iOS App Recommendation # 3: Wunderlist

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Aaron Jones

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

iOS App Recommendation # 2: GoodReader for iPad

Posted on June 8, 2011 by 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

iOS App Recommendation # 1: Reeder for iPad

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Aaron Jones

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

Going Digital

Posted on January 15, 2011 by Aaron Jones

well I have been thinking recently that this year I should try to see if I can consume most of my content digitally. For example I will plan on buying only ebooks, digital magazines etc. I think that this year really will be the year that this can be done easily as most content, that I read anyways, is now all available digitally. Also being here in Japan it is sometimes hard to get a hold of magazines and books from North America. However now with online books and many digital magazines available internationally on the iPad it has become a lot easier to get a hold of them. During the year I give updates about how this is going. Should be fun and I find it exciting to try to make this change.
Aaron

Wow 36

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Aaron Jones

Well yesterday I celebrated my 36th birthday and I am now ready to takeon 2011! This year in my blog I will be blogging about magic, techand stuff here in Japan. It now has been just over a year since I switched to Mac from windows and man I am happy at that change. As I posted last month I also bought an iPad which I love, not sure what I did without it. I will also have more time to work on some of my Internet Inspiremagic.com projects so keep a look out for some of those in in the next few months. Well now time to go and eat!
Aaron

EMC Videos

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Aaron Jones

As I mentioned before I have already signed up for the Essential Magic Conference that is being held on-line this July. I am so interested in this not only for the magic but how they are integrating magic with technology, the internet, and Social Networking. They have a lot of great videos already posted that are open for public viewing. So far they are excellent and shows what will come this July. Below is their most recent video of Apollo Robbins. Check this one out then head the their site and check out the other ones.
Aaron

A Change To My Note Taking

Posted on April 4, 2010 by Aaron Jones

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

The 5th Shikoku Magic Convention and Others

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Aaron Jones

Shikoku Magic Convention 2009

So far this year I have plans to attend only one magic convention and that is the Shikoku Magic Convention which will be held in Takamatsu on May 8th and 9th, 2010. Last year it was a great convention. Some of the performers this year are Bravo Nakatani and Hikari. Looking forward to this convention.

There is also another convention I would like to attend and that is the which will be held on the Internet in July. This is the Essential Magic Conference. This is a cool concept and I hope that I can attend it should be easy because I can attend at home. I like it because living in Japan it’s hard to visit any other conventions outside of Japan. This convention can give me the opportunity to attend from the comfort of my MackBookPro. Also Dodd Vickers from the Magic Newswire did a This Week In Magic episode on this convention which can be found here.

As I mentioned I have only plan to attend the one convention and will probably attend the online convention but I sure hope that I can go to at least one more during the summer. During the Shikoku Magic Convention I hope to send updates by Audioboo, and some video via YouTube from the convention as well as blogging from it.

Aaron

Managing Your Internet Information

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Aaron Jones

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

Over a Month as a New Mac User.

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Aaron Jones

My MacBookPro

It has now been over a month and a half since I made the switch from Windows to Mac. In December I just got tired of Windows which I have been using since Windows 3.1. Over the years I enjoyed it but recently I just wanted things to work. So this December I got so frustrated with Windows I did the big jump and ordered a MacBookPro. I am not an Apple Fan boy but having an iPhone helped me make the decision. Another point is if I need to I can run Windows as well on the MacBookPro so I always have that option to use it if I never need to. Well so do I like my new Mac? Well yes very much so. Honestly it is the best computer I have ever used. It has also increased my productivity, work flow, and much more. I am happy that I have made the switch. I wish though that Google soon updates Google Chrome so that I can use extensions with it. I also want gears to work with Chrome for Mac. I like Google Chrome and so far it is the only downside to my new Mac is that the Mac Google Chrome development seems slow. As you can see in the photo when I am at home I can easily hook the Mac to my 22 inch screen and it works perfectly. For me switching to Mac was a good choice and so far a very positive experience.

Aaron