John Gruber’s iPad 2 Review  →

So I remember this time last year when all the pre-launch reviews of the original iPad were coming out and John was posting up links to them all and in his comments there was this slight tone of being bummed out that all these guys had gotten review units from Apple and he didn’t. But now he does and call me sentimental but I’m really glad for John. I’ve been reading DF for years and years and it’s awesome to see it continue to grow and pretty soon it’ll just take over.

Also, worth touting is that John’s iPad 2 review is the only one posted today without a single picture.

John Gruber’s iPad 2 Review

Readability’s HTML5 Mobile Web App  →

Readability’s iPhone app for reading articles later was rejected by Apple almost three weeks ago. And so, between now and then, they’ve turned out this top-notch web app as an alternative.

You save it as an app to your iPhone Home screen and it uses HTML5 offline storage support so your articles are available for reading later even when not connected to the Web. Even articles you favorite or archive will sync up next time the app is launched when you’re online.

Also, MG Siegler has written more about it on TechChrunch.

Readability’s HTML5 Mobile Web App

Pre-Launch iPad 2 Miscellany

The Friday 5:00 pm Sale Time

There have been lines for every iPhone release. In April 2010 there were lines for the original iPad. February 2011 Verizon did there biggest sales day in history of Verizon iPhone pre-sales. But, when the the Verizon iPhone went on sale there were no lines.

I think the choice to offer online orders at the same time as the sale date, and to have a Friday at 5:00 pm sale time is all to help ensure that there will be lines. Because those lines are the best marketing Apple has. Nothing breeds success like success. And nothing says success more than lots of stores with long lines of happy customers.

During the iPad 2 announcement Steve Jobs dubbed 2011 as the year of the iPad 2. Apple wants to tell the story that the iPad 2 is just as amazing as the iPad 1. Even though it’s the second version, and in spite of all these new tablets and iPad competitors coming out, people are still lining up for this new iPad.

And, at least from where I’m sitting, it’s going to work. I was completely planning to pre-order one and, for once, not stand in line. Because last year the pre-orders all arrived quite timely. But, since there are no pre-orders I will once again be standing in line. But more on what I’m doing in a bit.

The Battery

The battery is, by far, the best feature of the iPad. They say it lasts for 10 hours, but my original iPad probably lasts closer to 12. In fact, over the past year that I’ve owned it I have probably only charged it a few dozen times.

Contrast that to my iPhone which I have probably charged a few hundred times since June, and my laptop which I keep plugged in almost all the time.

Granted, I use my iPad the least of all three, but never once have I worried about the battery of the thing. It keeps going and going and going…

The Casing

Sure it’s thinner and lighter — that’s part of the requirement of being new technology, you know? — but will it be easier to hold with one hand?

The thing that makes the original iPad most difficult to hold with one hand is not just the weight but also that slippery aluminum back. And the new iPad has that same slippery aluminum back.

I asked some folks who were at the Apple press conference and who had the chance to fiddle with some of the display model iPad 2s. The response was that the thinner form factor did help somewhat with the ability to hold the iPad one handedly. But the biggest factor is still the weight and so it’s not dramatically easier to hold with one hand.

The Color

The white one has been abundantly displayed throughout Apple’s marketing of the iPad. Probably because (a) they want to make up for the fact the white iPhone never shipped; but I think primarily it’s because (b) a picture of the white iPad is instantly recognizable as the new iPad. At first glance a picture of the black iPad 2 could be mistaken for an iPad 1. Using the white is a way to quickly make a statement that this is the new iPad. In fact, they are showing off the white iPad and it’s cover more than they show off the camera.

The Cover

Apple is going to sell a lot of those Smart Covers. In fact, I almost wonder how many people will assume the cover comes with the iPad.

The Choices

So, say you’ve already got an iPad and you don’t know if you should upgrade or not. I say don’t. I wouldn’t be upgrading except for the fact that I want to give my current iPad to my wife, and also that I kind-of have to upgrade now that tech writing will be my full-time job come April 4.1

For those of you who have been holding out for the next iPad and you’re not sure if you should get one or not, I say go for it. If you want one, now’s a great time to buy one.

Sure another model will come out sometime in the next year and it will have awesome features that this current model doesn’t. But that is always going to be the case.

Marco Arment was right when he said that the best time to buy an Apple product is right when it comes out. It is doubtful that the iPad 2 will ever be cheaper until a the next model of iPad comes out.

If you don’t care about which model you get and you just want the cheapest iPad possible then you might want to consider buying an original iPad from Apple’s website right now. They’re on clearance for about $100 off.

If you need more assistance deciding just which type of iPad to get (white or black, 3G or not, AT&T or Verizon) then I highly recommend you read Marco’s aforementioned article. It’s full of good advice for deciding just which iPad 2 you should buy.

So, Which iPad 2 Will I Bet Getting?

I will be standing in line this Friday to buy a 16 GB, Wi-Fi only, black iPad 2. In part because I want to get the cheapest model possible. But also in part because the cheapest model just so happens to be exactly what I want.

Black because it is much more appealing and cool than that sissy white color.2 16 GB because it’s more than enough for me. And Wi-Fi only because I can’t recall one time in the year I’ve owned my current iPad that I needed 3G. And now that I can use my iPhone 4 as a mobile hotspot, it really isn’t worth the extra cost for me to get 3G.

Also I will be buying a Smart Cover. Hopefully there will be plenty of them out to see before I have to pick one, but I suspect I’ll be getting black leather.

  1. It’s one thing to not buy the latest computer every time they come out, but the iPhone and iPad are at the tip of the arrow right now↵
  2. Though, for what it’s worth, I suspect white iPad 2s will outsell black ones. ↵
Pre-Launch iPad 2 Miscellany

So, How’s the Membership Thing Going So Far?

It’s been two weeks since I announced that I’m taking shawnblanc.net full time and kicked off the membership drive. With just under two weeks to go it seems time for a half-time report.

Thank Yous

The first week of the announcement was an adrenaline rush. Especially those first two days. More than half of all the current members signed up in the first 48 hours of the announcement.

The response from all of you has been overwhelmingly positive. Thank you so much to all of you who have emailed me or @replied to me on Twitter with your words of encouragement. Thank you to everyone who has been helping to spread the word via Twitter, your blog, or other channels. And especially thank you to all who have signed up to become subscribing members. I cannot say enough how grateful and honored I am to have your support.

My Writing Schedule

It has been a peculiar situation this month. At the same time I am making this announcement about going full-time here, I am also transitioning out of my role as Marketing Director for the International House of Prayer.

Monday, April 4 will be my first day on the job here at shawnblanc.net. But in the meantime, as Marketing Director, I am right at the beginning of budget season for the upcoming fiscal year as well as preparing for my transition out of this role. In short, it means I am struggling to find the time to write at my normal pace, let alone to increase that writing pace leading up to April.

I suppose I could have waited until April to make the announcement and simply go full time on the same day as I launched the membership drive. But I wanted to have the build up. I think that first week in April will be fun for everyone who has been walking this journey along side me for these weeks leading up to my official first day as an indie writer.

Another option would be to take the time I do have for writing and spend it on the core focus of this site instead of writing these membership updates. But the way I see it this membership drive and launch to go full-time is a one-time event. There is a vast future to come in which I will be able to write about technology and design and coffee. But you only go full-time once. And there is only this single opportunity to come out from behind the scenes to tell the storyline of going full-time.

I have opted to bring you guys along for this journey as much as I can. And then, come April, I plan to totally rock it.

Current Membership Numbers

Before I launched the membership I did a lot of research of other websites, writers, or online businesses that offer paid subscriptions memberships. And though everyone had their own way of doing things, there seemed to be one very common thread: less people signed up than expected but those who signed up were willing to have paid more. And this has been my experience as well.

There are two goals set for the shawnblanc.net membership numbers: a minimum number of members and an ideal number. As of this afternoon I am more than two-thirds of the way to my need of a minimum membership base and am half-way to the goal for an ideal membership base.

Things are on pace with what I expected them to be, but they are not quite what I had hoped them to be. However, with the membership drive only half-way through, things are looking bright. This whole thing just might work out after all.

As it relates to potential subscribing members, I figure there are three groups of people reading this site:

  • Those who would gladly sign up for a membership.
  • Those who would never sign up for a membership.
  • Those on the fence.

And it’s those on the fence — those of you who are not yet sure if you want to become a member and fork over a measly 3 bucks a month for what you’re mostly already getting for free — that have the potential to make this whole venture a success.

Long before I actually launched the membership drive I knew this moment would come. It’s the moment where I try to convince those of you who have not yet signed up to please do so and become a member. Because the success of this venture rests in the hands of the fence sitters. And, to be honest, I don’t really know what to say that will convince you guys to become members.

I’ve tried to sum up why you should become a member with the answer that you’ve found value and delight here and that you’d like to see this site grow.

I’ve also tried to bribe you with prizes, brag about how popular the members-only perks are, and worked to convince you that it is a good thing for writers and creators to get paid for their work. But if you’ve been paying attention for the past two weeks you have already seen these enticements.

And so, at the end of the day, perhaps the best reason I have for why you should become a member is that your individual membership really does make a huge difference.

You may think that your 3 bucks a month won’t make much of a difference and so you don’t see the need to become a member. And, in a way, you are right — an individual person’s $3 does not make a difference. But many people’s $3 does; your $3 does.

Your individual membership plays a big part in the success of this website. For those of you sitting on the fence I’m hoping you will come over to the member’s side.

So, How’s the Membership Thing Going So Far?

Method & Craft  →

A brand-new, beautiful, content-rich website for creative professionals. It was an idea hatched by Phil Coffman, and it’s a site that shares some of the very fabric of the DNA here at shawnblanc.net. Meaning, Method & Craft is all about the who, what, and why of the creative process. Needless to say this site is fresh and fantastic and the world is a better place for it.

Method & Craft

A Quick Way to Get Back on Focus

Sometimes during the day I find myself in a random cycle of checking my various inboxes. I realize I’m going back and forth between Twitter, email, RSS, random web surfing, back to Twitter, to email, etc… I’m not doing anything productive whatsoever — I’m just zoning out looking and waiting for something new to come along. It’s a complete waste of time.

What’s worse is that it can be hard to snap out of it and get back to doing something productive. So when I realize that I’m going back and forth between inboxes not actually doing anything I’ve learned a little trick on how to snap out of it.

  • I get up from my desk and go walk around for about 60 seconds. Maybe to get a drink of water or just to move my legs.

  • When I come back to my desk I pick one task that I know I can do quickly. It doesn’t even have to be something super-productive or even work-related. Today, for example, my snap-out-of-it task was to add Unstoppable to my Netflix queue.

  • Once I’ve gotten that small task done I pick another. Then another. And then I’m back on focus.

I’m in no way against checking the inboxes like email, RSS, Twitter, and the others. But when I check them I want to be active about it (instead of passive). When I check for what’s new I want it to be with intent to do something about it.

Which is why I recommend that if you’re going to zone out or take a mental break, do so with a medium that doesn’t also at times require your attention when you’re not zoning.

Email is by far the best example of this: when you’re checking your email it should be with intent to do something about those emails. Because if you also check your email as a way to zone out, then it becomes much easier to flip open your email to see what’s new yet without ever actually doing anything about those new emails.

Or, to put it another way: a simple way to help avoid ever even getting into the zone-out cycle is to only ever check your email or twitter or RSS feeds when you’re actually able and willing to act on those inboxes. Which is, of course, much easier said than done.

A Quick Way to Get Back on Focus

NoteTask  →

Many thanks to Coding Robots for again sponsoring the RSS feed this week, this time to promote their iPhone and iPad app, NoteTask.

NoteTask was also the sponsor for the inaugural episode of The B&B Podcast, and Ben and I talked about the app a bit on the show. In short, it’s a simplistic note and to-do app that’s easy to update and use. It comes with various icons you can select if you need to highlight certain notes, it has a very clever “hide” feature to let you keep certain notes hidden from prying eyes (great spot for Christmas gift lists), and it even has OTA sync via Simplenote.

NoteTask is just 3 bucks in the app store..

NoteTask

Hands-On Details about the iPad 2 and iOS 4.3  →

Great overview of the iPad 2 by Jeff Carlson for TidBITS:

For several people I know, the size and weight of the first-generation iPad is a detriment; it’s just heavy enough that holding it for long periods of time — even propped against a leg; I’m not talking about elevating the iPad for hours — is tiresome.

I didn’t get a good sense of how much the weight differed; it’s only 0.2 pounds, after all. But the thinness is wonderful, and if anything contributes to a sense that the iPad 2 is lighter than it really is. Your brain sees a sliver of glass and aluminum. Not a slab. Not a slate.

Hands-On Details about the iPad 2 and iOS 4.3