Jon Sienkiewicz Blog

Consistency counts for something, I guess. My Apple iPad consistently disengages from the network at least once per session. When it loses connectivity I have to exit the app that’s running, touch the Settings icon, navigate to Network, and allow it to reconnect. It’s frustrating.

I’ve tried manually connecting at the beginning of a session, but it still disengages after a few minutes. Sometimes it asks me for a password (which it should not do when it discovers a network it already knows) and sometimes not. Lately I’ve been ignoring the request, canceling the operation and navigating back to the Settings page. Invariably it will reconnect without reentering the password. Bear in mind that all this happens even when I’m within arm’s length of my wireless router. Perhaps it’s just forgetful.

Apple’s App Store is awesome, but of course, you already knew that. There’s a veritable plethora of free apps and about half a gazillion that are modestly priced. Only a handful are specific to photography, but I’m confident that more will appear. It’s been said that nearly 150,000 developers are currently at work creating new apps. We should see more great stuff soon.

One of the most interesting non-photo apps that I’ve discovered is called 5-0 Radio HD: Police Scanner from Smartest Apple. As the name implies, 5-0 Radio allows you to listen to Public Safety (Police, Fire, etc.), Airport, some music channels and many other intriguing sources—all streamed in real time to your iPad. The GUI is cool, too. You can display a clock, maps, a police 10-code crib sheet or your list of favorite sources. There’s even a Chat feature that taps into the power of Twitter. I suppose that some municipalities may prohibit scanning police radio frequencies, so check local ordinances and stay out of trouble.

But the app that holds my attention the longest is the Guardian Eyewitness which displays a rolling collection of 100 engaging news photos that’s updated with one new image each day. Each includes a caption that gives a brief explanation of the image content and, optionally, a related camera tip from Guardian’s photographic team. Each image is emblazoned with Canon’s logo and the simple message “in association with Canon” but it’s unclear what role Canon plays. To be honest, the photo tips are a bit vague and off-point in my opinion, but if you like to look at incredible, inspiring photographs, this free app is a “must have.”