IPAD’s: overcoming the problem of Flash!
Firstly, let me ‘nail my colours to the mast’- if I had any money in my IT budget I would never buy a notebook again…it would have to be IPads. The reason is quite simple: access to the huge range of educational apps which are now available!
Although the initial hardware spend isn’t a small one the low cost of software (apps) is astounding. Many of the apps include features, which only 5 years ago would have cost tens or hundreds of pounds, for less than a couple of pounds today.
I’ve only had one main issue since buying my iPad and that has been its inability to play videos in Flash. Fortunately that issue is now easily rectifiable. There are three apps available in the AppStore which solve this problem. I’ve downloaded all three and the ability to bookmark sites within each app allows me to quickly access many documentaries and YouTube videos which I couldn’t previously view. All of these can be used to add a visual dimension to lessons.
I’m not going to review each of the three apps as they all do the job well, but if you also want to play Flash videos on your IPad these are the apps that you need:
1 Puffin
2 Skyfire
3 iSwifter
All three have worked well for me although personally I find iSwifter the least glitchy! (If you want to try out the American site Hulu then Puffin is your best bet!) There is some pixillation on all three sites but if you have a decent broadband connection each is worth experimenting with.
If you want to test each out in order to ascertain a personal preference try out
http://www.tv-links.eu/. There are many documentaries on this site and it’s an excellent starting point.
I hope this short blog has helped you with the issue of Flash and Apple. I’d be glad to hear of any further suggestions. Feel free to email me at alanpeat@tiscali.co.uk
Alan Peat's Blog 