March 24, 2009
In January I wrote an article about my iPod Touch. I would like to add some more neat information
that I have run across recently that might be beneficial to you if you own one of these gadgets.
Many of you who own an iPod Touch (or iPhone) are also familiar with the fact that you can go to the
App Store and purchase games and other applications for your iPod Touch (or iPhone). I went
through a game phase and purchased Scrabble, Yahtzee, Koi Pond, WordJong, Bowling and Fishing,
and then decided that I should really do something more constructive with my spare time, so I
checked the App Store for more choices.
The next application I purchased has opened up a whole new world for me. I went to the App Store
and purchased Kindle for the iPod Touch. You may have seen the new Kindle that enables you to
download an entire book (or books), newspapers, magazines, etc. Those who own a Kindle really like
it. You can be anywhere and download a book, because it is sent to you wirelessly. Well, they have
the same application for your iPod Touch. It turns your iPod into a Kindle. You can give it a try by
doing the following:
1. Go to the App Store and download the Kindle application to your iPod Touch.
2. When you select the AmazonKindle app that is on your iPod, it will take you to the Home
page of the application. At that point, select Get Books.
3. The next screen that pops up will direct you to Safari and the Amazon Web page
www.amazon.com/kindlestore.
4. You can start your Kindle adventure by selecting a free book to see how it works.
In the search box you can type in the title for Sherlock Holmes to see what comes up.
You should see a free book entitled "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur
Conan Doyle. Select that book and go through the process of entering your Amazon.com
password, or registering to create a password. Once you've made your first book
selection, the rest is easy.
5. Now, go to your Kindle app on the iPod Touch, click on that app and you will see your
first book magically appear. There it is "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." Every time
you finish using the book, it will automatically remember where you left off the next time
you use it.
Now, there is more! I'm not too excited about giving my credit card numbers on the Internet in order
to make a purchase. I would rather make my purchases using gift card code numbers like you do on
iTunes. In browsing around, I discovered that Coinstar machines will generate an eCertificate that
will give you a redemption code number that you can use to purchase books at Amazon.com. You
can put in a $5 bill or more and it will generate the code that you can use to purchase books for
your iPod Touch Kindle App. Wow! When you use the code to make a purchase, they keep a record
of your account. If you don't use all of the amount that is on the certificate, you can go back and use
it later or add to it. Be sure to insert $5 or more into the Coinstar machine because it will not print
you a certificate for anything under $5. Also, it charges a small fee if you put in an assortment of
change for it to count. Be sure the change amounts to over $5.
Now...where is there a Coinstar machine? I found one right at the Albertson's market on State
College and I'm sure there are more in our area. If you go to www.coinstar.com I believe they will
give you a listing of more machines in your zip code area.
Enjoy! Now you don't need to purchase a Kindle. You can turn your iPod Touch into a Kindle. It is
just as good. The screen is a little smaller than the actual Kindle, but you can use the backlit screen
to read even when you are in the dark.
Now, I can read books anywhere. You don't need Internet access to read the books, you only need it
to download the book. However, every once in a while I do stop reading and I play a little Scrabble
or Yahtzee.
***Previous article***October 6, 2008***
One of the most exciting programs that we have subscribed to recently is QuizList Interactive that
enables parents, students and teachers to search for information about the Accelerated Reader
books that are in the Zion Library. QuizList interactive offers the user many built-in search options.
You can use your computer at home and follow the steps below to get a hands-on practice session
using the program:
1. Go to the Zion Lutheran School home screen, at www.zionanaheim.org/schools.
2. Click on the words AR Search, located in the left-hand column.
3. Begin your search as follows: At the box entitled Book Level, type in From: 3.5, To: 4.0.
4. Next, select the drop down arrow to select Fiction.
5. Select the drop down arrow in the Language box to select English.
6. Now click on the check mark in the Upper Grades box in order to remove the check mark,
and leave a check mark next to Lower Grades and Middle Grades.
7. Now click on the words "Get My List" at the bottom of the page.
8. Wow, you now have your first search on the screen. It contains 273 books that match
your criteria.
9. Now, click on the line under the title: Kittens in the Kitchen. This will take you to a screen
that contains information about that book. It will give you a short synopsis of the book,
the book series, plus the page count, copyright date, publisher and ISBN number.
10. Now, click on "Return to List" at the bottom of the current page and you will return to your
previous list of 273 book titles.
11. Now, click on the author of the book, Baglio, and it will give you a list of the 27 books that
were written by Ben Baglio.
Watch for the next article in "Techno Tips & Tricks" where you can follow the steps for creating a list
of books that can be sent to your printer.
January 22, 2008
I am still in love with my iPod Touch, but I have also purchased another techno gadget that is equal
in "awesomeness" (if there is such a word). I purchased the "Flip" camcorder (also at Costco) and will
share with you some of its fantastic features.
1. It is a small camcorder...able to fit in your purse or backpack zipper pocket. It runs on batteries
so you don't have to carry a lot of accessories for it. It's about the size of a small digital camera.
2. It has wonderful software built into the camera. The first time you connect it to your computer,
the software is downloaded and you can begin using it. I'll tell you more about the software later.
3. It has a USB connector that pops out of the side of the camera so you can connect it to your
computer for easy downloads.
4. It comes with a case and the necessary cables to connect it to a TV (for viewing the movies) or to
a projector (to share the movies with a group).
5. It is very, very, easy to use. Push the red button in the middle to start recording. Press the
button again to stop recording. Use the small left/right arrows to select which movie you want to
view and press the big arrow to begin the movie you selected.
7. Back to the software: It has a wonderful package of features that will allow you to email your
video to a friend, or send someone a video e-card. The videos are Quicktime quality and attach to
your emails with ease. Before you send them, the software compresses the video so it doesn't take
up so much memory and time. It saves it in a folder on your desktop so you can find it to attach it to
your emails.
8. When you are viewing your video, you can pause your video on a "frame" that you like best and
you can grab that frame from the video and save it as a photo (.jpg).
9. It is inexpensive. I purchased mine for about $130 (including tax) at Costco.
10. It has simple editing features built in. You can cut off the beginning or the ending of a video
and re-save it to your computer as a smaller video, and then you can delete the larger one (unedited
version).
Some downsides to the "Flip."
The one I purchased is the smaller one and can only video record about 30 minutes at one time.
After 30 minutes of recording you need to save your video to your computer before you can record
another 30 minutes of video. For me...that's okay. I would not want to record a wedding or
graduation, etc., with the "Flip." It wasn't designed for that. It is more of a "short video" production
gadget. I like to record about 2 or 3 minutes of something I think that is cute... like my
grandchildren... and then I stop recording. After I have used up a lot of memory on the camera, I
select the ones I want to save to my computer.
Also...the "Flip" required a software upgrade not long after I had it. It automatically offered me the
upgrade when I connnected it to my computer. It was easy to follow the directions but the upgrade
did take about an hour and 1/2 to complete. That's okay! At least the upgrade was free and didn't
require a lot of techno knowledge, and it didn't cause my computer to freeze, etc.
The sound is not the quality that you can get with a larger camcorder with a built-in microphone.
Even though the sound is not the best, it still is a lot better than I expected from such a small device.
The sound is a lot better when you connect it to a TV or a projector and use their volume controls.
Have fun with your 'Flip" if you decide to purchase one! It has features I didn't even get to...because I
haven't tried everything yet! If you get one, be sure to email me and let me know what you think of
it
(renedrev@aol.com).
***Previous article: December 10, 2007***
If you are one of the many who own an earlier model iPod and are thinking of upgrading to the new
iPod Touch, let me give you a brief preview of how "awesome" it really is. At first, when I purchased
the iPod Touch, I wasn't aware of all its unique features.
First of all, my favorite, it has built in Wi-Fi. I can click on the Safari button on the screen and
automatically connect to the Internet. Of course, you have to be sure that you go through the Set-
up
(click Settings) and put in the necessary passwords or required numbers to connect to your wireless
connection at home or at the office. If you enter a "free" Wi-Fi zone, it will automatically alert you to
the fact and you can use the "free" wireless that is available to you by just indicating that you want to
join.
Secondly, if you are able to use the Wi-Fi at home or at the office, you can select the button "iTunes"
and it will take you to the Apple Wi-Fi iTunes Store. This store allows you to browse the music that
is available on iTunes and, if you have an iTunes account, you can immediately select "buy" and
download the current song you are previewing. The next time you sync your iPod Touch to your
computer, it will also upload that song to your main iTunes library. Wow! Right from my easy chair
the other night I was able to preview as many songs as I wanted as well as purchase about 10 songs
(99 cents each) with ease. My Christmas songs were loaded and ready for sharing.
Thirdly, if you download songs like I mentioned above and want to listen to your music in the
car, the iPod Touch connects with ease to a car adaptor. A lot of new cars have the built in
capabilities of allowing you to connect your iPod (any model) to the interior car speakers. There are
also adaptor kits available for older vehicles. It is a great feature because you can go from your
house to your car and carry all of your music right on your iPod and no longer have to carry around a
full library of CD's.
Fourthly, when you are using the photo library (awesome!) or the music library, you can flip through
the photos and music with the tip of your finger. You are actually scrolling through the list and can
stop scrolling and select an item any time you want. You have to try this feature out for yourself
because it is truly amazing to the touch.
Fifthly, when you are looking at a photo, or the cover of a music album, you can spread your fingers
across the screen to enlarge the image, or bring your fingers back together across the screen to
reduce the size of the image. Awesome! Again, you will have to give this feature a try because it will
truly amaze you. When you are on the Internet, you tap the screen (twice) and the page will enlarge.
You can rotate the entire iPod Touch and the image will rotate.
Sixthly, if you haven't had enough yet... the Video capabilities are awesome. If you have one of the
former Video iPods, you are already familiar with this feature. If you are really into Video and need a
lot of video space for video podcasts or movies you may want to be sure you get the 16 GB Touch. I
personally bought the 8 GB Touch because I have no intentions at this point of downloading movies.
I will download video podcasts, but if I want to watch a video, I will probably purchase or rent a
movie DVD and not use the space on my iPod Touch for that.
I purchased my iPod Touch at Costco. They offer a reasonable price and I believe they extend your
warranty for 2 more years under normal use conditions. You can do some comparative Christmas
shopping for yourself. Be sure to purchase a case for it, and be sure to purchase the charging
system that enables you to charge the iPod Touch without being connected to your computer. I
purchased the Composite AV Cable for $49.00 from L.A. Computer (in Anaheim) that enables me to
charge the unit as well as connect it to a T.V. for viewing the photos or podcasts on the T.V.
More tips to come next month... when I plan to tell you more about the wonderful things you can do
with your iPod.
***Previous article: January 30, 2007***
If you have PowerPoint and Kid Pix Deluxe, you can try the following little activity. The instructions
were written for a Macintosh computer, but you can use other key combinations to do the same
thing
on a PC. This activity will enable you to design a graphic in Kid Pix and bring it into your PowerPoint
slides. It is fun and it gives you the opportunity to be very creative.
First of all, open Powerpoint and select the Title Slide. You can decide which background you prefer
and you can enter the Title for the project and include any other text on your title side such as your
name, the date, or a brief description of the project.
Secondly, open Kid Pix Deluxe. We plan on using only the pencil and the paintbrush to create the
picture that will be placed on the title page of our PowerPoint presentation. After the picture is
created, it is always a good idea to save it by selecting the little disk (second icon on the right) and
save it to the Desktop so we can find it again. Do not exit out of Kid Pix, yet.
Thirdly, we are going to take a "picture" of the picture that we just created. On a Mac, you can hold
down the shift key, along with the apple key and press the number 4. This combination of keys will
give you a crosshair mouse that you can use to highlight the area that you want to "photograph."
When you use this key combination it looks as if nothing happened, but it actually photographed
your picture. To be on the safe side, also use the same key combination, only replace number 4 with
number 3. Now you will have 2 photos of your picture, but you will see that number 4 is the best
choice if it works because it doesn't photograph the frame around the picture. You can now exit out
of Kid Pix. If you look at your desktop, you should now see the icons for the pictures you just
photographed. They will probably be named Picture 1 and Picture 2 if this is the first set of pictures
on your desktop.
You can double click on the pictures and see how they turned out. You can also Save the Pictures
with new names so you can find them again. Be sure to save them with unique names so you
can tell them apart.
Now comes the fun! Simply drag the picture onto your PowerPoint. You can resize your picture by
grabbing the handles in the top left corner or bottom right corner and moving them towards the
center of the picture. In order to trim around the picture so that it doesn't take up so much room on
your slide, merely select the lasso (from your Formatting Palette, Image Section) and go around
yourpicture and use CutOut to get rid of the white edges around your picture. It's like cutting
around a photograph with a scissor. Now you can move the picture anywhere on your slide and still
have room to type some information. Note: On a Macintosh, you can access the Formatting Palette
by going up to the View drop-down menu and scroll down to select the Formatting Palette. It is a
nice handy palette of tools that can help you select fonts, sizes of fonts, backgrounds, and much
more.
If you have any problems trying out this project, please email me at renedrev@aol.com and I'd be
glad to help you out.
***Previous article: November 28, 2006***
It is hard to believe, but it is almost the first day of December and that puts the Christmas holidays
right around the corner. If you are planning a Christmas party for your children or the young adults
in your family, be sure to check out the web site Evite.com, then click on the word INVITATION. This
is a wonderful way (via the web) to electronically send party invitations. What makes the site so
much fun to use is that it will even keep track of your RSVP's for you. Those on your "invite" list are
given the opportunity to respond to your invitation. You will immediately know how many to plan
for. You can also modify the invitation to even allow the guest to volunteer to bring something to
the party. Give it a try!
***Previous article on October 9, 2006***
With the holidays approaching in October, November and December, it is always fun to try and use
MS WORD to design our own announcements, flyers, cards, and invitations. Here are some fun tips
for adding graphics or photos to your creations.
When I use MS WORD and I want to add a graphic to my page, I go up to the top menu bar and select
"Insert">Picture>From Clip Art or From File. If you request to insert your picture From File, you will
be directed by MS WORD to indicate where that file is located on your hard drive. It may be a file
folder that is full of photos that you have taken of family and friends. If you request to insert your
picture From Clip Art, you will find yourself in the clip art gallery of WORD.
Both of the above mentioned choices work great, but what if you can't find a graphic that applies to
the holiday and you want more to choose from. Try doing the following: Select
"Insert">Picture>From Clip Art>then select OnLine. The OnLine link will take you to the Microsoft
Office Clip Art and Media Home Page. Wow! Now you can browse clip art and media categories and
come up with the clip art that you are looking for. Let's say that you type in the word "Halloween."
You will be offered 66 pages of clip art, from bats and black cats to pumpkins and scarecrows. When
you find the one you like, you can click on the graphic (Control-click on a Mac, or use the right-
click
on your mouse on a PC) to copy the graphic to your desktop. From the desktop you can drag
the .jpg picture into your MS WORD document. Now you can resize the graphic by dragging the
"handles" in the corners of your graphic to make your graphic smaller or larger. If you double-click
on the graphic, or go up to the top menu bar and select Format>Picture..., you can go on to select
Layout>Tight. This choice of Layout will permit you to move your graphic around on the page and
even type words to the left or the right of the graphic. Layout provides a lot of options for working
with your graphic to position it on the page the way you want.
Have fun over the holidays learning how to create great looking announcements, flyers, cards and
invitations! Using a computer and the right tools can make you look like a professional graphics
artist.
If you have some ideas that you would like to share with others, please email me and let me know
some of your favorite techno tips and tricks. Email me at renedrev@aol.com.
***Previous article on September 11, 2006***
You may have heard someone use the term "Bluetooth" and were wondering what that word meant.
In the computer lab we use "bluetooth" technology to allow our palm pilots to "speak" wirelessly to
our iMac G5. We can send a document wirelessly to the G5 and then print it to a networked printer.
According to the book, "Mac OS X Secrets" by Levisay, "Bluetooth is a low-speed (roughly one
megabit a second) wireless protocol that works across short distances, typically a couple dozen feet."
"It is named after the tenth-century king of Denmark, Harald Blatand, known to the English-
speaking
world as Harald Bluetooth. Harald united all of Denmark and Norway into a single kingdom, which,
after his death in 985, his son Sweyn expanded to include parts of Sweden and England. The
Bluetooth protocol was developed by a consortium of companies, chief among them the
Scandinavian
companies, Ericson and Nokia, who gave the protocol its name in recognition of their hopes that
Bluetooth would unite the computer and mobile communication industry much as King Harald did
for
Scandinavia."
Previous August article:
It's that time of the year when you want to clean your computers and get
them ready for a new school year. Some cleaning tips are as follows:
• Use a foam glass cleaner. Liquid glass cleaners can run down the
screen of your monitor and cause damage.
• Use a clean, soft paint brush to brush the dust off your keyboard and
off the areas of your computer that collect dust.
• Use spray cans of air to blow dust and crumbs out of your keyboard
and out of some of the vents in the back of your computer. You can use
the spray can on your printer as well.
• Use a cleaner such as Advanage on the bottom and top of your mouse
and along the cords of the mouse and keyboard. It can also be used to
clean some of the dirty keys on your keyboard. Spray the cleaner on the
rag first and then apply it to the mouse or keyboard. You should never
spray directly on the equipment.
• Preventive maintenance: Keep your computer and your printer covered
with a soft cloth. Dust can do damage to your equipment. A cover on a
printer also prevents small items such as paperclips from dropping into
the paper feed. An old soft terri towel would do the trick! It seems like
cloth is better than plastic because it allows the equipment to "breathe."
Have fun cleaning!
