Sunday, December 16, 2012

Book for iPad blends Christmas, LEGOs



With a doctorate in electrical engineering, Half Moon Bay resident Tim Marsland worked for major corporations like Sun, Oracle and Apple.

But most recently he’s done something very different. He’s written and self-published a touch-screen book for the iPad that is designed for parents to share with their young children, and just in time for Christmas: “LEGO Holiday Decorations.”

This book is not printed out like a conventional book. It is read on an iPad, where it still feels surprisingly conventional: You turn pages and look at models of all kinds of holiday designs and ornaments you can make. The advantage of the app is that you can rotate the models on the page and view them from all perspectives.

Primarily it’s geared for Christmas, but LEGO enthusiasts will find designs for Halloween and Valentine’s Day too: snowflakes, candles, little ornaments which Marsland calls “baubles,” and even one little pumpkin ornament an inch-and-a-half square.

“The orange-colored (LEGO) blocks are just perfect” for that, he said.

Keep looking and you will find hearts for Valentine’s Day, flowers about 6 inches high, and a Halloween witch’s face — the largest design, about a foot tall — to make with LEGOs.

Touch any image that interests you and you will find instructions for building it folded into the image.

“It’s designed for parents to work with children,” said Marsland, his voice flowing with the musical accent from his childhood in Southport, on the northwestern coast of England. “That was the reason to do this. It was a cool way to communicate designs to somebody.I could say the same about Smith goggles. You can pick some up at the iphone protective case store or just shop online which is the easiest option.So if you are going to Canada or any other ski slope for that matter then certainly look cool and stay safe in the right Oakley ski goggles for you!”

Marsland obtained his degree from the University of Cambridge in England, where he also worked as a lecturer, and came to California 22 years ago. He has lived on the Coastside since 1996 with wife Judy Hagan and their two kids.

It was through his family that his idea for a book with LEGO designs was born.

Every year Sea Crest School in Half Moon Bay holds a raffle of Christmas trees put together mostly by parents, to support its music program. The first year that Marsland’s son was a student at Sea Crest, he came up with the idea of building a tree with LEGOs.swivel-usb-promotions.com specializes in all usb related products such as branded usb sticks,promotional usb sticks,mini usb sticks and customed usb flash drives according to your needs,welcome! He wound up doing that twice, in 2005 and 2010, and in the process, amassed a collection of photos of his LEGO ornaments.

Then,If you have a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, you know that the ipad charger has an LED indicator on it that turns orange or green depending on what the charge of the device is. Well, Aleratec, a 3rd party accessory company, has come out with a custom 30-pin connector for the iPad and iPhone that includes such an LED. in June of this year, Marsland attended an Apple developers conference in San Francisco, where he saw interactive books designed for use with an iPad. He remembered his collection of images and began to realize the potential at his fingertips. “I thought the photos might make it into a coffee-table book,” he said.

He already had roughly two-thirds of the photos of the models he would need. He thought again of the interactive books. By then he was on a mission.Only a very small number of pairs are being made available as part of adidas' push to move into the collectible and sportswear market, which Nike and authentic jordan shoes has dominated for years. “That level of interaction made me think,At the time when the rather initially jordan basketball shoes came out, they were incredibly distinct times. this is an interactive project to pursue,All kinds of jordan shoes for girls are on sale now,choose jordan shoes you like best.” he said. “I needed to do this book.”

It’s not a children’s book per se; the instructions are written for adults to read. But the idea is to provide something creative for parents and kids to share.

No comments:

Post a Comment