iPad Basics

Pages vs Microsoft Word

After getting to know Pages, I found out that it's so similar to Microsoft Word. They share a lot in common as follow:
1. They are able to create, edit and save documents.
2. They can insert images, charts.
3. They can share and print documents.

Although Pages and Microsoft Word are similar, they are not the same.Pages enables you to create stylish documents. It makes inserting images so easily. Simply cropping and dragging the images inside the document to edit them.Inserting chart is convenient with Pages too. You can simply change the data and make it yours. From my experience with Microsoft Word,after I inserted images, I had to change the images'format in the setting before dragging to the position that I wanted.It makes it a hassle when I once inserted more than ten photos into Word, I was changing format one photo after another.For this aspect, Pages stands out. Pages can be automatically saved but Microsoft Word needs to save documents manually.

Pages in iPad is such a great invention because with Pages, Numbers and Keynote, iPad can simply replace computer or even surpass it. iPad creates a innovative experience when creating and editing documents because of touch screen function.iPad is so portable and light that people can work and study everywhere.However without an external keyboard and pointing device-mouse,creating and editing documents on iPad can be so slow. It's difficult to review the document with limited screen space. Microsoft Word has excellent review features while iPad does not.

Box.net

I am surprised to receive 10 GB for free by simply signing up a personal account on Box.net.Box serves as online flash drive. You can upload and download files and folders. It's your storage drive wherever you go as long as you have access to the Internet and you don't need to worry about losing it.If you are familiar with gmail, you will know that you will have to upload file by file. But with Box, folders will be straightly uploaded.

I also found out that Box provides note, Google Docs, Spreadsheet, New Word Document, New PowerPoint Document and Excel for you to create new files. It is such a convenient online "office". You can edit, delete and print out the files or folders you have storage there.Email and sharing are available too.

Since it's a webpage storage, you don't have to transfer documents from device to device. You just need to log in your account so that you have access to everything in there.

iThoughts

It's interesting to get to know the app "iThoughts" on iPad. Basically, iThoughts serves as mind mapping.Its functions are powerful that it's a great platform for brainstorming to organize your mind and present your thoughts clearly to others. iThoughts is not as difficult to master as I thought. Starting a map is easy because iThoughts provides blank canvas with a title of the map in the center bubble. Each items can be configured in many ways such as the shape of the bubble, icons, colors, start and due dates.The touch interface makes it so easy to create a mind map on iPad by dragging, scrolling and clicking it.

As useful as it is, I want to take advantage of it and use it to take notes and help me clear my mind before writing an article or essay. Knowing how to take notes is important in classroom. I used to write notes on my notebook.But when I need to relate some concepts to the note that I wrote earlier, I had to distort the note format that it can't be nice and neat anymore. With iThoughts, I can add as many notes as I want later on by inserting bubbles into the mind map and still keep it well organized. By brainstorming on the map before writing an article,I can quickly capture thoughts and ideas to form the article. Being able to read my mind and the connection of all my thoughts clearly helps tremendously with my writing. After the mind map is finished, I can save it forever for future use or share it with others.

Safari vs Rover

Safari and Rover share many similarities as browser.
1. They are both meant for iPad, Mac and iPhone browsers.
2. They both have history, favorites functions that you can easily find the webpages you have searched in the past and retrieve the ones that you have saved in the favorites.
3. You can scroll up and down, left and right on both browser when you go through webpages.
4. They are considered safe browser that they prevent other websites from tracking the current one that you are browsing.

But at the same time, they are different in some aspects:
1. Safari doesn't support flash while Rover does.
2. Safari is a normal webpage browser but Rover is meant for education that it offers educational apps and flash contents or resources and for teachers and students such as Discovery Education.
3. Rover is safer online environment than Safari. Rover is good for the younger users-children because it filters inappropriate webpages for them.
4. Safari saves gigabytes and browses faster than Rover. Rover constantly runs lots of gigabytes  when even browsing websites, let alone browsing flash videos.

According to my findings, I prefer to use Safari personally because it's fast.When searching endless information on the Internet, browser loading and responding fast is a big deal. Even though there are great educational resources on Rover and it's a secure browser, its weaknesses of being slow and running too many gigabytes can not outweigh its strengths.