Macbook Air and Writing (Part 1)

I've started a dual review process. we'll see just how well the 11.6" Macbook Air works as a writing machine with some simple Web work and some image process. At the same time, I'll learning and review from scratch three top novel writing apps for the OS X.

The goal is to see how one of Apple's most affordable Macbook handles the daily needs of a wannabe writer/blogger.

And tonight, I took it out for a test run at Starbucks. And I took some notes. Of particular interest is how well the battery life works through the night. Apple rated the battery life to be 5 hours. Well, given the needs of most writers, not necessarily bloggers, I assume that we just type most of the time without the need for Internet connectivity.

All in all, I think the battery life held up pretty well. The night started at 7 PM and it's now 10:40 PM and I've still got 1:54 hours left.

Here are tonight's notes:

This is just a blog to document the use of Macbook Air and my experience writing a few novels for only consumptions. The goal tonight is to set up the files for writing these novels.

It’s 7:22PM PST. I started working around 7PM. The battery life at the time on the Macbook Air is 5:02 hours. I had logged onto the free Starbucks Wi-Fi but I now turned it off because I really don’t have a need to work online for the duration of the night as my all the notes for my research are offline.

7:34 There is a bit of a learning curve. However, I think once I get the hang of the three apps, I should be able to move along quite nicely.

7:45 Just finished reading the information on the novel template of Scrivener. Battery life is at 4:38. Wi-Fi not turned on.

8:35 Finished with adding characters to Scrivener and started reading up on Storymill. Battery life at 4:18. Wi-FI not turned on. So far, the scenes for Storymill is very much the same as how scenes work in Scrivener. Scenes are parts of a chapter. And they can be moved around and rearranged as needed.

9:32 Explored Storymill and will further work on Scrivener to get some diversion. The battery life is now 2:09 hours after turning on the WiFi. After a bit, it jumped back up to 2:48. And

10:00 Too a little break. WiFi is still on. 2:14 left on the battery life. Will work on Storyist for a bit before moving on.

10:02 After going through Storyist just now. I am beginning to form an opinion about the three main apps for writing novels. And I want to put my thoughts down a bit here just so that I can see if my conclusions are the same at the end of the month of writing. (1:50 hours left). I had the mail app on so that I can mailed myself the PDF files for these writing apps.

10:08 After cleaning up and getting ready to go. The battery is now back up to 2:30 hours left with the WiFi turned off. It’s back to writing and reading.

Now, some notes about the three writing apps:

I've barely scratched the surface and I am in a hurry to understand the ins-and-outs of these apps. In a previous post, I hope to use next month's Script Frenzy as an inspiration to write three novels - not necessarily complete them within a month.

I especially like the cordboard idea. As a matter of fact, I've started doing that with note cards. Real note cards. I am not the most organized person and Scrivener and Storyist has given me hope.

Scrivener does a lot. But Storymill does one thing. It's for writing novels. And it's a simple and easy to get started. You can really get lost in Scrivener's more well rounded set of tools. With Storymill, from the moment you create a new file to writing your first word, there isn't much else for you to do but to continue writing.

Storymill has a timeline that I suppose one can use as a cork board like device. I'll have to spend more time with it before I can see how useful it is.

And I'll come back to Storyist tomorrow with more observations.

Reading On A Smartphone Is Good Enough?

The first thing I did this morning after I woke up was to reach for my G1 and see what e-mails I got while I was in a happy place with three beautiful...ah, too much details.  So I reached for my G1 to catch up on e-mails and scanned the headlines.  Then I took my toast, coffee, and  G1 out to the backyard to enjoy the day before I go to work.

But this act of taking out your mobile device to catch up on news, reading the latest Tweets or Facebook updates, or ereading is taking place all over the world that many mobile warriors do many times through out the day.  In lecture halls, taxi rides, waiting in line for a Starbucks latte, and many countless instances.

And that’s exactly the point that this NY Times article is talking about.  We can do so much on our Blackberries, G1s, and iPhones, having a secondary device dedicated to a specific function, in this instance, a Kindle, is not necessarily for a lot of mobile users.

So the question NYT asked, a valid one, is if the future of reading lies with Kindle-like devices, including the forthcoming Nook from Barnes and Noble, or a mobile multi-purpose device like the iPhone with its 3” screen?

More importantly, I think it’s accessing the information that is the main issue here.  How easily accessible to books and news can an iPhone be and how it is presented to readers.

Let’s examine the issue and focus on just what we can do today.  Also, let’s just narrow that down a bit more and focus on our behaviors.  When I woke up and started having breakfast, it’s my G1 I reached for.  When I get my Nook in a month or so, I might reach for it when I want to read a book.  Makes sense right?  Bigger screen, save battery life on my G1.

When I leave for work or to run an errand, I will take my iPhone but I might take my Nook as well.  If I’m waiting in line at the post office or the supermarket, it’s more convenient to use my iPhone to do any reading.  If I was to go a coffee house where I might sit down for any length of time, I might use the Nook.

But I certainly won’t cry over it if I had to read on my iPhone instead.  I reckon that this is probably what a lot of people would do anyway, forgoing a dedicated ebook reader completely.

Now, while we were just talking about our behaviors, technology can change that. So, what will technical advances will alter how we read and what we use to read books?

That’s the key question that has many baffled.  It is whatever technology that can best duplicate the experience of reading a real newspaper or book.  It must also make it easy for people to work beyond just reading.

One area where the NY Times post doesn’t address is the education sector.  Kindle had trial runs at some universities and failed miserably.  Why is that?  Simple.  It’s just a device that fits textbooks inside.  Some simple notes can be taken with it but not much more.  For the ereader to succeed in the educational environment, it has to augment and facilitate the learning process.  Oh, let’s not forget that the Kindle’s e-ink display isn’t in color.

Here’s how I think the future will unfold.

• Books aren’t going anyway.  There’s too much of us traditional literalists for that to happen.
• Newspaper and magazines outfits will continue to evolve.  Print will shrink and turn up on devices like Apple’s forthcoming iTablet or mobile devices.  
• People will rediscover reading on their mobile phones.  Whether it’s on a 2” or 3” screen, enough young people growing up with smartphones will create a market force demanding more literary materials to be used on their devices.
• eReaders like the Nook will continue to have its audience and will be able to do more than reading in order to survive.  The Nook already runs on Android.  It’ll be a shame if it doesn’t access Google apps.

At the end of the day, it’s about convenience.  It’s convenient to use the multi-purpose device in your pocket.  And when it’s convenient to do so, people will read a real book or on their dedicated ereader.

More at NY Times.