Early Edition 2 Sale

Early Edition 2 from Glasshouse Apps is 80% off this weekend. If you had the original Early Edition and did not want to pay $4.99 for the update, now, at 99¢, you may find the price compelling.

The app downloads selected RSS news feeds so you can read what you want, when you want. You can layout how the news is presented to you.

One of the updated features of the app is its ability to work with the new iPad resolution.

You can turn pages, share, go offline and search all within the app.

You can even save stories to browse later.

If you have been looking for a good newspaper that works with RSS readers in an intuitive way, on sale, this app can’t be beat.

Paper App by Fifty Three

Recently, Fiftythree released Paper for the iPad. This “creative” capture app consists of 5 parts. Each part allows you to perform a different function. You can sketch, write, draw, outline and color. The first “included” piece is Draw. You can purchases additional “tools” with an in-app purchase.

The company promotes the app as a way to quickly capture ideas in a familiar journal like format. The tools and choices of colors are intentionally limited to allow you to focus on getting an idea down. The app is not supposed to be a full fledge drawing or painting app.

If that is what you are looking for, you will not be satisfied. Some have complained that the various in-app purchases to increase the tools available to you are not worth the price. However, the smooth drawing and feel of the app certainly warrant downloading the free version to try it out.

The interface is fun and allows for some unique interactions. You can squeeze to close your journal or flip to a page in a journal in a graphically pleasing way.

If you are the kind of person who likes to jot down ideas on a napkin or sketch out a rough idea for a presentation, this app is worth downloading and trying.

Index Card App – Stacks above others

If you have an affinity for working with index cards, you will love the updated Index Card app for the iPad.

It presents the best of what you use index cards for – capturing or organizing information and ideas with the modern tools to search, reorganize and share that information.

Quite simply, you create index cards by starting a new project. Then, tap on the + to start your first index card. Type in the title and then synopsis. Tap back to have access to the back of the card for a place to put even more typed information.

You can choose different card colors by tapping on the color swatch on the left and selecting the color of your new card.

The settings are minimal and sufficient. You can choose different backgrounds for your cards to sit on, change the fonts and link your cards to your Dropbox account.

There are 3 different views for your cards: card view, outline view and vertical view. You can choose the view at the top left. In any view, you can tap hold and drag the card or information to a new place to create a new order.

Sharing the cards is easy as well. You can send them via email in “Indexcard”, TXT or RTF format.

The ability to stack or clip together index cards into a logical group is a great bonus. Although it is not completely obvious how to accomplish that task initially, once you understand it, the value of a stack is invaluable. To stack cards, tap on edit at the top right and then tap the cards you want to stack. A blue check mark will appear at the bottom right of each selected card you want to stack. Tap stack, you will be given a chance to name the stack and the cards will be stacked.

To unstack, tap on the stack and tap edit. Select the cards to unstack and the “unstack” button becomes available to tap and remove that card from the stack. One or more cards can also be moved to another project by tapping on the move button.

You can also choose the vertical view, and then drag and drop cards within a column to create a stack. Once you drag a card under another card, you will be able to name your stack.

Once you get the app, review the included “Tutorial Project.” This set of cards walks you through using the app. Make sure you look at the cards in the different views and rotations so you get a sense of how to use the app.

Pros

Simple, intuitive, easy to use tool. Easy to understand. Great organizational tool.

Cons

It is not apparent how to easily uncreate a stack once it is created should you decide you no longer want the stack.

Updated feature requests:

My personal feelings are not meant to disparage the app. I would love to use the app more and think that the following features would be a natural fit for the app: Draw on back: With so much room on the back of a note card, it would be nice to be able to draw out a thought or image. Scale: It would be nice to scale the size of the cork board up and down to have a view of more cards at a time for easy movement of the cards. Test Mode: For students, it would be nice to add a feature to allow “test” mode to allow you to practice taking a test once you create notecards for reviewing a school project.

Conclusion.

If you are looking for a great index card app, do not hesitate to download and begin using Index Card. For $4.99 it is cheaper than the price of 2 spiral bound stacks of index cards at Staples.

iPhoto for iPad (and iPhone)

When Apple announced the iPad on March 7, it also introduced updated software and something new. iPhoto for the iPad and iPhone. Previously, iPhoto was available as part of the iLife suite of apps on the Mac to allow you to organize, edit and share your digital photos and images. Now, the app has been introduced to the iPad and iPhone.

With this new app, you can edit and share your photos, all from your iOS device. The different multi-touch gestures and palettes of  tools allow for the unique experience. The ways you can edit and add effects are not only plentiful, but presented in a uniquely intuitive way – via a palette or set of “brushes” that allow you to brush on effects.

After you have edited your photos, you can create photo journals, publish them as web pages via iCloud, stream them with AirPlay or send them to your favorite social media.

Apple provides the following feature information about the app.

Smart Browsing
• Use simple gestures to quickly sort through dozens or even hundreds of photos
• Automatically find similar photos, so you can quickly make comparisons
• View multiple photos side-by-side to help you choose your best images
• Tap to mark any photo with a flag, select a favorite, or hide an image
• Resize and reposition scrollable thumbnail grid for optimal browsing in any orientation

Multi-Touch editing
• Simply touch and drag on the parts of the image you want to change
• Touch and drag on the image to adjust blue skies, greenery, and skin tones
• Drag the white balance loupe to make precise color corrections
• All image adjustments are completely non-destructive and can be modified at any time
• Straighten your pictures with a tap using automatic horizon detection

Brushes
• Use your fingertip to paint photo adjustments right where you need them
• Turn on edge detection to help you apply adjustments with even more precision
• Lighten, darken, and change saturation or sharpness selectively
• Paint out spots and blemishes with a powerful Repair brush
• Brush away red-eye, or use the Soften brush to minimize wrinkles

Professional-quality effects
• Enhance your photos with dozens of beautiful, Apple-designed effects
• Touch and drag to add drama to landscapes with a selection of graduated filters
• Create a perfectly toned black-and-white photo by simply dragging your finger
• Pinch and zoom a vignette or tilt-shift filter to focus on a key part of the photo
• Apply artistic effects to transform your photos into brilliant watercolors

Photo Journals
• Share your stories in a whole new way as beautiful photo journals
• iPhoto automatically flows your pictures into a great-looking layout that’s fun to personalize
• Freely move and resize photos with a touch of your finger
• Touch and drag to add captions, maps, dates, and even the weather
• Publish your photo journals to iCloud as stunning web pages to share

Other great iPhoto features
• iPhoto is a universal app, optimized for both iPhone and iPad
• Create cinematic slideshows of your photos with a few taps
• Post directly to Facebook or Flickr and view friends’ comments on your photos
• Beam photos between your iPhone and iPad, including all non-destructive adjustments
• Use AirPlay to stream photos and slideshows to your HDTV over Wi-Fi with Apple TV
• Print your photos wirelessly on an AirPrint-enabled printer

The app allows for sophisticated and simple effects. For $4.99 US, it is well worth the price and is available via the App Store.

iPad3 – Quick Overview

In an outline form, based on today’s presentation of the iPad3, these are the top 10 features:

1. Retina Display – icon, text, maps, and photos sharper. 2048 x 1536 pixels which is over 3.1 million pixels on the display.  (HDTV is 1920 x 1080) iPad shows over 1 million more pixels. 264 pixels per inch. When held at normal distance of 15″ your retina cannot differentiate individual pixels. There is also 44% greater color saturation. 4 x the number of pixels.

2.  A5X chip Quad Core Graphics designed for the Retina Display. 4X performance graphics. Image stabilization built in.

3. iSight Camera on back v. Front face time camera. 5 megapixel sensor, backside illumination, 5-element lens, Hybrid IR filter, Apple-Designed . Auto exposure, Auto focus, Auto White Balance, Auto Face detection, Auto Exposure lock.

4. HD 1080p HD Video recording. Video stabilization, temporal noise reduction for low light situations.

5. Voice dictation. Microphone at bottom of keyboard translates text into type in apps like Mail.

6. Next Generation Wireless 4G-LTE Network. Theoretical maximum download of 73 MBPS. No matter which carrier, 3G world ready. Personal hotspot shared up to 5 devices.

7. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

8. Battery life – 10 hours for normal operations, 9 hour life on 4G.

9. Dimensions. Thin.  9.4 mm.

10. Available March 16th – Pre-Orders start today.

COMPARISON from Apple Inc.

Models
Size and Weight1	Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm) Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm) Depth: 0.37 inch (9.4 mm) Weight: 1.44 pounds (652 g)	Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm) Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm) Depth: 0.37 inch (9.4 mm) Weight: 1.46 pounds (662 g) Learn more about iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G
Storage2	16GB 32GB 64GB	16GB 32GB 64GB
Display	Retina display 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology 2048-by-1536-pixel resolution at 264 pixels per inch (ppi) Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously
Chip	Dual-core Apple A5X custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip with quad-core graphics
Wireless and Cellular	Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) Bluetooth 4.0 technology	Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) Bluetooth 4.0 technology Wi-Fi + 4G for AT&T model: LTE (700, 2100 MHz)3; UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) Wi-Fi + 4G for Verizon model: LTE (700 MHz)3; CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz); UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) Data only4
Carriers
Cameras, Photos, and Video Recording	5-megapixel iSight camera Autofocus Tap to focus Face detection in still images Video recording, HD (1080p) up to 30 frames per second with audio Video stabilization FaceTime camera with VGA-quality photos and video at up to 30 frames per second Photo and video geotagging
Battery and Power5	Built-in 42.5-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system	Built-in 42.5-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using cellular data network Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system
Input and Output	30-pin dock connector port 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack Built-in speaker Microphone	30-pin dock connector port 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack Built-in speaker Microphone Micro-SIM card tray
Sensors	Accelerometer Ambient light sensor Gyroscope
Location	Wi-Fi Digital compass	Wi-Fi Digital compass Assisted GPS Cellular
Audio Playback	Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz Audio formats supported: HE-AAC (V1 and V2), AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV User-configurable maximum volume limit Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through with Apple Digital AV Adapter (sold separately)
TV and Video	AirPlay Mirroring to Apple TV (2nd and 3rd generation) at 720p AirPlay video streaming to Apple TV (3rd generation) at up to 1080p and Apple TV (2nd generation) at up to 720p Video mirroring and video out support: Up to 1080p with Apple Digital AV Adapter or Apple VGA Adapter (adapters sold separately) Video out support at 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable (cable sold separately) Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
Mail Attachment Support	Viewable document types: .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)
Languages	Language support for English (U.S.), English (UK), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese Keyboard support for English (U.S.), English (UK), Chinese – Simplified (Handwriting, Pinyin, Stroke), Chinese – Traditional (Handwriting, Pinyin, Zhuyin, Cangjie, Stroke), French, French (Canadian), French (Switzerland), German (Germany), German (Switzerland), Italian, Japanese (Romaji, Kana), Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Cherokee, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Emoji, Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Cyrillic/Latin), Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese Dictionary support (enables predictive text and autocorrect) for English (U.S.), English (UK), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, French (Canadian), French (Switzerland), German, Italian, Japanese (Romaji, Kana), Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan, Cherokee, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese Dictation support for English (U.S., UK, and Australian), French, German, Japanese
Accessibility	VoiceOver screen reader Support for playback of closed-captioned content AssistiveTouch interface for adaptive accessories Full-screen zoom magnification Large fonts White on black display Left/right volume adjustment
Environmental Requirements	Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C) Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C) Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)
System Requirements	Apple ID (required for some features) Internet access6 Syncing with iTunes on a Mac or PC requires: Mac: OS X v10.5.8 or later PC: Windows 7; Windows Vista; or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later iTunes 10.6 or later (free download from http://www.itunes.com/download)
In the Box	iPad Dock Connector to USB Cable 10W USB Power Adapter Documentation
Built-in Apps	SafariPhotosApp StoreMaps Photo Booth Reminders Camera MailFaceTimeiTunesMusic YouTube Calendar Learn more about Built-in apps MessagesNewsstandVideosGame Center Contacts Notes

Apps updated to take advantage of retina display and resolution.

Clear Task Manager Released

Clear has now been released. The app is a simple to do list that is elegant and intuitive, once you understand it. It takes a couple of minutes to wrap your head around how lists and tasks are organized, deleted and created. However, once you get it, it is pretty fast.

The developer has already announced future features that may be included. Those include:

• Syncing tasks/lists between devices
• iPad and Mac versions, as well as Clear for other platforms such as Android and Windows Phone 7.
• Archiving completed tasks and/or lists
• Sublists/nested lists
• Reminders/alerts
• Sharing lists with others
• Moving task between lists

The app was previously mentioned here and you can watch the video.

For the introductory price, it is worth checking out and fun to try.

Short Cut Typing – A Real Time Saver

A new feature in iOS 5.x that cuts down on the time it takes you to type words, phrases or whole sentences is available.

Tap Settings > General > Keyboard and scroll down until you see “Shortcuts.” Tap on Add New Shortcut.

In the Phrase section, type something like “I will be there in 5 minutes.”  In the shortcut section, enter the shortcut letter combination that you want to use for that phrase like “bt5″  Tap on save to save that combination.

You can then add others like “Thank you very much” and “thx” then tap Save.

Open an app like Mail, Pages or even text messaging that accepts text and type your new shortcut.  You will be presented with the option to add your text phrase. Type space to accept it and you just saved yourself a lot of typing.

Some common or potentially useful shortcuts include:

phn – a phone number you want to provide without having to retype it.

ophn – an office phone number

hadr – your home address (the short cut won’t do paragraph returns so the 3 line address will be 1 line)

oadr – your office address

eml   anemail@email.com - This can be used for you to provide an email address without having to type it.

cttk – I can’t talk right now, I’ll get in touch with you later. – this can be a real time save when someone texts you.

bt5  - I will be there in 5 minutes.

Start using this useful feature and save time.

What is iTunes Match?

Credit Apple Inc.

Apple has now posted a video to help explain what iTunes Match is and does. The explanation provided is as follows:

iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to iCloud for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 20 million songs in the iTunes Store, chances are your music is already in iCloud. And for the few songs that aren’t, iTunes uploads what it can’t match (which is much faster than uploading your entire music library).

Even better, all the music iTunes matches plays back from iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality. Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream it to any of your devices. Just browse the complete list of all your music stored in the cloud.

To listen to a song, tap the iCloud icon next to it and your song starts playing. You can store up to 25,000 songs in iCloud (more if songs are purchased from the iTunes Store), but only what you want to play is stored on your device. So you have immediate access to a huge music library without taking up storage space.

Fee

You subscribe to the service for $24.99 a year. This will allow you to keep not only songs you have purchased from iTunes but also to store songs you have imported from your CDs.

Sum

If you want to be able to access your music anywhere without having to manually sync the music between devices, this service may be for you.

MindNode Update to 2.0

MindNode, a mind mapping program for your iOS devices has been updated to version 2.0. If you use mind mapping to help you organize your thoughts, this program, in conjunction with MindNode Pro, allows you to create and share mind maps between your iPad and Mac.

The program is a universal app and works on the iPhone and iPad. However, on the iPad, the larger screen real estate makes for a better experience. You can watch a short screencast of the app in action here.

According to the developer, this is a major update and the following features have been improved:

• Folding

Hide and unhide entire sub tress directly on the canvas or in outline view.

• Smart Layout
Automatically keep your canvas organized.

• Node and Branch Styles
Change the font, text size, text color, shape and line style of your nodes and branches.

• MindNode Pro features
MindNode touch will now correctly display images and cross connections create on the mac. It’s now also possible to exchange documents between the two platforms without loosing attributes.

• Document List
New grid based document list to browse documents more easily.

Many more features and enhancements:
• Resize nodes on the canvas
• Zoom level independent node well
• Create nodes via an accessory view when in edit mode
• Duplicate documents
• Multiple selection in document list

This app is recommended if you want to use mind mapping to organize your thoughts. The ability to pinch to zoom in and out makes reading and working with this app a pleasure on the iPad. The added benefit of syncing with a Mac allows you to take your work in the office or on the go. If you are looking for a Mind Map program for your iPad, this is a great product.

Videos About Steve Jobs Abound

60 Minutes has posted tonights interview with Walter Isaacson in 2 parts. Isaacson wrote the biography of Steve’s life. The book Steve Jobs is available on iBook as a preorder and should be available for downloading in a few hours.

Apple has also posted an 80 minute video of the celebration of Steve’s life.

Interestingly, 11:18 seconds into the video, you hear Steve read the ad copy for the crazy ones ad. Richard Dreyfus read the copy that was aired.

The special event was filmed at the Apple campus in Cupertino California.The streaming video requires Safari on a Mac or iOS or Quicktime 7 on Windows.