Category: I-phone

Fantastical by Flexibits has been updated to version 1.1, which offers a slew of new features. Users can now edit events and notes within Fantastical, and changes are immediately synchronized with iCloud. There’s a lot to like about this new version, including behind-the-scenes bug fixes that make the whole experience more enjoyable. Here’s what’s new in Fantastical 1.1.

At last, you can edit events within Fantastical! This is the feature I’ve been waiting for, and I’m glad to report it works. To edit an existing event, simply double-click its listing in Fantastical. An edit window pops up, ready to accept your changes. You can edit notes in the same way.

The other major change is full iCloud integration and near-immediate synchronization of data. Previously, Fantastical required you to launch iCal (or have it running hidden) for sync with a MobileMe calendar. Now that’s changed, thanks to iCloud and Fantastical’s CalDAV integration. In my testing, events created in Fantastical showed up on my iPad by the time I launched the calendar app.

Several smaller changes further improve the Fantastical experience. For example, new events now automatically set the start date to the selected date on the calendar, with is a nice time saver. Multiple all-day events are grouped by calendar and sorted by event name, and Outlook events are color-coded by category.

Fantastical has been one of my favorites since I first reviewed it in May. It’s out of the way when I don’t need it, and quick when I do. Now that I can use it to edit tasks and notes, I probably won’t look at iCal very much at all. Fantastical 1.1 is available now from the Mac App Store for US$19.99.

Fantastical 1.1 offers editing, notes, full iCloud support originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are all manner of medically-based uses for iOS devices (the iPad in particular) if you are a medical professional, so it was just a question of time before patients themselves got in on the act (brace yourself, we get all bureaucratic up ahead). According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the FDA has drafted a document titled Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff – Mobile Medical Applications which is a first pass at attempting some standardization and looking at regulating the data and communication requirements of apps like this (for example, having a glucose monitor that can sync readings to your iOS device).

Particularly for a condition like diabetes, which requires tracking and (sometimes frequent) monitoring, it’s very handy to have all that data available quickly and easily. Having an official stance, even in draft, is a big step forward. From the JDRF:

Once the information is on a smartphone, diabetes management will become more discrete while at the same time opening up a world of opportunity. You could view glucose levels, determine insulin requirements and make dosing decisions, track your treatment, and share all of this information seamlessly with the people that help with and matter most to your care. You could send alerts and alarms automatically to parents or caregivers, and receive helpful advice when needed.

If this is something you’re in favor of, or better yet, could actually use, now’s your chance to add your voice to the encouragement. Here’s the catch: You only have until October 19th to have your say. You’ll find feedback on the JDRF post that you can use as an example to work from. If you or someone you know could benefit from this, take a moment and fill out the comment form. Who knows? Your comment may be the one that puts it over the edge and turns this draft into reality.

FDA drafts Mobile Medical Applications document originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You’ll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what’s happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today’s Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Daily Update for October 18, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS owners have another way to view PDFs files on their devices now that Adobe has released its popular Reader app for iOS. Adobe Reader for iOS lets you open a PDF from any app that supports “Open in,” including mobile Safari and iOS email. It’ll let you open password-protected files and view additonal PDF content like annotations and drawing markups. It also supports bookmarks and thumbnails, both of which can be used for navigation.

The app is desinged to be a reader only and has a minimalistic interface. When you are within the program, you can search the document, copy text to the clipboard and print. The Adobe Reader app is available for free from the iOS App Store.

Adobe releases Adobe Reader for iOS originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung goofed when it included a modified screenshot of the iOS maps application (above right) in one of its promotional pieces. The promotion shows a Samsung Android handset with Google Maps that unfortunately is not the Android version. It has a rounded text entry box and teardrop push pins that are found in an older version of iOS maps. This particular shot appears to match a three-year-old Flickr image (above left) that’s used in a post by Laura Scott at BlogHer.

Samsung is fighting Apple tooth and nail over accusations that its Galaxy lines of devices copy the design of the iPad and iPhone. The Korean company is not helping its cause with high-profile blunders like this.

[Via AppleInsider and Jeremy Philippe]

Samsung supposedly uses screenshot of Apple Maps app in promo originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS owners have another way to view PDFs files on their devices now that Adobe has released its popular Reader app for iOS. Adobe Reader for iOS lets you open a PDF from any app that supports “Open in,” including mobile Safari and iOS email. It’ll let you open password-protected files and view additonal PDF content like annotations and drawing markups. It also supports bookmarks and thumbnails, both of which can be used for navigation.

The app is desinged to be a reader only and has a minimalistic interface. When you are within the program, you can search the document, copy text to the clipboard and print. The Adobe Reader app is available for free from the iOS App Store.

Adobe releases Adobe Reader for iOS originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BeeDoc’s Easy Timeline is an app that any reader who enjoy tracking events might find interesting. The app allows you to easily create interactive timelines to chart any number of things. After launching the app, select a look for your timeline from built-in themes, then the type. You can choose between three different types of timelines: Date & Times lets you create historical timelines based on dates, such as March 5, 1789; Geological Scale lets you create timelines which track events that span thousands or millions of years; and Quantities lets you create a timeline that tracks anything that can be numbered, such as “Week 34.”

After choosing the settings, you can enter events onto it. For each event, you can choose a start and/or end date, a custom name, notes, photos, videos, or audio, web links and tags. After you’ve created data points for your timeline you can continue to format it by choosing font and text sizes, background images, dateline options and more.

But what’s really cool about Easy Timeline is how you can view your creation. You can print it or email it to friends, but the killer interactive feature is a 3D-view of the timeline that lets you advance through an event at a time.

When I showed Easy Timeline to my brother, a elementary school teacher, he immediately saw the educational benefit and said it would be useful to create historical timelines of subjects he was teaching, such as the American Revolution. I have used the software to create two timelines for a novel, one which tracks events as they happen in the book and one which tracks the book’s events in chronological order. A councilor friend of mine said she could see a great benefit of the app in tracking the events of a patient’s life.

Easy Timeline is $19.99 in the Mac App Store. BeeDoc’s also offers a professional version of the software, Timeline 3D, which has more advanced options, such as automatic data imports (from iCal, Aperture, Basecamp, etc), cinematic timelines, and advanced publishing options. Timeline 3D, which unfortunately isn’t on the Mac App Store, can be bought from BeeDoc’s site for $69.99. You can check out the differences between the two Timeline apps here.

Daily Mac App: Easy Timeline originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re looking at apps that aren’t games this week, and today’s selection is Any To Do. It’s a little pricey, but might be worth it for the right user. I use the excellent 2Do on my iPad, but Any To Do is nice as well.

While it lacks a little bit of the syntactic sugar that 2Do has, it does use a very interesting quadrant view. Basically, your tasks are charted as Urgent, Important or not Urgent or Important. You can see a view of all of your tasks laid out according to those criteria. Most to-do apps chart tasks by date due or time entered, but I do like how Any To Do lays them out, so at a glance, you can see tasks that need to get done right away, or that take precedence on your list.

Another big bonus is that Any To Do will sync with Evernote. Of course you can set up notifications and reminders for your tasks, set up repeated tasks, or send things out to Twitter, Facebook, or another calendar.

Any To Do places less emphasis on organization than other similar apps. It’s built more for creating priorities and lists of what you need to do. And of course, that’s a great function for someone looking for a very tasked-based to-do system.

Any To Do is available in the App Store for US$5.99 on the iPhone or $8.99 on the iPad. That’s relatively price, but again, it’s a pretty targeted app, and that quadrant view is something I haven’t seen before. There are lite versions to look at, too, if you’re not sure how it might work. If it sounds like the kind of task-based app you need to keep yourself moving on various projects and work, definitely give it a look.

Daily iPhone App: Any To Do originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are all manner of medically-based uses for iOS devices (the iPad in particular) if you are a medical professional, so it was just a question of time before patients themselves got in on the act (brace yourself, we get all bureaucratic up ahead). According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the FDA has drafted a document titled Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff – Mobile Medical Applications which is a first pass at attempting some standardization and looking at regulating the data and communication requirements of apps like this (for example, having a glucose monitor that can sync readings to your iOS device).

Particularly for a condition like diabetes, which requires tracking and (sometimes frequent) monitoring, it’s very handy to have all that data available quickly and easily. Having an official stance, even in draft, is a big step forward. From the JDRF:

Once the information is on a smartphone, diabetes management will become more discrete while at the same time opening up a world of opportunity. You could view glucose levels, determine insulin requirements and make dosing decisions, track your treatment, and share all of this information seamlessly with the people that help with and matter most to your care. You could send alerts and alarms automatically to parents or caregivers, and receive helpful advice when needed.

If this is something you’re in favor of, or better yet, could actually use, now’s your chance to add your voice to the encouragement. Here’s the catch: You only have until October 19th to have your say. You’ll find feedback on the JDRF post that you can use as an example to work from. If you or someone you know could benefit from this, take a moment and fill out the comment form. Who knows? Your comment may be the one that puts it over the edge and turns this draft into reality.

FDA drafts Mobile Medical Applications document originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re looking at apps that aren’t games this week, and today’s selection is Any To Do. It’s a little pricey, but might be worth it for the right user. I use the excellent 2Do on my iPad, but Any To Do is nice as well.

While it lacks a little bit of the syntactic sugar that 2Do has, it does use a very interesting quadrant view. Basically, your tasks are charted as Urgent, Important or not Urgent or Important. You can see a view of all of your tasks laid out according to those criteria. Most to-do apps chart tasks by date due or time entered, but I do like how Any To Do lays them out, so at a glance, you can see tasks that need to get done right away, or that take precedence on your list.

Another big bonus is that Any To Do will sync with Evernote. Of course you can set up notifications and reminders for your tasks, set up repeated tasks, or send things out to Twitter, Facebook, or another calendar.

Any To Do places less emphasis on organization than other similar apps. It’s built more for creating priorities and lists of what you need to do. And of course, that’s a great function for someone looking for a very tasked-based to-do system.

Any To Do is available in the App Store for US$5.99 on the iPhone or $8.99 on the iPad. That’s relatively price, but again, it’s a pretty targeted app, and that quadrant view is something I haven’t seen before. There are lite versions to look at, too, if you’re not sure how it might work. If it sounds like the kind of task-based app you need to keep yourself moving on various projects and work, definitely give it a look.

Daily iPhone App: Any To Do originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you like Infinity Blade on your iPhone or iPad, then you’ll probably love Infinity Blade FX. That’s the arcade version, which is apparently being introduced to arcades across the country very soon. You can see video of the game in action, and it looks — well, like Infinity Blade. Though it’s obviously on a bigger screen, the gameplay is essentially the same, even extending into multiplayer across two different machines. The whole concept of bringing an iOS game (designed for a platform that’s very private and portable), and turning it into an installed arcade game (a platform that’s very public and not portable at all) is a weird one, but in this case it might work.

That touchscreen is 46 inches, by the way, so it’s not a cheap endeavor, even if we haven’t yet heard how many tokens it’ll take to play this thing. If you want to give it a shot, apparently it’ll start appearing at Dave and Buster’s round about the end of this month. That, or you could just go buy it on iOS right now.

Infinity Blade coming to an arcade near you originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sears will soon outfit its employees in 450 stores with iPads and iPod touch devices. Sears sales associates will use the devices to help customers find product information, check inventory, and make purchases without having to be tethered to a cash register. Sears will also offer free Wi-Fi to customers so they can use their own smartphone devices in the store.

Sears is following in the footsteps of other retailers like Nordstrom, Home Depot and Urban Outfitters which have announced plans to roll out iOS devices in their stores. Lowes has also announced it’ll give out 42,000 iPhones to its employees which will be used to ring up purchases and pull down product information.

Even small retailers are shelling out cash to adopt this technology. Clothing retailer Pacific Sun has plans to roll out 300 iPads now and 600 more by next year. The clothing retailer predicts each device will let its employees handle five additional transactions each day, an uptick in sales that’ll quickly pay for the devices.

Sears to give iPads, iPods to employees in 450 stores originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS owners have another way to view PDFs files on their devices now that Adobe has released its popular Reader app for iOS. Adobe Reader for iOS lets you open a PDF from any app that supports “Open in,” including mobile Safari and iOS email. It’ll let you open password-protected files and view additonal PDF content like annotations and drawing markups. It also supports bookmarks and thumbnails, both of which can be used for navigation.

The app is desinged to be a reader only and has a minimalistic interface. When you are within the program, you can search the document, copy text to the clipboard and print. The Adobe Reader app is available for free from the iOS App Store.

Adobe releases Adobe Reader for iOS originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you think the new iPhone 4S is just the same old iPhone a report in DigiTimes may have you thinking again.

The publication quotes an IHS analysis which looks at some key under-the-hood changes in the new iPhone beyond the obvious faster processor, antenna redesign and addition of the Siri software.

Wayne Lam, a senior IHS analyst says the iPhone camera is a 5 lens system, a first for any smartphone. The new camera is getting raves from users, and comparisons show it’s a very high quality implementation for both still photos and high definition video.

The report also praises the fact that the iPhone 4S can operate on multiple carriers using different cellular systems and frequencies. Here in the US, the same phone can work on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. “No other handset OEM produces a single device for multiple operators and for multiple geographies on this scale.”

IHS also highlights other changes to processors and architecture in the iPhone 4S. It adds up to a significantly different user experience that is not obvious when just looking at the new iPhone but pays some big dividends for iPhone 4S owners.

Report highlights iPhone 4S design changes originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you like Infinity Blade on your iPhone or iPad, then you’ll probably love Infinity Blade FX. That’s the arcade version, which is apparently being introduced to arcades across the country very soon. You can see video of the game in action, and it looks — well, like Infinity Blade. Though it’s obviously on a bigger screen, the gameplay is essentially the same, even extending into multiplayer across two different machines. The whole concept of bringing an iOS game (designed for a platform that’s very private and portable), and turning it into an installed arcade game (a platform that’s very public and not portable at all) is a weird one, but in this case it might work.

That touchscreen is 46 inches, by the way, so it’s not a cheap endeavor, even if we haven’t yet heard how many tokens it’ll take to play this thing. If you want to give it a shot, apparently it’ll start appearing at Dave and Buster’s round about the end of this month. That, or you could just go buy it on iOS right now.

Infinity Blade coming to an arcade near you originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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