Actually, rumor has it the HP Slate has been kicked to the curb:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/29/hewlett-packard-to-kill-windows-7-table
t-project/
So maybe the holdouts can just pick up their iPad instead of waiting
for
the Slate now (me included).
-----Original Message-----
From: Richardson,Tony [mailto:trichard...@humboldt.k12.ia.us]
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.
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