Dan of UNEASYsilence was asked the following question:

Hey, I have an iPhone that I play games on. If I get an iPad in addition to the iPhone, what happens to my game data? Does it stay in sync?

One would assume that Apple has considered the possibility that a lot of iPad owners would also own an iPhone. I hope Apple plans to introduce some sort of application data syncing feature to the SDK. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple just tells developers to sync app data with the cloud.

Anyone who has tried to use multiple computers knows how difficult it is to prepare for a long trip. You end up spending hours making sure that you have all the stuff on your laptop that you’ll need. Transferring files over the network is easy these days but the difficult part is deciding what you’ll need and what you can leave behind.

Apple has built Back to Mac which does indeed help considerably when you happen to forget something, but you have to pay for MobileMe to make use of it. I happen to use MobileMe to keep my calendar in sync between my iPhone and my iMac (Find my iPhone is worth the price alone). But for most, MobileMe just isn’t worth paying for.

Many people have decided that the best way to avoid that entire issue is to use a notebook as their primary computer. While this is certainly a fantastic option there are many downsides to using a notebook rather than a desktop. A lot of it has to do with the ugly setup that is a result of connecting all of the things (external hard drive, TV tuner, Turbo.264, etc.) that you’d like to have connected all the time. From my experience, one of two things happens as a result of this. Either the notebook sits on the desk and lives there until you have to go on a trip or you end up having to disconnect and reconnect everything when you want to use it on the couch.

Using a notebook as my primary computer has never really worked out that well for me. I just end up frusrated with the lower performance, higher cost, smaller screen, etc. Instead I prefer a beefier desktop (currently an iMac) with a slower, lighter notebook computer (currently a first generation white MacBook) that is used on the couch and on trips.

But, now we get back to the problem of keeping things in sync. What’s most interesting about the whole keeping-things-in-sync situation is that I’ve never had this problem with my iPhone. I use my iPhone for many tasks that I previously would have used my notebook for. But trying to figure out what I’ll need on my iPhone for a trip isn’t a problem at all.

Apple has always made syncing with their devices easy, iTunes is simply the best application for syncing mobile devices, ever.

I am consider a change to my computing situation this spring or summer. Instead of using an iMac and a MacBook, I have a strong feeling the MacBook will be replaced by an iPad. Not just because it will be able to do everything I need a notebook to do but also because it will make my life easier. When I go on a trip I’ll just plug in the iPad, hit a few check boxes, click the sync button, and I’m ready to go. The painful process of making sure I have everything I need won’t be a problem anymore.

Some may consider the iPad to be a device for their parents because of it’s simplicity, but I see it as the perfect secondary computer.

These entries have been updated with new information in the last 24 hours.

iPhone Recovery Mode, originally published Mar 25, 2009
iPad Dashboard Widgets, originally published Feb 4, 2010

I regularly update previously published entries. This entry is a way of letting RSS feed and homepage readers know about the new information. You can find past updates here.

From the iPad features on Apple’s web site:

The iBooks app is a great new way to read and buy books. Download the free app from the App Store and buy everything from classics to best sellers from the built-in iBookstore.

A lot of people (including myself) missed this from the Apple event. This is an interesting development as it means that iBooks will be on equal ground with other e-book readers in the App Store.

Not only does this mean that Apple will be able to update iBooks much more frequently than if it were tied to OS updates, it also means that Apple will have a fantastic example of in-app purchases to show off to developers.

It also leaves the door open for iPhone and iPod touch support in the future (if not at launch).

I’ve decided to remove comments from this site. The internet has reached a point where the majority of those who leave comments want to speak directly to the writer, are spammers, or are people trying to push their own products.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still times when meaningful conversations take place in comments, but it’s so rare anymore. Most of the meaningful conversations take place over email, on Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, or Blogger. These tools are so easy to use now that comment systems just feel like black holes.

This has nothing to do with the comments I have been receiving lately, as many of them have been fantastic. It has more to do with my opinions about the web and how web sites should run. I want to own as much of my web site as I can and think that Twitter, Facebook, and your own weblog are much better place for continued discussion.

I started writing online because I thought I had opinions that others would be interested in. I still want to hear what you think and if you’d like to comment on something I write feel free to email me at mike@mickerlodeon.com.

Matt Buchanan writing for Gizmodo:

I talked to Fusion Garage CEO Chandra, who said they’re not only getting another round of investing, they’ve struck a deal [with] CSL Group, Malaysia’s largest OEM—they make fabulous BlackBerry knockoffs called Blueberrys—to cover their full outgoing manufacturing cost in exchange for revenue sharing. In other words, CSL’s covering the cost to make the tablet (which is being made by one of the “top three or four” Taiwanese OEMs, according to Chandra), and CSL gets a slice of cash from every JooJoo sold. […] The other big news is that they’re planning on opening a web app store. Chandra says that one of the iPad’s advantages over JooJoo was the App Store, which made app discovery easy through categorization.

Sounds to me like Fusion Garage went from making an innovative (yet barely useful) device to making the equivalent of an iPad knockoff.

No matter who is right in the spat between TechCrunch and Fusion Garage, it’s hard to take the guys at Fusion Garage seriously.

Stuart Parmenter:

The Adobe Flash plugin used on many sites degraded the performance of the browser to the point where it didn’t meet our standards.

Looks like Apple isn’t the only one that’s unhappy with Flash’s performance. Are we all going to start complaining about Firefox for Maemo now?

(Via Daring Fireball.)

Last week Google pushed an update to Nexus One owners that enabled multi-touch in the browser, maps, and photo gallery applications.

From Google’s Nexus One weblog:

Nexus One users will begin to receive an over-the-air software update on their phones. This update provides some great new features, and fixes a few problems that some users might have experience

Apple continues to be one of the incredibly few, if not only, handset makers that requires you to update the device manually using your computer. The downside is that you have to connect it to perform the update. But, I still think Apple has chosen the right path. Not only can users update their device immediately following availability, you also get the satisfaction of knowing that your iPhone is always backed up before any and all firmware updates.

Apple Developer Connection:

If you build your application with features based on a user’s location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.

Smart move in my opinion. Users get that pop-up window asking to use their current location with the expectation that the app will use that information for actual features not just targeted ads.

Ken Case:

We’re really excited about Apple’s iPad, and we want to make all of our products available for it as soon as we can.  Yes, we already had a big year planned for 2010, with several long-anticipated major product releases—but we think iPad is really important:  important enough to spend some time juggling our plans to figure out how we can introduce five new iPad apps.

Yes.  Five.  We want to bring all five of our productivity apps to iPad:  OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniPlan, OmniFocus, and OmniGraphSketcher.

iWork and the Omni Group’s apps are just the beginning, the iPad is going to be a big deal for productivity apps.