rock and scroll

Apps for special education

My friend Joe just sent this to me. It's a list of apps suitable for
use in special education published by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in Victoria.

Chapters is listed as a core app, strongly recommended for use in the classroom.

I'm honored and excited.

Here's the full list of apps.

The new month view in Planner for iPad

The next update to Planner has a custom month view.  It's the best way to see what's happening beyond the current week, of course.

The 1.1.0 update also has lots of fixes and lets you sync with the built-in Calendar app on the iPad.  If your Calendar app is set up to sync with Google Calendar, MobileMe, or other calendars, you'll be able to see and edit those events from within Planner.  The changes you make will be sync'd back to the calendar they originated from.  It's optional - just flip the switch to turn it on or off.

Look for Planner 1.1 in the App Store soon.

Flashboard Free Flashcards on iPad

Yesterday Apple approved Flashboard, the free (ad-supported) version of Cardboard.  You can use it to study flash cards on your iPad.  One of the features I like most is that you can create and manage your sets of flash cards from Google Docs.  The app can easily import your set and bring it to life.  

You can also browse Quizlet.com for sets; they have an amazing collection of cards from students like you.

I'm using Apple's iAd within the app.  This comes shortly after my AdMob account was disabled for no apparent reason.

I was happy to see it hop up to #37 on the charts this morning - it means people are studying!  I've heard from some teachers in the past and I hope those schools fortunate enough to have iPads can use it as one of many tools to make learning fun.

Planner for iPad - Calendar and tasks on the same page

Michelle is somewhat particular about her planner format. During the great planner shortage of 2008 we spent a couple weeks fishing around Barnes and Noble for a red Moleskine like this.

Things tied to a specific date fit nicely on the calendar. The right side works perfectly for to-dos that you might do in a few minutes, hours, or even weeks. The problem with the paper planner is that if you don't accomplish everything on the right side during a given week, you end up turning the page and having to rewrite your tasks. Michelle solved this with a paper clip and a post-it note that she floated from week to week, with occasional replacement.

If you have an iPad and can sympathize with the above scenario, you might like Planner for iPad. It's a weekly calendar and todo list on a single page.

Events and reminders you create in the app get published to the system calender so that you get the alerts and reminders you need.

Events are color-coded and you can pick from several color themes.  One of the themes matches the paper color if you don't like the highlighted blocks of text.  

I really enjoy how easy it is to enter a calendar event with Google Calendar and tried to replicate some of that with Planner. Just tap the empty space on one of the days of the week and type a few words and a new event is created.

There's a someday category for the todos you want to keep in mind but don't need to focus on just yet.

Chronicle for iPad - Top 10 apps

I check App Store rankings far less than I used to, but it was nice to
find Chronicle for iPad in the Top 10 Paid Apps list today. In recent
weeks many household names have been showing up in the store. It's
neat to be up there with Oprah, The Food Network, Martha Stewart, and
Esquire!

Thanks for your help.

Chapters for iPad: The Reviews

I released Chapters for iPad two months ago.  Since then I've sold thousands of copies, heard from hundreds of customers around the world, and released four app updates.

When Chapters debuted, it quickly appeared in the New and Noteworthy section.  Once it was bumped from that category it went straight into What's Hot, where it remained for a few weeks.  If it ever makes into Staff Favorites it'll have been featured in all three front-page categories. 

I was somewhat giddy seeing the app rank next to (or above) the always-in-the-news titles like Plants vs. Zombies, Words with Friends, and Apple's own Pages.

It's now out on its own, so to speak.  Despite a massive influx of new iPad apps every week, people are still finding it and filling it with the things that are important to them.

My journal is that of me which would else spill over and run to waste. - Thoreau

For me, the app has become something like a traveling gnome (less Travelocity and more Amelie).  I've heard from people documenting their vacations across the US, on a train in Australia, various parts of Europe, and more.  The Dropbox support lets them back up their photos and writing without needing to sync with iTunes.  

Others are busy using it at work to record meeting highlights and progress on projects.  Some people use it as a simple, searchable CRM tool.  Being able to type bullet-point lists and have a word count feature have been popular.

I've heard from people that use the app to take notes in college. I've also heard from two people in their seventies using the app to keep a journal.  Maybe the iPad is magical, after all.

I really like waking up to a full inbox (but not too full; I don't want to be one of those people that has to think about Inbox Zero).  Thankfully, there have been very few issues, so most of the email is suggestions and compliments.  I respond to every message.

I'm happy some people buy the app, make suggestions, and stick around to see their ideas come to life in an app update.

There's more to come.

 

A few reviews of the app since release

Four Writing Apps for the iPad

Tales of Joe and Jane

TUAW's Daily App: Chapters

Chapters for the iPad at Macgasm

iPad Application Reviews

GizmoFusion

TapScape

Create backups of your writing

Apple recently approved the latest updates to Chapters and Chronicle for iPad.  These releases have a few noticeable improvements and fixes but the focus of my efforts was on letting you create backups of everything you've written.

After you create a backup file within the app, you can copy it to your computer and keep it as safe as you want.

If you ever lose your iPad or experience some data loss you can simply import the backup file.  Your photos will be there, in the same spot you last saw them, along with everything you wrote.

This same feature will be available for the iPhone version in a few days (most likely).

The three apps were designed to play well with each other, so there's no reason you couldn't write on your iPhone and import those backup files onto your iPad (or do the reverse).  

You could also import your entire Chronicle journal into Chapters.    

I'm curious to hear any feedback you have regarding this feature.  It was a substantial effort.

Update 9/21/10 - All updates approved; you can move your writing around between your devices.

Calculess wants to be your iPad calculator

Calculess will be available soon on iPad.  There are a ton of calculators to choose from now, but few I'd buy.  I made it through high school, Georgia Tech, and University of Florida with my TI-86.  I love having a multi-line display and the ability to see and edit any part of my expression.  Calculess makes it easy to insert any previous expression or result onto the current line.  An extended history is available from the toolbar, so you can refer to previous calculations or substitute them into the current one.  Expressions can be arbitrarily complex.

There's a bit of room left for some more buttons, so I'll be listening to feedback.

Writing notes and more on iPad

Chronicle for iPad is now in review and I'm really excited about its release.  The scaled screenshots make the text lighter than it actually is; it's very easy to see on the iPad's screen.

Chronicle makes it easy to keep a notebook or journal.  You can customize your journal's background color and font settings and focus on your writing.  What you write can be protected against data loss (easy journal export) as well as unauthorized access (turn on the password protection and pick a passcode).

Search through everything you've written to find what you want.  Each search result appears with contextual text around it, making it easy to find specific events, people, or ideas you've written about.  I can't stress the importance of good, fast search.  It'll come to your rescue when you find yourself wondering what did we eat for breakfast in Spain last summer? (search Spain or breakfast) or What was the name of that t-shirt distributor I was going to use for my business? (search t-shirt distributor).

"The problem is we can never find the information we've stored, so we wind up with folders and folders we don't know what to do with," Merrill said. "Search is the new organization. Search can set us free from the clutter of our imperfect minds" by allowing us to get a little messy. No time is lost on meticulously filing and hunting for folders when well-defined searches are used. - De-cluttering your digital life can set you free

Add photos to any entries you write and position them however you want on the screen.  You can view a larger, zoomable version of each photo.

 

If you're reading this and would like to help me translate Chronicle to other languages, please contact me!