Here is what I’ve found so far:

Rogue Sky HD:
The objective of this game is to pilot your hot air balloon up through a maze of clouds to achieve your goal. What makes this game really fun is how 3D it looks. I don’t mean 3D in reference to the flyer the TV industry took when they thought that we were going to rush out and buy 3D Tv’s. Seriously. Did anyone really believe that was going to be the next big thing? No. Any whooo… Rogue Sky HD has this animated 3D-ness about it that pulls you into the game. The animation reminds me of Tim Burton. The music reminds me of Danny Elfman. Your balloon, which has a big Jack-O-Lantern face on it, is steered by two big thumb pads that appear on the sides of the screen. Press both thumb pads at the same time and your balloon glows with flame and rises gently into the sky. Press the left thumb pad and you float left. Right, you go right. Tapping, fires your cannons. The flying dynamics of the game remind me of Lunar Lander, Gravitar and in some ways Asteroids. (Yes, just dated myself there. But it’s meant as a compliment to the game developers). Race through the clouds to pick up power. Escort an old balloon to safety. Destroy enemy balloons. Get shot at by distant Zeppelins. But don’t run into the storm clouds or the lightning will send your burning craft back to earth faster than you can say “oh the humanity.”

Cut The Rope:
By now you might have heard about Cut the Rope. iPad today showed it off  LAST October. The objective is to get a piece of candy into the mouth of your little monster. This is achieved by using your finger to slice through ropes suspending the candy in various ways. Basically, this is a big puzzle game that makes you think…well…think outside the box. The question that comes to mind most when playing this is “How in the hell do I do that?” This, by the way, I believe,  is the same side of the brain you use when you’re trying to crush pigs. The animation is extremely well done. It’s cute. The sound effects are great. A game well worth the buck…and totally addicting.

Zombie Gunship:
This game is sick and fun, the perfect balance. Do you recall that night-vision footage we all saw on the news from Iraq or Afghanistan of the guy running across a road, dropping something in a field, and then running back to a truck? Right after that he was blown to smithereens by a UAV. BOOM. Dead. Well. Take that visual and apply it to Zombie Gunship. Your job is to protect the humans so they can make it to a bunker. Who (or what) is chasing them? Not Iraqis. Not insurgents. Not even Al-Qaeda. We’re talking Zombies man…stumbling-through-the-desert-Zombies! And they are after your humans. The whole game is gray because you are using night vision goggles. Use your finger to aim your gun. Strafe the zombies and watch them explode. Winning gives you coins. Coins let you upgrade your weapons. Bigger, Badder, Better. You see and hear the concussions from your 105MM Howitzer. But watch out! You kill 3 civilians, you lose the game. If zombies breach the bunker, you lose the game. A recent update to the game allows you to buy a General Pardon. You use this if you are responsible for too much collateral damage (aka you kill too many good guys). You might consider this a tower defense game, but I really find this to be far more fun than any tower defense I’ve played. Great game.

Contre Jour:
When playing this I’m reminded of the World Of Goo. Contre Jour is another one of those games thats a bit of a puzzler. You move a character through this dark landscape by manipulating the ground, which seems to be made of putty. You also get to fling yourself around on sticky (WackyWalker-like) tentacles. The physics of this game is stunning.  The objective is to collect as many lights as possible before reaching the portal to teleport to the next level. But the illustrations and styling of this game mixed with the music makes this one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen. I have a feeling that females might like this game. It’s cute, it’s not altogether violent and…it’s French.

I Dig It:
Nothing says free market exploitation of natural resources like mining for riches under the surface of the earth. I Dig It doesn’t disappoint. I actually got addicted to this game a few years back when I played it on my iPhone. But when I downloaded it for my iPad a whole new world of mining plunder was opened up. The objective here is to move your little drilling ship around, below ground, to mine for items worth money. As you increase your money you can upgrade your rig with better drills, better coolant, thicker armor, improved radar, and larger cargo space. Drill in the Arctic. Drill under a farm. Drill under water! Drill too far and you might run out of gas…or air. I found the iPad version’s virtual joystick controller to be a little trickier than the iPhone’s. A friend of mine was playing and she got frustrated because of the controls. But barring that, the game is a lot of fun. But be warned, you can get lost in it…and wipe out your battery…or 1/2 a day…whichever comes first.

***

Have you found a game you love? I’d love to hear about it!

Now our email, novels, novel ideas, designs, blog drafts, documents, tax returns, financials, divorce papers, hate mail, love letters, spreadsheets, insurance papers, mortgage documents and that photo of me chewing on my chihuahua’s head are out there, somewhere, floating blithely along “on the cloud.”

Sounds a LOT like having unprotected sex. One of these days something unexpected is going to happen.

My problem (my paranoia?) is that EVERY time I post something “to the cloud” I feel like I’m feeding this great unknowable thing. It’s like this huge, big hungry monster lurking out there, waiting to devour us!

Way back in 1995 Nicholas Negroponte mentioned in his book  “Being Digital”  that “When things go digital, control is lost.”

Enter Cloud Computing, the bastion of CONTROL…LOST.

I’ll be the first to admit that the cloud is SUPER convenient. Seriously, Dropbox has altered my digital life in many positive ways. Simply not having to lug a jump drive or a computer around has been a treat. Not really worrying if my house burns down–destroying the novels i’m working on–has been liberating. Still, there has been this nagging voice in the back of my mind about The Cloud.

How secure is our data on the cloud? Companies like Dropbox have great language on their websites about how secure your data is. How they apply military-grade encryption to your files. Still, how secure is MY data is on THEIR servers? How can my data be totally secure if THEY can send me my password, if I forget it? What’s to stop an employee from rifling through my shit…your shit…others’ shit?

So I’ve determined that a company’s comments about security just isn’t good enough for me. I need, I want, I have to have, an added layer of protection for which I and I alone control the keys.

When you think about it digitally, Security and Convenience are not great partners. If they were on Dancing With the Stars they would have been voted off the first night. Shoes would have flown into the audience, moves would have flubbed, and most assuredly there would have been a wardrobe malfunction, or two. There is simply too much tension between security and convenience. Think of taking an Arthur Miller class with your X wife (or husband).

In reality if you want something super convenient, then that thing runs a good chance of being easy to crack, infect, reach, steal or spoof. Convenience is inherently insecure. (I mean that as data insecure not Psycho-Cybernetics insecure). Likewise if you want something super secure, then you will have to face a gauntlet of time-zapping hurdles just to interact with the information. The key to being secure AND convenient is balancing one with the other. Too much on one side and you’re miserable.

I’m not satisfied that being secure “on the cloud” is the domain of the super geeky. I’m also not satisfied that I can’t reach a level of confidence about my most precious data on the cloud without having to thread a needle with a camel.

So here is the simplest way I’ve found to add an additional layer of control to your files on Dropbox (or on the cloud in general):

First here is a quick NON-TECHNICAL overview of what we’re going to do:

1. Create an encrypted folder, let’s call it a “Vault” on your LOCAL COMPUTER using a piece of FREE software
2. Place the files you want to protect into the Vault
3. Upload your Vault onto Dropbox
4. Sanitize Dropbox so that none of your protect files are available “in the clear”

Here is the “technical” side of how we accomplish this:

Download and install TrueCrypt. This is a free, open source program that works on all platforms. Follow their GREAT and EASY instructions on how to create your first encrypted volume, aka Vault. (I’m just going to call this thing the Vault until Apple tells me I can’t.). If you don’t trust TrueCrypt, then take a gander at what security guru Steve Gibson says about it.

One thing that screwed me up when I first tried this was pre-determining the fixed size of the Vault. If you’re only going to secure 10MB of stuff and you set the volume…cough…I mean Vault size to 5MB, then you won’t be able to fit everything in your Vault. Likewise, if you set the Vault size to 1GB and you only use 10KB, then your volume will STILL take up 1GB of your Dropbox. Do a little planning. Build out your Vault to the size you need plus leave some extra room for growth. You know the old chestnut:  Measure twice. Cut once.

NOTE: When the system asks you for a password don’t be a pansy. Come up with a password that’s impossible to break. DO NOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD YOU USE FOR EVERYTHING ELSE!!!

Once you’ve created the Vault on your computer and UNMOUNTED it from TrueCrypt, then you can throw that file up onto Dropbox. Here was a point of confusion for me. When you talk about a file to me I think of a single file. When TrueCrypt disconnects from your Vault, the Vault changes from a Volume or a Folder into a file. It’s a file, but it’s not really. So throw this file up onto your Drop.

Now, make sure you take a pass through your Dropbox so you can delete ALL of the files that you have protected in your Vault. Keep in mind if it’s not in the Vault, it’s NOT protected.

Two questions that came to my mind when I was first getting into this:

Can I  open my Vault using my iOS device?

No. So the way around that is to allow the stuff you post to your Drop to reside in insecure space until you get a chance to scoop it into your Vault. So let’s say there is about a day’s worth of stuff that you haven’t secured. If there is a breach, then potentially you’ve only exposed about a day’s worth of work. Better than giving them the full monty, right?

How do I interact with my Vault once it’s on the Drop.

When you launch TrueCrypt you can then open this Vault directly from your Drop. When you’ve unlocked it, the Vault will appear on your desktop a Volume icon (Speaking from the Mac point of view). Click on this Volume and your files will be there ready for you. When you’re done, Unmount the drive, and it will pop back into Dropbox. All nice and tidy.

If you are collaborating with someone and using these protected Vaults, I read somewhere that you can cause real problems for yourself if you don’t UNMOUNT your drive when you’re done. I have not experimented with this yet. Let me know if you find anything on this front.

Ok, that should cover it. Go forth with renewed confidence and be sure to practice safe sex..er…cloud. haha that too.

For further reading:

http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-041.htm

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/

http://www.randomwire.com/storing-sensitive-data-in-the-cloud

http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2011/04/how-dropbox-sacrifices-user-privacy-for.html

When I got the keyboard home, that’s when things went a little weird. The keyboard paired with the iPad without a problem. But then when I went to do the same with the laptop, it wouldn’t show up. Not a signal. I tried putting the iPad on the other side of the house. That still didn’t work. Clearly the iPad and the keyboard were still communicating, preventing the keyboard from pairing with the laptop.

The reality is that the fix is so simple. But when you Google “How to use a bluetooth keyboard with two devices” you’ll see a lot of crappy results. Even the “font of all knowledge” is only as good as its source.

So for you thrifty ones out there trying to get more for less…here is all you need to do to get 1 BT keyboard to work with 2 devices:

First of all you CANNOT have one bluetooth keyboard controlling two devices SIMULTANEOUSLY.

Think about it…

You don’t need to control your computer at the same time you’re controlling your iPad. Do you? Do you really need to have the characters you’re typing on one keyboard show up on both devices simultaneously? Who are you, Keith Emerson? So just get that notion out of your head. What you DO need is the ability to choose which device you want to interact with, and have the keyboard work with that device, without jumping through a bunch of hoops.

So what to do?

First of all, the key to this whole puzzle has to do with turning your Bluetooth on the target device on and off. If you want to use the Bluetooth keyboard on your computer, make sure the bluetooth radio is turned off on your iPad. and vice versa. I don’t just mean you’ve disconnected the Bluetooth device from your target machine. I mean you have to shut the radio down completely. This is easily done:

How to turn Bluetooth “OFF” on the iPad.

Settings—->General—-> tap Bluetooth, slide to OFF.

How to turn Bluetooth “OFF” on the Mac.

On the Menu Bar click the Bluetooth icon—>Turn Bluetooth Off

So now as long as you stick to the rules, the keyboard should play nice with both of your devices. Ahh, sweet harmony…Still…You Turn Me On.

If you’re afraid of black helicopters appearing over your house, or you KNOW which size of tin foil hat fits you best, then stop reading this post now. You’re too paranoid to own a computer… (well..maybe you’re just too smart to own one).

For the rest of you who simply want to find your iPhone when it disappears or slips behind the couch when you’re knockin’ boots with your significant other, then keep reading.

My first hang up with this was that MobileMe used to cost money. It still does. But if you just want the “Find My iPhone” service turned on, it’s FREE.  Setup is a little wacky, so let’s get started.

1. On your iphone Download the Where Is My iPhone app.

2. Once you have that downloaded and installed, then you’ll be prompted to update your MobileMe account in your email. Do this:

a. Go to Settings on your iPhone (or iPad)

b. Go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars

c. Select Add Account

d. Select MobileMe from the list

e. Enter your Apple iTunes ID and your Password. (you just used your password to download the app, right? Same one here. Now for those of you with iTunes password amnesia–you know who you are–you can’t do any of this w/out your iTunes password. So go reset it and then come back when you’re ready.

f.  Turn ON “Find My iPhone” this screen will automatically appear once Apple has verified your MobileMe credentials.

Obviously if you’ve lost your phone, then you’re not going to be able to use it for finding it. (was it really necessary for me to say that?) So. Now fire up your web browser and go to Apple’s MobileMe page. Do this:

a. Login using your iTunes credentials (the same ones we’ve been using all along)

b. Marvel as the computer map appears showing you where your phone is.

c. Note the options you have when your phone is found: Display a Message or Play a Sound. Sending a remote message is good for harassing whoever has your phone. The sound is annoying enough to be heard anywhere in a room (or from under the couch). You can also remotely LOCK the phone. This is useful when your kids won’t give up on Angry Birds. You can also WIPE the phone’s data. (same goes for the iPad).

If you have an iPad, you can follow the same instructions to add it to your list of trackable devices.

Now, if only I had the same thing for my bluetooth headset. (not to mention the keys to my truck or…alas…my brain.)

This means that you can now purchase, add and manage programs on your computer as easily as adding Apps to your iPhone or iPad.

I got the App store automatically when I downloaded the Mac OS X 10.6.6 Update last night. This morning there was an added surprise in my dock. The icon for the App store was unmistakeable. Launching the App Store brought me into an interface much like what you would expect to see on the iPhone or the iPad. (yes I had a moment of pause wondering if Angry Birds can now be played on your computer…which it can). 

To test, I found a free app, Evernote, and clicked to download that. Voila! The Evernote icon appeared in my dock. It’s little fill-up bar indicated just how much of the program was left to download. Once downloaded the program launched and was there waiting patiently for me. Very cool. I didn’t have to go find their site, download the .dmg file, run the installer, or drag a file to my Applications folder.

The App Store makes discovering,  finding, managing and updating your Mac software a lot easier. Why? Because it puts everything in one place.

And what about when your harddrive blows out or you need to move to a new machine? How many times have you been left high and dry trying to find the installer disks for a piece of software? Now with the App store, your purchases move with you. Just like with your iPhone, if you purchase the application from the store, you can download it again for free.

My early searches on the store reveal that Adobe’s products are not present. MS Office is not there either. However, you can still purchase software outside of the App Store–like we’ve always done. You are not locked into using the App Store to install software on your Mac like you are with your unjailbroken iPhones etc. Will this change in the future? I doubt it.

I can see many other benefits to this sort of management system. For one I feel like the software I download from the App store will be more secure. Aka free of viruses. How often have you wondered about installing software you download from the net onto your machine? Is this shit going to box my harddrive with an infection, you wonder? Of course, Mac people know that one of these days a real virus is going to be unleashed in the wild that will hit Macs. We will be kicked out of Eden, as it were. The new App Store is a huge step in the right direction for keeping the ecosystem as clean as possible.

Another excellent benefit is that your software updates are all handled in one place. As on the iPhone and iPad a quick visit to the App Store shows you how many of your apps need to be updated. Click on “Update All” and after a few minutes all of your software updates are downloaded and installed. Same for the new Apple App Store.

If I were a developer, I’d probably be jazzed about this. Now I just tap into the Apple distribution model to handle my transactions for me. Also through the app store the smaller developers with little to no marketing budget will have a better chance of being discovered by mainstream users. Hopefully, this will mean that Apps prices will be lower on the store than they would out on the Net.

Doesn’t Microsoft wish they had thought of this…years ago. The App Store is just another reason why OS X and iOS are the superior operating systems of today.

Actually there is a huge difference between Myst and Dragon’s Lair. Myst takes hours of complex problem solving and serious brain cells to solve. (that’s why “we” loved it. Personally I was more of a Zork guy.) Dragon’s Lair (you remember this in the arcade?) just takes quarters and copious amounts of trial and error (though it too is available on the iPhone/iPad though it’s missing something without the joystick). However what Myst (which targeted a more mature audience) taught game makers was that market for adventure games was not deep enough (even though Myst sold millions of copies it’s said that it marked the end of the genre). The real market for computer games was not Adventure, it was in shoot-em-up, immediate gratification slaughter fests.

Thankfully, it seems, the iPad is changing all that. Now we “maturing” Zork players ARE 40!! (cough cough 41) and we’re BORED to death with point and shoot and looking for something more challenging than Tetris knock offs or the infinite loops of Mahjong-like games such as Around the World in 80 Days. Today I’m finding my lost loves slowly creeping back into the Googlesphere. Yes Virginia, the iPad is the perfect platform for adventure games.

Here are some of the Adventure games I’ve found and tried:

Broken Sword HD
This is a beautiful game. I think it’s really tuned to the romantic hearts that love the idea of being a reporter in Paris tracking down a murder. The controls on this game are a little tricky. But the interaction with rooms, people and objects is a lot of fun. This feels like you’ve been dropped into a hi-production type of cartoon. The main character is a woman. Does this mean the game is geared for women? Am I a closet transvestite because I play it? Nonsense Rupaul-a-potamus–on both accounts.

TwistedLands
I wrote about this game in my 10 iPad Apps for 2010 article. For me TwistedLands strikes the perfect balance between adventure game and puzzle book. You travel through different parts of an island looking for your lost girlfriend (who was stolen from you). The illustration style in this is beautiful (except for the creepy people illustrations at the very opening of the game). The puzzles can be challenging but–not so irritating that you drop the game and attack the New York Times crossword with a pen.  I’m also a sucker for good sound effects, which this game delivers. I really, really liked playing this game. I’ve talked to others as well who have really appreciated the artistry and thoughtful balance of this game.

HECTOR: Badge of Carnage Ep1
Maybe this shows my age (although I did make a Zork comment earlier) but I can’t help be somewhat reminded of Leisure Suit Larry by this game. Hector is a adolescent-boy-humor, sex, drugs, guns, ejaculate and boogers sort of adventure storyline. If you don’t mind employing a used rubber to fish out a paper clip from a dirty toilet for the purposes of picking a lock, this is the game for you. I’d say, however, the base storyline and British humor belies the advanced difficulty level. This game is hard. (no pun intended). Holy leaps in logic on this one will leave you scratching your head(s). I could not find a help button…so yes…I Googled my way through some of the malarkey.

Myst
I know that Myst was brilliant and huge back in the day. And I succumbed to pressure when I purchased the “GOTTA HAVE It” sequel to Myst called Riven and had to endure all–what was it–8 or 9 CD’s of the game. What a pain in the ass to play. Myst I “finished”. Riven I barely unwrapped. I never fully got bit by the Myst bug. However, if you love these Cyan games, the iPad versions are true to the originals…right down to the barely audible TV-staticky book page monologues that remind me of having the flu.

Mishap
I got Mishap because I was searching for something like TwistedLands. It’s similar in that you need to locate all of the objects listed on the bottom of your screen in the room. Think of Where’s Waldo. Or if you ever used to read Highlights, they had those puzzles in the back where you had to find all the objects. Same deal here. The illustrations are high quality and fun. The scary music is a little annoying. My sense is you’ll either really get into this game, with all it’s rooms and ghost hunting, or you won’t. There is still a bunch of stuff in this game I haven’t fully explored…like the ghost finder reticle.  Of these types of games I liked TwistedLands better. I have a feeling that the female of the species might dig this game more than guys.

If you liked this article, you might also want to check out 5 iPad Games Almost as Addicting as Angry Birds.

Index Card
Index Card is a simple, yet ingenious, application that takes the old paradigm of using 3×5 index cards for ideas generation and organization, and puts it on the iPad. If you have a presentation, a short story or a novel you’re writing, start with your outline here. Move cards around in a very natural way. Color code them. Flip them over for additional notes. Sit on the couch and block out your next J-Cameron-busting climax. This is the best tool I’ve found for writers. Also presents cards in outline format…which is great for printing out your work so you can feel it dead-tree style.  Includes Dropbox integration so you can backup your work. The only other writing tool this useful is Scrivener, which isn’t yet on the iPad. (boo hoo)

Dropbox
If you haven’t heard of Dropbox by now, WTF? Dropbox creates a seamless folder on your computer, where you can open and save documents, images, music, photos, whatever you want. You can then access this folder  from any other computer or device. Files saved (and or worked on) in this folder are automatically synchronized up on the cloud. You do not need to be connected to the Internet to access your Dropbox folder. A cached version of that folder is automatically stored on your device. Once you do reconnect to the Internet, the files you’ve changed are automatically synch’d. Fantastic for collaborating with others. The Dropbox application on the iPad makes it easy to pull up work you’ve completed on other computers and vice versa. Now if I could only find a Dropbox-associable application that lets me edit .rtf files created in Notes…that’d make me down right giddy.

Flipboard
This is a beautiful application that re-imagines what your Facebook and Twitter feeds should look like. In addition, it reformats the Twitter feeds from anyone else you care to follow. There has been a lot of talk about this app and for good reason. Think of your Facebook page looking like a magazine. It almost lends more credence to the wacky shit your friends post.  Go here to view their demonstration video. Nice feature about this app is that is caches pages out so that even if you’re not in wifi range (like…say on an airplane), then you can still read which one of your friends just turned single.

Reeder
I LOVE this application. Reeder aggregates your Google Reader feeds into an interface that makes reading, bookmarking and posting your favorite articles a snap. The pinch and swipe controls give Reeder the feeling like you’re rummaging through stacks of magazines or leafing through individual pages. Good cache makes this app ideal for extended periods without Internet access. Note: You need to have a free Google Reader account set up in order to use the application.

1Password
I have been using 1Password on my Mac for years. How else do you expect we’re supposed to remember all of the passwords we’ve accumulated across the Internet? You people that use the same password for every site are out of your minds. The need to have literally hundreds of hardened passwords makes remembering 853$*24! for your Netflix access impossible (Unless you’re Temple Grandin). Accessing sites that require login and password on your iPad can be a pain. 1Password helps. It lets you login to these sites straight from within the 1Password application. This reduces fumbling with cutting and pasting. Also, 1Password automatically gives you synchronicity with your computer’s 1Password database so credentials from sites you add or update on your computer are add-updated on your iPad . This is one of those application (available in versions for computer, iPhone and iPad) that I simply couldn’t live without. Internet life without a password manager is irresponsible and the king of pain. (yes, I made a Police reference there because they were just playing on the Pandora.)

Kindle
Personally, I would purchase an Amazon Kindle in a heartbeat even though I have an iPad. Why? I’d dare not expose my iPad to the sort of environmental dangers that I would a Kindle. Thankfully Amazon realized that selling books is more important than selling Kindles. With the Kindle app installed on my iPad I’m not locked into owning a Kindle. I have full access to my Amazon library. And, book purchases are just 1-Click away.  Plus, with the app also available on your other devices, including iPhone, you’re not locked into one form factor for your reading enjoyment. The app synchs the page you’ve read to and then asks you if you want to jump to that page when you access the same book from a different device. I also love the built-in dictionary (just press and hold a word and the definition appears at the bottom.) You can also highlight words or passages and bookmark them. No longer do you need to dogear your books, besides dogears aren’t searchable. There is a social component too. Passages that others have highlighted are represented by dotted lines. You might think this intrusive–like when your used college textbooks had been hyper-highlighted by some jack wagon–however, in the Kindle app  this social component works. I find it interesting to see what others have highlighted. I also get to stroke my narcism by highlighting passages I think are generally overlooked..(for instance did you know that King Arthur was a baby killer?? But I digress). The #1 complaint from most people is that the iPad screen can’t be seen in the sun. That’s true. But then again I’m not about to take my iPad to the beach.

Netflix
I know that Reed Hastings from Netflix says the iPad has made little difference to how people access Netflix, so maybe I’m the only one that likes to watch movies this way. Streaming Netflix movies on the iPad is fantastic. How else are you going to be able to curl up in bed to veg with Battlestar Galactica or StarTrek…or the thousands of other on-demand movies that stream directly to the iPad–try doing that with your 42″ flatscreen cowboy! Smooth HQ playback and audio makes TV shows and movie viewing on the iPad quite enjoyable. Prop the thing up on the night stand or against the bedspread. Makes getting the flu–or recovering from a Patron-filled New Years Eve party–cough cough–not such a bad thing.

PressReader
If you want the newspaper experience without getting ink all over your hands, PressReader is the application for you. Literally thousands of news papers from around the world are at your fingertips. When I was in London I was able to download the Sunday edition of the Arizona Repulsive. Now THAT’s cool. I’m of the generation that doesn’t read newspapers. Like comic books, I never got into them. But through PressReader I’m now consuming newspapers regularly and digging it.

InstaPaper
InstaPaper is one of those simple apps that can be confusing until you try it. Basically when you’re on your computer you can click a button on your browser to “save” the webpage you’re reading. The text is saved in your Instapaper account. Then when you’re on your iPad you can open the Instapaper app and you’ll find that same article cleaned up and ready for you to read.  Great for off-line reading too.

TwistedLands
I’ve gotten re-hooked on adventure games since the iPad came out. TwistedLands does not disappoint. Hours of fun. Gameplay challenges by pushing the player through a wide variety of puzzles. Find objects, solve brain teasers, save the girl. The “locate the objects” puzzles are beautifully illustrated.  Likewise the Help (give me a freekin clue here) button is perfectly placed and clues (arrows) tell you where to go, but not what to do, which I like very much. Some of these adventure games can require huge illogical leaps of logic (cough–cough–Hector Episode 1 I’m supposed to tazer the sex offender so I can jump start my car battery? Really?) but I found TwistedLands to be smootly logical. My next article coming up will compare 5 of the top games in this Adventure genre.

Is iPad really supposed to be stand alone? The answer to that question is NO. Apple never designed this thing to be an island…it’s supposed to  be a component of your “digital lifestyle” but to get the most out of it, the iPad needs to “phone home” every so often. Yes, you can get the iPad activated at the Apple Store and go on your merry way. But there are many, many reasons why the iPad needs to connect to your computer and iTunes–here are just 5.

1. Backup
Those of you familiar with iPhone (unless you’re the type that doesn’t plug in your iphone either) will know that every time you plug your phone into your computer iTunes makes a backup of it. Same goes for the iPad. This backup is super handy if and when something catastrophic happens to your ipad, or you simply need to restore it. Backing up saves all of your configurations, email, notes, applications, browser history. It’s basically a snap shot of your iPad at the moment you connect to your computer.

2. Restoring
Obviously, backup is only 1/2 the equation. If you’ve NEVER plugged your iPad into your computer, then you have NO backup from which to restore. That means if you do have a problem or need to buy a new iPad, none of your apps, settings, notes, calendars or email will have been stored anywhere, so you’ll have just a blank iPad. In addition you’ll have to re-download and install ALL of your apps–one at a time. If you have a lot of apps, then this alone could take you hours. Not to mention still having to go back into iTunes to re-download all your purchased apps. You can avoid all this fun just my taking a few minutes to plug in.

3. Rearranging icons
Over time your iPad is going to accumulate a wide assortment of apps. Until we get iOS4 we won’t have folders. For now your icons are spread out across multiple pages. While it’s true you can move icons around on the iPad you’ll find that moving them around inside the iTunes application on your computer is MUCH easier. Have you tried dragging an icon from one page to another? It’s not that easy on the iPad. Connecting to iTunes gives you greater control and speeds up the process of icon organization. (of course if you’re looking to stave off alzheimer’s, then maybe an app placement randomizer is a good idea?)

4. Adding and Deleting Photos
So far I have not found a way to delete a photo directly from my iPad. In fact according to this post, you can’t–easily. As of this post date you have to use iTunes to manage (aka delete) your photos on the iPad. This means you have to PLUG IN! That’s right Jerky. Photos on the iPad are totally worth it too. The screen size makes the iPad the perfect way to share your latest trip with your friends. There are ways to get photos onto the iPad without a computer. One of my favorites is called Bump. When you’re on the road you can “bump” a photo over. Better still, you can get Apple’s $29 Camera Connection Kit that lets you download images straight from a SD card onto your iPad. But still, no way to delete the image once it’s on–without plugging the iPad into your computer.

5. Software Updates
iOS4 is soon to be released and with it comes host of features long enjoyed by iPhone 4 (and 3Gs users). Even if the above reasons 1 thru 4 don’t spring your ass off the couch to plug your iPad into a copy of iTunes on your computer, THIS reason should. Regular software updates to your iPad and iPhone are GOOD for your devices. They fix bugs, improve speed and wifi/bluetooth performance and improve the overall iOS experience. (Your iPad and iPhone are now considered IOS devices, btw). Once again, your iPad needs to dock with the mother ship every so often. Let it.

Look, you’ve made the leap to get your hands on a revolutionary device. But it’s not a static experience. The more you feed the iPad the more you get out of it. Keeping the iPad from connecting to a computer is like not letting ET get back on his ship–and we all know what almost happened to that poor little guy.

A friend called me today and said that his girlfriend’s Macbook monitor was displaying only in black and white. Honestly, I thought he was just screwing with me. But it turned out to be a real issue.

System Preferences (click to enlarge)

So, if you happen to be on a Mac laptop, and the screen is showing up B&W, it’s possible that you’re either the victim of a joker, or maybe you’ve accidentally turned on the “use grayscale” feature designed for those with disabilities.

Here is the fix:

Open System Preferences —-> Universal Access —->

You’ll see big words for Display:  To the right of that you should see a check box next to “Use grayscale,” uncheck that box.  Voila! You have color.

Universal Access (click to enlarge)

If you don’t have color at this point, then get thee to a Genius. If you feel like this is a good April Fools joke for someone, then you might make sure those running shoes are on your feet.

Virtualization software allows you to run Windows (or just about any other operating system) on your Mac. With virtualization you can boot into Windows while you’re still running your Mac software. Unlike Bootcamp where you have to choose either Windows or Mac os when you boot, virtualization lets you run both operating systems simultaneously. It’s amazing. The two top packages available for consumers are Parallels 5 and VMware Fusion 3.1. In this article you’ll read what my experience was with both packages and why VMware stands out, for me, as the better of the two.

Let’s talk first about why I need virtulaization software running on my Mac. Two Words: Sony Vegas. Sony Vegas is a video editing program that kicks ass over iMovie and iMovie HD. It’s also a fraction of the cost of Final Cut and Adobe Premier. If you want super flexibility and a pro-sumer level of control over your video clips and titling, get yourself into Sony Vegas. But if you’re a Mac user, you’ll also need to make sure you can run WinXp. So where does that leave us?

All last year I was using VMWare. I produced about 6 videos a month for various customers. Some examples can be seen here:

Hunting the Next Big Franchise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWTEhyx4el4
Touchup Guys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18VZ9Avaioo

But then when I got a hold of Parallels I figured I would try it out to see if there was a speed difference. When you look at their website, listen to their marketing, or talk to other people, the common statement about Parallels is that it’s faster than VMware.

Once I got it installed, I immediately noticed that Parallels approaches virtualization very differently than VMware. What Parallels wants to give you is a seamless workflow between your Windows and Mac environment. This includes adding a folder on your dock where you can access your Windows programs, even if Parallels isn’t running.  At first this confused the hell out of me. Maybe I’m slow, but when I’m seeing WinXP  Start button on my dock, It makes my brain warble. After a couple of days I got used to this way of thinking. Then I began to like it. It unified my hard drive for the Windows and Mac sides of my machine. Of course you can change your settings to give the two sides of your machine more separation. When you want it unified, Parallels calls it Coherence mode. VMware handles it differently.

With VMware you get more separation between your Mac and Pc. This split personality is further supported by the fact that you have a C drive partition for your Windows machine. (Parallels does not set up a partition…at least not in the default installation I performed). Any other drives (files and folders) you want access to through VMware will need to be “shared” through settings.

When I tried to switch out of Coherence mode in Parallels I noticed a weird screen flicker. This was my first red flag about Parallels.

Another big reason that I wanted to switch to Parallels was because it was supposed to be better about RAM consumption. And it was. Booting Parallels was faster than VMware. Once it was up and running I still had some of my ram left.

Still having some RAM resources after Windows was launched was a big deal. When VMware launched, my machine would grind to a halt . As VMware went through its boot up process, every other process on my machine froze. This was aggravating as hell.

My world consists of running multiple programs on my machine at once. When one is booting I’m in something else…just keeping the ball rolling. But to have to wait for 1 or 2 minutes for something to boot, then get settled, then release my machine back to me makes me grumpy. With Parallels, you are up and running and your machine keeps humming along.

So what’s the problem with Parallels? I can sum up the answer to that question in 4 words. Mind you, these are the most terrifying words known to a Windows computer user. You might want to get the children out of the room for this: Blue Screen Of Death.

Here is where VMware stands apart:

Blue Screen of Death score

VMware: 0

Parallels: 3

Over an entire year of heavy WinXP use through VMware not once did I get a blue screen of death. In six months of Parallels use, I got 3 and now my Sony Vegas won’t render out to .MOV. Parallels is basically dead on my machine after the 3rd and final BSOD. Luckily I had left  VMware installed so, under deadline yesterday, I dusted it off and got back to work through VMware. Sorry Parallels.

Conclusion

Parallels is like  a wild stallion that’s ready to drag you full tilt out of the gate, anywhere you want to go. Its lithe, squirly and chomping at the bit to race. But sometimes it trips. If you’ve even been on a horse that stumbles into a gofer hole at a full gallop, I don’t recommend it. It sucks.  Like an overly spiritied thoroughbred that can’t wait to get out of the gate at the Preakness, Paralles races off with or without you .

VMware, on the other hand, is more stable than Parallels. Yes, your machine is going to take it in the shorts when you’re booting Windows through VMware, but just give  it a moment to catch up. Close your Firefox or Safari during boot just to give VM a little more RAM. But let it do its thing. Because once VMware is up and running, you’re going to have a stable, well behaved Windows experience on your mac. Had it not been for the blue screens of death, I probably would have put up with the quirks that Parallels brings with it. But having spent months away from VMware, and then returning to it, I found its stability and organization a welcome relief. Sometimes getting the job done is more about finding Clydesdale than a thoroughbred.