What should an amateur astronomer do during cloudy weather?
There is plenty of normal things one can do. I've been doing a bit of shopping trying to knock off some common things and necessities on the todo list. Picking up items that have nothing to do with astronomy.
Astronomers at least the ones o know are into gadgets. I'm probably one of the more gadget addicted in the group of astronomers I know. It can be a big temptation to want to go out and purchase the latest and greatest toys.
I had a non astronomy toy shopping splurge this summer that pretty much tapped out my discretionary budget for this year. This involved a trip.
We can still dream and decide if something will be in the future gadget box. There are so many tools, it's probably better to try to use the toolset and gadgets you already have than go off on some materialism purchase kick.
But along the lines of looking at cool stuff I had to check out the latest iPad mini. I have a first generation iPad 3G that I bought the first day they were out. It only has 16gigs. I've thought at times it would be nicer to have a newer one for a few extra features but these are kind of esoteric. For example the iPad 2 and iPad 3 have cameras on them. That's one advantage over the first generation for blogging photos on the Internet, a quick blogpress post to this blog for example.
Blog press is newer now and requires an update for my iPhone. I can't blogpress from my older os phone right now so I only blog from the iPad or computer. I can blog using safari but what fun is that? I end up blogging from my iPad and email a photo to it from my phone if I'm using an iPhone photo. I can still post jpg images from the canon EOS easily but iPhone posts are slower.
It would be nice to have a camera, but that isn't enough reason to buy a new iPad, at least not for me.
The newer iPad os has Siri which has speech to text. One of the members in our club bought a new iPad and uses it for all his email typing now. He has to speak a little slower and clear when typing, but it works and he has less wear and tear on typing. That would be a nice feature and another reason for a newer iPad. The first generation iPad doesn't have Siri speech to text for emails, etc.
Then we have the VGA mirror mode in the iPad 2 and newer iPads. This is a big deal for large presentations. I'd love to have the ability to present iPad demos on a large projector from time to time or even to record the VGA mirror output for video using a special adapter that can record VGA into Macintosh video. That would be nice the VGA for presentation would only be used a few times a year. So should I update for only a few isolated presentations that may never happen? That's difficult to justify.
Lastly there is my mom who could borrow this newer iPad and use it for her own use from time to time, perhaps watching movies. My mom can't get out and about much due to health reasons. So she sits most of the time and has to do whatever she can from a seated position. It's health related. She has an iPhone 4 I got her, it's pretty cool but sometimes frustrates her. They don't make advanced turned off features in a layered os for the iPhone for seniors. They should but they don't. The iPhone is basically 85 percent computer as far as a replacement. For users who don't program it's closer to 95 percent of what one needs, but it's complicated at times.
One of the things she does from time to time is watch movies or Netflix on her iPhone. It's a small screen. I offered to let her use the iPad, but it's to heavy for her. She has to many other things in her lap and area of her place to have room for a large iPad. A large device on her lap would be a strain and there really is no room for a table.
What about a 7 inch tablet? I've thought of these but I figure the features she is used to on the iPad would be enough confusion for her, why add another os like android to her life? It would be another thing to learn and then I'd have to learn and do android support as well.
If I got her or loaned an iPad mini to her she could view Netflix and movies the way she would now on an iPhone, but she would have a later screen and it might be easier for her to type using voice to speech of Siri. This last feature might not work to well for her. Shed be able to see bigger items and surf better. It would work better for Facebook as well. I could borrow it perhaps for those rare needs an occasional presentation and most of the time it could be used by her. She doesn't need 3G for her iPad, and I probably don't need 3G for it during presentations of astronomy software.
So those are some thoughts. But one can always work themselves up into a buying frenzy when you look at new gadgets.
I decided to head out late today to an apple store at a mall. The one in Ann Arbor is a favorite visit of mine. I went in and looked at the iPad mini's on display. I took a photo of some others at the store and blurred out there faces to protect their identities for this post. I emailed the photo to my email and now I can post it here from my iPad.
Most of the people at the store were interested in the mini but others were there for other items.
They only had 64gig mini's in stock for $549 or something like that, I forgot the exact price, but it's in that official ballpark price. It matched the website. Anyway the almost $600 price tag was a little bit above the base $350 price that might be adequate for a niche iPad. A 32 gig might be a good compromise, but they didn't have those in stock.
It's probably a good thing I can think about it for a while. There is no need to rush. It was funny to see the typical iPad customer, really everyone is a typical customer now. One guy not pictured was there with his first gen iPad just like me, looking at the new mini. I thing some who decided to not upgrade to others from their first generation may upgrade to the mini.
The screen is big enough for personal movie watching and big enough to be much more usable than the iPhone. It's size and weight are really nice and the lightness makes it much better for handheld. For a personal device that you might use alone or with one other person the 8 inch screen is big enough. Thinking about it most may use the iPad as a personal decide most of the time. A small group device the 10 inch iPad works only well with a few people, it's not like it's big enough for six or seven to enjoy as a larger presentation device. So to me the iPad 10 inch is optimized for one two or three people, the iPad mini is for one or maybe two to share and view briefly. The iPad 2 is more convenient. Be sue of this I think some iPad owners may be kind of torn between devices.
I currently own and take a laptop with me a lot more than I need to. The iPad becomes my extra haul device. The iPad is always with me, like a preacher carrying a bible. As a matter of fact you can carry dozens of books so the iPad really can replace your laptop, and your bible or other bookshelf. I don't have to carry a star chart, or moon globe or any of these items as I have an iPad with me.
So the iPad really dispenses of the need for a laptop most of the time. And the iPad mini will even work better for most.
Some of us cheapskates who are older and need a new prescription for reading glasses may find the 10 inch better because of the larger display but it's really probably good enough for many users and will probably supplant the iPad for some users. They may pass the ten inch tablet to others and pick up a mini.
One you are used to the iOS and it's apps you will likely want to stick to the same os. With the new small 7.9 inch iPad mini, you don't have to wait to get an even more portable and affordable high use device.
I think apple came up with another winner.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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