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Sunday
May022010

iWork apps on the iPad shortcomings

DateSunday, May 2, 2010 at 11:32AM

This is the first time I can remember Apple seemingly rushing a product to market. What I'm referring to is the new iPad iWork suite of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. For those of you who aren't Mac users, iWork is a suite of office type productivity applications, including Pages for word processing, Numbers for your spreadsheets needs, and Keynote for your presentations. Let me first say Apple has created very useable productivity applications in the iWork for iPad when you are just looking at the apps on the iPad themselves. 

Now why I believe they rushed these applications to the market is when you want to move the files off your iPad you are presented with only a couple of methods. The first is to use iTunes in the apps tab to move these files over or off your iPad. Another option you can use the iWork online storage and sharing portal. To be fair the iWork online portal is still a beta product not a finished solution, but still we have come to expect more from Apple. 

Apple in my view is a company that refines and refines products for some times years before they are announced or released. In many cases including the iPhone OS, Apple has changed the game in the usability of user interfaces, so this approach is not always a negative. However in the internet age web services have to be updated often to keep up with the ever more competitive landscape of other vendors offering web based solutions.

When you consider the recently announced WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) track of sessions for developer the lack of OS X based sessions have concerned some OS X developers that Apple is not putting as much effort into improving OS X in the near future as they have in the past. 

So when you consider these views it's clear Apple is investing a lot of it's engineering resources in the Iphone OS to include the iPad, but is all their great talent being allocated to these products at the expense of others?

AuthorCorey McLaughlin | CommentPost a Comment |
Sunday
Apr182010

Possibly selling this domain

DateSunday, April 18, 2010 at 11:30PM

I wanted to point out that I might be selling this domain, there are a number of other businesses using my trademark "Mobile Minds" one more aggressive than the others. While I enjoy posting from time to time I just don't have the time for writing like I use too. So if I can get the right price for the domain then I will sell it.

Should I not sell I'm going to having to send C&D letters to 3 different companies for again using my trademark without permission.

For mobile products and solutions companies looking for a great domain to promote mobile minds coming together this is the domain for you. In the grand skim of thing the price I'm asking is very reasonable only $20,000 US.

If your interested in discussing this, my contact information is on the right side of this page.

AuthorCorey McLaughlin | CommentPost a Comment |
Sunday
Apr182010

Thoughts on the iPad

DateSunday, April 18, 2010 at 10:59PM

Instead of doing a full review I thought I would just share my impression since there are numerous full iPad reviews to be read on the internets.

So for me the iPad is replacing a HP Mini 2140 I carried with me on business trips. I carried a separate laptop rather than use my corporate provided laptop for my personal stuffing while on the road.

As others have mentioned the battery life on this device is terrific it easily lasts over 11 hours. It's great to carry around as I am working ahead the house of hotel room.  

While the number of iPad specific apps are fairly light at this point. Although its has been reported over 3500 iPad's are available, but I've only found 15 or so I wanted. I know lots more are coming it's just a matter of a little time for the developers to finish up there apps.

So I took a personal trip to NYC the weekend after I got it. Loaded up with movies and music it really made the downtime during the trip entertaining. I could keep going on and on about how wonderful this device is, I don't want to regurgitate everyone else has already said. 

So here are a few things I wanted to point out are area's that really needs to be improved.

  1. The lack of Flash support has only caused a couple of problems, but they are there.
  2. I am really enjoying the iWork apps on the iPad but the weak aspect of the system is the ability to move files to and from the device and in some cases content created on the iPad do not format correctly when transferring the files back to my MAC. This is a major problem should you want to replace a laptop with the iPad.
  3. The next one is more of a desire for future enhancements, I would love to see the ability to present using Keynote via WIFI connection to the projector. How great would it be to walk around the room presenting.
  4. I brought the Apple Wireless Keyboard and while I can enter text, you can not move around the device menu opening an closing apps as needed. Its a mix between tapping on the screen and typing on the keyboard. This is not the typical Apple experience. It's like a crud bolt on after thought.
  5. No streaming from my iTunes main library, which in my case is almost 900GB's at this point and growing so clearly I can't move everything I want to it.

But again don't get me wrong I do love my iPad just I am already looking forward to v 2.

 

So what are your thoughts?

AuthorCorey McLaughlin | CommentPost a Comment |
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Sunday
Jan032010

Surprise for Android?

DateSunday, January 3, 2010 at 9:30PM

After years of mildly successful MP3 devices someone finally stepped up and did things right. Of coarse I'm talking about Apple, and they continued this winning strategy with the iPhone.  While the user interface on the iPod was nice it wasn't great until the iPhone. What made it such as success was iTunes, it wasn't the store itself at first, it was the inclusion of a easy to use software that provides a simple way to sync your digital media library to your device.

History is littered with device makers and software companies that tried to tackle this market with long to no success. I'm not talking about start-up's with great idea's and no marketing dollars, companies like Sony, Dell, Napster, and Real are just a few who tried and failed to succeed. Why did all of the companies fail, when it seemed so easy for Apple to succeed? Well in my opinion it was because they made the software to work with the hardware, not just one or the other it is a complete solution. Apple is the only company until Microsoft released the Zune bundled with the Zune software that was a complete solution for managing and syncing digital content to it's hardware. 

I know we don't need a history lesson so why am I writing about this? I have been very vocal about the smartphone market and the great devices that have been released in the past year or so from Google and Palm. These devices have so much potential as both platforms are great at playing multimedia. While the music player on both Android and WebOS are let's just say early versions. The real problem is the same as it's been with all the other devices that tried and failed at this, no sync software included. I just can't understand why Palm or Google hasn't realized this and addressed it. It seems like such a simple thing to address to help your company succeed in this growth market segment.

Well, Google may have something under their selves to address this if the rumors are to be believed. I read a report today on Gizmondo see the reference link below, that indicate that the NexusOne may be designed to work with a dock. I maybe the only person in the world who buys dock's but I would choose a phone with one over one without if they both meet my requirements. As I wrote above the ability for a phone to also work within a dock is a key requirement that should be added along with the sync'ing of media in a easy to use interface.

With Google rumored to have been looking at Lala.com, it makes sense for them to be looking at adding media as a priority to the Android platform. So I for one would love to see them address this in short order.

 

AuthorCorey McLaughlin | CommentPost a Comment |
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Tuesday
Dec292009

Is the iPhone still the clear leader?

DateTuesday, December 29, 2009 at 3:38PM

With all the buzz around Google and Palm releasing new devices and updates to their smartphone OS's I thought I would take this opportunity to encourage Apple to address a couple of the iPhone's short comings.

Facebook Integration

First, Apple needs to at least integrate Facebook contacts into the contacts application, allowing syncing of my Facebook contacts to my phone wirelessly like what Google and Palm already do with their smartphone OS's. I would also love to see additional enhancements such as txt's I receive from Facebook launching the Facebook app instead of launch the web browser. Calendar integration should also be addressed so I can see events I have stated I'm going to inline in my calendar app. This could be expanded to included location information that would launch Google Maps so I know exactly where we will be meeting our friends. The last piece Apple should address just to stay on par is to integrate the Photos app to allow viewing on my Facebook photo's without having to launch the Facebook app.

Twitter Integration

Again it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that added Twitter integration is an area that the iPhone needs to address. While some people may be happy with 3rd party app providing the interface into Twitter, I for one want to see at least Twitter usernames included in my contact records and with Twitter adding Geo-Location information to it's service having the ability to store and post all of this information directly within my messaging app could be a great addition. Again, the ability for the iPhone to handle txt messages from services like Twitter is an area Apple could differentiate the iPhone. 

Background Apps

After using Android and WebOS for the past few months, it's becoming clear there are many times it is useful to have apps running in the background. Grated it's not every app that needs to run in the background and the addition of push notifications has helped but does not completely meet all situations where I need to access data from several apps. Should Apple address how notifications are displayed and how I can review them after I unlock my phone would go along way to addressing this.

Clearly Apple's iPhone is still the market leader that every other smartphone is compared too. However if Apple doesn't address some of these shortcomings Google's Android or Palm's WebOS will become more attractive alternatives to the iPhone. This is not to say that Google and Palm don't have work to do on their end, which they both clearly do.

AuthorCorey McLaughlin | Comment1 Comment |
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