The iPad, a few weeks later

I've now had an iPad for a few weeks now, since they became available to the public. When I first saw them introduced, I didn't see me getting one because, as an average consumer, I didn't see it fitting into my life.

An iPad managed to land at my feet and I've completely changed my tune. This is the device for the average consumer. Granted, the price right now is a bit high, but I think that the iPad is going to revolutionize a number of fields including textbooks, newspapers, and portable computing. While I was impressed with the iPad when I first started playing with it, it wasn't until the next morning when my wife picked it up, that she said she could see how it could be used as a textbook. She had seen my Sony Reader and was unimpressed with it, but the look and feel of the iPad puts it in a whole different class.

While I've done some iPhone development in the past, I don't use an iPhone (I can't justify the monthly cost). I use my iPad everyday to read news, RSS feeds and email. It isn't going to replace my desktop, but I'm excited to start developing applications for the device.

The iPad is the future of tablet devices.

Cleaning up after yourself

Yesterday I saw a Twitter post from Jonathan Wight of Toxic Software complaining about background apps that when you trash them, still keep running and he suggested using FSEvents to automatically terminate when that happens.

Well, I have a number of projects that have background apps and I thought that this would clean things up a bit, so I slapped together a sample project. In addition, I've worked on a number of projects that suffer from the same problem, so hopefully other developers can incorporate this (or something similar) so that when you trash an app, the background helper app goes away with it.

I'm using Stu Connolly's SCEvents to wrap up the FSEvents. This simplifies my code a bit. I've included his source in the download; it is released under the MIT License.

Feel free to download this code. I'm releasing it under an MIT License

Comments are welcome on the code.

Dollars for my Sony Reader

I wrote a few weeks ago that now that I have an iPad, my seldom used Sony Reader PRS-500 had no use to me. On the MacBreak Weekly podcast, I heard about
gazelle.com where you can sell old gadgets and get money. I didn't have high hopes as I usually keep gadgets to the point that they have very little value.

A few days after I received my iPad, I went to the site, setup an account, and received an offer for the Reader. It was more than I expected and with a code from MacBreak Weekly, I got a bonus and then by selecting an Amazon Gift Card, I got another 5% bonus. Gazelle.com was easy to use, they sent me a pre-paid shipping label and within a week after they received it, I got a gift card for $116! They actually upped the value when they received it because I misinterpreted a checkbox; it said "rechargeable battery", I said no because I thought it meant a separate one.

Not a bad little deal for me to clean off my desk and get a few bucks for a device that I no longer use.

Wasting money in the App Store

I just purchased an app called Time Master for my iPad for doing time tracking as I'm working on a number of projects. Unfortunately the developer doesn't understand user interface and added every feature in the book. The application is unwieldily and it took me 15 minutes to setup 4 projects. In addition, when you add projects and other things, you get a warning to backup your data before editing/adding information. Wow, I sure can't trust this program if the developer doesn't even trust the database. The response I got from the developer is that there is no backup for the data. Well, warning the users every time they enter the setup is a very bad idea.

I had high hopes for this application, but wasted $10 on it and can't find a way to get my money back. I used the "report a problem" link in iTunes and after writing my problem, I got a message that said to contact the developer. OK, fine. I wrote the developer and he claimed that the issues are things he can't do anything about as his app works just like Contacts. He can believe whatever he wants to believe, but his application needs a user interface overhaul.

Here are some screenshots of the app. The configuration is far too complicated for a time tracking app.