iPad
gregladen | September 12, 2012I love the iPad, but it is not really suitable for young kids, because it requires an adult perspective on life to operate it correctly. For example, for a two year old, there is nothing more fun than figuring out how to make all the little icons dance, and once you do that, there is nothing more fun than making them disappear one by one by clicking on the little X's. The iPad would benefit greatly with a kiosk mode.
So, as Christmas comes and no matter what your culture or belief system you being to search for presents to give the little ones, you should know that there is a growing list…
gregladen | June 3, 2012Well, it is always exploding. But I just heard that "A big coronal hole is turning directly towards the Earth. Solar wind flowing from the opening should reach our planet on June 5-7, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms" and maybe the aurora will be visible over a larger area.
I heard that from the iPad app "3D Sun." This is an app that informs me whenever the sun is up to anything interesting, and also provides images of current and older solar events, a handy glossary of terms, and an excellent 3D sun "globe" (as it were) which can be used to find landmarks and stuff:
Pinch-able…
gregladen | May 25, 2012I know of a couple of cases where high schools are switching to the use of iPads or other tablets, replacing existing computer infrastructure with the handy and very cool computing device. When it comes to technology, I've never been particularly impressed with school administrations, and K-12 technology departments tend to be a little under-resourced as well, so it does not surprise me that this decision is being made. It is, of course, the wrong thing to do.
I'm not talking about using iPads, I'm taking about canceling funding for future hardware cycles of laptops and desktops so the…
gregladen | September 28, 2011Damn them. The Kindle Fire is about the same price as the higher end Kindle that I bought Julia just before her trip overseas.... oh well.
The Kindle Fire is an android based tablet designed to be an ebook.
Here's why I want one: An iPad, which is also an eBook reader but that does a lot more stuff than a Kindle Fire, weighs 1.33 pounds. The Kindle Fire weighs 14.6 ounces. That puts the Kindle Fire just under the threshold for comfortable reading where you don't have to prop it up. I'd like it to be lighter, but that's a good start. (The regular Kindle, by the way, weighs about 6…
rallain | August 12, 2010There is this commercial that has been coming on lately showing some people reading the Kindle at the beach. Why is this a selling point? It has to do with the way the Kindle works compared to something like the iPad. I would take a picture, but I have neither of these devices. Instead, I will make a diagram.
Maybe you can't tell from my diagram, but I am using the black rays to represent light reflected from the Kindle and red rays to represent light produced from the iPad. And that is the key. The Kindle does not have a light source, it is very similar to a piece of paper. The iPad…
grrlscientist | June 30, 2010tags: David Kassan Paints a Live Model on his iPad, technology, computers, iPad, Apple, art, fingerpainting, portrait painting, documentary, time-lapse video, streaming video
This video is a time-lapse rendering of an Apple ipad fingerpainting demo that was streamed live from artist David Kassan's Brooklyn studio on Monday, 21 June 2010. The model sat for 3 hours as Mr Kassan painted and answered questions on how he uses the iPad and the Brushes applications.
Learn more about David Kassan.
ddobbs | June 10, 2010Â
Don DeLillo's Players, as marked up by David Foster Wallace.Courtesy Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin.
I just sat down to air a complaint about reading on the iPad when I discovered that Sue Halpern had done much of my work for me:
For all its supposed interactivity, the iPad is a surprisingly static machine, especially for reading. ... One of the guilty pleasures of an actual, ink-on-paper book is the possibility of marking it upâunderlining salient passages, making notes in the margins, dog-earing a page. While itâs true that some electronic book platforms for…
grrlscientist | April 15, 2010tags: iPad: The World's Most Expensive Cat Toy, iPad, Macintosh, Apple, laptops, technology, IT, cultural observation, social commentary, humor, funny, pets, cats, streaming video
This cat is demonstrating the value of an iPad as a cat toy. Who cares if it's a bit on the expensive side, since the cat obviously enjoys playing with it?
Sure, it's probably the most controversial gadget that Apple has ever come out with, but come on, your cat will love you for it. Don't be cheap when it comes to cat toys.
gregladen | April 7, 2010I'm going to make an argument that you should buy an Apple iPad despite widespread rumors of hardware problems and despite widespread criticisms of its design as funky and flawed.
And by "you" I mean yooz guyz who are skeptics.
In order to get there, to the point of this argument, I'm going to have to define skeptical computing, and to do that, skeptical anything, and to do that, what being a skeptic is. That sounds like a long journey but I promise to be concise.
What is a skeptic? A skeptic is a person (or other sentient, symbolically thinking being) with the ability to make rational…
oracknows | April 6, 2010Will it blend?
Personally, I doubt I'll be getting in iPad. I have an iPhone, after all, and I don't see where I would use something like the iPad rather than my laptop. Most of the stuff I need to do with a computer that I can't do on my iPhone requires Microsoft Office and various graphics programs. There just doesn't seem to be a niche in my computing habits that isn't already filled by my laptop or iPhone. That could change as the iPad evolves, but for now this Apple fanboy is going to abstain.
On the other hand, I wonder where you get a job like this guy's, where I'd get to blend…
jdupuis | February 12, 2010Following up on my Onion post a few weeks back on a Frantic Steve Jobs Stays Up All Night Designing Apple Tablet I thought I'd do an update on The Onion's article Apple Finally Unveils iPad.
Here's most of what they say:
Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's new tablet computer, the iPad, during a presentation in San Francisco last week. Here are some of its features:
Awkward name enables Twitter users to make the same joke over and over and over again
Super slick design makes it impossible to hold, pick up, or stop from sliding down the street
Softly whimpers if left alone for too long
Photo…
mikethemadbiologist | February 1, 2010I keep reading stories about how the iPad will revolutionize everything--or not (here's one example). There are also lots of complaints about how the iPad is betwixt and between an iPhone (or similar device) and a laptop. But these posts are missing the point: the iPad is an attempt to sell computers to the approximately forty percent of households that don't own one. Not only is this an opportunity to sell something to a consumer sector that otherwise wouldn't buy any computers, but it also might ultimately, by serving as an introduction to the web, email, and basic computer operation,…
grrlscientist | January 31, 2010tags: iPad, MADTV, technology, commentary, NSFW, satire, parody, humor, comedy, fucking hilarious, streaming video
It's rude, it's disgusting, it's NOT SAFE FOR WORK! (but admit it, all of you thought this very thing when you first heard the name of Apple's newest technology, didn't you)
oracknows | January 28, 2010You knew it was coming. You knew from many previous incidents that it was inevitable:
Who knew Hitler was such a Mac geek?
Personally, although I think the iPad looks like a really cool device, I'm really not sure where it would fit into my life. I already have an iPhone, which I love, and I already have a MacBook Pro, which I also love. Given that, I just don't see the need for the iPad, at least not for me. However, I also know that I'm not the sort of person for whom the iPad was designed.