On Inverted Scrolling

I’ve been using inverted scrolling in Lion for a few days. I want to like it but I just can’t seem to get the hang of it.

Here’s the problem: On an iPad, I’m physically manipulating the content, moving it in relation to the screen. On my Macbook Air, I’m not (or at least it doesn’t feel like I am)

If you want to abstract this imagery, think of a long scroll hanging from your ceiling to the floor. Now imagine your iPad screen placed somewhere on that scroll. As you flick and move the content, the scroll flows through the iPad.

When I scroll on my Air, I’m not manipulating the content like I do on an iPad, I’m manipulating the view, the window.

iPad - touching content

Air - touching the window

It’s a distinction that can be easily confused. I think the inverted scrolling/content manipulation works well on a touch screen but not so well on a laptop/desktop.

What do you think of inverted scrolling?

4 Easy Ways to Read More Content Online

As many of you know, I’m constantly trying to figure out the best way to consume content efficiently. As time goes on and you find more websites that you love - or think you may love in the future - you scribble them down somewhere in your computer’s memory and then hope you’ll someday return to them.

I use four rules that seldom change. These rules may expand and contract based on new data or new behaviors.

We must choose the mediums in which we subscribe to a source carefully.

There are certain sources that are better to subscribe to via RSS and others that are better to simply follow on Twitter. For example, Boing Boing or TUAW publish large amounts of content daily. These types of sources bottleneck in your RSS reader and are better managed through a medium like Twitter or Flipboard.

This rule mainly comes down to reducing anxiety when you go to read backlogs of content.

Recognize and exploit the limitations of RSS.

RSS is such an interesting technology. It provides the opportunity for anyone to subscribe to a source yet publishers shoot themselves in the foot by truncating content in the effort to get you to go to their website and click on a few ads.

Many sources - like Esquire - only provide a headline through RSS. The user is asked to subscribe, evaluate and then click through, leaving them in the browser. This completely defeats the purpose of RSS, leading me to subscribe to sources like Esquire through Twitter.

Other sources, like blogs that publish in low volume, are wonderful for RSS. The content is all there and it doesn’t get overwhelming if you miss a week or two.

Collect, then curate.

Curating is one of the hardest things we can do, both in our digital lives and in our real lives.

Curating requires that we make hard decisions about what stays and what goes. We ask ourselves the question: “What if I want this in the future?” This question is largely a trap and ends in us keeping things that we won’t actually use, leading to clutter.

No one has really nailed consumption analytics yet. I want my systems to phase our sources that I don’t actually read and tell me exactly how I’ve interacted (or how I haven’t) with a source.

Don’t be afraid to experiment.

The beauty of these rules is that you can quickly and easily change how you consume a source or a set of sources. I tried primarily using an RSS reader for a while, that didn’t work for me so I changed things. I unsubscribed from five sources through RSS and began to follow them on Twitter. This led to a much more manageable experience and allowed me to create Rule #1 above.

Make your changes small and temporary, maybe even a few hours or a few days. If you don’t like the change, go back.

What rules do you use to manage your content?

iPad. Meet velcro.

A match made in Heaven.

I just bought a huge GameBoy / I don’t know what to do with my iPad

(Photo: cype_applejuice)

I wrote a pretty positive review of the iPad a few weeks ago for the CU Independent where I gave into Apple’s claims of how magical the iPad is and all of that bullshit…

Now I’m eating my words.

The honeymoon phase has worn off with me and my iPad and I’m bored. At first it was cool, like one of those computers from Minority Report or Avatar. Now it’s a touchscreen that floats from my bedside table to my desk and it only moves when I need more space next to me.

So I concede: I don’t know what to do with my iPad.

The problem is, I’ve been using my laptop longer and I’ve had my iPhone for two years now - I’ve got my routine set up. Some tasks go to the Macbook, some go to the iPhone. There’s no need for an intermediate! If you think you need an iPad at this point, you’re probably wrong.

I think the disconnect comes from how closed the iPhone OS is. I want access to the Finder; I want to be able to download files and open them in Photos or Videos or Pages, etc. The AirSharing HD app is a $10 excuse for what Apple should have included all along.

If Apple wants to join the Mac OS and the iPhone OS in a device like the iPad, then give us some room to work with. Let us use the iPad as a computer, otherwise the it’s nothing more than a big iPod Touch.

Making WordsWithFriends a better app

In my opinion, the following features would take WordsWithFriends from a great iPhone/iPad app to an incredible app:

Don’t show the score or the first word played in a game until the other player accepts the challenge.
Tabs kept on Wins and Loses per player.
Matchmaking to pair players of similar skills together.
Remove the link to the Facebook fan page at the bottom of the iPad app.
Sync what the user does on the iPhone and the iPad to avoid double work
Get rid of the redundant Send button in the chat

Have anything else to add? Reblog or leave it in the comments.

iPad Notes

I just wrote an 800+ word review of the iPad on my iPad. Here are some notes:

I hit the letter P instead of the delete key easily over 200 times.
Typing on the iPad is slow compared to my keyboard even though they’re nearly the same size.
I use less fingers to type on the iPad than I do to type on my keyboard.
I’m hesitant to write papers on the iPad, anything other than a quick note or a draft I’d rather do on my laptop

Other than that I love the iPad. I plan on using it regularly when I’m on campus rather than lugging around my Macbook Pro.

Multitasking has to come to (at least) the iPad

If Apple wants people to use the iPad as a computer and not as a giant iPod Touch, multitasking has to come and fast. There are too many tasks done on computers that require multiple apps.

I was working on my iPad review this morning for the CU Independent and needed to jump from Pages to Safari to look things up a few times. Pressing the home button and switching apps isn’t too time intensive but, as Ryan Meier put it, “The iPad needs the equivalent of an Alt-Tab [feature].”

iPad/iPad Nano

(photo via engadget)

The iPad as your new central hub

(photo: ohad)

What if you could control the house around you with nothing but an iPad?

It’s coming.

I remember watching Cribs years ago as some actor showed a clunky handheld computer that he carried around his house that could control the lights, the blinds, the TV, etc.. No doubt that whole system was pretty expensive. And now it’s getting cheaper. Imagine the iPad as that new handheld computer but sleek, sexy and connected to your house full of receivers.

The front door, the blinds, the tv, the lights, the oven, the refrigerator, the shower, the thermostat, the alarm system, the garage door and maybe your car will, in the next few years, begin to connect to your mobile device like never before.

Right now, a company called Schlage provides the equipment and the app (Schlage Link) as seen in this iPhone commercial, where a mother turns her home lights off from Denver International Airport.

Starter kits are pricey, starting at $223 on Amazon.com, and allow a homeowner to wire their front door. Schlage also provides connections to the lights, home webcams and the thermostat as add-on modules.

With the release of the iPad though the market for these technologies will undoubtedly increase and with the demand up, the prevalence and cost of the technology to be installed in the house will drop.

Apple’s positioning of the iPad between the Macbook and the iPhone means that the iPad will likely be a household device while the laptop and the phone roam with their owners, right? Suddenly, setting the oven to 425 degrees no longers requires anyone in the kitchen and turning up the heat can be done from the comfort of your warm bed.

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