Favorite iPad Apps (for Business)

Now that I've had the iPad for a couple months, I thought I'd share my short list of favorite apps. These are all business or productivity apps, which is the main focus of use for me. I know there are plenty of killer games, toys and what not out there, but the iPad has been primarily a business purchase for me, and so I'm focusing on apps that benefit getting things done.

Informant HD ($14.99)
This is a great organizer app. I looked at OmniFocus, but thought it too complicated and expensive. I probably use this app more than any other. Hooks into Google Calendar, and is very easy to use and has nice features. I'm finally done with hard-copy organizers forever!

Good Reader ($1.99)
I really prefer this app to Apple's iBooks app. I've only downloaded one eBook so far, and found this app to be a much better way to read books on the iPad. No fancy page curl animations, but it displays the book I purchased as it would look if I actually had a hard copy. It's also great for organizing files to read later, PDFs, etc.

Twitter (FREE)
I have to admit I haven't been tweeting alot. But this app is great for catching up on all the tweeters I'm following. Very sophisticated user interface with sliding columns. And it's free!

Air Display ($9.99)
Does just what it says, and works as an extension of my desktop monitor/laptop. No, it's not great for video or game. But it works so well that I have been bringing it home to use as an external monitor for my laptop.

Safari (INSTALLED)
I know this isn't an app you need to buy, download or install. But Safari on the iPad has got to be one of the best browsing experiences I've had. On the plus side it's VERY FAST, and the negative is of course, the lack of Flash support. Otherwise, blows other browsers out of the water.


There are a few others, but these make my short list. I'll keep this updated as I come across more useful apps for business and productivity. Somebody has got to make a presentation app that's better than Keynote, and I for one can't wait.

Using the iPad as a Portfolio

I'm constantly on the lookout for new uses for the iPad. Recently, I've been using it as a possible replacement for my printed portfolio during job interviews. Since I've had relative success with it a couple times, I'm going to shoot for using it today at an interview with Cigna, and am daring myself to leave my laptop in the office.

My methodology is to prepare a variety of screen shots of websites I've worked on, organizing them into different folders in iPhoto, and then syncing that with the iPad. The result is a very efficient and extremely fast way to browse a large quantity websites. The downside, of course, is that they're just screen shots, and not actual websites and so none of the interaction comes across. I have not found this to be a real problem during interviews though. Time is usually of essence, and the purpose of the interview is to quickly get acquainted with both me and my work to see how good the fit is. In this context, being able to rapidly flip through a portfolio serves the purpose very well. Of course, there is also the "wow" factor, as I don't think many interviewees are doing this yet. Definitely makes for a memorable impression. If you have one, and are thinking of trying this out, I say give it a shot.

P.S. Make sure you clean the screen beforehand, so it's nice and shiny and free of finger grease. I also have a stylus, and people seem to like using it as well.

Steve Jobs Using Paper instead of iPad

At several points during Apple's recent September 2010 Special Event, I was a little surprised to see Steve jobs using a paper notebook to facilitate his keynote. It is particularly amusing that the creator of the iPad has not found a sufficient use for it to replace something as simple as his notebook. I would expect that Apple could setup a scenario where the iPad was used to control the presentation.

Being an iPad user, I have not found it a great replacement for pen and paper when it comes to note rapid note taking (during an interview for instance). But I have used it as a replacement for my portfolio under certain circumstances. I seem to recall hearing Steve say something to the effect that he's wasn't exactly sure what people would use the iPad for. Apparently he's not sure of himself either.

Best SEO Advice

This was found in the online manual for Squarespace, a web/blog hosting provider chosen by one of my clients. They basically took the words right out of my mouth (italics mine, and slight paraphrasing).

"Unless your website has over 100 or so incoming links, search engines may index your site very sparsely. You can expect to see more traffic from search engines when you have established more credibility on the web (credibility being determined by links to your site by third parties that already have credible links to their sites).

http://manual.squarespace.com/search-engines-promotion/

Websites That Evolve and Adapt

Responsive web design appears to be the key to unlock the ability to tailor, truncate, or modify content accordingly for the specific limitations of the device that is being used consume it. I first read about this subject through Zeldman.com's article "Responsive Design is the New Black".

The article looks at the website for Simon Collison. If you scale your window horizontally while browsing his site, you will notice that extra columns appear and disappear depending upon the width of your screen. This is adaptive, or rather responsive web design, tailoring itself and accommodating a variety of viewing situations. It could be a desktop browser, a mobile device, or an iPad. One set of content, and varying ways of displaying it.

For more on this subject, read the A List Apart article on the subject: "Responsive Web Design". CSS media queries are the magic behind all of it.

Here's a short list of website's I've found that are using this new approach:

• The Hickensian
• dConstruct 2010
• Simon Collison

Test your browser windows' width to see how the content and layout accommodate your viewing device. Excellent degradation, fallback, and fluid response. I really hope to see more of this in the near future, and to begin exploring with it for my own projects. This has got to be the future. There are only going to be more and more devices, and they'll all continue to be slightly different. I recommend the adaptive or responsive approach.

Fluid images are used in some of these site, here's a link I found describing how to use them:
Unstoppable Robot Ninja