There’s only one problem: iOS and Dropbox don’t work perfectly together. iOS doesn’t include a full file system, so you can’t just sync Dropbox like you would on a Mac or PC. Then, the iWork apps, Omni apps such as OmniFocus and OmniOutliner, and more don’t include native Dropbox integration. That’s why DropDAV is such an exciting service. It lets you integrate your Dropbox account with any WebDAV enabled app. The service was recently updated to make it more reliable and faster, though at the same time, they’ve dropped their free plans. Now, you’ll need to sign up for a $5 per month subscription to use Dropbox via WebDAV on your iOS device. That’s not a bad bargin, considering that it can make your iOS device a much more productive tool on the go.

Special Techinch.com DropDAV discount

If you’re ready to try out DropDAV with your Dropbox account, we’ve got a special treat for you. In addition to the standard 14 day free trial, you can enter the coupon code techinch1 to get an extra month of DropDAV service for free. That’s essentially a $5 savings, and gives you a whole extra 30 days to see if it’s the service you need to get the most out of iWork, Omni apps, and more on your iPad.

We’d love to hear how DropDAV or your other favorite webDAV service makes it easier for you to make your iPad a productive business tool. Plus, with the new iWork apps on iPhone, you can even use this to get more productivity out of your iPhone or iPod Touch!

Signup for DropDAV

Several months back, I was excited to discover Elements+, a great addon for Adobe Photoshop Elements that brings many missing features to the otherwise excellent photo editing app. It’s become part of my standard PSE workflow, letting me unlock layers in folders and get more power out of Elements.

The developer behind Elements+ is back with a new tool: Script Arsenal. This new set of scripts is designed for standard Photoshop, and runs on Photoshop CS3+ for Windows and OS X. Script Arsenal contains over 100 scripts that can speed up your Photoshop workflow and give you easy access to features that make editing images a snap. I haven’t been able to try out Script Arsenal, since I do not have a copy of full Photoshop, but was impressed at the detailed descriptions of all of included functions. You can use it to quickly close all other photos, add torn edges or a page curl to your images, open photos from a folder based on a set of rules, and more.

Best of all, Script Arsenal is reasonably priced at $12 a copy, so it’s a cheap way to make Photoshop easier to use. Check out the documentation for more info, then download the trial and see if Script Arsenal is the tool for you. If you do purchase and use it, please let us know your experiences!

Evernote, one of the best cross-platform note taking apps, has just unveiled their newly redesigned webapp. While there are Evernote apps for Windows, OS X, iOS, Android, and more, the webapp is the easiest way to edit your notes from any computer. Until now, the Evernote webapp has been the service’s weakest link. It was rather difficult to use, and the design quality was much lower than their desktop and mobile apps.

The newly redesigned Evernote webapp

Now, of all things, I’ve personally have been switching to more plain-text note apps like SimpleNote, mainly because the Evernote Windows app is still rather pokey, even after tweaking it to speed it up a bit. Hopefully they’ll now focus on improving the desktop apps again, too! For now, though, the Evernote webapp is almost nice enough to use on its own, sans desktop apps. With the Chrome Web Clipper for Evernote, it’s a great way to remember everything you come across online.

Get more info about Evernote Web

Sign into your account and try out the new version

Want to learn more about Evernote? This is the book you need: Evernote Essentials

Microsoft may have killed off the fabled Courier Tablet, but if two enterprising developers have their way, it may live again … as an iPad app! 2 Boeing engineers are on a quest to redesign the Courier interface on the iPad with an app called Taposé, and you can pledge $10 or more from now until May 21st to help make sure the project gets developed.

The Courier Tablet was a Microsoft Research project designed to make a dual-screen tablet where you could browse the web, email, and more on the left screen and then manage your notes and add content on the right screen. It was one of the first Microsoft products in a while to make even Apple fans excited. Or at least it was going to be. Unfortunately, Microsoft killed off the project, so Courier as we knew it will never see the light of day.

That’s where the Taposé Project comes in. It’ll be an app that will let you gather info from a left pane, and save it in a notebook on the right. The developers plan to let you share notebooks, so presumably there will be a Taposé webapp as well. Either way, it’ll be exciting to see what they cook up! As a PC and iPad user, it’ll be very interesting to see if Microsoft does end up making a Courier-style tablet in the future, but until then, this might be the killer productivity app we’ve been waiting for.

Read More at Taposé’s Kickstarter.com Project and pledge to help make it a reality!

BraveNewCode is one of our favorite WordPress developers, and their WPtouch 2 Pro plugin it what powers the awesome mobile and iPad versions of Techinch. One of their other, less well-known plugins is the equally awesome WordTwit. This simple plugin lets you automatically publish your new posts on Twitter without setting up a third-party service. I’ve featured it before in an article about Moving Your Tumblr Blog to WordPress, since Tumblr automatically tweets new posts by default and WordTwit gives you that same feature.

WordTwit just got a bit more awesome today with the release of the new WordTwit 2.6. This new version lets you configure your site as a custom Twitter application! This means, when you publish a new post, it’ll be tweeted immediately, listing your site as the app it was tweeted from. This is great for branding, and plus, for anyone who loves to tweak everything they touch, it’s a fun way to customize your site’s tweets.

And.... it works!

Can Techinch access my personal Twitter account? Sure!

This week, there’s an amazing deal from our friends at Valio: the Valio Bundle. For $49, you can get a bundle of Mac apps and design tools that individually would cost $438! It seems like there’s always a new bundle coming out nowadays, filled with Mac or web design products at way less than the standard retail price. Usually, though, most bundle deals include a ton of products you’d be very unlikely to purchase otherwise, but the Valio Bundle is filled with popular products you’ve likely wished you had. This bundle is an especially good deal for web developers and Mac users, and between Billings, Hypersaces, the Design Then Code tutorials, beautiful Tumblr themes from UpThemes, and the amazing Pictos font, there’s likely something you already want in the bundle.

Best of all, the bundle is from Valio, which is the company behind the Yoggrt ads that helps sponsor Techinch.com. I’ve been very impressed with the quality of their service, and the Valio Bundle is yet another proof of that. The entire checkout process is handled by Valio’s Quixly digital delivery service, and once you’ve purchased the bundle, you’ll get an email with a link to download all of the products at once along with another email listing all of your product keys. As a nice touch, the final checkout email looks like a cute receipt replicated in your browser!

As a PC (and iOS) user, the Valio bundle didn’t include as many products that I could use, but even still, the themes, icons, Design then Code tutorials, and Pictos font can be of use to all designers and web developers. But if you’re a Mac user, and especially if you don’t already have Billings and Hyperspaces, the Valio bundle is a no-brainer. Now, some of the included tools are basically extended trials: the Virb and Livestats accounts included, for example, are only for 3 months and so if you’re not really planning on using those service, that won’t be very valuable. But there’s plenty in the bundle to make it a good deal for most designers and developers. For once, it’s a bundle that I can promote without hesitation!

$ Get the Valio Bundle Today!

By the way, that shopping cart icon is from the Pictos @font-face font!

If you’re serious about blogging, you’ll likely end up writing posts from almost anywhere. I’ve personally published posts from hospital waiting rooms, a home improvement store, numerous coffee shops and restaurants, and from the back of the car while traveling down deserted roads in the middle of nowhere (thanks to ubtiquous EDGE). Today, WordPress for iOS is a big part of that as I now use my iPad almost as much as my computer. The WordPress iPad app has traditionally been fairly frustrating to use, but today the WordPress for iOS team released the new 2.7 version of the app that fixes many of the problems and makes it much nicer to use, especially on iPad.

The new WordPress for iOS uses Core Data to store your post info, and seems to be much more stable. Then, the post editor is fully revamped on iPad as you can see in the shot above. Now, when you start a new post, an editor pane will open above the app, much like the Mail app on iPad. Add categories and more with native selector panes, and even upload images right from the editor without switching back and forth between different screens. New pictures are automatically added to the end of your post without any extra taps, either. For this post, I took screenshots, rotated and resized them with OneEdit, then uploaded them directly with the new WordPress for iPad.

Ready to schedule your post? You can still schedule your post or upload it as a draft. This has been changed slightly in the latest version, and now you’ll need to tap the gear button on the bottom of the editor to change the publish settings. This isn’s a problem though, as now it’s much easier to schedule posts as you want with the native menus. Plus, uploading draft posts still works great!

As before, you can edit existing posts and pages from WordPress for iPad, as well as manage comments on all of your sites. This works the same as before, but everything feels much faster and more stable in the new version. WordPress for iOS is still not perfect; I’d love to see either a WYSIWYG editor or an extended code editing keyboard, as right now, adding links or HTML formatting to posts is very frustrating. Also, I’d love to see support for the new WordPress post formats, as well as direct integration with WordPress.com Stats, VaultPress, and more. But, the new changes are encouraging, and they show that the Automattic team isn’t wasting time in trying to get their apps improved. The changes in this version set the stage for more features in future versions, and it finally works good enough that I’ll definitely be using it more. If you’re using WordPress on your iOS device, make sure to update or download WordPress for iOS today!

Download WordPress for iOS (free, universal app)

There’s only one thing I haven’t been able to switch to Instapaper: email newsletters. Now, most email newsletters I get go straight in the trash, but some are definately worth reading. From Smashing Magazine’s email newsletter to Om Malik’s Om Says, I get plenty of high quality writing in my inbox that I’d like to take time to read. I just don’t want to have to read it in Gmail. But, if you try the page to Instapaper, you’ll get an error message in your reading log instead of the newsletter you wanted to read.

But, there’s a solution…

After several tries, I finally hit on a way to get email newsletters into Instapaper: the old Print trick. Many articles online are broken into multiple pages, so the best way to get them into Instapaper is to click the Print button in the page and then add it to Instapaper. And guess what? This works in Gmail too. Just click the Print All button to the right of your email, and it’ll open in a plain HTML page in a new tab.

Close the print window that opens, then just click your Instapaper bookmarklet or browser addon in the new tab. Check your Instapaper list, and you should see your newsletter or longer email in Instapaper, ready to read with all of your favorite text settings in your browser, iPhone, or iPad.

If you’re a dedicated Instapaper fan, or have just been looking for an easy way to make it easier to read long emails, this little tip can save you some time and frustration. I’ve personally found it much more productive to add longer reading items to Instapaper and read them later, and now that can include everything from long emails from friends, newsletters, and great long-form articles. Online reading’s never been so nice before!

Don’t have an Instapaper account? Signup today!

Download Instapaper for iPhone or iPad (Universal app)

In the years since its original publishing, The Elements of Style has been updated numerous times, and in 1935 E. B. White contributed to the updating, causing the book to generally be known as Strunk and White. You can still purchase the most up-to-date version as a paper book from Amazon today, though oddly enough the latest editions are not available as eBooks. Both the Kindle Store and iBooks include copies of The Elements of Style, but they’re actually just reformatted copies of the original edition from others.

Since the original was published in 1918, though, the original Elements of Style is out of copyright in the US and most other countries. Thanks to that, the book was published fully on Wikisource, Wikipedia’s site for public domain books. You can read it online there, and since the chapters are quite short, it’s a great reference to keep bookmarked so you can check whenever you’re writing. Alternately, you can also download The Elements of Style in nicely formatted PDF, mobi, or ePub files from Feedbooks for free. These copies are great to save to your eBook library so you can read the whole book from your computer, iPhone/iPad, Kindle, or other device anytime you want.

Original 1918 edition of The Elements of Style in iBooks

The Elements of Style is definitely still a useful handbook for English writing, and I just read through the first section this afternoon as part of my required reading for my current technology communications class. Interestingly, it’s also a great companion book to the new book from A List Apart, The Elements of Content Strategy, which is written to help writers craft online content that’s as high quality as is demanded of traditional writers.

It’s amazing how timeless the advice in The Elements of Style is for it to still be relevant all these years later. Whether you’re a full-time writer or just need a few pointers to make your writing flow better, it’s a great guide that’s quick and easy to read. For free!

Download The Elements of Style in PDF, ePub, or mobi format from Feedbooks

Read more about The Elements of Style from Wikipedia

Finding a good hosting service and domain name can be two of the hardest things about starting a new site. Once you’ve got a solid hosting service, you can usually use it to host multiple sites. Case in point, both Techinch.com and Maybring.com both run on my same DreamHost account. Once you’ve got a good hosting service that’s running your sites stable, it’s usually quite simple to add another site.

But sometimes, your hosting service may not be the cheapest place to register domain names. Plus, if your hosting service did go bad, it’s a lot easier to move your data than your domain name. For these reasons and more, many people choose to register their domains from a domain registrars and host their sites at another hosting service. You can use this to take advantage of specials as well; Media Temple, for example, currently offers $5 .com domain name registrations to new customers, which is about half price of standard domain registration price.

So how do you get your domains working with your hosting service if you’re keeping everything separate? Here I’ll show you how to add your domain from Media Temple to a DreamHost account, and the steps should be very similar with other registrars and hosting services.

Change Your Domain’s Nameservers

First, you’ll need to change the nameservers on your domain. Login to your account at your registrar where you purchased your domain, and open your domain tools. Here you should find an option to edit the nameservers listed for your domain. This will let you point your domain to your existing hosting account so you can do something useful with your domain name.

In your options to edit nameservers, you should find listings to enter 2-3 nameserver names. By default, these will be the nameservers for your registrar’s hosting, but you want to change them to your hosting account’s nameservers. So, in another tab or window, go to you hosting company’s site and find their nameservers, which should be listed under your account’s domain settings. If you can’t find their nameservers, contact their support team. Once you’ve got the name servers, enter them in the nameserver fields on your domain registrar. Below you can see my settings for DreamHost’s default nameservers.

Add Your Domain to Your Hosting Service

Ok, so now your domain is pointing to your hosting service, so it’s time to add it to your account. Head over to your hosting service, and open your domain management panel. If you’re using DreamHost, you’ll see a Manage Domains link on the top left side of your hosting dashboard. From the domain page, select Add New Domain. Don’t worry; you won’t have to pull out your credit card. This is just to claim the domain that you’ve pointed to your hosting service and add it to your account.

Now, on the Add New Domain page, you’ll have a number of options. If you’re wanting to start a new site from this new domain, then enter it in the top field under Fully Hosted. You’ll have the option to set which folder your site’s data will be saved in, specify which user has access to the domain, and whether or not you want to add Google Apps to your domain.

Alternately, if you just want to redirect your new domain to a site you already have, scroll down and enter your domain under Redirect, then enter the domain you want to redirect the new address to. That’s what I’ve currently done with my new domain below, until I have a new site started for it.

That’s all! Now your domain should be running on your new fully hosted site on your existing hosting account, or redirecting to your site. Either way, you’ll be able to keep your domains registered wherever works best for you, while taking advantage of hosting you already have. For me, it enabled me to get 2 domains cheaper than Dreamhost’s default registration cost and add them to my account without much hassle at all.

As far as the best hosting or domain registration service, I’m afraid I can’t give you any absolute recommendation. Media Temple is highly regarded among designers and bloggers, and I’ve seriously considered using them to host Techinch.com. They offer many more advanced hosting offerings than most hosting companies, so if your site is going Pro, they’re definitely an option to consider. Plus, their current special on $5 new .com registrations is a great deal if you’re got a new domain you’d like to snag. Then, DreamHost offers great shared hosting at a very reasonable price, with an amazingly responsive and actually helpful help team. Techinch.com has been hosted on Dreamhost for over half a year now, and has had around 98% uptime which is not too bad. At the end of the day, though, you’ll get different reports from everyone about different hosting companies. The great thing is, your domains can always be moved to the hosting provider you want even without transferring them!