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

This is what I get when I try to pull photos off my work-issued Blackberry Bold onto my iPad.

No problem, though. I have the MicroSD adapter. I’ll just pop the card out and use the iPad camera connecting kit’s SD card reader.

Nope. Wouldn’t work. The Blackberry is too ‘Windows’ for the iPad. Wrong file structure, so iOS wouldn’t see it as camera data, and so refused to even acknowledge I’d plugged it in.

Apple: FAIL

How did Apple do it? How did they brainwash me to the point where I simply HAD to have one of the new MacBook Air laptops? How? HOW?

The last Mac I had was a MacIntosh Classic. You know, one of those tiny screen black & white little box computers, closely resembling the original Mac. I only had it a few months and ended up selling it to finance a trip to Disneyland for the family.

I always missed it, but moved on. In the 90s I found myself having to support some Macs at a phone company, and ended up hating the damn things — because I no longer understood them. Immersed as I was in the Windows world I could no longer think in Mac terms and processes.

Then I got an iPhone when the 3G came out. This led to a 3Gs, and that led directly to me having to have an iPad. Now this new second-generation MacBook Air came out, with the sleek sexy form factor and solid state storage, the beautiful screen with the excellent graphics, the keyboard that types like a dream, the instant on and 11 second reboot cycle speed … I had to have it. I HAD TO. This was it, the Mac I’d been waiting for. The one that would bring me back over from the dark side.

See the progression? The iPhone led to the iPad, which led to the MacBook Air.

Do I have any buyer’s remorse? Hell no. This little thing cost exactly the same as my very first computer ($999.00, just like my old IBM PCjr — laugh at me if you must!) but this is infinitely better, and has made me one happy, happy, HAPPY technophile. I love this little thing. LOVE IT.

Can you tell I love it?

I love it.

As much as I wanted to use the iPad as a content creation device, which — if combined with a Bluetooth keyboard — it can very well be, I did keep finding myself struggling with its limitations. For the first few days I wondered if this little MacBook would replace my iPad. I even contemplated selling it. But no, they’re two distinctly different devices. As everyone says, and as even Apple states, the iPad is a media consumption device first and foremost. It’s replaced my TV. In a pinch it will serve to write a blog or an article, even without the Bluetooth keyboard. But this little baby here, this MacBook Air, is going to be my primary writing device as well as what I’ll use to edit video — both things which it does exceptionally well.

I have had many people ask me if I would recommend getting an iPad instead of a laptop to use as their one and only computer, and I couldn’t quite bring myself to give that recommendation. The iPad, as nice as it is, is not a stand-alone device. We’ll see if that changes in the future as the iOS operating system evolves, but for now it just isn’t. You need the umbilical cord to a PC in order to have it be fully functional.

If someone asked me if I would suggest the MacBook Air as a their one and only computer, I would — if their usage demands warranted it — recommend this computer without a single guilty twitch.

That is the highest praise I have for a computer.

But I still want to know exactly what Apple did to brainwash me. They did it very well. And I have joined the ranks of the Apple fanboys.

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?

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.

I keep getting these false feelings of hope that there will be this killer word processing app for WordPress on the iPhone/iPad that will let me do really complex things like, oh, bold and italicize text, or even (dramatic pause) a bulleted list. But no. Even this newly updated one is not much more than a 100% text version of some lame email client that attaches photos to the bottom of the post.

Actually I have another app that does better than this (BlogPress), at least with photos, but I still can’t emphasize anything. Which is why anything I write on either one turns out in complete deadpan.

I guess there’s a lot to be said for deadpan writing. And if you’d like to be the one to say it, please feel free to do so in the comments … because I can’t think of a single thing.

The rumors are true. Even though it gives you a message saying “This USB Device is Not Supported,” a regular old USB keyboard works just fine with the iPad when you plug it in via the Apple Camera Connection Kit’s USB adapter.

What do you bet, though, that this will not work once iOS 4 is up and running on the iPad?

Oh, and for anyone who’s curious: Yes! The numeric keypad works perfectly.

This is a cheap old HP USB keyboard from my closet. This post was written on it via BlogPress for the iPad, and I imported the photo from my Nikon D5000 via the Camera Connection Kit’s SD card adapter.

UPDATE: Reports are coming in that, while the keyboard works fine, the numeric keypad that comes with it does not.

While looking for a new keyboard for my desktop computer, I ended up choosing the Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 — simply because it I liked the feel of the keys so much. I do have to admit it occurred to me it might work with the iPad, but I doubted it.

Still, after getting it home, the first thing I tried to do is pair it up with the iPad. It took 20 seconds, and I was up and running. It works perfectly.

It doesn’t cost any less than the Apple Bluetooth, but I’m one of those weirdos who got used to the ergonomic “bent” keyboards and so this one suits me perfectly.

I ended up getting the Apple Bluetooth keyboard for use with the iPad, simply because it’s smaller and more portable — and to my surprise, I actually ended up liking it.  I use this Microsoft keyboard for my desktop computer.

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.