A life more ordinary.

This is the first thing typed on the new iPad. I have to say that the onscreen keyboard is much easier to use than I thought it would be, and it is possible to type as quickly as with a normal keyboard almost immediately.

I’ve also downloaded Dragon Dictation, and if the first few attempts to use it on the iPhone are anything to go by it should make document creation on the iPad a doddle.

First impressions of the iPad generally?  Smaller than I expected, and much heavier. I knew it weighed 1.5 lbs before I picked it up, but the reality of it in your hands is deceiving.  It looks so delicate, but it seems to be built like a tank.

As an iPhone/iPod Touch user of two years, the user interface is utterly familiar and welcoming. Apple has done a great job of scaling the OS interface up to the new resolution, though why they chose the sparse icon layout is beyond me.

Haven’t had much chance to try many of the applications yet, but what I have tried works pretty well. The first minor disappointment is that I’ve yet to track down an iPad version of Facebook and the iPhone version looks lost in the middle of the screen. The ‘2x’ feature demo’d by Jobs at the launch is a stopgap at best, and makes iPhone apps look clunky.  The second is wiggy the WordPress app that I’m using to write this. Cutting and pasting doesn’t work, and there is no way to detach pictures that are added to a post.

Despite these teething troubles, overall the experience is better than expected – especially the typing.  The iPad definitely does not feel like a “big iPhone” and the experience is much more akin to a Mac with a different UI. I like it. A lot.

More news in a little while.

I’ve been struggling for the last 18 months trying to get Time Machine to work with disks attached to my Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS).  Things would work once or twice then stop.  Disks would disappear and reappear.  Arrg!  At this point I should say that external disks on AEBS are not officially supported as targets for Time Machine, so the fact that it doesn’t work is not surprising but very frustrating.

The Apple Time Capsule is supported, but as I have a 4TB Drobo disk array and a new dual-band AEBS I don’t see the point of going out and spending $299 and up for yet another device.  Despite many attempts at different fixes nothing would work.  Ultimately I gave up.

Then a couple of days ago whilst troubleshooting another problem I came across a post in a forum that suggested enabling an option called ‘Use Interference Robustness’.  On the AEBS, choose “manual setup, the Airport pane, Wireless tab, ‘Wireless Options’.

This innocuous little check box seems to have worked miracles.  Since I turned the option on I haven’t noticed any speed degradation on the network, and Time Machine has been working flawlessly!  I’m now three days into the new setup and monitoring it closely.  The big test is going to be a restore (backups are useless if they won’t restore).  Keep watching this space for an update.