this is the digital future?
Wow, this sucks. I love Retro Gamer, it’s a monthly mag covering the history of gaming with great writers and mostly-fantastic subjects. It’s also British, which means it costs not a small amount at Borders or the like. So, when I saw a Retro Gamer iPad app, one that offered cheap digital subscriptions and a nice backissue library for $4.99 a piece, I took the plunge.
The $1.99 price with a free copy of the latest issue (covering the history of Doom, yay!) didn’t hurt matters as well; I figured it was a win-win. Sigh.
It’s not the zoom-in lag, or the glitchy page turning experience or even the random crashing that makes this app terrible, it’s this:
That blocky artifacting around the letters isn’t from my compression, it’s there’s. This isn’t some cheap scan I downloaded, this is the official magazine I paid money for. This crappy, badly compressed, headache-inducing view is what you get in the Retro Games app.
What. The. Hell.
sans laptop
I decided to try an experiment of sorts. Armed with a new iPad in hand, i wanted to see if I could get away from my laptop dependency. Not having to carry a deceptively heavy computer bag around was instantly awesome, but I quickly realized I still use(d) my MacBook for a wide variety of small tasks. Like, well, blogging for example.
Not being able to use RapidWeaver (a very slick webpage creation program which, sadly, is apparently never coming to the iPad) was my first concern, but it ended being only a partial pain in the ass. I found a nice WordPress plug-in and added the blogging software to my site, and, after only a bit of trial and error, I’m very happy with the results. Too bad the WP iPad app is beyond borked, but Evernote + the admin page is turning into a solid combination.
My next issue was even larger concern, how to edit and upload pictures. Again, only a partial pain. One FTP app and a basic image editor later, and suddenly my iPad started resembling an actual computer.
Well, at least enough for me to create this post…
ipad 48 hours later
It’s neat.
Well, it’s much more than that. The iPad certainly isn’t perfect – typing on it, for example, is borderline shitty – but what it offers in its initial version is quite incredible.
This is the second day I’ve brought it to work, and the first I left my laptop at home. Granted, my MacBook has been regulated to little more than a large iPod / IM machine these days, which are functions the iPad can easily replicate, but still. It’s a big step for me.