Acalanes High School district has put together a very comprehensive list of apps people might want to use for educational purposes. There's a lot of suggestions here, but they are organized well by curricular discipline. Thanks to Lara for suggesting this resource!
Showing posts with label iPad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPad. Show all posts
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
iPad 2 Rant
On March 4 Jeff Lamarche posted a very interesting piece about the iPad 2, Zoom, and other tablet devices. He creates software products for both the Mac iOS and Android mobile platforms. Here's a short quote from early in his piece:
Check out the full article, plus several comments, at:
Think about this: yesterday when I checked, the Android Marketplace had sixteen Honeycomb tablet-resolution apps. Sixteen. And you know what's not included in that sixteen? That space game that they show the guy playing in the Xoom commercials. In other words, they had to put a fake game in the commercial. Would they have done that if they had even one compelling application that could make the Xoom look better than the iPad?
As a tablet platform, Android has two big challenges.
First, it has a chicken-and-egg problem with software. Developers are waiting for people to buy Android tablets in sufficient quantity to support the platform, and many consumers are waiting for good apps to buy Android. In the phone world, Android seems to be past that hump. While the app situation is nowhere near as good as on iOS yet, there are apps — including some good ones — for the platform.
But, even if the Xoom were every bit as amazing of a piece of hardware as the iPad 2, it would still have the problem that it does less cool things. There's nothing comparable to Garage Band or iMovies, or any of the hundreds of jaw-dropping iPad apps that have been created in the last year like Infinity Blade, The Elements, or Alice. There's just no "wow" app you can put on your Xoom and show people that's going to make them want to run out and buy one. There's nothing you can do and confidently say "your iPad can't do that shit right there, bitch".
The second, and much larger problem is simply one of price. I see people constantly comparing the Android/iOS situation to the Windows/Mac situation of the eighties and nineties. I usually see this claim by people laughably arguing that Apple's failure is imminent.
In the nineties, Apple kept insane profit margins on their products while dozens of manufacturers created inexpensive commodity PCs running Windows. There was a margin war on the PC side, and PCs became noticeably cheaper (despite paying hefty licensing fees to Microsoft), and that price difference, combined with Microsoft closing some of the usability gap with the Mac, is what lead to the dominance of Wintel machines. In the nineties, Macs simply cost more. You could argue that Macs were cheaper based on TOC or employee efficiency, but in the quantifiable terms that bean counters understand, the Mac was a lot more expensive and didn't do noticeably more, especially once Adobe jumped ship and become cross-platform.
That's not where things are now, however. For typical consumers - people who don't have a dog in the technology race, so to speak, are going to buy based largely on price, Apple's mobile "post-PC devices" aren't just better than their competitors, they're cheaper than comparable competitors.
Check out the full article, plus several comments, at:
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Mind Mapping for Note Taking
Recently Toni Krasnic wrote a post titled: Mind Mapping to Replace Pen and Paper Note Taking in Classrooms. It's an interesting read, with several very useful links (including some mind maps he made of presentations at the conference he just attended). His mind mapping software of choice: iThoughts HD for the iPad. Check it out:
Getting to Know OPML
David Sparks, creator of the Macsparky website and author of the book Mac at Work, posted a blog entry about three weeks ago titled: Dancing with OPML. If you don't speak geek, OPML stands for Outliner Processor Markup Language.
If you work with mind maps, visual organizers, outliners, or Scrivener then you most likely want to become acquainted with the OPML format. Put simply it will allow you to share information across different programs: such as starting an article structure in MindNode Pro mind mapping software, exporting as OPML, then bringing into Scrivener with your writing structure intact!
There's lots of good things about OPML, and David did a great job of explaining the benefits of this format. I highly advise reading his article titled:
Note: This post has also been published at the Scrivener blog since going from iPad to Scrivener is one of the great benefits of OPML.
If you work with mind maps, visual organizers, outliners, or Scrivener then you most likely want to become acquainted with the OPML format. Put simply it will allow you to share information across different programs: such as starting an article structure in MindNode Pro mind mapping software, exporting as OPML, then bringing into Scrivener with your writing structure intact!
There's lots of good things about OPML, and David did a great job of explaining the benefits of this format. I highly advise reading his article titled:
Note: This post has also been published at the Scrivener blog since going from iPad to Scrivener is one of the great benefits of OPML.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
iThoughts
About a month ago I discovered a mind-mapping app named iThoughtsHD. While I use visual models a lot, I'm not a particular fan of mind mapping software. However, iThoughts works beautifully with the iPad. Simple, intuitive, quick.
The only downside to the app is that it costs $9.99. However, it's worth every penny and more if you plan on using it as part of your workflow.
There are currently four ways that I use iThoughts. First, I sometimes use it just to create a visual model. I export my final product as a PDF—in turn this allows me to upsize the image (if necessary) in something like Keynote with no loss in quality. Second, more often I use it as a way to brainstorm an initial outline structure—after all, mindmaps are essentially visual outlines. iThoughts allows me to export in the OPML format (or Outline Processor Markup Language)—in turn this means I can import my work into almost any dedicated outliner program (such as OmniOutliner, Tree, and several others). Third, I export in the MindManager format (as you can see, there are lots of different formats you can export) and then import into Curio for the Mac. Curio will read this file as a mindmap which I can further develop in that software program. Finally, and most importantly for me, I also export as OPML and then bring into Scrivener (the writing software). When you bring an OPML file into Scrivener's binder area then it will create an automatic structure to your binder area complete with files, sub-files, and so on. Since you can add "notes" to any node in an iThoughts mindmap, these notes get imported into Scrivener as the regular "text" for a particular file in the binder area.
Put differently, a lot of the power of iThoughts isn't just in what it makes, but also in the many ways you can take advantage of its various export formats to further refine your work in a variety of different software applications on your computer.
Check it out for yourself at the iThoughts website. What will be particularly useful to many is the tutorial movie they provide:
The only downside to the app is that it costs $9.99. However, it's worth every penny and more if you plan on using it as part of your workflow.
There are currently four ways that I use iThoughts. First, I sometimes use it just to create a visual model. I export my final product as a PDF—in turn this allows me to upsize the image (if necessary) in something like Keynote with no loss in quality. Second, more often I use it as a way to brainstorm an initial outline structure—after all, mindmaps are essentially visual outlines. iThoughts allows me to export in the OPML format (or Outline Processor Markup Language)—in turn this means I can import my work into almost any dedicated outliner program (such as OmniOutliner, Tree, and several others). Third, I export in the MindManager format (as you can see, there are lots of different formats you can export) and then import into Curio for the Mac. Curio will read this file as a mindmap which I can further develop in that software program. Finally, and most importantly for me, I also export as OPML and then bring into Scrivener (the writing software). When you bring an OPML file into Scrivener's binder area then it will create an automatic structure to your binder area complete with files, sub-files, and so on. Since you can add "notes" to any node in an iThoughts mindmap, these notes get imported into Scrivener as the regular "text" for a particular file in the binder area.
Put differently, a lot of the power of iThoughts isn't just in what it makes, but also in the many ways you can take advantage of its various export formats to further refine your work in a variety of different software applications on your computer.
Check it out for yourself at the iThoughts website. What will be particularly useful to many is the tutorial movie they provide:
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
David Hockney on Painting
I ran across a recent article about David Hockney using the iPad for his recent drawings. In fact, at a new exhibition in Paris all the drawings are displayed on a series of iPads. Check out the full story:
Saturday, October 23, 2010
OmniGraffle for the iPad
OmniGraffle is a great Mac-only software program for creating visual models. In the recent past OmniGroup released OmniGraffle for the iPad, and just a few days ago Wired Educator published a review of this app. This is a short, but important, read for those of you potentially interested in creating visual models or graphic organizers. Since OmniGraffle for the iPad has VGA support, it can be used not just for creating or showing visual models, but also to create ones live in the moment. Here's the link to their review:
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Index Card
Last week I wrote about CarbonFin Outliner, a very nice writing program that combines being an outliner program, with online web storage and sharing, and can be integrated into a workflow using a regular outliner on your computer or with Scrivener. This week I want to sing the praises of Index Card. This is also a writing program, with a focus on structure.
Index Card is created by DenVog. It provides two key views: index cards (natch) and outline view. This is not a dedicated outliner, so it only has one level (no indents, numbering, etc.) to the outline view. One great feature to this program is you can easily switch back and forth between index card view and outline view—this has many positive advantages if you are starting to write about something.
The final product in Index Card is an RTF (rich text format) file that can be opened by any word processor. You can also export in its native "index card" format if you wish to share a project with another person using an iPad. Like several other programs these days it integrates with Dropbox for syncing your work.
Index Card is more of a writing program (relative to CarbonFin Outliner), but its ability to change structure is still one of its most important features. As with physical index cards, on your iPad screen you can move around your virtual index cards as much as you want. In addition, you can "label" your index cards (using one of eight colors). In turn this makes is easy to create added structure to your project. The combination of moving around index cards, plus using labels, can be very powerful and intuitive for creating a structure to a new writing project.
As with typical note cards, each card has a title, but also you can write content on the card. This content need not be limited to the size of the card. The titles of cards get exported as "headers" in an RTF file, and the notes get exported as text under a specific header. The latest version of Index Cards adds the ability to write "secret" notes on the back of the card. In turn these secret notes on the back of a card do not get exported with the final RTF document.
The developer of Index Card is working with the developer of Scrivener to develop even better integration between these two programs. I don't know what form this integration will take, but for Scrivener users this is great news.
At $2.99, Index Card is a very affordable and handy writing app for the iPad. It's great for developing the initial structure for a new document (via cards that get turned into headers) as well as the initial writing that can easily be done in a chunked manner (i.e. card-specific associated text). And you can share the results of your work easily with other people, or regular computer programs, through the RTF export option. This is a nicely designed app that works smoothly, and the developer seems to be constantly working on new upgrades. A great tool to have on your iPad. Check it all out at:
Index Card is created by DenVog. It provides two key views: index cards (natch) and outline view. This is not a dedicated outliner, so it only has one level (no indents, numbering, etc.) to the outline view. One great feature to this program is you can easily switch back and forth between index card view and outline view—this has many positive advantages if you are starting to write about something.
The final product in Index Card is an RTF (rich text format) file that can be opened by any word processor. You can also export in its native "index card" format if you wish to share a project with another person using an iPad. Like several other programs these days it integrates with Dropbox for syncing your work.
Index Card is more of a writing program (relative to CarbonFin Outliner), but its ability to change structure is still one of its most important features. As with physical index cards, on your iPad screen you can move around your virtual index cards as much as you want. In addition, you can "label" your index cards (using one of eight colors). In turn this makes is easy to create added structure to your project. The combination of moving around index cards, plus using labels, can be very powerful and intuitive for creating a structure to a new writing project.
As with typical note cards, each card has a title, but also you can write content on the card. This content need not be limited to the size of the card. The titles of cards get exported as "headers" in an RTF file, and the notes get exported as text under a specific header. The latest version of Index Cards adds the ability to write "secret" notes on the back of the card. In turn these secret notes on the back of a card do not get exported with the final RTF document.
The developer of Index Card is working with the developer of Scrivener to develop even better integration between these two programs. I don't know what form this integration will take, but for Scrivener users this is great news.
At $2.99, Index Card is a very affordable and handy writing app for the iPad. It's great for developing the initial structure for a new document (via cards that get turned into headers) as well as the initial writing that can easily be done in a chunked manner (i.e. card-specific associated text). And you can share the results of your work easily with other people, or regular computer programs, through the RTF export option. This is a nicely designed app that works smoothly, and the developer seems to be constantly working on new upgrades. A great tool to have on your iPad. Check it all out at:
Thursday, October 14, 2010
CarbonFin Outliner
The apps I like the least for the iPad are those that are writing intensive. I've already got perfectly good tools for that: fantastic software on my desktop and laptop computers. The iPad seems ill suited for sustained writing. However, I've discovered a couple of apps that are great for shorter writing aimed at brainstorming or providing a structure. One of them is named Carbon Fin Outliner. The other is Index Card and I'll write about it at a later time. A quick look at the CarbonFin Outliner screen is provided below.
CarbonFin Outliner is, well, an outlining program. The structure is simple, but the tools are very effective. You can have multiple indented rows to your outline. Outline bullet points can have notes associated with them. It's easy to navigate the outline structure. You can collapse, and expand, outline rows. It's easy to rearrange, or reorder, rows.
Besides the basics of outlining, done well, CarbonFin Outliner offers some important additional tools. First, your outlines can be synced to a web-based server that CarbonFine provides (for free). All you have to do is tap an icon in the Outliner for iPad app and all your outlines are synced (and backed up) to the web. You can collaboratively share your outline with others—they would be given a link to your web-stored outline. They can make changes and when you press sync again on your iPad you'll be automatically updated on the iPad with your collaborator's changes.
Outlines can be exported as OPML files. This is a very generic format for outlines that many programs on both Macs and Windows can read. CarbonFin recommends using OmniOutliner for the Mac (a great program) and Bonsai for Windows. Thus I can create the beginning of an outline on my iPad and then later refine and expand it on my Mac easily enough. By the way, as long as your computer outlining program will export as OPML (and it should) then you can go the other direction also: create an outline on your computer, export/import, and then expand/refine the outline on your iPad or share for collaboration via CarbonFin's Outliner Online free service.
For some the most important feature is that CarbonFin Outliner's OPML exports are readable by the wonderful Scrivener writing software. These OPML files get imported into Scrivener as new folders and files. Notes for items get imported as the text for a particular file or folder. Thus CarbonFin is a great way to start a writing project in Scrivener as well.
In addition, CarbonFin allows you to easily add numbers (and sub-numbering) to your outlines, show a completion task-box for items (great for to-do lists and other things), and many other helpful options.
In the ten days I've had Outliner it has become one of the two most used content-creation apps on my iPad (the other is OmniFocus which I use all the time). The price is about $5. For more information, check out the details at:
CarbonFin Outliner is, well, an outlining program. The structure is simple, but the tools are very effective. You can have multiple indented rows to your outline. Outline bullet points can have notes associated with them. It's easy to navigate the outline structure. You can collapse, and expand, outline rows. It's easy to rearrange, or reorder, rows.
Besides the basics of outlining, done well, CarbonFin Outliner offers some important additional tools. First, your outlines can be synced to a web-based server that CarbonFine provides (for free). All you have to do is tap an icon in the Outliner for iPad app and all your outlines are synced (and backed up) to the web. You can collaboratively share your outline with others—they would be given a link to your web-stored outline. They can make changes and when you press sync again on your iPad you'll be automatically updated on the iPad with your collaborator's changes.
Outlines can be exported as OPML files. This is a very generic format for outlines that many programs on both Macs and Windows can read. CarbonFin recommends using OmniOutliner for the Mac (a great program) and Bonsai for Windows. Thus I can create the beginning of an outline on my iPad and then later refine and expand it on my Mac easily enough. By the way, as long as your computer outlining program will export as OPML (and it should) then you can go the other direction also: create an outline on your computer, export/import, and then expand/refine the outline on your iPad or share for collaboration via CarbonFin's Outliner Online free service.
For some the most important feature is that CarbonFin Outliner's OPML exports are readable by the wonderful Scrivener writing software. These OPML files get imported into Scrivener as new folders and files. Notes for items get imported as the text for a particular file or folder. Thus CarbonFin is a great way to start a writing project in Scrivener as well.
In addition, CarbonFin allows you to easily add numbers (and sub-numbering) to your outlines, show a completion task-box for items (great for to-do lists and other things), and many other helpful options.
In the ten days I've had Outliner it has become one of the two most used content-creation apps on my iPad (the other is OmniFocus which I use all the time). The price is about $5. For more information, check out the details at:
Friday, October 1, 2010
Big iPad App Release Day
It turns out that two major apps were upgraded or released today for the iPad: GoodReader had a major update (to version 3) and MacJournal for the iPad was released.
GoodReader is an inexpensive PDF reader for the iPad (and iPhone). It excels in many ways, but it's especially known for how well it handles large PDFs easily. It connects to several services for importing your PDFs including the must-have DropBox. It's a perfect PDF app in all ways except one: it did not have the ability to annotate PDFs. Instead you'd have to buy an application such as iAnnotate PDF to do annotations. (BTW, iAnnotate PDF is also a solid app.) Today version 3 of GoodReader was released and the major new feature: the ability to annotate PDFs!!!!!!!!
I've played around with version 3 a bit today, and it seems that way you add annotations is very easy and does not interrupt the flow of reading. The part that was unintuitive for me is how to change the icon for a note, or the color for a circle, line, or other figure. It turns out you simply draw in the default note, line, or object. Then when done, single-press on the new object and additional options come up for colors, type of icon and so forth. So actually doing everything I want with annotations is quite easy, but it wasn't obvious (to me) how to refine the look of a particular annotation at first.
MacJournal for the iPad is only a good option if you already use the wonderful Mac application MacJournal. MacJournal is a very solid software product that allows you to have multiple "journals" within one database. This is a very good program for integrating your various notes, letters, and other short writing into one place. In addition, MacJournal allows you to post new entries to a blog. The beauty of MacJournal for the iPad is now you can have all your MacJournal stuff on the Mac synced to your iPad. This can be incredibly useful if you have a large number of notes that you want to refer to via your iPad. You can easily create new entries using the iPad app also. So, if you're already a MacJournal user (or will be in the near future) then you'll definitely want to consider complementing the regular software with the iPad app. Definitely worth the $5.99 investment.
GoodReader is an inexpensive PDF reader for the iPad (and iPhone). It excels in many ways, but it's especially known for how well it handles large PDFs easily. It connects to several services for importing your PDFs including the must-have DropBox. It's a perfect PDF app in all ways except one: it did not have the ability to annotate PDFs. Instead you'd have to buy an application such as iAnnotate PDF to do annotations. (BTW, iAnnotate PDF is also a solid app.) Today version 3 of GoodReader was released and the major new feature: the ability to annotate PDFs!!!!!!!!
I've played around with version 3 a bit today, and it seems that way you add annotations is very easy and does not interrupt the flow of reading. The part that was unintuitive for me is how to change the icon for a note, or the color for a circle, line, or other figure. It turns out you simply draw in the default note, line, or object. Then when done, single-press on the new object and additional options come up for colors, type of icon and so forth. So actually doing everything I want with annotations is quite easy, but it wasn't obvious (to me) how to refine the look of a particular annotation at first.
MacJournal for the iPad is only a good option if you already use the wonderful Mac application MacJournal. MacJournal is a very solid software product that allows you to have multiple "journals" within one database. This is a very good program for integrating your various notes, letters, and other short writing into one place. In addition, MacJournal allows you to post new entries to a blog. The beauty of MacJournal for the iPad is now you can have all your MacJournal stuff on the Mac synced to your iPad. This can be incredibly useful if you have a large number of notes that you want to refer to via your iPad. You can easily create new entries using the iPad app also. So, if you're already a MacJournal user (or will be in the near future) then you'll definitely want to consider complementing the regular software with the iPad app. Definitely worth the $5.99 investment.
MacJournal and the iPad
Today one of my favorite applications on the Mac, MacJournal, released the iPad version of their app. So far it seems to work really well. One of the things that MacJournal will do is to allow you to create simple blog posts. (Note: MJ is not as full featured for blog posts as an app like MarsEdit.)
In fact, this simple post is being written and sent from my iPad! I will write more about MacJournal on the iPad once I have taken it through a few paces.
In fact, this simple post is being written and sent from my iPad! I will write more about MacJournal on the iPad once I have taken it through a few paces.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
iTunes Rocks the iPad
I quickly found that there's a lot that I want to do with the iPad that I can't do if I don't know how to use the free iTunes software to sync between my "pad" and my computer. You can probably get around just fine with transferring documents such as PDFs without knowing a lick about iTunes. But it really helps if you become iTunes savvy if you want to fully maximize using photos, music, and videos.
About a month ago I created a 14 minute movie that goes over various aspects of why and how you'd want to use iTunes. You can download that 85 Mb movie here:
I have a lot of documents I work with on my 16 Gb iPad but documents currently account for only 0.4 Gb of my available space. Photos and audio currently take up 1 Gb of space, and videos are taking up 10 Gb of space. You can see that in my case I'd want to be able to get photos, music, and video easily on and off my iPad so I could look, listen, view a variety of things. On the other hand, if you only have documents on your iPad there's a big, big, big chance you're not really using the device to its full and beautiful capacity.
To me the iPad, at heart, is a fantastic multimedia device. Documents (with annotations and more) are a bonus, but multimedia (lights, cameras, action!) are the heart of the power of this small dynamo.
Of course the other alternative is to rely on choppy YouTube videos. You know what I mean: watch 30 sections, wait a minute, watch 30 more seconds, wait another minute. That's soooo 1990s. And those videos are generally not great quality. But with a bit of knowledge you can get full beautiful videos on your iPad that play flawlessly since you're not relying on an internet connection. In fact, once you learn how to use iTunes with your iPad, you can put the movie I created on your iPad for easy review in the future (hint: it comes with chapters so you can easily go to specific sections if you want).
About a month ago I created a 14 minute movie that goes over various aspects of why and how you'd want to use iTunes. You can download that 85 Mb movie here:
I have a lot of documents I work with on my 16 Gb iPad but documents currently account for only 0.4 Gb of my available space. Photos and audio currently take up 1 Gb of space, and videos are taking up 10 Gb of space. You can see that in my case I'd want to be able to get photos, music, and video easily on and off my iPad so I could look, listen, view a variety of things. On the other hand, if you only have documents on your iPad there's a big, big, big chance you're not really using the device to its full and beautiful capacity.
To me the iPad, at heart, is a fantastic multimedia device. Documents (with annotations and more) are a bonus, but multimedia (lights, cameras, action!) are the heart of the power of this small dynamo.
Of course the other alternative is to rely on choppy YouTube videos. You know what I mean: watch 30 sections, wait a minute, watch 30 more seconds, wait another minute. That's soooo 1990s. And those videos are generally not great quality. But with a bit of knowledge you can get full beautiful videos on your iPad that play flawlessly since you're not relying on an internet connection. In fact, once you learn how to use iTunes with your iPad, you can put the movie I created on your iPad for easy review in the future (hint: it comes with chapters so you can easily go to specific sections if you want).
Friday, September 3, 2010
OmniFocus for iPad
OmniFocus for iPad may be the killer app out there right now for padders. That said, it helps a lot if you also use a Mac, perhaps even an iPhone, so all your stuff gets synced up nicely.
OmniFocus is one of the applications that works under the getting things done approach. Put more simply, it's a task management or "to do" software. I've used OmniFocus on my Mac and iPhone for over a year now, and together that made a visible impact on how productive I am. I never forget the "big stuff" (at least "big" to me), but the problem is forgetting the small stuff that's so very important.
This software product is $40, clearly at the high range for iPad apps. But I wouldn't think twice about buying it again now that I've had it for over a month. It is the app that I use the most on my iPad—and I use my iPad quite a lot these days.
There's really no reason for me to write another review of the OmniFocus app since others have already done that work so well. I highly encourage you to check out some of these reviews so you can see for yourself what the software does and how it accomplishes its objective so elegantly.
One review that contains lots of pictures (very helpful) was written at MacSparky shortly after the release of this app:
A shorter review, but still very useful, was written by Franklin Tessler for MacWorld:
A third review is provided at 148 Apps:
Finally, a final review that includes a YouTube video is provided at TiPb:
Beyond the reviews of the iPad app itself, perhaps the most important article you can read is titled The Psychology of OmniFocus written by Ryan Norbauer in December 2009. The reason you would want to buy this software (Mac, iPhone, or iPad version) becomes apparent when you read Ryan's article.
OmniFocus is one of the applications that works under the getting things done approach. Put more simply, it's a task management or "to do" software. I've used OmniFocus on my Mac and iPhone for over a year now, and together that made a visible impact on how productive I am. I never forget the "big stuff" (at least "big" to me), but the problem is forgetting the small stuff that's so very important.
This software product is $40, clearly at the high range for iPad apps. But I wouldn't think twice about buying it again now that I've had it for over a month. It is the app that I use the most on my iPad—and I use my iPad quite a lot these days.
There's really no reason for me to write another review of the OmniFocus app since others have already done that work so well. I highly encourage you to check out some of these reviews so you can see for yourself what the software does and how it accomplishes its objective so elegantly.
One review that contains lots of pictures (very helpful) was written at MacSparky shortly after the release of this app:
A shorter review, but still very useful, was written by Franklin Tessler for MacWorld:
A third review is provided at 148 Apps:
Finally, a final review that includes a YouTube video is provided at TiPb:
Beyond the reviews of the iPad app itself, perhaps the most important article you can read is titled The Psychology of OmniFocus written by Ryan Norbauer in December 2009. The reason you would want to buy this software (Mac, iPhone, or iPad version) becomes apparent when you read Ryan's article.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
SimpleNote
SimpleNote is probably my favorite app on the iPad. Sure, it's free, but that's not why I love it. It only allows you to make, and store, simple notes without any formatting (bold, italics, and the like). So why all the likey? It has always been a good app, but last week they released version 2 which adds important new and powerful features.
For $5 you can remove ads. For $12 per year you can upgrade to their premium package which removes ads, offers 30 backup versions of notes, allows you to create notes by email, and allows you to create an RSS feed for your notes. I'm still on the fence about whether I'll upgrade to premium. My guess is I will, but I want to give the new free version 2 a month or so of usage before I make a final decision.
Syncronicity
The ultimate in smooth automatic syncing is the key to SimpleNote's beauty. If you are a Mac or Windows user you can find free (or low cost) software that "talks" to SimpleNote. So what? Currently I have all my notes automatically synced in 5 places: iPad, iPhone, Mac at office, Mac at home, and on the SimpleNote website. This automatic syncing, in and of itself, makes SimpleNote a thing of beauty. Visit the SimpleNote downloads page to learn more about other software programs that "play nice" with SimpleNote on a Mac, Windows, Palm, or Android systems.Tags
Version 1 had no tags or folder system. Simply a long list of note titles. It wasn't impossible to find notes if you had a lot of them, but it was a bit of a struggle. With their new tag system it is super easy to categorize notes and subsequently find them for later viewing. Right now the tags only sync to SimpleNote on the web, iPad and iPhone. I imagine some of the outside developers will rework their software for Mac/Windows so that those software programs also recognize the SimpleNote tags. In the screenshot (above) it shows what it looks like when I've chosen the tag "multimedia": the result is I see only the 5 notes having that tag plus a small advert at the top.Live Sharing
For educators this feature has mucho potential. If you activate sharing for a specific note then SimpleNote provides you with a web address where the sharing takes place. Email this web address with whomever you like. In real time multiple people can make changes to the "note" and the results, once again, are automatically synced across all your devices! When done with the "sharing session" then turn off the share option for that note. Why is this potentially important? There are likely many benefits including live online discussions between students, collaborative editing of text documents by a group, live updated class notes where the notetaking responsibility is distributed across several students in a class session, and many more options. Sharing may be the most important new feature in SimpleNote.Create Web Pages
An alternative to sharing is to create a web page. This is somewhat akin to the sharing option in that SimpleNote will automatically give you a web page location where others can see a specific note. However, using this option others can not make changes to the text. On the other hand, you can continue to make changes to the note and the webpage will be automatically updated. Very nice.Full Screen
This is a very nice option. In the lower right corner of your iPad/iPhone screen is a grey icon for viewing an individual note full screen. Tapping this icon hides the ad, the list of other notes using the same tag, and the top toolbar. Very nice for reading longer notes.Summing Up
I'm sure there are other features of SimpleNote that I'm ignoring at the moment—but this app is certainly worth exploring on your own. You'll need to open a free SimpleNote account at their website. You'll also need to download the free SimpleNote apps for iPad and iPhone using the relevant App Store. The regular free version comes with some limitations: including ads which are shown on part of the SimpleNote screen.For $5 you can remove ads. For $12 per year you can upgrade to their premium package which removes ads, offers 30 backup versions of notes, allows you to create notes by email, and allows you to create an RSS feed for your notes. I'm still on the fence about whether I'll upgrade to premium. My guess is I will, but I want to give the new free version 2 a month or so of usage before I make a final decision.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Compass Stand
The iPad is so sleek and mobile that I wanted to find a stand that was equally sleek and mobile. Not easy. Some great stands out there, but the ones I initially saw either weren't sturdy or weren't very mobile. Then I discovered the compass stand made by TwelveSouth. The perfect stand as it works as both a display stand (vertical) or as a typing stand (slightly elevated). It's very small, solid, and comes with a convenient small sized holder to protect it. Check it out:
Monday, August 16, 2010
Reeder for iPad
I've never really taken advantage of RSS feeds before. The software options I found for collating these feeds I didn't like very much. And Google Reader, though very functional, is also über-ugly. All that changed with my new iPad.
Reeder is a very simple application that works seamlessly with Google Reader. Now I have the great functionality of the web-based Google product combined with an ultra-portable and relaxing RSS reader on my iPad.
What's the advantage of using RSS (or Really Simple Syndication)? It means the news comes to you, instead of you going to the news. Imagine you visit 20 different websites for news about various things. Imagine you visit another 20 once in a long while since they don't update their blogs very often. You now have 40 sites to visit. If they all offer RSS feeds (and they probably do) then all 40 of them can be collated into one viewing experience on Reeder.
Reeder plays well with Google Reader and its use of folders. So, you may have a folder for "World News" and another for "iPad News" as an example. You can then organize your various RSS feeds into these folders—and in turn this makes it easier to find and view blog posts in a specific category.
I'm providing a link to a review of Reeder for iPad. If you decide to buy, keep in mind that there are two separate apps made by the same developer: Reeder and Reeder for iPad. Be very sure to get the iPad version.
Reeder is a very simple application that works seamlessly with Google Reader. Now I have the great functionality of the web-based Google product combined with an ultra-portable and relaxing RSS reader on my iPad.
What's the advantage of using RSS (or Really Simple Syndication)? It means the news comes to you, instead of you going to the news. Imagine you visit 20 different websites for news about various things. Imagine you visit another 20 once in a long while since they don't update their blogs very often. You now have 40 sites to visit. If they all offer RSS feeds (and they probably do) then all 40 of them can be collated into one viewing experience on Reeder.
Reeder plays well with Google Reader and its use of folders. So, you may have a folder for "World News" and another for "iPad News" as an example. You can then organize your various RSS feeds into these folders—and in turn this makes it easier to find and view blog posts in a specific category.
I'm providing a link to a review of Reeder for iPad. If you decide to buy, keep in mind that there are two separate apps made by the same developer: Reeder and Reeder for iPad. Be very sure to get the iPad version.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Brent's Personal VisiCalc moment
Brent Simmons (a Mac software developer) recently wrote a short post about the iPad:
Every successful computing platform has to have a “VisiCalc moment” — the moment it goes from fun toy and technology demo to “holy crap this thing is useful.”
For the Apple II Plus that moment came the first time people saw VisiCalc. Imagine never having seen a spreadsheet on a computer — imagine always having done that stuff by hand. Then, for the first time, you enter some numbers and formulas into a computer and watch it calculate. Then edit some numbers and watch it recalculate. Pure magic. PFM.
I don’t think there’s a single VisiCalc moment that everyone will have for the iPad — but, for me personally, it was OmniFocus. That’s when my iPad went from toy to indispensable tool (oh, but still a fun toy, too).
Before OmniFocus, my iPad wandered around my desks without a real place. Now it has a place right next to my dev machine’s keyboard.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
The iPad
Unlike some people, I'm actually pretty impressed with what I've seen so far with the iPad device. It could be a real winner, and it's hard to imagine it not being a great product after 2 or 3 years at the most. There's a place for tablets (whether made by Apple or someone else). I personally don't need the 3G version as wifi would be just fine for my needs.
Given that the virtual keyboard works decently well, here's the financial reasons I'll likely be getting a first generation iPad:
There's likely other obvious things I'm not thinking about right now that would make the iPad useful to me. To me the iPad is like having a great sweatshirt—casual and comfortable. I wouldn't wear/use it in formal intensive work situations at all. But for informal, less keyboard intensive work (or play) it would be fantastic. Given the price point (about 50% of the price of a laptop I would buy), the complete package becomes very attractive.
Given that the virtual keyboard works decently well, here's the financial reasons I'll likely be getting a first generation iPad:
- Portable photo frame. I'd end up paying about $250 for a really good photo frame. The iPad looks like it will be even better than the wonderful Sony high-end models.
- Video frame. I'd willingly pay $100 for a bigger video watching device for when I'm traveling and other situations. Currently I use my iPhone for that, but the size of the iPad is much more attractive for this functionality.
- PDF reader. I'd guestimate it would be worth $50 to me to have a good size PDF reader when traveling, at home, and in other casual situations. I can use my iPhone for this, but the screen is a bit small. I already have great PDF viewing software with my iPhone that will transfer over to the iPad.
- Sketching. Okay, maybe this is only worth $25 to me. But there's some very good finger-sketching software available on the iPhone. Yet that screen is too small for my needs. However, on an iPad this finger sketching software now becomes quite useful for a variety of needs.
- Email and web. If the virtual keyboard works decently well (i.e. I can type without having to look at the keyboard all the time) then these two pieces of functionality become quite useful to me—again that extra screen space makes a difference, especially when viewing and writing to discussions at my course websites.
- OmniFocus. OmniFocus is my "to do" software of choice. It works great on a Mac, works great on an iPhone, and the syncing capabilities are solid. Adding my iPad as another device that incorporates OmniFocus would be a plus.
There's likely other obvious things I'm not thinking about right now that would make the iPad useful to me. To me the iPad is like having a great sweatshirt—casual and comfortable. I wouldn't wear/use it in formal intensive work situations at all. But for informal, less keyboard intensive work (or play) it would be fantastic. Given the price point (about 50% of the price of a laptop I would buy), the complete package becomes very attractive.
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