internet access

I admit it - I am completely spoiled. For the last three years I have had access to the internet anywhere, anytime. My iPhone, which is always with me, can be used at any time to check the weather, the traffic, read and write email, check my calendar, add to my calendar, surf the web...

The times when I could not access the internet were very few - on a plane, on the train when it goes underground, and a few isolated places that had no signal.

Yesterday, I was on the train I used to take when I worked downtown, and it turns out that there is now a great signal even underground. Apparently the CTA has added access points to its underground tunnels.

I waited (patiently? well, not so much) till the end of April to purchase the 3G iPad because I felt that the internet access would make it more useful. And sure enough, even though I work at home and no longer commute everyday, within a few weeks I found myself signing up for a wireless account. I started with the $15 account, but in less than a day I had come close to exceeding the 250M limit. So I switched to the $30 account with unlimited access.

So now I am spending $60 a month for the privilege of being online with both my phone and my iPad anywhere and anytime. When I stop and think about it, that seems pretty bad.

But it doesn't even stop there - there's also wireless access accounts. I had a Boingo account on my laptop when I traveled, which was $7.95 a month. And as I mentioned in my last post, I just found out that you need a different account for a mobile device, another $7.95. And of course, that's just for when you are somewhere that has a Boingo access point.

My flight last week was on Airtran, which is now offering wireless access on the flight. I tried it on the flight to Atlanta on May 20 which was free. But on the way back on the 24th, the free promotion was over and it would have cost $4.95 for the flight (any flight up to 1.5 hours, prices get higher for longer flights). They also have monthly subscriptions, $39.95 a month.

So just how many accounts would someone need to be online all the time, on an iPhone, iPad and laptop?

iPhone - $30/month unlimited access over 3G networks
iPad - another $30
laptop - let's say a Boingo account - $7.95/month takes care of airports, $39.95 for gogoinflight, which covers a number of airlines. Not sure if there are other inflight services yet.

We're up to 108/month. I saved us $8 by not also getting a Boingo account for mobile devices; if you have it for the laptop and you have 3G on the mobile devices that should be enough! After all, have to save money somewhere...

Oh, and let's not forget the internet at home - my current service is another $30/month in a package deal (internet, phone, cable). So we're at $138. And actually, with taxes and other add ons that $30/month comes closer to $40 somehow, so let's make it $148.

So by my calculation, I'm saving $48/month at the moment because I've decided that for now, it's enough to have the 3G access in the airport and skip internet on a flight. After all, shouldn't there be some small amount of time when you are just off the grid?

User friendly -- or not

I'm in the Atlanta airport waiting for a flight. I got here with plenty of time to spare so I could attend my Monday morning meeting on Skype. I was pretty sure it wouldn't work on the 3G network and I was right - chat works but not voice. No problem, I have a Boingo account which I can use. So I select the Atlanta Airport network, launch the browser and get a login page. There is a list of different ways to connect, including Boingo for $7.95. but there are also two other links for $4.95 so I try one. I click on one and it says this offer has expired. I try the other and now the page is frozen. The only way to get this page back seems to be to go to settings, disconnect from the wireless, reconnect, go back to Safari. This time I click on Boingo, it's a little more expensive at $7.95 but I already have an account there... Or so I thought.

Now I have to download the app. (Guess I should have done that earlier, but this is the first time I've needed it on my iPad.)

The app installs, it's not one made for the iPad so it's got a tiny display. I put in my user name and password, and hit login. Except that by now the wireless connection is gone, back to settings to reconnect to the wireless again. Now back to the Boingo app. I get the login screen again and hit connect. And now I get a message that my Boingo account which I established on my laptop last year is not valid on a mobile device!

Are they kidding? I have to have separate accounts (and pay separately) to connect my laptop and my iPad and/or iPhone?

So now I have to decide, do I want to pull out my laptop and sign in there or start a new account on my iPad? actually, the idea that I'd need both is making me think I don't want to do either! Do I really want TWO accounts for wireless access in addition to the TWO accounts I have for 3G access??

And oh, by the way, it's now 9:15 and my flight will be boarding in 25 minutes or so and I've already missed 15 minutes of the meeting anyway.

So I decide to miss the meeting and wisely spend my time blogging about the experience instead.

Usability on the iPad

Jacob Nielson just wrote a review of iPad app usability.

He talks about the absence of the usual affordances to let you know what you can do - for example a button should look like a button so you know you can push it. And while I agree somewhat I have to say I'm not completely sure. I think everyone is still thinking of the iPad as just a small thin computer but I think that is missing the point. It really is something completely different in the way that a user interacts with it. Everything on the screen is fair game for touching and interacting with. This paradigm may take some getting used to but it is also awfully powerful, and is what makes me believe that this is the start of an entire new era of computing.

Take scrollbars for example. On the iPad scrollbars don't show up. To scroll you just drag your finger down the page and it scrolls. It works remarkably well, and you don't even think that you are scrolling, you just do it. For awhile I was having trouble scrolling inside a subsection of a webpage (a div for those of us who speak HTML). Then I found out that to do this you hold down two fingers to scroll. And after doing it once, it is also now natural and something I will also just do without thinking. So while it took some learning to find out the guesture, it is now just another natural way to work.

I do agree with Jacob about one thing though. There are way too many ways to turn a page in different apps.

IPad Safari drag and drop

As I said yesterday, we are just at the beginning of a touch interface. This morning I discovered the first thing we don't yet have -- drag and drop in Safari. I was trying to use a web page, one that does not use Flash. But what it does use is drag and drop, which won't work in Safari.

In fact it doesn't work anywhere in the operating system on the iPad except when you want to move apps around. And there you start by going into a new mode where the apps all dance around, and you finish by using the single hard button on the device.

This is a perfect situation for multiple finger gestures. I can imagine holding one finger on what I want to drag and another where I want to drop it and then flick the one finger towards the other. Wouldn't even need to move it all the way across the screen as you do with a mouse; just a simple flick and it would be dropped at the target held with your other finger.

maps on the iPad

I've been trying to figure out why the experience of browsing a map is SO much better on the iPad than on any other computer I've ever used.  I have a 23" screen on my iMac, how can the 10" screen be so much better?

And the answer is it's not the screen, it's the touch interface.  Now instead of a few fingers (on the iPhone) you can use your whole hand, even both hands.  You can simultaneously zoom in and out and move the map.  SO superior to using a mouse to move a zoom wheel or direction pointer.

The reason that I believe the iPad is a fundamental change in computing is this very touch interface - it redefines how we interact with the computer.  We had a hint of this on the smaller iPhone / iTouch screen - but having the larger screen changes everything.  I've seen glimmers of this on some of the new apps but I believe we are just at the very beginning.  And I find that very exciting.

The Flash War

I hate to see all the recent news about the gulf developing between Adobe and Apple, especially since I spend a large part of my day using Dreamweaver and Fireworks, two very powerful and excellent Adobe products.  And of course, I'm doing this on my Mac.  

I understand a little about both sides.  When I'm browsing the web on the iPad or iPhone it is annoying to have all these websites that are not working because they used Flash.  On the other hand - yes, they do crash.  In fact, I've avoided putting flash on any of the websites I run.  

Here's a little bit of irony: I just went to the Adobe site to get information about CS5, the latest version of their Creative Suite software (which includes Dreamweaver and Fireworks).  I used one of their fancy (dare I say "flashy?") menus that shows product names and images - the webpage froze, viewed on Google's Chrome browser, with a message that the Flash Player had crashed.

iPad 3G - day one

I've had my iPad for a little over a day now. Ive loaded it with tons of apps, mostly free ones. All but one of the apps from my iPhone magically appeared after I plugged the iPad into my Mac and performed the first sync.  Some of those don't take advantage of the larger screen so I've removed a few of them.  But still somehow, my iPad has 63 different applications, and in all I spent only $30 at the app store.

What do I think so far of this computer?  If I had to pick one word, it would be "awesome."   I've heard many people talk about how it's nothing but a big iPhone.  And actually that's sort of accurate - it IS a big iPhone, the key word being BIG. The screen is big and beautiful.  You can use both hands on it to type, as well as to scroll, zoom, move items.  The interactions are so natural that you forget it is a computer.

Here are my favorite things about the iPad so far:

Kindle/iBooks - reading a book on this is really sweet.  I'm slightly preferring the Kindle at the moment, because it allows me to read the same book on both the iPad and iPhone.  Having the book you are reading always with you in your pocket is so convenient, especially when you are stuck waiting somewhere - in line for coffee, waiting for a friend to meet you somewhere, waiting for a train, traveling in general (as long as you're not the driver!).  And having that sync back with the larger iPad version makes the Kindle a no-brainer.  On the other hand, the iBook shines when you are reading anything that includes images.  Luckily both apps are free.

The ABC viewer, a free app.   This is what I think all television should become. You click on this and can watch full episodes of recent programs with some limited number of commercials. You don't have to remember to tape a show in advance, don't have to store it on a DVR or tape. You just click on the show and start watching. And the screen is just perfect for watching tv as well as movies and video.

Netflix viewer, also a free app, gives the same experience with the many movies and tv shows that you can watch instantly. No waiting for the DVD to appear in the mail, just pick one and start watching.

The real beauty of this new intereface is best seen right now in the maps - both the built in Google Maps and the Google Earth app. Here you can zoom and move the map at the same time with both hands, interacting in such an intuitive and natural way. And again, the screen is so nice and large.

Oh, and let's not forget photos.  This is an awesome screen for viewing photos.  I've synced a number of photo albums from iPhoto and the built in photo viewer is great.  And the SmugMug viewer (also free) is unbelievable.  I have 6,489 photos stored on my SmugMug account.  This is not an exaggeration,  I just went to find the exact number.  And when I click on the SmugMug app, the albums are instantly there.  Click on an album and the photos in that album also instantly appear.  Quite impressive.

I've ordered the camera connection kit, it should be here next week.  I am very much looking forward to using this screen to preview photos once I've taken them on my Canon DSLR camera.

I have a wireless keyboard that I've paired with the iPad, and it works perfectly. But right now I'm using the virtual keyboard, because it's easier to have the screen in my lap and just type than it is to have both keyboard and screen in my lap at the same time.

Because one of the other things about the iPad is how it frees you to interact with it in any position - right now I'm lying in bed, with my head propped up and typing easily on the screen.

Battery life is also impressive, I can't wait to travel with this.

I will say one thing though - all of the sudden my iPhone screen has started to look incredibly small.