iPad Mini Notes & Thoughts.

I’m probably not going to write a proper review of the iPad mini as there are plenty of reviews out there already. Instead I’m going to share some of my notes from day to day usage.

Long battery & Quick charging

Charging the iPad 3 is really slow. It has a massive battery to power the retina screen and that battery take 9 or more hours to charge. I could only charge it over night, a 10 minute “top up“ charge would be pointless.

However the iPad mini charges like a phone, if its low on power (sub 20%) then a 10 minute top up will make a noticeable difference to charge.

The iPad mini also charges from low power USB sockets like the one on my MacBook Air, so thats one less
charger i need to pack when i travel.

VoiceOver performance

VoiceOver on the iPad mini feels a little laggy compared to the iPhone 5. It feels about the same as the iPad 3. I find the text on the web rotor to be a little small but it works. It’s taken me a while to get the ‘turning’ motion right. The smaller screen seems more sensitive to finger placement.

I have recently started expeirmenting with using voiceover with a bluetooth keyboard on the iPad. This has been pretty interesting. It works but its clunky and sometimes very slow.

Portability

As my newest toy I have carried the iPad into work with me every day. In work I mostly use it for checking email, paying media and running the panic status board application.

To be entirely honest, I still mostly use my iPhone while in work. The iPad duplicates what I have been using my iPhone for. If I had to choose between them the iPhone would be an easy winner.

My biggest issue in work is that I don’t have a decent iPad mini stand yet, I’m going to make one from lego. That will make having it as a dashboard more appealing.

(Update: I have now got a fetching pink Apple Smart Cover. Will see how well it functions in work over the next week or so!).

(Update 2: The smart case works very well as a dashboard, three weeks later and i am still using it as such.)

I feel comfortable tossing the iPad mini into my rucksach as its much cheaper and lighter than the iPad 3. It sits nicely between the Lion’s paws where it is protected ‘enough’.

Untill now i have carried a MacBook Air or an iPad. With the iPad mini i can carry both without my bag getting to heavy.

Storage space.

My last two iPads had 64gb of storage. However I wasted the storage most of the time. I filled them up with content I never used. For this iPad I went for the base 16gb model.

It has been somewhat limiting but I am getting use to living within the budget I have. Primarily, the big space eater has been video. I have trimmed back my collection to a couple of favourite movies and tv shows.

My media collection consists of 1080p and 720p videos. On the iPad mini these files are very wasteful. I’m experimenting with difference quality down converts to squeeze more vidoes into the space i have out of the space availabilble. I have found the iPhone preset in handbrake is a nice balence between file size and quality.

This does annoy me slightly. I would vastly prefer to only have one version of each video file, but it seems the only way to work around the space limitation. I will see how it feels after a few weeks.

Perhaps in the future it may get fast enough to use QuickSync to convert vidoes on the fly when syncing them to the iPad.

Games & Books

I never really gamed on the iPad 3. It was big and heavy and the interface always felt like a stretch. However, I have more than a dozen games on the iPad mini and they all perform superbly.

My favourite so far has been lego Star Wars chronicals. I have also enoyed some of the interactive story books and film tie ins such as Iron Man 3 and Toy Story.

Retina screen

I’m still in two minds about the non retina screen. Sometimes I miss the clarity, for example when reading small text I can’t resize. However more often than not I don’t really notice any pixelation anyway.

When i am writing on the iPad (either on my desk or in bed) the screen appears sharp and clear. It’s a noticable better screen than the one in the 11” MacBook Air.

Writing

Using most CMS systems on the iPad mini is a fiddly frustrating pain in the arse. Neither textpattern nor perch seem all that usable for editing content. I have worked around it a little by increasing the font side in my textpattern admin theme but reality it’s just a sticky plaster.

My current workflow is to write in byword and then copy into textpattern once editing is complete. I really should put some time and effort into the Dropbox based text publisher I was working on.

I have written quite a lot on the iPad, I have found a few comfortable positions so far. For example, on a desk slightly raised and sat with bent legs on my bed. I can also type pretty will with just my thumbs without resting the iPad on anything.

It’s not as good as the keyboard on the MacBook Air, but it’s better than the iPhone and full size iPad.

I’m writing this article using a bluetooth keyboard and it works well enough.

Value

The discussion of value on the iPad mini is difficult. The base mini I have cost me £269. That’s not cheap. However, I paid almost double that for my last two iPads (64gb wifi).

The iPad costs more upfront than a comparable android tablet like the Nexus 7. However iPads seem to hold thier value pretty well. I assume when I come too sell this iPad on, I will get back around half of my investment. Whereas the resale value of android devices seems to be pennies on the pound.

Beside the cash value there is also the ecosystem factor.

This is my third iPad, I’m invested in the ecosystem in terms of DRM’d content, iPad only apps and tooling like iTunes. For me Android does not offer a compelling reason to ditch my current investment.

Happy?

I have returned more Apple products than I have kept over the last 12 months, much to the amusement of my partner. However, I think the iPad mini is a keeper. It’s not perfect but it’s (relatively) cheap and useful.

The true test will be long term usage. If i am still using it in 3 months time, then its winner.

Published: 6 June 2013 | Categories: Technology , Apple Permalink

Retina MBP, low res and loving it.

I often struggle with reading onscreen text. For a few years now I have relied heavily on OS X inbuilt screen zooming and making everything bigger using HiDPI so that I can read comfortably.

Recently my work machine was replaced with a 15“ retina MacBook Pro, I may write a review for it as a whole in the future, but today I want to talk about my experiences using the retina screen as a tool to enhance my reading ability.

An upside of the retina screen is that it does not need to be run at the native resolution to look awesome. You can run the screen down at 1024 × 960 and it still looks about as sharp as a non retina display. Effectively, you can zoom the entire screen, without suffering from terrible text.

I have been using the rMBP in this mode for a few days, switching to other modes as required.

OS X at 1024 × 960

When you switch OS X to use a resolution of 1024 or less it pops up a warning that OS X may not work so well. However, so far it’s working fine.

I have not had any issues with my normal software * , some software occasionally places a button off screen, for example, the iTunes preferences screen will sometimes place the save button below the screen fold.

When this happens I have been using VoiceOver to find and click the button. Annoying, but not a total killer.

Other benefits.

Working at this low workspace size, has other upsides. Part of why I like using such a low resoltion is that it keeps all the various crap and distractions out of the way. For me, every line of text represents some sort of cognative load, so removing it and pushing focus to what I to want reduces my eye stress and makes me feel more effcient.

This distraction free enviroment is what appeals to be about working solely in the terminal and Vim. However, I have not found a command line only workflow which works for me yet.

Wait, there’s more.

If you want to give this a try and dont have a retina screen to hand. I have some good news. With a modern Mac with HiDPI support you can use this technique on any machine as long as the display is 1920 × 1200 or greater. If you enter the following terminal command:

sudo defaults write
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver
DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool YES;

Then restart, you should see HiDPI settings appear in the display preferences screen. (more info in The Cocoa Manifest article)

Whats more, those HiDPI scalings are factors of 2, so everything will be lovely and sharp.

Wrap up.

I was excited about the retina MacBook Pro. Its replacing my need for an external display and giving new options to reduce my etestrain.

Notes

The following works: Coda 2, Virtual box, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Cornerstone

Published: 31 May 2013 | Categories: Opinion , Apple Permalink

iPad mini - First Impressions

I started my new job this weekend and i picked up an iPad mini as a little present to myself.

This article contains my first impressions after a few hours of use. I’m curious with how it compares to the iPad 3 and the iPhone 5.

Size & Weight

I’m a big fan of the iPad mini’s design. Its simple and elegant, thin and light. In use it feels lighter than the iPhone 5.

The light weight means it’s more comfortable to hold over long periods. Unlike the iPad 3, I can easilly sit holding the iPad mini in one hand.

It works really well for reading in bed!

Screen

At launched much was written about the iPad minis lack of a retina screen. And it’s true. The non retina display is kinda jarring.

However after an hour or so I have adapted. I’m sure (like with my 11” Air) I’m going to be keen to upgrade when the retina model lands but this screen works fine.

With my glasses on and the iPad on my lap, I cannot make out any pixels. When reading the web i’m using tap to zoom to bring the font size up then hold it further from my face. This has proved to be comfortable to read.

Typing

I vastly prefer the typing experience on the iPad mini. The full iPad is a little to large for me to type on with my thumbs. This mini works much better, I found myself instantly picking up the layout. I have not tested it back to back but right now I feel quicker typing on the mini than the full size iPad

One things which has got me thrown is the ratio of the keyboard to status bar, on the iPad mini the status bar feels really skinny. I have gotten use to it now, but at first it felt really inelegant.

Performance

Performance is my biggest disappointed so far. The iPad mini feels slow and clunky compared to an iPhone 5.

Routine operation on the iPad mini has a slight lag, it’s not huge but it is noticeable. This has manifest most in safari mobile. Even on a fast connection the iPad mini shows a noticable rendering delay.

On complex pages I can see tiles being rendered as I scroll and its easy to over scroll and need to wait for the page to catch up. It’s much like scrolling on the iPhone 3G.

This does surprise me, the same CPU in the iPad 3 and iPhone 4S seems capable but here it seems easy to overload. Further to this I frequently see web pages reloading after I swap apps. On my iPhone I have becomes accustomed to being able to leave tabs open. But on the iPad mini tabs seems to be reloaded every time I switch apps.

Value for money

Performance commentary aside, I’m pretty impressed with this little box of tricks.

I brought the base model with a view to a quick upgrade next year. At less than half the cost of my last iPad its a relative bargain. Arguably, it’s a less capable device, but overal i prefer the smaller form factor and lower price.

Obstensively the iPad mini is using “old tech”, however it is very usable. I feel the iPad mini provides good value when you take into account the content and app ecosystem.

Finally

So in short. The design is elegant, the screen is workable, the performance acceptable, but it’s price is perfect.

Published: 11 May 2013 | Categories: Reviews , iOS Permalink