What do you get when you combine a PDA with a phone…

Today, we just call them “smart phones” – but before the iPhone, they were a separate device.  One for keeping yourself organised – address book, task/to-do list, calendar, etc.  And one to make phone calls.  They started to merge long before the iPhone of course, but it is still somewhat surprising how long it actually did take.

Anyway, here’s my personal history of the PDA devices that I have used over the years.

1988-1996: Daytimer / Filofax.

OK, not a “device” but this is where it all began.  I used to take my burgundy leather personal organiser everywhere.  It was the original “second brain” and my first step into the world of personal productivity.  In Dallas, I used a Day-timer.. but here in Europe it seems that Filofax were the dominant brand.  Either way, it would be my wife’s preference even today given the choice.

1997: PalmPilot Professional

This was the breakthrough device.. the iPhone of its day.  Where the Apple Newton failed, the PalmPilot succeeded.  It was my first “true” PDA and started the “lock in” to Palm products for the next 10 years.  It had a whopping 1Mb of memory and worked on 2 AAA batteries!  The app ecosystem was pretty limited originally, but it quickly developed – in a similar way to Apple, but without the walled garden.

1998: Palm III

Now pushing 2Mb of RAM and an infrared port – the Palm III was a nice improvement.. with a more “futuristic” design.  Upgrading was simple and I never lost any data in the process.

1999: Palm IIIx

A year later and we get 4Mb of built-in RAM plus the opportunity for a storage slot/card that could expand it further.  It was also faster.  Amazing how you want or need something so monochrome and basic to go faster.. hard to believe that it could ever have been slow.

2000: Palm IIIc

We have colour..  wow, welcome to the new millenium.  The IIIc offers the new Palm OS 3.5/4.0 and 8Mb of RAM.

2003: Tungsten C

Hard to believe that it took this long to add… wifi to these devices.  But here we are in 2003, with a new design and the ability to surf, email, etc directly on the device (without sync).

2004: Treo 650

At last, the “smart phone” exists.  Palm finally builds in proper mobile phone tech and two devices can finally become one.

2006: Treo 750

I waited.. hoping for something better, but nothing was coming out.. and this was the model that Palm ditched its OS in favour of Windows Mobile.  It also marked the end of Palm for me.. I found this device to be all the things that Palm wasn’t – confusing, slow, unstable.  It is the reason I won’t ever buy a Windows Mobile device.. and it is probably one of the reasons I love the iPhone so much.  After 10 years, Palm killed my brand loyalty with this device… and it seems like I wasn’t alone.

But, I didn’t move that quickly..  and tried lots of variations.

2008: iPhone 3G

Heaven.  This phone was everything the Treo (and Windows Mobile) wasn’t.  This was my first Apple device.  I am not a Mac user and was possibly even resistant to Apple at one point in my life, but it seems I can resist no longer.  The iPhone is still one of the greatest gadgets ever created.

2009: iPhone 3GS

Had to have it.. didn’t matter why.

2010: iPhone 4

I wasn’t sure about the 4 at first, I originally preferred the 3G styling – but now I look back and think how “dated” the 3G looks.

2011: iPhone 4S

I had high hopes for Siri.. but meh.  Siri outside of the USA is particularly average at the moment.  It’s a shame really – this is a post about how my PDA’s have evolved over the years and the 4S with Siri should have been a major breakthrough – and it might still be one day.. but currently, in the UK – I say it again, meh.

OK – this was an interesting trip down memory lane.. and one thing really stands out – man, I changed my phones/tech pretty often.  I had thought that was only a recent “condition” – obviously not.   Anyway, thanks for coming with me on this journey.

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I read a few tweets recently referencing the new UK Dominos Pizza iPad app and as its Friday, I’m hungry and we have nothing else in the fridge, I thought I’d give it a go.

First impressions are really positive. The app has a recently nice interface – clear, simple to use with strong signposts that help walk you through he ordering process.

Once you register, the app downloads the menu relevant to your local Domino’s branch – including special offers and deals.

You can simply order straight from the menu, but you can also completely customise your pizza with additional toppings, crusts, and ‘half and half’ orders.

Once you are ready to order, Domino’s will take you through the checkout process which is all very slick with lots of attempts to upsell you with desserts, sidesm and the rest. It’s only slightly annoying as to be fair, it’s pretty well done.

When you order, you can choose to collect or have it delivered and have a choice of payment options – including PayPal which is a really useful option if you are short of cash on the night.

When your order is placed, the Dominos’s provides a dashboard slider that shows you the process of your order – ordered, prepared, baking, in delivery, delivered. This is a really useful feature too.

The Good

(how I wish this DraftCraft app has bullets / lists)

* easy user interface
* makes placing orders simple and perhaps easier than calling in for some reason
* PayPal is a great option for payment – especially if you don’t have any cash on hand
* access to the full local menu including special offers
* will now be my preferred method for placing orders from Domino’s

The Bad

* The slider that describes the status of your completed order is not clear – you can move the image around and totally mess up the progress bar
* I think there is a bug involving mobile phone numbers – I had to delete my registered mobile number in order to actually place the order tonight. I hope they can fix it.

All in all, this is an excellent app and sets the new standard for restaurants who want to take orders online.

Posted via DraftCraft app

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The wordpress iPad app is nice, but does not provide a pleasant environment for writing blogs in my opinion. And so when I read about a new app called DraftCraft designed for doing nothing else but writing.. I thought I’d download it and give it a go. In fact, I am writing this review using the app now which seemed the most appropriate method to test it.

Just write

First impressions are positive. It really provides you with a nice clean UI in which you don’t need to think about issues like HTML, templates, etc. The idea is the you just focus on writing.

There’s only basic formatting options – partly down to a limitation with the iPad itself I suppose, but this isn’t a bad thing really as sometimes you can a bit too much time messing around with the layout.

You can embed photos:

But once again you have very limited options in terms of editing them.

The key is in the Name

This is a very nice app for writing blogs and getting your thoughts down in a clean and user friendly environment. There are limitations to the formatting you can apply – lists, bullets, headers, etc. Photos can be embedded, but any editing needs to be done outside the app.

The name of the app is DraftCraft and if you want a place to simply store your drafts, then this is the all for you. I have done this before in Evernote, but the DraftCraft environment is far more pleasant.

Publishing

You can post to WordPress blogs and a handful of others (Blogger, LiveJournal, etc) but depending on how much reformatting you will require you may only want to use this app for writing and then copy and paste into the WordPress app. Or send it to your WordPress blog in draft form and then edit it there.

All in all – nice app for writing, limited in functionality – but that may be exactly what you need to get your thoughts down.

Posted via DraftCraft app

Related posts:

1. Dominos Pizza iPad App
2. Blogging with Evernote Tip

I started to think about how much I’ve used my iPad today and the variety too:

• Started the day reading the news – Sunday Times App
• Caught up with email
• Then caught up with the TV news by watching BBC News
• A bit of twitter
• Read my daily deluge of RSS feeds / blogs using Reeder.
• Caught up on Facebook
• After our long country walk, I spent the day reading a book on the Kindle app (using the iPad and not the Kindle device)
• Watched the Liverpool v Chelsea match live on the Sky Sports mobile app
• Some more reading on the Kindle, some more catching up with Reeder
• and now, watching XFactor on the ITVPlayer.

Related posts:

1. I need a Kindle to go with my iPad
2. Reeder: My New Favorite App for Google Reader on iPad and iPhone
3. Kindle – First Impressions

Perhaps I didn’t come across it initially because I don’t use a Mac as my laptop or desktop. It has a strong following on the Mac and carries the well designed, good looks from that world on to the iPad / iPhone.  NewsRack was always great functionally, but it didn’t win any prizes for design; Reeder clearly achieves both.

Please note that the iPad and iPhone apps are sold separately on iTunes, here’s the links:

The iPhone app is $2.99 / £1.99 from iTunes.
The iPad app is $4.99 / £2.99 from iTunes.

Once you have downloaded, installed and configured Reeder to connect to your Google Reader account, you can view your feeds in “stacks” based on the categories/folders that you have assigned to them.  This is different from NewsRack’s folder view, but I prefer it now.

You can select to read just a single group or all unread items in your RSS feed.  You are then presented with list with a snippet of the blogs/item sorted either by date or by group/folder.

In portrait mode, it looks like this:

and in landscape mode, it shows both the list on the left, and the full text of the blog/item on the right:

This is useful to quickly browse the titles of posts, but I tend to read in portrait mode and tap one level deeper into the story/blog itself:

When you do this – you simply read the whole story and when you are finished or would like to skip ahead tap on the down arrow on the left hand side.

Now – this is my only main complaint with this app.  The fact that the sidebar is ONLY on the left.  Sometimes, when reading I would prefer to go to the next page with my right hand (perhaps the iPad is leaning against the arm of a chair, etc).  Turning the page with your right requires you to reach over the device and tap on the arrow down.  I would expect to be able to move the sidebar from one side to the other in one of the configuration options.

Any links to websites in a blog can be opened within Reeder.

And all items can be shared very nicely from within Reeder on the feed or within the Reeder browser (without the mail article option).  In fact the social sharing options are superior to the NewsRack options with the complete list of available items here:

So if you downloaded and used NewsRack on my previous recommendation, then don’t worry – its still a great app.  But Reeder is the new champion for me and I highly recommend you give it a chance.

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But what about checking this activity when you are using your iPad?  What are the best iPad apps for Google Analytics?  I’ve purchased and downloaded the following apps to find out which are best.

Google Analytics – Official Site (via Safari) – free

Using the official Google Analytics page in the iPad is probably the simplest and cheapest option.  You can naturally access your full accounts and all functionality just as you could on your computer.  However, there is a huge problem – all those beautiful graphs and charts that really bring Google Analytics to life don’t seem to work.  You can view the tabular data, but not the charts.

Therefore, if you really want to make the most of Google Analytics on your iPad, you will need one of the apps below.

Analytics (iTunes link) – £4.99 / $6.99 (limited free edition)

At first, this app seems more comprehensive, but after using it I felt that it is not very well designed.  All the reports are there – but they feel cramped.  The fonts are not right for the iPad and you sometimes get some wrapping where the text starts to overlap.  Also, for some reason the default reporting period seems off – for example, it is the 20 July today and the default reporting period is 22 June to 20 July.  Google’s native interface would not include the current date and would use a calendar month (e.g. 19 June to 19 July).

This app does include an excellent feature that allows you to send/forward a report as a PDF, Excel CSV or XML file which is so handy when you are mobile.

Analytics Pro for iPad (iTunes link) – £3.99 / $5.99

This app starts off complicated and not very user friendly before you can even sign in.  The interface is complicated and not very well thought out at all.  There are a good number of reports, but they don’t seem to be the same as in the other apps and they also stray from Google’s style for displaying graphs and charts (which may be a good thing – depends on your point of view).

It also is strange in how it displays the date ranges by default.  The past 28 days is useful when you are looking to review an equal block of time – but it should not include the current date in my opinion.  And should at least provide the option for calendar month as predefined range.

Not much more to say really – you can get some numbers.  But it is clunky and is nowhere near the polish of the other two apps that I am reviewing here.

Analytics HD (iTunes link) – £4.99/ $6.99 (limited free edition)

The reports available from this app are excellent.  They are well presented and get all the information you need and load quickly.  The initial dashboard view quickly gives you an excellent summary of the main information.

You get lots of reports – in many ways the report menu is faster and easier to use than Google’s native interface.  Everything from visitor overview to ecommerce reports, event and goal tracking.  You can also set your frequently used reports as “favorites” which means that they appear at the top of the report list for easier access.

Moving between accounts is also easy – although I never seem to remember that it is behind the “gears” icon that I normally associate with setup rather than accounts or sites.. but maybe that is just me.

This is a solid iPad app for Google Analytics and highly recommend it.

So which is the best iPad app for Google Analytics?  Analytics HD is the most solid in my opinion.  Analytics has some very nice ideas and could certainly challenge Analytics HD with just a few tweaks; but don’t waste your money on Analytics Pro for iPad.

Related posts:

1. Reeder: My New Favorite App for Google Reader on iPad and iPhone
2. Best Google Reader App for iPad and iPhone
3. Best iPhone (iPad) Apps for Walkers and Hikers

But if you do.. don’t forget your remote control.  I wished I had remembered mine.  My wife and I recently went on holiday and I was excited to try my Apple TV “on the road”.  But dummy here forgot the remote the control.

Initially, I thought – no problem, I can control the Apple TV from my iPhone or iPad remote app.  Except for one thing.. in order to use the remote app, your iPhone/iPad needs to be on the same wifi network as you Apple TV.  With no keyboard.. the only way you can join a wifi network on the Apple TV is with a remote… I was stuck.

But then I discovered a solution that worked brilliantly.  The Apple TV can learn how to respond to the signals from other – almost any – remote controls.  It only needs six keys – left, right, up, down, select and back.

In order to use this solution, you need to be able to connect to a wired (ethernet) network – hopefully into the same box as your wifi (pretty standard with most vacation home internet services – standard ADSL modem/router) but it may be more tricky within a hotel or condominium block.

For some reason, you can’t configure the wifi network options when the ethernet cable is connected.  So you get the “temporary” remote set up while it is connected to the fixed/wired network and then you unplug the network cable and use the new remote to configure the wifi.

Here’s the basic steps:

1. Hook the Apple TV to the tv where you want to use it and plug it into the network using an ethernet cable.

2. Make sure that your iPhone/iPad is already connected to the same network via wifi and then use the Remote App to connect to and control the Apple TV (remember that you can’t configure the wifi with the wired connection enabled and so as soon as you disable the wired network, your iPhone/iPad app will not be able to communicate with the Apple TV).

2. Find a remote control that has keys that you can use for left, right, up, down, select and back.

3. Using your iPhone/iPad Remote App, navigate to the “General” menu option.

4. Navigate to the “Remotes” menu option.

5. Select “Learn Remote” from the menu options.

6. Have your remote ready and then select “Start”

7. The Apple TV will now prompt you to press the appropriate button (holding it down) for each command until it recognised it.

8. Once it has learned each of the six commands, it will allow you to name your remote – I just kept the default (“Custom”), but do as you like.

9. You now have a remote that can work with the Apple TV.  Disconnect the ethernet cable and the navigate to the Network settings (under “General”) and configure the wifi with the appropriate security settings as supplied by your host/resort.

Once it is connected, you should be able to communicate with the Apple TV with your iPhone/iPad again if you want.. or continue to use your “temporary” remote.   Either way, you now have your Apple TV on holiday with you and connected to the wifi network.  Enjoy.

Related posts:

1. Apple TV – First Impressions (meh!)
2. AirPrint for Windows – Printing from your iPhone or iPad

I am a very heavy Google Reader user and am currently subscribed to over 600 feeds/blogs.  Having the ability to keep up with this fire hose of great information when I am not at my desk is one of the primary functions of my iPad (and my iPhone before it).

I used several of the major reader apps – there are many – before I discovered NewsRack (iTunes link).  This is currently the best Google Reader app available for the iPad and iPhone.

The interface is simple and easy to use. Once you have installed it, simply add your Google Reader account details and synchronise.  NewsRack will pull down your feeds.  Once you have read one, it will also update Google Reader – keeping your account completely in sync.

First – forget about the “news rack” screen – where the feeds appear as newspapers; I don’t like cover flow in iTunes and I don’t like it here either.. completely useless.  Make sure you are working with the interface as folders.  If you have more than a dozen RSS feeds, then you should really be categorising them into folders in Google Reader – it will save you loads of time and help you prioritise the topics you really must keep on top of.

The app works well in both Portrait mode and Landscape mode.  Here’s how each mode looks:

Note also that I always select “Hide Read Feeds” (its at the bottom of the Feeds list) – I see no point in staring at a bunch of empty folders. So the app only shows me folders that have “unread” items in it.. much better.

You can select one folder at a time – if you want to prioritise your reading.  Or you can select the entire “Unread” folder.  Once you have done so, you can the headlines and source for each feed.  Again – if you want to scan a large list of feeds, this is a great place to do it – without having to actually view specific blog(s).

The portrait mode allows you to read the items in your feed in full screen.  You can navigate to the next blog by using the arrows at the top of the screen.

The landscape mode is similar to the native iPad email app and keeps the folders/items in a sidebar on the left hand side and displays the currently selected blog in a section on the right.

This is simple and effective.  It does a great job of keeping in sync with your G Reader account and allows you to scan and/or read all the items in a very intuitive way.

The final area of this app which pretty much sealed it for me when I was trying others is with how great the social/sharing functionality is.

NewsRack allows you to share items/blogs with many of your social media accounts – email, Twitter, InstaPaper, ReaditLater, Delicous, and Facebook.  You can customise these and only select the channels that you actually use.

I love the email function because it actually copies the contents of the blog into the body of the email.  I hate having to send just the links to great stories to friends and colleagues.

I also like the Twitter functionality.  Many other iPad apps create the tweet for you or populate it with self-promoting links (I’m looking at you Zite).  This app displays a window and allows you to select the aspects of the blog you want to share – title, source, etc.  Then allows you to add your own notes or modify the standard behavior before you submit it.  Seems prettty basic but I am always surprised how few apps deliver it in this way.

So that’s my take on a great iPad / iPhone app for Google Reader.  It has an excellent and intuitive user interface.  Keeps you synchronised with your Google Reader account.  And allows you to share what you find in a comprehensive way.

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Everyone talks about how the iPad is a device primarily for media consumption – but apparently you can create and produce media just as well.

The Gorillaz are always pretty open about their work – often allowing it to be downloaded for free.  They are just as open about how they recorded this album by providing a list of the apps they used.

18 Apps to Create your own Music Studio (via Gorillaz)

StudioMini XL

A powerful yet easy to use recording studio with CD quality audio, pro audio loops, multitrack (8 tracks), etc.

itunes link

Speak it! Text to Speech

A text to speech translation engine.

itunes link

SoundyThingie

Translates drawn lines into music.

itunes link

KORG iELECTRIBE

A virtual “analog” beatbox

itunes link

Mellotronics M3000

An iPad simulation of the classic 1960s tape replay instrument the Mellotron (think “Knights in White Satin”)

itunes link

BassLine

A virtual analog bass synthesizer with built-in step sequencer and on-board effects

itunes link

bs-16i

A playback sampler with SoundFont support that can be used for keyboard instrument, MIDI sound module, and MIDI player.

itunes link

Mugician

A microtonal capable distortion synthesizer with an 11-string bass guitar layout.

itunes link

Moog Filtatron

A real-time audio effects suite for studio artists.

itunes link

Olsynth

Simple but effective synthesizer.

itunes link

Sylo Synthesiser

Sylo Synthesiser allows you to play music, or create sound effects, using sounds you can design yourself with the iPad’s microphone.

itunes link

XENON Groove Synthesizer

A polyphonic hybrid synthesizer that includes monophonic synthesizers, polyphonic PCM synthesizer, rhythm machine, sequencer, mixer and a number of sound presets.

itunes link

FunkBox Drum Machine

A beatbox designed to simulate the sounds from the 70s and 80s using original audio samples taken directly from collection of vintage drum machines.

itunes link

gliss

Gliss lets you play sound files and mix them easily by drawing on your iPad.

itunes link

AmpliTube

Guitar and bass multi-effect processor and mobile recording studio

itunes link

Cleartune

A chromatic instrument tuner and pitch pipe that allows you to accurately tune your instrument using the built-in mic on your iPad.

itunes link

Synth

A polyphonic synthesizer with more than 40 instruments, pitch bend wheel, etc.

itunes link

iOrgel HD

A digital “wind up” music box that you can also invent your own songs.

itunes link

Additional App(s)

GarageBand

This is a great app that supplies the studio and the instruments.  It wasn’t available when Gorillaz recorded their album and so am sure that is why it was not used.

itunes link

Related posts:

1. The Best iPad Apps for Facebook
2. Best iPad Apps for Google Analytics
3. Best iPhone (iPad) Apps for Walkers and Hikers

The problem, however, is that Apple / iTunes doesn’t support all the media types that are available.  Especially if you choose to download video (movies, tv, or even home movies) rather than simply watch streamed content.  Which means that you would be totally unable to watch some content with iTunes.

Furthermore, what if you want to watch content remotely?  iTunes Home Sharing works well within your local wi-fi network, but if you want to show some of your videos on your iPhone or iPad remotely, your only choice would be to synchronise (copy) the content and eat up precious storage space.

AirVideo

For me, the best solution to this issue can be found in an app called AirVideo (iTunes link).

This is a fantastic app for both iPad and iPhone – but it does also require that you install some software (a media server) on your PC/Mac.  It can be downloaded from here and is pretty low profile (i.e. it won’t negatively impact the performance of your computer).

So – download and install the server application.  Then, download and install the app on your iPad.

Once you have the server installed, you simply need to tell it where to look for your video content.  To do this, go to the server settings screen in AirVideo and add the directory where you keep your video media files in the “Shared Folders” tab.

Once you have done this you need to connect to your new media server by simply opening the iPad/iPhone app and adding your computer to the list:

AirVideo – Connecting Remotely

As mentioned above, one of the nice features of AirVideo is the ability to connect to your video content stored on your PC from anywhere.  In order to do this you will need to make sure that your router is uPnP compatible so that the AirVideo software can configure it – but most are these days.

From the AirVideo server settings dialog, select the “Remote” tab and enable “Access from the Internet.”

See that nine digit number?  That uniquely identifies your server on the internet from the iPad and iPhone apps.  So to connect to your system remotely, open the iPad app and enter the Server PIN details as follows:

(images are used courtesy of InMethod to protect my own configuration).

The brilliant thing about this is that the streaming quality will adjust automatically depending on your connection speed.

AirVideo and the Apple TV

Another new feature in the new operating system (iOS 4.3) was the ability for third-party apps to play video using Apple’s AirPlay technology.  You no longer need to buy a dedicated media player/server for your home entertainment system – AirVideo now also supports AirPlay.  This means that you can play your videos directly to your Apple TV from your iPad and iPhone – the result, a complete media player / media server solution that works wherever you need it to.

So if you are looking for a media server and have an iPad.; or if you are looking to play video files (some unsupported by Apple) on your iPad or iPhone; or if you would like to have access to your video collection from anywhere in the world – then I whole heartedly recommend you tryAirVideo.

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