Posts by Pat Cadigan

iPad's biggest rival? Microsoft's dead Courier

Some of Us Silver Surfers Don't "Thumb"

--because we still remember what it was like learning to touch-type. Believe it or not, I don't have much trouble with the iPad's onscreen keyboard in landscape mode. It takes some getting used to but I manage--I'm typing this on it. I used it for a couple of months before buying a wireless keyboard for when I have more extensive writing to do. I thought the iPad was an overpriced toy, till someone gave me one. I'm a freelance writer and the iPad is the lightweight portable I've been waiting for all my life. I have a friend who is recovering from a stroke--the iPad is the only computer he can use one-handed with any degree of ease. I've been a pc-user since 1986 (yes, Virginia, there were computers back then, along with electricity and indoor flush-toilets) but the iPad has made an Apple convert out of me. I'm not that interested in the iPhone--make phone calls on an iPod? Thanks, but I'd rather have a stripped-down phone no one wants to steal. in the meantime, I'm saving up to buy iPads for the rest of my family, including my 90-year-old mother. A touch-screen and stylus is a good idea for someone with Age-Related Macular Degeneration. The accessibility setting allows her to use her small amount of eyesight. I probably should have bought her an iPad instead of a Kindle.

Åccéntēd Lëttêrs? Nó Prøblëm!

If you hold down the key of the accented letter you need on the iPad virtual keyboard, it will produce extra virtual keys on the screen, with the accent you need--e.g., è, ê, é, ë, and so forth (even fœrth). But you have to keep your finger pressed to the screen and slide it to the accented letter you want. (I think this is terribly cool, but I should probably get out møre.)

Microsoft arms half-wit developers with PHP handgun

Well...

This article might have been more powerful except for the MySql ad running next to it.