Thing 4. Zite!

Absolutely hooked, immediately.  I used to use RSS feeds when blogs first became popular, but got out of the habit and let them slide off my radar.  This zite account is neat because you don't have to request a specific website, you can just add a subject heading and it finds the articles for you.  It's a bit like browsing the library stacks for that next great read.  I like the icons and scrolling format.  Gonna waste a lot of time "staying informed" on this one! :)

Thing 3 - google search, QR codes

I am experimenting with the google search app because I already have other google accts.  I like the idea of having all those google features available in one place.  Google search works a little more slowly than safari, though, and there seems to be an extra screen step involved when doing searches, which slows things down even more.  Not sure I'll keep putting up with that.  My biggest question is to wonder of this is supposed to be a google chrome experience or is it a totally different google search engine?

The voice-activated search feature is kind of fun, but not really necessary for me.  Maybe if I had an iphone and therefore was truly more mobile, I might be inclined to use it more often.  I'll keep google search for awhile and keep testing it.

The QR code reader was not in the app store when I looked for it.  I tried a few of the other QR readers  available for free, but wasn't really excited by them.  Since I hate to shop and don't use coupons, I don't have as much use for a QR reader in my personal life.

As a librarian, I thought that creating QR codes might be a fun way to set up a teen scavenger hunt, but the free apps I looked at didn't offer a make-it feature; they were only readers. Plus, I'm wondering if QR codes are still as popular as they were when they first came out.  Has this fad faded already?

Thing 2, OR Why I rarely mess with the Control Panel

NStarting off this program with asking us to familiarize ourselves with the options available in our operating systems is a very sensible, logical first step.  I get it.  Make sure everyone has the basics before moving forward.  But it sure isn't a recipe for excitement.  I am not new to my ipad2 and have changed up settings as needed when I wanted to do something specific.  I figure the rest of the options will be there when I need them (and if I never discover them, I probably never needed them in the first place).

But the assignment was to learn more about my ipad2's OS 7.0.4.  Fine.  So I spent some extra time with it last weekend.  Played around on the General tab, learning about Restrictions- 

"Well, look at that!  You can lock this thing down all kinds of ways if you're a parent whose child is using the device...  interesting... you can censor the content before it's even downloaded for books, websites, movies, tv shows.  Huh..."

I'm flipping switches back and forth, turning options on, then changing my mind and turning things off again, just tooling around.  When I realize how much time I'm wasting and head back to my home screen, I discover that all my apps have been blasted out of their folders and now sit singly on multiple screens.  Worse, the docking bar at the screen bottom no longer has five apps in it - it only has three.  Safari has totally disappeared, can't find it anywhere.

Gah!

Took me another 1/2 hour (at least) to put it all back to rights and find the internet again.  And another 3 days before I could bring myself to write up this blog.  Who says we can accomplish each Thing in one hour?!

(I am never messing with that Control Panel again.)

Several days later... GAH!!!! Just sat down to start working on Thing 3, only to realize that my APP STORE app is missing, too!  Honestly, I'm not tech illiterate.  I know how to use this thing.  But of all apps to take a hike, how do I get this one back???

another several later days... the short answer to fixing this missing app store problem is to never mess with the Restrictions settings on your device. Period.

Thing 1.5

I'm stuck here at the beginning because I really don't care much for typing lots of text on my ipad.  If I were more of a geek, I'd buy a keyboard to hook this into, but I'm too cheap.  Because this is supposed to be an exercise in using my "mobile" device, I've had to wrestle with myself over how strictly I want to adhere to that premise.

So it's probably safe to predict that any of the longer posts you may read from me going forward will have been composed on my desktop, using the full blogger website.  There's more options on the full site for adding extra features so it will be interesting to toggle between the two.