It's possibly the most persistent myth about the iPad: No Flash support.
Competitors like to trumpet it to let you know that they give you a "fuller web experience." iPad newbies express concern that their new device will be horribly hobbled. People come to jailbreaking forums asking if there's any way to get Flash by jailbreaking.
Let's ignore the fact that Adobe themselves have declared mobile Flash dead and that the majority of the web has already moved on to HTML 5. The fact remains that there are some sites that still use Flash heavily - Facebook games, photo editors, local restaurants that haven't touched their site since it was built in 2004. Are iPad owners really sacrificing this chunk of the web?
It is true that Safari, the built-in web browser, doesn't support Flash. And it was true that when the iPad was introduced, there was no way to get Flash. But the iPad is nearing two years old, and has hundreds of thousands of apps built for it - do you really think nobody thought there was money to be made in a Flash-supporting app? Of course they did, and of course they found a work-around - by running the Flash through their own servers on its way to you.
In truth, iPad owners have several options for Flash browsers (no Jb required):
Puffin - This is the Flash browser that I personally use. To be honest, 90% of the time if I come across a site using Flash I just leave the site and find somewhere else to do my business. But I wanted to give Flash on the iPad a try. Puffin works great for video, and slow but acceptable for editing photos and photo books on sites like snapfish. It seems to have some trouble with Zynga games on Facebook, though, randomly reloading at inopportune times. At 99c, though, it's a cheap way to check out the occasional Flash site on your iPad.
Photon - I haven't tried it myself, but Photon gets very good reviews for speed and handling of a variety of Flash sites, and seems to be extremely popular. Popular enough that according to AppShopper it hasn't once gone on sale since raising its price to $4.99 in August, but if you need regular and reliable Flash it may be a good investment.
iSwifter - Don't let the Free tag fool you - iSwifter only gives you ten minutes of free browsing at a time to check it out, after which you'll need to pay $4.99 in-app for the full browser. I took the free sample for a short spin. iSwifter is designed with Flash games in mind specifically - it definitely handles Zynga better than Puffin. But if you're looking for more general Flash support, it comes up short on websites it hasn't been specifically optimized for.
SkyFire - SkyFire was the first browser to bring Flash to the iPad, and is still popular. However, its capabilities are limited to Flash video, not interactive content. If that's what you need, it's what SkyFire was built to do and according to reviews it does it well. But if you might want to use some interactive Flash content as well sometimes, $4.99 seems like a steep price for a fraction of the functionality of Photon.
Showing posts with label iPad uses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPad uses. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Saturday, December 3, 2011
iPads and Gift-Giving
As we navigate the shopping aisles leading from Black Friday to Christmas morning, many people are posting on iPad forums wondering if they should give an iPad as a gift. Or perhaps you've already got an iPad owner in your life and are wondering if there's any associated gear they'd appreciate. Opinions, of course, are like belly buttons (or other body parts), but here is my take on where the iPad stands this holiday season.
Green light: The iPad is a great choice!
- Anyone who has specifically asked for one, of course (except little kids - see red light).
- Retirees who aren't technophobes, but might find their main computer frustrating.
- Expectant or new moms.
- College or grad students who are looking for something to take class notes and do readings on.
- Anyone looking for something for web browsing, e-book reading, watching videos, playing games, and light content creation like blogging, photo editing, etc.
- Anyone who's been complaining about their laptop's bulkiness. (Not necessarily to replace the laptop, but to free them from it for the above uses.)
Yellow light: Check whether the iPad truly meets their needs
- College/grad students in need of something to write papers on or do other more intensive work on. They might be good with an iPad with Pages and a Bluetooth keyboard, or they might need a real laptop.
- People looking mainly for an e-book reader, plus light web browsing and a few games. An iPad might be overkill; a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet may meet their needs for half the price. They would likely still love the iPad, but they may prefer something else with the extra money.
- Retirees who are technophobes. If they've expressed interest and you're willing to help them figure things out, it may be a great way to read books in large print and see the grandkids' Facebook photos. If not, it may be a wasted investment if they have no interest in learning to use it, no matter how much you wish they would.
- People who already own both a laptop and an iPhone. Some of these people will find the iPad fits right in between, some will find that it replaces one of these devices, and some will find that they have no use for the iPad.
Red light: The iPad is unlikely to be a good choice.
- Kids, younger than high school or possibly middle school age. I personally would not recommend spending the money on an iPad for a child. If they want games, an iPod Touch or handheld from Nintendo or Sony would probably do. If they're a bookworm, a regular Kindle or Nook. For small children, Leapfrog now has a tablet with educational games on it. And for the kid who really wants a tablet but probably wouldn't get full use out of an iPad, a Fire or Nook Tablet will leave you out a lot less money if they break or lose it. There are probably a few kids who would benefit from their own iPad (for them I'd recommend a used iPad 1), but for most it's more than they need and a LOT more money than you need to put at risk.
- Anyone who has specifically asked for another tablet. As much as you may love iOS, they have their reasons for wanting what they want. Not getting something you asked for is a bit disappointing; knowing that someone spent a lot of money on something you didn't want at all is frustrating. If you think they were just trying to save you some money by asking for something cheaper, ask if they'd be interested in an iPad before sinking the money into one.
Bonus: Gifts for iPad owners
- iTunes gift cards. You can never have enough apps!
- Particularly for students, a Bluetooth keyboard and/or stylus for notetaking.
- A pillow-type stand like the Wedge-E.
- A camera connection kit (Apple branded or otherwise).
-For the iPad gamer, a joystick could enhance their experience for a fraction of the cost of the full iCade (which is also an option if you've got the cash).
- I wouldn't give a case as a gift unless you know the person's specific needs. Someone looking for a folio case won't be happy with a smart cover and vice versa.
Green light: The iPad is a great choice!
- Anyone who has specifically asked for one, of course (except little kids - see red light).
- Retirees who aren't technophobes, but might find their main computer frustrating.
- Expectant or new moms.
- College or grad students who are looking for something to take class notes and do readings on.
- Anyone looking for something for web browsing, e-book reading, watching videos, playing games, and light content creation like blogging, photo editing, etc.
- Anyone who's been complaining about their laptop's bulkiness. (Not necessarily to replace the laptop, but to free them from it for the above uses.)
Yellow light: Check whether the iPad truly meets their needs
- College/grad students in need of something to write papers on or do other more intensive work on. They might be good with an iPad with Pages and a Bluetooth keyboard, or they might need a real laptop.
- People looking mainly for an e-book reader, plus light web browsing and a few games. An iPad might be overkill; a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet may meet their needs for half the price. They would likely still love the iPad, but they may prefer something else with the extra money.
- Retirees who are technophobes. If they've expressed interest and you're willing to help them figure things out, it may be a great way to read books in large print and see the grandkids' Facebook photos. If not, it may be a wasted investment if they have no interest in learning to use it, no matter how much you wish they would.
- People who already own both a laptop and an iPhone. Some of these people will find the iPad fits right in between, some will find that it replaces one of these devices, and some will find that they have no use for the iPad.
Red light: The iPad is unlikely to be a good choice.
- Kids, younger than high school or possibly middle school age. I personally would not recommend spending the money on an iPad for a child. If they want games, an iPod Touch or handheld from Nintendo or Sony would probably do. If they're a bookworm, a regular Kindle or Nook. For small children, Leapfrog now has a tablet with educational games on it. And for the kid who really wants a tablet but probably wouldn't get full use out of an iPad, a Fire or Nook Tablet will leave you out a lot less money if they break or lose it. There are probably a few kids who would benefit from their own iPad (for them I'd recommend a used iPad 1), but for most it's more than they need and a LOT more money than you need to put at risk.
- Anyone who has specifically asked for another tablet. As much as you may love iOS, they have their reasons for wanting what they want. Not getting something you asked for is a bit disappointing; knowing that someone spent a lot of money on something you didn't want at all is frustrating. If you think they were just trying to save you some money by asking for something cheaper, ask if they'd be interested in an iPad before sinking the money into one.
Bonus: Gifts for iPad owners
- iTunes gift cards. You can never have enough apps!
- Particularly for students, a Bluetooth keyboard and/or stylus for notetaking.
- A pillow-type stand like the Wedge-E.
- A camera connection kit (Apple branded or otherwise).
-For the iPad gamer, a joystick could enhance their experience for a fraction of the cost of the full iCade (which is also an option if you've got the cash).
- I wouldn't give a case as a gift unless you know the person's specific needs. Someone looking for a folio case won't be happy with a smart cover and vice versa.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Wish List: Photo Print and Book Apps
As I've mentioned before, I've gotten it so that my entire photo workflow is on my iPad... Until the very end. To order prints, I've got to use my desktop. And now that I want photo books for Christmas, same deal.
Now, there aren't zero options. Walgreens has basic print ordering on their app, and a (poorly-designed) app called LifePics allows print ordering to CVS, Ritz Camera, and a few other places. So if you want 4x6, 5x7, or 8x10 prints, and your pictures are already cropped to the right size (these apps won't help you there), there are a couple of options. But seriously, why don't companies like Photobucket and Shutterfly have this option in their apps? Are they allergic to money? As far as I know, Apple only takes a 30% cut on in-app downloads, not physical merchandise.
Same for photo books. They could easily turn the flash book-making services on their sites into apps. The apps would likely be smoother than the sites! But right now, I seem to have two options: use a scrapbooking app like ScrapPad or Album App to design the book, email it to myself, convert to PDF, then use the desktop just to upload the PDFs to a bookmaking site that will take them; OR use a flash browser like Puffin to navigate a slow, half-assed version of their bookmaking sites.
This is the kind of thing the iPad was born to do. Page layout via touch beats via mouse any day (and this is something I've done professionally via mouse and trackball). Whoever realizes this first has a pile of cash waiting for them.
Now, there aren't zero options. Walgreens has basic print ordering on their app, and a (poorly-designed) app called LifePics allows print ordering to CVS, Ritz Camera, and a few other places. So if you want 4x6, 5x7, or 8x10 prints, and your pictures are already cropped to the right size (these apps won't help you there), there are a couple of options. But seriously, why don't companies like Photobucket and Shutterfly have this option in their apps? Are they allergic to money? As far as I know, Apple only takes a 30% cut on in-app downloads, not physical merchandise.
Same for photo books. They could easily turn the flash book-making services on their sites into apps. The apps would likely be smoother than the sites! But right now, I seem to have two options: use a scrapbooking app like ScrapPad or Album App to design the book, email it to myself, convert to PDF, then use the desktop just to upload the PDFs to a bookmaking site that will take them; OR use a flash browser like Puffin to navigate a slow, half-assed version of their bookmaking sites.
This is the kind of thing the iPad was born to do. Page layout via touch beats via mouse any day (and this is something I've done professionally via mouse and trackball). Whoever realizes this first has a pile of cash waiting for them.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Baby Loggers
If you don't have kids, you probably think the idea of a baby logger is at best obsessive and at worst pretty creepy. What is it? Just what it sounds like - an app that lets you track when your baby falls asleep, wakes up, has a diaper change and what was in that diaper, when he eats and either how long and which side if you're breastfeeding or how much if it's from a bottle. Some also let you track development, keep track of doctor's appointments, and more.
The thing is, when the baby is first born, the doctors want you to track this stuff. You need to make sure enough food is going in and coming out, and that the baby isn't sleeping too long between feedings, to make sure everything's working right. At first we wrote it all down on a paper they gave us at the hospital, but then I discovered apps that let you track it with one tap. More recently, it's been clear to us that E has never really slept as much as they claim newborns sleep, and we wanted to keep track so we could try and get his sleep patterns into more of a, well, pattern. With the help of a baby logger, we now know for sure that he sleeps an average of 11-12 hours a day instead of the usual 14-16, including only 2-3 hours of naps instead of 4-6. Now that we know what we're dealing with, and what a bad night looks like versus a good night, we can start to address the problem.
I've tried three baby loggers since E was born, and the one I've stuck with is Baby Geek. The interface takes a little exploring to figure out, but you'll have it mastered by the end of the day. I used this to track diapers and feedings for a few days, but have been tracking sleep with it for two months now, so that's the feature I'm most familiar with. Baby Geek gives you simple one-touch tracking, with the nice touch that if you go to change the time of an event, there is both a clock to adjust and buttons to automatically jump it back 5, 10, or 15 minutes. It has the best graphs of any of the loggers I tried - you can view totals of each type of event by day, or timelines with all or only one type of event shown, and it separates day and night sleep (at times you pick). You can email the entries and have the program sync across two devices, so both parents (or one Nd a childcare provider) can keep track. And probably a dozen other features I'm not thinking of because I only use the most basic one. And all this is only $.99.
The other two I tried are BabyBix and Baby Log. I liked Log better than Bix, but not well enough to shell out $4.99 for it once the free version ran out, which only took about a day.
Here is how the three stack up (Some are my subjective ratings 1-10, 10 highest):
This entry is cross-posted to Don't Call Me Crunchy.
The thing is, when the baby is first born, the doctors want you to track this stuff. You need to make sure enough food is going in and coming out, and that the baby isn't sleeping too long between feedings, to make sure everything's working right. At first we wrote it all down on a paper they gave us at the hospital, but then I discovered apps that let you track it with one tap. More recently, it's been clear to us that E has never really slept as much as they claim newborns sleep, and we wanted to keep track so we could try and get his sleep patterns into more of a, well, pattern. With the help of a baby logger, we now know for sure that he sleeps an average of 11-12 hours a day instead of the usual 14-16, including only 2-3 hours of naps instead of 4-6. Now that we know what we're dealing with, and what a bad night looks like versus a good night, we can start to address the problem.
I've tried three baby loggers since E was born, and the one I've stuck with is Baby Geek. The interface takes a little exploring to figure out, but you'll have it mastered by the end of the day. I used this to track diapers and feedings for a few days, but have been tracking sleep with it for two months now, so that's the feature I'm most familiar with. Baby Geek gives you simple one-touch tracking, with the nice touch that if you go to change the time of an event, there is both a clock to adjust and buttons to automatically jump it back 5, 10, or 15 minutes. It has the best graphs of any of the loggers I tried - you can view totals of each type of event by day, or timelines with all or only one type of event shown, and it separates day and night sleep (at times you pick). You can email the entries and have the program sync across two devices, so both parents (or one Nd a childcare provider) can keep track. And probably a dozen other features I'm not thinking of because I only use the most basic one. And all this is only $.99.
The other two I tried are BabyBix and Baby Log. I liked Log better than Bix, but not well enough to shell out $4.99 for it once the free version ran out, which only took about a day.
Here is how the three stack up (Some are my subjective ratings 1-10, 10 highest):
| Baby Bix | Baby Log | Baby Geek | Winner | |
| Price | Free | Free trial for a day or two, then $4.99 | $0.99 | Bix |
| Starting an event | Several taps | Two taps | One tap | Geek |
| Email reports | No | Yes | Yes | Log & Geek |
| Quality of graphs | 5 | 8 | 8.5 | Geek |
| Ease of use | 3 | 8 | 9 | Geek |
| Unique feature | Integrated message board | Bar and line graphs | Day vs night sleep shown on graph | Log or Geek |
| Unique annoyance | Crashes a lot | Past events must be entered by start time and duration, not start and end time | Only shows past two weeks' with of data | No one wins this! |
This entry is cross-posted to Don't Call Me Crunchy.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
iPad + Real Toys: It's About Time!
I saw something at Target the other day that had me really excited. Not because it, in itself, is a really cool toy - but it's the first I've seen of its kind, and it likely marks the beginning of what I think will be a very cool category of toys and learning tools.
They're called AppMates, and so far these Cars 2 toys seem to be the only ones that exist. The idea is simple - you have a physical car toy that the iPad can sense. You download the free racing app, and you can race your real car toy on the virtual race track on your iPad.
Like I said, not that awesome right now. But think of the possibilities! You could theoretically build a manipulative that was not only sensed by the iPad, but also could detect what was displayed beneath it, giving you two-way communication of a sort. I once had an idea for a book that would act as a companion to existing popular Nintendo DS games, outlining activities that combined the game with the real world to simulate scientific activities - for example, using Viva Piñata as a location for doing observations similar to those a biologist would do in the field. That sort of idea plus this technology could do some really amazing things!
This post cross-posted to The Cognitive Informalist.
They're called AppMates, and so far these Cars 2 toys seem to be the only ones that exist. The idea is simple - you have a physical car toy that the iPad can sense. You download the free racing app, and you can race your real car toy on the virtual race track on your iPad.
Like I said, not that awesome right now. But think of the possibilities! You could theoretically build a manipulative that was not only sensed by the iPad, but also could detect what was displayed beneath it, giving you two-way communication of a sort. I once had an idea for a book that would act as a companion to existing popular Nintendo DS games, outlining activities that combined the game with the real world to simulate scientific activities - for example, using Viva Piñata as a location for doing observations similar to those a biologist would do in the field. That sort of idea plus this technology could do some really amazing things!
This post cross-posted to The Cognitive Informalist.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Wish List: iCamera
Okay, I know this isn't strictly 100% iPad-related. But bear with me.
The iPad has revolutionized taking, sharing, and printing photos for me. I have an Eye-Fi card in my camera, so all photos are automatically uploaded to a private folder in Photobucket (and to my desktop, sorted neatly by date taken). Then I use the Photobucket app to look through them, move some to a public folder for sharing, order prints of some, and download some to the iPad.
Once on the iPad, I have the wide world of iOS photo apps at my fingertips to play with. Right now I am especially digging Pic Stitch and Instapic, both of which help you make simple photo collages (the two apps make very different styles of collage). Very useful for sharing several photos at once, with style! I can also upload to FaceBook albums thanks to the new FB app (finally!). And then I upload edited pics back to Photobucket for more sharing and printing. Everything is 100% iPad.
This is pretty awesome, and I am loving it. But this process could be even better. For one thing, this is a lot of tedious uploading and downloading, one pic at a time. Having Photobucket as the main storage space, rather than just where I put pics to share or print, is not ideal. Second, and related, I wish I had some of these filtering, etc apps on my camera! Downloading a pic just to see if an app would be a good fit is more tedium. Plus some will even preview the filter as you point the camera, but taking pics on the iPad, well, mostly sucks. So that functionality is lost to me.
What I really want is an iPod Touch with an iPhone camera. No expensive voice/data plan to buy (and keep buying). Just the functionality I really need - taking pics on a palm-sized camera, right within iOS, playing with the apps right away, then iClouding it all to the bigger screen for detail work, sorting, uploading to sites, etc.
Now, on the one hand, lately people have been tolling the iPod touch's deathknolll. Sales are down, it's hard to see how it fits between the iPad and iPhone, and the lack of an update this fall does look like the first coffin nail. This kind of thing could revive it - sure, no one with an iPhone would buy it, but they wouldn't buy it under any circumstances. But iPad owners without an iPhone would have a real use for it, since taking photos is one thing something that size is better suited for than the iPad.
On the other hand, if they want to let the touch die, give us an iCamera! Hobble it to only run photo apps, but turn it into a full-featured pocket megazoom. With better zoom lenses and control over things like exposure and f-stops, even iPhone owners might want one.
Either way, this product would be the perfect photo companion for the iPad, and a sure way for Apple to get a couple hundred more of my money.
The iPad has revolutionized taking, sharing, and printing photos for me. I have an Eye-Fi card in my camera, so all photos are automatically uploaded to a private folder in Photobucket (and to my desktop, sorted neatly by date taken). Then I use the Photobucket app to look through them, move some to a public folder for sharing, order prints of some, and download some to the iPad.
Once on the iPad, I have the wide world of iOS photo apps at my fingertips to play with. Right now I am especially digging Pic Stitch and Instapic, both of which help you make simple photo collages (the two apps make very different styles of collage). Very useful for sharing several photos at once, with style! I can also upload to FaceBook albums thanks to the new FB app (finally!). And then I upload edited pics back to Photobucket for more sharing and printing. Everything is 100% iPad.
This is pretty awesome, and I am loving it. But this process could be even better. For one thing, this is a lot of tedious uploading and downloading, one pic at a time. Having Photobucket as the main storage space, rather than just where I put pics to share or print, is not ideal. Second, and related, I wish I had some of these filtering, etc apps on my camera! Downloading a pic just to see if an app would be a good fit is more tedium. Plus some will even preview the filter as you point the camera, but taking pics on the iPad, well, mostly sucks. So that functionality is lost to me.
What I really want is an iPod Touch with an iPhone camera. No expensive voice/data plan to buy (and keep buying). Just the functionality I really need - taking pics on a palm-sized camera, right within iOS, playing with the apps right away, then iClouding it all to the bigger screen for detail work, sorting, uploading to sites, etc.
Now, on the one hand, lately people have been tolling the iPod touch's deathknolll. Sales are down, it's hard to see how it fits between the iPad and iPhone, and the lack of an update this fall does look like the first coffin nail. This kind of thing could revive it - sure, no one with an iPhone would buy it, but they wouldn't buy it under any circumstances. But iPad owners without an iPhone would have a real use for it, since taking photos is one thing something that size is better suited for than the iPad.
On the other hand, if they want to let the touch die, give us an iCamera! Hobble it to only run photo apps, but turn it into a full-featured pocket megazoom. With better zoom lenses and control over things like exposure and f-stops, even iPhone owners might want one.
Either way, this product would be the perfect photo companion for the iPad, and a sure way for Apple to get a couple hundred more of my money.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
iPad: Mommy's BFF
If a pregnant woman were to tell me she had a few hundred dollars to spend on something to make her life as a new mom easier, assuming she's already got all the standard baby stuff, my response would be: get an iPad, and no, I'm not joking.
Those first few weeks are tough. Not only aren't you sleeping much, but you're surgically attached to a growing, hungry baby for hours on end. Even when E wasn't actively eating, he was napping - but only so long as I held him and didn't move! The iPad quickly became my best friend and connection to the world. It's the perfect size to fit beside the baby in my lap - an actual laptop would be far too large and cumbersome. My case gives me several options for balancing the iPad with one or no hands free. And I have become a master of one-handed typing, which is FAR easier on the touchscreen than with a normal keyboard.
What have I been up to while baby E eats and sleeps?
- Reading parenting message boards
- Looking up breastfeeding advice
- Playing Pocket Frogs, Solitaire, Drop7, and Plants vs Zombies
- Posting to my blogs
- Shopping on Amazon
- Reading five million Cracked.com articles on FlipBoard
- Reading two million other articles on FlipBoard
- Watching Netflix (both on here and on the Wii, I admit)
- Using baby tracking apps to be sure he's eating and pooping enough
- Texting my sister for free
- IMing my husband at work
- Reading scholarly journal articles in Papers
- Reading Baby-Sitters Club books in Kindle
- Taking photos and videos of baby E
- Browsing for new apps
- Jailbreaking and tweaking my iPad
- And of course, figuring out how to work my diapers
You get the idea. He's nearly three months old now, and I'm spending a bit less of my day (and much less of my night, thankfully) sitting on the couch with him eating or sleeping on my lap. But it's still my main activity for several hours total out of each 24, and the iPad is still my best friend.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Those first few weeks are tough. Not only aren't you sleeping much, but you're surgically attached to a growing, hungry baby for hours on end. Even when E wasn't actively eating, he was napping - but only so long as I held him and didn't move! The iPad quickly became my best friend and connection to the world. It's the perfect size to fit beside the baby in my lap - an actual laptop would be far too large and cumbersome. My case gives me several options for balancing the iPad with one or no hands free. And I have become a master of one-handed typing, which is FAR easier on the touchscreen than with a normal keyboard.
What have I been up to while baby E eats and sleeps?
- Reading parenting message boards
- Looking up breastfeeding advice
- Playing Pocket Frogs, Solitaire, Drop7, and Plants vs Zombies
- Posting to my blogs
- Shopping on Amazon
- Reading five million Cracked.com articles on FlipBoard
- Reading two million other articles on FlipBoard
- Watching Netflix (both on here and on the Wii, I admit)
- Using baby tracking apps to be sure he's eating and pooping enough
- Texting my sister for free
- IMing my husband at work
- Reading scholarly journal articles in Papers
- Reading Baby-Sitters Club books in Kindle
- Taking photos and videos of baby E
- Browsing for new apps
- Jailbreaking and tweaking my iPad
- And of course, figuring out how to work my diapers
You get the idea. He's nearly three months old now, and I'm spending a bit less of my day (and much less of my night, thankfully) sitting on the couch with him eating or sleeping on my lap. But it's still my main activity for several hours total out of each 24, and the iPad is still my best friend.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, June 5, 2011
iPad to the rescue!
This past Monday, I gave birth to a perfect little 7 lb baby boy, E. Obviously, blogging has not been a high priority since, but I wanted to share how the iPad saved the day (or night, rather).
It was around 2am, and while feeding E I realized it was time for a diaper change when he was done. Then I realized that he was wearing the last of the disposables we'd brought home from the hospital, meaning that it was time to try cloth for the first time.
Then I realized that I'd never gotten around to learning to fold a cloth diaper.
iPad to the rescue! While he finished eating, I grabbed it from the nightstand and found folding directions, which really weren't that hard.
So we headed to the changing table, where I confidently folded the diaper and placed it in the brightly-colored diaper cover. I wrapped it around E, only to once again be confronted by my own ignorance. These covers are made to fit babies of many sizes, and thus are positively covered in several thousand snaps for adjustability. I had absolutely no clue which to snap to which to make it wearable.
I did my best, with a ridiculous-looking result that I really should have gotten a photo of. Whatever I'd done, it was not correct, but the diaper and cover were attached to the baby for now, at least.
By this time, E had made it clear that he was still hungry. So we sat back down and once again I grabbed my iPad while he ate. This search took a while, but I eventually managed to find a YouTube video explaining exactly which snaps fasten where. When E was done again, we went back to try to emulate the video - success! After an hour of trying, my baby was properly cloth diapered for the first time.
Without the iPad, this would have been a far more annoying process. The desktop computer lives in the same room the dogs sleep in, so using it would lead to their insisting they go outside at 2am. A laptop would have been unwieldy to juggle while breastfeeding, but the iPad is perfect. I can prop it up on my pillow and do all sorts of things - even write this blog entry entirely one-handed - easily and comfortably. It certainly made that night go much more smoothly!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
It was around 2am, and while feeding E I realized it was time for a diaper change when he was done. Then I realized that he was wearing the last of the disposables we'd brought home from the hospital, meaning that it was time to try cloth for the first time.
Then I realized that I'd never gotten around to learning to fold a cloth diaper.
iPad to the rescue! While he finished eating, I grabbed it from the nightstand and found folding directions, which really weren't that hard.
So we headed to the changing table, where I confidently folded the diaper and placed it in the brightly-colored diaper cover. I wrapped it around E, only to once again be confronted by my own ignorance. These covers are made to fit babies of many sizes, and thus are positively covered in several thousand snaps for adjustability. I had absolutely no clue which to snap to which to make it wearable.
I did my best, with a ridiculous-looking result that I really should have gotten a photo of. Whatever I'd done, it was not correct, but the diaper and cover were attached to the baby for now, at least.
By this time, E had made it clear that he was still hungry. So we sat back down and once again I grabbed my iPad while he ate. This search took a while, but I eventually managed to find a YouTube video explaining exactly which snaps fasten where. When E was done again, we went back to try to emulate the video - success! After an hour of trying, my baby was properly cloth diapered for the first time.
Without the iPad, this would have been a far more annoying process. The desktop computer lives in the same room the dogs sleep in, so using it would lead to their insisting they go outside at 2am. A laptop would have been unwieldy to juggle while breastfeeding, but the iPad is perfect. I can prop it up on my pillow and do all sorts of things - even write this blog entry entirely one-handed - easily and comfortably. It certainly made that night go much more smoothly!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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
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
Friday, April 1, 2011
iPad + Netflix = yoga
In addition to my iPad, I also just got a wireless-n router, which has much better range than my g router did. As a result, I can easily get the Internet in the basement (isn't it cute how the iPad thinks the word Internet should be capitalized?), which is where my elliptical machine is located. Today I read an ebook while on the elliptical, so no aerobic internetting for me yet.
But I did get another exercise advantage - I could do the prenatal yoga video from my Netflix instant queue, turning the basement into a total gym! Before you ask, yes, I do have a laptop - but it's (get ready to laugh) a PowerBook G4, which means that Netflix streaming won't work on it! So until now I'd had my choice of yoga in the office, in front of my desktop (which, being up on a desk, is hard to see from down on the yoga mat) or in the living room with the Wii - but our living room is actually too tiny to do yoga in. The big basement room with the iPad on the floor with me worked much more nicely!
It's ridiculous, really, how attached I am to this stupid IPad. I carry it around all over the house and everywhere I go out and about, and usually find a use for it. Is this normal??? I assume it will die down a bit in time.... Or possibly get much worse!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
But I did get another exercise advantage - I could do the prenatal yoga video from my Netflix instant queue, turning the basement into a total gym! Before you ask, yes, I do have a laptop - but it's (get ready to laugh) a PowerBook G4, which means that Netflix streaming won't work on it! So until now I'd had my choice of yoga in the office, in front of my desktop (which, being up on a desk, is hard to see from down on the yoga mat) or in the living room with the Wii - but our living room is actually too tiny to do yoga in. The big basement room with the iPad on the floor with me worked much more nicely!
It's ridiculous, really, how attached I am to this stupid IPad. I carry it around all over the house and everywhere I go out and about, and usually find a use for it. Is this normal??? I assume it will die down a bit in time.... Or possibly get much worse!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)