From classroom to kitchen

We are currently on summer holidays and so I have traded my classroom technology for my home technology. I’m preparing for Christmas so my kitchen has put my trusty TEL7J to work. It was a very inexpensive tablet which I have blogged about here. It is durable and that’s the main advantage in the kitchen. I am not worrying about whether it gets floury fingers all over it or if it is in the line of fire when I am cooking. The external storage doesn’t appear to be working any longer. Perhaps so it can’t compete with other tablets? It can’t anyway! It’s a limited device but in my kitchen it goes to work with recipes, YouTube cooking clips ,  music to cook by ,  quick checking of news and information and  oven timer. It’s pretty annoying it doesn’t use the external USB or card devices anymore because I had cooking videos and information on them. Maybe it’s coming to the end of its kitchen life and I’ll use my little Samsung tablet instead. A tablet is the perfect thing in the kitchen. My Nintendo DS gets used a lot too because it is durable and I have several really good cooking programmes to run on it. Eventually, I guess, they’ll build or build in purpose built devices for kitchen use. They need storage, kitchen apps , internet access and above all they need to be sturdy!

Top Posts

My last review of top posts is here. Well, there has been quite a bit of change with my top posts this quarter.
1. Differentiating social media features an image I chanced upon and thought showed very effectively not only how embedded social media now are in our society but also how they vary slightly in their impact , use and capacity to effect change. For the first time I have a post which exceeds my home page hits – by quite a bit. That post has been a runaway success and demonstrates clearly how images can carry your message and just how important people view social media to be.
2.Telefunken TEL7J tablet This is an android tablet I just happened to see and was so cheap I bought it. I then sat with it and found it is actually a pretty handy little gadget. The posts I have put up not only have been very popular , they have drawn lots of comments and the group of people who have commented have also shared tips and tricks. It is not as intuitive as some gadgets and so you have to work through a few little barriers to get the best out of it.
3. MeTV Ubuntu 10.04 Me TV works on the newer versions of Ubuntu too. It is a reliable, helpful piece of software for Linux and this post has been right up there ever since I wrote it.
4. Mini Mac OS shortcuts This is about a little mini book you can make with all the Mac shortcuts you could possibly want. It is helpful, handy and very easy to assemble. Recently this post has just been rocketing. Guess new Macbook users are realising this is a great minibook which you can easily stash.
5. Live TV on Linux Mint Anything to do with Live TV on Linux seems to be very popular and this post shows just how easily I got my stick TV tuner running on Linux Mint. Piece of cake!

There are two other posts I am tracking. Create an online learning adventure where a group of us were ably led by Ali Anani into creating a group presentation came in at number thirteen in my top twenty posts. There was a lot of interest in our online group collaboration. The sister presentation Assessing an online learning adventure came in at number 16. There is interest in how to develop and make good use of online learning and collaboration but the interest is not sustained like it is with tech and social media posts. We still need to get it right with education so that becomes the thing which creates a buzz. It is future proofing.

Telefunken TEL7J tablet

I have blogged about the Telefunken TEL7J and it is pleasing to see how many people have come with their problems. It is not an iPad, though I can say my iPad was pretty hard to get along with today. Not the cruisy machine it normally is. The Telefunken is something you have to think about and it would be good if we had some YouTube clips to get us more familiar with layout and operation. I use it on a daily basis as a multimedia diary. My latest apps are the French newspapers, a cooking timer which I really like, StudyMaster French vocab and Scribtor Lite . I have another couple to install which I loaded from my computer. I have yet to see if this works. When you connect the TEL7J it will be in Computer as the picture shows and have a whole lot of folders. I shift music and videos into the DOWNLOAD folder and then can play them on my device. I haven’t worked out the answer to where you actually put apps if you do not directly install them from the SlideMe app on the TEL7J. That really needs a search box to make it more effective. I didn’t find a free QR code reader like I have for my other devices so I am not able to say whether the forward facing camera can actually read QR codes. It would make it hard. The forward facing camera is more designed for making little video voice messages or taking face pics to mark an event. I tried photographing some plants and had to get myself into an odd angle to get the picture. So I am happy with the personal video aspect of it. Sharing our knowledge has been helpful but I think those who can use this device well need to share their knowledge. I can use it well for what I want but maybe there is more this gadget can do. Certainly a J learning curve.
I have had a chance to check the packages I installed from my computer. I downloaded them from SlideMe on my computer and then dropped them into the download folder of the TEL7J. I have installed them through the ApkInstaller top left of apps screen and chose Internal Memory – that means “hard drive”.

Telefunken TEL7J tablet

Matches my Macbook perfectly!

Judging by the hammering this Telefunken TEL7J has had on the Net in reviews it is probably not going to be popular. It was serendipity which brought it to me and it is the perfect gadget for my life as it already has a real place. For a start it matches my Macbook. It cost 90 dollars. I had gone out to buy a 7 inch tablet because I have an iPod Touch, I have an iPad and I figured I needed to complete the set. Truth is, I wanted something I could carry easily in my bag. The iPod Touch is great for travelling. This Telefunken would be too. The iPad fits into my life when I am stationary at work or at home and it is great. The Telefunken is very portable because it is sturdy. I had found there were 7inch Android tablets with USB slots. The very thing – until I discovered there were none in the shops and the only thing on offer was a 7 inch Samsung Galaxy without USB and only 20 dollars cheaper than the 10 inch model. Not for me. As a last resort I went into a department store and they had the Telefunken at such a cheap price I thought it must be a joke. I asked to see the gadget and to see the specifications. Immediately I could see where it would fit. It will be my 24/7 365 tablet . My organiser. It has a resistive screen so it is not smooth like the iPad but it is not bad at all and I have learnt from my phone that resistive screens can be annoying until you tame them and they settle in. It took a day.I use my Nintendo DS stylus because the stylus which came with it is like my phone one. Too small , too sharp for my liking and much too easily lost. At the moment it is charging happily on my computer. It has a wall plug too. I have learnt to work with it and I am more than happy with what it can do and how it operates. It goes quite fast on the Net. Faster than a Netbook and it streams radio easily, plays YouTube videos and downloads at a reasonable rate. You have to get apps from the SlideMe app. It won’t download them from the android marketplace. It plays videos and music very efficiently and music . The sound on music is not as good as video sound – in fact, it is pretty ordinary. It is better through ear buds. Video sound and quality are both very good. I changed the wallpaper easily and it loads files from my USB really fast. I can view Powerpoints, docs, PDFs and any Office files. It can use flash files too but not all of them because I cannot as yet get it to update to the most recent flash. StyleNote has been an excellent application for organising my lists and plans. EzNotePad is great for making notes. I have downloaded dictionaries and there is a big choice of books to read which suit me so I have downloaded some of those. I can connect it to my computer and move files to and from it. So I am happy that this will be a good addition to my working life especially and then something I can just have in my bag.The calendar doesn’t work unless you sync it to an online calendar but it is still there to give you the day and date. Some sites , like Facebook work on the mobile version . Others you get the full site. This little gadget is very careful to explain to me why it will or won’t do something or what the privacy, vulnerability issues will be in loading certain apps . It is a good teacher in that respect. I have been happy to be patient and work it out and am delighted with all the things it can do.I still need and will use my other gadgets . I used to always carry a diary. Now I shall always carry something like this.

The specifications are here.