The Productive Organizer

This morning, Steve Jobs Unveiled their tablet device called iPad. What do i think of it?

Specs

• Display: 9.7″ IPS capacitive display, resolution unknown as of yet. Resolution of 1024 x 768
• Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Thickness: 0.5″
• CPU: The Apple A4, a 1GHz ARM-based CPU powers the iPad.
• Input: An on-screen keyboard is used for text, or an optional keyboard can be used. Gestures and touch also work. There is no handwriting input or recognition.
• Connectivity: 802.11n Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, a U.S. contract-free 3G option is available for $14.99 for 250 MB per month or unlimited for $29.99 a month on AT&T which includes free AT&T hotspots. International deals by June, but all iPad 3G models are unlocked.
• Storage: 16 to 64 GB of flash memory
• Battery: Integrated 25 W/hr battery rated at 10 hours of video watching, web surfing over Wi-Fi or listening to audio.
• Peripherals: A keyboard dock will charge the iPad. A case will also be available.

I think its great specs. But its not game changing specs. These Specs are comparable to tablet device we will see coming out nowadays such as the Archos 5. Its actually better!

I believe all the Apple Wannabes will be following this specs.

Pricing

$499 for the base model with 16GB. $599 for 32 GB. $699 for 64GB. 3G adds $130 to any non-3G model.

Seriously i think this price is not bad at all especially for the WIFI only model at USD 500. That will be around SGD 730 which will feel the same as my MSI Wind Netbook.

It is abit steep from my SGD600 buying point but i will go for it if i need it for reasons i will explain below. This device currently commands a USD100 premium over other device.

When will it be available

Shipping in 60 days for Wi-Fi models, 3G models to follow 30 days prior.

What is it attacking?

From the size of the iPad it is fighting the Kindle definitely but also providing that variety for my favorite device space currently which is 5 inch to 7 inch device.

Will it work? I believe it will nullify their threat, especially Android.

Why will it work?

This ecosystem that apple is building with iTunes as the main entertainment operating system is getting so strong.

Because they are so strong they are essentially becoming like a media company. Now not just providing reasonable price Songs, Videos, Games and Applications, they are going to provide Books! Totally one stop shopping for what i do most of the time!

The Best thing really is that if i were to evaluate between buying those wannabe device, or kindle for reading i will choose this at this pricing because it provides a one stop platform.

Whats the one thing that tilts it to this device favor? Existing iPhone OS apps will work on this device. It is this that i am willing to pay for a $100 premium if necessary.

Why? I own at least 10 good USD 9.99 apps and they will work on this device. I don’t have to repay for them again and will enjoy the upgrades that these app developers do to make it work on this iPad.

If i were to buy say another Android device, i need to first find equivalent apps on the Android device and i need to pay another cost for them. Its not gonna be that cheap!

That is, if you don’t buy another device and go for pirated software.

If i were to buy another Android device, i will need to build up my games list again. All existing games should work on this device.

How will the performance be like?

I think it will be good. Judging by the initial video. on 1GHZ Arm this thing will fly. And its not Android which is Laggy

How you will read on the iPad

Now Apple have a bookstore front that enables you to buy books off iBook Store.

That doesn’t mean Kindle and Barnes and Noble won’t work on your iPad. Both have apps that enable you to purchase books and read them.

For your third party books, PDF and pirated books you can use STanza

Reading Mobipocket,PDF,LIT,EPUB, DRM free Kindle books for free on your iphone or iPod with [STANZA]

The best reader on the App Store. FREE and enables you to read all your existing books. Endorsed by Productive Organizer.

How would you Get Things Done on your iPad

The strength of the app store is that it have tons of third party developers vying with one another to develop the best calendar, the best todo list, the best mind manager, the best notes reader and writer.

You will get to use all your existing applications on the iPad and i believe they have a very nice calendar app on the iPad

Check out my list of Apps that you can port over to help you get things done:

Wordprocessing, Spreadsheet and Presentation

Office Word and Excel on the iPhone:[QuickOffice]

If you are looking for a Word processing and spreadsheet application then perhaps QuickOffice suite is for you.

Note Taking

Note Taking Software that Syncs to your Desktop OneNote Application: [MobileNoter]

If you are a die hard OneNote user and would like to have an application that syncs with your desktop OneNote Notebooks, and access it offline, then you should give this a try.

To Do List

[Appigo ToDo] Getting Things Done To Do List Review

By far one of the more expensive to do list software but its well worth the money you paid for this. Syncs with Remember the Milk or Toodledo, or Mac Desktop and follows David Allen’s Getting Things Done methods. Endorsed by Productive Organizer.

Simple Cheap GTD To Do List: [eToDo] Review

If Appigo ToDo is too complex or expensive for you, you can always go for the cheaper option eToDo. Just as good and great workout for a Getting Things Done beginner.

How would you game on the iPad

The iPhone OS have tons of affordable games around the price of USD9.99 or less. If you have existing games on the iPhone you can have access to them on this iPad as well.

Check out Touch Arcade for youtube videos of all the games on demo!

Conclusion

I think everything is good but no multitouch to take advantage of the improvement in CPU juice. I hope the keyboard measures up to it. Can’t Wait.

Introduction

Given the screen size of 3.5 inch for the iPhone, the question on alot of people’s minds are: other than music and playing games, does the iPhone make a good reading device?

For that matter, it is hard to come to a conclusion. I may say that 3.5 inch is good enough for me, but the criteria of buying an iPhone and making reading a big part of how you use an iPhone must be determined most of the time by

1. Pleasure of reading on a 3.5 inch screen
2. Ability to support existing ebook formats

For (1) it comes down to how well the application in iPhone renders the eBook and intangible things such as page turning, bookmarks, last read location and search capability.

The folks who have numerous ebooks that they read on the desktop,windows mobile and palm will need to know (2)

This article will try its best to answer these questions

To read or access Amazon Kindle on your iPhone

Cost:App is FREE. Books need to purchase

There is a Kindle Application for iPhone that would allow an iPhone user to

1. read Kindle format books
2. Shop for hundreds of thousands of books at  www.amazon.com/kindlestore
3. wireless transfer your books to the iPhone or iPod Touch
4. read the beginning of any Kindle books before you buy
5. download the Kindle books you already own for free
6. tap and hold to create highlight. these will be backup and synchronize through Whispersync with your other Kindle device
7. read in portrait or landscape

I am not a big fan of Kindle but if you have an Amazon account with tons of ebooks based on Kindle format, you can read them on the iPhone.

The advantage here is that your last read bookmark is sync via Whispersync so that wherever you read you will know where it is.

This will be great when you have access to Kindle App across iPhone, tablet and ebook readers next time (although i really am questioning why you would need so many devices)

To read or access Barnes and Noble from iPhone

Cost:Apps are FREE.Books to Purchase

There are 2 apps provided by Barnes and Noble here. The B&N Bookstore is a store front that enables you to

1. Search for books
2. Find your closest Barnes & Noble,get maps and directions and see which stores offer cafes and free AT&T wireless access
3. Take a picture and find out more about that book you have just taken.

The B&N eReader enables you to

1. Read books purchased off Barnes and Noble
2. Adjustable Text Sizes
3. Multiple Font choices
4. Online backup of your library of books.

You will need a Barnes and Noble account to have these service. Its a free sign up but this i feel is more for US users.

the thing i like about Barnes and Noble is that at least their format is ePub format which is quite open and universal.

So if you have an IPhone and a Nook, which is Barnes and Noble ebook reader, then you are pretty much covered here.

To Read Portable Format or PDF books on your iPhone

This is the most prevalent format and many of you have

1. Work documents
2. Books
3. Magazines
4. Financial Reports
5. Brochures

In this format. This is a very inefficient format and it is more for printing rather than reading. Nevertheless many people can find full books in PDF format.

One of the best softwares out there that enables reading large PDF books is GoodReader

Cost:App cost 99 cents. books are your own PDF,TXT books.

It enables you to read TXT,DOC,HTML and PDF format well on it. It is not free but cost 99cents (the best 99 cents you will ever spend on the App Store)

You can wirelessly transfer your books from your computer over to the iPhone or iPod Touch.

I written an extensive guide on GoodReader and how you can use it to read PDF books. Do take a look. Its one of my star articles.

To Read PDB, EPUB, PRC, LIT,PDF,TXT,RTF,AZW on your iPhone

So what about reading EPUB, LIT,PRC  which are the prevalent alternative ebook format?

STANZA will do the trick.

Cost: App is FREE! Books provided by you

In a nutshell, STANZA is the best free reading app for iPhone. Take a look at this section to see how many format it is able to support.

List of supported formats

Amazingly it supports EPUB, Kindle DRM free, Microsoft LIT, Mobipocket and PDF formats!

it is such a good reader that Amazon bought over Lexcycle, the company behind STANZA. I dunno what they plan to do with it but they better not destroy this great app.

Basically with this you will be able to read any books you find on the internet. Well most of them

Take a look at this video how STANZA works:

How do you transfer your book?

You need to download and install a desktop application. [Download here >>]

Once you have installed the desktop application, you can open your book on the desktop. Go to the options to enable sharing. This will make your desktop stanza searchable to the iPhone

Go to your iPhone Stanza app and go to Get Books.There you will see a section called Computers Sharing Books you would see the name of your Desktop computer.

You can then download the book. its that easy. Watch the video above for further detail.

Conclusion

On a 3.5 inch device with awesome reading apps like STANZA and GoodReader, you are able to cover all format of books and be able to get them to your iPhone and start reading easily.

Thanks for Kevin for giving me the heads up on this news. I talk about a cheap and very efficient ebook reader software for the iphone called GoodReader and how i believe its one of the best productivity apps out on the App Store at the moment.

GoodReader have made a few progresses since then, adding in reflow functionality and fine tuning the page turn to ensure you have a smooth reading.

Now for folks who even think USD 0.99 cents is too much (currently on offer), there is now a Lite version. So is this another crappy lite version?

Not exactly, this version contains all the features of the full GoodReader. The limitation is that you can only keep 5 files on you iPod Touch or iPhone. I think its good enough for many folks since if you primarily use it for reading or reference, you can always upload and download through its easy method of transfer. Not much of a problem there.

If you think its too much of a hassle just spent USD0.99 cents on the full fledge app.

Here is a picure of what the folks at nookdevs managed to do:

Hope this is true but its really in an early stage.

Got this off Engadget and can’t say how excited am i as a person on the sidelines to see what the people at nookdevs can make of this baby.

3G,Wifi and Android!

I am keeping my mind open but most likely the first step is to free that WIFI from Barnes and Noble’s reigns and the 3G modem from AT&T’s claws!

I just updated my  GoodReader for iPhone to version 2.4 and man its so fast! The rendering on my CCNA 18MB reference book is noticeably faster.

Other improvements includes support for power point documents, bug fixes.

GoodReader at USD 0.99 is the best PDF reader for the iPhone. To read more about what goodreader can do take a look at my past review below

[How to read PDF books and files on your iPhone:GoodReader >>]

With the popularity of Ebook readers like Sony, Kindle and Nook, we might be seeing a shift in the magazine and newspaper market.

Warren Buffett the legendary investor who invests in Washington Post, famously u-turn and declared that this industry is going to die and I have to say he has a point.

The iPhone really change this with its 3.5 inch screen because at that size it can be a good e book reader. Even nowadays i read story books and pdf books using Good Reader on my iPod and i enjoyed it. If not i can read it off Safari which is not too shabby.

With the coming of iTablet and 5-10 inch mobile devices, the book and magazine publishers cannot ignore this segment.

Source says that Time and other publishers are looking at setting up a single web portal for downloading magazines from all different companies to any reader device as well as ordering print copies. The sources described it as like iTunes, but for magazines.

The venture is being driven by Time Inc and Time’s Executive VP John Squires. The companies in on the venture include Time Inc., Condé Nast and Hearst. Between those three they publish more than 50 magazines, such as The New Yorker,Vanity Fair, Vogue, Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Esquire and O, The Oprah Magazine.

The e-magazines will be designed to run on all possible platforms, including iPhones, Ebook Readers, PCs and tablets. No ebooks will be involved, just magazines. The report says the deal is not finalized since more publishers may be coming into the deal, but it could be announced within weeks the next few weeks.

The way i see it they have to offer it in PDF or a universal format. if no universal format is reached the success of this portal will eventually make this an  universal format.

What we will see:

1. The transformation of publishing industry and the cost and revenue associated with it
2. The standards war for Ebook and Emagazine format

I like the formats this wannabe ebook reader from BenQ comes in. Txt,HTML and PDF!!!!

I can’t figure out why all ebook readers would not want to offer these 3 formats. So finally BenQ does what Asia consumers are looking for.

1. 6″ touchscreen e-paper display which relies on SiPix Microcup technology
2. 800 x 600 resolution alongside the capability to display 16 grey scales. Pretty much similar to the Amazon Kindle in terms of technical specifications, although it misses out on the Kindle’s keyboard while being a wee bit smaller and lighter.
   
3. 2GB internal memory
4. a microSD memory card slot
5. a microUSB port, an USB 2.0 port
6. a 3.5mm audio jack.
   
7. handle all relevant file formats, including ePub, PDF, TXT and HTML alongside audio and image file formats as well.
   
8. Wi-Fi connectivity
9. a USB port on top of the device could prove to be its trump card, allowing USB 3G dongles to be connected for portable Internet access. BenQ touts a 7,500 page turning experience per full charge, but this rules out Wi-Fi and 3G access.

This one is expected to come at USD280 but i won’t pay a high price like this for it. Its like paying the price for a netbook and doing less. i would rather go USD 180 for one. What are your thoughts