Overseas Chinese Web Guide

Tag: ipad

  • Apple TV

    I’m perfectly happy viewing videos on a MacBook Pro, iPad or iPhone (and probably in that order). However, sometimes, the TV really is the best device. In this instance, I wanted the kids to be able to watch video from their dance class so that they could follow along and practice daily. Obviously, this situation called for some hands-free viewing and the iPad and iPhone were easily disqualified. As glorious as the 17″ screen on the MacBook Pro can be, it is still too small for some pint sized kids.

    So, the face-off was between an Apple TV or an Apple Digital AV Adapter. Since the Apple Digital AV Adapter only works with the iPad, and not the iPhone 3GS or MacBook Pro, the Apple TV prevailed.

    While the Apple TV comes with a remote, you really need the free Remote app. If you want to search for YouTube videos via Apple TV, the virtual keyboard from the Remote app will make life remarkable easier. Using the standard remote to scroll through the alphabet to enter search terms or passwords is maddening.

    What Works, What Does Not

    Overall, I like the Apple TV, but it is not perfect. You may have a different experience depending on your network set-up. I have an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station at one end of the house and an Apple AirPort Express Base Station at the other end for wall-to-wall Wi-Fi. The MacBook Pro usually sits in the same room as the Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station, while the Apple TV is closer to the Apple AirPort Express Base Station. If the iPad, iPhone or MacBook Pro is in the same room as the Apple TV, the video streaming works really fast. I don’t mind toting an iPad or iPhone around the house, so that isn’t a problem. However, I certainly do not have all my video and audio files stored on the iPad or iPhone. If I’m trying to stream video off the MacBook Pro, I end up seeing the spinning cursor if Apple TV has to pass through the AirPort Express and the AirPort Extreme to reach the computer. And, by spinning cursor, I mean minutes (instead of seconds) of white lines looping in a circle while the kids grow increasingly restless.

    As a long-time Mac user, I certainly did not anticipate this, particularly since I’m using Mac products from the Apple TV to the various AirPort devices to reach the MacBook Pro. Most things just work. Unfortunately, in this case, there are a few hiccups.

  • Mount Diablo State Park

    Mount Diablo State Park (CA State Parks, Mount Diablo Interpretive Association, Reserve America) is located in Contra Costa County near the communities of Alamo, Danville and San Ramon. A visitor center is located at the summit of Mount Diablo where you can absorb a 360° view of the surrounding region. I could see the Golden Gate Bridge from the summit with the naked eye. However, I did use an inexpensive set of binoculars to confirm the sighting. During my visit, the center was closed on account of employee illness. However, the observation deck was still open to public access during this time.

    The sunset, as viewed from the Juniper campground.

    The Juniper campground features a trail that ascends up the mountain. On a hot summer day, I had no interest in heading up that trail.

    The Juniper campground is quite large. The campsites varied in size and shade. Some sites were more exposed and had better views. However, even the interior sites with more trees were no match for the howling wind that swept through our campsite starting around 4 a.m. Hard to sleep while the tent is rattling around.

    The Juniper campground does have running water near each campsite. In addition, the bathrooms are located at the far end of the campground with toilets and hot showers.

    Once the sun sets, the sky really lights up with all the stars aglow. Right before the trip, I purchased Star Walk for iPad to see whether the iPad could make astronomy any easier. Incredible! Of course, with the iPad Wi-Fi model, Star Walk could not determine the precise location. However, I was able to enter Walnut Creek, CA, which was not far away. Star Walk works pretty much as I had expected. When I lift the iPad up to the sky, I can see the various stars and constellations in front of me. However, not all objects displayed on Star Walk were visible to the naked eye, so there’s some interpretation involved. Star Walk was not a mirror image of the sky. As I panned across the sky, Star Walk would track my movement and display the relevant celestial objects in my view. Simply amazing. A lot more fun than reading a compass and manually looking up star charts.

  • iPad Coloring Apps

    Young children love to color. Sometimes, they inappropriately express their creativity by coloring on walls. Not good. So, as parents or teachers, we have to provide them with a proper outlet for channel their passion: coloring books. However, on a road trip, bringing along a set of crayons and coloring books can be cumbersome. So, does the iPad provide any adequate substitutes?

    I tested the 123 Color HD Talking Coloring Book for iPad and the Color & Draw for Kids iPad apps on a young audience. Both apps were easy for the kids to figure out. Although both apps are coloring apps, they operate differently. The off-line analogue to 123 Color is the color-by-numbers books that I remember from my childhood. Of course, the numbers and letters are only suggestions and the young artist can color using whatever color he or so desires. For younger children, these masterpieces usually end up monochromatic, but that is perfectly fine. 123 Color is also the easier of the two to operate since 123 Color operates more like a fill brush instead of a true paint brush. So, the hard work is picking out the correct color scheme instead of focusing on coloring within the lines. Color & Draw for Kids is a bit more complicated. You actually have to use your finger to paint. This app is fun in a different way from 123 Color. Of the two, the kids preferred 123 Color. Both apps only cost $1.99, so the risk that your kids will not fully appreciate one of the apps is minimal. I only wish that the apps operated for both iPhone and iPad so that the kid on the iPhone could also color while the other one was coloring on the iPad. Regardless of how great an app is, I am hesitant to buy one version for the iPhone and another for the iPad.

  • 24 Hours with an iPad

    I just spent 24 hours with the “magical and revolutionary” iPad. What’s so magical and revolutionary about the iPad? First, start with the battery life. Absolutely amazing! The iPad is still going strong 24 hours after its last charge. After a full day of browsing the Internet, watching videos, and running apps, the battery is still 37% full. If I used the iPhone under similar conditions, I would have hit the 20% remaining battery warning message a long time ago.

    Now, the best way to describe the initial iPad experience is to compare it to the HDTV transition a couple years ago. After purchasing an HDTV, you probably searched for HD programming from over-the-air, cable or satellite sources because an HDTV without HD programming provides an unsatisfactory experience. The same goes for the iPad. Sure, the iPad can run iPhone / iPod Touch apps, but viewing the app in a quarter of the iPad screen feels so limiting. Even if you upscale the iPhone app to fill the entire iPad screen by tapping the 2x button, it just appears underwhelming. All the images and text are seriously pixelated. I understand why you cannot upscale graphics, but how come the iPad has to display the text all pixelated as well? That’s not magical!

    So, I headed off to the iTunes Store to find iPad apps. Maybe it’s still early because only a handful of my existing apps had an iPad version. For those iPhone developers stuck behind a long list competing apps, here’s your chance to leapfrog the competition because all these iPad owners are looking for new apps. I was also searching for some children’s picture books. I found nothing in iBooks. I was surprised by the limited selection. Instead, I picked up the iReading HD app, which features Chinese / English versions of four children’s stories. Now, if I can only have an ePub version of all the books currently sitting on my bookshelf, that will really be the iPad indispensable.