I use my iPhone a lot to listen to music and podcasts in my car -- I connect it right up to my car stereo, and it's my main listening source while driving around LA. As a result, I really wish there were more options to control my music while driving around. Music- and podcast-streaming app Stitcher has introduced a new feature along these lines they're calling Car Mode, which is basically just a simplified interface with large, clear controls, so you can choose and play your music easily. There are also some other new features added into the app, including a new front page and faster playback. You can download Stitcher Radio for free on the App Store.

Unfortunately, this isn't really what I'm looking for -- this layout still requires you to pick up your phone and press buttons to use it, and that means that you'll still have to pull over to the side of the road to choose your music. (Because as we all know, using your cell phone while driving is illegal; just ask the LAPD.) What I'd really like to see from these streaming apps is Siri integration. I often will be driving around and get an urge to listen to a specific song or artist, and it'd be nice to use Siri to say something like, "Siri, play me some Rolling Stones," or "play me 'Bohemian Rhapsody,'" and have it automatically start playing.

I'm not sure that's entirely possible just yet, as Apple's API for Siri can be limited for some developers -- at this point, I think about all you can do is open an app. But hopefully that will change soon. The first streaming-audio app to let me start up and control songs in the car with just my voice will definitely have me interested in switching over to it.

Stitcher Radio announces a Car Mode, but it's not quite what I want originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Stitcher Radio announces a Car Mode, but it's not quite what I want originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 18:30:00 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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The company behind the Pebble smartwatch, which not only looks awesome but connects up to your iPhone, has picked up US$15 million in funding from venture capitalists, and has released yet another version of its SDK. The funding is obviously a solid chunk of change, and should help Pebble not only fulfill its current orders (the company is still aiming to get watches out to all of its supporters from a successful Kickstarter bid), but push the company on into the future as well.

This latest SDK release, called the PebbleKit, allows for two-way communication back and forth between the watch and your smartphone, which means there are lots of new options for apps to work with the watch as a display or even a remote control. The company has also released a Sports API, which should allow for GPS-enabled apps (like running apps) to send and receive information from the watch. Pebble's initial set of features was quite limited, but this API update should make a lot of new apps possible, and of course we'll likely see more in the future.

You can pre-order a Pebble watch on the main website right now for $150.00. Or you may want to wait just a bit longer, if you happen to believe those crazy rumors about an Apple iWatch.

Pebble receives $15 mil in funding, releases SDK and Sports API originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Pebble receives $15 mil in funding, releases SDK and Sports API originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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JellyBus, the makers of popular iOS image-editing software PicsPlayPro, recently launched a collage-making app, Moldiv, and packed it full of features that'll appeal to creative types who are looking to throw together a beautiful collage.

The first thing you notice about Modiv is the large number of frames available at your fingertips. There are 80 free frames and 60 premiums that you can buy as a pack via a US$1.99. Moldiv's basic frames provide you with a variety of columnar and angular layouts that are sufficient for most users.

The next thing you notice about Moldiv is how easy it is to use. Tap on your frame to select your photo layout and then tap on a section to add a photo. You can pull the photo from your photo gallery or take a new one using the camera. Once you add in your photos, you can spend a few minutes tweaking the layout by adjusting the frame width and adding a background to fill in the white parts of the frame. Just like the frame options, the background selection is robust. You can choose from a set of 40 free backgrounds or buy a second, more colorful set for $0.99.

Moldiv also lets you add text or stamps on your collage. Similar to other parts of the app, Moldiv offers a set of free stamps and premium stamps that cost 99 cents each. There's also a shape tool that lets you overlay another photo on your collage. You can select your shape and then choose a photo from your camera roll. You can adjust the shape to fit the photo and get the right look. I used this feature in a collage of my one-year old. I used a four-square layout with pictures of him playing and then put a heart-shaped insert with a close-up photo right in the middle. It looked great!

Moldiv is a no-frills editor that lets you create collages quickly. You pick your frame, add your photos and then embellish them a bit with text or stamps. When you are done, you can save the collage to your camera roll, send it to other apps or share it on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or Flickr.

Moldiv does have its fair share of in-app purchases, which some may find bothersome. I wasn't frustrated by them as I found the basic options were creative enough to suit my needs. I don't mind paying extra if I want to get fancier with my photos. I would like to see an "unlock all" option that would let me buy everything at once.

Moldiv is available for free from the iOS App Store. I used the iPad version as I enjoy editing on my iPad and not my iPhone. Moldiv is a universal app, so you can edit on either device.

Daily iPad App: Use Moldiv to quickly create a collage originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPad App: Use Moldiv to quickly create a collage originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A teenage girl alone in a remote farmhouse, an absent father, a boyfriend off at college... and a locked door that conceals a tragic secret. These are the creepy, chilling tropes on display in Haunting Melissa, a serialized video horror story delivered in the form of an iOS app available today on the App Store. Watching the first episode is free, and then you'll wait -- and pay -- to keep going with the narrative.

Haunting Melissa, and the underlying Hooked Digital Media content management platform that drives the serialized episode releases, is the brainchild of Hollywood producer Neal Edelstein. Edelstein has some serious scares on his resume: he produced the US versions of the scare-your-socks-off thrillers The Ring and The Ring 2.

He describes the Haunting Melissa experience as "a ghost story created to be consumed in a dark corner with headphones on and iPhone or iPad in hand." Push notifications alert viewers when the next segment is ready -- and they'll come when you least expect them. Melissa even has a Twitter account (as does the actress who plays her, Kassia Warshawski).

You might think that a spooky, atmospheric serial would suffer in the scale-down from cinematic or TV size onto the iPad or iPhone/iPod screen. In fact, watching Melissa and her friends explore her haunted house (in HD) from a first-person, Blair Witch-esque perspective is quite immersive. Adding headphones to the experience ramps up the creep factor dramatically; Edelstein and his creative team have the sound design chops to scare your ears just as much as the cinematography scares your eyes. If you do want to watch on the bigger screen, the app supports AirPlay output to the Apple TV.

Haunting Melissa is designed to be social, with viewers sharing their impressions and guesses as the mystery deepens, and calling out details and clues that may have been missed on the first viewing. (What really happened to Melissa's dead mother? Why is Brandon being so cagey about coming home from college? Is Holly's little brother just a lovesick kid, or a malicious superhacker? Why doesn't Melissa close her laptop when she goes to bed? And what's the deal with all the crucifixes?) Personally, I'm not a big consumer of thrillers or horror films, but if that is the sort of thing you enjoy, Haunting Melissa raises the bar on quality when it comes to purpose-built iOS experiences.

The basic Haunting Melissa app is free, with in-app US$0.99 purchases for individual episodes and a Season Pass option for the entire experience. Edelstein notes that he is in discussions with other directors and producers to explore bringing their creative ideas to this new storytelling platform. "The technology supports story first and foremost... [we believe] this new app technology will change distribution forever," he says.

You can watch the Haunting Melissa teaser trailer below. Keep the lights on.

Chills and thrills for your iPad with Haunting Melissa originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Chills and thrills for your iPad with Haunting Melissa originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From what we saw, it looks like Messages with a whole lot more oomph. We'll have a look at it as soon as it has been released.

Google announces new Hangout app to hit iOS today originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 15 May 2013 13:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google announces new Hangout app to hit iOS today originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 15 May 2013 13:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It has been busy in the App Store with a handful of new apps landing on iOS and OS X. Take a few minutes and check out our list of standout apps from the past few weeks!

iOS Apps

A Beautiful Mess [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; $0.99] The photo app from A Beautiful Mess is the easiest way to make pretty photos and to share them with friends.Add new life to your favorite photos with custom filters, fun fonts, and hand-drawn doodles by Elsie and Emma, creators of the award-winning lifestyle blog, "A Beautiful Mess".

Limelight - Your Movie Library [iPhone; Category: Entertainment; $0.99] Limelight is a new way to browse and organize your movie library. Become a movie critic and share your library with friends.

Arpeggionome for iPhone [iPhone; Category: Music; $0.99] A New Musical Instrument for Controlling Arpeggios with the Touch of a Finger. Arpeggionome for iPhone transforms your iPhone into a new and expressive musical instrument.

Audio Mastering [iPad; Category: Music; $9.99] The first fully functional audio mastering application for iPad. For everyone who wants to make own music tracks excellent quality.

Amazon Cloud Drive Photos [iPhone; Category: Productivity; Free] Protect and store all of your photos in one place with Amazon Cloud Drive Photos.

Bellyfish [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] Swim freely with intuitive controls through beautiful underwater environments. Fight your evil enemies with unique and fun power-ups. Join the adventure and see how high you can go.

Go Home Dinosaurs [iPad; Category: Games; $4.99] Go Home, Dinosaurs! Stop hordes of marauding Dinos from crashing your party in the world's premier BBQ defense simulator.

Daddy Was A Thief [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $1.99] Gain as much money as you can! Hurry! Everyone will try to catch you, but you are clever, aren't you?

MYSTIC* [iPhone; Category: Photography & Video; $0.99] On the surface, Mystic is an app. In practice, it is an experience. Yeah, You can add text, textures, frames, lights, colors...elephants, tigers, bears, and a few flying buffalos, too.

TinyLegends: Monster Crasher [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] the evil dragon has been awakened. Sound your trumpet as a call to arms and get ready for an epic challenge.

Write for Dropbox - A Beautiful Note Taking App [iPad; Category: Productivity; $1.99] Writing. Automated Dropbox Syncing. Markdown. Fastest Sharing. Free Mac Addon. Beautiful Design. Love.

Topple2 with Mobage [iPhone; Category: Games; Free] Immerse yourself in 30 levels over 6 Topple worlds that allow you to balance and stack fun and playful Topple blocks using multi-touch and accelerometer controls.

IMPOSSIBLE ROAD [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $1.99] IMPOSSIBLE ROAD is a pure, minimal arcade game about risk, reward, and rollercoasters.

OS X

Silo - Share Your Lists [OS X; Category: Productivity; Free] Silo is the delightful way to share and manage your lists.

Together 3 [OS X; Category: Productivity; $19.99] Together lets you keep everything in one place. Text, documents, images, movies, sounds, web pages and bookmarks can all be dragged to Together for safe keeping.

oneSafe [OS X; Category: Productivity; $5.99] oneSafe not only securely stores all your passwords and other confidential information, it also synchronizes all that data between your Mac, iPhone and iPad, so you can have it at your fingertips wherever you happen to find yourself.

New and notable apps for iOS and OS X - May 15 edition originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

New and notable apps for iOS and OS X - May 15 edition originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just when you think that Apple has decided to totally ignore iWork, along comes news that the company has added job postings for a number of positions on the iWork team.

The last official release of the iWork suite -- Pages, Numbers and Keynote -- is telling: the name of the suite is still iWork '09. About the only major changes to any of the apps over the past few years has been to make them available on the Mac App Store and to add compatibility with iCloud.

Apple Bitch covered the latest job listing for a software QA engineer to "work on the next generation of Desktop, Mobile and Web application/services," focusing on bug detection, isolation and reporting in the iWork suite. MacRumors notes that a number of other jobs are open on the team, including three positions for other QA engineers, a Production Specialist, a "Technical Production Ninja," a Verification Engineer, a Visual Motion Designer and a HiDPI Image Specialist to work on making the apps "the best they can be" on Retina displays.

Apple job postings suggest iWork team is growing originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 May 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple job postings suggest iWork team is growing originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 May 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember what Realmac Software did for to-do lists with its best-seller Clear? In one stroke, the company grabbed the attention of millions of iPhone users with a gesture-driven app that was easy, understandable and colorful. Today Realmac teased us with a glimpse of Analog for iPhone, a slimmed-down version of the popular OS X app for adding beautiful photo effects to images.

Realmac says the app will launch later this month, and no price was disclosed. It appears, though, that Realmac's thoughtful approach at user interface design brings one-handed effects and sharing to the iPhone. We'll have a full review when Analog for iPhone is launched in the App Store.

Realmac Software's sneak preview of Analog for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Realmac Software's sneak preview of Analog for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Foursaken Media's Heroes and Castles has been updated yet again, with lots of new content to play. The game, which allows you to level up a hero by defending a town and its various resources against an army of invading minions, has been popular for Foursaken already, and the team told me during GDC that they were planning on adding plenty of extras to the game this year. They've reached version 3.0 now, and the latest update adds three new heroes: an Assassin, a Barbarian, and a Druid, each with their own abilities and weapons.

There's also a brand new campaign for the game that must be unlocked to play, with new maps to fight over, and new allied units to join you in battle. You can upgrade buildings and units even further, the graphics now boast real-time shadows, and the game's performance has been upgraded overall. Finally, there are new achievements to earn in the game, which the best players can go after for Game Center glory.

That's a sizable update that adds even more value to this excellent $1.99 game. Heroes and Castles can be downloaded right now.

[via Touch Arcade]

Heroes and Castles updated to version 3.0 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 13 May 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Heroes and Castles updated to version 3.0 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 13 May 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We've seen beer-pouring robots before, but MIT has recently put together a smartphone-controlled robot bartender, with three robot arms that can pour and mix up to 100 different alcoholic and non-alcoholic flavors. The Makr Shakr lets you order up a drink directly from your iPhone, and then it will make the drink and deliver it to you as requested.

The robot will be officially unveiled later this week at Google's I/O conference, and for now it's just an interesting robotics project, so it's unlikely you'll see your own robot bartender in a local watering hole any time soon (plus, who would you flirt with if there was a robot pouring you drinks?). But this is a fascinating idea -- it would save bars time and money to have a robot behind the counter, and the fact that nearly everyone has a iPhone in their pocket these days means there's an easily accessible interface ready to go. You can order your drink at Starbucks from your iPhone, so why not order up a drink at a bar, from a robot or anyone else?

MIT makes a smartphone-controlled bartender originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 13 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MIT makes a smartphone-controlled bartender originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 13 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The other day Echofon 1.7.0 mysteriously appeared on the OS X App Store, upgraded to support the 1.1 Twitter API. We contacted the developers to find out if this was a courtesy update or if Echofon was back in development.

We're delighted to relate that a spokesperson has confirmed:

Sorry for the delayed response and thanks for your inquiry. We brought Echofon Mac back due to the overwhelming user demand for it. We intend to continue to keep our
users happy and satisfied with the product.

Speaking as a long time user, I'm very pleased with this news. Original developer Satoshi Nakagawa agrees. He tweets, "Echofon for Mac 1.7.0 works beautifully :)".

It's back. It's on the Mac. Echofon aficionados rejoice! originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 11 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's back. It's on the Mac. Echofon aficionados rejoice! originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 11 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon today released a new app called Cloud Drive Photos. The free app allows you to upload all your iPhone or iPod touch photos to the cloud. The images can be accessed from your iOS device, from your Mac, or from any web browser. You can also upload photos from a laptop or desktop computer with a free Amazon app for OS X, and see or download them to your iPhone or other iOS device. Photos can also be shared via Facebook, Twitter or email.

Amazon requires you have an Amazon account, and will provide 5 GB of free storage, about enough room for 2000 photos. Amazon also provides both Mac and Windows apps to handle file transfers and display the photos. Additional storage space costs US$10.00 a year for 20 gigabytes, or 100 gigabytes of storage for $50.00.

When you first open the app, Amazon asks for access to your camera roll. Then the app will start uploading as long as the app is open. If you're on a limited data plan, you can set the app to only upload when you are on WiFi.

This service competes with Apple's Photo Stream service, and of course there are services like Flickr and Dropbox that provide similar functionality. You can choose to back up specific photos or your entire camera roll. Amazon offers more free storage than Apple, and Apple will only store up to 1000 of your photos per stream for 30 days compared to about 2000 photos with no expiration from Amazon. With Apple, after 30 days you must sync to your main computer. It should also be noted that Photo Stream storage does not count against your Apple allocated 5 gigabytes of iCloud storage. I see the Amazon service as a nice extra backup to what Apple offers.

Gallery: Amazon Cloud Drive Photo

Apple is being challenged in several areas by competitors offering equal or better solutions. Of course Google has Google Maps, and even Yahoo has a free weather app that for many people is a better solution than the rather stale Apple iOS weather app. Amazon has also offered Cloud Drive File Sync for OS X, which gives users a free 5 gigabytes of storage, more than double the free storage offered by Dropbox. Of course only Apple can deeply integrate its apps into iOS, so the company has that advantage. Whether that integration overcomes some of the advantages of these new services will be up to you when considering what cloud solution to use. Also, be aware that if you are already using other Amazon Cloud services the free storage you get is 5 gigabytes total, not 5 for music, 5 for photos, 5 for files etc..

Amazon releases Amazon Cloud Drive Photos to compete with Apple Photo Stream originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 May 2013 23:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Amazon releases Amazon Cloud Drive Photos to compete with Apple Photo Stream originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 May 2013 23:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tweetwall is a company that provides Twitter displays for events, allowing companies to show guests the live Twitter chatter about their events. Their clients have included CNN, Yahoo, Intel, PayPal, Microsoft, eBay, the Obama campaign and the Webby Awards. Now Tweetwall has launched a rebuilt version of its service, including a redesign and a new iPad app offering AirPlay support.

The iPad app is currently free to download and works with AirPlay or the digital AV adapter to display your feed on a screen. Tweetwall is offering two variations on pricing for their service, a US$49-a-day self-service model where your wall is built from templates and a $500-per-event customizable option. Loading times and stability have been improved, and the service allows filtering to keep your event wall from being spammed with profanity or other keywords.

[via TechCrunch]

Tweetwall rebuilt, new iPad app available originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tweetwall rebuilt, new iPad app available originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple recently introduced two-step verification for your Apple ID in certain countries, and the process is now being expanded to the rest of the world. The feature, which requires two different codes for verifying your Apple ID (if you want to be extra safe) was initially only available in the US, UK, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. But Apple has now included Canada in on the feature, as well as users in Argentina, Pakistan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Austria, Brazil, Belgium and Portugal. In other words, two-step authentication is now rolling out to a more or less worldwide release.

The authentication process is still optional -- if you don't think you need it, you can still stick with just your Apple ID password as a login. The process does help security, though it's still not a perfect solution. Apple only implemented this procedure earlier this year due to some security concerns on behalf of users. But it will help against some attacks, and it should work as another step to keep unwanted invaders out of your Apple ID account.

Apple's two-step ID now rolling out to a worldwide release originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple's two-step ID now rolling out to a worldwide release originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In case you haven't launched Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 in the past few days, there's an update for the office suite that became available on May 7.

The 14.3.4 update of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 is considered to be a "critical" update, and includes a number of fixes. Most of the fixes appear to be for Outlook for Mac and PowerPoint for Mac, although there is one issue with saving files to SkyDrive and SharePoint in Microsoft Word for Mac that has been fixed as well.

Microsoft also took the opportunity to let those who read the knowledge base article about the update know that Office for Mac 2011 is now available as a subscription offering as part of Office 365.

Owners of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 can either wait for the update to show up and annoy them when they're trying to get some work done, or can download the update package directly.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Update 14.3.4 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Update 14.3.4 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After years of living in an area with no cell service -- but with a very active radio tower -- I grew accustomed to talking with my husband using a ham radio instead of text messaging. Now that cell coverage has improved, we no longer use our ham radios and have switched to the iPhone. To recapture that walkie-talkie style of communication, we recently started using the Zello+ Walkie Talkie app.

Zello+ is an instant, Nextel-style push to talk communication app that uses your mobile broadband connection to exchange short audio messages. The app lets you talk one-on-one to a single person or in a channel with a group of people. It requires a Zello account that is available for free.

After you set up your account in the Zello app, you can add Zello contacts and start talking. The app has a large red button in the center of the screen that is very easy to locate and press. You don't even have to look at your phone, as the button is the dominant element in the app.

Like most walkie-talkies, there is an alert function that lets you "ring" a person before you start talking. This feature is helpful when you want to talk to someone, and you don't know where they are. You wouldn't want your message to broadcast out loud during an important business meeting, for example. The alert uses the iOS notification system to let the person know that you want to talk to them.

Zello has a few useful features that set it apart from its competition. The app stores your most recent conversation so you can re-listen to a message that you missed or forgot about. It works with a headset, your phone's built-in speaker or a wired mic. It also works great over 4G, 3G, and GPRS/EDGE. I haven't measured it directly, but I can say that in all my usage, Zello contributes very little to my overall data consumption.

The Zello+ app is free and is meant for consumers. It's cross platform and works on an iPhone, Android device, BlackBerry phone or PC. If you are a business owner and want to use the system with your employees, Zello offers an @work service that is free for up to five employees. Pricing starts at $10 per month per user for businesses with more than five employees. The @work option provides a web-based management tool, encrypted messages and more.

Daily iPhone App: Zello lets you chat walkie-talkie style with friends, co-workers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 May 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPhone App: Zello lets you chat walkie-talkie style with friends, co-workers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 May 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Have you ever wanted to cycle the French Alps or run in the London Marathon? Two new free universal apps -- Kinomap Fitness and Kinomap Trainer -- are designed to do just that by letting you use your favorite home training equipment to train against pre-recorded, GPS-located outdoor routes.

Kinomap is taking advantage of its video-sharing platform, which consists of about 10,000 videos that cover about 15,000 miles of track. Users can contribute their own videos to the vast library of geolocated routes. If you're going on a trip and want to help out, you can use Kinomap Maker (free) and a camera to film your route for submission. Cycling part of a famous Tour de France stage? Rowing the Thames River through London? Running the Leadville Trail 100? Kinomap will even lend you a GoPro or Contour camera so you can document your ride, row or run for submission to the library.

The apps are free when you use them against your own videos. Access to Kinomap's video library is available for US$11.99 per month or $74.99 annually.

Kinomap geolocated exercise apps let you train around the world ... at home originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 May 2013 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Kinomap geolocated exercise apps let you train around the world ... at home originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 May 2013 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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View Seeker Location Scout is a handy US$0.99 photo app that can help you find the best locations for landscape photography. You can get all the best locations around you with a click, which the app does by sourcing images from Panoramio and Flickr.

Once you find a spot you like it appears on a map, and then provides driving or walking directions via a link to Apple Maps. The app also provides sunrise/sunset times, and allows you to save locations you like. You can select any place in the world as your "target" if you are planning a trip, and call up the location information later when you get to your destination.

The app worked as expected when I tested it here in southern Arizona, and some other favorite out-of-state places. I found the Panoramio images generally looked better, but usually there were more images from Flickr.

Other than a few spelling errors in locations, the app is pretty clean. I wish View Seeker Location Scout allowed me to query Panoramio and Flickr at the same time. As it is, you have to set one or the other in preferences, but you can easily change back and forth. It's better to give the user the option of both.

Gallery: View Seeker Location Scout

The app has some similarities to Stuck On Earth, which is iPad-only. Stuck On Earth displays photos taken at chosen locations, provides a map, and lets you save your finds. It's a great app, but better for planning than using in the field simply because View Seeker fits in my pocket.

View Seeker is a worthwhile app for photographers looking for that perfect or out of the way spot to take a striking photo. It's a bargain for a buck. The non-universal app is optimized for the iPhone 5 and requires iOS 5.0 or greater.

Daily iPhone App: View Seeker Location Scout: a handy tool for iPhone photographers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 May 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPhone App: View Seeker Location Scout: a handy tool for iPhone photographers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 May 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's time for this week's Productivity Tips column. While I use OmniFocus for just about everything, there are times when I prefer other task managers to handle certain things. Many productivity gurus advise against using more than one tool to list tasks, but I don't like putting short-term list items into OmniFocus.

More to the point, I use specialized list tools for specialized tasks -- groceries, kid chores and the like. While you can put all of that into OmniFocus and see it only when you want to, there's something to be said for specialized tools which are tuned to a specific purpose, and may offer features not found in a more general-purpose product like OmniFocus.

You can always use one task manager to rule them all, of course, but there are limitations. OmniFocus, for example, isn't where I store my recipes. If I want to create a grocery list in Sous Chef, it's a relatively easy affair. Better yet, I can plan a week's worth of meals and then make a grocery list easily from those menus. To do this in OmniFocus (or other general-purpose task managers like Remember the Milk), I have to do a lot of copy and paste work -- which sort of defeats the purpose of using these magnificent technology products, doesn't it?

If I need a short list for a short period of time, I use a "punch list," which requires no contexts or setup. Sometimes an app with a narrow focus has so many great features that I can't help but use it. I've also found geofenced reminders in OmniFocus to be less useful than I'd like, but that's another story. Here are a few ideas for when to use specific task managers, and some of the ones I use.

Punch Lists

A punch list -- the term comes from the construction industry -- is the stuff you need to do in sequence, right now or by a specific deadline. It's often used for the "fixes" that accumulate towards the end of a project, with only a few loose ends or tweaks to finish off. For quick turnaround projects, it may be all you need.

As I tend to use OmniFocus for bigger/long-term projects, I do also sometimes use it for these punch lists, but only when a series of steps will take me longer than an hour or so to complete. If I'm making a quick list to prep for my kids coming over to stay for a weekend, I use a short-term list tool (I don't always have to do the same things each time they come over).

Apps: For general, short term lists I love Clear. If I have 3 or 4 things to do in a given hour, and I'm just coming up with that list on the fly, I'm likely to use Clear to quickly set those up and knock them down. Quick, short-term lists are great with Clear, which also syncs with my Mac. Wunderlist is a great solution as well, and so is Remember The Milk if you need to collaborate. There's also iOS/OS X Reminders, but I have wired most of my reminders to go to OmniFocus because I want to capture once and process later.

When it comes to making lists that need to be in cold storage for a while (like Christmas wish lists), or lists of info which I need but not on a regular basis, I use Evernote. Evernote makes it easy to find lists I've made earlier, and add to those from anywhere.

Kids or pets

As a divorced dad, I have to keep up with a lot of info on my kids. From wish lists (often generated while we are at a store -- the old "daddy I want this!" cry) to favorite foods to blood types and other medical info, my puny brain can't keep it all. We've also started a chore chart, and I wanted to use something a bit friendlier than OmniFocus.

If you have pets, there are a number of things to track and keep on top of, from vet visits to dietary needs and more. Luckily, there are a few apps for that.

Apps: If you have pets, check out PetMinder, which will track all sorts of things about your pet including vet appointments and allergies.

If you have those other household inhabitants known as "human children" I have been loving iAllowance for their chores. iAllowance allows me to use Dave Ramsey's system for saving, spending and giving, and handles all the math and checklists for me. I can even sync with my iOS devices, so I put the iPad on a table and as kids finish items they come and mark them off.

Travel

Do you really want all those shops, restaurants and tourist sites in your task manager along with all your work stuff? Aren't you supposed to be on vacation? Just like how I use Firefox for work stuff (well, and Chrome) and Safari and Opera for personal browsing, I like to keep my vacation info and work info very separate.

A great example of a punch list, too, is your typical packing list. Again, you could keep a list of potential packing items in your task manager, but that could add hundreds of items that you may only need once in a while. I find packing lists are an easy win when testing list apps, not to mention there are some great special-purpose apps for this.

Apps: Travel apps could be an entire month's worth of posts, so all I'll say here is that if you frequently travel for leisure you'll want to look into the "to do" aspects of Foursquare and Yelp. By creating accounts and using the app's bookmarking features as your wish list of stuff to do, you can quickly get directions and reviews in the app, saving you time.

If you want a packing list, PackingPro is one of the best, and Stow features a clever Q&A method for using templates. If you're collaborating on a list with your partner or spouse, Avocado's one-to-one messaging includes a flexible list feature as well -- good for those last-minute pretrip items.

Food

There are some outstanding apps for wine and beer out there. To replicate those databases elsewhere would be onerous at best. So if you're a fan of touring wine country and want a list of wines to check out, you're more likely to use one of these special purpose apps here.

Everyday cooking and food shopping are greatly enhanced when using one of the dozens of great cooking apps available. I am still in the process of finding my favorite, but most of them offer features out of the box that would be a pain to replicate in a general "to do" app.

Apps: When it comes to food, I use Sous Chef or Groceries. If I haven't planned my meals, Groceries has a nice interface and makes it super easy to add items (even those not in its database). Sous Chef is my go-to for meal planning and recipe-keeping.

Fitness

Along with food, there are some great fitness apps out there with lists of exercises or tools to track your weight, food, etc.

Apps: I don't actually use a lot of fitness apps, but I have used 30/30 to create a workout routine and it's great. 30/30 can also be used for daily routines, and I love the interface and experience. I used Lift for a while, and if you're trying to get into a habit of doing something, it's quite good.

My only problem with Lift was that the entire interface was completely dependent on a network connection. Given AT&T's coverage where I live (and in many cities where the networks are clogged), I found that the simple act of loading the basic interface would sometimes fail -- which isn't very encouraging. That said, there are lots of options here for goal-setting apps, and they are all essentially list tools.

DIY

There are a number of awesome apps available to help you plan construction projects or minor repairs at your house. Like a food app, these take a project and break it into a parts list -- again something which you'd have to copy over to another tool.

Along with DIY home projects, anything involving crafting, knitting, sewing, etc. will result in a specialized list. Do you need that list of yarn for that one project forever archived in your task manager? Probably not.

Apps: DIY is another huge topic, but as an example of specialized apps, I like to point to My Measures and Woodcraft. My Measures will create a list of dimensions for a room and its fixtures. Woodcraft will create a list of wood you need for a given project. Both are quite excellent, and getting that data into another app is onerous and not that useful. I'm sure there are similar apps for sewing and other crafty stuff.

Daily Routines, Location-Based Reminders

While OmniFocus is pretty good at most things, I have resisted using it for daily repeating actions. For one thing, I keep running into a repeating item that starts multiplying itself over time (no, I don't need to balance my checkbook 4 times a day!). Also, there are tools out there which are more aimed at motivation (like the goal-setting apps mentioned in the fitness section) vs. plowing through a set of tasks. If you are self-motivated a one-size-fits-all approach might work for you. If not, check out some recommendations below.

Lastly, OmniFocus does have a pretty good location system but I found it a bit onerous to use (espeically on the desktop) and annoying in daily use. No, I don't need to be reminded to fix something every single time I pull into my driveway. But I do need to be reminded to put out the trash when I arrive home on Wednesday mornings. For this, I use Siri and it's the easiest method I've found so far. "Remind me when I get home to..." just sounds like the future, doesn't it?

Apps: For daily routine stuff I do wind up using my squishy brain for a lot -- but I also have a variable schedule. If I have a set of routines for a day, I hop into 30/30, where I have a list. I also use Due to remind me about repeating items. Due is very insistent, but makes it easy to move an item to another day, plus it sync with my Mac.

Conclusion

I do not use a separate app for inboxing items. I do believe that this is important, because the more complexity in your task management, the less likely you're going to get things done. I still use OmniFocus+Siri to capture stuff. In rare cases I use Clear to make a quick list, but that list is very quickly sorted and knocked out, eliminating the need for messing around in OmniFocus for those tasks.

Similarly, if you find yourself needing one-off or specialized lists, consider looking at a specialized tool. While OmniFocus and other power tools can be bent to your will, sometimes an app offers features you would have to spend a lot of time replicating elsewhere. And that's what this is all about, really: Getting things done and saving you time. Isn't that what technology should be doing?

Shout out your favorite special-purpose apps in the comments below and we here at TUAW will try to review any we haven't looked at before.

Productivity Tip: Using specialized lists for specific use cases originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 May 2013 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Productivity Tip: Using specialized lists for specific use cases originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 May 2013 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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