Tag Archives: Apps

File Management on the iPad

April 13, 2013 10:30 am , Leave a Comment ,

As tablets and other portable devices continue their dominance in the digital world, they have become a significant tool in our research world too. Combine the portable device with one or more cloud-based storage systems and you have most of your research tools and information with you wherever you go. Now, thanks to the updates to Readdle’s Documents [iOS - free] app, you have the ability to access, view and annotate just about any kind of file on your iThings.

This doesn’t mean just PDFs either. You can read ebooks (ePub and FB2 formats) that aren’t locked with digital rights management (DRM) as well as MS Office files. You can view videos in Documents and listen to audio files stored on your device. You can save email attachments and read them in Documents. You can edit text (.txt) files and annotate most others. There’s an internal browser where you can browse the web, save bookmarks, save web pages as Web archive files (great for Scrivener users) and download files to the app’s Documents tab.

All this is amazing enough, but the file management features included in this app are almost mind-blowing. First, you can connect to just about any cloud storage service – iCloud, Dropbox, Box, GoogleDrive, etc. There is also FTP and SFTP support and USB transfer via iTunes’ file sharing function. Best of all, you can connect your device to your computer’s file system via local Wi-Fi. By this I mean, it’s only available within your home when you are connected to your home Wi-Fi network.

The files in my Documents app as displayed in my Mac's Finder app.

The files in my Documents app as displayed in my Mac’s Finder app.

In this example, you are looking at the Finder (file manager) app on my Mac displaying the files in the Documents app on my iPad. I can easily copy/paste files to the iPad from my desktop.

Documents files screen

The same files viewed within the Documents iPad app.

The Documents iPhone app has all the functionality of the iPad, but the interface is designed for the smaller screen and reading a letter-sized PDF on the iPhone’s small screen can be a challenge.

Documents is quickly becoming an important component of my mobile research toolbox, giving me the ability to quickly load and unload the documents I want to have with me at the research library, society meeting or conference as well as giving me the ability to download files directly from the web. It didn’t take long to work this app into my daily workflow.

Related articles:

  1. GoodReader File Management
  2. Documents App by Readdle
  3. iFiles – a file manager for iOS
  4. iPad Photo Management
  5. Reading on the iPad
  6. iPad Folders
Posted in: Digital Toolbox , Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Documents App by Readdle

February 15, 2013 7:30 am , Leave a Comment ,

ReaddleDocs for iPad has received a significant update including a new look and new name – Documents [iPad - free]. The name is deceptive, however, since it’s a whole lot more than just a document reader. It’s also a file manager, music player, photo viewer, text editor and video player. It can read PDFs, ePubs and Office files, open email attachments and move files to and from just about any cloud service you might use.

Documents main screen

A view of Documents’ main screen.

The app’s document manager can move files between devices and systems within your local network as well as connect to just about any cloud service. And, you’re not just limited to downloads either. You can upload files from your iPad to your desktop or Dropbox or whatever service you use.

A PDF document viewed in Documents

A PDF document viewed in Documents

The reading experience is quite delightful too. In this example, you’re looking at one of my WordPress guides that was created using Keynote and saved as a PDF. You can also read ePub books in this app. With Documents, you can highlight and annotate your documents, add bookmarks and sticky notes. You can then email your annotated document to others.

It’s an absolutely amazing app – even more so because it is free. Take a look and see if you don’t find it one of the most useful apps installed on your iPad.

Related articles:

  1. GoodReader File Management
  2. Review: Dropbox
  3. Markdown – an archival standard for digital documents?
  4. iPads and Cloud Storage
  5. Putting Dropbox to Work
  6. Learning to fly
Posted in: Digital Toolbox , Tagged: , , , , , ,

Flickr’s New iPhone App

December 15, 2012 9:00 am , Leave a Comment ,

This week Flickr released an updated iPhone app making it easy to capture, edit and share your photos. Once you’ve taken a photo, you can edit, crop and enhance the image then upload it to Flickr – adding it to groups or sets and even tagging people in the photo. You can upload an unlimited number of photos to your account using the app – preserving the quality and resolution of the original photo. And, it makes it easy to share your photos via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and email.

Don’t stop there. Use the app to view your Flickr photos and those of others. You have access to your sets, groups and the millions of public images in Flickr’s collection.

The Flickr app is a free download in the app store.

Related articles:

  1. Flickr Studio
  2. The Personal Archive: Flickr
  3. Camera+ and the iPhone – Amazing!
  4. Flickr iPhone Tips
  5. Getting Organized in Flickr
  6. Flickr – Affordable Photo Protection
Posted in: Digital Storytelling , Tagged: , , , ,

Finding Your Waze

October 9, 2012 8:00 am , Leave a Comment ,

I fell in love with Waze [Android & iOS - free] long before I got my iPhone so I was delighted to find it also available for iOS. Waze is unique in that it depends on its users to provide information on traffic and road conditions, accidents and related news. Your view of Waze will show other Waze users around you and you can even make a direct connection with them. It may look too cute to be serious, but it does its job beautifully.

Waze offers both audio and visual turn-by-turn navigation and, on the iPhone 4S and 5, Siri can be used to provide limited voice controls for tasks like reporting traffic conditions or accidents while you drive. You can set set up a navigation route with multiple stops. We put that to work recently while on a junk store tour and it worked beautifully. I just plugged in the addresses of the shops we wanted to visit and arranged them in the order we wanted. Waze got us there with ease.

It can be used to find nearby gas stations (and offers crowd-sourced gas prices), banks, restaurants and more and, if you have someone else in the car, you can even chat with other Waze users nearby from within the app. But it doesn’t stop there. If you notice an error in the map, you can edit it yourself. No, not in the mobile app – you’ll make your changes from you desktop using the online map editor.

It’s the crowd-sourced content that makes Waze so special. Those of us who live away from large metropolitan areas are often left out of the whistles and bells built into location-based apps. Waze users are reporting from everywhere. I’m in no rush for the new and improved Apple Maps because Waze meets my needs beautifully. I don’t see myself changing anytime soon.

Related articles:

  1. Tech Notes – 2 November 2012
  2. Finding Good Books
  3. Digital Storytelling – Finding the Story
  4. Musings on baseball and technology
  5. Emergency Tweets
  6. Diigo offers more research goodness
Posted in: Digital Toolbox , Tagged: , , ,

WordPress to Go

August 13, 2012 6:00 am , Leave a Comment ,

WordPress released a significant update to its iPad app last week and this one makes blogging on the go a truly viable option. Here’s a gallery of screenshots to give you a quick look at the app.

You can view your blog from inside the app.

The Dashboard view gives you access to all of the work area elements.

Choose an existing post or page to work on or create a new one. Use the Photo button at the bottom of the sidebar to create a quick photo post from your iPad’s library or camera.

Here’s what a photo post looks like once a photo has been selected.

This is a look at the post editor in action. Notice the limited toolbar at the top of the keyboard.

In addition to editing content, you can manage comments and, if you’re using WordPress stats, you can view them here too.  You have access to the WordPress Reader from this app so you can use it to keep up with all your favorite WordPress bloggers – including adding your own comments. I have had one issue with the app. I can use the quick photo post option with no problem, but when I try to insert an image from either the camera roll or my photo library on the iPad, it doesn’t load the image. Not sure what’s going on there, but I hope that gets fixed soon. Once that’s fixed, this will be an awesome app for blogging from anywhere!

Related articles:

  1. WordPress To Go
  2. WordPress 3.4 Released
  3. Is it time to move to WordPress?
  4. WordPress Shortcodes
  5. WordPress Tip: Preview post in the same tab
  6. WordPress Image Galleries
Posted in: Blog Bytes , Tagged: , ,

Tech Notes: 11 May 2012

May 11, 2012 3:39 am , Leave a Comment ,

  1. Creekside August

     

    moultriecreek

    Wed, Aug 27 2008 20:00:00
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  2. Inside History’s Top 50 Genealogy Blogs

  3. Congratulations to all of the bloggers included in Inside History’s Top 50 genealogy blogs. Considering the quality of those blogs I already know, I’m looking forward to exploring the rest of the list.

    http://issuu.com/insidehistory/docs/top_50_blogs_issue_10_final

  4. http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v1/IssuuViewer.swf
    Top 50 genealogy blogs
    Issuu
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  5. App News

  6. Flipboard, my favorite iPad app, now has an Android edition! It’s not available in the app stores yet, but it shouldn’t be too much longer. Let’s hope the Amazon and Barnes & Noble app stores pick it up as soon as it’s available!
  7. Hands-On With Flipboard for Android

    22 hours ago … And it was also selected for Flipboard’s first foray into the world of Android. The latter, however, is no longer …
    Thenextweb
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  8. More Android goodness . . .
  9. GenealogyJourno
    The We Tree Genealogy Blog: 1000memories releases ShoeBox App for Android http://fb.me/202TBuNA6

     

    Helen Leggatt

    Thu, May 10 2012 04:47:42
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  10. And a little something for the iOS users too.
  11. Instapaper 4.2 now available in the App Store

    This is a significant update with many fixes and new features, including a new iBooks-Style Pagination option: New iBooks-Style Paginatio…
    instapaper
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  12. Latest Evernote Updates Show A Promising Future

    Yesterday, Evernote rolled out two major updates for its iOS and Mac apps. As a daily Evernote user who relies on the app to research pos…
    Macstories
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  13. WordPress 101

  14. Are you following the WordPress 101 series at Moultrie Creek Gazette? I’m also publishing each lesson as a downloadable PDFs at the Moultrie Creek library on Scribd (link below).
  15. WordPress 101: Why WordPress

    WordPress offers many tools and features to not only help you in your writing efforts, but make sure that as your collection of stories g…
    Moultriecreek
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  16. Moultrie Creek

    WordPress 101 A series of tutorials demonstrating the advantages of the WordPress blogging platform for genealogy and family history blog…
    Scribd
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  17. Other Tech Stories

  18. This is the kind of Photoshopping I love.

  19. Tumblr

    Thu, May 10 2012 08:06:08
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  20. It will be interesting to see if anything results from this idea.
  21. Intriguing Use of Facial Recognition Software. Who is that girl? | Intriguing Family History

    The great thing about new technology is not always about the technology itself, it’s also the applications that can be found for it. Faci…
    Intriguingfamilyhistory
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  22. Shameless plug to remind you that I’ve got a new book coming out later this month. Stay tuned!

  23. Moultriecreek

    Thu, May 10 2012 07:10:58
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  24. That’s it for this week! See you next Friday . . .

Related articles:

  1. Tech Notes: 18 May 2012
  2. Tech Notes – 15 June 2012
  3. Tech Notes – 1 June 2012
  4. Tech Notes – 8 June 2012
  5. Tech Notes – 10 August 2012
  6. Tech Notes – Memorial Day Edition
Posted in: G-notes , Tagged: ,

Typing Tools

February 29, 2012 8:00 am , Leave a Comment ,

Trying to type on the small screen is a challenge at best. Even the large onscreen keyboard found on the iPad can be a frustrating experience at times. That’s where auto-text apps come in. These apps let you set up dictionaries of words, phrases and even paragraphs and assign each a unique abbreviation. Then, when you want to include that phrase in your text, all you do is type the abbreviation and the app takes care of the rest. Because finding the pound sign on a small keyboard can be a challenge, just setting up your most commonly used Twitter hash tags can save a significant amount of time. And where do you think those smart people get their hearts and flowers updates? Once you start using these apps you’ll find all kinds of phrases you use frequently.

These apps help make typing on the small screen less frustrating. And, once you get used to using them, you’ll want them on your desktop too. Here’s a look at some of the auto-typing apps available for you.

Mac and iOS users can take advantage of Text Expander [iOS - $4.99, Mac - $34.99]. Text Expander works in a growing number of apps and can keep your abbreviations dictionary synched between the desktop and mobile versions.

Mac users will also find the free Typinator and TypeIt4Me apps work quite well.

Android users can take advantage of the Smart Keyboard app [trial - free, pro - $2.99]. It is a complete keyboard replacement app that allows you to fully customize your device’s keyboard. One of its many features is a smart dictionary that is used to save commonly used text. Unfortunately, this app is not available in the Amazon or Barnes & Noble app stores.

Windows users aren’t left out either. There’s AutoText [Win - $22.85] and PhraseExpress [Win - free].

As you get comfortable using these auto-typing tools, you’ll be surprised at how many ways you find to put them to use. It’s the tool that keeps on giving.

 

 

Related articles:

  1. Make mobile typing easier with TextExpander
  2. Cool Tools: Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover
  3. G-Notes: Essential iPad – Working Apps
  4. Research Management Tools
  5. iPad Blogging
  6. WordPress’s Mobile Apps
Posted in: G-notes , Tagged: , , , , ,

Tech Notes

February 10, 2012 5:34 am , 1 Comment ,

This week’s collection of interesting tech tips and news:

  • Microsoft has released OneNote Mobile for Android which will sync with your desktop version of OneNote via SkyDrive. There is also an iOS version of OneNote available. Both editions are free, but there is an in-app purchase necessary to access more than basic functions.
  • This week’s Calibre update includes a function that checks for duplicate titles when you auto-add new books. In addition, you can now configure the calibre settings for the currently connected device by right clicking on the device icon in the toolbar, instead of having to go through Preferences->Plugins.
  • Vonage Mobile for iPhone and Android lets you call and text other Vonage Mobile users at no cost. You can also call Vonage “land lines” for free. Like Skype, it runs as a service on your phone and when first installed, it can go through your contacts to determine which land lines are Vonage customers. You can also buy credits for calling non-Vonage phones at a very reasonable price.
  • Evernote updated the Mac desktop edition with a redesigned note panel, better tables, easier checklists and more. Get the details at their TechBlog.
  • Do you need to fill in a PDF form? Not every PDF form is a “fillable” form – built to be filled in. Fortunately, most of today’s mobile PDF reader apps include the ability to place text boxes onto a PDF document. If yours does, then you can use it to complete your form. Before you get too carried away, however, check to see if your app will let you flatten the form and/or save your annotations with the form. You’ll need these capabilities in order to send your completed forms to others. Oh, and with a bit of practice (okay, a lot of practice) I am now able to “write” a creditable version of my signature with my finger.
  • The guys at Digging into WordPress have released version 3.3 of their fabulous guide. If you aren’t familiar with this book, buying the PDF edition gets you lifetime updates when new upgrades of WordPress are released. This edition of the book includes through the WordPress 3.3 upgrade. If you already own the book, you should have received an email with the announcement and instructions for downloading.
  • James Tanner has a great article on QR codes over at Family Search’s Tech Tips blog. If you’re wondering what those funny little squares full of dots do, James has your answer.

Related articles:

  1. Tech Notes – 26 October 2012
  2. Tech Notes – 9 Nov 2012
  3. G-Notes: Take Note
  4. Tech Notes – 6 April
  5. Tech Notes – 7 September 2012
  6. Tech Notes – Friday the 13th Edition
Posted in: G-notes , Tagged: , , ,

Graphical eBook Publishing Update

October 25, 2011 7:00 am , Leave a Comment ,

Here’s some of the latest happenings related to ebook publishing of interest those of us working on family history projects:

  • Blurb recently announced they can now convert your photo book to a Blurb eBook that can be viewed on the iPad. Your book can be created using either their BookSmart app or their online Blurbify platform. It sounds like a great deal and provides yet another avenue for sharing your family history projects.
  • Amazon is developing a new book format using HTML 5 that will support graphical books. The HTML 5 feature set they are including in the format offers lots of layout and media opportunities, but initially the format will only be used on their new Kindle Fire tablet. Details on what tools will be available are also sketchy. Eventually this format will replace the current Kindle format for all readers.
  • The Book Creator app for iPad continues to intrigue me. I spent some time experimenting with a Color Nook at Barnes and Noble the other day and it displayed my little test book quite nicely.
  • Legend Maker is now available in the Mac app store – and at $10 less than its original price. It’s still my goto ebook-building app and I’m looking forward to watching it mature.
  • The Scrivener [Win and Mac] writers platform offers an ePub export feature, but still doesn’t include images.
  • Right now one of the easiest ways to create an ebook is using the Pages word processing app from the iWork suite. One of the things I especially like about Pages is if I keep my manuscript in iCloud (formerly iWork.com), I can work on it at my desktop or on my iPad.
There’s still no one-size fits all solution but conditions continue to improve in the ebook-building arena. It’s just not moving fast enough to suit me.

Related articles:

  1. EPUB: An Ebook Standard
  2. Build an ebook on your iPad
  3. Personal Publishing with Blurb
  4. eBook Building with Legend Maker
  5. A Lulu Update
  6. Adventures in eBook Building
Posted in: Publishing Tools , Tagged: ,

Conference Apps: Siri

May 23, 2011 6:08 am , Leave a Comment ,

Before you head out to Jamboree, FGS or any other conference, make sure you have Siri [iOS - free] on your iPhone. This amazing app is a traveler’s best friend. By combining voice commands, search and your current location, Siri can perform some amazing feats. All you have to do is ask.

Looking for a good Italian restaurant in the area? Just tell Siri, “Best Italian near here.” Siri takes the location information your iPhone’s GPS maintains, searches based on your dictated parameters and returns a list of possible Italian restaurants – with reviews. But that’s not all. You can then choose the restaurant you want and tell Siri to book a reservation for you.

Need a taxi? Siri can send one right to you. Find theaters playing the movie you want to see, get show times and buy tickets. Find a gas station. Get a weather report. Siri can do all that. This video shows how versatile this app is.

Apple recently bought Siri and has been negotiating agreements with Nuance, the speech recognition people behind Dragon and MacSpeeech. There are plans to include even more speech recognition technology into iOS devices and expand Siri into a complete personal assistant. Think of the possibilities . . .

Siri working with Lanyrd could be a conference attendee’s best friend.

Related articles:

  1. Conference Apps
  2. Essential Apps for Jamboree
  3. Tip: Dictate an Evernote Using Siri
  4. Conference Apps: Keynote Tweet
  5. Essential iPad: Meeting Apps
  6. A Virtual Conference
Posted in: Society Corner , Tagged: , , ,