aroona

Family snow day in Idaho. Sent from Google phone.

While in Nampa we were fortunate….. enough to be there for the Donkey Basketball MAF Fundraiser for Haiti.

I haven’t seen anything like it before. Only 1 donkey managed a professional foul on the gym floor. It gave the commentator my favourite line “We have poop. Poop on the floor”. Don’t hear that at basketball much.

sent from Apple iPhone

……………………no we dont have one, havent ordered one, but do we want one?  Probably, not sure yet.  It seems to be a device totally geared to consuming information. Movies, emails, friend information.  Apple’s hype and marketing department are doing a better job than Bill Gates ever did with tablet computing, seeming to focus more on how great this device will make what we do so much more of a beautiful experience.  Once the media, developers and early adopters orders are filled iPad sales will show if there is much uptake on this device for the rest of us, but I can definitely see how we as a family would use one:

Coffee table computing….

• kids jumping online to update Facebook on TV ad breaks
• quick email checks
• phone book – maps enables us to look up addresses and instantly add to contact address book
  

  Apple iPad

• LCD photo frame – scrolls through a bunch of fave photos when not in someone hands
• games – there will be some awesome games for the iPad, more space, more going on – imagine Flight Control……
• Family notepad – using Evernote family notepads sync – the iPad sits around just waiting for the next input
• Family photo album
• TV guide
• Newspaper
• Internet Radio – connect through speakers
• reading web pages
• movie player
• reading ebooks
• making Keynote presentations
• checking out the weather

Its going to make so many things we do so conveniently accessible in a great format.

But we dont have one yet………

We’re a normal family – when it comes to leaving notes for each other it’s always a mission to find a pen that works and then a piece of paper to write that message down or shopping trolley filler.  Thats why the Boogie Board got my attention.

Boogie Board LCD note pad

With a writing space about the size of a sheet of A5 paper, the Boogie Board is nice and thin and light. Made of durable plastic the board looks like it could handle being tossed around by a busy family.

What would be cool is if it could somehow be linked to my Evernote application and share the notes online to multiple devices……

Its only around $30, available from Amazon or here.