All posts by joe

Apps, Mobile Tech

And now a better document scanner, too

I have become a big fan of Adobe Acrobat Reader (available for iOS and Android) on my iPhone and iPad. I was in Denver during Bancroft‘s last acquisition, and had to sign a slew of documents while away from printers and fax machines. Using my iPhone, I was able to pull the PDFs from email to Acrobat Reader, then sign them with my finger and email them back. Why do we print anymore?

And now, in case the document that you need to send is in paper form, Adobe has added scanning to Acrobat Reader. It’s incredibly easy to scan, crop, reorder, sign and email a document.  Watch the video to see just how easy it is. Let’s all hug a tree.

Apps, Photography

A better photo scanner in your hand

Google’s new PhotoScan app (available for iOS or Android) is so cool that it actually got me to post my first entry since moving my site to WordPress.

With the app, you can grab an old picture off the wall and quickly create a high quality scan with your phone, free of glare and the frame. It’s a great way to safeguard prints by sending them to the cloud, and makes them easy to share.

This amusing video shows how:

Here are my first few quick efforts from framed photos sitting nearby:

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Apps, Home Tech, Mobile Tech

Is it Time for Mailbox?

About a year ago, I tried a slick new iPhone App called Mailbox as a replacement for the default Mail app. I was drawn in by rave reviews, a slick, clean interface, and the promise of an app that played nice with Gmail, which handles the e-mail for TheTechOfJoe.com. The main feature of Mailbox is numerous swipe gestures that help you quickly get to “Inbox Zero”, a state of nirvana for which you are rewarded with a zen image of the day.

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You can short swipe right to archive a message, long swipe right to delete it, or long swipe left add it to a list (To Buy, To Read, and To Watch are the defaults, and you can easily add others). But the killer feature is the short swipe left, which allows you to “snooze” a message. This gets the message out of you inbox for now, but brings it back in the future. So you get to Inbox Zero by pushing off the emails that you need to deal with, just not right now.

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Though there were many aspects of the app that I enjoyed, especially the snooze feature, I had been using the Apple Mail app for so long that it was difficult to get used to the new interface. Further, at the time there was no app for my Mac, so I was using two different interfaces. I eventually gave up.

But then, three things happened. First, Mailbox was acquire by Dropbox, which means they now are well-funded. Second, Mailbox released a public beta of their Mac app in October. And third, I got an e-mail stating that I’d get another Gigabyte added to my Dropbox account if I downloaded the new Mailbox iOS app and signed in with my Dropbox login info.

I have been using Mailbox for about a week. While the interface is still different from my trusty Mail app, it is a bit closer with the new release. Having the Mac app working in conjunction with iPhone and iPad apps has helped immensely. But it’s the “playing nice” with Gmail that has sold me this time. It searches through archived e-mail as quickly as if it were on the device. And when I delete something, but want it back, undo actually works (it doesn’t for me on Mac Mail-believe me I’ve tried to fix it!).

So I finally hit the Help Me Get to Zero button yesterday. I was afraid, because the default badge for Mailbox  shows you the number of messages in your Inbox, not the number of unread messages. My number said 10,000. I think it’s stops counting at that point, because I actually had 16,000 messages in my Inbox. By clicking the button, Mailbox took every read message in my inbox and archived it. I never would have done this with the Apple Mail interface, because searching through archived messages was always spotty.

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So I reached my first Inbox Zero image of the day (that’s actually it above). When you click on it in the apps, you get to see the full image. Then sit there and reflect on more important things.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Mailbox. It’s definitely worth a try, if for no other reason than to grab 1 GB for your Dropbox account. There is even an Android app for you now, Peter.

Mobile Tech

A Data Plan for Travel

When I took my family to Europe for three weeks last summer, a great concern was the expense of roaming data. We did not plan every detail of our trip before we left, so I knew we would need to conduct research on the fly. But I did not want to return home to a huge data bill.

For $15 a day, I rented a wifi hotspot from Xcom Global (www.xcomglobal.com). Xcom FedExed a package the day before we left that included the small hotspot, and sim cards for the two countries we visited (England and Italy). While we roamed the streets of London, we were able to make reservations at the Tower of London without worrying about those scary cell data bills you hear about. Though $15/day works out to an expensive $450/mo, a couple hundred dollars for a few weeks abroad is well worth the piece of mind. And 10 devices can connect to it at once, meaning the kids could text pictures to their friends back home.

There are other services, but Xcom worked well for me and is well-reviewed (just check their site). But I also encourage you to check your cell provider’s plans. As of this writing, AT&T offers 800MB for $120, with the added benefit of international calling at only $0.35/min. We used the Skype app on our iPhones to make phone calls over the wifi connection. I am not sure how much data we used through Xcom, but it sure was nice to not worry about it.

Apps

The best way to manage tasks

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Other than sharing our calendars with each other, the best way that my wife and I stay in sync is with Wunderlist. The beautiful task manager offers well-designed iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Windows apps, as well as an amazingly powerful website. All stay in sync automatically, and sharing a list with a friend is a snap. We primarily use it for grocery lists, so we share a list for Costco, Target, Trader Joe’s, etc. I’ve got a HoneyDo list ready every weekend. And when we are planning a special event like a birthday party, it’s easy to share responsibilities. You can even add sub-tasks, so the Party City item can break down to balloons, hats, helium, etc. The price? Free. Download it and invite me to a list to try it out. My name is Joe, and this is my website, in case you don’t know my e-mail address.

Home Tech

Apple TV for only $75 today

One of my favorite pieces of tech is on sale for 25% off today at Apple.com. It’s refurbished, but that shouldn’t matter a bit, since it comes with a full Apple warranty.
With Apple TV you can easily see your own photos and movies on your TV, listen to your iTunes collection on your stereo, or enjoy services such Netflix, Pandora, HBO GO, flickr, MLB.TV, and much more.
But the newest cool thing is Airplay, which allows anyone with an iOS device on your network to stream content to your TV or stereo through the Apple TV. So instead of showing you the latest pictures on their iPhone, you can view it on the big screen.
Mobile Tech

Backup Power for your iPhone

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It’s a major bummer when I am caught out with a dead iPhone or iPad. That’s why I carry the Mophie Powerstationin my backpack. It’s smaller and lighter than my iPhone, yet can recharge it twice on one fill-up. It can also charge an iPad to about half a charge. I much prefer it to a case with a built in battery, because on most days the iPhone’s battery is good enough for me all by itself. It takes about an hour to charge an iPhone to 80%, but you can use your phone while it charges. It’s only $80 on Amazon.com, and it has lasted me through three iPhones and still looks and acts new. A great gift for a person on the go.

Home Tech

Addressing Christmas Cards

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Every year we go through the ritual of revising our Christmas card list. It’s always been a manual process in Excel because my wife must have each card addressed exactly right. A card could be addressed to Mr. John Smith, The Smiths or the Smith Family, depending on John’s success with women.

After seeing a few other friends’ address management methods using Microsoft Word, then hearing one couple talk about what an organizational mess their handwritten cards were, I decided to do what I should have done years ago: create a method to rely on the same address book we use on a daily basis to generate our list. We use Contacts (formerly Address Book) on our Macs. Contacts syncs via iCloud to our iPhones and iPads and, after years of syncing nightmares, I believe this technology is now nearly flawless.

So the issue at hand was to print address labels from a group in Contacts exactly the way my wife would like them to read. The solution is to set a custom field in Contacts for Christmas cards, and use that field to print the labels.

HINT: if you are not as persnickety as my wife about how the labels read, you can’t print labels directly out of Contacts. Just set up a group that has all your card recipients, highlight it, then print and choose labels. It will print a label for all addresses by default, so change it on the Labels tab to Home only.

Continue reading Addressing Christmas Cards →

Top Tech Lists

My Top Tech Gifts for Christmas 2012

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Here are a few gadgets that you might want to consider this holiday season. As always, check my past lists below for other ideas. And if you have a questions, just leave it in the comments. I’ll get notified immediately and respond. Merry New Year!
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1. iPad Mini ($329, Apple)
If your eyesight can stand the reduction in screen size, this is the better iPad, and it costs less. It has the same resolution as the original, just packs more pixels into a smaller space. But what you’ll really appreciate is its weight. With my iPad 2, every night I worry the things going to break my nose when I fall asleep. This thing is beautiful. But it may be in short supply before Christmas.

2. Nest Learning Thermostat ($250, Amazon)
This is thing beats other thermostats by a factor of 10. Designed by the guy that designed the first iPod and iPhone, the Nest learns your habits over time and programs itself. Turn the heat up every weekday morning at 7A, but not until 9A on weekends, and it will eventually start doing it for you. It also lets you access it from anywhere (so you could turn your heat up from your iPhone on your way home). It has gotten rave reviews.

3. Canon Pancake Lens: 40mm EF f/2.8 STM ($149, Amazon)
This one is on my Christmas list. If you have a Canon DSLR, you’ll love how light and compact this makes your camera. The pancake lens has long been missing from Canon’s line-up, but they now offer this high quality option for a low price. Any Canon SLR user would be happy to receive this.

iMac

4. The new iMac ($1,299, Apple)
If you haven’t been by an Apple Store lately, its worth the trip to hold the new iPad Mini and see the new iMac. It is crazy thin, fast and beautiful. If you have the cash, choose the $1,499 model and add the Fusion Drive, a combo hard drive and solid state drive. That will make the thing scream.  The 27-inch models will ship in January. And remember that when you buy a new Mac, it’s always best to by right after they are released, because the price rarely goes down. Wait a while, and you could purchase a Mac just before a new one comes out–the worst time.

5. Sonos ($299, Amazon)
Sonos was on my Father’s Day gift list, but I had to add it again because I have gotten to use it so much since then. I replaced my Polk XM receiver with a Sonos Connect, so now I have access to all the Sonos goodness like Pandora and Rdio, my new favorite music service. But the multi-zone aspect of Sonos is it’s best feature. My friend, Peter, just put six zones in his house and it is ridiculous how easy it is to control the system from an iPhone, iPad, iPod or Android device. The picture and link above is the Play:3, which is their smaller portable unit. Check out the whole family of devices.