Crossing the Line...

So I ordered an iPad the other day.  I expect it to be here this week.   I had enough "points" saved to pick it up for virtually nothing.

I expect this will take things for me virtually paperless.  This is a good thing I guess.  Especially with companies like Borders on the verge of collapse.  No more trips to the physical bookstore.

I have also updated myself to support the current Apple iPad development platform - OS X 1.6 plus the iOS development software suite.

My initial plans are fairly simple, however.

I plan to purchase a copy of AirDisplay.  This is an app that allows you to extend your Mac screen to the iPad.  Since its WiFi-based I will be able to put something on the screen - like the browser or iTunes, and walk off to another room or floor in the house and use it to work.  Basically the iPad acts like a second display in OS X.  You simply drag apps an so forth over to it and you can continue to access them from the Mac as well as interact with them on the iPad.

Another tool I will get is the Wall Street Journal iPad app for reading the paper.  When that subscription renews I will be switching off the printed part in favor of the app.

Finally I plan to purchase hexler.net's TouchOSC and something called OSCulator. These two applications allow you to link the iPad (or iPhone or iTouch) to various music and sound applications using the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol via WiFi.  The iPad works like a kind of generic controller (as seen in the image above).  You can link each control element on the iPad to a very specific part of the the music software via OSCulator.  OSCulator directs the commands from the iPad to the audio app.

TouchOSC lets you lay out the control panel any way you like with a handy layout application.

An example of this would be to link each of 5 tracks being mixed to the iPad.  I can then go downstairs (the studio is upstairs) and tweak the mix on the iPad - saving me from the headache of tweaking - running down stairs and listening - running back up - tweaking - and on and on an on.  This is handy for adjusting a mix to suit a wider range of sound spaces than just the speakers in front of you.

AirDisplay is $9.99 USD, the WSJ app is free, TouchOSC is $4.99 USD and OSCulator is $39.00 USD.  So for about $55 USD I should have basic things up and running.

Most of what Lexigraph does is not really a candidate for an iPad.  While the software would certainly run there it is unlikely anyone would use it.  Going forward I plan to look into some more iPad-suitable applications.