iWork Pages for the iPad: Good for Casual Writing but Lacks a Few Essential Features

During the iPad announcement , Apple stressed the face that the iPad was not just a fancy media player and web-browsing machine by highlighting the fact that it was porting its iWork office suite to the new tablet. After using Pages - the word processor in the iWork suite - for a while (and writing most of this review with it), it's clear that the iPad has the potential to be a good productivity machine for writers, but Pages on the iPad still falls short in a number of key areas. Sponsor Features Without a doubt, Pages for the iPad is one of the prettiest word processors we have ever used. The tabs and taskbar are clad in a faux leather look and just like its cousins on the desktop, the app puts a lot of emphasis on using images in your texts and making text flow nicely around them. Almost every feature you would expect from a mobile word-processor is available - including a few you wouldn't expect on a mobile device: you can enter tables, charts and shapes anywhere in the text; there are tabs, line breaks and page breaks, a distraction free fullscreen mode for reading (but not editing), as well as the options to change line spacing, create different styles of lists and choose from about 40 different fonts. You can also easily create multi-column layouts. Of course, there is also a spellchecker (just tab on an underlines word and he correct spelling will pop up). Sadly, though, you can't add new words to the dictionary. Problems: Import/Export Falls Short; A Few Missing Features Sadly, though, Pages does fall short in a number of aspects. While you can easily import and export documents (Pages and Word) by email or through iTunes , complex documents don't always survive this move intact. Footnotes and endnotes, for example, are simply deleted, making Pages for the iPad almost useless for a lot of students and academics. Tables of content simply become part of the text, which means that they don't auto-update any more. This would be annoying while editing the text on the iPad, but turns into a nightmare if you want to pass any document that's more complex than a straightforward letter or essay back and forth between the iPad and your desktop. Pages on the iPad also doesn't offer a word count, something most professional writers can't live without. Looking for more news about the iPad? For more of our coverage of the iPad launch, click here . Verdict Assuming you can handle the virtual keyboard - something that takes a bit of practice - or that you use a wireless keyboard, Pages can be a great tool for writing straightforward texts. While it offers great features for handling images, it would've been nice if Apple had paid a little bit more attention to the actual text editor. Discuss

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iWork Pages for the iPad: Good for Casual Writing but Lacks a Few Essential Features

Tags:apple, desktop, dictionary, during-the-ipad, export-falls, iPad, letter-or-essay, Pages, review, virtual

iPad Mags: Amazing or Confusing?

One of the iPad's biggest selling points is its potential as an e-Reader. The included iBooks application and the optional downloadable Amazon Kindle app, for example, provide hundreds of thousands of books to read, all in a relatively standard format: swipe horizontally to flip a page . iPad magazines, however, are trying to be far more creative. As we've mentioned before , the new magazine-style applications include everything from video to music within their pages, plus interactive features and clickable ads. But one problem with these innovative new 'zines is that they each do their own thing, in their own way. While this early adopter applauds the innovations we're seeing on the iPad platform, the mainstream user may find the variations confusing. Sponsor Mini-Movies and More First up: the heavily praised interactive VIV mag , a standout among online newstand Zinio's offerings. Early demos were decidedly exciting. This wasn't text - it was a multimedia experience ! The article featured in the demo video , a sex-ed advice guide, used actors against a green screen to produce a mini-movie illustrating the article's main points. Worried about AIDS? A women writhes against a bull's-eye as knives fly at her. Afraid of pregnancy? A women casts a worried glance at the man entering the room while pressing her hand to her stomach. In practice, however, this format is not as much fun as expected. The cover features clickable links, one that reads "Enter Issue" and another that says "Click to VIVIFY this cover!" Sorry - what? Now I know that they mean "launch interactive content" but mainstream Dicks and Janes may not. And the iPad, if anything, is targeting these so-called "everyday" users - the content consumers whose tech-savviness is a bit lacking, if I may say so kindly. But if you don't "vivify" the mag, you miss the movies - the main attraction. (There is a "Vivify" button at the bottom of each page, too, in case you didn't see it the first time around, but the text next to it says "Tap on the 'V' to read more." Read? How about "watch" or "see?") Another problem with VIV? I'm not sure if it was an app glitch or an iPad one, but the first movie got stuck "downloading" at 16%. Future, here I come? Next is TIME magazine . A gushing editor's letter talks about the publication's embracing the new slate-computer platform of the iPad. But how they've done so is already attracting some criticism . One of the problems is that TIME decided to go with vertical swipes for reading articles but horizontal swipes for navigating from one article to the next. This is not intuitive. On an eReader, whether book or magazine, we expect to read left to right. Vertical only works on the desktop-based web. Condé Nast's GQ magazine is another specialized iPad creation I examined. It doesn't start off well: upon launch, a progress bar displays how much of the magazine has download so far. Will the mainstream user know that you don't have to wait for the download to complete before you tap "read issue?" I'm so not sure. They've also chosen to go with vertical navigation for reading articles and horizontal navigation for scrolling between sections. Meanwhile, Car & Driver's "iPad Interactive Edition" returns you to plain ol' horizontal flipping. In fact, the magazine looks so much like a color PDF that we almost missed the interactive features. Obviously, two white squares overlaid on an image surely means "launch photo gallery," right? One app that gets it right is NPR ....although that's probably because it's not really trying to be a magazine, despite the company's claims that it uses a "magazine-style presentation." While it's true that you can flip from page to page, horizontally of course, the app is more than a mere digitized mag. There's an audio player, playlist creator, program and station finder and more. The news items with an audio track feature buttons for listening and adding to your playlist. Straight text-based items do not. Simple and easy, and overall, well-done. At the end of the day, these magazines are still more fun than their analog counterparts, but, clearly, they're all in very experimental stages right now. The navigation and interactive features differ from magazine app to magazine app, with some getting it better than others. Will they eventually standardize their presentation in an effort to simplify their features? Should they? It's too early to tell what format readers will prefer: mini-movies, some interactive bits sprinkled throughout or straight-laced e-reading. In the meantime, it will be interesting to try out all the variations. Discuss

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iPad Mags: Amazing or Confusing?

Tags:aids, amazon, amazon kindle, app, apple, article, clickable ads, desktop, driver, interactive, iPad, magazine, mainstream user, movies, pdf, presentation, Read, time, variations, VIV

Opera’s Widgets Become Mobile Apps

Opera Software, developers of web browser technology for PC, Mac, Linux and mobile, have just announced that their Opera "widgets" will now work on nearly any mobile phone. The widgets in question are small mini-applications that can run in Opera's web browser itself, on the desktop as standalone apps and now, as standalone apps on mobile phones, too. Built with standards like HTML, CSS and JavaScript, the widgets are easy for web developers to create since they don't require knowing a vendor-specific technology in order to do so. Sponsor According to the company's announcement, the new widgets take advantage of Opera's recently launched cross-platform UI framework, a framework that's intended to "help operators and manufacturers efficiently distribute a single browser UI across a wide range of devices." That change to browser distribution technology now applies to the Opera Widgets too. Already, there are hundreds of widgets available in Opera's online gallery , including everything from games to media players plus widgets for accessing Facebook, Twitter and more.

Tags:browser, Business, css, desktop, distribution technology, facebook, iphone, likely-intended, Linux, MAC, mobile, Opera, opera software, web, web browser technology, widgets, words

The Virtualization Wars: Microsoft and Citrix v. VMware

Watch this battle unfold. The virtualization wars are just getting started. On one side we have Microsoft, which announced changes in its licensing structures this week. The change reflects an understanding that the customer wants full access to its virtualization platform and not be charged a tax for that right to access it on a PC, no matter if it is at work or in their home. And in true fashion, Microsoft is on the attack, Citrix at its side, in a full on fight with VMware for the virtualization market. Sponsor On the VMware side, we see a company ready to move into Microsoft's customer base by offering more than virtualization as witnessed with its recent acquisition of Zimbra. VMWare is gearing up to tap into the Microsoft Exchange market by combining its virtualization technology with the Zimbra email platform. Microsoft Offers Some Flexibility Historically, Microsoft has charged for separate licenses to access Windows operating systems in a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment. Until now, there would be separate licensing fees for people to access their virtual desktops from secondary devices like home personal computers. The licensing issue in all of this gets complicated pretty fast. According to Simon Bramfitt: "Right from the start Microsoft showed that it had been listening to its customers' feedback. As of July 1st Microsoft is rolling Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) into the Windows Software Assurance (Windows SA) program. This means that anyone with Software Assurance can deploy desktops locally or in the data center at no additional cost. At the same time Microsoft is extending the remote access rights so that remote isn't tethered to a single PC in the primary users' home. This awareness of the fact that users want flexibility around when and where they work is the key element that has been missing from Microsoft's virtualization strategy since day one. If this wasn't enough, Microsoft is introducing a new desktop virtualization license called Windows Virtual Desktop Access (Windows VDA) costing $100 per year per device and aimed at organizations who are using endpoints that do not have a Windows SA license - Contractors PCs, devices that are do not run Windows (e.g., thin-clients, smart phones and Apple Macs) and yes, PCs with OEM licenses. Hang-on, isn't that just the same as the old non-SA VECD license? More or less, yes; it's certainly cheaper, although at $100 per year not by much. What's more important is that Windows VDA is now a first-class citizen in the Microsoft licensing hierarchy with all the benefits of Software Assurance (e.g., 24x7 support, upgrade/downgrade rights), and as a desktop virtualization license it gets the same extended roaming rights offered to the a full member of the SA club." VMWare, in smart retort, praises Microsoft for the move and bowing to "intense customer pressure." Raj Mallempati , director, product marketing, calls it an opening for VMWare View. You know it's competitive when you see this kind of rhetoric: By loosening up the restrictive desktop virtualization license policy (VECD), Microsoft has finally bowed to intensive customer pressure. This validates the acceleration in demand in the desktop virtualization industry that VMware helped start and continues to lead. Microsoft's move here is extremely positive for the industry. But what is Citrix part in all of this? At the beginning of the year, VMWare offered the opportunity to exchange Citrix XenApp licenses for VMWare View. In response, Microsoft and Citrix announced a partnership this week aimed right at VMWare with some pretty attractive licensing deals. The promotion intends to undercut VMWare by reaching into its customer base with offers to trade in as many as 500 licenses in exchange for a Microsoft integration offered with Citrix. To kick it off, the two companies plan a 100-city tour. But what this really represents is Microsoft providing some flexibility in its virtualization licensing agreements. That move alone will help open up the market. And VMWare? The company has 80 percent of the virtualization market. Any move on its customer base should be expected. VMware's vision for Zimbra is another matter. That's a battle it is taking right back to Microsoft - square on its home turf. Discuss

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The Virtualization Wars: Microsoft and Citrix v. VMware

Tags:apple, Apple Macs, citrix, customer, data, desktop, desktop infrastructure, Hang, Microsoft, Read, Simon Bramfitt, true fashion, virtual desktops, virtualization, VMware, windows, windows-virtual

New Mozilla Labs Project Wants to Give You Total Control Over Your Address Book

Currently, your contacts live in address books that are distributed all over the Internet and your desktop. Because of this, chances are that you have numerous address books on the web that are often "inconsistent and disjointed." Contacts , a new Mozilla Labs project, wants to put an end to this. The Contacts addon creates a local database for all your email and Twitter contacts that can then be used by your browser and any website that supports Contacts' API. Sponsor Thanks to this, you can now import all your Gmail contacts to the local database and use this contact info to autocomplete forms anywhere on the web. You can also import data about your Twitter friends and if you are on a Mac, you can import your local address book as well. Contacts will also import avatars from Gravatar whenever they are available. Lots of Ambition Beyond Autocompletion This email autocompletion feature is really just a first step for Mozilla, though. The real mission of this tool is to give users more control over their own data - a mission that is also very much in sync with what Mozilla considers its own mission to be these days. When you import your contacts database on most websites today to check if your friends are already online or to invite them to the service, you have to trust this service that it will keep this data private. Once more sites implement Contacts directly into their services, however, you will be able to control exactly what data a third-party site can access and retain control over this data. The current version of Contacts consists of four pieces: a browser-based database that syncs with your address books. Contacts uses the Portable Contacts format to represent this data in the database. a generic importer system that allows developers to create importers for desktop and web-based address books an email autocompletion feature a Javascript API that third-party sites can use to access all of your data (with explicit permission and the ability to filter the data) Give it a Try After installing the addon, you can test both the autocomplete and the tool's export features here . Discuss

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New Mozilla Labs Project Wants to Give You Total Control Over Your Address Book

Tags:ambition-beyond, api, autocomplete, browser, browsers, data, database, desktop, filter-the-data, friends, internet, tool, Twitter