The downside to using the iPad during data collection: iPad elbow.
I've been using the iPad to take notes while videotaping middle school science classrooms for three days now. I've mostly been cradling it in my left arm the way you would a regular notebook for writing on.
Yesterday, the third day of this, I realized my left elbow was feeling stiff. And when I picked up the iPad in that arm, it was definitely sore. Now, the iPad really does not feel that heavy while I'm using it. I was definitely not expecting this side effect. It still doesn't feel heavy, despite the sore elbow. But apparently cradling it like that for several hours a day is more of a challenge than my arm was expecting.
Of course, the fact that I'm nearly 8 months pregnant might be to blame. I did not know this before getting pregnant, but your body releases a hormone that loosens all of your joints - this is useful for joints in your pelvis that need to let a baby through, but can also lead to things like many pregnant women developing carpal-tunnel, not to mention knee and ankle problems from the extra weight. So my elbows may just be more sensitive to mild strains than usual.
Yesterday I tried changing positions a lot, propping the iPad up on other things, etc, to reduce the strain on my elbow. It's still a bit sore today (no videotaping today, luckily), but hopefully it'll be recovered by Monday and this will be the kind of thing it gets used to over time. But be warned - even when the iPad doesn't feel too heavy, it's no notepad!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Friday, April 22, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The iPad as a research tool
I'm a grad student collecting my dissertation data. My research is on science education - I give middle school students written tests, interview them, and videotape their science classes.
One reason I wanted an iPad was for reading scientific papers on - I'm tired of lugging around a two inch stack of reading material, and wasting a tree or two on printouts every semester. But I hadn't really given any thought to how it could fit into my research workflow in other ways. There are plenty of things I simply can't do on it, or that are still easier on the laptop - things like transcribing videos, coding data, and statistical analysis (unless anyone knows a good stats app that can compete with R or SPSS...). That pretty much leaves data collection as the one part of my work that it might actually fit into.
So today I took it with me as I taped some eighth grade classes. There we some definite advantages:
- I take limited notes during the taping. Nothing extensive, since I do have the tape, but bits to remind myself of interesting things to look back at later, things that might have affected class, etc. Notetaking apps are perfectly adequate for this, although I'm not sure yet I could use them for more extensive purposes. Right now I'm switching between Notes Plus and UPad, seeing which i like better. I took notes in NP today, and it worked quite well. Plus, I have a tendency to spread my notes across whatever notepad I grab each day, leading to lost notes (I'm a bad scientist, no dedicated lab notebook). Consolidating them all on the iPad would be helpful.
- The iPad is far less intrusive than a laptop. I had it open alongside my notebook in the back of the room all through the classes, and I don't think a single student (or even teacher) noticed. Lugging my 15" laptop out, opening it, etc is a lot more likely to grab attention when my main goal is for the students to forget I'm there. And my laptop has crappy battery life, so I'd have to find a place to plug it in, etc.
- On the other hand, I don't think I'll be using it during interviews. I use my laptop to show the kids videos and paper to hold my questions and take notes on their thoughts about the science topics in the videos. I could use the iPad in place of either of these, but in this case, when it would be right there in front of them, I think it would be a distraction. Tablets are still too new and cool - the kids think nothing of being shown a YouTube video on a laptop, but waving an iPad in their face would be a bad idea. Maybe in a couple more years.
- It made multitasking easier. In any classroom, there are going to be periods where the teacher is taking care of business that I don't particularly care about. With the iPad, I was able to use this time to take care of some scheduling issues (trying to videotape in multiple schools/classrooms at once is always complicated) instead of just standing there watching the teacher collect homework. Again, my qualm about viewing multiple things at once came into play. I wound up using both the iPad and my paper side-by-side to facilitate writing down schedule issues from emails and comparing them to figure out the best combination of dates. I know nothing about the iOS API; I assume that if app devs could allow me to view multiple notepads/pages at once, they would? So I'm left hoping that Apple realizes how useful this would be soon.
- On the other hand, of course, I had to resist the temptation to goof off. :) I did a fairly good job - the only thing I really did that wasn't work-related was using the Gas Buddy app to figure out where to get gas on the way home.
Overall, I'm definitely interested in exploring the iPad's potential as a research tool further. I'm going to keep using it to take notes during data collection and see how that goes.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
One reason I wanted an iPad was for reading scientific papers on - I'm tired of lugging around a two inch stack of reading material, and wasting a tree or two on printouts every semester. But I hadn't really given any thought to how it could fit into my research workflow in other ways. There are plenty of things I simply can't do on it, or that are still easier on the laptop - things like transcribing videos, coding data, and statistical analysis (unless anyone knows a good stats app that can compete with R or SPSS...). That pretty much leaves data collection as the one part of my work that it might actually fit into.
So today I took it with me as I taped some eighth grade classes. There we some definite advantages:
- I take limited notes during the taping. Nothing extensive, since I do have the tape, but bits to remind myself of interesting things to look back at later, things that might have affected class, etc. Notetaking apps are perfectly adequate for this, although I'm not sure yet I could use them for more extensive purposes. Right now I'm switching between Notes Plus and UPad, seeing which i like better. I took notes in NP today, and it worked quite well. Plus, I have a tendency to spread my notes across whatever notepad I grab each day, leading to lost notes (I'm a bad scientist, no dedicated lab notebook). Consolidating them all on the iPad would be helpful.
- The iPad is far less intrusive than a laptop. I had it open alongside my notebook in the back of the room all through the classes, and I don't think a single student (or even teacher) noticed. Lugging my 15" laptop out, opening it, etc is a lot more likely to grab attention when my main goal is for the students to forget I'm there. And my laptop has crappy battery life, so I'd have to find a place to plug it in, etc.
- On the other hand, I don't think I'll be using it during interviews. I use my laptop to show the kids videos and paper to hold my questions and take notes on their thoughts about the science topics in the videos. I could use the iPad in place of either of these, but in this case, when it would be right there in front of them, I think it would be a distraction. Tablets are still too new and cool - the kids think nothing of being shown a YouTube video on a laptop, but waving an iPad in their face would be a bad idea. Maybe in a couple more years.
- It made multitasking easier. In any classroom, there are going to be periods where the teacher is taking care of business that I don't particularly care about. With the iPad, I was able to use this time to take care of some scheduling issues (trying to videotape in multiple schools/classrooms at once is always complicated) instead of just standing there watching the teacher collect homework. Again, my qualm about viewing multiple things at once came into play. I wound up using both the iPad and my paper side-by-side to facilitate writing down schedule issues from emails and comparing them to figure out the best combination of dates. I know nothing about the iOS API; I assume that if app devs could allow me to view multiple notepads/pages at once, they would? So I'm left hoping that Apple realizes how useful this would be soon.
- On the other hand, of course, I had to resist the temptation to goof off. :) I did a fairly good job - the only thing I really did that wasn't work-related was using the Gas Buddy app to figure out where to get gas on the way home.
Overall, I'm definitely interested in exploring the iPad's potential as a research tool further. I'm going to keep using it to take notes during data collection and see how that goes.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Yaaaay, Manage got updated!
I mentioned before that I have a To Do app that I really like, Manage.
Well, it got updated today, and some of the issues I mentioned in my post (and others I'd noticed but didn't mention) have been addressed! And the dev claims they'll be addressing some others in future updates!
Specifically from my previous post, the problem with moving items containing subtasks when rearranging a list has been fixed. Excellent. Also, for some reason it would only add new items to the beginning of a list, and now you can choose beginning or end.
In addition, they've added syncing with Toodledo, which I've never used but is apparently a very popular To Do website, as well as themes if you don't like their basic brown leather design. They are also working on improving the writing (which is functional but not as smooth as it could be) and making more items writable, such as the notes for different tasks and also subtasks (I think... specifically it says "fully scribbled task lists," which I assume/hope means scribbling subtasks since this is the only part of the list you have to type now).
If you want to write instead of type your To Dos, go spend the $2 on this app right now! With devs this responsive, I'm sure it will go from great to stellar in no time.
Well, it got updated today, and some of the issues I mentioned in my post (and others I'd noticed but didn't mention) have been addressed! And the dev claims they'll be addressing some others in future updates!
Specifically from my previous post, the problem with moving items containing subtasks when rearranging a list has been fixed. Excellent. Also, for some reason it would only add new items to the beginning of a list, and now you can choose beginning or end.
In addition, they've added syncing with Toodledo, which I've never used but is apparently a very popular To Do website, as well as themes if you don't like their basic brown leather design. They are also working on improving the writing (which is functional but not as smooth as it could be) and making more items writable, such as the notes for different tasks and also subtasks (I think... specifically it says "fully scribbled task lists," which I assume/hope means scribbling subtasks since this is the only part of the list you have to type now).
If you want to write instead of type your To Dos, go spend the $2 on this app right now! With devs this responsive, I'm sure it will go from great to stellar in no time.
Friday, April 15, 2011
What addiction looks like
I see people ask all the time on forums - should I get an iPad? What would I do with it? What do you do with it? And it's kind of a hard question to answer in a way that conveys just how attached I've grown to the device in a short time. But I think the conversation I had with myself tonight offers a glimpse of how it manages to make itself mysteriously indispensable:
I'd packed for a road trip today, but decided at the last minute to leave in the morning due to thunderstorms. But I'd already put my backpack, with iPad in it, in my car trunk, and I decided I'd leave it there. No iPad this afternoon or evening, I could do that, right?
A couple hours ago I started baking a cake for my husband's birthday. This is when my inner dialogue began:
Me: Ooh, ooh, if we got the iPad out of the car we could play Pocket Frogs while the cake bakes! Or read the ebook we started the other day!
Me: Or we could leave it there and play the DS we haven't touched since buying the iPad. Or read a paper book, remember those?
Me: Fine. *pout*
*starts getting baking stuff together*
Me: Gee, if only we had the iPad out, we could listen to Pandora while baking....
Me: FINE, I will go out in the rain and get the damn iPad out of the car. Happy now?
Me: Yes. Oh! Oh! And we can write a blog entry about this while it's cooling!
Me: *eyeroll*
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I'd packed for a road trip today, but decided at the last minute to leave in the morning due to thunderstorms. But I'd already put my backpack, with iPad in it, in my car trunk, and I decided I'd leave it there. No iPad this afternoon or evening, I could do that, right?
A couple hours ago I started baking a cake for my husband's birthday. This is when my inner dialogue began:
Me: Ooh, ooh, if we got the iPad out of the car we could play Pocket Frogs while the cake bakes! Or read the ebook we started the other day!
Me: Or we could leave it there and play the DS we haven't touched since buying the iPad. Or read a paper book, remember those?
Me: Fine. *pout*
*starts getting baking stuff together*
Me: Gee, if only we had the iPad out, we could listen to Pandora while baking....
Me: FINE, I will go out in the rain and get the damn iPad out of the car. Happy now?
Me: Yes. Oh! Oh! And we can write a blog entry about this while it's cooling!
Me: *eyeroll*
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
On my wish list
I am sure that as I use my iPad more, for a wider variety of tasks, I'll come up with quite a few features that I wish Apple would add.
Today's wish list item: Viewing more than one app at a time.
Now, I'm not holding my breath for this, really. After all, it took them years just to put true multitasking into iOS. They are clearly trying to create a new interface experience, getting away from the old desktop, window, and file system metaphors entirely. But y'know, sometimes it's really, really useful to see two things at once.
Last night, I was up late writing out some data collection plans on UPad. This morning, I wanted to email another grad student about them - it was really annoying to have to switch back and forth constantly just to get a list of dates from the (handwritten) notes typed into my email. It made me wish I'd just done my work on a plain paper notepad so that I could have it sitting next to my iPad to look at while I wrote the email.
Apple certainly wouldn't have to go back to old style windows entirely to make this happen. It seems that now that there's multitasking, it wouldn't be too hard to have an option to view two (or four) apps onscreen at once. No desktop or home screen behind them, just a simple split screen.
Interestingly, Apple has gotten a patent for what is basically a version of Spaces for a touch screen. While I really really do not see them taking the iPad back to the OS X desktop metaphor as shown in the patent drawings, it makes me hopeful that they are considering some way of viewing more than one app at once. It may not have made any sense for the iPhone or iPod Touch, but the iPad has enough screen real estate to at least offer the option.
Today's wish list item: Viewing more than one app at a time.
Now, I'm not holding my breath for this, really. After all, it took them years just to put true multitasking into iOS. They are clearly trying to create a new interface experience, getting away from the old desktop, window, and file system metaphors entirely. But y'know, sometimes it's really, really useful to see two things at once.
Last night, I was up late writing out some data collection plans on UPad. This morning, I wanted to email another grad student about them - it was really annoying to have to switch back and forth constantly just to get a list of dates from the (handwritten) notes typed into my email. It made me wish I'd just done my work on a plain paper notepad so that I could have it sitting next to my iPad to look at while I wrote the email.
Apple certainly wouldn't have to go back to old style windows entirely to make this happen. It seems that now that there's multitasking, it wouldn't be too hard to have an option to view two (or four) apps onscreen at once. No desktop or home screen behind them, just a simple split screen.
Interestingly, Apple has gotten a patent for what is basically a version of Spaces for a touch screen. While I really really do not see them taking the iPad back to the OS X desktop metaphor as shown in the patent drawings, it makes me hopeful that they are considering some way of viewing more than one app at once. It may not have made any sense for the iPhone or iPod Touch, but the iPad has enough screen real estate to at least offer the option.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Got a call from Best Buy today
I was in the middle of a nap when the phone rang. I was surprised to see that it wasn't my husband, it was some # I didn't know.
When I answered, it turned out to be a lady from the local Best Buy calling to tell me that my iPad 2 that I had reserved with them was in!
I laughed and told her that I'd bought my iPad from them over three weeks ago. Apparently somebody never crossed me off the list! Well, at least somebody will be getting their iPad today.
When I answered, it turned out to be a lady from the local Best Buy calling to tell me that my iPad 2 that I had reserved with them was in!
I laughed and told her that I'd bought my iPad from them over three weeks ago. Apparently somebody never crossed me off the list! Well, at least somebody will be getting their iPad today.
Monday, April 11, 2011
App Store account hacked
After I bought my iPad, I bought $50 in gift cards to the App Store, figuring that this was probably simpler than having dozens of $1-5 charges on my debit card. As of yesterday, I should have had around $20 left. I went to check my account, and instead found a balance of 90 cents.
What?
I got on iTunes on my desktop to pull up my purchase history, and yesterday morning someone bought 13 apps for a total of $19.17, half of which are in Chinese (a language I don't even speak).
Yay.
Since then, I have emailed Apple, who claim that the order is still processing but will be refunded once it's done (which might take up to five days). They also froze my account (I'd already changed my password, but I assume this is standard), which I have since gotten reinstated. So now I can download free apps again, at least, though I'm still waiting to get my gift card balance back before I can spend money again - not like I'm going to put my credit card info in there now! (I didn't have a card listed before, luckily.)
I also did a bit of research into how this might have happened. I haven't downloaded anything via iTunes on my computer since last May (and haven't spent money there since 2005); recently I have only logged in via the App Store on the iPad. I found this MetaFilter post and from there a huge thread on the Apple support forums with hundreds of people having the same or similar problems over the past few months.
There seem to be several flavors of scams going around, but two seem especially popular: In one, they target people with gift card balances and drain the gift card. In the other, they wipe the person's current information and put in a stolen credit card and new address, which they use to buy lots of chips in a poker app.
There's some speculation that some of the gift card drainings may be connected to the huge fiasco where gift cards were stolen and sold on TaoBao, a Chinese auction site. Some people later bought legitimate cards only to find that the number had already been used. But I'm not sure whether/how having my gift card # would allow someone to buy the apps on my account.
Another proposed source is that everyone who's been hacked was part of the big Gawker password hacking fiasco and simply used the same password on the app store. Now, I do have a Gawker account (which I've used like twice on Jezebel, ever), but according to this widget neither my username nor email address were included in the released database, so I don't think that's how they got it. (I honestly don't know whether my Gawker password was the same as my App Store password - I admit that I was using a password for the App Store that I use in other places, but I don't remember if I was using it there and I changed my Gawker password after this fiasco just in case.)
Possibly some other site where I happened to use the same password was hacked and I never heard about it? I read enough tech news that I doubt it, but if it was some small site somewhere it's possible.
Or is there an actual security issue with the App Store? Since this happened to me yesterday, several more people have posted on the Apple Support thread who had the exact same experience at the same time. Did we ALL have accounts on the same obscure website whose hacking went unmentioned in the media, and all happened to use the same email and password with Apple? We certainly all had iTunes/App Store accounts. I know that iTunes was recently patched due to a security issue that may have been contributing to similar cases a couple of months ago; I have to wonder if the App Store is going to get a similar update soon.
If I were only an iTunes user, this would be as simple as not using it anymore. Unfortunately, of course, the App Store is the ONLY place for me to buy the software that makes my $500+ iPad investment worthwhile (until an iPad 2 jailbreak happens). So I guess for now my best option is to continue using gift cards to keep my CC# safe, but only buy small denominations ($10 at a time, I suppose) and don't enter one until I'm ready to use at least a good chunk of the balance. My emails from Apple have been very nice, but some people in the thread report being told that their refund is will be a "one-time deal," which makes it sound like if you get hacked again, you're out of luck. So best to keep as little money in there as possible.
Amusingly, Apple's security in the case of such a breech is kind of... lacking. The only "security information" I had to give them to get my account unfrozen and my password reset consisted of: the address on the account, the order # of my last legitimate order OR the names of one of the apps on it, my first name, and my birthday. Someone who had hacked into my account would have had easy and immediate access to all of this information save the birthday, and who knows if that's in there somewhere if they know where to poke around. I made my account years ago, I don't remember every piece of data I gave them.
Here's hoping my gift card balance comes back soon, and whatever security leak is causing this gets patched up (whether it's with Apple or someone else).
What?
I got on iTunes on my desktop to pull up my purchase history, and yesterday morning someone bought 13 apps for a total of $19.17, half of which are in Chinese (a language I don't even speak).
Yay.
Since then, I have emailed Apple, who claim that the order is still processing but will be refunded once it's done (which might take up to five days). They also froze my account (I'd already changed my password, but I assume this is standard), which I have since gotten reinstated. So now I can download free apps again, at least, though I'm still waiting to get my gift card balance back before I can spend money again - not like I'm going to put my credit card info in there now! (I didn't have a card listed before, luckily.)
I also did a bit of research into how this might have happened. I haven't downloaded anything via iTunes on my computer since last May (and haven't spent money there since 2005); recently I have only logged in via the App Store on the iPad. I found this MetaFilter post and from there a huge thread on the Apple support forums with hundreds of people having the same or similar problems over the past few months.
There seem to be several flavors of scams going around, but two seem especially popular: In one, they target people with gift card balances and drain the gift card. In the other, they wipe the person's current information and put in a stolen credit card and new address, which they use to buy lots of chips in a poker app.
There's some speculation that some of the gift card drainings may be connected to the huge fiasco where gift cards were stolen and sold on TaoBao, a Chinese auction site. Some people later bought legitimate cards only to find that the number had already been used. But I'm not sure whether/how having my gift card # would allow someone to buy the apps on my account.
Another proposed source is that everyone who's been hacked was part of the big Gawker password hacking fiasco and simply used the same password on the app store. Now, I do have a Gawker account (which I've used like twice on Jezebel, ever), but according to this widget neither my username nor email address were included in the released database, so I don't think that's how they got it. (I honestly don't know whether my Gawker password was the same as my App Store password - I admit that I was using a password for the App Store that I use in other places, but I don't remember if I was using it there and I changed my Gawker password after this fiasco just in case.)
Possibly some other site where I happened to use the same password was hacked and I never heard about it? I read enough tech news that I doubt it, but if it was some small site somewhere it's possible.
Or is there an actual security issue with the App Store? Since this happened to me yesterday, several more people have posted on the Apple Support thread who had the exact same experience at the same time. Did we ALL have accounts on the same obscure website whose hacking went unmentioned in the media, and all happened to use the same email and password with Apple? We certainly all had iTunes/App Store accounts. I know that iTunes was recently patched due to a security issue that may have been contributing to similar cases a couple of months ago; I have to wonder if the App Store is going to get a similar update soon.
If I were only an iTunes user, this would be as simple as not using it anymore. Unfortunately, of course, the App Store is the ONLY place for me to buy the software that makes my $500+ iPad investment worthwhile (until an iPad 2 jailbreak happens). So I guess for now my best option is to continue using gift cards to keep my CC# safe, but only buy small denominations ($10 at a time, I suppose) and don't enter one until I'm ready to use at least a good chunk of the balance. My emails from Apple have been very nice, but some people in the thread report being told that their refund is will be a "one-time deal," which makes it sound like if you get hacked again, you're out of luck. So best to keep as little money in there as possible.
Amusingly, Apple's security in the case of such a breech is kind of... lacking. The only "security information" I had to give them to get my account unfrozen and my password reset consisted of: the address on the account, the order # of my last legitimate order OR the names of one of the apps on it, my first name, and my birthday. Someone who had hacked into my account would have had easy and immediate access to all of this information save the birthday, and who knows if that's in there somewhere if they know where to poke around. I made my account years ago, I don't remember every piece of data I gave them.
Here's hoping my gift card balance comes back soon, and whatever security leak is causing this gets patched up (whether it's with Apple or someone else).
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