Ryan Collins

🕹️ Do Something Great! 😄

Author: ryan

  • Distraction free writing with JDarkroom

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    While there are several full screen text editing apps, I’ve settled on
    JDarkroom. Written in Java, JDarkroom is a distraction free text
    editor, taking over your entire screen so you can concentrate on writing
    and not worry about new email or tweets. It is patterned after Darkroom
    for Windows     and Writeroom for Mac.

    I was using Evernote for writing, but it doesn’t have a full screen
    mode. To emulate the ability to sync my notes written in JDarkroom with
    my other devices I use Dropbox (Affiliate code in link,
    dropbox.com is the website without the affiliate code). Now I just
    save my notes into my Dropbox, and Dropbox takes care of syncing them
    across my devices. The Dropbox app for Android allows me to edit text
    files directly in the application, and there are several apps for iOS
    devices that will let you do the same. For mark up in text files I use
    John Gruber’s Markdown. It’s a very readable way to encode
    formatting in a text file. There are several libraries that let you then
    convert it to html or back to markdown. I installed the WMD plug in for
    Wordpress     which allows me to write in Markdown (or just copy and
    paste from one of my files.

    Yes, it’s a little convoluted, and as soon as Evernote as a full screen
    editor option I’ll probably switch back to it, it does work for me. 🙂

    []: https://ryancollins.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/sc_1.png

  • Checking out Android

    As I prepare for my eTech 2011 presentation, An iPad, Kindle, and iPod
    Touch walked into a classroom…    , I decided that it would be
    beneficial to plan on questions about Android, Android Tablets, and how
    they may work in schools. The Consumer Electronics Show was held this
    past week, and during it a bevy of manufacturers announced tablets, with
    almost all of them running Android.

    Android is an open source operating system created at Google based on
    Linux. Google allows distributes this OS free of charge to be used by
    manufacturers and cellular providers on mobile devices. It competes
    against other mobile operating systems such as Apple’s iOS (used on the
    iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch), Microsoft Windows Phone 7, RIM Blackberry
    OS, and HP’s WebOS.

    I purchased a Motorola Droid off of eBay and received it this past week.
    I’ve been playing around with it for the last couple of days, so this
    isn’t so much as a review as it is my first impressions.

    (more…)

  • FIrst impressions of the MacBook Air 11″

    Since Steve Jobs blessed my MacBook Air and I received it two day early,
    I’ve had almost a week to investigate the 11″ MacBook Air. I opted to
    max it out, so it has 4GB of RAM, 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD) and the
    1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. The educational price was \$1,329, which
    was almost more than I was willing to spend, but so far, it’s been worth
    it. The MBA is replacing an original 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook,
    which had been upgraded to 2GB of RAM and a 7,200 RPM 200GB hard drive.
    Before I ordered the MBA I did some quick calculations, and CPU wise,
    the MBA should be as fast as my old MacBook (the Intel Core 2 Duo is
    10-15% faster than the Intel Core Duo, and the MBA has a front bus of
    800MHz compared to my MacBook’s 667MHz). Adding more memory and the
    faster drive, it is faster than the MacBook that replaced it. (more…)

  • My Apple Event predictions

    Tomorrow Apple is holding an event to announce new products for the Mac.
    What will be announced is anyone’s guess, but here’s what my intuition
    is telling me:

    1. A new MacBook Air is pretty much a given. The rumors are pretty
      strong that there will be an 11.6″ and 13.3″ Macbook Air, and that
      they’ll be more affordable than the current Air. I’m hoping there is
      an 11.6″ because I’m ready to upgrade my original MacBook! 
    2. New MacBook Pros. This is something I haven’t read anywhere, but I’m
      pretty sure it’s going to happen. Why? I ordered two for the school
       district on October 8th with a shipping time of 3-5 days. A week
      later I received a notification that they would ship between Oct.
      21-26. Notice the first day is the day after the Apple Event. And
      now today I received notification that they will not ship until Dec.

      1. Apple must have something planned for the MacBook Pros, and
        originally thought they would be able to ship them on the 21st, but
        something happened and they’re planning on shipping them 6 weeks
        later.
    3. OS X 10.7
    4. iLife ’11
    5. Mac App Store – Apple added the ability to sign applications in OS X
      10.5 Leopard, and with the success of the iOS App Store will create
      an App store for the Mac. Unfortunately it will still go through
      iTunes, because for some reason everything has to go through iTunes
      with Apple.

    Anything I missed that you want to see Apple unveil?

  • Goodreader app now supports annotating PDFs

    The latest update to the best \$.99 I’ve ever spent on an all for my
    iPad just made the application even better. Goodreader now allows you to
    mark up PDFs, adding notes, highlighting text, or drawing. It can save
    the markup in the same file or make a copy for you, preserving the
    original.

    If you have \$1 and an iPad, this app is well worth it.

  • Bought my 6 year old daughter an iPhone

    My daughter is an avid reader and writer, so as she is preparing to go
    into 1st grade, I wanted to give her an outlet to publish online. What I
    did was set up a Tumblr blog for her at gracyl.ryancollins.org. I
    chose Tumblr because it allows her to easily post through email, so she
    can post through her computer, my cellphone or her mom’s cellphone.

    In the process of setting her up, I decided I wanted a more portable way
    for her to write posts. I thought about giving her my 1G iPod Touch, but
    went on eBay to look at the iPhone 3G (I wonder how you are supposed to
    use the plural of iPhone 3G?). They seem to be selling for right around
    \$150, so I bid on a couple and finally won one at \$138. I’m not
    planning on activating cell service on it and will use it just like an
    iPod Touch    . The advantage of the iPhone 3G of the iPod Touch is the
    inclusion of the camera and GPS (I’m not certain the GPS works without
    cell service, I guess I’ll find out).

    With the Tumblr app installed, she will be able to post to her blog
    anywhere she has wifi access. I’m excited to see how well it works, and
    if she’ll stay away from Tap Fish long enough to find out what else the
    iPhone can do!

  • Flowchart: Should you buy an iPad?

    I worked up a little flowchart in Pages on my iPad to help you make your
    decision on whether you should buy one. This post and the graphic were
    totally created on my iPad.

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  • iPad initial impressions

    There are enough other reviews on the web about the iPad, so I’m going
    to focus on my experiences and how I’ve begun to use the iPad in my home
    life and how it may be used in education.

    The purchase

    I reserved my ipad the day they opened reservations on line so I would
    be guaranteed to pick one up on April 3rd. I didn’t trust Saturday
    delivery, so I headed to Columbus to the Easton Apple Store to stand in
    the “privileged line”, the one which had the others who had also
    reserved their iPad. When we arrived at 7:30am, there were approximately
    40 people in the reserved line and about twice that many in the
    “unreserved” line, those that were hoping to still pick one up.

    Anyway, I bought mine and while my brother and sister played with iPads
    in the store, I pulled out my Macbook and setup my iPad. Some reviews
    talk about the iPad ready for use right out of the box, but mine popped
    up the “connect to iTunes” symbol. The initial sync didn’t take long,
    but I really wasn’t syncing up too much.

    Initial Impressions

    Fast! It is probably the fastest browsing experience that I’ve ever
    experienced. For the first time it was the speed of the network and not
    the hardware slowing me down. The onscreen keyboard isn’t that bad, I’m
    typing this article on it, but it does take some getting used to. The
    biggest problem is keeping your fingers up off the glass so it doesn’t
    register additional “key” presses. The other issue is that it is
    practically impossible to type without looking at the keyboard, so if
    you are typing in information that is on paper, it will be a lot slower.
    Im debating whether to buy the bluetooth keyboard. I paired it with my
    old Think Outside keyboard, which was a piece of cake, but that keyboard
    is getting old and the k and l keys do not work the best. I also bought
    the Apple case for it, which helps put the iPad at a good angle to use
    or type on.

    Longer term impressions

    There are more situations where a tablet can be used than a laptop, and
    the additional screen space makes the iPad a lot more useful than the
    iPod Touch. For example, at a meeting I can have the iPad in my lap or
    on the table. Where the iPad shines is when I want to show others
    information or something on the screen. I can just hold up the iPad or
    hand it to them without the awkwardness one would experience with a
    laptop. Maybe it’s just the websites I visit, but lack of Flash has not
    really been an issue. A lot of the video sites already support HTML 5,
    which works flawlessly on the iPad.

    I’ve been impressed with the number of iPad ready apps already in the
    app store. Some of my favorite apps, such as Evernote, WordPress, and
    iSSH are already available.

    Educational implications

    That being said about Flash above, students would notice the inability
    to use some of there favorite sites. Sites such as Starfall, which would
    be amazing on the iPad, fail from lack of Flash. The availability of
    Pages and Keynote bring some productivity to the iPad, but the clumsy
    method of using iTunes to transfer files would hinder their use in the
    classroom.

    Closing thoughts

    I’m going to be posting more as I work with the device longer. I’m
    excited to use it to teach a lesson in a kindergarten class to see how
    well it will work as a teacher device. Some accessories will probably
    end of purchasing include the camera connection kit and the Bluetooth
    keyboard. The big unanswered question is “who is the iPad for?”, and,
    unfortunately I can’t answer that yet.

  • The iPad has landed

    Braving almost 70? weather I arrived at the Easton Apple store at 7:40
    am to pick up my reserved 32gb iPad. I’ll have a longer review later,
    but I’m currently typing this blog post while using the WordPress app
    and sitting in Cos?.

    So far, So cool.

  • Ping.fm bookmarklet for multiple Ping.fm accounts

    Since Ping.fm doesn’t allow you to add multiple Twitter
    accounts to one Ping.fm account, I’ve resorted to have two accounts with
    them, one for my personal accounts (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace) and one
    for my professional accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn). To
    update my status for either Ping.fm account I use the special email
    addresses they offer and my email client.

    My problem was when I wanted to post the current page I’m reading to
    either account. Ping.fm offers a bookmarklet, but it uses the current
    logged in ping.fm account, so I would have to continually log in and log
    out. I decided to put together my own bookmarklet that starts up a new
    mail message in my default email client addressed to the correct Ping.fm
    account. To get started, drag the following link to your bookmark bar:

    Ping.fm

    Once there, right click on the link, select edit and replace
    YOURPRIVATEPINGADDRESS with your private Ping.fm email address (just
    the part to the left of the @). Would you like to do it with GMail? Drag
    this link:

    Ping.fm

    And once again, right click on the link, select edit, and replace
    YOURPRIVATEPINGADDRESS with your private Ping.fm email address.

    You can drag the links multiple times, editing the email address and the
    name of the link so you can associate each one with a different Ping.fm
    account.