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Reading Darrell’s recent post 7 iPad Habits of Highly Effective Remote Workers prompted me to look more closely at how I can really do work on my iPad. I have to admit, I’m still not convinced that the iPad will be my laptop replacement. However, with the help of the Apple wireless keyboard and some other peripherals and apps, it can come close. Here are some tips to make your iPad work-worthy. 1. Make audio calls via VoiP. Audio calls via Skype on the iPad work like a dream. Just plug in the earbuds that you usually use for your iPhone, fire up the Skype app and make your audio calls. There are other VoiP apps that will work on the iPad without charging fees, such as Viber, but they require that the other person also has the same software on her device. You can even use Google Voice on the iPad,  albeit with a little extra elbow grease. 2. Editing images and video. You can get digital photos and videos directly from your cameras using the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit, which comes with a USB adapter and SD Card Reader. I was a little skeptical about using the iPad touchscreen for editing images, but after downloading and trying the free PhotoPad by ZAGG, I’ve found it makes it fairly easy to manipulate images, including color and contrast adjustments, rotating and sizing, adding color fills, and even treating images with filters. You can also get Adobe Photoshop Express for free if you’re already familiar with Photoshop. For video, an app like Splice can help you do some basic video editing (including combining photos and video) for free, or there’s Splice Pro for $1.99. For more editing oomph, you can go for iMovie for $4.99, although it requires a front-facing camera on your device (so iPad 2, iPhone 4 or 4th-generation iPod touch only). 3. Recording voice memos and podcasts. There are a variety of voice memo–recording solutions you can use on your iPad using its built-in microphone, including Voice Memos for iPad by KendiTech, which is similar to the Voice Memos app on the iPhone. For 99 cents, you get the basic version; for an additional 99 cents via an in-app purchase, you get the ability to trim your memos, email memos and download to your computer via USB. The export button makes your memos available via iTunes File Sharing. QuickVoice is another iPad option to record and email audio Read More

Reading Darrell’s recent post 7 iPad Habits of Highly Effective Remote Workers prompted me to look more closely at how I can really do work on my iPad. I have to admit, I’m still not convinced that the iPad will be my laptop replacement. However, with the help of the Apple wireless keyboard and some other peripherals and apps, it can come close. Here are some tips to make your iPad work-worthy. 1. Make audio calls via VoiP. Audio calls via Skype on the iPad work like a dream. Just plug in the earbuds that you usually use for your iPhone, fire up the Skype app and make your audio calls. There are other VoiP apps that will work on the iPad without charging fees, such as Viber, but they require that the other person also has the same software on her device. You can even use Google Voice on the iPad,  albeit with a little extra elbow grease. 2. Editing images and video. You can get digital photos and videos directly from your cameras using the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit, which comes with a USB adapter and SD Card Reader. I was a little skeptical about using the iPad touchscreen for editing images, but after downloading and trying the free PhotoPad by ZAGG, I’ve found it makes it fairly easy to manipulate images, including color and contrast adjustments, rotating and sizing, adding color fills, and even treating images with filters. You can also get Adobe Photoshop Express for free if you’re already familiar with Photoshop. For video, an app like Splice can help you do some basic video editing (including combining photos and video) for free, or there’s Splice Pro for $1.99. For more editing oomph, you can go for iMovie for $4.99, although it requires a front-facing camera on your device (so iPad 2, iPhone 4 or 4th-generation iPod touch only). 3. Recording voice memos and podcasts. There are a variety of voice memo–recording solutions you can use on your iPad using its built-in microphone, including Voice Memos for iPad by KendiTech, which is similar to the Voice Memos app on the iPhone. For 99 cents, you get the basic version; for an additional 99 cents via an in-app purchase, you get the ability to trim your memos, email memos and download to your computer via USB. The export button makes your memos available via iTunes File Sharing. QuickVoice is another iPad option to record and email audio Read More

Reading Darrell’s recent post 7 iPad Habits of Highly Effective Remote Workers prompted me to look more closely at how I can really do work on my iPad. I have to admit, I’m still not convinced that the iPad will be my laptop replacement. However, with the help of the Apple wireless keyboard and some other peripherals and apps, it can come close. Here are some tips to make your iPad work-worthy. 1. Make audio calls via VoiP. Audio calls via Skype on the iPad work like a dream. Just plug in the earbuds that you usually use for your iPhone, fire up the Skype app and make your audio calls. There are other VoiP apps that will work on the iPad without charging fees, such as Viber, but they require that the other person also has the same software on her device. You can even use Google Voice on the iPad,  albeit with a little extra elbow grease. 2. Editing images and video. You can get digital photos and videos directly from your cameras using the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit, which comes with a USB adapter and SD Card Reader. I was a little skeptical about using the iPad touchscreen for editing images, but after downloading and trying the free PhotoPad by ZAGG, I’ve found it makes it fairly easy to manipulate images, including color and contrast adjustments, rotating and sizing, adding color fills, and even treating images with filters. You can also get Adobe Photoshop Express for free if you’re already familiar with Photoshop. For video, an app like Splice can help you do some basic video editing (including combining photos and video) for free, or there’s Splice Pro for $1.99. For more editing oomph, you can go for iMovie for $4.99, although it requires a front-facing camera on your device (so iPad 2, iPhone 4 or 4th-generation iPod touch only). 3. Recording voice memos and podcasts. There are a variety of voice memo–recording solutions you can use on your iPad using its built-in microphone, including Voice Memos for iPad by KendiTech, which is similar to the Voice Memos app on the iPhone. For 99 cents, you get the basic version; for an additional 99 cents via an in-app purchase, you get the ability to trim your memos, email memos and download to your computer via USB. The export button makes your memos available via iTunes File Sharing. QuickVoice is another iPad option to record and email audio Read More

You could call it a temporary price drop instead of a procrastination sale (which ends whenever they remember to end it), but that would be far too boring — and the developers over at One Man Left are really anything but boring. Tilt to Live has become one of my favourite iPhone games (definitely beating out Minigore for play time), and you can currently pick it up for 50% off of its usual $1.99 asking price. The game is also scheduled to see some new game modes this April (news via TouchArcade), with the promise of even more modes and weapons in future updates. So go lift the cushions in your couches and check all of the pockets in your winter clothes before you put them away and use that extra moolah to buy yourself a super cheap copy of Tilt to Live [iTunes link]. Read More

In Moon Drop you have one mission: Colonize the Moon!  To accomplish this mission you are in charge of landing sets of “pods” safely on the moon.  The controls are simple: you touch the screen to slow down or change the direction of the the landing pods.  So by touching under the pods this will thrust them straight up and touching the sides will effect their flying direction. The pods have green indicator lights that change to red to warn you of a pending disaster. During gameplay there are two indicators located on the top of your display. The “POP” is your current score.  The scoring system is broken down into three categories: pods landed, target bonus, and group bonus. Also represented are three astronauts which are the number of lives you have during gameplay. The game starts out nice and easy, but, as you progress, the difficulty level increases.  As the wave numbers increase, the game becomes difficult because you have to maneuver several pods at one time.  The game definitely puts your multitasking skills to the test.  As the pod formations increase you have to decide quickly which pods to land first, while making sure the other pods stay in the air until you can get to them.  After each wave you will be awarded a total number of points based on the number of pods you land.  You can also pick up two bonus points for landing pods in the center of the target and an additional bonus for the total number of pods you can land at one time.  I also enjoy at the end of each wave there is a funny astronaut quote. The simple UI and controls make this game great for anyone to try.  I do wish there was some way to save your game play as you progress through the levels, though. Whenever you re-open the game to play, you have to start all over from the beginning.  It would also be interesting to have different touch controls.  For instance, circling and dragging multiple pods with your finger. At the end of each wave there could be a “mothership” that you have to land while trying to land the smaller pods at the same time.  This game is definitely worth trying out and you get to help mankind colonize the moon in the process.  The latest version 1.1 was running at the time of this review. Moon Drop is available for $1.99 in the App Store. Read More

[The atlas has nothing to do with the case -- it just made a nice, almost lunar background] The folks at Griffin weren’t kidding about this case: I’ve looked at it from every angle and I haven’t seen a single thread anywhere. I don’t know how they did it. All I see is an ultra thin, matted plastic plate with an astronaut holding a boombox, presumably made by some design company somewhere. It would look great on a t-shirt [Click on any of the pictures to see a larger view] It’s funky, it’s delicious Thinking about the Funkalicious iPhone case as a designer Tee is actually a perfect fit: it ‘s something that ‘s supposed to look and feel good, and provide minimal protection should you decide to lie down on something sharp (but not too sharp). Threadless probably put it best when they described the case as a “snap-on shell protects your iPhone from scratches, dust and boringness”. The matted finish is a pleasure to touch, and it ‘s one of those small details that goes a long way towards making a case feel ‘premium ‘, despite the fact that, at the end of the day, it ‘s really just made out of plastic. The outside of the case features the hilarious and excellent ‘Funkalicious ‘ design by Christopher Golebiowski ” which is no surprise: that ‘s what you ‘re buying the case for. What really surprised me, however, is how beautiful the inside of the case, which is painted in a very warm yellow, is. It ‘s only on the inside that you notice the Griffin + threadless branding, and it should also be noted that the inside features the same amazing matte finish as the ouside of the case. There ‘s an amazing attention to detail ” a sort of 1mm artistry, if you will ” that makes this case a lot of fun to look at and use. Compatibility The Funkalicious case is seriously thin, and it still fits on most universal iPod docks (like the Konnet Reflex), although I can ‘t use it with my Dexim P-Flip. Even trying to use the case inside the Xtand is a bit of a stretch, since it keeps slipping out. All of the other normal functions of the phone are preserved, though. You have full access to all buttons, ports, and switches, and there ‘s nothing to block even Read More

Just last week James was considering all of the ways to get text input on a tablet. But many of those approaches can or should apply to our handsets as well. So when I saw Michael Connick’s tweet and blog post on QuickVoice Pro, I had to take a look at the iPhone app. With it, you record a voice message to your iPhone and the application will create a textual e-mail from your speech. After watching the video demo, I dropped $0.99 for the app (iTunes link) — I risked the buck, so you don’t have to ;) — and gave it a try. The QuickVoice Pro interface is simple with only two buttons: Record and Play. You don’t have to send your messages to anyone, so this could double up as a personal memo recorder as well. Once you’ve completed recording your speech, you can email the actual audio file or email the recording as text. Choosing the second option shoots your recorded audio to SpinVox servers, where they’re transcribed. The demo video says that transcription and receipt of the textual email is around 10 minutes, and in my own test, I received a transcribed email in nine minutes. But I probably wouldn’t use this for any super-urgent or timely emails. In the end, your mail recipient will get an email of the text as well as a .WAV file of your actual recording — that’s handy in case of any transcription errors. My simple test yielded very good results in terms of transcription. Here’s the text I received: “This is a test of the quick voice to text email application that it’s 99 cents in the iTunes app store. I’m sending this message to myself just to see how long it takes. Time ___ is 1:48pm.” And here is the accompanying .WAV audio file — the only errors I see: the word “is” was transcribed as “it’s,” as highlighted, and the word “stamp” after “Time” wasn’t recognized. A few gotchas jumped out at me during my usage. For starters, you can’t use transcription for email if your recording is over 30 seconds long. That means you’ll either need to talk fast or use this for short emails. And I’m not too keen on how many button presses it still takes to create the email — although you can press a button to choose email recipients from your iPhone Contacts, Read More

By Arron Hirst on November 5th, 2009 Retronyms releases an update to Recorder for iPhone that adds ability to actually record audio from within phone calls! There have been many recorders on the App Store since it’s debut. From nFinity’s Quick Voice to BIAS’ Pro Recorder and Polar Bear Farm’s sleek looking Record. But although they all do the job in recording background noise, spoken memos and notes, not one has introduced the one feature you’d expect, phone call recording. Today, in what could be seen as a controversial move by some, the guys at Retronyms (also the people behind the iPhone music mixing studio Dopplerpad) have done just that. They have successfully integrated the ability to record audio from a phone call, straight from within their app ‘Recorder’. The new feature comes in the form of a separate in-app purchase, and each full hour of recording will cost you $1.99. If you feel you need more than that though, there is also an option to purchase a staggering 8 hours of call audio recording time, although this will cost you $12.99. Of course with any app containing one-tap purchase abilities, the cost through in-app purchasing are sure to rack up – fast – especially for the odd power user. But, in the case of the general user just looking to record short amounts of in-call audio, this is a great addition to the usual bog-standard App Store recorder. The update is already on the store, so what are you waiting for! $0.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad Released: 2008-07-11 :: Category: Business Read More

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Sep 6, 2009 | Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game. So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break! The game is a FPS in the Middle-East theater. You play a marine who is sent on numerous missions to take-out the bad guys. The frame rate is smooth and there are a few different usable control options. This game has good AI with enemies hiding and using strategy to get you. There is a promised multiplayer mode coming soon, we can only hope that it is Internet-based play. If you are looking for a fresh FPS with good action, smooth frame rate and potentially awesome multiplayer, check out Modern Combat: Sandstorm. [$6.99 - iTunes link] I can’t remember when I started, but I love Fantasy Football. I am in a few leagues with friends and coworkers alike. And as I have said before, I am forgetful. Therefore, setting my roster can be a pain if I am not in front of a computer. MyFantasyTeams Pro is an app I have been looking for. It is compatible with all Yahoo fantasy teams and allows you to perform all of the tasks needed to make sure your fantasy team is ready for the week. You can submit lineup changes, add/drop players and even trade players from within the app. A must for all Yahoo fantasy addicts. [$3.99 - iTunes link] Use your iPhone as a remote for your Canon or Nikon DSLR with DSLR Camera Remote Pro. Not only does it act as a shutter release, but you can adjust settings like shutter speed, aperture, white balance and even bracketing, rapid fire, and self timer. Get instant previews of photos you take and for supported cameras, you can see through your camera’s viewfinder with LiveView. Although this only works over wifi, DSLR Camera Remote Pro is an awesome app and well worth the price. [$19.99 - iTunes link] Quick Voice Pro is similar to voice-memo type applications, but with one major advantage – it allows you to convert your voice memo to text Read More

[appreview] title=Quick Voice Pro image=http://gigapple.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/appicon_quick_voice_pro2.png price=$0.99 url=http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=285877935&mt=8 rating=bronze [/appreview] By converting your voice messages into text e-mails, Quick Voice Pro could be a time-saving boon for busy iPhone owners. Empowered by our emails, tweets, IM conversations, and blogs, we’ve become modern-day information conduits. We collect knowledge, then discharge it into the ether, spurting out a constant fountain of fact, fiction and entertainment. Quick Voice Pro is a new tool that could make sharing your thoughts even easier. The app converts audio recordings into text-based e-mails, using an online voice-recognition system. If there’s a thought on the tip of your tongue, Quick Voice Pro immediately accommodates: The app loads up in a snap and is ready to record from the off. You’re able to open the software, blurt out whatever is on your mind, and get it converted, all in a short amount of time. The layout of the app is incredibly simple, too, meaning there’s no possibility of friction with the interface. All the different functions are presented on one page; plus, there’s no settings screen and absolutely no configuration needed for first-time users. While the tech-savvy may be impressed with the app’s advanced voice-recognition capabilities, Quick Voice Pro really seems to have been designed with novice users in mind, offering a big red record button and a large play button. And it doesn’t feel patronizing, either. The app simply incorporates well-considered, functional design. It’s not all perfect, though. Recordings are all named MyRecording by default, which will make sifting through them a real chore for regular users. There is a button for renaming recordings, but it just doesn’t feel as intuitive as it could in comparison to the rest of the app. Tapping the record button initiates record mode. Although you can’t go back and edit a recording once you’ve saved it, there is a pause button, letting pensive people stop for a moment and gather their thoughts before continuing. Once recorded and saved, the app can auto-generate an e-mail for you, leaving you to enter the from and to address. The body copy of the email will be your recorded message. The actual voice-to-text conversion doesn’t happen on the iPhone; it’s all handled server-side. There was a major issue that stood out with the emailing process: The subject line always reads, “You Have QuickVoice Mail!” There’s no way to change it, and so effectively, you’re sending your contacts a Read More