Showing posts with label iPad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPad. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

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

Sunday, May 5, 2013

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

Friday, May 3, 2013

Don't mind the mess


I am in the process of moving Total iPad from a self-hosted Wordpress blog over to Blogger. With the recent integration of Google+ comments into Blogger this is the perfect chance for me to continue posting content to Total iPad while adding some interaction with fellow iPad users in the process. With Total iPad I have always kept comments turned off because I was getting an enormous amount of spam or trolling comments. With Google+ comments I can control what comments show up on the blog more easily as I don't get a lot of spam on Google+, well not on most of my post anyway. Trolls yes but not spam. The trolls are easy to manage though, a simple click of the block button and no more negativity.

In the process of moving all the content from Wordpress to Blogger some things will be broken. Images are the biggest problem, you might read a post and notice the image is broken. That is because when I imported all my post from Wordpress the images were hosted on the hosting account. I will have to manually go through all 400+ post and check to see which post had images and which ones didn't. Tags will also be broken, I think. Some of my video tutorials might not work as not all my videos were hosted on my YouTube channel. Some of the videos where self-hosted like the images and those will be broken. Also I was using a Bluberry plugin to push my content to iTunes and I think those videos were also broken. I have a lot of work ahead of me but I will get it all back to normal, it might take a couple of weeks but it will be worth it in the long run!

I honestly wasn't sure I wanted to even keep Total iPad but I enjoy doing reviews of Apps and I like the Google+ integration so why not? 

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Repix adds new features to become the most inspiring photo editor available

One of my personal favorite iPad photo editors was updated today. Below you will find the full press release for Repix. You can also check out my initial review of Repix: http://totalipad.com/repix/. I have not yet had a chance to play with the new features as I am currently out of town, but I wanted to make sure I let the readers know what is new in the application. I will probably update my video review of Repix as soon as I get home, until then check out my initial review of Repix.

Here is my video review of Repix:

Since our launch last month the reaction of users has been truly amazing”, said Ilkka Teppo, CEO, Sumoing. “We’ve listened the feedback and wanted to make it even easier and faster to be creative with photos. By adding new filters, styles and zero-friction design, we think Repix is the smoothest and most creative photo editor on the market. With this update we remove the need for people to use multiple photo editing apps. We’re looking forward to seeing the creations and hearing the feedback.

So, what’s new?

- NEW - 8 new filters to apply to images for stunning look or final finish

- NEW - Smooth cropping tool with 6 presets

- NEW - New ‘+ style’ feature for selected brushes. Click + to see a new type of effect

- NEW - ‘Starter’ section with images available for users to start editing

- NEW - Direct access to all albums, streams & Facebook

- NEW - Seamless zero-friction design guarantees smooth experience

- Carefully handcrafted selection of 20 brushes include state-of-the art effect, color boosting and artistic styles

- Repix comes with real-time RebecaTM processing engine that seamlessly integrates the power of the CPU and GPU enabling insane performance

- Full resolution 4096x4096 support for iPhone5 and iPad3+

- Studio-grade technology alongside a slick and intuitive interface to inspire new levels of creativity; zero-friction design with ability to switch between tools easily

- Share creations with #repix to Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram or Facebook

- Free to use with a selection of brushes, with an option to purchase more brushes

Repix is available to download for free from the App Store. The free version of the app offers users access to a selection of tools and users can purchase more tools in-app. For more information about Repix please visit www.repix.it. To see videos of the app in action, visit here. For logos and screenshots, visit here.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Lie Swatter (walk through)

Lie Swatter is a new game from the creators of You Don't Know Jack. Currently Lie Swatter is an iOS only game but an Android version is coming soon. Lie Swatter is free to download but does rely on some In App Purchases, they are not required to play though. I have been playing Lie Swatter for a few days now and have thoroughly enjoyed the game, I can't believe how much I thought I actually knew were facts that were not or vice versa.

Overall this is a terrific game for the family to play, you can add friends or family members by email address or username. If you want to challenge me to a game, my username is Total iPad.

Overall this is a very fun game and well worth the free download to play!

Download Lie Swatter in the iOS App Store: http://goo.gl/oetSt

Lie Swatter on Facebook.
Lie Swatter on Twitter.

Build your own LEGO iPad stand

I don't normally share videos on Total iPad that are not my own, I prefer to try and keep everything original but this LEGO iPad stand was just too awesome to pass up not sharing. I am a huge LEGO fan and last summer I got to visit LEGO Land while I was in Florida on vacation with my daughter. I am not sure if I will order this or try to buy the pieces and build it on my own. Either way if you are a LEGO fan and own an iPad or an iPad mini then you may want to check out this video and consider buying this awesomeness for yourself!



Buy it: http://www.thedailybrick.co.uk/lego-sets/custom/lego-custom-ipad-dock-black.html
Build it: http://www.thedailybrick.co.uk/lego_instructions/viewer?i=custom_LEGO_iPad_Dock_Instructions

thedailybrick-lego-ipad-dock-2

Thursday, March 28, 2013

LIE SWATTER

Lie Swatter is a new game from the creators of You Don't Know Jack, another terrific, fun game. I will be uploading a live hands on demo of Lie Swatter in the next couple of days, stay tuned.



Jellyvision Games, creators of YOU DON’T KNOW JACK, announced their next game for the mobile platform: Lie Swatter.

Launched today on iOS devices with a future Android release planned, Lie Swatter is an irreverent multiplayer trivia game that asks, “Can you separate strange fiction from stranger fact?” To download Lie Swatter free on the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, please visit: Lie Swatter by Jellyvision Games, Inc.

“Lie Swatter is the further evolution, or devolution, of our brand of twisted trivia, and another chance to prove to your friends that they’re dumber than you are. Plus you get to squish bugs. Deceitful, lying bugs.” said Mike Bilder, General Manager of Jellyvision Games. “We’ve built Lie Swatter from the ground up as a quick, turn--based mobile gaming experience that we think both YOU DON’T KNOW JACK fans and insectophobes alike will love.” Note: No bugs actually harmed during game. We love all creatures of the Earth.

Lie Swatter is a free-to-play, turn-based mobile trivia game. Players may find opposing players via Facebook Connect, email, and username, or play a random unsuspecting foe if they prefer. Integration with Apple’s Game Center is also planned.

In each of the three rounds, players pick a category and are presented with seven statements... and then the swatting begins. Players find and crush ridiculous lies with a satisfying splat, while avoiding odd truths like “Christmas trees kill an average of 13 people a year.” Not feeling confident? Jellyvision Games has you covered with Category Zappers and Helpers, available for purchase with in-game tokens. Don’t worry, Jellyvision Games won’t judge you for artificially enhancing your performance.

Lie Swatter represents Jellyvision Games’ second mobile effort and a further demonstration of the developer’s focus on the social and mobile gaming world. Expect content updates and special categories to be announced soon.

For more bug splatting action, follow Lie Swatter on Facebook and Twitter at www.facebook.com/LieSwatter and www.twitter.com/LieSwatterGame.


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Be sure to Circle me on Google+: +christopher rizzo  

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Baseball Trade Rumors (Baseball Part 2)

A couple of weeks ago I said I was going to review my favorite baseball applications leading up to the start of the baseball season. I got a little sidetracked due to life but I did not forget that I said I was going to review them all so here is part 2, Baseball Trade Rumors.

If you are wanting up to the minute news on the latest trades or rumors revolving around your favorite players or teams then you will want to check out Trade Rumors. I have been a long time reader of the Trade Rumors website and having this information on my iPad is awesome, getting push notifications is even more awesome. Especially if you are a fantasy baseball player then you will find this app super useful because it will keep you up to date with all the baseball transactions and roster moves.

Baseball Trade Rumors is a universal iOS application and will work on the iPad, iPad mini, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Trade Rumors was updated in January and now fully supports the iPhone 5. I mostly use Trade Rumors on my iPad as that is where I do all my baseball related research for my fantasy team as well as keeping up with the Giants and Yankees.



FEATURES:

  • Select only the players or teams you want, and receive a push notification for every related new rumor

  • Be the first to know about any official trade or free agent signing with our Transaction push notifications

  • By popular demand: filter the main news page to show rumors for one specific team, or only the transactions

  • View the 40 latest stories, easily refreshed via pull-down

  • Log in through Disqus and leave comments on MLBTradeRumors.com




Download Baseball Trade Rumors in the iOS App Store for only $2.99:


Part 1 of my baseball series: MLB At-Bat 2013



If you are interested in following allow with these post consider subscribing to my RSS feed:
http://bit.ly/12ACVYG

If you are not an RSS feed kind of person then consider following / subscribing to my YouTube channel where I will be updating my MLB app videos over the next 3 weeks:
http://youtube.com/videorizzo

Not an RSS or YouTube kind of person then how about Twitter? You can follow me here:
http://twitter.com/icrizzo

Not a Twitter, YouTube, or RSS kind of person? How about Google+? Circle me here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/110700994347677244209/

None of the above? I give up but I do thank you for reading or watching my videos all the same!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Sync music from iTunes to your iPad

A quick iPad tip showing how to sync music to your iPad or remove music that you currently have on your iPad and replaced it with music that you do not have on your iPad but do have in iTunes on my computer.

I know that Apple has tried to make managing media on the iPad a tad bit easier recently but I get asked quite a bit about managing media, particularly music on the iPad. I thank Irene Koehler for giving me this idea. Hopefully it helps someone who doesn't understand about syncing music from iTunes to the iPad. I will be honest, with iTunes 11 I have gotten lost myself a few times.

If you have any question feel free to contact me via Twitter @iCrizzo.
You could also circle me on Google+.

Repix

I have had the pleasure of using Repix for the last week before it officially launched and I can honestly say this is a fantastic application. Beautiful, fantastic, awesome, superb, those are some of the words that come to mind when I think of Repix. Repix launched today and you can download it in the iOS App Store for free. Repix works with both the iPad and the iPhone.
Repix inspires users to paint unique remixes from photos

Repix is not just filters it is better filters! Filters that actually let you get creative but the great thing about Repix is that you do not have to be an artist to create a masterpiece. It is simple to create or get creative you just need to play with the brushes and find that right touch to add to your photos. Of course you can easily apply just 1 filter effect to your images and be done with it but where is the fun in that? Repix gives you total control over the effects that you add to your images, you can mix and match effects or you can add 1 effect to a portion of your image and add another effect to another portion. Again, you have total control!

IMG_0517

Not only do you have up to 21 artistic brushes to choose from you also have the ability to crop your images or adjust the following aspects to your images: Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Vibrance, Temperature, or add some Vignetting to your image. All these settings will allow you to add some extra special touches to your masterpiece.

When you are finished adding your desired effects you can share your amazing new photos to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or you can email them to a friend or family member. You can also save your photos to your camera roll which will then allow you to Photo Stream them either to another device or to a shared Photo Stream.

For a better understanding of how this application works, please check out the video above where I go into more detail!

[photos_bar]

Pricing for the Repix brushes are as follows:

FREE:

1. Cartoonize
2. Charcoal
3. Edger
4. Dotter
5. Flares
6. Drips
7. Posterize
8. Silk
9. Bleach
10. Undoer (not a real brush)
11. Eraser

PAID:

COLOR BRUSHES (set €1.79/$1.99/£1.49)

1. Sepia
2. Hollywood
3. Vintage
4. Freshen

ARTISTIC BRUSHES (set €1.79/$1.99/£1.49)

1. Hatching
2. Daubs
3. Van Gogh
4. Spray

LIGHT BRUSHES (set €1.79/$1.99/£1.49)

1. Glow Smoke
2. Stars
3. Sparkler
4. Glow Line

OR UNLOCK EVERYTHING WITH MASTER'S COLLECTION FOR €4.49/$4.99/£3.99

 

FEATURES:

  • Remix photos using Repix’s impressive selection of style brushes.

  • Carefully hand-crafted Brushes include state-of-the art effect, color boosting and artistic styles.

  • Repix comes with real-time RebecaTM processing engine that seamlessly integrates the power of the CPU and GPU enabling insane performance.

  • Studio-grade technology alongside a slick and intuitive interface to inspire new levels of creativity.

  • Choose images from camera roll or import from Facebook.

  • Share creations with #repix to Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram or Facebook.

  • Free to use with a selection of brushes, with an option to purchase more brushes.


Don't take my word for it though, you can go download Repix for free right now for both the iPad and iPhone:
Repix - Remix & Paint Photos - Sumoing Ltd


Repix website.
Be sure to check out the Repix video on Vimeo.
Check out some of the awesome artwork on Tumblr.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Mr. Reader - Updated

My favorite RSS reader application has been updated today. Mr. Reader brings a new feature for supporting browser bookmarklets.

What's New in Version 1.11.2
NEW FEATURES:

• Browser Bookmarklets support added. More infos: http://www.curioustimes.de/mrreader/bookmarklets/

IMPROVEMENTS:

• Tap on folder behavior can be changed in the Miscellaneous settings: display articles or open folder
• Theme Editor: The color and style (bold + underline) of links in the article view can be set
• Accessibility improved (VoiceOver)
• 'Launch 1Password' added to most login dialogs (only when 1Password v4 is installed)
• Service Templates: New tag/placeholder [AUTHOR] introduced to insert the article author if available
• Added a button to insert the article author in the Twitter, App.net, Buffer and Toodledo dialogs
• Added a button to insert the original URL to the Twitter, App.net and Buffer dialogs. For most users it was unknown that the original URL (instead of the shortened URL) could be inserted with a tap and hold on the 'Link' button.
• Replaced the insert value buttons (Source, Title, ...) in the Twitter, App.net and Buffer dialogs with a keyboard extension. I was running out of space displaying all of this buttons.

FIXES:

• Twitter: Upgraded to the Twitter API v1.1. v1.0 retires in March 2013.
• Twitter: Now I'm updating the t.co link lengths once a day by asking Twitter. Previously it was hard coded. Did not thought that Twitter will change them that often. ;-)
• App.net code migrated. There are some API changes that will take effect on March 20, 2013
• Posterous removed. The Posterous API is broken since December 2012 (500 Internal Error), and it will turn off on April 30, 2013
• Article View: The sharing menu button no longer uses the selected text. Was a relict and responsible for a unwanted behavior when some text was selected but no service configured to process it (opened Safari).
• Article View: Now the header values (title, author) can be selected for example for copy & paste or the text selection actions
• Article View: No more text on the right side of an image if it is larger than 3/4 of the current set article width
• Zoom Image: My Thumbpad could be used while the Zoom Image dialog was in display. It did not show the buttons, but the functionality was executed. :-(
• Articles Table: After a rotation the shadows at top and bottom were occasionally not displayed in full length
• Error message added when the image saving failed due to missing access rights (iOS Settings App -> Privacy -> Photos)
• Portrait mode: A tap on the unused space in the folders/feeds table toggles the articles table position. But it was in an undefined state when you moved the articles table manually at this time.
• Article View (only iOS 5): Tapping a link to open a installed App (via App URL scheme) did not open the App and a error message was shown (e.g. Drafts action import URL's).
• Used the wrong 'return' key description in the multiline message fields of the Twitter, App.net and Tumblr dialogs (was 'Done')
• Articles Table: Fixed the ugly cut off of the last line when you used multiline titles and a small row height

[divider]

You may also like these other post related to Mr. Reader:
http://totalipad.com/app/mr-reader-for-ipad/
http://totalipad.com/10-great-ipad-rss-feed-reader-apps/
http://totalipad.com/favoriteapps/
http://totalipad.com/episode37a/

Episode 37 (Part 2)

This is the second part to Episode 37, as I said in part 1, I wanted to try something different with this podcast and wanted to do a video version of it. I know it sucks that I had to break it up into 2 parts and I probably will not do that every time if I decide to continue doing the video portion of it, this was just a test to see how well it works or doesn't work.

Anyway, we talk about Google Currents not only the App but also how it can help content creators get their content out to the world. Google gives you the tools it is your job to build something.

If you want the audio only portion of this podcast, you can stream/download that here: http://totalipad.com/podcast/episode37b.mp3

You can download Currents here: Google Currents - Google, Inc.

Get started with Google Currents Producer: https://www.google.com/producer

Find me on YouTube

You can find all the podcast on Total iPad: http://totalipad.com/category/podcast/

You can subscribe in iTunes here: http://goo.gl/aZHdu

Find out more about Mr. Reader here: http://totalipad.com/app/mr-reader-for-ipad/

Watch my Mr. Reader video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70XLv8n1JCo

Monday, March 11, 2013

Episode 37 - RSS reading apps (part 1)

I figured I would try something different this week, normally I only upload this podcast as an audio podcast but I figured I would try to screen-cast as I recorded the audio and upload that screen-cast to YouTube and Blip.tv. I am hoping to get feedback and maybe a few more subscribers to not only my YouTube channel but also to my podcast in iTunes.

Part 2 is here: http://totalipad.com/episode37b/

This is only part 1. I am in the process of uploading the rest of this podcast where we discuss Google Currents. I will update this post with a link to part 2 as soon as I get the video edited and processed.

If you only want the audio portion of this podcast, you can download that HERE

Find me on YouTube

You can find all the podcast on Total iPad: http://totalipad.com/category/podcast/

You can subscribe in iTunes here: http://goo.gl/aZHdu

Find out more about Mr. Reader here: http://totalipad.com/app/mr-reader-for-ipad/

Watch my Mr. Reader video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70XLv8n1JCo

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Temple Run: Oz

Temple Run: Oz



Temple Run: Oz was launched yesterday on iOS and this TR [1] is inspired by the movie Oz the Great and Powerful that is releasing in theaters this weekend, March 8th, 2013. With TR: Oz some new features and twist are added to the same style of TR game play. You still swipe up to jump, down to slide, and left/right to turn in either direction. The twist comes in the format of the environment and how the backgrounds change and force you to be more alert than the previous versions of TR.



What do I mean by the changing environments? Well in this version of TR you have the option to explore different locations that do not come pre-installed in the game which you must download, for free I might add. Also in TR: Oz the roads will collapse on either side of you so you have to be careful of that. Then you have obstacles that will tumble into your path while you are running, such as boulders. There are also snapping vines grabbing for your ankles while you are being chased by flying evil baboons.



I was really impressed with the gameplay of TR: Oz it was much smoother than that of TR2 in my opinion. TR2 had a lot of lag and freezes that I do not notice with TR: Oz. The graphics seem much improved as well and since this game is based off of the Wizard of Oz or rather just OZ, you have the yellow brick road and all that comes with it. Be prepared for tornado holes and hot air balloons!



TR: Oz does offer some of the dreaded In-App Purchases which I am not very fond of. I will not get into why but I just wanted to point out that you can purchase coins and/or gems to help you unlock the power-ups in the game. Some of the power-ups include:




  • Magic Magnet

  • Fireworks

  • Coin Bonus

  • Double Coins

  • Head Start

  • Stumble Proof

  • Run Multiplier

  • plus more…



As I mentioned above there is a level that you have the option of downloading that does not come packaged with the game. The level is called Dark Forest and is a cemetery level. You can also download HD Assets which I am assuming is meaning retina graphics? I really couldn’t tell much of a difference between the HD Assets and the non-HD Assets. To be fair I only played 2 games before I downloaded the HD Assets and I honestly didn’t pay attention to the graphics of the non-HD graphics. My thinking is that they are offering these 2 downloads to keep the game at under 50MB so that the game doesn’t require Wi-Fi to download. TR: Oz comes in at 45.9MB from the App Store so I am assuming those extra features would have put TR: Oz over the limit.



Another thing I wanted to make sure I mentioned was the social sharing feature of the game. If you have your Facebook account logged into on your iOS device, before playing TR: Oz you might want to jump into settings and turn off “Autopost” to Facebook which is turned “On” by default. You will have the option of sharing to FB even though this is turned off but you will have to do it manually after each run. You can also share to Twitter, by email, by text message, and save a screenshot to your camera roll. TR: Oz also has Game Center built-in so you can compare your high scores with that of your Game Center friends.



If you link your Facebook account to the game you will also be able to compete in weekly challenges for “distance” and “score” in the game. There are also Weekly and Legendary challenges that you can compete against or try to achieve each week. Some of the challenges are currently:




  • 1,000 coins

  • 3 Gems in a single run

  • 5x multiplier

  • Pocket Change (collect 2500 coins)

  • much more…



Overall this is a superb game and I have no problem recommending Temple Run: Oz. Temple Run: Oz is a universal iOS game and will run on your iPad, iPad mini, iPhone, or iPod Touch devices that are running iOS 5.0 or greater. If you are a fan of Temple Run then you will want to grab this title today. Temple Run: Oz is only $0.99 in the App Store:



[divider]







  1. TR short for Temple Run, just because it is easier and faster than spelling it out 50 times.  ↩





Monday, March 4, 2013

Episode 36 - Writing Apps

On this episode of Total iPad, episdoe 36 I invited Bojan to come back and join me for a discussion on writing apps and using Drafts with those applications to create workflows via our iOS devices and our OS X machines. We did overlap a little bit of our converstation from the week before but we stayed more focused on this one topic whereas the week before we kinda bounced from topic to topic. Overall I think we had a terrific discussion and invite you listen in as well get down to the nitty gritty of how we use our iOS devices in conjunction with our daily workflows.



If you have a question or comment about anything we discussed on this podcast please feel free to send me a message on Twitter @iCrizzo.

You can subscribe to the Total iPad podcast in iTunes:



Some of the Applications we discussed:



iOS





OS X





Some of the topics we discussed that we have wrote about on our blogs:





Tech Podcast Network

Sunday, March 3, 2013

GoodReader - Passcode Lock Folders

This is just a quick tip for GoodReader showing the differences between the different pass code lock settings. If you are using GoodReader to store important files or documents you may want to adjust your pass code settings within the app. GoodReader has quite a few security settings, each of them offering more protection.

Within the GoodReader app you have 2 different settings for pass code locking a folder. If you have really sensitive data stored in a folder you might want to set it up to require a pass code immediately any time the application is opened. This will not require a pass code if you stay in the application only if you leave the application and come back to it. With require pass code immediately turned off you are only required to enter the pass code if the application is completely closed and re-opened.

There are also some encryption settings within GoodReader but they are not encrypted within iCloud. Make sure you read about the syncing through iCloud, you will find the dialog info below the setting to turn encryption on. As always, keeping important information local is always safer than syncing via the cloud.

You can find all my GoodReader tips and tricks here: http://totalipad.com/allaboutgoodreader/

You can download GoodReader for iPad in the App Store for only $4.99: http://goo.gl/l1UK1

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Pythonista YouTube Downloader

Here is just a quick demo video showing what Pythonista is capable of. I first read about this app on MacStories.net and it got me really interested in trying things with this app to see how nerdy I could get.

The video above is just a sample to show you that it really does work. Of course this video is just for educational purposes and you shouldn't download videos that are copyrighted. Download your own videos or check Vimeo for videos that you are allowed to download. Or course this will not work with Vimeo, but you get the idea of what I am getting at.

Source: http://omz-software.com/pythonista/forums/discussion/180/youtube-downloader
Github: https://gist.github.com/crizzo/5074896


Create this bookmarklet in mobile Safari :
[box]
javascript:window.location='pythonista://YoutubeDL?action=run&argv='+encodeURIComponent(document.location.href);
[/box]



Pythonista is $6.99 in the App Store:
Pythonista - omz:software

iDownloads is free in the App Store:
iDownloads PLUS - Download Manager! - Amad Marwat

More awesome Pythonista stuff: http://www.macstories.net/tag/pythonista/

GoodReader USB

I previously uploaded a GoodReader USB video about 1 and 1/2 - 2 years ago. The video was uploaded to my old YouTube account so I no longer had access to that video. Anyway, GoodReader USB is a free tool and I find it to be very useful for file management on my iPad.

The one benefit to using GoodReader for files and documents is that your files are local, unlike services like like Dropbox where they are uploaded to the 'cloud' so they can sync between devices. Sure the cloud makes things easier to manage but do you really want to upload important files to a service and trust that your info is kept safe/private? Not that I don't trust Dropbox but somethings are best if kept local only.

Also with GoodReader you can setup passwords for each folder you have in GoodReader that way if someone has access to your iPad then they will not have access to your important files/documents.

GoodReader USB works with your iPad connected to your computer via USB cable or you can also set it up to work over your network and add files wirelessly using the browser on your desktop and your local IP-address. I personally prefer using the USB cable and that is how I use it so that is how I demo GoodReader USB in the video above.

Download GoodReader USB free for both OS X and Windows: http://www.goodreader.com/usb/
More GoodReader: http://totalipad.com/allaboutgoodreader/

If you do not own GoodReader then you can purchase it for your iPad in the App Store for only $4.99:


Did you find this video helpful? Do you have a question or comment? Contact me on Twitter @iCrizzo.

Netbot for iPad

I recently got an invite to come try out App.net as part of their freemium model. My buddy Bojan who is a paid member of App.net sent me an invite to try it out. While my account is limited it is open enough for me to enjoy what App.net has to offer. Enter Netbot.

Netbot is an iOS application that allows you view and manage your App.net account from an iPad or iPhone. Netbot is from the brilliant creators of Tweetbot my favorite way to browse Twitter on my iPad. Oddly I have never demo'd or reviewed Tweetbot for iPad. So I wanted to make sure I did a brief review of Netbot, well more like a demo.

Netbot is free to download in the iOS App Store. Netbot works on all iOS devices including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch that are at least running iOS 5.0 or later. Netbot is almost identical to Tweetbot in every way and there is nothing wrong with that because if you use Tweetbot or have tried it then you will feel right at home with Netbot. There are a few differences like the color of the icon and the fact that App.net is a different services so things like list are not in Netbot. That is not Netbot though, that is just the way App.net was built, with no list to manage or create.

Some of the key features of Netbot:

Composing

  • Drafts

  • Auto URL Shortening

  • Photo & Video Uploads

  • Post from Another Account

  • Cross-post to Twitter


Services

  • URL Shortening via bit.ly Pro, CloudApp, Droplr

  • Upload Images via CloudApp, Mobypicture, and Droplr

  • Upload Videos via CloudApp, Mobypicture, and Droplr

  • Read Later via Instapaper, Pinboard, Readability, Pocket

  • Translate Posts

  • Web Mobilizer via Google, Instapaper, and Readability


(For a full demo of what Netbot has to offer please view the video above.)

 

I have not upgraded my App.net account as I plan on using it for a month or two to get a better feel for the service and to decide if this is something that I want to invest in. App.net is a paid service and I don't mind paying for a great service I just want to make sure I am going to use it and make it money well spent. If you know someone with a paid account try talking to them and asking them to send you an invite. I have enjoyed using App.net these last few days and Netbot was a huge reason why. I mostly do my social network stuff from my iPad and a great app like Netbot always makes that experience better!



You can download Netbot for free:



Feel fee to follow me on App.net @crizzo

Friday, March 1, 2013

Save money on Google Drive storage on an iPad

A couple of weeks ago I was looking into purchasing more storage for my Google Drive account but the only option was to pay by the month if I wanted to do so. First, I recently purchased a Nexus 4 so that is the main reason I wanted to up my Drive storage. Looking at the "Buy Storage for Drive" you will notice as I mentioned above your only option is to purchase monthly, it is not expensive as it starts out at $2.49 a month which is really cheap if you compare that to the pricing of say Dropbox per month cost. I decided to ask on Google+ if there was a way to pay for a year of Drive storage. Sadly the answer was no. After investigating further I discovered that while $2.49 is cheap, it is also much more expensive than the old pricing of Drive.

Enter Steve Ruge on Google+, he kindly pointed out that in the Google Drive app on the iPad you could still purchase more Drive storage and pay for it for the year via an In-App purchase. Not only could you pay for the year but it will end up saving you $4.98 which is 2 months free if you used the $2.49 a month for 1 year of 25GB storage that is found on the Drive page to purchase more storage.

drive

The odd thing is you cannot do this on an android device. I tried to purchase more via the Drive app on my android phone and it kicks me out the browser and opens the same Drive upgrade page as linked above. Clearly this is a move to get iOS users using Drive on their devices, saving $5 or getting 2 months free is a good start in my opinion. I only wished I could purchase more than 25GB though. It would have been nice to see the 100GB for $50 available as an In-App purchase. I guess Google doesn't like having to give Apple that 30% cut. Another thing to remember is you will not have to add a credit card to Google Wallet by purchasing in the iPad. This is an IAP and the money comes from your Apple account so if you want to try Drive but don't want to give Google your credit card info then there is that!

To access the upgrade in Drive:

  1. Tap the settings gear on the lower left of Drive (next to your email address)

  2. Tap Storage

  3. Upgrade Your Storage


If you found this helpful then let me know on Twitter or send me a shout out on Google+