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.

Ok, I know that I am behind on posting updates, but I have been go go go ever since I got into San Fran.  Also it is hard to upload pics and videos because the upload bandwidth is very slow.  Anyway I have added a galleries link at the top that has some initial picture galleries of my MacWorld 2010 trip.  I will be added more galleries as I get more pictures converted into smaller more manageable sizes.

So please go to the galleries link or click here.

Tell me what you think.

Today MacWorld Began with David Pogue's premier presentation Late Night with David Pogue at 9am.  For those that don't understand David's humor here probably were not the type of person that would be at MacWorld, or just not bright enough to be there.

This being my first time at MacWorld I did not know how great that David Pogue could be.  He was hilarious and an excellent kick off to MacWorld.  His show was a combination of comedy, talks show, music parody, and even anti-Apple humor since Steve could not control the presentations......  Or so David thought when the plugs were pulled when he badmouthed Apple.

After his "monologue" his first guests were the AutoTune the News crew which was amazing.  If you have not checked them out on YouTube go check them out.   It was a great an hilarious interview.  After that he had them perform a play.  However he needed one more actor to play the part of Steve Jobs.  Who else would work but Levar Burton from Reading Rainbow or otherwise know as Jodi Laforge on Star Trek the Next Generation. Here is my video of the excellent play that they did. 

He finished things off with an interview with Levar where Levar mention his future production plans as well as that Reading Rainbow would be brought back to the internet.

All in all, I was very surprised at the presentation and I was very impressed with the way that MacWorld kicked off.  Forget Apple, the community will keep MacWorld alive.

It is now 4am and luckily my flights show as On Time!! My MacWorld luck is going good.  I took the hotel shuttle to the airport and I'm waiting to desks to open to check in for my 6am flight.  It is still snowing here in Dayton and the roads getting to the airport were not the greatest conditions, but I feel that everything will go smoothly.  I have a layover in Chicago for a very short amount of time, then finally off to San Francisco.

Once in San Francisco I will be headed to the Apple Company Store located at the Apple Headquarters in Cupertino.  I plan on buying several shirts and other collectible merchandise there.  TUAW had some good pics from the Apple Company Store here, but I plan on taking my own pictures and sharing them here.  After visiting the company store I will be headed to my hotel to check in and then picking up my badge for MacWorld.

I am hoping to catch some MacWorld get togethers this evening and meet some of the other attendees.  I am really looking forward to meeting other people in the community, almost more than the conferences and gadgets.  If you are in San Francisco and reading this, please contact me!

With all my planning and preparations for MacWorld it may all depend on one thing, Mother Nature.  I live in Ohio and this last weekend we were hit with a good amount of snow.  Some were calling it a Snowpocolypse due to large amount of snow in a short time.  The real problem was that there were very high winds that created very large drifts up to several feet high.  Just as the roads are fully plowed and most of the snow is out of the way, we are receiving round two which is supposed to be even worse.

My problem is that I do not leave for MacWorld until a 6am flight tomorrow morning from Dayton.  I had thought about scheduling my flight to leave a day early, but that would cost me a few hundred dollars in arrangements and hotel stay, if that was even possible.  So I decided to stick with my original flight and chance my odds that it will not be cancelled or delayed as well as my layover in Chicago which is not any better.  

So today the snow began, and it began hard.  All the schools were cancelled, stores were closed, and even the courthouse is shut down for 2 days.  So I planned to leave early today and get a hotel near the airport in Dayton.  As I was leaving around noon or so, there was all ready about 6 to 8 inches of fresh snow.  I am starting to get more worried about my flight.  However there was a small bit of good news as I travelled south to Dayton, the snowfall was not as much there.

Right now, I'm in Dayton, sitting in the hotel room writing this update hoping that my flight still leaves on time.  I keep checking the airport website, the local weather, as well as Chicago weather for any updates.  Now I wait.  

This Tuesday I will be leaving for San Francisco for 5 days for MacWorld 2010.  While I am there I will also be visiting the Apple Company Store, which is located at the Apple Campus in Cupertino, as well as Leo Laporte and the TWIT cottage in Petaluma.

 Being a professed "MacHead" fanboy, I cannot pass up the opportunity to visit Apple and buy a few items in their company store.  TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) has some great pics of what the company store offers such as t-shirts and hats and other gifts.  I will definitely be bringing some extra money for a few.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I will be attending MacWorld.  The yearly gathering for Apple fans, professionals, programmers, podcasters, vendors, and even celebrities such as Kevin Smith.  I plan to check out the expo floor for all the new gadgets and tech items as well as attending some conference events.  Besides conference events I am really looking forward to MacWorld's main events which include David Pogue, Kevin Smith, and most of all Leo Laporte.

Saturday I will be traveling north to Petaluma to visit Leo Laporte and the TWIT cottage where he does all of his numerous podcasts.  I am VERY excited to see both him and his studio.  It is amazing how a cottage can produce as much as well as better content than some networks.

I will be taking pictures of my trip as well as tweeting what I think is cool and newsworthy. If there is anything in particular that you would like to see, please post a comment and I will check it out.