iPad Week 2

Follow-up to iPad days 5+6 from Rudo's blog

Right, I am now moving to weekly reports. Much of the novelty has worn off and I should be able to report on emerging patterns of usage during the coming weeks.

Over the weekend, I took both iPad and laptop home as I had to work on a PhD proposal. But I ended up writing the proposal on the large desktop screen which I have at home, then slightly revising with the laptop while in the garden and then finalizing and sending off to colleagues from the iPad. So, the iPad [via the DocumentsToGo app] is useful to revise documents, once these have been written by a deskop/laptop. Of course one can also start writing a document on the iPad, but I would presume that everyone would want to have a look at the final layout on a desk/laptop befroe sending it out to professional colleagues. Still, I found the editing, both of MS Word and MS PowerPoint documents to be useful and easy. In particular, the PPT features mean that one can take a PPT for a presentation on a trip, modify/revise somewhat if necessary and then deliver the talk on the day [KeyNote needed, or WiFi/3G connection to upload the changed file].

Also, I used the iPad today for "checking" exams. I am not sure how widespread this policy is in the university, but in Physics, we have a second examinar check every exam for additions as well as marking accuracy. Here it was great to have the eXel spreadsheet on the iPad when I could easily mark (in green) right and wrong (orange) additions. No more paper needed, and the results could be send with a few touches off via email.

I installed [Adobe Ideas], a free scribbling program, perhaps useful to take down some graphical notes.

[Wikipanion] is Wikipedia on the go, with full Wikipedia integration.

[GoSkyWatch] is a lovely app to point the iPad towards the night sky and have all the stars, plantes and other "shiny" objects explained. Should be great for amateur astronomers. Certainly saves me having to print out the night sky charts when using my telescope.

I also watched some downloaded TV shows. The quality is great on the iPad, but I did not yet try to have it display on my TV at home (which I would only do for test purposes).

Last, upgraded my iPhone to iOS4. This solves an issue with the email client: now emails can be copied/moved across email accounts. Would be good to have this on the iPad as well, looks like I need to wait until September for it.

Rudo Roemer : 28 Jun 2010 17:44 |  Tags: Ipad |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem