Apps: Productivity
With mobile gadgetry filling every niche in our lives, you would think we'd relegate pen-and-paper handwriting to the dustbin of bizarre things humans once did. Instead, we're inventing more sophisticated systems of conveyance for handwriting, such as with the Bluetooth Targus iNotebook, and why not? It has been our primary way of presenting ideas since the days of the first cave paintings, while electronic transcription methods are single-cell organisms by historical comparison. The Targus iNotebook proves we will not soon give up scratching out meaning on dead tree pulp, but in this case, it will track the etching, and connect it (via Bluetooth) to your iPad so you can scratch away and watch it "technologize" the results!
Book Creator for the iPad is a great little app that lets you create interactive iBooks right on your iPad. After you create your books, you can read them in iBooks and even sell them in the iBookstore.
It's not surprising really, when you think about it; the fact that in the past few years, right along with the explosion in popularity of the iPhone, we have seen a corresponding boom in the popularity of hardy gear designed to keep your mobile device safe in all circumstances, extreme or mundane, and look good while doing so too. It has a lot to do with what the Apple brand represents, and with the demographic Apple targets.
I've never found task apps that useful, and have generally resorted to the old technology: paper. But Finish for iPhone ($0.99), a new app out today, has changed that. It's a simple, yet very useful and handy to-do list for the iPhone. (No iPad version yet.) It has several features I like: time frames, automatically ordering your tasks according to time frame, and Focus Mode, which shows the most immediate tasks in each of the time frames.
I'll do a full post up on the Mobile App Showdown later, but wanted to get the word out that MyScript Calculator, an awesomely cool scratchpad-like calculation app (with handwriting recognition and the ability to solve equations) ran away with the MAS this year at CES. The app garnered oohs and aahs during the 4-minute pitch, and the applause-o-meter went off the chart as the crowd went wild for it at the end. If you grab one app this year, make it this seriously cool, award winning calculation app (currently FREE)!
"The hard part of feature design... what to leave out." - Dan BricklinNumbers is one of the most useful and powerful applications you'll use on your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It is the spreadsheeting component of Apples's office productivity suite iWorks.
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