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Jewish World Review April 27, 2012 / 5 Iyar, 5772 The highly bearable lightness of non-computing By Mark Kellner
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic -- While many wander around the Barceló Bávaro Beach Resort in search of the perfect tan -- or a cool beverage -- your columnist is here attending a conference, and working as part of the sponsoring organization.
Instead of lounging by the pool, I'm experimenting, trying to do my work without a regular computer.
I tried this a bit last year traveling in the U.S., but to venture overseas -- even to as tech-friendly a place as the Dominican Republic, with Wi-Fi throughout the resort complex and rentable computers in the "guest services" area -- without my MacBook Pro was a bit anxiety-raising. Yet, here I am, with "just" an Apple iPad (the newest model), a ZAGG Folio keyboard/case (discussed here last week), and a lot of hope.
I'm fairly confident in the hardware, but computing is more than wires, chips and a display screen. There's the applications involved, and whether they can stand up to the demands of full-fledged "desktop" applications. And, would the battery hold out long enough for me to work a full day?
I'll answer the last question first. In a roughly eight-hour day of working remotely, the battery more than held up, even as I heavily used Wi-Fi, updated and even downloaded applications for the iPad, and plugged in an adapter to take photos off of a memory card. By the time I connected a recharging cable in the evening, I still had 41-percent battery life remaining.
Not that many years ago, reviewers such as your columnist were raving, rightly, about a five-hour battery life for a notebook computer. "You can work from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles," we'd exclaim. Well, the newest iPad, at least, eclipses that and then some.
Now, about those photos. I started off with the preinstalled Photo.app common to iPad and iPhone devices. But I quickly switched to Apple's iPhoto app for the iPad, a $4.99 purchase that offers all sorts of editing, retouching, sizing and other tools, as well as a bunch of artistic effects unneeded with the news photos I take, but nice when assembling a vacation scrapbook.
While Apple will happily sell you more expensive (and more capable) photo-editing software for your desktop computer (if it's a Mac, that is), I have a feeling that for many people in many situations, the iPhoto app will be more than sufficient. I especially like its ability to post quickly to Facebook, Flickr and other online places, including iTunes, in order to synchronize a photo library with another iTunes-friendly device.
Last week's installment offered lavish praise of iA Writer, the 99-cent word processing app that's my new favorite for clean, simple writing. But I have to add that juggling multiple files (one for notes, one for the final report) in this app was very easy; a couple of finger taps and I was switching easily.
That's important, the finger-tapping thing: with the iPhoto app and with many other iPad applications, your fingers replace a computer mouse. I thought I'd miss the latter in both photo manipulation and word processing, but I truly don't. That's another plus on the road, I believe.
About the only thing I truly "missed" on the road was the one time Adobe Corp.'s Flash program wasn't available: when I wanted to read the electronic edition of The Washington Times while traveling. It's a no-go, sad to say, but the regular Website worked just fine.
And while I remain thrilled with the iPad's battery life, there's nothing wrong with having a backup. On this trip, I've given the myCharge(r) Portable Power Bank 6000, $99 from www.mychargepower.com, a workout. It performs as advertised: the 6000mAh battery pack can charge an average smartphone 4 times, and it'll bring an iPad back to nearly 100 percent power.
My favorite feature isn't so much the power this tiny pack provides as are the built-in Apple-standard, and both Micro USB and Mini USB connectors. Together, these hardwired connections will handle almost anything you might carry, but just in case, there's a full USB port as well.
Flying down here (and back) will involve nearly eight hours of air travel and layovers. I'm glad to have this extra power source if needed. I highly recommend it.
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JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here. © 2012, News World Communications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of The Washington Times. Visit the paper at http://www.washingtontimes.com |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||