App Review: Paper by FiftyThree

Name: Paper by FiftyThree
Type: Drawing
Price: Free
Stars: 5/5
For: iPad Only

This is, hands down, the best drawing app I have ever used.

Paper has been around for a long time, like thousands of years. Although we certainly have seen some improvements in it over the centuries it has remained essentially the same concept throughout its existence.

The app, Paper by FiftyThree, sets out to create an experience on the iPad that resembles the experience of a piece of paper as closely as possible. Outside of the fact that you can't fold it up into a paper airplane, they do a pretty good job.

The app, by app standards, has also been around for quite a while. And it has been receiving critical acclaim pretty much from the beginning for its creative potential. So why am I just reviewing it now? Because now it is free! Free with all of its in app purchases (IAP).

The Tools
In Paper you have six drawing tools: a fountain pen, a pencil, a marker, a fine tipped marker, a watercolor brush, and, of course, an eraser. All the tools do a good job of approximating their real life counter parts. This gives the app a feel of authenticity that I have not found with other sketch apps.

One complaint I have about the drawing tools is that you cannot change the thickness of the line you draw. You have only two options, either the regular size when looking at the whole sheet, or a predetermined precision size when you are zoomed in. This does help make the app more authentic, but it also fails to take advantage of a place digital drawing excels over analog. There is a reason for this though, which I will discuss more below.

The last tools in the tool tray are the mixer and the color palette. These allow you to choose the color your line will be. You can choose any color from the palette on the right and as long as it is highlighted your tool will draw that color. But you can also you the mixer to combine colors together to get the perfect look. The mixer will mix in or out the color you have selected in the palette as you turn clockwise or counter clockwise respectively, this is one of my favorite features.

You can also tap again on the mixer to get sliders to select your color by numbers. You will also get an eyedropper tool in the middle of the circle, if you tap on this you will be able to select any area of the page and put that color into the mixer.

At the bottom of the palette there are a couple sets of black, you can drag your new colors from the mixer into here to save them. You can also drag any color off the palette or mixer to turn the entire page that color.

Undo?
As far as digital sketch tools go, undo is pretty much a standard feature. So where is it to be found in paper? Well at first I thought it just wasn't there, there is after all no reverse arrow to click on. But there is actually a feature called rewind, where you can go back in time by placing two fingers on the screen and moving them in a counter clockwise circle.

In practice I have found this gesture hard to get right, and so more often than not it results in more marks on my page that I have to undo once I finally get it. A simple button would actually have been a better choice in my mind.

Another thing it took me a long time to figure out was that you can push the tool tray away to hide it and work on the bottom of the page, then swipe up to get it back. This also ofter results in unintended marks that have to be rewound.

Pencil
The last thing to talk about is the Pencil. This is a bluetooth stylus made by FiftyThree to enhance the paper experience. I do not have one so I cannot speak to how it actually works. But I can tell you that it is suppose to give you greater control and functionality. It will allow you to use pressure sensitivity in its tip to draw thicker and darker lines, or use the side of the tip for wide strokes and shading. You can also use the backend of it to erase without switching tools. Using it also enables palm detection so you can rest your hand on the screen.

The pencil looks really cool, I have been on the edge of buying one a couple of times, but at $50-$60 it is a little more than I want to spend. That is on the lower end for bluetooth styli however, so it might be a good choice for some. Currently I am still using my Jot Classic, and that is working pretty well with Paper.

I hope you enjoyed this review and you give Paper by FiftyThree a try. It is a great way get creative. And remember, live better.

Here are a few of my own sketches done with the different tools:

Color Pencil

Fountain Pen

Watercolor

Using Dvorak keyboard layout in iOS 8

As most of you know I have been waiting for many a moon for a Dvorak keyboard on iOS. I think that layout is far better then QWERTY. As a side note I had to type on a QWERTY a couple days ago and my wrists quickly started hurting. If you have hand trouble you may want to consider switching over to Dvorak too.

Well, the long awaited day has finally arrived and a system wide Dvorak keyboard is here! In fact it has been possible ever since iOS 8 came out in September. So why the long wait in getting the good news to you? Two reasons. First, nobody immediately came out with a Dvorak keyboard, much to my chagrin. Second, by the team keyboards started coming out school had heated up considerably and I had to put the blog on the back burner for a month or so.

But now it is time. In the past couple months quite a few 3rd party keyboards with Dvorak layouts have slipped into the App Store. I will tell you about two of them here: Fleksy and Dvorak + Colemak Keyboards.


Fleksy
Price: 99¢
Stars: 2

Fleksy came out with the launch of iOS 8, but they did not support Dvorak as a layout right away, even though they already did on Android. Many people really like the Fleksy keyboard and say they can type quickly on it, I cannot. I find the way they do predictive typing to be odd and unwieldy. When they finally did ad the Dvorak layout I found that the keys did not line up as you would expect them to if you were use to typing on a regular Dvorak keyboard.

You can see this in the image below. The entire top row is not aligned where it should be, I soon found out that for some odd reason this is the case in many Dvorak layouts on iOS currently. This makes it hard to type because the keys are not where you would expect them to be.

Fleksy has lots of language layouts besides Dvorak, and it has a lot of customizability in terms of color and size. It also has special swipe gestures for certain functions. My main purpose here though is to review it as a Dvorak keyboard and so I won't go into everything that it does.

Fleksy requires you to give it "full access" under keyboard preferences in order to change to any layout other than English QWERTY. Usually keyboards need full access so that they can do predictive typing, the only problem is that in order to do that they have to collect your keystroke data. This has caused a lot of controversy around the internet because it could potentially be logging things like passwords and credit card numbers. Almost all 3rd party keyboards will ask for full access, it is not just Fleksy.


Dvorak + Colemak Keyboards
Price: 99¢
Stars: 4

Right off the bat this keyboard is looking better because the keys are in the correct locations for anyone use to a standard Dvorak layout. This allows there to be punctuation on the main keyboard, just where it should be. It shouldn't take long for those people to become familiar typing on this keyboard.

This keyboard does lack a lot of the bells and whistles that Fleksy and many other keyboards have, but that doesn't bother me. I don't need fancy color themes or size options I just need something functional.

One thing it is lacking though that is a problem though is an Emoji keyboard. I use emoji a lot when tweeting or texting, so this is a bit of deal breaker for me as far as everyday use goes.

Dvorak + Colemak Keyboards does no require full access to use, so your keystrokes are not logged. You will have to enable full access if you want keyboard clicks however because this is the only way that Apple will allow them to get access to the speakers.


Where I am now
Still using the standard Apple QWERTY onscreen keyboard. Why? Because, and this is nothing the app producers have control over, but 3rd party keyboards have been spotty across the board on iOS 8. Perhaps Apple was not really ready for them, but no matter which one you use it is likely to be buggy. They are sluggish and sometimes (often) will disappear completely. This makes it really unviable to use a 3rd party option as your default keyboard.

So for now, even though I was waiting for this day for so long, I am still primarily using the default keyboard. I hope that Apple will make significant improvements to 3rd party integration in the future, or better yet just make Dvorak part of the standard language package.

Well I hope you have found this post helpful, even if a little discouraging :( If you have found a keyboard (Dvorak or otherwise) that you like to use on iOS please let us know about it in the comments.


Disclosure: Archagon provided me with a free copy of Dvorak + Colemak keyboards to review. I never recommend anything on my blog though that I have not tried myself and that I approve of.

Pebbledoro, a Pebble Watchapp review

Having a Pebble smartwatch is a fun and nostalgic experience for me. Why? The joy of having a grayscale screen that only a few other nerds have and trying to find extremely useful apps in a very simple interface reminds me so much of my early days using the Palm IIIxe. You never really know if an app will work or not, and there is a small group of mostly volunteer open source developers working on it. 

Pebbledoro is a great example of this feeling. It is an extremely simple but very useful app. The app was created by developer mertdikmen, and is an app for implementing the pomodoro method.

Essentially the entire app can be seen in this screen shot: 

If you are not familiar with the pomodoro method it involves a productivity system of working for 25 minutes and then breaking for 5 minutes, and then working for 25 minutes and then breaking for 5 minutes. It is a great system to help you increase focus. Orthodox pomodoro practitioners use a tomato timer, but pebbledoro replaces that with a simple app on you wrist.

As you can see in the screenshot there are just three controls: Start, stats, and stop. When you start the little black square will begin to appear at a rate of 1 per minute. When it is done you will feel a small buzz on you wrist. The break will not start immediately so you can finish up whatever you are doing that moment, and then push play again to start the break. During the break the black squares will disappear at a rate of 5 per minute.

The stats button will tell you how many pomodoro cycles you have completed using the app, which is not incredibly useful but might be fun to know.

The stop button will cancel the pomodoro.

You can still receive notifications on the watch while using this app, although that might throw off you focus.

Well that is about it. A simple but useful app for the Pebble or Pebble Steel. 

Thanks for reading, and remember, live better. 

Gospel Library 3.4.5 update

Yesterday there was an update to Gospel Library for iPhone and iPad.
The changes were as follows:

• Refined Search, including having exact phrase and keyword results display
• Adjusted Screens to have newly added screens display at the top
• Added role-based content capability (e.g., if you are serving in a bishopric, you can now access Handbook 1)
• Fixed various bugs and stability issues

After updating and looking around the app here are my thoughts:

First off I was very happy that this update did not go back to causing the headache of redownloading all of the content you might have downloaded before. This update appears to have kept all of the data stored in the app previously. 

App Review: Gas Cubby

Name: Gas Cubby
Price: Free(ads)/1.99
Type: Gas tracking
Stars: 4






This is an app that I use on at least a weekly basis to keep track of my gas usage.

When I was a kid my father always kept a little pocket notebook and pen in the flip down shade above the driver's seat or in the driver's door of each of our cars. The sole purpose of that notebook and pen was to record the gas information every time we fueled up. He would carefully put down the odometer number, the cost per gallon, the number of gallons bought and the brand of gasoline. This allowed him to know how much was being spent on gas and to be able to calculate the miles per gallon.

Gas Cubby now allows me to do the same thing electronically. I use the free version and it works fine for me. Since I normally use the app while I am out getting gas and don't have internet the ads don't even bother me.

Gas Cubby does everything my father's notebook did and a little bit more. When you open the app you see a list of all the entries you have made in order of the most recent. At the top right you find the  + buttons. One is for gas (red arrow) and the other for maintenance (orange arrow).

When you click the gas option you will enter your odometer number, the price of gas and the number of gallons, it will calculate how much you paid automatically. You can also enter information such as the octane level, the brand of gas, what card you used, and tags. You can also put in similar information for a maintenance entry.

The app will automatically calculate things for you like MPG, cost per mile, average cost per gallon, etc, no math required. It is a nice little app to keep around.

The only drawbacks are that it has never been updated stylistically for iOS 7, so it still looks like an old app and uses the old keyboard interface, and if you miss putting in the odometer reading you will have to make something up or your MPG will get wonky.

Cars are one of our big expenses in life and I think it is a good idea to track what is going on with them and how much money we are putting in. Is there an app that you use for your car? Please share with us in the comments below. Have a great day, and remember, live better.

Todo List Quest: Gneo and Todoist, where I am now

Alright, it has been a little bit since I have talked about the todo list quest. I am still in the process of going through different apps and putting their info in the spreadsheet. But, I wanted to let you all know where I am now in the aspect of managing my own lists from day to day.

Currently I have separated my day job and the rest of life in to two different task management apps. For work I am using Todoist and for the rest of my life I am using Gneo (the G is silent, but I like to pronounce it anyway :)

These two apps both fulfill different purposes for me. Some people would discourage you from using two different apps and systems to manage tasks, David Allen would probably be one of those. But, at this point in my life it helps me to keep work from invading the rest of my life.

Todoist is for work

I really like Todoist, the system is clean and because of its integration with chrome through an extension it works really well. I do almost all of my work for my day job in chrome so Todoist is always there for me to dump things into. It also integrates with Gmail so that I can turn emails into tasks (one of the criteria I was looking for).

Gneo is for everything else

I have selected Gneo as my first full test for a new personal todo list because of a few features. The first one is its integration with Evernote, Gneo is essential a skin for an Evernote notebook stack. I have long heard of people using Evernote for GTD but I just couldn't get the interface to work for me for task management. Gneo ends up making that interface much more user friendly. I really like the idea of my todo list data actually being stored in Evernote where most of my other project data will also be stored.

The second reason is that Gneo uses the Covey matrix as one of its task views. I am a huge fan of the work of Stephen Covey and I love the way the matrix organizes things. I didn't put this on the criteria because at the time I hadn't ever seen an app that did it.

A third reason is that its integration with Evernote allows me to use it with Drafts for quick input. I find this to be super useful for the capture step of GTD.

So there you have it, for now I am using these two apps for work and personal life. I am still testing others and adding them to the spreadsheet. I will right more full reviews of the apps in the future.

Both apps are nicely put together and have responsive teams. If you have used either of the apps please tell me what you think of them and any tips you have for using them.

App Review: Blinkist

If you follow me on twitter you have probably seen me talking about a new app I have been using called Blinkist. It is a really good app so I am taking a break from the quest to let you know about it.

Name: Blinkist
Type: Reading
Price: Subscription
Stars: 4


The idea behind blinkist is this: you have a reading problem and they can solve it. Namely the problem is you can't read everything you would like in the time that you have and even audiobooks at double speed can't fix it. I am guilty as charged.

Enter Blinkist, a service for reading non-fiction books in 15 minutes, sort of. You read cliff notes type versions of some of the most popular non-fiction books ever written, and new ones are being added all the time. You pay a subscription for an all access pass to the blinkist library.

So here is the deal each book is boiled down to its main points. Each of those is turned into a "blink," a short version that you can read in about one minute. Each book is comprised of 10-20 blinks.

So far I have really liked this app, although I don't think I am going to have the money to pay for it. I have read about 8 books so far. I prefer reading on my iPhone but the app is universal for both iPhone, iPad.

You can learn a lot just by reading the blinks, and it helps you know if you want commit to reading the actual book. The app itself is very clean and well done. You can browse through the library and add books to your list in a beautiful interface. The only thing I wish was different is that you aren't taken straight to your list tab when you open it, you start an the discover tab, which I find mildly annoying.

I highly recommend that you try out the free trial of this app just to see if it is something that could possibly help you to read and learn more. I think that reading is really important and a way that we can live better.

ToDo List Quest: Apple's stock Reminders app

Reminders is the stock todo list app that comes built into every iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac. Most of apples stock applications get a lot of use because they are the default. Even though they are often more bare featured than counterparts in the app store they have the convenience of already being on the device (and you can't delete them) and of being integrated into the operating system.

Apple's Reminders App
is the standard task app

It takes time and effort to go digging through the app store to find a different app to replace one that is already on the phone. For this reason I would guess that Reminders is the most widely used todo list app on iOS devices. Let's look at some of its main advantages:

Siri:
Apple's artificially intelligent assistant gets a lot of flak, so this may not seem like a huge feature. But, I have heard many people say that Reminders is one of the primary features they use Siri for. It saves you having to in put all the details of you todos when you can just speak them to Siri in natural language.

Because Reminders is built into the operating system it is the only todo list app that can boast native integration with Siri, although some apps like Remember the Milk have found a workaround. Siri can take a lot of the work out of actually getting your tasks into the system, and she can also alert you when a task needs to be done.

Sync:
Reminders has built in iCloud sync across all of your apple devices and the iCloud web app. The sync works seamlessly and is completely free, unlike an app like Remember the Milk which will give you only one sync per day with a free account. Reminders also provides you with the option of sharing your list with a family member or coworker so you can stay on the same virtual page for projects and tasks.

The only email integration that Reminders has is the ability to drag and drop emails from the stock Mail app on a Mac into the Mac Reminders app to create a new reminder with that email.

Also Reminders has full integration with the apps Drafts, again the is because it is built into the operating system. This allows you to quickly create individual reminders or lists directly from the Drafts app, something that requires workarounds for most other apps.

Simple:
The Reminders app is an easy app to use. It is well designed by apple to be a simple list app that helps people accomplish there tasks without getting in the way. It is a nice looking app that is clean and uncluttered. People will not have trouble learning how to use it or be overwhelmed by its features.

Conclusion:
The status quo is always a strong argument, so for many people Reminders may prove exactly what they need for task management. That is not the case for me. While it has many good features listed above I find the lack of more advanced options like tagging to be to be to important right now. Although I have to say I am surprised at how well Reminders did on my criteria comparison, I am not ready to switch over to it yet. I am going to continue the quest to see if I can find something to help me live better.

If you use the Reminders app and have any thoughts suggestions or questions please leave them in the comments below. For those who are interested in using Reminders with GTD I found this guide from SimplicityBliss.

This has been a post in the ToDo List Quest, if you would like to read the other articles please click here.

App Review: Grid Diary

Name: Grid Diary
Price: 2.99
Stars: 3.5
Type: Journaling








This year I really wanted to bump up my journal writing. 2013 was the first year that I had written in my journal every single day of the year (in 2012 I had missed one day). But even though I had developed the habit of daily writing I did not feel like the quality of my entries was very high. It is often hard for me, at the end of a long day to think of anything meaningful to write down and my journal was more a list of events than anything else.

So I determined at the end of last year that I wanted to start using some kind of journaling app, particularly I wanted one that would sync with Evernote. That is when I discovered grid diary.

The Concept
The idea behind Grid Diary is simple yet elegant. Each day you are presented with a grid of squares that contain questions that serve as writing prompts. There are many questions so that if you don't feel like answering any one of them you can just switch it out for another. You can even put in your own prompt if you so desire.


For me it is nice to have some questions to get my thinking primed since by the end of the day I am often so tired I don't even remember what happened, let alone how it was meaningful to my life.

The diary also asks you for the weather that day and for a emoticon meter on how the day was as a whole. Those are nice little things to know when you go back and read them later. If you use the app moves to track your activity you can import data from that to know how active you were that day. I have never used that feature though so I can't speak to how well it works.


I normally answer 3 to 4 question prompts in the Grid Diary each night. Then once a month I export them to Evernote so that I have another backup of them. You can also export them to Dropbox if you want; it also has iCloud backup for between devices.

A few problems

I have many, many apps. Grid Diary is one of just a handful that, because of its purpose, I use everyday. To use it everyday I have to like it a lot, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have its problems.

One of the glaring issues is that they have not created the app native to the iPad. If you want to run it on the iPad you have use the iPhone app magnified. Fortunately since the introduction of iOS 7 magnified apps have looked and worked leaps and bounds better than they use to. Still, I always journal on my iPad and never on my iPhone so it would be nice and it would look a little better if it was native or universal.

I have not really liked a lot of the changes from the most recent major update. Thankfully after some complaining on the part of the users they did bring back the randomize questions option. Unfortunately they only offer this for all questions. It would be much better if you also had the option to do it for individual questions as well. Sometimes you don't want to get rid of every question on the screen.


Sometimes when exporting to Evernote there will be a few files that don't make the jump for some reason. It would be nice when this happened if it at least told you which files those were.

I would also like to see them put in an option for multiple weather types on a single, living in Utah there can some days be quite the variety of weather and it would be nice to be able to record it.

Well those are just a few things that I hope will get better, overall as I said, it is a great app. I use it daily and have found that it has improved my journaling immensely. If you are looking for a way to be a better journal writer I highly recommend it.

If you have a favorite journal app would you please let us know about it in the comments below. Journaling, and especially thoughtful journaling, is a great help in remembering to live better.

App Review: Ninja Fitness

Name: Ninja Fitness
Price: Free or 99¢
Stars: 4
Type: Workout game

Some people will remember that I reviewed the Gorilla Workout app a while ago and really liked it. Well this app is from the same people over at Heckr. It is a really great app for those who are looking for workouts they can do quickly at home.

The Concept
The idea is to gamify your workout. You are a young ninja in training by an ancient and often comedic sensei, Master Old Beard. You have to buy new workouts and gear with "ninja stars" which you earn by completing workouts. You also get stat points in four different areas of training. You must achieve certain numbers of stats to get new colors of belts.

Four Areas
Where this app really surpasses Gorilla Workout is by having four areas of development which you can choose to work on. These are Strength, Agility, Endurance, and Zen.

These areas must each reach certain levels of skill points before you can advance to the next belt, and certain belts are required to purchase better gear. This encourages you to take a balanced approach to your training instead of focusing on just one area that you are good at or that you enjoy.

The strength and agility workouts cover most of the same exercises that the gorilla workout did, but the endurance and zen areas have new workouts focusing on cardio and stretching. Each workout is timed depending on its difficulty and the ninja star reward for completing it.



Your Ninja
Basically the whole point of the game is to customize your 3D ninja self with weapons and armor. You can choose whether or not you are a boy or a girl when you start as well as giving yourself a ninja name. Then you can choose the hair style, hair color, and facial structure that are most your style.

Problems
While I like the app a lot, and it seems to be very stable, there are a few things I wish would be improved.

The first is that there is no audio playback during workouts, I alway like to listen to music or podcasts while I do cardio, but I can't do that and have the ninja workout run at the same time because if you leave the app the workout will pause. This seems like a major oversight and a gap in market research since many people listen to audio while working out. Audio playback in other apps is totally possible in iOS so I do not know what the excuse for this is.

My second complaint is that while it is fun to level up my ninja, the ninja doesn't actually do anything and the store selection is small for ninja gear. I think there should have at least been some type of mini game that the ninjas could engage in so that their armor, weapons, and stats actually matter. This would give greater motivation to completing balanced workouts.

My last problem with the app is that unlike gorilla workout there is no offline instruction on how to do the exercises. Gorilla had written instructions in the app and video instruction online, but Ninja Fitness has only the online videos and the app freezes if you click on one of these without an internet connection, making it impossible to complete any exercises you are unfamiar with.

Well other than those few problems the app is very good and well put together. It makes it fun to workout (well as fun as a workout can be anyway) so I encourage you to check it out. Their is a limited free version, but I would suggest using this to check it out and not to spend too much time on it because your stats, gear, and ninja stars will not transfer to the full version.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts on this or other workout apps below and also let me know any questions you might have. Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

App Review: IQTELL (with email integration)

Note: I have previously reviewed this app here, in that review I talked about how I wished that the email integration from the web service would come to the iOS app, well it finally has and that is why I am doing an updated review of the updated portions. 

Name: IQTELL
Price: Free
Stars: 4
Type: Productivity









IQTELL has been my todo list manager for quite a while now, and I feel like this update has been long in coming since representatives from the company have been assuring me that it was on its way since the app first came out. I am happy to say though that it has not disappointed now that it is here.

Email Integration
The powerful concept here is to integrate email and your todo list into one app that you have with you everywhere. It is not to make email your todo list but rather to closely integrate them so that the information from emails that should become todo items or resources can do so easily and go into the proper form to get them out of your inbox and off your mind when you don't need them. 



How does this help you get the tasks off your mind? By putting them into a system that you know will surface at the proper time and place. That way you no longer need to try and keep track of them mentally. For a full explanation of this you should read David Allen's book "Getting Things Done". 

Swipe Controls
There have been a lot of todo systems that have used email as a way to add items. In fact IQTELL has offered this for a long time through their email gateway option. So, what is special and different about this new option? The answer is the ease with which it can be done now by using swipe controls.

I have written before about the usefulness of managing email from your phone, partially because of the swipe controls built into iOS directly by Apple. Last year the app Mail Box pioneered a more complete set of swipe controls for better email management. Much of that philosophy has made it into this IQTELL email app with, in my opinion, better execution.
You have two options:

• Swipe to the left: receive a set of email tools. Delete, archive, move, and reply/forward. I lave having all these options available without ever opening the email itself. Even if this were just an email app it would make reaching inbox zero much easier.
• Swipe to the right: receive a set of "macros" that will take various actions on that email, such as turn it into a action on you todo list or into a project. 

Another nice addition is that a menu hand gesture has been added when you swipe from the left edge of the screen it will pull out the menu allowing you to quickly change the area of the app that you are in.

Still Waiting
Not everything in the world of IQTELL is perfect, I am still waiting on several of the features I noted were missing in my last post, such as calendar and contacts integration which would help to really get everything in one place. I would also like to see full functionality of the web app brought to iOS, for example I still can't do things like make a repeating task or a custom macro in the app and it is annoying to have to go to my computer for these things. Of course I may just be missing how to do these, in which case I am sure someone will let me know in the comments. 

All in all this is a great app at the right price. If you need a way to integrate email and todo list I suggest you look at it. That's all for now. Remember, live better.

Gospel Library 3.4.0, new look, new features

Last week the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which I am a member, updated their app Gospel Library to version 3.4.0. It was a rather big change for a .x update so I was a little surprised.

Here is what changed (the list is straight out of the update text) and what I think about it:
• Implemented new iOS 7 design
It looks really nice. As a social media person I am especially happy about the new more prevalently placed share button. I wish you could change the color scheme though.


• Improved navigation (tap the title to go where you want)
Yes, drop down menu works much better then the 3.0 side bar. I like being able to see the "layers" you have drilled down through.


• Simplified search feature (group results by collections and sort by book order)
This has been a long time in coming and I am glad they have finally made search work better. What I still find annoying though is that you cannot specify parameters for the search. Normally when I am searching I know the general area where what I am searching for is located, I don't need to search the whole cosmos of church publications on my device. An advanced search option would go a long way to making this better. In addition a "search this page" function would be really helpful, particularly if you miss a reference in Sunday school. This feature should mimic using control f on a computer similar to how Safari and Evernote do it.


• Redesigned bookmarks
I don't really use the bookmark feature (I just highlight things) so this is not bag deal to me, but it does look nice. If you use this feature please let us know what you think of it in the comments below.


• Enabled unlimited screens
I actually did not realize this one was missing, I don't know what the cap was before but I never hit it. If you did would you please let me know in the comments below.

• Added 'favorites' custom collection
This is nice, not really different then what you could do before with a custom collection. I like to be able to keep the manuals I use at church in a place together.
• Integrated with LDS Music app for access to sheet music
I already use the LDS Music app in lieu of a hymnal in many meetings, integration will probably make it easier.

• Improved accessibility
I don't  use any of the accessibility features so I can't say what these improvements are like especially since they were not specific in what the improvements were. If anyone reading this who uses accessibility features please let us know what/if you have seen anything improved by using the comments section below.

• Moved language content and grid/list view selections into settings
This one is self explanatory, just the simple change listed.

• Moved history under bookmarks
Nooooo! This is one change I do not appreciate. The history feature has long been one of my favorite features of gospel library because it was so easy to use, it was easy during a lesson to get back to something you had been discussing previously. Now instead of having its own button it is buried under the bookmarks button.
It is actually ok because if you switch it to history it will remain on history until you switch it back to bookmarks. It just won't change the icon to a little clock like it use to. It is much more accessible now then it use to be though, you just have to know that it is there.


• Simplified settings
These seem fine, I have noticed anything drastic here.
• Fixed bugs and improved performance
We shall see as time goes on how this is, so far so good.

Well I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of the updated app. I really think they have made some nice changes. I hope you let me know what you think in the comments below. Have fun, and remember, live better.

App Review: Sochi.ru 2014 Results

Name: Sochi 2014 Results
Price: Free
Stars: 2
Type: Sports/News

The Olympics are now in full swing over in Sochi Russia. I love the Olympics a lot, I am not a big sports guy, but I find the Olympics to be one of my favorite events. The world coming together to participate together in (mostly) nonviolent activities is very reassuring to me. So of course I was excited to download the official app, I great experience using the app to keep up on the game in London two years ago.

The Good
The app allows you to keep track of lots of Olympic information. You can sort by event, country, or athlete. You can make favorites in any of these categories.  It gives you a nice schedule of all events that will take place each day. All the metadata is linked together well so clicking on an athlete or an event anywhere in the app will actually take you to the page for that, which is helpful.

The Bad
The app is unstable, perhaps this was intentional to give me the full Sochi experience without being in Sochi, but I would be perfectly happy not to have that experience. I hate trying to find something only to have the app crash right before I get to it.

On top of crashing the push notifications do not work. I have it set up to notify me whenever something happens to a favorite country, team, or athlete, and also with a Medal Count each day, so far none of these have ever happened.

The Ugly
Besides the American Team's Christmas sweaters? Well the app has the potential to look nice, but the fact that event though I have my language settings to English all the event information is still displayed in Russian as well is really annoying. It just looks awful and makes it hard to find the information that I actually want.

There is a section for video under each event, but so far I have not seen any put up.

Well, that is it for my thoughts. Have you tried this or any of the other Sochi apps? Let me know which ones you like or don't like and why in the comments below. And remember, live better.

App Review: Relax

Name: Relax -- Stress and Anxiety Relief
Price: 4.99 or Free
Stars: 3
Type: Stress Relief


The Relax app has one purpose in mind: to help you reduce stress through breathing exercises. It is a simple app that allows you to select your level and time duration based on your ability and current situation.

The app works well for the most part, but occasionally it does crash in the middle of an exercise. Other than that one problem I do not have any complaints after using it for a couple months.

The app gives you both auditory and visual pacers for your breathing. It will play one tone for your inhale and another for your exhale, if you are an advanced breather it will also play one for retention. You also watch a corresponding segment of the circle fill. One time around the circle is one complete exercise.

The concept is that you will become more relaxed as you breathe with a regular pattern, clearing you mind, and getting the proper amount of oxygen to your body. I have found this to be a very useful way to relieve stress. I use the Relax app twice a day, once right after exercising to prepare my mind to write, and right before I go to sleep to help me fall asleep faster.

And there you have it folks, the Relax app is a great little app that can train you in relaxive breathing. I think reducing stress can make you a more effective and productive person. Have you ever used this app or know of one like it? Share it with us in the comments below. Have a fantastic day, and remember, live better.

iPad for College Part 3: Useful Apps

Previously I discussed apps that are really essential to have if you are using an iPad at college, especially if you are not also using a laptop. Also in this series I discussed setting up an iPad for college and how to survive without Microsoft Office. Now I would like to talk about some apps that are useful to have which did not fit into the necessary category. 

Prezi -- Some people love it, some people hate it, most people just haven't got a clue how to actually use it. For those who will put in the time to learn to do a Prezi well, it is an excellent piece of free collaboration and presentation software. Unfortunately the iPad version still lacks a lot of features from the online version, but it is good for beginning projects and brainstorming, but you will have to add the details from a browser version later. The iPad version is also great for presenting if you have an iPad to projector adaptor.

Adobe Reader -- If your college experience is anything like mine, you will read more PDFs than you can count. I use to read these all on my laptop in the early days, the iPad or a Kindle provides a much better experience. While the iPad can open up PDFs by default and can also send then to iBooks, I prefer to use adobe reader for its annotation abilities and easy to use interface. 

iMovie -- If you are doing a lot of video production you are going to want something with a much bigger screen than either sized iPad, but if you just want to do some quick work on the fly than you will probably want this app. 

Penultimate -- This is the sketch pad notebook app made by Evernote. It is a fairly simple app, which is on of the really nice things about it. It is great for taking handwritten notes electronically. It has options for blank, lined, or graph paper,so it is useful in many different classes and settings. All you notes get saved in Evernote which does text recognition on your hand writing.

Skitch -- Another Evernote produced app, Skitch is for annotation. It allows you to draw over the top of pictures, screenshots, or PDFs. It makes explaining things really easy. I use it annotate most of the screenshots I share on this blog.

LinkedIn -- Most college students are using Facebook and Twitter, but LinkedIn is another important network that they should begin to build a strong professional presence on. Much of the business world is moving online and LinkedIn serves as your virtual, searchable, online résumé. They have been making a lot of improvements to the app over the past few months, it still is not fully fuctional, but it is getting there.

Wikipedia -- Professors may not all be agreed on Wikipedia yet, but students mostly are. It is probably the best place to gain quick information in terms you can understand, it can give you a summary and explanation of almost anything, often better than your teacher. There are a lot of different apps that can hook you into Wikipedia, choose one that you like, I use wikipanion.

iTunesU -- sometimes you just need a little extra explanation about a subject, or you can't take a course because you don't have time, but you would love to learn the about it. iTunesU has thousands of lectures that can help you, and they are all free! 

Well, this is certainly not an exhaustive list, but it is a good place to start. Next in this series I will be talking about accessories and peripherals to use with the iPad in college. 

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iPad for college Part 2: Necessary Apps

Now that you have your iPad all set up and ready for college your going to need some apps for it right? It's not going to do you much good as only a calendar and email device. As I mentioned before with my little brother at college for the first time taking only an iPad as his computer I came up with a list of apps I thought would be essential for him to have. Most of these are also recommended by Apple under their apps for college section in the App Store.

• Pages -- is a beautiful and fully functional word processor for writing all of those papers you'll be getting assigned soon.
• Numbers -- is a very easy to understand and use spreadsheet program. It creates great looking graphics as well. One word of caution though, if you are an advanced MS excel user in a CS, mathematic, of scientific field you will find that Numbers on an iPad may not be able to handle everything you want it to, you are probably one of the people who still needs a laptop. 
• Keynote -- Is a great app for making presentations that look wonderful. It will allow you to email them out in a variety of formats so that you can easily collaborate with classmates on group assignments.
• Evernote -- will be your new best friend in college. It will help you keep track of all your notes, and is a great place to organize research, draft assignments, and just about anything else you might need. It is probably the most indispensable app outside of your calendar and email. My full review is here.

Review: IQTELL (GTD app)

There has been an update to this app and my review of those updates can be found here. This article still has my feelings on many of the other features.

Note: This review is for the universal app IQTELL for iPhone and iPad, it is not a review of the complete IQTELL System which involves a web app.

Name: IQTELL
Price: Free
Stars: 4
Type: Productivity




The IQTELL app is an app based on the GTD method originally conceived by David Allen (you can read my review of his book here). It was the first app to come out to claim to be a complete GTD system. Of course I was excited when I first heard that a company was actually going to release a GTD app, but I always have some initial hesitation at switching to a new system when you already have a working one in place. I was very happy with my Todo list manager Producteev, so I did not download IQTELL right away.

Switching Over
Not long after the IQTELL app was released Producteev came out with a major new update. Unfortunately they released a little too soon and they did not migrate users fast enough, as a result after updating I was unable to access my account or even use features offline.

Well I couldn't be without a todo list so I decided to give IQTELL a trial spin while I needed something anyway. I really enjoyed it. The app lacks a little personality; it's pretty bland and flat in style. What it lacks in visuals it makes up for in functionality though.

Everything in one Place? Almost.
The IQTELL motto is "Everything in one place" and it almost is, on the web app they are really almost there. On the iOS app however there are still some features lacking:

• Email integration
• Calendar integration
• Evernote integration
• Contact integration

Once it has these features it will work very well. As you can see from the screen shot there are a lot of different options for how to mange your lists. That is a good thing but it can be a little bit of overkill and David Allen would probably say take the one or two that work for you and ditch the rest, don't get hung up on the system. You can us the configure button (red arrow) to remove most of  these options from your screen, but unfortunately on the iPhone version it does not seem  to stick once you close the app. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.



The IQTELL Team
Let me just say a word about the IQTELL team. They seem like great developers who really want to make the best productivity app out there. They are responsive to emails and really want to make the experience better. I expect to see a lot of improvements to the app in the near future.

The Good

• An app that is really based on  the GTD system
• True someday and tickler options to get stuff off your mind
• Correct use of context and projects
• Responsive developers

The Bad

• Current lack of integration (this is suppose to be fixed soon I am told)
• More robust than some people need or want
• Hard to get each of the sub apps arranged the way you want them on the page
• Slow loading time and sync
• Very tied to the web app (I wish they would just make a native mac app)

Overall the app is very good and has a lot of potential. I recommend that if you want to be using the GTD system that try out this app. It is free, so the barrier to entry is much lower than an app like OmniFocus which has been pretty much the only option in the past. I am excited about the way this app is going and expect some big updates to come soon.

What is your favorite To Do List app? Share it with us in the comments section below.
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Gospel Library 3.0, new features

Last week the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released their new gospel library app, Gospel Library 3.0. The important thing to note here is that this is not an update to the existing app, so you will not receive an update notification for it. You will have to go into the app store and search for it and download it new onto your device. The reason for this is that the old version (2.5) is being kept on the app store for people running a version of iOS later than 6.1.3 this is a really nice thing for those on older devices.

Note: if you are jailbroken at 6.1.2 you will not be able to install this app but the old version should keep working for you.

The Gospel Library gives access to all the scriptures and manuals from the LDS church, including the new editions of the Holy Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.

Lets go over what is new in this app.

New Layout:
Something some of us have been waiting a long time for is a new layout to the Gospel Library and they have done a really nice job with this app. Its close enough that you can still recognize everything but it is much nicer put together.

As you can see here you can access the library from the menu button (red arrow) without having to sift back through all the screens, two taps on the book shelf icon (orange arrow) will take you back to the library home which you see here.

Of course this all looks much nicer with actual covers showing up in the library menu, however if you prefer the old look you can select list view (yellow arrow).



Page Numbers
Maybe not a major new feature but it will prove very useful between those using print and those using electronic scriptures and manuals. Page numbers had previously appeared in only the Teachings of the Presidents manuals. They will now appear in all books (this feature can be turned off if desired), the page numbers will correspond directly to the page numbers in print editions.

Notebooks in Windows
One of the greatest feature of the Gospel Library has been the ability to have multiple books open at a time. This feature still exists in 3.0 and now for the first time you can have study notebooks open in separate windows as well, this is great new as it will make taking notes much easier.

Sharing
A share button has finally been added, both to the menu bar and to the annotation toolbar (green arrows). This will allow you to share inspiring quote and references with FaceBook, Twitter or via email and iMessage. This will be a great missionary tool going forward.



Footnote and Audio Sidebar
By pressing the sidebar button in the upper right hand corner (blue arrow) you can access the new footnote and audio player sidebar. This will allow you start and audio recording of the book you are reading that you can follow along with. Let you jump to the footnotes. Of course this is also available by tapping on any footnoted words hyperlinked in blue.



Custom Collections
By tapping the New button (pink arrow) you can make a new collection to which you can add different items from the gospel library to have them organized. After you create a custom folder you can  add items to it by hitting the edit button (black arrow).

Those are the new features I have noticed so far, if you have found others please leave them in comments below or Tweet to @halduauthor.

The app is not perfect yet, it has a few stability issues but nothing worse than past versions have had and I assume there will be an update soon to deal with those soon. If you haven't downloaded the app you should, let me know when you have.

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Review: BYU App

While the app I review here is specific to BYU and is most useful to BYU students and faculty, it would also be very useful to a visitor to BYU for a camp or conference.

Name: BYU
Price: Free
Stars: 4
Type: Education, Information

Probably the best thing BYU's IT department has done over the course of my time at school has been to develop this app. The BYU website has always been cumbersome and annoying, the app is more than just a "go to website" type of app, but it does make many of the features of the website a lot more accessible.

This app does so much, and it is always having new features added. It was getting to the point that it had almost to much and you could not find what you wanted, but now they have added the feature to just choose what items you want to appear on your list when you open the app.

It does a lot so I will just go over the ones I have saved to my list here:

• Library - this one gives younth option to search the library for books or materials, but more important than that it gives you instant access to study room reservations, before this it was a huge hassle to get to a study room reserved now it is relatively simple.
•  Map My Classes - does exactly what it says, using your BYU ID it will find the location of all of your classes and show them to you on map. Great for the first day of the semester.
• Campus Cameras - while a little creep, this app gives you access to BYU's time lapsed cameras in places you might want to check out lines, like the testing center, the bookstore, and Brigham's Square.
• Calendars -- lets you access all of the university calendars you use to have to navigate through the website to do. This can let you see who is coming to speak at devotional, when the basketball team is playing, and what is playing at the HFAC.
• Vending -- if you have ever showed up at the vending machine and been disappointed all the Fat Boy sandwiches were gone then this is for you, it lets you see where the vending machines are on campus, what they have in stock and how much they cost. Freshman dream come true.
• My ID card -- I don't lose or forget my ID card, but I keep this option on my list just incase, the app can produce a digital version of your ID card that will allow you to enter the testing center, use your meal plan, and other ID relate activities.
• GPA Calculator -- one of my absolute favorites, this function use to buried on BYU's website behind like a thousand pages, now it is right here on the app and I can "what if" to my heart's content.

Well I have barely scratched the surface of what is offered in this app. There are a lot more features to use depending on your campus needs. I highly recommend this app to anyone attending or visiting BYU.

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Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

Goal Apps: Accomplishing

The entire point of goals is to accomplish them, obviously, that's why you set them. Just as the iPad and iPhone could be useful in writing down, tracking, and communicating goals, it can also be helpful in the accomplishment of some goals.

The goals it can help with are many, the reason is that there is app for almost everything.

Lets just take a look at a few of the things I'm working on. One of my goals has to do with writing this blog, and what do you know the iPad helps me accomplish this goal with several apps:

• Blogger
• Posts 
• Cooliris
• Skitch
• Diptic 

And there are others as well. All of these apps help me accomplish my goals with the blog.


Now, blogging is something of an extreme example, of course it is a goal that is aided by the iPad. But other goals not so directly related to the internet can be as well. For example I have a goal of in the physical aspect of my life to work out everyday. This goal is tied specifically to the Gorilla workout app. The app gives me a new workout to do everyday, that helps me to accomplish my goal. I have done a full review of the app here.

Another area where a lot of people, including me, have goals is finances. In this case the goals are called a budget. This is an area where the portability of the iPad or iPhone can really be helpful. You can track your expenses as soon as they happen. There are a lot of budget apps out there, the one I use is called ExpenSense. It is fairly simple a straight forward for tracking budgets and accounts. There are a lot of other options for financial goals including apps from most investment firms and banks to track your accounts through their website.

An important area to set goals in is knowledge. We should constantly be learning. One of the best ways to do that is to read. One of my part time jobs is as a digital reading specialist, so I have a real interest in this type of goal on an iPad. The iPad can be very helpful in this regard because it is with you a lot of the time so you can take advantage of short moments to read a little of an ebook.

Here are some reading apps worth looking into:

• iBooks (Apples own ebook reader)
• Kindle (great if you also read on kindle, your books will sync across)
• Adobe Reader (my full review here)

Another aspect of reading can be spiritual, if you are religious chances are there are a plethora of apps for your religion. I am a Mormon and these are a few of the apps that help me with my spiritual goals:

• Gospel Library (allows you to download all the scriptures and Sunday School manuals)
• Bible Gateway (Lets you read from hundreds of bible translations and do side-by-side comparison)
• Ensign (The LDS church's official magazine)
• LDS Memory (Helps you memorize key scripture passages)

The possibilities for apps that could help you with your goals a endless. If you have a goal chances are that there is app that can help you in some way. And you really should have a goal, several in fact.

Let me know what you goal is and if you have an app that helps you or if you are looking for one. Tweet to @halduauthor  or leave a comment below.

Here's the summarygram.


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That's it for the goal apps posts, I hope they've been helpful to you. Now go set some goals and remember, live better.