Post 3 - This and That - Rob

Well there has been a delay from my last entry to this one due to some stressful school activity but now is well and I can move forward.

I am still heavily using the iPad for word docs in my day to day and really have not done much else. I would really like to get around to some other issues on the iPad however. I intend on downloading the Blackboard app due to one of my class using it frequently so by next Monday I should have given that a good test. Another thing I really want to do is try any of the E-book readers and see how well it performs.

Aside from my document writing it is a little hard to find more leisurely activities to do on the iPad. I have loaded a few videos on YouTube and without a doubt it is better than using my iphone to do it. I do carry it around everyday though and tend to take it out for this and that several times throughout the day either to look up information on the internet or to jot down a quick note to my future self.

I did download the oxford dictionary app for 9.99 and really enjoy the easy to use interface.

That’s really it for now. I will write again after getting the Blackboard app.

Blackboard App?

Is anyone using the Blackboard app, and if so, how do you like it? Just curious!

UPDATE 9/29/10: If you can't get in or are getting a message about UR not enabling the mobile app, make sure you have the latest update to the Bb app. Also, we're hearing that there are intermittent issues with the Blackboard's servers, so if you can't get in, try again later...

-Olivia

Week 4 - Alex W.

Let it be known that I Definitely Used My iPad Today.

I sat down in my Theories and Models of Leadership class thinking I'd use it to take notes, but the prospect of having to type that much was just too daunting.  I sighed and set it aside.

Same thing again in my Shakespeare class.

After class, I wanted to do some work pulling together a list of sources for a group research assignment for my leadership elective class on Queen Elizabeth.  I didn't feel like moving (lazy, but it's so hot outside today!) so I settled down in one of the common areas in Jepson Hall and pulled out the iPad.

In a few taps and a little bit of typing, I'd logged on to the library website and searched for the two authors whose books I needed to look up.  Twenty minutes later, I'd looked through all of the search results, and now had a list of call numbers written down that I could bring with me to the library (tomorrow) to track the books down.

I suppose if I'd thought ahead, I could have logged into my library account and just created the list and saved it--then I could just carry the iPad around as I look for the books.  You know what they say about hindsight, though.

After I'd worked on that, I realized that I had a lot of email to process.  Still too enervated by the heat to move (and not wanting to wait five minutes for a computer in the labs in Jepson to turn on), I switched over to Gmail.  Another 15 minutes and I'd read and responded to at least 5 emails (some of which involved a good bit of typing)!  Perhaps I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I finally realized that the magnifying glass that appears if you press and hold over text for a second or two actually lets you move the cursor to rest between letters, making typo-fixing MUCH faster.  Better late than never, right?

Sorry this post was a bit late!  I'll try to be more prompt next week.

Post 2 - Alex V.

Hi guys!

Sorry for the delayed second post. Like many of you, I have a had a crazy week or two. And there is no end in sight!

Like the other Alex, my iPad has, sadly, not been getting as much use lately due to my hectic schedule. I am so used to just using my laptop that I have reverted to it for quick and easy access as well as typing capabilities. I will say that when using my iPad, I miss typing on a keyboard. Although I do check my email fairly frequently on my iPad, I rarely send emails from my iPad because of the lack of a keyboard.

However, there are a few things that I am loving about the iPad, even though I'm not using it as much as I would hope. I downloaded a free French Tutor app last week, as I am currently trying to learn to speak french. Woot! This app is so cool! It lets me practice vocab and phrases through different games and practice capabilities. It also allows me to hear the words and phrases spoken with a french accent...very cool! Perhaps by the end of this I will be fluent! ;)

I also downloaded the ABC player and the Bravo player to watch tv shows. LOVE this. It is so much nicer to watch shows on the light, little iPad than my larger laptop. My roommate has also been loving watching Top Chef and America's Next Top Model on the Bravo app!

Overall, I love the iPad. I think I just need to get in a better habit of using it on occasions when I am used to turning to my trusty laptop. My iPad is definitely easier to cart around campus in my bag than my heavy laptop and in that sense, email access has been a tremendous perk. Hopefully, once my schedule becomes less crazy, I will get to spend some quality time with the iPad and continue playing around with it and finding great apps!

Hope everyone is having a good week!
Alex V.

Week 2- Nate

I'm starting to get frustrated.
Lately at least 2 or 3 times a session in which I use the internet on the ipad it just cuts out on me. I will be navigating facebook, or looking up something for class and with no warning the ipad will just decide it doesn't like me or the internet. So instead of letting me do whatever I'm doing, it decides to bump me back to the main ipad page. It isn't too annoying because whatever page I was on will reload on safari when I reopen it, but in the case of facebook I may be several pages back from the page I was currently viewing.
Other than that things with the pad are going pretty well. I used it yesterday during a group project to take notes about what we wanted to say. Today while giving a presentation with a group I pulled up our powerpoint on the ipad so that I could scroll ahead on the slides to know what was coming up next.
All in all as the fun new toy factor wears off I am starting to find things I don't like so much about the ipad but it still beats carrying a heavy computer around all day.

Post 2 - Pages - Rob

Alright, for my next blog I would just like to focus on the app pages. From the app store, this little guy was 10 dollars but I believe after a week of using it, completely worth it.

So where to start. I guess it would be good to say that Pages is simply a document writer for the iPad. Its icon is an inkwell with a pen overlapping it. Honestly it took some getting used to when I first began using it. I am not a “home-row” typist, more of a two fingered hunt and pecker so I can’t say if it is very easy to type normally since I don’t type that way. Having the iPad in the landscape and scroll locking it makes it very easy to use though. Really what takes the most getting used to is the lack of a physical buttons since it is all touch screen. At any rate I have been using it to type all of my documents and the book I am writing. Once you understand the interface and finger actions for the touch screen, it is just as easy as using MS Word and a mouse.

What really wowed me though came a little later. During the week I had to write my host parents in Japan a letter. Very quickly I was able to activate the Japanese keyboard IME but even more amazing was seeing it in action. As I typed, spell check in Japanese and Kanji translation would appear just above the keyboard and I could short cut to them, making my job so much easier. When I finished, Pages gave me the option to email the document as an attachment in either Pages, PDF or Doc file. So I mailed to my computer and copied the information into the email I wanted to send them. I could have just emailed them the file but I did not want to send them an attachment.

With the simple but useful interface and convenient options Pages is great Long story short, I love Pages.

Week 3 - Alex W.

I suppose it says something that I'm typing this from my laptop and not from the iPad.  This week was really busy and my poor iPad sat largely untouched.  I suppose since I'm more comfortable with my laptop, I'm quicker with it, and default to it when pressed for time.

I hope I don't sound like a broken record, but it did come in handy for our ballroom club.  I transferred our music from my laptop to the iPad and had considerably less to carry across campus to our meeting.  It also was much easier manipulate to get music started quickly and pause it in between practice sets.  It plugged right into the headphone jack and off we went!  I really feel that this device might be of most use to music, dance, and theater students who need portable media for their coursework and preparation for assignments.

While I don't mind reading on it, the way I take notes in my reading-heavy classes is really more conducive to using the print text.

I do like that you can search the text to find things easily (that really helps in my Shakespeare Lit class), and that you can easily highlight and copy/paste text.  Perhaps I need to make more use of those functions...

Week 1- Nate

Alright, so I got this iPad at the beginning of the week and I will honestly admit that at first I thought it would be little more than a fun toy to play with. However, I basically begged Olivia to let me have it and also promised Travis that I would use it as much as I can to gauge it's usefulness.
I am currently writing this post with the iPad and I have to admit that I kind of hate typing on it. The autocorrect does a decent job of fixing my mistakes but I find the whole process of writing more than a few sentences on it really slow and annoying. Still I've found that this thing is much more useful than I thought it would be. I downloaded evernote with Travis' advice which has been pretty helpful for taking down quick notes in class (I used it during a debate). It also tells you the gps location of wherever you typed the note which is kind of overkill but also kind of cool.
My plan for this blog had been to be a little critical of the iPad and I'm disappointed to admit that I've actually found that it does make my life a little easier. I downloaded a PDF reader from itunes for a dollar which has been great for class. Instead of being forced to go to the library to print out a 20 page document that I know I'm only going to skim anyway I can just download it strait from blackboard onto the iPad and depending on the file format I can even highlight selections I want to talk about in class. I also really like that it is synced to my email account because I don't have a smart phone so being able to check my email on the fly has been awesome.
Other than hating the keyboard I can't seem to find anything else about the iPad so far that I don't like. It will be interesting to see how useful it really is when classes start picking up.
UPDATE- I just had to retype that whole post from a regular computer. When I attempted to preview the post it looked fine and then when I navigated back to the entry page with the iPad it decided to reload the whole page, thus deleting everything I typed. At least now I can say I found something it doesn't do so well. Also now we all know that the iPad likes to refresh any page you are on if you leave that tab which I guess is pretty useful.

iPadding! By: Travis Smith

I have been so excited to see everyone else's postings! I really like how everyone is find their own niche.

I had the chance to play around with Rob's "Pages" application, which is $9.99 from the app store. It is made by Apple for the iPad. It is fully compatible with word. The interesting thing for me is the way you can literally grab and manipulate pictures within the document. No mouse!

The other app I have recommended is Evernote, which is free. This makes note-taking and filing a breeze. It also syncs with multiple devices (your computer, iPod, smartphones).

I have seen the iPad as the perfect travel companion having taken it to meetings and conferences. Not that long ago, folks were lucky to have a small laptop, now we can carry a powerful device the size of a legal pad.

One drawback, for me at least, is the lack of tactile keyboard response. Being along time iPhone user I didn't think this would matter much, it does. I miss the reassuring thud when I type on this larger glass keyboard. The other problems is obvious, the screen gets icky and quick. I am sure there is some appliqué that would clear this up.

More to come later!

-Travis
University of Richmond, VA

My Expectations - Rob

I am not really sure what to expect with the iPad. Since they have come out they have emanated the an air of fascination. Everyone seems to want one but I don't really know anyone who has a clear idea what they want to do with them. I have only heard two answers to this. E-reading and document writing

             Well, by this time I have been using the iPad for about two days and am enjoying it. Learning the controls was not overly difficult owing to the fact I have an iPhone. the control schemes are almost identical and since I have a few apps and music on my computer I was easily able to copy them from iTunes to the iPad. The sound quality is not bad either.

            My expectations for it are rather simple. I have been working on a book for almost four years now. So far, all I have done is extensive world building but this week I have started the process of writing. So, I bought iPages off the iTunes store which is the document writer app for the iPad. For 9.99 I am rather happy with what I bought. It is a simple application with an easy interface. Once I use it more, I will undoubtedly write more on this neat little app later.

            At some point I also plan on using the E-reading feature and taking it to a few class for note taking. I can say it is really fun to hold.

Week 2 - Alex W.

So, the exciting newness of the iPad was a bit diminished this week by becoming exponentially more busy! School has definitely begun.

I'll admit that I didn't make nearly as much use of the device this week-occasionally checking email and Facebook between classes on the go. I did test out the Maps app and had probably too much fun watching it update my location on Satellite view every few hundred feet (maybe there's some sort of library-sponsored campus scavenger hunt in there somewhere...). It didn't much like it when I walked into the commons, but other than that it was incredibly accurate and precise.

Throughout this light to moderate use, I haven't had to charge it in over a week (this is such a welcome change from my phone, which has to charge about every 8 hours even with light use.

One thing I almost used it for but decided not to was my Shakespeare Lit class. I have all of the plays we're reading downloaded from Project Gutenberg through iBooks, and I really like that passages can be highlighted and you can add virtual sticky notes to make notes about whatever you want-it minimizes them and shows a thumbnail with the date. VERY cool.

The reason I decided not to use it in class was that I'm still not sold on the keyboard. I've only improved with it a little by finding a medium between typing and hunting and pecking. I think it is also more difficult because my nails have grown out a bit (and they're not that long, but they are definitely getting in the way!

We'll see. Next week may be better/entirely different!

-Alex W.

My First Week With the iPad

Howdy all!  I was pretty excited when I picked up the iPad from Olivia.  Unfortunately, I was in a rush that night as I was on my way to the first class of the semester for my Accounting 301 class.  I was really looking forward to getting home with it until I realized that it doesn't play with my wireless bridge at home.  So, needless to say, I have to go to work, UR or elsewhere to get an Internet connection.

I find the keyboard to be a tad cumbersome.  I'm a pretty fast typist but the QWERTY keypad takes some getting used to.  Hunting and pecking isn't a very efficient way to type and the iPad seems to have a hard time keeping up with my speed.  I also noticed if I let my fingers hover over the keypad, the screen is sensitive enough to detect them without my touching it.  Still, it's probably just a matter of getting used to it.  I'll just need to slow down a bit and keep my fingers away until I'm ready to type something!

I also tend to use a lot of apostrophes which might have been better if placed on the main keypad screen.  Question for y'all:  is there a "caps lock" key?  If so, I can't find it.  Finally, the word detection is cool but, unless there's another way, I'm not crazy about hitting the "return" key only to have to backspace once to resume my sentence.

I discovered plenty of free apps within the store.  I downloaded one that has over 29,000 free books.  I'm rediscovering "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "Dracula."  I'm also a weather geek and found a nice free app from the NOAA.

The case is very cool.  I like how it allows the iPad to be used as a digital frame as well as its ability to be set at an angle for easier reading.

All in all, with the exception of the networking issue, I'm enjoying the iPad very much thus far.

Have a great week!

-  Kory

First week with my ipad!

So I am with the other Alex, when the iPad first came out, I thought it sounded cool and fun, but never thought of actually purchasing one. I am now rethinking that plan! My first week with the iPad has been great, still getting used to it, but it is so much more useful than I anticipated.

The first thing I did was register it to the Richmond network which was fairly simple. I called the Help Desk and they directed me to their webpage where there was a link to register mobile devices. I simply entered the number that Travis kindly showed me, and I was registered! Over the next few days, I loaded my iTunes and set up my Gmail account. I also downloaded the free iBooks app and, thanks to Travis' suggestion, downloaded some of the free Kaplan titles for my roommate who is studying for the GRE. She thanks the SLACers!

As someone who does not have a Blackberry/iPhone/any other mobile device on campus, I have found the iPad extremely useful for the simple purpose of checking my email throughout the day. I no longer have to return to my room, lug my laptop around campus, or find an available computer in the library to simply check my email. It's a wonderful convenience!

I have slowly but surely been getting used to the convenience of the iPad and have been using it for more and more activities. Of course, I check my email, listen to my iTunes, watch YouTube videos, and more recently, am getting used to the iBooks app. I also started entering things on the Calendar, which kindly alerts me when I have an activity coming up in the near future.

Overall, I love the iPad! I'm still getting used to how it works and what it is useful for in my everyday life, but I greatly appreciate the opportunity to get to practice for the next 6 weeks! Yay for SLAC!

-Alex Velde