Read2Go is Released in the Apple App Store

I have waited for some time now for the release of Read2Go App for the Ipad to be released by Benetech, Inc- and today it finally arrived in the Apple App Store. I quickly downloaded the app which is $19.99  in Apple's App Store and gave it a quick test drive. Once I downloaded the Read2Go App, I logged into my Demo Account and downloaded a couple of books directly to my iPad- which were quickly saved. I was able to configure the Font size as well as a host of various Visual Settings which was very straight forward.

Read2Go uses the popular Acapela Speech Engine and I had a choice of the text being read using Heather or Ryan.. It was easy using the slider to change the speed that the text was being read and highlighted. By default the sentence is highlighted in yellow and each word is then highlighted in green. Users can change the various colors of the highlighting by going into the Visual Settings menu. Read2Go makes it very easy to navigate to a Section, Page, or Bookmark. On first pass the Read2Go is very easy to use and the only problem that I had was I received a Low Memory dialog when reading a book that asked me to quit the other applications. Once I did that everything seemed to work fine. If you are not sure how to Quit apps - just Press your Home button twice and then hold down your finger on any app in the bottom of the window until the icons jiggle- now quit out of each app by Pressing on the Minus sign.

Read2Go looks great and I for one am going to highly recommend it to the students that I work with who have a "Print Disability." Please remember that you must have a Bookshare Account to download books to your iPad. Let me your thoughts about this new app that breaks new ground for students with reading disabilities.

The HoverCam T3 & iPad- Perfect Together

I received a lot of emails and tweets about why I would use the HoverCam T3 with an iPad 2 when doing training and I decided to show you with a short video that I put together just how important it is to use a document camera when doing training with an iPad. As I had mentioned in a previous post I wanted my attendees to be able to watch me as I navigated my iPad and using a HoverCam T3 allowed me to do this. I set my HoverCam T3 to 880 x 600 resolution and was able to get a crisp picture with minimal flickering as you will see when I put my hand under the HoverCam T3. I would be interested in your thoughts and if you are interested in purchasing a HoverCam T3 let me know I would be glad to help you out. Click on the image below to play the video in the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Please note that the entire video was recorded using the HoverCam Flex 2.0 software that accompanies the HoverCam T3. Great way to do instructional videos with your iPad.

Play Video

Wow- A Great Week of iPad Workshops

It is hard to believe that the three Summer iPad Institutes are over- it was really a very exciting and invigorating week working with over 50 educators demonstrating how the iPad can be used with special needs students for learning and communication. One of the tools that I used during the past three days was a Hovercam T3 document camera which enabled me to show my attendees step by step how to navigate the iPad. Even though I was using an iPad 2 with mirroring-this alone is not enough when teaching others how to use the iPad. With the Ipad 2's mirroring all my attendees would see is the final result of my navigating, but they would never see the intermediate steps that I took to get to where I was going. With the Hovercam T3, I was able to show them quite efficiently how to create folders, move from screen to screen and how to access the accessibility features all the time as they were watching step by step. The Hovercams T3's,  3.1 megapixel camera gave me the resolution and the controls I needed to output a clear and clean image of the iPad. When using the Hovercam T3- I used a 800 x 600 image resolution and turned down the brightness on the iPad to get a spectacular image of the iPad on the screen. So if you are looking for a great document camera for the classroom for a Macor PC then take a look at the HoverCam T3- you will be glad you did. At a suggested retail price of $219 dollars there is no better document camera  on the market. If you are interested in a demo or would like pricing of the HoverCam please feel free to contact me.

iPad Boleh Digunakan di Kokpit Pesawat

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) telah memberikan sertifikasi agar iPad dapat digunakan pilot di kokpit pesawat di Amerika Serikat. The New York Times yang dikutip 9to5mac.com melaporkan bahwa FAA telah mengizinkan beberapa operator penerbangan komersial dan pribadi untuk menggunakan komputer tablet sebagai electronic flight bag.

Tentunya iPad ini bukan ditujukan agar pilot bisa bermain Angry Birds saat mengendalikan pesawat. iPad akan menggantikan setidaknya beberapa alat bantu yang terdiri dari printed manuals, safety checklists, logbooks, navigation charts, informasi cuaca, dan airport diagrams. Dengan digunakannya iPad, peralatan yang telah disebutkan di atas akan segera dimuseumkan dan digantikan dengan papan elektronik tersebut yang berisi aplikasi elegan sehingga membuat kokpit pesawat benar-benar tanpa kertas (paperless).

Pilot pribadi juga dibolehkan membawa iPad yang didukung ratusan aplikasi penerbangan umum untuk mempermudah perencanaan sebelum terbang dan membantu dalam operasi penerbangan. Dengan autorisasi ini berarti iPad telah dibersihkan dari perangkat yang bisa mengganggu penerbangan.

Sebagaimana diketahui, alat-alat elektronik diduga memiliki andil dalam gangguan terhadap penerbangan. Oleh karenanya, iPad yang nantinya digunakan telah dibersihkan terlebih dahulu. Pilot tidak perlu mematikan dan menyimpan iPad selama lepas landas dan mendarat karena iPad tidak akan mengganggu fungsi elektronik pesawat.

Sebenarnya penggunaan iPad dalam dunia penerbangan bukan hal yang terlalu aneh. Sejak November tahun 2010, para pilot Angkatan Laut Amerika Serikat telah menggunakan iPad dan iPad 2 dengan peta digital yang memungkinkan pilot mencari wilayah yang ditandai di layar daripada membolak-balik peta yang berat di dalam kokpit pesawat yang sempit seperti peswat AH-1W Cobra dan the F/A-18 Hornet. Pada bulan yang sama, Angkatan Bersenjata Singapura dan angkatan lautnya juga secara resmi menggunakan iPad. Sebanyak 8.000 iPad dibagikan oleh Pemerintah Singapura.