Welcome to the second ‘weekly’ (yes, it has been a month since my last one) report on my quest for the 99% computer! (Here is my first update) As noted, my plan was to use my iPad for as much as I possibly could, and note whatever functions required me to use a ‘real’ computer. I had planned on reporting weekly, but I haven’t done that – what could that mean? Anyway let’s get to it!
Business as Usual
The biggest thing that has kept me from writing much about this process was … nothing really changed. I already had a work flow set up with the email app, NewsRack for RSS, Safari, WordPress, and so on for all of my basic web chores. In the second week … well, I just kept doing the same things with the same results. Then the second week blurred into the third, and I started writing this, and now another week has passed. In other words – I have had no real issues sustaining a full-on iPad focus.
Hardware
My basic setup remains unchanged – keyboard dock at work, Bluetooth Apple keyboard at home.
PC Gaming Exclusion
I continued using my PC for gaming and work-related stuff at home, including some heavy time with XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Torchlight II and Dungeon Lords these last couple of weeks.
Update – Video
Because some of my reviews needed to use the iPad over the last couple of weeks, I used the Bloggie for some of my video capture but made use of the iPad whenever it was possible.
Update – GPS Watch Synchronizing
This has been a quick morning plug-in, sync and charge at least every other day. I wish there was a way around this … but at this point there isn’t.
What Has Worked Well (apart from already mentioned stuff)
- Paying bills / managing finances – It is again worth noting that I didn’t run into a single issue with the variety of websites.
What Has NOT Worked Well (again, apart from already mentioned stuff)
- External hardware – Anything I try to do with external hardware requires a computer. That is a definite stumbling block and I wish Apple had kept up the pace of adding interoperability with more and more hardware, like they did for the first couple of iPads.
- WiFi vs. Cellular – I already wrote about this, but the recent iOS WiFi hassles are just something I have never dealt with before, and the switching between cellular and WiFi is also a hassle – some days it seemed that my iPad wouldn’t send an email via cellular data unless I turned off WiFi.
- Random Websites – It is interesting how some sites are not very touch friendly, or have small integrated Flash elements or other oddities that don’t format out well. Most sites I could get to cooperate but a few I needed to visit on the PC. It is interesting to note that about half of those sites don’t work on the desktop Safari browser either.
Outlook for the Final Week and Wrap-Up
This is an odd week, as I have the iPad Mini and have just been bouncing back and forth between the two. My plan is that I will be using one to record the other when I need to grab video or images, but other than that I have just integrated the Mini into my seamless iPad-centric life.
See you next time for the conclusions of what will end up being a TWO month journey!