Tag Archives: iPad

Jan13

On Process and Tools

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On Process and Tools

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the tools I use for writing (both hardware and software) and the way I use them. And I’ve realized that I might need to change my tactics to work with both the way my brain works and the way that my tools work.

For example, though I have a computer at home, I rarely use it for long writing sessions. I find that when I’m at home, it’s too easy to be distracted. I do write at home, but I’m nowhere near as productive as I am when I’m out and about. So as a result, I have been trying to spend more time writing in places that aren’t my apartment.

I have a laptop which I had been carting around for writing, but I have a long commute and often have a lot of things to carry and sometimes lugging around the laptop would feel like too much. Additionally, the battery life isn’t the best if I’m in a place without outlets.

So when I was able to get my hands on an iPad, I thought that would be a great solution. A lot of people peg it as a device for consuming rather than producing, but it can be used as a writing machine. I paired with with a bluetooth keyboard and got a stand and it became a lighter device that I could carry with me in a smaller amount of space. With apps like Pages and QuickOffice I could even access my documents directly from Dropbox and work on them (though only QuickOffice allowed me to save the files back again, and then only if I had an internet connection).

So I could, and did, write on the iPad. But as I just mentioned, there were sometimes issues with saving. And I’d have to email my files part of the time to myself. Which just makes version control all the more difficult.

Additionally, lately I’ve been working more on novels than on short stories. And while I write short stories in Word (or a comparable alternative), I work on novels exclusively with Scrivener. Scrivener has no iPad version, so I’m confined to my laptop if I want the complete functionality that Scrivener gives me (and I usually do).*

Also, the other day, just after working for an hour on a chapter of my novel in QuickOffice, and basically rewriting it, I lost all of my changes when the app crashed. Suddenly they were all gone and I had no way to recover them. That was one of the worst writing moments I’ve had in a long time.

So I’m thinking that for me, right now, the best solution is to use my laptop when at all possible. Yes, it’s heavier, but right now it has a lot of advantages for me. It has a built-in keyboard for one, one which allows for tabs in whatever program I use. Dropbox files save locally to the hard drive when there’s no internet connection. Scrivener and Word both save regularly to help prevent loss of data. And I have access to Scrivener in the first place, which is a big help. Battery life can be a problem, but lately that’s been less of a problem if I make an effort to keep it fully charged. I’m rarely writing anywhere for more than a couple of hours without an outlet anyway. Do I always have an internet connection? No. But then again that can be as much a distraction as a boon (and I can technically use my phone if I need to email files from Dropbox).

I like having options. And I like the various ways I could make the iPad work for me. But sometimes simplicity is more valuable. Sometimes the ability to just sit down, open up the laptop and start typing where I left off is better than having to configure things and set them up and then sync and compare them. At least this is how I feel right now. I reserve the right to change my mind in the future.

Anyone else out there have a way of working that they had to hone or fine tune? Or are there tools that you use that you find essential?

* Scrivener 2 now allows syncing with certain text apps, like Simple Note, but again, you don’t have access to Scrivener’s features this way.

Aug4

New technology, old content

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New technology, old content

My brother emailed me the other day to let me know that the first book in Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! series was now available for the iPhone. For those who don’t know the books, they were gamebooks, set up in the choose-your-own-adventure style, but with roleplaying elements such as stats and battles that required the use of 2 six-sided dice. There were a slew of them at one time including the Fighting Fantasy books (also from Steve Jackson) and the Lone Wolf gamebooks from Joe Dever.

These books were more my brother’s thing than mine, but being into fantasy and RPGs, I read them, too. They were fun – a kind of interactive reading experience that you could play by yourself, and in the case of Sorcery! and Lone Wolf, you could create your own continuity. If you found, for example, a particular item in one book, that item might come into play in a future book. But only if you had found it before (though, of course, this depended on the honor system).

Putting something like this on the iPhone, to me, makes a lot of sense. The game aspects can be automated while the choose-your-own-adventure parts are maintained. Only the first of the books is up, but I suppose more will appear if sales are good.

But this isn’t the only content from my youth that is now reappearing on platforms like the iPhone and the iPad. Point and click adventure games are making a comeback, too. Ports of old games have been reappearing with great frequency for mobile platforms. Monkey Island made a lot of noise when it was released for the iPhone. And not too long ago I downloaded an old favorite – Broken Sword – for my phone as well. It makes sense – the iPhone, iPad and even the DS are touch devices and the point and click interface scales well on them (with a few tweaks).

What I wonder, though, is whether this is a purely nostalgic phenomenon (as many of the people who have iPhones remember these games and books fondly), or whether this is simply the recognition that there is an opportunity here. What I hope is that we see some new games being developed with the same interface. Or at least newer entries in series that have long lain dormant. A new Monkey Island game, for example.

Whatever the case may be, I’m holding out for King’s Quest 6. If that happens, I’ll be happy.

Would you pay money to play any of these games again? Or new ones?

Apr1

The iPad and Me

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The iPad and Me

With the imminent release of the iPad, it seems the web, or at least the parts of it I frequent, are worked up into a frenzy over the device. There are the usual haters, the fanboys, the unimpressed, the eager, all weighing in on one of the most hyped technological releases of the last few years.

I’ll say it right off the bat – I’m an Apple fanboy. I have been since I bought my first Mac, a Powerbook, years ago. But I was also one of the people who was a little underwhelmed with the initial appearance of the device. Since then, though, I’ve been thinking about it and reading about applications and I think now that it’s a device that I could get a lot of use out of. Here’s why.

I have a laptop, and I have an iphone, and both of those enable me to do an amazing number of things on the go. The laptop is particularly ingenious for being able to write when I’m traveling, or stopping off at a bar or coffee shop. But the laptop is heavy and I’m not always willing to lug it around. It’s battery life isn’t bad, but it’s not tremendous either, especially when not near an outlet. And there are some places where I can’t use it – on a crowded subway, for example. I also don’t have a 3G card or Mifi for it meaning that I’m restricted on where I can access the internet.

Then there’s my iphone which is extremely portable and which I have all the time. I almost always have some sort of signal, and I can play games or read books on it while waiting for the subway, or on the subway or really wherever. Only it has a small screen. And while I’ve used it for writing in a pinch, it isn’t optimized for that sort of thing. Additionally, while the battery rarely goes dead on me in the middle of a task – reading or watching a movie – it does put a dent in the battery capacity and it isn’t unusual for me to be on the edge of complete drainage by the end of the work day.

The iPad hits a sweet spot in between these two, primarily in the areas I use any of these things for.

1. Writing – the iPad screen is bigger and the onscreen keyboard is larger and QWERTY for when I’m sitting on the subway car and want to write down a few paragraphs. When I get home or to a bar or something, though, I can pull out my wireless keyboard and get some real writing done. The release of Pages (part of iWork) for the device means that I can work with .doc format with no problems and sync to my desktop/laptop, or email the file using wifi or 3G (which is the flavor I would get).

2. Reading manuscripts – As a member of the Altered Fluid writing group and also as an editor for Sybil’s Garage, I read a lot of manuscripts, either as part of the slush pile or to critique (sometimes both). I’ve done this on the iPhone, but it’s not ideal, mostly because of the small screen size. Docs to Go gives me some functionality with the files, but at that scale it’s tough to work with. The iPad would be ideal for this. And Pages again should give me the ability to annotate if needed.

3. Reading ebooks – I’m a lover of books, including physical books, but I live in NYC and space is an issue for me. While I’ll never stop buying paper books, I am more picky about what I buy these days. Ebooks occupy, for me, a middle ground between buying a physical book and borrowing from the library, with one big exception – it’s almost immediate. If I feel like I want to read Charlie Huston’s latest right now, and I have a signal (and a credit card), I can get it within minutes. I’ve been reading a ton of ebooks on my phone. Reading on the iPad would be even better because of the size of the screen. And Apple’s iBooks application looks really nice.

4. Television and movies – I canceled my cable subscription last year and mostly watch DVDs these days on my television at home. But there are times I like to watch a current show (like Lost) and fire up Hulu or browse the network websites. I can use my laptop for this, but for some reason, I don’t. There’s something about the form factor that makes it a little incongruous for me. But I can completely see watching something on the iPad, and with ABC and CBS shows available at launch, and Netflix instant watch (not to mention Hulu supposedly coming), that means I have a myriad of options in my hands. And I can take them with me – whether it’s into the bedroom or the next borough. And you have to admit that the screen is much nicer than on the iPhone. Not to mention the television and movies available through iTunes.

These are the main things I would use it for, in addition to the usual web browsing – but then there are other possibilities due to appear – like Marvel comics on the device. I haven’t bought single issues for years now, but I might if they were stored digitally on something like the iPad (and assuming the interface is nice). Then there are the occasional one-off apps that will make the thing more fun – from games (actually the board games look really great on the device) to simulated pianos.

Is the iPad for everyone? Of course not. It doesn’t do the hard work of a decent laptop and it duplicates a lot of the functionality of the iPhone or other smartphones. But what it does do hits that sweet spot for me. And so I’m looking forward to getting my hands on one of these to see the possibilities.