Monday, February 06, 2012

The new member of the family.

A couple weeks ago, the in-laws came through for a quick visit, and my MIL showed me her birthday present: An iPad. It was nice. Really nice. I liked it a lot. In fact, my first thought was "That would be perfect for the Goob."

Then I looked them up and saw the cost.

I didn't have a stroke. Quite.

So then, I started researching. Because I'm me, and it's what I do. Behold:
A Kindle Fire.(And space monkey pajamas, but the PJs aren't new.) When I opened the box, it turned itself on. I named it HAL.

It does everything we wanted it to; the Goob can watch her school videos on it. That was a biggie. She just sat here for an hour like this:
That's the PBS kid's web site. She likes to play the games, and takes breaks to watch videos.

She and the hub have been playing Angry Birds of all kinds like fiends. I've almost beaten Plants Vs. Zombies. Laying in bed watching TV shows on it is nice. And the other day, I ACTUALLY READ A BOOK ON IT.

It's an Android platform with full internet capability. Everyone: Speak to me of knitting apps.

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Last week's rant on digital piracy got a lot more attention than I expected. Really, it was just a roar of frustration more than any sort of orderly discussion. I'll probably do a followup in the next couple days to try and state things more coherently, because obviously some folks didn't quite get it.

Oh, and the dude who compared digital piracy to rape? You're a flaming asshole. You missed COMPLETELY missed the point, but damn. You're an asshole.

9 comments:

Amy said...

Check out the yarn harlot's blog in the days before Christmas, she has a whole post about knitting apps for the iPad, many of which should work on the Kindle Fire too. My fave is goodreader, which allows you to import pdf files (such as patterns) and annotate them, create copies, etc.

Unknown said...

Knitting apps? Which ones are you using?

Ühltje said...

You might want to check on a stand for HAL for things like video-watching. When I am playing with my phone too much, esp. on long train trips, I get headaches the following days for sitting with a bend neck for hours on end.

Donna Lee said...

I broke down and bought an ipad for my husband for his birthday/father's day/any other gift giving holiday last year. He loves it. I think he actually has feelings for it.


And I always figure anyone who has the gall to compare ANYTHING to rape, has never been or known anyone who has been raped. As a person who has survived sexual assault, I take offense to that.

Corlis said...

An iPad is on my wish list. As genealogy moves from the desktop to the cloud, an iPad will be great for taking pictures (cemeteries, houses, heirlooms, etc, scanning documents, and uploading everything to secure server.

Which leads to the piracy post. Genealogy is supposed to be collaborative. We work together to solve the mysteries of the familial past. Nothing sticks in my craw more than seeing family trees online where it's obvious some person has just copied from another without giving them credit. Without proper credit, later researchers must retrace the line to ensure the accuracy of the statements. Unwary researchers, or those who just click and add, may be spreading misinformation.

It's piracy, but with a social disease.

Cindy said...

Keep us informed. I love my kindle keyboard and there are tons of free books offered by Pixel of Ink and Ereader today.

Bells said...

i second good reader for reading patterns. That and ibooks are all i use for pdfs now. Easy to import and saves on so much paper!

I've got a row counter I use on my iphone but I don't think there's an ipad version yet. Also, interweave just bought out a yarn resource of some kind which I haven't got yet but which is receiving rave reviews.

Yay for the goob. I swear it's the greatest thing for kids - Alice and Sean play on them together and read stories and it's just great.

NeedleTart said...

The newest and most helpful app (knitCompanion) is only available for iPads (Heather Ordover interviewed the designer) because oddly the Android has different parameters for each version.The designer said she is working on the android version, but it will take a while. Good luck and let us know which are the best apps.

Amy Lane said...

Wow-- I love that! In fact, I want one, just so I can stop watching kids shows. Love Phineas and Ferb, but I've been watching Spongebob for 12 years!