TextExpander has been around for years. I knew about it but never really took the time to check it out. Recently I got the iOS App – TextExpander Touch. Like my love for 1Password, I started using TextExpander on my iPhone and then figured it would be great to also have it on my Mac. Recently TextExpander for Mac was on sale and I couldn’t pass up that deal.
What is TextExpander?
TextExpander allows you to create shortcuts that expand out to the full text that you type on a regular basis. For example, let’s take “MacGroup-Detroit, Inc.” I type that all the time in email, web forms, word processing apps and graphic design apps. With TextExpander I setup a shortcut called “mgd” and now whenever I type “mgd”, it expands to “MacGroup-Detroit, Inc.” It’s not just for simple one liners either. TextExpander can expand a typed shortcut to full paragraphs of formatted text as well. This is great for instant access to your price lists, directions to your location and just about anything else you can think of.
Besides being able to expand basic text, formatted text, text with images and current date/time, TextExpander also has a cool “Fill In” feature. This is where you can create a snippet of text that when it expands it will have fields for you to key in the relevant info for that particular text. I didn’t realize how much I would use this feature until I setup one. Now I’m using it all the time.
Syncs with Dropbox
Like I said, I started with TextExpander Touch and I had already started creating some snippets on my iPhone and iPad. Of course when I got the Mac version I wanted to use those same snippets. The good news here is that TextExpander for Mac and TextExpander Touch all sync with Dropbox. If you create or edit a snippet in one place you’ll have it on all your other devices too.
How does it work with iOS Devices?
While TextExpander is pretty universal with your Apps on your Mac, it’s limited to the Apps that support it on iOS. Here’s a complete list of supported iOS Apps that work with TextExpander Touch. While the built-in iOS Mail App and Message App don’t support TextExpander Touch, you can create new email messages and SMS messages directly within the TextExpander Touch App so that you can take advantage of your snippets
iOS 5 promisses to bring similar functionality to the OS itself. This will be handy as it will be supported in the built-in apps, but like most built-in features it won’t be as robust ast TextExpander Touch. It will be great to have both!
You can get TextExpander for Mac for $34.99 here from the 
You can get TextExpander Touch for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch for $4.99 here from the 
One of the 1st things those of us who were upgrading from the iPad to the iPad 2 and had been grandfathered into an unlimited data plan wanted to know was how to transfer that unlimited data plan over to the iPad 2? AT&T setup this website allowing you to make the switch very easily. However, I recently found a reason to keep using that site. I gave my sister an iPad as a Chrismas gift and I also pay for her data plan. I recently wanted to switch to a different credit card for the montly billing. Although I was going to see her in the next few days and remind her to bring her iPad, I wondered if I could do it from the web? The answer is yes.
From this same site you can log in with the same email address and password that you used to setup your 3G account directly on your iPad and change your billing info, upgrade/downgrade your plan, add international roaming, and see your usage history. While it's great to be able to do this directly on the iPad, I actually prefer to do it on the web if for no other reason than I can have the site or 1Password remember my login credentials. On the iPad you have to key in your email address and password each time.
Keep this site handy for when you upgrade to your iPad 3 
Our MacNews site is powered by WordPress. While the experience is good on a destop browser and pretty good on the iPad it wasn't really optimized for the iPad. You could always use our iPhone/iPod touch App, but that App wasn't designed for iPad either. With an update to our WP Touch Pro plug-in MacNews is now a bonified "web app" too.
What's the difference between a web app and a native iOS app?
For those of us old enough to remember when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone back in 2007 he touted "web apps" as a way to get custom Apps onto the iPhone. That didn't go over too well with developers that wanted to access native functions (APIs) of the device. So Apple opened the doors to native App development for those wishing to create Apps using Objective C and distribute them on the App Store. Hundreds of thousands of Apps later, that was definitely the right thing to do. However, the fact of the matter is that web apps are still useful when the task isn't as complex as some native apps. With a web app you now can get the "feel" of a native App but without the need to actually write a program using Objective C. Web Apps are built with HTML, Javascript, CSS, and JQuery Mobile. These open standards not only mean that anyone can develop an App (using tools like Adobe Dreamweaver CS 5.5) it also means that the App doesn't have to go through Apple's (or anyone else's) App Store approval process. The other advantage of a web App over a native App is that the developer only has to write one App that will work across all platforms including, dare I say it, your desktop/laptop too.
What's the difference between a web app and just adding a website to your home screen?
In iOS you can go to any website in Safari and add an icon (bookmark) to that site right on your homescreen. This will give you a one tap access to load that site in Mobile Safari. That's great, but all it really is is a button that accesses a bookmarked URL. With a web App you navigate to the site first in Mobile Safari as you always did, but when you save that site to your homescreen and launch it from that icon it launches like a regular App and you don't see the Safari interface around it. It functions like a true App with the ability to remember things like where you left off in the App and you get the same kind of animations during navigation that you would in a native App. Also the Web App can take advantage of things like a different layout for horizontal viewing vs. vertical viewing and even some of the hardware (ie. camera, acelerometer, etc. just like a native App.
Try it for yourself
Load MacNews on your iPad (or iPhone/iPod touch) in mobile Safari. Then tap the share icon to Add it to your Home Screen. At this point you can also name the App whatever you like ie. "MacNews". Now go to your Home Screen and launch it like you would any other App. I am still tweaking the performance, but otherwise it should be good to go. Keep in mind if you don't like it you can always access the site via mobile Safari as you always did. In Mobile Safari just scroll down to the bottom of the page and turn off the mobile theme and you'll be back to the regular site.
As a photographer I love to "geotag" my photos when I travel. Not only do I think it's a neat technology, I just like the fact that I'll be able to more easily answer the "where was that photo taken?" question. I've given this tip a number of differnt times during presentations and in other posts, but I thought it was time to update it and give some additional tips.
The Problem: Your camera doesn't have a built-in or external GPS
If you're shooting with a regular point and shoot or DSLR camera, chances are it doesn't have a built-in GPS chip. Although there are a few cameras out there that do have them, the vast majority do not have them. On the other hand the cameras in your iPhone and WiFi+3G iPad do have actual GPS chips in them. This means that by defualt every picture you take is tagged with Location Information in the metadata of the image. Your various desktop applications like iPhoto, Lightroom, Aperture, Preview, etc. can use this information and display a map pointing out where the photo was taken. The question becomes how do you get this Location information into the shots that you took with a camera that doesn't have a GPS chip in it?
There are a few ways to do it
iPhoto – chances are as a Mac user you already have iPhoto. iPhoto is a photo management tool and whether you use it to manage your photos or not, you can use its easy ability to "copy" location information and "Paste Location" information into other photos. The tip is to simply take at least one iPhone/iPad 2 photo at each location and then go ahead and shoot with your regular camera. When you get back to your computer, import both the iPhone shots and your regular shots into iPhoto. Now just highlight the iPhone shot and choose Copy from the Edit menu. Select all the photos taken at the same location with your other camera and right-click on them and choose Paste Location. iPhoto will add the location information to each of those photos. Aperture can do this too.
HoudahGeo – While the "free" iPhoto option works fine, I actually prefer to do this with HoudahGeo. I don't use iPhoto to manage my photos. i use Lightroom. Importing and exporting the shots into iPhoto adds too many steps to my workflow just to get Location Information into my DSLR shots. HoudahGeo is a stand alone application that can add Location information to your images from a vareity of different sources including other images. This means that I can import images into Lightroom as I always do, then I can drag those same images into HoudahGeo. I can choose one of my iPhone shots and copy and paste the coordinates from the iPhone shoot to all my RAW (DNG) files. Once I go back to Lightroom I just tell Lightroom to update the metadata from the images. Done!
the shot above is being displayed in Lightroom with GPS info. Click the image to see it on the map!
Check out HoudahGeo here
Geotag as you shoot – My favorite method is to simply geotag my photos as i take them. As a Nikon DSLR shooter I have the benefit of having GPS "support" built right in to my Nikon DSLRs. The only thing that's missing is the actual GPS unit. Nikon doesn't build the actual GPS modules into their DSLRs yet. Instead you have to plug in an external module. There are several to choose from and no matter which one you go with, you can then just shoot! Just like with your iPhone, your Nikon DSLR images will be tagged with Location Information as you take them.
Here are some Nikon Compatible GPS units. Here's one that let's you use your iPhone's GPS via Bluetooth and another that uses a separate small GPS unit as you shoot with your DSLR. Pretty Slick!
Once those photos are geotagged now what?
Once you get the Location Information into your photos chances are you'll be ready to display this information. There are several ways to do it. First off and back to iPhoto. iPhoto can display your photos on a Map. That's what the Places feature is. Not only that iPhoto can use this in your slideshows and photo books too. This is also built-in to your iOS devices Photos App too. In Lightroom you can click the little arrow next to the coordinates and it will fire up your browser and show you the location on Google Maps. If you upload the photos to Flickr (and adjust your privacy settings) your photos will automatically be mapped as well. Even the Preview App can show you a map of your photos and show them to you on Google Maps. Those are just a few ways to see where your photos were taken.
While I love the new Smart Covers for iPad 2, the one thing that they don't cover or offer any protection for is the back of your iPad 2. I wanted to protect my iPad 2's back from scratches. Since I was already a fan of Gelaskins, I ordered one on day one for the iPad 2. However, there are some out there that don't want to commit to a design or photo. Jim Nichols turned me on to the Zagg InvisibleSHIELD. While the picture above looks like a naked iPad on the left, it's actually sporting an InvisibleSHIELD. Both of these products are Smart Cover compatible and offer scratch proection for the back. Now keep in mind that the corners are still exposed and they offer no protection whatsoever for a drop or hard bump. If that's the kind of protection you need then you're better off getting a case. However, I love the thinness of the iPad 2 with Smart Cover and for my iPads I'll be sticking with skins.
You can see the Gelaskin skins here (for more than just iPad).
You can see the Zagg InvisibleSHIELDs here (for more than just iPad).
A while back I wrote about a solution to allow you to print from your iOS devices to your printer, even if your current printer doesn't have native AirPrint Support. While FingerPrint (the App I wrote about back then) worked, it didn't work with every printer and not in every case. There was a print to your hard drive PDF workaround, but I've long since forgotten about all that. There were some readers of that post that suggested I take a look at Printopia and you guys were right. I've been using Printopia ever since and it just works!
Easy setup
Printopia installs as a System Preference on your Mac. I installed it on my Mac OS X Server since that Mac is always on and it's been running ever since. I don't even think about it. It shows up on my network to all my iOS devices including iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. I can print directly to the printer or send it to my Dropbox account as a PDF.
Some of the commenters even suggested a free way to do with an Apple Script instead of paying for any of these apps and while FREE is good, you get what you pay for. The free option only works on Snow Leopard whereas Printopia runs on Leopard (Mac OS 10.5), Power PC Macs as well as Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). You also get more options with Printopia like printing to your Dropbox or to a folder on your Mac. Yes it supports multiple printers too.
I don't print very often, but when I do I just print. I don't think about it. Printopia works!
You can learn more and download a free trial here.
Digital content supplier Zinio has a lot of flaming unhappy customers right now. For the past week or more Zinio.com customers had no access to their digital content.
The Zinio.com website and Zinio Reader apps have been completely unavailable and/or erratic for days now, almost a week. On the Zinio website, customers seeking information, were greeted with only a static image indicating that Zinio was offline. No other information.
Zinio.com is up and running more steadily now, and the Zinio Reader apps are working better, but frustration still looms high for some customers, and especially for those who still have gotten no relief from the inability to acess their digital content.
For starters, there was no information whatsoever listed on this static page to inform customers of what was going on, or when the site would be back online. No redirect, no email to contact. Nada.
Only days later did any info seem to come to light, on the Ziniophile blog. The said problem: "An outage at one of our data centers."
Customers understand that things can go wrong, and we customers understand that issues and problems may take time to resolve; even longer than we may like. But only by searching online for a couple of days was I able to find out anything at all on this problem. I was initially concerned with my computer Zinio app, but when a total of three devices showed the same problem, I knew it was something amiss on Zinio's end.
These days, It's completely unacceptable for companies not to proactively communicate issues of this magnitude with the customers they want patience and understanding from. And for the most part, customers will be understanding.
And, I'm pretty sure that the staff over at Zinio is working long and hard to resolve the problems that they find themselves knee deep in. But I think they got on the communication to customers part a little late.
It's true that most iPad cases that you buy today can also double as an iPad stand. Usually the cover flips around and forms some sort of stand so that you can prop up your iPad to watch content or read. However, the cases usually will only allow the iPad to stand in portrait or landscape mode, not both. This is the reason that I use iPad stands. I actually have a couple of favroites:
My travel stand
My favorite stand for travel is the Arkon Portable Foldup Stand for iPad and other tablet devices. It's lightweight and folds up nicely to fit in my computer bag. It's also very adjustable to get the pefect viewing angle.
You can get it here for under $13.
My second favroite stand is the Stump
This simple design is great for allow you to place your iPad in 3 positions both horizontally and vertically. I like this one too for the 1st postion you see in the image above where the iPad is slightly elevated instead of lying flat. If your organization is looking for a cool give-away item you can even order these with your company logo on the back.
You can get the Stump here for about $30.
The 1st iPod was introduced in 2001. Yes that was 10 years ago. It was revolutionary in many respects. Although the original model included a Firewire cable and was Mac Only, Apple followed up with the now standard iPod "dock connector" model in 2003. The dock connector has been great and widely adopted by peripheral and car manufacturers. While the dock connector is cool, I ask the question do we really need to plug in a cable to sync our iOS devices today?
Let's lose the cable!
Of course Apple still makes iPods that don't have built-in WiFi. These low cost models obviously need some way of connecting to your computer to sync the media. For those models the sync cable still makes sense. However, for iOS devices that have WiFi (the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) I wonder why we still "need" to plug in a cable to sync media? Don't get me wrong, given a choice I'll gladly plug in a cable when I have several gigabytes of data to sync to a new device over doing it via WiFi any day. Yet that doesn't mean that I should have to plug in a cable for day to day syncing.
- Apple TV streams Gigabytes of Movies Wirelessly
- MacBooks, iMacs, Mac mini's, etc all can backup Terabytes of data Wirelessly
- iTunes allows Home Sharing via WiFi
- iOS devices can download Gigabytes of data/media direclty from the iTunes store via WiFi
Still waiting for my dream to come true
I remember having a day dream when I got my first car with an iPod connection built-in that some day I would pull into my garage, reach into my glove compartment and press a sync button on my iPod (or iPhone) and my device would connect to my computer in the house and sync the latest playlists, podcasts, etc. via WiFi. I'm still waiting for that dream to come true and technically there is no reason why it shouldn't be a reality today. My iOS devices have WiFi. Apple already allows you to download gigabytes of data (movies and apps) from iTunes via WiFi directly to these devices . Why not allow us to do it from iTunes to iOS device? Hey, it's 2011: I shouldn't even have to press a sync button. The device iOS device should just auto sync (via a preference) when I enter my WiFi zone!
FAQ
Whenever I bring this up to my gadget buddies, someone always has a "but what about ______" objection. I can usually shoot these down pretty easily so let's go through the common ones.
Q. Isn't WiFi too slow?
A. Yes and no. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to use a cable if you want to. I'm just saying that we should have the option to do it wirelessly. Also remember that Apple already lets you download gigabytes of data directly to your iOS device via the internet. My Navigon App weighs in at 1.52GBs and I can download it direclty to my iPhone today from the App Store via WiFi.
Q. What if you were doing a OS update via WiFi and your connection died or battery died?
A. OK, what happens today if you accidently unplug the cable during an update? In other words there are problems that can happen today even with the cable. If Apple were truly worried about this they could require you to use the cable for OS updates or provide the same warnings they do today when updating a MacBook/MacBook Pro when you're not plugged into to power. Lastly Apple could do it more like they do it on the Mac. Let the iOS update download first to the device before installing. If the download/sync were interupted then there would be no harm.
Q. Users would complain that syncing takes too long.
A. Yep, they probably would. Apple could easily pop up an alert stating that syncing more than XXX amount of data may take a while over WiFi. Let me make that choice and of course disable the alert.
The Bottom Line
Beyond the first sync of all your media onto your iOS device, there is little reason that you shouldn't be able to sync via WiFi from that point on. Apple let's me backup my entire 500GB MacBook Pro drive via WiFi to a Time Capsule. Yes, it takes HOURS, but they allow it and even sell devices to do allow you to do it. If I wanted it to go faster I could always plug in an Ethernet cable. Syncing a WiFi enabled iOS device via WiFi wouldn't take nearly as long even if the device were empty. Apple can we please lose the cable? It's 2011!
Happy New Year to all as we begin the first week of 2011.
My wish to all is for good health, for without it, truly, everything else in your life will take a back seat.
My post for this week also relates to good health.
The good health that you feel when you practice random acts of kindness.
And yes, there's an app for that.
Actually, there are a few, but one stands out for me more than others.
"DoGood" is an app created by a student organization at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI., "to Do Random Acts of Kindness at the University of Michigan. Our goal is to promote genuine acts of kindness. We expect nothing in return though we hope our deeds will inspire others to spread kindness through their lives and through the lives of others…DoGood inspires people to live life a bit better."
Loading ...
