I was away at the end of last week so I came in to my office today to catch up on some work. I didn't catch up on anything because a shiny new iPad was sitting on my desk. I turned it on, plugged it into my computer and started playing. I did two main things with it today: set up email and set up iTunes to subscribe to some podcasts.
I'm not writing this blog entry from the iPad because typing is still cumbersome for me on it, but I suspect it will get a bit easier.
Email seemed pretty straightforward, but it wasn't. When I configured it, it told me that it couldn't verify my account, but I moved on anyway. When I finished configuring it, I found my email waiting for me. The big problem with email is that it doesn't seem to show all my email. In fact, right now, it is only showing two messages, even though I have hundreds in my Inbox. It showed more at the beginning, but I moved some messages around in an effort to give me better access to old messages and now I see fewer messages. I think that as new messages come in, I will have access to them, but the settings only allow it to show the up to 200 messages. I was able to read some messages and type some new ones. I also updated my signature.
As for podcasts, I used iTunes on my computer to sign up for several podcasts (mostly stuff I listen to on NPR). When I synched, the podcasts were there waiting for me in the iPod button/application. Everything was pretty straightforward, except deleting a podcast once I listened to it. For that I found help from eyeguy at the Multi-touch fans site. I just had to swipe my finger on the right or left of the podcast, and a delete button appeared.
How will I use this for educational purposes? I don't yet know. I do know that it's a fun new toy and a great way to procrastinate from grading.
David Marcovitz
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