I’m lukewarm about gambling $45 on [...]]]> So far I’ve pledged to one Kickstarter project that didn’t get funded, and one that did but with less than stellar results—unless you like blurry video, in which case I’d be happy to sell you mine for much less than what they’re charging for a new one.

I’m lukewarm about gambling $45 on another project. But the Touchfire keypad cover looks pretty darn promising, and it furthers my goal to replace my Macbook with an iPad (gen. 3).

Having no user-accessible file system on the iPad, and relying on [...]]]> When the iPad was originally announced my first (maybe second) thought was buh-bye MacBook Pro. Don’t get me wrong, I love my MBP, but I’d replace it with a 27″ iMac in a heartbeat if I didn’t need to work sometimes when I’m traveling.

Having no user-accessible file system on the iPad, and relying on tethering to iTunes for syncing data also seemed painful. Particularly the file transfer part of using something like Pages to create/edit documents on both iPad and Mac. For the sake of brevity I’ll refer to Pages but this goes for Numbers and Keynote as well.

Dropbox.com eased the file transfer to some degree. And now that iCloud is in the mix, it’s even better. But issues remain.

Even if you stay in Apple’s e-cosphere it’s not as seamless as it should be needs to be.

Pages for iOS devices is a solid lightweight word processor but there remains a disconnect between it and the desktop. Sure, you can now login to iCloud.com/iwork and anything that you were working on using your iPad will be there. But you have to download that version to your desktop before opening it. How do you then share that with others? You can email them a copy. Or post it to iWork.com, where they can view, annotate or download (with proper permissions set) a copy. But it’s a copy.

And what about collaborating with Office users? Not good… particularly if they use a font that’s not available in Pages, or hope to track changes made to their document.

So what does work?

If you can stay in Pages for iOS for document creation and editing, you’re golden. If you only need to start documents on your iPad to be finished by you or a colleague on a Mac, also golden. You can even send them a Word file. But until Pages for Mac can work on iCloud stored files the same way Pages for iOS can, there’s a major file versioning hiccup that spoils the experience. In fact there’s a major versioning issue with that iCloud document even in iOS. There’s only the last version unless you copy it at various points.

And if you prefer to use Office… I really can’t see Microsoft coming up with an iOS version of Office apps anytime soon. BUT you might be able to spend more money with MS and sign up for their Office365.com service ($6/mo for Plan P) and use Office Web Apps in Mobile Safari for your remote document creation needs.

There are other issues with dropping the MBP for the iPad: storage and intensive image editing give me pause. AKA the photographer’s workflow. But there are pretty sweet iApps for remote file access. And I could make better use of my dropbox account for storing files via the iPad…

Anyway, here’s a list of useful resources related to this topic:

• How to Migrate All Your Data to iCloud from Google with Minimal Fuss
• Pages of iOS Support
• Pages for Mac support
• iCloud: About using iWork for iOS and iCloud
• Pages for iOS: Supported file formats
• iWork for iOS: Compatible fonts
• iWork.com Public Beta information
• Presence: internet access to all your Mac’s files

Wired wrote a great article. And I love these quotes:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life,”
Jobs said. “Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results
of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions
drown out your [...]]]>

Wired wrote a great article. And I love these quotes:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life,”
Jobs said. “Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results
of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions
drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to
follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you
truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don’t want to die to get there,” he told the Stanford graduates [Stanford Commencement Speech, 2005]. “And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new … Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

I can only add my gratitude. He changed my life for the better with everything he did.

Everyone wants to rank on Page 1. At least everyone who’s selling something. Obviously that’s not possible as long as [...]]]>

I fully acknowledge the value of, and need for, actual SEO; I just think that in many cases, the tactics employed under that title would better be described as Search Engine Manipulation or even Abuse.

Everyone wants to rank on Page 1. At least everyone who’s selling something. Obviously that’s not possible as long as Page 1 is limited to X number of links.

So what can you do? Establish a niche, then spend the time and effort needed to become credible with the people who have influence over that area of the web.

You become SEO-relevant by being relevant.

Don’t have the time? Hate Facebook? There are companies that can help you. And individuals (shameless self promotion – hint hint) who can make sure your website looks good to search engine crawlers as well as potential customers.

But you still need to set realistic expectations.

If you sell, for example, x’d-out golf balls by the dozen, chances are good that the SEO company guaranteeing Google Page 1 results within a week for all searches on “cheap golf balls” is gaming the system. Be prepared to have your domain name blacklisted before you sell out of your balls.

On the other hand, if you established your online business say 3 years ago and have built a decent reputation through repeat business, then your site can look like a Yahoo Store circa 2005 and Google will rank you. Exhibit A: www.we-got-your-balls.com

Anyway, read the article if you’re interested in SEO and wondering why it’s hard to compete in the Wild Wild Web.

(via SEO for Non-dicks – Matt Legend Gemmell)

In case you were wondering…

A website can have many components, these are just some of the things that can go into making a website to illustrate why it’s simply not possible to give a figure off the top of our heads and that building a great website requires thought, planning and a partnership [...]]]>

In case you were wondering…

A website can have many components, these are just some of the things that can go into making a website to illustrate why it’s simply not possible to give a figure off the top of our heads and that building a great website requires thought, planning and a partnership between client and agency.

(via What does a website cost?)

(via xkcd: Password Strength)