IPAD: The kids’ toy box; perfect for the elderly non-techie

Friday, May 11, 2012

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57429122-37/six-scenarios-where-the-ipad-is-trouncing-the-pc/?tag=nl.e019

Six scenarios where the iPad is trouncing the PC
TechRepublic’s Jason Hiner has little use for an iPad. But he’s pinpointed six areas where it’s become people’s preferred device and is disrupting the PC market.
by Jason Hiner May 7, 2012 9:00 AM PDT

*** begin quote ***

6. The kid machine

For the past couple generations, kids have taken to computers and technology with almost no trouble and with few exceptions. However, with the iPhone this phenomenon started to go a step further — or younger. Suddenly, 2-year-olds could figure out how to swipe to unlock the phone, touch the photo app, and flick their little fingers across the screen to flip through photos. Once we got a big screen version of this experience with the iPad, the sky was suddenly the limit for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. They had a computer that required no training from their parents. Apps like Intro to Math, by Montessorium took advantage of the iPad interface to deliver software that was inexpensive, easy to learn, fun, and effective.

On the other end of the spectrum, the iPad is easy enough to figure out that plenty of elderly people who never felt comfortable with a computer have been able to use an iPad to do a few basic things. The key to this scenario is the iPad’s multitouch interface, which requires no user manual and no instruction to get started.

*** end quote ***

Ever since I saw the YouTube video of a baby trying to stroke a magazine to make the “screen” turn, I knew Apple had a winner.

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Posted by reinkefj

MACBOOKAIR: Finally complete the LION upgrade

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

OK!

I was thanks to DRIVESLIM ($, not free) able to free enough space on the slender MACBOOKAIR which I cam McBahh1.

I was then able after 3 password resets finally get an MAC APP STORE id that would work.

I was then able to download the LION MAC OSX UPGRADE ($). That I had already paid for. Thankfully, I didn’t have to pay for it again.

I was then able to perform the UPGRADE.

An hour later, while I was doing other things, McBahh1 dinged like an oven timer and it was done.

Observation: McBahh1 is now running “sprightly”. No more performance like a nursing home resident. We’ll see if any of the old problems return (i.e.: “I’m too tired to compute; I’m taking my union break for as many minutes as I feel like”; “There’s no free disk space; deal with it.”, or my perennial favorite “Year, I rebooted; what of it?”)

Casualties: NVU (free) no longer runs; I quickly found BLUE_GRIFFON (free) to replace it. 

Observation: BLUE_GRIFFON doesn’t do file transfer like NVU did. (Argh!)

New method: FILEZILLA dusted off to upload. New version of FILEZILLA installed. Works.

Casualties: MAC OSX 10.7.3 aka LION in the FINDER utility no longer displays the amount of free space. (Or it’s not obvious how to do it.)

Opinion: Well worth it. But what a hassle. Months of hassle to get to this point. Exponential number of Arghs.

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Posted by reinkefj

IPAD: Zagg keyboard. Did I get scammed? I think so!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

I received the package. Opening it the packing slip. says “… ipad3 …”. However the instructions say “… ipad2 …”. Did you ship me the wrong one or are they interchangeable. If “interchangable”, then why did I wait and pay extra for the “ipad3” model? This has me wondering …

I await you answer.
fjohn

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I’m not happy because when I ordered there was no “back order”. After my order was in and sitting for a couple of weeks, then magically it was backordered. Since the ship date was a couple of days, what choice did I have? But even that slipped.

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On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 12:01 PM, The ZAGG Team – Matthew G. <questions@zagg.com> wrote:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting ZAGG, where we are Zealous About Great Gadgets! My name is Matthew G. and I appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

 The tracking number you have, 9405510200828351438398, is a USPS tracking number. You can look this up on USPS.com and find more information about your package. Please note that USPS tracking numbers are more of delivery confirmation numbers and do not provide actual tracking like UPS and FedEx do.

<<< Nothing like that is on the website. The confirm email points to those two vendaor to “track your shipment”!>>>

Please note also that USPS can take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours to update shipping information. Since your order only shipped as of the 23rd of April, USPS would not have any information in their system about your tracking number. I would check over the next few days for any updated information on your delivery confirmation number.

I hope this helps! Please feel free to contact us back with any questions or concerns.

Thank you for choosing ZAGG! We appreciate your business.

All the best,

Matthew G.

Customer Service Representative
ZAGG Inc.
3855 S 500 W STE C

SLC, UT 84115

800.700.ZAGG(9244) (toll free)
801.263.0699 (o)
Nasdaq Symbol: ZAGG
ZAGG.com

— Original Message —

From: “reinke (reinke cc)” <reinke@reinke.cc>
Received: 4/23/12 6:45:59 PM MDT
To: The ZAGG Team – Darren S. <questions@zagg.com>
Subject: Re: order IC5629043

9405510200828351438398

I got this tracking number. But neither UPS or USPS find it.

Help?

fjohn

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On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 2:15 PM, The ZAGG Team – Darren S. <questions@zagg.com> wrote:

Hello Keith,

Thank you for contacting ZAGG, where we are Zealous About Great Gadgets! My name is Darren S. and I appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

I apologize for any confusion you may have experienced regarding your order. I see that order IC5629043 was placed on April 2nd, 2012. Orders placed through ZAGG.com orders typically take 1-2 business days to process and ship. This may vary depending on product demand, however. In order to assist you with determining the current availability of a given product, the expected shipping date for an item has been included on the product page itself.

Having said that, I see that the expected ship date for this order was is April 23rd, 2012. The ZAGGfolio on this order is currently experiencing inventory issues which has caused a delay in the shipping of this order. Our processing facility is working as quickly as possible to fulfill each affected order, and we expect inventory for this item to become available around April 25th, 2012. Nevertheless, we regret any inconvenience to you and acknowledge the difficulty this has caused.

Once an order leaves our facility we will send a shipping confirmation email. You can also check the status of your orders on demand via ZAGG.com. Log in to your User Account Manager to check the status of your most recent orders and view a snapshot of your order history. You can also update your account information. Take advantage of this service by visiting our website at http://www.zagg.com/support/account.

We apologize for any inconvenience and we appreciate your interest in ZAGG. However, please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or comments. If you prefer assistance via a live customer service representative, our phone number is (801) 263-0699 or toll free at (800) 700-ZAGG(9244). Our office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5:30 PM, Mountain Time.

Thank you for choosing ZAGG! We appreciate your business.

All the best,

Darren S.

Customer Service Representative
ZAGG Inc.
3855 S 500 W STE C

SLC, UT 84115

800.700.ZAGG(9244) (toll free)
801.263.0699 (o)
Nasdaq Symbol: ZAGG
ZAGG.com

— Original Message —
From: reinke <reinke@reinke.cc>
Received: 4/18/12 11:52:51 AM MDT
To: “questions@zagg.com” <questions@zagg.com>
Subject: order

status on ic 562 9043?

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I think I was scammed. What’s your opinion?

ZAGGS is definitely “NOTRECOMMENDED”! 

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Apr-27 @ 04:25  

HERE’S THEIR AUTORESPONDER:

Hello reinke (reinke cc),

Thank you for contacting ZAGG, home of the invisibleSHIELD! We appreciate hearing from you and your email is very important to us. We will reply to your inquiry as quickly as possible. Most emails are replied to within 1-2 business days, but please allow up to 3 business days. Our hours of operation are Monday thru Friday, 8am – 6pm, Mountain Time.

If you need a replacement for your ZAGG product, please follow the below link for a quick instructional video: http://www.zagg.com/support/contact.php#hidden_replacementVideo

You can also visit our Frequently Asked Questions page below for information on our warranties, shipping, products, refunds, etc.:

http://www.zagg.com/faq

To help track your inquiry we have generated a reference number. Your message id 349264. Please add @zagg.com to your address book to prevent our messages from going to your spam folder.

Sincerely,

The ZAGG Team

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Apr-27 @ 04:48  

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Posted by reinkefj

MACBOOKAIR: Didn’t resume for hibernate

Sunday, April 22, 2012

One of the many petty annoyances.

* The Ghost of Hard Disk Space Past, when all the free space disappears and needs a reboot to recover the 4 or 5 gig.

* Fails to resume from hibernate

* Firefox fails to close

* Random app crashes

* The screen has a finger goo straight line of grease on it corresponding to, I guess, the CVBNM keys. Argh!

* The Apple App Store, Mobile Me, and ICLOUD can “lose their memory of you” when Aplle decides to “improve” stuff. Double Argh!

So I’m coming to the decision that Apple is as bad as Windoze.

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Posted by reinkefj

IPAD: Penultimate interesting; catch a sale

Thursday, March 29, 2012

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/penultimate/id354098826?mt=8

Penultimate
By Cocoa Box Design LLC

** The original, easiest-to-use, best-selling handwriting app for iPad. On sale.

**Penultimate gives you the fast, tactile gratification of writing on paper, with digital power and flexibility. Take notes, keep sketches, or share your next breakthrough idea — in the office, on the go, or home on the sofa.

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Caught it n sale and recommended it to the other “kids” in the family.

2012 03 27 note

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Posted by reinkefj

IPAD3: has some problems

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

(1) Apple APPSTORE told me I forgot my password three times yay. Anyone who knows me and my tools knows that didn’t happen.

(2) Syncing my ipad3 to mcba (macbookair1) left it with about half the apps eternally waiting.

(3) Music files are “there” but unplayable.

 

Meanwhile ipad1 is stuck with updates that can’t be applied.

 

So much for moving to Apple because my problems with Microsoft!

 

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IPAD: IPAD3 has initialization issues

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Can’t use my IPAD1 apple id?

(I’m not buying all the stuff over again. Starting the issues list. May have to return it.)

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Apple id is mobile me.

It’s forcing me up to icloud.

icloud requires lion.

lion needs a lot of space.

made space

now if’s forcing me into “forgotten password”

forcing me to authenticate the id’s emil by clicking a link

now it’s still forcing “forgotten password” and not sending the link.

argh!

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ipad3!. May have been a mistake. All sorts of initialization issues. Apple may be overwhelmed and using “forgotten password” to throttle use.

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Forces verification of email address.

*** begin quote ***

Dear fjohn reinke,
You’ve entered reinkefj@reinke.cc as the contact email address for your Apple ID. To complete the process, we just need to verify that this email address belongs to you. Simply click the link below and sign in using your Apple ID and password.
Verify Now >
Wondering why you got this email?It’s sent when someone adds or changes a contact email address for an Apple ID account. If you didn’t do this, don’t worry. Your email address cannot be used as a contact address for an Apple ID without your verification.
For more information, see our frequently asked questions.
Thanks,Apple Customer Support

*** end quote ***

DO that and it forces me into password reset and never sends the email.

Argh!

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Comparing Taylor Swift HD on IPAD1 and IPAD3 — don’t see much difference.

Trying to think of other comparisons.

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Mar-16 @ 23:16

THE SAGA CONTINUES

from: Apple appleid@id.apple.com
to: apple@reinke.cc
date: Sat, Mar 17, 2012 at 7:51 AM
subject: How to reset your Apple ID password.
mailed-by: mdn-txn-msbadger0204.apple.com

Arrived in Google mail box about 9AM. Google posts within seconds to receipt. I know I send stuff from different account into gmail account often. Sometimes Google posts it before I can ALT TAB or TAB SELECT from the sending website over to the GMAIL window. Google’s fast; I’m faulting Apple on this one. Either deliberately or not. Argh!

Finally the link comes through, password reset. I know that I didn’t “forget” any of my passwords, I use LASTPASS, a text file, and a spreadsheet. ARGH!

Now onto try to upgrade MACBOOKAIR to LION. Then I can move from MOBILEME to ICLOUD. Then, finally I can rename my apple id from the old format of a simple name to the new required format of an email address. Then I can connect the IPAD3 to my old apple id and get to try it.

(If you think this all been a big mistake, I agree. What idiot enforces a new rule (i.e., an apple id has to be an email “for security purposes”. Someone needs to explain that one to me. I’m going to bounce this off Bruce S. Maybe it’ll give him some blog fodder.)

I STILL think they deliberately did this to control load. Yeah, I’m a cynic with a tin foil hat!

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SAGA <synonym for excrement>

Going back to the APPSTORE on the MACBOOKAIR tells me that “too many incorrect passwords”. Forces me to say “I forgot it”. (All for MY protection, of course.) And, then if forces up something that opens NVU to edit the page. Are you kidding me?

And Apple is “user friendly”? “barbara streisand”

So, I have uninstall NVU, do this non-sense, wait for another email, buy LION, reinstall NVU, install LION. Then I can move from MOBILEME to ICLOUD. Then, finally I can rename my apple id from the old format of a simple name to the new required format of an email address. Then I can connect the IPAD3 to my old apple id and get to try it.

To quote Taylor Swift: “This is begining to look like  tragedy now.” An epic poem worthy of Homer who wrote the Odyssey!

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Mar-17 @ 09:46

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Posted by reinkefj

Hardware: YouTube is hiccuping

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Maybe I am seeing network issues. It could be Verizon. But both Verizon Filos and Verizon vwbbie (Verizon’s wireless broadband hooked thu the mifi2200) are failing to play Taylor Swift videos. (yes, I know a terrible loss to western civilization!) but could it be a conspiracy to sell ipad3s and 4g service. If I was the cynical type, I suspect Verizon want folks to upgrade to 4g and may have degraded the 3G performance to pop sites. I’m sure that biz, who uses it for DR and salesforce automation, will not have any problems. But that’s cynical. After all, not like anyone would collude to fix prices on ebooks? Or anything else! Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

HARDWARE: stuck cd advice

Thursday, March 8, 2012

On Mon, Mar 5, 2012 at 8:12 AM, XXXX wrote:

Thanks John.    I have another favor of a technical nature. A DVD is stuck in the R-drive. It wants to open, but something is preventing it-sounds like a Twilight Zone story.    Any suggestions?

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Two ideas:

(1) there is usually a hole for “emergency open”. You mae need a magnifying glass and an unbent paper clip to insert.

(2) sometimes the CD doesn’t get flat on the “turntable”. I’ve found that inverting it and then back can sometimes free it. Also, a gentle washing machine agitation — 5 or 10 minutes — just put it on the machines when they cycle. :-) It sometimes will let the cd reset in the “tray”.

Just some things that I’ve done.

BTW the disk and the drive are probably toast. When it attempts to force the drawer open, it knocks the “heads” out of line.

Hope this helps,
fjohn

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Posted by reinkefj

HARDWARE: New Valentine radar detector works

Sunday, February 26, 2012

It really sounds off around police cars. I guess they leave it ‘hot’ when not trapping. I’d be worried about radiation and cancer.

It hasn’t saved me a ticket yet. So we’ll see if it’s has an ROI.

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Posted by reinkefj

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