iOS App Review: Passenger's Dashboard

This app appears to be originally conceived for the passenger/navigator in a car while on the road. However, it seemed like an ideal app to use with an iPhone or iPad (despite being created specifically for the iPhone) for a child or adult that might have visual/spacial deficits or require orientation to an unfamiliar environment.

The app provides basic information such as speed using an animated speedometer similar to that of a car, displaying speed in real time. Additionally, there is an odometer that tracks distance driven. More advanced information available is average speed, maximum speed (don't complain if your passengers catch you speeding), longitude, latitude and altitude. Also, there's a compass and Google map that can track where you've been and can be zoomed in and out to see outlying areas.

It really doesn't provide anything you can't get from any GPS app, the only difference being that it's presented in an interesting format that might appeal to all ages and might actually keep the kids quiet in the back of the minivan. That is, as long as they're not fighting for the iphone/ipad. My suggestion then is to pick up an inexpensive iPad clone, (see earlier post).

HP TouchPad First Impressions

 

I wasn't one of the lucky few who were able to pick up one for $99, but I was able to acquire an HP TouchPad 16 GB with Wi-Fi for a bit more on eBay this week. I received the optional wireless keyboard and case/stand from Amazon this afternoon and now sit down to write this initial impression of the red-headed stepchild of the computer world. In case you've been hiding under a rock for the past month, or just didn't care, allow me to inform you of the latest bargain for those of you considering a tablet computer. 

 

Earlier this summer Hewlett Packard released it's own version of a tablet computer using it's own proprietary operating system, HP webOS, instead of opting to use Google's Android or a version of Microsoft Windows. The retail price of the base 16GB model opened at $499 which just happened to be the same price as the similarly equipped Apple iPad2 Wi-Fi. However, the recently deposed CEO of HP decided mere weeks into the TouchPad's release that it could not compete with the other tablets on the market and announced it's discontinuation of the product. So began the fire sale as HP slashed prices to $99 for the base model and $149 for the 32GB model. The retail chains who were promised reimbursement of their cost for hardware quickly sold out as did the online vendors. Needless to say HP was stunned as to how quick the tablets sold out. I say it is a no-brainer when a product has similar specs to the iPad2 for a fraction of the price!

HP announced that it will discontinue developing and supporting the webOS platform. This means that the HP App Catalog will eventually be out of business, thus ending the life of the tablet. But nay I say! There are mad scientists out there that have figured out to evolve the TouchPad and bring new life to it by installing the Android OS. This means access to the Google App Market and it's nearly 300,000 apps. Of course this is not nearly as much as a Apple's 500,000 apps, especially when you take into consideration that many apps at the Android Marketplace are specific devices and useless on the HP device. However, Android is a platform that is being actively developed and holds promise. The Android Marketplace is not as pretty and slick as Apple's App Store or HP's site, but it can help you get into the tablet game for a lot less if you can find one of these puppies on eBay. 

 

The project to install Android on the HP is only in the pre-alpha build stage, but the open-source method of developing it looks strong and should yield a usuable system within months. In the meantime, HP's OS has a lot to offer. Namely, it's virtual keyboard. This is something that Apple has struggled with and that you'll find no shortage of debate amongst iPad users. Simply put, Apple makes you use an extra step to access certain symbols, punctuation and numerals. HP found a natural way of integrating most of the above by keeping to the tried and true typewriter (see screenshot adjacent). One thing that might interest some of you that use web apps with your clients is HP's support of Flash and HTML5. Need a little positive re-enforcement? Try surfing to the Lego website to get your kiddo to let off some steam by playing the Flash games. Maybe your clients are little more mature and need a little distraction while you're working on neuromuscular re-education...surf to Hulu and roll an episode of Murder, She Wrote while you're posing their trunk or extremities. By now, I shouldn't have to explain how to use this device in the clinic. Just treat it like it were any other piece of equipment in your OT cabinet...that just happens to perform practically any function! 

 

This week's links

There were quite few interesting links I found this week, summarized here for your convenience.

A new procedure is now available for the treatment of chronic bowel incontinence, a disorder impacting (no pun intended) the lives of more than 18 million Americans. If sacral nerve stimulation trials prove successful, a pacemaker-like device is surgically implanted to provide continued, adjustable neurostim; effectively ending fecal incontinence. There is a similar device manufactured by the same company for urinary incontinence that has been utilized by over 85,000 patients worldwide. Am I the only one that doubts that somebody out there will want to get that area of their anatomy stimulated by electrical impulses? Ahem...

A clever image can quickly help you determine if you need glasses while working on a computer with a particular focal distance. Einstein's image is only discernible with clear vision (not nearsighted), otherwise (if you're nearsighted) you will see a fuzzy Marilyn Monroe.

This study links lower intelligence test results with users of the Internet Explorer browser, more specifically, version 6. These results simply suggest that individuals with lower IQ's seem to resist change instead of being willing to experiment, use other variants of a commonly used tool or follow upgrade advice like most of the higher scoring participants.

A public high school in central Florida will be purchasing iPads for each and every student this fall in an attempt to save money on textbooks and provide an alternative approach to education. While this bodes well for incorporating a richer multimedia experience in the classroom, it also evens the playing ground as many special ed students with learning disabilities have recently begun using apps on Apple devices such as iPhones and iPads that have been designed to compensate for developmental deficits or rehabilitate/ remediate ways of remaining in the mainstream. These kids with learning disabilities will have the advantage, in many cases, of familiarity with these devices before their classmates. Additionally, the touch interaction of these devices will also make their adoption in the classroom less arduous on a demographic that is sensitive to the learning curves of new devices. More troubling to yours truly, a link at the bottom of the article suggesting how these students might foolishly "jailbreak" their new iPads. This would allow the students free reign as to what they put on their devices, likely some games, possibly introducing viruses or other nasties into the system.

Finally, for the nostalgic of you out there, a story summarizing the history of the World Wide Web, which turns twenty today.

Be sure to check back during the week for more tweets about daily living in the information age via the goshthatsneat.com Home page, featuring a live twitter stream or follow us on Twitter directly from our link at the top of the page. On a more personal note, I wanted to share with you guys my transition from using a PC to a newly purchased iMac desktop. I'll be sharing a bit more about the significance of such a major step as well as any snags or revelations I encounter.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Ocala, FL United States

Several ways to stay connected to the online OT community

I'm starting to see more chatter across the web by OT's that are having trouble finding occupational therapy related blogs. I know, some of you out there are probably shocked thinking "are you kidding! I get daily feeds from 10 OT related websites and those are just the ones related to my specialty!"

Truth is, there are new OT blogs coming online almost every day. When you think about it, it's not really all that surprising. After all, we're all expected to know how to write effectively and encouraged to communicate with peers in OT as well as our PT and SLP colleagues. Isn't natural to want to chat with peers about work? Social networks like Facebook and the more professional LinkedIn have made it easier to keep in touch. Furthermore, they have become such a popular part of our social fabric that they are practically pandemic. Virtually every subculture in the modern world has an online presence, or as I like to refer to it, an avatar.

These avatars now take the place of business cards, advertisements in professional publications and more recently, have replaced dedicated websites.

So how do we connect? There are too many ways actually. That's why as a community we need to have prolific discussions about ways to contrive a virtual town hall. Currently, these are some of the tools available to us:

* OT Connections: the official AOTA online forum to meet and discuss issues. May be irrelevant to those who practice elsewhere in the world. And don't we want a "UN" of meeting places for our profession?

* OT4OT Facebook Group: a Facebook group page created by Anita Hamilton of the University of Alberta targeted to heavy FB users. There are several FB groups out there for OT's but this seems pretty busy right now.

* Twitter: a microblogging service that has become ubiquitous and forces brevity, just what our already short-attention-span generation needs. We are only just getting to the tip of the iceberg on this invaluable tool. I am willing to bet my credentials there is at least one Ph.D. candidate out there currently writing a thesis on the affect of this service on practice. There are a multitude of ways to utilize Twitter to track current trends in conversations happening online using hashtags. Socialbro is just one such tool to analyze what's out there. Go here for a primer on the use of Twitter by an OT.

* Google Blogs: a nifty specialized search engine that will search all online blogs using keywords just like your "favorite" search engine. Find which blogs address your interests. If they don't exist, then create one. The great thing about the Internet is that it allows any idiot or genius equal access to be heard. I won't go into detail how this is both good and bad as you should be able to discern this for yourselves. :) Finally, have a way to check those blogs frequently or have them notify you when they are updated. See more about this in the Device section below.

* OTION: as per their website "A grass roots initiative to promote outreach to areas of need by forming partnerships using the internet." Started by Australian occupational therapists and hosted on the WFOT website. Features a valuable resource section.

* A Device: this can be anything; a desktop computer, a smartphone, iPad or other tablet, laptop, practically anything that has access the Internet. You will also need a feed reader which you will utilize as a news aggregator. Basically, you tell this application which blogs are of interest to you and it will organize posts in various styles. My favorite app is Zite for the iPad. Zite is intuitive in that it learns what your interests are as you select certain posts to read and interact with the app to let it know whether or not you liked the article and what your favorite keywords are. Here are a few other feed readers: Google Reader, Bloglines and Feedlooks to name a few. The most important thing to note is that the interface facilitates your use of it frequently and conveniently. Furthermore, the application should allow for reposting or sharing of articles and posts on your social network of choice or just email it.

Obviously this list is extremely limited. I could go on and on but would rather have you contribute your favorite methods via comments below. These comments which follow many posts on blogs and news sites have become the new "water cooler" of the 21st century. They by no means are set to replace conventional professional publications (AJOT, OT Practice, Advance for OT, etc.) but create a new forum for discussion that will leave you behind if you choose not to participate.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Ocala,United States

Update

Greetings all! Those of you familiar to the site might have noticed the new Twitter feed conveniently placed above the blog entries. For those of you wondering why, quite simply life has become to busy to blog in longhand. Therefore, I have chosen to do the bulk of my blogging via Twitter, which will post automatically at the top of goshthatsneat.com. Unfortunately, the tweets will not sync to the RSS feed, so the only way to see them will be visiting this page.

Life has been hectic these last several months. I had to deal with losing my job as DOR and then as a staff OT. I learned a lot from my experience, not the least of which was how to be a better OT. Auspiciously for me, I wasn't fired for being a bad OT but rather for my regrettable status as an adult living with ADHD. I know, I know...it sounds like an excuse, right? Nevertheless, it is true but the situation served to get me out of the position of a manager and back to treating more clients. My only regret is that I will miss the world of acute care. I felt like I had finally found my niche in OT. Alas, it was not meant to be and I have returned to the seventh circle of Hell better known as the SNF. Yes...I have once again sold my soul to the Satan otherwise known as PPS. Again, I have "minutes" to achieve with clients rather than GOALS and the only important thing at the end of the day is whether or not you billed enough to cover the cost of your salary and benefits. Sounds jaded you say? Nay, I prefer to classify as "enlightened".

Thank you to those of you that spared a kind word as I hit a professional rock bottom and helped to remind me why we chose this profession. We might serve fiduciary masters, but at the end of the day it's what we achieve with our patients that really counts. An honest-to-God "thank you" from a grateful patient is almost as gratifying as a hug from my children. I LOVE my craft.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Patience pays

In case you don't remember, after returning the Galaxy Tab last November because of my disappointment with its development, I was determined to wait for the release of the next iPad. Well the day has come and gone. I ordered my iPad 2 and began waiting ever so patiently for the box to arrive from Apple.


After finally receiving my white, 16 GB, 3G iPad 2, I am ecstatic about its potential. Apple has created an entirely new genre of computing, and then a year later, found a way to improve it.
As I write this blog post, I am evaluating Blogpress. Blogpress is an iPad app that is used to create media rich posts and allow compatibility with the the most popular blog sites. So far, I have found it to be lean and simple, but I have yet to delve into its more complicated feature set.
I feel that the most important reason, for me, to stick with an Apple device, is the ability to retain all of my previously purchased apps as well as the ability to use some apps from my iPhone. Say whatever you want about Apple's totalitarian control of its App Store, but the fact remains that it is one of the most successful business models around today. The 3G feature, I felt was worth having for the times when a WiFi connection is not available. I've attempted to use my wife's old iPad a few times with patients and been frustrated with the limitations because of the lack of net access. And that brings me to my story:

I was working in a long term acute setting not so long ago, and had a patient who was dying, although I didn't know it at the time. He was on a vent and could not tolerate a PMV, so he could not communicate with his wife. I was having a very difficult time gaining a rapport with the man so I could treat him, and his wife was very demanding. Many of my sessions just consisted of listening to her and educating her. What she really wanted was her husband to speak to her. He could not write because of poor fine motor coordination from an earlier stroke. So, I had the idea of bringing in my wife's iPad to see if he could type to her. I purchased Pages, an Apple word processing app, and made the typeface into a large font so that it would be easy for the patient to read. He had some difficulty with typing due to motor deficits related to the stroke. So, we tried a children's drawing program that allowed him to spell words by drawing with his finger. I asked him if he had anything that he would like to say to his wife, who was standing on the other side of the bed. Agonizingly slow, he was able to trace the words "love you" and give voice to his thoughts. Success! It was probably the most emotional session I have ever been privileged to participate in. We went on to my wife's music collection of mp3's. The patient had found one of his favorite songs "Bad Company" and figured out how to play it. It was truly awesome to see this couple reconnect after over 18 months of one-sided conversations. This is but one example of how my iPad has been used in practice. It was fascinating watching this patient who, despite having severe cognitive deficits, was still able to figure out how to use this device because of its innovative and intuitive design features.


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Samsung Galaxy Tab review

Originally published November 6, 2010 on Gosh, that’s neat!
In the interest of fairness, I don't want to seem like an iPhone "pusher", so I am including a review of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab. A promising tablet computer that is released in the U.S. next week and, get this, RUNS FLASH! This tablet appears to come with a 3G plan, unlike the iPad with 3G which you can choose not to activate the 3G feature until you want it and then only a month at a time if desired.  So, they'll be no getting by on just wi-fi alone with this device. Follow the link to Engadget for an excellent review.

Update: I actually purchased a Galaxy Tab when it came out and have been happily exploring it's capabilities. Look for upcoming information on how it might be used for OT. Check it out at Amazon.
Update 2: After playing around with the Galaxy Tab for 2 weeks I returned it to Best Buy. Need I say any more? Okay, I will. It’s not yet ready for primetime. The thing that I was most excited about, the inclusion of Adobe Flash, is one it’s biggest flaws since it slows browsing down considerably. Also, this device does not have enough native applications to make it useful. Now I’ll grant you the fact that the iPad didn’t either when it first came out. But it assuredly had more than the Tab. What’s worse is that there doesn’t seem to be many developers running to make apps for the Tab. Perhaps it has something to do with the sudden deluge of tablet products, mostly based on the Android operating system, of various shapes and sizes that have suddenly hit the market. It’s not easy to develop an app for multiple platforms and multiple sizes simultaneously. Some apps are not scaling in size as well as others. If you need something now, the Galaxy Tab is okay. But for my money, I’m going to wait until January or February when the next iPad is rumored to be arriving. It will supposedly include a camera which is allegedly for Facetime call use in addition to other fun possibilities. For more information on the next iPad, start here.