Its been a few months since Apple announced iBook2 with interactive features but unfortunately there are not very many iBooks with interactive features. I was thrilled to come across the video below because it showed that there are interactive kids iBooks in the bookstore. (You can buy the interactive iBook on insects here.) The video below is an excellent example of how you can use the iBooks authoring tool.
While the HP Touchpad was a super good deal when it was $99 there are some issues. One issue I have come across is problems with the micro USB connector. Recently the HP Touchpad stopped charging. It didn’t seem like it could be the cable since it was new. I found one way to get the HP Touchpad to charge. If you put an object like a book under the cable near the connector the HP Touchpad will charge. (see picture above) I usually do this at night so I don’t have to worry about someone moving it. At least there is an option to buy an inductive charger for the Touchpad.
Apple just announced the new iPad. The new iPad 3 has a few new features but is it worth it for homeschooling? The main new features are:
So should you get one for your homeschool? I would say no for the following reasons.
Unless you plan on using the iPad for taking pictures in place of your regular camera you really don’t need a better iPad camera. Sure the iPad 2 camera is not very good but most of the time the kids just use it to take crazy pictures. This can use up a lot of memory even with the low resolution iPad 2 camera.
There may be some instances when the high resolution screen would be nice but it is not a must have. Videos and pictures look fine on the iPad 2.
While Apple will continue to sell the iPad 2, it appears that the iPad 2 will only come in the 16GB capacity model. You should still be able to get a larger capacity refurbished iPad 2 through apples store which still carry the one year warranty. As of this writing you can get a 32GB iPad 2 for $449. More memory was high on my iPad 3 wish list. I have had some problems with using most of the memory on my 16 GB iPad 2 but it’s good to purge apps and pictures every once in a while.
So for now I will stick with the iPad 2. In a year or so there may be something new but for now I am content with the iPad 2.