Wunderlist

This weeks iOS recommendation is a free app! Not only is it free it is available for almost any platform, iOS, Mac OS X, windows, Android etc. You can find out more about what platforms it supports at the Wunderlist website. This app is a task management app which there are 100s of in the app store. However the reason that I like this one is that I can easily sync via the cloud to my iPad, iPhone, my MacBook Pro, and my Windows machine. You can make a various lists with tasks within them. Like most to do list programs you can set a due date, priority etc. The fact this this program is free and automatically syncs betweens devices makes it so easy to use and I use it almost everyday. It will be interesting to see how it will go after iOS 5′s task manger is added to our devices. I think that because this program syncs easily between platforms makes it so attractive and will last even after iOS 5 arrives.. Give it it try it’s free!

Aaron
Aaron Jones

GoodReader for iPad

This week my  iOS App  recommendation is GoodReader. Now GoodReader is not an RSS reader like I blogged about last time, it’s a multiple file reader. It can read and display PDFs, text files and some audio and video files. This program basically creates a useful file system on your iPad. There are several ways in which you can upload your files to GoodReader. You can sync with Dropbox, Box.net, Google Docs and your own FTP file space plus others and it can sync whole folders which is very useful. You can also add files through WiFi and by using iTunes. I use this app for viewing PDFs and keeping track of various files and PDF magazines I get. It also allows you to annotate PDFs which is very useful. This app is a very powerful and one of the most useful if not the most useful app on my iPad. I am excited to see how they will integrate this app with iCloud in the fall. This app is a MUST for all iPad users. This app is not universal so there are 2 versions one for the iPad and one for the iPhone. You can learn more about this program here on their site and it is available in the iPad App store here for  $4.99US.
Aaron

Reeder for iPad

I have decided  every once a while to blog about the iOS Apps I use the most. I will only recommend ones I use and truly do recommend. As I have mentioned I am a heavy iPad and iPhone user so I thought I would write about the Apps that I think are useful. I have blogged about iPhone apps before but this starts my formal recommendations blogs! Aslo please share your thoughts in the comments.
Today I want to talk about an iPad App that I use everyday and that is Reeder. Reeder is an RSS reader that links to a google reader account. I have used google as my RSS reader for a long time so I was happy when I found Reeder on the iPad. It links to my google account and brings in all my RSS feeds and I have a lot of them. Then I can use my iPad to read through the many headlines and articles while I am online or offline. It also easily allows me to share them on Twitter, Facebook, Instapaper and more. At first it was hard to figure out the UI for this app because it is so simple and minimalist but once you understand the icons this is why it is good. It does not have a busy interface so you can concentrate on reading the content. It is not a free app and as I write this it is $4.99US. This app is also not a universal app so if you want it for the iPhone you have to buy the iPhone version which I did. There is also in beta testing a Mac OS X version which is very simular to the iPad version. It is available in the iPad App Store.

Aaron

Apple Stuff!

Today I am not posting about magic but tech stuff which I do from time to time. Today I want to talk about the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) Keynote speech that wil be held June 6, 2011 10:00AM PST. I want to write this from the view point of a Apple user. This is because I am a Apple user of a MacBook Pro running Mac OS X Snow Leopard,  iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV. Wow too many Apple products, but they play so well together. As I have mentioned before I was an avid Windows user until a year and a half ago when I went over to Mac (one of the best decisions I have ever made). Anyway I am looking forward to the keynote because I am interested in Mac OS X Lion, and iOS5.  As a Apple TV user I expect some new features they were not mentioned in Apple’s announcement this week that will be apart of the iOS5 update and the iCloud system. We really know nothing yet about iCloud but I can see how it is going to make it easy for users to share music and I hope other files between devices wirelessly. I am a heavy iPad user and I use Dropbox to share files as well as the  Good Reeder iPad app to sync and view files from many services and QuickOffice for iPad for editing documents. But a unified system in the cloud would be great and I hope as an Apple user, iClould will bring this. This is the information I want to find out the most at this keynote as well as a bonus I hope they announce the new iPhone soon as my iPhone 3G is getting a bit old (LOL). I hope they stream the event like they did last time, if they do I’ll be up all night because the event is like at 2:00AM Japan Time. I am such a geek!

Aaron

We Rule

When I was in high school and university I was a big gamer. However after I finished university and especially after I moved to Japan I haven’t really played a lot of games. Since I bought my iPad I have been playing the game We Rule a lot. I first heard about this game from Leo Laporte from the Twit Network. I downloaded it in December and since then I have to play it a few times a day. The concept of the game is simular to other popular “farming” games you find on Facebook and around the internet. In We Rule your goal is to create your own little kingdom. Some of the reasons I like it are that in some ways it is simular to SimCity where you can design and build your own village. There is also a social aspect to this which I like that allows you to order things from friends for extra coins and experience points. I find this type if game relaxing and I enjoy designing and building my village. If you enjoy these types of games I suggest you check it out. There are both iPad and iPhone versions of the game. You can visit the We Rule website is here. Aslo if you decided to give it a try feel free to add me as a friend. My user name is AaronJonesMagic.

Aaron

Geeking Out

Tonight I am not at home but I am some free time so I am just geeking out. I hope that is ok. Listing to podcasts and doing magic, playing with my Macbook Pro, dreaming of the iPad and working on some technical things for my show. I feel like such a geek but it sooo relaxing. I say make sure you take some time to geek it it feels really good. I am looking forward to the magic convention here next month which reminds me I need to register this week. I wish they had a way to do it online but I have to do bank transfer, which means I have to go to a bank ATM before it closes at 7:00PM. (I hate that still today some bank’s ATMs here in Japan still close at 7:00PM or on the weekends.) Tonight I wanted to head to the onsen (hot spring) but I could not work things out. I think this blog entry has already warn out its welcome. I’ll be back blogging this week with some more solid content.

Aaron

Evernote For iPhone

In August of lat year I blogged about how I take and keep notes on my magic here. I still use the the systems I blogged about but recently I have been using Evernote for a lot of my note taking, show development, planning, and brainstorming. The reasons I like Evernote are that my notes can be stored as different notebooks and these documents can hold pictures and sound files as well. They are also synced between my MacBookPro, my iPhone, and my account on the Evernote site. This way I always have access to my notes and have backups of them. Using Evernote has been great for me and has helped a lot in keeping my projects organized. Evernote as well now works for the iPad, which I can imagine will be good for working on my show like a electronic clip board. Evernote is free they also have a paid account if you use  a higher volume of files. For me it has been a great system and I highly recommend it if you are into keeping notes and plans electronically.

Aaron

MobileRSS

If you are like me and read a lot of Internet sites keeping track of them all can be hard. Living in Japan the Internet is my primary source for English related content on magic, technology and news and I follow a lot of websites. So it has always been a challenge for me to organize how I go through all the content I keep track of. The system I use now has saved me a lot of time and kept me up to date on all the information I enjoy reading. Over the years I have tried various RSS readers but now I just use Google Reader. I can make folders to keep track of subjects, and also I am able to easily share any articles I find on twitter etc. It is like my own newspaper custom made for me everyday. You can also follow other people who have google reader set up and easily read any interesting articles that they share. I like the star feature where I can star the ones I want to keep and go back to them anytime I want very easily. Along with the regular Google Reader I use mobileRSS on my iPhone to keep updated when I am not at home. Once I read an article from mobileRSS it marks it as read on Google Reader as well. It also has all of the great sharing features of the Google version. Combining both of these has been great for me. I am able to keep track of all the sites I like and I like a lot so this keeps me organized and informed. I also like to share cools stuff as well. You can see my shared articles form Google Reader here. If you have any other great ways that you use to keep track of your favourite sites please let me know!

Aaron

Ok what about here in Japan and would I buy it. Well I might, the problem is the Japanese iTunes store has no movies or TV shows, one of the main features of the iPad. Of course you can convert current DVD etc. but that takes the beauty and ease and loses the point of the system. It also looks as if there won’t be a iBook store any time soon as well. A work around for this is of course to use the Amazon Kindle app for the iPhone. It seems for me anyway that until the Japanese iTunes store gets upgraded with movies and TV’s shows and gets the book store in Japan I don’t see myself using this device soon. I do however see how I can it use at show venues for setting up and prepping my show but I just use my iPhone and my MacBook Pro for now. I do hope to see it get these features here with cheap 3g connections then I will probably pick it up.

Written on my iPhone.
Aaron

iForce Prediction in Japanese

I had been hearing about this magic App for the iPhone called iForce. Being an iPhone lover I decided to download it and WOW. I love many of the great magic apps on the iPhone but I can’t really use them in my close-up show, however iForce is one that I can use and will use. So what is iForce? Well unlike other magic apps where the app does the magic or the magic is contained only in the app,  iFoce magic app doesn’t do the magic it is just the medium for a prediction. With iForce you tell the spectators that you are going to make a prediction. You open up a doodle app on the iPhone and show how you can draw on the app. You can even have the spectators try it out. Then you ask them for example, to think of any day of the week. You then say you will read there mind and write what day they are thinking of. You then do this and lay the iPhone face down. You then ask them what day they thought of and then turn the iPhone over and the day they said is written on the doodle program your prediction was correct. So as you can see the iPhone just becomes there medium where you write your prediction down rather than on a piece of paper. After the prediction is shown the spectators can play with the app. What is great about this app is that it is fully customizable. As I live in Japan I can customize all my predictions into Japanese. In  the picture in this post you can see my day of the week prediction for Monday.  This is very versatile as you can create many many great effects with this. It comes with a bunch of presets so you can use it right away. There are a few different methods to do the effects with iForce so you can do a repeat with a different method. There are teaching videos built into the app but an internet connection is required. There is also a practice mode so you can practice it repeatedly with out resetting the effect which is great way to practice. iForce also works on the ipod Touch. Because of the great customization, and that the effects that are done will be credited to you not the app makes this a real magic effect that you can use in your close-up show and just for fun. For more information here is the iForce website and here is iForce in the app store.

Aaron