Hands-on Review: iPad Mini vs. normal iPad 3

I've been an iPad user for a long time.  In the past, I've written here about how I use my iPad to be more productive with a Zagg keyboard and Evernote.  I've had the original iPad, the iPad 2, and the iPad 3;  the the iPad 3 is the main basis for my comparison here.

A few weeks a go, I received my iPad Mini (it took a couple of weeks for Apple to ship it - well worth the wait) and have been using it regularly long enough to share my experiences.

By the way, I have the iPad Mini with AT&T LTE broadband, and 64GB of memory - I went with the larger memory because I download a lot of movies to watch on business trips, and they take a lot of room.  I chose the broadband because I am often in high-security buildings where I cannot get on WiFi and I need another option.

Summary of my experience

Size

I wasn't sure what to expect from the iPad Mini, but I must say that I was very surprised at how much smaller, lighter and thinner it feels when you carry it.  It is comparable in size and weight to my Kindle Touch e-Reader, which means I don't have to think twice about whether to bring it with me or not (I sometimes left my iPad 3 at home on long trips to save weight and/or free up space in my laptop bag.  

Not only does the iPad Mini fit well in my laptop bag, it is small enough to fit in the pocket of my jacket - I love that.  Since I use the iPad for so much of my note taking, list making, etc. for my productivity habits, it is a huge benefit when I can take a device almost anywhere.

Screen and on-screen keyboard

The screen has a much lower resolution than my iPad 3, but the lower resolution works well due to the smaller dimensions of the iPad Mini. The screen is plenty bright when you turn it up, and I end up turning it down pretty far for normal use (which also saves battery life).

I didn't have trouble using apps normally, and haven't yet found any apps that don't adjust correctly to the iPad Mini screen.

One thing that required adjustment:  The on-screen keyboard.  in Landscape mode, the screen is now too narrow for me to try to mimic touch-typing (I have big hands) but in Portrait mode, I can now thumb-type very well.  As a side effect, for quick notes using the on-screen keyboard, I rotate it to portrait mode and jot things down in email or Evernote.

After a week or so of thumb-typing I ended up ordering Zagg's keyboard case for the iPad Mini, (right) as well.  This is the little brother of the keyboard I reviewed previously.  Zagg makes a 7-inch keyboard case that is the same width as the iPad Mini, but I went for the slightly larger 9-inch keyboard because I have larger hands.  Even the 9-inch version is plenty small to pack or carry, and I have been very glad that I bought the Zagg keyboard.

Battery life

In spite of its much smaller size, the battery life is comparable to my larger iPad and meets the claimed 10-hour battery life Apple claims.  This means I can use it to take notes  and check email all day, I can watch movies on flights, and I can look things up online without having to worry much about when I'll be near a power outlet.  

Miscellaneous

• I have the Apple Smart Cover for the iPad Mini but I don't like it nearly as much as I like the Smart Cover for the iPad3.  The smaller size isn't as stable when using the cover as a stand, and the new magnet mechanism doesn't hold on as firmly as on the larger iPads (Apple covered the magnets in rubber rather than leaving them exposed, which I think leads to a weaker connection).  Therefore, I rarely use the Smart Cover, and tend to use the Zagg case most of the time.
• The iPad Mini is another one of those devices that uses the new Lightning connector.  This is fine for me, since I already have an iPhone 5 and had to go through the pain of getting extra cables and adapters for my old docks and accessories to work with the new connector.  If you already have a sprawling ecosystem of chargers, cables, and docks from your older iPad, factor this into the transition process.  
  • I highly recommend getting a short adapter to convert your older, 30-pin connections to Lightning.  I prefer the kind with the short cable rather than the all-in-one adapter that is a solid block of plastic - I find the short length of cable makes it far more useful.

Net-net: 

Pros of the iPad Mini:

• The size is perfect for everyday use, and much more practical than my larger iPad.
• The battery life is great.
• Cameras (front an rear) are very good (and you don't look quite so foolish taking a picture with this one, like you do with the larger iPad.
• Screen is bright and very usable for email, reading, note taking, movies, and games.
• Huge ecosystem of existing apps works great with the iPad mini.

Cons of the iPad Mini:

• On-screen keyboard is not great for extensive text entry.
• Smart Cover not as useful as on the larger iPads.
• Accessory ecosystem still limited (but this will improve once this device has been around longer).
• Pricey.

The bottom line?  I really like the iPad Mini.  If I were buying today, or I could only have one iPad, I'd choose the iPad Mini.

Wonderful Day: Productivity, Jerry Seinfeld style [Updated]

I've been experimenting with a new productivity / motivational tool that I discovered the other day.  It is called "Wonderful Day," and it is an iOS app that is designed to give you an easy, in-your-face way to establish and reinforce productive habits.  It reminds me of that old adage, "How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time."

Apparently, this app was inspired by Jerry Seinfeld's productivity technique - very interesting.

Set a goal, create a chain

The premise is simple:  You pick a goal you want to achieve that requires persistent commitment, and you put it in the Wonderful Day app.  You decide how often you want to perform some activity that contributes to your goal (daily, weekly, etc.), and set up how often you want to be reminded / nagged so you don't forget.

Now, for each of your goals, you have a "punch card" that you use to record whether you actually did what you set out to do.  The objective is to build a "chain" of punches that advance your goal, and to keep at it so you don't break the chain.  If you stick with it, you'll get a lot done, improve yourself, and establish new habits.

My example

One of the goals I used Wonderful Day to track was to spend at least 30 minutes each day working on a specific work project.  I wanted to do this because I keep forgetting about this particular project, but I want to get it moving.

Now, the app reminds me of this project every day and I pick some element of the project and work on it for 30 minutes.  Each day I do that, I get to punch my card in Wonderful Day.  I didn't think this was rocket science, but punching that card turns out to produce a rewarding feeling.  Here are a couple of screen shots to give you an idea (these aren't mine - they are from the App Store, but I think they illustrate it very well and show a longer "chain" than the ones I have so far):

In the screen on the left, you see the Activities (I call them Goals in my head) and you can have as many as you'd like.  I recommend starting with no more than 5 to keep from overwhelming or annoying yourself.

On the right, you see one of the "punch cards" I mentioned.  Each dot is an interval (in this case each dot represents a day).  The green dots represent the times you did what you wanted to do, and the red dots are times when you didn't do it.

This is a pretty simple and effective way to log your progress and ingrain habits into your daily life.  I think the Wonderful Day app is a novel approach to getting things done, and worth a look.

If you try it out, let me know how it works for you.

Stay In Sync On Holiday Shopping

Well, it's that time of the year - holiday shopping time.  Maybe it's just me, but one of the challenges of shopping is coordinating the "divide & conquer" approach with my wife.  

We have 3 kids, grandparents, nieces, siblings, etc. that we want to buy gifts for and we have busy schedules, so we want to make sure everything gets covered, we don't duplicate efforts, etc.  There are a couple of tools we've evolved that make this easier and I wanted to share them here in case they'll help you, as well.

Part 1: Gather ideas during the year

The first method is pretty easy - I create a note on my smartphone for each person I want to buy gifts for.  I call them "Gift ideas for <name>" so I have a separate note for each person.  Then, during the year, when I hear them mention something they want or I see something that might be a good gift, I add it to the list.

The list gets replicated on all my devices (iPad, computer, phone, etc.) so I can add items (and URL's if appropriate) to make it easy to shop when the time comes.  You can use notes in Outlook, iOS, Google Notes, or Evernote - it's your choice.  I'd pick one that can be replicated across all the devices you use - that makes life a lot easier.

By the way - these lists work for birthdays and anniversaries, too - not just holiday shopping.

Part 2: Stay in sync with your shopping partner(s)

When we get into the shopping season, I create a shared spreadsheet in Google Docs.  You could also use Office360, a cloud storage location, or something similar;  I like Google Docs because it is free and multiple people can edit simultaneously so there are no versioning problems.

The tool is pretty simple.  As you can see from the screen grab above, you just make a list with one column for each person you want to shop for, along with a Status column.  You farm your "Gift ideas…" lists and add them to this spreadsheet, then you share the list with your shopping buddy (my wife, in my case) so they can get to the list.

In the status column, you can enter things like "Have," and "Ordered" to indicate which things are already covered.  You can also enter someone's name so you know who is expected to handle the shopping for that item.  Don't forget that you can add comments and notes to the items - this is a great place to elaborate, add URL's, specify colors, etc.

The only caveat:  don't share the sheet with anyone who's in it, otherwise they'll know what you're getting them!  For my wife, I just stick with tracking things in the "Gift ideas for…" note - including tracking what my kids have gotten for her. (That reminds me: when we hear what other people in the family are getting our kids, we track that in this spreadsheet, too - that helps prevent duplicate gifts.)

If you have your own tips and tricks for holiday shopping, please share.

Online Data Storage: Is it okay to Move to the Cloud?

In the past, I've written about how much I love layered backup strategies - a local copy (or more than one), an off-site physical copy, and a "cloud" copy.  Sometimes people ask me about whether my data is safe and/ or private in the cloud - especially people who want to back up business data.  The short answer is "yes - if you choose a cloud backup provider with the right capabilities."  With that in mind, I thought I'd share some additional information on this topic.

The problem people face when using private computer systems is the need to keep the maximum amount of information available - how can we store, organize, and protect all of it? To help solve this problem, you can use remote backup services to store online reports. The concern remains, however, about whether keeping information off-site and online is a safe way to store private information.

Is the Cloud the Best Option for Business Owners?

Some companies have come to realize that there are huge benefits of storing information online. A report on cloud storage comparison found that out of 97 health care facilities that were surveyed, 71 percent were considering a move to the cloud powered storage. Using The cloud is one of the more cost effective methods for storing information. There is no need to buy expensive equipment to back up data with and It gives business owners the quickest way to access information and it keep information secure at all times.

Why Are People Reluctant to Move to Cloud Computing?

The only issue with all of this boils down to whether or not the cloud is safe. And a business professional has good reason to be concerned about their private information falling into the hands of some hacker because all it takes is for one person to break their way into a private system to compromise highly confidential information. As this technology gets better, however, you can find Cloud Storage Systems that will fit your business's specific security needs. If you are methodical in your cloud storage comparison, you'll find that buying cloud storage is the same as buying anything else: there are products that are well made and that will fit your needs and there are products that simply will not. Knowing what you do and don't need out of your company's Cloud Storage is a good place to being your research. A second concern some people have is the availability and accessibility of their information. Companies that thrive on customer service must have access to their business information on a daily basis. The concern is that the company will not be able to pull up the information they need in a timely manner. When dealing with customers, the information you need has to available within a few seconds. If the customer has to wait any length of time they can become impatient and upset, which often prompts the customer to take their business elsewhere.

Is Storing Information Online Safe and Concern Free

Storing information online really is the safest way to keep information from being lost or stolen. When a file is uploaded to a backup server it goes through an encryption process that keeps hackers from being able to read and access information. In order to read user-files the client must first enter the correct user name and then enter a secure password. The password and user name is usually chosen by the information owner.

Information that is stored online is available 24 hours a day from any location. A company can upload information and have instant access to the account setup on the server. Not only does the client have instant access, but also a backup copy just in case the system should crash. Beyond the instant access and reliable backup there is also the benefit of business email providers, online customer service systems, and other user support.

Obviously, a lot of my comments are directed at businesses, but I use cloud backup services for my personal use - because I value the benefits I mention above for my personal data, as well.  

I hope you found this information helpful - I know my cloud backups have saved my bacon on several occasions, and I encourage you to make the move to the cloud for your backups.

TouchFire is a lightweight keyboard addition for your iPad

Earlier this year, I heard about a Kickstarter project for an iPad add-on called "TouchFire."  The idea sounded intriguing:  A flexible silicone-ish keyboard that magnetically attached to your iPad screen, providing tactile keys that worked with the iPad's soft keyboard.

I investigated, and decided to get in on the project, which entailed "investing" some money in the project for an opportunity to reserve one of the units when they began shipping.  I put my money down.  About a month ago, I received my keyboard and it is pretty cool.  But it isn't perfect and it probably won't be a hit for everyone so I decided to write a brief review of my experiences here.

What you get

For $50, you get a TouchFire keyboard, a carrying case (it folds up pretty small and fits nicely in the case), and some adhesive magnets that attach to your smart cover, if you have one - more on why you need those magnets in a second.

How the TouchFire works

The TouchFire keyboard has strong magnets built into it, and it "snaps" on to your iPad, and aligns itself much like Apple's smart covers do - this makes it easy to get the keyboard into the right position over the on-screen keyboard.  

This also makes it easy to flip the TouchFire down (toward you) if you want to temporarily gain access to your full iPad screen such as when you want to draw on the screen or use your fingers to perform operations.  Then you can simply flip it back up over the screen when you want to type.

Another cool aspect of the TouchFire's flexibility and ease of removing the keyboard is that it can fold up inside your smart cover to completely get the TouchFire out of the way without risking that you'll leave it behind.  This is where the adhesive magnets I mentioned come into play.  

• When you first get your TouchFire, you go through a short process to position and mount a couple of magenta to the underside of your smart cover.
• After that, if you don't want to use the TouchFire, you simply lift it with the smart cover the next time you open it up, and the magnets will hold the keyboard against the smart cover, as shown in the picture at right (you can see larger versions of these pictures at the TouchFire site).

Typing on the TouchFire is pretty nice - you get exactly the same layout as the iPad keyboard, but how you have tactile keys that can help you type more quickly, especially if you are a touch typist.  You will need to experiment a bit to see if you like to type flat or if you like to type at an angle, which you can achieve by propping it up with the smart cover.

The TouchFire seems pretty durable so far, and you can easily wash it if it gets dirty (I've washed mine once after I got a bunch of dust on it).

There is one complaint I have about the TouchFire.  Apparently, I "drag" my fingers over the top of the keys ever-so-slightly when I type and it took a while to get used to raising my fingers up higher - the jelly-like feel of the TouchFire's keys grabbed my fingers enough to slow my typing down and annoy me.  I don't have that issue with "normal" physical keys.

On a related note, you may find the TouchFire to be very sticky at first.  Give it a few days and that stickiness calms down, in my experience.

By the way - if you're interested in seeing it in action, I encourage you to watch the video that got me excited about this:

Pros and Cons

Here are the pros and cons from my perspective.

Pros:

• Very lightweight
• Easy to "install" and remove (clear instructions are provided with the TouchFire)
• Nice carrying case, and extra magnets are provided
• Enables touch typing using Apple's touch keyboard, which means spellcheck / autocorrect work the same as with Apple's keyboard
• Integrates with Apple's smart cover
• No batteries or other moving parts

Cons:

• Jelly-like feel of keys may not work for your typing style (see my notes above).
• When you switch to alternate symbols on the keyboard, sometimes it's hard to see which key is which since they soft keys are now covered by the TouchFire.  You can kind of see through the TouchFire, but it's not completely clear.

For me, the bottom line is that I am happy I bought a TouchFire, because I regularly use it when I'm trying to travel very  light.  However, for productivity and typing speed, I still find myself gravitating back to my Logitech keyboard case - even if it weighs more and has to be recharged once a month.  

Another aspect I like about the Logitech - when I'm taking notes with it, the iPad screen is upright kind of like a laptop screen, which means I can take notes without allowing others to read what I'm typing.  Obviously, typing on a near-vertical surface just isn't practical using the onscreen keyboard.

If you end up getting a TouchFire, let me know how you like it - I have two friends that absolutely love the TouchFire, and would like to hear more from other people.

Counter-productivity tips?

I was just reading an article called, "8 Surprisingly Counterproductive Productivity Apps," which has some interesting items on it.  My favorite is one called iNap@Work, which took the #1 spot:

No. 1 with a bullet? iNap@Work. It’s the productivity app gone so wrong that it could help you lose your job. With counterproductivity as its aim, the app will make you seem busy while — you guessed it — napping at work. To fool the waking dead (read: your cubemates), the app will play a series of sound effects at varying frequencies, including typing, stapling, and mouse clicks.

I played around with this (not for napping, but out of curiosity) and it's pretty entertaining to say the least.  The rest of the list is interesting, as well.

What are your "time sink" apps?

That post reminded me of a tool I've been using called "RescueTime" which automatically tracks your time on Windows and OS X.  I really like it because it not only tracks which apps you are using, but it asks you what you were doing when you return to your desk after a meeting or other reason for being away (sample dialog is below - and you can customize the categories if you want):

WIth RescueTime, you get a very nice breakdown of your productivity through the RescueTime dashboard, along with a categorization of which were the most and least productive categories of time.  The scale ranges from -2 (very unproductive) to +2 (very productive), and you can adjust the categorization to better fit your real view of the world in case you disagree with their classification of an activity.  For example, RescueTime considered LinkedIn to be a -2 (very unproductive) on their scale. I adjusted LinkedIn to be a +1 (productive) since I use LinkedIn to help me in my work and save time.

Once you've been using RescueTime for a while, you can use various reports to see how productive you are and find places where you waste time (your 'counter-productive apps' in a sense).  Here is a sample category breakdown for the month of September so far, based on my utilization:

I don't obsess over these reports, but I do check in a couple of times a month to see how much time I've been spending on distractions.  You can monitor as much or as little of your week as you want, so you can audit all of your time or just your work hours, for example.  I didn't have too many surprises other than realizing how much time I spent playing Diablo 3 last month.

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to track where you spend your time and identify when you are at your most productive, check out RescueTime.  And if you want to take naps at work or engage in other unproductive activities, go read up on 8 Surprisingly Counterproductive Productivity Apps!