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Borders eBook Reader For The iPad

May 12, 2010 admin No comments

Borders announced they are going to be using the Kobo system for their eBooks. The Kobo is a eBook reader much like the Kindle with a few unique features. You will be able to use it to access ebook lists and buy offerings from Borders.

Like the Kindle reader, Kobo has released a version of their software that runs on the iPad. Like the standalone Kobo reader hardware, the software connects to their online service for purchasing books.

The iPad reader offers multiple background looks, one of which you may notice is pretty close to Apple’s offering.

The app even offers a swipe to view the books that you are in the process of reading.

Books purchased through the Kobo reader will not open in either the iBooks reader app or the Kindle reader app. There are a few features missing at this time; dictionary, highlighting and writing notes. Non of which would be show stoppers for folks interested in just reading or people who already bought Borders eBooks and want to enjoy those books on the go with their iPad.

@Home, Software Borders ebooks, eBook shelves, ebooks on the iPad, I'm reading feature, Kobo eBook reader, limited features, ordering books online

A Quick Way To Take It With You On The iPad

May 12, 2010 admin No comments

Being able to access your important documents with you is a feature of the iPad that is enjoyed ever day. There are many ways to grab data from your computer and make it available to view and use on your iPad at a another time and place. This can be meetings notes, power points, spreadsheets and even Web sites (for offline reading).

Most of the methods we have covered is moving documents through the cloud. Which has resulted in a few emails to us about some companies not feeling safe with their files out on a third party server. This can be true with important documents around the house that carry personal information.

A option is to ‘print’ to your iPad. ACTPrinter is a free app that resides on your Mac (no PC option yet). When you have a document of just about any time you want to use later on your iPad, you ‘print’ that document. ACTPrinter adds the option in the print PDF pull down to ‘Print to iPhone’. Choosing this converts your documents to a PDF and loads it into their desktop app to send to your iPad.

Launching the iPad app, not free but very inexpensive, it connects to the Mac app and downloads the files into your iPad to use later. No need to put the files out to a external server or Web site, it goes directly from your Mac to your iPad.

The documents are then readable on the screen to reference later. The ACTPrinter app on the iPad can also allow your documents to be read on other apps you may have installed such as GoodReader since you may have a favorite with features you enjoy. As well, ACTPrinter can view PDFs you have currently in other locations on the iPad like sent to you via eMail. It keeps your files local to you without a outside party getting involved.

@Home, @Work, Software iPad utility, Mac to iPad, mobile documents, Print to iPad, private info on the iPad, secure iPad documents, viewing other files, viewing PDFs later, wireless network

Are We Expecting Too Much Out of iPad Apps?

May 11, 2010 admin No comments

There is a certain amount of trust when you buy a iPad or iPhone app from the iTunes app store. Unlike desktop software, there are very few apps that allow any kind of demo version. Demos are generally ‘lite’, feature limited or you get a free app that you buy features via ‘in app purchases’. Most apps are very lightly supported by developer Web sites too. Only a couple screen shots if any and a few bullet points. With a few exceptions, the super low prices are what allows this type of software distribution work. The more expensive apps generally have a desktop app where it is assumed the iPad app will carry much of the similar features and level of professionalism. Much like FileMaker’s Bento and OmniGroup’s OmniGraffle.

The quantity of iPad apps is still low enough that you can browse through a group you have narrowed with a search and come pretty close to what your lookng for within a few swipes. This will end soon enough as apps continue to be added daily and soon you will have endless options like on the iPhone. Not a bad thing! Just upping the amount of time to find what your looking for.

Recently we were looking for a world clock. Digital numbers are fine but we were hoping for a face clock representation with hands. These are generally easier to glance at out of the corner of your eye and quickly know the time. For our needs; Portland Oregon, San Francisco California, Dallas Texas, New York NY, London UK, Hanover Germany and Hyderabad India. If we had to we could narrow to three or four.

Right off, the screen shots for The World Clock seemed to hit what we needed. It even carries the added feature of a globe so we know if we are looking at night or day before we call.

It has a nice added bonus of being able to touch a place and move your finger to another place to show the difference in times between the two. The app allows for portrait or landscape views which makes it handy to jump to no matter what your doing on your iPad for a quick reference.

There are pull downs to set which cities are shown, to allow the clocks to be heard ticking and if you wish to show sunrise/sunset next to each city/clock.

You may be wondering why we are not showing the seven city clocks we were interested in. Well, because only New York and London are available in their list. Hyderabad, sixth largest city in India, Portland Oregon… don’t get us started… they seem like major cities but aren’t available. We are very hopeful the developer will add our cities so the app becomes usable for us. Till then, we will get out our world map of cities and look for cities next to the big ones we are interested in and use those.

@Work, Everyday use, Software developers delivering, good apps, iPad app selections, limited software, searching for a solution, world clocks, world views

Weekend Fun with Kids Making Cookies on the iPad

May 9, 2010 admin No comments

We would say that we bought Cookie Doodle for our kids to have some weekend fun but really we have been creating fun ‘cookies’ to put in our emails and annoucements.

But, lets say you were looking to have some fun with your kids or going to let your kids play on your iPad for a bit (we prefer the quality family time side). Amongst our selection of drawing apps, we have added Cookie Doodle to the page of our fun apps.

You can choose from over 100 different cutter shapes, many different types of dough, frostings and add-ons like sprinkles and candies. These are not additions to the program, all these options come in the basic app.

Cookie Doodle is a full end to end cookie making process. Pick your dough, cut it, bake it and decorate it. Then, you can share the image of a cookie or a plate of your creations via an email. The backgrounds and images are on the simple side but that doesn’t distract from the true fun of kids making cookies without the cleanup.

@Home, For Fun decorating cookies, frosting and sprinkles, iPad family fun, kids making cookies, no clean up

Big Updates For 2 Free iPad Notes Apps

May 9, 2010 admin No comments

Sundry Notes and Evernote have been covered here several times before as being a couple very popular notes apps around the office. Sundry Notes because of it’s ability to have elements of text, ink and clippings as individual items on a page or joined to be moved and placed. Evernote for being very good at holding individual pages in bundles which can be synced and edited across multiple devices – iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC.

Evernote: Version 1.8.2 build 81703

Improved drag and top of text and to do items
Added the ability to drag-and-drop an attachment within a note or between notes
Added a shortcut (Command-Control-T) to create a New Tag
Prevented the creation of notes that exceed the maximum note size
Improved stability when editing note title or tags
Improved indexing of imported PDFs
Better pasting from Microsoft Word and Excel

Sundry Notes: New in Version 1.2

Exporting notes is much improved (file sharing via iTunes now available)
Whiteboard line smoothing is enabled
Whiteboard shapes are available, along with line snapping
Whiteboard saved brushes are available (pens, markers, etc.)
Bullets & numbering enabled in text boxes
New text box tools, including a better font selector, auto-complete toggle, and arrow keys
Exporting to PDF now supports selectable/copyable text
Can now import PDFs directly from a computer through iTunes
Images can be locked into the background to prevent accidental editing
Emailing a note now uses the built-in mail client
Added a “re-open last website” button
General usability improvements
Fixed several crash bugs
Reduced overall memory usage by more than 50%

@Home, @Work editable elements, Evernote syncing notes, free iPad apps, handwritten iPad notes

Cool Hunting on the iPad… is… Cool

May 8, 2010 admin No comments

We have talked about news sites apps and we have talked about apps that get the creative thinking going. CoolHunting has been a site that is fun to visit from time to time to see what is ‘news’ in design. We’re not talking about high fashion, rather what is fun in designs all around us. For many of us, it’s the site to browse through with your morning coffee.

As you would imagine, we mention it here because there is an app for that… for the iPad. It carries all of the info and brings in the content and images you expect from the site but in a iPad tuned layout. Which, really seems to favor this type of site/service. Like the Web site, the CoolHunting iPad app is free.

Choosing a article opens a browser view within the app in a iPad tuned view. You can use all the next/back and shortcuts staying in the app while you read. From the article view, you can share out via email, Twitter and Facebook.

From the articles, you can use their links to go to the site or service that Cool Hunting has written about. The site your visiting continues to stay within the app so going back to their list of articles is easy. Not need to jump between the app and the Built-In Safari. If you do wish to view in Safari though, they provide a button to ‘Open in Safari’.

@Home, @Work, For Fun Cool Hunting News, creative ideas, Creative Magazine for the iPad, fun to read, idea generator, in app browser

Another Popular Handwritten And Text Notes For The iPad

May 7, 2010 admin No comments

An app has been showing up around the office for the iPad users that want to draw on their text notes.

PaperDesk opens up with a wood desktop backdrop, allowing the user to create a new notebooks in a variety of cover colors. You should name your notebook at this time, there is currently no option to name or rename later. You will only be able to delete at the notebook level going forward from the time of creation.

The free lite version is limited to three notebooks while the full version allow unlimited notebooks for just a couple dollars.

Opening the notebook, you can add pages in a variety of paper types, add a audio recording, handwrite or draw and type text. It is very quick to change the ‘ink’ pen to match your needs it’s button pull-down. A very handy feature is ‘Bookmarks’ that allow you to jump to important parts of your notepad quickly.

A notable difference between PaperDesk and a few of the other Handwriting / Text Notebook apps is that all text is seen as a single text block on the page. So, drawing with electronic ink wont be used to line between text boxes. Text will need to be indented with spaces to create sub bits of text. You can draw / write anywhere on the page but you are not able to move bits of text to the right of the screen or into smaller bubbles of info. It all comes down to how you write and keep your notes.

In the current version of the software, the only method to get the notes out of the app is to email them. Great for tossing a quick note to a co-worker but tough for those users who need to have access to their notes on their desktops.

The developer for this app mentions several times that using a writing stylus with their app works very well. Here is one option we use called Pogo.

@Work, Everyday use color coding, handwriting notes, handwritten iPad notebooks, quick change options, text and ink, unlimited notebooks, voice notes

More Dropbox Love For The iPad

May 4, 2010 admin No comments

For files that are not high level corporate security, Dropbox has become a very popular way to store files for either access for the iPad and to move documents to the iPad. Many apps now come with Dropbox integration build in directly. Documents To Go and GoodReader both allow direct integration of document storage through Dropbox (and other cloud providers).

Dropbox themselves has long had a iPhone app that has proven a great way to get pictures taken with the iPhone through the cloud to other devices. Much faster than doing a sync or emailing a image at a time.

There is now a iPad version of Dropbox available! It does a nice job of using the available screen area for clear viewing of available folders, files and documents. Currently, there doesn’t appear to be any way to create new folders in the Dropbox cloud via the app. And, the uploading of files is limited to photos and videos.

Selecting any files on your Dropbox location will download it and viewed on the iPad screen. From the document view, a link to the file on Dropbox can be shared out in an email. Also, the ability move the file to other readers is available much like the built in Mail app.

A couple negatives have hit us pretty quickly… they many not matter to you so your level of excitement will vary. You are downloading one file to view, there is no storage within the Dropbox app so if you select another document it pushes out the previous viewed. The document on the screen wont go away till you replace it with another. And when you send a document to another reader application (one way to store the documents), the document looses it’s name… being replaced with a long number.

This is the first release of a free Dropbox iPad version so we will take a few negatives. knowing things get better as more users give positive feedback. It’s nice to have the full screen clear reader for our Dropbox stored reference files for a quick look.

@Home, @Work, Everyday use Dropbox cloud, free app, iPad document viewer, iPad files in the cloud, reference documents, send files to other readers

A Different Way To Make Pictures Pop On Your iPad

May 3, 2010 admin No comments

A fun app we have long used on the iPhone has come to the iPad. A photo editing app with an unusual name, OutColor. A different name, but it really says what you do with this app on your iPad. There are UI changes that make the app easier to use on the iPad, but the most noticeable is not needing to zoom in and out to check your progress.

OutColor’s features causes a person to rethink the way they look at their pictures. In the case of OutColor, thinking outside of the box is thinking outside of a ‘frame’.

The app has you choose from a variety of framing to frame part of the picture contents. Everything outside of the frame is blanked out… you can have a solid color or an image as the background. Highlighting parts of the image that is outside of the frame makes it appear. You can add shadowing to the frame and to the parts of the image your showing outside of the frame.

Here is a quick example we did:

The developer has quite a few much more creative images made by other folks using OutColor. Below would be created from a picture of a boy and the elephant, frame the elephant and highlight the trunk and boy:

For the really creative thinkers… use OutColor to create images you can use in your Scrapbook via ScrapPad.

@Home, @Work, Software creative thinking, fine details, Image framing, iPad image editor, iPad scrapbooking, iPad version, pop out images

Scrapbooking On Your iPad

May 2, 2010 admin No comments

For years, there has been software apps for desktop computers that could be used to create prints that look somewhat like your paper scrapbooks. Much like writing on a piece of paper and typing out a letter on a computer, the experience is different when there is paper in hand versus a computer mouse.

Most Scrapbooking computer programs are super simple page layout apps that have gotten slow buy in from the true Scrapbooking person.

ScrapPad for the iPad may just be able to break down the wall a bit. The taping and moving of images with a person’s finger adds a human touch to creating exciting pages. Add a image, add a frame, twist a bit of embellishment, choose a background paper, type in text and even send out to your friends. All things that work so much better with your fingers involved than a mouse.

Within the ScrapPad app, you choose to create a new ‘Scrapbook’.

Across the top of the ScrapPad page is several theme ‘kits’ of backgrounds, Borders and Embellishments. The developer promises many more to come.

You can use any art bits of any of the kits on a single page. Having the art divided this way into Kits just makes for a more manageable viewing when trying to choose art rather than an endless scrolling page. Choose any kit to have it appear from the file cabinet drawer on the left.

This is an example of the backgrounds or ‘papers’ in the first ‘kit’. Choose any one or non to use.

You can have multiple embellishments on any page to get the effect your looking for. Here is the ones in a different kit than we showed the backgrounds from above. Don’t worry if the angle isn’t right, you can turn and resize via two finger pinching and twisting.

Pictures can be added from Photos area (note the camera icon on the left, top of the cabinet). Like embellishments, pictures can be twisted and resized anytime your in the edit mode of your Scrapbook page. A pleasant surprise was holding your finger on anything on your page will bring up the option to move that item to a different layer, forward or back… as well as delete.

Text can be added in a variety of colors and fonts.

Finally, when your done (yes, this isn’t a scrapbook page we would be proud to show mom, it’s just an example of the features we were playing with) you can share out the page or full book to Facebook, via email or save to the built in Photo area.

If your not able to keep a close eye on your kids when they have the sudden desire to create a scrapbook this is a great option to a pair of scissors in little hands. We love paper, but it’s nice to see we have an option that actually feels right when you use it. ScrapPad is a great bit of fun to use around the house for creative time or while your watching TV.

@Home, For Fun, Software adding embellishments, creating on the iPad, electronic scrapbooking, family fun, ipad scrapbooks, no scissors needed, print scrapbook page, send to facebook, two finger resizing

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