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iTap is a virtual keyboard with mouse app on the iPad that you can use as a replacement for your PC or Mac. When I saw iTap in the App Store, I immediately downloaded it. I wanted to see If I could be more productive with a virtual keyboard and a track pad. I wanted to try it for an entire week, but I was forced to stop using it after a couple of hours…

Installation

First, you need to install additional software whether you are on a PC or Mac. For the sake of this review, I installed it on a Windows XP machine. The installation is easy and I did not have any trouble pairing the iPad with my PC. Below is what the app looks like on the iPad.

Feeling

Some people complaint about virtual keyboards. I must say that I’m very proficient at using it, so my typing speed was not affected as long that I had to type text. Also, I don’t like using a mouse, so the big track pad is really easy to use and can replace an expensive Wacom track pad. Well, the good ends up here. Now let’s have a look at the issues I had. But first, here is how it looks in a real work environment:

Issues

• I’m a software developer and using Control, Alt and other keys, is a must­. There is not way to do that using iTap.
• You cannot drag a window by dragging in the title area.
• The app was not responsive when we had heavy network traffic.
• Scrolling in the Windows Explorer stops working at time for no obvious reason.
• The delete on Windows does not work.
• There is no speed setting adjustment for the track pad.
• The receiver app on windows does not run as a service. That means that If you reboot, you have to logon using the physical keyboard.
• There is no wrist protection option for the track pad.
• Only the mouse works with VMWare, the keyboard is not working.

My Conclusion…

In the end, except for looking cool this app is not a real replacement for a physical keyboard and/or mouse and is still buggy.

I decided to spoil myself on last christmas with the Kindle 2. I have been having an eye on it for a while now and Amazon made it available in last november here in Canada. This post describes my experience with it so far.

Buying Confusion

When I fired up my browser at http://www.amazon.ca/ I was pleasently surprised to see that the kindle 2 was now available in Canada! Yay! I clicked on it to realize that I was redirected to the US store here.

There I figured out that the 259$ price tag was in US dollars not Canadian and I had to order it from amazon.com and not amazon.ca as I usally do. Ordering the kindle was as easy as ordering a book. I received 2 days after I ordered it. That was pretty quick.

Unboxing

The packaging is lean, there is no unncessary wrapping and the whole thing is well packaged. The box contains:

• the Kindle
• a power USB adaptor
• a standard USB cable
• a getting started guide

The kindle comes preconfigured to be used with your amazon account which is really really neat! It comes bundeled with the Kindle User’s Guide, which is worth reading.

Handling and Carrying

The first thing I noticed is that it is really really small. I was not expecting it to be that small (5.5”” x 8”“) and it is slimer than an iPhone. It is very comfortable to hold in only one hand for a long period.

Many folks will want to buy a cover to protect it. But I did not buy one, I simply it carry it on my bag as it was a regular book. I did not have any problems so far.

Reading

Let’s say I was taking a chance when I bought it, because I had never seen one, so I was not sure about what to expect when it comes to read on it. To my surprise, it is incredibly easy to read on it. I have read 6 books so far on it and I do not get the eye strain that you normally get on a computer.

You can manually rotate the screen in landscape, but I find myself always reading in portrait mode. You can also change the font size which is really great.

You can even have the content read for you through a speech synthesizer, although amazon does not allow it with every book. I did try it and found it acceptable (for a robot voice), but that will never replace an narrated audiobook.

You can take notes, highlight passages, bookmark and search a book. That is very very cool. And wait! There is more: a built-in  dictionary that you can use to see the definition of a word as you move the cursor around.

You can even take screenshots! If you disable Wispernet, the battery will last forever (I have been able to get one week and a half).

Of course, the kindle is nice but it has its own issues. The most noticeable is screen glare. Yes, glare. There is subtle glare depending on the light conditions. It can be annoying at times, but still far better than a computer screen.

The 5-way controller is a bit ackward to use. It can be a pain at times if you want to move the cursor on the specific word. I would have preferred a scroll wheel (à la iPod).

If you speed read, simply forget that with the Kindle. It is simply not suited for that at all.

Also, images look from mediocre to poor (at best). So, reading text is great, but don’t plan to read image intensive book on it, you are still better off with a real book.

Content

The is a lot a content available on amazon, that you can buy online or directly from your kindle.

The good news is that you are not locked to Amazon as the kindle supports a lot of format such as PDF and mobi. Many sites such as the Gutenberg project have a lot of free content.

If you already have an extensive collection of e-books, you can use an ebook manager such as Calibre to convert your existing books for the kindle.

Issues in Canada

OK, here is where the Kindle stop being that great, at least from my point of view.

The first problem is that you are forced to buy kindle books on amazon.com. You cannot buy them on amazon.ca. So you cannot take advantage from book recommendations based on previous books, because amazon.com don’t see the books I bought at amazon.ca. That’s really a shame!

The second problem is that Personal Document Service does not work in Canada.
I try to e-mail content to my kindle email and I received a message telling me that Personal Document Service is not available in Canada.

The third problem is that some of the books in the kindle store cannot be bought from Canada. Also, the wispernet coverage only work in major cities. So make sure to load your books before taking a vacation far away from civilization!

The fourth problem is that you cannot put blogs on it. (What? really!)

Even with all these issues, I love my Kindle, but it looks like Amazon was rushing to make it available in Canada for the last holiday season. However, their web site and infrastructure is currently half-baked to be fully usable around here. But that is the price to pay to be an early adopter…