First iPad assignment – WordPress is flawed

Now that I’ve officially completed my first reporter assignment with my ipad, I can fully express each aspect of the ordeal.

Originally, I had very little complications. I was able to use the Internet for research, Evernote to take notes, and Pages to type up some of my article. I was especially pleased with how easy to use Pages was. It took me awhile to get used to typing on an iPad, but I had it down after a few paragraphs. I was also pleased when it came time for me to take a picture for my story.The iPad takes high quality pictures and allows me a number of way to instantly share my pictures. I had problems with finding a perfect picture, but obviously I don’t blame that on the iPad.

My only real problem came when I had it all typed out and tried to post it on WordPress. In my opinion the WordPress app has a terrible arranged user interface, there were numerous bugs scattered throughout the app, and adding my picture into the article was a nightmare. I couldn’t find anyway to preview my post on the app. The app is good for maybe a small quick fix blog post, but anything serious should be done on a laptop or desktop. The argument could be made that I could have just went online to the website from my iPad, but at that point I might as well pull out my laptop.

While the iPad is useful for note taking, picture and video taking, recording audio, and maybe typing out a bit of the article, I don’t ever see myself solely using an iPad for a story. It’s a good device to compliment a laptop.

Ironically enough, my laptop died halfway through this blog post and I had to finish it on my iPad in the WordPress app. Thank you Karma.

RPAC Outdoor Basketball and Volleyball Courts Update

The Department of Recreational Sports added two new outdoor basketball courts and two sand volleyball courts by the RPAC in spring-summer 2012.

These courts were built to replace the two outdoor basketball courts that were demolished on Cannon Drive. The university had to dig up the area to upgrade the campus steam and condensation system.

June was the initial estimated time of completion when the project started. Dave DeAngelo, the department’s senior associate director of facilities, said the project was not completed on time.

“The project was originally supposed to be done in June, but this was a small part of a much bigger steam tunnel replacement project,” said DeAngelo. “We had to contend with a lot of bad weather.”

The project is still not totally completed. There have been a few minor problems during the construction according to DeAngelo.

“We haven’t had any major problems,” said DeAngelo. “We have had a few items that we refer to as ‘punch list’ items. The biggest one is that the height on the basketball hoops needs to be adjusted about 2 inches.”

According to the Department of Recreational Sports, the expected cost of the courts was around $320,000. The completed project cost is currently unknown.

“Hard to say right now, but about $400,000,” said DeAngelo. “As I stated earlier, this is part of a much bigger project and many of the costs are intertwined. Probably won’t know the total for at least a few months.”

When asked about feedback of the courts, DeAngelo said he has heard positive news.

“Everything has been positive so far from the students I have talked with who are playing out there.”

Since the project was not completed until this semester, this is the first opportunity most students have had to use the courts.

Daniel Keuchel, a first-year in biology said he’s used both courts but he’s not really happy with the basketball courts being there. “I mean the RPAC is right there for basketball, whereas you have to go all the way to North campus to get to other sand volleyball courts,” said Keuchel. “They should have made four sand volleyball courts.”

The word of the day is “struggle”

Oh what problems I have been having. I started off with an idea that ended up being a conflict of interest. I don’t want to talk too much about that, but then my next story idea was about the volleyball courts and basketball courts outside the RPAC being built. It’s more of a follow up article to a previous story that was written for The Lantern back before construction started. Now that they’re completed I went over there to take some pictures with my iPad. I was really hoping that I could get photos and videos of people playing on them, but both evenings I went over they were completely empty. I was very confused because based on the student voice interviews I acquired the courts are pretty popular. I will have to keep going over and trying to find people playing on them.

My next issue was that I tried to contact the man who was interviewed in the original article for The Lantern but he was not responding to any of my emails or when I called him and left a voicemail. I ended up just taking some information that he gave the lantern reporter and throwing it in my article. I added that he was the one who said the information and that he gave it to The Lantern back in march.

I will continue to try and contact him and add his interview into my story once I have a quote.

One week with the iPad

Well, it’s been a week since I received the iPad. I’ve completed a lot of work using it, but mostly my prediction of my candy crush usage was correct. It has sky rocketed. Along with my candy crush usage increasing I believe my productivity has also increased. I use the iPad for pretty much everything now. Instead of taking 3 separate notebooks to my classes I simply grab my iPad. I was a little hesitant at first because I wasn’t sure I would use it for all that much. Social networking has also become a lot easier since I started using the iPad. I use not just twitter and Facebook, but Hootsuite as well. I can look at multiple twitter streams and Facebook feeds all on the same page using it. I also use the iPad to post on this blog and my sports blog I started using blogger.

Unfortunately, I haven’t done a lot of reporting with it yet. I recorded a couple quotes people gave for one of my stories I wrote for The Lantern, but that’s about it. I’m excited to start using it to record things and take pictures.

I kind of scoffed at the idea of an iPad before I got one. I was never really impressed. Now I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go back to my primitive life without one. I will definitely be buying one once this semester is over and I have to give it back.

3 stories

NFL settles on concussion lawsuit and pays out $765 million to 4,500 plaintiffs.

A man in Kentucky kills his wife who was suffering from terminal breast cancer. He called and confessed immediately afterwards.

landon Donovan made the us world cup team again even after missing the past 10 qualifying matches.

 

Start of Comm 2221

My initial thoughts on this class are pretty positive. I’m feeling a little in over my head in my other classes, but I believe this one will help ground me. My only real problem is that the iPad we receive in this class will only provide another outlet for me to play “Candy Crush.” Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with this, but I really need to be productive this semester. I believe the iPad will help out in this class as well as my other classes.

I intend on making my blog posts longer than this, but I accidentally left my laptop charger at my friends apartment and my laptop is about to die. So this is going to have to be it. Farewell until next time.