[][] 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,… Read more →
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… Read 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… Read 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: 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… Read more →
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… Read more →
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,… Read more →
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. [][] Read more →
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… Read more →
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. Read more →
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… Read more →