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Posted by Dr Dog
Sep 15, 2019 at 07:12 AM
Beck wrote:
>satis wrote:
>>At this point in time I think developers who don’t develop apps that
>can
>>be easily accessed on mobile are going to find their numbers of
>>customers continue to shrink. In 2019 I simply would never consider an
>>app like Curio or Tinderbox, no matter how good. I’d take a less
>>full-featured app whose data I can access and edit from a tablet or
>>phone any day.
>
>I’m moving in the opposite direction, lately.
>
>I can email, grade, and in some cases edit on the go, but to do most of
>my work, I’m finding that I need (1) to be in a physical environment
>that supports my directed attention; and (2) with specific tools nearby,
>one of which is my computer (others are my iPad, paper notebook, at
>certain times a whiteboard, etc.). I’ve begun to let go of the
>requirement that an app needs to work any device and am instead making
>peace with seeking exemplar apps that work exceptionally well on the
>device in which they’re intended.
>
Me too - I was pretty excited a couple of years ago when I got an iPad Pro and (and binge-read MacStories articles) and started to think it could be a main machine. But then I didn’t get on as well as I thought I would with Scrivener on iOS, I began to find that my research/writing project planning was easier with SheetPlanner than on Aeon (which I tried to use because of the iOS link-up), and because of the complexity of the historical research for my projects, I have been happily tethered to Tinderbox for nearly a decade and *that* is never going to get to iOS. And so the horses for courses protocol kicked in, for platforms as well as apps. So I use the iPad Pro a lot as a ‘think-pad’, with Ulysses and Bear for exploratory prose and notes; it also has my calendars and Things - for things I can, or prefer to, do away from the main office, but I still think of the office as the place where the heavy-duty research gets done. And, like Beck, I have an extensive analogue support structure than in my case is too messy or large or simply too expansively visual ever to be portable. I also have a dreadful butterfly mind, and being in a specific physical ‘workspace’ helps the focus.
But I realise that this is probably becoming a minority position overall. My daughter - a student - and my own students wouldn’t dream of being office-bound (although graduates seem to be happier with this than undergrads - maybe because they get dedicated, although shared, workspaces). Their reading and their writing and research and communications are all mobile - and most seem to prefer the big iPad to laptops. I couldn’t imagine how to work without Tinderbox (and I can’t really imagine what a less fully featured derivative of it could be) but my daughter doesn’t really see the point of it. And Satis is right: their preferences and needs and not my case seem to be the focus of most app development - for good or ill (I was an early-adopter of Day One - now I can’t bear to look at it’s bloated narrow spaces and so use the elegant Diarly; my daughter loves DO).
I think the physical really does interact heavily with the mental in a number of ways here. Vive la difference.
Posted by Paul Korm
Sep 15, 2019 at 01:18 PM
This is my sense, too. I use a few iOS/MacOS apps such as ZoomNotes and MarginNote, whose Mac version has close to 100% of the features as the iOS versions. But I prefer working with them on iOS because the apps are highly touch- and pencil-oriented and the iOS experience is much better. I also would be concerned that attempts from Eastgate or Zengobi to port Tinderbox or Curio to iOS would possibly overcommit the developers and kill off the app entirely. Some things are have such OS-specific complex features that they just do not translate.
Beck wrote:
> I’ve begun to let go of the
>requirement that an app needs to work any device and am instead making
>peace with seeking exemplar apps that work exceptionally well on the
>device in which they’re intended.
Posted by Jeffery Smith
Sep 15, 2019 at 02:42 PM
I tried moving my workflow to a high-end iPad with Brydge keyboard and Apple Pencil. My productivity plunged, and I spent way too much time cursing at my failed attempts to navigate with a touch screen. I was better off just using a laptop instead. Then I had Filemaker Pro and Notetaker. If I can ever get past the learning curve, I’ll have Tinderbox at my disposal as well.
Posted by Lothar Scholz
Sep 15, 2019 at 03:47 PM
As a software developer i also can’t understand why people like mobiles so much (and work in different places). I have a hard time with my 17” macbook and going even less then that is unthinkable. I even have a hard time reading a PDF on a tablet. I use three 27” screens and that feels good. But maybe its because young people can’t afford good housing and therefore they are used to tight space and most have never any large set of data to deal with. Then of course you can do it on your iPad.
Here’s a photo from my summer time workplace.
https://imgur.com/a/dCzIHI4
https://imgur.com/a/aiZNfUp
From the technical point: The sad fact is you that still have to have either a very generic looking App or a very unique iPad App. The programming interface is still
so different for even some core technology like text handling. And Android is a different and i mean a really really different new beast, with much worse internals then Apple. Both systems are very good in making sure you are locked in to their operating system, even if this is a system from the same corporation.
>- I can collect on mobile devices - notes, clippings etc. But if I want
>to think, I want the space, multiple windows etc of a desktop (I also
>endorse @Beck’s point on conducive environment)
Exactly. You are not alone with this perception. And thats why my Business plan for Infosqueezer says Desktop first. And a lighter compagnion mobile app later. I think that Tinderbox and Curio both could do well too i they offer a restricted iOS viewer where you can fix typos and lookup/present stuff. But please, NOT MOBILE FIRST for my generation.
Posted by Paul Korm
Sep 15, 2019 at 06:07 PM
The correlation between affordable housing and technology choices is an interesting observation.