There used to be a time when I was very much in love with Twitter. It was my favourite social networking tool by far. It was quite an exhilarating experience being constantly exposed to some of the most amazing conversations and informal learning at its best. To me, it was *the* place to provoke plenty of facilitated serendipity to take place and keep in the know with all of that stuff one gets passionate about over the course of time. But then, after a short while, I started hating Twitter. Perhaps a bit too harsh of a word, maybe loathe could do.

Over the course of just a few weeks Twitter managed to destroy, in a very pernicious manner, not only the overall user experience, but the entire ecosystem as well that made it a success in the first place: Third party apps. And it totally hit me when I saw my all time favourite Twitter client (Nambu) disappear into thin air just because of that series of misbehaviours. Fast forward to the end of 2011 and I am back in love with Twitter again, not because of all of the various different new features and capabilities they have been putting together, but because I have finally found The Best Twitter Client On The Net: Janetter.

Yes, that’s right! It surely looks like Twitter continues to be keen on destroying not just the Third Part Apps ecosystem that made it incredibly popular in the first place, but also some of its own desktop clients like Twitter for Mac or TweetDeck, where the latest upgrades have deteriorated the user experience for both of them tremendously altogether! Or so I am told. The thing is though that ever since I started making use of Janetter my overall user experience has seen quite a profound transformation.

It was through my good friend Rachel Happe that I first heard (Of course, on Twitter!) about this very special Twitter client that works both in Windows and on the Mac. She liked the experience and right away I thought about giving it a try myself, after having been actively searching for a good substitute for Nambu throughout all of this time playing with a bunch of other Twitter clients whether on the Mac or on iOS devices. And right off, within the first few hours I knew that Janetter would be my new, much preferred, default Twitter client on the Mac. What a beautiful experience, indeed!

I realise most of you folks would notice how I hardly ever get to talk about (Productivity) Tools and such on this blog, since I have always thought that they usually come and go and it’s very hard to get attached to any of them over the course of time, because you never know when they will go ahead and disappear. But since a bunch of people have been asking me what I like so much about this particular Twitter client why not put together this blog post and share some of the most compelling reasons why I have been enjoying it since day one that I installed it. At the same time, there have been a few other folks who have tried it out themselves, after I mentioned on Twitter myself how much I enjoyed it, and they didn’t like it at all. They actually thought it was a horrendous experience, so perhaps this article would help me share across some of the main reasons why Janetter is, to me, as good as it gets with regards to Twitter clients on whatever the platform. Hopefully, with that input it would give you a pretty good idea on whether you may want to give it a try or not.

So here are some of the most compelling reasons why I heart Janetter as my all time favourite Twitter client, even way above than Nambu, from back in the day:

• Cross-Platform: Indeed, no matter whether you may be using Windows, or Mac, it would work in both just beautifully! Time and time again I kept finding it a challenge recommending a Windows client that would not be TweetDeck, which is, I guess, what most folks tend to use at the moment. And now we have got a pretty good and rather impressive rival: Janetter. (Yes, I do realise there isn’t a version for Linux users at the moment, so those folks may need to continue using whatever tool they may have at the moment)
• Scalability: You could probably say that I’m a power user of Twitter, and perhaps of several other social networking sites, too, and one of my favourite features from Janetter itself is how scalable it is! It’s amazing! I have been using it rather heavily over the course of a few weeks now, with large networks and rather complex searches, and not a single glitch to be observed with the overall performance of the application or the machine altogether, which is not the same I could say about a bunch of other Twitter clients or even other social networking sites’ Apps. That’s a winner for me, specially, if you are a heavy user of Twitter yourself. Worth while a try just for that!
• Reliability: Another one of my favourite features from this Twitter App. Like I said, I use it daily rather heavily and, probably, in the most extreme of circumstances hacking different behaviours and I have yet to see, and experience!, the first crash on the Mac! And that’s been weeks of long and lasting use already! Like I said, not a single one!! Not sure what you would think about it, but that’s what reliability is all about in my books, don’t you think?
• The Look & Feel: This may well just apply to Mac Fanboys, but one of the things you would very much like from this Twitter App is that it behaves and works in pretty much the same way than any other native Mac App, which is a lot to be said for an application that’s developed to work cross-platforms. The time dedicated to make it look and feel like a native Mac App is just priceless. It doesn’t give you the impression, at all!, that you may be using a Windows copy! No way! A big Yes!!
• Customisation: This is an area that I know most folks would not care much about it, but I love it. Being capable of customising my own user experience of what I see and play with is just a tremendous bonus! The wide range of Skins with multiple colours, displays, fonts, etc. etc. and the extensive User Preferences to tame the experience to your own likes and dislikes, needs and requirements surely is quite a treat! And something that you hardly ever see on Twitter Apps at all these days.
• Like TweetDeck: But … without the hassle. That’s pretty much how I basically describe Janetter when people ask me about it. It’s like TweetDeck but without all of those issues that keep crumbling the overall experience of Adobe AIR Apps (I had enough of the Kernel Panics, so I no longer use AIR on my MacBook Air and everything running smooth again!). Any kind of problem or issue you can find in TweetDeck it’s fixed in this Twitter App, for real! Seriously, if you are looking for a pretty impressive alternatively to TweetDeck on the Mac, or on Windows, take it for a spin and see how it would work out for you. I can probably guarantee you won’t be back ever since…
• The Timeline: I guess at some point I should probably go ahead and put together a short screencast of how I use the Twitter Timeline to quickly scan through tweets and pause through those I would really want to digest and muse further about and when to speed up and move on. But if you try out Janetter youself you will see what that experience looks like to me at the moment. As easy as it can get and using something so relatively simple, yet so powerful as keyboard strokes to advance on reading tweets, as well as natural scrolling (Up or down or both!) without seeing the application come to a hault! No matter how fast you go! Just brilliant!

• The Groups: This is probably the one single feature that most folks who use TweetDeck today, or any other Twitter client that allows you to gather twitterers by groups, would enjoy very much and by far! Creating groups in Janetter is just such a breeze! Groups as in Twitter Lists, obviously; if you have created them already, it’s just as simple as displaying them and they will stick around pulling a bunch of initial updates to let you know how things are going, and then move from there. You can mark them all as read, if you would wish to as well, and you can have a whole bunch of columns without a single glitch on the overall performance itself. Very powerful and strongly recommended for power users, for sure! 

• The Mentions: If you have been following me on Twitter for a while, over at @elsua, you would probably know how Twitter Mentions is my most simple, and long standing, grieving of my overall Twitter use. I have been complaining about how poor the accuracy of the Mentions is overall and time and time again we have seen how Twitter itself seems to be not very keen on wanting to address the issues and fix them. Well, no longer needed. Janetter did just that for me, allowing me again to catch up properly with those Mentions by not missing any of them! Pretty consistent and rather reliable! Not sure how they do it, but it just works! And thanks much for that!!
• The Searching Capabilities: Whether you are searching for specific terms, whatever those may well be, even with complex searches, or following a particular hashtag (Like I am about to do with #ls12 and #connect12 when I get back to work – More on that soon!) Janetter’s searching capabilities and real-time searches are just superb! Not matter how busy the Search timeline may well be, it will keep up with it and provide you with all you need. Just like that. No need to figure why this or that search doesn’t work, or why it doesn’t pull off updates. It just does it and beautifully! And in columns, too!! Which means that’s rather easy to keep up with them in a single view without having to go click, click, click.
• Following Conversations in Context: For those of us who have always considered Twitter one of the hottest places out there in the social networking sites realm for holding conversations on a wide range of topics, this Twitter client would be incredibly helpful and very powerful, because as you engage in conversations with other twitterers you would have an opportunity to catch up with them without having to go elsewhere. They are right there, embedded as part of the tweet stream, and in a rather beautiful and elegant manner, which is certainly everything, but disruptive, and that is what it should all be about! No longer will you be missing out on conversations in context while you are tweeting away! Fantastic and very much needed altogether!
• An ecosystem on its own: Where viewing and displaying Twitter related data from other Twitterers, like their profiles, their latest tweets, the following, etc. etc. or the pictures and videos they keep sharing along works like a charm; embedded right there within the same window and with an opportunity of, once again, not having to go anywhere else, which means you can keep tweeting along without having to worry as to which window you were at at that very moment. Love how it takes tweeting in context into a new level altogether!
• Muting Options: Yes, I know, I know, plenty of times I have been enjoying some serious rounds of twitterrhea myself, specially, when I am live tweeting conference events, and time and time again folks keep wondering how to mute me for a (long) while. Well, Janetter offers that opportunity, right there, in the Application itself and with a good number of options. So if you ever need to mute any of your social networks it will do the job just beautifully, which means you can keep your focus where you would want it to be, instead of getting distracted unnecessarily. Priceless, don’t you think?
• Support of Multiple Accounts: Ohhh, and if you have multiple Twitter accounts, this App would help you manage each of them rather elegantly as well. Now, I now longer need to worry about that one myself, but if I were, I would surely make use of it, instead of having to go for more costly options to try to achieve the very same thing. Very nicely done altogether!
• Local Cache: This is perhaps my all time favourite feature from any of the Twitter clients I have used over the course of the years. From what I know it’s not even available for the vast majority of them, but, to me, it’s become an essential key feature I cannot longer live without. We all know that it’s almost impossible to keep up with the Twitter streams, so we eventually get to dive in every so often to see what’s happening. Well, Janetter takes that into a new level. It allows you to cache all of the tweets, so you can catch up with them, if you would want to!, at your own pace and rhythm. If you have got a special group of twitterers that you would always want to read all of their tweets this client would allow you to do that easily!

  I love it particularly when I’m travelling, or away from the computer for an extended period of time, and would come back wanting to learn what’s happened on my Twitter streams and there it goes… all of them (In the hundreds, or the thousands!) available with a single scroll! Yes, I know you are not supposed to read them all, but sometimes, whenever time allows you to, you do, and it’s just such a treat having an App that fully supports it that overtime it’s become the one single main reason why I couldn’t live now without Janetter to keep up with those folks I’m keen on following up with. 

  Really powerful altogether to give you, the end-user, the ability to decide how much you would want to dive into your tweet streams without going crazy, but having a good grasp of what’s happening. Can you imagine Twitter allowing you to do that natively on their Apps or the Web interface? No, indeed, not a single chance! Massive kudos to Janetter in this regard, for sure!!

And, finally, perhaps the one single key favourite feature of them all. After all of what I have mentioned above, all of the reasons, features, capabilities and huge potential it offers to us heavy twitterers, I still find it quite amazing that Janetter is made free, as in FREE!!, for all of us. No doubt, even if they would ask us for money I think it’d be the best money spent on any Twitter client out there by far, I would buy a copy of it in a split second and without thinking too much about it!, but the folks behind it have made it available to us all free of charge, which is just probably as good as it gets!

That’s about it, folks, here you have got in a single blog post the various many reasons why I’m now back in love with Twitter, not because of Twitter itself, or the technology behind it, but because thanks to the absolutely delightful user experience of Janetter I’m capable of doing something that in the last few months I kept struggling with time and time again: following, digesting, and learning plenty more in good context from the tweet streams of my favourite social networks, which, eventually, is the main reason of why Twitter exists for most of us and I am happy to see how this Twitter App is making that possible. At least, for me. Hope for you, too! If you have found this blog entry useful enough to take it for a spin, let me know in the comments what you think and whether it’s helping you transform the way you interact with Twitter, like it has done with me so far and big time …

Ohhh, and in case you may be wondering what would be my favourite iOS clients for both iPad and iPhone, for when I am on the road, away from my MacBook Air, that would be Osfoora HD for the iPad and the native Twitter for iPhone client. But, once again, they are not the same as the real thing, which is why I do seriously hope that some day we would be able to see Janetter entering the iOS world helping us redefine that mobile Twitter user experience once again! I very much look forward to that!

One of the biggest challenges we, knowledge (Web) workers, keep facing over the course of time, as we get more and more heavily involved with knowledge work being carried out through both traditional and emergent collaboration and knowledge sharing tools out there on the Social Web, is the fact that, now more than ever, we need to stay healthy, specially, as we tend to spend plenty of our time in front of a (computer) screen typing away for a good number of hours in our work day. We no longer have a choice at this point, more than anything else, because if we don’t do it for ourselves, no-one else would! It’s our responsibility, to a great extent, that we strive to remain healthy in this 2.0 world as much as we possibly can. Just think of it, what would happen if all of a sudden you end up suffering from Repetitive Strain Injury, a.k.a. RSI, for instance, at the worst timing ever during your current project(s)? Could you afford falling sick for a good number of months while trying to recover? Probably not, right?

Well, this is one of those times where we all need to be very grateful to Charles Hamilton for putting together an amazing set of hints and tips, gathered by Wimsey Cherrington, over at GigaOm‘s WebWorkerDaily “11 Ergonomic Tips for Avoiding RSI” that will act as excellent reminders for what we can do actively to help avoid falling into the trap of RSI. The article itself references as well a couple of rather interesting and very helpful entries on this very same topic: “How to Keep Your Wrists Healthy” and “DIY Home and Mobile Office Ergonomics“. Both of them highly recommended reads as well, mainly because of the whole bunch of pragmatic ideas shared across that you can put into practice right away.

It’s been nearly two years since my last blog entry on this important and rather relevant topic of RSI, and since this is also a blog that talks a bit about productivity and, most importantly, how to stay productive, I thought I would spend a few minutes referencing Charles’ article sharing a couple of other tips that have worked with me wonderfully over the course of the last few months. So, to get started let’s go ahead and list those 11 tips that he collected from Wimsey:

1. Take frequent breaks: Indeed! I already do this with a couple of tips… First, my all time favourite preferred productivity tool to help me stay away from RSI by giving me plenty of reminders throughout the day to take frequent breaks. On the Mac, of course, I am talking about MacBreakZ, which I already blogged about it over two years ago as well. And just recently, another technique that has helped me tremendously with taking frequent breaks, regardless of what I am doing, is The Pomodoro Technique, where I have got it set up to give me a 5 minute break every 25 minutes of a particular task I may be doing. So far combining both of these tips has proved to be rather successful altogether, so if you are looking for a couple of options to help you take more frequent breaks you could have a look into those. They have worked wonders with me so far!
2. Relax: No brainer, I know, but how many of us do that during the course of the week? Read further on the tip to see what I mean…
3. Exercise: Charles shares a link to these wonderful exercises worth while having a look at, but I have also read just recently how activities like walking your dog, or, better said, asking your dog to take you for a long walk, can be very effective as well in your overall fitness program(s). Yes, indeed, I can vouch that one works, too!
4. Keep your feet comfortable: i didn’t realise about the importance of this one, but it surely does make sense. We need to be aware as to where our feet are while sitting in front of the computer for so long!
5. Position yourself for comfort: Nothing more to add to that one, I am afraid.
6. Lose the back pocket: I never had to worry about this one, but good to know, just in case!
7. Find the right keyboard and mouse: I have never used an external mouse, but ever since I was introduced to the TouchPad from MacBook Pros, and now with MacBook Air, I haven’t been back ever since and the native keyboard on the MBAir is working really well with me so far.
8. Use a stand for your laptop or tablet: Check! For both the MBAir and for the iPad; so much better to work with anyway, specially, since I can fall back into natural postures versus having to curve my body unnecessarily.
9. Check your eyeglass prescription: our eyes are critical for our work, so the better we look after them, the better we will be eventually.
10. Look for ergonomic hotel space: As a road warrior, one of the things I have built a good habit of is to take breaks even more frequently in this scenario of working remotely, more than anything else because those ergonomics are really lacking and taking breaks and going for long walks helps make up for that lack of a better workspace. Thank goodness it’s just temporary. Important to go back to the usual routines when coming back!
11. Get regular tune-ups: This is going along the lines of what I have been saying to myself as well for a while; as soon as it starts “hurting” a bit, even the slightest discomfort, time to stop and check with the specialists. They know better than you do.

As you may have seen above, lots of great tips shared across by both Wimsey and Charles. Read further their article as you are bound to find plenty more golden nuggets. For now, I would want to leave you folks with a couple of extra bonus tips on a couple of other Productivity Tools that I make use of quite heavily and which I have found incredibly helpful over the course of months. The first one is called TextExpander, where I have been capable of building up a whole bunch of macros that I run constantly that help me save lots of typing for repetitive sentences, phrases, common URLs, long pieces of the same text that you know you need to copy and paste all over the place, like online forms, etc. etc. According to TextExpander’s statistics so far I have saved over 155k characters! Yes, I know! That’s a lot of typing saved right there with just a couple of key strokes here and there! One of those essential applications every writer should have at their desktops! Oh, and there are versions of it as well for both iPhone and iPad, too!

And, finally, the last productivity tip for this blog entry that will surely help you decrease, substantially, the amount of time we all spend typing away in front of computers. It’s one that’s taken me quite a bit of time to get used to and master, but once I have managed to make it through it’s a huge time saver when you need to type large amounts of text. Of course, I am talking about MacSpeech Dictate, now rebranded to Dragon Dictate for Mac, which, basically, allows you to use natural speech to “talk to the computer” and have all of those words written down for you in a breeze and amazingly accurate, although, like I said, it took me a while to figure out what accent I would be using within the application itself, which I thought was just too funny, as a non-native English speaker! hehe

Either way, while reading this blog post I am sure you may be wondering that taking care of your health to help avoid RSI with some of the tools I have mentioned above is perhaps a little bit of an expensive treat, and probably I would have to agree with you on that, but then again, think how much more expensive it could well be, if you don’t invest in providing yourself with the tooling, techniques, hints and tips and whatever other tricks to stay healthy and avoid further trouble. I think I am going to stick around with these, don’t you think?

What other tips have you been employing over the course of time to help you avoid RSI? I am always willing to learn more useful tips and further advice on such an important topic! Would love to hear from you all in the comments!

I guess that with 47 million iPhones sold throughout 2010 and with 20 million plus already expected for Q1 in 2011 there is very little I would probably need to add about the tremendous impact of the iPhone within the smartphone market, whether for business or for personal use. Or both. So earlier on this year, around mid-summer, and after having waited for a couple of years, I, finally, took the chance to upgrade my good old 3G iPhone and get back on track with things with the iPhone 4. Thus, I got my hands on one. Yes, the very same one that dealt with the antennagate, which I never saw, nor experienced, by the way, in the nearly six months I have been using it extensively all over the place, including abroad. And counting … Certainly, one of the major gadget highlights for me for 2010, specially, since it allowed me to reacquaint myself with that good old concept of smart mobility without continuing to have that feeling I have been missing something for a while…

And so far the experience has been phenomenal, to say the least! It’s helped me get reacquainted with a good bunch of the iPhone Apps I fell in love in the first place when the iPhone 3G was still usable, plus a whole bunch of new ones that have come along rather nicely in the last few months. So when I resumed my blogging activities after a rather long hiatus not long ago I mentioned over here how, very soon, I would also be opening up a new series of blog posts, pretty similar to the My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week, but instead of just sharing my favourite iPad Apps, I would also start sharing my iPhone Apps, with pretty much the very same flow, including the iPhone Game of the Week. That way folks, who may be interested in learning what interesting and rather helpful Apps there may be out there that I have been using lately, would have an opportunity to check them out themselves as well.

At the same time, and just like for the iPad Apps, it would give me an opportunity to create a record, an archive, of the ones I have been sharing already over at Twitter, under the same hash tag: #elsuapps before they all disappear into thin air, like it’s happened in the past. Now, I do realise how this series of blog posts are actually going to be much shorter than the iPad Apps ones and, eventually, I wouldn’t be surprise if both series of entries would merge into a single one as the reach and impact of the iPad become more and more apparent and we can move in right into what matters: sharing the odd tips here and there on really helpful Apps that perhaps you should not miss out. Nor me! Because, as usual, I would want to also welcome folks to leave in the comments section their favourite picks, tips and suggestions of Apps I should give a try as well and eventually incorporate into #elsuapps at some point in time…

Thus without much further ado, and hoping you would find this series of shorter posts on iPhone Apps somewhat helpful, here we go with My Top 5 iPhone Apps of the Week – Week #1:

• Instagram: Yes, indeed, I am a visual human being, a visual learner, and, while on the move, Instagram is one of the latest mobile social networking tools I have joined just recently and I am finding it an absolute delight to, back again, enjoy fully both moblogging and photoblogging the way they should have been from the start: fun, fun, fun! Perhaps even what Flickr Mobile should have been altogether, from the start… My username in there is the usual one as it is everywhere else (i.e. elsua) and I guess to try to describe it is probably going to remain a challenge, so I would advise you to check out the picture I shared below a couple of days ago and which will probably describe pretty well the overall experience! Go ahead and give it a try and feel free to reach out across and start sharing some of those amazing pictures with your mobile social networks!
• WhatsApp: If you happen to live in a country with the most expensive rates for SMS in Europe, you would probably be very very helpful for this rather nifty iPhone App, like I am, since I happen to live in such a country where the SMS fees are the most expensive in Europe by far, and if you go abroad and send an SMS msg., it’s even worse (Thank you very much, Movistar!). Like I said, if you want to stop sending SMS messages altogether, but still keep in touch with colleagues, friends and relatives, specially, in these times, without spending a penny more than what you would if you were to send an SMS from abroad with my mobile provider, WhatsApp is an essential, must-have, can’t-miss-out App. Period. Nothing else to add further other than being very grateful to the developers for helping us all save tons of money and still keep in touch with everyone!
• Viber: You may have recently seen, or experienced, the issues Skype had with a rather long outage that took the service down for a good number of hours and back then you were probably already wondering about what potential alternatives you may have out there, right? Well, on the iPhone, there are several of them out there, but my favourite one so far, and way ahead of the curve from most of the others, is Viber. Have a look into this YouTube video to see how it works and go and install it right away! Another good, helpful way of reducing your mobile phone costs. Oh, and just like the short video clip states, it works!

• Dragon Dictation: If you are already familiar with voice recognition software, you would know there are plenty of really good options out there for most operating systems; my favourite on the Mac has been, all along, MacSpeech Dictate (Which has been recently re-branded as Dragon Dictate for Mac), so when I first heard that Dragon Dictation was becoming available as well outside of the US I just couldn’t help bounce up and down sharing the excitement; this was one of those iPhone Apps I have been looking forward to for months and, finally!, it was available to us all! And, boy, does it work beautifully?!?! It surely does! If you are tried of typing or you just want to capture that quick thought, while on the go, Dragon Dictation is all you need! Another, must-have, essential App for your iPhone!
  
• Bayo Bongo: And, finally, here we go with the final iPhone App for this time around, which happens to be the iPhone Game of the Week. This time around dedicated to one of my favourites, Bayo Bongo. It may seem an easy to play game at the beginning, but, to be honest, as you move forward to higher levels you will experience what it is like multi-touching on such a tiny screen as the iPhone’s, just to keep up with the game itself! Fantastic, addictive and rather immersive altogether! Oh, and here is another tip, there is an iPad version for it, too! And goodness! It changes the whole game altogether on how you can interact with both hands as an amazingly fun game to experience. Highly recommended!

And that’s it, folks, for this time around! Hope you get to enjoy some of those various iPhone Apps mentioned above and stay tuned for upcoming blog posts where I will continue with the series of #elsuapps for the iPhone. Oh, and don’t forget to share your favourite picks in the comments as well!

As we keep witnessing how the iPad is entering a whole bunch of new markets for tablets that perhaps never thought they would be making it that far, while being taken by storm by the iPad itself like they are at the moment, here I am, once again, ready to go and share with you folks the next blog post from the series of My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week, this time around with Week #9. First though I would want to share with you folks a couple of rather helpful articles you may want to check out, specially, if you are a librarian or perhaps an English language teacher. They are just basically a couple of articles with plenty of helpful tips and recommendations on Apps to check out, specially for those two groups, which I am sure is going to keep you all busy for a while. To name: “40 iPad Apps That Librarians Love” and “iPad Apps for English Language Teachers“, respectively. And now that we are over with that short introduction, let me recommend you as well to read one of those posts a good friend of mine put together just recently and that sounds incredibly scary as to how well he has described not only his own iPad experience so far, but mine, too! Check out Jim Worth‘s “What’s so special about the iPad“… Yes, indeed, that’s exactly how I feel about it myself: special!

Some of Jim’s thoughts on what appeals to him about the iPad would also be very true for me: the always Instant On, the All Day Battery Life, the Portability, the Continuous and Free Software Updates, the Social Web, the Video and Audio Capabilities and, of course, the games, the brilliant games that I have been playing there now for a few months and that helped my gamer self resurface once again from the good old times! However, there are still plenty of other things for which I *heart* my iPad experience and very shortly I will be putting together another blog entry where I will try to cover the main reasons as to why I gave in a few months back, bought my iPad, while in the US, and haven’t walked back ever since!

The always inspiring Paul Gillin already hints some of the topics I will be covering as well in that upcoming blog post in a recent entry he wrote under the title “Age of the Tablet Has Begun“, which, I am sure you would agree with me, has got a very suggestive title of what’s to come in the new year we are approaching fast and furious. Indeed, Paul is just basically detailing how he feels the iPad, and other upcoming tablets, whenever they come out!, are going to change the whole concept of mobility and portability, even beyond that one of ultra-portable devices like netbooks or the MacBook Air, to name a couple. And I think he is absolutely right and spot on on that one, since the last couple of months, while I have been on the road myself in various different business trips, I, too, have experienced what it is like just relying on my iPad while presenting to customers, or being immersed in workshops, attending & presenting at conference events, etc. etc. and just having to rely effectively on my iPad alone.

To name a couple of very simple and straight forward benefits, which I will touch base on at a later time on that other upcoming post, from carrying an iPad for your business travelling, as an starting point, is that both my shoulders and my back are incredibly grateful they no longer have to carry that extra bag which weighs a few extra pounds, more than probably necessary ; instead I just have to carry with me my iPad in its light case and off we go. Instant access, wherever I may well be, ready to work and catch up with things under whatever the circumstances, scenarios and whatever other contexts. The other benefit is that my wrists are rather grateful, too! Mainly, because I am no longer spending so much time in front of the Mac typing away, but instead I am much more mobile, changing work places on a rather regular basis and finding those lovely breaks one can use here and there to give those wrists a well deserved break. Something that while using the Mac I keep skipping time and time again, for whatever the reason…

Like I said, there are several other reasons as to why the iPad is probably that particular device that has changed, the most substantially over the last 6 months!, the way I interact with my own working environment, whether behind the firewall or outside. It’s that device that has certainly brought back a level of comfort that I felt I was losing time and time again when having to spend too much time in front of the Mac itself. Now I can still keep up and have that mobility I once thought I lost it for good!

But you will find out plenty more about the rest of the other benefits I am getting from my own iPad experience in that upcoming post. For now though, I am going to go ahead with the usual sharing of the “My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week“, this time around for Week #9 picking up those Top 5 iPad Apps from the ones I keep sharing every so often over at my Twitter acount under the hash tag #elsuapps. So if you would want to see which ones I am sharing on a daily basis, you may want to subscribe to the Twitter feed from that hash tag. As usual, this set of recommendations helps me in two different areas: first, as a way for me to recommend some of the iPad Apps I have been enjoying quite a bit as of late, as more and more of my friends and colleagues are purchasing their iPads and want to know which ones I have been enjoying the most and, secondly, a method for me to remember and capture them over here in my own blog, since Twitter doesn’t want to do a proper job at it, at least, for now. In a way, it’s like my own Personal Knowledge Sharing iPad tips!

As usual, I will be recommending 5 different Apps, one of which is the iPad Game of the Week and the others are Apps I keep using on a regular basis for a bunch of tasks and activities, both for work and for personal use. I will also try to keep the reasons why I am recommending them a bit short and include the link to them in iTunes, so you can have a look into them right away and without delay, should you be interested in any of them. And, as always, if you would have any other iPad apps you yourself would want to recommend, share them across in the comments section, and I will incorporate them into future posts as well. The more, the better!

Thus without much further ado, let’s go with the recommendations for Week #9:

• XpenseTracker – (Expense Tracker & Mileage Log): This is one of my favourite iPad Apps to keep track of expenses, both personal and work related, specially, for when I am in the road and need to keep track of them in order to declare them at a later time, for the work ones, and to keep an eye on things for the personal ones. It’s just as good as it gets, in my opinion, more than anything else because it allows you to get the job done easily and, most importantly, export it elsewhere for easier processing while handling those expenses. A must-have for those travel warriors out there!
• Slide by Slide: My good friend Stu McIntyre recommended this one a little while ago over at the This Week In Lotus podcast as perhaps one of the most powerful iPad Apps to view, digest and share across presentations stored in one of our favourite Web 2.0 tools available out there: Slideshare and after having used it myself for a little while now I can confirm it just rocks!! It’s my default viewer for Slideshare decks at the moment and the ease of use it has along with the lack of ads surely makes it a treat working with it, specially when you are hunting down for ideas and other thoughts to reuse for your upcoming presentations! Very very helpful!
• All-IN-1 Battery HD: Yes, I know! Even though the battery of the iPad can last from anything between 10 to 13 hours, I still like to have a little App that helps me stay informed about the status of the battery, hours I got left for various activities and how to fine tune things better, to, even get better results! Well, that is exactly what All-IN-1 Battery HD does for you and although there are a bunch of other related iPad Apps, this is probably one of the best out there! Oh, and it has a lovely Weather widget you can use at the same time! hehe

• Google Earth: At this point in time, there is probably very little that I would need to add about Google Earth that may not have been said yet about it, but if I can add my ¢2 I could probably say that the experience in an iPad is fantastic! Having that ability to check out places, while on the move, to see where you are going, what you need to do, places to check, people to meet in places you never heard about, show everyone where you live or where you work in a way they, too, can interact with it at the same time as you are, is just priceless! It’s just like having that wonderful thing we call World right at your fingertips! Amazing! This is one of those Apps I really enjoy using with people who have never used the Web, nor are they interested in it. Yes, I know, there are still plenty of people out there in that realm and they all *love* the Google Earth iPad App… I can’t blame them for it. I do, too! 
  

• Fieldrunners for iPad: And, finally, the iPad Game of the Week, which in this case comes directly from the iPhone, where I first fell in love with Fieldrunners; it’s a rather simple game with a rather concrete plot, but, boy, does it get addictive the more you play it and the game develops further! I can guarantee you that you will be spending a bunch of hours playing this fun game and don’t get bored with it! And the music is rather catchy, too! hehe

And that’s it for today, folks! Very soon I will be putting together the next one which will make Week #10 of My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week. Stay tuned for that one to come up! For now, I would want to wrap up this blog entry by reminding folks to check the blog post for Week #8, where I shared the tip about AppShopper, which given the time of the year we are in, is a must have, an essential iPad App to have, to catch all of the best deals and sales offers that most Apps are already offering during the holiday period. You may want to give it a go and see what you find! Some of the gems I have bumped into over the last week or so I have got them for almost no money just waiting for the bargains to kick in! Don’t miss out either!

Hope you have enjoyed this blog post, just as much as I am enjoying it myself with all of these iPad Apps and I surely look forward to reading your recommendations in the comments! Keep having fun with your iPads!

On my welcome back post from a few days ago, after a long hiatus of not having blogged much over here in this blog in the last few weeks, I mentioned how I was still planning on keeping things going with that series of blog posts I started a while ago on My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week, and which I have picked up as well back again on Twitter under the Daily #iPad App recommendations for #elsuapps. Well, I am happy to announce that series of entries is back and here we go with the edition for week #8! Read on… !

Now, there are a couple of new things I have thought about after all of that time not blogging away on this topic; the first one is another blog post (My good friend, and fellow IBM colleague, Bill Chamberlin keeps asking me about it … hehe) where I plan to detail what having, and making extensive use of, an iPad has meant for me in the last few months, to the point, where it’s replaced, altogether!, my regular mobile computing habits with my MacBook Pro and nowadays I just travel with my iPad! The recent iOS upgrade to 4.2 has meant, for me, a whole new bunch of enhanced productivity gains that TCGeeks describes thoroughly quite nicely and in that upcoming entry I am hoping to reflect why I heart my iPad more than any other mobile device I may have ever owned. Stay tuned … will be coming up shortly!

As usual, and as part of this blog series of posts, I keep sharing a bunch of articles that keep demonstrating how the business keeps showing a growing interest for the iPad within the Enterprise, not just from the perspective of every CIO and top level executive to own their have their own iPads, but also from the perspective where even analysts are starting to place their bets on how the iPad will transform the way we do business as well. Perhaps one of the most interesting articles that I have read on this very same topic as of late is that one from David Carr, over at InformationWeek, under the title “iPads Hit The Enterprise“.

In that rather interesting article, you would be able to read about how plenty of business are already making use of iPads for their day to day tasks and activities and getting plenty of good results; never mind the user acceptance and wider adoption by the knowledge workers themselves; I mean, who wouldn’t want to have an iPad as your main tool at work, instead of that relatively old, clunky, frustrating desktop PC you’ve been using for years and years, right? Like I said, a rather good and insightful read for those folks who may still be wondering whether the iPad has got a space within the corporate world or not. My short, sweet and straightforward answer to that question: yes, it does! And big time!!

Ok, after having shared all of those rather interesting and insightful links, let’s move on with the list of recommended iPad Apps for week #8; as usual, it’s a list of 5 iPad apps that I keep using myself on a regular basis, and out of the 5 of them one is the iPad Game of the Week, just for those spare moments where one could use a bit of fun and entertainment, while other things are happening in between, like waiting in queues, or while travelling, etc. etc. Like with all of the various different blog posts I have put together on this series, I keep aiming at keeping the description of the Apps rather short and focused, hoping to spark an idea or two as to why I use those as opposed to others. Thus, without much further ado, here is the list for this time around… Hope folks would enjoy them, just as much as I do, and, remember, if you would want to share your favourite picks, go ahead and add them in the comments section and I would be more than happy to share them across in upcoming articles with due credit. So, let’s go!

• Flipboard: If you are a news junky, or if you would want to consume both news items as well as information resources shared through some of the major social networking sites (Like Facebook, Twitter and top blogs from multiple areas) in a rather new, innovative and rather creative way, Flipboard is probably as good as it gets. Even better when it’s considered by most folks one of the best RSS and Syndication technologies for 2010 or when you bump into a superb blog post that details how you can consume your Google Reader feeds directly from Flipboard itself. Absolutely fantastic and the latest version they have released is a *huge* improvement from previous versions as well… A must have! 
• AppShopper: This is, perhaps, one of my all time favourite iPad apps (Works pretty nicely as well on the iPhone!!) from all along! It is one of those rather nifty and powerful iPad / iPhone apps that would allow you to find, AND strike, the best deals of some of the most popular Apps or those that have got, for a limited amount of time, juicy sales discounts with rather high %s. They say that buying Apps can become very expensive; well, with AppShopper, that’s no longer the case! Most of the recommendations I keep making over here of paid Apps I got them through real bargains in AppShopper. It’s an essential, must-have app for everyone! Believe me, once you get this app, your wallet will be grateful. At least, mine is
• Wi-Fi Finder: This is one of those iPad apps that becomes incredibly helpful and rather powerful for those road warriors out there, constantly in the move with business / casual travelling, where they are always on the lookout for free wi-fi hot stops they could hook up their devices and get connected back again. Well, Wi-Fi Finder makes that job a whole lot easier by looking for you for those Wi-Fi spots and share them across with you. It even has got an offline capability where it downloads a database to your iPad and it searches for them even when you are disconnected. Like I said, ideal for those folks travelling out there!
• Emerald Observatory for iPad: As much as I love this particular iPad App, I must confess that I didn’t make regular use of it till the recent upgrade to iOS 4.2 introduced the wonderful concept of multitasking … on the iPad! Yay! From there onwards it’s one of the applications that I have got running in the background constantly to give me a glimpse of all of those bits and pieces of information that one wants to keep handy, but can never find the application that does it nicely. Well, Observatory does it and beautifully! 

• 7 Wonders HD: And, finally, like I have mentioned above, the iPad Game of the Week; I have got a few of them, but since I am planning on sharing just one per blog post, I will continue to do so with this one as well; so for week #8 the game of the week would be 7 Wonders HD; one of those games whose storyline may sound a bit simplistic, but that, as you get immersed in it, you just cannot escape its addiction till you are done with it; it will keep you going for hours and hours without end trying to reach for that final stage where complexity takes a new meaning… And when you get there, you will see what I mean … hehe

And that’s it, folks, for today! The series of blog posts on “My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week” is back with this 8th edition and I am hoping you would enjoy it, just as much as I did putting it together! Oh, oh, and before I forget, there are some more good news coming up to the this blog as well, when very soon I will open up another series of blog entries, pretty much along the same lines as this one, but instead of iPad Apps, I will be talking, and sharing my favourite picks!, about iPhone Apps, now that I have finally re-acquainted myself with some of the wonderful apps I keep using on my iPhone 4, which brings me back into having a rather decent smartphone. So stay tuned for those coming up as well shortly!

… If you can’t wait, you can already have a glimpse of some of them at the usual place: #elsuapps in Twitter. Lots of good fun coming up!

Technorati Tags: Productivity, iPad, #elsuapps, Enterprise, Business, Productivity Tools, Flipboard, AppShopper, Wi-Fi Finder, Emerald Observatory, 7 Wonders HD, Games, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps

Earlier on today, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate on an IBM internal webcast, and face to face event (For those folks who could make it over live in the US), around the topic of Apple and how its various products (Macbook and MacBook Pro, iPhone & iPad) are continuing to penetrate the enterprise world, specially, IBM’s, as more and more of my fellow colleagues begin to experiment and play around with these devices to see whether they could be up to the job in helping them be as productive, if not more!, as with other gadgets they may have been using in the past, over the course of the years. The event was several hours long and rather interesting as well as enlightening. It gave us all an opportunity to see how these Apple products could certainly help knowledge workers become more efficient, and although I can’t share any of the materials shown during the event externally, I can certainly tell you that they all corroborated something I have known myself for the last 3 years already… and counting … Apple products *are*, eventually, more than ready for the enterprise! Even, the iPad!

Yes, that’s right, we talked about MacBooks and MacBook Pros, about the iPhone and its various perks, specially for the mobile workforce, and, of course, about the iPad and how the latter is also helping shape the way we compute through a new mobile experience. So I thought it would be a good opportunity, once again, to drop by over here and continue further with that series of blog posts on My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week that I have been collecting through Twitter initially as #elsuapps and share a couple of other interesting links that I have bumped into, since the last blog post, which seem to claim, rather strongly, how the iPad itself is here to stay not only as a superb consumer driven product, but also as a business one.

If not, check out the really insightful blog post put together by Krishnan Subramanian over at CloudAve under the title “iPad in Enterprise: IT Folks Can Have One Too” where Krishnan references further a good number of additional links that state not only how business people, but also IT related folks, are turning towards the iPad and liking what they are seeing. So if you can combine both workforces to talk the same language (i.e. “I want an iPad!”) there is  great chance that exposure and willingness to have would be rather phenomenal and probably unstoppable. His article surely is a worth while read to figure out what other businesses out there are doing in this space.

Then, head over to this other article by Dan Frommer at Business Insider or this other one from Gary Goldman where you will be able to read further on plenty more insights on how the iPad is taking by storm other kinds of business. Yes, indeed, it looks like it is unstoppable! But it gets better! If the corporate world is looking out there very closely how such device is having such a huge impact for the mobile workforce (For the most part), it looks like Education is following up quite nicely…

Check out this wonderful and very enlightening blog post put together by my good friend Victor Ruiz, under the title “El iPad y la educación” (Article in Spanish, by the way), where he comes to share some really good tips on how the iPad can influence education overall, as well as a good number of worth while reading references on how different institutions and organisations are starting to pay attention to this rather innovative way / method of delivering education and training. It surely is another worth while read, and I am certain I would have an opportunity to bring forward a good number of other relevant links related to how the iPad itself will be coming along to a school system near you any time soon! Perhaps at a later time as well, I will take the opportunity of how I feel myself about such device disrupting the way we not only learn about new things, but we actively interact with them all! Stay tuned!

For now though, it’s that part of the blog entry where I will be spending a few minutes covering My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week and this time around for Week #7. We have gone a long way already, but the mechanics of how this section works has remained pretty much the same. Untouched. You know, I will be listing 4 different iPad apps of the week that I continue to make regular use of, and a 5th one, which is usually the iPad Game of the Week. Short descriptions, rather to the point, with their corresponding URL links, and where I just share the one or two key features I like the most, or the one or two reasons that keep dragging me back and forth into each and everyone of those applications. Hopefully, you will find them helpful as well as time goes by. Thus without much further ado, here we go with this week’s picks:

• FlickStackr: I have been playing with a good number of Flickr related iPad apps and so far I have found two of them that I really enjoy quite a bit. The first one is FlickStackr. And the reason why I like it the most, so far, is because it allows me to not only view Flickr pictures in a wide variety of options, but it also allows me to upload pictures I have stored in the iPad in a breeze and through quite an amazing user experience with every single level of detail considered! Yes, if you are using Flickr, a must-have!
• BlogShelf: In the past, I have mentioned a couple of iPad apps related to RSS feed reading from Web sites and blogs, with perhaps Reeder, Newsrack and River of News as my favourite ones so far. Yet, I have got a special place for a good number of blogs that I consider special, because I keep coming back to them on a rather regular basis; they are my daily reads, the ones where I take a bit of extra time to digest their content, because over the course of the years I have grown to trust the people behind them as well as meet most of them in real life and somehow having a special place like BlogShelf helps me keep treasuring such a treat when reading their blogs. It’s just like having your own library of essential reading through blogs. I tell you, quit an experience, if you are looking for that unique space that those essential reads of yours would deserve.
• BeejiveIM with Push: I have been testing as well a good number of different Instant Messaging clients for the iPad and to be honest with you, if I would have to single out only one of them that you would need to look into it, that would be BeejiveIM. It’s a superb iPad app that not only does the job right, i.e. allowing you to keep up with the multiple IM protocols available out there, but also doing a beautiful job at it. It’s almost like you don’t feel you are using IM after all. And for someone who relies so much on it IM to get your job done throughout the day, this is certainly one of those essential must-have iPad apps that you won’t be able to skip for much longer. Go and grab it today!
• VLC Media Player: What can I say about VLC that folks out there may not know already, regardless of the operating system they may use. VLC is my favourite media player on the Mac, and on Windows, and now on the iPad, too! It’s a wonderful experience to be able to have an application that will allow you to play any kind of media file without a single glitch and providing a very similar experience than what you would get on a Mac, for instance. But better. This time around on the iPad. Now, there are plenty of things I could say about this app, but I am actually going to point you folks to a recent blog post by Victor Ruiz, once again, who wrote a rather interesting overview of how it actually works and how you can set it up. Article is in Spanish, but you would be able to see how straight forward it is and how well it actually works. Another must-have app, for certain!

• Trism: And, finally, the iPad Game of the Week. Actually, this is a special one to me, more than anything else because it is not really just for iPads, but also for the iPhone; in fact, it was one of the very very first games I got for my iPhone and I cannot tell the amount of hours I have spent playing some wonderful games in there getting the most out of some of the native concepts behind such devices. If you loved it on the iPhone, there is a great chance that you will like it as well on the iPad. The experience is just as engaging and the challenge, just as tough! Which is ideal, because it is one of the games I play the most when I am off to a long business trip! Endless hours of good fun! No doubt!

Ok, folks, that was it for this week! Another round of My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week for you to have a look and perhaps give it a try to one or two of them. I am hoping you will find them just as useful as I do myself. The truth is that I am finding this series of blog posts rather interesting, because one revealing thought from this series is the fact that I am starting to sort my iPad apps per week on my iPad and somehow that’s given me an opportunity to manage better how I get to find them time and time again, without having to resort to the super nifty search option. It also kind of reminds me of the good number of apps I still have got to share with you all, but that would be the subject for another blog post in its due time … Enjoy them!

Technorati Tags: #elsuapps, Apple, Applications, Computing, elsuapps, Games, Insights, iPad, iPad Apps, Mobile Computing, Mobility, Recommendations, Computing Experiences, iPad for Biz, Enterprise iPad, Krishnan Subramanian, CloudAve, Dan Frommer, Gary Goldman, Victor Ruiz, Education, Training, Learning, Flickstackr, BlogShelf, BeejiveIM with Push, BeejiveIM, VLC Media Player, VLC, Trism

As I continue further on with this series of blog posts on the My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week, which is based on my Daily #iPad App series under Twitter’s #elsuapps, I cannot help but keep thinking about the interesting posts I keep bumping into that surely reflect some more on how the iPad itself is helping shape and change drastically the computing landscape for good for us all. Specially, our new mobile computing capabilities. Earlier on this week I bumped into a couple of those articles that I thought I would share over here, as an additional and rather relevant reading for my Top 5 Picks of Week #6, which is where we are at the moment. Could you eventually go on a working vacation just with your iPad? … Apparently yes!

That’s what Walt Mossberg writes on a rather interesting and delightful read under the heading “An American in Paris Says Au Revoir to His Laptop” where he tells beautifully the story of a recent trip he did to Paris where he relied entirely on his iPad (And a couple of other mobile devices), with no computer, with the end result that he actually managed to get by throughout it with some really good results. Worth while a ready, for sure! Even more so, if you would be interested in some of the recommendations he makes on iPad Apps he used during the trip.

Another interesting read is that one posted by Shane Richmond under the thought provoking title “Apple’s iPad is the future of computing“, which puts together a rather balanced overview of the pros and cons of using an iPad as your preferred mobile computing device and which comes to a rather accurate conclusion that matches what my experience has been like, ever since I bought one a couple of months back:

“[...] The iPad means you no longer need a computer in your living room or in your bag when you go out for the day. Put the desktop in the spare room. Leave the laptop at the office. The iPad belongs on the sofa with you.“

Another good read, indeed! But now that we are done with sharing across those rather helpful articles, I guess it’s that time again where I will spend a few minutes sharing with you folks what my Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week for week #6 would be, so you would have a chance to play with a number of them and perhaps make use of them extensively like I am at the moment. As usual, the general rule is that I will share the name of the app, the link to it in iTunes, and a one liner, or two, description of why I am liking that application and why I got it installed in the first place. Thus without much further ado, here we go:

• iAnnotate PDF: Without any doubt, this is the one single iPad App that handles all of those .PDF files I bump into (Whitepapers, eBooks, Proposals, Articles and whatever other kinds of publications) and which I would want to take notes of, highlight paragraphs, etc. etc. as I go along to reference them back and forth for future blog posts or cross-references. If you are into .PDF reading, this is an essential must-have application!
• Atomic Web Browser: If you are not into browsing the Web with the native Safari browser, Atomic Web Browser is probably one of the best alternatives available out there! I do *heart* the tab browsing capabilities and how extensive it is in general, although perhaps a tad slower than the Safari browser itself, but if you don’t really case about losing an extra second here and there, and would want to try a new surfing experience, this is the iPad app you may eventually need to try out. I think you would like it.
• 1Password for iPad: This is one of those applications that I love quite a bit, since I am using it on my own Mac, my iPhone and my iPad. It helps me keep my sanity with regards to the several dozens of passwords I need to manage every single day! If you have to go through that same situation 1Password is probably all you would ever need. At least, it is for me.
• NASA App: As usual, and every so often, I enjoy sharing over here recommendations to iPad apps that may fall a little bit outside of the working environment we are used to and enter perhaps more the fun and educational aspects of helping us learn something new. Well, in this case, for this week, that privilege is reserved to NASA’s own iPad app, which, if you are interested in the outer space and what’s happening around their various projects, it would be another one you would need to go for. The overall user experience is rather amazing and incredibly immersive! I usually “get lost” while trying to navigate and marvel myself about everything that gets shared across. So be prepared to be WOWed!

• Azkend HD: And, finally, like every week as well, the iPad Game of the Week.This time around coming to you from the same makers of Sparkle HD; just as good! If you are into some amazing graphics, lovely oriental music, and a long journey with quite an adventure ahead of you, Azkend HD is the game for you… For sure!

And that’s it, folks, for this time around. Hope you will enjoy any of these iPad apps and don’t forget there will be more blog posts coming along for this series, since I keep bumping into some really interesting, innovative and creative iPad apps that one cannot resist but get one’s hands with each and everyone of them! Stay tuned … and till next time!

(Oh, and don’t forget to share your favourites, in the comments, that you would want to recommend to us, so that we can have a look and share them across in upcoming blog posts! That would be very much appreciated!)

Technorati Tags: #elsuapps, Apple, Applications, Computing, elsuapps, Games, Insights, iPad, iPad Apps, Mobile Computing, Mobility, Recommendations, Sparkle HD, Walt Mossberg, Shane Richmond, Computing Experiences, iAnnotate PDF, Atomic Web Browser, 1Password for iPad, NASA App, Azkend HD

For a good number of months, there have been plenty of really good blog posts shared out there with lots of really helpful insights and entertaining reviews of what the iPad has got to offer, not only from a pro-sumer perspective, but also from a professional one, as a powerful knowledge (Web) worker productivity tool. One of my favourite reviews was that one shared, just recently, by Jason Hiner (TechRepublic Editor in Chief) over at ZDNet under the title “The truth about iPad: It’s only good for two things“. If you haven’t read it just yet, and you are thinking about purchasing an iPad any time soon, I would encourage you all to have a look and read through it. It would be worth while your time AND the investment!

I will tell you though that the title of the blog post may well be a little bit misleading and perhaps half way through a tongue-in-cheek one as well, because, instead of developing further his thoughts on what Jason doesn’t like about the iPad itself, it turns out to be quite the opposite! Quite a nice review of what are the main key strong points of using one extensively. He comes up to conclude that the iPad is only good for two things: #1. Reading & Viewing and #2. Multi-touch Interaction.

Now, I am not going to say much more about it, other than to suggest you head over there and read through it, because his overall experience comes very close to the one I have been experiencing myself with my own iPad from day one and, like him, I doubt I would be giving up on it any time soon! Quite the contrary. Like him, it is slowly, but steadily shifting and changing, dramatically, the way I compute, not only at work (Specially, when I am travelling… No more backaches!!), but also around my own personal life. Go and read it through and you will see what I mean…

Oh, by the way, check out the couple of links he shares as well on his blog post as they are rather insightful and would provide you with plenty more background. But, specially, check out the blog post he put together on the Top 20 iPad Apps that would surely help you improve that overall user experience with some really good suggestions. I am currently going through some of his Top Picks… Once again, I tell you, it will be worth it, if you would want to find over there plenty more golden nuggets to check out and investigate further.

So, after pointing folks to those articles put together by Jason, you may be wondering what I am missing the most out of the iPad’s current user experience at the moment, right? Well, something that, apparently, is coming up pretty soon and which I know is keeping a bunch of us drooling all over the place: multitasking, as announced and mentioned all over the place, coming on the iOS 4.2 upgrade, as Engadget blogged about already not long ago, and which is already in a stable beta, although I decided not to get my hands on it and wait for the GA release. Just a few more weeks, it seems …

Why am I so keen about the multitasking capabilities coming along to the iPad? Well, as most of you folks out there know already, I am not too crazy about multitasking myself in the first place, but I can see how this device could make use of such capabilities to enhance our very own productivity and make us a bit more efficient as we keep interacting with a couple of iPad apps at the same time, so I’m looking forward to see how that would work out eventually. Engadget’s article contains a link to a short video clip you can have a look into to find out why most of us are starting to be even more excited…

And with that excitement, I am now moving along to share with you folks My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week for Week #5, which, I am sure, is what you have been waiting for since you have started reading this blog post, right? Not to worry, here we go! Again the same guidelines as before: 4 of my favourite iPad apps and a 5th one, which is the iPad game of the week. Very short descriptions about each and everyone of them with their corresponding links, so you can have a look into each and everyone of them right away, and a single one liner, or two, describing why I think each of those apps is worth it. Thus without much further ado, here we go:

• Simplenote: While I do realise that this iPad app may sound a bit too simplistic it’s actually a rather nice one. A basic, simple interface to a notepad like kind of functionality where you aren’t going to be interrupted by fancy graphics, or complex menu bars, or far too many menu options. Just start a new note and start typing away! Perfect for taking a few notes on the fly! Woohoo! No fuss, no hassle, just touch once and start typing! I have found out though that, perhaps, the best experience for this application comes up if you have got the iPad Keyboard Dock and type through that interface itself. Just the same speeds as from your computer, but using the iPad carrying it out wherever you may be going… Priceless! (Yes, it is free, too!)
• Corkulous: This is one of those really curious and amazingly crafted iPad apps that would basically take you back to your school days with those cork-like bulletin boards we have all gotten so used to where we can put together our sticky notes, pins, etc. etc. Rather inspiring to see how you can get your work and to-dos organised in a very user friendly way: one we have gotten to know for decades!
  
  
• Wikihood Plus for iPad: This is one of those really nice and nifty iPad apps that would be ideal for those road warriors out there whenever they go and visit a new city, or one where they have been already a few times, but who would want to find out plenty more about the places where they are travelling to, what they can do, what kind of interesting sightings they may well have to check out, and whatever other different tips you can think of while you are on the road. Believe me, if you travel a lot, this is one of those essential apps to have. For sure!
  
  
• Fotopedia Heritage: One of the main reasons why I do really like the iPad, from day 1 when I bought it a couple of months ago, was because of its huge potential for helping improve, rather tremendously, already existing and new educational and learning experiences. Fotopedia Heritage is one of them. If you are into photography, as well as this planet Earth we all live in, this is one of those apps you just can’t miss! Hours and hours of really good entertainment are awaiting you. You would get to appreciate the large iPad screen share once you start playing around more with this app. No doubt!

  
  

• Scrabble for iPad: And, finally, the game of the week; one of my all time favourites; one of the first games I played (The good old Scrabble board game, I mean), when I was a youngster after having decided already that one day I would want to become an English teacher. Better practicing ground that what Scrabble can offer you couldn’t find it anywhere else probably. So when I first saw it coming to the iPad I just couldn’t help but going for it! And loving it ever since! Not only because it allows me to keep busy learning new English words day in day out, but also because it is helping me get some “additional” training to polish and improve my skills in order to try to beat all of those good folks who went ahead and decided to play a game or two with yours truly using Words with Friends, one of my all time favourite games as well, as I have mentioned on a previous blog entry! Not such a bad strategy after all, eh? hehe

Well, and that was it for me for this time around, folks! Hope you have enjoyed the various links shared throughout this blog post, as well as those Top 5 Picks on iPad apps I’m totally digging out at the moment. There will be plenty more to come, but that would be the subject for another upcoming article or the next one from this series … Remember, if you would want to get the Daily #iPad App you would just need to syndicate the following Twitter feed: #elsuapps, which is the one I’m currently using. If not, stay tuned for more to come over here!

Technorati Tags: Jason Hiner, TechRepublic, ZDNet, Reviews, Insights, Reading, Viewing, Multi-touch Interaction, Engaget, Multitasking, Simplenote, Corkulous, Wikihood Plus for iPad, Fotopedia Heritage, Scrabble for iPad, #elsuapps, elsuapps, iPad, Applications, Apps, Apple, Games, Mac, Recommendations

Continuing further with that on-going series of blog posts on My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week, here I am, once again, sharing with you folks another round of interesting and worth while checking out iPad Apps I have bumped into over the last few weeks and which I have been enjoying quite a bit. This time around we are going for Week #4 where I have got something for news junkies, road warriors, weather addicts and, of course, the game of the week! So, let’s do it!

Oh, hang on, before we get things going with them, and like I have mentioned on a previous blog post over here as well, I thought I would share a couple of interesting links related to the iPad and how it is changing the way not only we participate on the Web as end-users, i.e. as Web 2.0 enthusiasts, amongst several other activities, but also from a business perspective. Specially, today, where I have got a couple of superb links to share with you folks that clearly establish the path to follow on improving the overall user experience into new heights for mobile business workers.

The first link comes from my good friend Thomas Otter, who, not long ago put together this blog entry under the heading “The iPad and the Enterprise” and where he shared this rather thought-provoking reflection:

“[...] But what I’ve not yet seen is the must have enterprise application on the iPad. Yes, I’ve seen some neat repurposed reports and simple entry screens but I’ve not yet seen an application that makes me sit up and say wow, that is a new and fundamentally better process enabled by the device. So far the innovation is all about Apple.“

Well, that may no longer be the case. Read further on for his conclusion, which I think is very much worth while reading. I think the race has just gotten started. I think that more and more businesses are beginning to turn into devices such as the iPad to help improve overall the performance from their knowledge workers, specially those who are mobile. SAP has already started with that race, but I think that’s just the beginning. Have a look though into what Hyatt Hotels & Resorts are doing though. Specially, check out the nearly three minute long video clip that explains thoroughly what that innovation within the Enterprise could look like! And be ready to be WOWed big time!

The whole article is very much worth while a read, for sure, on what’s to come not just for knowledge workers, but also for consumers enjoying some of those really nice and powerful services, but here is one of my favourite quotes:

“Mobilizing hotel staff with iPad lets them get out from behind the desk and in front of the guests“

Or this other one:

“We use Lotus Traveler as the core platform to integrate with our messaging collaboration system, Lotus Notes — and users have full access to our VPN infrastructure“

Indeed, I can relate, very much, to what John Prusnick mentions on that article, since I have been using Lotus Traveler myself for work and it’s just beautiful! Not that I care too much about email, since I hardly use it anymore, but having quick access to my work calendar & agenda, as well as contacts, while I’m on the road, in a secured manner, is a killer! And, if, on top of that, you have got VPN access to your company’s Intranet network, like I do, then it all becomes a treat, to say the least! Boy, I just can’t wait for my next business trip and see whether I can make it and survive it without having to carry anything else than the iPad. Can you believe that? 2 months ago I didn’t think it would be possible to travel without my Mac. Very soon, on my next business trip, it’ll be a reality!

Yes, the iPad for the Enterprise is here! And, sooner or latter, it will catch up with everyone! So you better start looking forward to travel light, to much less pain on your shoulders and back, to the complete mess with cabling and gadgets to carry with you, and so on and so forth. Never mind where things will be going as we all become more and more mobile by the day! Indeed, I can’t wait!

Ok, enough with that drooling! Let’s go and move on focusing on the My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week for Week #4, where this time around I have got some recommendations for news junkies, folks up in the air, weather addicts and, of course, the iPad Game of the Week. So let’s go!:

• Pulse News Reader: For those news junkies out there (Yes, I know! You can never get enough of them, can you? Welcome to my club! hehe), here is the first news related app I installed on the iPad on the same week when I bought it and I still use it on a daily basis. It allows you to customise the resources you would want to tap into and both the horizontal and vertical scrolling experiences are amazing. Incredibly engaging! Worth a look, for sure!
• NewsRack: Ok, in the past I have mentioned how Reeder for iPad was my preferred RSS feed reader client for the iPad. Well, since we all know how RSS Feeds are not dead just yet, right?, I have got a second one: NewsRack. It was actually my first iPhone app for feed reading and I was surely really glad when it came over to the iPad as well. I access my second Google Reader account through it on a regular basis and the reading experience is quite something! Even for large amounts of feeds! Loving it!
• Kayak Explore + Flight Search: This one is for those road warriors or those folks up in the air living their lives more on a plane than on the ground itself. Kayak would allow you to just find plenty of really good options for your upcoming trips and find that weird combination you can get anywhere else! I have tried it out a few times and it’s gotten me out of trouble far too many times! And browsing it through the iPad vs. the iPhone *does* make a difference!
• Accu Weather Free for iPad: From all of the various iPad apps related to the weather and weather forecasting, I must confess there are a couple of them that I really enjoy. Accu Weather is one of them. It’s free, rather accurate and the hourly forecast is quite an amazing experience, specially if you slide your fingers through the clock! Never thought I’d be interested in the weather just as much, but this iPad app is helping change that perception rather quick! Not much more to add … hehe

• AirAttack HD: And, finally, like usual, to close off the Top Picks of the week, here is the iPad Game of the Week: AirAttack HD. When I was a lot younger I used to be hooked into these kind of video games where I could play them for hours without getting tired of them. Remember the original Battlefield 1942? Well, this one is just as good, if not better! The graphics are amazing and the overall gaming experience is amazingly engaging and all of that for 0.99$; so who can’t ignore that? It’s just unbeatable, don’t you think?

And that’s it for now, folks! Hope you have enjoyed the Top Picks for this time around and, stay tuned, because, if I have some more free time later on in the week, I may be capable of sharing another round of Top 5 iPad Apps, since I am running a little big behind still from what I have been sharing over at Twitter under #elsuapps. That just to keep you busy for a little while longer… For now, I will let you all go and explore some of those, while I will go back to my meetings galore

Keep having fun!

Technorati Tags: #elsuapps, Apple, Collaboration, Games, iPad, iPad Apps, Mac, Thomas Otter, SAP, Enterprise iPad, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Lotus Traveler, IBM, Mobility, Mobile, IBM Mobile, Lotus, Pulse News Reader, NewsRack, Reeder for iPad, Kayak, Travelling, Road Warriors, News Junkies, Weather Addicts, Accu Weather, AirAttack HD, Battlefield 1942, Productivity, Productivity Tools, iPhone, iPhone Apps, Recommentations, iPads for Business, iPads for Biz

It’s that time of the week where, once more, here I am, dropping by on this blog to share with you folks my next round of My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week. This time around for Week #3. I know, and do realise fully, that I am running a little bit late on this series, since when I got it started with this initiative, over in Twitter with #elsuapps, a good number of weeks have already passed by. So don’t be surprised if for the next couple of weeks you eventually seem more than one blog entry on this very same topic. That way we can catch up faster with the ones that I am currently sharing across on a daily basis. And that way walk hand in hand with those I keep sharing through Twitter itself.

At the same time, and while I get to share those Top 5 iPad Apps, I thought it would be rather interesting to share, at least, one other relevant link to show how powerful the iPad may well be as well as a business tool (We already how how empowering it is from a personal productivity perspective, right? ). In short, I think it would also be interesting to comment further on an relevant link I may bump into so that we can make this blog entries a bit more insightful than just sharing the apps.

No, don’t worry! I’m still planning to keep these posts on the short side of things; so instead of a fully commentary on an article, it will probably be just a pointer for you to head over to what I think would be a worth while reading. And if I bump into multiple links, I may include them all as well. Why not, right? Thus let’s go!

Here is the first interesting reading coming from CIO under the heading My iPad Enterprise Rollout: 5 Surprises, where you will be able to find out some more how Florida State College’s CIO Rob Rennie is facing the deployment of 1,000 iPads (Having gotten started with an initial rollout of 350 units). Quite an interesting read where you will find golden nuggets like this one:

“Now decisions at meetings are made quickly thanks to the iPad, he says.

In the past, no one fired up laptops at meetings in a conference room because it made the executive look disengaged. When a topic came up that required facts to make a decision, such as the difference in cost for an allocated requisition and an unallocated one, the vice president of HR would have to research it later. Thus the topic would be tabled for the next meeting“

Yes, I know! It’s, indeed, coming along nicely, folks! Anyway, like I said, let’s get down to business and go ahead with My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week – Week #3:

• MindMeister for iPad: Like I have been mentioning a couple of times already, I do really like mindmapping tools in general and if they are on the iPad, all the better! I could talk about them for ageas! But here we go with another one of my favourites that I have used quite a few times already. In the past I have utilised MindMeister on the Web itself, but ever since it came out for the iPad I only go there to give my mindmaps the last finishing touches. The rest happens inside the iPad app. Remember the mindmap I put together to describe my experiences with “A World Without Email“, that I blogged about it over here a few days back? Well, I created over 95% of it on the iPad in idle moments here and there and in a matter of minutes! And, of course, its synchronising back to the server is just priceless! Taking your mindmaps wherever you go, even when you may not have the iPad with you!
• Things for iPad: I have tried out a whole bunch of To-Do, Getting Things Done, Executing Action Items apps and Things is probably my favourite. Superb user interface and really nice experience, AND fast!, to add to-dos! Wish I was that quick myself for closing them off accordingly!
• Appstream for iPad: Ever from the very first moment that this app came out I just fell in love with it! Despite the initial repetitive crashes, and the odd one that still happens every now and then, since they released the latest version, it’s one of those essential apps everyone should have. What does it do? It allows you to navigate, through a really cool and engaging user interface, and find other iPad apps that you may be interested in! Really nice! In fact, some of these weekly picks come from apps I have found there!
• Instapaper: If you are one of those folks who travels on a more or less regular basis or who happens not to have a rather fast or reliable Internet connection where you may well be, Instapaper is probably as good as it gets! What does it do? It allows you to take entire Web sites offline, so you can read them when you are not connected! Ideal for when you are on the plane, or if you have a wi-fi only iPad and there is no wi-fi around wherever you may be going.
• Sparkle HD: And, finally, the iPad Game of the week! If you have been playing, Luxor or Peggle on the iPhone you more or less will be capable of picking it up rather quick; but at the same time you will love it just as much as with the other, too! Oh, and both the music and the graphics, I am sure, they would remind you perhaps one or two of your favourite movies by an amazingly talented director.

And, that’s it, folks, for this week! Like I said, I am running a little bit behind from the time I started sharing some of these top picks in Twitter, so don’t be surprised if you see another upcoming blog post sooner rather than later. Stay tuned!

Oh, and if you have got some Top iPad Apps of the Week, feel free to share them with us over here, in the comments, and I will cover them in future blog posts as well with due credit, of course. As usual. Thanks for dropping by and till the next one!

Technorati Tags: #elsuapps, Apple, Collaboration, Games, iPad, iPad Apps, Mac, Mindmapping, MindMeister for iPad, MindMaps, MindMeister, Productivity, Productivity Tools, Things, Getting Things Done, GTD, To-Dos, Action Items, Appstream for iPad, Appstream, Instapaper, Sparkle HD, Sparkle, Peggle, Luxor, iPhone, iPhone Apps, Recommentations, Florida State College, Rob Rennie, CIO, iPads for Business, iPads for Biz