How to print from mobile devices: iPad/iPhone and Android

iPad

How to Print from Your iPad: Summary of Printer and Printing Options

Print from iPad / iPhone without AirPrint; also App for Konika/Minolta printers

Android

instructions from techsupportalert

Tablet trends

Good article on the trends (of tablets and laptops, Windows vs Mac) and strengths and shortcomings of various tablet platforms.

Your next computer could well be a tablet

Your experience with your tablet...

I would love to hear from faculty about their experiences with the tablets. Which tablet do you have? What apps do you use and how do you like them? What do you like best about your tablet? What limitations frustrate you? Are there tasks you'd like to do on your tablet but you don't know what app to use?

The merging of the Tablet Pilot blog with this one did not preserve comments from that blog. The comments for this post are below:

3comments:

1. 
   R Olivier   Jan 16, 2012 10:39 AM

   I have found that without "full" access to the lotus notes databases, using the tablet for a large portion of my daily activities is not feasible.
   
   In addition, lack of compatibility between Blackboard and the iPad make using Blackboard (other than just reading) unproductive.
   
   However, for activities like "reading", the iPad is excellent. Also great is the email---but, I upgraded to the $0.99 Gmail App. That plus the Google Docs app mae the iPad super useful in many meetings where I would be otherwise unproductive.
   
   Lastly, the news aggregation capabilities of the iPad are awesome (such as the Flipboard App). Now, I can be up to date on News in much less time that before. Thus, in many ways, this has been a productivity boost.

2. 
   Brent A. Ferguson  Jan 16, 2012 11:09 AM

   I concur with Ramon on many points:
   
   LN runs our life here, and its incompatibility with iPad makes me still rely more on my laptop, so investing time in organizing my iPad for frequent work use seems unproductive.
   
   Reading is really a delight, especially using a machine that has a larger screen (compared to a phone) but that is lighter and quicker (compared to my laptop, including boot-up times, etc.).
   
   I downloaded Flipbook right away, but my most elusive commodity is still time. I need to spend some worktime fiddling/learning so that I can implement the apps for the sake of efficiency and convenience. I have not yet found myself able to allocate time for that during the workweek. Perhaps if I wrote a little less frequently, I could frame out time to read/learn.
   
   An alternative might be to spend 'non-work' time (aka vacation) fiddling...

3. 
   jim jordan Jan 16, 2012 03:47 PM

   I read both of the above comments and agree as to the Lotus Notes issue. I do use my iPad preferentially for email and for other reading.... also I have been using the iPad iPhone combination successfully for enterine swimming data such as swim times for the newspaper reporting. Therre are some useful biology and science apps which I have donloaded and they are typically very useful but only for specific lessons.
   
   I have spoken with some students. Theuir reaction has been that the iPad is both fascinating and can be a big distraction to them. The students I spoke to are using their iPad in science classes and they are using the Al Gore "Our Choice" app.
   
   I have played with the potential of Dragon Speak for facilitating comment writing (a voice recogniton software program) but ultimately you have to speak so slowly and do so much editing that it is not that much of a time saver. I suspect that in general the iPad makes consumption of info easy, but production of information is much harder

Best free apps for Android and for iPad

I find that I simply do not have the time to keep an updated list of best apps in various categories. There are plenty of existing reliable venues with such lists. When I look for apps, my first stop is http://www.techsupportalert.com:


- best free Android apps

- best free iPad apps 

Office Suite for Android Tablet

LifeHacker does periodic evaluations of various software, including apps for Android tablets and iPads. 


Some of their recent conclusions: 

Best Office Suite for Android:		QuickOffice Pro ($15)
Best note taking for Android that syncs with Microsoft OneNote:		MobileNoter (app is free, sync requires a paid subsription)

Android tips of the week

I came across  "20 essential Android 3.0 tips and tricks", and, even though our Lenovo ThinkPad Tablets cannot be upgraded to Android 3.0 yet, I tried these tips and (almost all) worked! #16 (longer battery) did not, which is a bummer. But many of the other tips are excellent. 

To have a tablet or not to have a tablet... for a student

Some call them game-changers; others view them as little more than toys for our insatiable media consumption. Tablets are certainly making a splash.  Until earlier this year, "tablet" meant Apple's iPad. This year, tablets based on Android operating system are trying to rock Apple's monopoly. Do they have a place in to our gadget-filled lives? Do they replace our smartphone? Do they replace a laptop? Are they yet another (the third? the fourth?) must-carry device?


Here's my 2¢-worth.



Contemplating a tablet as a universal replacement of any one existing tool/device is unproductive because a tablet, like any device, is a mixed bag when compared in general terms. The better question is if a tablet can replace an existing tool/device for a particular type of user and usage. 


Tablet for a student, as replacement for all papers in the backpack (electronic textbook availability is limited; it is not clear if the faculty would be able to find appropriate electronic material from what is available right now)? 


Paper's advantages over tablet:
→ bigger page display
→ easier to flip through
→ for handwriting, sketching, and erasing, pencil is easier than stylus
→ inexpensive, can't break and no big deal to lose


Tablet's advantages over paper:
→ materials for all classes in one place; can't forget a sheet at home
→ great for collaborating with others 
→ type notes in class instead of handwriting them
→ audio/visual materials as part of notes and homework

→ do research or homework during random pockets of downtime

→ work is backed up

→ access to all information -- can look up references, homework, etc

→ huge win if teachers choose electronic textbooks 

Is it worth the money? 

---

Tablet (plus keyboard case) for a student, as replacement for a laptop? 


Laptop's advantages over tablet:
→ bigger display
→ access to all multimedia and resource-intensive applications, on and off the web; tablets functionality is somewhat limited
→ better keyboard for typing 
→ mouse is more precise and responsive than fingers on touchscreen
→ a Windows laptop is cheaper than a tablet


Tablet's advantages over laptop:
→ all-day battery life (some laptops now have comparable battery life)
→ light enough to carry around all the time
→ cheaper than an Apple laptop

→ instant-on/off  (very convenient in classroom setting)

→ "flat" form factor 

---

Good article for more thoughts on this subject:

-- Editorial: tablets aren't the 'third device' I'd hoped for... from a productivity standpoint, anyway