Hello

It's been a while...

The Woolly Brew yarn shop is now open!

It's taken 32 days, and a couple of years of planning, but today Karen and I made our first sales.  We survived, the customer survived and the till eventually stopped beeping at me.

I also got an iPad! Thanks to a very generous brother and a Black Friday sale it arrived this week.

Still finding my way but it's very intuitive.  I'm typing this on it!

Still need to work out a few things... But love it.

iPad madness (part 13)

some note taking templates at Amanda Hawkins

iPad madness (part 12)

SimpleCount (£0.69)
Enjoy Sudoku (£1.99)
Blogger

iPad madness (part 11)

Terra - Web Browser
Note Hub
Daily Notes +Todo
Noteshelf
iCab Mobile
Index Card

iPad madness (part 10)

GrowJo ($2.99)
App Hits for iPad (free)


Jam Jar @ £158.13

iPad madness (part 9)

My iPad jam jar is at £137.40.


slowly but surely...

iPad madness (part 8)

New app!

Wreck this App by Keri Smith

iPad madness (part 7)

My iPad jam jar is at £126.68.

My fund raising efforts have stalled - too busy working (for no pay!) but I need to get going again as I still really want one.

Found this helpful tutorial on Ravelry - how to link your Ravelry library to GoodReader.

I don't have GoodReader but I think it would be good to link my Ravelry library to it....

iPad madness (part 6)

So, I think I've solved my iPad problems re photos and blogging (ramblings here).

I tried out Blogsy today and it worked really well, within 10 minutes I had worked out how to link my blog and my flickr account and publish a post.  Blogsy can also link to other web albums but I think I'll stick to Flickr and go back to a Pro account.  Flickr also links to Picnik which I do like for photo editing.  Although Picnik won't work on the iPad as its Flash based....  I think I'll check out other photo editing apps...

I won't use Dropbox for photos.  Thus no duplication....

I did find this app - FlickStackr (£1.19) which looks good for using Flickr and uploading photos.  Although I will need this:-

iPad Camera Connection Kit (£25)
The iPad Camera Connection Kit gives you two ways to import photos and videos from a digital camera: using your camera’s USB cable or directly from an SD card.

and FlickStackr also says this:-

"NOTE : Under iOS 4.x, FlickStackr may require "Location Access" to be able to browse the photo library. This is an iOS 4.x limitation imposed by Apple to apps. Other apps which do not require it will NOT get you Exif or full resolution."

Which I don't fully understand the implications of...

Of course this may all change... 

Hello from my brother's iPad!

I'm typing this blog post using blowsy BLOGSY! Not sure it will work....

This is how you link?...... I think.

That link doesn't work..... Mmmmmmm

This is a photo from Flickr

Another link done a different way.

Cut and paste.

Very intuitive....

Is there a spell check?

OK.... Now to publish.

Had to edit.... Got the blog address wrong! (and edit again because I was typing too fast on the on-screen keyboard!)

confused

new slideshow of a Woolly Brew Bangle Bag Kit posted on The Woolly Brew site using resized photos and our new Flickr account... phew...

I've also been making some little extras for us to sell at Sea Queen Day tomorrow - didn't quite manage my original quota but there are 25 various stick pins, kirby grips and hair clasps..

this photo is not resized and took longer to upload...

I'm trying to work out the best way to manage my photos especially re blogging.  Not so happy with Picasa - mainly because I have lots of photos and they are saved on a network.  I'm trying to use Dropbox so I can access them on the iPad.  Can't be bothered transferring everything over (HUGE files) so thought I could resize the photos and reduce time and file size but it takes a while to resize in Picnik... just resize the new photos and upload them to Dropbox?  I of course don't blog about all my photos so don't need to have immediate access to them all but then I'm not just sorting by subject matter but also how I'm going to use them.. again abit of a phaff... AND without even realising it I've reached the limit on my Picasa web album just by having this blog!  I need to buy more storage (which is cheap).  BUT also realised that editing - rotating, cropping etc does not change the original file just the image in the Picasa album... I'm confused... and I don't even have an iPad!  maybe would be easier if I did...

I think I need to draw a picture or something to get my head round this...

iPad madness (part 5)

£85 raised so far...

fund raising may stall for a while whilst The Woolly Brew takes over... and I hunt for other stuff to sell....

iPad madness (part 4)

more apps for future reference...

Solitaire
Scrabble (£1.19)
UK Car Driving Theory Test! (£1.79)
Student Pad (£0.59)
Garden Planner (£2.39)
Obliquely Productive (Euro 0.79)
ThinkBook ($2.99)
KnittingHelp Video Reference ($4.99)

iPad madness (part 3)

Some interesting app recommendations from the I Love My iPad group on Ravelry:-

Paprika as a recipe book - clip from website and manually add your own (shopping list and use as meal planner too)
Quickoffice ($9.99) for viewing, creating, editing Mircosoft Office documents.
GoodReader (£2.99) for reading anything!  Annotate pdfs and zoom in too.  I especially liked this bit of their blurb "The ability to mark-up PDFs opens up new doors to GoodReader users who can now use typewriter text boxes, sticky notes, lines, arrows, and freehand drawings on top of a PDF file."  Probably just the same as iAnnotate?

and one I forgot from my last list - Spotify.

iPad madness (part 2)

A list of apps for my iPad (once I have saved up hundreds of pounds....)

It comes with 18 apps... including Safari (internet browser), iBooks (organise and read books, pdfs, documents etc), Notes (for note taking using the on screen keyboard).

Other apps I think I may need are:-

iAnnotate PDF (£5.99)- for taking notes on my patterns etc.
Flipboard (free) - puts all my social media in a magazine layout
Note Taker HD (£2.99) - writing and organising handwritten notes (may need a stylus?)
TuneIn Radio Pro (£0.99)- for listening to the radio!
Blogsy ($2.99) or BlogPress ($2.99) - writing blog posts


I'm going to read through the I love my iPad group on Ravelry for more ideas...

iPad madness (part 1)

My brother recently bought an iPad.  For him it makes sense, taking into account his lifestyle and current media needs.

He brought it up last week for a visit... and I am smitten...

I use a laptop (a 'new' hand me down from hubby) and to a lesser extent a desktop PC.  I use them for:-

• book-keeping
• photo editing and storage
• creation of packaging and documents
• word processing
• document storage (mostly patterns & tutorials!)
• email
• Internet use

My Internet usage is mostly:-

• Google Reader for the blogs I read
• home shopping - including groceries
• my blog
• The Woolly Brew
• social media - only Facebook really
• surfing!  I currently use and highly recommend Evernote for 'clipping' ideas and info
• news and radio and I've been watching/listening to a few videos recently too

My laptop is perfectly adequate for all of these.

Add to that, I don't like computer games (apart from solitaire on my mobile phone).  I don't watch movies or read fiction or indeed listen to music anymore and I don't have any desire to have 'facetime' with anyone.  And  I don't have an extensive social network to follow, like, share or tweet.... nor do I need to do much 'on the move'.

So why spend £399 on an entry level iPad (and £35 on a cover and maybe £20 on apps)?  Especially when I have no income and there are many more pressing things to spend extra money on...

And especially when I will only use it for things I already do on my laptop and paper diary....

er...  it will look nicer

Is that a good enough reason?



When I worked (a job that paid) and travelled, I had a Palm Pilot (circa 1996) and I remember being totally obsessed with that too and used it extensively for diaries and lists and note taking... I even learnt how to write using graffiti...