The Educated Kiwi
Posts tagged iPod
Virtual haircut
Oct 30th
Nat came home today and told me about the virtual haircut well worth a look. It had me reaching out to see if there was someone there. I can only imagine what this will do for gaming and the movies some day.
iPod Air Mouse
Sep 24th
Fairly cheesy video but you get the idea. I just bought this app because I have become a beta tester for the mac as it is only advertised to work on XP and Vista. The app works by installing server software on your computer and transmitting the data over wifi. The application has 2 modes, you can use the iPod/iPhone accelerometer to move the mouse as shown in the video (which doesn’t work too well on the mac yet) or you can use the iPod screen like a laptop touch pad which I found far easier. There is also the added bonus of having a keyboard so you can wonder around your class and interact with your computer as if you were sat next to it.
I am starting to see real benefit of putting an iPod touch in the hands of every teacher. The hardware plus the software (excluding laptop) cost less than NZ$400. A good bluetooth keyboard and mouse can cost between $200 and $400 and you can do so much more with this device.
Joiku in action
Sep 22nd
I am sitting in my office here at mt maunganui college and although I have good wifi I also get a good 3g signal.
I have started joiku on my n95 and my iPod touch found the wifi network instantly.
Safari on the touch works very quickly and I can watch my data usage in real time. Joiku also shows me who is connected in case someone tries to piggy back my wifi signal.
Still can’t get AIM to work, maybe I will try a different IM client.
All in all a good experience.
NB. Joiku does support WEP encryption which will keep most people out and it only uses the http and https protocols which is why IM clients dont seem to work but Google chat from the browser will.
Posted from iPod Touch
Use N95 3G data with iPod Touch
Sep 22nd
I have been trying to figure this out for a while to connect my laptop to my phones 3G connection. The tethered solutions seemed overly complicated requiring the installation of multiple applications, Kelvin had managed to get it working on his N95 but it was a pretty painful process.
Then I remembered hearing about turning your phone into a wireless hotspot on a podcast and sure enough this free app from Joiku does just that.
Start the application and your phone becomes a wireless router which you can connect any of your devices to. Joiku is kind enough to display the usage so that I can use Vodafone NZs 10MB for $1 data connection without running up any massive data bills. Unfortunately the free version is not secure so anyone can connect but if you are only using it for brief periods then I can’t see a problem, although the premium version does offer more security.
You do need a 3G phone with wifi and no doubt it will drain the batteries in my N95 in no time but if you are stuck in a hotel with no internet a powerpoint will not be too far away. I look forward to trying this out at the TRCC conference in Wellington in October.
iPod Touch part 2
Sep 21st
In reply to question of why the iPod Touch over the iPhone? Simple – I already own a Nokia N95 which has a far better camera and dvd quality video, video calling etc. I would love to only have one device but those times are a little way off yet, I will go so far as to predict that the 4th gen iPhone will be the all in one device.
Back to the iPod touch. One of the first things I did when I set it up was to sync it with my mobile me account. I have been using .mac for a couple of years now, primarily with iWeb and more recently .mac gallery for uploading photos and video of our daughter to keep the grandparents happy on the other side of the world. As a result of the sync I found my address book, calendar, bookmarks and mail all on my iPod adding my other mail accounts was a breeze through iTunes.
If you don’t want to fork out the NZ $180 for mobile me I am pretty certain you can sync your gmail and google calendar fairly easily.
The ability to check email anywhere around the school is great but I could do that on my N95. Where the iPod Touch comes into its own is the ease of which it is to write a reasonable amount of text. Writing a reply on the N95 is a laborious task with the number pad whereas the touch keyboard and predictive text on the iPod is far better.
On the fun side, and the only app I have bought so far, is Super Monkey Ball, a game in which you tilt the device to control the direction of the monkey in the ball to navigate mazes, obstacles and bananas. It is very addictive and highlights the intuitive use of motion as an input as with the Nintendo Wii and if you visit the App Store most of the top downloads are games.
One app which I am looking forward to trying is Air Mouse which is currently only available for windows. The application uses the accelerometer and wifi to control the mouse on the computer for presentations.
Ipod touch
Sep 16th
As I sit here waiting for an appointment I decide it is a good time to try writing a post on my new iPod touch. I have had it for two days now and it is an amazing device. I won’t go into the reasons why I chose it over the iPhone but I get pretty much the same experience.
To begin with text input is very easy and the auto correct is excellent and the places where I spend most of my time have good wifi coverage.
(next day) I shouldn’t start writing posts when I know I will be interupted. No chance of that now while I sit in a hall with 7 other staff supervising exams.
Back to the iPod touch; most useful app so far apart from the wordpress app I am using now is mocha vnc light which allows me to screen share my laptop wherever I am in the school. Handy because not all my apps, like aim work through the proxy yet.
Watch this space for more updates on using the ipod touch in the classroom.
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