Worship Tech Web Tools Blog
This is an ongoing blog of web tools and technology related to worship, music and church. The idea is to give you good web points and resources that you can go to. Some of it is just me cruising the net, others are favorites of friends.
Enjoy what you see here. If you find an interesting, useful and technology related site or resource that deals with helping worship or musicians in general, please send us a note and we will check it out. Perhaps we can feature it here.
Thanks!
Enjoy! - Kim Gentes
Entries in reader (2)
iPad Cover - iFrogz workz Well (Kim Gentes / Worship Tech Blog)
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 3:17PM 
When I first purchased my iPad I used it mostly as a temporary laptop substitute, checking email, perusing online calendars and doing searches. Occasionally, I’d to play a game or look up a movie with an appropriate app. But lately, my use of the iPad has expanded greatly. I now spend a few hours a day on the device, doing things I once didn’t even do online at all: watching movies (through Netflix app), reading books (through Kindle and Apple Bookshelf) and listening to audio books (Audible.com app). What this means is that I went from being a transitory user of the device to a functional user. Where I once spending minutes a day with the iPad, I now spend hours.This additional use has made me realize that the iPad has a need for consideration of it as a physical device. It is much different than even a laptop, which you leave on a table or desk. An iPad is a personal device. It sits on your lap, or is held in your hands. This means you must deal with it as much on a tactile level as on a computing device level. It became obvious to me that I needed to get a cover for the iPad. As I started to look around at them, I found everything from book-style covers, fabric sleeves, even leather organizer styled covers.
I tried the leather, book-styled cover for a while. But in the end, the leather deteriorates quickly with too much handling from particles, oils from the hands. What I have settled on now is a great snap-on cover from a company called iFrogz (they are online here, although my 13 year old son had heard of their headphones already, before I had heard about them). To understand what I was looking for in a good cover, let me explain a bit of what you should consider . There are three things that became very important to me on my iPad cover:
- Device Protection - you only have to drop your $500 tablet once to realize that it is a profoundly quick moment from having an iPad to having a piece of aluminum with a broken screen or cracked/snapped off edge buttons. Having a protective cover for my iPad, all of a sudden, was important.
- Grip / Tactile Function - if you use a device a few minutes a day, most people will adjust themselves to handling something as seems best. But the more you use something, the more you want it to fit in your handles comfortably and securely. You won’t want it slipping out of your hand because it is too sleek, or feeling cold, clammy or greasy because of the material on the outside of the device.
- Style - All things being equal, I like things that look good and still rock in regards to function.
The cover I have is called the “Luxe Lean iPad Skin” (you can see their product description here), which is a line of covers from the iFrogz company that focuses on a snap-on design that addresses the three things I mentioned above. First, the cover itself is a hard-shell form that the packaging says is polycarbonate. Not sure what that is exactly, but the material feels like a cross between metal and rubber. It is very strong, but has a tactile feel of rubberized surface. The hard-shell protects the buttons near the top right of the iPad by having edging come right up to the buttons without covering them. If I was to accidentally bump the corner of my iPad up against our granite counter top in the kitchen (where I can often be found stealing samples of my wife’s cookies), I am happy to know the plastic buttons of the iPad won’t get crushed and snap off.
But where I really liked the iFrogz snap-on cover the best is when I am sitting on the couch reading or watching a movie. Two things are crucial to me then- first, I don’t like the metal covering of the aluminum iPad. It begins cold, but becomes warm and slick so that the device is slippery if you are holding it a long time. Second, I am a guitar player. I use the iPad often times to practice along to chord charts on my WorshipTeam.com app. If I don’t have a cover on the iPad, the slick metal finish won’t allow the iPad to stay in place, even on the couch. With the Luxe cover, the iPad will stay where I place it, either in my lap on the couch. Finally, (I’m embarrassed to say) occasionally when reading an especially long book, I sometimes (heaven forbid) fall asleep with iPad in my lap. Turns out the rubberized material of the iFrogz cover makes the iPad stay put. The iPad doesn’t drop to the floor. I know these things might sound strange, but if you haven’t used an iPad, you might not realize how the convex back of the device is built to simply slide off any surface. It is kind of a sleek look, but in reality makes handling of the device less than optimal. The bottom line is that the iFrogz cover compensates for that issue by making the surface much more grippy and place-able.
I checked out other covers from iFrogz for the iPad, and if you are needing something more “stylish” etc, maybe you want to look at those “Luxe Original”, “Silicone Wrapz” and others (you can find those here), but I liked the Luxe Lean for my purposes listed above.
happy tablet-ing folks,
Kim Gentes
Kim Gentes
Friends,
Please note that I have issued a followup review on this product after over 6 months of use. If you are considering this product, be sure to check my followup for details here:
Kim Gentes
Google Breaks with More Than Tradition – Dumb moves by a Software Giant (Jordan Gentes Worship Tech Blog)
Friday, January 14, 2011 at 11:39PM 
How to disable Google Chrome’s annoying PDF Viewer:
Folks that are using Google Chrome, you will have noticed in one of their recent updates Chrome is now including a new plugin. This wonderful new addition is “Chrome PDF Viewer”. If only it were truly wonderful. As a tech support representative at WorshipTeam.com, I can tell you that a number of Chrome users over the last few days have contacted us asking why their PDF’s are no longer being displayed correctly in Adobe Reader. Users of Chrome will note that most websites using PDFs have this new plugin causing issues with printing from PDF’s, and PDF documents imbedded inside a webpage. When printing from a PDF, Chrome opens the file and puts a gray border around the document. At first glance it looks like this is not going to be an issue but once you print; you realize that the gray area on the edge is printed on the page with your document. This “gray area” ends up taking up nearly half your paper, leaves you with only half your document and burns through your expensive ink cartridge. What is the villain responsible for this dilemma? The answer is “Chrome PDF Viewer”. The plugin that has been set as the default in the latest version of Google Chrome is designed to prepare Google for their upcoming Chrome OS, where you won’t be able to install any PDF viewers. But instead of making a quiet and helpful update, they bungled all their current users. Nice move Google.
There are a couple options you have in this situation:
1 ) For those of us who want to revert back to Adobe Reader for functionality and features that Chrome PDF Viewer is lacking, I have listed some steps below. Please ensure you have the latest version of Adobe Reader installed before doing this, you can find it at http://get.adobe.com/reader/
- Open Google Chrome
- In the Address Bar type “about:plugins” and click enter
- Chrome will then load a page with a list of your plugins, scroll down to the “Chrome PDF Viewer”, and click “Disable”
- Once you have disabled “Chrome PDF Viewer” you can now visit a site and Print to Adobe PDF and Adobe Reader will open the file in Chrome.
2) Use a different browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, etc.). There are many options depending on what OS you are running. For those of us currently running Windows Vista SP2, or Windows 7; Internet Explorer 9 (although still in Beta) is a very attractive option that will only get better once it is in a stable release. IE 9 (Beta) can be found at http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/
Hope this helps!
Jordan Gentes