Yipee! Apple is offering their Camp Apple again this summer. You can find the details here.

The Apple Camp is basically a free 3 hour workshop for kids ages 8 to 12 on iPhoto, GarageBand, iMovie, or iWork. Did I mention one of my best parenting tips: Free? The workshops are offered at your local Apple Store and you must preregister.

I signed my kids up last year but for some reason our session was canceled. We could not fit an alternate session date into our schedule but Apple was very accommodating and sent the kids some T-shirts and patches anyway.

I will be signing them up again this year.

Today technology is not my friend.

But I am optimistic.

I recently purchased Bento for Mac. This is a home database program. Yes, very geeky. But I figured, hey - I have a team of six to manage and that means a lot of data. Schedules, phone numbers, soccer teams, all that kind of stuff.

One full day later, I know a lot more about Bento and it has a lot of potential. But it can’t do laundry, cook dinner, play with the kids, drive them around, and all of the other parenting stuff that I haven’t been doing because I was learning how to use Bento.

C’est la vie.

How to Use your iPod Touch as PDA

If you are a big Apple fan like me, you probably use your computer to keep yourself organized. Apple’s native applications like iCal and AddressBook are excellent organizing and productivity tools for any busy parent. Or, if you prefer, Microsoft Office for Mac works equally well.

This is great if you are at home, but when you are on the go - it doesn’t help that your schedule and your contacts are trapped in the computer on your desk. But getting a handheld device or PDA that plays well with a Mac has always been a bit of a challenge.

iPhone

So, Apple created the iPhone. Everyone has heard of this incredible device. But it is not right for everyone for a myriad of reasons that I won’t go into here. I have my own reasons for not making the jump to iPhone, the biggest one being the 2 year cell phone contract that I am locked into with another carrier.

Enter the iPod Touch

On the surface, it looks like I am out of luck. But what many people don’t realize is that I can use the iPod Touch as PDA right out of the box. For whatever reason, Apple decided to market the iPod Touch as, well, an iPod. A music player. In reality this handy little device does so much more than deliver tunes. So, if you are not a music aficionado, or if you already have an mp3 player, your may never realize that an iPod Touch as PDA can be an important productivity and organizing tool in your life.

iPod Touch Productivity Applications

The iPod Touch ships with several applications including Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Email. When it comes to productivity these three applications are what you need. The Calendar and Contacts applications easily sync to your iCal and AddressBook or Microsoft Office on your computer. And, YES, you can input new events and addresses directly into the iPod Touch. The next time you sync with your computer this new information will sync onto your computer and the data will be in both places. (Not to confuse you, but when this device was first introduced by Apple there was no calendar input on the iPod Touch - but since that time Apple has added the calendar input capability)

At this point the iPod Touch Notes application does not sync with the computer. So whatever notes you make on the iPod Touch stay on the device only. The Notes application is useful to parents for making grocery lists, errand lists, organizing projects and the like. Even though iPod Touch Notes has no Mac counterpart - I still love this application.

I don’t find Email to be as useful as the other iPod Touch as PDA applications. This is because iPod Touch only has internet connectivity through wi-fi. This means that you need to have access to a wi-fi netwok either at home or at a hotspot to use the internet and to download your email. But if you want 24/7 email and internet then you should be looking at the iPhone.

Using the iPod Touch as PDA is a natural choice if you use a Mac at home. Even if your platform is Windows, the iPod Touch is still compatible.

Ok, by now you know that I have a geeky side. Today Apple, Inc. revealed the iPod Touch. At this point there are not too many details available, but it seems like it will be Apple’s version of a PDA - the iPhone without the phone.

To me this would be awesome. I struggle with the battle between the paper planner and the digital planner and this device could be the solution. I will be looking forward to reading more details and reviews.

For a teaser, I found this post at ZDNet - The Phoneless iPhone Lives: iPod Touch.

Update: The iPod Touch is here and I have looked at several of the features. My post called iPod Touch as PDA details how you can use the iPod Touch to organize your life. In the article No Calendar Input on iPod Touch I discuss how initially the iPod Touch did not have this function. But of course that changed and in the post iPod Touch as PDA and Calendar Input I rejoice at this new functionality.