Content Creation on an iPad

Ever since the iPad was announced, some tech commentators have delighted in claiming that it is suitable only for content consumption and that content creation just isn't feasible. I think they mean this to be an argument against the iPad (because they apparently feel that consuming content on a slick, user-friendly device with a fantastic screen and great battery life somehow isn't enough to justify a purchase) but, fortunately, their basic assumption is flawed; it's perfectly possible to create on the iPad (assuming, of course, that you're able to "create" in the first place).

This week a "journalist" in the New York Times has again rolled out this bizarre idea (thanks to the Macalope for the link):

The iPad, for all its glory, suffers from one very distinct flaw: It’s very difficult to use for creation. The keyboard on the screen, although pretty to look at, is abysmal for typing anything over 140 characters. There isn’t a built-in pen for note-taking, either.

This sounds reasonable, if you have never used an iPad, but it isn't and it's annoying, so here is a list of the things I create on mine.

The first thing I need to mention is that this blog entry is being written on my iPad using a great app called PlainText, which does exactly what its name implies. In fact, most of the blogs on this site are drafted, in some form or to some degree, in PlainText.

In a somewhat different vein, I use an app called Diet Coda to build and edit the websites I create for my own amusement. It turns out that the iPad can be used, if you have the right app, to build and publish websites, from scratch, without ever going near a traditional computer.

Photography is also possible using the built-in camera (the retina display on the new iPad makes a stunning viewfinder) and an image manipulating app like iPhoto, Photogene, ColorSplash, AutoStitch or SnapSeed. These are seriously impressive apps with powerful features; using them to create new content is a doddle.

Have I mentioned email? I've written many, many emails on my iPad.

And those are just the things that I can create on my iPad. Other people compose music (not really my thing), paint or draw (generally beyond me) or shoot and edit great videos. With the right apps and, more importantly, the right skills, you can do almost anything on an iPad that you can do on a traditional computer. I would go so far as to say that if you can't create art on an iPad you probably aren't going to be able to create it on a desktop (and the machine probably isn't the limiting factor).

If you're considering an iPad but you're wondering how it will fit into your content creation workflow after reading the Times' article, don't worry, everything will be fine. Buy one today, load it with apps and start producing your art; it'll be great.

On the Buses

Until I moved to London in October 2010 my experience of buses was limited. In Hampshire (where I used to live) the buses tend to be slow, infrequent and expensive with routes and timetable that seem devised to minimise their usefulness. The bus operators in Hampshire habitually send out their vehicles without the means to make change and with drivers seemingly trained to be as awkward as possible.

The net effect is that infrequent passengers, who might not be familiar with the arcane charging structures and indecipherable stop naming practices of the rural bus operators, are often deterred from travelling by the drivers' irrational demands for precise destination information and exact change. The change issue is particularly annoying, especially when, having waited 20 minutes for the bus to arrive in the first place, you're denied a ticket (the cost of which cannot readily be determined before boarding) by a hostile driver unwilling to accept a note.

You may have guessed by now that I have no love for Hampshire's buses, but what about buses in London? Good question.

Bus operators in the metropolis have several advantages over their provincial colleagues, primarily a large customer base. The huge number of people using buses in London allows operators to profit even with much lower ticket prices.

Part of the reason for the large number of travellers is surely the ubiquitous Oyster card, London's RFID payment system. The savings for regular travellers when comparing Oyster tickets (£1.35 per trip) with standard tickets (£2.30) are substantial and encourage everyone to use the fast and convenient Oyster card. Large numbers of people can board buses quickly when everyone pays by touching their card to the reader.

The other big advantage of the London buses is that there are lots of them so you generally don't have to wait too long for the next one to arrive. This lets you to take a relaxed attitude to catching a bus, something that is most definitely not the case in rural locations with only one or two services a day.

Beyond that, of course, things are much the same. The buses themselves are generally fairly uncomfortable, especially when stuck in traffic during hot weather; there's only so much that air conditioning can do to help cool a stationary greenhouse on wheels. Poor suspension and noise insulation make the ride rough (especially in those areas plagued by speed bumps) and loud.

The biggest problem, though, surpassing even the people who play bad music through tinny headphones, are the stinkers. Some people, for reasons unknown, simply don't wash regularly enough to prevent their stench making life unpleasant for their fellow passengers. Above all else, this issue makes travelling by bus an ordeal, especially on a cold day when the windows can't be opened.

This, then, is my request; if you're going to take advantage of London's cheap, reliable and easy-to-use bus network, please wash and deodorise before boarding. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Three things for London's Mayor

The Mayor of London has a number of responsibilities, as described on the official website:

The Mayor has a duty to set out plans and policies for London covering transport, planning and development, housing, economic development and regeneration, culture, health inequalities, and a range of environmental issues including climate change, biodiversity, ambient noise, waste disposal and air quality. The Mayor has a number of other duties relating to culture and tourism, including managing Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square.

Source: http://www.london.gov.uk/who-runs-london/mayor/role

There are three areas within the Mayor's remit that would benefit from immediate attention:

Firstly, traffic. There is absolutely no way that London's roads can be made to carry, at a reasonable average speed, the number of private cars that try to enter the city each day. The only option, if we are to travel around the city at anything more than a brisk jog, is to provide alternatives to driving, which means investing in both public transport and cycling infrastructure. Of the two, cycling infrastructure is by far the cheaper solution. There are lots of problems to be solved, of course, especially on London's narrower roads, but the Dutch and Danish have already solved them all - we just need to apply their lessons.

Secondly, and related to the first problem, Boris needs to tackle air pollution. London has no heavy industry to speak of and coal is now rarely used as a domestic heat source so most of the air pollution comes from motor vehicle exhausts. Air pollution in general kills around 13,000 people in the UK each year (source) so reducing the amount of rubbish we push into the atmosphere would have a significant positive impact on society. Trimming motor traffic, particularly in areas frequented by large numbers of people (like Oxford Street and Regent Street) would be the obvious first step and would have the additional benefit of making our city a more pleasant place to walk, shop, visit and live.

Finally, and completely unrelated to traffic or pollution, I'd like to see Boris reduce dramatically the number of underused properties, both commercial and domestic, which plague London in disturbingly large numbers. It seems strange that buildings are allowed to fall into disrepair in a city where property is so expensive but it isn't at all uncommon. Offices, shops, warehouses, houses and power stations (Battersea, for example) are abandoned and allowed to decay until they cease to be habitable and become a drain on society. Disused buildings reduce both the appeal of an area and its economic health so clearing (to create urban woodland, maybe) or re-occupying empty buildings could make quite a difference to the feel of the city.

This list is short and it disguises or ignores many obvious challenges involved in addressing these problems but Boris could make a real difference to our lives, and his chances or re-election, by taking decisive and effective action. Go on, Boris, you know you want to.

Booking Singapore Air Flights

I have a new worst flight booking website. I once thought that Thomas Cook's website and their general business practices were the worst around (they are truly awful) but they have been surpassed by Singapore Air's dreadful abomination of a website.

Here are a few of the problems I encountered when trying to book a simple multi-city trip for myself and the wife:

• Idiotic timeouts - the booking process has a very short timeout counter so if you're trying to check other flight prices or look at hotel details or confirm that Singapore will actually be open on the day you visit you need to do it very quickly indeed. If you're a bit too slow Singapore Air will plague you with stupid pop-up messages warning you that your session is about to expire.
• Stupid security measures - I presume they're security measures, although messages like "The system has detected that you have used the back button..." are pretty pointless, especially when they then offer you an "Proceed without Update" button that doesn't take you forward because it prevents you from updating the page that you can't leave without having made an update. Infuriating.
• Broken drop-down boxes - there's absolutely no excuse for drop-down boxes that don't work properly but the ones that Singapore Air have deployed close if you get to the bottom of them making it extraordinarily difficult to hit the last option in the list. 
• Lack of an edit feature - if you make a mistake entering your passenger details or if you decide to change your departure time or if you simply want to check a choice you made two screens earlier, don't bank on Singapore Air helping you out. Instead of an Edit feature, Singapore Air will just dump you right back at the beginning of the process and, to make life especially difficult, the system won't even remember your chosen airports or dates so you'll have to enter them again. This gets a little annoying when the above faults conspire to require you to execute multiple flight searches.

It's not all bad. They have a feature that helps you find the cheapest flights within two days of your target dates and this we were eventually able to use to save about £200 by making minor changes to our arrangements. They were also, even before those changes, the cheapest airline we could find and they seem to fly at reasonably sensible times. Also, unlike the infamous Thomas Cook, Singapore Air don't add surcharges to your bill if you wish to pay by credit card, carry luggage or "enjoy" an in-flight meal.

If it weren't for the awfulness of their website, which can only have been contrived to discourage potential customers and make life awkward for travellers, Singapore Air would most definitely rank as a top-tier carrier. For a more balanced review of their services, including comments on their in-flight services and the general comfort of their aircraft, check back in early December.