Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Google Docs on the iPad

Following the last post, I thought I had better have a look at Google Docs on the iPad. Curious. You have two choices, use the "mobile" view or use the "desktop" view. Google Docs I think will automatically detect that you are browsing from an iPad and put you in the mobile view.

The editor in mobile view is very simple... so what I said about Google Docs having more features than gmail or hotmail is not true. It works fine but there is essentially no formatting.

When you try to go to the Desktop view, it semi loads and then comes up with an error message. I could not succeed in bringing it up, so clearly there are calls to funtions not supported in Safari.

I actually got into the Google Docs site by using the Google App. This app is both cool and also less than it seems. It is a nice minimalistic interface allowing you to search... essentially giving you another browser. However, there is a little button at the bottom that says "apps" and this simply gives you access to the plethora of Google on-line areas such as blogging, Picassa (photos) and Documents. The apps are not apps in the iPhone sense, just ways to click to websites.

Still, an interesting alternative approach to the world of "apps" and iPad.

Andrew Lack

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