Transitioning to an iPad workflow.

by WyldKard on February 23, 2010

We’ve long complained about toting our 17″ MacBook Pro around when we travel. The purchase was solid when we wanted a top-performing mobile Mac for , with the occasional trip requiring relative transportability. Since we’re traveling more and less these days, the bulk of lapzilla has caused us to look for a replacement, and we held off on picking up a used MacBook Air, or a newer (and smaller) MacBook, because we expected the to show up soon. And now that it has, we’ve made some definitive decisions on how we intend to handle our computing workflow.

Unfortunately, the can’t replace our MacBook Pro by itself. Still, for most computing tasks, the seems to fit the bill. Like the , it has all the makings of a good internet client for most tasks. With a larger screen and the likelihood that other internet apps (e.g. chat clients) will be ported to make use of it, surfing the digital waves shouldn’t be a problem, save for multitasking restrictions which many people expect to be relieved in a future OS version (4.0?). What’s left is some method to write, and with a $10 version of Pages designed specifically for the , this base also appears to be covered. This means that other text editors will undoubtedly show up on the in the future (ad be useable!), to include those with syntax highlighting for developers, as well as those designed for creative writers (like our favorite, Ulysses).

With text editing and internet use out of the way, we’re left with a couple tasks that the can’t do on its own (at least not in its present state).

Future features?

Camera/tablet integration: We already talked about this yesterday, so won’t go into it again. Suffice to say, the opportunities for integration with other peripherals is there, be it the iSight and tablet we already mentioned, game controllers, the PowerMate, etc.

Selective screen-grabs: While the and Touch have an easy method for grabbing screenshots (which the will likely inherent), the method is simple: it grabs a full-size screenshot. Sure, we can open this screenshot in a photo-editing app and crop out what we need, but that’s not as elegant a solution as using, say, Skitch. Even if user-defined multi-tasking presents itself in a future OS revision, we have to remember that there will still likely be restrictions on it. While editing screenshots manually to crop out content is not a deal breaker for us, we hope refines the screenshot method on its mobile devices, to allow users the option of, say, drawing out the area they want to capture (say, with a lasso tool), else simply clicking on the screen to capture it in its entirety.

Either way, the should present a quick and easy way to grab parts of a screen, be it part of the OS, or possible by running an app in the background (like a ported version of Skitch).

Why we still need a Mac.

iTunes: Obviously, this is the big obstacle for most people. It’s not an issue for many computer users, like grandma and grandpa, but for people already vested in the Mac world, it’s likely that there’s a media library that can’t be managed on the alone. These users, like us, need a way to hook the up to a core iTunes media repository, and selectively copy media onto the for whatever upcoming trips or time periods are pertinent.

With no announced way for the to important media from a source other than the iTunes store (and pictures/video from SD/USB sources via the camera adapter kit), the may also rely on a Mac for its optical drive. Otherwise, users won’t be able to rip CDs and DVDs to transfer their media onto their newest toy.

Server tasks/file-sharing: Seeing as apps were removed from the AppStore that merely controlled BitTorrent clients that actually resided on a Mac, it’s unlikely that we’ll see actual peer-to-peer (P2P) apps in the AppStore, particularly when is trying to fervently control the distribution of media via the iTunes store. Even if we could run, say, a version of Transmission built for the , it’d be a little silly unless we’re using it at home via wifi. Without a jailbreak-enabled application like 3G Unrestrictor, we ought not bank on /AT&T letting us download large files, and the download speeds on 3G would be pathetic anyway. This doesn’t even account for the ’s small storage capacity. So for those of you seeking to grab media via .torrent files or other methods, the alone won’t be your savior. Same goes for pretty much any other server-related tasks.

File processing: Betwixt P2P and iTunes media management is the issue of file processing, be it in the conversion of video files so they can be played via the iTunes app, or simply unzipping them in the first place. Really, it’s simple: if the media you want is not from the iTunes store, then the itself won’t cut it.

There’s also the issue of very niche apps or those that will be impossible to get through the AppStore approval process. Emulators, utilities for connecting to, say, a console, or even just custom scripts for accomplishing file renaming or other tasks.

Solution?

For us, the solution is rather obvious. For the few tasks we do need a Mac for, we can run a mostly headless Mac Mini tucked away somewhere. We’ll probably just use our HDTV as a monitor for when we need to do more than handle automated tasks (e.g. updating our / firmware), and access it via one of our mobile devices thanks to one of the many mouse/keyboard apps already in the AppStore, else the bluetooth keyboard we’ll pick up for the anyway. The Mac Mini will handle all our iTunes media management tasks, as well as whatever media processing we might need to do. (We just lost our iTunes library, so we need to rip all our old CDs again, for example.)

In the event that we don’t want to use the HDTV as a monitor (such as when the TV is already in use), we can always access the Mac Mini via the thanks to utilities like VNC. Or, we can just have a small LCD handy (which we do, thanks to our discontinued carputer project). With this setup, it’s doubtful we even need a mouse.

Apps we’d like ported to the .

With a Mac Mini powering what we can best describe as stationary tasks done at home, and usually with little needed interaction, we can focus on the apps we’d like to see transition over to the , or simply be improved versions of existing AppStore apps. While we’re convinced that we can get by with the on release, there are definitely things (like multitasking) that will be necessary to make our workflow as fluid as, if not more fluid than, the work we do on the MacBook Pro when on the road.

Adium/Conversation/iChat: We never did quite settle on a single chat application, though we predominantly use iChat because of the iSight integration. Regardless, we’d like to see AppStore chat clients move over to the ’s larger-screen format, else see apps like Adium be ported to the . Multitasking for an app like this would be ideal, but let’s at least be able to see chats in multiple protocols.

Bento: There’s already a mobile version of Bento available, and we expect an version to come out that would pretty much duplicate the features of the desktop version. The folks who develop Bento have confirmed that an version will be in the works.

JBidwatcher: Our preferred eBay sniper. Ideally, we wouldn’t need to access it remotely on the Mac Mini, but could tote it around and rely on 3G to keep us sniping (assuming we have multitasking, of course). JBidwatcher’s developer would like to bring the program over to the /, but the multitasking issue remains.

MacFamilyTree: Another app with a mobile version already on the AppStore. The would be perfect for showcasing a full-featured version of this app, and the developer supports the idea.

PandoraJam: Given what it does (rips audio from Pandora), it’s unlikely we’ll ever see this on the . Even if we did see it, there likely wouldn’t be a method to copy songs over to the iTunes library, so we’d have to rely on the Mac Mini to copy audio from the app to the server iTunes library, and then re-sync the . An easier solution would simply be to run PandoraJam as part of a media center setup. (Still, we’re listing it anyway because we’d love it to work somehow.)

Pixelmator: Image editing apps on the are already coming into their own, with many desktop features. If we could get something like Pixelmator on the , though, it’d be fantastic.

Ulysses: A mobile version was already announcement, so hopefully the developers, now aware of the new SDK, will port most of the Mac version’s functionality over to the .

Vassal: Okay, this isn’t part of our work flow per se, but we were recently re-introduced to this wargaming platform and can see how awesome it would be on the . Someone please work on this!

VoodooPad: Another app with a mobile version already existing (which only lets one read files, unfortunately), we expect the developers to release a more full-featured version for the . Our use of VoodooPad has waned over time, in part because there’s no way to edit the files on the . We may come back to this app now, though.

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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 Paul September 2, 2010 at 1:49 am

This is my first visit to this web site.

Its fonts and colours are making my eyes work too hard to stay and read what it says, and everything is blurry.

I am using Firefox on Windows with a large TFT screen.

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