Tonight we chatted with Eric via FaceTime on our iPads. It worked really well and was slightly easier to manage than when we've video chatted with our laptops. (Picture me walking around with a laptop, trying to herd the boys into the same scene, while I manage to keep them from touching the laptop. It was tricky.) The boys still wanted to touch the iPad, which I managed to keep away from them for the most part. I have a great fear of dropping it and it shattering to smithereens. Unfortunately, we did hang up on Eric a couple of times, but that's because I was secretly trying to take screen shots of the chat. Here's a collage of some of the screen shots. (In case you're unfamiliar with the setup, the main screen shows the picture on the other end, while there's a little box with a picture of what's being shown on our end.) Good thing Eric has a strong stomach because sometimes he just gets to see a bunch of earthquake shots as I try to get the iPad out of the boys' reach.
It's hard to know how much the boys understand what's going on. They were really excited when they recognized Eric on the screen. In fact, Reid even initiated a wave a couple of times. They were also excited to show off their clapping skills. Later they were over by the window, while I was chatting with Eric. They were fighting for position and both ended up crying on the floor. Needless to say, FaceTime was over for the evening. I quickly got them in their pajamas and off to bed. If Eric has a good internet connection in his hotel tomorrow, we'll be eager to try it again.
A month or so ago, my brother stopped by to visit our 99 year old grandma in Minnesota. David pulled up FaceTime and we tried to show the boys to her. Granted, she's 99 and hard of hearing and it was during a very chaotic meal time on my end, but we don't think she quite understood what was going on. Maybe she thought she was seeing a video of the boys. I actually think the boys may get it a little better than my grandma did. Makes me wonder what technological advances will be too young for me in the future.
I've had my iPad for a couple of months now and really enjoy it. Eric gave it to me for my birthday. I just gave him one for Father's Day, so this is the first trip we've been able to use FaceTime. Here are some of the apps I've been using. I'd love to know if any of you have any suggestions for apps that you like.
Kindle/iBooks
I really like being able to download books to my iPad. Nice to save a few trees, although I suppose I may be using more electricity and killing more trees in the long run. One of my favorite features is being able to highlight a word and look it up in a dictionary.
The Weather Channel Max+
Great for tracking the weather in multiple cities.
FlightTrack Pro
This app was about $10, but I have definitely gotten my money's worth. I enter in Eric's flight schedule and it keeps track of all of the legs as well as displaying the current location of the plane with a real-time weather map merged onto the screen. I joke that it's been good for stalking him.
Netflix
I used this to stream movies or shows when I want to knit in bed before I go to sleep.
This American Life
This is a great show on NPR. For about $5, this app gives you access to their entire archive of shows. This app is the only way I made it through the end of year torture of grading. It kept me awake and engaged, but not too distracted so I could still trudge through my piles of grading.
ABC Player
Good for catching up with some of the shows that I seemed to have missed out on this year. As if I was busy or something.
(I was disappointed to find that the NBC app received poor reviews. I didn't bother downloading it, but I was hoping to catch up with some episodes of The Office which I missed this year. I was also hoping to use Hulu, but they charge monthly for an enhanced iPad version. They block out the free web-based version to iPads. Boo.)
Suggestions?
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