2ND VISIT TO THE APPLE STORE

On March 10^th, I returned to the Apple store to talk to someone from the business side of Apple. This is what I wore to the store:

Yes, those are my pajamas. Hey, why not be comfortable? And seriously, if you saw me for the first time, would you really be focused on what pants I was wearing when my shiny bald head is at eye level?

Anyway, here’s what I learned from this visit:

·      The new 15” MacBook Pro has more power & space than the last model. So in a way, I’m glad this fundraiser has continued until the new Mac came out!

·      The bigger screen does help a lot. Also, the 15” has input and output, which 13” does not. This will be useful when I want to switch back and forth quickly between inputting pre-recorded music from the keyboard and playing back what we’ve recorded through the keyboard speakers.

·      I should wait to get Logic until I learn GarageBand. Apparently they’re similar, and it would be best to get a good handle on GarageBand before “graduating” to Logic.

·      I should keep files on an external hard drive. This will make the computer work faster. We already have one, so that’s easy enough!

·      The thunderbolt connection is 10x faster for moving files than a USB. This will be useful when I want to copy files from the computer to the external hard drive.

·      I can use a projector (in extension or mirror mode), so my students would be able to see a larger version of the screen. This is good for big classes, when I wouldn’t be able to show what’s happening on the screen to all students at once.

·      In Garage Band, there is a feature (previously called Quantifying, now called Flex Time) that will snap notes to a beat. This will be useful to put students’ improvisations to a beat and make a song out of it.

YouTube video of Flex Time

·      I can have students use the Mac’s keyboard to “play” software instruments. I can then ask them what changes they’d like to make to the notes and the beats to make it more accessible sounding, and it would still be the student’s creation!

Whenever I learn new things about the MacBook like I did this day, it makes me even more excited about getting one! Thanks to everyone who’s contributed to this project, it’s getting closer!