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The iPad Apps That Keep Me Productive

By Matthew Guay on March 28, 2012 in iOS Apps

The iPad is often considered to be an entertainment device, the TV of the 21st century. Apple has tried hard to show with their own apps that the iPad has much more potential than that, and I believe they see the iPad as the computer of the future for many people, and expect that we’ll still be able to be creative and productive from them. I personally use an original iPad (iPad 1, shall we say?) as my full computer when I’m traveling. It’s perfect because its so easy to carry and go, and you can easily knock out a 15 minute work session in a lobby without having to wait for it to boot and connect to the ’net. Plus, an all-day battery makes searching for plugs a thing of the past. Sure, I’m working as a writer, editor, and tech support guy, but for my work, I’m able to be very productive on the iPad, with the on-screen keyboard or an external Apple Bluetooth keyboard.

So, here’s the apps I use to keep me productive on my iPad. Each of them are great, in my opinion, and many of them are nicer than their respective counterparts on any other computing platform. Seriously.

iA Writer ($0.99) – My favorite native writing app on the iPad and Mac. iCloud and Dropbox integration, a beautiful monospaced font, and extra buttons to make navigation easier seal the deal.
Pages, Keynote, and Numbers ($9.99 each) – If you need Office on your iPad, then the iWork apps are actually what you need. Don’t even try out other office apps; none others are worth it, and I’ve tried them all. Pages is the app I’ve used the most of the 3, and have written dozens of essays for college that were “required” to be written in Word. Worked perfectly. I use Keynote regularly for giving presentations along with my teaching, and it puts PowerPoint to shame. Numbers … well, you just never know when having a spreadsheet around is handy. Budgets, comparison pricing, stats, you name it, it works great. Simplest spreadsheet you’ve ever touched. Wait: perhaps the only spreadsheet you’ve actually touched.
1Password Pro ($14.99) – Keeping all of your passwords and account info everywhere makes working on the go much easier. Best used, of course, in conjunction with iPassword for Mac or Windows on your computer, but if your iPad’s your only computer, it’s still great for storing secure data on your iPad and syncing it with Dropbox. And yes, I said that: for many people, an iPad really could be your only computer.
iCab Mobile ($1.99) – The best alternate iPad browser, iCab Mobile lets you change your useragent to get desktop sites and web apps, and even lets you upload files and sync downloads with Dropbox. I still use Safari for most browsing, but iCab is where online work gets done, and is easily worth its price just by letting you upload files. That let me use my iPad 100% for college: write essays in Pages, export in Word format or PDF, and then upload to my college’s site via iCab Mobile. Perfect.
WordPress (Free) – The WordPress app isn’t perfect, but it does make managing WordPress sites on the go much easier. You can only edit posts in HTML mode, but that’s how I prefer to edit posts anyhow. I’ll write in iA Writer, and copy/paste the post into the WordPress app. For more full-featured blogging, check out Blogsy ($4.99).
OneEdit ($2.99) – If you need to bulk-edit images, such as rotate and resize images for blog posts, this app is indispensable. Before iOS 5 started taking screenshots in the correct orientation always, I used it all the time for bulk-rotating screenshots, and still use it to get them in the size I want for articles.
Simplenote (Free) – I keep all of my plain text notes in Simplenote, using their web and mobile apps, as well as nvALT on my Mac. Simple, and works perfect.
Dropbox (free) – Does this even need mentioned? Dropbox is Finder on my iPad, and the only way I could possibly keep up with all of my files on all of my devices so easily. It’s the cloud storage service you should be using. Seriously.
PDF Expert ($9.99) – It’s my favorite app for reading PDFs, but the PDF editing features are what make it really worth its price. Once you’ve filled out a form, signed it on your iPad, and emailed it to your boss/accountant/whoever, you’ll realize that your iPad just made printing/signing/scanning/shredding an obsolete process. Plus, you can use PDF Expert to access FTP servers, Google Docs, Box.net, Dropbox, and more, so its a great way to access any files, not just PDFs, on your other storage services. That’s just a little extra bonus.
OmniOutliner ($19.99) – The Omni Group makes some of the best iOS apps, period. They’re most famous for Omnifocus (which their iPad app is easily their best version … but I personally can’t get away from making plain txt todos in iA Writer, and then managing group projects in Basecamp and Flow for my respective work teams.), but it actually all originally started with OmniOutliner. Suffice it to say, if you need to make outlines or check-off lists, there’s no better way to do it. Actually, since it can add in columns, it might be the best basic spreadsheet-type app for most normal people. OmniOutliner is beautiful and a joy to use. I use it to keep attendance charts for my classes, make outlines for lessons, and keep simple budgets of, among other things, the iOS apps I buy. It’s great.
Screens ($19.99) – Ever need the power of your Mac or PC, but only want to use your iPad? Screens is an absolutely great VNC app, and using my Mac over VNC from screens feels almost as fast as using it directly. It even supports Lion’s multitouch gestures for switching apps and more. Plus, it’s rather fun to prank people with: let them use your Mac, then go in the other room and use it at the same time from Screens. Oh yeah.
Kindle (Free) – I often joke that my iOS devices are the best Kindles, since they’re useful for so many other things. I’ve never owned a Kindle device, but only ever purchase eBooks from the Kindle store (unless they’re DRM free, like the A Book Apart books). Here’s why: you can read your books anywhere, so the DRM doesn’t even feel restrictive. And it is productive too: I have more books on writing, business, and InDesign (which I’m trying to learn) than I do just-for-fun books. For DRM free ePub and PDF eBooks, I use iBooks as well. My A Book Apart library looks rather nice in it.
Instapaper ($4.99) – So, perhaps Instapaper isn’t the most productive app in the world, because you can’t use it to create anything new. But, it’s easily one of the top 10 reasons you should own an iOS device. The Instapaper service does keep me more productive, since I save links I come across online to Instapaper to read later, so I can get on with what I’m working on. And then, the app itself is so great for reading, and I do use it for articles I want to reference in my own writing, so that makes it a bit productive. Plus, since when is reading high quality writing a bad idea?
Bible+ (Free) – As a Christian, and a missionary in Thailand, studying the Bible is one of those things I do on a daily basis. OliveTree’s Bible+ is the best app for searching through the Bible and other study resources, and with their new companion Mac and PC apps, it might be the best Christian resource on any OS. For just reading the Bible, though, and not in-depth searching and studying, I still like YouVersion’s Bible app better. Plus, it has almost every language you could think of, including Thai, which is crucially important for me!

Then, there’s a few more apps that make up more of my iPad’s time: the built-in Mail and Calendar apps, which are definitely productivity tools, Tweetbot and Facebook for social networking, which is definitely not productive, and Reeder for RSS feeds, which like all news apps straddles the dangerous line of non-productivity that feels productive. Oh, and Calcbot, because you never know when you’ll need a calculator.

That’s the apps I use regularly on my iPad, and really, most of my iPad time is productive (other than reading, which can go both ways). If I had an iPad 2 or the new iPad, I’d use videochat in Skype as well, but without that, Skype isn’t nearly as useful for me on the iPad. As a writer, perhaps the iPad can be a full computer much easier than it could for other people, but the App Store has so many apps that are great for so many industries, its hard to believe that writers are the only ones who could find the iPad to be a great productivity tool.

Did I miss any great iPad productivity tools? If so, I’d love to hear your favorites, as I always love trying out new apps as well!

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iChromy: A Chrome Lookalike for iPad

By Matthew Guay on May 26, 2011 in iOS Apps

The iPad is one of the best devices ever for reading online. When it was initially unveiled to the public in 2010Steve Jobs said it was like holding the web in your hands. That’s not too far off. It feels like the perfect way to catch up with the news, check your email, and more, without a keyboard and mouse.

The only problem is, Safari on iPad isn’t as robust as most desktop browsers. We’ve grown to rely on tabs and extensions to get the most out of our browsing experience. Safari on iOS uses a multi-page interface that makes it rather difficult to switch between sites.

If we could actually choose any browser on iPad, many of us would choose Chrome. Google’s kept Chrome one of the fastest browsers around, and the unified search and address bar makes using a separate search box seem odd. However, it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever see Chrome on the iPad, as Apple doesn’t allow 3rd party Javascript engines, and Chrome’s V8 engine is its main difference.

The team at Diigo has created a new alternative for Chrome on the iPad: iChromy. This new browser app tries to bring the best of Chrome’s interface and speed to the iPad, while still working with Apple’s rendering policies. It’s an interesting alternate browser, and if you’ve wished you could get Chrome on your iPad, it might be the browser you’ve been waiting for.

Continue Reading →

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Wunderlist | To-do List Awesomeness on Every Platform

By Matthew Guay on March 11, 2011 in Featured, iOS Apps, PC Software

There’s so many to-do list apps today for all of the major computing platforms that you can quickly get overwhelmed trying to choose one. Most to-do list apps on Windows are old and clunky, while many iOS to-do list apps are an island to themselves and don’t let you sync or share tasks. It’s enough sometimes to make you just want to go back to just using a pad of paper. But wait: that surely can’t be the best solution. It’s the 21st century; can’t we have our tasks on any platform, synced, and shared with anyone we need? Can it really be that hard?

Enter Wunderlist. Wunderlist is an awesome new to-do list app that’s beautiful, feature filled, and amazingly, free! Actually, it’s is as much of a platform as it is an individual app. With to-do list apps for Windows, OS X, Android, iPad, iPhone, Android, and the web, you can keep up with everything you need to do no matter where you are or what device you’re using. While there are many beautiful and functional to-do list apps on OS X and iOS, Windows typically hasn’t had many modern to-do list apps that are both easy to use and stylish. Wunderlist’s Windows app alone makes it a winner, but add in the apps for other platforms, and it’s even better.

It contains all the features you’ll need to keep up with your tasks. You can add lists to organize to-dos, add a star to prioritize them, add a date to make sure you don’t forget when your task is due, and add notes to remember more about the task. Need to rearrange tasks? Simply drag and drop them to get them in the correct order. Then, find your tasks with the integrated search box, or reorder them based on priority or due date from the bottom buttons. You can even customize the app with a number of high quality background images. Best of all, you can share lists with others so your family, team, or business can stay connected in a simple Wunderlist to-do list. I’ve used this to share ideas with coworkers and editors over the past month, and it’s worked amazingly flawlessly.

Wunderlist works almost the exact same on every platform, but contains the small touches it takes to integrate great with particular platforms as well. On Windows, it uses a standard window and tray icon; on iPad, you’ll see iOS style pop-overs and inertia scrolling. You can enter tasks with keyboard shortcuts in Windows, OS X, and the webapp, while the mobile apps let you swipe to delete tasks and pull down to refresh a page. The same great features are there in each of the apps, though: contact syncing, sharing, organization, and a beautiful, easy to use experience. Best of all, if you’ve signed in with the same account on all of your devices, your tasks will automatically stay in sync. No more manually syncing or copying tasks between apps; you’ll just stay connected to what you need to do.

The iPhone app is especially handy since you can view and add tasks on the go. Wunderlist can even notify you when your tasks are due with standard iOS alerts and icon indicators. If you have an Android device, you can use the new Wunderlist Android app as well. Or, if you want, you can add new tasks by emailing them to me@wunderlist.com from your account email address, and can choose to be alerted via email when tasks are due. This way, even if you don’t have the latest mobile device, you can still keep up with your Wunderlist account on the go.

And, now, Wunderlist is equally at home in your browser! The newly released Wunderlist webapp brings all of Wunderlist’s features to any browser, so now you can use it from your Ubuntu computer or Chrome netbook. Or, if you don’t want to install a new program without knowing if you’ll like it, you could just give it a try in your browser. If you like it, then install it on your Mac, PC, or mobile device. Everything works almost the same as it does in Wunderlist’s Mac and PC apps; you can create new lists, drag and drop tasks to rearrange them, search across all of your tasks, and more. You can even change the background just like you can in any of the other apps. Whether on the web, an iOS device, your PC, or almost any other device, the Wunderlist experience is the same. This is easily one of the best cross-platform apps we’ve seen that merges your mobile device, PC, and browser experience.

But, hey, we could talk all day about getting organized with awesome to-do list apps, but that doesn’t help us get everything we need to do, done. Usually it’s a tough decision whether or not you should spend money on yet another productivity app. You have to decide if you need your tasks on your smartphone, PC, or online, and whether you can live without everything in sync or not. Today, Wunderlist has made these decisions obsolete. Wunderlist gives you synced, shared, and scheduled to-dos on almost any platform, for free. The only problem I’ve had is that the Wunderlist apps are somewhat slower than fully native apps that are built specifically for one platform. That said, recent updates have really improved the performance, and the iOS app now runs just as fast as Things or other similar apps. Plus, it lets me share and sync tasks, something few other apps even offered. There’s no reason not to give it a try on your browser, PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet today. So go download it today, quit saying you’re going to find the perfect to-do list app, and just give it a try.

At least that’s one thing off your to-do list!

Checkout Wunderlist’s Awesome website and download it for your platform

Or, just Get started directly online with the Wunderlist Web App

Download Wunderlist for iPhone or Wunderlist HD for iPad

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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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Batch Edit Photos on iPad With OneEdit

By Matthew Guay on February 17, 2011 in Featured, iOS Apps, Reviews

I’ve been looking for ways to make it easier to write and blog from my iPad, trying to make it my one-stop computing solution as much as possible. For the most part, there are tons of ways to accomplish most of the tasks we’ve traditionally used a PC for right from iPad. If there’s one thing I’ve found less than intuitive, though, it’s screenshot editing. I use iPad in landscape mode most of the time, but if you take a screenshot in landscape mode, iOS saves it in portrait mode. So, if I’m reviewing an app or writing a tutorial with screenshots, I have to take screenshots, rotate each one, and then insert each shot into my post. If you rotate each shot individually, it would take forever.

Why Batch Edit Images?

But it’s not just a problem for reviewing apps. If you use your iPad for organizing or editing pictures from the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit, or draw tons of pictures in apps like Adobe Ideas, then you’ll likely want a way to bulk edit images. Wouldn’t it br nicer to crop or rotate them all at once, then upload the entire batch to Dropbox without any extra steps? Good thing is, there’s a way you can do this from iPad.

Meet OneEdit

After a search on the App Store, I was pleased to discover OneEdit for iPad, a simple and fairly powerful batch image editing too for iOS. No, it’s not the most powerful batch image editor in the world, but for iPad, it’s a huge improvement on other basic image editors if you want to tweak tons of pictures at ones. And if you’d like to batch edit images from your iPhone or iPod Touch, OneEdit for iPhone has you covered there, too.

Batch Editing in Action

Here’s how it works:

First, tap the plus in the left column to add pictures to OneEdit. Make sure to allow OneEdit to access location data so it’ll be able to access and edit metadata on images

Now select the images you want from your photo library. If your folder has more than 50 images, you’ll be asked to select which group of 50 images to choose from. Then just tap the images that you want to bulk edit and import them. One nice feature, especially for my needs, is the ability select just landscape or portrait images. If you need pictures from multiple sources, just import from the first folder then come back and add more images.

You’re now ready to add bulk editing tasks to your images. Tap the plus in the middle column, then select from the available editing options. You can resize, rotate, crop, add text, border, logo, shadow, timestamp, color effects, or convert your image to greyscale. Then you can choose the task specific options for mosts of the tasks.

Some of the options offer a number of settings, such as the Add Text and Color Effects, while the shadow and border options are less full-featured. There’s still plenty to explore here for everyone. For the rotation settings, which was the feature I wanted most, you can rotate an image left or right, flip it upside down (curiously labeled Rotate Down). Best of all, you can choose to have OneEdit only rotate Portrait or Landscape orientated images! Yes!

Did you say you wanted to do more than one thing to an image? Don’t worry; OneEdit lets you add as many tasks as you want to your batch editing. Here, I’ve got it ready to rotate my screenshots, resize them to 640 px width, and add text to the bottom of the images. You can change the order of the tasks from the Edit button on the bottom. Finally, choose which format you want to save your pictures in; you can choose from PNG, JPG (with the quality you want), or PDF. When you’re ready to start editing your pictures, press the blue Execute button on the bottom of the middle column and then confirm it in the popup.

Hold tight, and after a few moments you’ll see thumbnails of your freshly tweaked pictures on the right column. All edits are done non-destructively, so your original shots are still safe in your pictures library. To get your new edited pictures out of OneEdit, tap Export on the top right and select to save the pictures to your iOS Photo Library, upload to Dropbox or Facebook, or transfer them to your computer.

If you choose to upload the pictures to Dropbox, you’ll need to link your account, and then you’ll be able to upload all of the pictures at once to any folder you want in your Dropbox account. Talk about easy; that shaves off so much time you would have spent otherwise uploading them individually from the Dropbox app! Alternately, if you want to just copy them directly to your computer, you’ll get a unique IP address to enter in your computer’s browser address bar. Either way, seconds later you’ll have your pictures saved and ready to be used however you want!

That’s all there is; OneEdit is quick and simple to use, and makes it a breeze to bulk edit images, screenshots, and more from your iPad or iPhone. I’m very impressed with it, and think the investment was already worthwhile. If you find yourself editing pictures or uploading them to Dropbox regurally, you should definitely give OneEdit a try. It’s sure to make your photo editing workflow flow much better on iPad!

Oh, and if you were wondering, all of the screenshots in this review were rotated, resized, and uploaded to Dropbox with OneEdit.

Our Rating: 9/10

Download OneEdit for iPad from the App Store | $2.99

Download OneEdit for iPhone or iPod Touch from the App Store | $1.99

OneEdit’s Official Site

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Type Faster on Your iPad or iPhone with TextExpander

By Matthew Guay on February 17, 2011 in Featured, iOS Apps

After recently teaching in a classroom that had an old manual typewriter with upraised rows of keys, I marveled at how much typing has changed over the past century. We went from typing in QWERTY to keep from jamming keys on original typewriters to pounding out text messages with our thumbs on small slates of metal and glass. How times change! Back then, typing was a purely manual exercise. Today, however, we’re usually typing on smart devices, younger cousins of IBM Watson. Seems like it should be easier and quicker to type today than it was back then, doesn’t it?

Turns out, there is a way to put the computing power of your device to work. TextExpander is a great app that lets your device remember the things you need to type the most so you won’t have to manually type them every time. Instead, you can just enter a short snippet of text, such as aadr, and your full text, such as your address, will be entered automatically. And once you’ve got it installed, you can use this power in many of your favorite apps, including many we’ve reviewed here at Techinch.com. Sound good? Let’s take a closer look at what TextExpander offers.

Getting Started

TextExpander Touch is one of the more interesting apps available in the App Store for several reasons. First, its one of the few ways that you can truly speed up your typing on iOS. Second, it integrates seamlessly with so many other apps, it seems like it should just be an included tool in iOS itself. To get started, just purchase and install the universal app from the App Store. Seconds later, you’ll be ready to create and edit Snippets, use these snippets to create quick notes, and find more apps to work with TextExpander Touch.

The Snippets section is the most important. Here you can create and edit snippets, which include a short abbreviation as well as the long content you want the abbreviation to expand into. There are several popular ones included in the app by default, so you can just edit the content on these to include your own personal signature, address, telephone number, and more. You can also create new ones quickly. Just make sure that your abbreviation isn’t a standard word, or you won’t be able to just enter that word in a TextExpander enabled app without it expanding to include your content. I’ve found it best to make abbreviations start with a period, such as .lorem which I use to expand into a full paragraph of lorem ipsum filler text. The sky’s the limit on what you can use snippets for; from complicated to type words to text you have to enter all the time like your address to long paragraphs you commonly include in emails, you can make tons of typing tasks faster with snippets that work best for you.

One of the best features is the wide arrange of snippets that you can add to TextExpander without typing them all in. Tap the plus button on the Snippet Groups page to add snippets from the TextExpander server. These include common misspelled words for AutoCorrect, standard HTML and CSS code snippets, and accented words that take longer to type correctly. This is an easily overlooked feature that can be a true timesaver once you’re using TextExpander all the time. Also, if you’ve been using TextExpander for Mac, you can also sync your existing snippets from your Mac to your iOS devices.

Putting TextExpander to Work

Now that you’ve got snippets of your most important info and frequently used text saved, it’s time to put it to use. You can use TextExpander as a notebook to create emails and plain text notes using TextExpander snippets. That’s what the Notes feature is for. Here you can type in full text notes like you might in SimpleNote or PlainText; this time though, you’re able to type faster thanks to the TextExpander snippets you’ve added. Just type your snippet, and it will automatically expand to the full text you’ve saved. I can now enter sig1, for example, and my full standard signature will be added to the end of an email. Once you’re finished, you can copy all of the text to your clipboard and paste it into another app, or send the message as an email or tweet immediately.

Integrating TextExpander with Other Apps

While TextExpander is useful on its own, the biggest reason to use it is because it integrates with dozens of apps you likely already use. From Twitter for iOS to the excellent Express for WordPress to PlainText, my favorite app for jotting down plain text notes, you’ll discover more places to use TextExpander than you’d ever imagine. First, though, open the Settings menu in TextExpander and turn on snippet sharing to make all of your snippets available to other apps that integrate with TextExpander.

Now you’re ready to add it to your favorite apps. Check put the link below to see all the apps that integrate with TextExpander, then check your apps settings to make sure your TextExpander support is enabled. Once it is, you can enter your TextExpander snippets and they’ll automatically expand just like they did in the TextExpander app.

If you need more help, you can browse the TextExpander online help file right inside the app. Unfortunately, the help files aren’t available offline, so you’ll have to get buy with the example snippets if you don’t have an internet connection.

The only bad thing is, none of Apple’s apps, including the iPad iWork apps, work with TextExpander. Also, it doesn’t work with WordPress for iOS, so if you want to use TextExpander to make it easier to blog from your iOS device, you’ll need to type your posts up in another app that works with it and then past it into the WordPress app.

Conclusion

Whether you’d like to make less spelling mistakes when texting from your iPhone or want to pound out essays and emails from your iPad quicker than ever, TextExpander is one of the few apps that can really help you do it. Not only does it do a great job at creating and expanding snippets, but it’s already integrated into so many apps that it will make the apps you already love and use even better. Typing on a glass screen isn’t nearly as bad as many would have guessed years ago, but it is still slower than a traditional keyboard. Once you get used to typing with TextExpander, you just might be able to increase your typing speed again. And, since it’s a universal app, you can use it on any iOS device you own.

I personally use my iPad for writing most of the time, and am now trying to integrate TextExpander snippets even further into my typing routine. If you’ve already used it, or if you try it out after this, let us know how you like it in the comments below!

Our Rating: 8/10

Download TextExpander Touch from the App Store | $4.99 – universal

TextExpander’s Official Site

Find apps compatable with TextExpander Touch

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Turn iPad into a Perfect Writing Machine with iA Writer

By Matthew Guay on January 25, 2011 in Featured, iOS Apps, Reviews

Sometimes, the simplest tool can be the best for a job. iA Writer is an elegant text editor for iPad that proves this. With a monospaced font and no configurable options, it’d seem like it wouldn’t be the most useful app. The rave reviews it’s received from writers, bloggers, and more would make you think otherwise. It turns out, iA Writer’s developers paid attention to all the things that make writing fun and focused, and left out everything else. We’re going to dive in and see what iA Writer offers, and whether it truly does make writing easier. Best of all, iA Writer is on sale for just $0.99 today only (Edit: The original sale is over, but it’s still on an extended sale for $1.99 until a desktop version of iA Writer is released!), so it’s a great chance to check it out.

Simple, Redefined

When you first launch iA Writer, you’ll see a document open describing how the app works and the inspiration behind it. The app includes a very clean interface with several nice touches. On the top right, you’ll see a timer with an estimate of how long it would take to read the document, while underneath it you’ll see a word count. Swipe up or down to scroll as normal, but if you swipe on the far sides of the document, it won’t scroll. This makes it easier to read without accidentally losing your place.

Tap anywhere in the text to start editing. You’ll immediately notice that the keyboard includes an extra row of keys, each of which are a pleasant addition to the iOS keyboard. The |word buttons take you to the beginning or end of the next or last word, respectively, while the arrow keys let you switch to the previous or next character as you’d expect. Sure, you could just tap on the screen to change where you are, but the buttons make it much quicker and keep you focused on your writing. The extra key row also includes other common symbols that are slow to find on the iOS keyboard, and once you’re used to it, you’ll likely find that it makes it quicker for you to write.

Best of all, iA Writer includes a focus mode that forces you to focus on your text and nothing else. Tap the padlock icon in the corner to activate it, and your toolbars will disappear, leaving you with your text and the keyboard. The text other than the three lines near the one you’re editing will be greyed out, and autocorrect and spelling check are disabled as well. You can’t even drag the text to scroll, though you can go back with the arrow buttons on the keyboard.

When you really want to be productive, though, and don’t want anything to distract you, it’s surprising how powerful the focus mode can be. It turns your über-modern slate of metal and glass into a 21^stcentury typewriter. For many things, that’s not actually a bad thing! Distractions can break your train of thought too easily, so the focus mode forces you to concentrate and really get your writing done.

Files and Syncing

iA Writer doesn’t limit you to one file, though. From the top right corner, you can create a new document from the plus button, or open other files you’ve saved in it from the folder button. You can also make sure you’ll be able to locate what you’re writing easily later by changing the title of your document. To do this, tap the title and just type in what you want. Finally, you can email a copy of your text, or just copy and past the text into any app you want. iA Writer’s a great too to get your writing finished, and then copy it over to another more busy app to finish your letter, post, or anything else you’re writing.

Want to backup your documents, or access them from your computer or other devices? Just link your Dropbox account from the Documents menu, and everything you’ve written in iA Writer will be synced to a /Writer folder in your Dropbox. Do note that iA Writer doesn’t currently sync automatically, so you’ll need to remember to tap the sync button whenever you need your content elsewhere.

The only thing really missing here is support for folders and an option to choose your iA Writer sync folder. The developers have, however, promised that folder support will come in a future update, as well as automatic sync so you won’t have to remember to hit the sync button.

Conclusion

Obviously, everyone won’t have the same needs from a writing app. That’s why I think iA Writer is the perfect companion app for using along with Pages, WordPress for iOS, or other Office apps. iA Writer lets you focus on your writing, and then when you need to add more formatting and get documents or blog posts ready to share, you can copy and paste your text into other apps.

iA Writer isn’t the only focused and elegant text editor on iOS. I’m still split between it and PlainText, my current favorite for writing notes and plain text. Even Pages makes a really nice writing environment, especially when you minimize the toolbar. For iA Writer to tempt me at all is amazing, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much the extra buttons and the focus mode made writing nicer. It was easy to see why iA Writer has been so highly reviewed; it really does make writing simpler. And it’s even a nice way to read plain text eBooks; the monospaced Nitti Light font and clean interface makes easy on your eyes. At today’s special price, it’s a great chance to grab it and see if iA Writer makes writing and reading more pleasurable on the iPad for you, too.

Our Rating: 8/10

Download iA Writer for iPad from the App Store | $1.99 (current special price – normally $4.99)

iA Writer’s Official Site

Have more questions about iA Writer? Check out the FAQ

Comments { 6 }

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

Comments { 0 }

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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Get Your Tasks Sorted

Conclusion

Our Rating: 9/10

Rich Text Editing Made Simple

Writing in Essay

Conclusion

Our Rating: 9/10

Why Batch Edit Images?

Meet OneEdit

Batch Editing in Action

Our Rating: 9/10

Getting Started

Putting TextExpander to Work

Integrating TextExpander with Other Apps

Conclusion

Our Rating: 8/10

Simple, Redefined

Files and Syncing

Conclusion

Our Rating: 8/10

Calculating with a Robot

Supersize Me

Conclusion

Our Rating: 9/10

Getting Started

Flash? Who Needs Flash?

Not Just Fancy Animation

Get Your CSS on Your PC

Enter the CSS3Machine Giveaway

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