The Productive Organizer

Here is an interesting take on how much effort Microsoft is putting in to all the subtle details that you will not notice but if done correctly or wrongly will affect your user experience.

In this case the sound theme of Windows Phone 7 vs other platforms:

There are a lot of supporters for the task management app called Omnifocus.

For those that are not familiar with Omnifocus, it is one of the task management application that David Allen talks a lot about to implement his Getting Things Done methodology.

The astounding thing is that, after so many good todo list applications that have come out, Omnifocus on the iPhone cost USD 19.99 which is a rather steep price.

And to top it off, this iPad app will cost USD 39.99!

No doubt, folks will need to have some understanding of Managing Tasks by projects or Getting Things done to  use applications like this.

A lot of people swear by it but I feel for most folks there are cheaper options that does the same thing.

Take a look at how it works:

The ipad have finally come to Singapore. The price is reasonable for Apple Products and I would think its on the high side for an entertainment device, but if you want something lightweight for your travels, the iPad is a good bet.

For folks in the defence industry (read sub-contractors, NS Men, regulars) you would wanna grab your hands on this device as it is without camera but it will greatly improve your productivity

WiFi

• 16GB: SGD$728
• 32GB: SGD$878
• 64GB: SGD$1,028

WiFi + 3G

• 16GB: SGD$928
• 32GB: SGD$1,078
• 64GB: SGD$1,228

Beginning this Friday, customers can purchase all models of iPad through Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

Kyith:

A lot of people are barking at iPhone for not being open and are limited in what they can provide. But at the end of the day, they are doing a lot of things right for people other than the people who constantly complains about it.

Here is a nice article talking about how the iPhone and Smartphones can be used effectively to help the blind.

Note that this is not the only software helping disabled people. Proloquo2Go have been lauded for reducing the cost for speech impaired people.

Smartphones can be pretty clueless when it comes to blind or visually impaired users.

For millions of consumers with normal vision, smartphones offer almost effortless conference calling, e-mailing and Internet browsing. They make it easy to find a gas station, a rental car or a recipe. Vast music libraries and video games are expected features for a device with a $200 to $600 price tag.

But for many in the blind and visually impaired community, the absence of physical buttons on most smartphones makes interactions with some devices virtually impossible.

Nowhere is the digital divide in the smartphone market more pronounced than between Apple and Google products.

Blind and visually impaired smartphone users offer near universal praise for the iPhone, whose 3GS has a built-in VoiceOver screen reader that enables all functions with a few taps, swipes or other gestures on the touch screen. On Google’s Android phone, blind users can’t e-mail or navigate the Internet.

Many consumers with visual impairments say they are being held back from equal participation in the digital revolution, denied tools their colleagues and competitors enjoy. Smartphones, they argue, are public accommodations, no different from building ramps or Braille on elevators.

“Our electronic, digital universe is changing so rapidly that these phones are as essential to our daily life as a curb cut would be,” said Brian Bashin, the CEO of the Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco, an advocacy organization for the blind and visually impaired. “We shouldn’t have to play catch up with expensive modifications when it all should have been there right out of the box.”

The Blackberry’s Oratio screen reader, for example, costs blind users an extra $450 on top of the price of the Research in Motion phone.

This month, a House subcommittee held a hearing on the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act to direct the Federal Communications Commission to make Internet-enabled communications devices accessible to the more than 25 million adults in the United States with vision trouble.

The FCC currently requires telecommunications manufacturers and service providers to make their products accessible to people with disabilities. One FCC official said Google would likely not be liable under the current law because it is not the phone’s manufacturer.

Jenifer Simpson, a former FCC official who is now the senior director of government affairs at the American Association of People with Disabilities, is frustrated that more companies are creating communications products that the FCC doesn’t currently regulate.

The question she wants companies to ask is, “Can Grandma give you a phone call on the smartphone you want to buy her for Christmas?”

Joshua Miele, an associate scientist at the San Francisco-based Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute who designs educational tools for blind people like himself, says the iPhone is a new paradigm for the more than 1.3 million legally blind people in the United States.

“The most amazing thing about the iPhone is you go into the settings and you turn on the screen reader and you can use every part of your phone, every text-based application and you don’t have to pay anything extra,’’ he said.

VoiceOver, the iPhone’s built-in screen reader, is controlled though gestures instead of arrow keys or keyboard commands. It can be customized so that a visually impaired person can easily magnify a web page or flip to a white-on-black background.

The iPhone 4, unveiled this month, expands the roster of accessibility tools, including the ability to wirelessly connect to a device that displays Braille.

In contrast, Google’s TalkBack screen reader on its Android mobile operating system doesn’t do enough talking, many advocates for the blind say. Android works impressively for calling, listening to music, using global positioning system data and applications like Facebook, but it won’t help blind users dispatch an e-mail to their boss or scan a website while waiting at the airport.

When Android was released more than a year ago, the disability community was primed for more innovations. When a totally accessible smartphone failed to materialize this year, advocates for the blind castigated Google as a peddler of expectations. The Android 2.2, released a few weeks ago, didn’t substantially enhance the phone’s accessibility to blind and deaf users.

Disability groups have been encouraged by some recent victories. The National Federation of the Blind last year reached a settlement with Motorola after pressuring the leading manufacturer of cell phones to comply with Section 255 of the federal Telecommunications Act. The act requires telecommunications equipment manufacturers and service providers to make their products and services accessible to people with disabilities. The agreement commits the company to make the phone-related functions on its BREW line of phones useable for non-visual customers.

Advocates for the blind say Google has done extraordinary work in other areas, pointing to the Google Books Library Project.

Steve Jacobs, president of the IDEAL Group, Inc., which develops applications for the blind, said his customers are hopeful that Google’s Project Eyes-Free , which invites software developers to create accessible applications for the Android, will serve up exciting inventions soon.

“I believe Google will rise to that occasion,” Jacobs said.

T.V. Raman, a computer scientist and engineer at Google, agrees.

Raman, who lost his eyesight at age 14 from glaucoma, is revered by many people with disabilities for his pioneering work on Google’s search service that helped people with visual impairments navigate the web. But the gifted innovator, who solves Rubik’s Cubes in Braille for fun, has also been faulted by some for developing products only he could figure out how to use.

Raman defended Android in a recent interview as “still a young platform” and said that the accessibility problems in the browser and e-mail will be fixed.

“There are rough edges,’’ he said. “The best way to silence that criticism is to go and build it. I wanted this yesterday as well.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that there are expensive, third-party screen readers currently available for Google’s Android phones. Screen readers for Android phones are free, open source, and bundled on every phone. This version has been corrected.

One of my top reviews at productive organizer have been how you can read PDF books or magazines on your iPhone or iPod Touch via good reader.

The medium of transfer have always been through WEBDAV WIFI transfer, where your iPhone becomes a webserver temprory and provides a url that you can assess via your desktop browser to transfer your books:

Key in the address in (1) in the picture in your browser:

The new USB Manager

What I like about the new USB manager is that it’s a portable application that does not require installation.

Once you plug in your iPhone or iPod touch into your USB, it should detect it!

[Download the Windows App here >>]

[Download the Mac App here >>]

A review of BookLover for iPhone application to increase reading productivity

For all reading fanatics out there, ever thought of having an application that consolidates

1. All your reading thoughts
2. All the books that you have read before
3. All that you have read
4. Easy sharing with all your friends

BookLover is that application. As an application to do that, I find that it has a major limitation:

Lack of cloud storage

By this I mean storing your have read, to read and will read list in some for of web applications where your account is maintained.

Why is it important for an app like this? For one thing, read is an age old activity and chances are people have a lot of books on paper back that they have read before.

As a read I want one service not just an application that enables me to keep track of it. I would have expected the BookLover iPhone app to act as a front end for it.

Other than that, it is quite an innovative application:

Finding a cover art for your book

If you are able to get online, BookLover will be able to find a cover art for your book.

I have tested it on 3 books and its been darn successful:

Finding related book titles

Booklover will also help you hunt down books that are related. I tried this on a Forgotten Realm title called Shadowstorm and it was able to bring up other book titles from similar authors:

Conclusion

It’s a small price to pay to ensure that you have an application that keeps track of your books.

The feature worth paying money for is the lookup of cover art via book title search.

Other than that it is fairly straight forward database storage.

I still feel you can keep track of this in other free options, particularly Evernote on the iPhone.

Now here is my view on why facetime could be the push to bring more users to adopt video conferencing.

Till today, video  conferencing have been limited to desktop computers. Skype have been the game changer so far bring video conferencing to the masses from what seem traditionally used specific for corporate meetings.

Facetime could win because:

• It is easy to set up. You practically don’t need to as you can immediately choose to video conference with someone. No complex configurations.

• The process is simple. When you call someone you’ll see an on-screen FaceTime icon. You can tap it, and the other person, assuming they are on Wi-Fi and have an iPhone 4, will get an invitation. If he or she accepts you’ll be chatting in just a few seconds.
• It is a built in feature. Unlike a Skype or Qik app you might need to download it or purchase then download it. There is little hassle in this and human beings does not really like to evaluate much.

If you offer someone a value added feature like this, charge them through your hardware (zero additional charges) and make the process easy and smooth, you could have a winner here.

Chop Chop Tennis

From developer Gamerizon, who brought us Chop Chop Ninja and Chop Chop Runner, comes the newest entry in the franchise Chop Chop Tennis. A departure from the style of their first two games, Chop Chop Tennis is a casual arcade-style tennis game with 3D graphics. The controls use a swiping mechanic that’s similar to what’s found in the other Chop Chop games, and actually proves to be quite intuitive. Since this is more of a casual game, control of the character is automatic and you must only worry about timing return shots and choosing what type of shot to use. The swipe gestures work how you would expect them to, with an upwards arc for a topspin shot or a diagonal swipe for a cross shot, for example.

There are 8 different characters in the game, and although they look cute in 3D they don’t look as nice as their 2D sprite counterparts from the other games. The 5 different court environments are colorful, and although not very detailed or lively they get the job done. Content-wise you can take partake in one-off singles or doubles matches, choosing amount of games you’ll play and difficulty, or you can partake in one of 3 tournaments. The tournaments are the meat of the single player game and pit you against the other 7 characters over three elimination rounds. There’s also a practice round featuring a couple different mini-games that are a fun distraction but get old rather quickly. Local multiplayer over WiFi or Bluetooth was recently added in an update and certainly adds more replay value if you have a friend with the game.

The gameplay is surprisingly fun in Chop Chop Tennis, and our only real complaint is the lack of things to do beyond the short tournaments. If playing endless matches against AI doesn’t seem like it will get old to you, or you have a friend close by with the game, then there may be a lot to like here. Chop Chop Tennis was the FAAD game for Tuesday, but as of this writing is still showing up free. If you do miss out on this sale, it’s still probably worth the asking price if you are a fan of casual sports games.

Kyith:

We used to only be able to sync our Gmail, Contacts and Calendars via Google Sync on our iPhone and iPod Touch. Now it seems with iOS4 we can do Notes as well:

If you use IMAP on your iPhone then you just need to turn on Notes. Go to Settings, “Mail, Contacts, Calendars,” select your account, and flip the switch on Notes (see the screenshot above).

Unfortunately, Google Sync users have a couple of extra (counter-intuitive) steps. You already have an Exchange account on your iPhone where you can switch on and off Mail, Contacts, and Calendars. Notes is not an option. You must set up a new IMAP account with your Google Sync credentials and GMail’s IMAP settings:

Incoming Mail Server: imap.gmail.com

Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.gmail.com

Turn off Mail since you already have email set up with Exchange. Turn on Notes (see the screenshot below).

Now, when you use the Notes app to create a note on your iPhone it will appear in your GMail account with the label “Notes.” To access it you must search for “label:notes” or click on your Notes label in the sidebar. Unfortunately, you cannot create notes from your computer by sending yourself an email and then labeling it with “Notes” which makes this a one-way solution. I recommend using Google Tasks or Simplenote if you want the ability to create and edit notes from multiple devices.

[Hattip Apple Blog >>]

Got this off the tweet today. Long live twitter!

iPuncher – Everlast (was $1) by TEKNEO
Test your punch strength with this virtual boxing machine! Play the Everlast contest during the 03 and 04 July 2010 to be the iPuncher Champion and win prices. Punch with your device in your hand, and get your score and your level.

» Click here to download IPuncher – Everlast

Jewel Puzzle Blocks (was $3) by AzaCreations
Jewel Puzzle Blocks is a new brain puzzle challenge. Try and get the blocked red jewel block free from the puzzle. Use your finger to push the other blocks out of the way in order to reach exit.

» Click here to download Jewel Puzzle Blocks

Need For Turn (was $1) by DreamSky
Need For Turn makes your iPhone be a Hand Generator. Use your fingers to drive it on, and show your power to your friends!

» Click here to download Need For Turn

Plinkster (was $1) by Kertong.com
Do you have the reaction times and timing required to be the top plinkster? Compete against other plinksters around the world to see if you can maintain the highest score! If you’re looking for some multiplayer action, Plinkster provides both classic and battle modes to play against a friend. This is a classic, old-fashioned carnival game that is easy to learn, but hard to master! No ads, no reminders to upgrade, no nags to buy in-store apps, nothing!

» Click here to download Plinkster

ShapeMind (was $2) by Baby9Soft
A puzzle action truly universal. The very simple principle allows a 4 year old child to play! You must drag the blue triangle pattern on the shade or the complementary form, regardless of red or green triangles. Simple. Yet if the principle is based on the recognition, we add the principles of addition, subtraction, geometric position and movement kinetics.

» Click here to download ShapeMind

Stone Wars (was $2) by Epicforce
Long long time ago in the Stone Age, the only way to survive is to fight with other tribes for the limited land and resources. You have to master your weapons and win the epic battles to secure your leadership among the tribes! Stone Wars is a turned-based strategy game with a twist. It offers a unique gaming experience that combines strategy, platform elements and puzzle solving all-in-one.

» Click here to download Stone Wars

Vectron (was $1) by Daniel Navarro
Vectron, takes you back to the year 1979, when arcades where something new to the people and the graphics where not very important like now. If you like Space Invaders and Phoenix, you will love this game, with the sounds and feeling of true arcades from dose days.

» Click here to download Vectron

Shaolin Training (was $1) by Frenando Riberio
Shaolin Training is an 3D Action game based in physics simulation and intense dynamic. In Shaolin Training your objective is quite simple: All you have to do is push down all boxes and crates that you can find in the cliff arena. The only problem is that while you do this, you have to dodge deadly cannonballs and traps!

» Click here to download Shaolin Training

Zen Tilt (was $2) by Karoly Nzisztor
Zen Tilt: an entertaining 3D puzzler with realtime physics and beautiful graphics for the casual player!

» Click here to download Zen Tilt