As a follow up to my post this week about how I’ve moved to using the iPad 2 with a bluetooth keyboard instead of a laptop, I thought I’d post this recent example to further emphasize the point.
 
Last week I was in a client meeting out of town. The meeting was in an older area of their building, one in pretty dire need of renovation according to the client (and I agreed). There were very few power outlets and, get this, no wifi for guests.
 
I was with three of my co-workers. They all had laptops and I had an iPad 2 with a bluetooth keyboard.
 
We started at 9am and worked until 1:30, having lunch brought in. I was the only one who was online because I had the iPad 2 with AT&T 3G. I was also the only one that never had to connect to power. In fact, we went from their office to the airport where I used the iPad while waiting for the flight. Then I used it the entirety of the almost two hour flight back. And I never had to charge the iPad the entire day, still having 15% battery life left when I was reading on the iPad later that night before bed.
 
We all took notes on Evernote, which works just as well on the iPad as it does on a laptop.
 
I know long battery life and cellular connectivity aren’t some kind of advanced iPad technology, but the fact that it does those two things and laptops today don’t, make it a far better travel computer than anything else out there for me.

I’ve been a laptop guy for, well, as long as I can remember. I think probably everyone reading this is. The thought of not having a laptop is likely something that seems almost impossible to most of you, I’m guessing. And I was the same way a month ago.

It’s important to note that my experience won’t be the same for those of you that are programmers or designers where you need complex software to do your job. But for anyone else I think what I’m about to describe could be a solution – if you’re looking for one. I wasn’t, it just kind of found me.

I’ve had an on-again, off-again relationship with the iPad in the past. Truth be told, after a few months in to the original iPad, I wasn’t a huge fan. Then I liked it again. Then I put it down again. I even state in this post in October of 2010 that the iPad absolutely IS NOT a replacement for a laptop. I really couldn’t figure out how it was going to fit into my life.

As the iPad 2 came with more features and functionality, and as apps continued to get better and better, I began to get more interested in how a tablet might be relevant in my life. And I have many friends who LOVE their iPad’s, using them all the time, so I was pretty intrigued. I decided to push the limits and see exactly what was possible today with the iPad.

I decided to force myself to only use the iPad 2 for a week. No laptop, no desktop, just the iPad. With a bluetooth keyboard. That was a critical component to add to the mix. Without a keyboard, the iPad is a really nice device but not very usable in a business/work setting other than the occasional note-taking.

For iPad 2 bluetooth keyboards, I tried them all, and landed on the Zagg ZAGGFOLIO but I didn’t like the case, so I just pulled the keyboard right out of it (see pic below). Now I travel with the iPad (caseless) and the bluetooth keyboard that I plucked from the ZAGGFOLIO. And I love that. The keyboard is small and easily fits in my bag, and serves as a stand when I want to watch something on the iPad without holding the device in my hand. And its a great feeling keyboard, too.

What I learned through the process was that the iPad 2, with a bluetooth keyboard, is a very versatile and effective device (again, in my life, may be different for yours). I realized that I have different use cases for when I want a computer and when I break those down, an iPad 2 and a desktop serve all of my purposes.

My iPad setup

Here’s a breakdown of the times/settings I need a computer, and what device(s) I am going to be using:

At home, chilling — iPad

When I’m at home, mostly I want to sit back and read or watch content.  Occasionally I will reply to a quick email or  send a tweet, but I don’t need to write long-form content all that much.  So the iPad works just great for that.

At home, working — iPad with bluetooth keyboard 75%, desktop 25%

I need a keyboard.  Since we have an iMac at home, I can easily use that to work.  However, having now used a keyboard with an iPad for a few weeks, I find this to be very easy, especially when working on email or documents.  Since blogging on the iPad still isn’t brilliant, I often prefer to use the desktop for that when its available. Btw, more on my blogging process here, as there are times I use the iPad and times it just won’t work 100% for WordPress.

At work, at my desk — desktop

When I’m at my desk I’m going to be using a desktop, likely a Mac Mini. No real reason to lug a laptop around, back and forth from home, when I already have a desktop at the house and I have an iPad for in-between. I don’t think I’ve had a desktop for ten years at the office, always a laptop, so this will be a bit of an experiment. And thankfully with tools like iCloud and Dropbox, I can pretty much access any of my files no matter where I am.

At work, in meetings — iPad with bluetooth keyboard

When I’m in a meeting, I can easily take notes on the iPad and review documents.  I find it too cumbersome to bring a laptop from meeting to meeting, but the main benefit is the battery life of the iPad.  I can use it all day and not have to worry about lugging around a power cord for a laptop.

Traveling — iPad with bluetooth keyboard

When I travel its usually for a client meeting or pitch, to meet with folks in our other offices, or to attend a conference.  On a plane its very easy to crank through email on an iPad with a keyboard. Then when I want to sit back and read, I just put the keyboard away and hold the iPad in my hands. It’s great to be able to have that ability, to dock and undock depending on my needs.

So for the foreseeable future, I’ll be using my iPad 2 with a bluetooth keyboard as a laptop replacement. Granted, everyone who knows me will attest to the fact that my preferences change like the wind, but for now I’m digging my laptop-less life.

I’ll be writing more about this later in the week, but essentially I’m moving into 2012 with a bit of a laptop-less setup. The increased capabilities of the iPad 2, the improvement of the apps that allow me to “work”, and the incredible difference that a bluetooth keyboard makes to actually get things done, have changed my use of computers pretty drastically.  
 

Man, what a bummer. I was so happy to switch to Sprint last November in order to have direct integration with Google Voice.

And if you’re not up on it, here’s more on what Google Voice is and the reasons I love it.

Only, the “integration” is shoddy at best, working half the time and the other half of the time my calls come from a Sprint number.

But the worst part is the coverage for Sprint is amazingly worse than AT&T in Atlanta, at least for me. It’s horrible. All the reviews I read online said otherwise, so I thought I was getting Google Voice integration (not so much) and a bonus of better coverage.

Now I’m going to switch to Verizon. I can’t take not being able to make calls at my house or the office. I’ll just use the Google Voice app on Verizon and hope for the best.

Electronic Arts has a great sale going on with many of their iPad apps being only $.99. I don’t know how long this will last but you should check it out.
 
While looking at their selections I ran across their Monopoly iPad game. I was always a fan of Monopoly back in the day, but my wife hates it and honestly, who has several hours and a bunch of friends around to play a board game? 
 
But for $.99 I thought it would be worth a shot to see how this game plays on the iPad. And sure enough, its great. You can play against the computer, against friends on a table top or within the same wifi network on individual iPads. So far I’ve only played vs. the computer and you can usually get through a game in 20-30 minutes if you hustle.
 
Also, I noticed that Prius must have some kind of sponsorship because you can be a Prius as your Monopoly piece. So far I’ve stayed with my tried and true Race Car piece, but its cool to know brands are playing in the space. I’d like to see some of the companies that already have deals with Monopoly get involved so you can “theme” your boards, but that doesn’t seem to be an option yet.
 

Walmart, you know I’m on an iPad, because your ad is showing up on espn.go.com/ipad.

So why would you show me a page like this when I actually click on your ad?

Please try harder in 2012, Walmart.

I saw this in a client meeting yesterday. Couldn’t resist.

Evernote has been one of my favorite apps for years. I’ve written about it dozens of times on this blog. 
 
I’ve written about the differences between Evernote and Instapaper. It was at the top of my list of products I loved in 2010. I even had a post where I got two Evernote addicts like me to talk about why they love it.
 
So needless to say, I love me some Evernote.
 
And I loved reading the article in December issue of Inc. magazine where the Evernote boys were on the cover. GREAT story, if you haven’t read it.
 
But I’m getting worried. What I loved about Evernote was that they did one thing and they dominated it. Saving and storing your thoughts, notes, ideas…your memories. And by focusing on that they become one of those can’t-live-without services. 
 
So I was curious when I saw that they launched two new apps recently, Evernote Hello and Evernote Food. They already have several other products that I don’t use, Skitch, Clearly and Peak.
 
Evernote Hello describes itself as: Remembering people is hard. Evernote Hello makes it easy by creating a rich, browsable history of individuals, encounters and shared experiences.
 
Unfortunately, the way you do this currently is to hand your phone to someone and let them enter in their information. As far as I can tell, you can’t even go to your contact info and pull the information on someone to at least autopopulate it if you’ve already met before. But I’m surprised they didn’t at least launch this with “bump-like” technology so two Evernote users could swap contact info by simply tapping their phones together. At the moment I can’t see myself using this unless they advance the technology in several areas.
 
Evernote Food describes itself as: Preserve and relive memorable food experiences. From fine dining to family gatherings to a local food truck, remember every delicious moment.
 

If this eventually ties into other services, like Yelp, I might be more interested. But I can’t see myself taking a photo of everything I eat, or even most of the things I eat. Can’t really see the purpose.
 
My main question is, why is Evernote branching out from their main app where many people have done these same activities? Couldn’t you just have a “contacts” feature in the main Evernote app? And is it a good strategy to begin fragmenting your products and by doing that, are you going to be able to continue to ensure that every product you have out there is amazing?
 
I hope so and honestly, I wouldn’t bet against them. They’re still one of my favorite companies. 
 
But I’m starting to get a little worried…

Path is a new(ish) mobile only social network that describes itself as the smart journal that helps you share life with the ones you love. You can only have 150 friends. And I’m loving it.  
One awkward thing about this post is that typically I write about a service and want people to “friend” me so we can play with it together. In this case, I’m going to use Path the way it was intended, which is to connect with only the people in my life that I have a close relationship with. Don’t worry, we still have Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. ;) 
 
Oh, and why did I “draw” the reasons I like it? I do that sometimes as its a creative way for me to lay out my thoughts on something. Like this. Also sometimes I do it because the guy next to me on the plane is oblivious to the fact that has arms are hanging way over the side of the arm rest, so far in fact hat I can’t even use my right arm to type. 
 
Anyways, if you find yourself loving Path like I am, I’d love to know why. Here are my reasons: 

I’m always interested in what apps people are using on their phones. Every time I share the apps I’m using, people alert me to many more that I hadn’t heard of. Just last night at dinner a friend told me about an app that sounded cool and I quickly added it to my second screen.

Regarding that, I have a “second screen” strategy where I basically stick all the apps I’m testing onto the second screen of both my iPhone and my iPad. This does a few things. It stops all the apps that might not make the cut from creeping all over my phone, plus it helps me focus on actually testing and trying those apps. And it also stops me from allowing more than 16 apps to be tested at any given time. When I want to add a new one, I have to delete one.

One of three things eventually happens. Either an app proves to be amazing so it moves to the coveted home screen (or first screen). Just this morning, I moved Path to my home screen because its freaking beautiful. I’ll also likely find a way to move Flipboard there soon as they just came out with their iPhone app. Correction – I just moved it to the home screen…couldn’t wait.

Or an app proves it is something I’ll be interested in long-term but not something I want to see every day, so I put it somewhere beyond the second screen. Or eventually I delete the app altogether.

So here are screenshots of my first and second screens (you can do a screenshot on the iPhone by holding down the home button and the power button for a second – the screen will flash and a pic will be in your Photos folder). Let me know if you have any questions and please, share yours as well!

The apps on my iPhone home screen

The apps on my iPhone second screen (or test screen)