iPad news updates from iPadNewsUpdates.com!
Your #1 news source for everything related to the
new iPad and iPad 2. We have all the latest iPad news and app reviews
for Apple's multi-touch tablet.
The iPad is great for a lot of tasks, but one area of potential appeals to me more than any other: brainstorming and note taking. I’m not alone, judging from the outcropping of specialized apps for doing just this. I haven’t had the time (or money) to hunt down and experiment with every note-taking app in the App Store jungle, but I wanted to highlight a few that have stuck out in my search for the quintessential app for idea capture and retrieval. I’m skipping over some of the apps that I consider to be obvious (albeit excellent) choices (e.g. Evernote), mostly because they’ve already been covered on TUAW, often repeatedly. This is not to belittle them, just to keep things fresh.
Mind Mapping
The first few on my list are mind mapping applications. Mind maps are the easiest and most intuitive way for me to take notes and brainstorm ideas, so that’s what I look for first. It’s hard to beat a pencil and paper, or even a screen with a full keyboard and keyboard navigation, but some touch-based apps do it just about right. One of the best I’ve found is iThoughtsHD (US$7.99). It makes it relatively easy to jot notes in a mind map format, with options for node color, icons and organization. It can expand and contract nodes, branches can inherit their parent’s options, and you can manually or automatically organize and space out your map. You can add new child and sibling nodes by tapping and dragging, or use handy buttons at the top of the screen. It can import and export maps via WiFi transfer, Box.net and email attachment. When it comes to formats, it handles just about everything I can personally think of, including Novamind, MindManager (6 and 8), iMindMap, XMind, Freemind, and others, as well as multiple image formats. Read on for more mind mapping and note taking apps for you and your iPad.
Next in line for me has been MindNode ($5.99), which is also available on the iPhone and Mac desktop platforms. Its interface may actually be a little more intuitive than iThought’s, and it only lacks a couple of export options (it handles MindNode format, as well as FreeMind, PNG, text outline and OPML outline). It auto-colors your branches, which can be handy when speed is of essence. Its overall aesthetic isn’t quite as pleasing to me as iThoughtsHD, but it does the job well, and for a couple bucks less.
Ray Zone’s 3D Jungle Adventures (US$0.99) is native iPad comic book that took me back to when I was ten and my parents brought me to a flea market. There I picked up a ten year old copy of The House of Terror published by the now defunct St. John’s Publishing Company. It was in gloriously gory anaglyph 3D requiring the use of red-cyan glasses. The first page displayed a scary devil’s head that seemed like it was going to jump off the page and grab me, giving me nightmares for weeks.
Now in light of the current 3D craze, a new audience can experience this sort of dimensional schlock-fest in Jungle Adventure, a reprint of a 1953 Jay Disbrow comic. The story is as pulpy as it gets. Nianda, a jungle princess is captured by the evil Stang who wants to make a trade with the chief of the village for a big red ape. Jahka, who must be Tarzan’s twin brother, comes to the rescue and fights a drooling Sabre-toothed tiger to win her back, but no one told that to the big red ape.
So you want to date somebody, but you’ve had no luck with bars, clubs, or even flirty Facebook pokes. What’s a lonely heart to do? Try online dating, of course! And the only thing better than online dating is mobile online dating. Thanks to SpeedDate’s new app, you can now dive into online dating right from your iPad.
SpeedDate.com is an online “speed dating” site designed to connect you with compatible singles in your area. Singles can go on multiple live thre-minute online dates via instant messaging, video chat, or live audio.
I’m by no means a power GTD user, but like a lot of you I am juggling different projects and need to find a way to organize them. When I was younger, I carried around a paper planner, but now I have an iPhone and an iPad in addition to my desktop Mac.
The iPad on its own makes an awesome replacement for a paper planner. Paired with the iPhone, it’s incredible. Any productivity developer for the iPad needs to have the following in mind.
It has to stand on its own as an effective program.
It has to work seamlessly with the iPhone, preferably with cloud syncing
It has to be affordable.
The available productivity apps that span both iPhone and iPad are usually lacking in one of the above areas. For Things, it’s price and the lack of cloud sync. You’re shelling out $30 for the iPhone and iPad products alone. Tack on the desktop and that’s another $49.95. Same goes for OmniFocus, whose iPad app is not available yet.
Within the past couple of weeks, some affordable alternatives have emerged on the App Store. These programs are pretty great on their own, but they also come with issues — especially when it comes to syncing with other devices. First up, we take a look at BitAlpha’s Taska for the iPad and iPhone.
App Store rejections appear as often as panhandlers around Union Square, but the refusal to let Greg Hughes’ Wi-Fi Sync app into the store deserves a special mention. Hughes’ application works in tandem with a helper app on your Mac and enable iTunes and your iPhone or iPad Touch to sync wirelessly over your local network.
Why is this notable? First, because it is insanely useful, and something that the iPhone should just do already. Second, because Apple admitted that the application doesn’t break any rules. The app is completely legit. An Apple representative told Greg over the phone that “the app doesn’t technically break the rules [but] it does encroach upon the boundaries of what they can and cannot allow on their store.”
Why isn’t there a native Facebook app for iPad yet? It’s not like the company hasn’t had the time or lacks the resources to update its existing iPhone app. For the time being, iPad users have to choose between blowing up the iPhone app to almost unusable dimensions for the larger screen or use the web app which, to be fair, is acceptable.
That said, it does seem strange that such an obvious iPad app hasn’t yet made its way to the App Store. Thank heavens then for the guys at sobees who have taken it upon themselves to put together a Facebook client for the iPad and, from our initial inspection, have done a brilliant job!
The first few on my list are mind mapping applications. Mind maps are the easiest and most intuitive way for me to take notes and brainstorm ideas, so that’s what I look for first. It’s hard to beat a pencil and paper, or even a screen with a full keyboard and keyboard navigation, but some touch-based apps do it just about right. One of the best I’ve found is iThoughtsHD (US$7.99). It makes it relatively easy to jot notes in a mind map format, with options for node color, icons and organization. It can expand and contract nodes, branches can inherit their parent’s options, and you can manually or automatically organize and space out your map. You can add new child and sibling nodes by tapping and dragging, or use handy buttons at the top of the screen. It can import and export maps via WiFi transfer, Box.net and email attachment. When it comes to formats, it handles just about everything I can personally think of, including Novamind, MindManager (6 and 8), iMindMap, XMind, Freemind, and others, as well as multiple image formats. Read on for more mind mapping and note taking apps for you and your iPad.
I’m by no means a power 
Why isn’t there a native Facebook app for iPad yet? It’s not like the company hasn’t had the time or lacks the resources to update its existing iPhone app. For the time being, iPad users have to choose between blowing up the iPhone app to almost unusable dimensions for the larger screen or use the web app which, to be fair, is acceptable. 
Loading ...
