Fast fixes.

Two of the applications I find are essential on a mobile device, be it iPhone or iPad, are NetNewsWire and 1Password.

Both come in iPad versions at $10 and $9 respectively and both started crashing on startup after a brief period of functioning properly.

NetNewsWire on the iPad

1Password on the iPad

A quick email to the authors, a quick resubmission to Apple who equally speedily approved the revised versions into the App Store and a fresh download saw everything working fine by yesterday afternoon. Impressive.

This week the iPhone gets an upgraded multitasking system which should migrate to the iPad quickly. At that point I expect the 1Password folks should be able to integrate their application into mobile Safari for one click access to protected sites much as is currently possible with the desktop version. That will greatly speed up the use of the iPad.

As regards iPhoto, my experimentation has been limited to syncing a few albums from my desktop to the iPad and I must say the interface is to die for. A simple un-pinching motion magically expands an album on the screen. Another touch and a slideshow starts, with your choice of music from the iPod on the iPad:

Un-pinching ….

There are no processing controls at present and the only way to get photos onto the iPad is by syncing with your desktop. The SDHC card reader I have on order shows shipping as “late April”, so more practical use to preview and cull RAW images form my DSLRs will have to wait until then.

It’s obvious why nerds hate the iPad. By opening computing with a friendly user interface to a whole new population of technophobes, the nerd’s very existence is threatened, just as the existence of paid photographers is under fire. Why? Because now “anyone can do it”.