Air Display is Great, but why £12 0n App Store yet free if you download

I have used Air Display for a couple of months now on my Windows Laptop. It lets me use my iPad as an extension on my Windows desktop. Great for keeping files I want to reference as I do my main work on the bigger laptop.

Now I am a besotted Macbook Pro newbie I naturally wanted it on this, especially as I have the smaller 13 inch model.

So off to App Store, and hey, it costs £11.99, I don't remember having to pay for it on Windows.

So I go to Avatron web page and install by downloading direct from Avatron, and hey presto, it is installed for free!

And I am using it right now!

iPad Photo Apps TouchUp & Filter Storm

After watching iPad Today Podcast (TWIT TV) I bought the TouchUP photo app they had featured especially as it claimed to use masks. Cost £1.19 but you have to pay extra if you want some additional features.

It did have the ability to apply changes to parts of the photo, but it was nowhere near as good as my old favourite FilterStorm which does the same and more better.

The other photo app I use a lot is PhotoGene.


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My Apps Audit - What I use graded list

After 6+ months with iPad decided I needed to get control over my app frenzy! Check out what I kept at RodT's Graded App List

Anyone else hav similar list?




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MarkdownNote App for writing HTML plus other

MarkdownNote

For several weeks now I have been trying out various ways of writing web pages using my iPad. There are some good tools

• Gusto


• WPD (Web Page Development)

Both these have FTP feature so I can use this to combine with work on my PC and Laptop.

The one annoying thing was the cumbersome data entry of HTML tags. By chance while looking at Knowtilus browser I came across MarkdownNote. This is a small subset of HTML with unbuilt short cut for HTML, a markup for HTMarkupL called Markdown. You can create headings, text type, lists, images and links.



This iPad implementation of Daring Fireball currently costs $3.99 and is smart, so that when you hold iPad in landscape orientation, you have a preview of output.

Useful help, which you can display in-place of preview if you wish. Also very useful is that any HTML tag written in full is passed on to HTML unchanged. I did this toadd colour to final comment.



It is iPad only but for iPhone and iPod Touch there is another Markdown App called NOCS currently $0.99. Not in the same league, but still useful for these devices. Note you must have files saved with HTML extension for NOCS to offer conversion to HTML format.


Note another advantage of Markdown is that the output is well formatted even without converting to HTML.


Both Apps support Dropbox so whatever device I use I can synch either with FTP or Dropbox.


This blog was written using MarkdownNote.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Pasting web clips into email

I wanted to copy a couple of items from web reporting extreme low temperature and embed in an email to friends in Australia. Of course I could
send a link to the page from within Safari using standard function, but I wanted just a couple of pieces from two pages.

This was surprisingly easy to do.

1. Using Safari display item(s) you want to include.
2. Screen capture these pages (hold down on/off switch and then momentarily press app close button).
3. open photo editing app, I use Photogene, but Filterstorm is another good one and there are several others.
4. Crop out the bit you want and save to Photos, the resolution will be suitable for email as it is part of a screen capture which is already suitable
5. Start email app and write email as normal, at the appropriate place switch over to Photos and copy photo. This can be done by a long tap on thumbnail or on expanded view and select copy.
6. Double click if OS4.2 and select mail app which should open where you left off, paste photo into email.
7. Repeat for all the photos you want and send message.

Here is a screen capture of my email




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TXTcrypt - Great App for Keeping Secure Data

It is amazing how quickly you can gather a host of ids and passwords, especially if like me you do not want to have just one for all applications. I do not allow browsers to store my passwords, what's not there cannot be stolen.

This is the system I use to store and protect this data.

Basic iPad

1. I have password set so that you have to type in 4 digit code to start iPad, and after 4 failed attempts the iPad is wiped clean.


2. Regularly backup iPad via iTunes.


3. Install free FindMe App so that if I lose iPad, or my iPod Touch, I can locate it and wipe it remotely if necessary.

TXTcrypt App

This App is very easy to use, see details at TXTcrypt website. Below is an example of secure data I have created using Notes.



Select all of the document in the normal way.


Start TXTcrypt and paste data, using the app paste button.


Type your secret phrase and tap encrypt so and then tap copy button. I tap the encrypt button twice, so even the encryption is encrypted again.


Paste this into your Notes or Pages or whatever you want to keep the encrypted data in. Make sure you delete or copy over the original none encrypted text.


Note The TXTcrypt data is always deleted once you leave the App so there should be no danger of someone getting your secure phrase or as we see later your decrypted data.

To decrypt this data just reverse the process, first select all of the encrypted data.


Switch to TXTcrypt and tap the Paste button.



Type in secret phrase and tap the Decrypt button, tap it twice if like me you encrypted it twice, and hey presto there is your data.


The encrypted data and the security phrase must be exactly the same as used before, if not you will get the following message. This is normally due to not selecting the data properly or mistyping secure phrase. I always check the encryption whenever I create it by doing the decryption immediately to make sure I did not mistype the secure phrase. When I am happy all OK I then delete original plain text.


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iPad Notes Undo Command

Yesterday I managed to delete a large amount of text I had highlighted by accidentally brushing keyboard with a trailing finger. Much cursing, and then a little googling to discover that if you want to undo a change in notes, there is an undo key hiding on 2nd keyboard (.?123).