Macam Ipad

 

Ipad

Read more »

Posted in: Apple iPad

AssistiveTek Launches iPad Summer Institute

One Day iPad Summer Institute

Held in the Warren Middle School

Two (1 Day) Sessions of the Summer Institute will be offered on

  Dates: July 12 or July 13th

Presenters

Brian S. Friedlander, Ph.D. & Christine Besko-Maughan, M.S., ATP

Using the iPad to Enhance Learning & Facilitate Communication for Students with Special Needs

The iPad is a revolutionary technology that is changing the way educators present information in the 21^st century classroom.  The multi-sensory design of the iPad appeals to all learning styles and is an ideal tool for students with special needs.  In this workshop, educators will learn about a variety of applications (apps) that address academic skills such as reading, writing, mathematics, and science.  Communication apps designed for individuals with limited functional communication abilities will also be explored.  The presenters will highlight Proloquo2Go and iCommunicate, as well as other apps designed to enhance language development.  Strategies for implementation and best practices will be discussed.  Attendees are encouraged to bring an iPad for a hands-on learning experience that will transform their teaching strategies.

Seating is limited so register early!                                                    Registration Fee: $99

For more information email: brian@assistivetek.com or call 908-852-3460

School Purchase Orders are Accepted made payable to AssistiveTek, LLC,
174 Stephensburg Road, Port Murray, NJ 07865

Conference Location: Warren Middle School, 100 Old Stirling Road, Warren, NJ 07059




Online Registration  Form

Read more »

Posted in: Apple iPad,brian friedlander,brian s. friedlander,christine besko maughan,iPad,workshop

Wireless Printing Takes to New Heights with the HP Photosmart D110

Today I went out to Staples during their Presidents' Sale and purchased a HP PhotoSmart D110 printer for $59.98- not bad considering that when I went to buy replacement ink cartridges for a much older HP PhotoSmart printer that I had, the new printer cost less! In any case, I decided to buy the new HP printer to  accomplish a couple of goals; one to be able to print from my laptop wirelessly, two, be able to print from my iPad, and three to be able to print from the web. When I purchased the HP PhotoSmart D110 printer, I accomplished all of my goals in one fell swoop. Not bad for a rather inexpensive printer! Within minutes I had configured the printer to find my router and I was up and running on my laptop computer. I then took out my iPad and opened Pages and printed out my first document which looked great from my new printer.

The last piece of the puzzle was printing from the web. I went up to the HP web site to register my printer and approved a list of users with their emails who can print to my printer.  You see each HP ePrinter has a unique email address that you are given, which lets you print to, over the web. You can print just about any type of document by sending it to your unique email address which kicks in the process. There is even a web site where you can monitor your printer and assign new users who can print to your printer. Having the new HP PhotoSmart D110 printer is liberating knowing that I can print from just about anywhere. If  you are in the market for a new printer I would certainly recommend the new line of HP printers that support ePrinting. With ePrinting you can use your Mac, PC, iPad and print over the web from any device-now that's a printing solution!

Read more »

Posted in: Apple iPad,eprinting,hp,HP Photosmart D110,iPad,staples

Printing To the iPad with the HP 6500A

One of the really nice features of iOS 4.2 is the ability to print from the iPad to certain select printers. At this time there are several HP printers that support wireless printing using Apple's AirPrint technology. I had the opportunity today to set up the HP 6500A printer which supports the AirPrint capabilities for one of my clients who needs this capability at school, so that she can print out the written work she does in Pages from her iPad. HP provides very clear directions on how to set up the printer and configuring the wireless component was very easy and straightforward using the built-in touch screen. However, when I attempted to print from my iPad, for some reason it did not see the printer and I received feedback on my iPad that "No printers were found." I scratched my head and tried reconfiguring the wireless connection when I realized that there was a Menu item called Web services. When I selected this feature the HP 6500A asked me if  I wanted to check for updates and I pressed "Yes."  Once the printer had downloaded the updates I was now able to see the printer from within Pages and I was off and running. So if you get stuck remember to check for Updates on your HP Printer.

Read more »

Posted in: AirPrint,Apple iPad,HP 6500A,Printing

William Paterson University Accessbility Conference 2011

William Paterson University and Bergen County Special Services School District will be hosting the Accessibility Conference 2011: Reaching & Teaching All Learners Through Technology, which will be held on January 13, 2011 in Wayne , NJ. This looks to be one of the premiere assistive technology conferences to be
View Larger Map
offered this year in New Jersey and I hope you can come out and spend the day with us. Dave Marra, from Apple Computer will be the keynote and share with us all of the excitement Apple has generated with their lineup of exciting products that have touched the lives of students we work with. Throughout the day there will be ongoing presentations and workshops which I'm sure you will find relevant and important in the work that you do.

During the day I will be presenting on Innovative Uses for Digital Pen Technology.  So if you want to learn about the Livescribe Smartpen, or PaperShow for Teachers, or Xpaper then stop on by find out how these innovative solutions can be used in the classroom. Find out how these innovative digital pen and paper solutions can change the way you teach and offer you a range of outstanding benefits.

Read more »

Posted in: Apple,Apple iPad,livescribe,livescribe pulse smartpen,Papershow,xPaper

DAISYtoEPUB to Kindle 3

In a previous post I shared my experiences using the Kindle 3 which to date is probably the best selling eReader in the marketplace. I'm sure that the Kindle 3 will be on top of the list for gifts this holiday season with nearly every big box store carrying it. One of the reasons why I had decided to buy the Kindle 3 was that it was the only dedicated eReader that has built in text to speech. Working with a lot of students with reading disabilities I wanted to see how the Kindle could be used by them, to access their books with text to speech support. While a lot of the publishers at their discretion can turn off the text to speech component it is still exciting to think of all the ways students can access text using this device. Now imagine the ramifications of your students who have access to Bookshare being able to read their NIMAS books on their favorite eReader the Kindle. Well it is now possible and let me share with you how you can do this.

Just this week Don Johnston released a new application for the Mac and Windows called  DAISYtoEPUB that can convert DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System), NIMAS and Bookshare files to the popular ePub format.The ePub format is the most popular format for ebooks and is supported natively on the iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, NOOK, and Sony Readers. If you are using the iPad, once the file is converted you can turn on VoiceOver and have the the book read aloud with the text to speech.

DAISYtoEPUB is extremely easy to use and within seconds the file is quickly converted. Once you have used DAISYtoEPUB to convert the file getting the books onto the various aforementioned devices is quite straightforward. This is not the case if you are using the Kindle. While the Kindle supports a number of different eBook formats, unfortunately it does not support ePub. However, not all is lost in the conversion. You see, using the free application Calibre, you can bring the ePub book into the Calibre library and convert it to the Mobi format which is in fact supported by the Kindle. Using Calibre you simply drag the ePub formatted book into the Calibre Library and using the Conversion tool save it as Mobi formatted file. From here I simply plugged my Kindle 3 into the computer and sent the file from the Calibre application to my Kindle 3. It really was that easy. Now when I opened my Kindle I had the NIMAS file in the Kindle and using the text to speech feature the Kindle could access and read the pages, complete with the graphics.

While it did take me a couple of steps to accomplish this - just imagine how useful a tool this can be for someone to be able to access their DAISY, Bookshare, or NIMAS files on a small and lightweight eReader like the Kindle 3. If you have any questions- please let  know . I would be interested in your comments. So if you have the chance take a look at the Don Johnston's latest application- DAISYtoEPUB.

Read more »

Posted in: Apple,Apple iPad,Bookshare,Calibre,Cast eReader,DAISY,Kindle,kindle 3,mobile phone,NIMAS

iTunes Apps Store Now Has Special Education Section

A couple of weeks a go I had the opportunity to work with a student who was having difficulty in the area of fine motor skills and decided to bring my iPad along. I had downloaded a number of apps to trial with the student but was counting on using the  iWriteWords app to see how the student would do with it. To say the least it was incredible to watch the student use the app and to see just how focused he was while working with it. His special education teacher and some of his therapist who watched the demonstration were amazed at his task engagement and attention.

It has been really exciting to see the iPad move into the realm of special education and I know for myself that it will find a place that is dear to the heart of special educators. There are lots of stellar apps out there that have the potential to change the way we think about assistive technology and the delivery of the services that we provide. Apple has always been at the forefront of accessible technology and recently added a Special Education section to the iTunes App Store. So check it out and let me know what apps you plan on trying with the students you work with.

Read more »

Posted in: App Store,Apple iPad,assistive technology,iTunes,iWriteWords

Great Workshop Day! Part 1

On Monday, I had a chance to work with a group of Occupational Therapists at Pediatric Potentials of West Essex, LLC in Livingston , NJ. I have worked with Laurice Kalb, OT, and Owner and Director of Pediatric Potentials for over 10 years and consulted to her in developing Computer Campus, a division of her occupational practice that is dedicated to helping students with learning differences to maximize their potential using the computer. At Computer Campus, students can learn to type and use a wide array of different technologies that can help support their learning in the classroom. It has been awhile since I had visited her center and worked with her wonderful group of occupational therapists to show them the latest and greatest technologies.

I was able to start the day talking about trends that I see when looking at the intersection of special education and educational technology and we spoke about the impact of Universal Design for Learning, Web 2.0, and Cloud Computing to get the day going on the right track. Introducing them to the world of Google Docs was a real eye opener for them and you could see the wheels were turning as to how they could incorporate these tools in their practice. The rest of the day was dedicated to showing them so new and exciting technologies that I have been exploring and talking about its application in the classroom.

The group was very interested in taking a look at how they could use the Livescribe Smartpens in their practice to teach students how to take notes. I did a demo of the Echo Smartpen and described the various ways it could be used not only for taking notes but as a tool to support students who may need some audio supports for learning and for taking tests. In the first scenario I printed a map with the counties of New Jersey directly onto the dot paper and then simply added some dots. Once the dots were added I hit the Record button and then recorded some facts about the counties. This really brings the page to life and can be a wonderful support for students who learn best by providing them with this type of material. In the second scenario, I showed them how they could cut up the dot paper and place a small audio dot on the page next to a test question and record the question so that a student with a reading disability could access the test independently. When you think how huge that is both for schools and for the student you can begin to see the value that tools like the Echo Smartpen can bring to the classroom. With a little creativity and imagination the Livescribe Echo Smartpen can provide a student with a wide range of supports in their learning and that's even before you think about pencasts!

Exploring ways that teachers and therapists in the practice could use the Echo Smartpen to create pencasts was just another seed that I know will germinate with them. I had a chance to demo how to share a pencast by uploading it online and how to acquire the link or embed code to place it on their website. The therapists in the room with intrigued with the idea of pancasts and how they could use it to help demonstrate ideas and concepts. I closed by showing them how to use the MyScript Handwriting Recognition plug-in to turn their handwritten work to editable text in Microsoft Word. To say the least it was very exciting to experience all the energy and interest in what I was demonstrating.

In part two of the blog post I will talk about the rest of the day and how we explored the Apple iPad and got reacquainted with the NEO 2 from Renaissance Learning. Wow we did cover a lot of ground. To be continued........

Read more »

Posted in: Anoto,Apple,Apple iPad,digital pen,echo smartpen,livescribe,occupational therapists,Pediatric Potentials of West Essex

The Echo Smartpen from Livescribe

I have been using the Echo Smartpen for the past week and to say the least I am very impressed with the second generation pen from Livescribe. Livescribe evidently listened to customer feedback and made a more ergonomic offering with this release. With its new shape and design the pen feels much more comfortable in my hand. Adding the soft rubberized grip gives the pen a good feel when writing. With the new design the pen will not be able to roll of your desk as was the case with the Pulse pen. The Echo Smartpen is now available with 4 GB ($169) or 8 GB($199) of memory which would allow you to store and incredible amount of audio notes and apps which are available from the Livescribe Online Store. The 8GB Echo Smartpen is capable of storing over 800 hours of audio depending on the quality of the audio recorded. In any case the Echo Smartpen can store a huge amount of audio.

So what do you get when you purchase the Echo Smartpen? In the box you get the Echo Smartpen, a mini USB cable, one digital A5 Starter pad, two pen tip covers, and some Quick Start guides. To get started using the Echo you will first need to download the Livescribe Desktop software from the Livescribe website and register your pen. By registering your Echo Smartpen and setting up an account you will be given space on the Livescribe server to store your penscasts. More about pencasts later in this review. Once you have downloaded and installed the software you are ready to start using the Echo Smartpen. Now the fun begins, just touch the Record button on the bottom of the dot paper and everything you write is synchronized with what was said at the time. The quality of the recording is very good but on some occasions you do here some pen tip noise as you are writing on the paper. To listen to what you recorded you can use the Paper Reply feature by tapping the text with the pen tip on the dot paper to hear the recording. That part is almost magical!

The Echo Smartpen does not ship with the 3D noise cancellation ear buds as the previous model did, which I found to be very useful when recording in large lecture halls. Once you have written on the dot paper you can download the notes to your computer using the mini USB cable that plugs directly into the top of the pen. Changing to the mini USB cable I think is a move in the right direction and makes it easier for those that travel to carry it in their bag for fast syncing. The OLED display gives you visual feedback letting you know that the Echo Smartpen is transferring data to the Livescribe Desktop software. Once the process is done the Livescribe Desktop software provides you with a message that the transfer is complete. The process is straight forward and easy to do.

There have been lots of changes to the Livescribe Desktop software that bears mentioning. One of the new features which I believe will be used a great deal is the ability to create custom notebooks from selected pages you have downloaded. This works very similarly to how you can create Play Lists in iTunes. Simply create a Custom Notebook and drag pages into it. This gives you the ability to group pages of your notes as you see fit so that you can quickly access them. Having the ability to search through your notes to find specific information is one of the most powerful aspects of this system. Of course if you like you can listen to any of your pages played right from the desktop.

Sharing your files in different formats is one of the strengths of the Livescribe digital pen system. Educators will be able to export saved notes as a Pencast, PDF, orImage file. If you decide to save your notes as a Pencast anyone who has the Livescribe Desktop software will be able to view and listen to the recording. You can if you like also just download the audio portion of your pages which gives you another way to share information that was recorded. What I am really excited about is the announcement that I will be able to share my recordings as a PDF pencast that will be able to viewed using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. I am told that this feature will be available sometime in the Fall. Likewise, Livescribe is working on an app for the iPad that will let me view my pencasts on the Apple iPad to be released later this summer. For those of you who missed my post about hand writing recognition and the Echo Smartpen click here to see how easy it is to convert your handwriting to editable text. It is really exciting to think about all of the possibilities for extending learning in the classroom with the Livescribe Echo Smartpen.

For those of you who may not be familiar with pencasts - this has got to be one of Livescribe's real strengths from and educational perspective. Over the past year educators have posted thousands of pencasts on all different subjects for others to access and view. With a Echo Smartpen a teacher can quickly record and model how to solve an algebraic problem for example that can be accessed from the web. Creating a pencast is as easy as writing and recording your voice and then uploading it to your Livescribe account. Once you upload your pencast to your account you can embed it on your website or link directly to it. You have full control of the file and who has access to it right from within the Livescribe Desktop software application. Just imagine the possibilities as a teacher being able to model a process and having your students watch you do a problem step by step. As more schools move to Learning Management Systems having a tool like the Echo Smartpen will become indispensable for creating digital content is straight forward and natural way. You can view a pencast that I did on how to solve for x below.

Solving for X
brought to you by Livescribe

The Livescribe ecosystem has really developed since the Pulse pen was released and with the release the Echo Smartpen, Livescribe continues to develop a very strong platform for pen computing that opens the doors for all kinds of possibilities. Look for another post on using apps with your Echo Smartpen and for ideas on how to use this technology in the classroom. For those of you that are using Livescribe smartpens I would invite your comments.

Read more »

Posted in: Adobe,Apple,Apple iPad,echo smartpen,livescribe,livescribe pulse smartpen,My Livescribe,PDF

Dragon Dictation 2.0 Released for the iPad

One of the truly marvelous apps for the iPad has to be Dragon Dictate from Nuance. I have been using Dragon Dictate since I got my iPad and it is hard to believe how accurate it is for transcribing your voice to text. What is more amazing is that there is no need to do any training of the sort. Using cloud based processing Nuance is able to capture your voice file process it in the cloud and return your transcription back to the application in seconds. If you have not tried it out on your iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone you should definitely download it and give it a try- the price is right. Right now the app is free! Nuance just released version 2.0 of Dragon Dictate which now lets you quickly send your text to Facebook and Twitter from a small drop-down palette in the program. I tried out this feature just yesterday evening and it works like a charm.

Tools like Dragon Dictate open up all kinds of possibilities for students with learning disabilities and as I work with more and more students with writing disabilities I now have my iPad available to see how well it can work for them. I recently worked with a 6th grader who happened to be using an iPhone and we installed Dragon Dictate to see how well it would work. The beauty of Dragon Dictate is that there is no training involved. The student opened up Dragon Dictate on his iPhone and began to dictate and within seconds text appeared on the screen. I was amazed how accurate it was for this particular student. I have tried it with other students where the transcription was not that accurate. So if you have access to an iPhone or iPad give it a try when you are assessing students and see what happens. I would be interested in your experiences using Dragon Dictate 2.0 with the students you work with. It is incredible to think how far this technology has come in such a short amount of time and how we can harness this technology for the students we work with with learning disabilities.

Read more »

Posted in: Apple,Apple iPad,dragon dictate,iphone,Nuance

Rethinking Your WorkFlow with the iPad

I have been using the iPad for the past 6 weeks or so and learning the ins and outs of this innovative and portable tool. I have noticed over the past couple of weeks that I am beginning to think differently about how I access, create and store my information. While not exactly a "digital native" I still prefer to read paper based books and magazines but I see myself beginning to shift as I load more and more of my PDF's into iBook and read them at my leisure. I keep my iPad in my bureau next to the bed and have access to it whenever I need it. I have recently begun to read the PDF's that I have loaded and love the fact that many of them have embedded URL's which link to the internet for more information. Being able to zoom in on the text has been really fantastic and makes it a lot easier for me to read the text. The iPad screen is nice and bright and makes reading a really enjoyable experience. Just this past week I received a notice to renew my subscription to PC Magazine and I was offered a two year digital subscription for about 63 cents an issue. Having an iPad made this an easy decision to make and as I subscribe to other magazines I can see the trend to move all my subscriptions to the digital format. Prior to having the iPad I would not have thought twice about purchasing a digital subscription to a magazine. I have found over the years that reading on a Mac or PC is cumbersome and I would often print out longer documents. However, with the iPad this is a real game changer for me, as I look to move more of my magazine subscriptions to a digital format.

The software companies that understand the essence of the iPad know that users want the total experience of being able to access their documents and synchronize information in the cloud.
Over the past couple of weeks I come to learn the value of being able to store information and synchronize my data. I have been using iThoughtHD a mind mapping app on my iPad to do more of my work and really enjoy the ability to be able to export my mind maps to Box.net in many common mind mapping formats that I can access from my desktop mind mapping applications. The integration is seamless and really delivers the user extra value. The same can be said for ToDo for iPad, a task management app that seamlessly integrates with Toodledo on the web withthe touch of an synchronize icon. Moving forward I can see developers are beginning to think about the integration from the desktop computer to the web that can then be accessed with an iPad.

Just this past week MindMeister released MindMeister for the iPad which synchronizes with their cloud based mind mapping application. It is exciting to how companies are beginning to build iPad applications that either act as a go between or as a way to synchronize the information that lives in different applications. As an example FileMaker, this week released FileMaker Go, a iPad and iPhone app that allows users on the go to query and modify their databases that were created on the desktop with FileMaker Pro. I can remember back to the days when FileMaker released a version of FileMaker for the Palm platform that gave you similar functionality. It is certainly exciting to see all of these developments and makes you rethink your work-flow and how you will harness the information you need- wherever and whenever. I would be interested in learning how tools like the iPad are making you rethink your work-flow. Please post your comments below- it would be great to get your thoughts on this topic.

Read more »

Posted in: Apple,Apple iPad,filemaker,filemaker go,iThoughtsHD,mindmeister,PC Magazine,todo for iPad

Context Summarizer on the iPad

I have been working with Context Discovery's web based summarization tool (Summarizer) for the past couple of months and today I had a chance to test it out on my iPad. Context Discovery has transformed their summarization tool and now it works in the cloud summarizing websites by simply entering in a URL. Once the URL is processed- Summarizer will go out to the website and identify the most important key words and pull out the most important content that is ready for you to view. On the left you can get a glimpse of what it looks like on the iPad. I was very excited to see that Context Summarizer worked flawlessly on the iPad and processed the request very quickly. Once the contents was processed I proceeded to click on the MindManger Export and within seconds iThoughtsHD, my resident mind mapping application on my iPad opened the contents and displayed the mind map. It is nice to know that I can now use Context Summarizer and iThoughtsHD on my iPad to summarize the contents of web sites.

Read more »

Posted in: Apple iPad,context discovery,context summarizer,iPad,iThoughtsHD

The iPad Recliner from LapWorks

As much as I enjoy my iPad it does get a little heavy when you are holding it too long. Inevitably you will need to prop it up and what better way to do that, than with the iPad Recliner from LapWorks. The iPad Recliner is in a silver and black design to compliment your iPad. I have used other LapWorks products over the years and have come to like their functionality, design and construction. This is the case for the iPad Recliner, which lets you place your iPad on an incline in any number of positions and angles very quickly. The iPad Recliner can hold your iPad in the Portrait or Landscape mode and has a cushioned rest area to insure that your iPad does not move on the iPad Recliner. I found the iPad Recliner very easy to adjust, with just one screw - it is easy to change the angle of the incline when viewing your iPad.

While I have gotten used to using the virtual on-screen keyboard, when I know I will be doing a lot of typing I will take out my iPad Recliner and place my iPad in the landscape mode and use my Bluetooth keyboard to type. This provides meet with the perfect working setup that lets me comfortably view my iPad as I am typing on the keyboard. The iPad Recliner also makes for a great ebook reader when you want to have your hands free of holding the device. In any case, whether you are surfing the web, typing or reading an ebook the iPad Recliner is a perfect companion for your iPad. The iPad Recliner is the perfect companion for your iPad and I for one keep it on my desk to access when using my iPad. So check out the iPad Recliner!

Read more »

Posted in: Apple iPad,Bluetooth,iPad Recliner,Lapworks

Reflections on Traveling with the iPad WiFi

I have had my iPad WiFi for about a month now and have enjoyed using the Ipad WiFi for getting my email, surfing the web and of course playing Scrabble. In preparation for attending the ISTE 2010 Conference I decided to see what it would be like to travel with the iPad instead of my netbook which is what I usually do. While the virtual on-screen keyboard is alright for entering web sites and the such, I decided to take my Apple Bluetooth keyboard just in case. For one thing the iPad weighs almost nothing and there is not the need to take a lot of the other accessories that I would normally have taken with me. It is a rather small package and is really great for travel. It is so light you sometime forget that you are actually carrying a computer.

Once I checked into my hotel room in Denver, I quickly fired up the iPad and registered to use the hotel Internet which dare I say was $10 dollars a night for in room use. In any case I was able to quickly get up and running and could easily access my email and check out my favorite websites. While I was traveling I need to access Moodle to enter my students grades and to monitor the discussion board. The Moodle site worked well with the iPad and I was able to do everything I need to do enter my students grades. Since our college uses another web based application to enter the students final grades I needed to log into their system to enter the students final grades. I had bookmarked the secure site prior to my travels and was able to quickly log in and enter all of my students grades without a hitch. My college does use a fair amount of Flash on their website for navigation which makes it a little more of a challenge to use with the iPad.

During my stay I used a number of iPad apps with the Bluetooth keyboard which worked very well. I did some mind mapping using iThoughtsHD which right now is my favorite mind mapping application on the iPad. I suspect that all of the mainstream developers of mind mapping software will shortly have their own mind mapping app running on the iPad. I was able to use Pages to do some word processing and used Skype on the iPad to talk to my friends and family.

On my way home I sat in the Denver Airport and logged into their free WiFi hotspot and checked my mail before taking off. All told, I had a very positive experience using the iPad WiFi during my trip and realize just how powerful the iPad can be as an all around tablet computer. The iPad does make you think a little differently about your workflow and using cloud services like Box.net, Evernote and Dropbox really helps you to maximize the quality of your experience when using the iPad. So just in case you have second thoughts of whether to take your iPad on the road - go ahead and give it a try, you will be glad you did!

Read more »

Posted in: Apple,Apple iPad,ISTE,ISTE 2010,iThoughtsHD,mind mapping

iThoughtsHD- Mind Mapping for the iPad

Two weeks ago I went out and purchased an Apple iPad to see what all the excitement was about. I have to say it is a very seductive device and one that is hard to put down. I am enamored by its potential as a tool for some of the students that I work with who have writing, reading and organizational difficulties. The iPad is very fast at doing almost anything you want it to do (except play Flash media) and the battery life is really incredible.

Over the last couple of weeks I have investigated and bought many productivity apps to get an idea of how the iPad could be used as complimentary device to all of the other computers in my household. As someone who loves to mind map I quickly came across iThoughtsHD which I had heard so much about. iThoughtsHD is a full featured mind mapping application that runs on the iPad. It did take me a little getting used to the fact that I didn't have a mouse and had to touch the screen to create new nodes but once I got the hang of it-it was easy to use. I quickly created my first mind map in iThoughtsHD and was able to move my ideas around the map and relink them. Adding icons and formatting the nodes was quite intuitive and fast. There are some nice features to allow you to align your ideas to keep the formatting looking clean and your nodes equidistant. I have also used iThoughtsHD with my Bluetooth keyboard which made it even faster for me to create a mind map. While the interface is rather spartan there is a lot of functionality under the hood and you will find getting around iThoughtsHD to be quick and efficient. Within your mind map you can easily attach links as well as insert task completion icons to keep track of tasks as they are completed.

One of my favorite features is being able to send my iThoughtsHD mind maps to the cloud or transfer them to my computer using the WiFi Transfer option. Using the Box.net service it is rather straight forward to save your mind maps to the cloud that you can then access from any computer connected to the internet. iThoughtsHD supports a wide range of exporting features which makes it ideal if you intend to open your mind map with another mind mapping desktop application. iThoughtsHD supports exporting to : MindManager, MindView, NovaMind, iMindmap, xMind, and Freemind. iThoughtsHD also supports the use Task Completion icon and Start and Due dates for tasks on your mind map.

All in all, iThoughtsHD is a formidable mind mapping application for the iPad and works well with your desktop mind mapping applications. If you purchased an iPad and are looking for a top of the line mind mapping app look no further and download iThoughtsHD.

Read more »

Posted in: Apple,Apple iPad,Freemind,iPad,iThoughts,iThoughtsHD,Matchware,mind mapping,MindManager,MindView 3,XMIND