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Upload a WordPress Featured Image From iPad

By Matthew Guay on January 21, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

If there’s one major thing on iPad that keeps me from using it fully instead of my PC, it’s the fact that iOS doesn’t let you access the main file system from apps. Most obviously, this means that, aside from pictures in the Photos app, it’s very difficult to move a file from one app to another. More importantly for me, though, is that you can’t upload files from the browser. As a writer that uses WordPress daily, that’s a major problem for me.

We’ve already seen how to upload draft posts directly from the WordPress iPad app, but there is still one thing you can’t do from the WordPress app: you can’t set a featured image for your post. The only way to do is is from the WordPress dashboard, and since you can’t upload new images from the browser, you can’t do it there, either.

A Workaround

Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

So, you can’t upload images to WordPress from your browser, but you can still add images from the WordPress app, right? Here’s what you need to do to add a new image and get it set as your featured image but without including the image directly in your post.

First, rotate and crop your image to the correct size for your post. I use square, 200×200 PNG or JPG images for my featured images, but this will be different depending on your theme and preferences. I prefer to use the free PhotoPad for cropping images since it lets you see the exact pixel size of your cropped image as you’re cropping it.

Now, head over to the WordPress app and write up your post as normal. Then, when you’re finished, tap on the Media tab and add your cropped image you want to use as a Featured Image in your post. Select to upload it in original size, since you already have it the shape you want. Once it’s finished uploading, just go back to your post editor and upload your post as you like, scheduled, draft, or fully published.

Finally, head over to your WordPress dashboard in Safari. Open your new post for editing, and tap the Set Featured Image link. You’ll find the image you added as your featured image right there in the top of the Gallery tab, ready for you to select it as the Featured Image. Save your changes in WordPress, and your post will be ready to go, just as good as if you’d written it the whole way from a PC.

Now, granted, this isn’t the easiest solution, but it does let you do one more thing directly from iPad that you couldn’t have done otherwise. In fact, this same trick would work just as good on an iPhone or iPod Touch. Mobile blogging no longer means that your posts have to look second class! And by the way, I used this trick to add the featured image to this post as you might be able to tell from the images. It worked!

What would be nicer is if the WordPress iOS app added an option to set your featured image directly. Maybe eventually…

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Get an Offline Dictionary on Your PC and iOS Devices for Free with Kindle

By Matthew Guay on January 20, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

Do you find yourself needing to check a dictionary from your PC, iPhone, or iPad? While there are many dictionaries available for both Windows and iOS, many of us just default to looking up definitions online. This works, but when the internet goes down, so does your dictionary. Amazon Kindle is my personal favorite eBook reader on both Windows and iOS, and with the latest versions, it includes a free copy of the New Oxford American Dictionary. Here’s how you can put the dictionary to use so you don’t have to purchase a separate dictionary or stay online to find definitions.

Offline Dictionary in Kindle on iPad and iPhone

When you first run Kindle on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, the New Oxford American Dictionary will automatically download and be added to your Kindle library. You’ll see it right along with all of your other books, and can open it to look up words whenever you need.

Whenever you’re reading a book, you can simply highlight the word to see a quick definition of it in a small popup. Tap the definition to view that page in the dictionary.

Alternately, you can open the dictionary itself to search for words, so no matter what you need to look up, you’ll be able to get the definition in seconds. Best of all, if you’re not certain of a word’s spelling, you can flip though the dictionary like you would a paper dictionary.

And it’s not just on iPad … the Kindle dictionary works just as good on an iPhone or iPod Touch. Now no matter where you are, you won’t need to be without a dictionary.

Another good thing to remember is that many other iOS apps, including iBooks and Pages for iPad include dictionaries themselves. This really makes iOS devices great learning tools!

Using Your Free Dictionary in Kindle for PC

If you don’t have the latest version (Kindle for PC 1.3 as of this post’s publication), Kindle should automatically update. Alternately, head over to Amazon’s Kindle for PC page, download the latest version, and install it over your existing copy. The next time you start reading a book, select a word and you’ll see a small popup letting you know that the New Oxford American Dictionary is downloading. This may take a few minutes, but once it’s done, you’ll have the full dictionary ready to help you understand anything you read better.

Whenever you’re reading a book in Kindle for PC, you can now select a word and instantly see its definition in a small popup. You can then select to Google the word or look it up on Wikipedia, or alternately click Full Definition to see the whole section for that word in the included dictionary.

Oddly enough, the dictionary won’t show up in your Kindle Library in Kindle for PC even though you’ve got the full eBook on your computer. So, if you want to look up any random word, you’ll need a little workaround. Just open any book in your Kindle Library, then select any word at random and click the Full Definition link. Now, to look up any other word, just enter it in the search box on the top left. No matter where you are, you’ve now got a full dictionary offline on your PC for free!

Other Devices

While Kindle apps are available for Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, Android, and Macs, the other apps currently don’t support dictionary lookup. The PC app didn’t either until the most recent 1.3 update, so hopefully Amazon will add Dictionary support to the other apps in the near future.

Conclusion

All of us need to look up words to find their correct spelling and definition from time to time, and sometimes even today it’s not so easy to get online. Kindle makes it easy to find definitions from a Kindle device, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or PC, and best of all, it’s free! I’ve found the Kindle dictionary very handy on my iPod Touch, since I can look up definitions even when I’m offline.

Download Kindle for PC

Download Kindle for iOS (Free, Universal)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download Microsoft Math 4 (Microsoft.com, free)

Get more info about Microsoft Math 4

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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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Speed up Evernote on Windows

By Matthew Guay on January 14, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

Have you ever fired up Evernote for Windows to find something you’ve jotted down only to find that it’s running glacially and takes forever just to open a note? Even with the new and improved Evernote 4, sometimes it still is one of the slowest apps on my PC. So much so, in fact, that I’d nearly switched to using Evernote web instead of the desktop interface.

Today, thanks to an Evernote forum thread, I found a couple tricks that can help speed up Evernote. Follow along, and we’ll see if you can get Evernote feeling snappy again.

Activate Detective Mode

Ok, it’s not quite that dramatic, but Evernote does have some hidden developer tools that can help improve Evernote for Windows’ performance. First, if you have Evernote running, exit it from your system tray.

Now, open the Run command by pressing your Windows key and R at the same time (Win+R). Enter the following in the box, the press Enter or click Ok:

Evernote.exe /DebugMenu

When Evernote opens, you’ll notice a new [Debug] menu on your toolbar. This includes two options that really seemed to speed up Evernote on my computer: Optimize Database and Recreate Note Images. Optimizing your database is likely to help Evernote’s performance the most, though if you have some notes that have odd thumbnails (or no thumbnails), then you might try recreating the note images as well.

Both of these options will take several minutes to run, during which time you’ll see the status updated in a progress bar. If you’d like to give both options a shot, just run one, then the other.

Once it’s finished, you can continue to use Evernote as normal, or restart it to get rid of the [Debug] menu. Evernote still isn’t the fastest app, but it’s much improved after optimizing my database. I’ve got tons of notes in Evernote, and love the Evernote apps on iOS, so would really hate to quit using it. I really hope Evernote works to optimize Evernote for Windows and make it run faster, but in the mean time, this at least provided a bit of help for me. Hopefully you’ll find this helpful too … let us know in the comments!

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