So here I am after having the iPad one week. I agree with what many have said in that it is more about what it is than what it isn't. If you go on knowing you are getting a media device, not a net book, and a new way of interacting with creative and the network, then it can work for you. It is also as Ian Schafer has said, about the apps still yet to be written more than the current slew of apps available. I am still not convinced we need it but I have been enjoying seeing what it can do. And as well, with all the requests we get for multi-touch these days, I can justify the purpose.
Regardless, I asked my go-to tech wiz Howard W. about how to get the best from the iPad. And he sent me this simple guide that really helps if you have an iPad to use it most effectively. He also agreed to let me reprint here for others who may want to know. So without anymore distraction, here you go.
HOWIE'S SUPER EASY. IPAD GUIDE
I know there are already a crapload of iPad reviews, "Best iPad Apps" lists and what-is-the-iPad? blogs all over the interwebs. This isn't one of those.
What this is, is a distilled compilation of my learnings on the easiest freest stuff you probably actually WILL use on your iPad. This is really a direct result of a bevy of questions i've gotten from people who just got one, or are considering getting one and for some reason think i have all the answers just because I act like i do. This list is in no way definitive, but its the stuff that i use and like. As such, it is Mac-centric but much is the same for Windows.
All the software and apps listed here are 100% free and all the techniques work well and are not at all complicated. I am only covering the stuff that is not immediately obvious, so use the help button if you want to know how to buy Beyonce's latest masterpiece.
I) Getting stuff onto your iPad
Movies
Its easy enough to buy a movie from iTunes and sync it with your iPad. But what if you want to watch one of your DVDs on it? Or an AVI you already have? There are all sorts of clever apps that will stream from your computer, or your tivo or your netflix, but for most cases thats either not an option or too complicated.
DVDs: Its usually a 2-step process. First, grab the latest version of HandBrake and simply convert the DVD directly into an iPad friendly format. There are tons of configuration options and fancy processing that it can do, but you don't need ANY of that. Just chose the "Normal" preset and it works perfectly. (You can view the presets by clicking the presets icon at the top right). Once the movie is saved as an .mp4, just drag it into iTunes and its ready to sync right onto the iPad.
Sometimes HandBrake has trouble with encrypted DVD's. If this is the case, you can use MacTheRipper to decrypt the DVD first, then HandBrake will do its thing from the folder that MacTheRipper copied the DVD to.
HandBrake: http://bit.ly/9BxCLD
MacTheRipper: http://bit.ly/cp1Tek
Also, VLC provides some libraries that may be helpful in some cases: http://bit.ly/a9xdgU
Other Movie Formats: Many mp4's, .m4v's and .mov's can just sync right on the iPad from iTunes, but some can not, nor can .MKV's or .AVI's, etc, etc. In most cases, the easiest thing to do is simply to use QuickTime to convert them. Assuming you are running Snow Leopard (10.6), you can simply open the movie in Quicktime, choose "Save As..." and then click on the "Format" drop-down menu. Depending on the characteristics of the movie, the output options will vary, but most of them will work for iTunes and the iPad. I like the "480p" option or the "AppleTV" option. The iPad will play up to 720p movies.
To make sure QuickTime can properly open and convert various formats make sure you have Perian and Flip4Mac installed.
Perian: http://perian.org/
Flip4Mac: http://bit.ly/cfUvVd
If QuickTime doesn't work for you, try HandBrake again. Its strength is a DVD converter but it does many other formats nicely as well.
Books
Most Books you will probably just get directly from iBooks or Amazon's Kindle App. But you might have very large digital manuals you want to read, PDF publications or Word docs that would work well in a page flipping application like iBooks. Also, there are over 30,000 free out-of-copyright books available at Project Gutenberg.
Apples iBooks App (free from the App store) only handles ePub format books but it does the job nicely so i use it. You can drag any ePub book right onto iTunes and it's ready to sync with the iPad. For any other format, i use an app called Calibre to convert to ePub. In the case where calibre cant do it directly (such as .docx) simply open the file in its native app (like Microsoft Word) and print it to a PDF. Macs have this option built into every print dialog and windows users can do it with Acrobat pro or something like CutePDF.
Once its a PDF, then Calibre can convert it to ePub and you are on your way. It should be noted that Calibre can also automatically grab the proper book cover (like album art) off the web for you as well as edit the meta data (like title, author, publisher, etc) just like an .mp3 in iTunes.
Calibre: http://calibre-ebook.com/
Project Gutenberg: http://bit.ly/bWZREt
Comics
If you're the kinda fella that enjoys this sort of thing, you may have noticed that the iPad was just MADE for comics. many comic companies have their own Apps, with their own built-in comic store. Apple even features the Marvel app. However until just recently, if you wanted to view comics you acquire through other channels, you had to buy one of the only two available iPad apps for $8 or $15. But now you can grab CloudReaders for free. Its not fancy, but it does all the standard formats (CBR/RAR/PDF/CBZ/ZIP) and works nicely.
CloudReader: http://bit.ly/a098LG
Music
I assume you've gotten the music thing down by now. However, iTunes 9.1 (the earliest iPad compatible version) includes a new useful feature if you've gone and loaded your iPad up with too many movies and other goodies. When you sync your iPad, on the "summary" tab in iTunes, there is an option to "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC." If you are like me and you try to keep the highest possible quality audio stored on your computer this can take up a ton of space on your iPad. Choosing this option will NOT affect the music in your iTunes library, but it will convert the music on the fly to be much smaller files on your iPad and save you significant space. Personally, I can't hear the difference so its a win for me. Be warned though, the first time you do this it may take a LONG time. After that, it will only need to do the songs you've added since your last sync.
II) Key Apps
When the iPhone first shipped, there was no App store. So Apple included tons of useful apps you might need, like calculator, clock, weather and stocks apps. Now that the app store has a gazillion apps, they opted to let you pick your own. So here are my favorite free replacement apps for the ones Apple left behind.
Jumbo Calculator: http://bit.ly/9woMV3
I rarely need to do anything more than +,-,X ,/ and % on my calc, so i picked this purely on aesthetics.
The Weather Channel Max: http://bit.ly/aX3Rm4
I know this one is a gimme and featured everywhere but its pretty and its useful and i never bothered to try any others.
Bloomberg: http://bit.ly/bOZsMO
It not only features news quotes and analysis, but you can enter your position and purchase price and will show you exactly how you are doing in real time.
Clock
I still haven't found a useful clock app i like. Since right now only Apple apps can interrupt or wake up the iPad with anything more than a standard alert message, there is no good way to make an alarm clock app that works properly. If you like anything out there, let me know.
There are lots of great apps that are heavily featured in the app store and TV commercials already, so i presume you know about the NYTimes, AIM, Skype, Wikipanion and IMDB, etc, already.
There are however, a handful of free apps that i find extremely useful that haven't quite gotten their names out there yet.
Transit Maps: http://bit.ly/9pdU6B
This thing rocks. Its a very simple but slick map viewer that links to tons of free maps online or point it at any one you can find. Thing is, it downloads the maps locally so you no longer have to be online to view it. It tiles for great zooming and scrolling and it has an easy popup list of all the maps you've downloaded so you can easily switch between them. It even works great with non-transit maps.
SportsTap: http://bit.ly/94TiQn
Doesn't have the video or editorial content of the $5 ESPN app, but it does have fast easy access to all the scores, stats game times, etc for every league of every sport you could want.
III) Accessories
The iPad doesn't come with much besides USB cable and a wall plug. The aftermarket industry knows this and usually charges a premium on any item specifically designed for the iPad. There are always alternatives.
Stands: The iPad makes a shockingly good digital picture frame. I bought this for under $4 and it works great: http://bit.ly/bnSCaB (I got the smallest one). It also held my iPad upright while i read a book on it on a plane flight.
I have also read that this $0.69 piece works well: http://bit.ly/aCJpHX
Cases: BestBuy sells a bunch of iPad cases in the $40 range. But this is exactly the same thing for $15, only you will find it hanging in the portable DVD player department: http://bit.ly/9G4MKU
Headphones: Finally, its worth noting that the Apple headphones, the ones that come with the iPhone or you can buy from apple for $30, work nicely with the iPad. The part that's worth noting is that the headphones include a microphone, volume controls, and the pinch button that you can use to pause, play, skip songs, and activate other features. That stuff all works.
Feel free to forward this on to anyone who might find it useful.
-Howie W.
Available here for just $30 bucks (Site a bit NSFW)
