How the iPad works for me.

Guys! I know I've been slacking for a while but it's coz so much has been happening.. I've been away. Went to Kerala for a friend's wedding and was soo nervous about travelling with the lil dude but in the end it all worked out well. He was quite ok during the flights thankfully and the trip was quite fun. The whole gang was there and everyone got sooo wasted at the after party. For the first time ever I got to witness all this sober- very entertaining indeed. ;D
This wedding coincided with my birthday and so it was doubly special.. And just as I predicted I got an iPad 2 from the husband. And I've been playing around with it since to see if it can replace my laptop. And I'm quite happy with it so far.

What do I use it for?
Blogging, editing photos (just the lighting) and making collages for my blog, watching tv shows and movies, sketching, browsing and playing the occasional game.
So after extensive research I downloaded these apps that make doing these activities a whole lot easier.

On but before all this I think I must mention the case I got for this. While the original case looks sleek and beautiful, it won't work for me coz err..I sometimes tend to drop stuff. Yup, I'm quite the clumsy one. So wanted a case with more protection. And I found this rotating swivel type case that lets u rest the iPad in 2 positions each in either landscape or portrait mode. I really wanted the hot pink or purple variant but it wasn't available in India and of those available I thought the red looked hot so got that instead. It's really cool though. Also has that built in magnet that puts the iPad to sleep and wakes it up when u shut/close the case.

Moving on to the apps...
For Blogging:

Blogger Plus
Price: $2.99
This supports Wordpress and blogspot and is v v simple to use. You can even add pictures and format text or add links or tags. Very easy to use. In fact this post has been composed and posted via this app.

For sketching:
I like to sketch some designs sometimes. For clothes, mainly.

Draw for iPad
Price: free
This is a basic sketching/ note taking app that only has some basic coloured pencils as drawing tools. But what puts taxable other such drawing apps is the ability to undo last move and also has some preset templates for playing tic tac toe, dots game and some word game. You can even save the image to your photo library.

Sketchbook express
Price: Free
I'm sure anyone who's ever wanted to own a sketching app has heard of this app by autodesk. It's got a huge range of tools and brushes and you can mirror, fill in or even add images from library. This is the lite version and has fewer brushes and tools but it's all I'll ever need, perhaps more so I'm not buying the full version.

Finger sketch paint for iPad
Price : Free
This again is a cool app for quick sketching. This is the free version and in this you cannot export images to your library but no problem coz you can always take a screen shot.
How to take a screenshot?
Simple, just press the home and power buttons simultaneously and the screen will flash white and the screenshot will be saved in your photo library.
Anyhoodles, this app is cool and has some in built shading options that make sketching easy. No fancy brushes though.

For editing lighting in photos and to make collages for the blog:
I also have the ipad camera connector kit that enables the iPad to read an SD card directly so you can click pics on your camera, take out the memory card and transfer images onto the iPad for editing and uploading directly. Boom!

Photo Toaster
Price: Free

I have the free version which is called photo toaster jr and has some basic presets as well as customisable adjustments for brightness, contrast, white balance and vignette apart from usual suspects of monochrome, sepia etc. You can even crop or rotate your photo in this. This is all I use to edit the lighting in my photos that I upload on my blog to bring out true colours coz sometimes the camera fails to capture that. Decent app, no frills or complicated stuff. Works well for me. You could save the edited photo to your library or post on social networking sites.

Photo ripper finger design
Price: free

This is an extremely simple app that you can use to cut images freehand to make collages. V handy for me to again put together images to upload on my blog.

MoodBoard
Price: Free, $9.99

What I have is the free version which works well for me. With this app you can create a moodboard for your design projects. You could add images and texts and move them around, add arrow marks or tack pins to present it well. The best part- this saves everything as layers so it becomes easier to edit them. Very useful app.

For watching TV shows/movies:

CineX Player
Price: $3.99

This app will play all your avi files and even add subtitles if the srt file is available. But this doesn't play mkv files. So why did I get his? For one awesomely cool feature- it can covert any video into a 3D video that you can watch with 3D glasses. Cool or what? This is available for an additional $0.99 but totally worth it. So much fun, you guys!

AV Player HD
Price: $2.99

Good app, plays all formats including mkv, supports subtitles. I picked this app over some others coz this allows you to receive files from your laptop wirelessly, all you gotta do is key in the ip address. Pretty neat, no?

So yup, that's about all the apps you'll need if your requirements are the same as mine. :)
Plus you an carry an iPad in your bag and can blog from anywhere. You just need your camera, the connector and your iPad. Oh and a wifi connection or a 3G sim. Simple. So beauty bloggers, skip your next haul n pick this up instead. :)

Anniversary Gift: thePURPLEberry

I had my fourth wedding anniversary a few days ago. Is there a word for it? You know some-jubilee? So anyway since there's an extra person in our family now we decided to stay in. Also, that day the baby had to get his second round of shots and he's been known to be a cranky monkey the day he gets em. So we took him for his shots- two injections, one on each thigh. Poor baby! He took em like a brave soldier. Ok he did howl but went to sleep soon afterwards. Alright maybe not a soldier, but brave nonetheless. :)

poor baby

This has been the first wine-less anniversary. But being the responsible and mature person I am, I settled for an evening at home with friends. Oh and a nice gift of course. All men should know the importance of romance and also that gifts are an important part of romance. I'd been dropping hints about a phone to the husband and sure enough he surprised me with a limited edition purple BB curve. Well, I've been wanting to change my phone but since the samsung captivate glide hasn't been launched yet, this'll do. In fact I've now been using it for about a week now and this is definitely more than a stop-gap. I'm loving the battery and the features. It's a simple but effective phone. Plus it's purple you guys! The husband really earned brownie points with this one. This purple one has been out of stock everywhere. I think he managed to snag one last piece at Electro.com. Purple coz I'm thePURPLEspirit! Yay! Looks snazzy no? And I also installed this very cool fashionista theme. Loving the phone now. My very own PURPLEberry. :)

BB Curve 8520 Purple

My Purple BB with Fashionista theme

Ok I know this phone has been around since the inception of time but here is my take on it.. Yay for:

• The colour purple, of course
• BBM
• It's a blackberry so push mail etc etc
• Twitter app and FB apps are quite cool
• Battery lasts me about 36 hours with data on all the time(2g) with twitter updating every 3 mins and push mail of course
• Good choice of themes available on app world.
• Have installed 2 free apps: battery saver and advanced ram optimizer that prolong battery life and speed up the phone.
• Display is very nice.
• The memo and reminder apps are very handy
• Other apps I've installed: whatsapp, advanced calls LED colour customization, gtalk, yahoo chat. Also wanna install a blogging app.

Boo for:

• Camera only 2mp, no flash
• Browser sucks

My rating:****

To BB or not to BB

I'm quite a geek at heart and I love my gadgets as much as my lip glosses. And no, I don't mean vibrators! Right now the gadgets that occupy pride of place in my life are my Creative Portable media player, my iPad, my 8" touchscreen swivel screen laptop, my blackberry and err my epilator.

I've been quite a blackberry loyalist up until now but with so many tempting Androids flooding the market I'm seriously thinking of moving. So what would my ideal phone have?
Android gingerbread OS
Atleast a 1 gHz processor
8mp camera, HD video recording
Min 3.5" touchscreen
Slide out qwerty keypad
Min 1800mAh battery
Oh and it helps if the phone comes in pretty colours like White or pink.

Samsung Captivate Glide

Samsung Galaxy Note

Buuuut such a phone hasn't been made yet. Pity. Oh this awesome Samsung Captivate Glide seems perfect but hasnt been launched yet and I hope I don't have to sell my kidney to buy it when it hits the markets. Droid3 and the Xperia pro come close but the battery worries me. Samsung galaxy sII ticks all the boxes but lacks a physical qwerty. Le sigh. Samsung galaxy Note looks interesting, it's like a love child of the phone and a tablet but again lacks a physical keypad and seems too big to fit into my pockets or purses. And no other brand seems to even come close. Samsung is at the top of the game when it comes to Android phones.

Why do I need a physical keypad? Umm.. Coz I blog, tweet, text, email, makes notes and lists on my phone. So basically I type a lot and cannot make do with an onscreen keypad alone.

So my only other option is to continue with Blackberry. The only factor that makes me even consider BB despite the lousy battery is BBM. And I'm wondering whether to pick up a cheapie BB like the curve (in white of course) and use it till THE Samsung phone becomes a reality or if I should just stick to BB for a while longer and go for a fancier phone like the Torch or the Bold touch and type (is white available? What? Black looks so serious and un-fun)

BB Torch

BB Curve

BB Bold Touch

My current BB is the pearl flip, an ancient model which is a moody bitch and I need to wrestle with it to get it to switch on even. So I need to seriously ditch it and get a new one ASAP. Whattodo...whattodo... Gah!