Drawing Apps

The iPad touchscreen is ideal for drawing and painting. I’ve found several painting apps that make good use of the possibilities of a multitouch approach to drawing. I’m currently testing the free apps but I couldn’t resist buying ToonPAINT. There are many programs that turn images into line art but I haven’t seen it this convincing. The underpainting option allows a comic book style coloring and you can change the appearance of the toon style. The app is made for the iPhone and the interface could be optimised for the iPad. The app also had some quirks here and there but I am pleased with the result.
I combined three seperate images with neu.Draw, a free vector drawing app that is easy to use but with plenty of useful options. That’s how I made the layout and speech bubbles. The result was created exclusively on the iPad and of course uploaded using the WordPress app.

Apps used: ToonPAINT, neu.Draw and PhotoPad

My first week with the iPad

I’ve spend my first week with the iPad and my first impressions are mostly positive. Here’s a quick rundown of my observations…

The Good: From a technical standpoint the device seems well built, a good screen, responsive touch input, it all feels sturdy and slick. On the software side the standard apps do their job and there is a logic behind the operations. Like uncle Steve once said “there’s an App for that” and he wasn’t lying. There are so many apps it is truly overwhelming. There are some real gems here and for free or cheap.
Garage Band is a good example of an actual tablet application that is far more than a simple toy. This app sets the bar high and delivers tremendous value for money. Graphics apps are a dime a dozen and for drawing and painting the iPad is a great tool for productivity. E-reading works great, I really like the apps that collect news from multiple sources and put them together in a magazine format. All the content and none of the clutter. This is the future of publishing!
There’s plenty more to say but I will leave that for themed blog entries. And now…
The Bad: I’ve experienced two fatal crashes. I had to hold the power button for about half a minute to switch the device off. At those times it really feels like a computer again. The system is lightweight but it still feels a bit heavy for comfortable reading. The glare on the screen is distracting. But those are minor niggles compared to…
The Ugly: No file system, no folders, no communication between programs. I believe in simplicity, I do not want a desktop PC clone but one folder for all photos and videos is ridiculous. There are two cameras in the device now, give me an option to organise my own images and videoclips please! But it’s not an oversight, it is because of the most horrid piece of bloatware on mac, windows or whatever system; iTunes.

iTunes is everything the iPad is not. It is impossible to find what you want, there are many menus with options buried in the most unexpected places, there is no internal logic and worst of all; it is mandatory. You HAVE to plug in the iPad in a computer to make it work, you have to syncronise with iTunes to do the most rudimentary file managing. You have to connect the USB, it will not connect through WiFi. And it is not made this way to help customers, it is to control them, to monitor them. Apple wants to witness everything you do with your Apple devices. Locking your system down to create a better user experience, I can defend that. Making the experience a chore just because you don’t trust me with my own purchase, that is the dark side of uncle Steve.

But I will rant about that more in the future, I’m sure of that. Luckily I have apps like Dropbox to fill the gap that Apple has left. I can copy photos from my android phone wirelessly to the iPad, no iTunes, no USB cable required! Now I’m getting back to work again. Composing music, making a painting, writing an essay, I just hope uncle Steve ain’t watching me when I do it…

This post was created with WordPress and Dropbox

Justify my iPad

For many people the iPad is a gadget, an expensive toy. And that’s fine, but that’s not enough for me. I want to find out if the iPad can be used as a stand-alone productivity device and this blog is the first step. I created the blog on the iPad, I will edit all the posts on the iPad, I shall edit the images on the iPad etc. I will make the photos with the iPad when possible, for the last post I used photos taken with my HTC Desire Android Phone. How did I transfer the photos? I created a Dropbox account with the iPad and synced the phone to that. In my world iOS and Android shall play together!

Anyway, this is my start in my project “Justify my iPad”, and I hope I can give you some useful information and perhaps some entertainment along the way!

Apps used for this post: WordPress, Dropbox, Photopad

My first blog on my first iPad

March 25, 2011; the day the iPad2 went on sale in Holland. And I wanted one… So I waited until 02:00 in the night to order the iPad on the Apple website. To my surprise the delivery time was already 2-3 weeks! So the next day I decided to be one of those crazy people standing in line to spend hard earned money on useless gadgets. As it turned out I was second in line, just a couple of hours before the launch. Not too bad and I had some time to “review” my fellow crazies. They turned out pretty normal actually. Older, younger, male, female, not even very nerd-like. But my surprise came after I left the shop with my brand-new iPad; At the official Apple dealer in the same street was a line of over 150 people! In the store I bought the iPad there were less than 20. See the pictures for the difference. So when my fellow Dutchmen were watching the big football match I was playing with my new toy…or is it a toy?