Keep taking the tablet
APPLE’S NEW iPAD COULD BE GOOD FOR YOUR KIDS THIS SUMMER
HERE we are again – school’s out and what are we going to do with these children for two months? I might have the answer – Apple’s new iPad. Now, before you start hectoring about how sticking an iPad in front of the kids to keep them distracted with YouTube is irresponsible and awful parenting, that’s decidedly not what I’m talking about.
The new iPad is a creative powerhouse. It has the chops to do some really heavy lifting, so video editing is fast and fluid, and touching up your images is also a cinch.
There’s a powerful A10 Fusion chip inside (last seen in the iPhone 7), a magnificent Retina display, and cameras that not only allow capture of fabulous images and video, but also power wonderful AR experiences.
The other thing that’s new with the latest iPad is that it supports the Apple Pencil, which opens up a whole new world of creativity.
And almost best of all, it only costs £319.
Of course, you can use it to watch TV shows, films, and videos online.
But you can also use it to make things or to learn new skills. And that, of course, is all down to apps.
Here are some app ideas for the new iPad that your kids could use to really make the most of their summer.
KEEP A TRAVEL JOURNAL
WHETHER on a staycation or travelling further afield, it can be fun to keep a journal of the trip. These apps make it simple to capture favourite moments and places through writing, sketching, photos and simple design templates.
DAY ONE is an elegant journalling app.
The clean, distraction-free interface makes it easy to write down what’s important and metadata automatically records location, weather, date and time, all securely.
The app even allows you to order professionally printed books featuring your carefully-curated diaries.
For those more interested in using pictures instead of the written word, the native Notes app is a quick way to get started sketching with Apple Pencil or your fingertip. For a full toolbox of artist materials, Procreate is the most powerful sketching, painting and illustration app ever designed for a mobile device.
If you want to start with a picture, Enlight is an easy to use photo editing app that allows you to convert photos into artistic masterpieces, add decorative touches or customise editing features. Pixelmator is also a great app for simple yet powerful editing tools on iPad and with Canva you can create beautiful designs and professional graphics to make picture collages, blogs, posters, greetings cards and party invitations.
SEND POSTCARDS HOME
EVERYONE takes loads of photos on holiday and the big display on iPad makes it easy to frame the perfect shot, with Touchnote you can quickly and easily turn them into postcards to send to friends and family with free worldwide postage.
Simply choose the photo(s) you want to use, personalise the design and message and tap to send.
LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE
MEMRISE is a fun app for learning a new language, the more you enjoy learning, the quicker your skills will develop. With a rich variety of easy-to-use games, chatbots and more than 30,000 native speaker videos, learning a new language has never been so simple.
SHOOT AND EDIT A SHORT FILM OR CUT A TRACK
REMEMBER how you would ‘put on a show’ for parents and family? iPad comes with a collection of free apps so you can start creating straight out of the box, including
iMovie – a really easy and intuitive way for kids to make their own documentary or epic drama – and
GarageBand, for budding musicians to create their very own track.
LEARN A NEW SKILL
LEARNING to code is on the UK school curriculum and an increasingly important skill. To help kids get to grips with coding, Apple’s free app Swift Playgrounds makes it fun to learn and experiment with code, solving interactive puzzles and working through additional challenges to explore code and create programs.
EXPLORE BEYOND THIS WORLD
TRAVELLING to new destinations, or just simply having the time to look up, is a great time to explore the night sky. Night Sky,
above, is a powerful augmented reality personal planetarium. With
Worldwide Night Sky Tours you can create your own tours for any location and time in the world!
Just drop a pin on the world map, and Night Sky will generate a Sky Tour for that location.
■ To find out more about the new iPad visit apple.com/uk/ ipad-9.7