Author Archives: kfehling

Ken's Final thoughts on the iPad

Using the iPad this semester was interesting. I already had owned Android and iOS phones, but this is the first tablet I’d used for a long period of time. Having the extra screen real estate on a mobile device was nice, although I realized that for the work I do the best device is a MacBook and that a phone is more convenient for most mobile use.

The one area where a tablet seems most useful is for reading articles and eBooks, which makes it an attractive device for students. On this I’m a bit torn because it’d certainly be better than using multiple textbooks, however carrying three separate devices with me seems strange. This is probably an irrational aversion though; I’m sure I could get used to the idea of having a device in my pocket, two in my bag, and soon maybe even one on my wrist. The biggest conclusion I’ve reached at this point is that buying stock in Apple is probably a good idea.

Ken's Weekly iPad Reflection, Week 12

Recently, inspired by Jay, I’ve been looking into sending MIDI between different apps on the iPad. One promising way is using Inter-app Audio, which was introduced in iOS 7. A lot of apps support it, including GarageBand and Tabletop.

There’s also an app called MidiBridge that lets you route MIDI to and from apps that support it. This might be more promising because it seems like more apps can use it. If I were to write an app that supported MIDI thought I’d probably look to support Inter-app Audio too since MidiBridge costs $8.99 so that’d be a barrier for people.

 

Ken – Student App Idea

My app idea is an online marketplace, basically like Fiverr or oDesk but specific to Stony Brook. People could do small freelance jobs for each other in exchange for credits, which they can cash out or spend on hiring people to do jobs for them. Some examples might be designing a resume site for someone or making a logo for their app. I imagine many departments could use this a lot, for instance if the music department needs a programmer or the computer science department needs an artist. Basically it would create a market for trade within the campus.

I feel that limiting it to the campus would increase the quality of work over other online freelance marketplaces, and offer a greater degree of accountability since you might know somebody who knows the person hiring you. It could be integrated with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yammer to use already existing social connections, allowing you to vouch for someone or find a friend of a friend with the skills you need. It would also provide an opportunity for networking or friendship among students by working on each other’s projects, and experience delegating parts of their own projects.

Ken's iPad Reflection: Programming on the iPad

I reached out for opinions from CS students on using the iPad for schoolwork. The consensus was that there wasn’t really a good way to accomplish most necessary tasks on the tablet, however there was some support for the Surface Pro, a fully functional Windows 8 tablet with a touch screen. I’m actually considering getting one instead of a new MacBook, although I’m not quite convinced about it. It seems like it might excel as a tablet but fall short as a laptop, more research is needed, especially on the keyboard.

There are many mobile and cloud based apps for writing code in different languages, but they typically lack the features and integration you’d want when creating full applications. Services that offer a cloud VM and browser-based IDE like Cloud9 and Koding are beginning to look promising, although they really need native iOS apps in my opinion to be viable on the iPad. Some apps can really be useful for learning the basics of a language, for example a new app Swifty can be used to learn the Apple language Swift on your iPad or iPhone.

In general I think if we’re pushing for iPads on campus there are 2 ways to lessen resistance against it:

  1. Frame the debate in terms of eReader vs. traditional books since it’s definitely a win for portability, cost, and flexibility.
  2. Move to a more optional BYOD model where iPads are offered as a rental, but the student can use their own device. Although I imagine the allure of standardizing on one device is that it’s easier to provide support.

Ken's Tweetly Create

I’m very picky with how I use Twitter to shape my online identity since it’s public for all to see. I use it to retweet things from my apps’ Twitter accounts and some other posts I really like, and occasionally some thoughts I have. Lately I’ve realized that your replies to people don’t show up in your main feed of tweets so I’ve been using it a bit more for communication instead of solely a platform for publishing.

The majority of my tweets are tech-related but sometimes I stray a bit. My favorite tweet of mine is an idea pertaining to the popular open source app framework PhoneGap and its lack of quality plugins.

https://twitter.com/kenfehling/status/522935097600008194

For this assignment I tweeted a link to a list of iPad music apps on Pinterest. I had already shared something similar a couple of weeks ago on Yammer but I thought this relevant for a couple of reasons.

For one thing I think some aspects of Pinterest are useful, especially the way you can share multiple aspects of your identity cleanly by creating different boards for different topics. I try to replicate this on Twitter by using multiple accounts and I wanted to highlight that here. The Twitter account for my app Color Sounds is centered around music and art technology, music apps, etc. So I planned to send the tweet from there, retweet it from my main account and post a link to that, however I don’t think you can link to a retweet.

In any case, I get the feeling I don’t use Twitter the way most people do. I’m on it a lot but almost always for consumption, hardly ever posting. I like finding interesting articles and things on it. Also I don’t think I follow or have a single follower on Twitter that’s somebody I know in real life. For me that’s what Facebook is for. Facebook is social and Twitter is business.

Ken's iPad Reflection, Week 4

Since my last iPad reflection, I’ve been exploring more options for diagramming apps. I’ve found a cloud-based one that I like a lot called LucidChart. I’ve previously used draw.io, which is similar but the mobile browser experience is terrible. LucidChart has a native iOS app in addition to their browser version. Since it’s cloud-based you can easily go back and forth between devices and collaborate on diagrams. Also it can be integrated with Google Drive. The free version limits you to 60 items per diagram but this hasn’t been a problem for me yet.

The Cluetrain Manifesto – Ken

  • 1. Markets are conversations – A market can be seen as a conversation between many people, giving praise and approval with dollars, and responding with more desirable goods.
  • 2. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors – This is becoming more true with things like Facebook advertising. Facebook knows so much about people that it’s possible to target customers much better, although in practice they are still lumped together in groups.
  • 7. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy – I suppose this is theoretically true, but the value of links are largely determined by Google.