A day in the life of a teacher using Surface Pro 2

Winter Vacation is now over and it has come time for me to really find the Pro in the my Surface Pro 2! When I went to the class I logged into my chrome browser to pull up my google drive that held all of my old files. I snapped in Explorer in order to pull up schoology.com. This is a online web classroom. Excellent. I browsed around to add some last minute questions to my online test. As my students walked in I used my display to vga cable to hook my surface to the projector. I had to click on the volume to switch from vga to internal audio. I pulled up one note turned the lights off and the real magic happened!
I typed in the title for the notes as my students began to copy on their paper. I no longer had my back turned as I began to write out the notes. I was reviewing latitude and longitude coordinates so I whipped out my pen to draw out a graph.

Never mind the sloppiness it was my fault not the surface pen. I then had my students come to my computer and write out the examples on my surface. Once I got done I uploaded a pdf copy of my notes to the class website so the students can revist what they missed later. Wow , as the bell rang , I switched apps back to my chrome browser to pull up a desktop java app called Powerteacher. I used this to enter the grades, something I couldnt to smoothly on my ios and android devices. I later heard a whistle, it was my exchange email. I switched apps again to read a request for a 12 slide powerpoint by my administrator. Quickly responding to the email with an attachment, I thought to myself "I better print this email just in case she says she didnt get it." I sent the job to a networked printer using an ip address. Nice , I have some more time, I went to pearsonsuccessnet to view my class text book that is only available by hardcover or online flash. Until the next class,,
How is that for a real world teaching experience using a Microsoft Surface Pro 2 ?  GOD BLESS

New chromebooks got me ol gitty!

I am so excited about the new Chromebooks, one is the $279 HP Chromebook that will have a white macbook like casing with accent colors, that brings me back to the days when i was toting the light fun laptop. The hp 11 coolest feature is the ability to charge of usb, thats one less cord to carry. Every one who has commented on the the hp 11 has said the same thing. I love the thought of a toy like laptop that is awesome for quick blogging and reading the web. Lets be honest, that is what we mostly do. I am currently doing it right now in fact. The people that actually use the computer for much more are definitely NOT considering a computer sub $500.
The second awesome Chromebook I seen was the Haswell Acer c7! for $250!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to type the extra punctuation to punctuate my excitement. I am typing on a c7 which I purchased over the Samsung Chromebook mostly because it has a Intel chip. The Intel chip is useful when it comes to Linux because that enables me to run programs like java run time. The thing that holds the c7 back was the slow processor. It works but it was slow and still not comfortable. Geeks know what I mean when I say something works but it  is not fun. I look forward to the more powerful battery sipping chip to make Linux fun! I heard so many good things about the Chromebook pixel because it had the nice ivy bridge processor. Don't troll me, I know this haswell chip wont be an i5 level chip but I think the power should be awesome. The pixel was 1500 , I am just happy I can get a better Intel chip with a cheaper price than the arm based hp.

So for my readers who want to take care of business like regular people ie : pay bills, scroll for information, use Facebook, Google plus (wishful thinking) etc. a Chromebook is perfect. These two Chromebooks are cheaper than full size tablets and they are far more convenient when using a trackpad and keyboard to fll in forms rather using your finger and zooming in sliding your finger to fix typos haha. Watch out Apple, Microsoft , the world is chachca cha chainging!

GOD BLESS

things I heard 9/24

Iphone 5c and 5s sell over 9 million - this is the most ever I honestly dont know why but I guess people still are obsessed with the iphone the most. I feel like the outsider, I know most of the critics poo pooed this version but I got to remember I do not represent the masses as a far as features I want on a phone so maybe the rest of the world is just going on with the trend. For now the trend is still saying iphone and i guess you can say momentum has its place!

surface 2 and surface 2 pro - the new one is supposed to have a much better screen with full 1080p hd and the surface 2 has the Tegra 4 processor that should be 2x the performance. IT will also have office built in and thats including outlook. I think that will be a dream for a teacher, but I am not sure if it will allow java apps to be uploaded. The pro seems to be even more interesting because it was already an awesome design but now it has the power of the haswell chip. The chip has proven to be amazing for battery life and I'm hearing 8 hours performance, thats a full work day. It also has graphics for low level settings or basic games, and I heard that the chips run cooler to avoid sweaty thighs! I like that both also will have a deeper pitch with the kickstand that will help with balance on the lap and the keyboard is thinner which will help with portability. I love this announcement , its only 1 thing,,,,,wait for it,,,,,,,,,,,PRICE!!!!! its 459, and 899 respectively. Thats not including the keyboards ! So your looking at high end prices, admittedly I think the pro can reasonably be considered the macbook of pc's like the sleekest most attractive thing windows has to offer. I want one to be honest!

kitkat leaked images showing a flat trend - this news sickens me! I have recently seen supposedly leaked images of kit kat and the icons are looking flat and ios'sy. This seems to be a "if your friend jump off the bridge" type of trend. I hate how icons look on IOS 7 they are flat and ugly! I refuse to believe I am the only one who thinks its stupid that we make all this effort to get awesome screens only to create images that could've been made in the 90's. No depth or shadowing? wow that is as crazy as updating your camera lenses to take dusty filters for Instagram pics, oh wait,,,,,,,,,

blackberry up for sale- ok so umm I was trying to make you care but lets see. I dont know why people are all obsessed with bbm. I guess it is supposed to be cool but the blackberry people I asked didn't really give me a good reason to be excited. I know the keyboards was dope and people like the push of the emails but I dont know anything special about bbm that makes it better than imessage or hangouts, please tell me maybe I am ignorant. I see its canadian financial company that purchased them but why? I joked last month about apple or yahoo buying blackberry maybe its going to be true. I can see the phone being a good thing for people who have better ideas. Well on another thought maybe keyboards is just played..
GOD BLESS!

5 things I heard today

I don't have time to realistically keep up with a daily blog of everything so I will try to commit to a brief run down of what caught my ear and a quick quip , ironically i have time to write this explanatory intro and paragraph response haha please subscribe prayerfully video coming soon! 

1. LG coming with a 8 something inch phablet. Haha people hate that name but I think all people in tech use it because its truly I hybrid, I myself do really want 1 device to carry around , now that I been using my nexus 7 I was just thinking I wish I could do Bluetooth calls on it and just get rid of my phone. I am now thinking of google voice solutions 
2. People actually like the mega - see above why im excited 
3. Google restricting apps that change functionality - not totally sure about this story but its weird because the claim to fame and bragging rights for android is the customization, I know Google wants to shake the criticism of being unstable but stable is boring when it comes to tech! ,,,at least for geeks
4. Some instagram purchase I dont care about so lets talk about the trending affleck talk, I like Ben and according to his box office numbers so do many others (sans daredevil which is causing this in the first place). Sometimes tech gives a voice to the detriment of open mindedness - ok maybe its not that serious haha
5. Iphone processor getting stronger supposedly - duh !! but Im hearing its still going to be dual core, I know apple will be efficient and they usually get twice the performance from half the specs in my experience but cmon, most people in the smartphone market is superficial , so yes numbers matter. I know people are saying the contrary but its all about the latest and greatest so you need to get some news worthy things to talk about. I hear about the GOLD iphone which I think is a GREAT idea to the contrary of other critics becasue its a "oohh you got the new gold one" reaction millions of people are going to thirst to receive! 

That is all GOD BLESS! 

When you notice Chromebook works

So here I am laying in a bunk bed because my son is sick. He was fussy so I stayed in the room while he was falling asleep. I was naturally trying to figure out how to multi-task so I quickly grabbed my Chromebook. It was so light. I actually exclaimed that out loud to my wife because I was just using her macbook which seemed pretty heavy. I liked that it was light enough to hold in one hand as I carried my son up the steps because of course being sick took away his 2 1/2 body's ability to walk up the stairs. He kept tossing and turning so I thought to myself, I am sure glad this thing doesn't have a loud fan while using it. Who needs a loud fan when your running an browser operating system, (mind you I am using an Intel at that). I was able to quickly type up my sermon reflection for this blog without breaking a sweat. The keyboard felt so good in my hands I didn't notice how much I wrote. I was able to reshare my blog post with all of the social networks because the large screen and track pad made this task seem relatively effortless compared to trying to re post using a tablet. I felt so good I decided to type this post tonight as well due to the fact the keys feel so good its soothing to my hands as I prepare for bed. I didn't read much in terms of keyboard for this Acer C7 Chromebook but I think this may be the greatest feature of this product. 

So summing up my ah ha moment, when I noticed Chromebook works: 

• I love its portability due to lack of weight. 
• The lightweight operating system creates a quiet low powered, no fuss working environment. 
• The keyboard is phenomenal on this machine and makes me want to type all day! 
• The laptop layout with track pad help to make multiple or complex tasks easy, tablets still haven't matched the precision of a keyboard and track pad. 
• FYI I'm explaining to my wife why I haven't left the room yet now that my son is fully asleep while I'm typing this out, aka multitasking
• oh and did I mention this thing is cheap? I mean for real like I read my C7 is 129 on Acers ebay page. 

So as I wrap up this "unbiased" haha post about why Chromebook works I will sum it up like this. If you only think internet when you think computer, can deal with cloud based word processing and excel, a blogger as a hobby and maybe professionally, and love to save money. Don't spend money on a fancy macbook, or a spam packed cheap windows computer. Get a delightfully affordable Chromebook! 

My journey with Acer C7 chromebook a teachers perspective

So I purchased the chromebook last week because it was on clearance open box at best buy and I was pretty excited. I am a fan of gadgets and a big fan of google so it was a perfect combination, (a cheap google gadget!) and quickly I decided I needed to load Linux on it. I am a teacher and many of the programs we use require java run time so I was forced to add java and that meant Linux. Luckily google makes it easy of course with the help of the open source community, namely this chrUbuntu blogger!

First impressions

• its pretty light, i mean its no macbook air, but its comfortably portable
• I LOVE the keyboard! 
• the track pad sucks! 
• this thing gets hot with Linux 
• time to use blogger to talk about it! 

I pray that I am able to keep up with logging of this experience. If anyone follows me on twitter, they know I start initiatives sometimes don't finish but we will see how this goes, I am using blogger now and it seems to be quick and easy for me to maintain and I hope I can realize my dream of doing this to scale. GOD BLESS