Well, I am going to make this post the first of hopefully many that are not related to a specific video project. As of today, I am the owner of a new Apple iPad. It actually complete the “i” trifecta for me. iPod, iPhone and now iPad. In reality I am testing out the app for updating this website on my iPad right now. It is very basic and it doesn’t have that instant preview option as the website from a laptop or CPU, which is something I am used to. Although this will be a great way to publish information quickly and on the go…or at least anywhere with a wifi connection.
My initial reaction to the iPad was “what am I going to use this for?” (the iPad I have was a gift, so you can see why I had this reaction instead of the calculated buying process I usually go through with any major product.)
As the owner of a laptop, as a person who works at an Avid workstation all day and, as I mentioned above, the owner of the other Apple gadgets, where does this gadget fit into my day to day needs. To put it simply, it doesn’t fit. I don’t need it, but I am keeping an open mind.
After a full day with the new toy, I have seen some uses that I may not have thought of before. The first being this post right here. One of my goals with this website is to not only showcase the video work I do but also to discuss new technologies. With the iPad, it gives me more flexibility to do this quickly and on the go.
The next major one is one I haven’t really tested out yet, more so because I am on vacation for the next week and won’t be in an edit suite for a little while. What I can envision is the iPad acting as my digital paper work. Scripts, change lists, branding guidelines, etc are all types of things I normally print out to go along with what I am editing. Lately I have been trying to do as much of this as I can on the iPhone, but for me the iPhone is just too small to really be effective. Hopefully the iPad will help me be more “green.”
One thing I would love to see, and not sure if this exists already, but some sort of app that a producer/director could open either on a laptop or iOS device that creates a list of tasks that could then be shared. When I get a list of changes I almost always print it out so I can physically check them off to know what I have done and what I need to do. It would be great to have some sort of shared list with the producer/director that I can go though and process and then send back, hopefully with comments. That way I could send info back such as “this change conflicts with branding guidelines” or “I think this edit is conflicting with our story goals” etc.
Of course there will be other things I can do with the iPad. Maybe my angry birds skills will improve. Not sure if digital books will work their way into my everyday life, but I also said that when iTunes came out. Can’t remember the last time I bought a CD, although I will say I don’t envision using the iPad for music listening.
Feel free to use the comments section to discuss what you use your iPads for, maybe there s something I haven’t thought of yet. I am sure there is.
Barry Clegg 
Congratulations 🙂 I’ve been a happy iPad owner for the last few weeks, which seems equally useless in my profession (I’m a senior developer, and forever in front of a PC).
So far I’ve found the iPad great for news (CNN is my favorite), videos (TED, especially), and on-the-fly note-taking. My favorite writing app is PlainText, which integrates with Dropbox, so you can access those files on any other desktop. Or just use SimpleNote, which integrates with the web-based version.
I’ve also done mindmaps (SimpleMind+), blog posts (WordPress) and run entire meetings off there (Safari, SlideShark, and the VGA connector cable). Twitter is great, and if you have ReadItLater, it’s very useful to be able to keep adding links to your reading list, then grabbing them on your iPad during your off-time. ReadItLater intelligently scans the page for content and displays it very legibly, so you don’t have to fight past ads.
The LCD makes it a great device for reading (iBooks, Kindle app), surpassed only by the Kindle, in my experience. And I have yet to take OneNote for a proper spin.
For your specific issue, I’d suggest grabbing a Basecamp account (basecamphq.com), and then either opening it in Safari, or purchasing the “Outpost” app. Basecamp is excellent at collaborative project management and shared task lists.
Good luck!
Thanks for reading Wogan. You are actually the first comment since I haven’t exactly “released” this website site. The domain name is going to be changing after the first of the year, you could say I am in beta testing phase. Thanks for your insight, I really appreciate it. I have only had the iPad for a day, but have had the iPhone for about 2 months now, and so far I think they are two very well made devices. I have always been a PC man myself, and will still be going forward, but I will say for wireless devices (phones/tablets) seems that Apple has really hit the mark. Will have update on Basecamp, sounds like what I am looking for.