iPad – The New Filofax?
by Neill Watson on March 23, 2010
Remember them? They held everything in your life in a cool leather binder. You could say that the iPhone is just that, but I’m sorry, there are too many frustrations with it for me, good though it is. And from a phoographer’s viewpoint, there are so many things about the iPad that excite me…
The iPad marketing video makes me laugh out loud with excitement. I’m not an early adopter of new software or hardware, I prefer to let others iron out the bugs and buy the v2.1, but the iPad is the thing I’ll be at the front of the queue for and I have high hopes for it, with a few reservations… My iPhone is a great gadget, but has it’s limitations, so here’s my wish list of things I really hope the iPad can score on to make it my constant companion:
A fully functional Mail app that allows me to copy over all my settings from my Mac. This really should be a no-brainer. I have lots of rules that sort regular mail into folders that allow me to read stuff later, such as pro-photographer email lists and other stuff. Plus, Mail’s junk filter is pretty good and it learns well, keeping spam to a minimum. That’s probably the single biggest reason why I hate reading my mail on my iPhone. OK, I’ve read all the work-arounds about using Google Mail and changing to IMAP, but why should I? Please sort this…
A full blown Omni Focus App. I’m a big Omni Focus fan, though I have to say I’m not as disciplined as I should be. But being able to just pick up an iPad and quickly enter an Omni Focus note will be great.
A calendar that works as well as it appears to in the video. It’s larger size will make it intuitive to pick up and use like an A5 sized desk diary, let’s hope it works as it should
The ability to drag and drop important files drop your desktop. Come on, Apple. I can do this with a USB stick, surely you trust me to copy over my important work in progress before i head out to the airport without having to go through the whole iTunes sync routine?
OfficeApps. If it’s going to be a mobile tool, it really needs to let me carry Word and Excel docs and other useful PDF files I need to refer to. Again, let me just drag and drop, please….
Mobile Portfolio. Vincent Laforet has already put into words my thoughts. Imagine being in a meeting with a client and being able to watch the latest Canon 5D movie you just shot as well as the stills photography.
Looks like the digital delivery platform is finally here. Some, such as Total 911 magazine are already there, with a download version of the magazine on iTunes already. Others will surely follow.
There are lots of other areas that the iPad is going to impact, not just business. Imagine how much better the screen is going to look compared to, say, a Sony PSP. Add in iTunes’ App Store’s marketing power and make the games reasonable in price, instead of the eye watering £30 ticket of norm for new releases onto other gaming platforms and it’ll be a winner for fun.
I’m sure you’ll have your own ideas on the iPad and how it might work for you. For the first time, I want to be at the front of the queue. So what’s your iPad ideal? I’d love to hear how you think it might work as a personal and business tool for you….
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ipad applications,
ipad as a business tool,
ipad new filofax