iPad2
So I broke down today and ordered an iPad2. It was pretty hard to resist- due to special teacher discounts it will only cost me $200.00. The iPads are being sold through a special teacher reward catalogue from Scholastic Canada, an educational book company that sends flyers to students every month to order books. Their gimmick, to get teachers to pass out the flyers and send back the student orders, is that they give the classroom teacher a percentage of the book money the students bring in back as bonus coupons, which can be spent on any product that Scholastic sells. The very first digital camera I ever bought was free with bonus coupons I had saved from Scholastic about eight years back.
Over the last 4-5 years I had built up $500.00 in bonus coupons and it did perk up my attention last September when I noticed that one of the items in this year's teacher bonus catalogue was an iPad2. I didn't really feel I needed one, though, at that time. I was more interested in an e-reader last fall and a Kindle suited my purposes better.
What probably tipped the balance for me was watching Tom Jeffers using Phil Mills songbook app on his iPad at FKO several weeks back. Not only was he able to store all his music in one handy device, but I thought it was especially cool that Phil's app allows the music to scroll, which would be very handy for a guitarist, not having to flip pages and all.
So it got me thinking about iPads again and the $500.00 I had in Scholastic bonus coupons. And THEN Jodi got a hand-me-down iPad from someone who had just upgraded their iPad, so I've seen both Debbie and Jodi using their iPads as "music binders" as we've been practising for ConCertino over the last few weeks and it does seem a very cool use for a tablet.
I had been wavering between buying one now or waiting until September when Scholastic might upgrade to an iPad3 or I could gather up more bonus coupons early in the school year (bonus coupons are really high in the fall when Scholastic is trying to lure teachers in for the year). But in the long run it makes more sense for me to have it now so that I'll have my summer holidays to figure out how to load my music into it and use Phil's app, etc.. Seems a lot of teachers have the same idea- the Scholastic woman on the phone today said the iPads are flying off their shelves right now as teachers cash in their coupons to buy them before summer.
She also assured me my iPad2 will arrive at school before the end of June, so I should have it when I go to Boston for ConCertino, though I rather doubt I'll have a chance to load my music in by then :).
But it will be a fun summer project.
Over the last 4-5 years I had built up $500.00 in bonus coupons and it did perk up my attention last September when I noticed that one of the items in this year's teacher bonus catalogue was an iPad2. I didn't really feel I needed one, though, at that time. I was more interested in an e-reader last fall and a Kindle suited my purposes better.
What probably tipped the balance for me was watching Tom Jeffers using Phil Mills songbook app on his iPad at FKO several weeks back. Not only was he able to store all his music in one handy device, but I thought it was especially cool that Phil's app allows the music to scroll, which would be very handy for a guitarist, not having to flip pages and all.
So it got me thinking about iPads again and the $500.00 I had in Scholastic bonus coupons. And THEN Jodi got a hand-me-down iPad from someone who had just upgraded their iPad, so I've seen both Debbie and Jodi using their iPads as "music binders" as we've been practising for ConCertino over the last few weeks and it does seem a very cool use for a tablet.
I had been wavering between buying one now or waiting until September when Scholastic might upgrade to an iPad3 or I could gather up more bonus coupons early in the school year (bonus coupons are really high in the fall when Scholastic is trying to lure teachers in for the year). But in the long run it makes more sense for me to have it now so that I'll have my summer holidays to figure out how to load my music into it and use Phil's app, etc.. Seems a lot of teachers have the same idea- the Scholastic woman on the phone today said the iPads are flying off their shelves right now as teachers cash in their coupons to buy them before summer.
She also assured me my iPad2 will arrive at school before the end of June, so I should have it when I go to Boston for ConCertino, though I rather doubt I'll have a chance to load my music in by then :).
But it will be a fun summer project.