Kalamazoo: the tech review
May. 17th, 2012 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjJust to clean up a few loose ends, here is a review of various techie aspects of this year's Kalamazoo experience.
The iPad Keyboard
I decided to try doing my live-blogging by iPad this year, in part to test its performance, in part because doing it on the laptop means risking running out of battery if I can't angle for a seat near an outlet (and when I can, it sometimes means creating a tripping hazard). The battery is good for a couple of sessions without recharging, but not for an entire day's worth. But while I'm happy using the screen keyboard on my commute (in fact, I prefer it, given that I regularly have to work standing up on the evening return), I knew I was unlikely to keep up with the necessary typing speed for note-taking unless I had an actual keyboard. So I went down to Fry's (yet another plus for living in Concord -- a local Fry's) and benefitted from their new policy of "salespeople get commissions for successful sales" which meant I not only got help in comparing keyboard cases, but I got enthusiastic help. I needed a combo keyboard-case that would hold a relatively rigid shape when balanced on a lap. So several candidates were immediately rejected because they needed to sit on a hard flat surface to support the screen properly. I ended up with a Kensington "KeyFolio" Bluetooth keyboard/folio case.
It worked very well for the job in question. I did have to get used to the precise limit of the angle of my lap at which the weight of the iPad would tip the whole thing forward (or, more usually, would overcome the velcro fastening of the lower edge of the pad-holder part to the keyboard part, letting the pad flop back away from me). Once the keyboard has been synced to the pad, it pairs up quickly and easily when turned on. The entire keyboard section of the case can be folded back behind the pad if you find yourself wanting to work one-handed without the keyboard. (You need to have the keyboard turned off in this mode, since the supporting hand will be pressing against the keys.) The case allows for use of both the front and back cameras and all controls are accessible. I quickly got used to using a combination of both keystrokes and gestures (e.g., while the keyboard has cursor keys, jumping to a new position in the text is still done much easier by tapping the screen). When the keyboard is on and paired, tapping the screen no longer brings up the screen-keyboard, so you get full-screen display at all times. The Kensington has excellent keyboard-feel: positive "click" action and home-spot bumps on the f & j keys as usual. While considerably smaller than a regular desktop keyboard, it's only minimally smaller than the keyboard on my MacBook, so that wasn't a problem for me.
As I note, I would use the keyboard in certain specific circumstances, not universally, but it functions very well in those circumstances. If you want to be able to keyboard in both landscape and portrait modes, then you'll need a different model. I suspect a portrait orientation wouldn't balance well on my lap, so the fact that mine won't rotate doesn't matter much. Overall: very successful at the job I bought it for.
iPad vs. Laptop as a Travel Device
I realized, at some point late in the conference, that I almost could have made it through the entire event without using my laptop at all. Not only the blogging, but e-mail, social media, and general web browsing were all very convenient and practical with the iPad + keyboard combination. The only things I actually needed the laptop for were retrieving and e-mailing several files that I wouldn't have known in advance I'd want access to. I also used it as a usb hub for recharging other devices. And Sunday evening when I was logging in my book purchases and composing the post about them, the ability of the laptop to have both files visible at the same time was convenient (although it wouldn't have been absolutely necessary). But I'm unlikely to leave the laptop home when attending events like this, simply because I never know when I might get a request for a copy of a class slideshow, or to look up a piece of data, or need to forward a draft of a paper for consideration for a future session ....
QuickOffice Pro
This is an iPad / iPhone app that can be used to create, open, and edit stripped-down versions of Microsoft Office products. "Stripped down" in that only minimal formatting can be performed and a lot of functions aren't accessible. (If you open a regular Office file to edit it, you don't lose any of the originally-included features, you just can't add or manipulate them via QuickOffice.) I've been using this extensively on the iPad when working on my novel(s) on BART and whatnot and I used it for drafting up my blog posts (rather than drafting them in the LJ interface) on the principle that I was less likely to lose work that way. Well, I was partially right.
One peculiarity of QuickOffice is that, while the program does interim saves as you're working, in order to do a "real" save, you need to exit the file and then re-open it. And when you re-open it, of course, you're back at the beginning of the file. Not a problem for small files, but annoying when one is working on a 100+ page document, both for the file-location issue and because the file size affects opening time. (One work-around I use for large text files is to use a unique non-alphabetic symbol as a "bookmark" so I can jump back to it easily using the search function.) Another peculiarity of the interim saves? They appear to be accessible only by the internal functions of the program and can't be used for recovery purposes. Evidently when you switch between apps you actually "close" the file when you leave it and re-open it from the interim save when you return to that app. But if the program crashes .... Well, let's just say I'm glad I learned that lesson on one of the least interesting sessions I was blogging, and not while composing new text on my novel.
The iPad Keyboard
I decided to try doing my live-blogging by iPad this year, in part to test its performance, in part because doing it on the laptop means risking running out of battery if I can't angle for a seat near an outlet (and when I can, it sometimes means creating a tripping hazard). The battery is good for a couple of sessions without recharging, but not for an entire day's worth. But while I'm happy using the screen keyboard on my commute (in fact, I prefer it, given that I regularly have to work standing up on the evening return), I knew I was unlikely to keep up with the necessary typing speed for note-taking unless I had an actual keyboard. So I went down to Fry's (yet another plus for living in Concord -- a local Fry's) and benefitted from their new policy of "salespeople get commissions for successful sales" which meant I not only got help in comparing keyboard cases, but I got enthusiastic help. I needed a combo keyboard-case that would hold a relatively rigid shape when balanced on a lap. So several candidates were immediately rejected because they needed to sit on a hard flat surface to support the screen properly. I ended up with a Kensington "KeyFolio" Bluetooth keyboard/folio case.
It worked very well for the job in question. I did have to get used to the precise limit of the angle of my lap at which the weight of the iPad would tip the whole thing forward (or, more usually, would overcome the velcro fastening of the lower edge of the pad-holder part to the keyboard part, letting the pad flop back away from me). Once the keyboard has been synced to the pad, it pairs up quickly and easily when turned on. The entire keyboard section of the case can be folded back behind the pad if you find yourself wanting to work one-handed without the keyboard. (You need to have the keyboard turned off in this mode, since the supporting hand will be pressing against the keys.) The case allows for use of both the front and back cameras and all controls are accessible. I quickly got used to using a combination of both keystrokes and gestures (e.g., while the keyboard has cursor keys, jumping to a new position in the text is still done much easier by tapping the screen). When the keyboard is on and paired, tapping the screen no longer brings up the screen-keyboard, so you get full-screen display at all times. The Kensington has excellent keyboard-feel: positive "click" action and home-spot bumps on the f & j keys as usual. While considerably smaller than a regular desktop keyboard, it's only minimally smaller than the keyboard on my MacBook, so that wasn't a problem for me.
As I note, I would use the keyboard in certain specific circumstances, not universally, but it functions very well in those circumstances. If you want to be able to keyboard in both landscape and portrait modes, then you'll need a different model. I suspect a portrait orientation wouldn't balance well on my lap, so the fact that mine won't rotate doesn't matter much. Overall: very successful at the job I bought it for.
iPad vs. Laptop as a Travel Device
I realized, at some point late in the conference, that I almost could have made it through the entire event without using my laptop at all. Not only the blogging, but e-mail, social media, and general web browsing were all very convenient and practical with the iPad + keyboard combination. The only things I actually needed the laptop for were retrieving and e-mailing several files that I wouldn't have known in advance I'd want access to. I also used it as a usb hub for recharging other devices. And Sunday evening when I was logging in my book purchases and composing the post about them, the ability of the laptop to have both files visible at the same time was convenient (although it wouldn't have been absolutely necessary). But I'm unlikely to leave the laptop home when attending events like this, simply because I never know when I might get a request for a copy of a class slideshow, or to look up a piece of data, or need to forward a draft of a paper for consideration for a future session ....
QuickOffice Pro
This is an iPad / iPhone app that can be used to create, open, and edit stripped-down versions of Microsoft Office products. "Stripped down" in that only minimal formatting can be performed and a lot of functions aren't accessible. (If you open a regular Office file to edit it, you don't lose any of the originally-included features, you just can't add or manipulate them via QuickOffice.) I've been using this extensively on the iPad when working on my novel(s) on BART and whatnot and I used it for drafting up my blog posts (rather than drafting them in the LJ interface) on the principle that I was less likely to lose work that way. Well, I was partially right.
One peculiarity of QuickOffice is that, while the program does interim saves as you're working, in order to do a "real" save, you need to exit the file and then re-open it. And when you re-open it, of course, you're back at the beginning of the file. Not a problem for small files, but annoying when one is working on a 100+ page document, both for the file-location issue and because the file size affects opening time. (One work-around I use for large text files is to use a unique non-alphabetic symbol as a "bookmark" so I can jump back to it easily using the search function.) Another peculiarity of the interim saves? They appear to be accessible only by the internal functions of the program and can't be used for recovery purposes. Evidently when you switch between apps you actually "close" the file when you leave it and re-open it from the interim save when you return to that app. But if the program crashes .... Well, let's just say I'm glad I learned that lesson on one of the least interesting sessions I was blogging, and not while composing new text on my novel.
