This summer I am planning on taking one long trip (13 hours each way) as well as the many short trips that me and my wife usually take every few weeks.  As a recent iPad owner, I wanted to find a way to mount that magical device that can store hours and hours of movies, music, and apps as well as stream video and music from apps like the ABC app, AirVideo, Netflix, Pandora, etc over 3G.  For now, lets not talk about AT&T's recent change in service concerning unlimited data plans. I am rather upset right now, and this is not the point of my post.  Although I will keep my unlimited iPad 3G plan active so that I stay grand fathered in.

As I said, I wanted to find some way of mounting my iPad in my car.  I experimented with a few ideas, but found one that was super cheap, very easy, looked really good, very secure, and was extremely easy to set up and remove. The only material is a small piece of plexiglass and a hair dryer or heat gun, and it can be made for almost any vehicle.  As a bonus, it can be installed or removed in just seconds.

Here are my directions.

One of the main reasons that I bought the iPad besides for development purposes was to use it for my school textbooks.  As of the launch day I did not see a textbook category yet, which I am a little disappointed with. For a couple of my classes I do all ready have digital copies of the textbooks.  However I did not know how to get them onto the iPad, or if it was possible, and there was not much information on the internet since the iPad was just released today.  I did figure out how to get my textbook files onto the iPad and they populate right into iBooks on the bookshelf! Here is how to get them transferred. 

1. You must have the newest version of iTunes (9.1) that supports both the iPad and eBooks.
2. If your eBooks are not in the ePub format you will need Calibre. It is cross-platform for Mac, Windows, and Linux. When you first run Calibre it asks you for a default save directory. 
3. If your eBook is in the ePub format skip to step 6.  If it is in another format (pdf or others), open Calibre and then use the Add Books icon at the top to select your book that you want to convert. Once you choose your book it will take a moment and then it will appear in the main window.
4. Now select the book and click on the Convert E-Book icon at the top.  Now fill in any metadata or information that is not populated and then click on OK.
5. It will take a few minutes to convert the book depending on length and images.  After it is done the progress bar will show completed.  Your ePub version of your book is now in the save directory you chose.
6. Either copy the ePub book into the Automatically Add to iTunes folder, or in iTunes choose File>Add To Library and select your ePub book.  It should now show up in your iTunes Library under the Books category.
7. Sync your iPad and your books will show up in the iBooks bookshelf!

I just uploaded many of my MacWorld 2010 photos.  There are still more to upload but here is the biggest and best portions.  You can find them at the Galleries link at the top or click here.  They include:

• Celebs \ Tech Celebs
• My Trip to the Twit Cottage
• MacWorld Show Floor 
• Kevin Smith's Presentation
• Leo Laporte's Presentation
• David Pogue's Presentation
• Guy Kawasaki's Presentation

As I said, I will be uploading more pics as well as several videos that I have, including a few videos of Roger McGuinn from the Byrds performing.