How I have been using my iPad Recently

I found Lost (the TV show) with my iPad. Even though I pay for cable television I find it difficult to watch a show on a regular basis as I am usually working or researching when the prime time shows are airing. I typically would watch Lost on Hulu in bed when I was too tired to do anything else, but that meant disconnecting my laptop from my office environment (my laptop is connect to my second monitor, video conferencing camera, printer, backup hard drive, iPod Touch, phone, etc.) and plugging it in my bedroom. Not that big of a deal, but then in the morning I had to reconnect everything for work. This only takes a few minutes, but that time adds up every day. Then along comes the iPad. I simply remove it from my stand, disconnect the charging cable, jump in bed, launch ABC app and I’m off watching Lost (10 seconds flat). Then after watching I jump online to see what other viewers thought of the episode.

I am going to miss Lost but I am sure with my iPad I will find some other great way to be unproductive before I go to sleep.

Goodnight.

/by
, , ,

iPad Game Submission – Rejected

Last week, on May 13, we submitted an update to WordPop! iPad to Apple. We were excited about this new release because it supported landscape. Players would be able to enjoy WordPop! Volt on the iPad in all orientations. I personally really enjoy playing in landscape mode a bit more than portrait as I find holding the iPad horizontally easier.

After a week, we heard back from Apple, the update was REJECTED. To quote Apple, “The iPad Human Interface Guidelines state that only one popover element should be visible onscreen at a time. On launch, and when the user taps the “Add Player” button, and additional popover is displayed for the user to enter a player name. Screen shots are attached for your reference.”

My team and I are aware of the one popover limit but the second popover is a dialog which I did not consider in the same class as a popover. Additionally, Apple had approved the two previous submissions of WordPop! Volt which has “Add Player” working exactly the same way.

Apple has been very good to us in that they usually provide a screen shot and description of what is wrong.

The fix is straight forward, we need to remove the first popover “Change Player” when “Add Player” is selected. This should be done any second now and we will resubmit.

Lesson learned, it does not matter what Apple calls the widget being used in the iPad User Interface Guidelines, only one “popover” at any given time.

Update: May 24, 2010 – We resubmitted WordPop! Volt. Below is a screen shot on the change. This new look conforms to the iPad UI guidelines.

/4 Comments/by
, ,

Sneak Peek of Landscape Mode of WordPop! Volt iPad

Jim’s recent hand-off of the title screen for landscape orientation. To be released in a few weeks as a free upgrade for all.

/3 Comments/by
,

Spring Contest – Win A Free Smart Box Design Mobile Game

Using the letters in the grid, find and submit a word that no one has found yet.

5 winners will be chosen at random. Contest ends 4/12 at midnight, PDT. Make sure to provide your email address so we can contact you if you have won.

Posting your word is a quick and easy. Remember only one word can be submitted per day.

/34 Comments/by
,

The Day Before my iPad Arrives

My thoughts about how I think I will be using my iPad. I plan to review this post in a month to see how reality compares to the dream.

What I am really looking forward to is email, which is silly for such an expensive device.

I typically wake up pretty early in the morning and check my email on my iPod Touch. If there are emergencies, I get up, if not I try to sneak in another 30 minutes.

In some cases I bring my laptop to bed and do email on it. But then in the morning I need to set it back up in my home office, not a big deal but it gets tiring. The irony of all of this is the recognition that although a laptop is portable the iPad is even more so because of the weight and form factor.

I often tweak my web pages late at night in bed too, fixing a page here and there (nothing serious as I need my large screen for real work) but if I could do simple change to text or styling with the iPad that would be great. I will have to wait and see if there any FTP apps for the iPad.

Watching Netflix will be big for me. My wife and I watch a lot of movies together but we have very different tastes in TV shows. I am more apt to watch Dr. Who or Lost. So I watch a lot of those shows on my laptop. Having the iPad for that will be great.

I often go to Seattle for the day and I just need something light. Email, light word processing, maybe look up a store or get directions in Google Maps. The iPad will be great for that. There are tons of free Wi-Fi spots in Seattle or I can use my friend’s Wi-Fi at their house.

Lastly, playing games and reading books will be great.

I can see using my iPad as my third screen and have HTML5 or CSS reference material up when I am working on my web site.

In addition to creating my own iPad games I contract as a Project Manager / Designer and I am currently working on a few iPad apps for a client. Having a real device to test on will be a pleasure.

OK, let’s see how I wind up using the iPad over the next month.

/by