Until recently, iPad-using Hebraists had no good options for typing Hebrew with vowels on the aforementioned iPads. Apple provides a Hebrew keyboard for the iPad, but it does not include the נְקֻדּוֹת. Recently, however, third-party developer Žiga Kranjec released Unicode Maps, an app with an unattractive name but a very attractive function. Unicode Maps allows you to look up and copy any Unicode glyph available on the iPad. Even better, you can create your own customized keyboard and type—but only on a notepad within Unicode Maps—using that keyboard.

 

With “Sacred Techs” we wanted to bring together information focused upon using technology in the real of biblical and ancient studies. It will be periodically updated, on a monthly basis at the least, with articles and interviews on various topics around this general theme. We are very hopeful that others will be willing to contribute to the site, there are many within the world of online ancient studies who are very (and more) adept in these areas, many who are creating the very technology that we will be reviewing, citing, and discussing. This is particularly true if you use something other than Apple products and MacOS, iOS, or Android software. It is not that we are prejudiced against other platforms, but the reality is that Robert and I both tend to use those products and platforms. If you are interested in contributing please drop us a line or leave a comment!

So welcome to Sacred Techs and stay tuned for what we hope will be a great year. First up on the podcast (see below!) is an introductory discussion and then we will follow up with a few interviews from 2011 SBL. Be sure to let us know whom you would like to hear us interview and what products you would like reviewed or compared.

@Targuman @sacredtechs @xkv8r Here’s one. How can Bible software help non-experts evaluate translations as never before? Long term effects?

 

“Student Showcase: How Tablets and Apps Transformed My College Internship” will be presented from 7 to 9 p.m. on Monday Nov. 7, in the Foster Auditorium (Room 102) Paterno Library. The event is being sponsored by the Penn State iPad User Group and the University Libraries. The presentation will also be streamed live and archived at http://tinyurl.com/psustudentshowcase

Christian M. M. Brady, dean of the Schreyer Honors College, will give the keynote address. Student presenters, including Mike Burkentine, majoring in civil engineering in the College of Engineering, and Lisa Lotito, majoring in history in the College of the Liberal Arts, will discuss how they used tablets and apps in internships this past summer and how knowing technology helped them to get a “leg up in the job market.” Ari Hiller, Penn State’s Apple student representative, will be there to demonstrate apps, and the evening will include a technology “petting zoo” after the presentations so attendees can see the apps more closely.

 

/Users/<YourUserName>/Library/Services/

This little file (an Automator Services AppleScript) goes into the Services directory. When you highlight a folder or file and control-click (two-finger click on track pad or right click on some mice) a contextual menu will pop up. Simply select “Get Path” and it will copy the path of that folder or file to your clipboard.

Let me know if this is useful or if there are questions about how to install and use it.

File: Get Path Workflow document.

 

The passing of Jobs did not come as a surprise to any who followed the tech news. He had been battling pancreatic cancer, which took a friend of mine in 4 short months, for years. As so often in his life he beat the odds, at least for a time.

So now we eulogize him. That is not inappropriate. He rightly takes his position with such innovators at Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. Like both of those men his inventions, or more accurately, his drive to create and bring brilliant minds together to create, transformed our world. When I was in grad school it is true, I was one of the few who used a Mac, a PowerBook 140, but today millions of people use an Apple product. I am not even sure how many iPod devices we have in our house now and almost all of the deans at my university are now using iPads. While the Macintosh operating system made computing far simpler than ever before, opening up its use to the masses of simple folks like myself who didn’t want to know command lines and coding language, the iOS devices have transformed how we interact with the world, do research, consume and produce media and content. It is really impossible to underestimate the impact this one man has had on the world in terms of commerce, culture, education, and … well, in just about every way you can imagine.

But like Ford and Edison Jobs was not a man without his shortcomings. Others will no doubt catalogue such shortcomings, but he was notorious for being prickly to the point of being abusive. When he first started Apple even those closest to him said that he was not fit to be a CEO. In an NPR story last month Sculley, whom Jobs had chosen to become CEO of Apple in 1983, stated that he greatly regretted removing Jobs from their board and leading to Jobs leaving Apple. Yet it was also what Jobs needed in order to become the great CEO that we know remember and celebrate. Jobs’ business practices have been vaguely criticized by many over the years. His passion for secrecy is legend as was his supposed ability to create a “reality distortion field” that kept the masses buying whatever it was he was selling.

He certainly thought differently, jettisoning the floppy drive and making machines in outrageous colors when beige and ports was what computers were all about. As Gateway’s retails stores were dragging that company down into the financial abyss he took Apple into the heart of retail. And into a market cluttered with devices he launched the iPhone so successfully that every smart phone is now compared with it. He and his company may not have created out of whole clothe any specific device they sold, they transformed them all such that the whole was more than the sum of its parts (plus a healthy profit margin).

Steve Jobs has left an incredible legacy, one we will be studying for years to come. At his core though he was a great visionary and a normal human. He had foibles, problems, and shortcomings. He was not the messiah nor the anti-Christ, but like all of us he had the potential to be a bit of both.

Oh, and he changed the world.

 

First you need to connect QO to DB. You do this from within QO:

Add a Dropbox, Evernote, GoogleDocs or other account

Once you have clicked the “+” symbol you will get this menu:

Select which account you would like to connect to QO

Notice that you can add accounts from several different services including Evernote and Google Docs. The next step is to fill in your credentials.

Now, when you want to edit a file that is saved in Dropbox (or one of the other services) simply select it from the account listed in the left hand column.

Select the file you would like from your Dropbox or other account here.

QO will periodically automatically save the file to your DB account. Now that your DB account is set up you can also save local files to DB by using the “Save as” menu, navigating to the DB folder where you would like to save it.

 

A twitter and PSU colleague, ScooterNSticks, reminded me of Camera+, an app with great effects that I had purchased ($2) some time ago. The special effects really are superb (see the barn image in a previous post) and it also provides far more control of the iPhone camera than the standard app allows. What I did not realize is that it too had sharing features.

So there you have two apps that are well worth having on your phone if you like to take and share pictures. Remember, the best camera you own is the one that is with you. Here is one more image, enhanced by Camera+ with the “Fashion” filter.

Some days are just like this.

 

I have been fortunate enough to have had an iPad since they first came out. (As an aside, as much as folks label me an “Apple fanboy,” this is the first Apple product I have purchased in its first run. Usually I wait until the kinks are out.) It is rather amazing to consider just how far the it has come in just over a year. And that is not even considering the advances made in hardware. The first version of the iPad is still a powerful computer and is in fact more powerful today than a year ago. So I thought I would begin my participation in this project by reviewing some of my prior posts and thoughts about the iPad. You can find all my iPad tagged articles on my person blog by simply going here.

First Matters
When the iPad first came out there was a lot of discussion about just what the iPad was for, content consumption or creation? Thirteen months ago I wrote this article about how  I was, in fact, using the iPad to create content. Just this January I wrote a more philosophical piece about content creation and operational definitions. This article asking, “What is ‘Content Creation,’” includes a discussion of rabbinic literature as well.

When I wrote the first article one of the real drawbacks for my work in ancient Hebrew and Jewish literature was the lack of Hebrew support. iOS 4.2.1 finally brought Hebrew input in a solid fashion. There are still quirks, the main desktop app I use is Nisus Writer Pro (just updated to v. 2) which saves to RTF. As discussed on the Facebook group, there are no real RTF solutions for the iPad yet. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Tools
In October of 2010 the iPad was already at a point where I could use it on the road as my only machine. In fact, other than one trip in last summer to a conference, where I needed a specific app that only ran in Mac OS (but now it is available on the iPad), I have not taken a notebook with me when traveling, just the iPad and my iPhone. So, as I was saying, in October I created this post outlining what apps I use for research and productivity. There are also various accessories and other apps that I have recommendedin the past as well.

One of  the reasons I have been able to replace my notebook on the road has been the ability to wirelessly connect Apple’s BlueTooth keyboard to the iPad. It is not a perfect marriage, as I have noted, but it works surprisingly well. A very nice addition I recently made is the Incase Origami Workstation, as recommended by Andy Ihnatko on Mac Break Weekly. Caution: the little velcro tabs will come unglued the day you purchase it. One of our staff loaned me her nail glue (for gluing on fake nails) and it has worked a treat.

Finally, I have made much of Sente for the iPad. I have a fairly thorough review here. The desktop app is Mac only and it is not cheap. The collaborative features are also not as open as some other solutions that Chris Long has noted (link to be added…). That being said, it has been nothing short of revolutionary for my research and productivity. I am an administrator as well as an academic, but the former takes precedence over the latter and includes a LOT of travel. This year, thanks to the iPad and Sente, I have been able to read dozens of articles, annotate them, and collaborate with my research assistant. The result is that as I move into the summer when I will finally be able to actually do some writing and real research, I have a running start. For me, that makes all the difference in the world.