TECH Performance Record - iPad Basics

1. Of the 3 iWorks Applications I chose to take a look at Numbers.
Similarities:

• Main Functions - adding cells, assigning formulas to cells, changing cells
• Graphs and charts can be added to both.
• In the end the two spreadsheets would look basically the same and would have the same results. 

Differences:

• Inputting information & overall function seems to go a bit smoother with Numbers.  
• Numbers seems to be a bit less visually cluttered than Excel. 

iPad's influence: The use of touch screen severely benefits the use of Numbers. Instead of having to point & click and add information, the functions are literally at your fingertip.

3. iBooks vs. Kindle Apps
Similarities:

• Cloud feature
• Many similar features: Bookcase, zooming, reading, bookmarking
  
• General Usage - If you were familiar with one, navigation on the other should not be difficult. 

Differences:

•  The Collections on the iBooks App - I like this feature in that you could easily sort the iBooks by subject, age group, or user in different collections.
• Sample must be downloaded on iBooks. Kindle provides a look inside the cover in addition to downloading a sample.

 Preference: My preference would lie with Kindle simply because I own an Android phone and a Windows laptop & tablet, which do not lend themselves to downloading iBooks. However, if given the option to download either, I may prefer iBooks for it's Collections and books with more features, because of these features, iBooks would probably be better for a school setting, especially if they had iPads.

4. Safari vs. Rover
Similarities:

• Cloud capabilities
• General functions: searching, web browsing

Differences:

• Use of Flash & Java, Rover allows the use of Flash whereas Safari is not capable
• Rover is specifically designed to be used in Education, and has safe browsing features

Preference: I particularly liked the "Reader" & "Reading List" options on Safari and could see them being useful in a school setting. Rover, however, because all searches go through it, uses a lot of data, which can be quite costly. I would suggest using Chrome, as shown in the video, if at all possible.