Green Chicken Labs

PhatPad goes version 1.4

2011-06-03T19:43:00.001-07:00

Remember PhatPad?

Uh, ok well it gets an update to the latest handwriting recognition and the Convert to Text works well.

Daedalus Touch FAQ v1

2011-05-21T13:00:00.001-07:00

2011-05-21 12:36:57 Sat

Q: Why is the app so crashy?
A: gestures on the first version

Q: How do I move a sheet to another stack?
A: Well, you can move a sheet within a stack but so far the metaphor is blown when you try moving a sheet out of the stack to another stack, you can't. Period.

You can copy and paste the text to a new sheet in the target stack. Oh.

Q: Why are the margins so fracking huge?
A: The developers like whitespace? So your fat fingers can execute the fine cursor movement? What? You're saying I'm fat?

Q: How do I insert hyperlinks? Turn on line numbering? Import TextMate bundles? Turn on syntax highlighting? Set minor mode? Insert unicode? Sync to WebDAV? Bring up Clippy? Where's the voice recorder?
A: Uhh...

A: Buy Daedalus Touch.
Q: Do you have 4 dollars to spare to enter text editor heaven?

Daedalus Touch Review

2011-05-21T11:22:00.000-07:00

2011-05-21 Sat before Rapture.

Synopsis: Coverflow and Stacks interface meets notepad, but with deep UX.

So the Dvorak waltz and slick UX demo got the best of me and I fell for a version 1 of this next generation text editor.

The premise is simple. So Apple UX like: type text and keep the organizing metaphor of pages and stacks. Why hasn't anyone thought of that?

The 'Winning'-est method for my messy mind of loosely tended pieces and bits of ephemera would be something like this: capture, repeat.

The idea is one thing, but execution is another.

Will Daedalus Touch (DT) meet the challenge?

The app provides a great tutorial even for a user experience so familiar to Mac users: scroll through pages with left and right swipes, pinch to move through page and stack levels. Edit, edit, edit in between.

Uhhh, movement from page to stack is just so slick that the interface doesn't distract you with clutter.

There are quiet unobtrustive little, but enormous refreshing features throughout DT that aid the writer.

Fine cursor movement: marking a point in the text and holding down that position moves the cursor one character at a time to that point and will accelerate to movement by word. Tap and tap and hold brings the usual magnifier that most text editors use.

SEARCH: in your face right at the tip of the page. Your query is highlighted in yellow in page view. The real brilliance shines, however in the stack where mother of holies, your results are highlight by word and page. You gotta see it to believe it.

Text stats are posted in realtime at the top menu bar. A look

Web lookup: a built in browser allows you to lookup words or ideas from the web and you can add more sites besides the default Google, Wikipedia or dict.cc

Themes: change to 3 fonts or backgrounds, minimalist and paper like, just like we like them.

Autocorrection and TextExpander support: just in case you need to add a hard coded snippet or date time stamp

Naggy Negatives : I got my first crash during tutorial, then the second when I tried pasting but accidently hit the Delete in the iOS default contextual menu.

Nice to have:
Maybe a wider margin?

Maybe a different icon or method to delete a sheet. Deleting a page is found under the sharing icon or at least what most apps use to indicate export or share.

What's the end result:
Daedalus Touch has been a pleasure to write this review with save for a couple of crashes, this is the text editor to beat at a 4 buck sale.

FYI I also have reviewed:
SoundPaper, TrunkNotes, default Notes, WriteRoom, iA Writer, MobileOrg, Nebulous, Textastic, ThinkBook

Today+ life logging in style

2010-12-25T11:41:00.000-08:00

A day of datestamps

Gusty: blow a cloud

2010-10-10T02:30:00.001-07:00

Breath control makes for a calming game
Works on iPod Touch 4G but awkward to see the screen while blowing
Cheesy music, cutesy cloud
Imagine playing this on the bus
Great to break the ice with a cute stranger.

3 out of 5 stars

Kindle manybooks consumption

2010-10-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

Kindle 3G webkit browser works with manybooks.net!

Go, find, download and read.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Barefoot minimalist revolution? Vibram Five Fingers TrekSport

2010-10-05T22:29:00.000-07:00

Vibram Five Fingers TrekSport 2010

Barefoot feel with Keep Stuff Out membrane.

Think of it as cross between KSO and Trek models.

Size luckily runs tight as a 9.75 inch foot can fit in these size 40s

The sole is a bit beefer than the Classic model but feet can still feel the ground.

Conde Nast The New Yorker iPad edition

2010-10-05T00:27:00.000-07:00

How piss off print subscribers:

same content, extra charge

$4.99USD only on the iPad

Courier lives on the iPad

2010-08-10T21:24:00.001-07:00

Can your netbook do that?

I thought I have seen it all.

sling Note is what makes the iPad computing experience so unique and magical.

Lassoing web clippings and dragging them over to a basket or notepad really works and is so intuitive!

The free hand ink tool could use a bit more smoothing and undo and redo would be enhancements, but I have to give a 5 star because the idea and implementation is so brilliant.

Just buy it before this hits the top ten and gets popular in price.

Mobile Buster really has something here. Just check out the video.

Helsing's fire: burn off evillys

2010-07-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

Vampire Puzzler uses torches to cleanse the beasties.

Cognitive skill: seeing spatial relationships

TWMobile: TiddlyWiki on iOS...works!

2010-07-26T00:54:00.001-07:00

TWMobile truly saves tiddlers on iOS.
I tried the default from TiddlyWiki.com and also the Basics QuickStart package from Eric Schulman's TiddlyTools.com and TWMobile saved changes on both.
Truly a remarkable first as the world of TiddlyWiki and TiddlyWeb is such a rich and magical universe now brought to mobile.

Underscore Notify: sleeper gem of a an-notater

2010-07-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

Underscore Notify is a note taking and annotating application for iOS devices.
It kicks app a**

Sleeper gem.
This came out of the blue. I've tried many notes apps, but none as fluid in UI and full featured. Underscore Notify looks like the devs made the app for themselves to use regularly.
Pages are infinite. Read that again. Zooms are preset and pinch variable. Objects are movable: scribbles, shapes, text, web pages.
Truly a virtual canvas.
PDF, Dropbox, wow. I'm repeating- heck, I could not believe the audacity of the feature list, but indeed it is supported!
The interface is quirky but intuitive; no tapping around to get basic functionality, unApple like in a good way.
The help is extensive but only needed to flesh out detail.
I haven't had time to check performance with many notebooks, but so far on basic use, this is beyond 5 star.
Save yourself lots of beta testing and money trying others.
Slightly miffed as now I'll have to delete apps I bought that Underscore Notify replaces. Live and learn.
Also it's a Universal Binary!

Written Note using Note Taker

2010-06-16T00:42:00.001-07:00

The attached note was written using Dan Bricklin's Note Taker App on
my handheld.

Soundpaper Updated: gives iPad LiveScribe pen functions!

2010-06-12T14:03:00.001-07:00

Soundpaper was updated to support drawing.

Why is this incredible?
There are quite a few drawing and sketch apps, but
Sound paper has done a really excellent job of mirroring the functionality of a LiveScribe Pulse pen by allowing the drawing to be synced to audio.

You can tap the drawing and the audio starts playing near that position.

Tapping a pencil icon at the upper right corner switches to drawing mode and you can begin drawing right in the middle of your text.

Drawing dramatically increases SoundPaper functionality.

The interface is quite minimal but done very cleanly in that a double tap will select a single stroke and a single tap will select a stroke and its adjacent neighbors.
You can make a single strikethrough stroke and select it with a single tap to delete multiple strokes, but the ability to group strokes to move them around would help.

Also I would still like a date time stamp insert option though or TextExpander support.

All in all however right now Soundpaper is the one to beat.

Skype on 3G: yep it works

2010-05-31T14:54:00.001-07:00

Haven't tried to a landline, but Skype works with toll free numbers. Call quality is average, but usable.
A few Skype credits and the iPad is a phone!
$14.99 is looking worth it.

TaskPaper now universal with iPad

2010-05-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

Hey ol HogBay software brings us a treat with the ever clean TaskPaper, a todo/project/gtd app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and now iPad.

It's the same great feel of the original only bigger, taking full advantage of the real estate.

So if you're jonesing for a clean nice implementation of getting tasks done that uses plain ol text and syncs to the simple sync cloud and haven't fallen for ToDo, then check out TaskPaper.

TonidoPlug shows just how crippled iPad is

2010-05-23T22:05:00.001-07:00

What's wrong with this picture?

Here the great TonidoPlug, a small plug computer with embedded Ubuntu Linux serves as a personal cloud, but not for the iPad.

Files created on the iPad can't be emailed or uploaded to the TonidoPlug because the iPad lacks an exposed filesystem. Even downloading files is cumbersome. Luckily, GoodReader comes in handy. The Tonido folks at CodeLathe do mention OneDisk from the Readdle guy, to connect via WebDav, but I have yet to buy and test that.

Penultimate gets wrist protection

2010-05-23T21:55:00.001-07:00

Penultimate, the digital ink notebook app gets a fine update with wrist protection.

You can now "write" freely with your palm on the surface of the iPad and your finger will still pouring out the "ink".

The protection even works when the palm/wrist is on already written ink.

I also tested with a Pogo stylus, but I still prefer the index finger because I still have to press too hard with the Pogo stylus to get any recognition.

A note made with Penultimate: good for something

2010-05-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

Amidst all the note taking sticky note corkboard todo task org productivity GTD apps,
there's something to be said for the zen of digital ink even if the constraint is granularity.

Infinote Review: fast speedy sticky notes

2010-05-14T20:39:00.001-07:00

There is a great sale on Infinote and I think it is worth it for the two bucks.

Infinote features a wide variety of emoticons to add tiny icons to the text. There is a wide range of colors and backgrounds that you can apply to your notes along with font choices and changing the color of the notebook itself.

The application itself is very responsive and quick zooming really feels like you're moving the little notes around.

Note creation is very quick with a double tap to the board as well as editing with a tap.

You don't actually pinch and zoom the notebook board, but rather you tap the magnifier icon to zoom out to a birds eye view. I purchased on this feature as a complement to the book by David Straker on Rapid Problem Solving with Post It Notes, but unfortunately, the birds eye view is a static picture and you cannot move notes In this view which seems counterintuitive.
Nevertheless, this is the same behavior as other notetaking sticky note applications that I have so maybe there's something in the APIs that prohibits programming this behavior. Infinote still stands as a great app despite the shortcoming.

There is no text search which I thought the magnifier icon was for, but hopefully that is being considered.

Customer service was excellent as I had an outlier crash where the application would not open, but the email response was quick and the developer explained the issue saying an update fix was forthcoming.

I like to support such developers.

All in all, I appreciate the speed and simplicity of infinote's functions and hope it won't get too bogged down by cosmetic features.

SwitchEasy Nude iPad case: great fit on 3G

2010-05-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

Dunked $33 for http://www.switcheasy.com/products/NUDE_iPad/NUDE_iPad.php

The SwitchEasy Nude hard case finally came in after quick 3 day priority shipping.

It came with everything one would need in a great price.
The 1mm thin hard lexan plastic back
Screen protector film with microfiber cloth for pre cleaning.
A couple of cheap stands in media view 80 degree positions.
And some port plugs and other oddments

I first applied the screen protector to pretty much my satisfaction, but unfortunately, the little monkey brain got the best of me and I had to redo it.

Instead of getting a second run that's a little bit better than the first, I stupidly dabbed the adhesive side of the screen protector with the microfiber cloth and got more lint onto the screen. I took my losses and pressed on the screen protector for the final application. Lint! The bane of clean rooms everywhere. Next time I'll go to a dust free lab with a proper air manifold, grrr.

So my advice to you is definitely when you have it on with a few bubbles it's just fine. Really, no do overs, just live with imperfection.

The fit on the 3G was tight and I did not see any imperfections or burrs with the case. More importantly, the Camera Connector SD version had no trouble accessing the iPad port with the Nude on.

I would indeed recommend the SwitchEasy Nude case if you want decent all-around bump and scratch protection both for the front and back of your iPad. It doesn't afford that typing position that I would like with the Apple iPad case, but other than that it's a great case at a great price.

Next up, Apple iPad case...

Yep, the retail stores finally got the Chinese junk load in

First look: ableNote, just the ticket for killer feature in app clipping multitasking note taking

2010-05-09T20:38:00.001-07:00

If you're looking for an iPad app that allows you to paste web clippings and maps, look no further. A bunch of unix geeks from Tapworx, have debuted a winner in ableNote.

AbleNote is a new iPad app that has in app browsing features allowing for multi-tasking note taking.

Frustrated by having to exit an app to search the web then screenshot your result into a note taking app, ableNote has brought out this killer feature, now.

What's cool:
Tagging on the side
Can make clippings from in app browser, then open to url.
Map clippings and open to map
Free hand drawing
Can copy clippings and paste between notes
Text object resizing

Cons
One page per note
Note is set to one size, limited zooming unlike big canvas apps, Corkulous or iThoughts.
Freehand drawing has no erase, you just accept or reject; though you can resize for increased line opacity.
Must reset default opacity and color of freehand tool on every new note otherwise it starts with a yellow highlight.

Oatmeal supports the iPad

2010-05-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

Calendar: You can sync your Google calendar with iPad

2010-05-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

CalDav Sync iPad Calendar To Google Calendar

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=151674

The short of it:

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add account

Select Other then add a CalDav account

It's just a big iPod Touch, thank goodness

2010-05-07T19:04:00.001-07:00

I don't have good metrics, but if i venture to guess, I'd say that the ipad has overtaken browsing habits over the laptop and handheld.
Lots of criticism I've read about iPad come from cursory (at store) or no actual use of the device.
"doesn't even have a full OS"
"it's just a big iPod Touch"
Try this:
Take your screen, desktop monitor or laptop
Put it on your lap
Make it wake from sleep
Turn on wifi
Surf
How long did that take?
The iPad does this in less than 10 seconds with multitouch deft.
Instant on, the web that is.

No alarms on the iPad without a running app, bugs me

2010-05-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

The iPad can pay your energy bill over secure socket layer, but still can't wake up an alarm from sleep!

Apps like NightStand and Alarm Clock Pro only work if the app is running.

Scenario: partner is asleep, alarm is set. You play around with the iPad and the alarm app fails to notify because it is not running. Nice.

Even the iPod touch can do that.

FastFinga on iPad more functional than Penultimate

2010-05-05T23:16:00.001-07:00

Zoom! In and out, is the killer feature.

Overlay a drawing amidst digital ink text.

Date time stamps!

Tagging for search and folders for organization

Emoji and pen colors

Background themes

Damn, I should have learned, beauty is skin deep.

FastFinga had depth and beauty.

Penultimate: 3 bucks = 3 stars

2010-05-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

Penultimate is very pretty, but function wise is spartan.

Simple is good, but a few enhancements could help this front runner from future competition.

- Undo is finicky and sometimes you can make a stroke in a session that you cannot undo.
- landscape is not a friend, the page gets cut off; Penultimate scribbling is mainly done in portrait mode.
- one review mentioned issues with many pages PDF export, but I have yet to confirm.

As a user of PhatNotes, FastFinga and Tanzaku Pad, all very functional in 2x mode, Penultimate has the early mindshare lead.

That TUAW review, helped, but that early adopter price should stick around to fend of any competition for a while.

I think it is worth it for the quick todo list or scribble.

Adding a typewriter text tool may detract from the paper and pen feel, but a way to tag pages so as to find previous scribbles would enhance the digital ink beyond a paper moleskine notebook.

iPad camera connector: good to have if you have a camera

2010-05-02T20:01:00.000-07:00

Photographer's friend, the iPad Camera Connector is spot on.

Was able to connect with the USB cable from the Canon and import and delete photos from the SD card into the iPad.

Haven't tried the SD card connector, yet, but worth it if your camera is not supported or you lost the USB cable.

Verdict: buy it, saves a bit of the no camera on your first generation iPad.

10W iPad power adaptor: dynamic charging fun

2010-05-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

iPad essential alert:

Just picked up the 10W iPad power adaptor, as can be read it covers charging multiple devices along with the iPad.

Since my Griffith charger died, dead, RIP after 2 years, this Apple branded $30 essential has come in handy.

You also get a thick power extension cord just the MacBook charger that is way more convenient than the short USB cable that comes with the iPad.

Increasing the carbon footprint, one device at a time.

Would be great if paired to a solar or human powered generator.

iBooks needs O'Reilly Media as a library

2010-05-01T12:02:00.001-07:00

Stanza from Amazon is not iPad optimized, but passable.

I'm importing all O'Reilly books into iTunes and what a gorgeous result.

iBookstore beats Sony Reader Ebooks store with better metadata and UI

iPad needs Pixel Qi.

Instapaper Pro Rulez

2010-05-01T11:56:00.001-07:00

Marcos did the nice Universal and it is so worth it!

Tilt scroll is a little too fast with the iPad accelerometers.

Reading is dizzy.

iPad 3G First Impressions

2010-05-01T11:45:00.001-07:00

Love it, post 5 hr honeymoon

Old Apps based on text work fine
- PhatNotes has a bigger area to write
- Bejeweled hasn't lost its charm
- iMandalart needs more little boxes
-
Speed is incredible.
- Pages load fast
- Everything is crisp

Huh?
- No alarm clock like wake from sleep but the calendar will alert

AppleCare soon...
- I need a Defender Otternbox hard case; I can see this getting nicked.

First Apps
- Bought Pinball HD, since gameprom has been good with the discounts.
- GoodReader, Corkulous, ArtStudio, Penultimate, Soundpaper

Battery life so far is superb.

Size could be halved and still be golden. 2011 we'll see!

AT&T 3G signup was painless and extra fee free :-)

The spouse loves it.

Security sucks and iPad / iPhone OS will be the new target.
- ok I get it Steve; the sandbox is important.

Overall, You buy the full tablet experience and that is the value add from Apple.

NotionInk Adam and HP Palm WebOS, I await your move.

Microsoft Courier, RIP

Sent from my iPad

Dan Bricklin's Note Taker

2009-12-19T10:16:00.001-08:00

Dan Bricklin's Note Taker review

App store down!

2009-12-19T01:21:00.000-08:00

Waah.

Can you do that?!

2009-12-05T10:59:00.000-08:00

I was playing the iPhone and iPod touch game Audio Puzzle by Dexoris and I stumbled upon this cacophony of noise and sound, Ostriches & Chirping by Elliott Smith!

I had forgotten all about this song but you should definitely check it out, because I think you will like it!

Rediscover your music collection with Audio Puzzle by Dexoris

Sent from my iPod

You will like this album!

2009-12-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

Haha, great way to promote your app from within the game.

I was playing the iPhone and iPod touch game Audio Puzzle by Dexoris and I stumbled upon this brilliant song, Comme Il Faut by Carlos Di Sarli!

This song is from the album Y Su Orquesta, a brilliant album that you should definitely check out, because I think you will like it!

Rediscover your music collection with Audio Puzzle by Dexoris

Sent from my iPod

WriteRoom with Textexpander FTW non JB

2009-10-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

Well it's not vim on mobile terminal but it's close and way bigger
which is easy on the eyes. My date stamping days are ahead.
Simpletext.ws is the new web based service that WriteRoom syncs to
with a Google login. The code is open and it would be great to pair
this to TiddlyWeb.

iBlast Moki is a blast

2009-10-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

Really having a blast with iBlast Moki!

Graphics plus cuteness matched with physics puzzles and blasting is a
perfect formula.

Get it!

Orbital threes

2009-10-03T01:10:00.001-07:00

> Pure mode of Orbital is a masochist's paradise. Hurt me with bigger
> balls. Ha.

geoDefense Swarm Medium 6

2009-10-03T01:06:00.000-07:00

Yep I made it to nucleotide.

Civilization for the iPhone wastes life

2009-08-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

I lost 48 hours of my life trying to get nukes to besiege London...
Playing Sid meier's Civilization for the iPhone, still enjoyable
despite a few white out bugs.

GoodReader is my PDF reader

2009-08-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

Alright so you've got Stanza which O'Reilly brilliantly covers, but
what about reading your PDFs from Packt, Manning or Apress?

GoodReader is indeed a good reader of pdf files. Do yourself a favor and just buy it at the current sale.
I bought AirSharing at 5 smackers and tried Files lite as first gen readers but they lacked speed and navigational features.
GoodReader brings this and more. Zooming and free flow of movement through the document results in a better experience with maps. The toggle to snap on the vertical after zooming smaller pdf fonts is a well used feature. I have no trouble transferring documents through the WiFi. It's so great to finally read pdfs from computer publishers or other technical image or code heavy documents that gives my Kindle trouble. I've since transferred my pdfs from AirSharing to GoodReader. This is a great pdf reader a long time coming.

Tiddlywebwiki benefits from iTW

2009-08-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

Followed FND's lead and imported BidiX's iTW into TiddlyWebwiki for
the iPhone.
Had to set upload config to false in iTWTweaks. It is a great UI but i
miss my list of tiddlers viewed directly and hope to craft a better UX
in the future.

OReilly ebook via Stanza

2009-08-05T01:18:00.000-07:00

Picked up some new media bits reading this book without the page weight.

It's saved as an .ipa

Good: priced to go, save a tree for the flocks, and searching and
linking

Bad: takes up one app slot, only on the iDevice.

Now I just need a bigger iTablet.

Battle of the note taking apps part 2: Trunk

2009-07-27T22:52:00.001-07:00

So what happens after you get your notes written?
How will can you access them?
How are they organized?
Here TiddlyWeb can help, but starting a web server after becoming root
first is tedious.
The answer is the only native full featured wiki on iphone OS, Trunk.
Trunk supports links and Markdown markup. Full text search and tag
filtering propels Trunk over the competition. Functions are now
supported so double curly bracketed commands have special meaning.
Get a list of recent notes, notes tagged by a certain word are all
doable. Snippets for boilerplate text from shortcut macros are more
productivity frosting.
Get Trunk and enjoy the portable wiki in your pocket.

-- This message was composed with PhatWare WritePad Notes

FastFinga good for the short note

2009-07-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

Battle of the note taking apps, part 1

2009-07-27T22:13:00.000-07:00

Battle of the note taking apps

My initial premise:
Because there is no conversion to text and thus no search, Write Pad
is not as fast as ShapeWriter since ShapeWriter makes words from
shorter screen travel not full characters like WritePad.
Also sucky is that full text search is disabled in WritePad; you can
only search by title.
If the ultimate output is searchable notes
I had a real world test today of the speed and versatility of WritePad

Losers: ZeptoPad-despite the latest terrific upgrade, a Vector drawing
app is no fast note taker.
Resizing glyphs and rearranging word graphics is not speedy nor
productive

Shapewriter
Surprisingly despite having to write out words vs. shape writing them,
the familiarity and recognition of WritePad proved quicker. The lack
of a quick undo in ShapeWriter proved to be its failing.

Even for common words there is a lag from having to correct words or
registering new words when a lecturer never stops; it really decreased
the efficiency I found when composing at a slower pace.
While there is a lot of mileage with forming words by shape writing,
in practice with a lot of unknown words it can get tedious if you
don't remember the correct spelling of the word. Unknown words must be
typed out so on the average spelling out the word with letter
recognition proves more accurate when the content is unfamiliar to the
dictionary. Also cursor placement is too sensitive so that entering
unfamiliar words is further delayed.

ShapeWriter is more comfortable and less fatiguing but when speed is a
consideration, WritePad wins for me; and I really enjoy shapewriter
with it's unique method an all text search.

Digital ink
Ultimately Tankazu Pad is not as good as Write Pad.

Liqbase is promising but I don't want to spend for another device
albeit an orphaned one, like the current Nokia Internet tablets, maybe
when the. N900 shows up.

-- This message was composed with PhatWare WritePad and ShapeWriter Pro

Fastfinga: search digital ink by tag

2009-07-27T00:41:00.000-07:00

Fastfinga tagging notes and filter:

Note overview:

Fastfinga is looking really buff with features galore. Most notable are filtering notes by tag which are text based, bridging the gap between digital ink based apps and search. So scribble and tag brings an advantage over simple sketching and drawing apps.

Fastfinga updated

2009-07-19T01:39:00.000-07:00

Fastfinga is getting better and better with more features. Only a date
time stamp is missing.

Tiddlywiki via TiddlyWeb via Tiddlywebwiki on iPhone OS

2009-07-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

Day 2: it still saves!

Not only that I copy and pasted a plugin from mobile Safari into my Tiddlywebwiki, tagged systemConfig, saved, refreshed and it worked!

I forgot, get this Tiddlyweb/wiki goodness and instructions over here:

Tiddlyweb in your pocket

2009-07-16T00:09:00.001-07:00

Tiddlywebwiki, a vertical of TiddlyWeb, which started as a server side
RESTful framework of TiddlyWiki has been successfully installed on
iPhone OS. It truly is a full featured wiki in your pocket much like
Trunk Notes.

Thanks to Chris Dent, FND, Jeremy Ruston, iPhone Dev Team, Jay
Freeman, Lance Fetters, and so many more...

Fastfinga 1.3 in da haus

2009-07-06T00:24:00.000-07:00

TegakiMemo is now updated to 2.0

2009-07-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

Now you can see where you write on the memo.

FastFinga is out and good

2009-06-28T21:44:00.001-07:00

Zeptopad 3, your digital moleskine

2009-06-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

Wooah.

Running Zeptopad 3 after an upgrade to iPhone OS 3 and Zeptopad 2!

They, UEI have done a lot to this new version making Zeptopad more
full featured and complex as a premier vector drawing app for the
iPhone.

The two biggest issues I had with previous versions have been
resolved. The drawing smoothness has greatly improved along with the
line gradient. I can now scribble decently.

Folders have been added and drag and drop is supported for worksheet
moves into folders. Holding onto a worksheet icon toggles the deletion
state making it far easier than a tiny swipe to invoke deletion. I
have not found a way to move a worksheet to a different folder,
though. There is no cut, copy or paste of worksheets that I could find.

There is a slideshow feature that allows you to preview worksheets,
but I'm not sure of the utility of toggling between the worksheets
with the three views: main, sub1, and sub2.

Another improvement is the addition and handling of basic shapes like
circles, box, text, connectors and lines. Each object can have
editable attributes like fill or outline color that is found on a sub
menu. You can color, pastel or gradient your way to artful creations.

Did I also mention that there still is peer to peer sharing, real time
viewing mirroring over the desktop, saving to pdf?

Unfortunately because we're dealing with digital ink, search is out of
the question. A helpful future feature request would be a text field
to tag worksheets so they can be sorted, filtered, or searched later.
At least the text can be searched.

Nevertheless, Zeptopad is finally becoming a great digital moleskine
sketch pad for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Sent from my iPod

Peggle sale 99cents!

2009-06-11T01:32:00.001-07:00

Peggle
Just bought Peggle for 99 cents!
Review to come soon after. If Peggle was anything like it was on the
iPod Nano, this is going to be fun!

Sent from my iPod

E Ink eaten by Prime View, in need of Pixel Qi

2009-06-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

All your E Inks are mine!
What do ebook readers Kindle, Irex, cybook and Sony reader all have in common?

They use E-ink technology that allows them significant energy savings and paper like contrast ratios.

Another thing in common, is that they are PRICEY!

Now the suppliers for these screens are coming under one umbrella.

Translation: don't wait for prices to drop any time soon.

We need Pixel Qi more than ever.

Headspace is at v1.5!

2009-05-27T23:36:00.000-07:00

Whoa man Headspace, that whacked out mind mapping app from Flat Black
Films is out at version 1.5 with Unicode support, big files stuff and
bug fixes. The steady progression of updates is promising. I'm still
loving that flying global search. Hee haw.

I can read! Amazon Kindle v1.1

2009-05-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

My Amazon reader app for the iPhone just got updated to 1.1 with
noticeable improvement. Added features are color, landscape support,
orientation lock, font sizes, and bookmarks making for a overall great
reading experience.

WritePad Notes is a text editor app that uses natural gestures like you would

2009-05-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

WritePad Notes is a text editor app that uses natural gestures like
you would write on paper. Cut and paste are supported and more
surprisingly between notes.

The recognition engine makes writing more enjoyable over typing. With
the addition of the landscape keyboard for a secondary method of
entry, WritePad is superior to other apps that only have one method of
entry.

Although there is more editing involved as, punctuation can be an
issue if not written beforehand and I find myself editing afterwards.

Limited search to just titles seems like cripple ware as there is no
full text search, which is still true as of version 1.8. Perhaps they
are saving that for PhatNotes.

Diskaid is a desktop program that was used in prior versions to backup
notes to the desktop. Now there is a formal desktop application to
backup notes, dictionaries, and other files which works over Wifi.

They listened to users and added a date stamp insertion feature along
with an innovative shortcut feature. It works by writing a word then
circling it which pastes the longer text or does a edit like cut or
paste. Wonderfully, users can add their own shortcuts on the fly using
WritePad's text entry method. All in all, WritePad breaks new ground
for text entry; it truly feels like having a digital Moleskine.

WritePad is enjoyable to write with, but the missing feature is still
global search across all notes. At the current sale of $2.99, WritePad
is a great bargain.
May 17, 2009 10:14 AM

-- This message was composed with PhatWare WritePad Notes

WolframAlpha - Computing on the fly

2009-05-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

Wolfram Alpha works on the iPhone and is surprisingly brisk. My middle
school algebra has been transformed.

ShapeWriterPro review

2009-05-12T00:13:00.000-07:00

This post was composed by ShapeWriter Pro.

Good - the writing method is the closest thing to fast that I have
tried. The auto correction is pretty spot on along with the auto
spacing.
Search works across all text.
Has security masking records feature to a single password.
Easy to add new words to the dictionary.
Bad - hard to perform letter case changes, email backup is a good
start. There is a game mode to help training shape writing.

Ugly - no date stamp, no WiFi data exchange server, poor user interface.

Conclusion - ShapeWriter is worth the $4.99 I spent just for the sheer
pleasure of writing fast and the great search capability. I miss the
date stamp and a more secure method to backup data than emailing the
whole record set.

real game zen

2009-02-24T23:48:00.000-08:00

Primrose by Jason Rohrer

Rating 5 out of 5 stars

$3 are you kidding me? I can buy X,Y, and Z for that price.

In this 99 cent climate with big name productions of terrific games, how can some simple looking, square grid matching game make it?

The game is out in public domain and you can even play for free! Free. The backdrop of a misunderstood game genius story is over the top too.

But, Primrose is deep, beautiful and brilliant. I'm stuck by that same meditative joy i felt as a kid playing with Merlin, the electronic wizard.

The polish of the design is zen.

Glowing, pulsing pieces, simple but deep game play, make Primrose feel like a classic. Simply enlightening.

This is well worth the time and money. Kudos to the developer and I look forward to his other work.

Kraut - sweet magical match puzzle

2009-01-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

Kraut is a unique sweet magical well crafted polished pattern matching game.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Controls: touch
Sound: excellent
Graphics: photo realistic
Playability: pick up casual to deep campaigns
Audience: all ages
Developer: Monsterkodi
Brain training: pattern recognition, creativity
Paid: $1.99

A floral theme pervades the game as you manipulate a set of flowers in matches of 4 or more.
Unlike other matching games like Bejeweled, where individual elements are moved on a grid, Kraut turns that concept around.
Instead you make your own grid of matches by putting triads of flowers together.

Like another game, Smiles, there is a jump area where the triad is available to rotate in for play. The triads can be rotated along the middle flower axis.
The help is extensive and some of the best tutorials I've seen for a match puzzle game - definitely great for kids and grandparents.

The flowers are photo realistically gorgeous and there are many types to choose from, further customizing play.

The floral theme continues with insect power-ups or helper units. They add more variety and depth to the game play and are generated by pollen points from matches.
The integration of incredible sound effects from the startup screen, menus and the game play is superb.
There are race the clock arcade and campaign challenge modes along with awards. High score signatures are hand drawn by the player.

Kraut is great for casual pick up and play with a family friendly theme, but has durability and depth with campaign and awards. The unique twist of building your own grid of matches paired with pattern recognition exercises creativity makes this game well worth the value and play.

The level of polish and detail from the slow movie motion of flowers in the menu backgrounds to the righty/lefty considerations really shows the care from the developers and should be rewarded.

If you are looking for a special game in the sea of matching games, Kraut is highly recommended to bring out that inner child and make you happy!

We love this game.

Similar matching apps we play: Trism, Frenzic, QuardrumColors, Bejeweled2, Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab, Gaia Lite, Collapse!Chaos, ScribBall, Pinch n' Pop!

Other apps to consider: Booty Blocks, Chain3, Smiles

Headspace - 3D dreamy mind mapping

2008-12-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

Headspace is a mindmapping app from animation and software company, Flat Black Films

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars; on sale for 99 cents while it lasts...

Reading the Big Lebowski intro, made me a bit hesitant at buying this new app thinking it might be from a fly-by-night no updates dev. But cred was established after checking out the screenshots at their main site and the price can't be beat!

You can add items or nodes that are grouped in a virtual headspace.

Headspaces are files akin to mindmaps.

Item nodes can have colors, links and can be stacked in groups.

The usual multitouch pinch -zoom, resize all applies here.

Flicking around with 1,2, or 3 fingers have different effects. You can rearrange items up and down the group hierarchy. Double tapping a group, pulls the camera view focus to that group.

Innovation:
Brings to the table mindmapping unlike any other app tot he iPhone, not your usual Freemind-central-node. Think PersonalBrain on your iPhone; well the closest thing to it.

Usability:
There is a bit of a learning curve with all this power, but having the freedom to zoom in and out of groups of headbits is worth the price of admission.

Sucks: NO SEARCH, yes you heard that right, with a slew of headbits floating around in your headspace, don't even think of popping in a query. Like just scroll around, man.
NO EXPORT, yep, you and your emptied monkey brain guts are stuck in Headspace. There is not yet a way to get all those typed up nodes out to the desktop or web for backup. No email, webdav, saving to local dir for exchange via DiskAid.

Still Headspace is an awesome reach into the mindmapping appstore category that is often a re-tread of existing desktop ideas and for that 5 stars, baby.

ZeptoPad 2.0 - virtual whiteboard with real time display

2008-12-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

ZeptoPad 2.0

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars; needs better speed for sketching, snap to grid, and a cleaner UI

What: A vector based drawing app for the iphone and iPod touch that allows you to create mindmaps, diagrams and just about replace your moleskine notepad for portable brainstorming.

Where: appstore link

Who: some smart folks in Japan with a crazy company name: UBIQUITOUS ENTERTAINMENT INC.

Why: I was looking for an all-in-one inbox that supports freeform input but with LARGER than screen saves. I use Sketches to create pictures or words then manipulate them using the excellent Photoboard to create a composite collage which can then be captured to the Saved Photos album. ZeptoPad 2.0 came out just in time

UPDATE: I just read a review of Zeptopad that compared it to other sketch apps. This is a fallacy like comparing apples to oranges.

The whole point of why ZeptoPad has an advantage over painting ink apps is that each vector path is an object that can be resized and manipulated, more importantly the canvas is HUGE (click the thumbnail below of a feedback map I made and how big the ZeptoPad export is).

There is currently NO app other than ZeptoPad that has these features. Mindmapping apps (BlueSky, iThoughts) while wonderful cannot add freeform lines, have photos as nodes, or rotate outside of fixed constraints.

Good:

UPDATE: You can copy/move a selected object from one worksheet(drawing) to another! Very cool.
Real-time interactive whiteboard - connect to your Mac and what you draw in ZeptoPad is what you see in real time on the desktop screen
Supports Ad Hoc wifi (my router done be broke) so I can connect ZeptoPad to my Mac without a router.
Saves your creations as jpg, PDF and backup file. The output pics are indeed larger than the iphone screen
Bigger canvas to create! much larger than iphone/ipod touch screen
Pinch and zoom to expand and shrink figure and whole drawings
Cut, copy, move, rotate and paste figures. Let me say that again, with ZeptoPad you can CUT, COPY, MOVE, ROTATE, and PASTE your scribblings. Try doing that with other digital ink doodling or sketch apps.
Type text using iphone keyboard as a figure and shrink and enlarge
import and export of thumbs from Saved Photos album in camera roll
Change color of lines and text selections; color code your mobile mindmaps
UNDO and REDO of your actions.

Bad:

costs $10 with no free lite preview version to try out. UPDATE: They now have a freeware version!
poor to fair drawing speed with free form figures and lines; even the freeware scribbler is faster but to be fair, ZeptoPad is vector based which have more flexibility than doodling apps for editing. Need for speed!
no basic shapes in toolset; just free form lines and text from keyboard
User experience/workflow is clunky: 1 Draw or type, 2 reposition figure/text, 3 repeat as needed, 4 connect with lines; ZeptoPad needs a snap to grid feature
No grouping of worksheets in Directory. All your creations (worksheets) are in 1 pot.

Ugly:

Non-intuitive user interface sucks, 1980's menus and so un-Apple like as to make Steve Jobs grimace: please UEI take a look at Photoboard UI and see how clean and minimal that is with its local circular menu per figure.
figures are automatically grouped so you have to select them individually in order to separate them. User is constantly needs to select menu to move any figure. It gets tiresome folks. Again look at use of proximity as with Photoboard.
No landscape, so you must pinch and shrink for longer words or wider figures

Competition:

Mindmapping apps: like iThoughts, BlueSky, MindMaker
Drawing apps: doodler apps like Sketches, Scribbler, Zibbler
Miscellaneous: ThinkDigits, Photoboard

Verdict: do the Japanesa!

Value is relative, but I'm satisfied with my purchase.
ZeptoPad brings to the Apple appstore something unique and has really no competition despite the listing above.
I'm free to pour ideas on a multitouch canvas larger than the physical screen and manipulate the various 'thoughts' or ideas represented as text and figures unlike any all-in-one application.
The workflow to create is slow and takes many steps but the freedom outweights that. I may consider a mindmapper like iThoughts for speed.
The realtime interactive whiteboard is cool but gimmicky and I can't currently see a use for it though it reminds me of the old Margi presentation system from Palm days.
If you have falling $10 USD to spare from starving yourself from lattes4apps and you're into that 43Folders/GtD/Moleskine crowd pick up zany ZeptoPad.