Its been 3 weeks since I started the journey with the iPad Air. It has maintained a place in my daily activities. I sill find moments when I say, ‘Oh, I can use the iPad for that!’. I started scanning old newspaper articles and papers into Evernote. I have been using my I pad frequently while I teach but really wish I had the ability to connect it to the projector so I could eliminate the need for my laptop on most days. I have also been using it for most writing assignments and notes. I recently got the QuickVoice app so I can ramble on about projects to myself and take notes on it later. In general it’s been a great experience so far. The only thing that continues to bother me is that in some apps and on some websites the touch sensitivity seems to be off and it takes too long to select or click on certain things. Also, while I have found apps that have promise in competing with photoshop I have yet to find something that competes or even attempts to compete with AfterEffects, which is what I primarily use for many projects. I will continue searching….

Let me start by saying I can’t believe I haven’t been using this more! My prior experience with most new technologies is that I wait until I have enough reasons that it will contribute to my daily life in a positive way before getting it.  That was the way I got my iPad mini last spring. At the time I needed a simple way to handle all my course materials for a class in Manhattan. The Mini seemed like the perfect match for the task and it was! I never had to fear not having my papers, reading assignments, and notes. It was also perfect for reading these texts or doing a rough draft of a email while on the train. However it’s major downfall for me was its small size though great for carrying was a problem for typing and I have considered remedying it with a separate keyboard. That inconvenience coupled with not commuting to Manhattan as much meant that the mini drifted back to my desk drawer. I never had the chance or the push to explore its capabilities.

Enter the  new iPad, which I am using to type this post. I have been using for 90 percent of my work load for the last week as well as in conjunction with my laptop. Since my main course this semester is teaching an introductory class it has been great for making notes of what I want to mention in class, write lesson plans and assignments. I use blackboard for the communications with the class and the app worked very well except when I lost Wifi connection it would freeze and have to be restarted. I needed to scan documents for their assignment and my scanner happened to break as I was scanning. I used the Scannable app instead. While I did not care for the quality of scanned images, it worked excellently on text and was a welcome relief from my broken scanner. I also liked the drive app so I could quickly share class documents and work between devices.

I also tried a number of apps related to my art interests. I liked taking pictures with it and using its camera however it’s size and lack of grip made it difficult to take some pictures  and made me rather nervous it would drop (cameras used to have those handy cords to keep them tethered to the user’s neck).  I didn’t feel too comfortable having it out in the snow in case it got wet. It just felt too clunky though the quality was good.

I also gave the sketchbookx app a try and was very pleased with it. The iPad is the right size for me to do quick sketches and though it will never replace my paper and watercolors or photoshop, it has a lot of unique qualities and textures I’d like to explore further. I downloaded an app for animating that I will be experimenting with soon. I hope I can try a little astrophotographers as well by attaching the camera to my telescope. I had some luck with the mini last year in capturing the moon so we will see how it goes.

my weekly conclusion: this greatly streamlined my work for the week and made me feel more productive since it was easy to setback anywhere and get something done.