The Incredible Multi Use iPad Camera Connection Kit

When I got my iPad I also got with it the camera connection kit. The camera connection kit comes as two docking connector adaptors, one a USB port and the other a SD card reader.

I had in the the previous year since the iPad had come out heard reports that people could plugin other devices such as keyboards and microphones into the camera connection kit. And those devices would happily work with the iPad.




So what have I had working with the camera connection kit?

Well I listen to iPad today and Leo Laporte is an early episode spent way to much time of the episode looking at ways of transferring photos from the iPhone 4 onto the iPad using apps like Bump or Dropbox. At the time I thought "why doesn't he just try plugging in the iPhone via the camera connection kit?" So guess what one of the first things I tried with the kit was? Yep connecting my iPhone 4 up to it to transfer photos.




And guess what? It worked. Plug your iPhone into your iPad using the camera connection kit and a docking cable, and all your photos on the iPhone appear in the photo import screen ready for importing.

Now you get the choice of importing everything in your camera roll onto your iPad. Or if you touch just the photos you want to take over (a blue tick appears on them) then press import you get the option to import all or just the ones you have just selected. Once the import has finished you can then either keep your photos on the iPhone or delete them.




The next thing I wanted to do was transfer images from a PC at work where I don't have a net connection for my wifi iPad to use in documents I was writing on my iPad in Keynote and Pages.

So using the SD card reader adaptor on a PC I transferred the images to a SD card. The images need to be placed in a folder on the card named "DCIM". You also need to make sure that the filenames of your images (excluding the file extension) are 8 characters in length. So valid filenames are "picture1.jpg" or "pictur01.jpg". The iPad will also recognise PNG files as well as JPG (I've not tried GIF yet).
Once you have your files on the SD card plug it into the camera connection kit SD card reader, plug in to iPad and away you go importing the pictures on to your iPad and it's photo albums ready for use.

I also have an old Targus USB keyboard lying around that I use with my consoles when I have to browse the web and send messages etc. So guess what this also works with my iPad when plugged in. It complains initially that the "device is not compatible". But guess what? Once you dismiss that dialog, and start typing with the external keyboard it actually does work with the iPad (I'm writing this paragraph with it).

In a previous post I have already mentioned that I have used the USB Rock Band microphone to record student podcasts. And that was enabled because it works via the camera connection kit.

So there you have it another essential purchase for your iPad. I'm sure that Apple didn't intend this to be so useful and flexible. But I like so many are grateful that it is.

- Posted using BlogPress from my ZX81

Amazon App Store Some Thoughts

One thing that has been bothering me, well not bothering more nagging away, is how easy a ride Amazon are getting over their new app store for Android.

How many times do we hear complaints, and attacks on Apple for their app store policies? All the time.

Now we have Amazon starting an Android app store where the terms of use for developers to me seem just as draconian as Apples, if not more so.

To me Amazon are controlling their store even more by taking the decision over how much a developer can charge for their app out of the developers hands. Amazon can give a paid for app away for free if they decide they want to, or decide they want to charge less than the price decided by the developer.

And granted that the initial years fee is being waved by Amazon (in order to try and attract developers), Amazon will be charging developers access to their app store. Just like Apple does, and gets heat for.

Of course we have yet to see what the approval process is like for apps to appear in the Amazon app store is like, and whether it is more open in it's workings and approvals than Apple.

Then we have have the cut taken by Amazon which is the same as Apples cut of 30%.

How could we forget the recent wave of abuse over Apples subscription policy for magazines. Especially that "unfair" policy of having an offer from a website also on the app store. Yet Amazon has similar for its apps, requiring offers and updates to also be made available on their app store if they are available on other app stores.

And yet with all this not a squeak really from the hypocritical Android fanboys. Yes they can argue "oh but you don't have to put it on the Amazon app store". But I would argue yes you do. The Amazon app store is going to be massive for Android. It will make it so easy for Android users to buy apps using their existing Amazon account. Plus Amazon is a name folks trust, and they have a massive user base. Things you can't ignore if you are a developer.

Well we will have to wait and see if any bitching happens.

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A Useful iPhone App

For a change I'm going to talk about an iPhone app that should be part of the teachers iOS toolkit. In fact I also think it should also be on any students iPhone as well.




So the app I want to talk about is Genius Scan+. I was first put on to this app (well the free version) by my friend Jamie (@raegar).

Genius Scan+ is described as turning your iPhone into a portable scanner. It boasts page detection, does correction and enhancement of images. And also turns multiple scans into single PDF documents.

It's very simple to use. To take a scan you can either use the camera in app or load in an image from your photo library.

So how would you use it? Well it does have a wide usage, basically any situation you need a scanner you could use this. However in the following example it proves how much more flexible it is.

For example last night at my evening class we did mini presentations using flip charts. So at the start of the break I went round the tables photographing the flip charts used with the iPhone camera. Then today using Genius Scan+ I cropped the photos, and combined them into a single document. I then exported the document into iBooks as a PDF. But I could have easily have put it into DropBox, Evernote, Google Docs or even email it (free version is just email and iBooks iirc).

In class often I use the wipe board to make lists, notes during a class discussion with the students. I allow the students to take photos with their phones of the finished board. This is the perfect scenario for this app. Which is not too dissimilar to my example above.

This is a great little app that makes a great addition to the classroom toolkit.

Genius Scan+ costs £1.79, and is a bargain at that price.

- Posted using BlogPress from my ZX81

My top 3 iPad apps

This morning on twitter I was asked what my 3 favourite iPad apps where. Phew I thought that's a hard one. But I did answer after a little thought.
So here for the rest of you, in no particular order my top 3 iPad apps at this point in time.




So first up is Flipboard. When this first came out everyone was singing the praise of this app. After having now used it I can see why. This app has made reading rss feeds, twitter feeds a joy. It takes them and turns them into what can only be described as a "magazine reading" experience. This is one of those apps that definitely lived up to the hype.




Next up is Air Video. I like this app a lot. Even with the sharing of media between iOS devices and iTunes on your Mac (or PC) that was introduced in iOS 4.3 Air Video is still relevant and useful. The main reason I say that is because don't want to convert all those movies/tv programs sitting on my hard disk into an iTunes friendly format to be streamed from iTunes to the iPad.
What Air Video can do with it's little server that sits running on your Mac (or PC) is convert the video on the fly. So I don't have to convert it before watching it. But it can also if I wanted it to convert it to an iTunes friendly format.



Finally but definitely not the least is Keynote from Apple. Preparing presentations on the iPad with this app is a joy. And the fact that I prefer to create them on the iPad with Keynote is a testament to how good I think this apps is. Ok it is not as feature rich as it's desktop equivalent and it does have one or two "niggles" (I've discussed them in previous posts), however the functionality here is more than I need for what I want to do. And who would of thought that preparing slides would work so well with a touch interface? It seems so naturally.

So there you have it that was my current top 3 iPad apps. What would make your list?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Additions To My iPad Productivity Folder

The little cropped screen shot from my iPad should tell you what the subject matter of this post is.
Before I start I know that the posts I write about the iPad and the apps I use on it are sometimes placed in an education context. The main reason for that is this is the area that I work in. However a lot of the points I make are generic and apply to iPads and the apps in any sector.
Ok back to Read It Later and SimpleMind+.
I use Evernote as a notebook when browsing for saving using info for lessons. And I'm really happy with the iPhone/iPad apps and also with the Mac app.
However some of the apps on the iPhone and iPad, particularly those that are glorified RSS readers allow you to save articles of interest for reading later. Sadly they don't let you save to Evernote but give you options to save the articles to read later in services like Instapaper or Read It Later (being the two most popular services of this type).
Now I don't have a problem with these services (I did try instapaper a couple of years ago on the iPhone). Last night on one of my visits to the app store I saw that Read It Later Pro for the iPad was on sale at 59p (iirc). What swung it for me apart from the 80% price reduction was the integration with Evernote. So any article I have saved in Read It Later I can pass on for keeping in Evernote if I find it that useful.
It is also very simple to add bookmarklets for Read It Later to mobile safari so that when surfing on the iPad you can send stuff to for reading later. I also have a bookmarklet for Evernote, so I have a choice that can be made on time. If I'm in a hurry send to Read It Later, if I have time and think the article will be useful I can save to Evernote. I like systems like this.

Simplemind+ is a mind map app for the iPhone and iPad, and I love creating mind maps on the iPhone. I've been using the free iPhone version for a couple of years and like it a lot. So the natural thing for me to do was look at the iPad version when I got the iPad. However the reviews haven't been very good recently, mainly because the developer has removed the ability to save your mind maps to the camera roll from the free version on the iPhone. At first I too was angry at this. But when I looked at the description on the latest update I saw that the app was now a universal app, the price at £1.79 wasn't bad really. And the final thing that got me parting with my money was the thought "well I like this app a lot, it's useful, and really I should upgrade to the paid app and support the developer." So that is how I made my peace with the developer and paid for the app I like.
And I have to say I really do like using Simplemind+ on the iPad. Having the extra real estate does make a big difference. Mind you I did find it usable on the iPhone. For me the touch interface of the iPhone/iPad is a natural for this type of app.

Having apps like Read It Later and Evernote has really made a big difference in the way I work (more Evernote at the moment as I have only just got Read It Later). These services are so much more powerful than just collecting bookmarks for later reference. Especially if you are just using the browsers bookmarks, and for me they are far better than such services as delicious.
I never used mind maps before the iPhone. Pen and paper ones never really worked for me. But I have found them a revelation on the iPhone, and very useful.
These are two great apps to add to your iPad productivity suite, and dare I say it also for the iPhone.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad