One of my big irritations with iPad, iPhone, Macintosh iCal system is that the calendars are only synced when the iOS devices are synced with the computer. I sync often especially with my iPhone, but there are times I don’t sync my iPad for a day or two. This keeps my calendars from being always up to date. If a person has MobileMe then that would do the trick. However, another way is to use Google Calendars. I hadn’t used Google Calendars before so it took a bit of study to get everything working the way I wanted.

There are lots of sites to help you set up your system for Google Calendars. Here are a couple.

http://www.gilsmethod.com/how-to-add-google-calendar-to-your-ipad

http://apple-ipad-tablet-help.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-sync-google-calendar-with-ipad.html

After getting mine set up for the first time, I was having trouble getting everything to sync. I found this site that you go to on your iOS device which allows you to configure which calendars to sync. https://m.google.com/sync/settings/iconfig/device Once I used this site on my iPad and iPhone, everything worked great! I can add an event in either my iPhone, iPad, or Mac iCal and within a couple of minutes it shows up on all the other devices. Very cool!

I first bought the Apple rubberized case when I bought my iPad. It worked pretty well and I liked it as a first case.

The good:

• thin and easy to grip

• typing stand worked well

• holds the iPad in well

The bad:

• wobbly vertical stand

• no place to put business cards or note paper

• a bit expensive at $40

• comes in only black

Looking for a little better case, I tried the Marware Eco-Vue. It has a much better quality build than the Apple case. It is a well padded case and made of high quality materials.

The good:

• quality materials and workmanship

• nice adjustable vertical stand

• hand strap to ease holding with one hand (although I never used this with my hand, others might find this important, I did use this for holding a couple sheet of paper for notes)

• flip out typing stand

The bad:

• very thick and adds much bulk to the iPad

• typing stand flips shut when moved

• a bit expensive although it is high quality (shop around as the web site shows $54, I paid $40

• the strap to hold the iPad in doesn’t work too well (I used a bit of velcro to secure it)

• comes in only in black

The case I now am using is the HandHeld Items iPad Flip Leather Case with Multi-function Stand. I am really liking it as it combines a lot of nice features.

The good:

• an elastic strap holds the iPad in securely

• typing stands works well and is slightly higher than the other two cases above

• solid vertical stand position

• slots for business cards and note paper

• less expensive than other cases at $25

• snap clasp to close the case

• one free screen protector

The bad:

• feels a little “cheaper” with less quality materials

• only one vertical position although it seems about right overall

• typing stand tended to slip out when moved on a desk (I used a bit of velcro which solved the problem)

• snap clasp kind of gets in the way a little

I am really liking the HHI case. It addresses many of the problems I had with the first two. For the price it is a good value. This is now my everyday case!

I present and do workshops on iOS devices (iPhone and iPad) but those won’t mirror their screens to a projector like a computer will. So I’ve been carting around a large document camera or relying on the sponsors for some way to capture the screen for the presentations. However, I ran across the IPEVO Point 2 View Camera and thought I’d give it a try. I am really liking it to present on the iOS. It has a small stand or a clip which can be used on a laptop as a web cam. This camera could also be used for other things in a classroom and for $70 at Amazon it really works well. The software that comes with it is okay and allows you magnify and set the exposure. I was also able to bring in the video to Quicktime although iMovie didn’t recognize the camera. I may try that again some time. Below are some pictures of the camera and some snapshots I took with it.

Here is the camera with stand. The stand extends about 10 inches.

iTeleport is a pretty good remote access app for your iPad or iPhone. It’s $25 but most of these apps are about that price. If you need to be able to access another computer from your iPad, this would be a great way to do it. Below is a screenshot of my iPad running iTeleport. From my iPad, I ran iTeleport, opened Windows XP in VMWare on my Macbook Pro, and then used remote access in XP to access the university’s XP server. Geeky goodness!

One of the first questions I often get about the iPad is “does it have Office?” Although the iPad is not really a “work” machine, people are still wanting to make and edit word processing documents and spreadsheets. QuickOffice for the iPad has just been released for a limited introductory price of $9.99. I think that the normal price may be more like $15 or so in the future. I’ve been using QO on the iPhone for almost a year and have found it to work pretty well although the iPhone’s screen is almost too small for an Office app.

The company  got some bad press because they lagged in getting the iPad version out. However, after using it now for a few days, I can say that is was worth the wait. It is polished and has a great interface. Users can drag and drop files between folders and web services. It has the ability to connect to Google Docs, DropBox, Box.net, and MobileMe. The iPad can also be mounted in the operating system of your computer and files can be dragged off and on the iPad. You can also use iTunes to manage your files but I don’t really like using it for that. Users can create and edit doc, docx, xls, xlsx, and text files. QO can view many other file types such as PDF, iWork, video, audio, and PowerPoint.

Things that I’d like to see in the future are more web services such as WebDAV and FilesAnywhere and the ability to edit iWork files. Overall I am very happy with QuickOffice and give it a 4 out of 5 rating.

The El Dorado Middle School will be getting 450 iPod Touches next year thanks to a Federal Department of Education Grant. Sue Givens, the superintendent, says that the iPods “will change the culture of El Dorado Middle School.” This sounds like a great way to get empowering technology into the hands of students. The iPod Touch and iPhone are well suited as learning tools. It sounds like the students will only be able to use them at school. I understand why they made the decision, but feel it’s too bad as they are really made for anytime/anywhere learning.

Siri is a new (free!) app that you can use to find businesses, call taxis, find events, and other location information. It uses speech recognition and works very well. It is very flexible in what you can say. Some examples they give include: best sushi near here, g rated movies this afternoon, what’s the temp in Reno, and did Delta 11 land yet? It can even send you an email to remember something by using the reminder feature. An example would be “call Jack today at 11.”