While I haven’t read every post, it appears that most of the interviewed pro’s primarily use Mac, although many have Windows as a secondary platform. There are plenty of Windows setup discussions, though, so Windows users should not give up too quickly in looking through the interviews.

I already have much of the software discussed by the majority of the pro’s, but I am trying out some new software based on what they use. It’s amazing how many of pro’s use basically the same things (TextMate, Launcher 5, Things or TaskPaper for task management, BBEdit, Yojimbo, etc).

Paul Stamatiou also has a very detailed writeup on what hardware and software he uses. I have a great deal of respect for Paul’s knowledge of “all things geek,” and paid close attention to his list (and am trying out a couple of new items because of it).

If you want to make sure you’re using the best software, these lists are just what you need.

I already have a first-generation Kindle, but the more I heard about the new ones, and the fact that I could get one for only $139, the more it seemed I should get one. Plus, the iPad was not panning out for serious reading … that is for reading for a few hours at a time. For one, it is definitely not a one-handed device: it weighs too much to hold in hand for any serious length of time. Plus, the bright background and black lettering tend to tire the eyes.

So, I got a new Kindle a few days ago, and have been using the heck out of it ever since. I absolutely love it. I received it when I was pretty much confined to my couch, having pulled my back a day earlier. I comfortably held in it my hand for hours, most of the day (with occasional breaks), and it was no heavier than a light paperback. And, the e-ink screen did not wear on my eyes in the least. In short: it provides a great reading experience.

I have read a lot with it, and the reading experience is superior to any other reading device I’ve used. Plus, after hours and hours and hours of reading, the battery is still nearly fully charged. (Amazon claims you can get 3 to 4 weeks off of a single charge, depending on WiFi use … looks to me like they are not overestimating at all.) Even though the iPad has a 10-hour battery life, which is impressive given all the device can do, I have had to halt reading on it several times to charge the iPad. That will only happen rarely with the Kindle (that is, about once a month).

One thing I love about the Kindle is that I can highlight as much text as I want, within any book, and the text is saved to a My Clippings text file that I can read on my Kindle or computer. I can even transfer the file to my computer, so I can make use of the material.

For example, here is some material I highlighted in one of the books I’m currently reading:

The Executive and the Elephant: A Leader’s Guide for Building Inner Excellence (Richard L. Daft)
- Highlight Loc. 1331-34 | Added on Saturday, October 09, 2010, 09:23 PM

Hofstadter’s Law states (and mathematically proves) that every task takes longer to complete than estimated, even when one has added time to take the law into account. For example, daily to-do lists and project plans are notoriously optimistic and are seldom completed as expected. Plans are often based on the inner elephant’s best-case scenarios, leading to frustration down the line.

So far I have highlighted about 30 paragraphs from that ebook, and I’m less than a third of the way through it. Technically, I could highlight the entire book if I wanted to, as the amount of highlighting is unlimited. Of course most of us are not at all interested in copying an entire book (most of us consider it unethical), but we can sure appreciate that the highlighting does not have some stupid artificial limit.

Another thing I love about the Kindle: I can have my Instapaper reading material sent to it. If you are not familiar with Instapaper, it basically takes a web page that you give it (supply the URL) and formats the page for easy reading. There are Instapaper apps for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, and these have been among my favorite apps for a long while. Basically, anytime I see a web page that I want to read, but it looks to be more than a few hundred words long, or it is cluttered with ads, or it uses some dinky 12-pixel font on my 20-inch screen, then I click my Read Later bookmarklet, and the article is added to my Instapaper reading list, all formatted nicely for my 61 year-old eyes.

This was a huge deal for me: I have close to 200 items in my Instapaper reading list, and had been going through them on my iPad. Some I have read, but decided to keep for reference, generally because the articles had a paragraph or two that I wanted to refer to again. I have to admit that this is kind of an “un GTD” thing for me to do, because I had not taken the action of listing actions for these paragraphs that interested me. Thoughts of doing something with the paragraphs just continued to float around in my subconscious.

But now I am working my way through these “Instapaper articles” on my Kindle, and I’m highlighting the paragraphs that interested me, ones that I might do something with some day. This makes this material available in My Clippings, so I can copy and paste the material into an action list or my computer (or onto a someday list). I feel really good that I am capturing a ton of useful material that I might have otherwise let go to waste.

So, what I am saying is: you don’t have to “settle for” the 700,000 ebooks you can get from Amazon: you can add your own material to the Kindle. Instapaper is one example, but you can also email other types of documents to yourself (Word, Text, PDF, …). I have a list of inspirational quotes that I emailed to my Kindle, and find that it’s better to read the quotes on it than on any other device.

You can also subscribe to magazines and newspapers … right now, you can’t do that with the Kindle apps for the iPad and iPhone.

I almost forgot to mention that the Kindle is sent to you already set up. If you have purchased Kindle ebooks in the past, that entire library is available to you in the Archived Items. For me, all 67 of my ebooks were listed in the Archive. Clicking on any of them downloads them to the device for reading reading. (Quick and easy.)

Downsides? There really aren’t many. The only little aggravation I’ve had with the Kindle is the Font adjustments. There are a few books for which one font size is too small and the next available font size is too large. At least that was my initial reaction. After a while, this seemed to not be a problem for me, and I guess I adjusted to a text size that initially seemed small to me. But it was something I had to get accustomed to.

I have found that not all books use the same font settings, though. So, if you make your adjustments for one book, you could have to readjust for another one. (Most of the books seem to stick to the same standard, but there are a few books that are way off from the rest.) On the plus side, at least it is adjustable, as is the amount of space between the lines.

The browser is also a disappointment to me. It’s much better than on my first-generation device, and has an article mode that makes reading easier, but I’ll stick to browsing using my iPad and computer.

You can also get apps for the Kindle. I haven’t tried any, and really don’t plan to. I have enough apps to tinker with on my iPad, iPhone, and myTouch device upgraded to Android 2.2. To me, the Kindle is purely for reading, and it certainly excels at that.

Interested in getting one for yourself or as a gift? If you buy through the following links, I get a little of the action (a few dollars), as Amazon affiliate:

• Kindle (Wi-Fi, 6″)
• Kindle (Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6″)

Note that I have not attempted to out-do the review done by my friend and fellow Georgia Tech graduate, Paul Stamatiou. Paul’s super, in-depth review is here. You may prefer to purchase a Kindle through one of his links, because he does such a great job getting into the details.

If you do get a Kindle, my recommendation would be to get the WiFi-only model, unless you do not have WiFi at home and/or work. But, even though I am big on being thrifty, I think that even the Free 3G + WiFi model is a bargin.

Final thoughts: The Kindle will not be replacing my iPad, of course. They are different things. But, I have found myself using the iPad a lot less … I really used it a lot of reading (ebooks and Instapaper’ed material). I do find that I seem to have “more peace of mind” now that I use the Kindle, though: when I read, I read, and am not so prone as I was with the iPad to read a little, then check Twitter and email and weather and news and so on.

I don’t use my Pocket PC much at all anymore. I really should sell it. But, I still like to play PDAmill’s Mahjong on it from time to time. And, it still holds several unread e-books in Microsoft Reader format, and I really should read them … most are good books.

But, if I really wanted to, I could find a good Mahjong game for my iPhone and iPad. And, I could read the Microsoft Reader e-books on my Windows-based laptop. (It is pretty much going unused, too, though … I have to remember to turn it on for a while every couple of weeks to keep it from just dying of non-use.)

The Pocket PC feature that I can’t replace, though, is the handwriting capability. Microsoft’s handwriting recognition software is really pretty neat. Often I would just pick the Axim up, open an empty notepad, and just begin writing — just for the therapy. It’s been a while since I’ve done that, though … now I just grab a legal pad or steno notebook and begin brain dumping. But, for a few years, I preferred to use a Pocket PC for that.

Technology comes and technology goes. In its day, the Pocket PC was every bit as innovative as the iPhone. Maybe more so. But, it was marketed more for geeks and never really caught on with the masses. That just goes to show that it’s important to keep in mind who you are selling to, and to ensure you are really marketing to the audience you want to capture.

Do you still have a Pocket PC?

But it’s not just science fiction now:

Dutch research organisation IMEC, based in Eindhoven, this week demonstrated a new type of wireless body area network (BAN). Dubbed the Human++ BAN platform, the system converts IMEC’s ultra-low-power electrocardiogram sensors into wireless nodes in a short-range network, transmitting physiological data to a hub – the patient’s cellphone. From there, the readings can be forwarded to doctors via a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. They can also be displayed on the phone or sound an alarm when things are about to go wrong, giving patients like me a chance to try to slow our heart rates and avoid an unnecessary shock.

And, the associated software runs on Google’s Android operating system.

I am impressed that technology is demonstrating more and more benefits in the medical world. Many of us will be able to take advantage of this technology in the near future. We should be thankful for that.

At the same time, we should also be aware that much of the world is not privy to such benefits. For example, because of poverty, millions of people starve to death every month. And, as Bill Gates points out, there even appears to be a connection between disease and intelligence. So, while these neat little technological advances will benefit many, there is so much more that needs to be done.

But fortunately my buddy Thomas R. Hall loaned me his T-Mobile myTouch 3G, updated with the CyanogenMod version of Android 2.2. And, since Android 2.0 and up can be run in a WiFi-mode, bypassing the phone setup, I have been able to use the device (except for the phone) using my home WiFi.

Now, to me, just that fact in and of itself is cool. I can run an operating system and connect to WiFi without having to sign a contract with one of the carriers. Imagine if Apple did that with the iPhone. (Well, in a way they have: it’s called the iPod Touch. Try porting the iOS to another, spare device you have setting around, though.)

There are all sorts of apps for the device. This is one area where Android has grown up quickly: many iPhone developers are porting their apps to Android, so many of the apps an iPhone-lover might want are now available for Android.

For example, after using a few chromatic guitar tuners on my iPhone, I finally settled in on ClearTune, which turned out being available for Android as well, and it works very well on it. The Remember The Milk app is another one that I tried out on the Android. It works okay, but it weighed in at 4MB, which is twice as large as the Kindle app. Plus, they advertised their app as free, but it turned out being free only for 15 days. So, I deleted it. All-in-all, though, the Android Market experience has been pretty good for me.

And, still speaking of apps: many of the apps can be treated as widgets, which can display up-to-date information on your home screen (or any of your screens). Some popular widgets are the clock and the news and weather widgets. These are easy to install, and easy to uninstall, too. They are fun to have, but do cost some system resources. So, if you use a lot of widgets and the battery drains faster than you’d like, you can try cutting back on the widgets.

A last point on the apps: Apple still has the largest app store, by far, but the gap is closing and it will continue to do so. I would expect Android apps to take off like gangbusters once Amazon opens its Android App Store (you’ve probably seen the rumors).

What most impresses me most is the extensibility of Android. For example, if you prefer a different keyboard, there are several keyboard apps available. Long-time Palm users would probably like that there is even a Graffiti app for Android. No joke. I tried it out (it’s free), and it works just like the Palm graffiti does.

Speaking of keyboards, I love the word-suggestion feature of Android. It reminds me of Windows Mobile software, by offering four or five suggested words for each word you are typing. Except it’s better. The suggestion algorithms that are being used must be pretty advanced, because they so often offer up the word I’m looking for even when it’s a word that is not used very often.

Android has the Apple iOS beat hands-down in this area. I wish Apple would learn from what Google has done in the word suggestion area, but I doubt that they will.

One more thing about keyboards: you can use speech input instead of typing. From what I’ve tried out, it looks like anywhere you can use the keyboard, you can bypass typing by just tapping the voice icon on the keyboard and speaking what you want written. The speech recognition is excellent, even with my soft-spoken and deep voice. Of course it is not perfect, but it does a really good job. As far as I know, Android is the only OS that will let you speak into any text box. Super cool.

And, back to extensibility, there are an astounding number of settings that you can adjust to your own liking. If you are a geek, you would really love all of the stuff you can adjust and tinker with.

Of course, with me just using WiFi and no phone features, my sense of the device’s battery life is not based on real-world use. Nonetheless, from what I can tell, the battery life is on par with my iPhone (I only use its phone for a few minutes a day).

The stability of Android also impresses me. Here is a operating system that was unheard of until recent times, and now it is sophisticated enough to run just about any app you would want to run, even on an older device. I can imagine that it is really a charmer on the newer phones.

I have found the speed and “snappiness” of the device to be entirely satisfactory. Given that the myTouch is a bit of an older device, with less memory available than on some newer systems, I do try to kill off any apps that I am not using. Too many apps running will drag the responsiveness down, of course. But, it has not been an issue with me.

I am really interested in seeing if Amazon comes out with an Android tablet, as has been rumored. Despite the fact that I love my iPad (and iPhone, too), I would really seriously consider getting one. Maybe it’ll be available in time for me to give to myself as a Christmas present?

Overall, I am impressed with Android. I have to agree with Thomas that it’s not only for geeks now: it has matured (and the hardware along with it) to the point that it is a great system for the average consumer. And, if AT&T’s service gets any more crappy in my area, I’ll be for heading to a different carrier and an Android phone.

Update: As Thomas points out in the comment below, I’ve only had the device for a few days. Hence, I’ll likely have a follow-up article at some point, based on additional learning.

Update 2: No matter how highly one might think of Android 2.2 (Froyo) as a platform for smartphones, CrunchGear is reporting that LG has found it to be unsuitable for Tablets, and that Google is stating that it is not intended for Tablets. In fact, LG is quoted as saying

We plan to introduce a tablet that runs on the most reliable Android version … We are in talks with Google to decide on the most suitable version for our tablet and that is not Froyo 2.2.

I find this to be really curious, given that my understanding is that Android is built on a Java platform. From what I remember about Java, from tinkering with programming in it about 10 years ago, it is a platform that is supposed to be “device independent.” Sure sounds like that is not valid, at least in the Tablet case.

For now, I am continuing to resist the temptation. I was on the verge of ordering one of the new Kindles, but then Amazon updated its Kindle App to include dictionary lookup and, more importantly for me, to increase the spacing between lines of text. Two complaints I had with the iPad for reading Kindle books were the weight of the iPad (about 24 ounces) and the use of single-line spacing for the text in the Kindle books, making the text crowded and not particularly easy to read. So now that the Kindle App uses a line spacing of about 1.5 (instead of 1), more in line with the actual Kindle’s line spacing, the text is much, much easier to read. The weight of the iPad is the only downside right now, for me. (The new Kindle is only about 9 ounces … much easier to hold in the hand.)

From what I understand, the new Kindles are already sold out, so I get to think about this some more. If it turns out that I want to do a good bit of heavy duty reading (say, a hundred pages per setting, or more), then the comfort factor of the Kindle would probably be worthwhile. For long reading times, the Kindle is probably better on the eyes, too. (Proponents of e-ink technology claim that, although I do not know if it is true or not.)

What about you? Are you considering one of the new Kindles, even if you already own an iPad?

If you have an iPhone 4 and have encountered problems syncing with Microsoft Exchange Server, Apple has a fix for that. I do not have any personal experience with this, but thought it would be a useful link for some of you.

John Gruber gives a superb comparison of data speeds for recent iPhone models.

iPhone Central has a useful article on setting up iPhone 4 folders. The tips also apply to an iPhone 32GS that has been upgraded to iOS 4.

Chris Brandrick tells how to put calls on hold with the iPhone 4 (FaceTime Connect has taken the place of the Hold button … but Hold still works with the Mute button).

Although I primarily got an iPad for its reading experience, one of the things I wondered about was whether it would work okay as a portable computer. It seems to me to be very functional in that regard. I wrote the initial draft of this post using the iPad with an Apple wireless (bluetooth) keyboard and the WordPress iPad app. If I want to edit documents or spreadsheets with it, I can easily do so with my Google Docs account. Alternately, I could purchase the Documents To Go, QuickOffice, or Pages apps for editing such documents. I just don’t see the need to at this time.

One thing that really sells me on the iPad as a portable computer is the incredible battery life: it is every bit of the advertised 10 hours, which beats the heck out of any laptop I’ve ever worked with.

Of course, if I need to use Microsoft Access in any consulting work, the iPad would not work for me: I’d have to fall back to using a laptop that has MS Office installed. Otherwise, anything I need to do on a portable computer I could do comfortably with the iPad. And, the experience of using the iPad is one heck of a lot better than using a laptop. I click the home button and it turns on instantly. Apps open instantly (or very nearly so … some big apps take a little bit of time, but not much). The overall experience of using an Ipad is very satisfying. It’s like computers should have been all along.

The reading experience on the iPad is the best of any device I’ve ever owned. The Kindle App for the iPad absolutely puts the Kindle itself to shame. It provides an incredibly good reading experience, and I expect to use the iPad for reading all of my Kindle ebooks. iBooks also works very nicely for PDFs as well as ePub books. The only thing I dislike about using iBooks is that I have to load the PDFs or ePubs using iTunes (I just open up a folder that contains them and drag them into the “Books Tab” within iTunes when my iPad is syncing), except for the books I buy directly from the iTunes store. I would really prefer to be able to just upload them to my Dropbox account, or some other cloud-based account, and open them from there using iBooks. [That way I wouldn't have to sync twice if I also wanted the books and PDFs to be viewable on my iPhone ... I could just open them all from the Dropbox account.]

The iPad can also be used as a PDA. Its calendar can sync with a number of calendars (I sync to my Google Calendar), and the same with the Contacts. The Calendar and Contact displays are gorgeous and very functional. I am still experimenting with To-Do apps. Right now I am transferring all of my tasks to Toodledo (from OmniFocus), as the Toodledo iPad and iPhone apps are very easy to use, and sync perfectly with my Toodledo online account. (The Toodledo iPad app is really superbly done.) I’m moving from OmniFocus because I really just want a simple, no frills To-Do app. I may even be ready to just use a simple text-based list, such as the one within Google Calendar or the text editor being developed by Hog Bay Software. The latter sounds like it will suit me the best, and it will be set up to sync with Dropbox.

My app list so far is as follows:

Built-in: Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Maps, Videos, YouTube, iTunes, App Store, Settings, Safari, Mail, Photos, iPod

Purchased/Free: Dropbox, Evernote, Google Mobile, Google Earth, GoodReader, NYT Editor’s Choice, Huff Post, Reeder, Mashable, Financial Times Mobile Edition, NPR, Pulse News, The Weather Channel, USA Today, Bloomberg, Accuweather, WebMD, iBooks, InstaPaper, Kindle, TaskPaper, Toodledo, WordPress

My favorite apps so far are: Calendar, Contacts, Safari, Mail, Dropbox, GoodReader, Reeder, TWC, USA Today, iBooks, InstaPaper, and Kindle.

Some apps have a little too many frills for me. In particular, the very popular Pulse News app was a disappointment to me, not because of the substance of its content, but because of the horizontal news scroll “feature,” with lots and lots of pictures so that I have to really focus to read the titles. Here is a snapshot:

(The fuzziness in the text is due to my shrinking the picture down to fit within this post … the text on the iPad is very crisp and clear, as it is in every iPad app I’ve used.)

The NPR News app is similar. Now, this may be the “in thing,” but it doesn’t work well for me. I like to be able to quickly scan titles to find womthing of interest, and I prefer an overall vertical orientation to a horizontal one. For this reason, I much, much prefer the Reeder app for my news feed (it syncs with my Google Reader account). But, you may prefer the horizontal approach, with lots of pictures, so it is nice to have some variety in the app store.

Overall I am delighted with the iPad. If you are also an iPad user, I’d love to hear your impressions and what your favorite apps are.

1. Windows — 67%
2. Macintosh — 24%
3. iPad — 2.67%
4. iPod — 2.33%
5. iPhone — 1.92%
6. Linux — 1.46%
7. (not set) — 0.36%
8. Android — 0.27%
9. BlackBerry — 0.12%

Together, the iPad, iPod, and iPhone connections represent almost 7% of the total.

It’s also interesting that, while the Android connections are still a very small percentage of the total, they have beat out the BlackBerry connections.

I fully expect that the percentage of mobile connections will beat the Windows and Macintosh connections within the next two years. I’ll be keeping an eye on these stats and will let you know if anything interesting emerges. I’m interested in seeing how quickly the iPad climbs to the 10% level (and whether that will occur this year), and how well a Google Android-based tablet does in the stats a couple of months after one is released.

For the most part, it has run very well, and I like its task switching feature. Of course, most of the apps that I have on my 32Gs have not been updated to support true multi-tasking, but the task switching feature is nice anyway.

Three of my apps do not behave well with iOS 4: WriteRoom will not let me sign in to sync to the Google server it uses for document synchronization. It will let me view existing documents, but not sync changes or new documents. The problem is that WriteRoom uses a dialog box that requires one to hit the Enter Key when switching between fields, instead of using the touch screen to move between the fields. So, hitting ENTER to tell the app that I’ve finished signing in doesn’t work. It should be an easy fix, but it is annoying. (The previous iOS versions apparently tolerated this sort of sloppiness and poor user interface, but iOS 4 does not.)

The NYT app is another one that does not behave well: it opens up, tries to load the new articles, then closes. Frustrating. And the Discovery Magazine app will not return to the front page when a document is viewed, so I have to use the app’s arrow keys to page up through the new stories. Not the end of the world, but annoying.

As the developers of these apps upgrade to support iOS 4, these problems will no doubt go away.

One of the reasons I went ahead and upgraded is that I thought iBooks 1.1 would be available for the iPhone. Alas, it is not yet available, and I have checked almost everyday since upgrading to iOS 4 and iTunes 9.2. Apparently the iBooks will not be available for the iPhone until the iPhone 4 is officially available.

On a separate but somewhat related matter, I have done a significant update to my popular iPod Touch (or iPhone) as a PDA and Entertainer article. If you get a chance to read it, please let me know if I have left anything worthwhile out of it. A lot of people use that article (it currently has about 120 comments) and I want to keep it as up-to-date and useful as possible.

Finally, I ordered an iPad (32 GB) last week, and am impatiently awaiting its delivery (I ordered on the 7th, and it is not scheduled to ship until the 21st). I’ll probably do a write-up on it at some point.