The first question is, how do I call landlines with Skype? Skype to Skype calling is free, which is great if the person you’re calling uses Skype (nerd!), but not so great if you want to call an actual phone number. However, Skype offers really nice subscription services for calling landlines and mobile phones. I opted for the $2.99 a month Unlimited US/Canada plan. When I went to checkout, they offered a 15% package discount if you bought a year ahead for $30.84, so I went with that instead ($2.57 a month, woot!).

So now I can call landlines, but how do people call me? And what exactly shows up when I call people’s real phones? Random numbers, that’s what! Luckily Skype offers the ability to purchase an online number, so you can call and be called by actual phones. Since I had purchased a year’s subscription for calling, the online number was only $30 for the year (apparently a 50% discount). So we’re up to about $60 a year for unlimited calling with an actual phone number (although it seems kind of silly to me to split those services up, but whatever).

Now, just to throw a wrench in things, Google Voice recently went public. While it has a lot of features, the core idea is that Google gives you a single phone number to act as a “shortcut” phone number to your home, work, and cell phone numbers, so when you move and depending on your current location, someone can always get ahold of you and you only have to worry about giving out one number. So of course, I wanted to integrate this with Skype!

Now that I had a phone number from Skype, I could setup Google Voice to forward from that number, but when I called back, my Skype number still showed up. I want people to see my Google Voice number! Fortunately again, Skype offers Caller ID, which lets you customize what people see as your number when you call them. For some reason, I couldn’t activate my Caller ID with my subscription fee, so I had to buy some Skype Credit in order to get it working (Note that it takes about 24 hours to setup a new Skype phone number and Caller ID.). The minimum I could get away with was $10 (couldn’t get less than a $10 credit), so I ended up with about $70 total for the year.  So to break it down:

1. $30.84 for a year’s worth of Unlimited US/Canada calling
2. $30 for a year’s access to a real phone number
3. $10 for the least Skype Credit I could buy (in order to setup Google Voice as my outgoing phone number on the Caller ID)

• Grand total: $70.84 per year (or about $5.91 a month)

So for just under $6 a month, I have unlimited calling, PLUS I can use my Google Voice number and get all those nifty features that go along with it (voicemail transcriptions to email, SMS to email, ring all my phones, etc. etc.).  And I can call from any computer or smartphone capable of running Skype, which includes the iFamily (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) plus Android cell phones and Windows and Mac computers.

Not bad!

The workflow is simple:

1. Acquire and activate an iPad 3G MicroSIM chip
2. Get a MicroSIM to SIM adapter
3. Change the APN settings on your iPhone

To begin with, you’ll need an iPhone (any will do).  It doesn’t need to be jailbroken.  Then you need to acquire an iPad 3G MicroSIM chip.  If you don’t have an iPad, you can buy a replacement chip from AT&T for about $15.  You will need an iPad 3G to activate it (if you don’t have one, mooch one off a friend or visit an Apple Store or Best Buy and use a paperclip to pop out the existing MicroSIM from a 3G model).  Just pop the new MicroSIM in the iPad 3G, go into settings, activate the chip (you’ll need a credit card), and then remove it.  Now the chip is ready to go!

Next, you’ll need to change the APN settings on your iPhone (this just sets it up for data-only use).  Just visit unlockit.co.nz on your iPhone, select Custom APN, type in “broadband” for the APN and create the profile, then apply it.  That’s it!  Now insert your iPad 3G MicroSIM into the SIM adapter (unless you have one of those spiffy new iPhone 4’s, which already use MicroSIM chips) and pop that whole thing into your iPhone.  You may get a message that the phone or card is now activated, as well as a text message or two from AT&T about your new service details.

Enjoy your new iPad Mini!

1. Insert your memory card
2. Drag the card’s icon onto the FlashDrop icon
3. Enjoy a full clone of your card in ISO format!

FlashDrop is an effortless way to ensure that you have a complete copy of any Flash memory card, USB stick, or folder.  This includes all of the media files on your memory card, plus the relevant folder structure and support files, which is extremely useful for anything that you want to keep a 1:1 copy of, such as memory cards containing AVCHD video files, client photography, and family movies and photos.

The ISO format is a nice method for archiving because it creates a single, uneditable file that you can mount just like a DMG, but is compatible with Windows and Linux systems (I recommend Pismo File Mount for reading ISO files on Windows).  FlashDrop basically creates a virtual memory card with write-protect permanently enabled!  This is convenient for throwing onto your backup drive for archiving, as well as burning to CD or DVD for permanent backup.

FlashDrop

FlashDrop saves the file to your desktop as “Archive.iso”, which you can then rename to whatever you want, such as today’s date or a more descriptive filename.  Note that you cannot drop individual files, only things with a folder structure such as a folder, hard drive, USB drive, or memory card.  Also note that FlashDrop will not overwrite an existing Archive.iso, so you will need to rename or move your previous backup before making a new one.

Download here

Icons by Sascha Hoehne.  Packaged by Platypus.  Code:

hdiutil makehybrid -o ~/Desktop/Archive.iso “$1″ -iso -joliet

This is a simple app that changes the default update server to one that doesn’t exist, so you never have to worry about accidentally downloading an update that breaks your Hackintosh! Also included is Revert for reverting the Software Update server back to normal, which is handy if you just want to run updates for things like iLife, Pro Apps, etc.  NoUpdate is highly recommended for hacks that you don’t ever wanted updated such as your girlfriend’s hack, your mom’s hack, your media center hack, and so on.

Download here

Icons by troyboydesign; packaged with Platypus.  Leopard & Snow Leopard compatible.  Terminal code for serious hackers:

To disable Software Update:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL “http://noserver.local”

To re-enable Software Update:

defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL

This is a pretty sweet drive reader…it can handle:

• 2.5″ SATA hard drives (laptop-sized)
• 3.5″ SATA hard drives (desktop-sized)
• (2) USB 2.0 devices (like memory sticks)
• Lots of memory cards: SD/MMC, MemoryStick/MemoryStick Pro, CompactFlash, XD

Pretty much it’s a great thing to put on your desk.  The best part is, it’s only $35.99 shipped from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Cirago-CDD1000-Docking-Station-Reader/dp/B0037NYKWG/

I can’t say much for the build quality…it looks and feels cheap.  But then, that’s the point, haha.  It’s made of shiny black and red plastic and weighs next to nothing, although I think they should have put some sand or metal inside the base to make it sit nicer on your desk (without scooting around when you use it).  They include PC backup software and have a one-touch button for Windows backup, but the button doesn’t work in OS X.  But then again, you don’t need a driver in OS X, so that’s a plus.

One nice feature is that everything works all at the same time, so you can have a memory card, USB stick, and hard drive plugged in and they’ll all show up on your desktop.  The drive backing (the upright piece that the hard drive rests against) feels EXTREMELY cheap, but it’s flexible enough that I don’t think it’s going to break.  I hope.  Maybe.  Anyway, on to the pix:

The front has the memory card ports and USB 2.0 ports:

There’s a hole already for the 2.5″ drive to slide right into:

The 3.5″ drive slides into the same spot; the plastic is on a hinge that moves down:

USB memory sticks work great, although you can use whatever you want (printer, phone, etc.):

Memory cards work great and files transfer VERY fast:

It can read all kinds of stuff - USB, memory cards, SATA hard drives, all at the same time!

The rear sports a mini USB port (cable included), power jack, and on/off switch:

One thing to be aware of is that you need to power the Cirago on before attaching anything, even a memory card, or you’ll get a message that the unit is pulling too much power over USB (I just leave it on all the time).  I suspect this is due to the mini USB cable port, which doesn’t send as much power apparently (makes sense), although I don’t know why they didn’t just use a full-sized USB plug.  My computer whines at me if I turn off power with a card still attached:

So there you have it - $35 shipped, reads all kinds of great stuff!  Looks fairly tacky, but it also doesn’t cost $90 like some other multi-function readers.  Cheers.

Well, the main reason is “PDF’s”.  Yup, PDF files.  I read a lot of PDF files - manuals, articles, all kinds of stuff!  For some background, I’ve been looking for a good, portable PDF reader for years.  I tried computers, but they kind of bothered my eyes after a bit - too much light!  Too big!  Not portable!  Then I tried laptops - too cumbersome!  Not comfortable!  Ah, then Amazon released the Kindle!  I ordered one immediately, only to discover that their implementation of PDF reading was junk.  Same with the Nook.  I want zooming, searching, color, touch-navigation, portability!  With the release of the iPad, I get ALL of those things!

I was really, really, really excited about the concept of an Apple Tablet.  For years, ideas have percolated my brain, filling me with dreams of a wonderful device capable of enhancing my happiness levels with the flick of a switch.  The iPad keynote proved to be a disappointment, however.  Or rather, as I’ve mentioned, underwhelming.  Actually, I don’t really know what I was expecting.  Even if it had all the features I wanted, would I still be impressed?  I’d probably have felt the same way, namely: meh, so what?

The truth is that it’s a device without a real home.  It doesn’t fit in my pocket and it doesn’t measure up as a laptop or desktop replacement.  It doesn’t have a compelling, “killer-app” feature (yet).  In fact, I think they should have named it the “iPad Reader” - at least positioned it as an E-book reader “plus apps”, kind of like the iPhone is a phone “plus apps”.  Instead, it’s just a giant iPhone with a funny name.  Since the real target market(s) are still unknown due to lack of hands-on time and app development, I thought about how the iPad could be used in the real world as-is.   I currently see two strong potential markets for the iPad:

1. Students
2. Business

Students are going to be a huge, huge, huge market for this thing.  Cheaper textbooks plus only one device to carry, plus notes, video lectures, class schedules, you name it!  Not to mention the Internet, Email, Twitter, Facebook, and all that other we normally use the web for.  I can see schools adopting this like crazy.  And if Apple ever decides to add a pen, schools could even ditch paper for classes like math, which require writing odd symbols and diagrams.  Easier organization and huge paper savings await the school system!

Business is another GIANT market that no one has talked about!  Businesses eat paper for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and not only that, they’re all hugely disorganized!  I’ve worked for a variety of companies and 100% of them would benefit from the iPad in BIG ways, especially on the financial end of things.  Minimal paper use and increased organization, just like the compelling features for schools, that businesses could enjoy.  If you’ve ever worked in manufacturing, you know how hard it is to keep track of paperwork - the iPad is just the ticket to get rid of those problems and save time, money, and operating costs.  So, so many possibilities here.

Anyway, back to my point: aside from PDF files, I also have two other uses for this - video training and programming.  I watch a lot of video training on Lynda.com; in addition to the traditional Flash format, they also offer Quicktime versions of their online tutorials, which means I can play it on the iPad no problemo.  Coupled with a 10″ screen, a headphone jack, and Wifi or 3G, I’m in business for mobile training!  Now I can kill time anywhere by learning something new!

Programming is the third reason I’m buying it.  I have 4 or 5 hot programming projects that have been waiting for a device of exactly this nature to arrive.  Things that just wouldn’t work as well on the smaller iPhone and iPod Touch screens.  So I’m pretty excited for that.  But really, PDF’s are the main reason for me buying the iPad - it’s only a few bucks more than a large-format Kindle reader and loads better in terms of functionality.  The price is extremely reasonable - $499 for a device with a 10″ IPS screen and a 10-hour battery life is nothing short of amazing, imo.

So that’s why I’m buying an iPad.  It’s not perfect; in fact it’s missing a whole boatload of stuff, but boy oh boy has it met my wishlist for reading PDF files.  Woot!

1. Screen: In my opinion, the should have gone with a Pixel Qi screen.  If you’re not familiar with it, check out the article with video here on Gizmodo.  It’ll blow your mind!  It’s basically a full-color LCD screen with a reflective e-ink display built-in, too.  The whole thing is transflective.  I can only imagine how crappy reading on the iPad outside will be (don’t have those problems with my paper books!).  OLED was another cool and rumored option; it has amazing indoor qualities but terrible outdoor qualities, and there’s just no way Apple could get the iPad to $499 with the current prices of OLED screens, even if they bought in bulk.

E-ink would have been a neat option, but color E-ink just isn’t there, and neither is the lag issue when flipping pages.  I had a Kindle in the past and I absolutely loved E-ink - so easy on the eyes, nice to look at, great battery life - but it wouldn’t have worked for this product.  Again, that’s why I think the Pixel Qi screen would have been fabulous - you get both an LCD screen and a color E-ink screen.  Anyway…I’m sure the Apple display will look fabulous, especially with the IPS screen.  IPS screens are top-notch, some of the best (and most expensive) you can buy.  I am a little worried about reading for a long time on the screen, but then I realized I sometimes spend like 14 hours a day staring at my computer screen and it doesn’t really bother me, so it should be okay.

One thing I DO like about the iPad’s screen is that it has a backlight.  While I really enjoyed my Kindle, for the brief time I had it (had the first-gen, but it had a bad ergonomic design so I ditched it), it had no backlight.  So we have to pay hundreds of dollars for a replacement book, and I can’t even read it in the dark?  What?  If you’re going to replace something, then why not add better features, like an integrated backlight, or at the very least a small LED light on the inner frame?  Kinda lame.  So, the iPad wins in that category - I can read in the dark until I fall asleep, yay!

2. Giant Bezel: People who complain about this either haven’t owned a Macbook Pro or haven’t owned a Kindle.  Thin bezels are stupid.  Sure they look gorgeous…in the pictures.  Then you open the screen and see your fingerprints all over the display, instead of just on the bezel.  Basically, I think the giant bezel is genius and I commend Apple for it.  I’ll probably be the only one to say that.  But thanks, Apple, for doing the Right Thing and making it human-usuable.

3. The Name: iPad?  Every single woman I’ve talked to has immediately said, “like the feminine products?”  Every.  Single.  One.  Apple really dropped the ball on this one - plus, they didn’t even get iPad.com!  HP came out with the “Slate” tablet a couple weeks ago at CES, so I can understand them not wanting to use “iSlate”, but how iTablet?  iTab?  Apple Canvas?  iGlide?  I feel childish even saying the word “iPad” - it sounds like a kid-proof plastic toy.  Plus, it sounds too much like “iPod”.  I was trying to explain the concept of the iPad to a non-techie friend of mine and they kept saying, “wait, do you mean iPod?”.  Poor name choice all around, Apple.

4. Keyboard: I really, really think they should have done something novel with the keyboard.  It’s neat that it’s a nearly life-sized straight keyboard, but for some reason I don’t think it’s going to be very fun to type on (i.e. no tactile feedback).  A thumb keyboard like the one illustrated below would have been a MUCH cooler way to do it - that way we could type while holding it, instead of having to put it down!  Also, why didn’t they make the Apple keyboard on the iPad dock wireless?  I sure hope the Bluetooth chip in the iPad supports the Apple wireless keyboard!

5. Pen Input: I almost put this in the top 6 “must-have” missing features list above, but I didn’t.  But it’s close!  Apple should have teamed up with Wacom and done both a drawing pad and touchpad.  My guess is that one of the big problems right now is resolution - Wacom has a line of tablet LCD monitors out called the Cintiqs (very expensive!).  The latest Cintiq handles 1,024 pressure levels, which is actually pretty dang good (it was 512 for a long time), but I suspect that when Apple wants to add writing capabilities, it will need to be much higher and on-part with actually taking notes like on paper.  This would be SUCH a cool feature to have - I doodle all the time when I take notes.  I’m an extremely visual person when it comes to that - I draw mindmaps and diagrams and pointer arrows and all kinds of stuff that I just can’t do quickly with Word or Pages.

Plus, can you imagine drawing on the iPad?  It’d be SO COOL!!  I’ve had Wacom drawing tablets for years and years and I’m totally addicted to them.  The iPad would pretty be the ultimate sketchpad when combined with Corel Painter (which emulates all kinds of natural media from oil paint to airbrushes).  I’d never, ever, ever put it down, lol.  Plus you could sign e-documents, take note in your e-books, highlight stuff real easily, all kinds of neat things.  Who knows, maybe Apple will throw us a bone and surprise us with a pressure-sensitive pen when the iPad ships.  One can dream…

6. Crappy Homepage Design: Is it just me, or do those icons look a bit small?  That homepage is in serious need of some feng shui!  The icons should be larger, there should be folders, and there should be Stacks.  Or something like Stacks where you can just tap on a folder and it does a blow-out overlay of all of the icons and files inside.  There’s gotta be a better way to navigate your apps than having to scroll through pages and pages of them, I mean, come on!

7. Camcorder: The iPhone 3GS has a combo camera/camcorder and it’s pretty dang neat!  I know this is a weird request; trying to film or shoot with a giant iPad would be kind of awkward, but also pretty convenient and cool.  Plus, it could double as a rear-facing webcam, which would be uber cool if you hooked up the iPad to a projector or TV - just pop it on the Dock on your desk and video chat!  Then pick it up, flip it around to the front, and use that camera instead!  I’m just sayin’, there’s a need here…

8. Not Widescreen: Well this threw me off a bit.  4:3 1024 x 768?  Hrmph.  Not 16:9, and also not HD.  The non-HD part I can understand, since Apple wanted App Store compatibility (I’m sure most apps would look even more terrible blown up to even 720p at 1280 x 800, versus 1024 x 768).  I suppose the 4:3 aspect ratio comes from ergonomics - I’d imagine it’s a bit easier to hold if it’s 4:3.  Maybe.  I dunno.  Personally I’d just like the screen real estate more if it was widescreen - then I’d get a nice, tall picture of a book, or two real-sized side-by-side pages on the horizontal.  Although, the Kindle is 4:3 800 x 600, and that seems to work pretty well for books, so whatever.  Movies will kinda suffer tho…black bars ftl.

So those are pretty much my thoughts on the negative aspects of the iPad, along with those other six items I posted previously.  These ones are more “features that would be nice to have”, instead of “what were you thinking leaving them out??” kind of features, but I still felt they should be noted.  We can never have everything, but I think the iPad is a pretty good step in the right direction, and we’re going to see a lot of change in the hardware world over the next few years thanks to what Apple has done.