We have been hard at work on Sente for the iPad and I wanted to give everyone an update on progress.
Redesigning the user interface for the iPad has been an fascinating process. There will be a lot more discussion on this topic in the coming months, but I have to say that I have found the process to be both more challenging and more rewarding than I expected. You all will be the final judges of the success of our efforts, but I am personally pleased with overall feel of the iPad version of Sente. It is a much simpler, more direct interface than desktop Sente. Some of this comes from leaving out features, but much of it comes from the power of the touch interface. I think you are going to like it.
As I mentioned in my original post on this subject, there are a number of technical hurdles that we have to overcome to get Sente running on the iPad. I am pleased to report that some of the most important hurdles have been cleared. Here is some of what we have gotten working thus far:
- Opening Sente 6 libraries and displaying the contents (I regularly work with a library with 1,500 references in it and performance is very good. I have run tests on libraries with over 10,000 references successfully; things definitely slow down, but if it is a matter of having the library or not, it is definitely better than not working at all!)
- Built-in Smart Collections (All the standard ones, plus some new ones.)
- Sync. (Any number of desktop copies, any number of iPad copies, all kept in sync in near-real-time with minimal set-up. I will write more about this in a later post.)
- Targeted browsing. (Very similar to the desktop version and with support for most of the same sites.)
Some hard problems remain, but this is important progress.
So, when will Sente for the iPad be released? This is difficult to answer right now, but I will say that we are shooting for an early-summer release.
What I can say with greater confidence is that Sente for the iPad is going to address the most frequently voiced needs for on-the-go reference management. We have been listening very carefully to what people are saying they want in an iPad version of a reference manager, and we think we are addressing every one of the most common requests. It will not do everything that desktop Sente does (e.g., no word processor integration) but it will do what we think most people want to do from the iPad.
Michael
Hi Michael,
I am trying hard to wait for iPad rev2... will you succeed in making me fail the attempt?
Back to the topic:
- of course you are the only ones to know how much things slow down with large libraries, and how much the user experience can degrade with it. My feeling is that an iPad Sente will need to be snappier than the mac version in order to be useful: the user is quite used to things slowing down on a computer, in the worst case we just switch to another task on another application. On the other hand, the iPhone/iPod/iPad experience has led us into a world of almost instant applications in which even a couple of seconds of delay mark an application as a sloth, add to this that there is no multitasking where to escape (even in the iPhone OS4 it looks more like suspended animation than real multitasking).
I have a 13K library (sometimes we should make a poll on the average size of the libraries) and on the Mac can get very slow in certain tasks. Despite not using all of it all the time, I'd love not to have to split it. I remember that once you wrote of a "partial" synchronization as a possibility. Could you implement such a "partial sync" mode? So that we can start creating partial subsets of the main library and use the Sente on the iPad at full speed no matter the size of the main library on the desktop? You could even think of making such a feature automatic in such a way that the user doesn't even know that the library has been indeed split in segments.
- Quicktags and various non-synced preferences: I guess that if you want a seamless integration you should start thinking how to integrate these in the synced copies - I wouldn't want to have to rebuild the QuickTags tree on the iPad
- Searches: I will you do with this? I guess that if people start working on the Mac and on the iPad, you will start receiving more and more requests to synchronize searches as well.
silvo
Hi Michael,
I'm thrilled to read about the plans and progress in Sente for iPad. I think you have stated the most needed features. The ability to annotate is one I did not see in the list you provided. I sure hope it is possible to ad this feature. When Sente for iPad is there I will definitely buy an iPad and of course Sente for iPad. Will the iPad app also run on iPhone?
good luck!
greets Dennis
Like silvvv above, Sente is what may bring me to the iPad. I would of course second what djapink says, that annotation (notes and highlighting) are essential to differentiate the sente product from the other ones out there like papers.
Thanks for the feedback. Just to reiterate a point from my initial post on the iPad... PDF markup, note taking and reference tagging will all be included in Sente for the iPad.
Michael
Hi Michael,
Excellent! Just excellent. I like your way of thinking. PDF markup is essential.
Please consider:
1. Full screen support in both portrait and landscape modes.
2. Output to iPad's dock to VGA connector to be able to view paper PDFs on a big screen for journal club presentations and lab meetings. A touch interface is perfect for the task and unfortunately you have to explicitly enable this support in your app as the dock to VGA connector doesn't mirror the iPAd display!!!
3. RSS feeds. Please RSS feeds. Targeted browsing is a killer feature but RSS feeds support is a very essential feature to stay on top of the literature. I can do that using google reader but why not directly from within my Sente app to add the papers directly to my library?
Thanks a lot for the great work. I am looking forward to beta test for you on my iPad.
VGA output — now that's a clever idea, for the very reason that Wizardgraphics suggests (journal club screen-sharing). I'll second!
Mark
Hi Michael,
I am really excited about the development of Sente. I looked at the previous version, but decided to go with Bookends because of the better integration with Mellel. But now, I can't wait to see the iPad version of Sente and then switch over to the Sente ecosystem!
I second previous thoughts about the importance of annotating. What I love with Skim is that I can easily switch the highlighting colour by adding 6 standard colours into the menu bar. Any chance we see some similar colour switching with Sente for iPad?
Keep up the great work!
Jo
Hi Michael,
here is another excited iPad user expecting with tension Sente for iPad. What do you mean with "no word processor integration"? How is one supposed to write a scientific piece of work without being able to cite in text and/or forming a bibliography? I know nobody will write a paper completely on the iPad but even if I can write some paragraphs citing / referencing is certainly a need. Would you offer a workaround.
Stefano
You can always just type in citation tags when working on the iPad, so you can add citations to your new paragraphs easily. Beyond that, there will not be any support for document scanning in Sente for iPad 1.x. Maybe someday, but certainly not in v1.
Michae
Hi Michael,
I did a search for "citation tags" in the Knowledge Base in the Sente support site, but came up empty. Could you point us to some guidance on this topic?
Thanks,
Rick
Hi Michael,
after using the ipad for almost 2 months I'm now waiting desperately for a bibliography app. I have followed this blog almost from the beginning so I'm curious when the ipad users could expect the Sente for ipad app?
Matthias
There are a few of us waiting desperately for Sente on the iPad. I have had to resort to work-arounds as I cannot wait any longer (the dissertation must go on!). I fully understand and support the need for the app to be solid before release -- I (and others) just hope that it is coming out sooner rather than later...
Chet