FreshForm for tablets eases sign-ins and registration

Do you find pockets full of prospective client business cards when you return from a conference? Are you still procrastinating about entering your new customers on your email list for the newsletter that you promised? FreshForm is a new app that can do those tasks and more.

FreshForm outfits your iOS or Android tablet with an application that makes it easy for customers to sign up at trade shows, conferences, and at store or restaurants. The collected data is immediately available onsite or when you return to the office.

The list can be collected offline, and you can automatically sync the new data with your list once you are online.

FreshForm makes it easy to turn one time customers into repeats and it eliminates the potential errors that come from copying written forms.

FreshForm is free and can be downloaded for Androids in the Google Play Store and for iPads in the iTunes App Store. You can also follow @FreshMail_APP on Twitter.

By: Ric Manning On 7/20/2015

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mSpy lets you monitor and track a target mobile phone

If you provide a mobile phone to your children or employees, you might natually wonder who they are calling and, perhaps more important, what photos are they sending?

The makers of mSpy understand your curiosity and anxiety. The program lets you monitor the phone's usage almost as if you were holding it in your hand. It logs incoming and outgoing calls, tracks text messages, gives you access to emails, monitors Internet use, read instant messages and even uses GPS to track the user's location.

The monitoring software runs in an invisible mode, letting you remotely track all activity that takes place on the monitored phone. Everything from calls to calendar updates is sent from the tracked phone to a secure online account. This is just whet we needed when our teenage daughter talked us into dropping her off at the mall, leaving her mother and I to wonder if she actually stayed there.

The version for mobile phones works with iOS, Android and Blackberry handsets. Pricing starts at $39.99 for one month. To see all of the available features and pricing, visit the mSpy website and check out this site for customer reviews and discussion.

By: Ric Manning On 9/08/2014

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Dashable unscrambles job-tracking and invoicing

In a former life I supervised a crew of digital artists and coders who worked on a variety of projects. One of the challenges was keeping track of who worked on what for whom. Too bad Dashable wasn’t around back then because it sounds like a great solution.

Dashable is a multi-platform tool that keeps track of jobs, team members, hours worked, clients, and invoices. It works with project management tools such as Basecamp, GitHub, Trello and Pivotal Tracker. And it can be accessed from the web or from an iOS or Android app.

Dashable sends and email each day to team members asking then to verify what they worked on and fill in any blanks. And every morning, their manager gets a report that shows the progress on various projects and a work report that can easily be converted into an invoice.

To get more info, check out the Dashable website and pricing page and their Twitter feed.

By: Ric Manning On 8/23/2014

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iPad magazine focuses on Southwest Florida

If you've spent even a little bit of time in the Sarasota-Naples-Ft. Myers area of Florida, you likely came across copies of Focus Magazine of SWFL.

It's a thick, slick and snappy magazine loaded with features on fashion, beauty, health, business, home decor, arts and culture.

In addition to profiles and advice, the magazine has a great collection of hot-weather recipes. And like Vogue, the pages of advertising have their own special appear. You'll see what's new from Ann Taylor, Rolex, Tiffany, Marc Ecko and - Oh Boy! - Maserati.

For those of us who don't live or winter in Southwest Florida, we can download the classy iPad version of the magazine for less than the cover price of the print edition: $1.99 for a single issue or $10.99 for an year's subscription.

Check it out at the iTunes store or Google Play store where you can find free sample issues. And, there's more information at the Focus Magazine of SWFL website.

By: Ric Manning On 8/06/2014

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Notebook Defence revives a fun table game

When video games arrived, we were quick to abandon table games, some of which were actually pretty cool. I liked the game Battleship, which two people could play with pencils and a couple sheets of paper.

Another strategy game played on paper is Notebook Defence. Like Battleship, you choose locations on your opponents battlefield to target with your artillery.

Now developer Vladislav Zhirnov has brought the game into the 21st Century with a free version that you can play on the Apple iPad. Tanks and infantry fight it out on game boards that mimic blue-lined graph paper. When you want to take a trip back to school days, download the game at the iTunes store.
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By: Ric Manning On 8/06/2014

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Rediscover your pics with Picmatic app

Like most smartphone users, I have a lot of photos stored on my iPhone and iPad. Pictures of friends, travel albums, kids, pets, relatives -- you name it. But also like most smartphone users, I seldom take the time to thumb through my collection.

Picmatic is an iOS app that brings all those photos from your life back into your life. It creates a photo frame and slide show that cycles through selected albums or randomly chooses images from your picture files.

You can choose among several layouts, like four or eight squares in a grid, and tweak transitions or apply filters like Sepia or Retro.

The fun is the serendipity, the the surprise of seeing people, places and selfies that you haven't looked at in months or even years. And, as delightful as Picmatic is on an iPhone, it's even better on an iPad when the tablet is parked in a charging station or sound dock.

Want a soundtrack with your picture show? Picmatic does that as well. It plays songs from your device's music collection. Tap to start the music and swipe to change track. And the app makes room to display the date and time.

That's a lot of features to get from a free app. Pony up $1.99 and you get more layouts, filters and ways to customize and experiment. 

By: Ric Manning On 3/17/2014

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Apple and Microsoft: The retail experience

Microsoft store at the Pentagon City Mall

Two computer stores in the same mall. One had five or six customers, the other was jammed with people. You can probably guess which was rocking and which was chilling.

It was a little before 5 p.m. last Friday when I found myself at the Pentagon City Mall near Washington, D.C. With some time to kill, I was delighted to discover that the mall was home to both an Apple store and the more rare Microsoft store.

I hit the Microsoft store first. It looked familiar. There were big square tables with displays of phones, computers and accessories. Peppy young people in bright t-shirts were answering service questions and putting merchandise in trendy-looking blue logo bags.

Where had I seen all that before?

Maybe it was one floor up at the Apple store. It also had tables displaying phones and computers and it's own cadre of earnest people answering questions, demonstrating products and putting items in white logo bags. Except there were lots more sales people and customers in  the Apple store.

Apple store in the Pentagon City Mall

The Pentagon City Apple store was just like others I've visited in Louisville, Paris, Chicago and London. When have you been in an Apple store that wasn't jammed?

Of course, Apple was just coming off its big fall iPhone announcement. And I wasn't surprised that I to wait my turn to fondle the "unapologetic plastic" case on an iPhone 5C and see if the gold iPhone 5S felt any different than the plain black 5 in my pocket (it didn't).
   
But Microsoft also has new products to promote, especially the Surface 2 tablet that runs a mobile version of Windows 8. A couple of people were test driving the tablets, but no ones were jostling to get their hands on one. And a nearby table holding different models of Microsoft's phones was completely deserted. Most of the action in the store was in a back corner where a young couple was an Xbox soccer game on a big screen monitor.

That's too bad. I thought the tablet and the phone looks and function very nicely. And the price tags were much more attractive than the ones on the tablets and phones one floor up. But not attractive enough to get me to buy one.

In the end, I left the mall with one new piece of equipment, a charging cable from the Apple store. The best part of that transaction was getting my receipt by email and an agreement from the sales woman that, yes, $19 is an outrageous price to pay for a [pair of plugs and a meter of cable. 

By: Ric Manning On 9/30/2013

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Concert Vault app streams thousands of live sets

With three top-name acts from the seventies coming to the Louisville area this week -- Fleetwood Mac, Janis Ian, and Karla Bonoff -- it seemed like a great time to open the vault.

I'm talking about Wolfgang's Vault. Wolfgang's website lets you listen to and sometimes watch thousands of concert recordings stretching back to the 1950s. The Vault's archive contains about 4,500 concerts ranging across all genres from rock and blues to folk, jazz and country.

In addition to the web, the shows are also available on Apple and Android mobile apps called Concert Vault and now there's a new app specifically for Apple's iPad.

    

The service charges a membership fee of $3.99 a month or $39.99 for a year. Members can stream concerts or individual songs and download two full concert downloads each week. New app users get a free 7-day trial to check out the service.

I found show recordings for all three of this week's performers:

•     Janis Ian at New York's Calderone Concert Hall in 1975
•     Three Karla Bonoff shows from 1977 at The Bottom Line
•     Seven Fleetwood Mac concerts between 1968 and 1975

You can hear Stevie Nicks' "Rhiannon" and "Landslide" on the 1975 set from the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, N.J. But long-time Mac fans will also appreciate hearing the Christine McVie numbers like "Sentimental Lady" and the Bob Welch tunes like "Hypnotized." Those are songs they are not likely to hear at the live show at the YUM! Center.

By: Ric Manning On 4/08/2013

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Turtle Shell speaker is built for Spring Break

Want to take your tunes along on your spring break? Of course you do. Here's a Bluetooth speaker that built for serious beach time.

The Turtle Shell Wireless Boom Box is water resistant and built to keep rocking even in the rain or the surf. The speaker costs about $150 from Outdoor Technology.

The case has a screw mount on the bottom so you can attach the speaker to bicycle handlebars, a kayak or a beach umbrella. A claw-shaped clamp, sold separately for about $20, lets you mount the speaker almost anywhere you want it.

The speaker's shell has controls built into the surface and connectors tucked away behind rubber plugs. And the sound is deep and rich enough to replace those bulky old-style boom boxes left over from the 1990s.

By: Ric Manning On 3/05/2013

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Google maps returns to iOS

After a months-long absence, Google Maps is again available for Apple's iPhone and iPad.

Google’s mapping app arrived late Wednesday in Apple's app store. Google maps used to be featured on Apple devices until until the company replaced it with its own mapping program when it released version 6 of iOS last fall. The Apple map software was plagued by errors and glitches such as misplaced businesses and roads that roads that went under water.

In Louisville, Apple's map still shows the Hard Rock Cafe and other Fourth Street Live businesses located a block away from their actual locations.

The Google app includes turn-by-turn voice-guided navigation, listing profiles by Zagat, and information on public transportation, which Apple maps lacks.

Here's more at Wired.com.

By: Ric Manning On 12/13/2012

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iPad + iCade = Asteroids!

An iPad and iCade cabinet from Ion Audio will take you back to the days when video games were played standing up with a roll of quarters in your pocket. Ion's iCade is a miniature version of the stand-up arcade games, complete with a sturdy joystick and trigger buttons.

Open the top of the iCade and slip in the iPad so the screen faces you like the TV screen on an arcade machine. The controls use use wireless Bluetooth technology to direct the action on the screen.

The case comes with a free download of a game from the Atari Greatest Hits app at the iTunes Store. The lineup includes Atari classics like Asteroids, Centipede, and Battlezone.

The iCade costs about $70 at amazon.com.

By: Ric Manning On 11/27/2012

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These apps deliver a lift for holiday shoppers

TGI Black Friday app

If you plan to do battle in the Bargain Wars on Black Friday or the following weeks, you might want to take along some digital ammunition. 

There are apps for savvy shoppers that can turn your smartphone into your secret weapon. Both Apple's App Store and Google Play for Android devices are stocked with free programs to help you plan your assault and insure that you get the best prices.

To find those big discounts and the “Doorbuster Specials,” check out the mobile apps from Brads Deals, DealNews, or TGI Black Friday. Each app shows items and prices listed in newspaper circulars for stores such as Costco, IKEA, JCPenney, and Staples. 

The BradsDeals.com and DealNews.com websites also compete to see which one can post a sale flyer before its official publication date.

> Read more at MyWell-Being.com
 

By: Ric Manning On 11/20/2012

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Dark Sky app nails weather predictions

While the sunshine was giving way to dark clouds earlier today, I was wondering if I had time to walk the dog before the rain arrived, or if I would have to wait until the rain stopped and when that might be.

When my various weather radar sources couldn't answer my questions with the precision that I wanted, I found a new iOS app that could.

Dark Sky ($3.99 in Apple's App Store) matches weather radar with the exact location of my iPhone or iPad to estimate, almost to the minute, when rain or snow will arrive, when it will peak, and when it will stop. The app also has a highly-detailed radar image that pinpoints any active storms across the country and displays them in a way-cool blue-on-black map.

Dark Sky told me that, although the sky above my head was indeed quite dark, it wouldn't actually start delivering rain for another 40 minutes. Its shimmering graph indicated that the rainfall would be light and that the drizzle would let up in about 90 minutes. The prediction was spot on, pleasing both me and the dog.

By: Ric Manning On 10/19/2012

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Logitech Folio soaks up the sun

The iPad is so versatile that you're tempted to make it your full-time portable computer. But there's one hitch: It doesn't have a real keyboard.

Logitech has solved that issue with a new folio-style case that holds an iPad 2 or third-generation model on one side with a Bluetooth keyboard built into the other. Although the case is thin and lightweight, the keyboard has is solid and responsive with one additional attraction - it comes with its own solar power source.

The solar cells embedded into the cover of the Solar Keyboard Folio won't power the iPad, but they will deliver a steady flow of current to the keyboard. There's no need to turn off the keyboard and no batteries to replace. Logitech says a fully-charged Folio will run for two years, with two hours of typing per day, even in the dark.

The folio cover unfolds into two positions. The upright position emulates a notebook computer so thoroughly that when my wife saw it, she accused me of buying a new computer. The arrow keys control the sound volume and the Ctrl key launches a slide show from your photo collection.

So far, the case has been a welcome replacement to my previous iPad folio. I appreciate having a real keyboard always available for emails, notes or more extensive typing. The only thing that worries me is the outer edge of the case. The think rubbery edge looks like it could quickly get beat up from normal daily use. The folio's $129 price tag might also make potential buyers think twice.

If your wallet can stand it, you can find the Solar Keyboard Folio at amazon.com, Mac Connection, and other online sources.

By: Ric Manning On 7/19/2012

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Coby's Bluetooth dock helps beat the heat

Here's what I need to chill out during a mid-summer heat wave: A tall cold drink, the new Ken Follett novel on my Kindle, an evening breeze on the front porch and some cool jazz from Coby's new Bluetooth music dock.

The wireless dock is small and compact - about the size of Pringle's potato chip can - so it's easy to snag for a picnic, a trip to the pool, or a short walk to your favorite lounge chair.

It's also easy to pair with any device that supports Bluetooth, including iPads, iPhones, and Android devices. And it plays nice with an iPod, a TV, portable DVD player or any other non-Bluetooth device by connecting a stereo cable to the gadget's headphone jack.

Because the dock doesn't have a standard Apple plug, it won't charge your Apple device. But it does have a handy groove that holds an iPad or a mobile phone. The dock's amplifier is powered by a rechargeable battery that gets refueled through a USB cable. I've played two hours of music and video without exhausting the battery.

The sound from the dock's tiny speakers is crisp and clear and loud enough for background music at the dinner table. Don't count on it to light up a large room or a big back yard.

The Coby CSMP135 has a list price of $49.99 but you should be able to find it for about $10 less at several online sources.

By: Ric Manning On 7/08/2012

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Book review: My New iPad

All I wanted was a simple task: drag and drop some digital photos from my Windows PC to my iPad. I had done it with videos and iTunes, but I got stalled trying to do the same with still pictures. I decided to consult the iPad manual but then I remembered - Apple didn't give me one.

Instead, I got the bad news from a handy independent guide: My New iPad, the 3rd edition of Wallace Wang's user guide published by No Starch Press ($13.61 at amazon.com). The book has a quick and cogent explanation of how to use iTunes to sync photos from designated directories on your desktop computer. There's no explanation of the drag-and-drop process because it can't be done; Apple doesn't allow it.

The book covers the things that iPads can do with just enough detail to get you feeling comfortable. The chapters are packed with color screen shots and each segments starts by showing you the icons for the apps or functions that you'll be using. Along with the basics, Wang explains more esoteric features like the four-finger gesture and how to customize Spotlight, a search option that I didn't know existed.

Wang doesn't go beyond the iPad basics. You won't learn how to link the Contacts app to Google's contacts or how to use add-on devices like Apple camera connection plug. But My new iPad is a solid resource for new arrivals or anyone who wants to learn more about their device.

Get more details about the book or download a free chapter in PDF format at the No Starch Press website.

By: Ric Manning On 6/26/2012

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Au revoir mon ami

We are planning a trip to Paris and London this summer, so I have my iPad loaded with Speakeasy French ($1.99 in the Apps Store). I think I'll be able to say Plus le vin s'il vous plaît. Unfortunately, I haven't found an app that will teach us to speak Brit. 

Some of the other apps we are counting on:

Lonely Planet guides (free)  has condensed versions of the full guidebooks for London, Paris, Rome, New York City and Las Vegas.

oMaps ($1.99) lets you download a store full street maps for major cities or regions. Like Google maps, the oMaps show hotels, restaurants and attractions and they let you all a pinpoint for locations that you choose. Having the map offline means you can use them when you're out or range of the Internet or when you want to avoid roaming charges.

Lately we don't go anywhere without TripAdvisor. Like the website, the free mobile versions deliver profiles and reviews of hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions and so far, they've never steered us wrong.
  
  

 

By: Ric Manning On 6/09/2012

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Get a grip on your tablet

We want our tablets and ebook readers to be thin and light, but that can also mean they're slippery and sometimes difficult to hold. If you've tried to hold a tablet in one hand while you're your other hand is typing or trying some exotic multi-finger gesture, then you know what I mean.

When Denver DJ Kevin "Prometheus" Trotsky couldn't find a device that would let him get a grip on his iPad, he invented one. It's called the Whale Tail and it lets you hold a tablet securely with one hand or prop up the device on almost any surface.

The gadget some in two pieces. The first is a black dome-shaped Vacuum Dock that sticks to the back of the your tablet like those suction cup brackets that mount your GPS on your car's windshield. But this one has a built-in pumping button that insures a tight fit on a plastic case or on the iPad's aluminum back.    

The dock is the perfect size for the palm of your hand. It gives you a solid hold on your device while your other hand is free to point, type or swipe. The other component is the tail, which snaps into place in the center of the dock. Now you have a stand as well as a gripper.

The tail is both sturdy and flexible. It can be attached and bent to hold the tablet at a variety of angles, in either portrait or landscape mode.

I usually keep my iPad in an X-Doria folio case, but I've found lots of uses for the Whale Tail. It was especially welcome when I did a presentation to a group and it finds just the right angle for iPadding in bed.

The Whale Tail cost $49.95 at Octa.com.

By: Ric Manning On 5/28/2012

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An iPad case made from . . . paper?

Put your iPad in a paper bag? Sounds like a crazy idea, and the Austrians who make the Papernomad cases would surely admit that they are a little, um, unconventional.

But they aren't fooling around. Their paper is a special composite that resists tearing and staining. They use multiple layers of paper and padding are stitched together to produce a case that's just as tough and protective as any poly plastic pouch.

The sleeves are finished with attractive borders and designs and there's a little hemp flap to seal the open end. The surface of the paper is dense enough that it won't get soggy when you spill coffee on it or carry it in the rain.

And here's the best part: you can make one uniquely yours. Draw a doodle or a cartoon on it. Write a poem, a phone number or a web address. Add a quote from Dilbert. After all, it's paper - it was made write on.

Papernomad makes sleeves in a variety of sizes for different portable devices. The iPad sleeve cost about $50 at papernomad.com.

By: Ric Manning On 5/18/2012

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A dash of iPad safety

Yes, Apple's iPad cover is bit of magic with it's magnetic wake-up switch. But it doesn't protect the slim and slippery tablet from slipping through your fingers. Mine looks much more secure tucked inside its Dash folio case from X-Doria.

The felt surface delivers a firmer grip with a stylish look that sets it apart from ordinary leather folios. The cover also folds back into a typing or viewing stand. And, just like Apple's cover, it has a magnet inside that puts the iPad to sleep or wakes it up.

$50 at x-doria.com.Screen guard

By: Ric Manning On 4/03/2012

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