Marianne Schultz

the musings of a geeky girl

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How to find free eBooks in the iBooks store

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I love reading. I was one of those kids who spent more time at the library than anyone else and walked out with a stack of books to borrow each week. I used to ask my parents to drop me off at the public library and pick me up several hours later, which always earned me strange looks from them. “Are you sure you want to stay here that long?” they’d ask. I’d mutter a hasty “Yes” as I rushed into the library to browse through the musty bookshelves, usually starting in the science fiction section and working my way through to young adult books and fiction.

As an adult with less free time to read than I’d like, I still love reading. Even more specifically, I love ebooks. I’ve been reading digital books for nearly 10 years now starting way back in the day when I got my first PDA, a Palm Pilot V. I had discovered Peanut Press (now eReader.com) and reveled in the ability to have a bunch of books in my pocket to read any time I wanted. Far easier to manage than the stack of books I carried to and from the public library as a kid.
I’ve read ebooks on just about every portable electronic device I’ve had since my Palm V and even tried a first-generation Kindle to take a shot at a dedicated ebook reader (it didn’t work out). As you might expect, the iPad is turning out to be an excellent ebook reader – so much so that my husband, also an avid reader, now wants his own iPad to use an ebook reader + portable entertainment device.
On my iPhone, I primarily used the Kindle and eReader apps to access previously-purchased ebooks and

First Look: DODOcase for iPad

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If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw that I talked about ordering a DODOcase case for my iPad on the day before the iPad was released. I love the look of Moleskine notebooks and wanted at least one case for my iPad that provided a bit of camouflage while using it in public. The DODOcase fit the bill and I placed my order right away. It arrived today (well within the 4-6 week delivery window) and I’m just starting to use it and wanted to post a quick video of it to start off. I will write a full review of it after I spend some time using it regularly.

My first impressions:
  • The case is well-made and doesn’t feel flimsy at all.
  • It fits the iPad very well and the pictures and description of it at Dodocase.com are accurate.
  • It makes my iPad look like a large Moleskine notebook from afar (or even up close if someone doesn’t look closely at the edges to see the cut-outs and the sides of the iPad), which is exactly what I was hoping for.
  • My only durability concern revolves around the four foam pieces in each corner. These serve to hold the iPad in place and they could compress over time and fail to hold the iPad in securely enough. I won’t hazard a guess at how long they’ll hold up, but I’m not extremely worried about them now.
Here’s my first impressions video of the DODOcase for iPad:
The DODOcase costs $49.95 and can be found at the company’s site here.
Questions? Anything specific you want me to cover in my review? Comment on this blog post or send me an email at marianne at macgirl dot net.
DISCLOSURE: I purchased this case with my own money – it was not sent to me as a review unit.

iPhone OS 4.0: These are a few of my favorite things

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Thanks to a fantastic dev I met online (you know who you are – you ROCK!), I have installed the 4.0 beta firmware on my iPhone 3GS. I’ve been using it for the past couple of days and have a few first impressions about what I really like about it so far.

Folders are beautiful. I have a ton of apps and while the search function does help me get to them a little more quickly than scrolling through multiple pages of apps, I’ve longed for folders pretty much since the day the App Store opened. Apple finally implemented this and I’m loving it, though each folder can only hold a maximum of 12 apps, which is a bit disappointing. One dev pointed out to me via Twitter that this was most likely to avoid the need to scroll in the pop-up “window” that shows folder contents. This makes sense to me given Apple’s design sense but I still wouldn’t mind a little scrolling to have more than 12 apps in a folder.
Multi-tasking is handy. If you’re like me, you might get a little impatient while you wait for a web page to load and wish you could easily do something else on your iPhone at the same time.

Quick Review: Apple iPad case

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I bought the official Apple iPad case when I picked up my iPad on release day. Frankly, I shouldn’t have picked it since I already had a book-style case on order (this moleskine-style DodoCase, which just arrived and I put up a first impressions post + video on my blog) and I want a fitted silicone-style case as my second case to use around the house, which I purchased from Cimousa via eBay. I’ve found the Apple case to be useful for protecting my iPad from scratches and whatnot, but it offers little drop protection and drives me a little crazy from a cosmetic standpoint.

First, the positive things about the Apple iPad case:
  • Fits snugly
  • Its cover bends back and fits into a specially-designed slot neatly so that it acts as a stand
  • Access to all ports and entire screen
  • Matte black surface adds grip
On the negative side, here’s what I’ve found:
  • The case shows every single smudge or bit of dirt from anything that touches it. While it’s easy enough to brush off, it’s just annoying to a neat freak like myself that this happens so easily.
  • The lip around the section that holds the iPad makes the case look a little cheap, in my opinion.
  • In “stand mode” it’s not very sturdy and can be knocked over more easily than I’d like.
  • Too expensive for what you get.
At $39, the case is more expensive than it’s worth (though I might be a little more forgiving if it came with a screen protector and cleaning cloth). If this case were made by just about any other company, I would pay no more than $20 for it.
And while I love Apple, it seems like the logo on the front just helps advertise that I have an iPad in my hands, and it feels like an flashing arrow pointing me out to thieves saying “Mug this girl!” Of course, this is my mistake for buying this case to begin with and not Apple’s fault at all – it’s reasonable for it to put logos on its products and I should select a case without one if this is of concern to me.
In the end, I’m pretty sure I’m going to sell this case, especially since my DODOcase has arrived and functions almost just as well and offers better protection and camouflage for my iPad. Oddly,

iPad in Hand: The First Days

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So, if you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I successfully obtained my iPad with nary a problem on Saturday morning. It was a pretty good experience overall and was lightning-fast compared to what it took to get my first-generation iPhone and my iPhone 3G.

My new preciousssssss

To recap briefly, I got to my selected Apple store (at the Rockingham Mall in New Hampshire – a bit of a ways from home for me but I like to go there to avoid the bigger crowds at the Boylston store and save on sales tax) at around 7:30 a.m. I first walked to the longer line (it was closer to the entrance I used) and saw that it was marked Purchases. I asked people there if they had pre-reserved an iPad and they said no and pointed me to the other line. I walked over to the other line, which was marked by a little sign that said “Reservations” and confirmed that those people had pre-reserved their iPads. There were only two people in that line. Yes, two. I got behind them with a huge grin on my face as third in that line. I was quite happy since I had been running later than I had planned, but this apparently wouldn’t hinder my ability to get an iPad quickly without spending the entire morning there. The first guy in line had arrived at ten minutes to 7:00, so he beat me by a good margin.

That first guy in line got a lot of attention from the press. Every reporter who showed up interviewed him and took pictures or recorded video. A few reporters seemed interested in talking to the woman who was second in line as well as me, but I acted uninterested and no one talked to me or took any pictures of me. I had no desire to show up in any papers or on the news, to be honest. I get enough “Look! Geek!” reactions in my daily life as it is, thank you very much.

Promptly at 9:00 am, the doors opened and everyone in the reservations line (around 60 or more by that time) rushed into the store. It took me a minute to realize that there was no order in the store – all you needed to do was find a specialist to get you an iPad and take your money in exchange. By the time I realized that the line order wasn’t a factor in getting helped, I had to wait a minute to find a free one and then get my iPad. I hovered around the iPad cases for a moment, not expecting them to have much in stock and picked out the Apple case in haste (I should have picked out a skin case since I already have a book-style case on order). Once I had it, I paid for everything and headed out. I was back at my car by 9:18 a.m. Woot!

So what do I think of the iPad? A few of my first impressions are posted at MacRumors. Beyond this, the iPad’s weight is still probably my biggest sticking point in terms of book reading (in lieu of a Barnes & Noble Nook I had almost purchased earlier this year, the iPad is going to spend a lot of time as my dedicated ebook reader). The screen is fantastic but the fingerprints it shows so easily despite the oleophobic coating are killing me – an anti-glare screen protector is definitely on my shopping list even though it will detract from the screen’s crispness a bit.

I find that I’m loathe to load iPhone apps onto my iPad. I tried a couple and they look shrunken and miserable in normal mode and even worse in 2x mode to take up the iPad’s entire screen. Yes, I’m spoiled – I want everything I see on my iPad to look sharp and wonderful, so it looks like I’ll just waiting for iPad versions of my favorite apps. Hopefully that won’t take too long.

I’ll have more impressions about my iPad, the Apple iPad case, and iPad apps throughout this week to post here in my blog. And I’ll be posting mini reviews and news on iPad apps for my day job over at AppShopper as well.

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