Tiltshift Video

Tiltshift Video is a universal iOS application for the iPad, iPad mini, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Tiltshift Video allows you to edit videos and photos on your iOS device applying a tilt-shift effect. You have the ability to process full 1080p videos on the iPad (3rd generation+) and the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. You can process 720P on all other iOS devices.

This is a terrific application and I highly recommend checking it out if you are interested in video editing on your iPhone or iPad. The rendering is surprisingly fast and you can apply an endless amount of adjustments to a single video.

Not only video, you can also add tilt-shift effect to any image on your iOS device as well. Check out this photo of my daughter:

Now check out this image after I made a few adjustments using the Tiltshift App:

Once you are finished adding the tilt-shift effect to your video or image you can then add some color correction to your video or image, add an intro title and an ending title, add custom music that you have stored on your device, and even add some Vignetting to your video or image.

Features include:

• Five different blur shapes
• Blur strength & transition
• Brightness
• Saturation
• Contrast
• Recovery
• Vignette
• Speed
• Music

Download Tiltshift Video in the App Store for only $4.99: TiltShift Video - Miniature effect for movies and photos - Fidel Lainez

Developer Website

Intro Designer

Intro Designer is a universal iOS application developed for the iPad, iPad mini, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Intro Designer is available in the iOS App Store for only $2.99.

Intro Designer is an application that will allow you create video intros on your iOS device that can be exported to your camera roll and then opened in another application like iMovie or Pinnacle Studio so that you can add an intro to a video that you might be editing for upload to a service like YouTube or Vimeo. Most of the templates that are offered are quite generic and you cannot create you own template but you can add your own personal text and messages to your intro video. You could also use Intro Designer to create an "outro" for you video with your website domain or asking your viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel, etc.

Intro Designer offers 13 different categories to choose from. In each of these categories you will have different themes to choose from to download to your iPad. Some of the themes might be in more than one category though. All of the themes are different lengths in time, some are 10 seconds long others might be as long as 30 seconds. Each category has a different number of themes to choose from, one category may only have 2 themes while another may have up to 6. The categories are as follows.

Categories

• Celebrate
• Family
• Simple
• Sports
• Abstract
• Music
• Love
• Birthday
• Holiday
• Nature
• Cinematic
• Shows
• Travel

Be aware that downloading these themes to your iOS will use up your storage space on your device. Then remember when you export your footage to your camera roll you will now have this video in 2 places on your device using twice the storage. If you import that footage into another application that same footage will then be in 3 spots on your device using 3x the storage. If you do not have a lot of storage space you can delete your footage from the Intro Designer application after you have exported to help save storage space!

Intro Designer is a really fun application and if you do not own any motion creating software on your computer and you want to add some professionalism to your videos then check out Intro Designer.

Download:

Intro Designer for iMovie - dgMotion Mobile (iPad)

Intro Designer for iMovie - dgMotion Mobile (iPhone)

Developer Website

AudioBooks.com (review)

Tick-tock, tick-tock... don’t you wish you had more free time?  Time for yourself, perhaps time to read?  If you are anything like me, you may find it tough to find the time to sit down, relax, and read.  If so, Audiobooks.com may be a great solution for you.

Why Audiobooks.com?  Well, in today’s busy, multi-tasking world, it is quite challenging to take the time to read.  When I attempt reading time, I become edgy and do not have peace of mind, because I know there are other productive tasks that still need to be finished. With Audiobooks.com, I am able to read (via listening) while I clean, exercise, walk, hike, commute, and travel.  I love every minute of it.  I feel almost as if I’m in “The Matrix,” having knowledge downloaded into my brain. This, imo, is multi-tasking at its finest.

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Audiobooks.com features over 15k of the most popular titles available for listening.  The unique thing about Audiobooks.com is that they have an unlimited, all-you-can-read plan for $29.95 per month.  It comes with a free seven-day trial available.  You need to enter in your payment (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, or PayPal) details upon signing up for the free trial.  After the free trial ends, you will be charged $29.95 per month.  So if you do not want to continue after the free trial, be certain to set a reminder for yourself on the seventh day (or sooner) to cancel.  However, should you want to continue the service, simply do nothing and your membership will continue.  There is not a penalty to cancel... no contracts!  If you prefer a-la-carte, there is a $19.99 per book option as well.

There are several ways you can listen to Audiobooks.com... from your browser directly on your Mac or PC (compatible browsers per their website are IE9, FireFox 15.0, and Safari 6.0, however I found it worked wonderfully in Chrome as well). You can also download the free Audiobooks.com app for iOS or Android.

I have been using the Audiobooks.com app on my 3rd generation iPad, iPhone 4s, and Samsung Galaxy S III.  The thing I really enjoy about the app is that the titles are synced at the account level.  Meaning that if I start listening on my GS3, then move over to my iPhone 4s, then hop onto the computer to listen in my browser, and then open the iPad Audiobooks.com app, it remembers where I left off via “Resume.” Also, as I browse the titles online, I am able to “Save for Later,” from the website, or via the app with “Save Book.”

Upon listening to the title in the app, after three minutes the title will download to your device.  This is great so that you will not have to stream the content.  If you are traveling and do not have data connectivity, this option really comes in handy.

I have been listening to audiobooks for many years, and am thrilled to have Audiobooks.com as a source for listening to some of my favorite book titles.

Pros:

• Unlimited Books


• Over 15k titles and growing


• Best Sellers


• Clean UI


• Resume feature


• Download to Device feature


• Accessible on iOS, Android, and via web

Cons:

• Playback is not offered at faster speeds (1.5x, 2x, 3x)


• Title library is limited upon comparison with competition

Overall, I recommend Audiobooks.com.  It is easy to quickly consume audiobook content, especially if you have commutes. "Unlimited Listening" is quite a bargain.  Try it free for seven days, and see if Audiobooks.com is a fit for you!


Download the free audiobooks application for your iPad in the App Store: Audiobooks - Audiobooks.com

Drafts for iPad

Drafts for iPad is an excellent productivity application from Agile Tortoise. Drafts is a super simple and easy way to jot down an idea with the tap of an icon. When you open Drafts you are presented with a blank screen and a blue blinking cursor which reminds me slightly of iA Writer. It is more than just a note taking application though, you can add calendar entries, send Tweets, or even write full articles similar to what I am doing now with this review.

The iPad version of Drafts cost only $2.99 and will sync perfectly with the iPhone version of Drafts if you sign up for a free Simperium data service account. Simperium is an iCloud like service that syncs behind the scenes and once you save a document it just 'automatically' appears on your other device. Sadly Drafts does not include iCloud itself as an option for syncing. Do not fret though, if you don't want to use Simperium you can always sync via Dropbox and choose to 'Open In' within the Dropbox application on your other iOS device.

I find Drafts to be very useful with helping me increase my productivity on my iPad. For example: I will be interviewing a co-founder of a successful company this Thursday on Total iPad, so I can open Drafts and write up a short reminder on the subject and send it to my Events in my calendar, then I can take that same text and post it to Facebook and Twitter to let my followers know about it. I have just killed 2 birds with 1 stone essentially. This keeps me from having to open Facebook, Tweetbot and the Calendar app. Drafts also includes a pretty cool link detection option for linking to phone numbers or addresses within your text.

Not only does Drafts increase my productivity with a few services but Drafts also supports a ton of my favorite iPad applications. I can also create notes that I can turn into calendar events as mentioned above, SMS messages, Day One entries or I can copy my content to the clipboard that I can 'Open-In' other applications that do not have built-in support within Drafts and then paste my content in that application. One example of an application that is not supported in Drafts but an app that I use daily on my iPad is Blogsy. Even though Drafts does not support 'send to Blogsy' it does support a large number of other popular applications.

Some of the supported Apps:

• Twitter


• Facebook


• Email


• Evernote


• Tweetbot


• OmniFocus


• Things


• Simplenote


• Sparrow


• The Hit List


• Echofon


• Due


• Byword


• WriteUp


• Buffer


• Bang On


• Agenda


• Day One


• Writing Kit

One of the great things about Drafts is it includes built-in support for Markdown text within the application. You can format your text in Markdown and then tap on the Markdown preview to check that your text is formatted properly. I am a huge fan of Markdown and normally write all my post for Total iPad in Markdown on my Mac when I am using MarsEdit or iA Writer + Marked (for preview).

Drafts also includes a very useful top keyboard menu bar with some useful features when you are using the built in iPad keyboard. Some of the options include some of the most used keys for typing with Markdown and appear on the top right above the keyboard and  include the following keys:

 @  #  *  _    "  -

On the top left of the extra keyboard keys there are options for: forward and backward keys for one letter or one complete word, as well as undo and redo keys.

Pros:

• Beautiful UI


• Share to some of my most used applications


• Dropbox Support


• OmniFocus Support


• Supports Markdown


• Nice selection of fonts


• Color Themes

Cons:

• Not all applications are available


• iPad version is separate app from the iPhone version


• No iCloud support

Final Thoughts:

I have been using Drafts on my iPad for about a week now and I have found it to be extremely useful as a productivity application. I love the way I can measure once, cut twice with post I write and send them multiple places at once enabling me to focus on other task instead of wasting time to open multiple applications. The layout is beautiful, the fonts selection is superb, the themes are nice and really give you that minimalistic feel that do not overwhelm you with too many options but offer enough to beautify the application. If you are using your iPad as a creation tool then you will definitely want Drafts on your iPad, Drafts is the Swiss Army Knife of creation applications.

You can purchase Drafts for iPad in the App Store for only $2.99:
Drafts for iPad - Agile Tortoise

There is also an iPhone version of Drafts in the App Store which is a separate purchase for only $1.99:
Drafts for iPhone - Agile Tortoise

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Khan Academy

Khan Academy for iPad allows you to learn almost anything for free. Khan Academy is a non-profit organization and the application for the iPad is free to download. This is a terrific application for children in grades K-12 and this iPad app covers: math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even the humanities with playlists on finance and history.

It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology; Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge.

Features:
Download Videos
Share videos to Twitter and Facebook
3200 videos
Subtitles
FREE


Download the official Khan Academy app:


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[box]Please note, on the iPhone there is not an official Khan Academy app. The official app is iPad only.[/box]

Road Inc. - Legendary Cars (review)

Road Inc. - Legendary Cars by Pyrolia¹ is an interactive anthology of classic cars designed specifically for the iPad. This is a beautiful application for the iPad, if you are a classic car enthusiast and you are wanting a highly detailed and interactive application for your iPad then look not further.

Road Inc. includes 50 automobiles, 50 detailed fact sheets, 200 pages of original writing, 500 photographs, 180 press cuttings, 40 maintenance manuals and 75 video extracts. When I say this app is highly detailed I mean it, there is a ton of information in this application that will keep you busy for weeks at a time. This application is presented with stunning 3D models and illustrations, it also includes over 50 soundtracks to make your viewing of these awesome cars more enjoyable.

I want to note a couple of things, with all the information that this app comes with you will need to be careful with downloading too many vehicles at once in the app. The downloads take about 1-2 minutes with each of the downloads including data such as the engine sounds, manuals, photos, spec sheets, advertisements, yearbooks, blueprints and more. That is nice but if you do not have much space on your iPad it will start to use up valuable storage space on your iPad, so just be cautious with downloading too many vehicles at once. You can always download 1 car, read over the info then delete that vehicle and download another. If you delete a vehicle you always have the option of re-downloading that vehicle at a later date. Manage your storage wisely.

Honestly this feel more like an interactive digital book rather than an app. That is a good thing though because you are getting your money's worth with everything that comes with this app. The apps UI is a little funny to navigate with at first but if you tap the '?' icon in the top right of the app and read how the navigation settings work you will start to get the hang of it. There are a ton of little 'dots' all over the app that when you tap on them reveal more information about the vehicles such as images and videos. So if you take the time to read the 'how to' for the app you will begin to enjoy the fact that all these little details are hidden for a reason and the interface is designed beautifully as it allows the images or content on screen to remain the focal point.

Watch my demo video above to get a better feel for everything this app features. After you watch the video head over to the App Store and download Road Inc. I am sure you will enjoy this app as much as I have.

Features:

• 50 landmark automobile models to unveil and explore, from the Ford T to the Bugatti Veyron.


• An interactive 3D museum tour allowing to explore every single angle of 50 road icons.


• Over 3,000 Archival documents including brochures, yearbooks, blueprints, adverts, plans, press articles and more...


• Over 70 videos including race archives, interviews, commercials and more...


• More than 350 high definition studio photographs from the most acclaimed automotive photographers


• More than 100 roaring engine sounds for the full experience


• Over 350 pages of original in-depth feature essays


• AirPlay support for videos, music & engine sounds(streams audio directly to your Hi-Fi speakers or Apple TV)


• Social content-sharing features (Facebook, Twitter, email)

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If you are unsure about paying $1.99 for this app, check out the free 'lite' version of the app: Road Inc. Legendary cars - Free Edition

If you have a comment or question about this application send me a message via Twitter @iCrizzo.
You can also follow Total iPad on Twitter @totalipad.

¹ Currently this app is $1.99, the normal price for the app when it is not on sale is $6.99.

Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck by Giant Thinkwell is a terrific new application for the iPad that allows you to create beautiful keynote presentations. I first discovered Haiku Deck on Google+ in a post by Robert Scoble. I went and downloaded the application and was immediately happy I did. This is a great new application and could possibly replace Keynote for me on my iPad.

The app allows you to search the web for beautiful hi-res creative commons images using keywords or you can log in and insert photos from Facebook, Flickr, Instagram or Picasa. You can also insert images stored on your iPad in the camera roll if you give the app permission to access your location services. The app features 5 free themes to use for creating your presentation, each of the themes will also apply an image filter to the background photo but that can be toggled on or off. The text on the presentation can be adjusted to different positions on the presentation and you can add a title plus tagline to each slide.

There are also several in-app purchases available for this application. The IAP are for new themes that you can use with each slide, they are $1.99 individually or you can purchase the entire theme pack for $14.99. There are 11 themes in total that can be purchased. While the app is free to use the in-app purchases help support the developer to continue developing this application. If you enjoy the app I encourage you to show your support and purchase a couple of the themes.

Haiku Deck is a terrific presentation application for the iPad, please watch my demo video of Haiku Deck and then go download it for yourself. I have a feeling you will be happy with this application, it is very well done and I look forward to new features that will come to this application in the future.

Features:

• Import photos from Flickr, Picasa, Instagram, Facebook or the camera roll on your iPad


• Apply filters to background images


• several different fonts that change with theme selected


• Share via Facebook, Twitter or email


• Export to Powerpoint or Adobe .pdf

Haiku Deck is great for all kinds of presentations. Here are some specific ways people have used it:
- Summarize a discussion
- Pitch an idea
- Recap and share a book
- Illustrate a blog post
- Show how to do something
- Create a visual resume
- Capture your brand, company, or personal values
- Make a stand-out status report
- Enliven a to-do list
- Share a personalized poem or message
- Express your vision
- Illustrate an idea with a visual storyboard
- Showcase your favorite things
- Share highlights from a trip or event
- Tell a story with words and pictures
- Make a Top 10 list
- Say thank you
- Create your manifesto
- Sell to a customer
- Present evidence

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More about Haiku Deck:
Haiku Deck Website
Watch the video interview with the developer

Seven Poets and the Assassin's Secret

A terrific new concept for an application on the iPad, this is a real time storybook. Seven Poets is currently free and you currently get two parts of the story’s prologue and after August 18th you can continue unlocking new chapters for $0.99 via an In App Purchase. New chapters will be released each week.

Most of the events will factor around real events although the story will be fiction. Currently it is aimed at the 2012 Olympic games in London. In order to unlock 'Challenges' or complete 'Your Story' you must read the 'Chapters', there is also a 'Newsroom' section to keep you update to on the happenings from that day.

It seems to be a fun idea for an app, not sure how long I will stick around with it but it is absolutely worth the free download to see if this is something you might be interested in supporting over the long haul. Check out the YouTube video.

On August 12, 2012 the world is forever changed by a devastating terrorist attack at the London Olympics. Seven Poets and the Assassin's Secret is the story of seven children's escape from the terrorists behind the attack, and their flight to new lives filled with mystery, danger, and adventure.

Features:

• Chapters are released as the story unfolds in near real-time


• The Broadside, a fictional paper from the world of the story provides a different perspective with new articles daily


• Special guest essays and editorials within the newsroom


• Challenges you can complete to unlock bonus content


• Your Story section that marks your progress through the challenges


• Adventure


• Entertainment


• Delight

[box]All content is free through August 18th. The Broadside content is free throughout. After August 18th, you can unlock an entire week of chapters inside the app for just $.99.[/box]

DOWNLOAD THE APP:

Seven Poets - Edmund Pevensey
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Seven Poets on Kickstarter
Seven Poets Website

Where's My Perry

Where's My Perry is a fun physics-based puzzle game for the iPad, it is a Disney game from the makers of Where's My Water? Where's my Perry stars Agent P from the hit Disney T.V. show Phineas and Ferb.

You can connect Where's My Perry to your Facebook account to share and compare your scores, Like levels or post screenshots of the game on your Facebook wall for your friends and family to see. Where's My Perry also uses Game Center and iCloud so you can bring your profile and stats to other iOS devices that are using the same Apple ID for iCloud.

I originally bought this game for my daughter but after playing it with her for about 30 minutes I found myself really into the game, the puzzles got harder as I advanced and a few of them really made me think. It is a great game and if you are looking for something to do to pass time I highly recommend you checking it out.

Features:

• 4 Levels


• 80 Puzzles


• Bonus Levels


• Free Updates

 

Download Where's My Perry:

Where's My Perry? - Disney (Paid Version - $0.99)
Where's My Perry? Free - Disney (Lite Version - Free)

 

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Disney - Where's My Perry website

Check the Where's My Water Facebook page for top-secret hints, tips and other classified materials.

Apple's Smart Case

I recently decided to buy an Apple Smart Case for my 3rd generation iPad. To be honest I have no idea why I bought it, I think it was more of an impulse purchase rather than something I needed. Anyway, here is a short review of the Smart Case with my opinions of it and what you can expect out of the Smart Case.

DESIGN

The Smart Case is made of Polyurethane material outside and a microfiber lining on the inside. The Smart Case comes in 6 different colors: light grey, charcoal, sky blue, lime green, light pink, and red. The Smart Case costs $49 and if you buy the Smart Case from the Online Apple Store you can get it laser-engraved with a personalized message. Apple claims the Smart Case will work with both the iPad 2 and the ‘new’ iPad (3rd Generation). The Smart Case reminds me of a hybrid of the 1st generation iPad cases that Apple sold but with the front of a Smart Case. The front cover is magnetic and your iPad will wake from sleep when lifting the cover, it will also put your iPad to “sleep” when closing the cover on the front.

The case will protect the front and back of your iPad from scratches as well as add a vibrant color to your iPad. The case probably will not protect it from drops nor keep the glass from shattering if you were to drop or if your iPad took a hard knock to the screen. This is more of a wear and tear protection cover rather than a keep my iPad safe from rugged usage.

If you fold the Smart Case back the case will double as a stand so if you have an external keyboard you want to use with your iPad or if you want to prop up your iPad so you can watch a movie it will work for that also. Be warned though, using the Smart Case as a stand feels very flimsy to me and the slightest touch to the iPad and it will start rocking back and forth leaving you with the feeling that it is about to crash land! It will also prop up in 2 other directions: Portrait Mode (be very careful) and Landscape Mode with the iPad laying flat but propped up at an angle.

The Smart Case lines up with all the buttons and ports on your iPad. You can easily access the mute switch or rotation lock button on the side of the iPad. The volume buttons are covered but the Smart Case fits over the top of the button and replaces them with rubber like buttons that allow you to adjust the volume the same way as if you didn’t have your iPad in the Smart Case. I did not have any problem plugging my earphones into the earphone jack. The 30-pin cable will fit into the slot perfectly. I did have a problem using my Apple iPad Dock Connector with my iPad while it was in the Smart Case, my iPad would not fit in the slot of the Dock Connector while it was in the Smart Case.

I have noticed that the outside of the case will dirty up fairly easily, if you have owned an Apple Smart Cover then you know what I am talking about. The Smart Case seems very susceptible to smudges and dirt. You can take a damp cloth and wipe it clean though, just remember it is probably a good idea to remove the iPad first.

COMFORT

The iPad will snap into the Smart Case fairly easily and it just wraps around the sides of the iPad. With the iPad in the Smart Case you will not notice any added bulk or weight when carrying your iPad. I have noticed one thing though when carrying the iPad, the edges seem to be “sharp” and if you hold the iPad with the hinge facing up it feels like the edges are digging into your hands. You will also notice this while holding the iPad in your hands while reading a iBook or playing a game.

(View the full gallery. Click to enlarge.)

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PROS

• Protects the front and back from scratches


• Auto-on


• Auto-off


• Lines up with buttons and ports


• Case is magnetic and will wake on opening

CONS

• Flimsy


• Sharp Edges


• It gets dirty easily

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Smart Case is not the cheapest case on the market nor will it keep your iPad the safest. Apple does not claim either of those statements. What it will do is give you piece of mind from the normal wear and tear your iPad will go through on a day to day basis. Kids playing with your iPad, dropping it in a messenger bag or purses, dirty hands, etc. All those things the Smart Case will protect your iPad from. If you were to ask me if I would recommend this case I would give you a resounding YES. It does what Apple intended this case to do and that is protect the outside of the iPad.

Do you have a question or comment? Try me on Twitter

A quick byword on Byword - app review

Confession time - before Christopher offered me the chance to review Byword, I had never heard of it. For those of you who, like me, have never heard of the app, Byword is a plain text editor with Markup support and a few other tricks to help it stand out from the crowd.

The installation process is simple - all you need to do is select whether you want your documents synced to the cloud. Byword offers the option of connecting to your Dropbox or iCloud account. As a heavy Dropbox user I opted for that although for the Apple die-hard, having the option of iCloud is nice. One thing to note however is that the prompt screens are in a grey colour, making it slightly harder to read than many other apps - not a biggie, but worth noting regardless.

Once installed, the first thing I noticed about the app was its minimal interface. Byword is clearly all about text and nothing else. Create a new document and all you have is a blank screen. No toolbars, no icons, no nothing. Start typing and your text appears in an eye-friendly san serif font. A counter at the bottom of the screen shows your word count, but in such a way that there is absolutely nothing to distract you from the task of writing.

Once you have entered some text, you can tap on the writing pane to show a similarly minimalist menu bar at the top of the screen. On the left is an icon which allows you to browse your existing text documents, in the centre is the file name which you can change from the default 'Untitled.txt'. On the right is a settings icon behind which lurks a few tricks.

As mentioned previously Byword supports Markdown syntax, the Settings menu allows the option of previewing the text you have entered with markdown formatting. I'm not a heavy user of markdown, but it is nice to be able to add some emphasis to an otherwise ordinary plain text document.

The app preferences allow for a total of 4 font choices along with the ability to add auto-capitalization, auto-correction, spell checking and Text Expander support. These settings make Byword pretty flexible, even if it is only supposed to be a text editor.

The option to export your Markdown formatted document to HTML is nice if for instance you choose to use Byword to create blog posts rather than the shockingly poor Wordpress app (as I have). You can pipe the resulting webpage out to your cloud file storage or through iTunes documents for syncing back to your PC. You can also send your document via email directly through Byword, again with various output options for ultimate flexibility.

And in the event you are lucky enough to own an AirPrint device, you can also create a hardcopy version of your document.

However, the real power of Byword is unleashed when twinned with the desktop version of the app. With the desktop and mobile apps, text documents can be created and amended from anywhere on any Apple device using cloud storage.

Byword will not replace CloudOn as my app of choice for freelance copywriting projects, Microsoft Office is just too ingrained in what I do and what customers expect. That said, Byword is perfect for quick notes, brainstorming and blogging when recording an idea is more important than the final output format. And it is for these purposes I will continue to use Byword.

Pros

• Great for creating documents and notes quickly without distraction


• No time-wasting bells-n-whistles


• Quick, efficient


• Markdown syntax support


• iCloud and Dropbox support


• Multiple output formats

Cons

• Some menus are hard to read because of the colour scheme


• Works best when twinned with the Mac app which is an additional purchase


• Cannot edit document titles for files created "offline"

So there you go - if you need a text editor with a few extras, Byword is certainly worth £1.99/$2.99 although you will probably need to invest in the desktop app to get maximum value.

Byword - Metaclassy, Lda. (iPad)
Byword - Metaclassy, Lda. (Mac)

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Launch+ for iPad (review)

Launch+ is a fantastic universal app for iPad and iPhone. It allows you setup your most used applications or features of those application or the people you email the most in one convenient location, preferably the dock on your iPad. You can also set up notification center alerts and events, tweet right from the app, tweet what you are currently listening to (a feature not currently available in iOS) right from this app. I use this app as a convenient way to access OmniFocus or Byword to add a new note from text I have copied from my clipboard. If you have several pages of apps and you are tired of scrolling through those pages looking for  apps on your iPad then you should check out Launch+. It does so much more than what I have just listed and if you are wanting a tool to speed up your workflow on your iPad then this is the app you want to help accomplish those task.

Features:

• Full scheduling support for Notification Center*


• Launch actions, apps and websites


• Call, Text, Email, FaceTime, Skype your favorite contacts


• Create new Events, Contacts, Emails and Messages


• Tweet with Photos, Clipboard and Music info


• Map routes to favorite places, like home or work


• Search Clipboard in web


• Music control


• Screen Brightness control


• Volume control


• Flashlight with SOS and Strobe Mode

Launch+ is a $1.99 in the iOS App Store. You can download it here: Launch+ - devarty.com

Have a comment or an app you would like me to review? Use the contact button in the footer or try me on Twitter @totalipad

Video Time Machine for iPad (Review)

Video Time Machine an awesome collection of videos for each year from 1860-2011. It features music that was popular, movies, t.v. shows, and sports. It is a terrific application, all video are from YouTube and have been collected and added in a single application. You can view by year and category. It is a universal application, it will work with both the iPad and the iPhone.


Download it here: Video Time Machine - Original Victories, Inc.


Have a question, comment or app you would like me to review? Use the contact button or try me on Twitter @totalipad

Be sure to give Total iPad the thumbs up on Facebook.

Vinyl Tap for iPad (review)

For the last 3 days I have been playing with this fantastic iPad application called Vinyl Tap and I have loved every minute of it. Vinyl Tap is a novelty application for your iPad that simulates a record player to play the music you have on your iPad. The detail of this application is amazing, it even includes the "pop and scratch" sounds when you first place the needle on an album.

Vinyl Tap features two different players: T-800 which is a standard turntable with multi-colored strobe simulator and the T-1000 which is a linear tracking turntable that features a digital display and track scanner. More players are coming to the application in the future, stay tuned.

Let me talk about the attention to detail with this application, the animation for flipping the album is superb. If you load an entire album onto the turntable you will see a full 12" album, if you load a single onto the turntable a 7" album is displayed. Lift the needle during the middle of a track and hear the scratching noises, place it in the middle of a track and hear the pops like you would on a real turntable.

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Features:
Full support for the new iPad Retina display
Who needs crates when you can browse your albums as a wall of art
Select from two beautifully re-imagined turntables
Play albums from your iTunes library (DRM files not supported)
Authentic vinyl sounds
Both LPs and Singles
Vinyl Tap LPs and Singles look like their real life counterparts
Album art record labels
3D flipping of the records to their other side

Standard turntable:
Pivoting tone arm
Select between 33RPM and 45RPM
Multicolored strobe simulator

Linear tracking turntable:
Auto detection of LPs and Singles
Digital display showing track number, RPM and play status
Jog wheel
Track scanner
Previous/Next track buttons

 

If you are wanting a retro feel for your music on the iPad then Vinyl Tap is the application for you. Vinyl Tap is an iPad only application and it is $1.99 in the iOS App Store. You can download it here:


 

[box type='info']INFO: If you are using iTunes Match you must download the music you want to play onto your iPad first. Vinyl Tap can not play music stored in iTunes Match.[/box]


Developers Website