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DropDAV 2.0: Making Dropbox Integrate with iWork and More on the iPad, Better

By Matthew Guay on June 3, 2011 in Quick Tips

There are two major things in technology that have changed the way many of us approach computing in the past few years: Dropbox and iOS. Dropbox enables us to keep all of our files synced seamlessly, so you never have to worry if that important file will be there when you need it. And iOS has freed many of us from the constraints of desktop computing, making it easier to be productive (and entertained…) on the go than ever before.

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. Continue Reading →

Comments { 3 }

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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The Courier Tablet May Live Again

By Matthew Guay on March 28, 2011 in Quick Tips

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!

Comments { 1 }

WordPress for iPad, Much Improved

By Matthew Guay on March 17, 2011 in Quick Tips

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)

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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

Comments { 2 }

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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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

Comments { 3 }

Change Your DNS Settings on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad

By Matthew Guay on February 4, 2011 in Quick Tips

Want to enable OpenDNS or Google DNS on your iOS device? Most default ISP DNS servers are quite slow, so you can both speed up your connection and help make it safer by switching to OpenDNS or Google DNS. Unfortunately, you can’t change DNS settings on cellular internet connections in iOS, but you can change your WiFi DNS settings to help speed up your connection. But whenever you’re on your using WiFi at your college, home, work, library, Starbucks, or anywhere else, here’s how you can switch to using the DNS server you want.

This works the same on all iOS devices, so the screenshots below show it in both iPad and iPod Touch settings screens.

First, enable WiFi on your device and connect to the WiFi network you want to use. Then, tap the blue arrow button on the right side of the network name to tweak its settings.

Now, select the DNS field, select the DNS that’s already listed, then enter the DNS settings you want. Separate different DNS addresses with commas. You’ll need to know the IP addresses of the DNS resolution system you want to use. There are several common ones, including OpenDNS, Google DNS, and a couple lesser known ones such as Norton DNS or Comodo Secure DNS. I’d personally recommend using OpenDNS or Google DNS, but you can give the others a try and choose the one that works best for you

Here’s the addresses you should use for these:

Service:	OpenDNS	Google Public DNS	Norton DNS	Comodo DNS
Primary IP:	208.67.222.222	8.8.8.8	198.153.192.1	156.154.70.22
Secondary IP:	208.67.220.220	8.8.4.4	198.153.194.1	156.154.71.22

Once you’ve added the settings, you’ll be ready to browse the internet using your new DNS service without any extra changes. Enjoy!

Do note that you have to set your DNS settings on each network, so do note that you’ll need to change this the next time you connect to a new network. The good thing is, your device will remember your recently used networks, so you shouldn’t have to change the settings once you’ve got them set for your favorite networks. To make it easier, you could save a note in your favorite note app with the DNS settings you prefer so you can copy and past them to new networks easily.

So, what DNS do you use by default? Google DNS, OpenDNS, or your local ISP’s default DNS? I usually use OpenDNS, but lately have had some problems with OpenDNS and iTunes, so I’ve been using Google DNS. Surprisingly, it’s seemed faster, lately, though that’s highly subjective. Let us know your favorite in the comments.

Comments { 28 }

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

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