gadgetero

CalendarMenu Mac app review

2013-05-20T16:28:00.003+03:00

Here I am with a new review, this time of Mac software. This is a small menu bar utility called CalendarMenu by Alexander Lindenstruth.

CalendarMenu sits in your Mac menu bar. The icon on the menu bar can show the current day number and also a mark for appointments.

You can press on it to see this month and a quick overview of the events. You click on a day or a week number and a small info window will pop showing all the appointments for that period. In the month view a red dot indicates birthdays, an empty dot for all day appointments and a dark dot for scheduled appointments. The app can also show reminders (tasks) on the popup window if you wish.

You can quickly jump to specific month or year pressing on the month or year at the top of the month view.

The app includes plenty of options that can be accessed through the setting button:

You can also select which calendars to be shown:

And if you are not a fan of the black windows you can always change it to grey:

I find the app quite useful but somehow it feels slow. I am sometimes not sure if I have click or not on a date because it takes a little bit too long to react. The app does not allow you to edit appointments. It only shows the events.

There are some nice features like for instance, whenever you press in a birthday you will be shown your contact picture and age. From the app you can open the contact to see more details. Also from the app you can launch Calendar app to edit if necessary an appointment.

What I like it:

Useful
Clean UI

What I don't like:

Slow
Needs some refinement in my opinion

If you need this kind of Calendar utility to be in your menubar at all times and you do not want to spend too much money, maybe this is the app for you. They have a demo version fully functional for 14 days on their site at http://www.wrench.at/en/CalendarMenu/try/ or if you are already convinced, you can buy it directly from this here at the Mac AppStore. It is only 3.59 EUR, 3.99 USD.

Enjoy!

Words app for Mac review

2013-05-06T18:29:00.002+03:00

Welcome to another review, this time, Words app for Mac by NewNet Soft.

I am a daily user of "read later" services. Right now I am more into Readability, but I have used Instapaper for a long time and eventually Pocket. I like to save articles to read later when I have time. I also use this service as a way to keep my favourite articles, even I have already read them. It is nice to have them with you at all times, even when you are "offline".

These last weeks I have had the chance to try Words app and here it is my review.
Words is a simple software to sync and read your saved articles with the different "Read later" services. It supports Readability, Pocket and Instapaper (note that Instapaper is only supported if you have a paid subscription. For free accounts, there is no access to API by third party software, so you can only use their official iPhone app, but no other apps). You can actually have different services working together, but you cannot have more than one account per service at a time. I have tried the app with Instapaper (I had a paid subscription for a while), Readability and Pocket. But right now I am using only Readability.

The app itself lets you access your articles in the service (in my case Readability), as well as tag the them, archive them or move them to folders (Instapaper works with folders instead of tags). You can also mark articles as favourite.

The app has three different views, one with the tag/folder list, a view to read the article without any distraction on the sides, and another with the article properties where you can edit tags, for instance.

From the font point of view, you can set up between some predefined fonts (Traditional, Modern, Minimal, etc.). However, you are not able to choose any font from the system, but you are limited only to the preset fonts.

The article can be the article as one column (scrolling vertically) or several columns (scrolling horizontally). I personally prefer the vertical scroll.

Another useful option is the search bar to look for keywords in all the downloaded articles.

And it also includes a sync status side window if you press in the upper right button. It shows you what is being sync at the moment. I find sometimes syncing a little bit slow.

There are not many options to choose from, font size, base colour and sync animation. Font size is just normal or big. It is not possible to choose your own size.

And as a summary, here it is my opinion

What I like

Simple
Article only view with no distractions

What I dislike

Limited fonts and sizes
One account per service only
Syncing issues with Instapaper service

If you think the app suits your needs, click here to access the Mac AppStore. It costs 4.49 EUR, 4.99 USD.

Enjoy!

Nokia Lumia 820 review

2013-04-04T11:47:00.003+03:00

Here I am with a new phone review, this time the Nokia Lumia 820. I would like to thank to Nokia Conversations for allowing me to test the phone for two weeks. Please continue reading to hear my experience

Hardware

If Nokia is good at something, that is hardware. They have been doing amazing phones through the years and they still do. I really like the Lumia 820 built. Hardware feels very compact even it is made of plastic. Screen is great. The screen is big enough to allow you to type easily with the keyboard, and still not too big that it would be difficult for one hand operation. Side buttons are conveniently located with a dedicated camera button that you can keep pressing to start the camera immediately.

I also like the shape of the phone. The front size reminds me to a TV somehow. I find it so cute. Also, the exchangeable cover and battery it can be an advantage if you want to have a spare battery with you.

Operating system

Lumia 820 runs Windows Phone 8. It is not such a big change from end user point of view. Some parts have been improved, like multi tasking, the Tile interface or the lock screen.

I really like the tile interface. I think it is the best part of the operating system. Being able to resize them in WP8 it is an advantage and you can personalise your phone easily. For instance, Spotify tile shows what is playing now, the Nokia Reading tile shows the cover of the book I am reading, etc. From the app menu nothing has changed from WP7.

Also, apps can use now the lock screen to display personal information. Not only built in apps but other apps like Facebook or Twitter can show latest status, album pictures, etc. Also, a notification area can be configured to display different counters for email, facebook notifications, etc.

Apps

Maybe one of the best improvements after WP8 has been the third party software. New apps using the new functionality. Another big plus are all the Nokia apps. They help to feel the gap that WP8 leaves from built in app point of view.

Built in apps have not changed much from last WP7. I find them working pretty well but I had some issues with the calendar app not syncing Facebook calendar properly and the Mail app not syncing changes immediately but only after next sync period.

Office suite is great. You can edit and create documents and share them through SkyDrive. You can open directly office attachments from the Mail. However, for some reason the SkyDrive stand alone app is not built in but needs to be downloaded separately.

But let's have a look at the Nokia apps. You can see here some of the offer. Most of them do not come preinstalled but you can easily download them from the Windows Phone Marketplace.

The HERE apps are all related with location services, from maps, to city lens and driving instructions. GPS works very well and fast.

Other Nokia apps include Nokia Music, Nokia Reading, etc. I found Nokia Reading really nice to read epub books. You can see the book app sample on the right screenshot. It is a good addition to the WP8 software as it does not provide any book reader app by default.

And now the third party apps. The new Twitter app is much improved and it is integrated with the lock screen. However Facebook app feels slow and not so good. I really felt it was not so usable. Spotify app worked fine with my premium subscription.

My main complain on third party apps comes because the lack of some big services. For instance, being Lumia phones so media and photo centric, there is no Instagram official app. Instagram is not just about modifying pics, but it is a social network as well. I belong to IGersHelsinki group and not having Instagram on Lumia phones is a big no for me. Also, other services like Pinterest do not have official app but just some paid alternatives.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed the two weeks with the Lumia phone, and I would recommend it to anyone before buying any Android phone. WP8 user interface is very consistent within the apps and the phone is very stable. However, there is need of more big services to release official apps for the platform. At this point, I cannot really do the change from my iPhone 5 to a Lumia.

But with the new range of Lumia phones that start from the 520 up to the 920, I think it is a great choice for many people with a big range of prices for all kind of users. And the number of apps is growing day by day specially after the success of the new Lumia 920 in the market. In Finland it was sold out for several weeks.

The choice is yours :)

Nokia Lumia 820 is on the way

2013-03-12T14:22:00.002+02:00

I have got again the chance to test the new Nokia Lumia 820 with Windows Phone 8. I will give it a second try now with the new version of the OS. I'm excited to check how Nokia and Microsoft have improved since their previous Lumia series.

So expect some info coming in the next weeks :-)

Week Calendar HD for iPad review

2013-03-07T18:25:00.003+02:00

Some time ago I reviewed Week Cal for iPhone, a great calendar app. Today I am having a look to the just revamped Week Calendar HD for iPad, the big brother of iPhone version from the guys of Utilitap

Like the small brother, iPad version has anything that you could expect from the best iPhone/iPad alternative to the built in Calendar app: day, week, mont and year view.

This new revamped iPad version has introduced a side bar to switch between views. The app can be hidden by pressing a button and also by a short swipe, even though I have tried this feature and I always ended up moving to the next week/month. Maybe that should be improved.

The app allows you to use customized colours and icons for the appointments, and even sync them across devices through iCloud. This guys have been really checking all possible details to make this app brilliant. You can even create your own rules to assign automatically icons to events. Let's say you want all appointments that contain the word "meeting" or "lunch" to have a specific icon, you can do it from the settings menu. You can also use those rules to colour the events.

Another great feature is the so called Action Menu. Whenever you select an appointment, you can press the action menu and select one of the many configurable options, like cut, move, set colour, etc. You can share events through email, Messages, or even send them to third party apps like Things or Appigo Tasks. The integration is really well done.

If you need to search some specific appointment in your calendars, the integrated Search feature works also really well. You can just tap on the appointment and it will take you to it in the view you are in. It even has a Search history in case that you have to repeat searches.

The year view it is also quite nice, with small dots per appointment in each day. Very useful to quickly check for public holiday calendar or make holiday plans. If you select a day, a pop up will appear showing you all the appointments for that day without having to change the view to see the details. From it you can edit and add new appointments. I think it is much more useful than the built in Calendar app year view

In my opinion the year view could be more useful having for instance background colour for holiday days (using a preselected holiday calendar), or showing a continuous line for daily events that extend through several days (useful to identify holidays and other long duration events). But I hope those improvements are coming in near future.

Another nice improvement over the built in Calendar on the whole app is the possibility to show week numbers. This is very used on business matters, at least in here in northern Europe. I really find it convenient.

The app also offers a Calendar Store where you can buy specific calendars using in app purchase feature. There are sport, weather, finance, etc. calendars that will be added to your list of calendars.

I think this app is a must have for any iPad owner who uses it to schedule appointments. It is a very nice improvement from the built in app and very well integrated into iOS and also with other apps.

What I like

very integrated with iOS
interface is great
Configurable Action menu

What I dislike

maybe I would like to see more features in the year view

If you are already convinced, you can go to the AppStore and buy it from this link here. It is just 2.69 EUR (2.99 USD). You will not regret it.

Mailbox app for iPhone review

2013-02-10T17:10:00.001+02:00

Here I am with another review, this time of the new released Mailbox app for iPhone.

As you might know, this app is being rollout with a reservation system. I was lucky enough to have my reservation done weeks ago and I got access this weekend. I had to wait less than two days to get my access :)

Maybe one of the most important features of Mailbox app is not that it is a mail client, but the way it handles emails. Basically, Mailbox thinks of emails as tasks. Ever time you get an email you can either archive it (nothing to act on), you can schedule it to reply/act on it later on, delete it or send it to a list for later check. This helps you organize your emails and remember to answer them later on without having them hanging around in your inbox for ages :)

The app works only with Gmail accounts at the moment. I am not sure if they will add support for other services. They actually use also their own servers in order to support push notifications. The main idea of the app is to handle emails in your inbox based on your need to act on them. You can schedule emails to reappear on your inbox late today, tomorrow, etc. It is very practical to have your inbox empty and have things reappeared whenever you have to act on them. It also supports push notifications whenever the emails reappear in your inbox.

When you start the app you have a tutorial to learn different gestures to handle the emails:

The app works really smoothly. I have noticed that it works creating a set of folders in your GMail and handles the emails from there. You can access easily those folders in your mail app at your Mac for instance and follow the workflow you use from there as well. However I hope they release an iPad and Mac app at some point.

There are several options to configure times of reminders, lists, etc.

It supports email threading and you can open individual emails just tapping on one. From it you can also delete, archive or schedule the mail to handle later.

Compose window is clean and nice. No extra toolbars or anything disturbing.

As presented in the tutorial the swipe gesture is the main feature in the app. You can access all main mail operations with a long or short swipe to left or right. Colours are used to easily identify the action you are performing.

The best of all is that the app is free of charge, however, the company will have to monetize the service at some point (they are setting up a server infrastructure to handle all users), and I am not sure how they will do this. I read that they might setup premium services and so on, but I would not be willing to pay monthly fees to use a mail app. We will have to wait till they announce it. That is why I do not want to get too hooked to it and after have to pay for the same service I am getting now for free.

Here it is what I like and dislike

I like:

Push notifications
User interface and speed of the app
Free app and service (so far)
Workflow for your emails based on when you have to act on them

I dislike:

It cannot search on emails not downloaded to the app
No iPad/Mac version yet (I hope they come at some point)
Don't know how the service will be monetized

I would anyway recommend you to give it a try if you are patient enough to wait on queue for access. You can download here free of charge but bear in mind you will not be able to use it until you get your turn in the queue. And you can follow them on twitter at @mailbox

Until next time!

iPhone 5 in the house

2012-11-11T10:12:00.004+02:00

I have just bought an iPhone 5. I am still having some issues to get the nano-SIM card working, as I have a company card, so I expect to have it fully working on Monday. I opted for the black 32GB model. So far feels speedy and light compared with my previous iPhone 4. Expect a review coming up soon!

New Instagram profiles

2012-11-07T08:29:00.002+02:00

As you might know, Instagram was acquired by Facebook a while ago. Now we start to see the results: Instagram online profiles. I really like it and recommend you to go and check yours. It is very easy to access: just type instagram.com/ and your username. In my case instagram.com/gadgetero.

Check out and enjoy!

eXPlayer HD for iPad review

2012-10-28T15:36:00.003+02:00

Here I am after a long time with a new review. I have been quite busy and had no time to write anything but here I am this time with eXPlayer HD for iPad. This is a special video player with very interesting options for your iPad. Let's dive in.

eXPlayer HD is a video player for iPad that besides being able to play videos stored on the app, it can also stream them from different types of servers, including WebDav, Windows Network Servers, FTP servers and UPnP/DLNA Media servers. If you have your movies stored in one of these kind of servers at home, this player can be really useful. Besides that, it can also download movies directly to the app or stream them from the web.

The app is quite simple. It has four taps, Home, Download, Web and WiFi Sharing. From Home app you can access and configure servers. In my case I use myDisk free webdav server. You also browse local documents that you might have downloaded or transferred from your computer. Server access is really easy and it works as if you would browsing your built in file system. Select the video and play it directly from the server. The app will start buffering and start playing when ready. App can use its own player with codecs or the built-in quicktime player. Depending on the codecs one or the other might give better results. The app also supports subtitles for movies.

From the Download tap you can control what you are downloading to the local storage, while from the web you can access to a web page where you might have movies stored and you can directly start streaming, or you can browse the web while watching a movie :)

The WiFi Sharing tap allows you to create a server on the iPad that can be accessed from your Mac or Windows PC so you can transfer directly movies from your laptop to the iPad using your home WiFi. For instance if you are going to need offline access to movies while travelling.

The app has very simple options that can be accessed from the top right button.

All and all I find the app useful if you use movie server at home specially, so you can stream your movies to your iPad any time. You can also stream the movies through AirPlay to your Apple TV.

What I like:

a lot of server options and ways to download/stream movies
support for subtitles

What I didn't like

App crashed sometimes when I tried to open some file that seemed to be not supported
App asking you to use quicktime player instead of built in player

If you want a video player to stream movies, then this is for you. It is just 2.69 EUR or 2.99 USD! You can access the iTunes link from here.

Enjoy!

Two weeks with Nokia Lumia 900

2012-10-08T08:21:00.002+03:00

Hi all,

Here it is a summary of my two weeks with Nokia Lumia 900 and my observations:

Software

Not all big services have native apps for Windows Phone. Only Facebook and Twitter (and I heard they were developed by Microsoft itself). For ohter services like Instapaper, Pinterest or Instagram there are only paid options or no option at all.
Good personal management features: calendar alarm snooze, tasks (although not recurring tasks allowed), contact synergy is great. SkyDrive and Office are very well integrated. Email is very good
Notifications for Twitter and Facebook are great, although you cannot "like" a comment in Facebook from the built in notification system
Live tile concept is very good
Background app handling is not so good. Maps for instance needs to be reopen again if you send it to the background. Specially using it as a car GPS can be very unconvenient.
Keyboard is the best I've tried in a mobile device although positioning the cursor is sometimes tricky
No built in dictionary like iOS
Lock screen is very useful as it always contains info about your next appointment (user configurable) and notifications for missed calls, text messages and emails.
No over the air podcast support in music app

Hardware

Camera is not so good. Picture colours were always kind of yellowish and different from what I saw in the view fidner
Good size screen with good contrast and crispy colours
Feels nice to hold in your hand
No led alerts for instance when a new mail, miss call, sms, etc. For instance, the Windows icon could blink when a notification arrives

My summary

Great for personal information management
Lacking of some important apps
Fast and fresh

I really recommend you to try one before buying any new phone. I hope Windows Phone and specially Nokia succeeds with the new upcoming Nokia Lumia 820 and 920. I would really like to see them back as a big player in the market!

Gadgetero at Facebook

2012-09-28T07:53:00.001+03:00

I have finally got an easy facebook address for my fan page. Feel free to like it https://www.facebook.com/gadgetero

Meeting Myriam Joire, from Engadget mobile

2012-09-27T21:36:00.001+03:00

Today I had the great chance to meet Myriam Joire, Senior Editor form Engadget Mobile.

She was here in Finland for some days as you might have seen in http://mobile.engadget.com. I contacted her through twitter and she was really nice to agree to meet me and other geeks on her last evening before flying back to San Francisco.

It was really a pleasure. She is a humble and great character, worth listening and at the same time she gives a feeling of closeness, like if you had met her before. A great person!

Thanks Myriam for your time.

Bye bye Lumia

2012-09-27T09:07:00.000+03:00

The trial period for Lumia has ended and it is already back from where it came. It has been a great experience and has changed my view on mobiles (I was too fixed with iOS). I am planning to write a longer post with the two weeks experience whenever I get some spare time.

Stay tuned!

Nokia Lumia 900 first impressions

2012-09-17T20:56:00.001+03:00

Hi again. After 4 days with the Nokia Lumia 900 here are my first impressions:

The setup was quite easy but there were some parts like having to introduce manually the date and time that were annoying. Can't the phone get this info from the network or the GPS?

In general I am very satisfied with the phone. The first couple of days I had some issue with the battery but I was downloading a lot of stuff and after those days the batter got better, and I get easily through the day with one charge.

The predictive keyboard is really good. You do not even need to complete the word as you can select the word from the list of options that you are offered. Also the feedback when typing is very good.

The market place is very nice. It is easy to browse, see reviews, screenshots and download. The app remembers your password and you do not need to type anything to download free apps. I haven't tried however to download paid apps.

In order to sync my data that was in iCloud I had to move the things to other services like Windows Live and Google. It is fairly easy to export on the mac and import on Google Calendar and Contacts, so it was really easy. In a matter of some minutes all my contacts and calendars were in the device synced. I like how all the contacts are integrated in the People's hub.

Live tiles are amazing. You have all the info you need a swipe away. I have some tiles like my own contact card to access notifications from Twitter and Facebook, calendar, messages, mail, etc. I love specially the notifications in my profile. I can post a message in Twitter or Facebook, checkin, change my chat status, access notifications and even answer tweets without needing to have even any twitter app. Really productive.

Also, when I access apps or contacts, just by pressing in a letter I get an alphabet on the screen so I can select the initial letter easily. I can search contacts much faster than on my iPhone.

In order to get the battery last longer I have disabled some background processes. In the Settings app you have the option to disable apps that work in the background updating data like weather information for instance. I have disabled most of those background processes and have left only the ones I need. The good thing is that you can configure what you want and disable what you do not need.

What I don't like: I haven't found some apps like Pinterest or Instagram. There are some alternatives to some of these services, but they are paid apps as they are not released by the service itself but by an independent developer.

Another annoying thing is that if you configure email to be sync every hour, for example, even if you read a message, it will not sync the read status until the next sync interval, instead of updating the status immediately.

Also, I do not find the camera that good. When I take a pic I see colours in the viewfinder different than when I press the shutter. Colours look more kind of yellowish.

Some of the apps I have installed are all Nokia free apps like Maps, Drive, Music, City Lens, Trailers, Transport, etc. They are all really well done and free. I have tried some third party apps like Spotify, Evernote, Twitter and Facebook. I find Facebook app to be a little bit slow.

I will continue reporting later this week. Feel free to send me your questions and things that you would like me to try, so I can do it for you. You can contact me at twitter @gadgetero.

More to come!!!

Nokia Lumia 900 unboxing

2012-09-14T08:26:00.006+03:00

Hi all,

Here it is my first unboxing post ever. As you might know yesterday evening I got by DHL my test Nokia Lumia 900. I have been looking forward to giving a try to new Nokia and Windows Phone 7, so as you can imagine I was really excited :)

Phone came in a nice Nokia blue box

Inside the blue box was the actual phone box

This is The Beauty :)

Under it you have the clip to open the micro SIM slot

And of course the instruction booklet (which I never check as a good engineer I am), the power adapter (UK model), micro USB cable and headphones.

My first impressions: great hardware!

More coming soon!

Nokia Lumia 900 on the way

2012-09-13T07:47:00.002+03:00

Yes, you have heard it right. Nokia has been so kind to send me a Lumia 900 for a two week trial as part of their NokiaConnects Go! This means that I will be able to use the Lumia to take pictures, videos, etc., and tell you about it. I could even get a free Lumia 900 if I am selected in their monthly contest. And you can guess I am really ready to do anything to get one of them!

Nokia is sending the phone via DHL and it should be arriving very very soon!

More coming in the next days!

Staccal calendar app for iPhone review

2012-09-09T19:20:00.001+03:00

It has been a long time but here I am again with another calendar app review. This time I have been trying for the last week Staccal calendar app for iPhone by MobileAndDesign.com.

This is a really nice app, one of the best ones I have tried so far. Let's dive in and see why.

What do you look for in a calendar app? For me customisation is a key thing, and Staccal has that. The app offers a set of calendar views that can be chosen and configured to fit your needs. You have different kinds of week views, scrollable month views, list views, etc. And all of them support both vertical and horizontal orientation. You can configure font size, number of hours, tab actions, etc. And transitions between weeks have a nice animation that makes the user interface more fluid (although a little bit slow).

You can press on an event to see the pop up window with some details. Press on the arrow to see the details. Event detail view is very informative and easy to read. And you can swipe it to the left to close it. In the detail view you can check map location (google maps), delete it, add to template, drag to move, or edit it.

Scheduling a meeting is easy: just press the + on the right top corner or double tab (user configurable) on the time. The new event dialog box will pop up. You can give basic details and press on the Edit detail text to edit the details or the arrow next to the Title to use templates or access event history to be reused.

You can move events by keeping pressing on it. Then you can "resize" it or move it to another time/day easily.

From the settings button on the lower right corner you can access all the calendar and view settings.

In the calendar settings side you can chose to show the calendar, change colour, or even show it translucently:

From the settings you can find all you would expect. See below:

The Calendar Views menu is quite interesting. It allows you to decide what views and in which order you want them to show in the lower toolbar. You can choose among different week, month, day and list views (a total of 11 options). There is a maximum of six views you can have on your toolbar at once. Each view has its own settings that you can access from here. You can even customise what it will be shown in the toolbar (a letter, an emoji, etc.)

Regarding the holidays, the options are a little bit limited. For instance I cannot find Finnish calendars (well, it is a small country but still it would be nice to have). If you chose one of them, you will see a small flag on the day whenever there is some public holidays.

You can edit the default event settings, create your own templates and access the event creation history.

I have to say that I really like this app and it can easily become my first calendar app option if some small issues would be corrected like for instance, slow transition between views and a little bit more speed in general.

Here it is a summary of what I like/dislike:

I like:

Different view options
Easy to add and edit events
Easy to scroll between weeks or months
Up to 6 configurable views on the toolbar

I dislike:

Slow transition between views
I do not like the "Aqua" look of the event boxes
I would like to have a 7-day split week view like in Oultook

For 2.99 EUR I think it is worth the price. If you want to give it a try and you do not mind to spend few euros (dollars), press here to access the iTunes store and buy it.

Enjoy!

Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 thoughts

2012-08-21T16:32:00.001+03:00

As you all know, I am a big fan of Apple products. However, with the coming launch of Windows 8 together with Windows Phone 8 I am starting to reconsider my gadget life.

It all started specially with the launch of Outlook.com when I had more contact with the so called "Metro" user interface that Microsoft is introducing now also to all their online services. I was surprise how responsive, simple but at the same time productive user experience they have achieved. I did also install Windows 8 preview in my MacBook Air using Virtual Box and got a very good impression as well.

From Apple side, iOS is starting to lack behind in some aspects like social network integration for instance, even though in iOS6 some new features will be introduced. Somehow I have the feeling that Apple is not innovating anymore, it is just iterating the operating system without any big changes.

Windows new user interface is so refreshing and I might consider to move to Windows "world" if Apple does not release anything interesting during this autumn.

This is only my opinion and I am welcome to hear all your comments. Please feel free to add comments to the post as well as contact me on twitter.

Until then keep enjoying your gadgets ;-)

Slow summer

2012-08-13T11:20:00.001+03:00

Hi all! This has been a slow summer. I haven't had time to do any review nor any CSS3 themes as I have been busy at work and at home. I hope this autumn I am able to take over and start writing again new reviews.
Thanks!
Gadgetero

Newsify for iPhone free for a limited time

2012-06-01T21:28:00.004+03:00

I have just found that Newsify is free now for a limited period of time.

This is a great Google Reader app, looks great and has great features! Go and grab it while it is free!!! Just from this link!

Enjoy!

iTranslate Voice for iPhone review

2012-05-21T20:10:00.003+03:00

Do you travel often? Do you have to deal with foreign languages all the time? Do you want to say something in another language but you don't even know how it is pronounced? Well, iTranslate by Sonico Mobile does it for you. Let me show you how.

I have used several iPhone apps for translation but none of them has been so fun to use like iTranslate voice. It is as simple as saying what you want and get it translated and even read by the app!

But let's have a look at the user interface. It resembles a lot to Siri so it is really easy and intuitive. To use it just press the "flag" button and say what you want to have translated. After that, and assuming that you have internet connection (mobile data or wifi) the app will recognize your speech and present you with the translation. iTranslate Voice relays on an online service so you need to be connected in order for it to work.

As you can imagine you need to speak loud and clear in order to get an accurate recognition and translation. I have been testing with different languages I am familiar with, and I have got sometimes not so accurate translations, but who hasn't got them with any online service. Any of these tools including iTranslate are not perfect and you have to accept it.

I even found a small bug with Japanese translations when they are longer than one line but I have been told by the developer that it will be corrected on the next version.

A nice feature that does not look so obvious is that if you press in the original text bubble, you can actually type manually what you want to have translated instead of having to "say" it aloud. Also, scroll up to get the history of previous translations.

Most of languages accept both spoken and written translations, but there is a small number of languages that are not recognized by voice. For them the icon changes slightly and the microphone does not appear on the button. This is the case, for instance of Greek or Catalan.

Regarding the options, they are pretty easy: then two languages that you need to translate to/from, if you want to show dictionary results for single words, if you want the software to detect the end of the speech (otherwise you have to press once to start and once to end the speech) and the auto speak (you can disable it if you do not want the translation to be read aloud).

Among the available languages you have all the once below.

As I mentioned previously, few languages do not have speech recognition although they are translated and also spoken, but not recognized from speech. I have to say that I miss one of my daily languages in the app, Finnish. I hope they can add it sometime soon

As a summary here it is what I like and dislike from the app

I like:

Easy and nice interface
Speech recognition is cool
Spoken translation
Price (while on sales)

I dislike:

Sometimes not very accurate with the recognition nor the translation
Internet connection required
Not Finnish language

If you think this can be useful for you or you just want to hear how things sound in other languages, I would just go and buy it. It is only 0.99 USD while it is on sales. You can but it from this link.

iExplorer for iPhone/iPad review

2012-05-12T15:13:00.003+03:00

Hi all and welcome back. I have been away for a while but here I am back with a new review. This time I have been testing iExplorer, a very nice tool for file management on the cloud and more for iPhone by Opuis.

Let's have a look to it in detail.

iExplorer allow you to work with quite many online services that you can subscribe for free as well as ftp services and even Windows Network Servers. From the main screen, just press + on the top left corner and choose yours. In my case I have configured myDisk.se (webdav free service), Google Docs and Xtreem (free ftp service).

You also have a Local storage that you can use to transfer files to your device locally, so you can have them always with you even if you do not have access to the internet (like on a plane, for instance).

When you access any of your configure accounts you can browse through your files on that service. The are plenty of file operations you can do with iExplorer. You can either swipe on a file or press edit and select multiple files. Then you can press on the Action button (for a one file operation with swipe gesture) or on the action button (for multiple file operation).

You can open in some specific app, email it, create a folder, etc. Even there is a built-in viewer for pics and text files.

In case of images you can see them as a slideshow, thumbnails, and you can even send them to twitter using the iOS twitter support. For videos you can view then on stream and send them to your Apple TV using AirPlay.

And for files stored in the local storage or in a FTP service, you can even compress them and create a zip file in your local storage that you can, for example, email later. Also, you can send files stored locally by bluetooth to another iPhone/iPad running iExplorer (or iExplorer HD on iPad).

As a file explorer, you have the option to sort the files by name, size, date and type. Another also nice feature is the search box that allows you to search for a file within the service by name and also by size.

In case that you choose the option Sync to Local for several files, you can always check the status of the transfer by pressing the center button on the lower bar. It will show the File Queue view . From it you can cancel transfers by using the Edit button.

From the options point of view, you have some general settings and some special for photos and videos.

As a summary, I have to say that iExplorer offers all the options I need to access all my online storages and manipulate my files. I have tried other apps but this one is one of the most complete ones.

And they also have an iPad version with exactly the same features, iExplorer HD.

Here is my Like/Dislike list

Support for many services
Many file management options
Quite fast (thanks to the built in cache)

Dislike

User interface colors are not the nicest. I would have preferred a white background and not so dark lines on the file list view
Menu implementation is not very iOS-like
No universal app: you will have to buy a separate iPad app called iExplorer HD.

If this is the app you were looking for, do not hesitate and buy it in the AppStore from this link. It is 4.99USD but worth the money. iExplorer HD for iPad can be found from this other link at also 4.99USD.

Enjoy!

Just a break

2012-04-18T08:39:00.000+03:00

Hi all,
Sorry I haven't had time to blog lately. I have been on holidays and now extremely busy at work, but I am planning to do a new iPad app review in the near future, so stay tuned!

New iPad came home

2012-03-28T11:36:00.003+03:00

New Caffeinated Block theme and updates

2012-03-17T14:29:00.003+02:00

Caffeinated app seems to be doing very well in the Mac AppStore. To celebrate it here you have an update of my themes Simple, OpenSans, NewsPaper, NewsPaperOne plus a new theme, block. You can download the zip file with all of them from here.

To get the new Block theme visualized on the screenshot you should download and install the following fonts: Entypo from Daniel Bruce, My hands are holding you from Kimberly Geswein and Handvetica by Zetafonts.

Enjoy!