Tablets and filePro

[Bill Campbell]

On Thu, Dec 23, 2010, Richard Hane wrote:
>Well I might actually have money left over after the holidays.
>
>I was considering picking up a tablet.  Ipad, Samsung Tab, etc.
>
>Has anyone had experience using these?  And with filePro?

I have done some testing with my iPad using iSSH to a Linux box
running FilePro.  It's OK for casual use, but keyboard input can
be awkward, either using the iPad's pseudo keyboard or with an
external bluetooth keyboard.

I have tried a variety of terminal Apps on the iPad and iPod
Touch including iSSH, TouchTerm, and TinyTERM, and find iSSH the
best of the lot in its use of screen real estate and ease of use.

Most of my terminal use with the iPad is for quick-n-dirty access
to systems for emergency admin tasks.  This works reasonably well
on the iPad, but is basically useless on the iTouch due to
limited screen size and readability.

When I have to do this for clients, I open a PPTP VPN connection
back to our network, then make another ssh connection from there
to the client systems as most of our client sites restrict ssh
access to a limited set of IP addresses/networks.  I would much
prefer to use OpenVPN, but there isn't an OpenVPN client
available yet for the iPad.

>Would like to hear any thoughts or suggestions.

I wouldn't want to give my my iPad (minimum RAM with 3G).  It's
great for the bulk of browsing, e-mail, reading eBooks in a
variety of formats, and is a better GPS than my Garmin using the
MotionX Drive App.  Up-to-date maps are $25/year which is far less
expensive than Garmin's (I never was able to get usable maps from
them to work on my Mac).

Probably the most useful feature on the iPad and iPod Touch is
the ability to have all my address book contacts, calendar, and
OmniFocus task management software sync'ed with the same
applications on my Macbook Pro and Mac Mini.  I've come to depend
on having this information available whereever I happen to be.

I haven't gotten a lot of Apps other than the ones that come with
the iPad.  The ones I have and really use are:

OmniFocus -- Getting Things Done task management for OS X and
iDevices.

iBooks, Stanza, Kindle, and GoodReader for reading eBooks in
variuos formats including PDF files.

MotionX Drive -- GPS with turn-by-turn voice directions.

CardStar -- keeps all cards with barcodes for libraries, AAA,
grocery stores, etc. in a single place without having to carry a
pocket full of little cards (more useful on the iTouch).

Reunion -- Genealogy software that works with its OS X
counterpart which is really nice when doing library research.

Bill
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