TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Webloghttp://www.tuaw.comTUAW - The Unofficial Apple Webloghttp://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/feedlogo.gifTUAW - The Unofficial Apple Webloghttp://www.tuaw.comen-usCopyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Quickly sketch out class or meeting schedules with Weekly Schedule for iPadhttp://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/09/quickly-sketch-out-class-or-meeting-schedules-with-weekly-schedu/http://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/09/quickly-sketch-out-class-or-meeting-schedules-with-weekly-schedu/http://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/09/quickly-sketch-out-class-or-meeting-schedules-with-weekly-schedu/#comments

With so many ways to share calendars and schedules, sometimes it's nice to go a little bit old-school with a blank sheet of paper, a Magic Marker and a little bit of time. Mobile Simplified's $0.99 Weekly Schedule app, just released to the US App Store for iPad, delivers some of that hands-on feeling as it lets you create sharable weekly agendas, monthly calendars and task lists.

Weekly Schedule inherits most of its features from the $1.99 iTeach Pad, which also includes student management and lesson plan options; both apps share a UI aesthetic with a more "classroom" feel than most iOS offerings.

The core schedule features are simple: on a time grid for the week, you add your event blocks and build out your schedule. If you want a specific event to repeat all week long (a morning meeting, for instance) just tap and hold to duplicate it.

Blocks get a specific duration, color and name when you create them, and they hold onto that indefinitely. (You can also edit the names of the days, and it's easy to accidentally edit Friday when trying to tap the "add event" button.) The quick drag-and-drop rearrangement of the blocks -- almost as if you had paper cutouts on a cardboard schedule -- makes it easy to fit all the necessary schedule elements into your week, and know that you're not skipping anything.

In the monthly calendar mode, you're actually getting an alternate view of your iPad calendar data one month at a time. It's not as flexible as dedicated apps like Agenda or Readdle's Calendars, but it's a nice overview. The Lists view gives you a basic task manager, with folders to group lists of individual to-dos. Each task can be checked off with a single tap.

Sharing and exporting is an interesting -- and very constrained -- feature in Weekly Schedule. Nothing is cloud synced, dynamic or remotely editable (except events in the Calendar view, if your native calendars are shared); it's all local data, all on your iPad. For the weekly view and the calendar view, there's one way to get your work out to your colleagues -- you email an image of the schedule or calendar. Yep, that's it. For task lists, the email is text instead of an image, which is appropriate for that data type.

I'd love to see some next-gen features (AirPrint, flexible export options) make it into Weekly Schedule down the road. In the meantime, though, if you have a weekly planner to make and only your iPad handy, it's a solid tool.

Quickly sketch out class or meeting schedules with Weekly Schedule for iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 09 Feb 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogQuickly sketch out class or meeting schedules with Weekly Schedule for iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 09 Feb 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>calendaripaditeachscheduletasktime gridweeklyweekly scheduleMichael RoseSat, 09 Feb 2013 19:00:00 ESTMailbox for iPhone targets the "broken to-do list" of emailhttp://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/07/mailbox-for-iphone-targets-the-broken-to-do-list-of-email/http://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/07/mailbox-for-iphone-targets-the-broken-to-do-list-of-email/http://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/07/mailbox-for-iphone-targets-the-broken-to-do-list-of-email/#comments

Feeling oppressed by your inbox? Struggling under the weight of unread messages? You're not alone. With half a billion results for "manage my/your email" there's obviously a need for help. Now add in the new wrinkle: many of us are interacting with email primarily or exclusively via our mobile devices, something that the legacy POP and IMAP protocols were never truly built to handle.

Big problems need smart solutions: enter Mailbox, a free app and matching cloud pre-processor for mobile email. The team behind the iOS and web to-do app Orchestra decided to bring its savvy to the email challenge after the experience of trying to manage tasks without integrating the inbox proved frustrating. "In hindsight, it was obvious," said CEO Gentry Underwood. Even with the power of Orchestra in hand, "people kept sending us tasks by email."

Underwood doesn't mince words about the effectiveness of email for task management: "Email is a broken to-do list," he says, and "the way we live our lives on email is ridiculous... marking messages unread, sending things to ourselves" -- all symptoms of a round peg in a square hole. For a fuller rundown of what's not right about email, read Underwood's manifesto on TechCrunch and his interview with AllThingsD.

Mailbox's approach to dealing with the onslaught is to optimize the heck out of your inbox, specifically tuning it to the mobile experience. The company's cloud servers download and compress your messages from Gmail; the app gives you tools for quickly reading, replying, snoozing ("I want to see this tomorrow morning") and sorting your email. Mailbox tries to keep your attention on critical items while allowing you to do email triage, catching opportunities to deal with messages where and when you can in short bursts of engagement.

The app's previews to a selected few testers have garnered some raves, and today's launch of the app is bound to excite many more... if they can use it.

Gallery: Mailbox for iPhone screenshots

Aside from the Gmail-only support in the initial release, users of Mailbox may need to wait in line. The company is scaling out its middleman servers to match demand as it builds, and in order to avoid overloading new users will be added to the system by reservation only. Mailbox has been accepting reservation requests since late January, and now that the app is available for download it's going to start to fulfill them -- queued users will get a text message with a signup link and activation code, and away they go. The app will even tell you where you are in the queue until you get your magic stamp of approval. (I requested a reservation on January 27, and there are only 228,431 people in front of me. Shouldn't be long now!)

The pace of reservation fulfillment may seem slow at first, but the company says it should accelerate as the shakedown period for the infrastructure continues. This tiered access may be somewhat atypical for an App Store release, but Underwood says it's the only way to fairly and reliably bootstrap the service. When it comes to the scaling process, Orchestra has done all it can, but "we don't know what we don't know," he says, and "email just has to work." Rather than opening the floodgates and seeing what breaks, the plan is to "add users as fast as we can, but no faster." Mailbox is free at launch and intended to remain so, with premium buy-up features planned down the line.

If the app UI sounds confusing, check out this demo video. It's swipe, swipe and hold, and act upon -- all very easy once you get the hang of it. If you're already on the reservation list and ready to start Mailboxing, let us know your impressions in the comments.

Mailbox for iPhone targets the "broken to-do list" of email originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogMailbox for iPhone targets the "broken to-do list" of email originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>emailemail clientfeaturesgmailiosiphonelaunchmailboxmessageorchestratask managementtriageMichael RoseThu, 07 Feb 2013 13:17:00 ESTNeoFinder powerfully catalogs and indexes your photos, music and much morehttp://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/01/neofinder-powerfully-catalogs-and-indexes-your-photos-music-and/http://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/01/neofinder-powerfully-catalogs-and-indexes-your-photos-music-and/http://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/01/neofinder-powerfully-catalogs-and-indexes-your-photos-music-and/#comments

NeoFinder is a fast and efficient cataloger (digital asset manager) for all your data. TUAW's not previously discussed NeoFinder, but with high recommendations and praise, it's recently come to our attention in the TUAW head office, so we though we'd give it a mention.

From documents to photos and folders, NeoFinder will keep track of all your files and folders -- wherever they may be stored -- and make them easily searchable and accessible with a full inventory, including preview thumbnails for supported photos, documents audio and video. In a nutshell, NeoFinder is like a supercharged Finder with very specific search parameters.

Even with powerful built-in Mac OS X features like Spotlight and QuickLook, it can be so frustrating when you can't find exactly what you're looking for because you can't remember exactly where you put it.

If you work with large quantities of photos, audio files, video or documents, but have found yourself struggling to find that file -- it could be in any number of offline hard drives, discs or backups -- then NeoFinder if probably what you need.

First released some 16 years ago, NeoFinder (formerly CDFinder) has moved with the times, continuously being developed and updated into its current 6.0.1 iteration, which now supports Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Other stand out features include geotagging, cross-platform network with abeMeda for Windows and the ability to look inside archived files like ZIP, TAR, RAR and Stuffit files.

I downloaded the free trial of NeoFinder and used it for some time. Though this is not a full review, I found it to be intuitive, fast and accurate. It certainly handled everything I could throw at it. But where NeoFinder shines, I expect, will be with large amounts of data. The NeoFinder websites touts users like NASA and the BBC. I can only imagine the amounts of data those guys will catalog and store.

NeoFinder is available to download as a trial (with up to 10 catalogs) or purchase the activation code for US$39.99 for a private license, which removes the catalog restriction.

Do you use NeoFinder or other cataloging/indexing software? How does it work for you and your demands? Let us know about it in the comments below.

NeoFinder powerfully catalogs and indexes your photos, music and much more originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogNeoFinder powerfully catalogs and indexes your photos, music and much more originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>catalogCDFinderindexingMacNeoFinderMatt TinsleyFri, 01 Feb 2013 11:00:00 ESTMoxtra app for iPad gives you binders full of shareable contenthttp://www.tuaw.com/2013/01/29/moxtra-app-for-ipad-gives-you-binders-full-of-shareable-content/http://www.tuaw.com/2013/01/29/moxtra-app-for-ipad-gives-you-binders-full-of-shareable-content/http://www.tuaw.com/2013/01/29/moxtra-app-for-ipad-gives-you-binders-full-of-shareable-content/#comments

In the ultra-cloud, post-PC era, we do not lack for ways to share our stuff. Got a presentation deck to show? You can go full-on web meeting with Webex, GoToMeeting, Join.me or Fuze Meeting; to create the content and share it smoothly, Slideshare or Sliderocket will serve, as would either Google or Microsoft's online presentation framework. A document or a spreadsheet: Google Drive, Dropbox, Box.com, Dolly Drive or Egnyte. And if you're organizing your thoughts into notebook form, fan-favorite Evernote has your back.

There's a bit of daylight between these platforms, though. If you want to build out a collaborative project book with the ability to include movies, sounds, PDFs, comments and annotations in an indexed "everything bucket" and share it selectively, you could do that in Evernote -- but you give up the ability to set a specific, front-to-back order and a solid presentation layer or web meeting front-end, or record your own narration to go with the show.

If you go with something like Sliderocket, you get a slick presentation with powerful sharing options, narration, analytics and web meetings built in, but you are locked into the slide format; no arbitrary media and shifting content. Neither of those approaches provides a full annotation layer atop the content, with highlights and text notes in context rather than off to the side.

That gap of daylight between pure presentation form and remember-everything functionality is where you'll find Moxtra, a new iPad app and suite of cloud services launching today. Founded by veterans of Cisco's WebEx division, the app is built around the concept of a shelf full of virtual binders, each one collecting whatever you need for that project, topic or area of interest. Moxtra's binders are digital portfolio cases, holding any document or media that you like. Binders are put together on the web or on the iPad -- an example of content curation, if not outright creation -- and you can easily narrate and share a slideshow edition that will play anywhere.

Gallery: Moxtra for iPad screenshots

Adding pages of content to a binder is easy, with several pathways to get at your stuff. From the desktop, you can clip images or web pages right to the service; in fact, web pages can be "live" within a binder so that they'll always show the current version of the page. Cloud services like Box and Dropbox are accessible from the iPad app, so any of your files there in readable formats (PDF, images, movies, Office files and more) can be downloaded and converted to binder pages. You can take photos or video with the iPad camera, or access your existing photo library on the device. Most helpfully, there's a small desktop agent that you can install on your Mac or PC; it opens up your entire hard drive for remote access, so you can grab files at will as long as your machine is online. (One hopes Moxtra will add an extra security PIN or other challenge for users who have this access turned on -- yes, it's read-only, but it's still a lot of exposure if your iPad is stolen or compromised.)

You decide whether to keep a binder private, share to the world (via Facebook) or selectively to invited guests/collaborators. You decide if they get view-only access, or the opportunity to edit and contribute to the binder with you. There's a full commenting and annotation layer, showing anything you choose to highlight or amend. In fact, if you record narration while you swipe through the pages in a binder, every annotation step will be recorded along with it in real time; the resulting movie is saved to your iPad photo album, and you can share that out as well if you choose.

Just as you can share your binders to others, when other people share binders to you they'll show up on your binder bookshelf, with indicators showing how long they are, how many comments they have and how many people have access. Every action in every binder is logged to your Updates screen, so you can always track back and see what's been changed. It's a very personal news feed covering the things you're working on.

The Moxtra team sees this product tacking back and forth between personal and team project management, with a lightweight client supported by several heavy-hitting cloud services. The Moxtra Cloud connectors pull in your files from your desktop or other storage providers; Moxtra Binder is the main iPad collection tool. Moxtra Note is the annotation and recording facility, and Moxtra Meet is the simultaneous web meeting tool. Did I not mention that already? Yes, you can deliver a WebEx-style presentation online right from Moxtra, including VoIP audio; participants can join from their desktop browsers with ease (and also presumably from the Moxtra app itself, although I wasn't able to test this).

How would you use Moxtra? Home improvement projects, travel diaries, distance learning... the company's site shows a few other ideas, but you can come up with your own. Since Moxtra's editing facilities are limited to rearranging or replacing pages in the binder, you're not going to be creating your stuff directly within it; but when the task is to show and discuss what you're working on, it's got possibilities. The current version has some rough edges, but the company plans to evolve the product rapidly over the next few months.

Moxtra is free for the time being, with the possibility of premium plans for high-demand users further down the road. You can download Moxtra in the App Store or sign up at moxtra.com.

Moxtra app for iPad gives you binders full of shareable content originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogMoxtra app for iPad gives you binders full of shareable content originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>binderevernotefeaturesipadmoxtranotebookpresentationwebexMichael RoseTue, 29 Jan 2013 08:00:00 ESTThumb draws opinions from the crowd, enhances iPhone apphttp://www.tuaw.com/2012/06/07/thumb-draws-opinions-from-the-cloud-enhances-iphone-app/http://www.tuaw.com/2012/06/07/thumb-draws-opinions-from-the-cloud-enhances-iphone-app/http://www.tuaw.com/2012/06/07/thumb-draws-opinions-from-the-cloud-enhances-iphone-app/#comments

The opinion-based social utility Thumb, approaching its second birthday, has overhauled its free iOS app and added direct like/dislike voting to its core ask-a-question feature. The new 3.5 version of the service delivers tighter social integration, in-app messaging, leaderboards/rankings and an easy way to save likes or dislikes to your user profile.

The basic experience of using Thumb is "take a picture, ask a yes/no question." Whether it's a product, a restaurant, a vacation destination or a lifestyle choice, within a few minutes you can get opinions and comments from scores of your friends or fellow Thumb users. It's like a focus group in your pocket -- an answer service like Quora, AnswerQi or Yahoo Answers but boiled down to hot-or-not simplicity and tuned for speed and fun over detail and depth.

CEO Dan Kurani told me that the inspiration for Thumb came when he was among several recipients of an email from a family member. The subject line was "What do you think of this?" and the message was simply a photograph of an anniversary ring.

Within hours, the replies started coming in, and Kurani began to imagine how a mobile service might deliver real-time, actionable opinions on questions like that one. Thumb launched in July of 2010, and has been evolving since then as Kurani and his team tweaked the platform to make it easier and faster to connect with other users. While they originally anticipated a tighter focus on consumer products and shopping, the audience led them to widen the category set -- "It turns out that people want opinions on everything," says Kurani.

Gallery: Thumb for iPhone

While the 2.0 version of Thumb that arrived in November of 2010 included some social functionality and messaging, the new version "is all about embracing social discovery & [providing] more tools to communicate with fellow users," according to Kurani. Users who are particularly active and helpful in a category will get a star rating for that type of question, making them more likely to show up in future queries on those topics. The new version's ability to "pre-rate" an item with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down means that users can state (and share, to Facebook/Twitter/email or SMS) an opinion rather than just asking a question. Comments ride along with votes to provide additional context to user opinions.

What's surprising is how responsive the Thumb community is, and how fast. Even a casual/gag question like "the coffee at the office: thumbs up or down?" garnered more than 40 votes and a handful of comments within minutes. For more weighty questions ("Should I buy this TV?" or "Is this assisted-living facility a good place for Grandpa?") the response rate shoots up dramatically. Granted, the depth of context and experience you might want for technical help or full product evaluation (such as you might find on gdgt or in our comments) isn't really there, but that's not where the service is aimed. It's built to help people connect around preferences -- creating affinity groups, if you will -- and it does that pretty nicely.

Even if you're normally in the habit of turning to your Facebook, Twitter or other social networks for quick opinions, Thumb is fun and fast (and free); it's worth checking out. The new 3.5 version is available via the iPhone app and sister Android app, and via the soft-launched redesigned thumb.it website.

Thumb draws opinions from the crowd, enhances iPhone app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 07 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogThumb draws opinions from the crowd, enhances iPhone app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 07 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>featuresfocus groupiphonemobile serviceopinionquestionsocialthumbMichael RoseThu, 07 Jun 2012 09:00:00 ESTDaily iPad App: National Geographic Todayhttp://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/09/daily-ipad-app-national-geographic-today/http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/09/daily-ipad-app-national-geographic-today/http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/09/daily-ipad-app-national-geographic-today/#comments

National Geographic is known for its stunning photography and outstanding videos. Now you can get a portion of both each day with the National Geographic Today App. Released last week, the iPad app includes news, videos, quizzes, articles, and jaw-dropping photography.

The National Geographic Today app serves up a fresh dose of material each day and lets you browse through seven days of back content. Like the other National Geographic apps, the format and content of the Today app looks fantastic on the first iPad and the iPad 2. Unfortunately, it does not take advantage of the retina display of the new iPad but, hopefully, this is just a temporary situation and a retina update will be available soon.

You can download National Geographic Today from the iOS App Store for free.

Daily iPad App: National Geographic Today originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogDaily iPad App: National Geographic Today originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>daily appdaily ipad appipadNational GeographicNationalGeographicnewsletterreviewKelly HodgkinsMon, 09 Apr 2012 09:00:00 ESTConference Companion app suite poised to transform event experienceshttp://www.tuaw.com/2011/02/21/conference-companion-app-suite-poised-to-transform-event-experie/http://www.tuaw.com/2011/02/21/conference-companion-app-suite-poised-to-transform-event-experie/http://www.tuaw.com/2011/02/21/conference-companion-app-suite-poised-to-transform-event-experie/#commentsconference companion app meetings and events planner

If you're attending a professional conference or symposium, you can expect to do a lot of walking around, meeting and greeting, professional networking and intensive learning. Unfortunately, you can also expect to be saddled with a lot of paper: venue maps, agendas, speaker bios, training manuals and product information. For years, the events industry has been working towards the goal of 'green meetings' that manage with little or no printed collateral for participants to schlep around. Unfortunately, getting a ubiquitous, easy-to-use and relatively inexpensive solution for this challenge has proved elusive.

Enter the big brains at Parliant, a longtime Mac developer based in Ottawa, Canada. For the past three years, CEO Kevin Ford and his team have been quietly testing, tuning and deploying one-off implementations of just such a 'paperless conference' solution for big-name customers like the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Canadian Media Production Association -- you can see the results on the App Store today.

Deployed on the iPod touch or iPhone, the conference apps install quickly from the App Store and then perform a full data download over Wi-Fi to fill in all the necessary content: agendas, exhibitors, maps, product details and attendee contact/social networking capabilities. The apps even include exhibitor ads, helping defray the costs for conference organizers. Parliant worked with customers to organize and convert all their content for use on the app platform.

Ford's confidence in his white-label solution is now at the point where Parliant is ready to offer this platform to the market at large. Conference Companion is now available for deployment by meeting organizers, based on a modular configuration; you only purchase the features you need. For large events and professional meetings, it's a huge step forward in the elimination of the paper schlep.

Continue reading Conference Companion app suite poised to transform event experiences

Conference Companion app suite poised to transform event experiences originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogConference Companion app suite poised to transform event experiences originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>conferenceconference companioneventsiphoneipod touchkevin fordparliantMichael RoseMon, 21 Feb 2011 08:30:00 ESTTekTrak phone locator offers two-use free versionhttp://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/05/tektrak-phone-locator-offers-two-use-free-version/http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/05/tektrak-phone-locator-offers-two-use-free-version/http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/05/tektrak-phone-locator-offers-two-use-free-version/#comments

Just because Apple released a Find My iPhone app and then made it free, doesn't mean there isn't room for a little friendly competition.

TekTrak originally took on Apple's built-in iPhone location service by offering TekTrak Pro at a one-time US$4.99 price point as opposed to Mobile Me's $99 annual fee. Now that Apple made it free to iOS 4.2 users on iPhone 4, iPad and fourth-gen iPod touches, TekTrak is answering back with a free version that allows two uses for locating your phone, plus additional uses for inviting friends.

This week, TekTrak launched a new free app to let anyone with a iPhone 4 or 3GS find their phone, track its previous locations and remote ring the phone from any web browser.

Continue reading TekTrak phone locator offers two-use free version

TekTrak phone locator offers two-use free version originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogTekTrak phone locator offers two-use free version originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>appGPSiphoneiphone 3gsIphone3gsLocation servicesLocationServicesMobileMeMichael TerrettaWed, 05 Jan 2011 23:00:00 EST360 Panorama brings sharing, simplicity to iPhone pano photoshttp://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/01/360-panorama-brings-sharing-simplicity-to-iphone-pano-photos/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/01/360-panorama-brings-sharing-simplicity-to-iphone-pano-photos/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/01/360-panorama-brings-sharing-simplicity-to-iphone-pano-photos/#comments


We first looked at 360 Panorama back in July when it debuted against other panoramic photo apps, including Boinx's You Gotta See This and Debacle Software's Pano. On sale now for just US$0.99 (regular price $2.99), Occipital's panorama application has been updated to add what developer Jeff Powers calls "streetview sharing." This new sharing feature (a "hosted immersive viewing experience") allows you to upload your panoramas and access them from any web browser, whether that browser supports Flash or not.

When viewed, you can flick and drag to see the panorama from any angle. Follow through the "read more" link to view a sample embedded panorama that I created at a local cemetery, which showcases the hosted interaction. You can easily share your panoramic creations with family, friends, colleagues and clients. All they need is a browser.

Continue reading 360 Panorama brings sharing, simplicity to iPhone pano photos

360 Panorama brings sharing, simplicity to iPhone pano photos originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog360 Panorama brings sharing, simplicity to iPhone pano photos originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>360 Panorama360PanoramaApp ReviewAppReviewAugmented RealityAugmentedRealityiPhoneJeff PowersJeffPowersOccipitalPanoramaPanoramasRed LaserRedLaserErica SadunWed, 01 Dec 2010 10:45:00 ESTFirst Look: Boinx PhotoBox app for iPadhttp://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/28/first-look-boinx-photobox-app-for-ipad/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/28/first-look-boinx-photobox-app-for-ipad/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/28/first-look-boinx-photobox-app-for-ipad/#commentsThe guys at Boinx Software have done it again, this time with a product for the iPad. PhotoBox, a free app, is the first iPad app for the company, which is primarily known for its Boinx TV and FotoMagico applications for Mac OS X and the You Gotta See This iPhone photo collage app.

What's PhotoBox all about? The idea is that it's an on-site photographer's assistant, allowing you to analyze photos that have been moved to the iPad through the Camera Connection Kit or a wireless connection. The analysis can consist of checking the exposure of a photo against defined limits, allowing digital photographers to make sure that parts of a picture aren't over- or under-exposed. It's also useful for checking out the focus on an image, and can even do video-out to a projector for a much larger view of the image.

Boinx is soliciting feedback as well as ideas for what the app should contain in the future. Boinx wants to turn PhotoBox into a much more complete photographer's tool and then charge for it in the App Store.

As-is, the app has limited functionality. You can add photos to the app's browser from the Photo Library, and then view them in full-screen and 1:1 modes to check overall composition and focus. With the exposure mask tools, underexposed portions of a photo are highlighted in blue, while overexposed bits show up in red. While that's useful for checking exposure in the field, it's not enough to make this an app you'd want to buy.

If you're a professional digital photographer or dedicated amateur, download a copy of PhotoBox and give it a try, and then tell Boinx what you'd like to have added to the app. Several screen shots are available in the gallery below.

Gallery: PhotoBox for iPad

Over / Under ExposureExposure tool

First Look: Boinx PhotoBox app for iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogFirst Look: Boinx PhotoBox app for iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>featuresfirst lookFirstLookipadphotographyphotosSteven SandeThu, 28 Oct 2010 18:00:00 ESTTUAW First Look: AUDIOPRESS for iPhonehttp://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/11/tuaw-first-look-audiopress-for-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/11/tuaw-first-look-audiopress-for-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/11/tuaw-first-look-audiopress-for-iphone/#comments

AUDIOPRESS is a new app and free audio digest service available on iPhone that is designed to create a custom "radio stations" for you to listen to on your device. You add AudioArticles, "MyUpdates," Podcasts, and Radio Stations to a playlist, then the information is streamed to you on demand.

AudioArticles are professional audio recordings of print articles. At the time I was testing the app, the AUDIOPRESS website showed only one source -- the Associated Press -- and that source wasn't working. But the idea is great; any time you want to hear short news bites, you listen to the channel and get the latest news in less than three minutes.

"MyUpdates" will be other, personalized audio updates. There's only one source right now: the local weather updates for U.S. cities from the National Weather Service. You can add the update to your list by city name, zip code, or current location, then receive a frequently updated, 15-second current weather brief and forecast.

Podcasts are... podcasts. You can either import your own podcast subscriptions from iTunes or add them from within the app. I was happy to see that the TUAW Talkcast shows up in the list, and of course, I added it to my playlist. There are a lot of different podcast categories available, with "Mac Fanatics" being one of them. Cool!

Gallery: AudioPress Screen Shots

Not many radio stationsA playlistListening to the weatherManaging podcastsThe sources for AudioPress

Continue reading TUAW First Look: AUDIOPRESS for iPhone

TUAW First Look: AUDIOPRESS for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogTUAW First Look: AUDIOPRESS for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>audiopressfeaturesiPhonepodcastsradiostreamingSteven SandeMon, 11 Oct 2010 09:00:00 ESTFirst Look: Time Travel eXplorer brings old London to lifehttp://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/01/first-look-time-travel-explorer-brings-old-london-to-life/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/01/first-look-time-travel-explorer-brings-old-london-to-life/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/01/first-look-time-travel-explorer-brings-old-london-to-life/#commentsWhen you're visiting a city, don't you sometimes wonder what it looked like in past centuries? That's the premise behind Time Travel eXplorer - London, a new iPhone travel guide app from Visick Solutions, Ltd. currently on the What's Hot page of the UK App Store. There's a good reason for that popularity, since Time Travel eXplorer is a fascinating way to take a tour of London both in the present day and in the past.

No, the developers didn't figure out a way to integrate the iPhone with a DeLorean or power it with a Mr. Fusion. What the app does provide is maps with 750 points of interest, as well as 1,500 photos and 150 audio guides that are bundled into the app so that you don't have to rely on a cell phone signal to take advantage of them. The tour information is provided by qualified Blue Badge guides, so you're getting accurate and interesting information.

The time travel bit comes in with maps of London from 1862, 1830, 1799, and 1746. The base Time Travel eXplorer - London app (US$2.99) includes a demo map from 1862, and you can do in-app purchases of the old maps in their entirety for a few bucks per map. Alternatively, you can buy a Pro version of TTX ($8.99) that includes all of the maps.

Continue reading First Look: Time Travel eXplorer brings old London to life

First Look: Time Travel eXplorer brings old London to life originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogFirst Look: Time Travel eXplorer brings old London to life originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>gpshistoryiphonemapstime travel explorer - londonTimeTravelExplorer-LondontravelSteven SandeFri, 01 Oct 2010 20:00:00 ESTFirst Look: Ping Pong Battle adds video-out, Killerspinhttp://www.tuaw.com/2010/07/28/first-look-ping-pong-battle-adds-video-out-killer-spin/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/07/28/first-look-ping-pong-battle-adds-video-out-killer-spin/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/07/28/first-look-ping-pong-battle-adds-video-out-killer-spin/#comments

A few weeks ago, when we first looked at the hybrid iPhone/iPad game Ping Pong Battle, it wasn't quite ready for prime time; one of the marquee features, video-out from the 'table' iPad, wasn't finalized. With an update to the apps due to hit the App Store sometime today, PPB achieves that milestone and adds some key table tennis industry branding.

PPB delivers a ping pong experience by making the iPhones into motion-sensitive 'paddles' and putting the table onto the iPad screen. Building a hybrid game for iDevices is tricky business. First of all, your market is self-limiting to those folks who have both iPhones and an iPad -- although in the case of PPB, you can play in 'finger mode' with just the iPad if you want.

Secondly, you have to make sure the devices can talk to each other consistently; the PPB developers at LIME found that if one iPhone was using WiFi for connectivity with the iPad, and the other was using Bluetooth, things didn't go well. The update now warns players to pick one connectivity method or the other for all three devices, and to turn off the unused service; the developers have discussed this limitation with Apple engineering and they are looking for a workaround.

With this version, the PPB paddles allow you to put spin on the ping pong ball, and give you feedback ("too soft!") on your hits. In my testing, I got the best results by shaking the iPhone gently on the swing, which you time by listening to the audio cue of the ball sailing towards you. Practice mode lets you play volleys against the computer opponent, but once you get another human player involved the fun really begins. You can also pick a custom table or choose from a list of available paddles.

It's not particularly easy to get the hang of PPB, but with the video-out enabled (VGA only) and a big screen in play, it's got some real party potential -- that's probably why Killerspin is teaming up with LIME to put some table tennis muscle behind it. Killerspin is an up-and-coming US table tennis equipment brand, which aims to bring "youth and innovation to one of the world's most beautiful sports, table tennis." The app will soon feature KS-specific paddles and content.

Ping Pong Battle for iPad is US$4.99; the iPhone paddle apps are free but don't do much without the mothership. If you've got the gear, and you're interested in seeing a tech-demo curiosity evolve into a playable, engaging game, check it out.

First Look: Ping Pong Battle adds video-out, Killerspin originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogFirst Look: Ping Pong Battle adds video-out, Killerspin originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>hybrid gameHybridGameipadiphonelimepaddleping pongping pong battlePingPongPingPongBattleppbtable tennisTableTennisMichael RoseWed, 28 Jul 2010 11:00:00 ESTDropbox + text editing = Droptexthttp://www.tuaw.com/2010/07/11/dropbox-text-editing-droptext/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/07/11/dropbox-text-editing-droptext/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/07/11/dropbox-text-editing-droptext/#commentsMost of the bloggers here at TUAW are huge fans of Dropbox, the free cloud storage service. Since you can share documents with all of your iDevices, wouldn't it be nice to be able to edit your files from any of them as well?

There are actually several solutions for cross-platform on-the-go Dropbox file editing, like Documents To Go Premium (US$14.99) for both iPhone and iPad. However, if your need is just for plain vanilla text file editing for iOS, you might want to take a look at Droptext ($0.99) from developer Kevin Smith.

Any type of file with a MIME type of TEXT can be opened from Dropbox and edited in Droptext. Those files types include .txt, .php, HTML, CSS, and many source code types. Smith promises to add the ability to add your own file extensions in a future version of Droptext. Editable file types appear with a text file icon when you browse your Dropbox, and they're opened immediately with a tap. When you're done editing, tap Save, and the file is saved back on Dropbox in its revised form.

It's not a fancy app, but Droptext does what it is supposed to do -- bring Dropbox text editing to iOS.

[via Wired Gadget Lab]

Dropbox + text editing = Droptext originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogDropbox + text editing = Droptext originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>dropboxdroptextfirst lookFirstLookiOSipadiphonetext editorTextEditorSteven SandeSun, 11 Jul 2010 19:00:00 ESTI have seen the future, and it's SSDhttp://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/03/i-have-seen-the-future-and-its-ssd/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/03/i-have-seen-the-future-and-its-ssd/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/03/i-have-seen-the-future-and-its-ssd/#comments

On the Macworld show floor, I didn't really see one specific product that blew me away. What I did see, however, is the next big concept that's going to not only blow all of us away, but it will change the way we relate to our computers. It's the SSD (solid state drive) and it's almost ready for prime time. As we've mentioned before, an SSD is a high performance storage device that has no moving parts. These drives can contain DRAM or EEPROM memory, a CPU, a memory board and a battery card (more details here). Having no moving parts, they can move data much quicker than an HDD (hard disk drive) which uses quickly spinning platters with magnetic surfaces.

I got to play with what's being sold as the quickest SSD on the market, courtesy of Other World Computing. Their new Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD drives start at US $229 for 50 GB and top out at 200 GB for $779.95. You can see our own Steve Sande in a video interview showing the boot time of this SSD vs. a stock 5400 rpm Apple drive. Watch for it at about 2:20 into the video. OWC set up a test of two Macbook Pros; I saw this demo myself and my jaw dropped as the SSD equipped laptop booted up and started running applications in 32 seconds. The HDD equipped Macbook Pro took at least three times as long to accomplish the same thing.

The computing experience is one of perception. How fast or slow your computer seems is based on more than the CPU speed alone. It's a composite of I/O speed, CPU speed and dozens of other factors. If you have a screamingly fast CPU with a poky drive, you have a poky computer as the chain is only as good as its weakest link. I've found, on my i7 iMac, that no matter what I do, I usually can't use up all the CPU speed, so the slowness may be due to the HDD not being able to keep up.

The current and future classes of SSDs are going to change all that. I can imagine sitting down, booting up and before I can lift my coffee cup, the computer has come up and is running startup programs. This will take some getting used to, since it will change my and everyone's work flow somewhat. Instead of all the little interruptions you get from waiting for something to happen, the response will be nearly instantaneous. This will tend to keep me more focused since I'm a procrastinator by nature, and get distracted quickly, like whenever I see a spinning beach ball. If a computer works as quickly as I feel it should work, I will be more engaged.

Continue reading I have seen the future, and it's SSD

I have seen the future, and it's SSD originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogI have seen the future, and it's SSD originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>DriveSavershddother world computingOtherWorldComputingOWCsddtime marches onTimeMarchesOnDavid WinogradWed, 03 Mar 2010 08:00:00 ESTMore streaming video fun: a first look at Qik Live for iPhonehttp://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/28/more-streaming-video-fun-a-first-look-at-qik-live-for-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/28/more-streaming-video-fun-a-first-look-at-qik-live-for-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/28/more-streaming-video-fun-a-first-look-at-qik-live-for-iphone/#commentsThe folks who first showed us video streaming live from an iPhone, Qik, now have an official (non-jailbreak) app available in the App Store.

Like Ustream Live Broadcaster, Qik Live [iTunes Link] is a free iPhone app that streams live video to a web page where friends, relatives, and the world at large can watch and hear what you're currently doing. Qik Live has a very streamlined interface that's simple to use. You'll need to sign up for a free Qik account before you start blasting your video to the world, but you can do that from within the app. The app runs on iPhone 2G, 3G, and 3GS devices on 3G or Wi-Fi networks.

Once you've launched the app and logged in, a pre-broadcast screen appears showing a live image. Settings are changed by tapping on a 320 x 240 landscape image to bring up a small menu. The menu options include muting/unmuting sound, turning chat on/off, setting a video to private, editing the title and description of a broadcast, choosing where to share the video, or sending the last stream to someone via email.

Continue reading More streaming video fun: a first look at Qik Live for iPhone

More streaming video fun: a first look at Qik Live for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogMore streaming video fun: a first look at Qik Live for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>iphoneqikqik liveQikLivevideo streamingVideoStreamingSteven SandeMon, 28 Dec 2009 18:00:00 ESTFirst Look: Snagit for Mac Public Betahttp://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/17/first-look-snagit-for-mac-public-beta/http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/17/first-look-snagit-for-mac-public-beta/http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/17/first-look-snagit-for-mac-public-beta/#comments Switchers were elated earlier this year when TechSmith, developers of the fabulous Camtasia screen recorder application for Windows, finally shipped their flagship app for the Mac. Those switchers were probably also wishing that TechSmith would create a Mac version of their screen capture application, Snagit. Well, their wishes have been granted!

TechSmith has announced the public beta version of Snagit for Mac, and a first look at the application shows that it's a worthy screenshot snapper for the platform. The company has made the beta available for feedback on operation and features, so this is a perfect time to download the program and give it a try.

After installing the application and launching it, all that is visible is a small "tab" that pops out from the side of the Mac screen when you hover over it. The tab has a drop-down for choosing the capture mode and a red button for taking the screen shot. There are two capture modes -- all-in-one capture and window capture. Window capture mode displays all open windows Exposé-style, and you click on one of the windows to select it for capture. Once captured, it appears in a screen where you can annotate the screenshot in a number of ways, or add effects. At this time, there are no effects and the app shows that the feature is coming soon.

Continue reading First Look: Snagit for Mac Public Beta

First Look: Snagit for Mac Public Beta originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogFirst Look: Snagit for Mac Public Beta originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>betacamtasiafirst lookFirstLookmacpublic betaPublicBetascreenshotscreenshotssnagitsoftwaretechsmithutilitySteven SandeThu, 17 Dec 2009 10:00:00 ESTFirst look and reader giveaway: Lo-Mob, for that retro photo lookhttp://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/14/first-look-and-reader-giveaway-lo-mob-for-that-retro-photo-loo/http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/14/first-look-and-reader-giveaway-lo-mob-for-that-retro-photo-loo/http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/14/first-look-and-reader-giveaway-lo-mob-for-that-retro-photo-loo/#commentsIn case you haven't noticed, I'm a huge fan of iPhone photography apps. I've written about Best Camera, played with ColorSplash, and taken panoramic photos with Pano. When I noticed the $1.99US Lo-Mob [iTunes Link] while doing my weekly pass through the photo apps, I decided to buy it and give it a try.

Part of my fascination with iPhone photo apps is that the flexibility of the software combines with the camera that is always at your fingertips, and you can do things with your photos with a few taps that would have taken hours in a darkroom. Lo-Mob provides 33 different effects that give your iPhone pics the look of taking photos with old film, instant film, 35 mm film in a medium-format camera, and more. With many of the effects, changes with saturation, focus, and tint are mixed with artifacts (dust on the frame, for example), vignetting, and frames.

As soon as you either take a new photo or select an existing one in Lo-Mob, the app takes about 10 - 12 seconds to pre-process all of the images. The result is that when you go to choose your effect, you see exactly how it's going to look in a small thumbnail image located next to information about the effect. After you've selected your effect, you see a full size image that can then be saved in the original photo resolution and then shared with others through email, Facebook, or Twitter.

Now for some fun! We have three Lo-Mob promo codes to give away to three lucky TUAW readers. Here's the scoop:
  • Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
  • To enter leave a comment telling us what you would take a photo of and then "retro-ize" with Lo-Mob.
  • The comment must be left before Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.
  • You may enter only once.
  • Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
  • Prizes: Promo Code for one copy of Lo-Mob (Value: US$1.99)
  • Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Check out the gallery below for an idea of some of the cool effects you can slap on those iPhone photos.

Gallery: Lo-Mob Demo Gallery

Original photo6 x 6 TTV Grid of the 80's6 x 6 TTV Grid of the 70sAE TTV Desaturated6 x 9 Instant Emulsion

First look and reader giveaway: Lo-Mob, for that retro photo look originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogFirst look and reader giveaway: Lo-Mob, for that retro photo look originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>filtersgiveawayiphonelo-mobphotographyretroSteven SandeMon, 14 Dec 2009 15:00:00 ESTHow to cram the entire Internet Movie Database into your iPhonehttp://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/09/how-to-cram-the-entire-internet-movie-database-into-your-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/09/how-to-cram-the-entire-internet-movie-database-into-your-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/09/how-to-cram-the-entire-internet-movie-database-into-your-iphone/#commentsThe Internet Movie Database (IMDb), an Amazon.com company, has just released a free iPhone app [iTunes Link] that puts the power of the huge repository of movie facts, fables, and trivia into the palm of your hand.

I use IMDb regularly, so when I saw that the app had been released, I downloaded it immediately. Upon launching, the app will ask if you wish to let it use your location -- this is used to display show times and movies for local theaters. While IMDb doesn't exactly have a beautiful interface, it's perfect for navigating the huge amount of information that is available.

The first page of the app displays three major areas: Movies, TV, and People. There's also an Application area, which is used only to display information about the App. Movies is subdivided into Showtimes, Coming Soon, US Box Office Results, MOVIEmeter, and the Top 250 Movies. Tapping Coming Soon brings up details about upcoming movies releases, including trailers that can be viewed on the phone. I love the Top 250 Movies, which is a list of the movies rated highest by IMDb readers. It's a treasure trove of information about many of the classic movies of all time.

IMDb's TV section is split into US TV Tonight, which is a schedule of upcoming shows on the major networks, and US TV Recaps, which provides full text synopses of what has happened on top TV shows during the previous week. Under the People heading, there's both STARmeter, which shows a listing of the top 25 stars as measured by the number of times that they've been searched for on IMDb, and Born Today, which lists actors (living and dead) who were born on the current day.

If you love movies and TV, or searching trivia about roles, actors, and directors, then you probably already spend a lot of time with IMDb. The iPhone app is just the icing on the IMDb cake, and as a free app it should be on the home screen of every movie fan's iPhone. Check out the gallery for screenshots of IMDb in action.

Gallery: IMDb App for iPhone

IMDb Main ScreenMovie ListingActor DisplayThe Top 250 MoviesMovieMeter

How to cram the entire Internet Movie Database into your iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogHow to cram the entire Internet Movie Database into your iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>first lookFirstLookimdbiphoneipod touchIpodTouchmoviestvSteven SandeWed, 09 Dec 2009 17:00:00 ESTFirst Look: Breaking the print / sign / fax cycle with Zosh for iPhonehttp://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/09/first-look-breaking-the-print-sign-fax-cycle-with-zosh-for/http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/09/first-look-breaking-the-print-sign-fax-cycle-with-zosh-for/http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/09/first-look-breaking-the-print-sign-fax-cycle-with-zosh-for/#comments


Does this scenario sound familiar? You're out of town or away from your office, and you get a call from a client. They need for you to fill out and sign a contract, and then return it to them as quickly as possible. Right now, you'd probably pull out your laptop, pull up the email with the contract, print it out, fill out the information and signature by hand, and then find a fax machine to send the document off to the client; or, if your client is savvy enough, you could electronically sign a PDF version of the contract. What if you could do all of that from your iPhone?

Zosh [$2.99, iTunes Link] provides a way to do just that. It's an iPhone-based tool for marking up and signing PDF documents with text, dates, and signatures. The company says that Microsoft Word document support will be available soon.

Zosh works in concert with a secure file server to make the documents available to your iPhone. When you receive a document as an attachment to an email message, you just forward it from your Zosh account email address to a special zosh.com address. Zosh recognizes your email address and then stores the document folder; the contents of that folder are visible on your iPhone on a Documents screen. For training purposes, Zosh has created a "Getting Started with Zosh" PDF that you can read for step-by-step instructions and hands-on demonstrations.

To view the document, you simply tap on its name. When you find a place that you need to annotate with a date, text, or signature, you simply tap on the Insert button and you're given a choice of what to insert. If you choose date, a date picker with several different date formats appears. Selecting text brings up a text edit field into which you type the text you want to annotate the PDF with. To add a signature, an automatically scrolling window appears into which you write your name on the touchsc. I found that using a stylus like the Pogo Stylus helped me to create a more accurate signature than my finger.

Any of the annotations can be in a choice of four colors -- blue, black, gray, and red -- and can be moved around the page, rotated 360°, resized (bigger or smaller), or deleted. For text annotations, you can choose from a variety of fonts, although none of them really stood out as being unique. Of course, if you're annotating a contract or other legal document, I'm not sure you want to put text in some sort of oddball font.

Once you're done signing the document, you "transmit" it back to your email address or that of another recipient. There's no need to print the original, find a pen to sign the document, then scan and or fax the document before sending it on. Zosh does exactly what it sets out to do, breaking the cycle of wasteful printing and faxing, and it does it on the iPhone alone. While testing the app on a business trip, I had the opportunity to use Zosh to annotate and sign a couple of documents, and I found it to be a lifesaver.

While Zosh isn't for everybody, if you are the type of person who needs to receive, annotate, and sign documents, and then return them to another person, the app is worth much more than the $2.99 price tag.

First Look: Breaking the print / sign / fax cycle with Zosh for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple WeblogFirst Look: Breaking the print / sign / fax cycle with Zosh for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>contractemailfaxiphoneipod touchIpodTouchprintsignatureSteven SandeWed, 09 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST