>From what I have seen of it so far it looks like a consumer toy. How does Google Earth look on it? You said Google Maps was cool so Earth must be awesome!
-----Original Message----- From: info-tech-ow...@aea8.k12.ia.us [mailto:info-tech-ow...@aea8.k12.ia.us] On Behalf Of Richardson,Tony Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 8:33 AM To: info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us Subject: RE: [info-tech] First 18 hours with an IPad... Wonderful! Good to hear! It will keep some of us from wasting our districts money on this device. -----Original Message----- From: info-tech-ow...@aea8.k12.ia.us [mailto:info-tech-ow...@aea8.k12.ia.us] On Behalf Of McKenney, Kurt Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 7:47 AM To: info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us Subject: [info-tech] First 18 hours with an IPad... Before we get into this, understand this is an honest no holds barred review. I will use some rough and possibly insulting language, but if you read it with an open mind, I think there is some valuable information, even if it is presented rather vividly. I will likely be submitting this same review word for word to Amazon and some other sites. A few years back, there was a kid who was about 14 who had an IQ of about 40, but he could listen to a piece of music once and be able to play it on a piano note for note. This ability really made him kind of cool, but at the end of the day, you just can't escape that he's still retarded. That's the Ipad in a nutshell. Despite that, I am giving this a solid buy recommendation for schools. If that makes no sense, read on, and it will. If I try to compare this to windows 7, and I will, it's kinda worthless. The HP Slate is coming out in a couple months, and it will do everything that an IPad does, and everything that a windows 7 laptop does, and costs less, or about the same actually. If you are a computer geek, like me, then the slate is a much better product. But we use the Kindle here a lot. Mainly the kindle is used is remedial reading and special-ed because the kindle will read aloud to a student, showing them the word being pronounced. Like most programs of this nature, it's got it's problems, most notably lousy inflection and pacing. But it's no worse than anything out there, and allows virtually any book to be used without additional processing. The Ipad has a Kindle app, and though I haven't fully tested it, I have no reason to think it functions any different. Now don't get me wrong, I like the kindle, for me. But I'm not buying for me. Sure, the battery life rocks. Two weeks of a single charge, that is just awesome, the ability to buy through the cellular network without buying another account? Priceless. But the weak point on a kindle has always been it's administration. Basically, if it's on there, the kid has access to it. That includes google searches for porn. On the Ipad, if I don't want a kid to surf the internet, they don't. If I don't want them to load apps, they don't. You tube? Email? Whatever, they don't, or should I say they can't. As you all know, keeping kids out of where they do not belong is always a losing battle, special-ed is even more of a challenge than the other students. That's the cool part as far as actually useful stuff goes. Sure, there are a lot of educational apps, great, great. The predictive text feature is awful from what I've seen of it, I'm working on installing an app that is supposed to be much better. But really, that's the business end of the review. Now there's the fun stuff, or thing I should say. Google Maps is included with the Ipad, and for a damn good reason. It takes total advantage of the multitouch interface. This is beyond ubercool. This one goes straight to Geek Nirvana. I fell in lust with Google Maps, and once I showed it to my girlfriend and her daughter, they proceeded to fight over it for an hour. If you have not tried this, there is just no explaining how awesome this feature is. If I could plug in GPS, it would probably throw me into a transcendental state where I spent he next 20 years in a darkened room playing with the user interface and creating the Church of Jobs. Or at least until the battery died. Ok, so here's the summary. This is a niche market thing. It's great for schools and especially special-ed. But if you are looking for a productive device, wait for the HP Slate. --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus on the server aea8.k12.ia.us] --------------------------------------------------------- Archived messages from this list can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us/ --------------------------------------------------------- --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus on the server aea8.k12.ia.us] --------------------------------------------------------- Archived messages from this list can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us/ --------------------------------------------------------- --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus on the server aea8.k12.ia.us] --------------------------------------------------------- Archived messages from this list can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us/ ---------------------------------------------------------
