Let's Dance - New Apps for my iPad2

"The View From Here" - by Steph Cortes on Instagram

As I sit here upside down at the edge of my bed, listening to a weirdly awesome cover of "Electric Feel" by MGMT (which turns out to just be a really well-done remix) on Pandora, I type my very first blog post from my iPad2. And it's kinda awkward... And it's even a little uncomfortable. But most of all, it's REALLY freeing!

This is sort of what I imagined my iPad would be doin' for me: change the way I live my life. I could be off having the most amaze-balls adventures on the planet and I'd be able to tell you about from there!

Though as amaze-balls as these adventures may be, they would be much better if I knew how to share them with you all a bit easier.

After having a lengthy discussion about my severe lack of the knowledge of the modern technological advances in social media with my new friend, Tammy from pUnK rAwK pUrL (who, funny enough, I met via Twitter), we concluded that I need help! So, here goes:

Can you all recommend some awesome new apps for my iPad?

So far, I've found a few new faves after some research, which include:

- Angry Birds

"A bit meta" - by Steph Cortes - shared on Instagram

Although I've stated that it was purely for my Research & Development (as I hope to release a line of Angry Bird amigurumi one day soon), I've gotta admit that more nights than not are ended with an hour of playing this game in the dark.

- Instagram
Hugely due to the fact that I've recently become obsessed with old cameras, this app was an instant recommendation from Tammy. She happens to be a fab photographer, too! Follow her: @punkrawkpurl & follow me, if you're so inclined: @nerdjerk

Screenshot Courtesy of Flipboard.com

- Flipboard
Although I enjoy reading through my social media updates, sometimes they feel liken obligation! Not so in Flipboard! Imagine catching up on all your friends' updates in a rad magazine-style interface. With pictures from posts combined with the blog posts being pulled from the sites onto your Flipboard... It's like walking into a social dream & I kinda never wanna wake up!

- Square
This app has changed the SF craft fair scene forever! And it's quite arguably the best credit card processing system n the market. Although I haven't had the chance to test mine out in public yet, Square is one of the reasons I had to buy an iPad! I'll let you know how it treats me at Maker Faire.

- Pandora
I've loved Pandora for a long time, but playing the Coconut Records channel (pretty much all the time, as I've only had to skip maybe one song an hour on average) and doing whatever I may be doing at the time makes me feel like I've finally arrived in the 21st century.

- iA Writer

A definite strike against the iPad, in my humble opinion, was the lack of a word processing application... that is, other then the "Notes" app. I thought it was some kind of joke. But, for what it was, it was helpful. Then Willo from Willotoons recommended iA Writer on Twitter. And when I read Stephen Fry's glowing review, I was SOLD! Simple, super clean & awesome.

Watch the following video for a demo of said awesomeness.

iA Writer for iPad from Oliver Reichenstein on Vimeo.

- BlogPress

And last, but not least, there's the app that I'm using ask we speak... BlogPress is pretty impressive for what it is so far. Although I can't do all the fancy stuff I normally can do in Blogger (maybe I can, but I just haven't learned how to do it yet), one can appreciate the novelty of being able to produce a blog post from one's iPad. So, just for the novelty, it's worth the $2.99!

So, now that you all know my taste for apps, have you whipper-snappers got any recommendations?

Any input would be greatly appreciated, as I'm the technological equivalent of an 80 year-old woman despite the nearly 28 year-old body.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad [but finally edited with Blogger]

I want to go to there - The Story of How I Touched an iPad2

I don't know how many of you have fallen for the hype that Apple has caused. If you raised your hand in solidarity, I'm with ya!

As there is probably almost nothing hotter than being in the Apple store on a Thursday night, dancing with myself, (so to speak), I took myself down to the Apple Store on Stockton in downtown San Francisco last week.

And proceeded to drool.

A lot....

Turned out that an unamused tween tossed the gadget down on the based connected to the wooden table Apply had their little beauties securely connected to just moments before I reached it. A bit disbelieving, I looked around to see if there was a line to touch the iPad2...

... then I realised I didn't care and skipped over to give it a go anyway. Sorry, would-be-iPad2-holders! Mama's gotta have her test drive!

My grubby little hands all over this glorious beast of a tablet - nerd JERK on an Apple iPad2

HOLY BALLS!!!

Oh man... OH MAN! So many reasons to love the iPad2!

• It doesn't hurt my dainty-money-maker-wrists! 
• Using it is really intuitive! 
• My fingers aren't too chubby to type on the giant on-screen keyboard!
• Everything on it looks SHINY!!!
• It's white like my displays at shows!
• It will finally make my business portable:
• using at new I Heart Art: SF meetings
• using at LIDL meetings
• show people what my business looks like on Etsy
• catch up on Etsy sales / emails while I'm out & about
• My new Check-Out with Square for Maker Faire is gonna be baller!

Although I was already completely convinced that I needed this brand-new shiny tool/toy, I had a lot of questions to ask. :)

So I flagged down one of those more-than-mildly-attractive hipster boys in the bright blue shirts that works for Apple and fired away! 

Questions fired ranged anywhere from:

"How many iPads do you usually get?

We're getting them everyday now, except for Sunday morning, so it can range from anywhere from 5 to a couple hundred. Since we're the biggest store in San Francisco, we usually get priority shipping, though we never know how many we're actually getting til we get here and open the boxes.

"Based on that, do you reckon it's worth it to stand in line at 4 AM for an iPad2? Or do you think it's better to order online, since the wait is now down to 2-3 weeks?"

Well, that's all based on what you feel your time is worth and how urgent your need is. Traditionally, waiting in line early morning has kind of been like a lottery - if you're here at 4 AM, chances are you're at the front of the line. If you're at the front of the line, chances are you get a voucher from me to be able to pick from the iPad2s we've just received and are free to come back at 8:30 AM when I open the store. But we can't guarantee that we'll have the iPad2 past opening (some people think that voucher means they can come back after lunch), the exact model & make you want. If you want to guarantee that, you might want to try ordering online. But at lot of people don't want to wait that long, so that's why we're still getting 4 AM lines almost a month after the iPad2 launch date.

Damn - those were very good answers. And he even helped take me for a test drive - using the built-in navigation system to show me where else I could try getting an iPad2 if I felt like it.

So, after approving of all the things the nice hipster-clerk had to show/tell me, my fate was sealed.

Coming Wednesday, 13 April 2011:

What the WHAT?! - The Story of How I Went Cray-Cray & Stood in Line @ the Apple Store at 4 AM