Pushing towards a paperless future, the neat folks at Neat have released version 2.0 of Neat for iOS. The new build of the scanning-on-the-go application features much faster performance, scan annotation, new sharing and collaboration options, plus a new expense-reporting tool.

Neat has made its bones as a desktop scanning solution, offering both compact and ADF-enabled scanners that work with the company's Mac and PC applications for document management. The Neat mobile app extends that find-my-files experience for access on the go, with scans and folders synchronizing to the NeatCloud online service. You can quickly share folders or individual scans to collaborate with colleagues, or search the OCR / indexed text of your documents to find what you need quickly.

The expense report feature is intriguing; it creates a summary PDF from a collection or folder of receipt scans, totaling up the expenditure and listing categories as it goes. It's not going to supplant dedicated expense-reporting iOS tools like Concur, but for mobile freelancers who want a quick way to send expense overviews while simultaneously filing the receipts for safekeeping, it may get some traction.

The NeatCloud platform also includes an optional human-powered verification step called NeatVerify, which will run the automatic OCR results from your receipt or business card scans (no documents) past the eyes of a real, live person for checking. You can get 30 credits for this service for US$4.99 a month, so it's probably best to save it for key items.

Speaking of credits, while the Neat application is a free download from the App Store, the required NeatCloud service works on a paid subscription basis. After a 30-day free trial, you will need either the $14.99 or $29.99 monthly NeatCloud plan (discounted if you sign up for a year) to use the app; both plans offer additional features like extra users, cross-service search and more. Compare and contrast the $45 annual cost of an Evernote premium subscription, and you get the sense that Neat is aiming at the more demanding side of the market.

Neat revises mobile scanning app, adds expense reporting originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Neat revises mobile scanning app, adds expense reporting originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Casual artists looking to expand their sketching skills to the iPad should take a close look at Tayasui Sketches. The app landed in the iOS App Store earlier this month and rivals Paper as one of the best easy-to-use sketchbook apps.

Sketches reminds me of an artist's workbench with a canvas in the middle and a handful of tools neatly arranged on the side. Sketches includes six drawing tools, one fill tool and one eraser to get you started. You can use a US$1.99 in-app purchase to buy the complete set of 12 tools and their interchangeable tips. Besides the new tools, the pro version also gives you the ability to change the size and opacity of your tool tip.

Sketches may look simple on the surface, but there are a few key features that make the app a useful tool for serious sketchers and not just child's play. First and foremost is the ability to zoom in on the canvas and add small details to a drawing. It's great for adding a wrinkle to a forehead or the veins on a leaf. You can also draw a shape and fill it in with a pattern in one or two taps. You can even tweak the colors using a level tool that'll let you get the right hue, saturation and brightness. About the only thing missing from the app is support for notebooks. It would be wonderful to be able to group your individual sketches into a notebook to organize them.

Tayasui Sketches is available for free from the iOS App Store.

Daily iPad App: Tayasui Sketches is a basic, but beautiful sketching app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPad App: Tayasui Sketches is a basic, but beautiful sketching app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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People with an entrepreneurial streak should run with Elevatr on their phone so they don't miss those moments of inspiration. Elevatr is a free-form note-taking app with a business plan focus.

The app lets you create a note with fields for your business idea, the target market, product details, business model and execution. Each field has sub-fields that help you organize your ideas. For example, the section for defining your market includes fields for you to add details on the target market, the competition and your idea's competitive advantage.

Elevatr can store your ideas locally, or you can sign up for an account to store them in the cloud and share them with others. The app now is a single-user productivity tool, but the company has plans to add collaboration to the app. With its slick look and feel, Elevatr is definitely worth the storage space on your iPhone.

Elevatr is available for free from the iOS App Store.

Daily iPhone App: Elevatr helps you build a booming startup originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPhone App: Elevatr helps you build a booming startup originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nova Elements is one of those showcase apps for the iPad. It has a great UI and is filled with fantastic photos

The showcase section of the app is an interactive periodic table that provides details on each of the elements. You can read about each element find out where it is found and how it is being used. There's also a build mode that lets you add electrons, neutrons and protons to build the atom that makes up the element. You can choose an auto-build that'll assemble the atom automatically. If enjoy a challenge, you can build it yourself. If you make a mistake, though, the atom will explode.

Besides the periodic table, Nova Elements also includes a link to buy the Hunting The Elements television program from NOVA. Another section includes the David Pogue's Essential Element's game that challenges you to drag atoms into place in order to build the element. These side sections are fun, but it is the periodic table that's the centerpiece of the app.

Nova Elements is a fantastic tool for students and science geeks alike. It is available for free from the iOS App Store and is compatible with the iPad.

Daily iPad App: Nova Elements walks you through the periodic table originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPad App: Nova Elements walks you through the periodic table originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plant Nanny is fun, little app that combines the process of growing plants with the healthy habit of drinking water. It's an unusual combination, but the app pulls it off wonderfully.

Plant Nanny lets you pick a cartoon seedling and plant it in a pot on your virtual window sill. As you drink water throughout the day, you add those glasses to the app and water your plant. The more water you give your plant, the faster it will grow. When it is fully grown, you can move it outside and start over with a new seedling.

The app encourages you to keep drinking by rewarding you with seeds from your fully grown (and watered) plants. These seeds can be used to buy more exotic plants besides the dandelion that is free with the app. Plant Nanny also supports notifications, which can be setup to remind you to drink your water at a regular interval.

Plant Nanny is available for free from the iOS App Store.

Daily iPhone App: Plant Nanny lets you water plants and yourself at the same time originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPhone App: Plant Nanny lets you water plants and yourself at the same time originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPad has had a big impact on aviation. iPads are holding charts and other vital information for professional pilots eliminating thousands of printed pages that used to be pushed into heavy black flight bags.

Now, a pilot has written an app called the Aviation Pilot Duty and Performance Calculator to assist pilots operating under Part 135 (commuter and on-demand flight operations) that does a lot of the calculations that are laborious and time consuming. The app helps pilots compute things like Departure Gradients, Climb Performance, Approach Planning, keeping track of flight time and more.

Pilots operating under FAA part 91 (general aviation) and Part 121 (commercial pilots) will also find many of the features built into the app helpful.

The Aviation Pilot Duty and Performance Calculator is a reasonable US $4.99 and is a universal app that is optimized for the iPhone 5 and requires iOS 6.1 or later.

This app is not for the casual flyer, but if you make a living in the air it is an invaluable time saving tool.

Gallery: AviationPilot Duty and Performance Calculator

Aviation Pilot Duty and Performance Calculator app is for serious flyers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 09 Jun 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Aviation Pilot Duty and Performance Calculator app is for serious flyers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 09 Jun 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unless you are a cardiologist, learning about how the heart works can be an daunting task. Words alone can't describe it and static images can't capture the complexity of how the heart functions. Medical students, heart patients or anyone with an interest in cardiology should look beyond paper textbooks and take a look at HeartPhys from Dr. Michael Parker.

Dr. Parker is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and has a background in computer science. He brought those two skills together to create interactive medical books and web-based animations describing the heart, lungs and kidneys. The next logical step in making this material accessible to the public was to bring these multimedia elements to the iPad in the form of an educational app.

HeartPhys was born out of desire to educate medical students, physicians and heart patients about the heart and how it works. The material is complex, but approachable due to the interactive animations that describe each concept. For example, heart catheterization patients can learn about their procedure by threading a catheter from the thigh into the heart to see the path it will travel, while medical students can study the depolarization and subsequent contraction of the heart muscles. Each interactive element includes a detailed explanation as well as lecture-style Show Me videos to help you understand some of these difficult cardiovascular topics.

HeartPhys ships with 19 animations and more will be added over time. The UI looks great, even on the iPad mini and the explanations are overflowing with the science behind the heart. It's definitely geared towards medical students, nurses, and anyone with a strong background in medical science.

HeartPhys is available for the iPad and costs US$4.99.

Daily iPad App: HeartPhys lets you peer into the complex workings of the heart originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPad App: HeartPhys lets you peer into the complex workings of the heart originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vesper (US$4.99) is a new iPhone app designed for the sole purpose of collecting and organizing your thoughts in a logical manner, and if the all-star development team is any indication, it should be a cutting-edge app with a modern, intuitive UI. The developers, a company named Q Branch, were kind enough to provide TUAW with a copy of Vesper for testing, and here are my first impressions of the app.

To begin, let's talk about Q Branch. It's made up of the stellar team of John Gruber (Daring Fireball, creator of Markdown), Dave Wiskus (former designer and creative officer at Black Pixel) and Brent Simmons (NetNewsWire, MarsEdit, Glassboard). The team formed after a chat at Çingleton Deux in Montréal, Quebec, last year, when the friends decided that they could work together on apps. Simmons would develop the apps, Wiskus would design and Gruber would orchestrate the work of the team.

Vesper is the first fruit of Q Branch. As Gruber describes the app, "Think of it as a cross between a notes app and a to-do list, inspired by the simplicity and clarity of Twitter. What's the difference between a thought, an idea and something you want to do? I don't know exactly. That's why we made Vesper."

We don't know if Apple's going to "flatten" the iOS 7 UI design in the future, but Wiskus may have anticipated the future (or just followed a current design meme) with Vesper. It's a very flat and simple UI. Launching the app brings you to a set of notes that -- surprise! -- are also the app tutorial. To add a note, you tap a plus sign. The first paragraph of a note is automatically bold-faced, following paragraphs are in a regular style. Type in a web address, and it automatically turns into a link. You can also add an image by taking a photo or selecting one from your photo library. Those images always appear at the top of the note, blog-style -- I personally wish that they'd let the user slide the image to any location in the note. It's also impossible to add more than one image to a note.

Gallery: Vesper

Notes can be viewed in a list of all notes, or by tags. Yes -- like blog posts, Vesper notes have tags. Items with the same tag are automatically grouped together. Tapping the "hamburger" icon on a tag list moves that list of notes to the right, revealing a simple drawer showing "All Notes" and the individual tags. Tap a tag, and you see all notes that have been tagged that way. There's also a place for archived notes -- to archive a note, you simply swipe it to the left. Want to delete a note forever? Tap the "share" icon to reveal a popup for sending a note via email or Messages, make a copy of a note, or delete it.

Searching your thoughts is equally easy. Tap on any tag to get a list of notes, pull down the list to reveal a search field, and type in your search term. When it comes to adding tags, Vesper anticipates the tag you wish to apply by suggesting previous tags. It's one more way to simplify the thought-capturing process. If you want to sort your notes somehow to give them a priority, you just tap and hold one and drag it up or down.

One thing I also thought was interesting was the built-in browser. Tap on a link in any of your notes, and the page opens up. There are forward and back buttons to navigate through your browser history, a share button (open in Safari, send as a Message, email it, or copy the URL), and a Done button to get you back to your note. The browser uses pull-to-refresh to reload a page or display the loading status of a page; it then gets out of the way so most of the iPhone screen is filled with the page. Considering the widespread use of Chrome, it would be nice if Vesper would detect that browser on your iPhone and display a popup showing Chrome or Safari when you choose to open a page in another browser.

Vesper has no settings to worry about, which makes it a rarity among apps. There's no choice of typeface, no themes, and every action is plainly marked. Wiskus did a wonderful job of designing an app that just gets out of the way of taking notes. I found Vesper worked very well with Siri dictation -- open a new note, tap the keyboard microphone and speak to get a "title", tap the return key, and then tap the keyboard microphone again to dictate the body of the note.

Another thing I'd like to see in a future version of Vesper is a way to sync the app with a Mac version and/or iPad version. Although I pretty much always have my iPhone with me, I don't like changing my personal focus to another device to create or check a note. And I'd kill for a way to assign a note a deadline date. Being able to do something like assign a date, then have the bold-face headline slowly turn another color as I got closer to that date. That would be an easy and subtle reminder of an approaching deadline without having to use another reminder app.

All in all, I think Vesper does a pretty decent job of letting you collect and organize your thoughts without getting in the way. Since that's what the developers at Q Branch were intending, I'd say they were right on target with the 1.0 release. I look forward to seeing what they can add to the functionality of the app without messing up its simplicity and clarity.

Vesper simply collects and organizes your thoughts originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Vesper simply collects and organizes your thoughts originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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no, no, No, No, NO!

It all started innocently enough this morning when Dave Caolo pointed out a Tumblr page devoted to GIFs from an app named Stilly (US$1.99). Now, thanks to Dave's keen eye for the absurd, I have wasted untold minutes looking through a long page of GIFs and started making my own with Stilly.

The app is simple, making an animated GIF of whatever motion happens to flash in front of your iPhone camera when you push the large red-and-yellow shutter button. You really have only one setting -- you can choose to change colors between your images, resulting in an even more jarring GIF than usual.

The eyebrows of doom!

Your final product is stored to the Photos app camera roll, and you have a choice of sharing the GIF to Tumblr or sending it as a message. Note that choosing the Tumblr destination actually gives you the opportunity to send your images to many more places: other camera apps, Google Drive, Dropbox, Path and more.

The jittery GIFs won't be popular with everyone; some of them are almost enough to make you want to cough up a hairball. But Stilly is just enough fun to be worth the two bucks.

The Stilly-est camera app ever originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Stilly-est camera app ever originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Would you like to sample goodies from some of the best independent bakers in the US? Treats so fine they will make your mouth water just by looking at them. If you are driven by a sweet tooth, then you should fire up the App Store and download the new Made app from Helpies. Made lets you browse through a large and lovely catalog of desserts from local bakers, bakeries, chocolatiers and candy makers. The list includes high-profile companies like Ovenly and Made By Melissa.

The Made app is driven by visuals, and I must say that the photos of the desserts are stunning -- literally mouth-watering. Made is more than a picture book, though. It's also a shopping tool that lets you order these delicious sweets and have them delivered directly to your front door. Made includes information about the baker, a description of the dessert and order details like preparation time and shipping cost. Ordering a dessert requires an account and you can sign up within the app. You also have to enter your shipping and payment details, which are saved for future purchases.

Made is available for free from the iOS App Store. It's worth a download, even just to browse through the treats and learn more about some of the top local bakers in the US.

Daily iPhone App: Made brings scrumptous sweets right to your front door originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPhone App: Made brings scrumptous sweets right to your front door originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back in the frosty days of February, the guys over at Distil Union sent me one of their very cool Wally iPhone 5 wallets to try out. That ended up being a fortuitous review for a few reasons. First, I found out that the back pain I had experienced for the previous year was due to having a George Costanza (i.e., thick) wallet in my right rear pocket, and second, it pointed me in the direction of Lemon Wallet (free, Plus service available for US$40/year in-app purchase).

Lemon Wallet (now in version 7.1.1) has become a favorite of mine for exactly one reason -- it allows me to take a lot of things out of my physical wallet that I really don't want to lug around. What kind of things? Oh, like those frequent shopper cards that businesses like you to sign up for so that after $10,000 in purchases you can get a free can of Spam. Or membership cards for organizations that never require you to actually show the card. Even those credfit or debit cards that you never use, but keep around just in case...

To enter cards of any sort, you start out by taking a picture of them. For a credit card, you're then asked to type in your cardholder name. The app uses OCR to make an attempt at filling in the card number and does a pretty good job; if it's wrong, there's a simple way to correct the information. That same OCR capability also tries to pick up the card expiration date, once again allowing for corrections if it selected the wrong date. It's then time to give the card a name like "Company Visa", enter information like the issuing bank's phone number, and then you drag a little window over the CVV number on the back of the card to highlight it.

Gallery: Lemon Wallet

What you end up getting in your virtual wallet is a fairly accurate representation of what your card looks like. I find this to be quite helpful when I am making an online order and don't want to dig out my wallet -- I just go into Lemon Wallet, pull up the virtual card and grab the information from it. One more feature -- any card that you create can added to Passbook with a tap. That's not a good idea for credit cards, but perfect for those membership cards you want to keep at hand.

With the free account, you get an up-to-the-minute card balance for one credit card in your virtual wallet. That Plus service I talked about earlier expands that to all of your credit cards in Lemon Wallet through BillGuard. For each card, the balance shows up along with a list of "questionable" charges that you can approve or flag for review. With the Plus feature, every credit or debit card is monitored, and you'll get balance updates, notification of expiration dates, and if you lose your real wallet, you can cancel and restore all of your cards with one tap.

One other feature of Lemon Wallet that I don't currently use (but should!) is its ability to let you capture receipts for expense-tracking purposes. You simply snap a photo, add some details and you get a history of all of those purchases you've made. With the Plus plan, the raw data can be exported either as a CSV file or sent to Expensify, Evernote or Box.

One note: many reviewers on the App Store were complaining that Lemon Wallet previously did an OCR scan of all of your receipts as well, making it much easier to compile receipt data. Many of the negative reviews I've been seeing say that this much-desired feature was removed in the most recent version update.

With all of this personal information, most readers probably wonder how good the app security is. The data is stored and encrypted on your device, then backed up to the cloud. A PIN is required to look at just about anything, and if you go for the Plus service, you'll also get App Lock for adding one more layer of password protection to the app.

I've been pretty happy with the app, and it seems to get fairly good reviews on the App Store, except from people who want all of the Plus features at no cost and think it's a "rip off, man!" Anything that keeps me from having to carry a two-inch-thick wallet is OK in my book.

Friday Favorite: Lemon Wallet originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 31 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Friday Favorite: Lemon Wallet originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 31 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Musyc from FingerLab isn't your standard music-making app. There's no fretboard, no keyboard or synthesizer interface. There is just a bunch of lines and shapes. I was doubtful when I first downloaded the app, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Musyc is a blast.

Musyc allows you to draw lines on a canvas, select shapes that make sounds and start making music. You drop the shapes on the line and they bounce to create a rhythmic sound. Each shape has a different sound and a different beat. Add a few circles, throw in a triangle and you've got a basic rhythm. You can create multiple lines and bounce the shapes from line to line to change their pattern of bouncing. Shapes can even bounce into each other to make more sounds. Once a shape bounces off the end of a line, it falls down the screen and disappears.

As you can imagine, you can build an amazing array of lines and add multiple shapes to create a wide variety of music. There are different sound banks like jazz and mallets, so you can select the sound that best meets your line structure or your mood. If you like what you have created, Musyc even has a recording feature that'll record a beat and let you share it via Dropbox, SoundCloud, email and more.

Musyc has a nice mix of creativity and engineering that'll appeal to music lovers and techies alike. The app is free from the iOS App Store and includes three shapes and several soundkits including arcades, modern jazz and sheffield sounds. Additional shapes or soundkits can be purchased for US$1.99 each or you can pay $3.99 to unlock everything in the app.

Daily iPad App: Musyc lets you build beautiful music using lines and shapes originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 31 May 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPad App: Musyc lets you build beautiful music using lines and shapes originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 31 May 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WIth the advent of devices like the iPhone that are generally at our fingertips wherever we go, there are a growing number of apps to capture your location over time, essentially creating a log of everywhere you went during every day. Saga (free) is a fairly recent addition to the world of lifelogging, and I've been testing out the app for the past two-plus weeks. If you're the type of person who would like a continuous log of your life without needing to meticulously note every move, Saga may be for you.

To begin with, let's get one thing out of the way -- in order to provide this log, Saga uses your iPhone's Location Services all the time. I was initially worried that this would be a huge draw on my iPhone battery, but in reality I barely noticed an impact. Kudos to the Saga development team for figuring out how to minimize battery usage.

Saga can be connected to many of your other favorite apps. For the purposes of my review, I connected Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, RunKeeper, Instagram, Fitbit and Withings. TripIt and BodyMedia can also be added.

Gallery: Saga Lifelogging App

Once you've set up Saga and begun your lifelog, the Location Services arrow will always be on in your iOS status bar. The app has three primary tabs -- Lifelog, Now and Me. Lifelog displays a reverse chronological listing of everywhere you've been as well as input from those other connected apps while you were at a location. For example, my current listing shows that I've been at TUAW Denver Office (aka my home) for 13 hours and 27 minutes, and shows a list of tweets, Facebook posts and my weight (courtesy of Withings). I can confirm that I was at that location -- that's one of the few actions that users need to take. Other information can be edited, notes added or photos added at a location.

Tapping "Now" displays where you are at the current time -- hopefully, you already know that -- as well as a total of how many hours you've been running the app. There's a "Snaps" button that, when tapped, gives you an opportunity to take four quickly spaced photos in a photo booth format. Once again, information can be edited, showing that you're either in transit or in reality at another location. In kind of a meta move, you can share your information -- which may include input from those connected services -- on Facebook or Twitter.

Finally, there's the Me tab. That's where the settings are, but more importantly where the "infographs" are viewed. What are infographs? Well, Saga takes your personal data and either displays it in graphic format or compares it with an average of all users. For me, this was the least interesting of the tabs, as the infographs really made no sense. A chart of time spent at the top three categories last week? Well, I spent most of my time in my home office, so there's a huge bar showing that I spent about 140 hours at "Home", with a few hours at a movie theater to see Star Trek Into Darkness and some time at the local community college teaching a class.

One interesting chart showed the distance I traveled each day last week versus the average, but many of the other charts seemed pointless to me. Do I really care about the typical commute-to-work time when I don't commute to work? It seems that there should be some way to turn off some of the infographs in Saga if they're irrelevant.

I found Saga mildly interesting, and to those who are struggling to find a way to capture their every move, it might be the app you're looking for. In the end, I personally decided to remove it from my iPhone and cancel my account. Since I started using Moves (free) as a replacement for a Fitbit Ultra that no longer wants to sync, I pretty much know where I've been and for how long, without the unnecessary fluff of the infographs.

Saga lifelogging app captures your every move originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 30 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Saga lifelogging app captures your every move originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 30 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Realmac Software created Clear a little over a year ago, the big attraction was the ability to perform most to-do list tasks with a single swipe or two. Today the company has introduced Analog Camera for iPhone (US$0.99 introductory price), an app that brings much of the same ease of use to applying photo effects to your iPhone images and then sharing them with others.

Realmac decided not to pack as many filters and effects into the app as possible, and instead focused on making sure that the app was fast and fun to use. I think they've accomplished that goal with Analog Camera, as it is an app you'll want to use for those photos you capture with your iPhone.

Like my favorite "pro" iPhone camera app, Camera+, Analog Camera provides a way to shoot images with separate focus and exposure points. You don't need to use the heads-up display for exposure and focus; in fact, Analog Camera launches in full auto mode and can return to that mode at any time with a double tap on the display.

Gallery: Analog Camera for iPhone

For combined exposure and focus, you use a single tap, and to get to the separate exposure and focus, use two fingers to tap on the screen. There's a horizon line that appears on the screen to get your photos lined up.

If you want to use Analog Camera to shap photos for Instagram, you're in luck -- the app only takes square format photos. You don't have to take new photos to apply effects or share them with your friends, as you have fast access to your camera roll and photo stream at the top of the screen while you're in camera mode. The last four photos are always in view, and a swipe down shows all of your camera roll. To visit the photo stream, you just swipe to the left.

When you grab a rectangular image to apply filters, it is immediately shown with a square crop box overlayed. You can drag the crop box around to get the right composition, zoom in if necessary and then apply the crop with a tap.

Unlike some photo apps I've reviewed previously, Analog Camera comes with only eight filters. They're all rather subtle, aiming to add a specific feel to your image without destroying it or adding a border. There's no current integration with Analog for Mac, which has been around for a while. However, the Realmac team says that a June update of the Mac app will add the eight iPhone filters.

Sharing is also quite easy. Once you've finished with a photo, you can save it to the camera roll, send it via email or post it to Twitter, Facebook or Sina Weibo. Your images can also be sent to many other apps -- on my iPhone, it gave me the choice of opening the image in PhotoForge 2, QuickOffice, iPhoto, Tumblr, Halftone, Instashare, Dropbox, Camera+, Path, Instagram and more.

If you're looking for tons of filters, you're not going to find them in Analog Camera -- at least not the current incarnation. I'd personally like to see at least eight or nine more filters added to the mix, just so I don't have to send images to another app to apply a favorite.

For a 1.0 product, though, Analog Camera for iPhone is rock-solid, easy to use and a lot of fun. Get it while it's available for just a buck.

Analog Camera for iPhone makes one-handed photo effects and sharing a reality originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 29 May 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analog Camera for iPhone makes one-handed photo effects and sharing a reality originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 29 May 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's Memorial Day in the US, the day we set aside to remember those who have served our country in the Armed Forces and especially those who died to protect our freedoms. There's a new free app named Tributopia: Mapping Our Memories from documentary film makers Open Eye Pictures that is designed to let you remember others who are gone, both today and on any other day.

Tributopia provides a permanent way for people to see and share memories about celebrities and others who have passed away. Launching the app displays a grid of images; today's showed everyone from Steve Jobs to Dennis Hopper, with birth and death dates, cause of death, the age that the person passed, and a photo. In the case of Hopper, there's even an address for the cemetery in which he is buried in Rancho de Taos, NM. Think of Tributopia as an online version of those roadside memorials that dot the highways of our country, and you've got the idea.

Gallery: Tributopia

The people who show up in Tributopia don't necessarily have to be famous celebrities. You can create an entry for anyone you wish to remember. If you supply a location for a place of tribute, that shows up in an augmented reality feature that shows you where tributes are in relation to your current location. That feature is a bit empty right now, but should fill in as more people use the app to remember friends, family, and celebrities.

We miss you, Mack...

Tributopia: An app to remember those who have passed originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 27 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tributopia: An app to remember those who have passed originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 27 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wake Alarm wants you to get out of bed ... now! originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wake Alarm wants you to get out of bed ... now! originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The sun is one of the most important stars in our galaxy. It gives us light, enables the growth of plants, is a source of energy and is the cornerstone of our calendar. To learn more about this spectacular star, you should check out the Sun By Kids Discover app.

The iPad app features interactive 3D models as well as audio and HD video to teach you about the sun. You'll learn the difference between the solstice and the equinox and follow the steps as a star is born. The app is packed full of stunning photos, clever animations and easy-to-read trivia about the sun. Think you are an expert ? Then test your knowledge using the puzzles, quizzes and games included in the app. There is even an activities section that teaches you how to study the sun in real life.

The Sun By Kids Discover app is available for US$3.99 from the iOS App Store. It is compatible with the iPad and requires iOS 5.0 or later.

Daily iPad App: Sun by Discover Kids is a star-studded look at our Sun originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 May 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPad App: Sun by Discover Kids is a star-studded look at our Sun originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 May 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There will come a time when you would like to simply transfer a file from one iOS device to another or to a Mac; it's inevitable. When the time arises, you will discover as most of us already have that the process is not as straightforward as one would think, considering how powerful these devices are. The most common methods used up to this point have been emailing oneself, cloud services like iCloud or Dropbox, file sync with the USB cable and iTunes or pleading with the always capricious Camera Connection Kit.

Thankfully the developers at TwoManShow have developed a wonderful app to take the pain out of cross device file transfers with their Instashare app.

Instashare for iOS is like AirDrop for mobile devices as it quickly and painlessly copies any file from one device to another over WiFi or Bluetooth without a direct connection to the internet.

Instashare for OSX currently in beta, adds the ability to send files to and from your Mac and your iOS devices.

Both versions of Instashare are free; however, the iOS version is ad-supported and the ads can be removed by a $0.99 in-app purchase. Instashare for Android and Windows are currently in development.

Share between devices painlessly with Instashare originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 18 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Share between devices painlessly with Instashare originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 18 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA has a series of excellent educational iOS apps that appeal to adults and kids alike. Most have a strong scientific bent, but if you lean more towards art than science, NASA has an iPad app for you, too. Mixing a little bit of earth and planetary science with a keen eye for art, NASA has created its Earth As Art app, an iPad title that shows off the unseen beauty of our planet.

NASA's Earth As Art app picks the best images of Earth from the Terra, Landsat 5, Landsat 7, EO-1 and Aqua satellites. It also adds in some choice photos from the USGS Landsat image gallery. The satellites used to take these photos can measure light outside the visible range. The resulting images show you the Earth as you have never seen it before.

The images are presented in gallery format, allowing you to see a thumbnail of each stunning photograph. You can also switch to list format, which is sorted by geographical location. When viewing an image, you can pinch and zoom to look closely at a specific section. Each image has a brief and only slightly scientific description that you can access by tapping on the "i" in the corner. You may not understand the scientific reasons why each photo looks the way it does, but this is an art-centric app. You are expected to sit back and enjoy the images, not necessarily dissect them.

Besides stunning images, the app also has a several time-lapse photos that show changes in a specific location. I particularly enjoyed the Dubai series that shows the creation of its artificial palm islands and the rapid development of the area. The changes in just a short 11 years is unbelievable.

The NASA Earth As Art app is available for free. It's an iPad app and requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Daily iPad App: NASA's Earth As Art shows us our beautiful planet originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPad App: NASA's Earth As Art shows us our beautiful planet originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I'm not an organizational wizard. Neither is my wife. We've got busy schedules, artistic personalities, and cleaning is often the last thing on our minds. Worst of all, when we do finally find time to clean things have usually gotten so bad we don't know where to start. Enter BrightNest.

BrightNest is a iOS app and website that makes organizing home improvement tasks a breeze. The app is offers users eight possible areas of home improvement to choose from.

• Handy for maintenance
• Healthy for keeping away germs
• Green for lessening environmental impact
• Savvy for saving money
• Curious for educational lessons
• Clean for keeping messes away
• Creative for DIY projects
• Hungry for meals and snacks

Each section features a list of articles that easily explain what your task is, how long it will take and what you'll need to complete it. Best of all, each task uses common household items to complete, so you won't find yourself putting off cleaning the windows because you don't have any cleaner. Turns out you just need white vinegar and corn starch.

Articles are accompanied by a heart, calendar and check at the bottom of each window. Using these buttons you can easily add an article to your favorites, schedule a task for later or mark it as complete. Because the app syncs with your free account on the BrightNest website, it's easy for a family to share on account and keep up to date on what's been done and what's still waiting in the wings.

BrightNest's user interface is clear, clean and easy to learn. Within minutes you'll be zooming in and out of articles, building your to-do list for the coming weeks. The clear instructions take care of any learning curve and the variety keeps taks from becoming stale.

Let's face it, they don't teach Home Economics in school any more. For the recent high school or college grad out on their own for the first time, or maybe a newly single 40-year-old whose never run a house by themselves, BrightNest is an invaluable tool for keeping on top of your living space.

iOS Review: BrightNest makes finding a start to spring cleaning a breeze originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iOS Review: BrightNest makes finding a start to spring cleaning a breeze originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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