Ryan Collins

🕹️ Do Something Great! 😄

Tag: ipad

  • Pythonista, programming on your iPhone and iPad

    Let me show you something that will make you feel young as when the world was new. — Dr. Carol Marcus

    I feel like a teenager again while playing around with Pythonista (Universal, $6.99), an app for iOS allows you to program in python directly on the device. It reminds me a lot about when I was learning to program in BASIC on my Atari 800XL (my favorite computer ever, although my iPod Touch is a close second). With Pythonista, I can finally write little apps to make my day easier. A lot nicer than going to the App store, downloading a bunch of free apps, all which have obnoxious ads and don’t do quite what I want.

    My first script was written to automate my 365 project. A project that I am terrible at keeping up, but now my DOY script will make it easier when I post once a month. I always struggle with the text I add at the end of my description for the picture, where I calculate the day of the year:

    #365 (218/365)

    I’d end up having to go to a website to find out what the day of the year it was. Well, at least that’s what I did in the past. Now I have written the following script and created a shortcut to it:

    # We're going to need work with dates, access to the clipboard,
# and to launch an app (you use the webbrowser to do that).
import datetime
import clipboard
import webbrowser

# Figure out the day of the year
day_of_year = datetime.datetime.now().timetuple().tm_yday

# Create out tag line
clip = " #365 (" + str(day_of_year) + "/365)"

# Put it in the clipboard
clipboard.set(clip)

# Open Camera+
webbrowser.open('cameraplus://')

    Camera+ has a shoot and share mode, which is what I have set as the default. So now I click on the DOY icon, Pythonista does its thing and Camera+ opens up. I take the picture, type my witty caption, and paste the tagline. Very, very cool.

    Pythonista can also export your script as an XCode project, one that you can load into XCode and create an actual iOS app. I haven’t had the chance to try that out yet. A couple of negatives. Getting scripts into Pythonista can be a lesson in patience. Due to Apple’s limitations on loading code, you cannot simply load code from your Dropbox or other sources, you have to copy and paste. This also means that scripts on your iPhone are automatically synced to your iPad. There is a Dropbox workaround, but I haven’t had the chance to try it out yet. The other negative that I’ve found so far is that there isn’t a built in user interface library, so you’re limited to text or creating your own graphics for things like buttons.

    All in all, it’s well worth the price (especially since it’s universal!).

  • Linux for 1:1 instead of Chromebooks or iPads

    (This post is basically me thinking out loud…)

    Like many districts, my district is looking at devices for a 1:1
    program. The top three devices seem to be Chromebooks, iPads, Windows or
    OS X laptops. Costs are the main driving factor for a lot of districts,
    which basically means they are choosing between Chromebooks or iPads.
    While these devices have their uses, I’m wondering why we aren’t looking
    at Linux laptops (probably running Ubuntu). There are districts with
    districts with Linux laptops, with Ubermix being pretty prevalant.

    Ubermix has some neat features, the most important one is the ability
    for a student to re-set their laptop on their own with quick
    recovery    . In my mind, I’m thinking of extending this function along
    with what I’ve learned from my GozBrowserBox project. I would
    probably use the idea of Ubermix but with a straight Ubuntu install.

    Each laptop would be set up to use Puppet in a serverless manner for
    management and the student’s home folder would be synced to a Network
    Attached Storage device. The Puppet manifests would be synced and ran at
    startup, and the home folder syncing would happen only at log in and log
    off. Both of these to minimize any bandwidth issues. I haven’t quite
    figured out how to do user management. It could be done with Puppet for
    1:1 managed machines, and use our current directory for shared devices.

    This setup would be very, very powerful. Not only could they do
    everything a Chromebook could do, but they would give the students
    access to software that’s not available on the web. This is a very
    important consideration for students in 7th grade and lower, since most
    websites limit usage by those under the age of 13. Management becomes a
    non-issue with a quick recovery setup and Puppet.

    Cost per device would be between $300-$350 (without case). Comparable
    Chromebooks cost $280-$310 with Google Management, and the iPad mini
    starts at $329 (but can’t be used with the PARCC tests, so you really
    need to start at $399).

    What have I missed?

  • Has Apple lost it?

    Apple announced the iPhone 5 today and updates to the iPod line. Most of
    the announcements were lackluster at best, but the event laid the
    groundwork for the rumored iPad mini event in October, which could be
    even more disastrous than the iPhone 5 event today.

    The iPhone 5 is a nice upgrade, thinner and lighter, but at the same
    time, it doesn’t have any feature that makes it a must upgrade for me
    and my iPhone 4. This is probably more of a testimonial on how good a
    phone the 4 is than what the 5 brings to the table. There are features
    in the next version of iOS that I won’t be able to use, such as
    turn-by-turn navigation, and, I’m assuming, Facetime over cellular, but
    since there are apps I can use to replace these missing features I’m not
    that worried about upgrading.

    What’s more disturbing about todays event was the iPod line refresh.
    Apple now sells the iPod shuffle, iPod nano, and iPod touch (the Classic
    is still available, but it hasn’t seen an update in 3 years). The iPod
    shuffle makes sense as an entry level music player, and at \$49, makes
    it pretty affordable. After the shuffle comes the nano, which doesn’t
    make sense at all. At least the 6th generation nano had a cool look and
    could be used as a watch, this 7th generation looks like an iPod touch,
    works like an iPod touch, but isn’t an iPod touch. Why would Apple waste
    engineering sources on the nano? They priced it at \$149, only \$50 less
    than the entry level iPod touch that includes the same amount of
    storage. I just can’t think of a use case where the nano makes a better
    purchase than the iPod touch.

    Then there’s the iPod touch. At the \$199 price point, they’re now
    selling the 4th generation iPod touch with 16Gb instead of just 8GB. No
    other changes in the now two year old device. If you want the new iPod
    touch which has several of the goodies of the iPhone 5, be prepared to
    shell out \$299. You do get 32Gb at this price but is it worth a third
    more than the iPod touch 4th generation.

    It’s the pricing of the iPod touch which is the most worrisome. Making a
    guess about the iPad mini launch next month, I bet that Apple will drop
    the iPad 2 and put the iPad mini in at the \$399 price. This would hand
    the Christmas shopping season to Amazon, Google, and possibly Barnes and
    Noble. The software for iOS is heads and shoulders above what is
    available for Android, but when a parent can pick up two Kindle Fire HDs
    for the price of one iPad mini, what choice do you think they’re going
    to make? I really doubt they’d price the iPad mini at the same price as
    the new iPod touch, but let’s say they do. It would still be a third
    higher than the Kindle Fire HD, although closer in price to the Nexus 7
    32GB.

    Apple has solid devices, well built, but their pricing expectations are
    all over the place. To me, it makes sense to:

    • keep the shuffle at \$49
    • place the old nano form factor (but with bluetooth) with 8GB at \$99
    • iPod touch 4th gen (8GB) (add bluetooth 4.0 and IPS screen) at \$149
    • iPod touch 5th gen (16GB) at \$199
    • iPad mini (16GB) at \$299
    • iPad 2 (16GB) at \$399
    • iPad 3 (16GB) at \$499

    I see more and more kids getting Kindle Fires, which is now at \$159.
    Apple has dominated the tablet space (and the mobile phone space in
    profits), but if they don’t price their products more aggressively, they
    will lose that dominance. Right now, a \$299 iPad mini would be a tough
    sell in my school district when I get get a Nexus 7 (which has better
    integration with Google Drive) for \$199. Forget about a \$399 iPad
    mini.

    p.s. Signs that Steve Jobs is gone: he would never have added that hand
    strap to the iPod touch.

  • A Kindle, iPad, and iPod Touch walk into a classroom – #neotech2011

    Here are the slides with notes: Handout from my presentation. For
    those following along with Twitter here are the results of the poll:
    [][]

    I really enjoyed the conference, and want to thank everyone that was
    involved at putting it on. It was very well run (although I didn’t win
    the MacBook Air door prize… :-).

    (more…)

  • A Kindle, iPad, and iPod Touch walk into a classroom – #oetc11

    The slides are available on Google Docs.

  • 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.

    [][]

  • 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.