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Sorted for iPad: Task Management, iWork Style

By Matthew Guay on March 9, 2011 in iOS Apps, Reviews

Apple has set a high bar for iOS apps with their own iPad apps. The bundled apps, including Calendar and Contacts, are nicely designed, but their iWork apps really set the bar with full-featured office programs that are easier to use than most desktop apps but offer much of the same power. The new GarageBand and iMovie apps for iPad 2 take this even further and bring features you’d be hard pressed to replicate on a traditional computer.

That said, hundreds of 3rd party developers have taken the iPad as a canvas for their best work, and have created beautiful and useful apps for the most popular tablet computer today. Sorted for iPad is one such app. It brings iWork’s style to task management, and lets you easily create lists of the things you need to do and stay organized from your iPad. Simple to use with an elegant interface, it seems like it might be what Apple would have created if they’d made a todo list app for the iWork suite. Best of all, the latest version is a universal app that you can use from your iPhone or iPod Touch as well!

Get Your Tasks Sorted

Sorted is a simple and elegant to-do list app that makes it easy to keep up with everything you need to do. It uses a document based interface to organize tasks, unlike many apps that keep all of your tasks together. Its interface works like many apps including the iWork apps; your documents are listed on the main screen, and you can open one by tapping it from the home screen.

Sorted includes a default task list to help you get started, or you can go ahead and create a new list to organize your tasks. Just enter your list’s title, then double-tap on any line to enter a new task. This is much quicker than opening a New Task dialog like you have to do in many apps.

Your default tasks are just a plain text to-do, but Sorted lets you add much more info if you want. Just tap the blue arrow on the left of a task to add a due date, reminder, and select a color to prioritize your tasks. Swipe up to add a note to the task as well. Once you’ve added extra info, you’ll see it in a smaller font under your task. If you’re not fond of the default priority colors, you can change them from Sorted’s main settings as well.

Sorted’s interface is very easy to use. You can rearrange tasks just by dragging them by the three line handle on the right; no need to tap edit or change anything else. Once you’ve finished a task, you can swipe it with one finger to check it off as completed. Alternately, swipe with two fingers to delete a task.

You’ll use the main List view by default, but Sorted can also display your tasks organized by priority or date. Alternately, select Completed to see all the tasks you’ve finished. If you accidentally swiped a task but aren’t actually finished with it yet, just swipe it again here and it’ll go back to your main list.

The nicest touch is the stamp on the top corner of the extra pages; it looks just like it was done with a real rubber stamp and ink. The little design touches such as the leather background behind the paper and the torn off paper edge at the top really make Sorted a pleasure to use. Combine that with fast operation and multitouch gestures, and Sorted definitely feels like it was built specifically for iPad much more than most other todo list apps.

Back on the main screen, you can add as many lists as you want to keep up with everything. Best of all, you can duplicate lists you’ve already created to make new lists. I really like this feature, since you can, for example, create a standard todo list for, say, a college class. Then, just duplicate it for each class, and add the info that’s important for that particular class. Once you’ve added a lot of tasks, it might be easy to lose them. Don’t worry, though; just tap the search button at the top to locate anything in your lists. Then, if you want to share your lists with others, you can email a plain text version right from Sorted. The developers plan to add the ability to sync your lists between devices in a future update; this will be especially nice if you have an iPhone and an iPad, since Sorted is already a universal app.

Conclusion

Sorted is a very simple todo list app that makes it quick and easy to keep up with everything you need to do. You can organize your tasks in separate lists, prioritize everything, and mark off the things you’ve done with multitouch gestures. It’s definitely a todo list app that feels like it’s been designed from the ground-up to work great on iPad. To me, it feels like a great addition to the iWork suite of apps! Best of all, it’s only $0.99, which is much cheaper than most iPad todo list apps. If you’ve used Sorted on your iPad, or on your iPhone since it’s now a universal app, let us know how it’s worked out for you!

Our Rating: 9/10

Download Sorted from the App Store | $0.99 – Universal app – iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad

Sorted’s Official Site

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Essay App | Beautiful Rich Text Editing on iPad

By Matthew Guay on March 4, 2011 in Featured, iOS Apps, Reviews

The iPad is often referred to as a consumption device, and it is great for reading and watching videos. But your iPad can be a serious productivity tool, too, and I use mine all the time for writing. We recently looked at iA Writer, which is still one of the best apps for writing plain text in a distraction free environment. Sometimes, though, you might want to be able to add more features to your text without having to resort to a full word processor like Pages.

Until recently, there were no rich text editors in the App Store that made it easy to just write rich text without a full Office program. The new Essay App cures this problem. It’s a rich text editor that’s already been featured by Apple in the App Store even though it’s only been out for little over a month. We were excited to get the chance to review Essay for iPad, so let’s take a look and see what’s so great about Essay to get this much attention!

Rich Text Editing Made Simple

Essay App serves a simple purpose: it makes it easy to create and edit rich text on your iPad. There are tons of plain text editing apps, and then there are Office apps like Pages and QuickOffice. Essay sits right in the middle; it gives you a way to create beautifully formatted text without creating a new Office document. Best of all, Essay is both simple and elegant. When you launch the app, the following splash screen appears for a moment.

The editor interface then slides in, and you’ll see a new Welcome document ready for you to read. As you can see, the document includes headings, italics, and bold text; this is just a sample of what you can do with the app. The left pane stores all the documents you create, while the middle is the main editor interface, and the right holds the editing tools. The interface is very smooth and delightful to use; the panes slide into position, and when you open a new file, it slides in on top of your previous file. It’s little touches like this that go a long ways towards making an otherwise boring task exciting.

All files you create are saved in HTML format, and can be printed or emailed directly from the app. You can also save them to your Dropbox account so you can access them from anywhere. Just press the settings gear icon and link your Dropbox folder. By default, your files will be synced to a /Essay folder on the top of your Dropbox, but you can change this if you wish. If you want an easy way to publish formatted basic HTML documents from your iPad, you could even set your Public folder as your linked folder. Then, just open the Dropbox app and copy the link, and you’ll have an essay ready to share with the world!

Writing in Essay

Writing a new document in Essay works just as you’d expect from many text editor apps. Press the plus button on the left to add a new file, then enter your title at the top. Then, just press Done or tap in the white editor area to start typing.

As you’re writing, you can maximize your editing space by pinching to zoom out. This closes the left and right panes, letting you edit in full screen mode. Alternately, swipe in from the right to open the editor pallet. Here you can choose to make your selected text bold, italicized, underlined, striked out, or highlighted with the ! button. If you have an external keyboard, you can also enter press Alt+Space and then use standard function keys such as b and I to change text to bold or italics just like you would on a PC. This is a nice touch that most apps don’t include.

Alternately, choose Section or Subsection for H1 or H2 headlines in Helvetica, or Paragraph for standard paragraph formatted Georgia text. You can also insert a blockquote that will be indented and italicized. This covers almost everything you’ll need to create beautifully formatted text, and you might even start writing your homework essays in Essay! Plus, the developer plans to add support for bulleted lists, links, and more in future updates.

If the fonts feel too small for you, just tap the A button under the printer to choose from three font sizes. The highlighted A shows the current size choice. The largest size makes Essay app a nice reading app, too!

As mentioned before, you can print or email your documents right from Essay App. Mail on iPad doesn’t include any text formatting options, so this is a great way to create more formatted emails than you could otherwise. And the included font choices look great in print, too.

Conclusion

After using plain text editors for so long, you can get used to living without rich formatting for standard note taking and writing on iPad. Essay proves how useful the basic formatting options can be, and brings them to iPad in an elegant yet simple interface. It’s no wonder Essay has already gotten so much recognition! Whether you need to write real essays on your iPad, are looking for a better way to jot your thought down and keep them formatted, or want to email fully formatted messages, Essay is a great app to cover all this and more. Plus, it’s just getting started; with future updates, it’ll be even more useful for writing rich text wherever you are!

Our Rating: 9/10

Download Essay App for iPad from the App Store | $3.99

Essay App’s Official Site

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Learn to Create Tumblr Themes the Easy Way

By Matthew Guay on February 25, 2011 in Books, Reviews

Would you like to make a customized theme for your Tumblr site, or create new Tumblr themes to sell? While there are many reasons a WordPress blog is more versatile and powerful, Tumblr is still one of the easiest blogging systems to use. If you just want an easy way to publish your pictures, videos, thoughts, and more, Tumblr makes it easy to do. Best of all, it’s much easier to create new themes for.

That’s where the Rockable Press eBook Theme Tumblr Like a Pro comes in. This 138 page eBook, along with around 3 hours of included tutorial videos, takes you though everything you need to learn to start designing themes for Tumblr. You can learn to create beautiful themes for your own use, or to sell to the more than 14 million Tumblr users that have blogs online today! Even major theme developers like WooThemes have created themes for Tumblr, and there’s over 30 different Tumblr themes for sell today on ThemeForest by freelancers and small businesses. There’s a huge opportunity to create and sell new themes on marketplaces like ThemeForest, and this eBook will teach what it takes to go from zero to hero.

What’s Included?

The book first teaches about Tumblr’s origins, and the basics of designing themes for the service. It then progresses through the different types of posts in Tumblr, and how to customize your theme for each of them. Next, you’ll be able to take your theme knowledge to creating static pages, as well as adding customization options so your customers can tweak the font’s colors, fonts, and more. Finally, it progresses to more advanced topics, including how to create AJAX enabled themes, utalize the Tumblr API, and much more.

Throughout the text, you’ll see blocks of code to help you understand what’s being explained, as well as images of what the result should look like on your site.

As you’re reading, you’ll see markers that let you know when you should switch to the video. Just like a self-study course, you’ll be immersed in learning to theme Tumblr blogs with both the detailed text and the accompanying videos.

The videos themselves are very informative; you’ll see the most important parts explained directly, and then see the code in action on Tumblr. All together, Theme Tumblr Like a Pro is more like a mini-course on creating Tumblr themes than a traditional eBook. It takes the best of both worlds, and really makes coding a theme seem simpler than you might have thought.

Conclusion

Tumblr is actually amazingly simple to create themes for, and if you’ve found it daunting to create WordPress themes then you’ll be refreshed by Tumblr’s simplicity. Even though it’s simple, you’ll still need to learn the ropes before you can dive in and start creating world-class themes. Theme Tumblr Like a Pro is a great book to get you started. Far from simply teaching the basics, it’ll help you create advanced, dynamic themes. In fact, after reading it, I’m thinking that I should try creating a Tumblr theme even though I don’t use Tumblr myself anymore. I could always sell it on ThemeForest…

Theme Tumblr Like a Pro is available from Rockable Press for $29. For this, you’ll get the eBook in PDF format, as well as the sample theme with the source code and PSD files. You’ll also get around 3 hours of tutorial videos. All together, you’ll be fully equipped to learn everything you need to start coding themes. It’d be best if you knew at least some HTML and CSS before getting started. With everything included, it’s definitely a reasonable price, and if you can go sell new Tumblr themes when you’re done, all the better!

Don’t forget … if you do make a new Tumblr theme after reading this book, be sure to leave a comment here and let us see the results!

Get more info and purchase Theme Tumblr Like a Pro today!

ThemeForest Links:

Find Premium Tumblr Themes at ThemeForest

Get Started Selling Tumblr Themes on ThemeForest

Decided Tumblr’s not for you? Here’s how to Switch Your Tumblr blog to WordPress instead!

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Tumblr2WP: Move Your Tumblr Blogs to WordPress the Easy Way

By Matthew Guay on February 25, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

Would you like to move your Tumblr blog to WordPress, but think it’d be to hard to get everything moved over? Not any more! We ran an article a couple months ago about How to Move Your Tumblr Blog to WordPress, but it was still rather complicated. You had to export your site, import it into WordPress, then manually change each of your posts to the new WooTumblog post formats to keep everything working the same as before. If your Tumblr blog had many posts, it could be a daunting task!

Thanks to WooThemes, it’s now incredibly simple to move your Tumblr blog to WordPress. They’ve recently created the Tumblr2WordPress exporter that will export your entire Tumblr site into format that will work great with any Tumblog WooTheme such as Canvas, Crisp, or the new Auld theme. It’ll also work great with any theme customized with the WooTumblog plugin. Here’s what you’ll need to do.

Get Your WordPress Site Ready

First, you’ll need a website with WordPress and a WooTumblog compatible theme setup to import your site. Check out our details on the original post for more info. If you’ve already had the site setup for some time, you’ll need to upgrade your WooTheme to work with the new post formats. Check this support article from WooThemes for more info on upgrading your theme. Once it’s upgraded, you’ll be able to use the new WordPress 3.1 Post Formats for your Tumblog.

Export Your Tumblr Site With Tumblr2WP

Now, head over to the new Tumblr2WordPress site to get your Tumblr blog exported. Enter your Tumblr blog address; even if you’ve added a custom domain, make sure you use the original yourblog.tumblr.com address. Then, choose your settings; the defaults usually should be fine. Click Export when you’re finished, and save your export file to your computer.

Finally, go back to your WordPress blog and import your posts as your would from any other blog. After a few moments, your Tumblr posts should all be in your WordPress blog, with the correct post formats and all of your content, just as your Tumblr blog was before.

That’s a ton easier than the other method! Thanks to WooThemes, you can now move your Tumblr blog to WordPress much easier than before. So why wait? Move over today and take advantage of all of WordPress’ advantages without losing any of your content you’ve added to Tumblr!

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Get Angry Birds on Your Windows PC

By Matthew Guay on February 22, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

Want to get the most popular mobile game on your PC? Angry Birds has taken the iPhone and Android world by storm, and it was recently released on the new Mac App Store. Windows doesn’t include an App Store by default, so for the most part you have to manually find, purchase, and install new programs you want. That is now changing with Intel’s AppUp Store. The AppUp store is designed to bring new applications to Windows XP and 7 based netbook, but it works fine on normal Windows desktops and laptops as well. Best of all, Angry Birds is now available for $4.99 on the AppUp Store and runs great on any Windows computer.

Angry Birds is now avilable for all Windows Computers directly from Rovio, so you can now get it without the Intel AppUp store. Just go to http://download.angrybirds.com/, and you can download trial and paid versions of all the editions of Angry Birds!

Install the AppUp Store

First, though, you’ll need to install the Intel AppUp application on your PC. Download and install it as normal on your computer. This should only take a few minutes, and once it’s installed, you’ll have quick access to tons of great, new free and premium apps for your Windows PC.

Note: While the AppUp Center works great on both Windows 7 and Windows XP computers, it is not working at all on Windows Vista in our tests. If you try it on Vista and get it to work, please let us know in the comments below!

In the mean time, you’ll need to register for an AppUp account. Head over to the AppUp registration site, and enter your personal and credit card info so you’ll be ready to purchase new apps like Angry Birds.

As soon as the install is finished, the AppUp Center should automatically open. If it doesn’t, you’ll find it in your Start menu or on your desktop. You can now browse the store and see the different games and apps that are included. Apps are organized into categories, with featured apps front and center similar to the way the iOS App Store looks in iTunes. Only difference is, this time, the programs are designed for your PC.

Getting Angry Birds

Ok, enough talk. Let’s get the game everyone wants: Angry Birds. It’s currently a featured app, so you could just click Buy App right from the front page. Alternately, click its link or search for it via the top search bar to see more info. Once you’re sure you want to buy it, click Buy App.

When prompted, sign in with the account you made previously, then confirm that you want to purchase the app. The AppUp Center gives you a 24 hour free trial, so you can return the app within 24 hours if you decide you don’t want it.

Angry Birds will now start downloading, and will automatically install once its downloaded. It still uses a standard Windows Installer, and you may have to click an UAC prompt during the installation, but overall it’s quicker and easier than traditional Windows program installs. It’s not as easy as installing apps from the Mac App Store, but it’s not that bad either. And, if you have multiple PCs, you can install the same app on up to 4 computers with the same account for no additional charge!

Smash Those Pigs!

Once its installed, you can launch the game straight from the AppUp center, or from the Angry Birds link in your Start menu. Seconds later, you’ll be playing the world’s favorite touch screen game … on your PC with a mouse! I’d say it’d be rather fun on an HP Touchsmart or other PC with a touchscreen, though I don’t have a touchscreen PC to try it on. If you’ve got a touchscreen PC, let us know how it works on it!

Angry Birds worked great on my main PC, which is a Windows 7 desktop with an AMD Athlon 64 x2 processor … definitely not a netbook! It also works great on netbooks, of course. The only computer I couldn’t get it to work on was a Vista desktop with an Intel processor; hopefully they’ll support Vista in the near future, but for now, the App Center only runs on Windows 7 and XP.

Angry Birds for PC includes everything you love about Angry Birds, including all of the standard levels. The only problem is, you can’t import your score from your iPhone or Android phone, so you’ll have to go beat all the levels all over again! Or, if you haven’t gotten to experience Angry Birds because you don’t have a modern smartphone, it’ll be all new to you.

Since most PCs don’t have touchscreens, you’ll have to drag the screens with your mouse to pan and see the whole level. Then, just click and drag your bird back, aim, and release your mouse to set your bird sailing through the air to the birds.

Oddly, the only major problem I had with Angry Birds for PC was with taking screenshots. It interferes with almost every screenshot program, so the only way I could get shots is to press Alt-tab and then hover over the Angry Birds icon in my taskbar. Camtasia Studio couldn’t take a video screencast of it, either; it just recorded my desktop with my mouse going back and forth and the Angry Birds sounds in the background. But hey, you don’t usually need to take screenshots while playing a game, so this shouldn’t be a problem!

Returning AppUp Center Apps

Of course, Angry Birds isn’t the only interesting app in the AppUp center, so feel free to check out other apps in the store. There’s plenty of free and for-pay options, and you just might find a fun, new app that you’ve never come across before. Best of all, you can try out any app, even paid ones, for free for 24 hours. If you decide you don’t want the app, just open the AppUp Center and click the My Apps tab on the left. Select Transaction History, then click the Options button on the app you want to return. Click Cancel Purchase before your 24 hour timeframe is up to return it. You’ll be asked to tell why you’re returning the app, and then it will automatically uninstall from your computer. That’s tons easier than most ways of trying out new programs!

Conclusion

It’s exciting as a Windows PC user to see new apps coming out for PCs again. Recently it’s seemed like all the developer focus is on mobile and Mac apps, but Intel’s AppUp Center just might turn things around again. In fact, some developers are finding it easier to get their new apps out for PCs than on Apple’s App Stores. TinyGrab, a great freemium screenshot utility for Macs, Windows, and iOS, has recently found Apple’s restrictions on the App Store too restrictive for their app, while at the same time they’ve found it easy to work with Intel on getting their app on the AppUp Center.

Hopefully Intel will continue to improve the AppUp Center and make it fully supported on computers other than netbooks. And, of course, hopefully Microsoft will make their own App Store for Windows and make it easier to get apps on all modern versions of Windows. For now, though, all the apps I tried work great on Windows 7 and XP. And hey, who would have thought that Angry Birds would finally be available for PCs?