An iPhone users first days with an Android device

08/06/2013 by WZ_NoStylus · Leave a comment

Running full speed through fog with eyes closed

It was all a bit of a blur, my first day with my Samsung Galaxy S3 with so much to do to set up applications that I had little time to really use the device. My first impression has to be that there is a lot more to it than there is to an iPhone. As well as having apps you also have widgets. There are some applications which can be loaded from a sidebar and there is an area where there are just applications. When you’re not used to this, it does feel awfully strange to be seeing icons for applications in numerous places. Not only that, but there is an extensive feedback section in the form of the notifications. I also added a launcher app which lets me swipe to apps by running my finger for the upper right side of the screen. Very cool!

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As I said, on my first day I spent most of it loading up applications to do the things that I do with my smart phone. There were one or two applications that were already installed and I just had to provide my login credentials to get them going, Dropbox being one of those. Some of the applications that were already on the phone needed to be updated and I was happy to be able to find a setting which allows for automatic updates of apps. I have just woken up the Galaxy S3 and I see that there have been one or two applications that have updated themselves. On the other hand there was a notification also to say that there are a number of applications that still need to be updated. Tapping on that notification brought me to a screen and all I need to do is to tap on Update All, press the Accept button a few times and the updating process is underway.

My essential first to install apps on the Galaxy S3

The first app to be installed was the 1Password reader which also required me to get Dropbox started so that I could synchronise my passwords from my Apple system. It did seem to take a long time to get the synchronisation finished and it wasn’t just me being impatient. I then was able to login to my Google mail account, which was also my Google login to the device. Next I was able to set up my access to Apple email which took me two attempts, but with a little bit of Google foo, ended up being quite easy. It did take me some time to work out how to swap between the running applications, it is a press and hold down on the main button, bottom centre.

I have since worked out that the best Mail client for me is the Google app for Gmail. SO I set up a new gmail account and I am forwarding everything from everywhere else to this account and it keeps it all tidy.

It is possible to push applications out to the iPhone from Google Play from wherever. So I was doing some searching for applications on my iMac and clicking on the install button. It did take 30 to 40 minutes before the Google Play system saw the Samsung Galaxy S3 as being available for this. During this period I had numerous applications being installed on the device including Audioboo, CamScanner, Evernote, Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram, Pinterest, Skype, Snapseed, SoundCloud, WhatsApp, Wunderlist. My son had told me to try out a podcast player application called Podkicker, I tried it and I didn’t like it so I installed I paid for application called Pocket Casts, which I am quite pleased with.

Draft app

Text and speech input on the Galaxy S3

There is Siri like thing called S-Voice which took me a while to find, but once I found it I had it set up fairly quickly. There was even a list of helpful suggestions on how the voice control can work. It can be used to start or switch to applications and I get a pleasant female voice giving me feedback on what is happening. I asked it to open up 1Password and it got confused with another application with a similar name, otherwise it seems quite helpful. If I say the complete app name including the word reader at the end it works fine. It is also supposed to work when you give it a voice keyword and that is not really working out for me yet. I think I may have to do some more setting up with that Galaxy S3 functionality. For now I can do the double click on the home button.

Changing to a different keyboard – Swipe

As part of my research before getting the phone I had decided upon the application/keyboard Swype for Android. Another keyboard that was suggested to me was called Swiftkey which has similar functionality for entering text. What I like about Swype is the fact that it is owned by Nuance whose product DragonDictate I use daily on my Mac for dictating all of my articles. I have also been using the Dragon Dictation application regularly on my iPhone. So while I was actually using the phone when I was out walking with the dog and doing Foursquare check ins and also for when I was writing the description for an Audioboo, I was able to dictate rather than type.

Since writing the first draft of this article I have taken advice of my son and got my hands on the application called Swift Keys and I actually like it better. It does seem to do a better job of the voice dictation for when I’m entering text and it is almost creepy hand uncanny the way that it is able to predict the words I’m going to come up with next when I am using the keyboard. When I am writing a whole sentence it is quite likely that I will only need to hit the keyboard for all five times as often it will guess the next word and save me much typing. It is possibly almost as fast to use the keyboard like this as it is for me to dictate. If it does get a word wrong, which is bound to happen sometimes, if I select the word sometimes it gives me options for other words. On occasions is served giving me options for other words it will just give me the chance to delete that word, which is okay too.

Not quite a UK keyboard

There is one thing which is quite annoying with the Swift Keys is that even though I have set it up to use the UK keyboard language option, it doesn’t let me put in the full stop using those words. I object to having to do it the American way with saying the word period.

Dictation with Swift Keys

It has not been a completely smooth ride

Three times so far I have had to enter the pin code for the phone even though the phone had not been turned off. Somehow or other the Galaxy S3 did a half a reboot so in effect was not actually working as a phone. I only saw that this had happened when I opened the case to use the phone and saw that it was looking for the PIN. This could be a little bit of a nuisance if I am expecting a call to come in and the phone capabilities have been turned off by the phone. I will be keeping an eye on this and I may have to make a visit to the shop where I bought the phone in order to get it sorted out.

Missing one or two apps that I would like

Obviously I’m not going to be able to run OmniFocus, as that is a Mac and iOS only application. That is not a huge problem though, I didn’t run OmniFocus on my iPhone anyway. At least I do have the facility to create a new OmniFocus action from the Android by sending an email to the special OmniFocus email address. This works quite well and is good enough. It is still quite handy to have some sort of GTD application on the phone and I did load up Wunderlist, but I have also loaded up others such as the very nice Any.do application. I have loaded up another one also, haven’t tried it yet as I have been too busy with everything else.

My Galaxy S3 Home screen

Messing about with the widgets!

When the phone came to into my sticky fingers there were one or two widgets already set up on the screens. There was a music player and a video player as well as a widget that gives the time, date and temperature, plus weather information. Then there is also the Google search widget as you might expect on an Android phone. This makes it much quicker to be able to do a Google search without having to actually open up any applications. When using this, there is also voice feedback in the form of the Siri like capabilities that is called S-Voice. I can also open up the Google application which has recently been updated to offer extra information on cards, based upon places you have been, searches that you have made and so on. Some people might think that this is a little bit weird or creepy, but it is actually quite functional and works a treat.

What’s the verdict after three days with the Galaxy S3?

Even though there are one or two things that don’t work quite as well as I would like, I have to say that I am delighted with the overall experience. It is a great looking phone with the big-screen. More importantly, the functionality that is offered, makes what I do quicker, faster and easier. I like it, in fact I think it is almost love.

Posted in Android.

Making the change from iPhone to Galaxy S3

01/06/2013 by WZ_NoStylus · 1 Comment

Has hell frozen over? Making the change from iPhone to Galaxy S3

This has been something that I have been wondering about for the last couple of months and it has come about for a number of reasons. Yes it is true I have pulled the trigger on buying a Samsung Galaxy S3 and I am actually looking forward to it. My NoStylus website will be getting an injection of Android-based videos and articles. So why have I done it?

The need for a bigger screen

I have honestly been finding that the iPhone screen is a little bit too small and I don’t think that the upgrade to an iPhone five which is only slightly bigger is going to be a large enough increase for me. I have been using the iPhone 4 and the size of it, certainly is quite a constraint especially when you have the keyboard displayed. Often it doesn’t leave much room left for actually seeing what you’re typing. I am also hoping that with the larger screen I shall be able to see it easier without having to go and run for my spectacles. Could just be though that the larger screen will just fit more things due to the resolution of it. Text could be just as small and I could still need to find spectacles to be able a read the small stuff.

Change to Galaxy S3

More storage space to do things

The iPhone 4 I have is a later version iPhone 4 with only 8 GB of storage memory available and because of the number of applications that I have available, I have to manage them carefully. I am often having to delete applications from the iPhone in order to be able to do the usual things that I would like to do with a smart phone. It really is a complete pain having to remove functionality from my phone just so that I am able to record a little bit of video or take a few photos and be able to store them. With the Samsung Galaxy S3 I will have 16 GB available initially, but I will also buy a mini SD card with another 16 GB that I can use for storage. Maybe this one will do – SanDisk 32 GB Mobile microSDHC Flash Memory Card
. It seems that the initial 16 GB is where the applications have to go, as it is not possible to put them onto the extra storage space. I think that will work perfectly though.

Talking to my phone

I do have the Dragon dictation application on my iPhone which lets me dictate. It actually works quite well and I can tweet directly from it, sending to SMS, email and Facebook. Usually what I do is to copy what I have into the clipboard in order to paste it in the application where I need it. The usual place that I need to put the text is into Audioboo. With the Samsung Galaxy S3 I will be able to speak directly into any application that has a keyboard. It is also possible for me to get an extra keyboard, for instance I might like to try out the Swype keyboard which also has a different way of entering text as well as having the integration with the Nuance Dragon dictation. The need to be able to talk to my phone is not as big as the need for the storage space and for the larger screen, but still quite an influence on the decision to get the new phone.

It is going to be a little bit weird and strange not to have an iPhone

I have been using the iPhone 4, probably for nearly 4 years and I dare say there will be one or two things that I will miss. The Drafts application will undoubtedly be one of them and I will do a great deal of searching to find something that gives me similar functionality. If you know something that will do this job, then please let me know in the comments below.

I do have a large number of iPhone applications, which are not going to go to waste because of the fact that I still have and still intend to run, on my iPad. So I will not be going completely over to the dark side. May the force be with you! I will miss the application Moves which I have been using extensively lately to record the number of steps that I take each day. I did find a webpage with a number of Android applications that suggested an application that might be similar although it was specifically for pet owners, dog walkers. I expect that there are other applications that will record distances walked or cycled even if they don’t count the number of steps. In any case it will be quite a bit of fun searching and trying a few applications out.

One of the main things that I do with my iPhone is to use an application called Downcast. I am constantly listening to podcasts and I’m sure that I will not have a problem finding an Android application that does the job also.

I will need to get myself an application for expanding text, even though probably with using the voice to text facilities available on the Samsung, I will not need it quite so much. It will be interesting to see if there are applications like Text Expander that have an API that allow you to use that facility in other Android applications.

Samsung S3

I have seen that there are some audio editing applications available and if I need to I will purchase the Android version of Twisted Wave. Certainly at the beginning of this new smart phone usage, I will be trying to stick with as many free applications as possible. So for notetaking I will use Evernote, but I will be looking for a writing application that specifically is good for writing in markdown.

BitCoin wallet for Android

None of the BitCoin wallets that are available for the iPhone let you do any actual exchange of the cyber currency, whereas with Android I will be able to use it for transactions, should the need arise. So for example if somebody wanted to pay me something, then I would be able to scan a QR Code displayed on another phone and then actually get the crypto currency in my own Android BitCoin wallet. It may also even be possible for using the NFC facilities on the Samsung Galaxy S3 to make transfers.

Using NFC will be another thing to play with

Just as an example, it would be possible for me to get an NFC tag that I could put beside my bed and use that to inform the NFC on the Android device to go to silent mode and set the alarm. Or I could put a tag in the car that would set the mode of the Galaxy S3 just the way that it needs to be for in car use. I don’t think it is very expensive in order to buy a number of these NFC tags and it is definitely something that I would like to try. I see I can buy a set of 10 NFC tags from Amazon for $15. Samsung TecTilesfor NFC

The Samsung Galaxy S3 has a better camera

An application that I will be downloading to the phone in with the first wave of Android apps that I will install, is going to be Snapseed. As this is owned now by Google it is not surprising that there is an Android version of the app. I will be experimenting also with various applications that enhance the photo taking experience and I will be looking to see how it works with panoramic photos and also seeing if there’s something that does HDR photos.

I can’t wait to get the new toy and have a play

I have three or four days to wait before I can get my hands on my new Samsung Galaxy S3 and it is lovely to have this something new and different to look forward to. I will almost be counting the hours, but at the same time do my best to enjoy the last few days using the iPhone. I could keep my hands on the iPhone and not sell it straightaway and I haven’t really decided yet, if I’m going to keep it for a week or two.

With the Apple event of WWDC coming up in just over a week’s time and the probability that they will be announcing the next version of the iOS, there may be some goodies coming that would be nice to see on an iPhone. It is also quite possible that with the fact that I have the iPhone 4 I would be missing out on some of the new things coming in any case. Just the same as I have already been missing out on, the use of Siri on the iPhone. With all of the new things that I will have to use and abuse, I don’t think I am going to be too bothered. I have been experimenting lately with the use of the Google Now on iOS and of course within the Samsung Galaxy S3 it will be built in and I will certainly be able to get even better use out of it there. Already I think that the Google Now is very good and extremely useful. So there you go – Hell did freeze over and I am ready to leave the iPhone behind me for the moment.

Posted in Android.

How to use the Drafts app on iOS

26/05/2013 by WZ_NoStylus · Leave a comment

Entering text on your iOS device – How to use the Drafts app

When I first saw the application called Drafts I immediately thought that it was a silly idea and should have died at birth. On account of the fact that there were a number of people that were raving about the Drafts application and saying how useful it was, I thought I would keep an open mind and have a look for myself. I have to admit that when first using it still didn’t get it. Really, it comes down to how you think about what you’re doing with your iOS device. It is whether you are thinking in an app centric way or whether you are thinking in terms of the output from your head, ideas. I kept doing the jump from deciding to write something and going directly to where I thought that text, idea was going to go. So I would think, okay let’s do a tweet, or okay let’s post something to Facebook, or Google plus, or wherever else and go to that app for the task. What I really needed to do was to bring the application Drafts to the forefront and any time I want to put in some text, just dive in there. Why open Pages on the iPad.

How to use the Drafts app

Thinking differently with the application Drafts

So I dived in and worked with the application using it as a dump for any ideas and writing, bits of text I wanted to deposit into my iPad. It also works with the iPhone, but seeing as I have the iPhone 4 without the Siri dictation available, it works better for me with the iPad. So whatever I was doing I would open up Drafts and throw some text into the iPad and generally the first port of call would be Twitter. This would be because of the fact that there is the character limitation of 140 characters. So the first part of the text are put in would be short enough to send off as a tweet – possibly. I could send that out as a tweet and then I could continue adding to it and the next destination would be to send to ADN and again the limitation now was for the 256 character rule for that social network. Drafts is still quite handy for writing longer pieces for Google plus and also with Facebook. So something that has started off as a quick tweet could easily be added to and end up going to a number of different places as I add to the idea contained within that initial text.

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Technical details about Drafts app

The Drafts application has an extra row of keys on the keyboard that gives easy access to the keys you need to be able to write in markdown syntax. The extra keyboard row actually scrolls across, in effect giving two extra rows of keys. It is easy to tap on the keyboard row on the right-hand side to quickly get to the other set. This makes it very easy to do the characters necessary for headers, bold text and italic text and other useful characters.

Drafts also has the advantage of having Textexpander integrated within the application. Any Textexpander snippets that you have created either on your Mac or within the iPad, you can use within this application. This is a another bit of goodness to help a writer on iOS get the ideas quickly out of the head and onto the digital page.

Drafts on iOS

Sending your text to different places

You start by tapping the share button in the top right-hand corner and then choosing where you want the text to go to. You will have linked to your Drafts application to the various social networks, so just tap on the destination and away it goes. There is a notification to let you know that you have sent to a particular place and you can choose whether you want the text to stay onscreen and is still available to add to or just to send to somewhere else, within the preferences. The way that I have mine set up is so that I get a fresh empty screen if I go back to it after 60 seconds. It is also possible to decide whether you want the text you have input into Drafts, either be archived within the application or deleted. It could well be that you don’t want to keep the text in any form that you have put into, for example Twitter and upon a successful post to Twitter from Drafts, the text will be deleted. I just prefer to let it all be archived and do any tidying up at a later stage if necessary.

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Customising Drafts with various sorts of actions

The application Drafts comes with a number of destinations already set up for you and there is a certain amount of customisation that you can do with these defaults. There is also a possibility of setting up new destinations and even downloading actions that other people have created that you can further customise and use yourself. So for example, you might use the action which will send the text that you have within the text entry window to OmniFocus. Another possibility is to have the text sent to a single file in the form of an appended or prepended entry and a typical use for something like that would be a journal. The best part of this is that you’re able to use text entry codes to allow you to add predefined text, Textexpander snippets and built-in codes such as the one that puts in the date. It is fairly simple automation for iOS, but it is incredibly useful. You can make email actions, Dropbox actions, Message actions, Evernote actions and URL actions. This allows you to have connections between the Drafts application and other apps on your iOS devices.

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NoStylus is a convert to the Drafts app way of working

So as you can tell from this review of the Drafts application, I am most definitely a convert to the to this way of thinking with regards text entry on iOS. It is quite efficient to be able to use portions of text in multiple destinations and have it changed by merely adding more text to the original starting point. So now I don’t think about things in terms of, it is time to do some Twitter or some Facebook, my starting point is the idea contained within my text that might have no specific destination, or on the other hand multiple destinations. If I was intending to work on something more specific, such as an idea for a novel that is going to be a longer piece of writing altogether, then probably I would open up the application Byword. That would keep me concentrating my efforts in one definite direction, although I would most likely also have Drafts easily available so that I could do some of the more nebulous writing work that all of us tend to want to do these days. I can thoroughly recommend the use of the Drafts application, especially on account of the fact that it is so customisable with the various actions you can add.

Posted in iPad Apps.

Catching the Audiobus to go from BossJock to TwistedWave

18/05/2013 by WZ_NoStylus · Leave a comment

Using audio technology on the iPad

While it is possible for me to record audio directly into Audioboo, I don’t get any options for doing any fancy editing or adding any audio effects. So it is useful to be able to use other applications on the iPad in order to be a little bit more creative.You can record directly into BossJock, but now there is a way that you can route the audio out of BossJock into another recording application such as TwistedWave and even send it through an effects application on the way through. So let’s have a look and see how we use this application called Audio Bus for iPad and iPhone to do this iOS audio magic.

listen to ‘TwistedWave Audiobus and Bossjock’ on Audioboo

Sending audio from BossJock to Twisted Wave with AudioBus

The first thing to do is to open up your Audiobus application and you will be presented with three buttons on the screen. Tap on the plus button for the input and choose what you want to use for your input. On this occasion we are going to use BossJock studio. As I have it set up on my iPad at the moment I can also choose to use microphone input and the Twisted Wave audio editor. It is also possible to have more than one input so for example I could also choose to use microphone input as well as the BossJock studio application. This could be handy if you’re recording audio with another person, although I haven’t tested using this to see it is possible to have two microphone inputs, rather than the one going in through the BossJock app.

How to use audiobus on iPad

Climb Aboard the Audio Bus

On the other hand what you can do is to do your recording in BossJock and export it out and then open it up afterwards in Twisted Wave or Multitrack DAW and then do all of the editing that you need to do. It may well be that you need to do a little bit of cleaning up, perhaps cutting out where you fluffed a line. I find that the application TwistedWave is easier to do this than it is in Multitrack DAW, but I would be tempted to use that application if I needed to have the audio editing going on in more than one track. It would be handy if at some stage the TwistedWave audio editor for iPad gains the ability to edit multiple tracks. In the BossJock application you don’t get any editing facilities at all. The other possibility that you have is to use Garageband which recently also got the Audio Bus connection capabilities now.

audiobus on iPad

There are other reasons why you might want to use Audiobus, such as the need to have the audio go through some filters or effects on its way to the application you’re using to record the sound. It is possible that these may be more useful to musicians than to podcasters, it rather depends upon the type of effects that you want in your podcast. At the moment, the only audio effects that I have available to use is a guitar effects application and if you put voice through that, it all sounds a little bit weird.

Posted in iOS Audio.

Getting in the groove with the BossJock iOS app

07/05/2013 by WZ_NoStylus · Leave a comment

I always wanted to be a DJ or a performance artist

There is a new app for iOS as I have just got my hands on called BossJock and it is just made for anybody that wants to be a DJ or once to record their own radio show. For the younger members of the audience, a radio show was something that put out across the airwaves in the days before podcasts. With this application BossJock, whose name comes from what they used to call the best DJs who were really rocking it, you can add sounds to a cart and play them as and when you need them.

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So the first step when using BossJock is to fill up the buttons in the cart with sounds and these can be bumpers, stingers, jingles, sound beds and pre-recorded interviews. So you might put down a musical sound bed or or a background audio which could lead people to believe that you were in an airport terminal or at a party. You can hit the button to play the jingle to start your radio show, podcast and as the jingle fades away you can press the microphone button and start talking over the top to your audience. I say over the top because when you press the microphone button to cue in your microphone the sounds that are underneath will be ducked so that your voice will take precedence.

When you’re pressing your buttons to add your bumpers and the stingers you get some fade in and fade out as the sound is used. This way you get a nice smooth transition from the sounds as you use them and it is amazing how easily it is to sound really quite professional and like a proper DJ. If there are sounds that you want to use throughout the whole of your podcast you can adjust settings and make them sounds which loop. Then there is a setting which will do a auto rewind and what this does is to put the sound back at the beginning even if you are only played it a part way through.

When you really get into using this application you can use the volume sliders which are to the right hand side of the screen to adjust the volume for the microphone, the cart and also for the mix. You can make these volume adjustments on the fly in case you have something that you want to manually fade out or fade back in. More fun than just making a plain recording in Twisted Wave audio editor It is more of a performance. The BossJock app also works on the iPhone, obviously you don’t get as many places for storing the audio clips.

Posted in iPad Apps.

My ever present iPad

29/04/2013 by WZ_NoStylus · Leave a comment

The iPad goes everywhere with me

It doesn't matter which room of the house I am going to, I always have my iPad with me. Just so long as I am within Wi-Fi range I'm always connected. I am tempted that with my next iPad I buy, I will get one with 3G connectivity. There is a difference of around about €120 with the 3G connected iPad, but I think it could be well worth getting. I will be waiting until the next revision of the iPad mini and I will choose whether to get a full size iPad or whether to go for the iPad mini.

Telling my iPad what to do!

One other things that I really find handy, is to use the dictation service as much as possible. I know that some people do complain about how the service works, but I find it works really well for me. Sometimes there will be a sentence where there are one or two words that are incorrect and I can just select them and manually correct them. The trick is to always make sure that you read back what you have dictated into your document. As long as you speak clearly and take your time, the accuracy is really quite impressive. With practice, you will find that using dictation on your iPad or your iPhone is much faster than typing. I know that I really wish I had the dictation service available to me on my iPhone 4. Well, I do have the DragonDictate dictation application which does work fairly well. But it would be better if it was built in so that I could use it in more applications natively.

Well, somebody has to come from Birmingham!

In some ways it is a surprise that dictation should work so well for me because I have an accent from Birmingham in the Midlands of England. Usually I find that there are one or two words that the service will get confused with that I have to repeat and say a little bit more clearly.

Difficult places for dictation

The only problem with dictation is that there are certain places where it is not possible to dictate to your computer. This will either be in a noisy room where you can't be heard properly by the iPad or it will be in a quiet room where are the people are working and expect to have silence. Another possibility of where you might not be able to dictate is when you are writing something that needs to be kept private. If you're using the earbuds with the microphone for the dictation then you will find that even a noisy room you can actually dictate effectively.

The way that I use the dictation is to clearly speak what I want the dictation service to convert into text, usually one sentence at a time. I read the sentence back and see if there are any words that are incorrect. I will then double tap the word to select it and then either re dictate the word as I want it or I will type it in manually. I find that this process is quick and efficient.

 

Posted in iPad.

At last – Twisted Wave a good iOS audio editor

17/04/2013 by WZ_NoStylus · Leave a comment

I did try out another audio editor for iOS and it well wasn’t very good, because it had a weird sort of interface. I also have a number of audio recording applications on my iPad and iPhone, but none of them were any good for editing audio. I had seen that there was the application called Twisted Wave, but I had hesitated in buying it, as it was going to cost nine euros to buy. In the end I realised that it was good value for money if it gave me what I needed in order to be able to properly and efficiently edit audio on iPad. The main requirements I have for an audio editor for iPad or iPhone use is that it should have a visualisation of the audio waveform. I need to be able to see the audio in the app interface so that I can do what I need to do. It is so much easier when you can see where the spaces are in the audio track for when you need to select areas of audio. I have been using my iRig microphone with TwistedWave.

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Editing audio on iOS with Twisted Wave

The view that you have of the editing space in Twisted Wave is clean and functional. There is a row of icons at the bottom of the screen space that allow you to do all you need to do with your audio. The usual play, pause, stop and record and then you have things like fade in and fade out; cut, copy and paste; redo and undo and then you have your crop tool. The other icon which is to the far right allows you to put on the device clipboard any audio that you have selected, so that it can be used in other audio applications that you might have installed. On the Mac there is a version of Twisted Wave but I already have AmadeusPro bought and paid for.

Twisted Wave

 

In the bottom left hand corner you have a button giving access to settings and it is just as colourful as all of the other icons for the controls. This is where you can choose the effects that are available, such as amplify and normalise. You will also find options to add silence to your track, filters, delay, a dynamics processor and an option to change pitch and speed. You can even take the selected part or the whole track and make it play in reverse.

Using Twisted Wave to share your iOS audio recordings

There is the usual share button available for you to send your iOS audio recordings out to the world. From here you can choose the format of the audio that you send out and you have eight different formats available to use, both lossless such as the AAC format and the Wave format as well as the compressed format of MP3. You can also choose the compression bit depth from that same menu.

From the export audio drop-down menu you can send to iTunes, FTP upload, send by email, send to dropbox, send a selection to a new document or to open in another application. You could send to an audio notetaking app. A particularly good option from this menu is to Send to Soundcloud and this is useful because from there you can have it sent out to things like Facebook, Tumblr and anything else you have set up within Soundcloud. It would be nice to have the option there also, to send to Audioboo. I have used this to send audio to iMovie for iPad.

free applications

 

The NoStylus verdict on a Twisted Wave

I really like this iOS audio recording application as it is simple to use and does just about all that I ask of it. If you are a user of Soundcloud, it is extra useful for sharing out whatever you record as audio on iOS. It is only a single track audio editor and it would be nice if at some point in time it would be possible to have multiple tracks of audio. That would make it much more useful to podcasters that use audio effects and bumpers along with their voice recordings. I believe though that there is a specialised podcasting app that could do that for you. That is called Caster and I hear it is not that good. There are other Digital Audio Workstation apps for iOS you can look at. Twisted Wave gets a big thumbs up from NoStylus.

Posted in iPad Apps.

Following an app suggestion I got the Moves app

09/04/2013 by WZ_NoStylus · Leave a comment

A while back I had been thinking of getting the Fit Bit, but I was completely put off by the price. The Fit Bit is a gadget which you wear on your body and records your every move. The idea is that you record how many steps you take during the day and you use it to record your physical activity during the day. One of the problems that people have that use the Fit Bit, is that quite often they lose the object, or it gets put into the wash or generally trashed in some way or other. When they cost so much, this is rather inconvenient and expensive. So when I was listening to the podcast from the British Tech Network, I heard Don McAllister say that he was going to recommend an application called Moves. Basically what you have is an application that will take the place of the Fit Bit and what’s so good about it, is that it is much less likely that you will lose your iPhone5 and you don’t need an extra piece of tech to make it work.

I installed the application straightaway on to my iPhone

Screenshot 09 04 2013 18 05 2

So while I was still listing to the podcast with Ewan Rankin and his crew I got my hands on this free application. I had the thing turned on and because I was at work it was able to have something to actually record. I do quite a lot of walking when I am at work and it recorded me walking for 20 minutes. Then I finished work, I got into my car and went to the supermarket and it recorded me for six minutes walking around the shop getting my bits and pieces.

Now for some reason it didn’t do the recording following another seven minutes of driving, when I did a small amount of walking from the car to the bank and back again to the car. The application now has me placed at my home address and I will see if it starts to do so more recording when I go and take the dog out for a walk. Walking for less than 30 seconds is nor recorded.

Will the Moves application kill my iPhone battery?

For sure, the application Moves will have an effect of draining the battery on my iPhone a little bit faster. Any of the applications which use the GPS sensors to track your positioning will do this. It seems though, that is the developer has worked out that it is possible to minimise the battery drain by having it detect when it is completely still and it is not needed to track your movements. I am still in the early stages of using this so I can’t comment on how this will work out on a long-term basis, but so far I like what the application does and I’m willing to risk running out of juice if I have to.

Using the application Moves in the real world

It is not necessary for you to do anything to tell the application whether you’re walking, cycling or travelling in a fast moving vehicle such as a car. I didn’t touch any of the settings and it seemed to know when I was doing what I was doing. The application tells me that so far I have taken 2,164 steps and it also gives me a time line. The left part of the timeline has an icon which shows you a map symbol, tap on that to see where it was when that part of the recording was created. I just tapped on the icon and I was able to add a name to the first place and to the supermarket. It even came up with the suggestion of the name of the supermarket that I went into.

Screenshot 09 04 2013 18 11

At the top of the screen is the button for Today, if I tap on that it takes me to a rudimentary calendar. You can choose to view either days or weeks. It is also possible to share your physical activity as recorded by the application Moves, through Twitter, Facebook, Mail or to your Camera Roll. Within the settings of the application you get a Frequently Asked Questions section which tells you all about how the application works and what it will record. For instance it doesn’t record walks which are less than 30 seconds. It says that it will even work if you’re walking on a treadmill, although it is likely that the distance calculation will not be very accurate.

Privacy of your data

There is quite a long section in the settings about your privacy concerning your physical movements. Obviously the application has to collect data about where you are and then use that data so that it can give you feedback. Judging by the amount of information put into their privacy policy, I get the impression that they are good guys and unlikely to do anything bad with your data.

The NoStylus verdict on Moves

I think I can safely say that this is a marvellous application, it is especially good because it is free. I haven’t had the benefit of being able to use a Fit Bit, so I can’t make a direct comparison and perhaps I don’t need to. I like what this application does and I think it is brilliant and it is going to save me from the expense of getting other tech devices to work with my iPhone or latest iPod Touch. If you are interested in capturing the data of your physical movements during the day so that you can use it as part of a get fit regime, then the Moves application will be an enormous benefit to you. Did I mention already that you can get it for free? Time for me to go and walk the dog. I can notch up soome more steps…

Posted in iPhone.

The Techno-Granny gets an iPad mini

05/04/2013 by WZ_NoStylus · Leave a comment

I had already been talking to my mother about the iPad since she bought her MacBook, which she absolutely loves. She had said that she would like to get one and I had suggested that she might be better to wait a little while to see if a new model was going to be coming out possibly in April or May. I wasn’t too surprised when she messaged me to tell me that she had been into Birmingham to buy the iPad mini. She doesn’t listen to a word I say anyway. I think she is properly getting back at me from when I was a bad teenager not listening to her either. She is 74 and turning into a proper geek. She will be coming over to visit here in Catalonia and obviously we’ll be bringing her iPad mini with her and will probably want me to show her some bits and pieces of things that you can do with an iPad mini and not not just for playing iOS games.

ipad mini and siri

Controlling the iPad with your voice – Siri

I really enjoy using Siri on my iPad and I wish I also had it available on my iPhone, but unfortunately I have the iPhone 4. I do have the possibility that I can still dictate into the iPhone 4 by using the DragonDictate dictation application, but it is not the same. A couple of days after my mother getting her iPad mini I was able to teach her how to use Siri. We started off by asking Siri one or two silly questions and also giving a couple of commands for him to work with. As you can imagine, my mother was absolutely delighted with having a computer that she could talk to and command with her voice. Even I am quite impressed sometimes with the accuracy and usefulness of this voice service on iOS. I really think that I must consider upgrading my iPhone 4 to an iPhone 5 later on this year if I can.

Dictation with Siri on the iPad or iPhone

When I’m using the dictation feature on my iPad by hitting the microphone button next to the spacebar on the keyboard, I’m able to use some of the commands available as when I’m using DragonDictate on my Mac. I can say things such as new line or new paragraph and any of the other punctuation features that I might want in my text. When you’re speaking clearly and and enunciating your words well enough, you will find that the accuracy will be pretty good and sometimes a good enough to be 100%. Certainly with some of the sentences that you use, you will find that there could be only one or two words that have not come out quite right. It is always a good idea to read through what you have dictated before sending off as a tweet or an email. The best thing to do is to do a double tap on the word that is not correct and to have it selected and then typing in the correct word. If there are two or three words together that have been incorrectly recognised, then you could select all of those and try to say again the words to replace them. Whether you decide to do the dictation again or use the keyboard to add a word or two where necessary, I am really sure that you will find using dictation is much faster than typing on the keyboard, especially if you are using it with the iPhone.

The natural language of Siri

Siri questions

When you think about it, it really is quite amazing that you can use natural language when talking to Siri. Most times, he she or it will understand what it is that you want and give you back a reasonable answer. You can also ask Siri some silly questions such as “What is the meaning of life?” And in this case you might well get back an answer which is possibly a serious answer and it is also equally likely that you get back an answer which is humorous or clever. So for instance the answer to that question could be 42, which you will understand as being funny if you have read the book ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. What you will also find is that it has been programmed so that you don’t always get the same answer to questions like that. I just asked that question of Siri and the answer that he came back with was :- “Life: a principle or force that is considered to underlying the distinctive quality of animate beings. I guess that includes me.” I asked the same question four times getting different answers and the last time he said “I give up”.

What is the next match played by Barcelona football club is a question that I asked Siri and it didn’t understand, but I tried again rephrasing the question a little bit and it worked. Then I asked when was the next game that Barcelona would be playing in the Champions League and it told me that it only was able to give me the recent Champions League results. When I asked for those latest Champions League results, I was told that it didn’t understand Champions League??. So we do have to remember that Siri is still in beta and in some ways has a long way to go before it is ready for the big time. Even so, it can still be extremely useful to use if you pick and choose what it is that you ask Siri to do.

Back to my mom and her iPad mini

My mom complains that she forgets things very easily and has told me that she has been to the classes in the Apple Store to learn things, the same things over and over. It is very good that the people in the Apple stores doing the lessons are extremely patient. What is nice though, when you consider the usefulness of the iPad mini to a 74-year-old lady, is that she can start using it really quickly and easily and really enjoy the process, getting a lot of fun from a tiny computer. I know that I love using my iPad and I will often be seen carrying it around with me in the house from one room to another. Most of the time I am consuming data from Twitter and Facebook, occasionally podcasts and videos, but you have to remember that the iPad is excellent as a device for creating content also. Same with the iPhone too when you are using the right applications and the right way of thinking when using the devices. For example, yesterday I created audio podcasts in the form of David Allen Audioboo’s and I also recorded a video to put into YouTube with my iPhone. I had the Audioboo’s upload directly from the iPhone and the video I brought onto my iMac back at home so that I could chop out a couple of sections before posting to the inter-web. I wonder if I will be able to get my mother interested in blogging or video blogging.

Posted in Siri.

Going paperless using iPhone or iPad and a touch of automation.

20/03/2013 by WZ_NoStylus · Leave a comment

paperless with Evernote

I am a great believer in being as paperless as possible and it is extremely rare that I would print anything out. Especially when you have the iPad available to you and you can read directly off the screen in a way that is quite personal, printing on paper has become superfluous. So that is one side of being paperless taken care of, by not printing stuff out that I create either on my Mac or in iOS. There is another side to being paperless that needs to be considered though. That is the paperwork that comes in from external sources such as telephone bill, electric bills and various other documentation. I quite often get the feeling, living here in Spain, that the Spanish really don’t like trees. There is a huge amount of red tape and paperwork for so many parts of Spanish life. So let’s see what we can do to organise this mountain of paper into a searchable digital format.

Evernote is perfect for the job of going paperless

When you add scanned documents into Evernote you will find that there is a certain amount of OCR performed on those documents. It isn’t OCR in the form of being able to grab that OCR text and use it elsewhere, but more in the form of making it so you can search text within the scanned documents in Evernote. There are other applications that you can use to perform optical character recognition on documents if you need to extract the text. For that type of OCR I would use PDF Pen Pro.

free applications

 

When you have your documents in Evernote it is the search capabilities which really makes it work in terms of going paperless. Like I said, you can search the documents that have been scanned for the text contained within, just as easily as you can search for any other text that you have clipped into Evernote. You can further enhance your organisation and searching by using the individual notebooks within Evernote. So for example, you would create a notebook that is for your house bills and then you can put all of your water, gas, electric and phone bills all within the one notebook. In the automation that is in the video, I show you how you can have Hazel monitor a folder in Dropbox to look for scans of utility bills and automatically put them in the correct notebook within Evernote. The automation will even add a tag to the note that is created.

Keeping a paperless workflow as simple as possible

If the workflow that you have for taking your mounds of paper documents and digitising them is complicated and time-consuming, then it is quite likely that you will not bother to use it. So what I show you in the video, is how you can merely scan the document and name it and the automation will do the rest. We will be using the application on iOS called Scanner Pro and if you want to use something that is free you could try Scanner Mini. Scanner Pro prompts you with a name which starts with the word ‘scan’ followed by the date. So if you leave the word scan and replace the dates with a code, such as P for phone and E for electric, then Hazel will know what to do when it sees the file in Dropbox.

In the video I show you that I made three different Hazel rules, two of them to sort out the bills and the other one as a catchall for other scanned documents to go into Evernote. The rules for the utility bills puts the documents into one particular notebook within Evernote, while the other rule puts those other documents into a separate notebook. I start by having Hazel rename the file with just the year and the month, before it puts it into the right place in Evernote and then deletes the scan file. This is so we have a nice efficient workflow and at the end of it a tidy folder.

Sorting out the nerdy bits of the workflow

Using Hazel is pretty straightforward as it is a simple case of choosing what you want Hazel to look out for, followed by what you want it to do. The geekiest or nerdiest part of the job is to add a small piece of AppleScript which tells Hazel to open up Evernote and puts the document in the correct folder and to add tags. In reality, this is not particularly nerdy, as below you will find the AppleScript text that you need to copy and paste into Hazel. You only have to change the name of the notebook from ‘Bills, to whatever you have called yours and to change the tags to suit.

Hazel in Action

tell application “Evernote”
activate
create note from file theFile notebook {“Bills”} tags {“Electric”, “Other Tag”}
end tell

Paperless with Scanner Pro in action

You put your documents onto a flat surface, hold your iPad or iPhone above the document and be ready to press the button. You can use the grid lines in the application to line it up properly. Even if the image is slightly skewed, no worries because Scanner Pro will de-skew it. When prompted, add the name of the file to the document with the right wording, so that Hazel knows what to do. That’s it! You have gone paperless.

Backing up just in case

Obviously if you’re going to scan important documents then you should without a doubt, backup your computer. You will have your working copy in Evernote and you get a backup by the fact that your Evernote documents are also securely stored on a server. I would also recommend that your Evernote database is part of your Time Machine backup. I also back up the entire computer using the application Super Duper (or you could use Carbon Copy Cloner) and I do that once a week to a separate hard drive.

With the paper that you have scanned, I would suggest that it is a good idea to throw it all into one box that is ultimately destined to be shredded and thrown away. I would probably keep that box of paper for between six months to a year, just in case. That part probably is not necessary, especially considering you have all of the electronic backups in place. You never know though. It could be that you have to present a document in its original form, someplace or other. Mind you, you always could just do a reprint of the document from Evernote. Many will just shred the original straight away, it depends on the document type.

Posted in iPad Tips and Tricks.
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