Killer new GoodReader feature: PDF annotation

GoodReader is an iOS application for transfering and reading files, especially PDFs. The lastest version supports PDF annotation which is great when you have to give feedback on someone else’s work.

Multi-touch versus keyboard

For recent travels I bought an Apple bluetooth keyboard (following the lead of my brother). It is a joy to have a real keyboard for typing longer texts (such as this one). Arrow keys are great for moving the cursor and for selecting text.



Apple has done an awesome job of supporting Bluetooth keyboards on the iPad. This surprises, because I don’t think there are many people who use one. Examples: All keys work, even strange ones like curly quotes. The same holds for the function keys (next track, pause music, screen brightness etc.). Selecting text with shift and arrow keys and the shortcuts for cut, copy, paste work, too. Furthermore, when the iPad is paired with a keyboard, the soft keyboard does not pop up, any more, saving screen space. The only current drawback is that I would love to have an English spell check while using the German keyboard layout (also know as “kezboard lazout” in the exotic circles that have this need).



Yet, the user experience is also a bit strange. It is liberating to have the iPad screen propped up in front of oneself and to be able to move around with the keyboard. But once I do that, I switch to “remote control mode”. Then a trackpad attached to the keyboard makes more sense than having to reach for the screen and touch. This might point to a new kind of hybrid notebook: The screen not being clamshell makes the iPad quicker to operate in most situations. For typing, an external keyboard is perfectly usable (I wish it didn’t need batteries, but at least they last long). But it probably needs to be foldable and have a trackpad. Then future user interfaces would be designed to be operated both by keyboard and by touch. Android’s use of cursor keys is exemplary in this regard.



Update:

• 2011-01-20: The three contexts of device interaction

iPad tips and tricks

Keyboard pop-up keys: If you hold some keys a bit longer, a menu pops up with additional keys. Rules for these menus:

• If you hold and then let go, a default key in the pop-up menu will be pressed. In some cases this key is the same as the original key (“n” on the English keyboard), in other cases it is different (on the German keyboard, “u” leads to a “ü” and a comma leads to an apostrophe).


• If you hold and then slide to a key in the pop-up menu, that key will be typed.


• If the default key in the pop-up menu is different from the original key, you can also slide up starting in the original key and the default key will be typed. This is quicker than holding.

Buttons

• Shut down: press and hold Sleep/Wake button until red slider appears.


•  Reset (forced restart): press and hold both Sleep/Wake and Home button.


•  Force-quit an application: press and hold Sleep/Wake button until red slider appears. Then press and hold home button.


• Mute the sound: Hold the volume-down (=less volume) button.

Scrolling

• Scrolling nested areas in Safari: Sometimes there is a scrollable area inside a (scrollable) document. If you try to move the smaller area with your finger, all of the document moves. Solution: Use two fingers to scroll the smaller area. To try it out, you can go to this page and scroll the text areas.


• Vertical scroll lock: If you start scrolling straight down or up, a view locks into vertical scrolling and prevents accidental horizontal scrolling.


• Scrolling to the top: As mentioned before, tapping on the status bar scrolls to the top.

Miscellaneous

• Download a URL into GoodReader: Just prefix a “g” to the URL (so “http://...” becomes “ghttp://...” etc.). This allows you to copy a URL, paste it into a browsers address bar, prefix a “g”, and download it. Or you can download the current page by prefixing a “g”.


• The first day of the week in the calendar: can be configured in iCal, but unfortunately not on the iPad. Details: macbitz.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/ipad-little-known-difference-between-uk-and-us/


• Download the iPad user guide: at support.apple.com/manuals/ipad/

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iPad wishes

After having used the iPad for a while now, I can now give a more definitive wish list. This post rehashes some of my earlier iPad post; read that post for a wider context.

Coming in iOS 4.2 (among other things):

• Multitasking: Thank god for this one. Even though Apple’s version of multitasking is limited, it does practically everything that is needed while saving battery power. A biggie will be the ability to directly switch between applications, program-switcher style. No more detour to the home screen. Also having any app play music in the background is great. I hope they also make alarm clock apps work. Right now, alarm clock apps must be active to go off and if they wake up from sleep, they cannot turn on the display, you have to do that manually.


• Unified inbox: Using to email accounts in parallel is currently painful. One has to constantly navigate up and down the tree of mailbox folders to access the different inboxes.


• App folders: Giving names to groups of applications should help with finding them quicker.


• Printing: Never missed this, but I’m sure many people do.

Open issues:

• Unobtrusive notifications: In Android, the phone status bar contains a summary of important past and ongoing events (call missed, new email received, etc.). More information is also always accessible. This includes things such as the song currently being played and the phone being connected via USB. This is the one missing piece for completing the illusion of multitasking. If I compare the iPad with my desktop experience, I don’t mind that I can only access one application at a time (quickly switching them without losing state is another thing, see above). I do mind that I don’t see if I’ve received new email. Apple has hired the webOS notifications architect, so it seems that they are aware of the issue. The iOS 4 switcher that comes up after a home button double-click could be easily extended to provide more notification functionality. It is already used for printing and to control sound tasks that run in the background.


• Keeping web pages in memory: Currently Safari usually completely reloads a pages that are in the background and become active again. This is terrible, because it takes a long time. Couldn’t one use the flash storage to cache that data?


• Universal file system: File management is already possible, but only per application. This leads to a game called “where is my PDF”? In my Dop Box? In iBooks? In GoodReader? Ideally, such a file system could be mounted on the desktop and directly accessed. I would also love to have tags, possibly even instead of folders. To make the difference clear: A file can be in at most one folder, but could have zero or more tags.


• Cursor navigation: I still find the magnifying glass to slow. Roughly positioning the cursor with a tap and then using arrow keys for precise positioning would be great.


• More key on keyboard and/or a function key: Having to switch keyboard layouts just to be able to type numbers sucks.


• Hitting links in web pages: Links are often too small and zooming just to go to a link is time consuming. Android allows one to traverse links with a physical key. It might make sense for Safari to introduce a virtual key for this.

More ideas:

• More screen space for the app switcher:




• Could be used to show on/off switches for airport mode, Wi-Fi, etc.




• Use two apps side by side: The one-app-at-a-time approach of the iPad works in most cases, except when you have to, say, transcribe something from a web page in a text editor. Nothing more than a 50/50 split of the screen between two applications would be ever needed.

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VLC video player coming to iPad

This is good news for iPad users: VLC is coming to the iPad. VLC has always been a kind of killer application, because it allows you to play almost any video without the need to install plugins. Having it on the iPad is great. [Source: Mac Rumors]



Update 2011-01-08: “VLC: gone from the iOS app store”

iTunes MP3s: remember playback position

Handy for long MP3s: In the information dialog, under “Options”, you can enable “Remember position”. Then, like PodCasts, whenever you revisit an MP3, play resumes where you last left off.

iPad video: original and spoof

The iPad video is truly annoying (in contrast, the commercial is good). College humor has done a spoof on it.

Cloud-sync your iOS calendars (bonus: PC/Mac)

Scenario: You have an iPhone or an iPad and would like to collaboratively edit calendars. You probably want both web and offline access. Thus, neither syncing with iTunes on your PC/Mac nor using a web application such as Google Calendar is an option.

This leaves you with the following alternatives:

1. Mobile Me: Allows you to sync your iOS device over the internet and provides a web application to manage the calendars. Pro: I’ve heard good things about the web application. Con: Costs.
   
   


2. Microsoft Exchange: You need an exchange server. I don’t know more about this solution, so I cannot comment on pros and cons.
   
   


3. Google Calendar: There are several ways of syncing your Google Calendar account with iOS. Pro: free, nice web app. Con: You depend on Google which is often slow to fix bugs and completely shuts itself off from customer requests.
   
   

(1) and (2) are fairly well documented. For (3), there are the following options:

1. Google Sync: Allows you to sync your Google Calendars as an MS Exchange account.
   
   [Old, does not work any more, all calendars are always synced] If you want to sync more than one calendar, you need to configure this via Google Sync at http://m.google.com/sync/ Warning: works only from an iPhone. On other devices, you need to fake the iPhone as the browser user agent.
   
   


2. Google Calendar CalDAV: Uses the CalDAV protocol for synchronization. By default, only the default calendar is synced, if you want to synchronize multiple calendars, you need to configure this via www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect (source: Google).
   
   


3. Calengoo: Is an app for the iPhone/iPad that directly accesses Google Calendar and also works offline. Has a nice user interface, many people seem to prefer it to the built-in calendar. Con: Costs.

Comments:

• (1) and (2) are compared in a thread on Google’s support forums. Summary: Google Sync is currently better (uses less battery, does push).


• Calendars that you sync between your PC/Mac and iPhone/iPad can be unsubscribed either before or after adding the calendars from Google Calendar. In the latter case, don’t remove anything existing when adding the new data (there is an option to do so when adding an account). In either case, iTunes offers you to remove the calendars from your iOS device when you unsubscribe.
  
  

You can also synchronize your Mac or PC bidirectionally with Google Calendar:

• iCal/Sunbird: CalDAV.


• Outlook: Google Calendar Sync.


• Mac-only: BusySync (bought it in pre-CalDAV times, works really well). Pro: You only pay once.


• Mac-only: Spanning Sync. Con: Yearly subscription.

Related reading: The Google Sync homepage gives a good overview of all available options for syncing Google data.

Making sense of the iPad

When I went to a workshop in California, I made the experiment of leaving my notebook at home and only taking my new iPad with me. This gave me more insight into the nature of this slightly perplexing device. The first part of this post will describe this insight. The second part will go into detail about things that I liked and disliked about the iPad.

Part 1: What is the iPad?

The iPad is very closely related to a notebook. One has to use it for a while to notice the differences:

1. Battery capacity: This sounds minor, but is a paradigm shift. The battery lasts over 10 hours even when watching movies. Thus, you stop worrying about power outlets and just recharge over night.


2. Weight: While it is not as light as it looks, it still weighs only 730g (3G, WiFi-only is a bit lighter); less than a third of my notebook. Additionally, you rarely need to bring a power supply, further reducing the weight. As a consequence, bringing it along is relatively painless. The 3G version allows you to go online almost anywhere. This gives you more freedom to choose where you want to use the internet, while making relatively small compromises (compared to a notebook).


3. Robustness, shape, and touch interaction: The iPad partially owes it’s robustness to Apple’s solid manufacturing, partly to the non-existing keyboard. Together with its shape, it enables you to use a computer in new locations: You can read on the couch, in bed, or look up things in the kitchen, while worrying relatively little about dirt and other hazards. In public places, the iPad’s shape makes you look less awkward than with a notebook and unpacking or stowing away is quick. Shape and touch also enable new uses. You can use it as an (albeit crude) keyboard, join with others to play a board game, roll dice by shaking it, etc. The iPad works well for reading ebooks and PDFs, the paper formats letter and A4 can be displayed well on its screen. Additionally, there are great applications such as Instapaper that help with making content available offline.
   
   


4. Simplicity: The limited capabilities of the iPad make it easy to use for beginners. Where else do non-technical people install numerous apps and seem to genuinely be in control of the device? This is the positive effect of Apple’s (otherwise negative) tight control of the platform: order, cleanliness and safety.
   
   

Naturally, the iPad also has limitations. Even if typing is easier than on a cell phone, it is nowhere nearly as efficient as touch typing on a true keyboard. This includes the iPad’s relatively slow way of placing the cursor. Navigating multiple web sites and applications is also not very efficient (see below). And while there are some intriguing new applications for the iPad, many old standbys from the PC world won’t run, probably ever: Firefox, Gimp, Java, Eclipse, Emacs, ...



Part 2: Likes and dislikes.

The main weakness of the iPad is that Apple gave it comparatively little RAM. With 256MB, it only has half as much RAM as the iPhone 4. This becomes an issue when working with Safari, where the second concurrently open page is usually not kept in RAM and thus must be reloaded every time it is brought from the background to the foreground. Let’s hope that this can be remedied by a different caching strategy (=in software). Only the most recent Macs are able to charge an iPad while it is running. Sync over WiFi will be coming eventually and largely solve this problem, because the iPad won’t have to be connected to a USB port, any more.



The user interface is generally intuitive, but some functions are difficult to discover. Labels under icons would help, as would indicators whether an icon is a button or a menu. Non-touch GUIs use tooltips for this purpose. Maybe touch GUIs should introduce a standard help mode. The iPad should also steal Androids universal back button, that works like in a web browser, but also between applications. For example, if you open a link in mail, you can’t go back directly, you need to find mail again on the home screen. A definite improvement will be the iOS combination of true and pseudo multitasking, where one can jump directly between applications, without home screen detours. Safari would benefit from true tabs, the current way of switching pages makes sense on the iPhone, but less so on a large screen. Safari could save space by letting one scroll the address field away. There already is the shortcut of tapping the status bar to scroll back to the top that would complement such a feature well. Another frequent operation is to switch between 3G-only and WiFi-only. WiFi-only is the airport mode plus WiFi, switching to 3G means turning the airport mode off. This correctly disables WiFi. Alas, the switch back is not as efficient and involves two steps. Lastly, the centralized settings management is showing its limits. Settings should be accessible directly from each application.



When typing, placing the cursor is intuitive, but time-consuming. I miss cursor keys (and forward delete). This might end up being Apple history repeating itself. The 1984 Mac pioneered the mouse, but did not have cursor keys, mainly because they were not strictly needed. Apple eventually added them. Typing special characters such as dashes on the iPad also tends to slow one down. One possible fix for this would be to bind multiple symbols to the same key. For example, the TouchPal keyboard on Android accesses alternate bindings by putting the finger down on a given key and then swiping to the left, top, etc. I can handle one additional keyboard layout (numbers, parentheses in addition to characters), but 2 levels are definitely too much. Depending on what I type, I find myself frequently switching automatic correction on and off, so a quick way to perform this switch would be nice.



Summary.

The iPad is the perfect travel companion, if you can live with its limitations. You can use it for brainstorming, say, to sketch slides with Keynote, but you will often want to apply the final touch on a PC or Mac. I’ve created this blog post the same way: Started and largely finished it on the iPad, polished it on a Mac. When it comes to media consumption, the iPad is hard to beat. For example, I’ve found an interesting book in a Palo Alto bookshop and bought it an hour later from my hotel room, as an ebook via Amazon’s Kindle for iPad. Reading ebooks or in fact any PDF is fun. Paper is still slightly more pleasant to read, but navigation is easier on the iPad. The vibrant app community of the iPad is one of its greatest assets, as they constantly come up with new amazing uses. Apple really needs to communicate more clearly why it sometimes rejects applications, as the current situation is very unpleasant for developers. Gruber has written an insightful post on this.



Related posts:

• iPad wishes


• iPad tips and tricks 


• Recommended iPad apps: the basics


• Amazon Kindle DX ebook reader: review and iPad comparison

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iPad: scrolling to the top

If you tap the status bar in, for example, Mail and Safari, the currently displayed information scrolls back to the top.