Ah yes, I remember it well

In my previous life – BSJ – my office desk, computer, bathroom mirror, and other surfaces were covered with Post-It Notes.

Some To-Do’s were vital; i.e. Send invoice to client. Others, mundane, as in Laundry. And still others, pathetic: No ice cream!

Then, the sky opened, sunlight filled the continent, and Steve Jobs ordered, "Thou shalt have Macs." Suddenly, ancient tree products and writing instruments were old hat, and programs or applications available on Apple computers, iPhones, iPods, and iPads replaced all of those Pitman-penmanship stickies.

Because #1 on my current To Do list reads, Play nice and share, I've decided to offer you a few apps and web sites that might come to your rescue. They’re likely available on non-Apple devices, but why go there?

1) Awesome Note Lite is a free Apple app that reviewers consider "ten times better" than Notes, Apple‘s default program. The same critic sniffs that the Notes application is very limited, and "Awesome Notes is a worthy solution and replacement for it."

He (oh, I'm sure it's a "he") says the biggest difference between Apple's Notes and Awesome Notes is that the latter allows you to organize your notes into folders. He says a bunch of other stuff, which you can find on the app's own page in the App store.

2) Evernote is my current favorite in this productivity category. Like the above, it's free and it's heralded for "turning the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad into an extension of your brain, helping you remember anything and everything that happens in your life." You can save notes, ideas, snapshots, and recordings and the material instantly synchronizes across your devices. I like its ability to send yourself an e-mail, which I do to further remind me that I have a reminder. Oy,

3) Remember the Milk is a long-time free app that also travels between Apple products. It has an online service that syncs, and it can send reminders via email, SMS (Short Message Service), and instant messenger.

4) ReQall is free and useful when you don’t have time to write down an idea or reminder. Just tap the ReQall app and speak or type whatever you want to remember. ReQall can send you a reminder via voice, text message, instant message, email, or calendar alert.

5) Despite what the defamer said in Option 1, I still think Apple's Notes, which lives on the Home page of your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, is a useful list-maker. It automatically syncs to your Mobile Me mail account, and you can manually e-mail your lists (you can make as many as you want) to your other e-mail services. Naturally, it's free.

Now, with my publication of this post, I can perform a step that is the beauty part of every reminder and list-making service. I can check off, "Write blog on remembering." Done!

The iPad is like a pampered pooch

I own a Mac desktop and laptop, a Shuffle and iPod, and an iPhone. With that lineage, it's no surprise my heart somersaulted at the announcement of the iPad. Full-page ads in newspapers and magazines, tech writers' glowing reviews, and bloggers' gushings only increased my lust.

But, I learned a lesson from my early iPhone purchase when I saw my $500 price tag sickeningly decline in a blink of Steve Jobs' eye. This time, I decided to wait until the iPad's inevitable price drop.

That didn't stop me from trying one out.
Megan, a Specialist at the Old Orchard Apple Store, patiently took me step-by-step through the new device. She added an enticement by showing how this blog site appears on the iPad's screen.

After testing various applications, I've concluded the iPad is like a pampered pooch; prefers the couch to outdoors, pricey to purchase and maintain, doesn't play well with others; and yet, is irresistible, delightful, and charming.

Let's start with the iPad's appealing parts. It's slim, featherweight, and gorgeous. The touch screen makes it easy to open applications, slide through photos, flip pages in a book, and maneuver as effortlessly as on an iTouch or iPhone. Music and video are stellar, too. And, it's the perfect partner for a couch-potato like myself. Raised knees provide the rack, and it's handy for reading, finding crossword puzzle clues, checking e-mails, perusing favorite Web sites, or other activities when TV bores.

But here are some nuisances: the iPad is not a stand-alone device; it requires a computer as mate for software updates and syncing of various content. So, if you're considering the iPad as a substitute for a laptop, think again.

As of now, the iPad is absent a clock (including alarm, which would've made it ideal as a bedside companion) and calculator, two apps I use frequently on my iPhone and would miss on a new gadget.

Also, there's not a built-in text method. I consider this a drag because the iPad would be ideal for older people (nix the finger pointing) who'd like the large screen and fat typewriter keys. Sure, many seniors don't text, but their kids would appreciate being able to exchange quick updates to forestall, You never call...

You could overcome this deficit by installing a free Text app from the dozen already available for the iPad. Free for the app, but a modest charge of $5.99 a year for unlimited texting. Skype could provide Apple's absent phone call option, but once again, extra steps Apple should have eliminated from the get-go.

To import photos onto the iPad from your iPhone (my only camera because its handy and adequate for my needs), you e-mail them to yourself, then download to the iPad's photo albums. Or, for an additional $29, purchase an iPad Camera Connection Kit which includes a USB cable. Like my pampered pooch, accessories get pricey.

The installed iBook app is gorgeous; no debate there. But unlike the Kindle, books purchased from the Apple store remain solely on the iPad. The Kindle, on the other hand, allows your library to appear on all of your devices -- computer and phone. Some readers get around this by installing the Kindle app on their iPads and purchasing books through Amazon.

For me, a serious flaw is iPad's current difficulty playing nice with Google Docs. Evidently, you can't edit these on the iPad. Gossips blame this on the rivalry between Steve and Sergey. But I'll give Apple the benefit of the doubt and assume it's due to some technical gobbledygook.

Reviewers are giving a "what were they thinking" to the iPad's current single user status. That means there's no way to set up separate sign-ins for your spouse or kids. Thus, all of your e-mails and files could be open to curious eyes.

Naturally, since my name is atop this blog, the opinions expressed herein are solely mine. And while I'm caveat-ing (as opposed to kvetching), let me add that some of the iPad's bratty issues can likely be tweaked with various apps, or be corrected in time.

Most importantly, I still swoon when the device catches my eye. So, if Steve wants to mollify me, I can easily be bribed with a gift of his gizmo.

Why owning an iPhone is like giving birth

I fear I have not been completely honest with those I've urged to purchase an iPhone. Naturally, as is my wont, I regale all with the marvelous features I've come to love: the myriad applications, the ability to text to two daughters at one time, my album of hundreds of photographs of myself and loved ones, the ease of telling the time of day in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and Hawaii, and on and on.

By the time, I finish my litany, I am drenched in sweat and the object of my persuasion is rushing out the door to get to the nearest Apple store. (I have already demonstrated how to find it via Maps.)

But, my daughter Faith, who made me the happiest mother in the world when she purchased an iPhone, recently admonished me for omitting difficulties with the wondrous device. "Oh, I had problems at first, too," I told her when she called to ask a tech question. "In fact, I took the phone back the next day because I found it so frustrating." "Mom," she said testily. "Why didn't you tell me?"

That's when I realized that owning an iPhone is like giving birth. You tend to forget the bad stuff. So, to make it up to Faith and to any other newbies who are about to toss their cell out the window, I'm listing a few problems that, um, may arise with your iPhone, and my solutions. (You could go directly to Apple's Discussion Forum, but isn't this more fun?)

1. Nothing happens when I touch it! It's dead!
No dear ones, your iPhone is not dead, merely frozen. You've likely confused its little computer head by touching too many applications, or doing something to make it quit. But it's easily thawed out. Here's how:

Press and hold the button that's located on the right side on the top of your iPhone. Apple calls it Sleep/Wake, but I call it On/Off. Hold it down until the red slider appears on your screen. Then, slide your finger across the slider. To turn it back on, press and hold that top button until the Apple logo appears. Leave it alone for a few minutes (you may see the little gear revolving) while the phone decides if it wants to work again.

If nothing happens after 5 minutes, press the On button again. But don't hold it down as it will power off again. All should return to normal. Other users say you can unfreeze by holding down the Off/On button at the same time as you hold down the Home/Menu button -- that's the one at the center of the bottom of the phone. If none of these fixes work, call Apple's Service and Support line at 1-800-275-2273.

2. Texting on this thing is impossible!
Let's say you've written an e-mail or text message and you've made an error somewhere in the middle of the copy. After you've erupted in a few @#$%s, calm down. You do not have to go back and erase all of the copy that comes after the error. Simply place your finger on the error until a magnifying glass appears. Do your correction. Return to the last word of your text, put your finger there (consider your finger a mouse that moves a cursor), and babble on.

3. I can't upload a photo to Facebook!
Take a photo with the camera application on your iPhone. It will land in Photos. Download the Facebook app for iPhones from the iTunes App store. Open the Facebook app and when it shows your page, look for a teeny, tiny picture of a camera to the left of the space for a status update. Click on that and select the option Choose From Library. Return to the Photos app, touch the photo you want to upload to Facebook. Add a caption, click upload and before you can say Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, your photo will appear on your Facebook page.

Now that you've learned all this, isn't your iPhone adorable? Doesn't she look just like her mother?

Cheating on Steve with Sergey

You know I'm a big (understatement) fan of Steve Jobs, but there's one of his products I recently dumped: MobileMe.

MobileMe, which Apple charges $99 per year to maintain, allows users to sync Mail, Contacts, and Calendars between computers and iPhones. But, I was never successful performing this trick. I did use the iDisk part of MobileMe for on-line storage; but even that was a bit of a hassle. So, sadly, I declined to renew my subscription (although Apple -- in the forum of dire notices -- continues to remind and plead with me to re-up).


I've chosen Google's Gmail to do my syncing between computers and iPhone; and Google Docs (Sergey Brin is Google's Co-Founder and President of Technology)- which is free - to plop all of my documents, notes, e-mail attachments, and other stuff I want to save. Because it's in a "cloud," somewhere in cyberspace, I can access it from either of my two Mac computers, my iPhone, or on computers away from home.

The beauty of cloud computing (iDisk is also a cloud) is that if a fire or other disaster (earthquakes have been popular lately) should befall your computer, your external hard drive, your thumb drive, your CDs, or whatever device you use to back-up your important things (you do backup, don't you?), your output is still safe in the cloud.

As a Jewish mother, worrying about disasters is a birthright; so no use giving me the odds of anything so bleak happening. I'll count on my Russian Sergey (maybe it's our Eastern European roots that are the lure) to protect me.

I only hope Steve forgives me.