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

Apple 2011 WWDC Keynote

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Aaron Jones

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 is Fun!

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Aaron Jones

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

Busy and iPad!!!!

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Aaron Jones

It has been a while since I have had time to blog. I have been busy lately getting ready for the winter season. However soon I will be able to get back to my regular blogging. Also last week I bought an iPad. And I love it. I am writing this blog post from it in the wordpress app. I will have a more magic related post this weekend but thought I should give a quick update and also test a post from my iPad.
Aaron

Cool iPad Magic From Here In Japan

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Aaron Jones

You may have seen the video below as it went viral a few weeks back when the iPad launched here in Japan. It is magician Shinya Uchida. After this video went viral he has appeared on numerous TV programs here in Japan. Today he appeared on one that was a live broadcast. Of course he went there to perform magic with the iPad. He did a few of the effects in the video below but he had a number of new interactive effects that interacted with real world objects and the iPad with audience participation. Great creativity and I hope to see more of him in the near future. Below is the video that went viral with English subtitles. Enjoy!

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

iPad, Me, and Japan

Posted on January 29, 2010 by Aaron Jones

I know this is mostly a magic blog but I am also a fan of tech so I wanted to jump on the bandwagon and blog about the new Apple iPad and write about some of my thoughts and how it relates to me in Japan. I am not an Apple fanboy but I am a recent “convert” to the Mac platform after years of being frustrated with Windows. This December I gave up Windows and bought a MacBook Pro. After over a year of using the iPhone I was convinced. Anyways back to the iPad. Firstly I have seen many people complain about what it lacks the biggest being a camera for pictures and or for video conferencing. Now lets go to what Steve Jobs talked about at the iPad presentation. It is a device between the smart phone a regular computer, a kind of bridge. Smart phones and computers have cameras so why need a third? I know, I know, people said this about cells phones a few years ago. But imagine holding the iPad out to do a video conference, your arms would get tired and the video would be all bouncy like bad home videos. It would only work well if it was on a kickstand. So it seems to use this tablet this way is perhaps awkward and not so elegant. This is the reason I see for it not having a camera as well as keeping the price down and the device light and thin. Remember you have to think of this as a new device not as a net book, nor a laptop, nor as a tablet PC using a normal desktop OS. This is something new easy to use and something convenient when you want t relax or are sitting on a plane, train, or bus. I can also think of many business applications for this device for record keeping.

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