Category Archives: iPad

The future of computing

PDF camera manuals on the iPad

Hardware, iPad

A great use for the device.

It’s debatable which is more obscure – the US tax laws and regulations (appropriately known as the Internal Revenue Code) or the printed manual for the Panasonic G1 camera, a piece of hardware I like to think I know and definitely know I love. Try to find anything in that manual’s execrable printed booklet which comes in the box, 168 pages of poorly organized materials with a genuinely worthless index, and you will redefine the meaning of frustration.

Well, GoodReader and the iPad to the rescue.

Simply download a PDF of the manual from Panasonic then upload it to the iPad – I have done this for my Canon 5D and both Panasonics I own – the LX1 and the G1. Handy for those occasions when you forget how some rarely used setting works in the myriad of screens, dials and buttons which typifes modern gear. The 5D and LX1 come in at 5-6mB each but, for reasons only know to the twit who assembled the like-length one for the G1, that one comes in at a whopping 50.7mB! To compress this file before uploading it to the precious free space on your iPad, if you are using Snow Leopard on your Mac, download and install Apple’s Compress PDF Workflow utility to restore the PDF Compress option in the Print dialog which pops up when you load a PDF using Preview (not Adobe Reader) and hit Print – for some reason this option went missing from Snow Leopard.

Here’s the files sizes after and before – duh!:

I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one to upload to your iPad. The smaller one shows no quality deterioration and a keyword search is many times faster.

The beauty of the GoodReader app is that it has a search function, far more powerful than the miserable table of contents provided by camera makers.

Here’s the title page of the 5D’s manual:

The Canon 5D’s 180 page manual on the iPad, viewed in GoodReader.

Goodness knows why Canon decided to label this ‘Copy’ – it’s not like it’s a Leonardo, after all, but whatever. The vertical scroll bar at left permits you to zip through the manual in GoodReader whereas the magnifying glass at the base permits word search.

Here’s a page search result in the G1’s manual where I searched for the word ‘Multiple’, highlighted in blue:

A keyword search in the G1’s manual.

Here are all three manuals uploaded to GoodReader on my iPad. I keep them in a separate sub-folder to clean up the clutter:

Not, you understand, that I would ever forget how my camera works ….

A moment’s thought suggests the infinite number of uses this could be put to – machine repair manuals for field technicians, heart transplant manuals for doctors, legal tracts for scumbag lawyers, and so on. Heck, I may even keep my tax returns on mine when I want some really depressing reading.

The L5 Remote

Computing, iPad

The best remote yet.

Those of you who, like me, are visually oriented, will likely be using your big screen TV for viewing pictures, as do I. Mine fronts as a display device for a Mac Mini, an AT&T Uverse cable box with a DVR, and for a BluRay DVD player. The latter adds BluRay which is not supported by Mac OS X.

With all those inputs the result is the usual mess of remote controls, each seemingly designed by someone who never actually tried using it. It is one of the worst areas of ergonomic nightmares in the home.

So it’s no surprise when I relate that I have long been searching for the perfect universal remote. Well, I’m getting closer. I started seven years ago with a mid-range infra-red Harmony which was OK, but still too many buttons. Then I migrated to the very costly infra-red Harmony 1000 with its small color touchscreen (‘push screen’ is more like it) which I upgraded to radio to avoid the line-of-sight frustration experienced with IR sensors. This was OK for a while but I got royally irritated with Harmony’s truly inept Mac software which constantly locked-up and with their device code database which is riddled with errors and requires much manual tinkering to get things working. So I sold the Harmony and went back to an inexpensive RCA IR remote, the RCA RCRP05B for under $20. You can see my review on the linked Amazon site. The appeal of this inexpensive device was its extreme programmability and before long I had it singing and dancing. My primary test is that our eight year old can use it with no help and I am at a point where Winston no longer asks for help. Getting there was far harder than that sounds!

To obviate the line-of-sight problem I added an IR blaster to amplify the remote’s signal regardless of how it is pointed and it’s such a significant enhancement that I recommend a like device unreservedly.

But, the RCA, capable as it is, still has lots of little buttons, none are illuminated making use in the dark very difficult, and most of the buttons are redundant at any one time. What I really wanted was a touchscreen remote like the AMX of old. That had three drawbacks. It could only be programmed by the vendor, it burned through its battery daily and it was clunky as all get up, but it did have a half decent touchscreen. Last I looked, 8 years ago, these ran upward of $5,000 …. and woe betide you if you change hardware.

Well, there’s a new kid on the block and it is very impressive indeed, fixing all of these drawbacks.

The L5 Remote attachment (circled) for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

In the photograph you can see the L5 dongle attached to my iPhone (any model works as well as iPod Touches and iPads), displaying one of the screens I have programmed. When the dongle is first attached it downloads the related software from the iTunes store. You can program any number of screens to make the device activity based – one for Watch TV, one for Watch DVD, one for Listen to Music and so on. The icons are dragged and dropped into place and programmed by using your existing remote to ‘teach’ the L5, so if you have lost the original you are out of luck for now. L5 has promised to add a downloadable code database but that may take a while. I would also like the ability to directly input 5 digit JP1 codes to any key of choice, as is possible with the RCA.

Macros (command sequences) are easily created – just program individual (temporary) icons with the commands required then drop them onto a macro key. Once the Macro key sequence is assigned using your individual keys, the latter can be erased – the information is not lost. Very cleverly done and it really permits you to eradicate all clutter. In the following example which is for Watch TV, the On, Off and Favorites keys are all macros with embedded command sequences. The Channels icon utilizes another clever feature of the L5. Touching it opens a drawer below the main screen where I have inserted favorite Channels for direct touchscreen access. The icon with the small rectangles drops down a numerical keyboard for those (very) rare occasions when you want to key in a channel number.

The TV screen. Note the red Record button for saving to the AT&T Uverse DVR.

The Channels drawer has been opened here, showing three favorite channels.

Most importantly, the Macro key assignment function provides for variable delays, of the user’s choice, between the execution of key strokes. This is vital in practice as most televisions are very slow to start up and to respond to commands. My three years old 42″ Vizio needs some five seconds before it will respond to input switching commands and does not like to be rushed between input selection changes. Adding these delays, a matter of trial and error, is trivial with the L5 software.

A couple more screens:

The BluRay DVD player screen – I still need to add a Volume toggle.

The DVR/TiVo playback screen

When the dongle is attached to the iPhone all other functions remain usable at a touch of the Home button. The software rotates the screen image 180 degrees so that the dongle is pointing away from you in use, but if you use an IR blaster as I mention above, this is not necessary, but not something that can currently be switched off.

The quickest way to switch between activity screens is to simply flick them with a finger. It would be nice if L5 could add the ability to sort the order in which the screens appear.

If you are new to Macros, there’s lots of hard ways of setting them up and one foolproof easy way. Using your original remotes, go through the sequence of events required for an activity, making a written note of each keystroke. For example, if I want to watch TV the sequence is something like this:

  • Switch on TV
  • Switch on Receiver
  • Switch on AT&T Uverse cable box
  • Switch TV input to HDMI2
  • Switch Receiver input to Video2
  • Switch Uverse to Favorite channels

Now, following your notations, program each keystroke you had to make to a discrete button, add these to your Macro key in the right order, add inter-step delays as necessary if your macro misbehaves, test then delete the temporary keys you just created, keeping only the macro key which you can name anything you want. You can also choose from a range of logo/icons for any key you create.

L5 say that they are working on iPad-specific software though the existing app will run fine on the iPad. They have also promised to add the ability to transfer your settings from one iDevice to another. Yes, please! I actually like the small size of the iPhone’s screen for this application and expect to dedicate my 3G iPhone to the dongle full time when I shortly upgrade to the 4G iPhone to be announced on June 7, 2010.

Bugs? I have only encountered one. When designing a new screen after dragging and dropping the required buttons onto the display area, you hit ‘Assign’ to program these using your original remotes. On a few occasions the software showed a blank screen instead of one with the buttons on display and available for selection. Simply repeating the process generally fixed the issue which is only seen at the design stage. In operation the software and hardware have been flawless. Even hard to program remotes like the one which came with my Insignia DVD player proved easy to set up; where the L5 did not recognize the IR code on a first pass, it would ask for three or four passes and would invariably get there with ease.

The L5 Remote is highly recommended, costs $50 and comes from L5 Remote. To really get the best out of it I also recommend spending an additional $70 on an IR blaster.

iPad wishes

iPad

Here’s what’s to come …. or not.

With the iPad staging its international debut today, from London to Tokyo – don’t bother, they’re all sold out – it seems like a good moment at which to speculate on what the next model might bring.

Here’s my wish list:

Hardware:

  • A 5″ version for the gaming market for $150 less. Not for me but great for the stock price.
  • A 17-21″ version for the art/photography/fashion/wall display markets. Framed pictures are so yesterday.
  • An SDXC card slot in the 10″ model. Face it, the Camera Connection Kit is an ugly afterthought.
  • A web cam for iSight. A slam dunk that one, as the July 7, 2010 announcement of the iPhone Version 4 will include this.
  • A matte screen option. Dream on.
  • A third iPad for our home as I cannot get mine away from our boy.
  • Production volume. This device is rarer than straight Catholic priests.

Software:

  • Printing. The need for integrated printing is high and Steve Jobs has intimated it’s coming.
  • Multitasking. It’s not that exiting an app to check email or whatever takes long, it’s just a pain to do and lacks the elegance which otherwise defines the device.
  • A variant of Lightroom which can access your server-based photo catalog and makes full use of the touchscreen technology for photo processing on the road. This could access your home server using wifi much as LogMeIn remote desktop can.

Content:

  • Interactive magazines. It’s amazing to me how slow the publishing business has been to create iPad versions of magazines with interactive content. Most of what is out there is simply a scan of the paper version with a few links thrown in.
  • Subscription pricing for magazines. Who in their right mind is going to pay $4.99 for one issue of Wired or Vanity Fair when a 12 issue paper subscription can be had for $10? Right now sales will remain a one-off curiosity thing, in the absence of subscription pricing.
  • Streaming TV and a DVR remote access capability. We are seeing one or two apps out there which can stream TV already. And why can’t I access my DVR recordings from my iPad, AT&T, on my AT&T Uverse Internet based TV box? All I can do right now is see the recorded list and delete selected recordings using the clunky Uverse iPhone app.
  • A baseball or cricket bat with which to address the movie industry. Why on earth is only 5% of Netflix’s movie catalog available in streaming format? It’s not like there’s any shortage of demand. Just double my monthly subscription and stop sending me discs in the mail.
  • More books in the iBooks store. iBooks is so much better than Kindle on the iPad that it’s frustrating how small the book library is.
  • Someone at Project Gutenberg to get off their ass, make proper cover art for their huge catalog of public domain books and craft a lookup system that actually works.

Though we will have to wait until Murdoch is buried for the WSJ’s content to improve.

Not a big list for so revolutionary a device, which is already close to perfect out of the box.

Disclosure: No AAPL position.

Adobe Flash on the iPad

iPad

Tough luck, Steve.

Following up on my April Fools’ Day prediction, yesterday’s news brought the not unexpected fact that Apple’s market capitalization now exceeds that of its old nemesis Microsoft. Given that the fruit company has a great CEO and the other one has a clown in the corner office, that’s not all that surprising. What is amazing is that Microsoft’s shareholders have stood idly by for over a decade of this buffoon’s rule, a period which has seen Microsoft’s market capitalization more than halve from a peak well in excess of $500 billion.

Ten years of Ballmer and Jobs

Certainly, innovation never darkened Microsoft’s doors, and its insistence on purportedly open systems (open to what? phishing? viruses? security holes?) has much to do with its demise, clown CEO apart.

So it’s intriguing to watch the public spat between Apple and another poorly run company, Adobe, over the use of Adobe’s Flash (which Adobe claims is ‘open’) on Apple’s mobile devices. That, per El Jobso, is strictly verboten. Now Apple’s claims that Flash is slow and full of security holes and chews up battery life may well be true. But it’s also not lost on me that Apple’s ban of Flash allows it to maintain strict control over its mobile devices and, last I checked, the profit motive is alive and well at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino.

So make of it what you will but don’t expect to see Flash sites on your iPad.

Until now.

Check yesterday’s journal and you will see that I am now running the LogMeIn remote desktop on my iPad and it allows me to view Flash sites just fine via my desktop HackPro. As an example, here’s what you get if you dial in the estimable Jill Greenberg‘s site on the iPad’s Mobile Safari:

Flash No Go from El Jobso on the iPad

Now dial up the site using LogMeIn and all is sweetness and light:

Flash on the iPad

And you get the best of both worlds. The remote Flash site cannot infect your iPad and you can see it just fine.

By the way, the stock chart, above, from Yahoo Interactive charts, is rendered using Flash. So yet more power to this iPad toting investor.

A note on desktop settings for LogMeIn:

Here’s how I have Energy Saver set on my Hackpro desktop:

This switches off the displays after a period of no use, but never allows the computer to sleep, thus allowing remote access at any time from anywhere.

Running Lightroom on the iPad

iPad, Lightroom

Prepare to have your mind blown.

Yes.

You read that right.

I am using my iPad as a remote viewing and control device for Lightroom, which is running on my desktop HackPro under OS X Snow Leopard.

The iPad app I am using is named LogMeIn Ignition and costs $29.99 for the iPad. You think that’s a lot? To allow you to run any of the apps on your desktop from your iPad wherever there is wifi? Gimme a break.

After installing LogMeIn Ignition on the iPad, download the free LogMeIn application for every computer you wish to control remotely and start it up on that computer. So far I have just set up the HackPro in the office and here is how my account at LogMeIn looks, viewed in Safari on the HackPro:

Moments after invoking LogMeIn on the HackPro desktop, I started up LogMeIn Ignition on the iPad, made contact with the HackPro, touched the mouse symbol on the iPad and …. loaded Lightroom 2 remotely from the iPad. This is what the iPad’s screen displayed:

Lightroom 2 on the iPad

You can just make out the LogMeIn app on the HackPro’s screen – it’s the small circle to the left of the CPU sign in the status bar at the top.

Clicking/touching on the iPad’s screen moved me from grid view to full screen view thus:

Timings?

  • Two seconds to start the app on the iPad
  • Eight seconds to select the HackPro and login
  • Ten seconds to load Lightroom icon on the iPad’s screen and see what Lightroom is showing on the HackPro. I can alternate between the two views – full screen and grid in Lightroom by simply shaking the iPad. This is the equivalent of the two disparate monitor views on the desktop. Add four seconds.

The possibilities here are so huge I’ll stop for now while I begin to digest what can be done remotely, but here’s how the view changes from one to the other monitor attached to the desktop, by simply shaking the iPad:

Shaken and stirred – the full screen view in Lightroom, viewed on the iPad

Screen refresh on the iPad takes about a second, compared to instantaneous on the HackPro – you are sending a lot of data over wifi, after all. I see no reason why this would not work over 3G with the 3G iPad, though I expect screen refresh would be a good deal slower.

What’s that you say? You want to run ancient Rosetta apps from your desktop on the iPad, like Photoshop CS2? No problemo!

Photoshop CS2 on the iPad

What was all that about the iPad being suited solely to reading and games?