John Gruber recently highlighted Google searches for “finally” and “iOS5″. It seems a lot of people think iOS has now hit a point where it has matured into a really solid platform. I’ve been using the new version of Touchnote’s iPhone app – out later today – and I feel exactly the same. All the niggles that I complained about before have been worked out. If you’re not aware of Touchnote, it allows you to send postcards – real, physical ones, not eCards – using photos from your iPhone. I loved the idea when the Touchnote app came out in 2009, and used it to send a few cards on holiday. There now are other apps that offer the same sort of service, such as goPostal and Postagram, but these only work in the US, and in the case of Postagram, only work with Instagram photos. Unfortunatey, using Touchnote’s app was always a bit of a hassle. Creating the postcards was fine, but paying for them was a complete faff. You were directed to a mobile Paypal gateway with a tiny font, so it required zooming and panning. I remember I tried to send a card while I was in France, and the just as I’d pained my way through Paypal to pay for a card, the wifi crapped out, and I had to start all over again. And if you wanted to send another card – same process. I gave up sending Touchnote postcards after that. But the new version of the app? Superb. There’s a very simple interface to add a photo, caption, text, address (more than one if required), and an optional Google map showing where the photo was taken. The interface has been simplified and expanded – so you can now crop, zoom and rotate your photos. Read More
By on December 21, 2010 It’s my first choice of satnav app, and I’m happy to promote it as I think it’s worth your cash. It has also just been updated with the latest NAVTEQ maps and safety camera data. And lucky you, Santa has brought TEN copies of the app for me to give away! CoPilot Live works on iPhone, and on iPod touch with an external GPS. You can also get CoPilot Live HD for iPad for Europe and North America. It’s one of the top grossing apps on the UK App Store, and normally costs £19.99 (or €19.99 on the Irish App Store). Check out the main features: All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below, or retweet this tweet. The competition closes on Xmas Eve at midnight. Good luck! Read More
We all need a calendar in one form or another. Some prefer the comprehensive, do everything option such as Pocket Informant (a favourite of mine). Others prefer something less complex and ambitious such as the app I recently reviewed called [twitch] Agendus [twitch, twitch]. The less said about ‘the A word’, the better. Now, though, there’s Refills to play with and it turns out to have a twist that I think has a lot of potential. It’s full name in iTunes is ‘Refills (for Google Calendar™)’ and, as this suggests, it’s designed to deal with your Google Calendar as opposed to the inbuilt iPhone one. I prefer this approach as syncing with Google Calendar means it’s always backed up, accessible even if I lost my device and allows the option to add entries using a computer when a lot of typing is required. As I use an iPod Touch (and following my experience with [shudder] Agendus), I made sure my Wi-Fi connection was turned on before starting Refills. After pausing to update its holidays database – specific to your country – I was presented with today’s (empty) page. Toolbar The toolbar along the bottom gives you quick access to 1 day, 7 day, Monthly and Tasks views. The ‘More’ button leading you to an options page. The first port of call here was ‘Calendars’ to setup my Google account but there was nowhere to input my details. I did see this message however: “In order to use multiple calendars, you need to setup syncing with Google Calendar.” Yes, I know but where do I do that? I should point out that, at this point, I hadn’t read the Help screens. I like to play around with the app first, seeing how easy it is to use before digging into the help Read More
The native calendar app on the iOS is one of its weakest features but one that seems common among mobile devices. All of my past phones had poor native calendars that needed replacing with better third party options and the iPhone is no exception. I’ve previously looked at Pocket Informant and was very impressed. The regular updates since my review have meant it continues to be an excellent replacement. After all this time though, I was curious to see if PI now had serious competition with the appearance of Agendus from iambic inc. Agendus is a name I’ve been aware of for many years. It’s calendaring software available on every major mobile platform but, for some reason, one I’ve yet to try. It’s been going since the digital stone age (or about 1999 if you prefer) – not quite as old as the fondly remembered Psion Agenda but certainly one of the elders. With all that time to develop and mature, I was expecting a smooth and pleasant experience. Starting off When you run Agendus, the title screen proclaims it to be an ‘All in one personal information manager’. While I was impressed with the ambition of the developers, I did wonder if it could live up to that aim and my initial impression didn’t turn out to be good. One thing becomes very obvious straight from the off. Agendus is designed on the assumption it would be running on a device that’s always connected and for an app that supports the iPod Touch (such as my 1st gen model), that clearly won’t be the case. You may find, as I did, you’ll encounter a few quirks when it’s run with your Wi-Fi connection off. After confirming I wanted to sync with my Google account and inputting my user information, I Read More
You’ve probably seen that Tesco have announced the availability and pricing of the iPhone on Tesco Mobile. You’ll be able to pick it up from any Tesco store that sells phones Tesco Stores that contain Phone Shops (there’s a list here) from December 14th. PAYG iPhones are available online from Tesco Phone Shop, and from from Customer Services on 0845 600 4411. There are a few things that their iPhone page doesn’t mention, such as whether tethering or an unlock will be allowed. I’ve been in touch with the very helpful Jo at Tesco Mobile PR, and here is some info that may swing your decision to chuck an iPhone into the basket with your Christmas turkey. OK, no messing, in a quick-and-dirty style: Tethering – No add-on is available. MMS – This is available, at 25p per message. There’s no extra charge if you’re on the £60/month unlimited tariff. Visual Voicemail – Not available on PAYG or any Pay Monthly tariff. Call Merging – Not available on PAYG or any Pay Monthly tariff. Checking your balance – Pay monthly customers will be able to check their usage in real-time through a website (I don’t know, but doubt, it’s iPhone-optimised). PAYG customers will get a text telling them how much credit they have left after each call. Unlocking – All Tesco iPhones are sold locked. PAYG phones can be unlocked after 12 months. Pay Monthly phones can be unlocked at the end of the contract. There will be a £25 charge for any unlock. A note on data usage – Unlimited sort of means unlimited. The small print at the bottom of the Press Release mentions a Fair Usage policy, but there are no details on what that actually means. But, I was told that the unlimited policy hasn’t been a Read More
This will be the fifth Painting app I’ve taken a detailed look at. I didn’t set out to write a series of reviews on one particular genre of app but after looking at PhotoForge, it happened that I became aware of one interesting app after another. I had expected to come to the end of the road with the last of what I considered the big four, ‘Inspire’, especially as I loved its realistic painting simulation and thought I’d be ending the series on a high note. But wouldn’t you know it, just as I was dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s on the review, Autodesk released SketchBook Mobile. This caught my eye for a couple of reasons. To begin with, it’s the first iPhone app I’ve tried that’s been produced by a grown up company. No offence to the developers of the previous apps but they are small (often one man) teams. Autodesk, on the other hand, is a big corporation. Not just that but it makes its money producing professional grade software. AutoCAD is one of theirs, the first choice of architects and engineers all over the world. 3DS Max is software used by hundreds of games developers and special effects houses. Although they dip their toes in retail with a few consumer packages, pro’ level software costing thousands is very much their business. I was curious to see how they’d apply their experience to the iPhone OS. Secondly, the screenshots suggested a slickly designed interface – something I always look for. Third, a couple of the listed features sounded particularly interesting. Not only did it boast “a variety of customizable brushes, including pencil, paint, texture and airbrush” but “all the tools simulate pressure sensitivity, giving each variable width and transparency that takes mobile sketching to a new Read More
I began a quest of sorts a few months back when I reviewed PhotoForge. This was the first serious painting app I’d used for the iPhone and while being very impressed, it whet my appetite to see how the other major Painting apps compared. So, next came Layers with its unique (at the time) implementation of layers. The main thing that bugged me was the lack of a blend/smudge tool (which PhotoForge had included). Most recently, I looked at the original serious painting app, Brushes. It now included its own version of layers and had a very nice, if difficult to describe, ‘feel’. But, annoyingly, it also lacked a blend tool. So, imagine my interest when I came across ‘Inspire’ whose key feature was, according to the developer, KiwiPixel’s description on the App Store, that it “simulates wet paint on a canvas, allowing amazing blending effects.” This I had to try. First, I should probably explain why a simple blend tool has taken on such importance. It’s entirely based on my experience with the painting apps. PhotoForge happened to have what it calls (accurately as it turns out) a ‘Smudge’ tool. While this is crude compared to Inspire’s more sophisticated blending, it was good enough to help smooth the transition between two colours or tones. However, when I used Layers and Brushes I realised how much extra work it was without a tool of this sort. With all the needless extra taps and brush strokes required, it meant a typical painting would take appreciably longer to complete. Who’d have thought it would be so significant? Not me but the fact was that, without one, smoothing the join between two colours forced me to work the way the software wanted rather than it working the way I wanted – a pet hate Read More
It’s rare for an iPhone app to make a splash out in the ‘real’ world but Brushes has. Famous for being used to paint the cover to The New Yorker magazine and a favourite of no less an Artist than David Hockney, it’s one of those rare apps to cross, at least somewhat, into the main stream. Having recently reached it’s first anniversary on the App Store and with strong competition appearing all the time, Brushes was starting to look in danger of falling behind. Now, though, version 2.0 has been released. Has it done enough to retain the iPhone Painting crown? To bring you up to speed, I’ve previously looked at PhotoForge and Layers. While I was extremely impressed with the implementation of layers (the feature) in Layers (the app), my preference for painting remained PhotoForge. Despite a couple of workflow bottlenecks, the inclusion of a smudge tool makes up for them, allowing me to quickly and easily blend colours together. This cuts down the work and time required for a painting by an appreciable amount. Anyone looking into the Painting app genre, can’t help but hear about Brushes. It does now carry a bit of baggage around from its growing fame but I wasn’t aware how much effect this had on me until I ran it for the first time. First impressions Although this is a review of V2.0, I installed Brushes before the update came out so my first sight of it was V1.1. About three minutes after installation, I found myself checking the developer’s website and reading through the user’s guide (PDF link). Why? Because I couldn’t believe that was it. There were only a couple of screens and a handful of features. I was expecting much more. This isn’t a fault of the app of course. Read More
When it comes to the different genres of apps available on the App Store, the Project Management area is one of the least populated. A quick search of the store reveals only a handful of likely candidates and it’s clear it won’t be rivalling fart apps for sheer quantity anytime soon. Far from the exclusive domain of accredited Project Managers, PM software can be used for anything from planning the Olympics to remodelling your kitchen or sorting out the family holiday. Good PM software can help organise the tasks, assign appropriate resources, identify bottlenecks and (in theory) predict when various milestones will be completed. Defining exactly what qualifies as a Project Management tool is quite tricky. My broad, crude definition is software that includes Gantt charts. Try searching for ‘Gantt’ in the app store and you’ll not need to trouble your shoes and socks in order to count them all. Actually, at the time of writing, on the UK app store there’s a grand total of two apps that include a Gantt chart. The latest of these is ‘Projects’ from developer Thomas Blackburn. PM software can be a little daunting for a novice so it’s important that it’s well explained and easy to use. This is especially true when running on the iPhone with its reputation for ease of use. Projects falls a little short here. Almost immediately after starting Projects you’re confronted with the choice of ‘Groups’ or ‘Phases’. I’ve done a little Project Management work in the past and am familiar with several PM applications but this had me scratching my head. What difference the choice made wasn’t explained and so my decision had to be essentially random. As it turns out, the choice doesn’t make that much difference and can be changed later should you wish. Even so, Read More
I have a particular interest in painting apps and, as I mentioned in a previous review, I think the iPhone is a great platform for this type of application. Portable and lacking the mess of real media, a good painting app offers Artists of all levels the chance to create wherever they find themselves without the need to carry around all the equipment and materials they’d normally use. Discounting the dozens of simplistic finger painting applications out there, you’re left with three main contenders for the title of the best painting app: Brushes, PhotoForge and now Layers. I’ve not tried Brushes as yet but have already reviewed and been impressed by PhotoForge. New kid on the block, ‘Layers’ really needs to add something different and impressive to the mix in order to have a chance of standing out. The ‘Unique Selling Point’ of Layers is, unsurprisingly given its name, the inclusion of layers (I’ll stick to the convention of referring to the app with a capital ‘L’ as opposed to the feature that’s all lower case). I’ll take a look at this in detail later but start with the more conventional elements of the app. The first time you run Layers, you’re given a few pointers as to how to get started and where to find the tools, which is a nice touch and the first indication of the thought that’s been put into the design of this app. The first thing you need to do is press the ‘+’ button to create a canvas to paint on. This takes you to the main screen where you’ll spend most of your time. This has the painting area in the middle with toolbars appearing along the top and bottom of the screen. On top is a button leading to the Gallery view Read More
