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iPad, in combination with the app Papers, is an excellent portable platform for reading scientific PDFs.

Thats the main reason I bought an iPad-2. I read a lot of scientific papers, there is an absolutely fantastic application (Desktop + iPad sync) called Papers, http://www.mekentosj.com/papers/

Basically, papers manages all your papers, hooks up to google scholar, ACM, ..., downloads, archives and searches papers, and syncs up with the iPad version of Papers, and automatically creates a bibtex database.

Papers for Mac is a really great way of organising and viewing scientific papers. For me it was the killer app that made me switch from Linux to Mac as my main operating system.

The iPad version looks great and syncs with the Mac, providing a very nice solution - easily the best I've seen. A number of my colleagues read most of their papers on their iPad using Papers (usually when they're in a boring meeting!). There's also a version for the iPhone for those with good eyesight... I don't know how well it works without a Mac but according to the website it looks pretty easy to get documents in there from various sources.

A friend recommended this to me: http://www.mekentosj.com/ I've played with it a bit, and it's very academic-focused.

There's probably a need for a more general metadata-integrated information management tool, that makes use of Mac OS X facilities for metadata definition and management. Do Linux and Windows 7 have similar OS level facilities to support metadata creation and management?

A key consideration is the ability to store metadata in the file, rather alongside. Some EXIF tools support this for photographs and I think the various Office formats (Microsoft and otherwise) support metadata within the file.

you can't actually download and save papers from the iPad itself.

Seriously, you haven't researched this any better than just using iBooks for managing your research library? Three solutions right off the top: GoodReader, Evernote and Papers all offer a selection of features that address (each a bit differently) your scenario. Many folks I know use more than one of those tools depending on the specific situation.

“Papers” on iPad?

I'm a big fan of Linux (been running it as my primary OS for over a decade), yet I'm still getting an iPad. I don't like Apple's closed nature at all, but I've been on the lookout for a way to nicely read (and annotate) PDFs since the Kindle DX came out. My price point is about $500, and right up until they announced the price I thought that there was no way Apple would have the cheapest model be that price. I really like eink screens, but they seem better suited to linear reading of books rather than referencing PDFs.

The one really nice thing about the Apple store model and Apple's general market share is that you can be sure there will be serious app support. My Nokia phone (e63) runs Symbian and lets me run whatever I want on it, but most of the software out there (including the included software) is really bad. So it's not enough for a company (especially a small one) to release a device - it needs to have good software. The Barnes and Noble Nook is another example - great hardware (relative to the Kindle), but the initial software was terrible (didn't even support bookmarks after turning it off!).

Real tablets - that is, computers running full OSes like Windows or Linux - just aren't compelling to me. I want something thin and light for reading with good battery life, not a replacement for my 14" laptop. Aside from that, the Linux software I use would be absolutely horrid with a touch screen (you'd basically need a stylus for everything). I have some hope for various Android devices, but as of January most of these were still basically rough prototypes.

That said, it was clear when the iPad was announced that this wasn't a product for everybody. Not everyone wants or needs a separate device primarily for consuming media. I suspect the keyboard will be painful for all but the shortest of sessions; even movie watching will be somewhat awkward without a case helping to hold it in place at a good angle. Some people do legitimately need multitasking support the iPad doesn't provide (at least not yet). But relative to the Kindle DX, it seems much more compelling for my use. This is especially due to the app support: two companies have already announced iPad-specific PDF readers as replacements for the built-in reader (and the latter program supports annotations).

Apple's mobile devices get good app support because the install base is large and the number of devices are small. As I understand it, UI layout is done by pixel, allowing for very precise placement but horrible problems if you try to support many resolutions. With Android on everything from 3" smartphones to 5" Dell minis to 10" netbooks/tablets all at various resolutions even within a screen size (see, e.g. the Droid's awesome resolution), it's going to be tricky.

As an ereader (provided you're okay with the better-than-netbook-worse-than-eink IPS screen), the iPad looks almost ideal. You get Apple's bookstore, BN's bookstore (they officially announced they'll have an ipad-specific version ready about the time of the release), and likely an Amazon Kindle app (among other smaller ebook stores). If they drop the price on a Nook or Kindle within a year or two I can totally see picking one of those up to complement the iPad for pleasure reading. The Kindle app (and probably the BN app, I'm not sure), keeps track of what page you're on. You use any device and pick up where you left off. There is not (yet) any BN or Kindle app for Android or Linux/X11. If you don't like DRM books, that's fine - you'll be able to read whatever non-DRM ebooks you can find on the iPad (as opposed to more limited ebook readers).

As for the app store, I agree that Apple's effective censorship is very annoying. I'd love to have ssh/scp and a few other apps without needing to jailbreak the device. At this point Apple can't just open it up though, they'd get a lot of flack for that. Instead, they need a way out; I'd love to see them make

I use Papers. It does not do everything you want, but it is a nice management tool. It is still growing in features, and the support staff is very responsive. (They provided me, same day, a new NIB file that allowed me to use it on my small hackintoshed Dell Mini 9 screen.)

The link is here: http://mekentosj.com/papers/

Otherwise, Endnote works well. I know many who use it. There are a few others that are also out there.

Good luck with it.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ipod+touch+read+books ... http://mekentosj.com/papers/iphone/

For Mac OS X, try Papers. There's also an iPhone/iPod Touch version. Mac OS is great at handling PDFs in general.

Papers is a Mac software that does exactly what you need, and does it very well. It's not webbased and Mac only unfortunately, but you can probably find out there what the right terms to google for are.

You might want to check out Papers for iPhone

http://mekentosj.com/papers/iphone/

Which is designed to do exactly what your asking for. Of course, the current iPhone is a bit low spec'd for reading papers with complex figures that might be 10's of MB of data.

I totally agree in general. I've been very impressed with Zotero, and have found it adequate for basic academic needs. My main issue with it is that there's no method of syncing or consolidating and index or database between multiple comps. Since I do all my writing on my Mac laptop, I've moved over to http://mekentosj.com/papers/ which I've found to be exactly what I'm looking for.. It has the database feature, easy complex searches like Endnote, and costs ~$26 for students, ~$50 for others. But if you don't use a Mac, Zotero is definitely the best I've used. If you are up to keeping everything on a USB key, you can keep your papers consistent no matter the comp with Zotero.

Offtopic, but I've struggled with PDFs and a good way to organise/index them. I have thousands (Biotech, doing a postgrad), and I really have tried everything. A lot of PDF library apps, and when 10.4 came out I was dead happy to try spotlight, but it didn't work so well.

Anyway, long story short, the amazing Mekentosj pair came up with this PDF library app called papers. They make a ton of other free apps that have won awards, papers is the first one that costs cash. But if you want to organise a lot of PDFs, it really is incredible, especially if you use pubmed, which it integrates with. It's in beta, but you can test drive it, and see if it suits.

hope it helps!

(PS, not affiliated with mekentosj, just a huge fan of their apps).

Offtopic, but I've struggled with PDFs and a good way to organise/index them. I have thousands (Biotech, doing a postgrad), and I really have tried everything. A lot of PDF library apps, and when 10.4 came out I was dead happy to try spotlight, but it didn't work so well.

Anyway, long story short, the amazing Mekentosj pair came up with this PDF library app called papers. They make a ton of other free apps that have won awards, papers is the first one that costs cash. But if you want to organise a lot of PDFs, it really is incredible, especially if you use pubmed, which it integrates with. It's in beta, but you can test drive it, and see if it suits.

hope it helps!

(PS, not affiliated with mekentosj, just a huge fan of their apps).

Offtopic, but I've struggled with PDFs and a good way to organise/index them. I have thousands (Biotech, doing a postgrad), and I really have tried everything. A lot of PDF library apps, and when 10.4 came out I was dead happy to try spotlight, but it didn't work so well.

Anyway, long story short, the amazing Mekentosj pair came up with this PDF library app called papers. They make a ton of other free apps that have won awards, papers is the first one that costs cash. But if you want to organise a lot of PDFs, it really is incredible, especially if you use pubmed, which it integrates with. It's in beta, but you can test drive it, and see if it suits.

hope it helps!

(PS, not affiliated with mekentosj, just a huge fan of their apps).

I went ahead and signed up (what can I say, I'm a sucker for science) but I'm really hoping they make it clear what will be running on the agents.

One thing quite curious, the "introduction" images are almost direct yanks from xgrid@stanfard including the Dashboard widget the push as their own from the xgrid widget SDK linked with the xgrid@stanford project as well.

Should be interesting how this shapes up. 91 total agents right now, 0 working :-P

Kind of like this?

http://mekentosj.com/disctop/wallpapers/Pages/macb ookpro.html

Look near the bottom of this page.

Install Disctop.
-gko

You must be thinking of the Apple Design Award. It's a "beautiful metal cube ... that glows when you touch it." Unfortunately they're generally not for sale.

http://www.mekentosj.com/goodies/cubism/

PIctures, including x-rays:
http://www.mekentosj.com/goodies/cubism/gallery.ht ml

You must be thinking of the Apple Design Award. It's a "beautiful metal cube ... that glows when you touch it." Unfortunately they're generally not for sale.

http://www.mekentosj.com/goodies/cubism/

PIctures, including x-rays:
http://www.mekentosj.com/goodies/cubism/gallery.ht ml