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Circus Ponies Notebook + Dropbox = Joy

pete — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:58:02 +0000

Just noticed that Notebook for iPad has been updated to sync via Dropbox. Previously, the only way to sync was over the USB drag-n-drop through iTunes run around. Once your Dropbox credentials are in Notebook, you can download and sync pre-existing Notebooks from the Dropbox cloud, or you can designate a folder and upload notebooks created on your iPad. Now that Notebook syncs over Dropbox, this will be my go to outliner on the iPad.

A moment of….

pete — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:17:30 +0000

iPad @ Work

pete — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:11:11 +0000

David Sparks, aka MacSparky, aka a source of Much Wisdom for All Things Apple and Workflowish, just published a new book: iPad at Work. The book is not quite yet available in Kindle format, but is available on iBooks and even in brick and mortar stores. For any contrarians flaunting the iPad’s ‘obvious’ consumption only device status, David’s book covers the gamut and provides specific app recommendations for education, law, medicine, construction (iHammer anyone?), real estate and IT.

Over the years, David turned MacLitigator (see the homage folks?) on to such gems as Default Folder X and convinced me to even try OmniFocus despite its ugly Getting Things Done by micromanaging your life roots. So, the price of admission is worth it just to see what he considers to be good workplace specific apps.

TrialPad – 2.0 – The Real Deal

pete — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:22:07 +0000

Just finished watching TechnoEsq. video coverage of the soon to be released TrialPad 2.0. It looks like it is, in fact, becoming well worth the $89 price tag. The new features include side by side display of documents, on the fly call outs, differing colors and widths of highlight tools, and the ability to display .mov and .mp4 video as well as do basic video editing. The whole video is a little more than 6 minutes and worth watching to see what’s coming up. Now if they can only get AirPlay functionality down for static documents and video…

iPhone 5 Found at Bar

pete — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:12:31 +0000

Apparently an unnamed blog writer was at the bar last night when the customer next to him left behind his phone. That phone appears to be none other than Apple’s next iteration of the iPhone. You can see from the pic that it will include what appears to be a stylus based touch screen.

Dragon Dictation for the iPhone

pete — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:39:08 +0000

“Finally, dictation software you might actually find useful. Nuance the makers of dragon dictation, released an iPhone application today. Unlike Mac speech,there’s no training required and the dictation software work works remarkably well. In fact, this entire blog entry was dictated using DragonDictate for the iPhone . Dragons the iPhone is free for the taking from the app store.”

The above was dictated using Dragon and is presented unaltered from the original. You’ll notice the error with the period at the second to last sentence and the last sentence itself should read “Dragon for the the iPhone is …”

The error from the period arises because the app can only handle a limited amount of dictation before it stops dictating, then you must start dictating again. Still, a pretty useful little app to have around. It lets you cut n past from app into SMS, email etc which can make it very handy for responding to emails and SMS without needing to type. For longer dictation projects, probably not all that useful.

Snow Leopard Compatibility Checker

pete — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:57:41 +0000

A downloadable and free piece of software will help you determine whether or not Snow Leopard cripples your favorite piece of software or, more accurately, whether the developer of your favorite piece of software totally ignored the inevitable and has left you high n’ dry… I’m looking at you Fujitsu Scansnap (limited functionality under Snow Leopard) and Vonage Companion (completely borked).

Snowchecker via Lifehacker.

Woah… Kindle on my iPhone

pete — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:19:13 +0000

Amazon just announced the Kindle for iPhone app. The app syncs Kindle books to your iPhone. And, really cool, it syncs to the last page you were reading on your Kindle and vice versa. It also syncs bookmarks. So, if you just happen to get bored waiting at the doctor’s office, you can pop open your book and, when you return to the full-fledged Kindle, it syncs to the point you left off on your iPhone. I know, I know, a completely unrealistic hypothetical since anyone going to the doctor’s office expects the wait and takes the Kindle along. Unfortunately, it does not appear to sync over texts/books etc. that you have uploaded to your Kindle account. This is a real bummer because the Kindle iPhone reader is beautiful and would work oh so well to read pleadings, depositions etc. etc. You can get the app here (opens iTunes).

Legal Recession Survey.

pete — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:00:23 +0000

The ABA Journal is surveying lawyers to find out if they feel the pinch of the recession (yes, I said the ‘R’ word and would have said it last January too). My thinking: If you’ve got the time to screw around with surveys, you’re probably feeling the pinch, so results are probably going to be skewed. On the other hand, you can justify your participation as a busy attorney in the name of providing a fair and balanced survey result. Hit the link to take the survey and I’ll be sure to post results once they come back.

“The ABA Journal is surveying lawyers about the job market and the current state of the economy.“

iPhone File Transfer and Viewing

pete — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:38:22 +0000

There are at least two programs out there handling that situation where you just gotta get and view files on your iPhone.

Briefcase (Lite = free & Pro = $4.99) promises to connect, download, view and upload files. Reviews on the AppStore are overwhelmingly positive with most users upgrading to the Pro version shortly after testing out Lite. Briefcase works without installing anything on the Mac side, but is only Mac/Linux compatible. And, it works very very well. Connecting to my MacBook Pro over the wireless took practically no effort (just be sure that you allow remote login SSH connections in System Preferences). Briefcase supports many file types, including iWork, MS Word, .MP3 and PDF. Testing reveals that loading PDF works extremely well and fast, with the iPhone allowing rotation of the screen for landscape viewing.

FileMagnet

Offers much of the same as Briefcase. No word from developer regarding .MP3 or video files. In order to transfer files, software must be installed on the host computer. But, on the other hand, FileMagnet offers Windows XP and Vista support. Further, FileMagnet incorporates an intriguing ’tilt to scroll’ documents by using the iPhone’s accelerometer. Because Briefcase fits the bill, and because FileMagnet requires installation of host software, I chose not to test out FileMagnet. FileMagnet has no ‘free’ version and runs a flat $4.99 in the AppStore.

One last note: Either FileMagnet or Briefcase completely eliminate the hack work-around for emailing PDF’s as tipped for loading Flashcards onto your iPhone in this post.