You might think that the relatively small screen of the iPad and the fiddly on-screen keyboard would make apps like Pages really hard to use. Strange enough, I found out that my writing productivity is a lot better on the iPad than on the Mac (or any other full-blown computer). Of course, the on-screen keyboard actually is harder to use than a regular computer keyboard. But as soon as you get used to it, your typing speed will get up to 90% of your typing speed on a regular keyboard. But this isn't the point. The key advantage is you can start writing anywhere you are: at your desk, on the sofa, even in bed! Basically every time you've got an idea. Ok, you can't use it in the shower, which is where I get most ideas. There's room for improvement - waterproof iPad, anyone?

The iPad is small enough to be comfortably used on the subway and even in economy class. Try writing an article on an 15.4" computer on a plane! It's virtually impossible, especially as you need to handle all the service interrupts ("what would you like to drink, Sir?") without spilling hot coffee over your keyboard. With the iPad, just slide it in the seat pocket in front of you and you're done!

So the form factor of the iPad is a huge benefit.

Another benefit is the lack of multitasking, as strange as this might sound. The fact that the active application consumes the entire screen without any dock icons or status bar items begging for your attention allows you to really focus on the act of writing.

So every time I really want to get some serious writing done, such as an article or a blog post, I'll grab my iPad, snug myself on a comfy chair or the sofa and start hacking away at the iPad screen.

The only thing that could use some of Apple's UX love is how you can exchange files between your computer and the iPad. The built-in exchange mechanism relies on tethering the device with your computer and synching the files in question using iTunes. Not very state-of-the art, if you ask me. Of course, you can export Pages documents to MobileMe, but even Apple should realize many of their users are fans of DropBox by now. Using DropBox for synching the files only works in one direction, however. Maybe Apple will add support for DropBox in the next release of iWork - this would improve the overall usability of the iPad even more.

Despite all those UX drawbacks, using the iPad for writing has been a truly inspiring experience for me so far.

tell application "name of your app" to launch

If you want to try this from the command line, osascript comes in handy:

osascript -e 'tell app "iTunes" to launch'

So far so good. Should be easy to do this from Java, shouldn't it? Turns out it's not so easy at all. Let's try this:

  String launchCmd = "osascript -e 'tell application \"iTunes\" to play'";
  process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(launchCmd);
 
  BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(
    new InputStreamReader(process.getErrorStream()));
  while ((lsString = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
    System.out.println(lsString);
  }

I'm not sure why, but it results in a nasty "0:1: syntax error: A unknown token can't go here. (-2740)" error message.

But there is another signature for Runtime.exec:

  String[] cmd = { "osascript", "-e",	"tell app \"iPhone Simulator\" to launch" };
  process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);
 
  BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(
    new InputStreamReader(process.getErrorStream()));
  while ((lsString = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
    System.out.println(lsString);
  }

... and this works out just fine!

However, the keyboard shortcuts are really strange. In case you didn't find out yourself, here are the most important ones:

• Send message - CMD+SHIFT+D (what does the D stand for? Deliver?)
• Apply rules to selected mails - CMD+ALT+L (L for ruLe ???)
• Select all messages in a thread - CMD+SHIFT+K (K for seleKt ???)
• Erase junk mail - CMD+ALT+J (now, this is obvious - J for Junk)

Apple developers, if you read this, please comment on the deeper meaning behind the shortcuts.

So I decided to give Fink a try. Here is what you need to do to get a CVS commandline client on your Mac:

1. Download Fink
2. Install Fink
3. Copy FinkCommander to your Applications folder
4. Start FinkCommander
5. In the search box, type "cvs"
   
   

6. Click on the "install binary package" button (it's the leftmost, with the blue plus sign)
7. In the lower pane, you can now watch Fink downloading and installing the CVS package.
   
   

8. Let's see if it works. Open a command line window and type "cvs":
   
   

Perfect!

Of course, I configured Opera to be the default browser on my Mac. Which is nice for surfing the web. However, I do not want the Eclipse Help system to appear in Opera - mostly because I tend to have way too many tabs open anyway. So, I'd like to open Eclipse Help in Safari. Here's what you need to do to achieve this:

1. In Eclipse, open the preference dialog
2. Select General -> Web Browser
3. Click New... to add a new external web browser
4. In the dialog box Edit External Web Browser, fill in the following details:
   
   

5. Click Ok, then Finish

Obviously, this only works on Mac OS.

I guess it might be a good idea if PDE UI could transparently add this parameter to Eclipse launch configurations - I opened a bug to get this fixed.

The concepts of the GUI seem to be quite familiar to those who know the iPhone, don't they? Have a look at this:

"This is the day I've been looking for for two and half years"

If you come to think of it, the Star7 PDA prototype development took place in the early 90's. Steve Jobs' introduced the iPhone in his keynote speech in 2007. "Two and a half years..." Did they really invent the iPhone from scratch? If so, Apple seiously suffers from the Not Invented Here Syndrome...

There is an interesting discussion regarding whether Apple invented all those concepts on their own. One commenter writes:

Do anybody think Sun is able to come up with anything like iPhone? I don't think so look at the Swing UI. after many years and many new L&F wots the difference? There is not a UI that can rival the default UI of the OS X nor Windows. Face it.....Sun is not know for designing.

Oh, and we must not forget Google Android:

Funny how all those things resemble each other so much...The bottom line is that among the three devices, the Star7 is the only really innovative one. It had been way ahead of it's time. What a pity Sun didn't make more of it.