To the Cloud!

I use Google Docs all the time. Unfortunately, I have had the bad experience of having my hard-drive crash too many times or not being able to find a flash drive to save a document. Using Google Docs I can create my document and edit it on any computer. I have had trouble exporting to a .doc file, so usually I cut and paste into a new Word document when I need to send the file somewhere. The formating is usually a little off, but it is very easy to fix.

Cloud computing is wonderful. I use Delicious for my bookmarks and Google Docs for my papers and I have everything at my fingertips only a few clicks away from any computer. My favorite part about Google Docs? Well, Ms Susan, you can probably guess what is coming next. Pages is a $10 download form the app store (I am cheap, remember?), but I can use Google Docs for free. ;)

There's an app..err...gadget for that!

Personalized homepages are not something new. I used to have one through yahoo.com. The only thing I really liked about it was the daily comic box that let me read Luann and Garfield.

I customized my iGoogle account with news, cooking, and entertainment boxes as well as translators, maps, calculators, and a nice little animated Nemo theme at the top. Will I use this past creation?

Probably not. None of these are things that I will need right at my fingertips and to be honest it is just as quick to bring up mapquest as it is to bring up googlemaps. What was interesting was that as I was customizing I noticed that some of the gadget names seemed familiar. Well, guess what, there is an app for that? A lot of the gadgets I was looking at not only had the same appearance, but were also the same apps that I can download for free on my iPad. So is there a coincidence with the names iPad and iGoogle?

With a Tap of the Page

I will admit that I was against e-book readers. Nothing to me could replace the experience of reading a paperback that I could take anywhere.

Well, that was last month...

Last November I read an review for a series by Meg Cabot called The Mediator. Think of it like a teenage version of the Ghost Whisper with a little Buffy thrown in. I immediate put the first book on a suspended hold to come in when I was done with my final papers and exams. Well, when the book finally came in, I wasn't too excited to read it anymore. I let it sit on my pile of books waiting to be read. The day before a trip to my mother-in-laws for the Christmas, I read the book since I had nothing else to do that day. I was immediately hooked and super excited to read the rest of the series. I went to work the next day with the intention of grabbing the other books in the series. Yes, you see the problem coming, don't you?

My library only had the last two books in the series. It was Sunday. We were leaving for Jersey as soon as I was done with work.

Thankfully, my mother-in-law let me borrow her Kindle and purchase the next book from her Amazon account. I discovered that I am an even faster reader on an electronic device. My husband asked if I would like one for Christmas. My answer was no since being tech savvy (and cheap!), I already investigated to discover that not all of the e-books will be available in all formats from lending programs like Overdrive. I would hate to have a kindle or nook and the book I want to download not be available for that device.

Well, my husband is a tricky sort. All week he kept asking me if I was sure I didn't want a Kindle, cause it just seemed like something I would really enjoy. Christmas day, he handed me a box with the unsure comment "I really hope you like it and use it." I thought he had gone ahead and bought the Kindle anyway. Nope, it wasn't a Kindle and it wasn't a Nook.

As a Christmas/Graduation/10th Wedding Anniversary present I had just received an iPad (Let's just say I am owing for all the upcoming gift-giving holidays). Immediately, I downloaded the Kindle, Nook, and iBooks apps. I have not tested out the Kindle app, but I have downloaded free apps for the Nook and iBooks. (*note* Nook requires a credit card be on file even for the free downloads, iBooks doesn't.) I downloaded Last of the Mohicans to both. Nook had a copy from google e-books. The formatting was awful and I could barely make my way through even the first few pages. iBooks was much, much better. It even had the original illustrations that were part of our Picturing America Grant. I am not sure where they found their copy, but I was really happy with that one.

Okay, so I like instant gratification. But I still can't justify to my cheap self buying the book when I can get it for free from the library. Oh, well, at least it still fits in my purse. Now if only I could get it to connect to the free wi-fi...

;)

Pod People

One of the best things that I took out of my Digital Media class was how to make a podcast. I learned how to use a free program called Audacity. It was easy to use once I figured out what all the little buttons were. I started my graduate school experience with a fear of microphones (this Jersey Girl's voice is loud enough not to need one). Using Audacity helped me get over my fear since I had to take so many takes to get it just right. I admit I love making Podcasts...even though I haven't done one since that class.

Listening to them is a completely different story. I have tried the Podcasts from Podcast.com, but didn't really enjoy the experience because there was so much buffering that needed to be done to get the audio to play smoothly. I am also a visual person and prefer to have an image in front of me corresponding to what is being talked about. About the only ones that I enjoy are the ones that have the most impact for libraries- Storytelling. It would be great to have a link on the library website of librarians telling stories that young patrons can click on and listen. Of course, there is a catch. These stories must be in the public domain i.e Brother's Grimm, Aesop's Fables. Sorry, but as much as we might enjoy all those new and exciting stories out there, I can't see this falling under the Fair Use/Educator Copyright Law exceptions.