Truth is Still Truth

Using a Tablet in my Precepts class instead of a notebook has been a pleasant experience.

My setup:

Nesus 7 w/ Logos, Docs to Go, and AirDroid
(cellphone) Samsung Galaxy S2 w/ CamScanner and AirDroid
Bluetooth Mouse (Logitech)
Bluetooth Keyboard - full sized (Motorola)

Biggest disappointment I have right now is that while you CAN create Notes in Logos for Android, you can't edit them after they are created (from Android). Similarly, you can do Markups, but they don't show up right away, and creating them tends to crash Logos. Instead, I open a Word compatible document and edit it with Docs to Go. (Any good text editor should work though.) I can open Logos, then switch back and forth between them, even doing word searches and copying Hebrew script in the Word file. (Yes, copy and paste works!) Fortunately, Jelly Bean has a button that shows the last few open programs, so it is like doing and ALT-TAB in windows more or less. I can view my Markups and Notes I made on my PC previously, do searches, and keep notes from the class in the Word file.

I use my cell as a hotspot via bluetooth tethering as needed. Also, I use it to take photos of the whiteboard whenever there is a drawing. (I have to to find a GREAT drawing program for Android. I see lots of good editors, but nothing stands out for freehand creations.) CamScanner is a great app that lets you take a picture, crop, un-foreshorten, resize, and enhanced an image from something like a whiteboard and convert it to a readable PDF. (I hate taking pictures with tablets, but you could do it from one as long as it has a camera.)

It's been a busy summer for me! I've recently moved back to my hometown in Hot Springs, Arkansas, from Demorest, Georgia, and finally got settled back in and just kicked off fall semester in seminary last week.

Sorry I've been yet again unresponsive on the blog, but I'll have to say the last few months have been a major learning experience during the move!

With that said, here's a little predicament I'm in, but might actually turn out to be a fun new adventure for my blog posts. First of all, I'm really wishing to blog at least once a week or every other week. It's something I enjoy doing, and I love blogging and sharing information with you.

However, typing up long blog entries on a regular basis is time consuming, and really more time consuming than what I have time for.

So I'm wanting to come up with a better solution. I'd like to get your thoughts on it.

I'm considering starting a weekly or every other week "video blog" right here. It'll feature all the same content I'm wanting to put into written form, but in a more interactive, visual way. It's also much less time consuming for me to shoot and upload a video each week or every other week than it is to type out a blog entry in written format.

What I would be doing is each week or even every other week, from my office, shoot the video and upload it either to YouTube or Vimeo (I can talk with Tom and see what the best format would be), then embed the video in a blog post here so it shows up on the blog and in the searchable index.

It's a way that'll allow me to continue to share great content with you often, allow me to reduce the time in sharing the information with you, and be more visual and interactive along the way.

I am very excited! I recently upgraded my phone to the Epic Touch 4g (Samsung Galaxy II) and my tablet to an Asus (Google) Nexus 7, just in time for Notes and Markup support for the Android version of Logos.

I have been using Libronix (Logos 3) on my Netbook in my Precept classes because the number of Markups I have makes Logos 4 too slow on a low end system. I like the Netbook because of the battery life and the size. So the idea I could switch to a tablet (and a bluetooth keyboard) and start using Logos 4 full time is very appealing.

Warning: Markups and Notes are still in Beta. So far at least, you need an active internet connection for these features, and if you use as many Notes and Markups as me, it is kinda slow to pull up everything... I really recommend you turn off Notes under Settings on a phone.

Testing continues....