Saturday, July 23, 2011

Testing the IPad 2: Part One of Two

I'm on vacation, visiting old friends in Vancouver, and I'm lucky to have a loaner IPad 2 with me.  Have been considering buying one for fun applications like Starman2110, NYTimes, books, and movies.

1.  Books:  am reading a public domain copy of Ulysses and so far it's fine.  This book goes along something like a dream anyway and the hypnotic page-turning flick is a perfect complement.  I am highlighting passages for my bookgroup discussion and using the larger font size for reading anywhere.  Also purchased Frommer's Vancouver which has NO GRAPHICAL information: no photos nor maps!  This is my first ebook purchase and now I am wiser.  Did read it on the plane; easy to use and this is where I learned that highlighting is better than bookmarking because the highlighting menu gives a snippet of the surrounding text while the bookmark menu gives just page numbers.

2.  Photos:  am experimenting with DropBox.  Some of yesterday's photos of the UBC Museum of Anthropology, such as this dogfish by Haida artist Bill Reid, are now sharable between my MacBook and the IPad.  It was simple but I wouldn't keep a large photo archive in DropBox, just shots I want to share with friends.

3.  Camera: Front and back cameras with some fun add-ons like "light tunnel", as in my new portrait.

4.  Starman2110:  British mysteries downloaded to YouTube in 14 minute segments; I have previously gone through Midsomer Murders, Hercule Poirot, and New Tricks.  Access to Starman directly through his YT site is not as easy on the IPad as on the Mac: layout compressed and funky.  Viewing Starman straight through YT gives a bit better layout.  Video display quality for this non-TV gal is good and sound is fine with and w/o headphones.

5.  NYTimesCrossword ap funkier than one for MacBook, doable when traveling, not for at home. Straight web-based NYTimes daily & Sunday is OK, IPad NYT ap much better, hurray!

Other tests and considerations: Bones, Big Night, blogging, keypad, weight, battery life.  More later, plus The Decision.  Thank you for your company!

2 comments:

Bruce Jewett said...

Very attractive blog. - bruce

saguaro said...

Very nice blog you've started here, and the radically zoomed self-portrait is terrific fun! ~Saguaro