Blogging on the road with iPad 3

Greetings from Nashville! I’m on the road with Tara as her childhood friend Jen is getting married at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. This place is massive. It has 2,881 rooms – each more than 400 square feet. Others, including the suites, are much bigger. All in all, it’s a great place to have a wedding.

The first thing that really impressed me (outside of an atrium with a waterfall and the hotel’s overall beauty) was that Wi-Fi was FREE. That’s pretty rare at hotels. If you can’t score a free access code from the desk attendant, you usually have to buy time. It’s a pain. So I’m glad it’s free. So I decided to try to blog from my new little iPad 3 setup while Tara is busy getting her makeup and hair done.

I recently got an iPad 3. I love it. It’s much faster and has crisper images than the 1st Generation model, and that’s all thanks to the retina display. I picked up a ZAGG Folio case that has a built-in keyboard and a protective case. The keyboad can be removed and the case is very durable. The keyboard connects via BlueTooth. It’s very slick and easy to use.

It’s strange because I keep trying to use the touchpad that’s on my MacBook. It’s obviously not there. You have to touch the screen to navigate, but you eventually get the hang of it. I’m actually blogging from my Safari brower. But it’s definitely not as seamless as it would be on my laptop. Here’s why:

First, there can be a lag on the keyboard. Not overly noticeable, but will force you to slow down from time to time. It’s just a minor annoyance.

Media: You can’t just upload a picture in the Media section or in the post dialogue. This is due to iPad’s decision not to use Flash. So the only workaround I found at this point is to download the WordPress App from the App Store and add an image from the Photo Stream or by taking an image from iPad itself. The photo in this post is from my iPhone. I snapped it with iPhone, it hit iCloud through Photo Stream and I attached the image in the WordPress App. And just copied the HTML code and I’ll pasted it in before publishing.

Outside of these minor challenges, the ability to blog from the actual web is great. Functions are pretty close to the real thing on a laptop or desktop. I even updated a plugin while on Wi-Fi on the iPad 3. Very slick. This is my very first post on this new setup and the keyboard makes a HUGE difference. There’s not way I’d want to type all of this on my iPhone or iPad without a keyboard for that matter. Of course, you can post blogs through a secure email – it’s all configured in SETTINGS. Some day I’ll try that.

I was worried about leaving the MacBook Pro at home and relying on the iPad only. I tried it once before, and found I couldn’t do much at all (that was the first generation). I was on a trip to Orlando and the hotel I stayed in didn’t have Wi-Fi, only plug in ethernet connections. How annoying. Now I can just switch over the 3/4G and I have a connection at all times. Tech life is getting better.

It’s time to get motivated and ready for the wedding. Just happy to report the iPad/ZAGG experiment is a success. Now I should go buy some cowboy boots and a ‘gui-tarr’ and try to fit in in this town. Take care, y’all.