Should Smart Watches like the Apple Watch be considered a handheld device?

Yesterday I posted an article about Smart Watches being distracting to drivers and today I found an article at Appleinsider.com that reports that an Apple Watch owner was just fined in Quebec for operating his new Apple Watch while in the driver’s seat (report from CTV Montreal). The driver stated that he was using the watch’s built in music app to control his iPhone that was connected to his car’s stereo.

The ticket cited Section 439.1 of the Quebec Highway Safety Code, which reads, "No person may, while driving a road vehicle, use a hand-held device that includes a telephone function." Use of Bluetooth accessories, like headsets and hands-free equipment, is allowed. A literal interpretation could find Macesin not technically in violation of the statute, as the "handheld device" in this equation — Macesin's iPhone — was stowed in a bag and therefore unreachable.

My belief is that it is as much of a handheld device as a phone, being in this case an screen extension of the phone control. Just glancing at the watch to see what time it is, is one thing, but actually going through the menus and choosing options is another. What do you think?

OWA available for iOS devices now

Take a quick look at the Exchange Team Blog entry announcing the availability of the new OWA App for both the iPhone and the iPad. It will show you setup and screenshots of the application but the one drawback is that you need to have an Office 365 account to get it.

See the article here.

SkyDrive app for iOS has been updated

Microsoft’s attempts to make SkyDrive the place to store your files in the cloud continues to move forward. If you are an Office 2013 user or are sharing documents with your team in the SkyDrive cloud any and all updates to the SkyDrive clients are always welcome. It seems to be getting better with each advancement and I am using it house all of my OneNote notebooks that I access from all my devices, whether it is my work or home pc, notebook, or any one of my many mobile devices but android and iOS.

Microsoft’s current release is v3.0 for the SkyDrive app for iOS that includes improved photo features, an updated UI, and a number of other new features and enhancements. You can install or update the SkyDrive app for iOS now via iTunes.

Here are the updates that have been made to v3.0 of the SkyDrive app for iOS:

Support for iPhone 5 and iPad Mini Updated app icons and user experience Works better with your photos: Download full resolution photos to your iPhone or iPadControl the size of photos you upload and download Photo metadata is retained when you upload to SkyDrive Opening and saving files to SkyDrive works better with other apps on your iOS devices Many other small changes, bug fixes and performance improvements

IOS received updated Dropbox app this week

If you are a big user of Dropbox as a note taking application, and you use it on an iOS device, then this may be of interest to you. There are several new features that allow you post a file now directly to Facebook and Twitter.  It also now supports iOS AirPrint as well. So now you have the options of emailing a file, text messaging a file, message through Facebook, post to Facebook, Tweet and copying the link to a clipboard. If you post to Facebook the file link will be posted and can then be found on your timeline.

I’m not a big Facebook or Twitter poster so these two things don’t hold much interest to me but the AirPrint capability makes sharing a file much simpler. If you haven’t downloaded take a trip to the iTunes store and get your updated copy.

iLounge Article: Removing an iOS device from an iTunes account

By Jesse Hollington

Applications Editor, iLounge (Google+)
Published: Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Good show and tell how to remove an iOS device from your iTunes account. I like to earmark these for future use.

Remember that you can only have only a maximum of 10 devices per iTunes account and this is probably the main reason to get in and manage your device list.

Is the Samsung Galaxy Tab the Android Tablet Standard?

IDC stated that in Q2, 2012 the iPad was certainly the leader when it comes to the overall tablet market.. With 17 million iPads shipped during this period the next nearest competitive tablet was the Samsung Galaxy Tab that reached 2.4 million units during the same quarter. That means that iPads are outpacing its next nearest competitor by a ratio of greater than 7 to 1. Amazon shipped 1.2 million units in this same quarter. It will be interesting to see how the Nexus 7 fairs this quarter in the mix.

In the fourth quarter Microsoft is going to be jumping into the fray as well with their Windows Surface RT tablet and that is going to make it that much more interesting as well. The question is whether we are going to see that many more tablets being sold or whether one or another will start eating into each other’s sales.

What do you think?

Step aside AirPlay here comes SmartGlass

In a step to open up the Xbox 360’s interactivity with mobile devices, Microsoft showed off what they believe will be a great competitor to Apple’s AirPlay called SmartGlass at E3 yesterday. The new cross-platform functionality will come to Apple's iOS, as well as Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone and Windows 8, later this year.

Microsoft showed off how content being played on the Xbox 360 could be complemented by additional content on a tablet like an iPad. In one demonstration, a user watching "Game of Thrones" on the HBO Go application had the show streaming to their HDTV, while an interactive map of the fictional world was displayed on a tablet and was updated in real-time, synced with the program.

Also expect browser integration on the Xbox 360 that you can control with your smartphone or tablet device. Other than being able to share the results I don’t know why you just wouldn’t do it on you personal mobile device. Game play was another function they showed off using Madden’s NFL. In this case they demonstrated the ability to use a tablet to select plays and draw up new ones that could them be displayed through the Xbox 360.

I haven’t purchased an AppleTV yet and I have been holding off doing so. Microsoft’s Xbox SmartGlass should be able to be used for this function as well. They will probably need to develop an application to do this but I don’t think that there will be a native AirPlay integration in the Xbox but that would be nice. Microsoft stated that they will bring the same ability on Android device as well as Windows Phone and Windows 8.

For those of us that already have an Xbox 360 in their media setup this is something to be anticipated. SmartGlass is Microsoft’s new interface platform that will hopefully allow programmers to open up your stationary media center with the Xbox at the center to all of your mobile devices.

Sharing iTunes & iCloud Accounts in a Family

One of the biggest pains when it comes to synching your ios products is having multiple accounts or sharing a single iTunes account. iLounge has a Q&A that is helpful in understanding how to use and what to think about when setting up your accounts.

The discussion includes both iCloud and iTunes considerations. Hope this helps.

Which Option should you choose for storing your music in the “CLOUD”

With Google relabeling its cloud storage system for movies, books and music, called Google Play, there is another option to choose for placing your music into a location that you devices can get to with multiple devices. If you have an IOS device or and Android device then you have a multitude of options at various costs.

For general storage there are a lot of choices with my favorite being Dropbox (2GB free), but you also have Google (10GB free), Microsoft (25GB free).

Microsoft SkyDrive provides 25GB’s of free space and is integrated well with Microsoft Office Applications and has some interesting things that it can do in regards to information sharing with OneNote.

iCloud (5GB free) and Amazon (not free). When it comes to your media files (mainly music oriented). It also integrates with a few document applications but this is solely an Apple based product for Apple products only.

Google allows up to 20,000 song titles. This service is primarily associated with Android Devices and desktops for access. It will now integrate with a central interface for accessing movies, eBooks, and music. It will be interesting to look at once it fully comes available. This is separate from Google Doc Storage which I talked about above.

Amazon Cloud Player for your music is limited to 5GB for free and all of you purchased MP3’s are stored for free.

Dropbox can also play back you media but unless buy into the large file storage levels and there isn’t a media player associated with it directly. But I like using it for everything that I throw at it for work, home and play. It is integrated with the largest number of application on your IOS and Android devices and that is one of the things that I am continually reaching for, high availability between applications and devices.

Another service that is out there that has a fairly close comparison with Dropbox is SugarSync. It provides a free 5GB account and reasonable larger accounts. It is more of a file share program that allows you to synchronizes between PC’s. Dropbox is pretty much limited to its file structure that syncs while SugarSync has more of a backup flair associated with it.

So if you ask me what I have, well, I have them all. Which do I use the most? Dropbox at this time. However, in reviewing these services I started thinking that SugarSync looks interesting and one that I didn’t even mention Box.com is something that I want to explore as well.

Let me know how you are using these types of services and let me know which one is your favorite and why.

Adobe Photoshop Touch for the iPad Released

Adobe finally comes though for your iPad devices to provide a Photoshop app designed specifically for tablets. Combine images, apply professional effects, share results with friends and family through sites like Facebook, and more – all from the convenience of your iPad.

• Use popular Photoshop features designed for the tablet such as layers, selection tools, adjustments, and filters to create mind-blowing images.
• Use your iPad camera to fill an area on a layer with the unique camera fill feature.
• Select part of an image to extract by scribbling with the Scribble Selection tool. With Refine Edge, use your fingertip to capture even hard-to-select image elements, like hair, with ease.
• Search and acquire images with the integrated Google Image Search.
• Share images on Facebook and view comments right within the app.
• Browse an inspirational gallery for the styles and results you'd like to achieve. Then follow step-by-step tutorials to easily learn techniques the pros use for great-looking results.
• Use AirPrint for wireless printing of Photoshop Touch projects.
• Upload projects to Adobe Creative Cloud* and open layered files from Adobe Photoshop Touch in Photoshop CS5.
• Maximum image resolution: 1600 x 1600 pixels

This is Adobe’s first iteration of this app on the iPad and hopefully new enhancements will be coming quickly to allow for larger file sizes (images) and more features. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

Photoshop Touch is actually part of a family of six tablet apps. So along with Photoshop Touch, there's Collage, Debut, Ideas, Kuler and Proto. As Adobe describes it, Photoshop Touch will let users combine photos, edit photos, apply filters and other effects and poke with layers. Collage is where you drop images, drawings, text into a 'mood board', Debut shows off your pshop files, Ideas is a vector based tool for drawing, Kuler generates color themes and Proto is made for developers.

Not Happy with iMovie on the iPad try Avid Studio

One of the reasons that I got and iPad 2 when I did was because I wanted to try my hand with video editing on it. Have I done much with it? Not really but the was my reasoning. Another product has just launched from Avid called Avid Studio for iPad. This is probably the first real competitor to Apple’s iMovie video editing app.

What makes this so interesting is that Avid was king of digital video editing in Hollywood for a long time, and then Apple came out with the far more affordable Final Cut Pro/ Final Cut Studio, and enticed a few big name directors to give their new software a try.

So how do they compare? Both products can do the basics that you would expect for any video editor. You can insert videos, photos, and music, trim clips, add titles, and export to YouTube. But this is where iMovie begins to fail.

Audio Management – in iMovie when you insert a music track it becomes the background for the entire movie. You can’t insert clips and manipulate transitions. You are stuck with playing the whole song. In Avid Studio, you can trim your sound clips and insert them anywhere in your movie and layer up to 3 clips at a time.

Inserting Photo and Videos as PIP - One of the cool features Avid Studio provides is the ability to insert photos or video over the main movie in the timeline. Meaning, if you want to have a photo or video play in the middle of a movie clip, you can do so while still having the audio and elapsed time from the main movie playing in the background. This is one the features I most like about Avid Studio. The only thing you can do in iMovie is split up the clip and put a photo or movie clip into the middle. Avid’s way — which Apple does support on the desktop version of iMovie — is more useful.

Video Management – iMovie doesn’t allow you to access imported video that was done with iTunes. The only videos accessible with iMovie are the ones in your camera roll or in albums. Avid does allow access to imported videos.

Titles and Montages – iMovie forces you to use their themes to insert titles in your movie. This means that all text inserted in iMovie must be overlaid with part of your movie. Avid Studio comes with fun montages as well as allowing you to use plain black slides with text to create your titles. The montages can be made up of anywhere between 1 and 4 photos and may be static images or mini video clips.

Conclusion – Avid Studio wins hands down. Both products are priced the same at $4.99 but there is so much more flexibility available in Avid Studio.

Here is a quick overview video of this product produced by MattsMacintosh published to YouTube.

One step further, here is a 20 minute tutorial from MeadorsMusings posted to Youtube.

Click on this link to view even more helpful YouTube Videos on this subject.

iConnectivity outs iConnectMUSE digital audio mixer for iOSers

For those of you that want to be able to have a simple audio mixing device while on the road, here is a product from iConnectivity that will allow you to mix analog sound from several sources and digitize it onto your iOS device. Touted as the perfect product for the “garage band” on the road, this device can give you that extra capability from a very small and portable device. See the Press Release below:

LVCC North Hall – Booth #3922
Las Vegas, NV – January 12, 2012 – iConnectivity™, forward thinking developer of hardware accessories and applications for iPhone®, iPod touch® and iPad®, announce its latest creation, iConnectMUSE™ at CES 2012 in Las Vegas.

For musicians looking to control their unique mixes through iOS or computer software while maintaining exceptional sound quality, look no further than iConnectMUSE™– a palm-sized personal mini-mixer that combines several music accessories into one iOS controlled product, perfect for gigs at home or on the road.

The end result? Studio-quality analog audio converted to digital. With iConnectMUSE™, the user will experience higher quality audio processing, improved audio latency and the ability to share and mix audio through an iOS device, and even charge the iOS device at the same time.

Featuring six stereo inputs and six stereo outputs, each with its own unique mix, this ultra compact device may be small on size, but huge on functionality and features. If you're a student musician exploring your own personal composition technique, a professional musician composing in a hotel room or on tour, or the performing musician who needs consistency moving from gig to gig, iConnectMUSE™ is the all-in-one, portable solution.

Additional features include two USB device ports, hub-able USB Host Port, two input and two output ¼" audio port jacks, a headphone monitor jack, Ethernet connection for network sharing, a MIDI pass-thru interface and limited DSP processing.

"iConnecMUSE™ is the future of audio mixing," said Michael Loh, CEO of iConnectivity™. "Its portability, expandability and enhanced functionality through software integration provides the conduit for music creativity for all musicians."

iConnectMUSE™, available Q2 of 2012, will retail for $229.99* (MSRP).
For More Information, please visit www.iConnectivity.com.

xPrintServer makes printers AirPrint-compatible

I like looking for new products that will make both my life easier as well as our clients. For those of you that have an iOS device and none of your printers are AirPrint compatible there will soon be a product that could make your printers AirPrint compatible. Lantronix is planning on releasing this January their xPrintServer product that allows printing from any iOS device to network-connected printers.

I have several printers in my house and at work that I would love to be able to print to without the convoluted methods I now employ from my iPad and iPhone devices. Whether it is to my beautiful Canon Pro 900 photo printer or my Lexmark MFC Pro901 I want to be able to whip off a quick printed page for friends or family. Also, at work it would be nice while I am sitting with a client discussing options for their network I would love to be able to share the information I have on my iPad as I am talking to them.

The current drawback of this device is that it will only work with Ethernet-networked printers only. This means it doesn't help with printers that are connected directly to your computer via an USB port. The device comes with just one network port and will need an available LAN port from your router or switch to work. It also require an external power source.

When you plug the device into you network it will auto-discover and auto-provision for your network printers which in turn allows your iOS device to print to them. There is no software or device drivers to load and no special Apps to purchase. I am looking forward to testing this out myself.

More information at Lantronix’s site

Supported Printer List

Evernote vs. OneNote

And the battle goes on. There have been some recent updates to both of these programs that have prompted me to take another look to see which one is better suited for what I need.

Evernote’s general capabilities are still not as rich on the PC/Desktop side as they are in OneNote but it still has a better overall feel and function between all of the different devices that you can bring it up on. I have listed a table below on some of the major features and how each product rates in respect to each other.

Feature	Evernote	OneNote
Notebook –this feature allows you to group notes together to make them easier to access	Two Level-You can create a master Group and then have notebook containers listed within the master Group or container.	On the surface it appears that you only have two levels here as well however, you may have as many Notebooks that you want. The second level is called a section in OneNote but there are two types of sections that you can create, the first is a Section Group which can create one or more Sections or more Section Groups. A Section then is what actually is the container for your note pages.
Free Form Entries	You don’t have this with Evernote	You can place your entries anywhere you wish on the note. I really like this feature and I miss it with Evernote.
Text Style	The basics are here but they are very limited.	A much richer choice of controls to enhance your text styles. You can create a much richer end product here.
Web Versions	Very similar whether you use the Web Interface or the Desktop Interface.	The Web interface is poor at best not only to the desktop version but also to what Evernote provides. This is the one feature that is a tipping point for me to continue using Evernote as my primary note taking application.
iPad App	Again, this is very similar to the both the Web and Desktop Apps. This makes it much simpler to move from one device to another.	Ugh! The newly released app is ten time better than it was but it still is a poor cousin to anything else. Still not good enough. Evernote wins here as well.
Application Interfaces	Evernote is very strong when it comes to integrating on the iPad with other applications. It should since this is the world that it has mostly evolved in. More and more secondary apps that I use have tie ins to not only Evernote but also Dropbox that these features keep me coming back.	OneNote has very strong tie ins with other Office Applications that I use a lot. This makes it very hard for me to stop using it but in reality, other than the task management associated with Outlook many of the other features that I want can also be found in Evernote.

So, for me I still lean towards Evernote as my primary note program but I still find myself jumping into OneNote when I need that extra formatting or connection to Outlook.

Let me know your thoughts!

Microsoft reveals SkyDrive Apps for both Windows Phone, iPhone

In the if you can’t beat them, join them category…

Microsoft has release a new SkyDrive Apps that work with both the Windows Phone and the iPhone. With 25Gb’s of free space in the Cloud, this provides you with another easy method to share files easily between computers and mobile devices where ever you are.

As reported in TweakTown posting: 

As devices proliferate, having a great experience on the Web is only one piece of a pretty complex puzzle. People are choosing where to put their files based on how portable and accessible they are across the various devices they use; therefore, it's critical that we continue to extend the SkyDrive experience to the devices you use every day.

Windows Phone's latest update, Mango, has deep integration with SkyDrive through its hubs Pictures and Office, which allows sharing of text, e-mail or IM. Users, as always, wanted more. Torres adds:

Many still want the full SkyDrive experience from Windows Phone, including tasks like browsing their entire SkyDrive, sharing links to folders or files, deleting files, and creating folders.

If you're on an iOS-based device, hit up the App Store and download the SkyDrive app. Torres adds about the iOS version:

On the iPhone, we've taken the next step by making the new SkyDrive app for iPhone available in 32 languages worldwide. In addition to their OneNote notebooks, iPhone customers can now access all of their files in SkyDrive, create folders, delete files, and share links to folders and files directly using the Mail app.

Should You consider upgrading to the new iPhone 4S?

There have a lot of articles written in the past few weeks that would leave you to believe that the iPhone 4S is the best smartphone that has ever been made and for a person like myself that love new technology the twinge has started deep inside me to make the leap. I am still sitting on a iPhone 3GS and it still does the job it was designed for fairly well. In all honesty, I really only use the app side of the phone for very limited functions and routinely pull out one of my iPads to do most of the things that I use these types of devices for. The reason is quite simple, I like the bigger screen. In fact, if the iPad was available in a 12 or 13 inch screen I would probably jump on that before upgrading my phone.

So let’s get back to my question. If you are a heavy phone user and want the technology upgrades that the iPhone offers then you may be a candidate. My first question: What are you upgrading from? If you own an Android, haven’t you already made the commitment in that camp to continue with the apps you have purchased and the learning curve of using that particular interface? I would probably stay with Android because you probably are there for many reasons the IOS technology cannot give you. However, if you don’t have a smartphone yet, or have and earlier version of the iPhone, then you are probably a good candidate to make the upgrade except if you are an iPhone 4 owner.

I’m not sure the difference in technology between the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s is great enough to take the financial hit you will probably take jumping out of you current service agreement. And how will you feel when in 8-10 months from now the new iPhone 5 finally does come out with whatever wonder technology it will bring to the table. I would really be tempted to wait and see in that case.

If you are a proud owner of an iPhone 3GS or earlier then the differences between the devices is much greater. You will get a better camera (8 megapixel) with a better lens, and two cameras at that. MG Siegler noted in his October 11^th post for TechCrunch:

The camera is an even bigger deal to me. As I’ve been following for some time, and Apple noted last week, the iPhone has become the most popular camera in the world if you go by the images uploaded to Flickr. And it’s not even close. This new camera in the iPhone 4S goes above and beyond. And it’s going to push that lead even further.

If the point-and-shoot market wasn’t in trouble before, it will be now.

Much will be made about the upgrade from 5 megapixels to 8 megapixels with the iPhone 4S. But the bigger difference is the engineering behind the new camera. Apple notes with pride that their engineers were able to completely re-architect this tiny camera to produce images that are on par with the nicest point-and-shoots available. They credit five “precision elements” to record incoming light (versus four in the already excellent iPhone 4 camera) and the inclusion of a larger f/2.4 aperture to bring in more light.

Also great is that the iPhone 4S camera can shoot 1080p video for the first time. The iPhone 4 is limited to 720p. The 4S also features video stabilization, to ensure your home videos won’t make viewers want to vomit. Testing this out, it seems to work pretty well.

You will have a much faster processor so that those applications that you are running will run much more smoothly. There is even a big difference between the 4 and 4S which might make you iPhone 4 owners to make the leap anyway if speed is important to you.

You will get Siri, your own personal assistant, though it is in its beginning stages it is really kind of a neat application. In the coming months when Apple opens up the API to its army of third party programmers it will be interesting to see where they will take this part of the 4S. The limitations currently are that there only a few apps that it integrates with and they are all Apple applications. We need to see better integration with some business functions but it is really a fun and interesting start anyway. This one feature will probably be the tipping point for most new buyers and will be the ONE main competitive feature that other phones will need to compete against. The biggest downside with this technology is that it uses server side software to function and this means that you need to be connected to the internet for it to work.

So what do you think?

iPhone 4 owner – if you still have time on your contract this is a pricey upgrade. If the camera, speed and/or Siri are important to you then you may want to do this. If not you will need to wait out your contract and then take a look at what is out there at that time. You will get the IOS 5 upgrade anyway, just not with Siri.

iPhone 3GS or earlier or a new smartphone want-to-be’s – This will be a much easier decision. All of the features, including the IOS 5 will make a big difference in how you work with your phone. For me it’s an easy call. I have the 3GS, the camera will allow me to carry a much better point and shoot with me (I am a camera buff you know), I love faster and love Voice to Text Recognition functions (I use this a lot in my daily work when writing up long winded descriptions). So I will be one of those sitting in queue shortly to get my hands on this new device.

HELO TC Touch-Controlled Helicopter

Looking for a new toy for your enjoyment that allows you to use your IOS device as a control interface?

I have lately been acquiring different RC controlled helicopters and have had a lot of fun flying them around the house. Griffin has come out with this one that interfaces an infrared device with your IOS device so that you can control the helicopter in one of two methods:

• Touch Control: Use a virtual joystick on your Multi-Touch display to maneuver the chopper.
• Tilt to Steer: Tilt your iOS device to move the chopper forward, backward, and side to side.

Use the app to record and store up to three Flight Plans so you, or another pilot, can easily repeat a favorite flight pattern. Make up routes among the furniture, missions to fly, obstacles to avoid, goals to achieve, and replay them later with your friends.

Ready to Fly?

HELO TC comes complete with a precision twin-rotor remote-controlled helicopter and Flight Deck. The Flight Deck plugs into your iOS device's headphone jack and translates your commands into infrared signals that beam to the helicopter.

HELO TC's intuitive, easy-to-learn controls and twin-rotor design make for stable, controlled flight. And the HELO TC app provides features not available with other RC helicopters, such as Auto Land so you can bring HELO TC down for a safe landing with just a tap of the Multi-Touch display.

Download the free HELO TC app onto your iOS device, load your device into HELO TC's Flight Deck and you're ready to fly. Currently out of stock, this $49.95 device really looks neat. Griffin is well known for their mobile device add-on’s.

iPad-Paper Camera

Wow! It has been a while since last time I was so taken with a new program. I am really having a lot of fun with this application on my iPad taking different images with different filters to see what I can get out of them. So, what does this program do? This program will utilized the onboard cameras of your iPhone or iPad and create interesting “cartoon style images”. Priced at only $0.99 in the iTunes store, it is a great tool for adding another creative flair to your mobile equipment.

It is a bit tedious to do this after the fact in Photoshop but with a quick point and click you can create these fun images and share them from your device.

One of the uses that I am going to put the app through is to create images of people and products and give them a little flair by processing them through this application. The collection of filters include: cartoon/sketch/comic book/halfone/noir/neon and many other effects painted directly in your camera, no more boring post-effects, it's all real time, you simply won't stop wandering, wherever you are, having a look at things and cartoon-ize them!

You can import your existing photos into the program and apply different filters to them as well to give them a slightly different look. I put some examples below. For $.99 it’s hard to go wrong

SKYPE Miscue Dashes Short-Term Euphoria over Native iPad App

In the time that it took me to drive to work, Skype has now become available again in the iTunes store. So, everything I wrote down below is for naught. I wonder how long it will be up before they take it down again?

I was looking at TNT's REDDIT List and I got real excited when I saw that one of the headlines listed the release of a Native iPad App for both the iPad1 & iPad2. So, what did I Immediately do but jumped out of my browser over to my App icon to immediately download it to my iPad. What to my surprise, there was none listed there! So, I jumped to my iPad2 to see if it was a version issue, you know, no camera on the iPad1, but no, no joy there either!

So I scurry over to the Skype Site and there was absolutely nothing over there either. It turns out that I must only see what I want to see because further up in the list was a headline announcing that Skype pulled this App shortly after being released stating that it wasn't ready for prime time yet. How disappointing! Skype promises to rerelease it soon but it isn't giving an exact date at this point.

Well Skype, here is one user that is anxiously waiting for this release so please hurry up!

The download only took a minute to acquire and when I logged in all of my contacts from my account automatically loaded. It has a simple interface and makes good use of the entire screen. My first use was to contact my niece who has just arrived in Chile this weekend as an Exchange Student. Tonight I will put to the test with video on my iPad2 when my wife and I give her a little call. This is going to be fun!

Here is the down and dirty:

1. You now have video calling over 3G and WiFi as well as IM and voice only calls.
2. If you have purchased a land line account you can even make phone calls to land lines for the cost of your subscription or use your Skype credits if you wish.
3. Calling a Contact in your list is simple, just tap the contact and pick how you wish to contact them.
4. The History Tab gives you access to your most recent conversations and if you are running multiple device like I do a lot, an IM is showing up instantly on all of them simultaneously. For example, I auto load Skype on all of my PC’s because it is one of the methods I use most in talking to my customers. When I was testing out the iPad App this morning using IM I noticed that all of the messaging was showing up there as well. This means that I can setup all of my mobile devices to use Skype off of the same account and I can have multiple people using the devices at the same time to facilitate group discussions.
5. Call Skype contacts on their iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, PC, Mac and even Skype enabled TVs.
6. Talk face-to-face or show what you’re seeing with front and back-facing cameras.
7. I have had a landline subscription for a long time that gives you free coast-to-coast telephone access as well as a callable landline for less than $100/year. This expands the personal and business use incredibly.

Evernote News…

If you are using Evernote you probably have gotten this email notification from them. First off there is a new update available. To force an update on your desktop client click on the Help menu option and choose Check For Updates. You will be prompted to download and run the update if you don’t have the updated version already. While many of the changes are cosmetic, Evernote tells us that it should be more user-friendly to use.

What! You don’t have Evernote?

If you are running around with many different kinds of devices, you may want to consider looking at this program. This program has front end program interfaces for the iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch, Android, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry, Palm Pre, Palm Pixi, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It is a great way to share notes between all of these devices. Start with the free version and see if it is a good fit for what you do. I think that you will.

And…

If you have an iPad 2 you might be interested in the new Evernote Peek. This learning application works in conjunction with an iPad 2 and a smart cover.

Connect Peek to your Evernote account and brush up on a language, make flashcards for a quiz or test your trivia knowledge, all by simply peeking under the Smart Cover.

Take a sneak peak at how it works: