tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70897781355670595592024-02-19T10:17:43.546-05:00iPad App ReviewSharing my passion and knowledge with every other iPad enthusiast!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-67495508144222621792012-06-28T19:30:00.002-04:002012-06-28T19:52:34.467-04:00Google Browser<a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/634.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_634.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />Google iPad app is among the few apps that made to the first page on my device. Google plus provides the best central place for all these activities on the iPad. In addition to providing the perfect access to all my Google apps it also has some nifty features for searching. This app is very well designed, fun to use, reliable and FREE, which make it a must if you have a Google account.<br /><b style="background-color: white;">Rating: </b><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><img border="0" height="24" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png" style="background-color: white;" /> 5.<br /><b>Price: </b>FREE.<br /><b><br /></b><br /><b>The Good: </b><br /><span style="background-color: white;">I have a google account that I use for everything, from managing my pictures, to reading news, to sharing my life with friends. I found that some of these apps do no work properly in Safari and even crash at times, but they work fine from the Google Browser. </span><br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/665.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_665.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />One of the nifty feature is the voice search, which works seamlessly and reliably, despite my strong italian accent. After tapping on the microphone the app displays a status indicator in the middle of the screen.<br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/667.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_667.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />When the apps detects a complete sentence it performs the search. This feels like a very natural and extremely efficient process.<br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/668.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_668.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />Search results are displayed in traditional textual list fashion, or using a very appealing preview of the actual pages. This idea was first introduced by an iPad app called SearchMe, which had a brilliant interface, but disappointing search results. I always liked this solution, and I am glad that I can now use it with Google search results.<br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/669.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_669.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />Tapping on a page will display it on an overlay panel, which i can swipe out of the way.<br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/670.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_670.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />From the search result page I can view results from different domains. Image search is particularly appealing. All images are displayed in a tabloid format.<br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/763.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_763.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />Tapping on any image will display it in larger size, and swiping in both direction will display previous and next images.<br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/764.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_764.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />Tapping on the more button in the top navigation will reveals the other search facets.<br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/677.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_677.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />Swiping the view to the right revels the access to past searches.<br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/672.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_672.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />This view also displays the actual pages returned from the search. When I discovered this feature I was really stunned. It is just brilliant and beautiful.<br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/673.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_673.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />All previous searches are displays as a stack of pages. Tapping on the control on the top left unfold the stack and reveals the individual pages.<br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/674.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_674.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br /><b>The Bad: </b><br /><b><br /></b><br />Most google apps are displayed in their mobile layout, which is very limited and doesn't take advantage of the large iPad screen. This was probably my biggest disappointment with the app.<br /><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/06/28/666.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/06/28/s_666.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />The other minor complain is that I can only have one page open at the time.<br /><b>Rating Breakdown: </b><br /><img border="0" height="24" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png" /> design <br /><img border="0" height="24" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png" /> features <br /><img border="0" height="24" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png" /> reliability<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-52898612097327461102012-05-28T10:28:00.001-04:002012-06-01T06:41:04.706-04:00Flipboard<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipboard-your-social-news/id358801284?mt=8">Flipboard</a> is a social-network aggregation, magazine-format application software for Android and iOS. Flipboard has one of the most elegant layout and browsing experience of any other app I tried, and it is optimized to look at its best on all devices. I had tried many different readers so far, and this is the only one that has sticked with me for the last few years.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIyMc6aslyi9XkGwXXN_sFVQhsYgiXIuZr84Ys8BmDkjTazTAeBwGHVlv0xBU_jzPaS2evelB2WATm50cwsJrRD3ipAv7PMCloyKQTZ5ZJOWm1ZSSxkFsemDjxwqEsdHUM0OiUaI0sdBg/s512/Photo%252520Aug%25252007%25252C%25252011%25252038%25252029%252520PM.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIyMc6aslyi9XkGwXXN_sFVQhsYgiXIuZr84Ys8BmDkjTazTAeBwGHVlv0xBU_jzPaS2evelB2WATm50cwsJrRD3ipAv7PMCloyKQTZ5ZJOWm1ZSSxkFsemDjxwqEsdHUM0OiUaI0sdBg/s512/Photo%252520Aug%25252007%25252C%25252011%25252038%25252029%252520PM.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<b>Rating: </b><img border="0" height="24" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png" /><b> Price: </b>FREE. <br />
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<b>The Good: </b><br />
Once you had set up all your feeds, the initial screen of the app will feature in a beautiful full screen the most popular entries.<br />
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<a href="http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-iO5-dUngdqU/T8GIWEf2JDI/AAAAAAAAFBA/FTv-_R96E9w/s2048/IMAGE_0FC0112F-E05F-4807-9346-39DF9FF2A757.PNG"><img src="http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-iO5-dUngdqU/T8GIWEf2JDI/AAAAAAAAFBA/FTv-_R96E9w/s2048/IMAGE_0FC0112F-E05F-4807-9346-39DF9FF2A757.PNG" width="500" /></a><br />
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The transition between pages simulates flipping the pages of a magazine and it is just gorgeous.<br />
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<a href="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-F63HTQLy2kQ/T8GIaboGfBI/AAAAAAAAFBI/CFED-yJO8OU/s2048/IMAGE_1D4A7D20-8FFC-43B4-A2C6-568350321C69.PNG"><img src="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-F63HTQLy2kQ/T8GIaboGfBI/AAAAAAAAFBI/CFED-yJO8OU/s2048/IMAGE_1D4A7D20-8FFC-43B4-A2C6-568350321C69.PNG" width="500" /></a><br />
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When you get inside you will be able to get to all your feeds. The most popular entry for each feed is featured in this page.<br />
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<a href="http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-tluSwBUmp6w/T8GId5934NI/AAAAAAAAFBQ/qJarGTQupps/s2048/IMAGE_FBB99B17-0ADC-43FF-BECF-8B26631D17D6.PNG"><img src="http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-tluSwBUmp6w/T8GId5934NI/AAAAAAAAFBQ/qJarGTQupps/s2048/IMAGE_FBB99B17-0ADC-43FF-BECF-8B26631D17D6.PNG" width="500" /></a><br />
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Tapping on the magnify glass will open a panel, to browse for additional feeds you want to add. All available feeds are organized by categories, which helped me discover some very interesting content.<br />
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<a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jyjUTEeZfBU/T8GIz-jO6nI/AAAAAAAAFBY/Tm3JckAzZME/s2048/IMAGE_FED9ED38-9929-42A1-81F4-1DB56F7DA234.PNG"><img src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jyjUTEeZfBU/T8GIz-jO6nI/AAAAAAAAFBY/Tm3JckAzZME/s2048/IMAGE_FED9ED38-9929-42A1-81F4-1DB56F7DA234.PNG" width="500" /></a><br />
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Feed entries are displayed in a tabloid format. I was amazed how information looks more interesting when displayed in this format rather that in a list. The tiles are sized according to the relevance, and their feature both text and images from every entry in a very attractive format.<br />
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<a href="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XPm6hfTwHmg/T8GI4KtneWI/AAAAAAAAFBg/eUAXoaykUJI/s2048/IMAGE_C28D286E-7C29-4305-8E40-03A3FE30101C.PNG"><img src="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XPm6hfTwHmg/T8GI4KtneWI/AAAAAAAAFBg/eUAXoaykUJI/s2048/IMAGE_C28D286E-7C29-4305-8E40-03A3FE30101C.PNG" width="500" /></a><br />
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Some of the articles are displayed in a very clean are readable format which is stripped down from all unnecessary information you may have to view in the original web site.<br />
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<a href="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-hUgPqxApA8c/T8GJDpcxqXI/AAAAAAAAFCA/i7B0mjRh7t0/s2048/IMAGE_DEFA90F1-63C6-45D4-AE2A-989D76EAA1A4.PNG"><img src="http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-hUgPqxApA8c/T8GJDpcxqXI/AAAAAAAAFCA/i7B0mjRh7t0/s2048/IMAGE_DEFA90F1-63C6-45D4-AE2A-989D76EAA1A4.PNG" width="500" /></a><br />
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When an article spans multiple pages you can flip the content as you would do in an actual magazine.<br />
For some reason I find this as a very satisfiable experience.<br />
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<a href="http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3yoztkrFYdA/T8GJA04x5DI/AAAAAAAAFB4/3yK1jS9NJ6M/s2048/IMAGE_DFE5C10C-E73F-4090-AFAF-A5ED764C74EE.PNG"><img src="http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3yoztkrFYdA/T8GJA04x5DI/AAAAAAAAFB4/3yK1jS9NJ6M/s2048/IMAGE_DFE5C10C-E73F-4090-AFAF-A5ED764C74EE.PNG" width="500" /></a><br />
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Articles which are mostly pictures based are displayed in a gorgeos format that gives really enphasys to the images. Below an example of an article on Compemporary Homes in Brazil.<br />
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<a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SwVrzVAgPzw/T8GJHHXRdQI/AAAAAAAAFCI/2_vXXzfOBEw/s2048/IMAGE_8C1B731D-832F-4767-8BD4-F48963B0D612.PNG"><img src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SwVrzVAgPzw/T8GJHHXRdQI/AAAAAAAAFCI/2_vXXzfOBEw/s2048/IMAGE_8C1B731D-832F-4767-8BD4-F48963B0D612.PNG" width="500" /></a><br />
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This is how the same article looks like on the <a href="http://freshome.com/2012/05/26/massive-contemporary-home-in-brazil-accommodating-three-family-generations/">source site</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://freshome.com/2012/05/26/massive-contemporary-home-in-brazil-accommodating-three-family-generations/"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-YGd1RzBlbp8/T8ODma_X49I/AAAAAAAAFCY/OE5xeFePJvc/s1152/Screen%2520Shot%25202012-05-28%2520at%25209.54.00%2520AM.png" width="500" /></a><br />
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<b>The Bad: </b><br />
Flipboard used to display all articles in a clean reader format, which stripped out of all unnecessary elements that were part of the original page. <br />
In a recent update most of the articles are now display with a split view. The top area display an image and a portion of the text, while the bottom area allows to the get to the full article from the original web source. <br />
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<a href="http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-tlL1El8dpko/T8GI6b-rGhI/AAAAAAAAFBo/kmumdlCdtIM/s2048/IMAGE_7456C57D-791A-4250-AE56-A51FEA8F3579.PNG"><img src="http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-tlL1El8dpko/T8GI6b-rGhI/AAAAAAAAFBo/kmumdlCdtIM/s2048/IMAGE_7456C57D-791A-4250-AE56-A51FEA8F3579.PNG" width="500" /></a><br />
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This unfortunately exposes the user to all the clutter of the original web site, including obviously to all the promotional information. I understand that Flipboard may have had business reason to do that, but it is too bad for the user.<br />
The image below displays an example of the article in its original format.<br />
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<a href="http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-nuCUlp4z43k/T8GI9YapXVI/AAAAAAAAFBw/bLldvHeK1LI/s2048/IMAGE_EE3A169B-D91E-4691-9FA4-2C6F4612F7B0.PNG"><img src="http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-nuCUlp4z43k/T8GI9YapXVI/AAAAAAAAFBw/bLldvHeK1LI/s2048/IMAGE_EE3A169B-D91E-4691-9FA4-2C6F4612F7B0.PNG" width="500" /></a><br />
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I definitely miss the reader view, which I was a much cleaner and elegant solution.<br />
My second small complain is that articles are marked as read only when expanded in full display.<br />
Both these and the reader view are the two features I miss from <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/feeddler-rss-reader-pro/id365710282?mt=8">Feeddler RRS Reader Pro</a>, which had an option for marking articles as read from their list view. Reading the summary in many cases is enough for me to consider the article as read.<br />
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<b>Rating Breakdown: </b><br />
<img border="0" height="24" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png" /> design <br />
<img border="0" height="24" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png" /> features <br />
<img border="0" height="24" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png" /> reliability<br />
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<b>Resources: </b><br />
Most of the magic of Flipboard comes from the interaction. The transition between pages simulates flipping the pages of a book. Watching this video to get a better sense of how this feel.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/v2vpvEDS00o?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-62018912118314010912011-06-13T22:20:00.010-04:002012-05-28T09:18:57.316-04:00Notes Plus<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg96YfiwPvGCIkyzdiHUbUr8INQx1B33Fclz-2NoPazk-KIgZKudk-7jOY_ObNvEgxda7LCmyrAlgZ08t30cxQ1V2JggZ17vwTGMOdEvqZx8v_D9Goan4Q5BXirYH3CiD9_9FmLpyJg1hY/s128/NotesPlus.png" width="60" /></div>Notes Plus is the best app for note taking I have tried so far. It is great for hand writing notes and for simple sketching. After trying many different apps, Notes Plus has gained the top position in my daily routine. Notes Plus is very simple, yet very powerful and packed with many extremely useful features that make for a very effective note taking experience.<br /><b>Rating: </b> <img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> <b>Price: </b>$4.99<span class="fullpost"> <br /><br /><b>The Good</b><br />Notes plus is full of great features to help you taking beautiful and accurate notes very efficiently.<br />My favorite features are the zoom window and the auto-advance capability. In particular, the auto-advance is brilliant even if requires a little practice to use it efficiently. The idea is to allow you writing continuously on the same line without the need for extra taps.<br /><iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IU-UDi94uk4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />You can hand draw shapes, that can be recognized and translated in editable vector objects.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/wey.claudia/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2_4q-Ls9u2Uw#5617893568664736738'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPxvmRB8Omo7ZkrrdFJghHQRN_PPqgU_6w00GSW9h07MBJZp2sAYVYrQh82YxXKXasnmWA0Sn-bSoO0deV6oN5HRpfGD07yNcbQzKtroV3ud8fxF0L46EDHLkhcZdSYI4ma4sFcpXCsOE/s288/2.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />You can type with the keyboard for neat looking notes.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/wey.claudia/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2_4q-Ls9u2Uw#5617893645673808418'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8HymRIuaWUjUtncNVPhnPhS7LQFToeClQ_uOlw6j-ZpKHXUil4pn6lPY3V46E5gAb085qGJDC2GZ3ha_6_omnbl35HuCKOdiNX2_wZqtA2x9mS3LtYicUiTr-h1mpb9ZmAq7udVXY9ec/s288/1.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />You can customize paper type, pen color, fill, font type, size and color.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/wey.claudia/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2_4q-Ls9u2Uw#5617893655122238114'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5tXA0l6ce5z3rhalvvOurle0n2g7-eOaHMpS2h_Vy49Yo8cF2tiMA25GOI_qVUYVRZ2jmpyX_irxwkMEf5ImE3rGeAS8eH0NQc6UI7gKG9gYeofVqUUXHn3rcUDo2qrwADf7zrM7krBE/s288/5.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />You can select a portion of your note to reposition it or delete it from the page.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/wey.claudia/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2_4q-Ls9u2Uw#5617893720466254722'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOy6kh_MJmpiLO7_vIVRlO0NRmjnQtlFCQkjsXFf5esXY7uDh2MuT78WrAJxzcJ22gkHHy_PeyL7k7ufr0hg5mXHM-dNx-qNmvpZy41iQaPrQhn8sbaEWdcRnu2OavC6snhpVKxflXjaE/s288/7.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />You can use the integrated voice recorder to make sure you don't miss any important quote.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/wey.claudia/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2_4q-Ls9u2Uw#5617893725350154402'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3pimJDNaKTVrPkKa9Lt3FWszMk6qXziz5BQ6wuDorTo1Ape4NI2prM-dvMGqhey181OMTDXY38DdV-Pz3xUasq1hlDjIV2ubsqWZCIsA0ccouN52rS4BR0lubIz00P3EdDaVa9JPpxHA/s288/3.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Thanks to the palm rest feature, you can comfortably use a stylus, for more accurate writing and drawing.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/wey.claudia/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2_4q-Ls9u2Uw#5617893799066461218'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY8y_FrrmFyIYsuDD2egTfh_ZmgfubRrIyJL__vrN3RbvVPd6ZohA36i0db5Y7qoodJhI69ShW_8pPISKdkbGWA4WAbZiNscrjHLvwBAbG1bot9p7E99DuuAAc0GbQVj0yaDJgxQKokUw/s288/8.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />You can share your notes in different forms included Google Docs.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/wey.claudia/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2_4q-Ls9u2Uw#5617893812825532578'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsawd8391a9fsFm3xiy4j84-IYuhzPRwa9vWWwAVDN53NBUQqkPHhdWypqlbBxAfu3HZP3jjHqyycjcMDBXfsXHfxKXOTBl_posvmxm8Dm9CebVuicyfEF7bFRjnPP6kAO3bdIJzItOFs/s288/6.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><b>The Bad</b><br />Page scrolling is not obvious. After watching a video I learned that i could scroll vertically by swiping two fingers. That is a very essential, albeit a rather hidden feature.<br />You may have to keep the tutorial for gestures handy. There are several hidden gestures that are essential to the effective use of the app.<br />I really miss the ability to easily browse all my notes when working in landscape full screen. I am not quite sure why they didn't bring the fly over navigation available from the top left button in portrait view.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/wey.claudia/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2_4q-Ls9u2Uw#5617893849077517410'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZqMyNrgflD8CjPYkbFn78Cfzy9duxOmdPldNf38Lkkr2hdiwCgNVbFvRANe43pvpJIrRYoYmyk0Vn6Xwn_CLjuI_p8CW1yS0mbaEiSTYYJdnvZ4Je49wYLSNG0g6dww9Q2K6OY4G2YRQ/s288/9.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='174' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />I did switch to this app from <a href="http://ipad-app-review.blogspot.com/2010/06/fastfinga.html">FastFinga</a> a month ago. Overall I am happy but there are a couple of features I miss. <br />The first is the constrained page length. <a href="http://ipad-app-review.blogspot.com/2010/06/fastfinga.html">FastFinga</a> grows your page as needed without forcing me to make a special gesture to go to the next page. This is quite annoying while writing or reading. Pages are a physical constraint when working on paper, but a completely artificial and unnecessary constraint when working with electronic media. <br />The second is the lack of check-boxes, which were extremely handy for capturing action items and status. Sure I can simply draw a box and a check, but check-boxes allows to easily spot action items in notes and easily check them as done.<br /><b>Rating Breakdown</b><br /><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> design <br /><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> features <br /><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> reliability<br /><b>Resources</b><br /><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/notes-plus-handwriting-note/id374211477?mt=88">Notes Plus on the iTune App Store</a><br />This is a full overview of Notes Plus. Enjoy!<br /><iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xk_KVY-4HfI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></span><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-56977483971772720812011-01-08T16:48:00.064-05:002011-06-13T17:31:40.792-04:00Photo browsing and editing on the iPad<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUgkNaZi4QH0C0p81T-KiyRCm8E-xUhEuo-Le36gEblANsSqYMbb0K6ZejivF8LJF0M43YkC82xSUV8HJentOMJc9-1Gjo4vXHYZyLFJi11P-tZZFF3sK5IOC4SzfGgR_9rZ-F6S5W74I/s128/Photogene.png" width="60" /></div>I love photography as much as I love my iPad. Unfortunately photo browsing and editing on this amazing device can be quite frustrating, but I have some good news: <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/be/app/photogene-for-ipad/id363448251?mt=8">Photogene </a>has recently released a new version of its iPad app which solves some of the pains around these tasks. I am looking forward to see more photo applications moving in this same direction.<span class="fullpost"><br />
<br />
On my desktop machine I use <a href="http://picasa.google.com/#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=picasa">Picasa </a>to store and view all my pictures. I do some editing in Picasa itself, but I often have to switch to <a href="http://www.photoshop.com/">Photoshop</a> for more advanced editing. I am a bit of a snob when it comes to photo quality and Picasa doesn't provide enough features and it also degrades photo quality when straightening. I am also not impressed by the new <a href="http://www.picnik.com/">Picnik </a>integration. The editing capabilities added are marginal, unless you are willing to pay a monthly fee for premium features.<br />
Even given its limitations I do love Picasa, to organize my thousands of pictures in albums and by people (I do use this feature quite a lot), to select favorite pictures and as a jumping point for creating an album in <a href="http://www.shutterfly.com/">Shutterfly </a>or <a href="http://www.snapfish.com/">Snapfish</a>. <br />
At the moment I am still a frustrated photo enthusiast when it comes to the iPad. The native photo app is pleasant for browsing pictures, but terrible for organizing. Don't you hate not being able rename or create folders and/or move pictures across folders. Do I really have to use my computer and sync using iTunes for that? <br />
Being a Picasa enthusiast I have tried a few Picasa apps and have used <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/web-albums-for-ipad-a-picasa/id364824944?mt=8">Web Albums</a> which allows me to access my Picasa albums in a browser. <br />
The Web Album interface mimics the native iPad photo app, and it provides a pleasant browsing experience. More recently the app has added support for multiple albums, which was a big plus for me. Web Albums has also added an integrated search, which unfortunately ignores both captions and tags, making search completely useless. I wish the action menu provided a quick jump to the web album in the browser, instead of their simple "Copy Photo URL", which forces a few extra manual steps to get there. I also wish the app could provide an "Open In..." menu to jump to my Photo editing apps.<br />
Now that we cover browsing let's talk about editing.<br />
I am still experimenting with a few apps but I find myself still using Photoshop on my desktop for anything that I really care about. <br />
That being said, I would like to do simple editing if selecting a picture and storing the results was less frustrating. Most of the apps use the same tiny popup dialog to browse the pictures to edit. That is incredibly frustrating when you have lots of pictures and you need to find the one to edit using a small scrollable window. To make things worse, all my edits get saved in the same "Saved Photos" folder, instead of on the original photo folder.<br />
I am please to announce that there is finally a solution for people that share these pains! In a recent update <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/be/app/photogene-for-ipad/id363448251?mt=8">Photogene </a>has completely revised their user interface, mimicking my Picasa's beloved behavior. Photogene displays a start screen with all the pictures from my photo library. The user interface is remarkably similar to the iPad native photo app. <br />
</span> <span class="fullpost"><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/11/01/09/852.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/11/01/09/s_852.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></span><span class="fullpost">I was very excited about the view by faces tab, but I'm sad to discover that you can add this information only using the iPhoto MAC software ... what a bummer. From this browsing screen I can select a picture to edit, and when I am done I don't have to save it in a separate file, unless I want to export the edits outside the app. I can edit a set of images and both edits and originals are preserved, in the same fashion as Picasa does. Edited pictures are marked with an icon.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/11/01/09/853.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/11/01/09/s_853.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><div>Viewing, managing and editing my pictures from a single tool seems to be almost a reality with Photogene. Unfortunately there are still two simple features missing, that force me to go back to the Photo app:</div><div>viewing a set of images and deleting. When I view an image, I would like to easily access the previous and next image in my album. Going to the Photo app just to delete an image is kind of a bummer.</div><div>That said, kudos to the designer of the Photogene app. I believe he understood the bigger pain of dealing with photos on the iPad, and had provided a brilliant solution to it! </div><div>I hope to see more photo apps moving in this direction in the future.</div></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-25784766208497273582010-08-30T22:37:00.022-04:002011-06-13T19:26:25.299-04:00Note Taker HD - v4.0<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3cYpv-1jDXOiqnxmT0mf_rnp91bTjnrGgtsZFHitjtgXhwPhF0SBhQFXYH7nZj0Ls0pu4aPx7S58GMuo9Uc9nuasaZmjbeyN3hl7qn0bYNY_h5MZMYxml2_Xzp5Id_sy0Ri6n2F_3WaQ/s128/NoteTaker.png" width="60" /></div>Note Taker HD is a simple iPad app for taking hand written notes. I was pleasantly surprised by the many improvements implemented in the last update. They completely redesign the UI, giving a more contemporary look and making a better use of the real estate. Also they revised some other aspects of the UI, improving usability and the discoverability of some of the functionalities. As a result I upgrade my global rating from 3 to 4 stars!<br />
<br />
<b>Rating: </b><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftrilJpuSfNA47GpN-5Qc3xBVYULWWAlZQbBBOvQCFyf8ZhmJBLxgR1BYB0w300TtH72nfhvRvJ5jSpZvqJYEAddFlyeuepiCbNL0NLrO_NomZsLDj-CRR0u8HBgwLLkbqBF5bQJIqkk/s128/4stars.png' border='0' height='24'><b>Price: </b>$4.99 <span class="fullpost"><br />
<br />
<b>What's Good</b><br />
Note Taker HD has two editing modes.<br />
<b>Edit1</b> allows to zoom in and out and write everywhere on the document. In recent updates, they have added a wrist guard option, which enables more comfortable hand-writing, by ignoring every input below the dotted line. I have seen a more elegant implementation of this feature in <a href="http://ipad-app-review.blogspot.com/2010/06/penultimate.html">Penultimate</a>, but this effectively serves its purpose.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/933.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/s_933.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
This feature is off by default and can be enabled by tapping on the "Wrist Guard On" in the editing tool.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/934.jpg"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/s_934.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
The other editing mode is <b>Edit2</b>, which presents a split screen, similar to <a href="http://ipad-app-review.blogspot.com/2010/06/fastfinga.html">FastFinga</a>: full document above, and detail area below. In this mode Note Taker offers a brilliant auto-scroll feature. Auto-scroll allows you to write in the zoom area in a continuous stream without additional actions. It takes a little while to get used to this behavior but it can really speed up your hand writing. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/935.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/s_935.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
You can watch this YouTube movie from the author, to fully understand this feature. <br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6fmxlWuMtms?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6fmxlWuMtms?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
A third mode, <b>View</b>, allows to pan and zoom your document, without leaving unwanted marks on your note.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/936.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/s_936.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
In recent updates Note Taker has added the ability of selecting among a set of colors, highlights and line widths. There are plenty of options to create simple but effective low-fidelity sketches.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/2127.jpg"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/s_2127.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="159" /></a><br />
You can add pages to the currently edited document by pressing the "+" button.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/937.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/s_937.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
Multiple-pages documents display up and down navigation arrows on the top right corner to get to the previous and next pages. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/939.jpg"><img border="0" height="78" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/s_939.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
If you tap on the <b>Done</b> button, Note Taker will navigate to a view which displays the list of pages. This is a split screen view with thumbnail documents list on the left and document previews on the right. Left-right arrows navigate across documents while up-down arrows navigate across pages of the selected document.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/1997.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/s_1997.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
Tapping on the <b>All</b> button toggles between a list and a grid view. Also from this view you will be able to filter favorites or assigned tags.<br />
If you tap on the <b>Tools</b> button on this view, you will get a number of tools to manage your pages.<br />
If you tap and hold on any one of any the thumbnails, you will get a popup with a list of actions you can perform on the page. <br />
<br />
<b>What's Bad</b><br />
There is not much left in the Bad section after the 4.0 update.<br />
The biggest shortcoming is perhaps the appearance of the ink, which is not as good as other note taking apps (see <a href="http://ipad-app-review.blogspot.com/2010/06/penultimate.html">Penultimate</a> or <a href="http://ipad-app-review.blogspot.com/2010/06/fastfinga.html">FastFinga</a>), but it has improved a little after the last update. <br />
This is also true when writing in a large zoomed view, and then zooming out. It seems impossible to get any sort of decent looking lines. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/605.jpg"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/s_605.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
There are 3 different Tools dialogs: from the page editing view, when tapping and holding on a thumbnail in the list view, and by tapping on the tools button. Most of the options are repeated across these 3 dialogs, and few of the options are quite obscure (as Staple and 12 Hours). All of this adds unnecessary complexity to the UI.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/2128.jpg"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/30/s_2128.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="190" /></a><br />
Note Taker doesn't support anything besides hand written notes; no pictures or text. <br />
You can edit the default thumbnail associated with the page, unfortunately this is not a very intuitive process. I had to watch the author's video to discover that feature, contrary to my assumptions I had to resize the document to fit into the thumbnail and not the other way around.<br />
I appreciate the feature but it requires more effort that what I am willing to make given the functionality.<br />
<br />
<b>Rating Breakdown</b><br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftrilJpuSfNA47GpN-5Qc3xBVYULWWAlZQbBBOvQCFyf8ZhmJBLxgR1BYB0w300TtH72nfhvRvJ5jSpZvqJYEAddFlyeuepiCbNL0NLrO_NomZsLDj-CRR0u8HBgwLLkbqBF5bQJIqkk/s128/4stars.png' border='0' height='24'> design <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftrilJpuSfNA47GpN-5Qc3xBVYULWWAlZQbBBOvQCFyf8ZhmJBLxgR1BYB0w300TtH72nfhvRvJ5jSpZvqJYEAddFlyeuepiCbNL0NLrO_NomZsLDj-CRR0u8HBgwLLkbqBF5bQJIqkk/s128/4stars.png' border='0' height='24'> features <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> reliability<br />
<br />
<b>Resources</b><br />
<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/note-taker-hd/id366572045?mt=8">Note Taker HD on the iTune App Store</a><br />
You can watch this YouTube video from the author to see this app in action.<br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6fmxlWuMtms?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6fmxlWuMtms?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-23480354382495608422010-08-25T16:40:00.007-04:002011-06-13T19:34:38.100-04:00HULU (and more) on your iPad<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigeVKxhSzjamrCYJPDw_6US7oJa1OdUj8u8j3xaVqxqbITdiM7CeTSH_uMaG9zekt5SAAYVw3YcmTTxBw4y2aIxmVwV0__AXbiySxKp6tZHI4Vf-hGwg79EFw87ynfh8UwBBh_iLA-Cr8/s128/PlayOn.png" width="60" /></div>If you have an iPad and wonder if you can watch HULU on it, check out <a href="http://www.playon.tv/playon">PlayOn</a>. They developed a product that enables you to stream tv content onto several devices in your home. PlayOn is an HTML5 viewer that streams from your PC, so you wouldn't find it on the App Store.<br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost"> <br />
<br />
The bad news is that they do charge for their product, but I found their fee to be pretty reasonable (check out both annual and lifetime subscriptions).<br />
The great news is that they offers a 14 days trial, so you can easily check this out and see if it is for you.<br />
At the moment PlayOn is officially supported only on the iPhone, but they are developing also an iPad version. <br />
If you are impatient like me, and you have some passion for hacking, I can help you make PlayOn work on your iPad.<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/27/713.jpg"><img border="0" height="194" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/27/s_713.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center> Here are the steps you will need to follow in your first set up:<br />
<br />
<ol><li> Install PlayOn on a computer. Your computer will be streaming tv content to your iDevices connected to the same wifi network.</li>
<li>Get the IP address of your computer and append ":54479/index.html"</li>
<li>You should end up with an address that looks like this: http://xxx.xxx.xx.x:54479/index.html</li>
<li>Open that address on Safari on your iPad.</li>
</ol>You can bookmark the location, so you can easily return to it.<br />
Unfortunately the last digit of the xxx.xxx.xx.x may changes when you reboot your computer. So, if the last address doesn't work, try changing the last digit with numbers 0-9. One of them should work, and give you back the access to your PlayOn</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-12873279204830455202010-08-22T16:34:00.007-04:002011-06-13T19:34:57.186-04:00Best Pen for your iPad<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtwamkdb_fSZH6cz85v45f3LIncT20Qgc4DtHvdN4ikzwIZmkntrzifFiby57NFIxbNKb0w9StHS8nMT9-jYKlb83JzrU3oBsd7d0x-_NvaDZeCredR61WHetwoq8MrJgeL3QwmG7cePo/s128/BestPens.png" width="60" /></div>Sketching and note taking are among the most important tasks I perform on my iPad. Unfortunately both this activities are almost impossible without a pen, even on your iPad. I have tried 3 different pens, so far, and I want to share with you my experience and preference.<br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost"> <br />
<br />
The first pen I tried was Pogo Sketch Stylus (8$-15$)<br />
This pen works fine, but it is not very precise. The tip has a squared edge and it is made in a spongy material. The shape and the size makes it hard to get a precise stroke.<br />
The building quality is extremely disappointing. I would be surprised if it cost more that 50 cents to manufacture. The clip broke after a week, and the rest of the pen slowly fell a part within a month. <br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/22/1901.jpg"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/22/s_1901.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="225" /></a></center><br />
My second pen was a DAGi P501 (23$)<br />
DAGi has a very original design. It allows an extremely precise input, since the tip is completely transparent, with a red dot that indicates the exact location of your input. This pen is well manufactured. Unfortunately I couldn't effectively use this pen, because it requires you to keep the pen at an angle, which is probably ok for sketching, but completely unnatural for tacking notes.<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/22/1902.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/22/s_1902.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
If your purpose is sketching, you may still want to try this pen. Watch this interesting video review on YouTube for more insights.<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfTeIIi79r8">YouTube Video</a><br />
The last pen I tried (and love) is the Capacitive iPad Stylus by BoxWave (20.95$)<br />
This pen is perfect for taking notes and rough sketching.<br />
The pen works very well, and has a very sturdy body. It is completely made of aluminum, which makes it a very strong and light pen.<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/22/1906.jpg"><img border="0" height="195" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/22/s_1906.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="210" /></a></center><br />
For 7$ more you may want to consider their Capacitive iPad, which is very handy when you are in a meeting, just carrying your iPad, and someone gives you some handout that you want to mark.<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/22/1904.jpg"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/22/s_1904.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="123" /></a></center><br />
Enjoy you pen and your iPad!<br />
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-10757472773253364472010-08-22T08:55:00.057-04:002011-06-13T19:27:10.273-04:00Penultimate - v1.2<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBx6h3KCwfVSnVd-PCVtjaxNFegrEDuW8L5ZuEaZ8UGBhTYFuICbaeEIZeXESOWnwzlfrNA-tqQuGooQ-SRjcDwxT-dz2PJ07Cb23O6l5FSrc7UX1a9rB18WAKB0enEP-0p6AE1XErOyg/s128/Penultimate.png" width="60" /></div>Penultimate is a simple iPad notebook app for hand-written notes and sketches, but, despite its popularity, it is not your best option. Its biggest limitations are: the inability to zoom (which causes me to fit only a few strokes in any given page) and lack of any real document management<br />
<br />
<b>Rating: </b><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSIYDF9vbrxqkYdnYrfA_nW_shLNcOuwz3KilvcKin14eargnSbkQIEEeECT69ziDHGZjLPZxxAUeT-lmK2l2F22CAzpikfuG__53MBKdJHfuiFjFZ4BIW-lmYVksfRSU8cZKdRViLxU/s128/3stars.png' border='0' height='24'> <b>Price: </b>$2.99 <br />
<span class="fullpost"> <br />
<br />
<b>What's Good</b><br />
Penultimate is the most popular hand-written note iPad application. It is a very simple and well designed app. Penultimate does one thing: allows you to hand write your notes. <br />
The main screen design is very similar to Pages and Keynote apps on the iPad. From this screen you can browse all your notebooks in a scrollable view. From here you can delete or share a selected notebook. Double click will open the selected notebook for editing. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/1925.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/s_1925.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
This is the first program I tried that had a wrist protection. I love this feature and it makes hand writing with a iPad pen much easier.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/1926.jpg"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/s_1926.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="210" /></a><br />
<br />
There is an option controlling this feature, so make sure it is on!<br />
From the same option popup you can control were to display tools on your page.<br />
<br />
In the last update Penultima has introduce a new Pen tool, that finally allows to select thickness and color.<br />
I prefer writing with the thin line, to fit more notes in one page. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/22/649.jpg"><img border="0" height="108" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/08/22/s_649.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
Penultimate offers 3 different paper types. I personally prefer Paper Plain, but also the other 2 are not too bad. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/1928.jpg"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/s_1928.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="258" /></a><br />
<br />
The appearance of the ink is very pleasing, it has very smooth corners and a variable thickness that simulates very well traditional ink-writing.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/1929.jpg"><img border="0" height="149" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/s_1929.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
<b>What's Bad</b><br />
Penultima displays a large right margin, only in landscape view, for scrolling the page. I found this feature very disappointing for two reasons.<br />
First, I was extremely sad to loose such a large portion of the screen, which I would have preferred to use for writing or zooming.<br />
Second, this feature doesn't work well with wrist protection. My wrist kept scrolling accidentally. It was completely impossible for me to work in this view. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/1930.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/s_1930.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
Penultima doesn't allow zooming, which imposes to create large notes, filling up the page very quickly. <br />
Export options are very limited. You can email the current page or an entire notebook.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/1931.jpg"><img border="0" height="182" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/15/s_1931.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
There is no option to organize your notes in any way. I can't see myself using this app for lots of notes. I would end-up with hundreds of notebooks in a long scrolling list, or with few notebooks with hundred of pages.<br />
<br />
<b>Rating Breakdown</b><br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftrilJpuSfNA47GpN-5Qc3xBVYULWWAlZQbBBOvQCFyf8ZhmJBLxgR1BYB0w300TtH72nfhvRvJ5jSpZvqJYEAddFlyeuepiCbNL0NLrO_NomZsLDj-CRR0u8HBgwLLkbqBF5bQJIqkk/s128/4stars.png' border='0' height='24'> design <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHLcaobDuc4WF0VOaA7sfsYOYR62lpQAM6LQ4_EG9sz836a6EucU5_sPAshk71mVFeuPGjwNnxNNpUoVZDEwWCFoxa-fad66tVtj6Fvw4ofCkMP01CWgl3L5bD8vsRFEgriPqpz9WBTA/s128/2stars.png' border='0' height='24'> features <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> reliability <br />
<br />
<b>Resources</b><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8tBAw5CcIo&feature=youtube_gdata">YouTube video review of Penultimate</a><br />
<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/penultimate/id354098826?mt=8"> Penultimate on the iTune App Store</a><br />
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-29099701138359807682010-08-10T07:21:00.002-04:002010-08-24T16:26:18.802-04:00I am back!!Hello everyone, I am back.<br />
I neglected this blog due to an injury that prevented me from using my iPad. It was such a torture! In the meantime, few of the apps I had reviewed have been updated. I was excited to see that most updates had fixed issues I had flagged in my "What's Bad" section. I will publish an updated review for these apps, and I will archive all outdated ones. I then will be diving into new and exciting apps.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-60850306810678535342010-06-29T03:12:00.007-04:002011-06-13T19:28:02.994-04:00Photogene<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUgkNaZi4QH0C0p81T-KiyRCm8E-xUhEuo-Le36gEblANsSqYMbb0K6ZejivF8LJF0M43YkC82xSUV8HJentOMJc9-1Gjo4vXHYZyLFJi11P-tZZFF3sK5IOC4SzfGgR_9rZ-F6S5W74I/s128/Photogene.png" width="60" /></div>Photogene is a very well designed iPad app that provides many essential features for simple photo editing. This is my favorite iPad app for photo editing. It cannot replace my Photoshop yet, but neither can any other iPad app I have tried.<br />
<br />
<b>Rating: </b><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> <b>Price: </b>$3.99 <span class="fullpost"> <br />
<br />
<b>What's Good</b><br />
Photogene is a feature rich photo editing application. <br />
We will review, one by one, all of the nine mean tools provided by this iPad app. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/19/1210.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/19/s_1210.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">CROP</span>f<br />
You can crop a photo with a unconstrained box or with an aspect ratio of your choice. Unfortunately the most common choices are missing (see what's bad section for more details).<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/19/1211.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/19/s_1211.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ROTATE</span><br />
You can rotate your picture 90 degree left or right, and flip it, horizontally or vertically.<br />
Photogene also provides a straightening tool. By dragging a slider you can rotate your image in either direction a desired amount. While dragging the slider a grid is displayed to help you align features in your photo. In this picture I used the grid to align the horizon line visible in the background.<br />
I was very pleased by the maintained image quality. This tool performed much better in this regard than others, as with Picasa, where I had experienced quality degradation after picture straightening. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/19/1213.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/19/s_1213.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">MACRO</span><br />
You can choose among 16 presets effects. You can tap on any of these effects and evaluate right away the result on your picture. More interesting is the ability to save a combination of settings in the Custom section, to apply to multiple pictures.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/19/1214.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/19/s_1214.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">FILTER</span><br />
Photogene has 8 filters: sharpen, pencil, edge blur, B&W, posterize, sepia, nightvision and heatmap. An adjust slider allows to control the selected filter.<br />
Personally I don't understand photo filters, with the exception of the edge blur. I guess someone does, since they are common in photo editing applications. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/19/1215.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/19/s_1215.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">COLOR ADJUST</span><br />
This is, in my opinion, the most important tool for photo editing. Here you can adjust the most important characteristics of your photo: exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, saturation and color temperature.<br />
These are the essential settings to correct wrong exposures, back-lighting or wrong white balance. You can also play with contrast and saturation to get a nice B&W picture.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</span><br />
<span class="fullpost"><center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/1536.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/s_1536.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
<br />
<br />
Photogene offers as part of the same tool the control for Levels. You can tap on Auto to let Photogene compute the right settings, or you can drag the sliders to define the desired range of colors. Finally three RGB sliders allows to change the overall balance of RED, GREEN and BLUE channels. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/1537.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/s_1537.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">CURVES</span><br />
The curves tool is another important tool, mostly used to adjust contrast and exposition of your picture. You can bend the default three point curve or add additional points for a very complex curve.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">RED EYES</span><br />
This is a classic red eye tool. You can zoom in the area you want to fix, and tap in the pupil location. You can the control both radius and intensity of the filter. This does a pretty good job even in difficult cases as the one below.<br />
<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/1539.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/s_1539.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">SYMBOLS TOOL</span><br />
You can add text and shapes to your picture by using the symbols tool. Photogene has a library of 14 shapes that you can resize and position where you like on your photo.<br />
<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/1540.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/s_1540.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
<br />
Once you have add the symbol, you can then customize colors and appearance, or type your own text.<br />
<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/1542.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/s_1542.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">FRAMES</span><br />
Frames allows to select among 13 different frames to add to your picture. You can customize color and other features for the selected frame. You can also add a nice reflection effect if you like.<br />
<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/1543.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/22/s_1543.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
<br />
<b>What's Bad</b><br />
To be honest, not much is bad in this photo editing application. <br />
My only surprise was the selection of aspect ratio for cropping. I miss the standard cropping ratio for printing as 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10. I guess 2:3 count as a 4x6, but that may be not obvious for everyone. Also, the other 2 are not covered by any of the provided ratio.<br />
For once here I have a list of wishes, here listed in priority order:<br />
- cut, copy and paste of selected regions<br />
- a stamp tool to remove imperfections<br />
- support for multiple images (so I can cut a piece of an image and paste over another one)<br />
- mask<br />
- layers<br />
Then I will have my Photoshop on the iPad and I wouldn't need to use my computer any more :)<br />
As a side note, at the moment I did not find any other app that support most of these features, but I am hopeful in a brighter future.<br />
<br />
<b>Rating Breakdown</b><br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> design <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftrilJpuSfNA47GpN-5Qc3xBVYULWWAlZQbBBOvQCFyf8ZhmJBLxgR1BYB0w300TtH72nfhvRvJ5jSpZvqJYEAddFlyeuepiCbNL0NLrO_NomZsLDj-CRR0u8HBgwLLkbqBF5bQJIqkk/s128/4stars.png' border='0' height='24'> features <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> reliability <br />
<br />
<b>Resources</b><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rB5lx8_tNE&feature=youtube_gdata">Photogene for iPad demo on YouTube</a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/itunes.apple.com/it/app/photogene/id287273856?mt=8">Photogene on the iTune App Store</a><br />
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-81932497921142376232010-06-07T11:40:00.006-04:002011-06-13T19:28:44.388-04:00Note Taker HD<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3cYpv-1jDXOiqnxmT0mf_rnp91bTjnrGgtsZFHitjtgXhwPhF0SBhQFXYH7nZj0Ls0pu4aPx7S58GMuo9Uc9nuasaZmjbeyN3hl7qn0bYNY_h5MZMYxml2_Xzp5Id_sy0Ri6n2F_3WaQ/s128/NoteTaker.png" width="60" /></div>Note Taker HD is a simple iPad app for taking hand written notes. Except for the auto-scroll (which is indeed very nice) I couldn't find a reason why I would use this app. It has very limited features and nothing looks good about it, not even your notes.<br />
<br />
<b>Rating: </b><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSIYDF9vbrxqkYdnYrfA_nW_shLNcOuwz3KilvcKin14eargnSbkQIEEeECT69ziDHGZjLPZxxAUeT-lmK2l2F22CAzpikfuG__53MBKdJHfuiFjFZ4BIW-lmYVksfRSU8cZKdRViLxU/s128/3stars.png' border='0' height='24'> <b>Price: </b>$4.99 <br />
<span class="fullpost"> <br />
<br />
<b>What's Good</b><br />
Note Taker HD has two editing modes.<br />
Edit1 mode allows to zoom in and out and write everywhere on the document.<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/596.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/s_596.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
<br />
Edit2 mode presents a split screen, similar to <a href="http://ipad-app-review.blogspot.com/2010/06/fastfinga.html">FastFinga</a>: full document above, and detail area below. In this mode Note Taker offers a brilliant auto-scroll feature. Auto-scroll allows you to write in the zoom area in a continuous stream, without additional actions. It takes a little while to get used to this behavior, but it can really speed up your hand writing. You can watch this YouTube movie from the author, to fully understand the behavior. <br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/597.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/s_597.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
<br />
Finally, a view mode allows you to pan and zoom, without the risk to leave unwanted marks on your note.<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/598.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/s_598.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
<br />
If you tap on the Done button, Note Taker will navigate to a view which displays the list of pages. If you tap on the tools button on this view, you will get a number of tools to manage your pages. <br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/599.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/s_599.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
<br />
If you tap and hold on any one of any the thumbnails, you will get a popup with a list of actions you can perform on the page. <br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/600.jpg"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/s_600.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="256" /></a></center><br />
<br />
<b>What's Bad</b><br />
The use of real-estate is horrible. When working with the split screen (Edit2), Note Taker takes a lot of space for too many controls. In particular, the zoom area is much less wide of what you wish, and it requires lot of scrolling. Sure, the auto-scroll makes it easier, but you still have to move your finger (or pen) from right to left to continue writing on the same line.<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/603.jpg"><img border="0" height="209" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/s_603.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
Note Taker supports only blank ink in one fixed pen size, which, is a little too thin.<br />
<br />
Note Taker doesn't support anything besides hand written notes; no pictures or text. <br />
<br />
The ink is thin and looks very jagged. This is also true when writing in a large zoomed view, and then zooming out. It seems impossible to get any sort of decent looking lines. <br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/605.jpg"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/s_605.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
I personally don't like this light green paper color. Most of note apps I tried provide more attractive and crisp looking paper (see <a href="http://ipad-app-review.blogspot.com/2010/06/fastfinga.html">FastFinga</a> and <a href="http://ipad-app-review.blogspot.com/2010/06/sundry-notes.html">Sundry Notes</a> for example).<br />
<br />
You can edit the default thumbnail associated with the page. Unfortunately this is not a very intuitive process. I had to watch the author's video to discover that feature, contrary to my assumptions I had to resize the document to fit into the thumbnail, and not the other way around.<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/602.jpg"><img border="0" height="107" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/s_602.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
I appreciate the feature, but it requires more effort that what I am willing to make, given the functionality.<br />
<br />
Other minor observations. <br />
A small button below the document allows scrolling, but I don't know why I would need it, since I can always use the two finger gesture to do it. Finally, I don't think I have ever seen a REDO button before the UNDO one.<br />
<center><a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/606.jpg"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/07/s_606.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />
<br />
<b>Rating Breakdown</b><br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHLcaobDuc4WF0VOaA7sfsYOYR62lpQAM6LQ4_EG9sz836a6EucU5_sPAshk71mVFeuPGjwNnxNNpUoVZDEwWCFoxa-fad66tVtj6Fvw4ofCkMP01CWgl3L5bD8vsRFEgriPqpz9WBTA/s128/2stars.png' border='0' height='24'> design <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHLcaobDuc4WF0VOaA7sfsYOYR62lpQAM6LQ4_EG9sz836a6EucU5_sPAshk71mVFeuPGjwNnxNNpUoVZDEwWCFoxa-fad66tVtj6Fvw4ofCkMP01CWgl3L5bD8vsRFEgriPqpz9WBTA/s128/2stars.png' border='0' height='24'> features <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> reliability <br />
<br />
<b>Resources</b><br />
You can watch this YouTube video from the author to see this app in action.<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1n9K4AqtBg&feature=youtube_gdata">Note Taker HD Overview</a><br />
<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/note-taker-hd/id366572045?mt=8">Note Taker HD on the iTune App Store</a><br />
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-26850440502394827372010-06-04T18:48:00.007-04:002011-06-13T19:29:29.744-04:00Adobe Ideas<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpUmqxpT2I0wSik0fGzPUHvJ8r-uJzUarytNHqIqvuGcXXym340pexPGgYYNDab-hmfmiJ3ospz4lPPjRYyR_Sup_XtGcUsX3S_vThXHwkd93rxBcccHtANmwp9K-XROxdc4spG_u_MRY/s128/AdobeIdeas.png" width="60" /></div>Adobe Ideas is simple and nicely designed electronic sketchbook, plus it is free, which makes it a must download. Give it a serious try - I actually discover this app while looking on it more in depth while writing this review, and this is, now, one of my favorite apps! And don't forget to zoom, while you are sketching, which for me was the key of success.<br />
<br />
<b>Rating: </b><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSIYDF9vbrxqkYdnYrfA_nW_shLNcOuwz3KilvcKin14eargnSbkQIEEeECT69ziDHGZjLPZxxAUeT-lmK2l2F22CAzpikfuG__53MBKdJHfuiFjFZ4BIW-lmYVksfRSU8cZKdRViLxU/s128/3stars.png' border='0' height='24'> <b>Price: </b>FREE <br />
<span class="fullpost"> <br />
<br />
<b>What's Good</b><br />
Don't overlook Adobe Ideas. It is a simple, yet great drawing app.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/2274.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/s_2274.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
It provides 3 modes: pen, eraser and pan, and it has an apparently infinite undo stack.<br />
Within the pen mode, you can select: size, opacity and color.<br />
For both size and opacity, a slider allows to change the value.<br />
For colors, you can pick one of the 5 color from the default palette, or select one of your custom different palette. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/2276.jpg"><img border="0" height="165" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/s_2276.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
I love the way Adobe Ideas enables to create custom palette.<br />
From the organize page you can select the colors tab...<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/2277.jpg"><img border="0" height="43" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/s_2277.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
... which displays all the palette you had defined. <br />
From here you can then pick an image from your photo album. Adobe Ideas will extract main colors and create your new shining palette. The selected colors are highlighted in your picture. I wish I could drag the pickers around, but all in all, in am very pleased with the choices Adobe Ideas makes. <br />
The best way to use this app is to make heavy use of zoom - that, at least, was what made all the difference for me.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/2278.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/s_2278.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
If you want to work in full mode, a small button on the top left corner allows to hide the tool palette. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/2279.jpg"><img border="0" height="124" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/s_2279.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
A layer button, on the left bottom corner, displays the two layers this app provides. You can have a photo and a draw layer, which enables to trace or annotate pictures.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/2280.jpg"><img border="0" height="86" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/s_2280.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
You can duplicate Ideas by tapping on the double pen icon on the top right corner of the Organize page. This is essential when you want to produce variations of the same drawing.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/2281.jpg"><img border="0" height="40" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/05/s_2281.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
The best way to use this app, is to make heavy use of the zoom while sketching - this made all the difference for me. The way that Adobe Ideas renders and scales your strokes is the most impressive feature of this app. Your strokes become nice and smooth. You can zoom infinitely, in and out, and your strokes will always look amazing!<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/06/2492.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/06/s_2492.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
<b>What's Bad</b><br />
Export options are basically nonexistent, not even export to the photo album. The only way to use your work outside this app is to email it! This is pretty much the biggest shortfall (and it's not a small one) of this app.<br />
<br />
The two layers, dedicated respectively to sketch and photo, tickled my desire for more layer capabilities.<br />
<br />
As for all iPad drawing apps, I miss the capability to cut and paste, and move around portion of my sketch. I am the only one that makes heavy use of this functionality when creating electronic drawing?<br />
<br />
A couple of a minor design flaws.<br />
First. Changing color and size takes one more click then what I wish. I appreciate the design of this app, which preserve the real-estate for the drawing area, but I wish I could change my pen attributes in one click.<br />
Second. I keep running into this error. I tap on a color from a different swatch, assuming that I am selecting both swatch and color. When I start sketching and then realize that the color hasn't changed, only the swatch was selected.<br />
<br />
<b>Rating Breakdown</b><br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> design <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSIYDF9vbrxqkYdnYrfA_nW_shLNcOuwz3KilvcKin14eargnSbkQIEEeECT69ziDHGZjLPZxxAUeT-lmK2l2F22CAzpikfuG__53MBKdJHfuiFjFZ4BIW-lmYVksfRSU8cZKdRViLxU/s128/3stars.png' border='0' height='24'> features <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> reliability <br />
<br />
<b>Resources</b><br />
<a href="http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2010/04/draw_share_with_adobe_ideas_for_ipad.html">Draw & share with Adobe Ideas for iPad</a><br />
<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-ideas-1-0-for-ipad/id364617858?mt=8">Adobe Ideas on the iTune Apple Store</a><br />
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-37870318085330993262010-06-04T09:44:00.006-04:002011-06-13T19:30:18.362-04:00Sundry Notes<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhop2OHk538sjiLDCIn7WBXHY3oKNHfdJUzkUAbRLwYc15JvaWmQF50CLqTVe9ZeVZSEBgzOBrREPHgjpQ65-BYLE2EoMiEhZ_P2UhjFK9aIiuM2f9BZIkLAW1SQrmXpaWfcD1XWw4gGBA/s128/SundryNotes.png" width="60" /></div>Sundry Notes is a note application for the iPad that allows to mix text, photos, voice and web and more. Sundry Notes was clearly designed for someone writing math notes, and maybe this category of user can better appreciate some of its features. Overall this app is on the complex side, and I wish the developers had invested more time on polishing basic features (e.g. mail as PDF), and less time adding marginally useful features (as the equation solver or the symbols).<br />
<br />
<b>Rating: </b><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSIYDF9vbrxqkYdnYrfA_nW_shLNcOuwz3KilvcKin14eargnSbkQIEEeECT69ziDHGZjLPZxxAUeT-lmK2l2F22CAzpikfuG__53MBKdJHfuiFjFZ4BIW-lmYVksfRSU8cZKdRViLxU/s128/3stars.png' border='0' height='24'> <b>Price: </b>FREE <br />
<span class="fullpost"> <br />
<br />
<b>What's Good</b><br />
Sundry Notes supports many different input sources that can be collaged in a single, multiple-pages, document. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/567.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_567.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
The text has the basic formatting controls, which work globally on the text box (e.g. color, size, bold, italic, bulleted and numbered lists). <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/568.jpg"><img border="0" height="16" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_568.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
When working on the whiteboard there are a number of shapes you can add, including lines and shapes with text. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/569.jpg"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_569.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="213" /></a><br />
The line can snap to the corners and to the middle points of the shapes, which allows to create diagrams.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/570.jpg"><img border="0" height="88" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_570.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
All objects can be selected edited and repositioned.<br />
Non text objects can be copied and locked and scaled using two finger pinch.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/572.jpg"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_572.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="243" /></a><br />
An unusual piece of functionality is the option to disabled the spell checker. I guess this feature was designed for math expressions, if you don't want to be bothered by the app trying correcting your variable names!<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/573.jpg"><img border="0" height="63" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_573.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
Another unusual piece of functionality is the Equation Solver. You can add an expression to your note ... <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/574.jpg"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_574.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
... and when you tap on the expression box, a calculator appears, allowing you to edit the expression.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/575.jpg"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_575.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
I am usually not big fun of functionalities which I cannot fully justify, but I have to admit, this one is pretty cool.<br />
<br />
<b>What's Bad</b><br />
Even if this app provides basic text formatting, this affects the entire text box, which means: to get real formatted text you need to create separated boxes! You can then group different text objects in one rasterized image, but your text loses the ability to be edited! This approach makes formatting pretty useless. It is a lot of work ... I would rather type my notes in plain text.<br />
<br />
Text boxes can be resized by dragging a small arrow on the top right corner. Due to the small size of the dragging target it is pretty difficult to trigger the resize. I wish the developers had adopted the same resizing approach used for other objects.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/891.jpg"><img border="0" height="156" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_891.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
I may be missing something but I don't get why they have added the symbols library. These components have very poor usability and I see more pain than advantages in trying to use them.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/576.jpg"><img border="0" height="277" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_576.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
I am really puzzled why delete and merge don't appear on the contextual popup. At first I couldn't figure out how to delete my items. For some reason I totally missed the large two buttons on the toolbar, maybe because they had a completely different nature form all the other buttons there?<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/577.jpg"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_577.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></a><br />
<br />
There is an undo in the Whiteboard mode, but it only allows 3 undo steps. This is unacceptable for a hand free sketching mode, where you may do many strokes in a second.<br />
<br />
I wish there was a setting to suppress the many confirmation dialogs this app displays. And, yes ... I am sure I want to delete the selected item ... I swear.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/578.jpg"><img border="0" height="100" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_578.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
This app hasn't been designed (or at least tested) to work well in landscape mode. Many of the dialogs appear below the keyboard. This is not the end of the world, but it can be quite annoying.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/579.jpg"><img border="0" height="124" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_579.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
I found Sundry Notes to be pretty buggy. After syncing it crashed when I try to open one of the notes I had. Also, when mailing a multi-page note you end up with a PDF with all blank pages, except for your current page at the moment of emailing. This is so sad. I had a 3 pages note, and I have to emailed it 3 time ending up with 3 PDFs in my inbox, all of which had 3 pages, 2 of which where blank :(<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/871.jpg"><img border="0" height="103" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/04/s_871.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
Overall this may sound awkward to some, but I think this app has too many features that aren't really useful, and, more importantly, they are frustrating when you try to used them. This affected negatively my rating. The most disappointing feature, in this respect, is the library of symbols. I assumed it should help you writing math expressions, but these symbols are NOT integrated with the text, and they are so small that the pinch gesture to resize doesn't work. So, you place the symbol in the canvas, with quite some challenge you may be able to positioned where you like ... then what? It is still going to be a separate entity from you text, which means you have to perform the positioning separately, unless you group everything as a rasterized image that you then cannot edit. Well ... what a waste.<br />
<br />
<b>Rating Breakdown</b><br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHLcaobDuc4WF0VOaA7sfsYOYR62lpQAM6LQ4_EG9sz836a6EucU5_sPAshk71mVFeuPGjwNnxNNpUoVZDEwWCFoxa-fad66tVtj6Fvw4ofCkMP01CWgl3L5bD8vsRFEgriPqpz9WBTA/s128/2stars.png' border='0' height='24'> design <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> features <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHLcaobDuc4WF0VOaA7sfsYOYR62lpQAM6LQ4_EG9sz836a6EucU5_sPAshk71mVFeuPGjwNnxNNpUoVZDEwWCFoxa-fad66tVtj6Fvw4ofCkMP01CWgl3L5bD8vsRFEgriPqpz9WBTA/s128/2stars.png' border='0' height='24'> reliability <br />
<br />
<b>Resources</b><br />
Sundry Notes has a web site that you can check for more more information. The site also features a pretty nicely done video of the app.<br />
<a href="http://sundrynotes.com/">http://sundrynotes.com/</a><br />
<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sundry-notes/id353007318?mt=8">Sundry Notes on the iTune Apple Store</a><br />
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-71103871953835112782010-06-02T06:22:00.007-04:002011-06-13T19:30:52.619-04:00Crayons - Vector Drawing<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzjA21Ok8Rbu_3TD-3tpNrAJ-oKnjtwDBsiRjYuoEODh4olT3I0j0M-eKMuEtvZQdqcEq1MOZTh8Vyg7I8rBDAL3qwVfMss95kMOKNa3Wah0kRuz93HLlR0cFH_LTVT34pYqYy5N5hvJE/s128/Crayons.png" width="60" /></div>Crayon is a vector drawing application with the ability to create and edit beautiful Bezier curve. I was fascinated with some of the features of this tool, as the interactivity of the vector objects and the overlapping object selection. Unfortunately this app is still a little immature, and unless you are dealing with vector splines, you may be better off with some different app. We may revisit this tool in the future hoping that it will evolve from its current stage.<br />
<br />
<b>Rating: </b><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHLcaobDuc4WF0VOaA7sfsYOYR62lpQAM6LQ4_EG9sz836a6EucU5_sPAshk71mVFeuPGjwNnxNNpUoVZDEwWCFoxa-fad66tVtj6Fvw4ofCkMP01CWgl3L5bD8vsRFEgriPqpz9WBTA/s128/2stars.png' border='0' height='24'> <b>Price: </b>$1.99 <br />
<span class="fullpost"> <br />
<br />
<b>What's Good</b><br />
Crayon most remarkable feature is the spline tool.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/388.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/s_388.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
You can also sketch free-hand, insert rectangles, circles, lines, text and even pictures.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/389.jpg"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/s_389.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="82" /></a><br />
<br />
Crayons allows to specify: color and alpha for the fill, and thickness, color and alpha for the line of all vector objects.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/390.jpg"><img border="0" height="159" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/s_390.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
Finally Crayons supports multiple layers. For every layer you can specify name, z-order and even alpha transparency.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/391.jpg"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/s_391.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="125" /></a><br />
<br />
Crayon provides two types of selections (similar to other drawing application): global object selection and vector object sub-selection. <br />
When selecting an object using global selection Crayons allows to change z-order, delete or scale the object. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/643.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/s_643.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
Vector objects maintain their characteristics after scaling, which means, you can still drag the control points of a bezier.<br />
Selecting an object, using the vector sub-selection, allows to modify the control points of an object. In this mode, every corner of a rectangle can be dragged independently to form a polygon. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/393.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/s_393.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
I like the simplicity and the interactivity of this app. Most of all I like the editing of the bezier curves, which is very smooth and responsive. I also appreciate the snap at the end points which facilitate closing the spline both during creation and editing.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/394.jpg"><img border="0" height="165" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/s_394.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
The mechanism to select among overlapping objects is very elegant. A small popup, that appears in the location where you tap, allows to select among all the object that overlap on that position. Unfortunately this mechanism breaks down when the objects overlapping are of the same type. I wish the popup would display the image of the object instead. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/395.jpg"><img border="0" height="234" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/s_395.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="248" /></a><br />
<br />
<b>What's Bad</b><br />
At the moment Crayons looks like a fairly immature app. It is pretty buggy, and it often crashes. <br />
The most frustrating missing feature was the inability to edit the text once placed on the canvas. <br />
I am not sure how the bucket tool is supposed to work. At the moment it fills the entire page ignoring the boundary of any object it encounters and covering any existing objects that become unreachable. The layer painted with the bucket tool cannot be selected, rearranged or deleted. Looks like it's there for covering whatever you had behind. <br />
<br />
There is no zoom, which is pretty painful for a drawing app.<br />
<br />
It is not possible to store or copy colors and/or other attributes, which makes the task of re-using similar attributes pretty onerous. I wish it had at least a set of basic colors and lines to quickly pick from.<br />
<br />
Saving is confusing. Crayons provides a folder and email options for PDF, JPG and PNG formats. Unfortunately PDF doesn't seem to work in conjunction with the email. Also, I couldn't figure out what PDF suppose to do when selecting the folder option.<br />
<br />
<b>Rating Breakdown</b><br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSIYDF9vbrxqkYdnYrfA_nW_shLNcOuwz3KilvcKin14eargnSbkQIEEeECT69ziDHGZjLPZxxAUeT-lmK2l2F22CAzpikfuG__53MBKdJHfuiFjFZ4BIW-lmYVksfRSU8cZKdRViLxU/s128/3stars.png' border='0' height='24'> design <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHLcaobDuc4WF0VOaA7sfsYOYR62lpQAM6LQ4_EG9sz836a6EucU5_sPAshk71mVFeuPGjwNnxNNpUoVZDEwWCFoxa-fad66tVtj6Fvw4ofCkMP01CWgl3L5bD8vsRFEgriPqpz9WBTA/s128/2stars.png' border='0' height='24'> features <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHLcaobDuc4WF0VOaA7sfsYOYR62lpQAM6LQ4_EG9sz836a6EucU5_sPAshk71mVFeuPGjwNnxNNpUoVZDEwWCFoxa-fad66tVtj6Fvw4ofCkMP01CWgl3L5bD8vsRFEgriPqpz9WBTA/s128/2stars.png' border='0' height='24'> reliability <br />
<br />
<b>Resources</b><br />
A video on YouTube will walk you through some of the basic features.<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F5vjT7iByo&feature=youtube_">Crayons -Vector Based Drawing with the iPad</a><br />
Few features don't appear to be yet available at the time this movie was made, which hopefully means this app is under active development :) <br />
<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/app/crayons-vector-drawing/id365889236?mt=8
">Crayons - Vector Drawing on the iTunes App Store</a><br />
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-69729834848423796892010-06-01T19:51:00.006-04:002011-06-13T19:25:39.524-04:00FastFinga<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCGP6ZihwOzE-YAk340DQf0NrlLNHuOTV-7KK7KE58LLHU6n1Uee4GwEpR9z6ePxJHOULolVJ7YZw21OK1-2VJCrp2eDmzNY_GZjrzPB-5lcFkk7jFKQn5PtM9w0WOT68Row8zLIx41LQ/s128/FastFinga.png" width="60" /></div>FastFinga is a very well designed application for creating hand written notes. I use this app with a pogo pen, and, so far, this is the more usable and effective app I tried for writing notes. I love the integration with Evernote, which give me the ability to tag and search my handwritten notes! This app is perfect for taking online notes with small graphics, but if you need to write full page notes and sketches you may be better off with a different app.<br />
<br />
<b>Rating: </b><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> <b>Price: </b>$1.99 <br />
<span class="fullpost"> <br />
<br />
<b>What's Good</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/01/1929.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/01/s_1929.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
FastFinga's most remarkable feature is its zoom inline editing mode which enables writing pretty decent inline notes with your finger. <br />
An ink palette of 4 colors and 3 pen widths enables to quickly change pens. <br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/01/1850.jpg"><img border="0" height="40" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/01/s_1850.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
You can add interactive checkboxes (handy for tracking action items) and symbols from a library.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/01/1851.jpg"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/01/s_1851.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
You can insert pictures in 3 different sizes. Pictures can be temporarily viewed full size upon double click.<br />
All your elements (hand-sketch, check-boxes, symbols and thumbnail images) are placed in the current line, one after the other (at a pre-defined distance). You can navigate within the elements using arrows. You can also edit existing chunk on hand written notes, insert and remove elements. Your code remains always nice and compact since empty spaces between elements get removed. This provides a nice feeling when you are typing, where you can always go back and easily make edits. The image below illustrates a sequence of edits.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/278.jpg"><img border="0" height="158" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/02/s_278.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
It supports both landscape and portrait documents.<br />
It supports few paper types. My favorite is Pure White, where the paper looks nice and crisp.<br />
This app has a number of settings to enhance your productivity. You can choose to use your left hand to commit the text input and to go to the new line. You can also customize the apps behavior when creating new documents.<br />
One feature I really like is the easy export to Evernote! That way my notes can become searchable, and can be accessed everywhere from a web browser.<br />
<br />
<b>What's Bad</b><br />
FastFinga allows full page sketch by pressing and holding the pen icon. This functionality is necessary if you have to sketch something taller than one line. Unfortunately this working mode has a lot of problems ... looks like the developers didn't invest very much into it. In this view the ink is too big and it doesn't look right when compared to the inline notes. The full page notes live on a independent layer that doesn't zoom with the rest of your notes. As a result you loose it's positioning with respect to the inline notes (see image). This is a pretty unfortunate bug.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/01/1852.jpg"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/01/s_1852.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
I wish I had more options for sizing and positioning when inserting images not inline. Also it is not immediately obvious how to delete them.<br />
It has also a keyboard, but I couldn't make it work.<br />
<a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/01/1853.jpg"><img border="0" height="72" src="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/06/01/s_1853.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a><br />
<br />
<b>Rating Breakdown</b><br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> design <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7f7j9zTmrEzPuwZHrQDbaF9yxcXVgqqsYRphK9zwqcrK46z9aZuP3Xz1FQHTDEzWdWF7Ko-986kfcpjzw3fDAUjIdjalzPdywv6DlbTUxknaSgb2wsE6L2GE_ZwqVxN5HCgVGWUohXQ/s128/5stars.png' border='0' height='24'> features <br />
<img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSIYDF9vbrxqkYdnYrfA_nW_shLNcOuwz3KilvcKin14eargnSbkQIEEeECT69ziDHGZjLPZxxAUeT-lmK2l2F22CAzpikfuG__53MBKdJHfuiFjFZ4BIW-lmYVksfRSU8cZKdRViLxU/s128/3stars.png' border='0' height='24'> reliability <br />
<br />
<b>Resources</b><br />
This is the only video I could find on YouTube. It doesn't illustrate all the features, but it is still very helpful to have a better sense on how this app works.<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoWSYGtDm_g&feature=youtube_gdata">[iPad] FastFinga</a><br />
<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fastfinga/id320090110?mt=8">FastFinga on the iTune Apple Store</a><br />
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089778135567059559.post-40176878719342591862010-06-01T10:50:00.000-04:002010-06-07T20:31:37.524-04:00Why this blog?I am an interaction designer with a great passion and curiosity for interesting software. I am an iPhone user from a couple of years and an iPad user from about a month. I believe that, the app store and its thousands of amazing apps, is what makes the iPhone that amazing device that can change your life ... at least a little. I believe the iPad fortune may have a similar destiny, and I am constantly seeking for the <b><i>perfect app</i></b> that will make me a happier and more productive person in my work and personal life.<div><br />
Since I spend hours with this peculiar hobby, I had to find a better justification for all this time away from my two adorable kids and my lovely husband :). Something better than: <i>“I really enjoy it”</i>. I thought I could share all my knowledge with every other iPad enthusiast, and help them to find their own Holy-Grail app. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15907838925607588503noreply@blogger.com0