iPad Archives - Daniel J. Lewis

What the iPad needs most from iOS 6—user accounts

April 27, 2012 by Daniel J. Lewis Leave a Comment

I love my iPad; but so does my wife Jenny.

This is usually fine because she knows the iPad is primarily for my work, so she willingly stops playing with it when I need it.

“I didn't draw dat parrot”

Then I discover that I'm a great artist in Draw Something, and it's not me.

Whenever Jenny plays with my iPad, she's playing under my account. Sure, I can log out of my GameCenter or Facebook account and let her login with hers. But this is not only inconvenient, but also a pain on iOS when using secure passwords.

The solutions is simple—user accounts

This has been a long-suspected feature for iOS on the iPad, but I think the need is only growing. Apple could also be trying to get more money by disallowing couples to share and instead get their own iPads. (I think this would be advised against by a licensed marriage counselor.)

How user accounts could work in iOS 6

User accounts in iOS 6 could be really simple. Unlock the iPad and the screen could be split into notifications for each account, or swiping the notification area could switch between each account's notifications.

The default “slide to unlock” could unlock the most-recently used account, while there could be another, just as simple option, for unlocking to one of the other accounts.

This might just save your marriage.

Do you share an iPad in your family? How can you see user accounts being useful to you? Or what are you hoping for most in iOS 6?

By the way, feel free to add me in Game Center: DanielJLewis.

An Android-user’s first 30 days with the new iPad

April 16, 2012 by Daniel J. Lewis 6 Comments

I love my Android-powered HTC ThunderBolt. I even lined up at my local Verizon store before they opened, just to get this first 4G LTE device (Verizon's first).

But when I needed a tablet, I bought an iPad.

Here are some observations after using my new iPad every day for 30 days, alongside my Android smartphone.

The retina display is great, but I have little to compare it to since I haven't regularly used an iPad before. Sure, text looks crisp and smooth, but the only time I can tell when something might be non-retina, it looks really bad with visible pixelation (like Feedly's splash screen).

Sounds are rebellious. No matter where I set my system volume, some apps will still play a notification or action sound. The only solution for notifications seems to be turning off each one through the settings. But even after that, some apps still make action noises when my iPad is muted.

I love the rotation lock. This makes it easy to move my iPad wherever I want to, and the screen remain as I set it.

Sharing anything is a pain. Android has a wonderful “Share to…” menu that apps can hook into. So from almost any app, I can share to SpringPad, TweetDeck, Buffer, Gmail, Facebook, Google Plus, WordPress, or any other app I install. On iOS, most programs offer Twitter, Facebook, and email. That's it.

Gmail is frustrating. I get that Google is now putting their best work into Android. But their Gmail app is terrible on iPad, and it's not all Google's fault. I can't undo actions, receive notifications, send from a different address, or default to priority inbox. And Gmail can't be set as a default email application, so “share to email” is useless to me because my Gmail is too complicated to setup in Apple's email program.

Notification Center is wonderful. Yes, Apple copied Android's notifications, but I like how Apple has improved on it, and made receiving notifications in full-screen apps easy. However, these notifications are oddly CPU or GPU intense, because they'll cause the framerate of a game to stutter.

Apple wants my Apple ID password far too often. Upon setup, I had to enter my Apple ID password a dozen times in different areas of the settings. If the whole iPad is tied to my Apple ID, then why re-enter the same credentials? Even once setup, I have to re-enter my Apple ID password just to update apps or install paid or free apps. Considering that I make secure passwords with LastPass, this is even a further pain.

I hate “slide to unlock.” There's no way to disable it unless the iPad never turns off.

Typing is error-prone. Something about touch-screen keys, or maybe a sensitivity issue, makes it hard to type much on the iPad. But even with successful typing, there is so little screen real estate left to see what I'm doing.

Battery life is great, even outlasting my ThunderBolt. This is understandable because the ThunderBolt does more in the background and has a data connection when it's awake.

The camera is great, but I don't want to look like a dweeb by actually using the camera in public. Instagram works, but it's 2x'd for being an iPhone app (or would that be 8x'd with Retina display?).

Reading is a lot easier. I frequently take my iPad whenever I want to read. The bigger screen and crisper text make reading ebooks or RSS subscriptions (via Feedly) a breeze. The iPad will display twice as many news items as my smartphone.

I have to buy my apps all over again. I have a lot of premium apps on my Android phone. Important things like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, and Where's My Water?. I would have to repurchase these for the iPad, and I would still lose my progress from the Android smartphone.

No disk access. On my smartphone, I can upload or download a file to it and access that file however I want later. On iPad, I have to sync with a specific app, if that's available. Otherwise, the file is worthless on my iPad (like syncing a file with Dropbox).

Voice dictation is great, but there's no Siri.

Yes, stuff just works. I lose a lot of customization, but it does just work.

That's it for now. I'll probably blog more about my iPad as I feel like it.

Have you mixed an iOS and Android device in your regular day? How did that work for you? What did you like or dislike about the experience?

Yes, I bought the new iPad

March 18, 2012 by Daniel J. Lewis Leave a Comment

It was always my goal for my freelance web design business to be profitable enough so that I could buy a new iPad when they we available. Business is going well, but not that well.

So why did I buy an iPad (that I happen to be using right now to write this post)? Let me take you back to November, last year. I'm an avid reader of several blogs about Google's Android operating system for smartphones, because I have an Android-powered HTC ThunderBolt. One blog hosted a contest for a Kindle Fire. I won.

But after several months, I never received my prize. Other prize-winners had receive their even-bigger prize packages, but I and couple others were still waiting for the UPS truck to bring our token of happiness. It never came.

Then they finally emailed and offered an Amazon.com giftcard in place of the Kindle Fire. I gladly accepted and promptly received a $300 giftcard for a $200 Kindle Fire. The extra was to make up for being late and help me enjoy my new tablet.

With some quick bouncing around, I decided to put the $300 toward what I actually needed more than the Kindle Fire I wanted. That's right; the iPad is a need more than a want.

I went to Walmart about fifteen minutes before midnight to wait in a long long of nobody for the new iPad. They ended up not having the 64 GB that I wanted, so I later returned what I did buy. Instead, I bought the model I wanted from Target and saved 5% by signing up for their Target Red Card.

I've already put the iPad to work testing responsive web design, mobile-friendly live multimedia, and chat room capabilities. It's proving a very valuable tool.

But it's also a distraction (I'm DanielJLewis on GameCenter!).