If, like me, you partially got the iPad to write on and don't like writing with your finger, you probably own a stylus. And given how few cases come with stylus holders, like me you probably don't use it as much as you'd like to because it's hard to keep it with the iPad.
Zoogue is now offering "free" stylus holders - the true cost is only $2 shipping. Of course, they are made to work with Zoogue cases, and so they may or may not work with yours. But $2 is a pretty minimal investment to find out, and now that I've got mine I can copy the design with a thinner sheet of plastic that will fit in my case.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Apps I'm Thankful For
We had our feast on Monday when my mother in law was in town, so today we get to relax and eat leftovers and watch the parade - and blog! Here are a few apps I'm thankful for that have improved my life in some small way:
Sleepstream 2 - The "soft piano" music gets my baby to sleep every time, and the "distant thunder" kept him there until we bought a Gentle Giraffe so I can take my iPad out of the room while he's sleeping. :)
Baby Geek - As I recently posted about, Baby Geek helps me track his sleeping so I can see that his bedtimes are getting earlier and his naps longer and breathe a sigh of relief.
TextFree - I don't have a smartphone, and I don't have a text plan on my dumbphone. At 20c per message sent OR received, I avoided texting unless necessary - until I found this app. It gives you a real phone # to use for free texting. My mom and sister are very happy that they can now contact me via their favorite method, and from my end it's a lot like instant messaging - and autocorrect beats T9 every time.
AppShopper - This app lets you make a wish list of apps, then notifies you when they go on sale. I've gotten some good deals this way! You can also search the app store for recent price reductions and view an app's entire price history (if an app's never gone on sale, I assume it's doing fine at the current price and isn't likely to be reduced soon and just buy it - but many go in sale every couple of months, making it worth the wait).
Photobucket - Along with an Eye-Fi card for my camera, this app has helped me go nearly all-iPad for my photos.
Dropbox - Is there anyone with an iPad who isn't using Dropbox yet? Sure, now with iCloud it's not as vital, but it's still a great tool.
Dimmer - This JB tweak lets you turn the brightness on your iPad all the way down - I don't know how I made it through so many nights of feedings without it!
Sleepstream 2 - The "soft piano" music gets my baby to sleep every time, and the "distant thunder" kept him there until we bought a Gentle Giraffe so I can take my iPad out of the room while he's sleeping. :)
Baby Geek - As I recently posted about, Baby Geek helps me track his sleeping so I can see that his bedtimes are getting earlier and his naps longer and breathe a sigh of relief.
TextFree - I don't have a smartphone, and I don't have a text plan on my dumbphone. At 20c per message sent OR received, I avoided texting unless necessary - until I found this app. It gives you a real phone # to use for free texting. My mom and sister are very happy that they can now contact me via their favorite method, and from my end it's a lot like instant messaging - and autocorrect beats T9 every time.
AppShopper - This app lets you make a wish list of apps, then notifies you when they go on sale. I've gotten some good deals this way! You can also search the app store for recent price reductions and view an app's entire price history (if an app's never gone on sale, I assume it's doing fine at the current price and isn't likely to be reduced soon and just buy it - but many go in sale every couple of months, making it worth the wait).
Photobucket - Along with an Eye-Fi card for my camera, this app has helped me go nearly all-iPad for my photos.
Dropbox - Is there anyone with an iPad who isn't using Dropbox yet? Sure, now with iCloud it's not as vital, but it's still a great tool.
Dimmer - This JB tweak lets you turn the brightness on your iPad all the way down - I don't know how I made it through so many nights of feedings without it!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Wish List: Photo Print and Book Apps
As I've mentioned before, I've gotten it so that my entire photo workflow is on my iPad... Until the very end. To order prints, I've got to use my desktop. And now that I want photo books for Christmas, same deal.
Now, there aren't zero options. Walgreens has basic print ordering on their app, and a (poorly-designed) app called LifePics allows print ordering to CVS, Ritz Camera, and a few other places. So if you want 4x6, 5x7, or 8x10 prints, and your pictures are already cropped to the right size (these apps won't help you there), there are a couple of options. But seriously, why don't companies like Photobucket and Shutterfly have this option in their apps? Are they allergic to money? As far as I know, Apple only takes a 30% cut on in-app downloads, not physical merchandise.
Same for photo books. They could easily turn the flash book-making services on their sites into apps. The apps would likely be smoother than the sites! But right now, I seem to have two options: use a scrapbooking app like ScrapPad or Album App to design the book, email it to myself, convert to PDF, then use the desktop just to upload the PDFs to a bookmaking site that will take them; OR use a flash browser like Puffin to navigate a slow, half-assed version of their bookmaking sites.
This is the kind of thing the iPad was born to do. Page layout via touch beats via mouse any day (and this is something I've done professionally via mouse and trackball). Whoever realizes this first has a pile of cash waiting for them.
Now, there aren't zero options. Walgreens has basic print ordering on their app, and a (poorly-designed) app called LifePics allows print ordering to CVS, Ritz Camera, and a few other places. So if you want 4x6, 5x7, or 8x10 prints, and your pictures are already cropped to the right size (these apps won't help you there), there are a couple of options. But seriously, why don't companies like Photobucket and Shutterfly have this option in their apps? Are they allergic to money? As far as I know, Apple only takes a 30% cut on in-app downloads, not physical merchandise.
Same for photo books. They could easily turn the flash book-making services on their sites into apps. The apps would likely be smoother than the sites! But right now, I seem to have two options: use a scrapbooking app like ScrapPad or Album App to design the book, email it to myself, convert to PDF, then use the desktop just to upload the PDFs to a bookmaking site that will take them; OR use a flash browser like Puffin to navigate a slow, half-assed version of their bookmaking sites.
This is the kind of thing the iPad was born to do. Page layout via touch beats via mouse any day (and this is something I've done professionally via mouse and trackball). Whoever realizes this first has a pile of cash waiting for them.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Baby Loggers
If you don't have kids, you probably think the idea of a baby logger is at best obsessive and at worst pretty creepy. What is it? Just what it sounds like - an app that lets you track when your baby falls asleep, wakes up, has a diaper change and what was in that diaper, when he eats and either how long and which side if you're breastfeeding or how much if it's from a bottle. Some also let you track development, keep track of doctor's appointments, and more.
The thing is, when the baby is first born, the doctors want you to track this stuff. You need to make sure enough food is going in and coming out, and that the baby isn't sleeping too long between feedings, to make sure everything's working right. At first we wrote it all down on a paper they gave us at the hospital, but then I discovered apps that let you track it with one tap. More recently, it's been clear to us that E has never really slept as much as they claim newborns sleep, and we wanted to keep track so we could try and get his sleep patterns into more of a, well, pattern. With the help of a baby logger, we now know for sure that he sleeps an average of 11-12 hours a day instead of the usual 14-16, including only 2-3 hours of naps instead of 4-6. Now that we know what we're dealing with, and what a bad night looks like versus a good night, we can start to address the problem.
I've tried three baby loggers since E was born, and the one I've stuck with is Baby Geek. The interface takes a little exploring to figure out, but you'll have it mastered by the end of the day. I used this to track diapers and feedings for a few days, but have been tracking sleep with it for two months now, so that's the feature I'm most familiar with. Baby Geek gives you simple one-touch tracking, with the nice touch that if you go to change the time of an event, there is both a clock to adjust and buttons to automatically jump it back 5, 10, or 15 minutes. It has the best graphs of any of the loggers I tried - you can view totals of each type of event by day, or timelines with all or only one type of event shown, and it separates day and night sleep (at times you pick). You can email the entries and have the program sync across two devices, so both parents (or one Nd a childcare provider) can keep track. And probably a dozen other features I'm not thinking of because I only use the most basic one. And all this is only $.99.
The other two I tried are BabyBix and Baby Log. I liked Log better than Bix, but not well enough to shell out $4.99 for it once the free version ran out, which only took about a day.
Here is how the three stack up (Some are my subjective ratings 1-10, 10 highest):
This entry is cross-posted to Don't Call Me Crunchy.
The thing is, when the baby is first born, the doctors want you to track this stuff. You need to make sure enough food is going in and coming out, and that the baby isn't sleeping too long between feedings, to make sure everything's working right. At first we wrote it all down on a paper they gave us at the hospital, but then I discovered apps that let you track it with one tap. More recently, it's been clear to us that E has never really slept as much as they claim newborns sleep, and we wanted to keep track so we could try and get his sleep patterns into more of a, well, pattern. With the help of a baby logger, we now know for sure that he sleeps an average of 11-12 hours a day instead of the usual 14-16, including only 2-3 hours of naps instead of 4-6. Now that we know what we're dealing with, and what a bad night looks like versus a good night, we can start to address the problem.
I've tried three baby loggers since E was born, and the one I've stuck with is Baby Geek. The interface takes a little exploring to figure out, but you'll have it mastered by the end of the day. I used this to track diapers and feedings for a few days, but have been tracking sleep with it for two months now, so that's the feature I'm most familiar with. Baby Geek gives you simple one-touch tracking, with the nice touch that if you go to change the time of an event, there is both a clock to adjust and buttons to automatically jump it back 5, 10, or 15 minutes. It has the best graphs of any of the loggers I tried - you can view totals of each type of event by day, or timelines with all or only one type of event shown, and it separates day and night sleep (at times you pick). You can email the entries and have the program sync across two devices, so both parents (or one Nd a childcare provider) can keep track. And probably a dozen other features I'm not thinking of because I only use the most basic one. And all this is only $.99.
The other two I tried are BabyBix and Baby Log. I liked Log better than Bix, but not well enough to shell out $4.99 for it once the free version ran out, which only took about a day.
Here is how the three stack up (Some are my subjective ratings 1-10, 10 highest):
| Baby Bix | Baby Log | Baby Geek | Winner | |
| Price | Free | Free trial for a day or two, then $4.99 | $0.99 | Bix |
| Starting an event | Several taps | Two taps | One tap | Geek |
| Email reports | No | Yes | Yes | Log & Geek |
| Quality of graphs | 5 | 8 | 8.5 | Geek |
| Ease of use | 3 | 8 | 9 | Geek |
| Unique feature | Integrated message board | Bar and line graphs | Day vs night sleep shown on graph | Log or Geek |
| Unique annoyance | Crashes a lot | Past events must be entered by start time and duration, not start and end time | Only shows past two weeks' with of data | No one wins this! |
This entry is cross-posted to Don't Call Me Crunchy.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
iPad + Real Toys: It's About Time!
I saw something at Target the other day that had me really excited. Not because it, in itself, is a really cool toy - but it's the first I've seen of its kind, and it likely marks the beginning of what I think will be a very cool category of toys and learning tools.
They're called AppMates, and so far these Cars 2 toys seem to be the only ones that exist. The idea is simple - you have a physical car toy that the iPad can sense. You download the free racing app, and you can race your real car toy on the virtual race track on your iPad.
Like I said, not that awesome right now. But think of the possibilities! You could theoretically build a manipulative that was not only sensed by the iPad, but also could detect what was displayed beneath it, giving you two-way communication of a sort. I once had an idea for a book that would act as a companion to existing popular Nintendo DS games, outlining activities that combined the game with the real world to simulate scientific activities - for example, using Viva Piñata as a location for doing observations similar to those a biologist would do in the field. That sort of idea plus this technology could do some really amazing things!
This post cross-posted to The Cognitive Informalist.
They're called AppMates, and so far these Cars 2 toys seem to be the only ones that exist. The idea is simple - you have a physical car toy that the iPad can sense. You download the free racing app, and you can race your real car toy on the virtual race track on your iPad.
Like I said, not that awesome right now. But think of the possibilities! You could theoretically build a manipulative that was not only sensed by the iPad, but also could detect what was displayed beneath it, giving you two-way communication of a sort. I once had an idea for a book that would act as a companion to existing popular Nintendo DS games, outlining activities that combined the game with the real world to simulate scientific activities - for example, using Viva Piñata as a location for doing observations similar to those a biologist would do in the field. That sort of idea plus this technology could do some really amazing things!
This post cross-posted to The Cognitive Informalist.
Knockoff accessories
I wanted some accessories for my iPad, but I didn't want to pay $60+ for a keyboard and $30+ for the camera connection kit.
Luckily, there is the wide world of knockoffs! Are they as good as the originals? Probably not, but they're way cheap.
Keyboard: You can use any bluetooth keyboard, of course, but the Apple one is so slim and compact. I found several knockoffs on eBay - just search "iPad keyboard" and you'll be inundated with them. I figured in for a penny, in for a pound with the cheap-knockoff thing, so I bought the cheapest one I saw, for $24.
And it didn't work.
BUT the seller sent me a replacement quickly and without fuss, and the new one works just fine. I was out the $6 return shipping - check policies before buying - but the keyboard was still half price. I'm typing on it right now, and the only complaints I have are that the shift key occasionally sticks and gives me 2-3 capitals in a row, and a few of the letters skip if I type too fast. So, you get what you pay for. But for me, a subpar-but-tiny $30 keyboard trumps a perfect $60-70 keyboard.
Camera Connection Kit: Unlike keyboards, Amazon has a good selection of off-brand iPad connectors of various flavors. I went with this one for $7 with free prime shipping. Unlike Apple's kit, this one puts the SD reader and USB port on the same dongle, so you only have one tiny thing to keep track of, which is nice. You can find other ones that also hold microSD cards, have a TV connector built in - some have five or seven connectors on one dongle! I stuck with the basics.
And so far, it's been just fine. I've only used it a few times, I'll admit, but so far so good. I've had no problems either using it "officially" via the photo app, or connecting to it via iFile to use it as general external storage. Unlike the keyboard, in this case I can't imagine why Apple's costs more than 4x the price - though maybe mine will die in a month, who knows.
In summary, I'm glad I bought both of these over their more expensive brand-name counterparts, but I'm not sure I'd say they're both worth their price. The keyboard is only a good deal because the Apple one is so expensive; objectively it should probably cost about $10 less. The connection kit, on the other hand, is worth every penny and possibly a few dollars more.
Luckily, there is the wide world of knockoffs! Are they as good as the originals? Probably not, but they're way cheap.
Keyboard: You can use any bluetooth keyboard, of course, but the Apple one is so slim and compact. I found several knockoffs on eBay - just search "iPad keyboard" and you'll be inundated with them. I figured in for a penny, in for a pound with the cheap-knockoff thing, so I bought the cheapest one I saw, for $24.
And it didn't work.
BUT the seller sent me a replacement quickly and without fuss, and the new one works just fine. I was out the $6 return shipping - check policies before buying - but the keyboard was still half price. I'm typing on it right now, and the only complaints I have are that the shift key occasionally sticks and gives me 2-3 capitals in a row, and a few of the letters skip if I type too fast. So, you get what you pay for. But for me, a subpar-but-tiny $30 keyboard trumps a perfect $60-70 keyboard.
Camera Connection Kit: Unlike keyboards, Amazon has a good selection of off-brand iPad connectors of various flavors. I went with this one for $7 with free prime shipping. Unlike Apple's kit, this one puts the SD reader and USB port on the same dongle, so you only have one tiny thing to keep track of, which is nice. You can find other ones that also hold microSD cards, have a TV connector built in - some have five or seven connectors on one dongle! I stuck with the basics.
And so far, it's been just fine. I've only used it a few times, I'll admit, but so far so good. I've had no problems either using it "officially" via the photo app, or connecting to it via iFile to use it as general external storage. Unlike the keyboard, in this case I can't imagine why Apple's costs more than 4x the price - though maybe mine will die in a month, who knows.
In summary, I'm glad I bought both of these over their more expensive brand-name counterparts, but I'm not sure I'd say they're both worth their price. The keyboard is only a good deal because the Apple one is so expensive; objectively it should probably cost about $10 less. The connection kit, on the other hand, is worth every penny and possibly a few dollars more.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Wish List: iCamera
Okay, I know this isn't strictly 100% iPad-related. But bear with me.
The iPad has revolutionized taking, sharing, and printing photos for me. I have an Eye-Fi card in my camera, so all photos are automatically uploaded to a private folder in Photobucket (and to my desktop, sorted neatly by date taken). Then I use the Photobucket app to look through them, move some to a public folder for sharing, order prints of some, and download some to the iPad.
Once on the iPad, I have the wide world of iOS photo apps at my fingertips to play with. Right now I am especially digging Pic Stitch and Instapic, both of which help you make simple photo collages (the two apps make very different styles of collage). Very useful for sharing several photos at once, with style! I can also upload to FaceBook albums thanks to the new FB app (finally!). And then I upload edited pics back to Photobucket for more sharing and printing. Everything is 100% iPad.
This is pretty awesome, and I am loving it. But this process could be even better. For one thing, this is a lot of tedious uploading and downloading, one pic at a time. Having Photobucket as the main storage space, rather than just where I put pics to share or print, is not ideal. Second, and related, I wish I had some of these filtering, etc apps on my camera! Downloading a pic just to see if an app would be a good fit is more tedium. Plus some will even preview the filter as you point the camera, but taking pics on the iPad, well, mostly sucks. So that functionality is lost to me.
What I really want is an iPod Touch with an iPhone camera. No expensive voice/data plan to buy (and keep buying). Just the functionality I really need - taking pics on a palm-sized camera, right within iOS, playing with the apps right away, then iClouding it all to the bigger screen for detail work, sorting, uploading to sites, etc.
Now, on the one hand, lately people have been tolling the iPod touch's deathknolll. Sales are down, it's hard to see how it fits between the iPad and iPhone, and the lack of an update this fall does look like the first coffin nail. This kind of thing could revive it - sure, no one with an iPhone would buy it, but they wouldn't buy it under any circumstances. But iPad owners without an iPhone would have a real use for it, since taking photos is one thing something that size is better suited for than the iPad.
On the other hand, if they want to let the touch die, give us an iCamera! Hobble it to only run photo apps, but turn it into a full-featured pocket megazoom. With better zoom lenses and control over things like exposure and f-stops, even iPhone owners might want one.
Either way, this product would be the perfect photo companion for the iPad, and a sure way for Apple to get a couple hundred more of my money.
The iPad has revolutionized taking, sharing, and printing photos for me. I have an Eye-Fi card in my camera, so all photos are automatically uploaded to a private folder in Photobucket (and to my desktop, sorted neatly by date taken). Then I use the Photobucket app to look through them, move some to a public folder for sharing, order prints of some, and download some to the iPad.
Once on the iPad, I have the wide world of iOS photo apps at my fingertips to play with. Right now I am especially digging Pic Stitch and Instapic, both of which help you make simple photo collages (the two apps make very different styles of collage). Very useful for sharing several photos at once, with style! I can also upload to FaceBook albums thanks to the new FB app (finally!). And then I upload edited pics back to Photobucket for more sharing and printing. Everything is 100% iPad.
This is pretty awesome, and I am loving it. But this process could be even better. For one thing, this is a lot of tedious uploading and downloading, one pic at a time. Having Photobucket as the main storage space, rather than just where I put pics to share or print, is not ideal. Second, and related, I wish I had some of these filtering, etc apps on my camera! Downloading a pic just to see if an app would be a good fit is more tedium. Plus some will even preview the filter as you point the camera, but taking pics on the iPad, well, mostly sucks. So that functionality is lost to me.
What I really want is an iPod Touch with an iPhone camera. No expensive voice/data plan to buy (and keep buying). Just the functionality I really need - taking pics on a palm-sized camera, right within iOS, playing with the apps right away, then iClouding it all to the bigger screen for detail work, sorting, uploading to sites, etc.
Now, on the one hand, lately people have been tolling the iPod touch's deathknolll. Sales are down, it's hard to see how it fits between the iPad and iPhone, and the lack of an update this fall does look like the first coffin nail. This kind of thing could revive it - sure, no one with an iPhone would buy it, but they wouldn't buy it under any circumstances. But iPad owners without an iPhone would have a real use for it, since taking photos is one thing something that size is better suited for than the iPad.
On the other hand, if they want to let the touch die, give us an iCamera! Hobble it to only run photo apps, but turn it into a full-featured pocket megazoom. With better zoom lenses and control over things like exposure and f-stops, even iPhone owners might want one.
Either way, this product would be the perfect photo companion for the iPad, and a sure way for Apple to get a couple hundred more of my money.
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