37signals caused quite a commotion this past week when they released their first app for the iPad, called Draft.  Draft is a simple sketching tool, that allows you to draw in white or red (only two colors) on a black canvas.  You can then share the sketches via email or directly to your Campfire account.

On their blog, and elsewhere, there was a lot of push-back on the features (or lack of) and the price ($9.99).  We’re not talking about a few comments; we’re talking about a lot of people who were really riled up.

I decided to cut through all the noise and buy the app. I compared it to another, free, app from Adobe called Ideas.  Here is the video review:

My conclusion? Draft makes a lot of sense if you use Campfire.  You can share sketches instantly to any Campfire room.  If you’re a designer, or company, that uses Campfire, the $10 price tag is irrelevant; the app will definitely pay for itself in saved time.

As a Canadian, I was lucky enough to get an iPad early (at the beginning of May), thanks to my sister who won it in a contest (thanks Sarah!).  While some have dubbed the iPad as “just another solo-user device,” I have to disagree.  I think it’s a family device, and is definitely more social than an iPod touch.

The screen

The iPad screen is perfect for sharing.  I’m not the only one that thinks so: many have noticed that, right out of the box, the form factor of this device makes it great for 2 adults, or 1 adult and multiple kids, to share.  The touch interface is much more responsive than a regular iPod touch screen.  Games, educational apps, and videos all feel “more at home” on a screen this size.

Kids get it

How long did it take to teach the kids how to use the iPad?  Zero seconds.  They picked it up, and immediately knew what to do with it: swiping across screen, clicking on icons, and using different apps.  When they’re on the computer they often need my help to access diffent websites or programs; not on the iPad.  They can find the apps and use them themselves.

How you can use it as a family

Here are some of the ways we have used the iPad as a family; we have:

• Read the Toy Story interactive storybook at bedtime
• My wife and I have played Scrabble, using our iPods as the “letter racks”
• Snuggled on the couch with one of our kids to watch a movie
• Used to Maps with my daughter to explore our neighborhood using Street View
• We’re looking forward to using it with a vehicle mounting kit, when we travel this summer.

My wife doesn’t touch our computer anymore

My wife hates technology.  She never liked our PC.  When I brought home our iMac a couple of years ago she perked up a bit.  But she loves the iPad:

When I’m home with the kids, I don’t want to have to boot up the computer.  The iPad is fast: I open the case, and I can access my email, Facebook, and the web right away.  I don’t have to type in a web address; I just tap the icon with my finger and I’m there.

Previously she was hesitant to use iCal and Contacts on the Mac, because she’d have to boot up the computer (or “wake it up”) to use them.  But the iPad feels more accessible; it’s on the kitchen counter, and she can pick it up and use it right away if she needs to look up something.

Well, if Michael Arrington and Kevin Rose can have a list, so can I.  Here it is:

After the Deadline – I wish I’d found this ages ago.  If you do a lot of writing on the web, this is the best contextual spell-checker and grammar fixer.

Apple TV – anyone that knows me knows that I’m pretty passionate about this device, even if Apple isn’t.

Basecamp – at work, this is where we keep track of all of our projects (milestones, messages, to do lists)

Dreamweaver – I’m not a big fan of Adobe, but I use this HTML editor every day (especially helpful for table layouts in HTML emails)

Fireworks – this goes with Dreamweaver; still my favorite “quick and dirty” image editor (both bitmaps and vectors)

Freshbooks – in my side business, this is how I stay organized with sending invoices and getting paid

Google Apps – I use Google for email and calendars, mostly.  Great email service.

Highrise – used to track contacts, conversations, and tasks related to contacts

iPhone 3G – most important device I carry

Screenflow - a really great Mac app that allows you to create screencasts, and video tutorials

Seismic Desktop – My favorite desktop app for Twitter and Facebook (largely because it supports multiple accounts)

Skitch – I use this about 10x a day.  The best screen capturing app for a Mac.

TextExpander – I probably use this 25x a day.  Expands a shortcode to a specific piece of text (ie. “AAmailing” becomes the full mailing address).

Twitter – I’m still a big fan.  Micro conversations, completely searchable, makes it easy to share content.

WordPress – last on the list, but probably first in terms of importance, is the WordPress platform. I use it personally every day and also use it as a CMS for people that buy a website from me.

The guys over at Doctype.TV have just rolled out a really well done episode from the FOWA conference I attended in Miami.  It includes interviews with Gary Vaynerchuk, Alex Hunter, Steve Huffman, John Resig, and Alex Payne.

Here is the video:

Mike Bridge and I are at the Future of Web Apps conference (FOWA) on Miami Beach.  We are here on behalf of Industry Mailout (the great email app company we work for).  If you want to follow what’s going on, check out my Twitter stream, or just follow the #FOWA hashtag.

Note: I originally posted this on strongcaster.com, but thought I would post it here as well, with a few modifications

Derek Sivers has a great story on his blog about a musician who booked an ad in a magazine in the hopes of converting 1% of the magazine’s readership into sales.  In this case, 1% would have translated into 10,000 CDs sold.  The result?  4 CDs sold.

He ends with this line: “He forgot there was a number lower than one percent.”

This story reminded me of when I owned my own retail shop.  We would place a full-page ad in the newspaper (with a coupon), hoping sales would just poor in.  The newspaper’s circulation was 20,000, so a 1% conversion would have meant 200 new customers.  But sure enough, only a handful of new people would walk through the door.

Circulation means nothing without engagement. This is one of the reasons the newspaper industry is in such trouble; for years businesses would throw money at advertising and hope it would make a difference.  The problem is that, often, it didn’t.

This isn’t to say that print doesn’t have a place; there are many factors to consider, including the size of one’s target market, ad design, etc…  The difference is that online you can measure engagement:

• with a well built web site you can track visitors, and what they’re reading when they are on your site
• a social marketing campaign can be measured for success based on blog posts on other sites, comments, tweets, etc.
• an email newsletter can provide you with stats based on interests and click-through.

My recommendation for businesses with yearly marketing budgets of $500-$5,000 is to spend the majority of that money building engagement online.  When you compare it with print advertising, you will get a much better return on investment.

I work with Mike at Mailout Interactive. Mike takes beautiful photos, like this one, taken in Salmon Arm:

I just wrote (what I think) is a good “beginner’s guide to Twitter” on strongcaster.com

You can read the whole thing by clicking here.