Insert iPad here

When I got to the office this morning and unpacked my bag, I realized I left something at home: my laptop. Not one to let a little thing like a missing computer ruin my day, I've decided to see if I can simply rely on my iPad.

The first step to using the iPad for a full day of work is to pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard. Being the technology hoarder that I am, I happened to have one handy. The only challenge in setting it up is that there are at least 12 Bluetooth devices in my office and I had no idea what my keyboard was named.

Eventually "keyboard" showed up in the list. I clicked on it and typed in the four-digit PIN to bring it to life. Success.

Normally I would put my laptop on IM, so I fired up IM+ Pro to establish that connection. Then it was time to go through email. No biggie there, though switching between apps on the iPad is a bit like running while pulling a tire tied to your waist. That is, it slows you down.

My first real task of the day is to edit an HTML file on my laptop (which is at home, remember), and post it to our Amazon S3 account.

Luckily, I keep all files on Dropbox, so my iPad already has access to it. I can't just open it through the Dropbox app, though. Instead, I have to launch PlainText, which has hooks into Dropbox. Through the PlainText app, I can navigate through my entire Dropbox directory and open the file.

Editing the file is simple enough, though it did make me miss my trusty ol' BBEdit.

When it came time to publishing it back to Amazon S3, though, I was SOL. Instead, I borrowed a nearby iMac, browsed to my Dropbox and published it through Chrome.

Meanwhile, I keep flipping back to this WordPress app to write today's blog entry. It's a little worrying to leave a text file without "saving" it, but I chant three Hail Apples and trust that all will be okay. So far, so good.

Another app that is absolutely critical for the iPad, in my opinion, is 1Password from Agile. I'll write more about 1Password in a future post, but suffice it to say it means my iPad knows all the passwords to various websites that are usually "cookied" on my laptop.

So, halfway through my iPad-only day, it's going well enough. We'll see how it continues. More later.