Dolls house for iPad from happyMedium on Vimeo.

Okay this is a cute little iPad app for kids but … check out what happens when she puts parents into their bedroom. Brilliant. Now kids will know that when they hear squeaky mattress sounds coming from mom and dad’s room … it’s because they’re jumping on the bed.

Of course. What else would it be? Right?

More info: Dolls House by happyMedium

Okay, this is more like it. It might be a bit on the rudimentary side, but the latest edition of BlogPress for the iPhone / iPad / iPod has the ability to do some simple text formatting. You can now bold, italicize, and underline quickly and painlessly.

And unlike the latest version of WordPress for iPad / Pod / Phone / whatever, it doesn’t crash every 97 seconds. Then again, BlogPress isn’t free — so it’s one of those "you get what you pay for" type of deals.

S’okay with me. I think it’s worth it. As far as I can see, BlogPress has emerged as the clear winner as far as blogging on the iOS platform is concerned.

And it does way many more platforms than just WordPress. Not that this matters much for me, either — WordPress has proven itself the leader in blogging platforms.

Speaking of which, am I the only one a little nervous about Microsoft becoming a big fan of WordPress?

Okay, struggling to maintain a semblance of objectivity.

Failing.

I love this program.  This is so ultimately cool.  Apple just released a free program for the iPhone (it might be for the iPad too, I haven’t checked) that allows me to control any incidence of iTunes on any computer on my network from my phone via wi-fi.

Yes, it works on iTunes on your non-Apple computer, too.  Perfectly.  Control the songs, the playlists, the volume – just about everything.  Now if it would SYNC your darn phone, too, without having to plug in, it would be a total winner.

Oh, also, it controls your new Apple TV too.  Not that means anything to me – I don’t own a TV.  (Television sets are so last millennium.)

Link:  Apple Remote for iPhone

PS – Yes, for iPad too.  And iPod.  It says so in the above link.

Enjoy.

Does it do basic formatting yet? Maybe italic bold and underline will work if I use the HTML codes? I guess I’ll find out after I post this. Even if it does work, what a pain.

Hello dear readers! Yes, I’m testing out this latest version of WordPress for the iPad by using it to write a review of itself. So far it has crashed 4 times on me, which is already a FAIL. I was hoping they’d been able to include some basic formatting in it, but no, it appears not.

The new features include video uploads and some back end blog maintenance enhancements. Great, but … why? The iPad has no video camera, and the Safari browser works just fine for logging into your WordPress site and doing comment maintenance. It seems to me it’s misspent effort. Improve the writing interface and graphics handling and you’d have a winner. Until then I have to declare BlogPress the reigning champion for blogging on the iPad.

Okay, it’s crashed 5 times now. At least it didn’t lose what I’ve written.

Make that 6 crashes!

7 crashes! 8! I give up. FAIL! Plus, the preview feature doesn’t work. (see screenshot – that’s all I get when previewing this very post)

[Gone past 10 crashes now. Have stopped counting.]

I had such high hopes for this app. It seemed promising. The feature set came across so impressive and useful that I bought it immediately.

Silly me.

The reality is, this is a toy for would-be writers so that they can pretend they’re writing something. Two clues that it’s not actually for professional use:

1. It gives you a choice of parchment background styles for you to write on.
2. It presents your manuscript to you as if it’s already published in a hardbound book.

Ergo, this is a wish-fulfillment app, not an actual writing tool.

It could be saved, though. Add the ability to format your text, and improve the export feature so that it gives you a professionally formatted manuscript, and it would actually be useful. I mean, I don’t really have anything against it being on a parchment background, or looking like it’s already hardbound. What does piss me off is that I spent money on it without realizing it won’t do simple — and I mean basic — things like indent your paragraphs and underline words.

For you aspiring writers out there, here’s an important tip: professional publishers like to see their manuscript submissions in a specific format. This app claims to enable you to produce a submittable manuscript within the confines of the app itself, and that is not true.

Until Black Mana Studios fixes at least this basic flaw, there’s no way I can recommend this to anyone who is serious about creating a manuscript on the iPad. Take your money and instead buy Apple’s Pages. It may not come with all the plotting tools, but at least it gives you all the standard, necessary formatting features you’ll need to produce a professional manuscript.

Long a denizen on the more portable iPhone and iPod Touch, the Beer Judge Certification Program Style Guidelines are now available for the Apple iPad, where it’s much easier to read.

A touch here, a touch there, and you’ll find out everything you want to know about a certain style of beer.

I absolutely love it, and for those of you with an iPhone/iPod Touch, the same program works on those as well – you don’t have to buy another copy.

More info:  Beer Judge Certification Program website and BJCP Styles on Apples App Store.

Love it, hate it — it doesn’t matter. The iPad is here to stay. The more I use mine the more I love it, because you actually have to use it to understand where it fits into your life. It’s not a computer so much as it is an interactive book, mixed with a personal TV, and — as it turns out — a decent sounding radio.

One of the apps that I’ve come to enjoy using on a daily basis is Today In History by Down-Shift Interactive. The History Channel is what originally made me a fan of history, but since I’ve stopped watching TV this is one of the things I’ve missed. Now, right here on my iPad, I have all of history in concise Twitter-sized spoonfuls. I actually look forward to my new daily ritual of sitting in my big comfy chair, cracking open the iPad like I would a book, and touching the icon for this program.

Up pops the historic events that happened on this day. Not just a few, and not just recent ones, but notable events in all of history are at your fingertips. Also are lists of who was born today, who died, and what significant calendar events — including holidays — are happening around the globe.

You don’t have to be online to enjoy it, as all the data is cached locally, but if you do happen to be online — and an item of interest compels you to share — you can, directly from the app, via email, Facebook, or Twitter. That in itself is pretty cool, but add to that, this app has it’s own built in social network where you can actually comment on each historic event and read what others have commented. You can friend these other commenters and have entire discussions with them.

All right there in the app. Seriously, this is something I never would have thought of, and never would have thought I’d enjoy — but I do. I mean, really, talk about “history coming alive…”

– Post From My iPad

I have been dabbling with this Facebook / Twitter phenomenon for a while now, probably not as long as most, but longer than some.  What really pulled it together for me is the free software called “TweetDeck” which is (in a strange, spreadsheet kind of way) the closest thing we have to an actual hive mind.  Especially over the last two weeks, when I am at home and the computer is on – and it is most of the time – I have TweetDeck open full screen as my backdrop to everything else.  Instant Twitter / Facebook updates from just about every friend and family member I have will appear in close to real time.

So I’ll be working on a novel, or an article, or a short story, and then get this trilling sound from TweetDeck announcing a new message.  It gives me a little jolt of pleasure, and I alt-tab over to see who is doing what.  And since it’s usually 140 characters or less, I absorb it in an instant, then happily alt-tab back to what I was doing.

I live alone now, in a new place.  I don’t know many people here yet.  Occasionally I feel lonely.

When TweetDeck is up and running, though, I don’t.

This would probably be interesting fodder for some University psych study.  I can’t be the only one who finds companionship in TweetDeck.  When it’s running I don’t feel alone.

Case in point:  The trill just sounded.  I alt-tabbed over.  My cousin Traci, who was one of my dearest childhood companions, is going to see Aerosmith and ZZ Top tonight.

For some reason, just knowing that makes me happy.

I use TweetDeck on both my computer and my iPhone.  It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  It’s free.  And it’s hereby officially proclaimed groovy.

Dear Bill Gates,

I am very sorry I shoveled so much ire on Windows Vista over the last few years, both privately and publically.  I approach with hat in hand and offer an apology.

Recently I decided to buy a new computer.  Because of being such a raving fan of my iPhone, I thought I would switch to a Mac.  Mac computers are very elegant.  Macs are beautiful.

But for me, ultimately, a Mac didn’t make any sense.  Not after I saw, and fell in love with, an HP Quad Core desktop machine with 8 gigs of RAM, and a huge and beautiful 23 inch wide screen monitor … for 2/3 the price of a Mac which, by tech specs alone, was only half the computer.

The only drawback, I thought, was that the HP came preloaded with Windows Vista.  Every experience I’ve had with Vista has been negative.  But, I thought, I’ll just uninstall it, put XP on it, and then upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out.

That’s not what happened, though.  It turns out with a powerful computer, 64-bit Windows Vista rocks.  It rocks hard.  Software I thought had been buggy (Firefox 3, which I had all but given up on) and Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate (don’t try and say that with only one breath) both of them are rock solid on Vista.

On this computer, Vista runs effortlessly, and it multitasks like a supercomputer of yore.

It’s beautiful, elegant, and solid.  The operating system I thought I would hate, I have found I actually love.  Sure, it may suck on a lesser computer.  On hardware that is not worthy.  But on this machine?  Dare I say it?  It’s downright sexy.

And my apologies to Steve Jobs and Apple, and all the Apple fans out there, but this HP desktop kicks ass.  Vista kicks ass.

AND, something that people don’t figure in until it’s too late, I didn’t have to re-purchase all my software for the Mac platform.  That was really the nail in the coffin when I was teetering between choosing a Mac and a PC.  I have a significant investment in software.

So once again, Mr. Gates I am sorry for the loads of ire.  That is in the past.

And take heart Mr. Jobs, you still get a chunk of my money, as I pick up my new iPhone 3Gs tomorrow.

Here’s a lesson I’ve learned, not just in this instance but in many instances, and it holds true.  Brand loyalty is stupid.  It fosters complacency.  It even harms the companies you love, because what drives companies to continuously improve is competition.  If you’ve become a brand-loyal cash cow to your favorite company, you’re undermining the system of competition – and that actually ends up hurting the company you support.

I still like Apple better than I do Microsoft, and certainly more than I like HP (and I used to work for HP), but Mac computers are too expensive and too underpowered.  I don’t care how elegant they are.

Vista is pretty damn elegant if you give it a chance.  And I can’t wait to put Windows 7 on this thing.

But, I’ve decided, only after Windows 7 gets its SP1.

This is one of the reasons I totally love Google’s “Chrome” web browser.

Fast, more stable that both IE 8 and the current buggy Firefox (seriously, I love Firefox, but it crashes so often now I’m ready to abandon it entirely), and it protects you, too.  Neither IE8 or Firefox warned me that this site hosted malware … and even if it turns out to be a false alarm, I don’t care.  Better safe than sorry.