A week with the iPad: our Home screens
Posted by sebbo on 4th June 2010
A week ago, the iPad was officially launched here in the UK. It was a long couple of months that we spent eyeing our American cousins’ tablet experiences with envy. During that period, pebble.it got to spend limited time with a few iPads, we even fixed a few problems, but it would be nothing like having our own…
Well, that time has finally come. Perhaps the most telling statistic is only 2 pebblers pre-ordered iPads. Other team members’ opinions on the subject ranged from “waiting for version 2,” all the way down to “distinctly nonplussed.” Within a week however, only 2 pebblers don’t have iPads.
Call us fanboys, sycophants, or what you will. It maybe a little early to pass judgement, but don’t ignore the hype. The iPad is a new class of device, a potential game-changer. In my personal opinion, the iPad will fulfil 80% of computing needs for 80% of people, and perform those tasks better than anything that came before.
To mark the occasion, we’ve gathered screenshots of (most of) our iPad Home screens, along with a few initial thoughts from each person.
Seb:
It could be argued that any productivity enchancements introduced by the iPad are immediately nullified by time spent cleaning the screen. To try and mitigate this, I’ve employed Adam Lisagor’s Fingerspoo wallpaper — and it works!
The apps on my Home screen represent what I’m finding the iPad most useful for: I’m getting a lot more reading done. Of course, there’s Apple’s iBooks, but also Comics for, well, Comics, and Instapaper lets me save online articles to read later on my iPad. Articles is the best way read Wikipedia and a Safari shortcut to Google Reader for news feeds (I’m waiting for the iPad version of Reeder to get approved, which should be any day now).
Other apps of note include 1Password. I have a lot of authentication information1 to manage and 1Password syncs this data to all my devices securely and easily. Simplenote is a simple notes (!) app that syncs with multiple devices via a cloud service. WeatherStation would get my award for best design. Last but not least is Dropbox, which we’ve been using to share files between team members for some time.
Toby:
I came by my wallpaper via a free app called Wallpapers — it’s got lots of pretty cool images.
Things: Pricey, but this app is much better on the iPad than the iPhone. I actually use it when mobile now! I’m desperate for the upcoming cloud sync feature, which is apparently at “FULL SPEED.”
Evernote: Still getting to grips with this notes app. All my notebooks get synced with their cloud service and thus are available everywhere. They have client software almost every platform.
Keynote: Haven’t played with Apple’s flagship iWork apps much but what I have seen so far is impressive. I think our clients will really grab hold of this one so I need to know my way around! Looking forward to my first iPad presentation.
Flight Status: I’m traveling a lot at the moment and this helps me quickly and easily check up on my travel arangements.
iMockups: A fantastic app for mocking up web, iPhone or iPad apps. I predict this will become indispensable for our increasing amount of development work.
Eyewitness: I’m taking photography more seriously and this app from The Guardian is not only inspirational but the professional tips are a great help too.
George:
In the short time that I’ve managed to prise the iPad from my wife’s hands it is clear it is a seismic shift in terms of consuming digital content. It is usable, beautiful and intuitive. It is so intuitive that the instruction manual is just one small piece of paper. It is an game-changing device and I can’t wait to start developing applications for it.
Paul:
I have a Wi-Fi + 3G iPad but have yet to decide which of the available data plans to take on, if any. The choice will depend largely on how often I find myself out and about with the iPad. Until then I’ll have the “No SIM” in the top-left of my screen. Currently it’s being used mostly in the home or office, so Wi-Fi is readily available. Still — good to have to option there.
My wallpaper is an HDR shot I took of the Battersea Park Bandstand with a Nikon D70.
TweetDeck/Twitterrific: Haven’t found the perfect Twitter app yet, so flitting between these two at present. Hoping that an official iPad client will arrive soon.
ComicZeal4: Awesome comic book reader from Bitolithic. I’ve been using the iPhone version for a long time, so very glad to have my comics on hand in the larger iPad screen.
Cydia: the ‘app store’ for jailbroken devices — one of the first things I did. Mainly for the enhancements that jailbreak apps bring, and that Apple would never allow. I use SBSettings for quick access to brightness/wifi toggles, WinterBoard for customisation and Backgrounder for multi-tasking, e.g. listening to Spotify (I’m a Premium subscriber).
Shaun:
My biggest worry was how would this long-promised tablet device fit in my already gadget-filled life. Steve Jobs hit the nail on the head “It will fit between your laptop and you mobile phone”. In my opinion it’s a digital content consumption and not a content creation device…for now.
The Good: My laptop now stays in the office.
The Bad: Not all the apps I love on my iPhone work natively on the iPad (but Rome was not built in a day).
The Ugly: File management, I feel Apple is still playing around with how to implement this properly.
Ben:
My Home Screen is mostly the stock apps, with a few exceptions. Molecules is there because one of my housemates is doing a biochemistry degree and the iPad makes for an amazing way to view molecular diagrams. I’m a big Instapaper user so that had to be there, and Dropbox has already saved my bacon a few times in the last couple of days. The biggest standout for me is WolframAlpha — having such a massive amount of useful reliable information makes me feel like I’m living in the future.
My wallpaper is a photo Uska, my ridiculous giant Alsatian (and my stepdad’s guide-dog during the week).
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You’re not using a single, simple password everywhere, are you?!? ↩
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