Only a little late...

[Philip Storry]

Just quite a few (11?) years late to the party, the senior Apple
editor at Ars Technica tries writing on an iPad:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/09/doable-or-not-my-experience-with-working-for-ars-on-the-ipad.ars

Don't go into the comments. (Seriously.)

I couldn't help but feel that this was neither news nor a revelation
to those here. Didn't Jeff - founder of WOYP - write a novel on his
Palm?

Yes, they cheated by using a keyboard. Frankly, it's the only way to
be productive.

But still, it seems very odd that this is even commentable - let alone
should create such vitriolic discussion in the comments. How can
people not know that PDAs/smartphones/tablets are suitable for basic
workloads anywhere?

Heck, I worked some more on a draft short story on the train home
today, just using Google Docs and my Desire Z.
(Although maybe that's cheating, as it has a keyboard built in...)

Still, apparently we can all consider ourselves trailblazers who
outpaced our peers by as much as a decade. Something for the CV, I
suppose... ;-)

Phil

[Donald Stidwell]

Yeah, I read that story. Of course she was doing a lot of crap that I'd never have to consider. You're right - it's amazing that this was considered that interesting at all. I write on my iPad all the time, but I do use a keyboard case. No big deal.

I almost never read comments on any tech site for exactly the reason mentioned. Seems like idiocy is in full bloom when folks "comment", especially on the big sites. (Smaller sites like Lost in Mobile and the Thoughts.com sites are much more civil).

Pfft. I wrote on my Pocket PC's using FITALY and a stylus using TextMaker for years.

Don

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[John L. Cunningham]

On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 02:59:38PM -0400, Donald Stidwell wrote:
>
> I almost never read comments on any tech site for exactly the reason mentioned. Seems like idiocy is in full bloom when folks "comment", especially on the big sites. (Smaller sites like Lost in Mobile and the Thoughts.com sites are much more civil).

I think that goes for web comments in general. With a few exceptions,
they cause me to despair for humanity.

John

[Bert Latamore]

I still write all my blogs (for InfoBoom right now, soon to move to wikibon.org) handheld on my Vaio UX using Fitaly. I used to write most of my stuff on my Palm using Fitaly. And I take notes at conferences using the handheld and Fitaly or a bluetooth keyboard.

So I don't see that as news at all. Welcome to the 21st Century guy.

So how is writing on an iPad? Does anybody here have experience? Can you touch type on the on-screen keyboard? Or alternatively, can you rearrange it to approximate the Fitaly layout for one-finger input?

Bert 

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Bert Latamore
Editor and contributor at http://wikibon.org/
Mobile Computing Blogger at http://theinfoboom.com/

Associate Editor, "The Seybold Report"http://www.seyboldreport.com/
Freelance Writer and Book Doctor

[Donald Stidwell]

Bert, I already mentioned that I write on my iPad. In fact, I'm writing this response on my iPad with my Kensington Key Folio keyboard case. Using the onscreen keyboard is fine for short entries (like quick email replies, Facebook updates, tweets, etc.), but if you want to do any serious data entry an external keyboard is pretty much a must have piece of gear.

Funny you should mention FITALY as I've often wished we could have FITALY on the iPad for finger input. But Apple doesn't allow programs that change any of the key base functionality of the device so that's not going to happen.

Sent from my iPad

[Bert Latamore]

Donald,

So are you using a bluetooth keyboard then? I remember that when I used a bluetooth keyboard with my Palm to take notes I would constantly outtype the system, and I never knew if the problem was the narrow bandwidth of Bluetooth or the speed of the Palm's processor. So how is typing with a bluetooth keyboard on the iPad?

Also, what is the effective difference between typing on the iPad with the Kensington Folio (I have seem them and similar products in ads, so I know what you are talking about) and typing on a laptop? 

I like composing using Fitaly on the touchscreen because it feels better often and lets me get away from the desk. I do a lot of it sitting out on my porch with my feet propped up against the railing. I do my editing, however, on the big screen on my desk because the type is larger in the display and therefore it is easier to see errors. One thing I like about the UX is that best-of-both-worlds effect -- it is a handheld when portable but effectively a full desktop (large external screen and keyboard) on my desktop. I am hoping that someone will put out a windows 8 tablet like that next year, but then I am unsure of whether Windows 8 will be the tablet OS that Microsoft has hinted it will be, so we will have to wait and see.

Bert

[Donald Stidwell]

Bert, BT has grown up a lot since the early days when we used PDAs. The Folio keeps up just fine with my typing and I've not have any problems with lag using a BT keyboard in ages (I used to use an Apple BT keyboard with my Mac before I got rid of it because I wanted a numeric keypad).

The keyboard on the Folio is closer to the size of a netbook keyboard, so it's not full sized. I don't have any issue with it as I've used a netbook for a couple years as well. The most annoying fact about the Folio is the fact that the apostrophe is on the bottom row below the period, which does throw me off. I'm a touch typist and having a key in the wrong position is a major pain. Also the Folio uses rubber keys (well, you can feel the switches when you press on the keys, but the whole keyboard is rubber covered to protect against spills) and that also takes some getting used to, but once you do, it's not that bad at all.

The iPad isn't the greatest device in the world for using outside since its screen washes out in bright sunlight. Also while typing on the onscreen keyboard is far better than one might expect, it's definitely not something you'd want to do for more than a few paragraphs.

[Bert Latamore]

Donald,

Thanks. I definitely wouldn't want the Folio keyboard -- Moire has a netbook that she likes but I have a very hard time with the small keyboard. And I dislike the rubber keyboards -- I had a roll-up rubber keyboard at one time that I could not touchtype on because of the lack of key response. But that's not to say that another keyboard wouldn't work for me -- I know that there are several of these systems for the iPad on the market. 

I really like Fitaly, however. I have been using it for years, starting on my Palm, and while I certainly cannot match the speed of keyboard typing, I can type on it at least as fast as I can write by hand and a lot faster than I could write with Graffiti back in the day. And the extra benefit is that the typing is readable, unlike my scribbled notes. And I can do it completely one-handed while holding the UX in the other hand, standing up when necessary. 

Apple does have several restrictions that create problems for me on the iPad. One is that third-party apps are not allowed to access the built-in databases, which means no Pimlical on the iPad. I still use Pimlical and have no intention of giving it up. It is on the Android tablets, but so far I find Android and the apps for it totally underwhelming, so I am going to stick with what I have and hope for an updated version to show up before the UX finally wears out.

[Philip Storry]

On 15 September 2011 19:59, Donald Stidwell <donald....@mac.com> wrote:
> Pfft. I wrote on my Pocket PC's using FITALY and a stylus using TextMaker for years.

I must admit I never quite clicked with FITALY. I ended up on my Palm
using TextPlus, which was a predictive text system.

The Android keyboard is close enough with its prediction that I don't
feel the need for a replacement, but I have friends who rave about
Swype.

The one thing that I have noticed in trying to work on my Android
phone as I used to on a Palm is that the "holes" are in different
places. The Palm had rotten connectivity, and the apps reflected
that. It was a different workflow - sync, roam & work, return home,
sync. And you couldn't quite break that without getting a Treo or
using Bluetooth/IrDA and tethering.
So there were a lot more apps that had desktop components, which I
depended on. Agendus, SmartList To Go, a finance app (Adarian Money),
and so forth.

My phone has oodles more connectivity, obviously. But that means I've
never - and I'm not kidding - synced it with my desktop. I took it
out of the box, charged it, turned it on and entered some account
details. Two minutes later it was set up and had all my contacts,
email connectivity, the works.
The workflow for my phone is simple: download, work, upload.

I'd never used Google Docs before using this phone. But now Google
Docs is my cloud waystation for documents I work on. It's not
perfect, yes - but it works. And I don't need to care about whether I
next work on the document on my phone, netbook or tower PC. It's
available on all three.
(I simplify a little, as I literally use it as a mobile store rather
than anything else - copy & paste from Google Docs to a file is the
norm once I'm on a netbook/PC, for example. But that's so I can back
the file up elsewhere, and so forth.)

But because of that workflow difference, I'm limited to what the cloud
will do. Or, more accurately, won't do. Google Docs' spreadsheet
function is laughable. Databases? Forget it. Accounting? There are
solutions, but in the UK none of them have a cloud I can use to sync,
or one that I trust at least. So I find that I can do a lot more
things with my Android phone, but I do them in a very shallow way.

Maybe as the apps on the platform mature, the depth will appear.

But I'm not convinced that most companies in the app store want to do
depth. The app prices are so low that the cost of developing such
depth is probably a bad proposition. The desktop app or cloud support
that some depth might require is more than 0.99 apps can provide
for...

That's probably what will limit how I use the current crop of mobile
devices - and limit it for some time yet.

Hmmm. Braindump over. Apologies for those who were caught unawares by it.

Phil