When I’m on vacation I have lots of free time and so I start coming up with ideas for blogging. The biggest challenge I have is balancing these moments where I have lots of free time and can blog prodigiously versus those times when I am so busy I can’t possibly blog. It’s either feast or famine. There are times when I wish services like Plinky had some sort of tracking ability. I hate the idea of having to keep a list of what Plinky prompts I’ve taken up as blog assignments and which ones I haven’t and the site doesn’t seem to have that as a capacity. Is there anyone out there who would like me to write about specific items maybe? I just blog about what occurs to me or things that are remarkable in my Pocket queue.
I’ve been kicking around several ideas including more work-related blog posts, especially when it comes to getting things accomplished, using our ticket system, and running a help desk in general. I think that will take more planning because I have to tread carefully. Work tends to get rather picky about what I write and share, and there has been heavy drama time in the past and I’d rather not have to deal with that malarkey again if I can help it.
I also have to remind myself now that my blog is all paid and all bottomless. I can share pictures and even video all by myself without having to deal with YouTube or any of that “passing under the eyes of a censor” kind of thing. Then again, I don’t think that recording video would be the best thing – but maybe so – I’ll really have to come up with things worth talking about if I’m going to do that. Unless I open up to Q&A and swing the doors wide open for anonymous Q&A.
So many ideas… thankfully I have a lot of time to plan and put these things in operation, or not. 🙂
Apple iPad App Review – Page 1 Line 2
Part 3 of my Apple iPad App Review, what I have on Page 1 Line 2 continued:
- Netflix – The Netflix app is free and provides access to the streaming content of the Watch Instantly system present in a basic Netflix account. The application works well, it has yet to crash, but I did run into a usability headache early on while trying it out. With all video on the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad the native presentation of the video appears with slight letterboxing, depending on how you orient the device while you watch it. There is, in almost every video application a button control to remove the letterboxing and expand the video to use the maximum amount of screen real estate. While using the Netflix app, early on, I mistook the exit button for the letterbox-resize button so every time I would start a movie and try to maximize it, I was actually asking Netflix to go back to the previous video selection screen. I became quite irate at the Netflix app for what I perceived as a epic failure until I realized that I was pressing the wrong control. Now that I know where to expect the control to remove letterboxing, the app behaves as it was designed to, and I’m quite happy with it. The movie quality is at best 720P but that is perfectly acceptable to be able to hold it in your hands or against your legs while you watch. I predict that this, and any front-facing camera adjustment to the iPhone/iPad will melt down any 3G network in a red-hot minute.
- TweetDeck – A true Love-It/Hate-It app if there ever was one, the TweetDeck app on the iPad is acceptable, it’s worth the cost, which is to say free. In the portrait orientation it wastes a fantastic amount of screen real estate meaninglessly, but at least it doesn’t crash with wild abandon as it does on the iPhone. The biggest gripe I have about TweetDeck, both the iPod Touch version, the iPad version, and the Adobe AIR version is the impossible-to-reconfigure font and font size in twitter text on the display. This app is ripe for relocation and/or removal.
- Videos – The factory included Videos app is a delight to use, much like the other factory included apps. The folding metaphor when you select videos is very visually appealing and the video itself is crisp and beautiful and all the controls work as you would expect them to. The first video I played on my iPad was Airplane!, it’s how I inaugurate all my Apple devices. Funniest movie of all time, meet best device of all time. 🙂
- YouTube – I’ve just touched on the YouTube app only sparingly. I suppose other people get a kick out of watching inane people doing inane things. I haven’t posted a video on YouTube and I guess I’m too old to ‘get it’. This app will likely be relocated, as factory apps can’t be deleted from the device. YouTube works for Google, it works for a lot of people, but I don’t really care that much for it. Technically however, it does work well, much like the other video apps on the iPad, and it hasn’t crashed on me so I don’t have anything negative to share.
Next, Page 1 Line 3…