One of the newest RSS feed readers on the block is NewsBar for Mac (offering a free lite version, and $3.99 full version) and iPhone ($3.99). Though I’ve been a longtime user of NewsRack, I was immediately impressed with the features in NewsBar and how they could be useful to my workflow as someone who monitors news and blog feeds throughout the day.

How NewsBar Stands Out

NewsBar is similar to traditional newsreaders in that it enables you to add RSS feed subscriptions and manage them in folders/categories. NewsBar also supports Google Reader integration, but since that service will be shut down by July 1 of this year, it’s probably better to manually add subscriptions instead of importing Google Reader subscriptions.

NewsBar’s user interface is quite different from most readers in that feeds are continually displayed in a window bar on a designated side of your Mac desktop. Clicking on a news feed item will display a reader window that includes the original source article, and from there you can select to open the item in your default web browser. You can also double-click on an item to open it your web browser.

This window bar interface works great for large screen Macs or for those of us who use more than one desktop monitor. I have NewsBar parked on the far left side of my second monitor. Placing it on your main monitor desktop might make it a little obtrusive.

Unfortunately, NewsBar doesn’t have an automatic hide feature for when it’s not being viewed. You can however set feed items to auto hide after you have marked them read. I have mapped  NewsBar to BetterTouchTool which enables me to quickly perform a three finger tap on my trackpad to mark all items as read.

Appearance

NewsBar includes additional preferences that make it easy to adjust its appearance to your liking. You can select to have the window bar Always on top or always in the background. You can set the background opacity of the bar, as well as adjust the text size of feeds and the box height of the bar.

If you want NewsBar to compliment your existing desktop wallpaper, you can change the window background color of the sidebar and even add a background gradient that might make it less distracting.

If you subscribe to a dozen or more feeds like I do, you might find folders useful for managing feeds. But more importantly, I really like that you can set a different text and background color for each of your subscriptions. So for example, if you have a feed that you want to stand-out above the rest, you might change the text or background of the feed’s news items or posts to red.

It is also possible to set the refresh rate individually for each feed, how many feed items to show and the number of news items that should remain in the feed window. Custom icons for each feed source can also be added or changed by simply dropping the icon in the subscribed feed window.

Other Features

Another one of the NewsBar’s powerful features is keyword notifications. If you monitor dozens of feed subscriptions a day, you might want to identify particular keywords in news or blog items that you want NewsBar to highlight visually with a designated text or background color.

For example, you might add keywords like “releases,” “updates,” “now available,” and “arrives” to highlight feed items that announce new updates to or releases of software or online services. You can also have NewsBar issue a sound alert for keyword related items, as well as put those keyword notices in the OS X Notification Center.

NewsBar also includes buttons and functions for performing a quick text search, adding new feeds, starring feed items, and showing only keyword filtered news. In its most recent update, keyboard shortcuts were added for toggling read items, marking items read and unread, and for starring them.

Another useful feature allows you to quickly share feed items to a new email or via Twitter, Facebook, Messages, or Safari’s Reading List. By right (or control) clicking on a feed item, you can also select to mark individual feed items or all feed items as read or unread, and even delete a selected item from the list.

Conclusion

In the first few days I have used NewsBar, it has already shown itself to be a time saver. It reduces the need to constantly launch a newsreader in order to check new feeds. I can simply glance over to the left side of my second monitor and view and interact with new items. And by using special colored highlights, I can scan items for what I’m actually looking for.

The “lite” version of NewsBar will give you a glimpse of how it works, but this version doesn’t include many of NewsBar’s more advanced features (no folders or menu bar buttons, and limited to two feed subscriptions). That said, if you’re an avid newsreader user I think NewsBar is worth checking out.

Download: NewsBar for Mac OS X or iOS

Let us know what you think of NewsBar, and any of your other favourite clients in the comments below.

The post Power Up Your Mac Desktop With RSS Feed Reader NewsBar [Mac & iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Drafts is not just for taking and saving notes, it is also for sharing notes to dozens of other apps and services. The app is optimized for both the iPhone ($2.99) and iPad ($3.99), and for what it does, the price tag is very reasonable. I’m pretty much a sucker for notes apps, and Drafts pretty much does all I need for writing and exporting notes from my iOS devices.

How It Works

I first wrote about Drafts as part of an article about alternative apps for Apple’s default iOS Notes, but since posting that article, several useful features have been added to Drafts that users may find convenient. What makes Drafts different is that right after you launch it, you can begin writing a note. There’s no additional tapping needed to get started. It’s like grabbing a scrap of paper and writing a quick note.

Once you’ve written your note it’s automatically saved and added to your list of notes. When you open Drafts again, it starts you off with a blank page for more note writing. Drafts also allows you to tap the share button and export the note to one or more apps or services. You can, for example:

• Email the note to yourself. Drafts allows you to set up an email template with your or someone else’s email address, along with a default subject line. The note you just wrote will be attached to the email.
• Export the note to the clipboard, to Evernote, a new SMS Message, Twitter or Facebook.
• Export or append a note to a text file in your Dropbox account.
• Copy notes to other third-party apps like the journal app Day One, the text editor Simplenote, or the mobile calendar app Fantastical. You can also use the default iOS calendar app.
• Use Drafts to run a keyword search of an item in search engines like Google, Bing or GoodReads.

Other Features

When I first started using Drafts, I was satisfied with its ability to let me quickly email notes to myself since Apple still hasn’t provided a better way to gets notes out of iOS devices. But if you spend a little time in the Settings area of Drafts, you can set it up even better for your particular needs.

Because Drafts includes dozens of export actions, you can manage and customize them into one of five different panels. So when you tap on an action in Settings, you might organize all your most used actions in the first panel, and hide actions you think you will never use. Another panel can be used for your social network related actions.

The settings also allows you to set what you would like to happen to a note when a particular action is applied to it. An example would be when you use the email action, you might set that action to automatically archive or delete that note once it’s sent. You can also have Drafts post a confirmation pop-up for what to do with a note after an action is applied.

The iPad and iPhone versions of Drafts are basically the same, but the iPad version also includes an extended keyboard toolbar of features, including undo and redo buttons, cursor arrows, hashtag and quotation marks, and other punctuation symbols.

There are extra features for email, Messages, Evernote and URL actions. For example, the Email action enables you to set up email templates with default email addresses, subject line, and boilerplate text.

The Dropbox and Evernote actions allow you to create text files in your account so that notes can be appended to a specified file or a new text file can be created for each new note. Drafts also includes markdown and TextExpander support, landscape typing, and live word and character counts.

I use Drafts on my iPhone and iPad for both quick notes and extended pieces of writing. I find it easier sometimes to launch and use Drafts rather than haul out Evernote or Day One. But there are also similar quick note apps including Catch Notes, and more extended notes apps for brainstorming ideas, plots and characters.

Download: Drafts for iPhone & iPod Touch ($2.99) / Drafts for iPad ($3.99)

Let us know what you think of Drafts, and how you’re using it in the comments below!

The post Drafts: The Ultimate Notes App For The iPhone and iPad [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Even Google’s major competitor, Apple, which still doesn’t have a streaming music service, may see its iTunes market share challenged by All Access. All Access is part of the Google Play platform which allows users to browse and purchase music, magazines, books, movies, television programs, and applications published through Google.

All Access costs $9.99 per month, with a 30-day free trial, but customers signing up before June 30th will pay a reduced monthly fee of $7.99. All Access provides unlimited access to Google’s entire online streaming music library, which is based on licensing agreements with music companies such as Universal Music and Sony Music Entertainment.

The subscription service can be used through the Google Play Web client and on Android devices. Subscribers can also add songs from the library to their devices for offline access. In addition, the monthly subscription includes a custom radio feature based on the songs, artists, and albums you select. All songs can be managed in playlists, purchased for download, and shared on Google+.

Included in the service for both subscribers and non-subscribers, is free access to the Google Play music storage locker which lets you upload up to 20,000 of your own songs and albums from your computer using the cross-platform Google Play Music Manager. The manager scans your iTunes library and any music folder on your computer and matches it with the same songs from the Google Play library. Copies of your songs not found in the Google library will be uploaded to your account.

All Access is currently US only, but if successful, might expand to other parts of the world in the future.

So what do you think of Google new music streaming service? Will you try it out or switch from your existing online music subscription?

Source: MercuryNews.com

The post Google Unveils Google Play Music All Access For Unlimited Music Streaming [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

These mobile app updates mirror the makeover features of Pinterest’s Web platform. Now both mobile apps include a notifications list of activities related to your board, such as recent followers, re-pinned items, and comments made on your pins. Push Notifications are also included, if you enable them on your device.

Similar to the tagging feature in Twitter and Google+, the new notifications feature allows you to mention and notify Pinterest users you’re following in comments. To mention users, type the @ key followed by the first a few letters of a person’s Pinterest username, and then select that name in the pop-up. A notification will be sent to each of the people you mention.

Pinterest has also enhanced its mobile search feature. As you begin to type a keyword, a list of suggested terms will appear, starting with terms related to content on your boards. The list will also include recent terms you have searched for. This feature also syncs between your devices, so that if you search for an item on your computer, that same term will show up in a suggested list when you search for it on your mobile device.

Download: Pinterest for iOS, Pinterest for Android

If you’re an avid Pinterest user, these updates should make the mobile apps even better to use. Do you like them new features?

Source: Pinterest Blog

The post Pinterest Adds Notifications, People Mentions & Improved Search in Mobile Apps [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

For what it does, Keyboard Maestro for Mac is modestly priced, and in my experience very reliable. Keyboard Maestro is similar to Automator in which you set up macros to perform tasks and steps that you perform manually. For example, almost any steps you take – to launch, hide, or quit applications; open folders and files; download webpages; input copied text; rate iTunes songs; email a family member; copy or paste a URL – can be done faster by Keyboard Maestro.

What It Can Do

If you’re new to Mac automation, Keyboard Maestro (KM) is made for you. You don’t have to know coding in order to build automations. You just need to take a little time to set up automations that mirror what you do manually, and from there Keyboard Maestro will perform the steps for you.

Don’t let KM’s user interface scare you off. Granted, the UI looks very techie and a little complicated, but after you create a few simple workflows, you will see how easy it is to use.

The following is just a partial list of automatons I have KM perform:

• Automatically launches specified applications and webpages at specified days and time (see demo below).
• Hides or quits an application after it has been unused in the background for a specified period of time.
• Automatically inserts username and password after an application like Yahoo Messenger is opened.
• Opens any folder or file on your computer with a keyboard shortcut or when a specified application launches.
• Automatically activates specified menu items in applications (or you can assign keyboard shortcuts to menu items that don’t have a keyboard shortcut).
• Creates a new document when an application like TextEdit, MarsEdit, or Pages is launched.
• Creates a template email that includes specified address(s), subject line, and message.
• Selects and copies a URL in a browser window using a simple keyboard shortcut.
• Resizes a window of an application, such as iTunes, when it is opened or brought to the front.
• Executes Automator workflows and AppleScript scripts.
• Lowers, mutes, or increases the audio on your Mac when an application is brought to the front.
• Simulates keystrokes in nearly any application.

The above are some of the basic automation workflows KM can perform (see a list of more features on its website.) Depending upon your needs, it can do even more advanced or complex automations, especially when you use it with applications like the mouse and trackpad program, BetterTouchTool, or with the keyboard navigation application, Shortcat.

Sample Workflows

Though Keyboard Maestro includes a manual, a more user friendly guide could also be written for the program. The following is a simple single-step workflow for an action performed manually by all computer users. Download the fully functional trial version of KM and follow the steps in this 5 minute demo that shows you how to have KM launch and/or quit an assigned application(s) at a specified time and day.

Other Features

The key to using KM is to open and explore its list of several hundred Actions to see which ones fit your needs. Notice it includes actions for copying and pasting text, launching its built-in application switcher, displaying text, hiding a specific application, playing a specific iTunes track or playlist, searching a particular website, pressing a button, etc.

KM’s Record Quick Macro can record a set of actions you perform on your Mac, and you can use the results as a macro. Also, you can assign and group macros to perform only in specified applications. I have macros that only work when Safari is in the forefront. For example :

• I have a keyboard shortcut that will select and copy the URL of a webpage.
• I can type the assigned letters, “nx” and KM will play the next track in iTunes without switching to the application.
• If I want to close a Safari tab without using a keyboard shortcut, I can type “ccw.”

Note, with string triggers, the typed letters automatically activate the assigned macro and then disappear from where you typed them – all within a fraction of a second.

If you download and try out Keyboard Maestro for Mac, let us know what you think of it. You can also visit my Google+ Community page on Mac Automation tips for additional ideas about using Keyboard Maestro.

The post Automate Everything On Your Mac with Keyboard Maestro [Mac] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Amazon Cloud Drive provides users with 5GB of free storage space, which Amazon says is enough to store up to 2,000 photos. Your cloud account allows you to access and browse your photos on your supporting devices, including the latest generation of Kindle Fire. Extra storage is fairly priced, with 20GB available for $10 a year, 50GB for $25, and 100GB for $50 a year.

Cloud Drive also includes an auto-save feature, which, if enabled, automatically uploads copies of your new and existing photos from your iPhone or Android to your Amazon Cloud Drive account upon launching the app. The upload works in the background, but unfortunately does not currently include automatic upload of videos. You can also upload photos manually by tapping each one individually.

Cloud Drive apps maintain the album structure of your mobile devices, and you can delete, as well as share photos to Facebook, Twitter, or email. In the app’s settings, you can view the available storage in your Drive account, enable or disable auto-save, or choose whether or not to only upload photos when connected to Wi-Fi.

Like similar cloud-storage services and mobile apps, Amazon Cloud Drive is a great way to preserve your photos while on the go, and can be done automatically by simply launching the app on your mobile device.

Source: Mashable

The post Amazon Releases Cloud Drive Photos App For iPhone [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

In the last several months, the iOS versions of Evernote have undergone a significant overhaul of their user interfaces, closely mirroring the design and features of the counterpart web and Mac applications. We have added the iOS versions of Evernote to our Best of iPad Apps, and Best of iPhone Apps pages where they sit alongside our other picks for the platform.

Evernote is a free universal app that works on the iPhone and iPad.

Basic Features

The Homepage for both versions of the iOS Evernote apps includes section tabs for viewing Notebooks, Notes, Tags, and Places (a view of your notes by the location they were created.)  There are also three Quick Notes buttons for creating text notes, shooting and adding photos directly into a note, and another camera features for scanning documents.

Tapping the Notes tab presents all your notes, sorted either by most recently updated, date created, or alphabetically by title. The iPad version of Evernote also includes a row at the top of the home page of your most recent notes that you can tap and access quickly. Previews of notes can be browsed in the List or Card view.

Because of the new card view, I typically try to add an image or graphic to my individually typed notes, which makes them more visual and easier to browse. In the browsing view of the Notes section, you can search notes, or tap the plus “+” button in the top-right to add a new note.

Notebooks

The Notebooks tab on the Homepage presents all your personal notebooks, notebook stacks (a collection of two more notebooks) and shared notebooks. In this browser view, you can also create new notebooks.

The Edit button at the top-right of this notebook section enables you to edit existing titles of notebooks, as well as share a public link to a selected notebook, or share the notebook with specific people. Sharing notebooks with specific individuals, however, requires a premium Evernote account. A URL link to a notebook means that the content of your shared notebook can be viewed in a web browser by anyone with the link. See my article for more details about sharing notebooks in Evernote and Springpad.

Unfortunately, the Notebooks browser is a little bland, lacking the visual context found in the Notes section.

Tags and Places

I tend to use Evernote mainly for current projects I’m working on, but if you find yourself frequently searching notes for current and past notes and other content, tagging notes might be of help to you.

Also, if you frequently create notes in various locations you travel, the Places feature may also be useful for quickly finding notes.

Notes

It goes without saying that notes can be created and edited in the iOS version of Evernote. The software keyboard of the iOS apps includes a collection of formatting tools (including bold, italics, check boxes and bulleted lists) as well as handy undo and redo buttons.

You can also add images to notes from your device’s photo library, or shoot photos using the app’s built-in camera. Individual notes can be shared to the usual places— Twitter, Message, Mail, or Print.

You can click on the little “i” icon at the top-right of a note to assign tags to a note, move it to another notebook, and view information about the date it was created and updated, as well as the geographic location of where it was added.

Storage

Using Evernote with a free account allows you to sync all of your notes between your computer and mobile devices, using the Evernote cloud service. Note that notes are not downloaded and installed on your iOS devices. You must have a Wi-Fi or cellular connection to the Internet to view them on those devices. Premium account users do get the option to download all of their Evernote content to their iOS devices for offline viewing.

Unfortunately, you can’t selectively target individual notes for offline viewing, as you can with files in the mobile version of Dropbox.

The Bottom Line

The benefits of using Evernote and its cloud service is that your notes get synced between your Mac, PC, and iOS devices. The service and apps are also supported by a growing collection of third-party applications and web browser plug-ins that enable you to more conveniently add notes and other content to your Evernote account.

If you’re looking for a way to store lots of stuff on your iOS devices, Evernote is a good option among the many iOS notebooks apps. For a full overview of Evernote, download Mark’s Missing Manual for How to Use Evernote and do more with the service.

Download: Evernote iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad (Free)

Let us know what you like about the iOS versions of Evernote. What features would you like to see added or removed?

The post Evernote: A Must-Have App for the iPhone and iPad [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

These days you don’t have to get your hands dirty with photo chemicals and paper in order to enhance your images. There are several relatively easy to use photo enhancement iOS apps that require little or no prior knowledge about photo processing in order to produce quality images. One such app for the iPhone and iPad (among other iOS image editors) is Nik Software’s Snapseed, which is listed on our Best iPad Apps page, and is a free universal app that works on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Basic Features

With a few simple taps and finger movements, you can enhance your digital images in Snapseed and get similar impressive results to what would take three or four times as long to bring about in Photoshop. Snapseed consists of over a dozen image processing and enhancement tools that you can selectively apply to improve your photos.

The app starts you off with a sample photo which you can use to learn and explore all of the features. Snapseed is not a destructive photo editor, which means that it doesn’t affect your original images. It makes a copy of the images you select to process, and you save the changes applied to the copied photo back to your iPad or iPhone Photo Library. The app even has access to the iOS camera which allows you to shoot photos and open them directly in the app for processing.

If you don’t know where to start, you can begin with the simple Auto Correct tool to see if you get results that you like. This tool basically adds contrast and auto-corrects the white balance of the selected image.

With a processing tool selected, simply move your index finger to the left or right to adjust the level of enhancement or move your finger up and down to select an enhancement feature. Tapping the tiny Help ”?” button in the top-right hand side of the app presents illustrated instructions that teach you how to use each of the selected tools.

One of the most useful menu items is the Compare button, which you can tap to view the difference between your original image and the applied enhancements. When you are satisfied with an enhancement, simply tap the Apply button in the menu bar (be sure to tap that button long enough for the processing to begin).

While you can undo and redo selected enhancements while you’re in the editor, once you tap the Apply button, the enhancements are permanent. The only way to get rid of them is to tap the Revert button, which will take you back to your original image. Unfortunately, you can’t selectively undo or delete individual enhancements or layers as you can in Photoshop.

Tools and Filters

In addition to the Auto Correct tool, Snapseed includes over a dozen tools and filters, including Crop, Straighten & Rotate, Black & White, Vintage Films, Drama, Grunge, Tilt-Shift, and Frames.

Since using these filters and tools doesn’t require you to understand layers and other complicated controls, you can simply explore them without needing a special manual for how they work.

The cropping and sharpening tools (the latter of which is found within the Details tool) provide two basic enhancements that will improve most images. The Auto Correct tool should handle most of the contrast enhancements you need to make, but you might also try using the Selective Adjust tool for correcting exposure problems.

The Vintage Films, Drama, Retrolux, and Grunge tools apply more artistic filters to your images. The Center Focus and Tilt-Shift tools can be useful for changing the depth of field in your images, or selectively softening the foreground or background of your photos.

After you’re done with all your enhancements, you can save the photo to your Photo Library, or you can share it to your Google+ photo gallery, Facebook or Twitter, Email, as well as copy or print the image directly from the app.

Snapseed is a relatively easy photo processing app to use, but it includes advanced features and tools for making complex image enhancements. It is the perfect application for those who want to do more with the simple point-and-shoot images captured with an iPad or iPhone camera.

Download: Snapseed for iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad (Free)

Let us know what you think of Snapseed, or share similar apps that you have found useful by leaving a comment, below.

The post Snapseed For the iPad and Phone Makes Photo Editing Easy [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

According to Google, there are over 1 million channels generating quality professional content and revenue on YouTube, making paid channels a  natural way for content producers to increase their revenue beyond advertising sponsorship.

The paid channels work similarly to any online subscription service. Each channel offers a 14-day free trial, with a credit card needed to access it. After the free trial ends, your credit card will be charged every month until you cancel the subscription. You can cancel at anytime, but there are no refunds or credits for a partial billing period.

Paid subscriptions might include full episodes of channel programs, or extra premium content. After subscribing to a channel (which for now must be done through your computer), you can also watch paid content on YouTube supported mobile devices, and on your TV.

There are currently 53 YouTube channels participating in the paid launch program, which range across various categories including Music, Comedy, film & Entertainment. Subscriptions range from $0.99 per month to $6.99 per month, with a discount available for yearly subscriptions. Note that paid YouTube channels are not available worldwide, so head over to YouTube’s paid-channel section to check what’s available to you.

Google promises more channels will be added in the coming weeks as a self-service feature for qualifying partners. If you’re a content creator and are interested in starting a paid channel, you can apply here.

Will you pay a subscription fee to watch YouTube videos?

Source: YouTube Blog

The post Google Launches YouTube Subscription Program With Channels Starting At $0.99/Month [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

These type of iPhone communication apps include Triage for quickly checking emails, Pastie for pasting quick snippets to text, Swipy for quickly emailing myself, Reach Fast for quickly locating contacts, and Scraps for quickly writing notes and saving or exporting them somewhere else. I have covered similar apps for using your iPhone while driving, but these are apps for anytime, and anywhere, including in and beyond the car.

Triage ($1.99)

I’ve written about novel mail client apps for the iPhone, including Mailbox and Mail Pilot, but when I want to cut through my emails like slicing up an apple, I launch Triage. Like the other apps below, Triage has a simple swipe up and down feature for archiving or keeping individual emails, delivered to you in a stack.

That’s it. That’s all it does. Swipe down to keep a message in your inbox, or swipe up to remove it. You can also of course, reply to selected messages. Triage is compatible with Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, iCloud Mail accounts, and most email services that support IMAP.

Swipy ($0.99)

Unfortunately in order to get messages off our iPhones many of us still email ourselves. This is where Swipy comes in. It allows you to write notes on virtual scraps of paper, swipe the page to the right, and the app will send the note to your designated email or Dropbox account. There’s no tapping, selecting folders, or even responding to an annoying pop-up.

Swipy also allows you to attach a photo, and it’s compatible with popular services like Evernote, Remember the Milk, and the iOS version of TextExpander.

Scraps for iPhone ($0.99)

Scraps is similar to Swipy , but it conveniently saves all your scrap notes in a list and folders. There are plenty of notes apps with similar features to Scraps, but this app is just for writing a quick note that probably would not go into your Apple Notes, Evernote or Sprinpgad notebook. I’ve also reviewed five other alternative notes apps for iOS devices that you might be interested in.

Notes can be password-protected, managed in folders, copied to the clipboard or exported to Mail, Messages, or Twitter. The app includes iCloud integration for syncing notes between iOS devices.

Fliite ($0.99)

Fliite is a Twitter client that is not so much fast as it is convenient. Even though you may already have a favorite Twitter app on your iPhone with all the bells and whistles, Fliite does one simple thing well: it allows you to send a tweet to a group of selected Twitter contacts.

You don’t have to write the contacts’ names, just select their icon from your Twitter list and your tweet is ready for sending.

Pastie ($0.99)

I use Pastie (there’s also a free lite version) for quickly pasting snippets of text to designated family members and a few select friends. For example, when I pick up my daughter or when I’m running late, I can choose the snippet, “I’m here,” or “5 minutes away,” both of which are set up to message my daughter directly. I have similar snippets for my wife.

If I need to message someone directions to my house, I have a Pastie snippet to do just that. I also have snippets for written responses to phone calls, such as ”I’m in a meeting. Will call you back.” Of course, in the latest version of iOS 6 for the iPhone, you can create similar voicemail snippets.

Reach Fast Contacts (Free)

There’s something about Apple’s default Contacts app that has always felt a little slow and cumbersome. Though I’ve tolerated all the tapping that needs to be done to locate a contact, a recently developed app called Reach Fast does what its name says. It incorporates the handy swiping features of the iPhone so you can quickly search, locate, call, and add contacts on your iPhone.

Instead of scrolling down and tapping to send a message to a contact as you do in Apple’s Contacts app, simply swipe left on a name and up pops the message window. If you want to make a quick call, simply tap on the name. There is also an optional feature to confirm calls before they are made.

You can arrange the contacts list by first or last name, or chronologically. It also lists your Favorites and most recently called contacts, inline. I especially like that you can view the photo icon of each of your contacts inline as well for faster searching. And finally, when you want to add a new contact (see the above screenshot), simply tap on the plus “+” button and type in the info. Other nimble features include Swiping left or right on the number keys to move between text and number fields. It’s these kinds of quick features that have caused me to move Reach Fast to the first Home Screen on my iPhone, and put Apple’s Contacts app in a folder of least used apps.

That’s it for this round of quick notes. There are several more iPhone communication apps out there, so let us know a few of your favorites as well as what you think of this list in the comments, below.

The post 6 iPhone Communication Apps to Write Notes, Message and Tweet Faster [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Hazel is an automation program that essentially goes into action when files are added or changes are made to designated folders. Automator includes similar functionality, but Hazel is much easier to use and faster on the draw. I have Hazel rules that automatically open new applications added to my Applications folder, change the file size of screenshots, automatically clear off files on my desktop after a certain period of time, and move PDF files in my Downloads folder to a designated folder in my Dropbox account (more about Dropbox here.)

Hazel costs $25, but you can download it for a free 14-day trial to discover just how useful it can be.

How It Works

Hazel basically watches folders that you assign rules to. So, for example, you could set up a rule in which Hazel automatically opens PDF documents, or any files, when they are downloaded or added to your Downloads folder. Once you set up the rule, and it works correctly, you don’t have to do anything else to Hazel in order for it to perform actions. Hazel gets installed in your System Preferences, but you can choose to interact with it from your menu bar.

The best way to learn what Hazel can do is to download the trial version and try out some of the rules described in this article. Hazel comes loaded with a few sample rules, but you will better understand what it can do by creating your own rule first.

Let’s start off by having it perform an action on your Downloads folder. On the left side of the Hazel interface, click on the + button at the bottom, and in the drop-down window navigate to and select your Downloads folder. Next, click on the + button under Rules, and set up the conditions as I have done in the screenshot below.

Click OK. If you already have PDF documents in your Downloads folder, Hazel will automatically run the rule and open them. Otherwise, locate a PDF on your computer or download one from our MUO Guides page and add it to your Downloads folder. Keep in mind, Hazel will automatically run a rule assigned to your Downloads folder. However, you can temporarily stop Hazel from running by clicking on its icon in your menu bar.

Rules & Conditions

The heaviest amount of work done in Hazel is setting up rules and conditions, and testing them out. Any time Hazel detects changes to designated folders that it monitors, it will run the rules you set up for those folders, so be careful how you apply the rules. When setting up a rule, you will first want to determine if you want to apply the rule to “all”, “any”, or “none”of a designated types of files or matching folders.

Note, rules can also be applied to sub-folders and files.

Next, you want to think about what type of files or conditions you want Hazel to monitor and act on. Hazel includes dozens of conditions to choose from, based on the type of things that we normally do on our computer. You may, for example, set up rules to act upon files added to a designated folder in the last hour or day, or when last modified or opened.

Your rule(s) may apply to only certain kinds of files, e.g. Movie, Image, Application, or Text files. This means, for example, that if you set up a rule for your Downloads folder to only apply to PDFs, then Hazel will ignore other kinds of files added to that folder.

Of course, you can click on the + button and add additional conditions for your rule. For example, since the Desktop is really a large folder, I have a Hazel rule that moves any files on my desktop that have been there more than three hours to a designated Junk Folder.

As you can see in the screenshot below, I also added another condition in which Hazel will ignore any file with the name “hold”.

I also have two similar rules – one set up that will change the dimension size of PNG files that are either greater than 580 pixels in width or height.

The second part of any Hazel rule is have it perform a certain action or set of actions. As you can see in the screenshot below, Hazel can perform the type of actions we normally do manually, including moving, copying, renaming, opening, or revealing designated files in the Finder.

For example, you might set up a rule that watches your Public folder for any new files added in the last five minutes.

I set up another Hazel rule that moves all PDFs added to my Downloads folder to a designated folder in my Dropbox account. I use this rule because I typically read PDFs on my iPad in which I access and open them from the designated Dropbox folder.

I have another rule that sets the color label of individual applications in my Applications folder, red, if they have not been opened in the last 465 days. I activate this rule only when I want to select and delete applications I have not used in a long time.

And to quickly remove the red color labels, I of course, set up another rule to do just that. Again, I only activate this when I need it.

The best way to get the most out of Hazel or any automation program is to think about actions that you perform manually on a regular basis. If you give this some thought, those redundant actions can typically be done for you by programs like Hazel, Automator, or another one of my favorite programs, Keyboard Maestro.

Let me know what you think of Hazel and how you use it to manage tasks on Mac.

The post Hazel – Performing Tasks On Your Mac So You Don’t Have To appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Two recently released iOS mail clients, Mailbox (free, reviewed here), and now Mail Pilot ($14.99) make great use of the iPhone and iPad’s gesture navigation features to help you turn your inbox into a to-do manager for the email you receive. Mail Pilot is not just about checking and reading email, it’s about performing actions with those messages so you can get things done.

Mail Pilot’s Basic Setup

Mail Pilot does include the basic features (inbox, sent messages, compose) you will find in all mail clients, but unlike Mailbox it’s not limited to handling only Gmail. Mail Pilot is also compatible with iCloud, Yahoo Mail, and other custom IMAP and SMTP servers.

Adding accounts is as easy as inputting your username and password, and if you add multiple accounts Mail Pilot puts all your messages into a single inbox. It also syncs and updates messages, folders, and Gmail labels with your computer and web-based counterpart mail clients.

Both Mail Pilot and Mailbox use iOS gestures and tapping features to navigate messages. Mail Pilot calls it scrubbing, where you slide your finger to the left or right on an email to select how you want handle that message.

Innovative Features

With Mail Pilot you get several choices for handling emails beyond the traditional reply and forwarding of messages. Though the bulk of the messages we receive consists of newsletters and advertisements, family and job-related messages typically require some type of action. In traditional mail clients, you have to save messages to folders for later review. In Mail Pilot you can scrub your finger to the right on a message and choose to Set Aside or set it to appear back in your inbox for review in one to five days. This feature is useful for when you need to respond to or review messages when you have more time, but you don’t want to leave your inbox cluttered with messages you’ve already opened.

Scrubbing your finger to the left on a message provides additional options for assigning the message for review on a specific date in the future, adding it to a custom folder or list, or simply archiving and deleting it. You can also access the same features by tapping on the little red triangle at the bottom-right of a message and tap on the calendar icon to assign a specific date to review a message. Mail Pilot will push messages to the top of your inbox list on the date you assign to them.

Mail Pilot also allows you to move selected messages to your existing mail client folders and labels, and you can also create lists (which are like folders) in Mail Pilot for saving related messages from multiple mail accounts.

You might create lists for collecting messages related to future purchases you’re considering, for compiling email for an upcoming meeting, or simply saving messages you want to review later at some unspecified day and time.

On the left menu bar of Mail Pilot, tap on the Set Aside and Dates and Lists buttons to manually view lists and saved messages. Under Dates and Lists you also get the dates you have assigned to messages, in case you want to review them before they arrive back in your inbox.

Messages marked for review can be found in your webmail or computer web client in the folders matching the naming convention in Mail Pilot.

Messages in Mail Pilot can also be acted upon in bulk, which I find is the best and quickest way to get my inbox to zero. To deal with messages in bulk, you first need to scrub a message to the left where all your recent messages will be listed.

It is possible to tap and select individual messages and then choose a particular action listed in the menu bar at the top, such as choosing to delete or archive all selected messages. In Mail Pilot, archived messages are called “Completed” messages. You can tap on the Completed icon in the left menu bar to review those messages. Bulk message handling is not quite as fast in Mail Pilot as it is in Mailbox, where you can archive messages in bulk without first tapping on them individually.

Minor Issues

For the most part I’m quite pleased with Mail Pilot, especially when assigning dates to messages. But in the case of replying to messages, the app doesn’t include the original message in the reply. The developer got back to me and said that bug will be fixed in the next update. Some users may also find the reply box too small for replying to a message, but personally I find it okay, especially for replying to messages on my mobile devices where I tend to write shorter replies.

The price tag for Mail Pilot is also a little steep at $14.99, but if your inbox stays as full as mine, and you’re searching for a better way to manage and review messages, this is one iOS mail client that may be worth the price. The developers clearly have invested a lot of time and thought into creating a clean, well-designed interface with advance features not found in Apple’s own Mail client.

Download: Mail Pilot at the App Store ($14.99)

Let us know what you think of Mail Pilot. If you already use it, are the features you would like to see added? Leave a comment below.

The post Mail Pilot Turns Your Inbox Into a To-Do Manager [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The company has teamed up with other workout and fitness iOS app developers to integrate UP with these third-party apps, so UP users can now pull and sync data from apps such as LoseIt!, Maxwell Health, MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, Notch, RunKeeper, Sleepio, Wello, Withings, and IFTTT.

The hardware part of UP consists of a physical armband ($129.99) that keeps track of the steps you take throughout the day and the amount and type of sleep you get, and can also use the software component to log in your meals and track calories. The UP wristband plugs into your iPhone earphone jack to upload collected data to the app.

The new platform makes the UP system much more flexible. For example, you can enable an IFTTT recipe that will automatically log coffee as a beverage you drink every morning. You can also use iOS apps RunKeeper and MapMyFitness to log your running and bike-riding to your UP workout data.

Similarly, you can use the Smart Body Analyzer Withings to automatically import your weight into UP to track it in the context of how you sleep, eat and excercise. All the information from partner apps will become a part of your UP activity report.

Travis Bogard, Vice President of Product Management and Strategy in Jawbone, reports that the company will also be releasing an open API to expand the UP platform to additional partners and services.

Do you use UP or a similar device? Will this new platform encourage you to try it?

Source: Jawbone

Jawbone Unveils New UP Platform For iOS Apps and Online Service ITFFF

Jawbone UP Now Integrates With Other Fitness Apps and Data Services

Jawbone UP Now Integrates With iOS Apps; Open API Coming Soon

UP 2.5 Update Now Integrates with iOS Apps

The post Jawbone UP Now Integrates With Third-Party Apps Such As IFTTT, RunKeeper & Withings [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

I recently stumbled upon a cutting edge online meeting management web application called yaM (which stands for Yet Another Meeting). yaM is like a virtual assistant for producing professionally looking agendas and minute reports, while also providing tools that help meeting participants brainstorm ideas, do product and cost analysis, and integrate with online cloud accounts including Dropbox, Google Calendar, and Evernote.

yaM can be used with both online meeting spaces like Google Hangouts, or in traditional offline settings. As a web application, it’s similar to Agreedo, but it’s much more advanced without being complicated.

Creating Agendas

After registering an account with yaM, you can immediately start developing an agenda for your next meeting. You simply add agenda items on the left side of the workspace, along with the time duration, and the name of the person responsible for that item.

You can easily assign names to agenda items, but participants must register an account with yaM, which you can send them an invitation to do so from within the workspace. Having registered participants makes yaM a much more collaborative meeting management tool, because each participant can simultaneously add notes in the workspace during the meeting. While it is more efficient to have one person assigned as a minute taker, there are other useful tools in yaM that make it great for collaboration.

When your agenda is created, you can print or circulate it to meeting participants. Each registered participant will receive a meeting report via email, which of course includes media logistics, the list of agenda items, and a link to the online yaM workspace. Best of all, your circulated agenda is professionally formatted and easy to read. Agenda items can also be copied and added to a new meeting. It would be even better, however, if developers could make a way to create standard agenda items that are automatically a part of each new meeting.

Minute Taking

Adding notes and action items in yaM is just as easy as creating agendas. Minutes consist of four types of content: notes, action items, attached files, and real-time collaboration tools.

The way that yaM is set up actually could help meeting participants stay focused, especially if everyone has the workspace open on their computer during the meeting. The minute taker can easily add an action item, with a due date, and the name of the person responsible. Oddly, however, only one person can be listed as responsible for each action item.

Where yaM also shines is its collection of built-in collaboration tools that allow members to make Pro/Con Analysis, Product Analysis, brainstorm ideas, or vote on important decisions. There’s also a tool for what is called a SWAT analysis, which entails discussing and recording the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a particular project, idea, or decision.

You will see that these collaboration and meeting management tools can be very useful for keeping participants engaged, and possibly helping them make better analysis and decisions. You can also print or email the content of individual collaboration tools to participants during the meeting. (Note: ideas for other online collaboration tools are reviewed here).

As with agendas, yaM minute reports can also be printed or circulated via email. The minutes are so well formatted that meeting participants will have no excuse not reviewing them. Agendas and minutes are also archived on yaM, so participants can log into their account and review them at any time.

Other Tools

yaM includes additional tools for tracking time during meetings, setting meeting dates in the the built-in calendar (which integrates with Google Calendar, Exchange, and Outlook/iCal feeds), and an address book.

The developers of yaM have included several useful features in their web application, but they have given particular attention to making sure the user interface is accessible and easy to learn within a few minutes of registering an account. There’s also an iPad version of the application.

yaM has a basic free account which includes all the core features, and the ability to hold up to 10 meetings per month, with up to five participants per meeting. A premium account allows for unlimited meetings and participants, customizable interface, and SSL encryption.

yaM in my view sets the standard for online meeting management tools. But let us know what you think of this online application. Are there additional features you would like to see added?

The post Cutting Edge yaM Sets the Standard For Online Meeting Management Tools appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Using your iPhone as a remote webcam might be useful for home surveillance, if you need to monitor a baby in another room, temporarily watch your front or backyard, or because you need an alternative external webcam to use with Skype, Google+, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, or other messaging applications.

Simon has already come up with a wireless webcam solution for Android, this is for iPhone and the iOS platform. And Joel Lee shared three fun tools to get more out of your webcam.

FaceTime as a Webcam

If you are a Mac user you can use the built-in FaceTime application (why by the way can be used over cellular by AT&T users) as a webcam which comes installed on your iPhone and Mac. To use FaceTime on your iPhone to connect with FaceTime on your Mac, you need to make sure they are not using the same contact number or email address on both devices, a relatively easy set-up.

Open the Settings app on your iPhone and scroll down to the FaceTime button (FaceTime on the iPhone is not a separate app), and where it says “You can be reached by FaceTime at:” be sure just your phone number is checked, which is probably how most people will connect with you on FaceTime anyway. You can also choose an email address instead of your phone number.

Next, on your Mac, launch the FaceTime application and click FaceTime > Preferences in the menu bar and select a different contact email than the one on your iPhone. The purpose of doing this is to make sure that when you use FaceTime with either device you won’t get a busy signal. If need be, you can also add another unique email address for FaceTime on your Mac.

To use your iPhone as a webcam—for example to monitor activity on your front porch—locate your name in your Contacts on your iPhone, scroll down and tap on the FaceTime button and select the email address you entered for your FaceTime connection on your Mac.

Mobiola WebCamera ($4.99)

Of all the third-party apps I tested for the iPhone, Mobiola WebCamera ($4.99) works the best on my Mac. As an iPhone app it connects to your Mac or PC using a Wi-Fi connection, though you will need to download connect to the desktop client viewer in order to use it.

Both the app and web client connect automatically, but when you first launch the Mobiola WebCamera app, the camera resolution is set to low. If you want and need a higher resolution, you will have to tap on the Settings button at the bottom of the screen and change the capture quality to High.

In Settings, you’ll notice that Mobiola WebCamera also includes a flashlight, speaker, and mic. However, the latter two features never worked for me. The app also includes video and snapshot capture, but using the former feature caused the app to crash several times in my test. It worked better when I changed the camera resolution to Medium. All of your WebCamera captures are saved by default to your Movies and Pictures folder on your Mac.

The Mobiola is not good as using FaceTime, but it’s a good option if you don’t want to tie up your iPhone when using it as a webcam.

PocketCam (Free)

PocketCam is the best free webcam app that worked in my tests. The free lite version provides only black and white resolution, while the paid version ($4.99) supports full color and audio.

As with Mobiola WebCamera, you can adjust the video resolution and compression rates to low or high, and you will need to download and install the Windows or Mac software client to use as the viewer.

You can also change the webcam position in PocketCam, including the ability to flip the screen vertically and horizontally.

The Bottom Line

While you will never use your iPhone as a dedicated webcam, FaceTime and these third-party apps are handy to use and cheaper than buying a more expensive web camera. Let us know how these apps work for you, and if you have a better solution, please share your recommendation.

Do you use your iPhone as a wireless webcam? What apps are best for you? Share your thoughts with us in the comments at the end of this post.

The post Use Your iPhone as a Webcam: Here’s How [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.