While I’m happy with the new iPad Air 2, and it has seriously cut down my desktop usage, I still need a traditional computer to get work done. The problem was that my Mac was running slow. It’s over five years old. I thought about getting a new Mac, but the new models didn’t impressed me. They’re either too expensive for my budget or not a significant improvement over the earlier Macs. To save money, but boost performance, I decided to upgrade my Mac Mini.
Enjoying The Holidays With The iPad Air 2
The iPad is great for content consumption, such as gaming or web browsing, but I’m still having trouble with content creation. I picked up the Pixelmator app and it’s neat, but I still prefer photo editing with the power and precision of a desktop. I played around with Garage Band, and I enjoyed the autoplay feature, but I’m still more of a photographer than a musician.
Photography is where I saw the iPad Air 2 shine. The 8 megapixel camera is good and the large screen helps with composing shots. With the DMD Panorama and AutoStitch apps, I was able to create high-quality panoramas in seconds. The iPad Air 2 has three cores and double the memory of the previous model, enabling the iPad Air 2 to really power through complicated tasks. Shooting video and stills was also fun with the iPad. I used to think it was awkward to take pictures with an iPad, but now I can see the appeal. Yes, it still looks goofy, but it’s fun.
Even though I still prefer a desktop for productivity, my iPad is now a desktop companion. During December, the “Duet Display” app became available. It let me turn my iPad into a second monitor. The direct USB connection minimizes lag. Before buying an iPad, I looked at high-resolution monitors. I wasn’t too happy with what I saw. Supposedly, my old Mac Mini can support up to a 2560 by 1600 pixel display. A monitor in that range could easily exceed the cost of an iPad.
The new 5K iMac looked impressive to me, but I don’t want to waste $2,500 on a new computer. Ultra-High Definition (UHD) displays will likely drop in price. (A 50″ 1080p LED TV for $199 is proof of that.) Using an iPad as a second monitor feels like a good stopgap. Now I can take Retina quality screenshots (which could be quite useful for future textbook projects) without having to spend a lot of money on a new monitor. I did spend about $10 on a stand from Anker. Duet Display felt more comfortable with the iPad standing upright.
The iPad Air 2 has a resolution of 2048 x 1536. When working along side my 1280 x 1024 desktop monitor, that’s a lot of working space. I’m still stuck working in a 4:3 ratio. That’s OK though, because I can use my iPad to remotely connect to my Mac Mini. The screens lineup nicely. Using an app called Remoter VNC, I can run OS X on my iPad. This setup still leaves me longing for my keyboard, but remote access can be handy.
When I first opened the iPad Air 2 box, part of me wondered, “Where’s the rest of it?” It’s quite thin. And at first, it seemed that the iPad was also thin on usefulness. But as I keep using the iPad, I keep finding more and more things to do with it.
Where’s the Turkey / Thanksgiving Emoji?
Emoji are to text messages as a turkey dinner is to Thanksgiving in the United States. A problem occurs when all four of these things are combined. How does one send a festive text message to someone celebrating Thanksgiving? It seems like such a trivial issue, but probably lots of people have been sifting through their iPhone’s special characters – looking for a good turkey icon. I was one of those people. I looked through the People, Nature, Objects, Places and Symbols categories. I started wondering, “Where’s the thanksgiving icon?”
The Poor Man’s Retina (HiDPI) Mac
Apple’s new iMac with Retina Display is pretty impressive. With 14,745,600 pixels, the image is quite sharp. Unfortunately, it also starts at $2,499. That’s well out of my budget for a new computer. I also looked at the new MacBook Pros with Retina Displays. Starting at $1,299, I still felt that was too expensive. The problem is that HiDPI screenshots are required for my next book project. Shouldn’t there be a more affordable way to take high-quality screenshots?
iOS TestFlight Beta Testing Now Available
It’s been about three years since I launched a new iOS app on the iTunes App Store. It was typically a frustrating process with little reward. Perhaps I’m still feeling burned from the failure of BOT. It’s not enough to just try again. I have to figure out what went wrong and then improve. Today, Apple announced a way to fix one of the major problems with iOS app development – TESTING. With TestFlight, now I can easily invite up to 1000 testers to try a new game.
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