Stowaway Keyboard for iPad

My iPad is turning out to be really nice. Games on it are fun, and the word processing and spreadsheet programs are definitely not toys, in fact they look to be very useful. However, typing at speed on the device is not too much fun. The best solution I've found is to put the device into landscape mode so you can use the larger version of the on-screen keyboard. This is OK, but the keyboard covers up a lot of the screen and I still don't really like the feel of typing on glass. Many years ago, when mobile computing meant a Windows CE device, there were lots of companies providing neat hardware you could use with your Pocket PC. One such company was "Think Outside the Box" who made a lovely little keyboard called the "Stowaway". I dug mine out this evening to see how it mingles with the latest technology.

The answer is "very well indeed". If you can track down a Think Outside the Box Bluetooth keyboard you should get one. The keys themselves are a miracle of folding cleverness. It looks like the company itself has gone now, but if you can track one down cheap I'd strongly advise you to. Paring the keypad with the iPad is a snap. Just hold down the CTRL+BlueFN+GreenFN on the keyboard until the green light flashes. Then get your iPad to discover the keyboard by going to the Bluetooth menu. The iPad will display a "magic number" that it wants you to type into the keyboard. Do that, remembering to hold down the BlueFN key as you type so that numbers are sent. Press enter when you have finished and, bingo.

The experience is so good, and the ability to type at speed so useful, that I expect we will see a return of gadgets like these, which let you make the most of these new fangled devices.

Exam Fun

Choose your weapon….

Just spent a couple of hours invigilating. It was a law paper, and looked deeply scary. Then again, Computer Science papers probably look scary to lawyers…..

iomega Home Media Server

Now this is a useful device. The iomeaga Home Media Network Hard drive. It gives you 1 TByte of online storage that you can use at home. I’ve played with network storage devices before and found them quite useful. This is a bit more than just an online filestore though. It supports Apple Time Machine, so you can use it to back up your Mac. It also works as an iTunes and DLNA server, so that you can steam media to your Playstation or Xbox (or any other device including some TVs).

Finally it has things called Active Folders which are places you can lob files for background processing. One active folder will work with Bit Torrent, another sends files to your Flickr account and third will resize pictures placed into it. There are also ones to display slide shows to web browsers. I’ve used it with Macs and PCs and it seems to work fine once you have got the latest versions of the client programs on your machines. I’ve not tried the Active Folders much yet, I’m particularly interested in the Flickr uploader though. It also does network printing (which I must get around to).

If you are looking for a lot of storage that you can share around the house, or are looking at all the files you have spread around the place and wondering how to organise them, or you want to steam media to your consoles, then this is worth looking at. Particularly as from a price point of view it is only slightly more expensive than a USB hard drive of similar capacity. The best place to get them from in Hull is Staples, who have them at a very attractive 100 pounds at the moment.

Windows Snipping Tool

The Windows Snipping Tool started life in the Tablet versions of Windows but has now made it into the big time and is part of the Accessories for Windows 7. It is great for capturing images off the screen that you want to incorporate into other documents. Say for example you wanted to steal a screenshot of a Plants vs Zombies game and drop it into a blog post….

It is great if you are writing a manual for a program and just want to drop parts of the screen into your text. One of my pet peeves is documents that have the whole Windows desktop in their screenshots. Everybody knows about pressing the PrtScrn to copy the screen to the clipboard. A few people know about ALT+PrtScrn which lets you just copy the active window. With the Snipping Tool you can just capture the bit that you want to write about. You can find it in All Programs->Accessories, but it is so useful you’ll probably pin it to your Taskbar or Start Menu.

Plants vs Zombies

One game that seems made for the iPad is Plants vs. Zombies It is a bit like a tower defence game, but with fantastic graphics and beautifully paced gameplay. Number one son put me on to it, and I’m very glad he did.

Great fun.