iPad Guide by digital mac living

Review on my new iPad case from HardGraft

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:57:12 +0800

After waited for 10 days, I finally received the iPad case from HardGraft. HardGraft is an Austria based company specializing in laptop and phone case. Currently there are selling 3 styles of iPad cases. You can check them out from their website.

The one that I have bought is the Heritage iPad case. I originally wanted to buy the Tilt iPad case after it showed up on the website but it is only available in September. After serious consideration, I decided not to wait.

The shopping experience was rather smooth apart from repeated input of my billing and shipping addresses in both HardGraft and PayPal pages. The package was delivered by UPS. Inside the package was a black wrapping paper with a hand written note saying “It’s all yours, Cheers”. I took off the wrapping paper and it was the iPad case. As expected the case was wool feeling and a leather pocket on the front. A nylon band was beneath the leather pocket to act as a handle. There is another nylon band to prevent from the iPad falling out of the case. It is beautifully made and fit perfectly with my iPad. The front pocket can fit in your iPhone or your headphone which comes in handy.

Must Have iPad Apps

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:22:26 +0800

There are a lot of iPad apps in the App Store but how do you know if they are of any good. Here I recommend a few for you to kick start you iPad experience.

AccuWeather

A weather forecast application that detailed with 15-days forecast. It can also give hour weather details. The free version comes with advertisement and an ad-free version is only $0.99.

Screen in Portrait mode

PaperDesk

Allows you to create different notebooks with unlimited pages in it. Support free hand writing, type writing and audio recording. When you are done writing a book, you can send through email in PDF format. It also support VGA output for sharing in real time. The VGA adapter can be purchased separately for $29.

The light version only allow 2 notebooks with maximum 3 pages in each of them. The full version is $1.99 if you are interested.

Screen on the Lite version

Penultimate

Another notebook replacement, simple and it has a very sensitive hand writing recognition. If you do a lot of hand writing, this is the app I recommend over the PaperDesk. You can choose to send the selected page or the entire notebook through email. It costs $2.99.

Screen

Pages

An iPad version of the popular Pages application. It has almost all the features you can find on the desktop version. To share between the desktop and the iPad, choose the documents through iTunes, sync and select the documents to import in Pages for iPad. Exporting is similar. The $9.99 price tag is more expensive compared to other notebook replacement. If you need to carry around a lot of Pages document for editing, this is a must.

You can visit Apple website for my detail on Pages for iPad.

Video

from Apple website

My new iPad

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:50:36 +0800

After a few months of waiting, I finally bought my iPad. It’s a 64G WiFi + 3G. I was so excited when I went back home from the Apple Store. I remembered I had the same feeling when I first got my iPhone 2G two years ago.

I immediately opened it. As usual, a very minimal and thoughtful packaging from Apple. The iPad is also carefully built and resembles the design of iMac and MacBook Pro.

Similar to iPhone, it has to be activated in iTunes. Unlike the iPhone, three default applications are missing - Stocks, Weather and Calculator. The rest of them are tailored-made for the iPad. Among them, I found two applications are perfectly done for the iPad, Calendar and Maps.

A lot of people are describing the iPad as a large sized iPhone or iPod touch. Once you have one, you will know it is a totally different experience. Now my typical day will start off using this to check my email and Facebook. Web surfing and doing email become a pleasure on an iPad. I now spend less time on my MacBook Pro. Sometimes I felt guilty of not using the MacBook Pro. Of course when I publish to my blog, my MBP is still my best buddy. But to be honest, you need to give credit to Apple finding such a niche from their current product line and deliver such a gorgeous machine.

When I am on the transit, I will be reading newspapers and magazines on the iPad. There are not many magazines for iPad yet, my personal favorites are the “iCreate”, “Wired” and “Entrepreneur” so far. I do hope that there are more popular magazines coming up an iPad edition, especially “Fast Company”. If you I still have time, actually I don’t travel that long to work. Yet, GodFinger is the game I am currently working on. By the way, my username is “sfcheng” if you are also into this game, come and enchant my followers!

My company is rather strict on Internet and email policy, iPad becomes a very good companion when I am at work coupled with my micro-sim card. Before that, I relied on my iPhone, now a bigger screen and faster processor come to rescue. Now I can freely discuss with my friend when I need to.

At home, it is not only for web surfing and email, I am now using it to do my initial draft of my blog on “Pages”, the iPad edition of the “Pages” on the Mac. I can now carry a powerful word processor with me whenever I go and write my blog.

iPad is definitely a revolutionary product, it is changing my daily life. And the funny thing is it is also changing a 68 years old man’s life too. I bought my dad an iPad as his birthday gift and now he is using it everyday. You can find out how he is using it in my next post - “How my papa is doing with his iPad?”. I am now wonder am I too late to buy Apple’s share?

Many ways to place your iPad and here are some ...

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:40:45 +0800

From $0.69 to $129, it’s all for you to choose.

1. Joule iPad stand
2. Griffin A-Frame iPad stand
3. Apple iPad Dock
4. DIY Wooden iPad stand
5. Cheap Business Card Holder

Joule iPad stand - USD $129

Website: http://www.elementcase.com/home/ipad.html

Griffin A-Frame iPad stand - USD $49.99

Website: http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/a-frame#

Apple iPad Dock - USD $29

Website: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC360ZM/A?fnode=MTc0MjU4NjE&mco=MTcyMTgxODc

DIY Wooden iPad stand - USD $12.4

Website: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20002609-1.html

Cheap Business Card Holder - USD $0.69

Website: http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/850127/Office-Depot-Business-Card-Holder-Clear/

How do you get ready for the iPad?

Sat, 6 Mar 2010 22:01:47 +0800

Apple just announced yesterday the Wi-Fi models of the iPad will be going on sale in the States on 3rd April. The 3G version is available later in April with more countries available at the same time. If you are interested in getting one, it’s now time to get one of the iPad case.
For all available cases in the market, here I pick my personal 3 favorites:

1. Blytheking’s iPad Case
2. M-Edge Flip Jacket
3. HardGraft iPad Case

Blytheking’s iPad Case - $65 - $70 USD

Website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/blytheking?section_id=6786566

M-Edge Flip Jacket - Coming Soon

Website: http://www.medgestore.com/products/ipad-flip.psp

HardGraft iPad Case - EUR £59

Website: http://shop.hardgraft.com/product/ipad-case