Child’s Play
Written by Gooner Jamie.
You may by now know that those lovely folk over at ASUS have given me one of their new Eee Pad Tablets to play with and to see how I use it in my day to day life. Well this week I nearly failed in that most simple of tasks. You see, I lost the darn thing.
I know, I know, I’m an irresponsible fool, I’ve only had it for 3 weeks, I should take better care of things and this time I really thought I had. I realise that it’s quite small, after all that is the point of a tablet, but it’s not small enough that it could fall between the cracks in the floorboards.
I searched high and low, I searched all the obvious places like the tables and my work desk, and all the unobvious ones like the garage and the toilet. I found things that were lost but not important (the duct tape I needed last week to fix a draw), things that were important but not lost (a diamond earring that my wife supposedly knew the location of but as that location was in my toolbox, I somehow doubt it), and things I didn’t even know existed (sorry, I’ve been sworn to secrecy on that one.)
I started to curse the ASUS developers for the not having the foresight to add some kind of app that would aid my search. Something where you could whistle and the lost tablet would bark back at you would have been perfect. I think I may suggest that to them for the next update or something.
So three hours of fruitless searching and cursing still left me light one Eee Pad and in one hell of a predicament. I decided to go and lie down in my bedroom and try to compose an explanatory email to ASUS. Maybe it was my sense of panic that made me overlook it, but I suddenly noticed how quiet the house was, a silence I should be thankful for, but one that made me (like all parents in that situation I guess) suspicious.
I poked my head around my daughter Kaede’s bedroom door, and I saw her in full-on performance mode. Her innocent antics put a smile on my face and made me forget about the missing tablet, well it did for the two seconds it took me to notice that it was the tablet she was performing to.
After a quick check to make sure the tablet was in one piece, it was, and a few reprimanding words that would undoubtedly fall on deaf ears, I asked her what she was up to. She informed me that she wanted to make a movie to put on YouTube so people could see her performing. I pointed out that she was only six and that if she wanted me to film her then I would. In a rather haughty manner she informed me that she didn’t need any help in the making of it, but I would have to post it to them.
I checked the tablet and found she had made not one, but five film clips. I’m not sure I could describe the clips with any great justice, let’s just say they have a feral quality. I have attached one of the slightly less bizarre clips for your perusal and maybe as an excuse as to why I like a beer or four.
I know Kaede has enjoyed playing some of the games I’ve added to the tablet, but I was quite surprised at how easy it was for her to start using the camera and making videos with it. It does go a great way to explain why I’ve found the Eee Pad so easy to use though.
For the technical minded amongst you all, the front camera is 1.2 M Pixels and the rear one is 5 M pixels. The tablet also has a mini HDMI port so you can plug it straight in to your HD TV and watch your creations in all their glory, if you so desire of course.
ASUS have also just launched a competition to give away an Eee Pad Transformer. All you have to do is visit this link, comment on any one of the Eee Pad blogs there and Bob’s your Uncle, you get entered into a prize draw. Good luck!
Guardian