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Rotate Pictures and Screenshots on iPad or iPhone

By Matthew Guay on January 19, 2011 in Quick Tips

Now that you’re ready to write drafts and posts from anywhere on your iPad or iPhone, you’ll be wanting to post more than ever. One thing I post all the time is screenshots. Whether I’m writing a review or how-to tutorial, I always illustrate my posts with screenshots of the Windows program, webapp, or iOS app I’m writing about. But if you’re blogging with screenshots from your iDevice, you may hit a snag.

Taking a screenshot isn’t a problem; just press your home and power button at the same time, and a screenshot will be saved to your Photo roll. Now, you can easily find your screenshots in the Photos app or any other program that allows you to import images. The only problem is, if your device was in landscape mode when you took the screenshot, then your screenshot will be flipped on its side. iOS takes the shot as though the device was in standard mode with the home button on the bottom, even though on iPad almost every app supports any rotation mode.

Flip Those Screenshots

Good thing is, that’s not something you can’t fix. There’s a number of free photo editing apps that let you rotate, crop, and flip pictures quickly. Two I use frequently are Adobe Photoshop Express for iOS and PhotoPad. Both of these are free universal apps that work on all iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPads. Let’s see how to rotate a shot using Photoshop Express; it’s my personal favorite, and has a nicer UI in my opinion. Feel free to try out other apps and see which one fits your workflow best, though.

Ok, so first, grab the shot you want to crop. You’ll find all your screenshots you’ve taken in the Saved Photos album.

Tap the crop icon in the bottom left corner, then select Rotate to, well, rotate your shot. Or, of course, if you need to crop your screenshot, select that instead. You shouldn’t need to straighten screenshots, though…

Now just drag a corner of your picture with one finger to rotate it like you need. I’d love to have a multitouch rotate and crop too, but I haven’t found one yet … if you know of an app that is more touch-orientated for photo touchup, let us know in the comments. Once you’ve got your shot rotated as you need, press Ok in the bottom right corner to accept the changes.

Now your picture is the correct orientation and is ready to be blogged. Press Save on the top right, and you’ll see your new, corrected screenshot in the Photo Roll as before. And, as before, this works the exact same on any iOS device, so even though the example shots here are on iPad, it’ll work the same on your iPhone too!

Flip Them Back in Windows

If you copy your screenshots to your PC before blogging them, you can still rotate them easily without opening Photoshop or other intensive apps. Just open your shot in the default Windows Photo Viewer or Windows Live Photo Gallery, and click the Rotate button on the bottom. Exit the window to save your shot once you’ve got it rotated as you want. Now you can upload it directly to your WordPress editor or write a new post in Live Writer … Quick and easy.

Got more tips for blogging on the go from your iPhone or iPad? Sound off in the comments!

Happy screenshot blogging!

Download Photoshop Express for iOS (universal app)

Download WordPress for iOS (universal app)

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Get a Free Graphing Calculator App for Your PC – Microsoft Math 4

By Matthew Guay on January 18, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

Does Windows Calculator not quite cut it for you? Calculator has been a default app in Windows ever since the release of Windows 1.0, and while Calculator was given a total refresh and gained tons of new features in Windows 7, it’s still not powerful enough for most Algebra and higher math. The free Powertoy Calculator that was released with XP does not work on Windows 7 or Vista, and for a while, the only other good free graphing calculator solutions for PC users have been online tools like WolframAlpha.com.

That’s now changed, however, as Microsoft recently released Microsoft Math 4. Previously a commercial program, Microsoft Math 4 is now fully free for Windows users. It’s a great app that lets you solve equations, differentiate or integrate, and create 2D and 3D graphs. Whether you’re using your keyboard or a tablet input device, you’ll be able to get your math facts figured out quickly. Plus, the entire app uses the ribbon interface, so it’s easy to learn how to use.

Microsoft Math can solve equations, differentiate or integrate them, and even show you the steps needed to find the answer. While some teachers might fear it being used for cheating, it’s actually a great way to understand how to solve more complex problems you might have stumbled through otherwise.

Then, from the Graphing tab, you can create beautiful 2D and 3D graphs in seconds. Zoom in or out with your scroll wheel. The graphics are amazingly smooth for a utility app like this!

All work and no play … well, you won’t have to worry about that either. Microsoft tucked away 7 cute calculator skins in the View tab ranging from flowered to flaming to traditional calculator styles. There’s even a cute sketched skin as you see below.

It’s a pretty handy app to have around, especially if you or anyone in your family’s still in school. In fact, the only problem with it is that you might get tempted to just use it to solve your tough math instead of using your grey matter!

Download Microsoft Math 4 (Microsoft.com, free)

Get more info about Microsoft Math 4

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The Calculator That Should have Shipped with iPad – Calcbot

By Matthew Guay on January 18, 2011 in Featured, iOS Apps

One of the first things I noticed on my iPad was the lack of a calculator app. Not like there’s not half a dozen gadgets around that also have a calculator built in, but somehow it just seemed odd to not have one built in. Apple did a great job making Notes, Calendar, and Contacts look awesome on iPad, why not Calculator (and Voice Memos, Stocks, Clock, and Weather)?

At the same time, even on the iPhone or iPod Touch, the calculator app could be improved. In general, the iPhone Calculator app is good enough, and for a basic calculator with standard and scientific mode, it’s about as simple as they come. But still, wouldn’t you like to have calculator history, be able to see your expression’s result as you’re typing, and more?

Calcbot from Tapbots is a great solution to both of these problems. It’s an elegant universal calculator app that makes it simple to do any calculation you need on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. This app was designed to make doing math take even less time on your devices. Is this even possible? Let’s take a peek under the hood and see if you really do need a new calculator app for iOS.

Calculating with a Robot

Calcbot describes itself as a “simple, yet intelligent calculator”, and I definitely found it to live up to its name while reviewing it. You’ll see a quick Getting Started guide when you first launch the app that will help you get up to speed on how to get the most from Calcbot. Whether you load it on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you’ll get the same great features.

The main interface looks much like you’d expect. You’ll see standard calculator features on the main screen, but swipe to the left to see advanced, scientific mode features such as sin, square roots, and more. Tap the orange Shift key to see the inverse of the functions of the light blue buttons, such as sin^-1. Best thing is, you can find any root or raise a number to any power you need. For example, if you need to calculate 7⁴, enter 7, then swipe left and press y^x, then swipe right and tap 4. With that, you’ll find the answer is 2,041, and you’ll still see the equation underneath in light blue!

Calcbot automatically computes your equation as you’re entering it, so you can see everything in light blue underneath your solution at the top. If you make a mistake, swipe left over the calculator screen on the top or press the red delete button on the bottom to delete the last thing you pressed. No more blindly pressing C or MC anymore; who could even remember what they did, anyhow?

Once you’re finished, press the equal button on the bottom to save your answer. Everything you enter is saved in Calcbot’s history, so you can easily jump back and see everything you’ve calculated by pulling down on the top of the app. This will open a history tape that remembers both the answer and the equation you’d entered, much like many scientific calculators such as the popular TI-30X. That calculator saved me in highschool, and I don’t know how much time I saved by being able to go back and grab something from the history. It’s every bit as helpful in Calcbot, and once you’ve used it, you’ll wonder how you lived without it.

Supersize Me

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, Calcbot is a universal app and works great on iPad, too. In Landscape mode, you can get the same great calculation features on the left with your history tape on the right. This makes it quick and easy to run a ton of calculations and quickly jump between the ones you need. Whether you’re a student in math class or are getting ready for tax season (oh my…), the history on the side is incredibly handy. Just tap one of the entries to use the result or equation again, or to email the problem to your professor, accountant, or archrival! You can even send the entire tape history as an email or copy it to your clipboard from the gear button in the top right.

Want the largest calculator you’ve ever used (well, at least the largest one that still looks stylish…)? Just turn your iPad to portrait mode, and Calcbot will fill your iPad screen. Oddly enough, you can’t access history this way, but just turn your device to the side to see your history as before. Everything else works the same … swipe left to see extra functions, or tap the i button to change settings and get info about the app. Somehow, this reminds me of a cash register, though if that’s what you’re actually using your iPad for, you’d likely be better off with Square

Conclusion

It’s hard not to love Calcbot. Tapbots did a great job integrating beautiful design with advanced functionality that just makes it easier to check out a quick calculation. You’ll never have to second-guess if you entered your equation correctly, since it shows up right up under the answer, and you can always go back and check it in the history. It still doesn’t give your iPad or iPhone all the features of, say, a TI-89, but it does give you most of the features of a standard scientific calculator such as the TI-30X, including History mode. Finally, it’s a universal app, so you won’t have to purchase a different app for each of your devices. If you’re looking for a great calculator for your iPad, and wouldn’t mind getting a better iPhone one at the same time, this is the calculator app to get.

Our Rating: 9/10

Download Calcbot from the App Store | $1.99 (universal | iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch)

Calcbot’s Official Site

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Giveaway: CSS3Machine – Web Creativity on iPad

By Matthew Guay on January 17, 2011 in Featured, iOS Apps, Techinch

Even though the iPad was released almost a year ago, the jury’s still out on whether it’s a device for consumption or creation. I personally feel it’s a great creative app, and even find it great for writing in Pages or PlainText. Today we’re going to look at an exciting app, CSS3Machine, that can take your creativity on the iPad to new levels and let you design animated sites all in native CSS3. We’ve even got 5 free licenses for a giveaway, so keep reading to find out how to enter.

Getting Started

CSS3Machine starts with a site selector hovering over the main screen. You can pick from 2 impressive premade demo sites to try out, or tap the plus icon to create a new site. If you want to copy a site to your computer, press the arrow button to email it to yourself.

Alternately, tap the gears icon to see CSS3Machine’s settings. You’ll notice a web address listed; this lets you access your CSS stylesheet from your desktop browser. You can also set a default email address to send templates to, or get more info about the app.

Flash? Who Needs Flash?

Let’s dive in and see what you can do in CSS3Machine. Once you’ve opened the template you want to play with, you can immediately see the impressive animated transitions built in, or start tweaking the code to get it to work like you want. Each property is listed on the left, and all of its functions are on the right where you can quickly tweak them as you like. As soon as you tweak a property, the preview on the bottom will update to reflect your changes.

Tap the plus icon in the properties list to add a new property to your site. There’s tons to explore here, and with time, you can make some truly impressive animations powered only by CSS3.

The preview box only shows a static copy of your rendered code, so if you want to see the animated CSS in action, tap the Animations button on the bottom of the left pane. Now tap the play button at the top of the preview window to see your CSS animation fully rendered on your device. If you’d like to see a video of it in action, check out the CSS3Machine official site.

Not Just Fancy Animation

If you’re not trying to create the most amazing CSS animations and effects, CSS3Machine is still for you. You can create a new basic style, and then add your own text CSS to tweak as you want. Here I’m tweaking the H2 style on the default text used on document samples in CSS3Machine.

Drag sliders and tap color swaths to find the perfect look for your shadows, colors, background gradients, and more. The great thing is, you can try out so many different options and then immediately see what it creates in the preview on the bottom. I’ve never seen a web editor that works like this on a PC; it’s a fun and creative way to make your code look just like you want!

CSS3Machine is also a great way to learn more about CSS. Just tap the i icon in the top right of any property editing screen to find out more about that CSS property. You’ll get a quick overview of its history and what it does, as well as which browsers currently support that property.

Want to switch to your own text or change something else about the base document? Tap the arrow button in the bottom left corner of the site preview box to open the HTML template editor. The editor includes common HTML characters and snippets so you can type in what you want without shuffling between iPad keyboard layouts. You can then copy the text to your clipboard from the top arrow button if you wish, or just save the changes to CSS3Machine.

Get Your CSS on Your PC

Now, to put your code into use, browse to the address in the settings screen we saw before from your desktop browser while CSS3Machine is running on your iPad. You can then copy the code directly to your favorite code editor, WordPress Dashboard, or whatever you use to manage your site. From a touch interface to standards-compliant code, CSS3Machine is a pretty awesome tool. The app did crash on me a couple times while I was testing it, but other than that, it was a very cool way to try out all of what CSS3 has to offer on my iPad!

Enter the CSS3Machine Giveaway

Edit: Giveaway now closed. Thanks everyone who entered!

If you’d like to win a free copy of CSS3Machine for iPad, just leave a comment below with a valid email address. The contest closes at Midnight EST, Thursday, January 20th, so make sure to leave a comment before then. If you don’t have an iPad but want to comment, please state so in the comments so we’ll be sure to pick someone that can actually use the app. Want another shot at winning? Tweet the following (or something similar with a link to this post), then leave a second comment with the link to your tweet.

Win a free copy of CSS3Machine for iPad from @techinch! http://bit.ly/e1LYuX

If you don’t win, don’t worry … you can still pick up a copy from the App Store for $4.99. It’s a great way to explore what CSS3 has to offer while learning what each property does. If you create some awesome web art or a new site using CSS3Machine, be sure to let us know in the comments … we’d love to see it!

Purchase CSS3Machine from the App Store ($4.99 – iPad Only)

Get more info about CSS3Machine from its official site (Numerosign.com)

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Save Draft Posts to WordPress with the WordPress iOS app

By Matthew Guay on January 17, 2011 in Featured, Quick Tips

Whether you’re carrying around an iPhone or iPod Touch in your pocket or have a new iPad you’d like to make into a mobile writing powerhouse, chances are you’d like to write blog posts on the go. The WordPress for iOS app is the obvious blogging choice for iOS devices if you’ve got a WordPress blog. You can quickly edit existing posts, write new ones, and even add pictures and screenshots directly from your device.

The only problem I faced when using the WordPress app was the lack of a “Save as Draft” feature. By default, the WordPress app saves draft posts to your device, but doesn’t give you the option to upload the draft. When I write a post, I prefer to upload a draft of the post to make sure I don’t lose what I wrote and also so I can easily add to it online. Additionally, I write for several different tech blogs, and on most of them, I can only upload a draft post and submit it for review, and the editor then publishes the post on the site’s schedule. Many freelance writers have a similar setup, so the lack of a draft upload feature makes the WordPress app almost unusable.

Maybe I can't upload posts from my iPad...

Behold the Hidden Draft Upload Feature!

Turns out, draft uploading is only hidden, not missing. WordPress for iOS lets you set a post’s status, so you can get your post saved online just like you want. If you simply press Save by default, you’ll get a draft of your post saved locally. Tap the Status bar, however, and you can choose exactly how to save your post. Select Draft to post a draft to your blog so you can continue editing online, or select Pending Review to submit your fresh post to your editor. No matter what you want to set your post’s status as, you can choose it here. Awesome!

Post Status? We have Post Statuses ... wait, is that a word?

Once you’ve done this, you’ll simply see a Save button in the top right corner of the app instead of the Save and Publish buttons you had previously. Press Save, and seconds later your post will be online, ready for further editing, scheduling, and more.

Editing Posts Online

Speaking of which, if you ever want to edit a post on your WordPress dashboard directly from your iPad, you may have noticed that the editor box doesn’t show you the entire post. Don’t worry … You can still edit any part you need. Just drag inside the box with two fingers to scroll as you would from a laptop touchpad, then tap to start editing where you need. Everything else on the WordPress dashboard works fine. You can tweak plugins and themes, edit posts, and even add new plugins from the Plugin Directory all from an iPhone or iPad. However, you can’t add new photos, plugins, or themes directly from your device, since iOS doesn’t let sites or apps see the main filesystem. Hopefully they’ll enable this in the future … At least we can hope!

Draft posts uploaded from iPad, ready for editing and more

So, with these tips, your iDevice can become a much more useful blogging tool. Do you find yourself blogging from your iPhone or iPad often? Let us know your blogging habits in the comments!

And, for the record, I wrote this whole post directly on my iPad in the WordPress app…

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