Comments on: Tools We Use: iPad Edition

By: AW

AW — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:56:52 +0000

Glad to see the mention of iAnnotate. It’s a critical part of my own PDF workflow.

http://bit.ly/9VzZ3w

By: Samuel

Samuel — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:02:00 +0000

Thanks…

By: Kerim

Kerim — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:26:39 +0000

@Samuel: You should check out http://www.diybookscanner.org/

By: MTBradley

MTBradley — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:06:01 +0000

Has anyone tried out this or similar keyboards?

By: MTBradley

MTBradley — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:01:46 +0000

The lead story from yesterday’s edition of Fresh Air is apropos.

By: Samuel

Samuel — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:45:55 +0000

Do you guys ever make your own e-books?

Scenario: I am going away for 2 years for fieldwork to (shockingly) a place where there are few anthropology books, and though I want to have access to certain books, space in my suitcase is limited (and budget for shipping is non-existent).

I’ve looked into amazon and other ebooks sites, but they don’t really seem to sell the books that I would like to buy (perhaps because a lot of them are older?).

Any ideas?

By: Kerim

Kerim — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 01:14:29 +0000

I find using my fingers works quite well given the tools within iAnnotate. I’m not super crazy about the GUI, but it works well enough. You can buy a stylus which will work on an iPhone/iPad screen if you like.

By: Jeremy T.

Jeremy T. — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:50:50 +0000

@Rex, my ereader has a stylus. I use that for notes, but use my finger for advancing pages, zooming, moving the page, etc.

By: Rex

Rex — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:46:19 +0000

Do you guys use a stylus or do you really annotate w/teh fingerz

By: Jeremy T.

Jeremy T. — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:07:04 +0000

I was recently thinking about the same issues with shifting from paper, and started looking at ereaders as well. The iPad was out for me from the start because I simply can’t read on an LCD – the backlight hurts my eyes too much. So I ended up getting a Sony PRS-600 with a touchscreen.
I have to say, I’m very happy with it. The reading experience is great – unless the PDF was scanned with two pages on one; it’s a little cumbersome then, but manageable. Annotating is easy enough with the touch screen, though I don’t think annotations will transfer off the device. There’s no wifi, but I get all of my documents off the internet anyway – amazon, barnes and noble, et al wouldn’t have the things I read. It comes with Sony’s Ebook Reader software, but it doesn’t allow me to edit metadata so I use Calibre, which is free and open source. It doesn’t do as much as an iPad, but I’m not really a fan of carrying the internet around in my pocket anyway – I value unconnected time. I won’t say anything against the iPad (thought the DRM issues concern me a lot); I just wanted to point out that the ereader is still a viable option.

By: Panamajack

Panamajack — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:28:06 +0000

Simplenote just updated their app with an iPad native UI apparently. I do like the iPhone version.

Asked my Doctor friend and he said the iPhone’s great but just not quite enough screen real estate for what they have in mind. The iPad will be used like a portable medical clip board, so you won’t be holding it constantly.

By: Kerim

Kerim — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:05:48 +0000

@Panamajack I use Pleco for the iPhone but I’m not beta testing the iPad version. I love Pleco though, and I’m sure the iPad version will be equally invaluable for me. Regarding “catch all” apps – I use Evernote which already has an iPad version. I have a pro account so I can store PDFs and other documents in Evernote. I quite like Evernote, but I find better for storage and search than for writing notes. For that I use Simplenote which still doesn’t have an iPad version. (Non-iPad apps run on the iPad, but are annoyingly pixelated if you run them at full screen resolution.)

Like I said above, I would still recommend a laptop for fieldwork. Although it really depends on where the field is. The iPad is fine for simple note-taking (especially with a bluetooth keyboard), and it can record voice fairly well, but without access to a good wifi connection the device will be quite limited. I don’t know about doctors. The iPad is too heavy to hold for a long time with only one hand. I think doctors might prefer the iPhone…

By: Panamajack

Panamajack — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:20:29 +0000

Thanks Kerim; I was aching for someone to review PDF capabilities for the device. Are you on the Pleco beta for the iPad ? Any thoughts (assuming you’re allowed to discuss it) if you do ?

Do you think the iPad would benefit from a “catch all” app like Yojimbo (or the many other alternatives), or do you think Instapaper + GoodReader + a separate notes app suffices ?

Another huge question: do you see the device being an effective tool for ethnographic field work ?

I just played with an iPad for the first time; a M.D. friend of mine is busy programming diagnostic software for use in hospitals / first responders, and he’s incredibly excited at the prospects of a tablet like device actually being ‘effectively used’ (many older Doctors have been turned off by tablets to date), most especially by paramedics.

By: Kellen Parker

Kellen Parker — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:51:49 +0000

I keep thinking that an iPad + Pages would make me no longer really need to carry a laptop around. I could have a Mac Mini and an iPad and i’d be set. The one thing that I worry about is typing, but I hear it’s not really an issue.

Flights, of course, being another big plus.

Good to see someone else who remembers the early days of Apple before it was all glam and hipster.