Some of you are thinking about holiday gift ideas right now. My first recommendation is to buy local if possible, and to consider some handmade gift items. Here are a couple of my favorites:
- Mountain Spirit Flutes – Handmade Native American Indian art items, such as Flutes, craved Shell Necklaces, and craved Gourds. Art by Daniel Bigay.
- Thoseshoes – Handmade shoes, purses, and chaps. Awesome and colorful work. Artwork by Mik Wright.
- With the Spirit of the Horse – Handmade horse hair jewelry by Barbara Volk.
- Back to Earth Products – Handmade soaps, salves, and lotions by Bobbi Rae Moose.
- Two Suns Bronze – Amazing bronzes sculptures by Ray Moose.
But this is a computer learning blog, so some of you may be looking for a technical gift for that special someone or for yourself. If your budget is $200.00 or less, you may want to consider the Echo Smartpen. It is great for work and personal use. I have one and I just love it. I use it for note taking, writing letters and then emailing them, for drawing, and creating wireframes for new website designs I’m creating. This works just like a regular pen or pencil and I’m very happy with mine.
If you have a larger budget, you may want to consider an IPad 2. I love mine (I bought it on time and just paid it off). I had wanted something I could use for reading ebooks on and I came close to getting a Kindle and I’m sure I would have been very happy with a Kindle, but the IPad offers so much more than just reading ebooks and it is so convenient.
I use it for reading ebooks, email, surfing the internet (I love the Dolphin browser and its gestures features), the tons of Apps (I love my Starwalk App – it shows me the star constellations real time for my sky) you can download and use, music, videos, and many more tasks.
I have been a Windows users for 25 years and I love windows and I still use it extensively and it is how I make my living, but I have to say that I love the IPad and I find that I’m read more with it, because it is so convenient for me and I’m not lugging around a bunch of books with all my other stuff. I’m on the go a lot, and it is much easier dragging out my IPad at meetings than it is to drag out my laptop for note taking or a quick demo of websites.
The hardest thing for me was not having a mouse and a real keyboard. The IPad comes with a virtual keyboard and I’m learning to use it, but I love the tactical feel of a keyboard. You can purchase an external keyboard for the IPad, and maybe I will down the road, but for now I want to learn to use it as is.
I did recently purchase a Bamboo stylus for it. I use if for some of my drawings and note taking. It is quicker and easier for me to use than using my fingers for drawings and for certain note taking that I’m doing.
I would highly recommend a smart cover for the IPad. This will help to protect the display and it can be used to stand up your IPad.
The other thing I would mention, it is a good idea to purchase a microfiber cleaning cloth – one that is lint free and soft (click here for Apple’s recommendation). This will keep your display clean and free of oily finger prints. The IPad display quickly gets covered with finger prints and can make it harder to view. A stylus will help to reduce oily finger prints on the display, but I find it is quicker to use my fingers for a lot of task, so keep your cleaning cloth close.
If you or someone you know purchases an IPad, let us know what you think about it.
Enjoy!
