My Academic iPad
Archon Fung
December 31, 2010
(revised March 17, 2011)


Santa gave iPads to many of my friends. I thought that I’d share some of the ways in which my iPad fits into my work-flow.

I. The Functional Cloud

Dropbox: Files

This application really improved my computing experience. Basically, you download the application and install it on all of your computers. Works for pc or mac, iphone or pad. DropBox creates a folder on your each computer into which you can drop any document or folder. DropBox syncs those files with its server in the background.

So, if you edit a document (that is located in the DropBox folder) on you computer at home, drive to the office, and then open the same document on your computer at the office, all of the changes will be reflected. Your office computer will have the most recent version of the document.

I've put nearly all of my documents and folders on DropBox. One major benefit is that all of the most recent documents are available on my iPad - all completely up to date (as long as I have an Internet connection).

If you click on this referral link to sign up, you’ll get a bit of extra free storage and so will I.


Google: Calendar and Contacts

I keep my address book and appointment calendar on Google Calendar and Contacts. I never look at calendar or contact information from the Google web interface, though. Instead, I sync that data to Apple’s desktop apps (Cal, Address Book), iPhone, and iPad. The advantage of storing this information on Google is that any change made on any device will be reflected on all of the others.

DropBox and Google really serve many functions, which is why I put them up front. The rest of this note is organized according to activities.


II. Reviewing and Filing Papers

Like every academic, I spend a lot of time reading, marking up, and filing journal articles. These articles are usually in PDF format and come from the web or on-line databases.

I like to keep track of PDFs, as well as bibliographic information on books and manuscripts, in a program called Bookends on my desktop (a mac). The program isn’t perfect, but it does do a very good job of organizing PDFs; its like iTunes for articles. Bookends stores all pdfs in an “Attachments” folder which I keep on DropBox. This allows me to have access to all filed pdfs from any device, including iPhone and iPad.

For the actual work of reading and marking up PDFs, I use GoodReader. It was a little late to add PDF markup functionality (underlining, highlighting, margin notes), but those features work quite well in GoodReader. I am terrible with paper documents, and so I don’t print documents out if I can help it. Once I’ve marked up a document, I file it (or re-file it) with Bookends so that I’ll have the marked up version of the document on file.


III. Composition and Taking Notes

I rarely try to compose or edit long documents (articles, talks, even recommendation letters) on a iPad — the keyboard is just too slow. However, I do take notes at meetings and talks on my iPad.

Usually, I use NoteTaker HD with a Pogo Sketch Stylus. NoteTaker HD allows free-hand note taking (but it does not digitize text through optical character recognition). It basically replaces the time-tested yellow pad. I like it because, as I said, I’m terrible with paper.

I also sometimes use the Apple Pages program to take notes and make small changes to documents (typescript of talks, for example) that I have prepared on a word processor.


IV. Getting Things Done

I’ve never really managed to master David Allen’s Getting Things Done method, but I’m still trying hard. The main application that I use to track my to-do list and projects is OmniFocus. I run OmniFocus on all my devices — iPad, desktop, laptop, iPhone. They are synchronized through a WebDAV server.

Whenever I remember that I need to do something (buy milk, review a book manuscript), I put it in OmniFocus to track it. When iI receive an email message that requires some action, I try to put the task in OmniFocus.

I got this next idea from my friend Eric Beerbohm (who reports that he got the idea from Nancy Rosenblum, who probably had a pencil-and-folder version in mind). I also use OmniFocus to track article and book ideas. Whenever I have an idea for an article or book, I create a folder in OmniFocus for it. I throw materials (ideas, outlines, clippings, citations, notes, and so on) into that folder. Any particular folder may or may not become an article, but at least I don’t loose the thoughts.

The learning curve for OmniFocus is a bit steep, but worth it. Here’s a useful white paper on using the application to Get Things Done.


V. Media Consumption

The apps that I use most often for media consumption are:

  • Safari
  • the New York Times iPad application (it was unstable until the most recent release, but now I find it rock solid and very nice to use).
  • FlipBoard. This application won Apple’s iPad application of the year award for good reason. It really makes FaceBook updates, Twitter feeds, and RSS feeds (I use it to read Crooked Timber and the Guardian) much more pleasant to read.
  • Instapaper. Use this to save web pages for later, off-line, reading and reference.


VI. Presentations

Most of my teaching and even seminar presentations are fairly simple (I’ve met Larry Lessig, and I’m no Larry Lessig). I prepare them using Keynote on my Mac, but then I usually deliver them using Keynote on my iPad and a VGA dongle.

Below is diagram that represents how I use these applications (made using NoteTaker HD):




Why am I telling you about how I use my iPad instead of writing a paper or grading exams? See Professor John Perry’s brilliant essay on “structured procrastination.”