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Daily iPad App: Extra Innings Mobile Instructor
Extra Innings Mobile Instructor is a training app to help you analyze a baseball swing or pitch. It records or imports video and provides you with a set of tools to mock-up the video as you critique the player's movement. You can also use the app to submit the video clip to an expert who'll professionally analyze your swing or pitch. To use the app you'll need a baseball swing recorded using an iOS device (iPhone, iPad 2) or imported from your video library. If you're a coach, you'll have ample opportunity to take video of your team. The video recording feature has a nice focus box that helps you line up the player to get the perfect shot for the analysis. Once the video clip has been added to the Extra Innings, it only takes a few clicks to send the video to EI for analysis by a baseball professional. Each analysis is available as an in-app purchase that costs $15. If you want to analyze the video yourself, you can launch the editing feature and mark up the video using a built-in set of tools. You can add shapes, draw freehand with a pencil tool, add text notes and even record audio. You can add these overlays to the entire video or apply them to specific sections. When you are done with your analysis, you can export the video and email it off to the recipient. The app supports folders so you organize your videos by player, team, and more. The Extra Innings app is a must have for any parent whose children play baseball or a coach of a team. It's great for little league all the way through high school. Colleges can also use it, but if you're playing at that level, you likely have high-speed cameras and other advanced tools for analysis. Extra Innings Mobile Instructor is available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch running iOS 4.2 or later. It's priced at a very reasonable $4.99.
Daily iPad App: News360 2.0
I liked News360 when a reviewed it last April. It uses several sources for stories, and it was interesting to see the different takes on any single event. Of course News360 was also an excellent news discovery tool, scanning thousands of news sources to keep me up to date. One of the issues with News360 is you had no control over the sources. The app was basically static, and you got what you got. That's all changed in version 2 of this free app, released today. In a move toward personalization, News360 lets you input your Facebook, Twitter, Evernote and Google Reader accounts to seed the app with what news you are following and generate a unique mix of news that fits your interest. It's a good idea, and seems to work well. The more information it has about your reading habits, the better the presentation will be. The downside of all this is that it requires you having these accounts. No Facebook or Twitter account, for example, no personalized news. I think it's a mistake to go that direction. Many people are getting tired of some social media, especially Facebook because of privacy issues. I would have much preferred a GUI that lets me enter my interests or keywords. Going even deeper, the app could monitor what stories I look at and learn a lot about what I like that way. That's what my favorite news discovery tool Zite does, and Pulse News and Flipboard allow you to link to social media like Facebook but don't require it. The developers say that in an upcoming version, the social media links will no longer be required, and that's a positive step. This new version sports another excellent feature. Users can sync with news360.com and get their custom news without needing your iPad. Nice for office workers or others who want the benefits of the app and don't have or don't always carry an iPad. The app has some nice customization features. You can look at what's called an interest graph and edit it, so if it is bringing in things you don't want, you can whisk them away with a few clicks. The app also automatically provides links for more information, and, with your permission, it can use your location to get local news. I do like News360. It offers some fresh ideas for news aggregation, and the personalization is most welcome. I just wish it wasn't forcing me to to be on Facebook or some other system to find out what news I like. You don't have to personalize the app, and if you don't this version will work just like the older version, without user control of what you see. News360 is also available on the iPhone, but that version won't get personalization until Fall. %Gallery-130368%
Daily iPad App: NASA Visualization Explorer
The NASA Visualization app is your window into the world of NASA research. The app presents the latest NASA research news in an easy-to-digest format. Each article is written for the lay person and amateur scientist with images and video to complement the writing. Topics range from space-based exploration to climate change, another popular area of NASA research. The app itself is pleasantly arranged and can be viewed in either portrait or landscape mode. Each article has a captivating headline image pulled from NASA's impressive photography library. Articles can be viewed by selecting from an index or browsing the headlines individually. Navigation among articles is a bit awkward if you use the arrows,but you can always use the more familiar swiping gestures. The arrows are large and easy to tap, once you get used to them, though. The content is great. The articles are scientific enough to keep the amateur scientist interested, yet basic enough for the average person to understand. They are also topical and not obscure; you get to read about glaciers and solar flares! New articles appear every 2-3 days and a badge tells you how many new articles are available to read. Articles also include extra images and even video clips. The video supports Airplay so you can watch the clips on the big screen if you own an Apple TV. The NASA Visualization app also lets you share content via Facebook, Twitter, or email. You can copy the article's URL and even read it using Mobile Safari. The NASA Visualization app is a must-have for the NASA fan or science buff looking for something to read in their spare time. The app is available for the iPad only and requires iOS 4.3 or later. You can download it for free from the App Store.
TUAW's Daily iPad App: Diptic
It's nice to revisit an app that was updated and check out some of the new features. We first looked at Diptic about a year ago and liked it quite a bit. The app takes your photos and lets you arrange them in pre-selected frames. You can chose from different layouts including a top and bottom split, a three-way split and more. While the basic controls for image and layout editing have stayed the same, Diptic has added support for the import of photos from Facebook or Flickr and the export of your work to the same online services. It also supports exporting to Posterous so you can share your creations on your blog. The import from Flickr and Facebook is easy. You login to the service and authorize Diptic to connect to your account. After you authorize the app once, you can add and remove images without logging in again. The same applies to the export option. One or two clicks to export and your framed photos are sent to Facebook or Flickr, your choice. You can also add in a title, caption and/or tags before you upload. When you upload to Posterous, Diptic lets you add a title, body and tags. You can also toggle auto post on/off so you can decide to post right away or save the post in drafts for review later. The export feature works great. In a click or two, my framed photo was on my blog. If you have Posterous connected to Twitter or Facebook, your photo will be shared with those beyond your blog. Diptic is available for US$1.99 from iTunes. A 99-cent in-app purchase can be used to buy more layouts. It's a universal app that works on the iPhone and the iPad.
TUAW's Daily iPad App: Wreck This App
Wreck This App is a creative iPad app based on the book series by Keri Smith. The app takes the fun of doodling and creative expression and brings it to your daily life. The black-and-white interface is child-like and simple, which adds to the allure of the app. Wreck This App is arranged in pages and each page has a difference activity. Some require you to perform simple tasks like draw fat and skinny lines, while others instruct you to draw pictures of more complex objects. And it's more than doodles, as sometimes the activities, like the one to document something boring or fill in a page when you are angry, make you think about what you are doing. You have a set of standard drawing and writing tools at the bottom page and you can import images from your camera roll to include in your doodles. You don't have to move sequentially through the app, you are free to jump from page to page and can complete each activity as you see fit. When you are done with an activity, you can share it on Facebook, Flickr or via email. You can even save it your photo roll. Wreck This App is highly recommended. It has a pleasing interface and is whimsical and fun. In my humble opinion, it's a great way to pass time, far better than playing Angry Birds or Plants vs. Zombies. Wreck this App is a universal app and is available for $4.99 in the iTunes App store. %Gallery-129873%
TUAW's Daily iPad App: Pocket RPG
Crescent Moon Games made the excellent Aralon for iOS in the past, and that was a full-fledged RPG, featuring a whole world to explore and lots of gear to collect and quests to complete. Now, the company's gone back to the fantasy well to deliver another hack-and-slash style RPG game, though this one is a little simpler (and a little more focused on just the dungeons). Pocket RPG is exactly what it sounds like: A colorful dungeon-crawler with three classes, a fun and slick style and some great dual-stick gameplay. If there's an issue with this one, it's probably that things are a little too simple. Each level is its own contained world, which means you're leveling up what's basically a separate character in each. Gameplay itself is pretty mindless, too -- there are a few special encounters to break things up, but you're pretty much just using a few different abilities over and over against the enemy hordes. Still, Pocket RPG is plenty of fun, and the game's being updated steadily with new features (not to mention that it comes with full Game Center integration, and it looks particularly great on the iPad). Right now, the title's on sale for just US $4.99, and if you enjoy plumbing through dungeons of all kinds (and come on, who doesn't?), it's an excellent experience.
TUAW's Daily iPad App: ScreenChomp (and Camtasia giveaway)
When most people think about developer TechSmith, they think of the company's big products like Camtasia and SnagIt. Now the company has come out with a fun little app for kids of all ages that brings video screen capture to the iPad. ScreenChomp is a free whiteboard app that captures everything that's drawn on the screen to a video that can then be shared with others. Not only does ScreenChomp work with the whiteboard, but it imports photos from your iPad Photo Library as well. The result? Well, it's really easy to draw a big pirate mustache and dark goatee on just about anyone, record a soundtrack, and have a blast. There's more to ScreenChomp than just fun and games. TechSmith sees this as a tool for teachers to explain concepts and record their drawings and explanations for posterity. The sharing capability is tied to a specific iPad -- there's no account to sign up for, you just tap a button to have the screen capture sent to ScreenChomp.com. ScreenChomp also allows sharing with Facebook accounts, and the URL for your opus on the ScreenChomp website is easily sent to friends or students. For students, they can draw and narrate their own movies for free. The app is extremely simple to use and cutely animated with the ScreenChomp mascot seen in the icon at the top of the post. There's only one downside for parents who show their kids ScreenChomp -- I don't think you'll ever get your iPad back from your child. Giveaway TechSmith has also provided TUAW with two licenses for Camtasia for Mac valued at US$99 each. To have a possibility of winning one of these licenses, keep an eye on the @TUAW Twitter account later this afternoon. We'll post the two product keys at a random time. Once you see one, grab it, download Camtasia for Mac (email required) from the TechSmith website, and then paste in the product key. If you happen to be the first person to use that product key, you're a winner.
TUAW'S Daily iPad App: Pocket Informant HD
WebIS Pocket Informant is an advanced PIM that has been around for years, transitioning from the Windows Mobile platform to iOS quite nicely. The iPad version of this calendaring and task management app is particularly notable for its wonderful layout and efficient use of the entire iPad display. One feature Pocket Informant was known for, even back in its Windows Mobile days, was its many settings and options. And, thankfully, these features are carried over to the iOS application. The settings menu on the iPad has options for General settings, Appearance, Today settings, Calendar settings, Task settings, Sync setting and Advanced settings. Under each of these headings are options to change colors, views, orientation, notifications and more. It's a field of dreams for those that like to tweak an app to their personal tastes. Pocket Informant HD has the appearance of daily planner and can be viewed in either portrait or landscape view. In either orientation, there are tabs on the right side which lets you switch from calendar view, task view, agenda view and settings. Each section has even more options in the top bar. From this bar, you can add an event or task as well as switch from days, month or week view. You can also display information from an individual calendar and use a search box to find a specific appointment or task. Despite all these options, everything is neat, orderly and pleasing to the eye. For those who adhere to a planning regimen, Pocket Informant HD supports Getting Things Done or Franklin Covey ABC/1-99 Prioritization of tasks. It also syncs with multiple Google calendars, iOS calendars and Toodledo. Some users may be overwhelmed by all the options and views available, but most users will be pleased by the power and flexibility of this personal information management app. At $12.99 Pocket Informant HD is pricey, but it's worth the cost for those that rely on their calendar to help manage their busy lives. %Gallery-129441%
TUAW's Daily iPad App: Knot Guide HD
Similar to playing an instrument, Knot tying is a skill that is developed over time with much practice. It's one of those skills that you don't know you need until you find yourself hiking in the woods and want to tie up a temporary shelter with something other than a basic bow knot used for tying your shoes. The next best thing to finding an old salt to show you the ropes is an iPad app, Knot Guide HD from WinkPass Creations. Knot Guide HD has 95 knots that are organized into 17 different categories. There are 83 unique knots and a handful that are variations. You can view the knots via categories, alphabetically, or a customizable favorites list. You can even search if you know the name of a knot. The iPad app has a picture of each finished knot and describes how each knot is used. There is also a set of step-by-step directions that show you how to tie the knot. If two strands of rope are used, each strand is a different color so you can tell the two apart. A description accompanies each knot-tying step and you can even add your own custom notes for personal hints, tips or tricks. If there are knots you want to remember, you can add them to your favorites list for easy access. Knot Guide HD is designed as a reference guide and it looks excellent on the iPad screen. The images of each knot are crisp and clear, though they could be a bit bigger. The descriptions for each step in the tying process are very helpful as they make it easier to understand how you need to move each strand. Only two major items are lacking -- a quiz /game mode and videos. Other apps in this category include videos to demonstrate the knot and a quiz mode to test your knowledge. Some apps even tie into Game Center so you can earn achievements while you learn. Despite these drawbacks, Knot Guide HD is a very useful reference guide for anyone that wants to learn the fine art of knot tying. Knot Guide HD is available in the iTunes App Store for $2.99. There is also an iPhone and Mac OS X version. %Gallery-129322%
TUAW's Daily iPad app: StumbleUpon
If you're familiar with StumbleUpon, the iPad app will be a very comfortable experience. Instead of browsing "stumbled" sites in a browser with a toolbar, the StumbleUpon app allows you to visit sites shared by others (within a couple dozen categories like "tech" or "babes") from your iPad, complete with sharing tools and the ubiquitous "Like" or "Don't Like" buttons for each page you visit. The StumbleUpon app is nicely designed for the iPad, with all the features you could access in your browser, somewhat more conveniently arranged around the main window where you'll be viewing shared web content. There's not much more to this app, except that I wish StumbleUpon had taken the opportunity to leverage the touchscreen on the iPad. It is handy to have Stumble, Like, share, forward/back buttons around your viewing area, but there's no real innovation in the app. There are glimmers of hope, as the Home screen actually has a swipe-able list of your interests (which you can edit). But it would have been nice to see this put into my history, so I could easily see previous "liked" content. Or perhaps a grid of suggestions grouped by interest, so I'm not passing through a bunch of "comedy movie" stumbles before getting to a "tech" page. Still, your profile screen offers a list of your likes, and how many people you are following and how many are following you. This is well-presented, as is the Home screen and your main browsing screen. Newcomers to StumbleUpon will find it quite easy to get started. While you cannot skip questions about your age and gender, finding others on StumbleUpon is really easy thanks to the app having access to your iPad's address book. Don't worry, this is only to match up email addresses to those already registered with StumbleUpon, and you don't have to choose anyone. Still, I found it was helpful to add a few people so I can see what they are sharing. StumbleUpon is, after all, a crowdsourced service, so the more the merrier. If anything, the StumbleUpon app suffers from a lack of coherent user interfaces. Still, the basic functionality of finding "cool stuff" by hitting that Stumble button is well-suited to the iPad. You're not going to see Flash content, but in the time I spent using the app I never saw any! If you're prone to clicking that Stumble button in your browser, or if you've never used StumbleUpon before, the iPad app is a great place to go. Within minutes you'll be up and finding all kinds of crazy things.
TUAW'S Daily iPad App: Lynda.com
Lynda.com is an online learning library filled with instructional videos for computer users. It's geared primarily for developers and designers, but it does have a growing library of content for introductory computer users. Most people access the content through the Lynda.com website, but those with an iPad have the pleasure of browsing, watching and learning on their favorite tablet. The Lynda.com iPad app mimics the Lynda.com website by letting you browse or search for instructional video courses. Once you find a course of interest, you can view a table of contents which lists all the videos associated with that course. Most videos are less than 10 minutes long and grouped together in topics. Each topic would be equal to a chapter in a book. All the videos can be watched easily on your iPad in portrait or landscape view. When you watch the videos, they count towards your completion of a course. As you would expect, the app ties into your Lynda.com online account so any video you watch on your tablet will show up as watched when you log in using your browser. The iPad app also lets you view your account details so you can see how many courses you have completed, which videos you have watched, and what training certificates you have earned. The iPad app is not meant to replace the website, but it is a nice companion for when you have some spare time and don't want to lug around your laptop. The Lynda.com iPad app is available for free, but requires a monthly or yearly subscription to fully use the resources of this online learning library. If you just want to check it out, you can download the iPad app and browse select content for free. There's also an iPhone version as well. %Gallery-128950%
TUAW's Daily iPad App: 22 Days HD
22 Days HD is an event countdown app that tells you the number of years, months or days until an event. It even counts down the hours, minutes and seconds, but the app calculates that value according to the day, not the exact time of the event. The app looks nice on the iPad, even if its navigation is a bit awkward. It opens to your event screen which lists all your saved events. Each event has an icon and is arranged in a grid pattern according to how far away the event is (days, months, or years). You tap once on an icon to view the event details and tap twice to edit an event. Be careful not to triple-tap an event, as that deletes it. While still in the event list view, you can get a quick look at all the events in each time category by tapping and holding on the "days", "months" or "year" labels. Pulling up information in this event list view is quick and easy, but you do have to get used to these single, double and triple taps, as well the tap and hold. You can also swipe left and right to navigate between your event list and the new event screen. This swiping is not completely intuitive as you have to swipe across the large 22 Days logo at the top to navigate. If you swipe on the bottom half of the screen, nothing happens. Once again it's easy, but not completely intuitive. The new event screen is where you enter all your events. You can set the name, date (month and day only), assign a notification date and time, and specify it as a recurring event, There is no option to set the frequency (weekly, monthly) or the recurrence; each event by default is yearly. You can also choose an image and must assign one before you can create an event. The image can be a stock image provided by the app, one in your photo roll or one taken with your iPad 2 camera. The 22 Days app is also chock full of value-added features. It lets you add an unlimited number of events as well as grab location data for each event. You can even pull in event information from your contacts (their birthdays!) and from an ICS file exported from your personal calendar. Events can be shared on Twitter by double tapping the event and on Facebook by triple tapping. Overall, 22 Days HD is a nice-looking app with many features. You just have to get used to its semi-complex method interaction that uses a combination of single, double and triple taps. 22 Days HD is available here in the App Store for $1.99.
TUAW's Daily iPad App: Baby's Musical Hands
Owen Goss is an experienced iOS game developer -- he's produced a game called Landformer, and I once watched him make a game about bacon farming in just 90 minutes at a conference. But he's taken a step away from gaming for his latest iPad app, instead creating more of a musical instrument meant just for the very young. Baby's Musical Hands is an app made for babies, using color and sounds to fascinate and entertain the youngest iPad users out there. The app was created with Goss' son in mind, but any baby will likely be drawn to interacting with the visual and audio feedback that the app provides, and parents can "play" along with children as well. Unfortunately, I don't have a baby to test the app out on, but I'm sure any kid would find the fun in this one. And at the price of just US 99 cents, it'll come much cheaper than most of your baby's other toys and gear (of course that doesn't include the cost of the iPad). If you've got an infant around who's shown a little iPad interest but isn't quite old enough to throw Angry Birds around, give this one a try.
TUAW's Daily iPad App: Doodle Buddy for the iPad
Doodle Buddy is a free finger-drawing app for the iPad. It brings the fun of childhood finger-painting to the iPad as well as the grown-up need to make quick sketches to share with friends, family or co-workers. For your children or the child inside all of us, Doodle Buddy lets you draw with multiple finger on the iPad's large screen, just like finger-painting. It has over 44,000 colors in its color-picker so you never run out of choices. A variety of stamps can be added to your creation and each one makes a funny noise when you use it. It's perfect for situations when children want to draw, but parents don't have the materials or time to let them get all messy from markers, paints and ink. I've field-tested with my own children and my kids love it. For the adult, Doodle Buddy has a variety of tools you can use to mock up a quick drawing that can be shared via email. It's easy to grab the brush tool, dial down the brush size and draw out rough directions or a floor plan to send off the your significant other when apartment or house shopping. You can create each doodle on a blank slate, pre-made background, or doodle over your own pictures. The ability to mock up your own pictures can be useful for pointing an important aspect of a image, like "hey, that's me on that roller coaster." You can also use it to have some fun when you put a silly phrase on your cat picture and create your own lolcat. Overall, Doodle Buddy is fun, easy to use and great for both adults and children. The drawing app also has a rewards feature called Doodle Bucks that you earn when you download an app. Powered by Tapjoy, the Doodle buck let you buy expansion packs that include birthday, stencil, food and other theme-related tools. Doodle Buddy is available for free in the App Store. It does include advertisements which some parents don't like in an app used by children. These ads are removed with a 99-cent in-app purchase.
TUAW's Daily iPad App: Paper Camera
Although I'm a sucker for photography apps on the iPhone, I haven't really done any photography on the iPad 2. It's a great device for running photography touchup apps, but what about actually using the camera? Paper Camera is a US$0.99 (sale price, regular price $2.99) universal app that is just fun enough to make me start taking pictures with my iPad 2. Sure, there's the problem of looking like a complete tool while holding the iPad 2 up to take a photo, but at my age I don't care any more. Paper Camera uses a whimsical hand-drawn user interface and displays your live camera image on a piece of wrinkled paper. There are 11 different filters available, each of which provide cartoon and painting effects to your photos. %Gallery-128478% Sliders are available for adjusting the contrast, brightness, and line thickness of any of the effects. When you want to switch effects, there are large arrows at the top of the screen to tap on. Want to actually quit admiring the view and take a photo? Tap the big red camera icon, which looks like a child drew it. The app only works with the camera right now -- you can't pull in photos from the Photo Library -- but developer JFDB Labs is planning on adding that feature in version 1.2, scheduled for about two weeks from now. Following updates are expected to add full resolution photos and saving live video with the effects applied. There's one annoyance with the app. The hand-drawn interface doesn't flip as it should when you turn the iPad over. Other than that, it's a barrel of fun and at just 99¢ right now, it's a bargain that you can install on your iPhone as well.
TUAW's Daily iPad App: Battleship for iPad
Electronic Arts recently released an official version of Battleship for the iPad. EA kept the gameplay of the classic board game, but updated the graphics for the larger screen of the iPad. The iPad game has the look and feel of the electronic version of the game with several modes including classic, salvo, super weapons and multi-player. The multi-player mode lets you play against another iPad, iPod touch or iPhone via WiFi or Bluetooth. The gameplay of each mode is classic Battleship. There's a simple grid that you use to arrange your ships and fire on your enemy ships. You don't have to keep track of the grid (no, E5 or A8 required), you just double tap to fire (or tap and hit the fire button) and the game fills in your hits and misses. Each time you or your opponent fires, there is an entertaining cut scene that shows the missile launching and landing on its target. This back and forth cut scene does slow down gameplay a bit, but you can turn it off if you don't like it. A small set of sound effects add to the gameplay and is not overbearingly loud. The two-player player mode is one of the best features and it works great. The gameplay with two players is almost the same as single-player, but you get to beat your friend instead of the game's AI. The connection doesn't drop and it's as close as your going to get to the real thing without actually buying the original board game. Best of all, there are no game pegs or game boards to find and put away each time you play. Overall, the gameplay on Battleship for the iPad is smooth and responsive. It never crashed and the multi-player connection only dropped once in all my trials. The Battleship for iPad game is available now for US$2.99 in the iTunes app store. %Gallery-128408%
TUAW's Daily iPad App - Warplanes: A History of Aerial Combat
Gameloft recently released a new iPad book-app, Warplanes: A History of Aerial Combat (US$6.99). This app is follow-up to Gameloft's earlier book-app, War in the Pacific. This latest offering includes detailed information on 43 historic war planes including popular bombers like the B-52, fighters like the F-15 and reconnaissance airplanes like the SR-71 Blackbird. You can view a 3D model of the plane, browse vintage photographs, read detailed specs and even watch a video of the plane in action (though not all planes have a video). The app opens to a home screen with clickable images of all the planes and is organized as reference guide, not a chapter book that you read. The content is organized nicely and there is a lot of information for users to comb through, especially if you are new to military aviation. Besides background information, there is an interactive cutaway diagram of each plane and a rotatable 3-D model. The 3D model is a bit disappointing as you can only move it left and right. You cannot spin it to see the top and bottom of the plane. %Gallery-128298% The photo gallery for each plane is also inconsistent. When you click on gallery, sometimes you get a nice slideshow of pictures for each plane. Other times, you open a grid of images for all the planes, not just the one that you are viewing. The latter is a tease as you see fifteen thumbnails on the screen, but only two or three are for your selected plane. Overall, the app is geared towards the beginning aviation buff or the more experienced aviator who wants a quick reference guide. It's not for the seasoned aviation veteran looking for a lot of stellar pictures and heart-pounding video of the planes in action. This media-rich content which would look great on the iPad is lacking. I would love to see more images and, especially more videos of the planes in various aerial maneuvers. More planes would also be a welcome addition as 43 entries only scratch the surface of historic military planes. It is also worthy to note that the book-app is heavily weighted towards US planes and jets. There's a rich history of early World War I and World War II propeller planes that's missing.
TUAW's Daily iPad App: PDF Converter
It's not often that we can make a product announcement and also have it be a Daily App, but that's the case with Readdle's newest iPad app, PDF Converter (US$6.99). PDF Converter adds a tremendous amount of power to your iPad; it makes it possible to save almost any content on your iPad as a PDF file. Whether you have an email attachment, a web page, a document from your iDisk or Dropbox that you want to make into a PDF, PDF Converter does it. A tap on an email attachment brings up the familiar "Open In..." buttons, allowing the document to be opened in PDF Converter. The attachment is automatically converted to PDF format and available for further distribution or storage on the iPad. To convert a Safari web page to a PDF for future reading offline, just add a "pdf" prefix to the URL in the address bar, tap "Go" on the iPad keyboard, and the document is converted and placed in the Documents list in PDF Converter. The app can also take anything from the iPad clipboard, your contacts list, or Photo Library and convert it to a PDF. This is a wonderful app for creating and distributing ad hoc address lists -- by tapping on the names of assorted contacts and tapping the Convert button, PDF Converter instantly creates a formatted PDF with the contact info for all of the people you've chosen. It's also useful for creating ebooks on the fly. I took a Word document from Dropbox holding my 2009 NaNoWriMo novel, converted it to a PDF, and then used PDF Converter to open the novel in iBooks. This was all done without even getting near my Mac. PDF Converter has found a place on my iPad, and I think a lot of iPad users will feel the same way once they install the app.
TUAW's Daily iPad App: Puffin browser
When you absolutely, positively need to be able to view Flash websites, the new Puffin Web Browser for iPad (US$0.99, universal app) is an inexpensive way to do so. The app, much like Skyfire ($4.99) before it, runs the sites through a server for rendering and compression before delivering the results to your iPad. The result? You can watch Flash animations and movies that are not viewable with Safari. I asked my TUAW cohorts to recommend a few Flash-heavy websites to check out Puffin, and each passed my tests with flying colors. First, Victor Agreda had me check the Fluidmaster website. This site is for a toilet repair kit company, and just going to the site in Safari was a total fail (see below). Opening the same site in Puffin, I was immediately able to view all parts of the site, including the ultra-cheesy Flash-animated "Bob the Plumbing Expert" (below). Rendering was fast over Wi-Fi, so moving from page to page was quick and pain-free. As you can also see in the image below, Puffin provides tabbed browsing on the iPad. One of our resident sci-fi experts, Dave Caolo, recommended trying to watch the Flash video episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars available on Starwars.com. When I loaded the site in Safari and went to one of the episodes, all I got was R2-D2 telling me I needed to load the latest Adobe Flash Player (below). Popping over to Puffin, I was immediately able to watch an episode. In comparison to watching it on my iMac in Safari with the Flash Player, the video was a bit choppy, and the audio occasionally got out of sync. One issue I did have with the app is that at the present time, cut and paste isn't supported. This was irritating when I was trying to paste in a password and couldn't. The Puffin folks say that it will be supported in a future version of the browser. The "drag" mode, which brings up a hand icon to facilitate dragging frames or scroll bars on websites, was also non functional for me. Still, the app is much less expensive than Skyfire; $0.99 gets you Puffin on both iPhone and iPad, while you'd need to spend $7.98 to get Skyfire on both devices. For those who really need to view Flash sites on mobile devices, Puffin is a capable browser at a bargain price.
How to create a unique iOS home screen icon for your website
GIGAOM has put together a nifty article detailing the process for creating a unique iOS home screen icon for your website. When iOS users visit your website and create a home screen icon shortcut to easily access your site again, you want that icon to stand out and be easily identifiable amongst all the other icons, particularly if your site is a web app. Normally, when you create a home screen icon for a website, iOS will create a thumbnail image of that webpage, but by following a few simple steps (using a program like Preview), and entering a few lines of code, your websites can easily be identified by a well branded icon on any iOS home screen. Click here for all the details.
