Naked Heat

I make no secret of my love for Castle. The mystery's are not puzzling and the plot is predictable, but the writing is fun and the the interplay between Castle and Beckett is sweet.
One of the other fun things about the show is that ABC actually has books written by Rick Castle that match the books he writes on the show. The second one, Naked Heat, came out late last year and I put a hold on it at the library almost immediately. My turn to read it just came round.
Like the show, the book is not going to win any awards or be mistaken for high culture. It is a quick read with a few laughs. It also sticks to the form of a modern police procedural novel.
The thing I like most about the novels is that they make me appreciate the TV show more. The dialog in the novels is snappy, but it doesn't have the same buddy quality that the actors bring to it. The characters in the book are flat compared to their TV counterparts despite the fact that the novel gives us glimpses of their interior thoughts. The action in the book lacks the funny tension of the TV show.
The cast is what makes Castle magic.

Overdrive for iOS

Overdrive finally came out with a solution for getting library books onto iOS devices. It took them long enough, but apparently not long enough.
At first the app was iPhone only (crazy for an e-book app) and it took a month for them to update it to a universal app. I didn't even bother with it until it was universal. The iPhone screen is great, but it is not my first choice for leisurely reading.
On the iPad it is a passable experience. The text is clear, pages turn using the standard tap on the side motion, and the interface is nice and sparse. Along the bottom you can see how far you are into the current chapter, but this display auto-hides and I found it tricky to bring back up consistently. There along the top there are buttons for getting to the TOC, adjusting text size, adjusting brightness, bookmarking, and getting to the main menu.
I found the text layout flat, but that could have been the e-book. I also found the lack of a dictionary troubling. I guess I've become spoiled by being able to look up words without leaving the book.
Getting books into the app is where it really falls down. To check books out of the library, you must leave the app and go to the library's web site. The app sort of helps you locate the right library, but the mechanics of it are poor. Basically you need to scroll through long lists. The Boston Public Library's site was OK on the iPad, but not great. Searching was terrible.
All in all the app is OK. It is not the one of the more polished e-book apps out there, but it will get library books onto your iPad.

Is the iPad all that?

The short answer is yes. It is the next generation of mobile computing.
Even before I got the iPad, my iPhone started eclipsing my MacBook Pro as the goto computer e-mail, Facebook, Web surfing, checking news, etc. H and I frequently joked that my MacBook Pro was an obscenely large phone charger.
The iPad has accelerated that process. Its larger screen makes Web surfing and e-mailing much better. Web pages are readable and typing e-mails a breeze. Facebook is even better since it is possible to use the Web interface. (The iPhone app makes Facebook usable on the small screen, but it cannot match the full Web interface.)
I have used my iPhone for blogging, but it was not something I'd choose to do. On the iPad blogging is a joy. The bigger keyboard makes typing easy. I also like the spell checking. The iPad not only points out spelling mistakes, it offers suggestions to correct the mistake. I use BlogPress which is a universal app.
Along the same lines, I've also used pages to write fairly lengthy documents. Again, I found the key board easy to use. It is best using in it landscape mode is much better than portrait, but that is a problem for Pages. In landscape mode all of Pages controls are hidden. This means that you have to flip back and forth to do any formatted text. Pages also falls down when it comes to transferring documents between the iPad and a computer. The process is convoluted and lossy.
For pure fun, the iPad rocks. The ABC app is magical. The shows are clear, smooth, and portable. There are commercials, but they are not as egregious as watching on cable. The games I've played are also kicking. My two favorites are Harbor Master HD and Parcel Panic. The graphics are amazing and the speedy processor handles the action without a hitch.
Running iPhone games on the iPad is a mixed bag. They looked lost on the screen when played at regular size. When played at 2x they are pixelated. For some games, the pixelation is not too big a deal. For others, it is a deal breaker. One advantage is that all the games play much smoother than they do on my vintage iPhone.
The iPad also shines as an e-book reader. iBooks does a decent job displaying crisp text. It also does an excellent job displaying images. The built-in dictionary is a nice touch, as is the ability to look up words in Wikipedia. The bookstore software makes getting books easy. The UI eye candy is a nice touch even if it is useless.
Is the iPad perfect? Can it replace my laptop? No. It cannot do any photo editing. I haven't found a decent money management app. The storage capacity is tiny. There is no way to print from it. I cannot find replacements for some of the applications I use for work that will run on it. (Although there are a number of apps that will allow me to connect to my work computer to use them.)
Of course most of the problems can be solved by software. Eventually a developer will create apps that fill in the gaps.
When that happens, my MacBook Pro will truly be just a very large phone charger.