What I really did was remote into my desktop PC which is running Windows 7 Ultimate Edition.  I suppose this is cheating, but as a good friend of mine has often said “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’”.  I used a great little app called “Desktop Connect” for iPad.  It supports both VNC and Microsoft RDP and claims to be the only app that will automatically discover all computers on your network (Windows, Mac, OSX and Linux)  that are set up for remote access.  It did.  In almost no time, I was amazed to be using my desktop PC from my iPad.

Performance is not 1 for 1 here.  If you try to watch a movie via Flash, you will not get an acceptable frame rate.  However, simple, turn-based flash games are perfectly usable and you can multitask to your heart’s content.  You can also get to files on your PC without having to figure out how to transfer them to the iPad. 

When I first installed this app, I thought it would be more for the coolness factor than for anything else, but I was surprised to find that I actually used it fairly often.  When I am downstairs relaxing and need to print or view something that is on my PC, starting this app is far easier than trudging upstairs, sitting down, and logging in.  My only recommendation is that you switch Touchscreen Mode to “On”.

Up next, my son and I use the iPad for science! 

I have spent a lot of years working in technology.  When I was in 6th grade my best friend Jason decided to get a computer. It was an Ohio Scientific model with a 6502 processor and a a whopping 3k of RAM.  He and I taught ourselves BASIC.  He taught himself 6502 assembly language and used it to write his own Atari-style Tank game.  I played with for about 2 seconds (Jason was and is WAY smarter than me) .  That was 34 years ago and I’ve been in love with technology ever since.  I also played with Apple II computers at that time, but I have naturally gravitated toward the PC rather than the Mac for the same reasons most of us at that time did.  The PC was more affordable, had an open architecture, was friendlier to low-level fiddling and had more titles written for it.  And so, my technology hobby, which became my technology career, has been PC-centric.

I got a job with Microsoft in 2002.  As you might imagine, Microsoft is a fantastic company for which to work.  I had access to early builds of pre-release products, got to work with some of the smartest people I had ever met, and (and this is most relevant to my post) got the best Windows Mobile phones money could buy.  As a technology evangelist, I would talk with customers about building applications on Windows mobile.  I would try to show off my new devices to friends and family and was always puzzled by their remarks.  One of my younger friends in tech industry commented that my Pocket PC Phone looked like “a brick”.  He and the others at the after work gathering, openly laughed at it..  I didn’t get why they weren’t as excited about it as I was. 

Last year, I left Microsoft and started work as manager of an architecture department at an insurance company.  On a lark, I decided to get an iPhone.  It is difficult for me to state how thoroughly I was blown away.  My Windows mobile devices of the past 6 and a half years were slow and rebooting them was a regular occurrence.  Any applications I tried to use other than solitaire or basic email were not useful to me.  Even the Windows Live Search application, which came the closest, was not particularly useful because of slow response time. 

Then, I started to use the iPhone.  I was blown away.  It was fast, responsive, had an incredibly intuitive and well-thought out interface and had created and leveraged an ecosystem of creativity in the App Store that made it altogether different from any mobile device I had ever used.  I ACTUALLY USED this thing!  I used it for GPS.  I used it for texting. I used it for blogging, taking photos, editing photos, playing poker, reading news, BROWSING THE WEB (all but impossible to do on my previous devices).  I came to understand that Microsoft’s approach to mobile devices was the past and purpose-built hardware/software architectures were the future. 

So, with great anticipation, I reserved an iPad.  This Saturday April 3rd, I will be one of the first consumers to buy this new technology.  Like many of you, I’ve read the articles talking about what a disappointment the iPad has turned out to be.  Some have predicted its failure and even insulted people like me who will buy it on day one.  No multi-tasking.  No camera.  No phone capabilities.  Ugly bezel.  Did I mention no multi –tasking?

They may be right, but I highly doubt it.  The iPad will be an enormous success.  It will because it is a game changer in several markets at once.  Readers, casual gamers, people who are normally technophobes..these are all markets that the iPad will hit hard.  In other words, there are many, many people who will buy one and love it. 

I pick mine up in 7 days.  Count on hearing more about my experience with it here.

First of all, the performance is MUCH better.  I run a quad core machine and it seems that W7 makes much better use of that power.  The UI just snaps and the usability touches are excellent.  The new task bar icons are not as wide as the old ones, so you can fit many more icons on the bar without having to scroll.  Also, hovering over the icon brings up thumbnails of all open windows grouped under that icon.  For example, if I have 4 IE windows opened, only the one IE icon will appear on the task bar, but when I hover over it all 4 windows appear as selectable thumbnails.

What interests me is the XP compatibility mode that uses Virtual PC technology to run programs that have breaking changes in Windows 7.  Perhaps a post on that later.

Now the Windows 7 RC1 is available for download and the news for PC owners is good.  It improves in almost every area.  In addition to making the user interface even more efficient and friendly at the same time (quite a feat!), it brings the benefits of virtualization to consumers through XP mode.     The first thing installers will notice is an option to check compatibility online.  This takes you to a download page for Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor beta.  The Advisor goes through your system and connected devices and warns you about incompatibilities and actions you can take to deal with them.

I am installing the RC today.  Look for a post on how it went tomorrow.