You know what feature has been missing from Facebook? It’s not that fancy: just a simple way to save “star” or “favorite” posts that you are interested in, but don’t have time to read right now. There is just too much stuff out there. What we need is a way to come back to a folder of starred posts and go through them when there is time. But there is a solution, and it doesn’t just apply to Facebook, but the entire Web. It’s called Pocket, a free app for Android and iOS, as well as a free extension for Web browsers. Pocket used to be called Read It Later, a less catchy but more explicit name of a service that, like Instapaper and Readability, allows you to save an article you encounter online so that you can, well, read it later. Install Pocket’s Chrome extension (or a bookmarklet on other browsers) and you can save articles to your Pocket queue in one click. Later, on the train home from work, you can read the article in Pocket’s mobile app, even if you’re without an Internet connection. It takes only a few seconds to save an article to your queue, and Pocket stores two versions of whatever is saved: the one with the original Web layout and a pared-down text-only view that is better for smaller displays. The nice thing about Pocket is that it can store more than just text — videos and images can be collected as well. You can sort through your collection of saved content by looking only at articles, videos or images, or you can see all three categories at the same time. Given the rise in videos lately of great white sharks eating something, Pocket can play a vital role in keeping you abreast of Read More
Q. I took a video with my iPhone instead of a photo, because my finger brushed against the button that changes the Camera app from photo to video. How can I extract a single frame of the video and change it into a still picture? A. If you still have the clip on your phone, one option is to get an inexpensive app that pulls and saves a single still image from a video. Video 2 Photo ($1.99) and MovieToImage (99 cents) are among the App Store offerings for this purpose. If you prefer to work on the computer, try opening the clip with a desktop movie-making program like Windows Live Movie Maker or iMovie for Mac OS X. Locate the frame within the video that you want to save as a photo. Here, you can take a screenshot of it — by using the PrtScr button in Windows and pasting the image into the Paint program, or pressing Command-Shift-4 on the Mac, selecting the area to capture and opening the resulting file on the desktop. Alternately, you can use the Snapshot button in Windows Live Movie Maker to capture the frame. Those with iMovie can right-click or control-click on the selected image and choose Add Freeze Frame from the menu to grab the shot; in the editing area, right- or control-click on the resulting image at the end of the video clip and select Reveal in Finder to find the JPG image. Image quality may vary with these methods, but third-party software for extracting stills from video are another solution. But, if you want to go the app route after all but deleted the video after importing it, you can always drag the clip into the iTunes window and adjust your movie-sync settings to copy it back to the phone. Read More
Aside from games, perhaps no other category of apps is as cluttered as the weather category. I’ve written about a few good ones in the past, like Weather Channel, Weather+ and MyWeather, but since these apps usually cost only a buck, it’s worth trying out new contenders now and then. My latest favorite in this respect is Weather 2x ($1 on Apple), which is the most elegant piece of mobile weather software I’ve yet encountered — especially on the newest version of the iPad. The app features extremely rich and sharp photography that captures the essence of the weather outside. That (slowly moving) image includes the temperature and a brief description of the weather conditions (“light rain shower”), which, when tapped, reveals statistics on rainfall and visibility, among others. If you pinch and pull the lower part of the screen, a window opens to reveal the four-day forecast, and if you swipe the screen to the left, you see a detailed forecast for the next 24 hours. It’s a great blend of aesthetics and intuitive functionality, and in my experience the data is as accurate as any of the other weather apps I use. I’ll still keep MyWeather and The Weather Channel on my devices for times when I need more detailed meteorological data and alerts. But for a quick glance at the day’s conditions, Weather 2x is my new eye candy of choice. Read More
I’ve often written about children’s apps in a variety of contexts, including games, narratives and pure education (like the Barefoot World Atlas for iPad). Occasionally an app crosses over into two or more of those spheres, but too often that ambition muddies the final product. That’s happily not the case with Press Here: The App ($2 for iPad and $1 for iPhone), which is based on Press Here, the popular 2011 children’s book by Hervé Tullet. The app, which is best suited for younger children up to the age of 10, includes 15 tactile and imaginatively designed activities rendered with perfectly pitched colors, graphics, music and sound effects. Some activities are quite basic, as with the free-drawing page and the “Press Here” page, where you create and tilt dots and watch them spill. Others call for more critical thinking, as with a “Music Box” page where trial-and-error eventually yields a symphony of sorts, or the app’s matching game. Still other pages, like the “Fireworks” page or another one where the dots eat one another, are pure fun. With my own children, I’ve followed the recommendation American Academy of Pediatrics, which discourages television viewing for children under the age of two, and I tend to include apps in that, even though the Academy’s recommendation predated the iPhone. An app like Press Here, however, is engaging and – at least on its face, useful — enough to raise the question of what the Academy would make of the new generation of children’s content available on mobile devices. A screen that compels an 18-month-old to laugh, think and practice fine motor skills must have value far beyond, say, the Flintstones. Whether you want to entrust a toddler with an iPad (no matter how closely supervised he may be), is another question entirely. Read More
The invasion of apps on toys continues with this weeks release of Foam Fighters Pacific from WowWee ($9.99), a set of three-inch styrofoam gliders that you can suction cup under your iPhone’s outside camera. Align the wings with an on-screen template and the app’s augmented reality features superimpose a WWII dogfight over your living room. Here’s how it works. After the free app is installed, you can try a sample training battle with no plane required. But that’s not how WowWee gets paid. The fun stuff, like taking out that battleship floating by your lamp, or trying to dive bomb a bunker, requires scanning the wing of a plane. This unlocks one of six the missions, each based loosely on historical WWII battles. Besides being fun and addicting, it’s a great way to get very dizzy. During the demo at this year’s Toy Fair, up to eight other players could join the fight over your local Wi-Fi connection, a feature that was not working in the version I tried. It’s worth nothing that each styrofoam plane has weighted nose — so yes, these planes even fly, just like the old-fashioned variety. In addition, there’s nothing to prevent you from making your own engine and machine gun sound effects, too. Read More
Q. Is there a way to save PDF files sent as e-mail attachments directly to my iPhone so I can read them without digging around the Mail app? A. Apple’s App Store has a number of programs for PDF-related tasks, including the free Adobe Reader for iOS that allows you to view, download and save PDF files attached to your e-mail messages. If you simply want to copy a PDF file attachment to your phone for later reference and have already installed Apple’s iBooks app for reading electronic books, you do not need to get an additional program. When you have a PDF file you want to save from an open Mail message, press and hold the attachment icon until a gray screen appears. You should see buttons to view the file in Quick Look (a screen preview mode), to open the PDF file in iBooks, or to open it in another PDF-capable app that you may have installed on your iPhone already. If you select the “Open in iBooks” option, the PDF file is copied to iBooks and appears in the PDF section of the app’s virtual bookshelves, where you can tap it open and read it whenever you want. You can toggle between your different document collections in iBooks by tapping the Books/PDFs button at the top of the screen. If you sync your iPhone with your computer, saved PDF files are backed up to iTunes and available in the Books area of the program. Other PDF-friendly programs usually handle the files in a similar manner if you choose the Open With option and pick a different app other than iBooks. Some apps, like Evernote (available for most smartphone platforms) and ReaddleDocs, store and organize PDF files themselves. These types of apps also let you synchronize documents to the Read More
Apps can now control your dreams. At least that’s the contention of a new iPhone app developed at none other than Harvard and M.I.T., which is where you would look if you wanted to find people capable of remote brain control. The app is called Sigmund, and it costs $1. Whether it’s worth that kind of cash is a very good question. I tried it out a couple of times this week, after noting that I’ve not had a euphoric flying dream in years. (Freudians, please keep your comments to yourselves.) I opened the app and entered the likely starting time of that night’s slumber and the next morning’s awakening. I then chose four words — flying, beach, mountains and eagle — from Sigmund’s long list of suggestions. Per the app’s instructions, I placed my iPhone four feet from my bedside with the volume on high. The app is designed to speak your chosen words when you are in your R.E.M. sleep stage, and when, presumably, the noise won’t wake you. (My wife gamely played along.) The first night I didn’t fly, but I did wake up with a vivid dream about a drunk teenager who was on the verge of vomiting in my car. After the second night I couldn’t recall my dreams, but I awoke with the chorus of “I Am the Walrus” — you know, “I am the Eggman. … Whooooo!” — stuck in my brain. Did I dream that I was a flying walrus? A flying eggman? Perhaps. Sigmund has plenty of satisfied customers if you believe the reviews on iTunes, so consider me a focus group of one. I’ve written before about apps that help you relax or overcome insomnia, and I know that people who suffer from that affliction will happily pay hundreds if not Read More
Scott Kelby is a one-man university system, teaching photography through books, DVDs, streaming online photography courses, live seminars and iPad apps. His latest app, Scott Kelby’s Lighting Recipes, for the iPad, lets you audit a course for free. In the video, Mr. Kelby demonstrates how he achieved 20 different shots through 13 lessons. The examples vary from studio glamour shots to outdoor sports portraits. The app shows a finished photo followed by a behind-the-scenes look at how the lighting effects were achieved, narrated by the lively Mr. Kelby. While many of the shots require hundreds of dollars’ worth of strobes, reflectors or other equipment, Mr. Kelby often advises on the least expensive way to get the look he is demonstrating. Once you understand the principle behind the lighting, all it takes is a little ingenuity to MacGyver an effect with even cheaper gear (to learn more budget lighting tricks, see the Strobist blog). If you want to know exactly what apparatus Mr. Kelby is using in a given shot, touch the screen to reveal the controls, then touch the “Gear Guide” button for a comprehensive list of the lighting equipment used (another touch on an item takes you a site where you can buy it). While the app is free, it does contain a pitch for you to enjoy some of the other products that Mr. Kelby sells, but hey, you can’t expect to complete a degree from University of Kelby on a full scholarship. Read More
Mobile apps like Google Sky Map (free on Android), Star Walk ($3 on iOS) and SkyView ($2 on iOS, with a free version also available) have done a beautiful job of introducing the masses to backyard astronomy. But naming the stars is one thing. Understanding them is another. For that experience, few apps can match the new release Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe ($7 on iPad). The app is pricey — especially in light of the fact that you could rent a great astronomy video for far less money. But Wonders includes roughly two and a half hours of video from Mr. Cox’s BBC series, “Wonders of the Universe” and “Wonders of the Solar System.” In the app, Mr. Cox, a physics professor with a knack for accessible writing and on-screen storytelling, makes use of both talents. Between his explanations of such things as meteorites and subatomic particles, the app’s designers have placed nicely interactive graphics and stunning photography. IPad owners with Apple TV will do well to broadcast the app to the big screen, where the universe’s secrets, and Mr. Cox’s tutorials, come to life even more fully. Read More
The app market may tilt more heavily in the direction of young teenagers and preteens than any other demographic, but most of those apps seem to treat them only as game players or social networkers. The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore is the most well-known exception to that, but I recently found another excellent book app, The Artifacts ($2 on Apple), that’s aimed squarely at a younger person’s imagination, and it’s well worth the download. The app tells the story of a boy, Asaf, who collects random “treasures” that clutter his room and his family’s home. When his family moves after Asaf’s 13th birthday, his parents leave his stuff behind and bar him from collecting again. The balance of the story shows Asaf’s response to his new reality, which is in turns bleak, imaginative and hopeful. Any young person who has ever been misunderstood, even temporarily, by a parent, will find common ground in this app. The artwork is rich and beautiful and the animated interactions are imaginative and fun. The text has a poetic touch, and engages readers at a level that’s respectful of their intellect without soaring over their heads. The spoken narration is slightly stilted, but it can be muted. The Artifacts is a more immersive experience on an iPad, but the book holds up nicely on an iPhone or iPod Touch. Read More
