Franklin McMahon

Another option: Rhapsody. They are running a 2 month free trial, millions of streaming songs and the app runs on iPhone (also works on iPad) as well as the web browser. On the iPhone you can also download and play offline as many songs as you want, much quicker than streaming. Chances are Rhapsody has all the songs you have in your collection anyway, and the $10 a month price is great for 11 millions songs to stream/download. I have been using the service for years and highly recommend it if you are a music lover.

Microsoft has been making tablets for a decade. The problem is they were pen based, heavy, ran on a full OS instead of a spry mobile OS and were too expensive. The bigger problem is they were based on the PC user experience of moving a small cursor around. A large pen to move an arrow around the screen. Then they focused on handwriting recognition. Not thinking beyond how people write with (again) a pen. If they stopped and tried to reinvent the computing experience they might have had some success. Apple sort of learned this sideways. They thought how can we make a phone easier to use...touch controls..swipe..etc. Then they imagined bringing this interface to a larger tablet.

However it happened, it did. And that is why the iPad has been so huge. It is all about usability and ease. And not thinking..how can we mimic a PC experience? MS is in a tough spot..by the time it ramps up tablets it will have to copy much of iOS and it may have a low performing Zune brand on its hands for 5 years before it pulls the plug. I love Mac but I have nothing against MS, competition is good. They seem to be making progress with mobile. They just need to Think Different instead of joining the 30 other iPad clones coming out.

Best way to update an app is actually to disconnect from iTunes, delete app, reboot and do a fresh install. Anytime I read one star app reviews and then everyone else is having no problems and 5 stars, it is almost always because they never shut off their iPad (memory is fragmented to nothing) or they did not do a fresh install and/or reboot. I did a fresh install and just spent an hour with the app and not a single problem, it was snappier and worked like a charm.

At the very least do a reboot after installing a major update of an app. It also helps to delete the 20 apps running in the background. Also iPhones and iPads work better when powered off to charge several times a week. This advice is from Apple. Most people never shut their units off and can't understand why their battery drains so much faster now (it is not conditioned properly) and things are always crashing and sluggish (weeks of things hanging around in RAM).

Personally I think the Daily is off to a great start, they really nailed it in this genre much the same way Apple nailed it with the iPad (after a decade of Microsoft fumbling with stylus-based tablets that no one bought). They need to do some tweaks to be sure, but out of the gate for a 1.0 product I am impressed. And this new update really makes it run even better.

I am impressed with the app for a 1.0 version..I am sure tweaks will come.

The only part I don't like is the "rotate ipad to see..."

I like to settle in to one position when reading, and a good iOs UI makes the content work both horizontal and vertical. The way it stands now..if you are in one position you can end up missing content. I just think they need more "swipe down for more" instead of asking the using to rotate the pad every few pages.

Otherwise so far looks good...

Sparrow is great, but I have to agree, I would not pay $20/$25. They should do a $4.99 price point and they would make a killing in the app store and become very popular. $25 I think they will become a niche app that will never quite hit mainstream.

Xbox Live
- Demos of just about every downloadable game
- 10-20 screenshots of every game
- Video previews of many games
- Integrated rating system
- Full specs and overview

PSN
- One cryptic text paragraph
- Colorful icon
- Handy buy button

Xbox live allows you to completely browse, preview and purchase games. PSN offers absolutely no info expect a text paragraph like "An exciting RPG with 20 levels" and NOTHING ELSE. It is the worse for impulse buying and exploring. And yet has remained that way since the console came out.

If Sony focused a little less on creating new avatars to buy and more on building a compelling store experience that prompts purchases, they would do great.

iWork and especially Pages has been fantastic, very powerful programs. I was going to give the new Office a shot and tried it on the new Macbook Airs at the Apple store. I just can't get past the design. The glut of buttons and junk taking up so much real estate along the top...why does MS have to put each and every single feature out front...what a waste of space. Seriously..look at the screenshot..the buttons are like 1/5 of the screen.

I am curious to see if this works as well with the iPad. Does it? The price is high, but I have been looking and looking for a lightweight stand that I can easily store in my iPad bag.

Just got the program. I send notes to myself via private email, so I configured the app. The app sends your email immediately to the company (great...) and the notes need to come back to you from their email, not really what I wanted...

Not bad I will check it out.

I use the "Denote" app which does the same thing, but you can use your own email server, IMAP, whatever.

Also if you use Omnifocus to automatically move certain emails into your Inbox (via a rule in Apple Mail) you can set up Denote to automatically add a prefix to your emails subject line, so that notes mailed say with a prefix of "--" are automatically moved to your OF Inbox...it's very cool and works like a charm.