OpenMusings

Another piece of software that’s been added to my “useful apps” list: Sketchbook Express for iPad. I’ve had to do a few “rich pictures” on T214 to illustrate TMA answers – in days gone by I used to do these on paper, then use a digital camera to snap the picture and insert the photo. Not particularly elegant.

Sketchbook Express provides an easy answer – fingertip drawing, exportable as a JPEG image which you can email yourself, and it’s capable of doing some rather impressive effects & text manipulations. The end results look far more impressive in the TMA doc, I can tell you.

Express is a free app – there’s a £4.99 Pro version as well, but it seems to be overkill for simple doodle purposes (some of the sample art I’ve seen produced with Pro is very professional-looking). Worth checking out if you have an iPad.

For those considering a new computer – make sure you ask for student discounts. I’ve just splashed out on a new MacBook Pro – in Apple’s case, the website doesn’t even give the full story, as they have a separate price plan for Higher Education students, including us OU part-timers, that isn’t available online. While their online Education Store usually offers up 10% discounts on new hardware, simply ‘phoning them and asking for a Higher Education discount will get you a 15% discount – quite a chunk off any piece of kit. You can’t even complain about the cost of the call, as it’s an 0800 number.

Not sure how typical Apple are when it comes to discounts (from what I hear Dell and HP at least both offer them, but not sure how much), but given the cost of decent computers these days, it’s always worth asking.