I am ready: Summer, Sun and Kindle

No more frickin staring at my own reflection in the iPad Screen :-)

Don't get me wrong, I still like my iPad. GoodReader is great for reading pdf and pdf is still the most consistent format when it comes to programming books (layout quality of code examples in mobi is very inconsistent from book to book).
But when you are looking forward to spend considerable time in the sun, the iPad is not the optimal device.
And yes, internet access over 3G is free with the Kindle. Working good enough with gmail and twitter (kintweet.com) ... at least here in Switzerland, I am curious if it will work in my vacation.

(I did buy the Kindle here in Switzerland over amazon.com, it was delivered within 4 days)

Update 2011-06-09: The free internet access over 3G is also working in Oslo Norway. I can browse the web and read my email.

Update 2011-07-14: Free internet access also worked in Singapore, Bali and Lombok ...

follow me on twitter, I need some friends :-)

My iPad Applications

Update 2010-10-2: I switched to Reeder instead of NewsRack for offline RSS reading and most of the time to ReadItLater instead of InstaPaper for offline content.

 

After one week with my iPad my first apps résumé:

The following apps I am using productively:

• GoodReader: Great app! I use it to connect to my DropBox and download mainly pdf-documents to read them offline. Very intuitive usability. The newest version offers customizable cropping for pdfs, so you can get rid of wasted borders and get the most out of your screen!
• NewsRack: Offline reading for my Google Reader rss-subscriptions and syncing favorites and read items back to Google Reader. It does the job very well. Also nice integration with instapaper, twitter and delicious.
• InstaPaper: Offline reading of articles that I have marked during the day. Does the job well. Nice on the eyes with grey or black background.
• Not really apps but very useful: Quix, Delicious and Instapaper bookmarklets in Safari.

 

The following apps I installed, but coud not yet decide if they are useful for me:

• AtomicBrowser: Seems an interesting replacement for Safari. Better tabs and full-screen mode could really improve my browsing experience.
• Simplenote: Alternative to the native Notes app with online synchronization.
• Tweetdeck: My favorite twitter client, but on my iPad it seems to miss tweets ...
• BlogPress: The edit mode seems to be very crude. You can write html, but thats a pain on the iPad. Also you cannot publish posts as drafts to edit them later with a usable editor.
• FlickrStackr: Nice interface. I can browse my flickr photos. I can upload pictures. But expected to be able to download pictures from flickr to the iPad photo albums. Nope, at least not yet!
• Kindle: I decided to buy my copy of Rework in paper, because I want to take it to the beach ...

I would be interested in suggestions from other iPad users with similar interests ...

 

PS: And no, I did never miss Flash yet or have ever come across one of those hyped bue-cube screens...