in Simplenote. It’s just something I’m looking into…
Speaking of which, is anyone else annoyed that the App Store application on the iPad is actually less useful for browsing than the iPod/Phone—significantly? It’s not true for all categories, but the larger categories are broken down into sections on the iPod version. Games/Strategy (which is a joke, as most of these could barely even be referred to as tactical, let alone strategic, but anyway) for example. On the iPad, good luck. It’s either viewing the CoverFlow stack or all 1,583 (as of today) entries, where if you select an app to look at, pressing the back button always returns you to page 1!
I’ve felt for a long while that the App Store is a hideous mess and in drastic need of revision.
The interface is a nightmare. It immediately barrages me with all the junk I don’t want.
Especially games, in which I have zero interest.
So why can’t I set up a “My App Store,” with preferences for categories and even price points?
The iPad gateway to the App Store is easier to navigate, but it never shows all apps in a category.
Apple really ought to re-work this. It’s going to drive away those who are switching for ease of use.
A couple more are Evernote, Instapaper Pro, Papers, and Penultimate. eEvernote is a popular cloud-based service that allows users to store and access “notes” of various types—text, pictures, audio files and other content—that are all tagged and indexed in an online database that can be accessed from any web browser. Instapaper Pro allows you to save artcile & websites for returning to later. Papers is more for the academic types, allowing you to carry around textbooks, research papers, etc… And Penultimate is a free-form & drawing app.
so here is what I do currently use for my writing research and organizing on the iPad. I will give you the names of the apps, some idea on how I use it and an alternative app that I looked into, but didn’t use at the end, not because it’s bad, but just because it did not fit my workflow.
Evernote
Use: for keeping those tidbits from the web together
Alternative: I don’t know any
DropBox
Use: “can’t live, if living is without you”
Alternative: SugarSync
Articles
Use: a beautiful Wikipedia reader, and before you say: What do you need that for? Give it a try, the onscreen representation on the iPad makes it look more like an encyclopedia, and it has some nice additional features on top
Alternative: Wikipanion
Penultimate
Use: The best notetaking app for the iPad at the moment, but they need to urgently add text input from the Keyboard
Alternative: PaperDesk
Bento
Use: I tend to organize things of the worlds I imagine, so I create databases to look things up, like Character biographies and stuff like that, although I am currently thinking about rather using a Wiki for that
Alternative: StackWorx
Things
Use: One word: Pricey, but worth the buck. If you are into the “Getting Things Done” Method, this one is the best app currently available, hope they add cloud syncing anytime soon
Alternative: Taska
iRelax
Use: meant to make you sleep better, I create tunes that match the mood of the chapter I am working on, I do not use ipod music for that, because it can be too much a distraction to me
Alternative: iPod music
Corkulous
Use: A “corkboard” App - really good application to do some brainstorming or create moodboards, very intuitive approach, creates visually appealing, memorable results
Alternative: ideaWallet
MobileFamilyTree
Use: The App for the MacFamilyTree Desktop App, if you ever wondered if that character you came up with may in fact be the cousin of your heros’ granddad, this one is for you
Alternative: iHeritage
ReadItLater
Use: I use readitlater to store websites that I do not want to read right now, but later on. ReadItLater also stores the websites locally on my iPad, so I can also read with no WiFi or 3G connection. Currently there is only the iPhone version in the appstore, but a little bird told me, the iPad version will come pretty soon, and it will be a great piece of App
Alternative: InstaPaper
I’ve found this one useful while attending seminars or lectures. Records audio while taking notes - one can then go back & listen to the audio again to add more detail to the notes if necessary.
Thank you for suggesting these iPad apps. Simplenote has already made my work easier by allowing me to sync and edit Notational Velocity notes.
Will Soundpaper work well for doing long interviews that can then be brought into Scrivener for transcribing? Or is there a limit to how long the recordings must be? Or is there a better alternative?
With Soundpaper, as far as I can see, one is only limited by how many MB your iPad has. An alternative is AudioNote which basically works the same way & allows doodling on your iPad as well. AudioNote allows you export notes & audio via email or over Wi-Fi.
Both can be used at any kind of get-together, meeting, seminar, etc… Don’t see why it can’t be used during interviews as well, although you might want (or need) to inform those being interviewed that they are being recorded.
Thank you for the suggestions. Yes, the people I interview know they’re being taped. They’re part of an oral history project I’m working on. The ability to jot down notes during the interviews would be most helpful when I listen/transcribe/translate the subject’s stories. I appreciated your prompt response.
Thanks to Mishenka and omill for their lists of writing apps.
I’ll try them out soon. Bought Things and Bento, since I have desktop versions.
They are pricey; the usual 1.99 floor tends to spoil me.
I like Stanza on iPad so much that I downloaded the desktop version.
Great for reading a series of files that you just want to scan quickly.
And you may export in up to 17 formats. And thus exchange with iPad.
I looked at Penultimate, but there are many complaints about its limits.
For now, I’ll stick to typing or use Adobe ideas for written notes.
And thanks to Andrew Nicolle for info on Story Tracker.
Off to check it out!
Later: good series of reviews on iPad apps for writers at InkyGirl: inkygirl.com/ipad-apps-for-w … anagement/
Covers SimpleNote, Corkulous, Office2 HD, My Writing Nook, PaperDesk, Notably, and SketchPad HD.
Reference manager: I wrote to the EndNote company, asking if they were working on an iPad app, and got back this reply from one of their product managers: “Both iPhone and iPad apps are near the top of our to-do list for EndNote.”
Nothing about when, but they are apparently working on it. A reference manager is critical for most writers, so let’s hope BookEnds and the others have similar plans. All I want is the ability to install a library on the iPad, and then display, edit, and synch entries with my desktop app.
On another note: Say we work daily with Scrivener, how do we incorporate the iPad in our process? I’d use Simpletext.ws or Writepad…Does Scrivener play nicely with them or other programs? (I am sure it does…)
