MacJournal for iOS

I'm finally getting around to trying to blog from my iPhone using the MacJournal app. I'm disappointed right away by the fact that I don't yet see a way to add an image or place a text link. This is a severely underdeveloped app! I see I can "attach" an image. What is this? An email? Even emailing a blog post is better than using this app at the moment. Lets see how posting goes.

• Ok. That was awful. First off, I attached two images and neither showed up in this post on my blog. So, I headed back here to the MacJournal app on my iPhone to see if I can amend the post. At least that part works. Coming back to the post and making changes (as I'm doing right now) seems to work out alright without the need to re-authenticate.

Before I could submit the first post, I had to authenticate through my 2-step verification several times despite already authorizing the app to post to my blog. This is a major pain and I've seen other apps that get it right so why can't MacJournal? Come on!
Tapping out text in the app is a horrible user experience. The scrolling in portrait mode is unreliable. Tapping text in landscape mode is ok, but the tools are much too close to the keyboard which makes for east formatting mistakes while tapping fast.
Formatting text is not intuitive
So lets say you want to make a word bold. In this app, you tap the 'A' button and then toggle switches for bold, italic or underline. This is redundant since it's much easier to just highlight the word and use the built-in iOS formatting.
When coming back to edit the post, all the single spaces between periods have been removed and all the hard return in between paragraphs have also been removed making it extra work to go back though and put them all back.
Changing the font size does effect the published version, but only the size changes, not the typeface so no WYSIWYG editing there.
When choosing a typeface, they show up in a boring scrollable list but just in Helvetica, not their native typeface.

Sometimes while typing really fast, the text output doesn't seem to be able to keep up and it freezes while tapping out text.

When sending the edited post back out to the blog as published, there's no real indicator that the task has completed. You just have to go to your blog, load it into Safari and refresh to view changes.
I'm not impressed by this app at all which is a shame because I own all versions of the app including for iPad and Mac and feel it was a wasted purchase even if it was on sale. I had high hopes when I used the Mac version but the iOS app versions really fall short. I'll probably delete MacJournal for iOS off my devices to make room for something better.

AirPlay or Apple Remote App Not Working? Try This

Are you looking for this:

AirPlay (double press on Home button then swipe twice to the right on Multitasking Bar)

Or this:

iOS Remote App

and not seeing one or either of these features on your iOS device?

Try this:

If you know how and are able, try changing the Channel setting on your router. This is what works for me! This is a screen shot of what it looks like on my Linksys router. Yours may or may not be similar but you're looking for this general area.

I posted this in part as a reminder to myself for figuring out how to fix this problem, but I thought you might find it useful as well. Let me know if it works for you.

The question I still have is why I need to keep changing this setting from time to time. I believe it has something to do with the fact that I now have more neighbors with routers and the channels are experiencing some kind of traffic or compromise. I don't yet know how else to explain it. One of these days I'd like to take a networking class because this stuff fascinates me. I wish I could fully understand all the ins and outs of my own router. For now, this is what I am comfortable tinkering with when it comes to my router settings and fixing the problem even if it's only temporary.

Back to School App Sale: 1Password

EDIT:
Unfortunately, this sale is now over, but that doesn't mean it won't happen again. Use AppShopper, put 1Password on your Wish List and you'll be notified when the next sale occurs! Until then, read on to learn more about this great app...

One of my most favorite-must-have apps, 1Password, is on sale right now in the App Store!

GET IT WHILE IT'S HOT! (normally it's twice the price)


It's Back to School here in the southwest and pretty soon for the rest of the country. You know what that means? More user names and passwords to store for our little Digital Natives!

I just remembered I need to add money to my son's school lunch account and, since it's not something I've done all summer long, all I have to do is open my 1Password, search for "lunch" and there it is. All I need to do then is tap the hyperlinked text and it will log me right into the website.

Another great thing is that this is a Universal app which means it will work on both your iPhone AND your iPad or iPod touch! If you have a shared family Apple ID like we do, then you could have 1Password installed and synced to all the devices in your family! It really is a small price to pay for keeping everyone organized and secure — and now, that price has been cut in half!

Household Critters

Living in the southwest, it's not uncommon to find different types of critters inside your house. Geckos commonly show up at our front door, on top of it or scurry out from under a chair. They're quite cute and less troublesome than mice or other bugs I experienced out east.

Last night was a bit different because we discovered a snake for the first time! The boys and I could barely contain our excitement over observing this little creature that crawled into our home.

Here is my Flickr photo set of some various shots I took and these are my favorites.

Curious Keagan

Wrapped Around My Finger

Perssssssspective

Day One App As A Mobile Blogging Tool

How does Day One (Journal / Diary) app stack up as an integrated and mobile blogging tool?

I began this post by tapping out text directly in the Day One app with the hopes that it might serve as good on-the-go blogging tool. I'm always looking for ways to blog more efficiently from a mobile platform, hence I would actually blog more! I came to the conclusion that this app doesn't meet all of my needs yet, but I do believe it has huge potential for becoming a great mobile blogging tool if only to get a draft started so I can go back later and flesh it out more like I'm doing right now. What began as a quick, down and dirty app review is now developing into a more complete post that might benefit my readers a bit more than when it started out.

While the Day One app is a little slow to launch on my iPhone 4S, I love how easily I can type text in portrait and landscape modes. Those are two usability features I look at first when reviewing a mobile app. The ability to tap text in landscape mode can make or break an app for me.

Formatting

I appreciate the need for text formatting. I like that Day One has Markdown baked right into the text editor. It even has a built-in word counter. I am in the process of trying to learn more about Markdown so I believe this app will help me out with that quest.

Images

One place where this app falls short for me is in the ability to place images. I know it's not meant to be used the way I'm wanting to use it for mobile blogging so I don't expect a whole lot when it comes to image placement within the text, but what I do expect is multiple image capability. Currently, you can only attach one image per entry. The Camera+ integration is nice, but in my opinion, you're likely to be a bit of a shutterbug if you know what Camera+ is and vice versa. I've used other apps like Momento that allow for multiple photo insertion so I'm not quite sure why the limitation on this app.

Security

A feature I'm willing to be patient for is encryption. I want it done right. If you're going to spill your guts and journal your most private thoughts into an app, then you should feel secure while doing that. I think this is an area the developers will address soon especially with all the attention lately on NSA, data mining and secure mobile usage. If you're an app developer and your app deals with the storage of private information, security should be a laser focus for you. Currently, Day One gives you the ability to lock down your information using a 4 digit PIN. The ability to lock stuff up anymore is not just a requirement or feature but a necessity — even if it's only to keep Mommy's blog entries from being replaced with "areiu45%^##ergh;ad%&_OKDHWiwkw7&*&&&^a dfg[8a[reuw8245;oi24h5" by my 3.5 year old.

App Store Links

When I review apps it helps to give the reader a direct link to where they can purchase (free or otherwise) the app in my review. I'm still on the hunt for a better way to do this! So far, it's cumbersome at best but I have hope it will improve over time. Adding code while tapping this out on my iPhone in Day One didn't work out so well, so I had to edit it directly on my blog. That may be a user issue since I can see that there is an ability to enter code using the Markdown feature but maybe I just didn't do it correctly.
Day One is a universal app for iOS so get it here for your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad!


Day One syncs between all devices including the Mac version.

Export

One of my rules of thumb for data entry is: If you can get the data in, you must also be able to get the data out. PDF creation is another useful feature available in this app. I'm not sure how often it will come in handy for my own use case since I keep most everything digital, but I imagine it could become invaluable later if I ever decide to create some type of printed book or just want to store archives in PDF format. I don't yet know how much hard drive space this app will consume over time, so PDF export is something I'll need to investigate and report back on once I've amassed enough data to experience it first-hand. It will need to have selective export using tags and I haven't yet read the complete user guide available on the developer's support page.

The Verdict

Many times I feel like The Queen of Hearts when I'm reviewing an app. Something as simple as whether an app does not have landscape text mode can mean it's "Off with their heads!" and the app is deleted. When reviewing the use case scenario of a mobile blogging tool, Day One is good for getting a blog post started if only to go back and tweak the post later. This is all contingent on the ability of your blog platform to accept posts via email and whether or not that configuration automatically publishes the post or just queues it up for draft. Day One is a benchmark for journaling and diary apps with its ability to synchronize and port to other platforms.

I'm willing to allow Day One to keep residence on my iPhone's small hard drive while waiting for its developers to beef up security and features like adding multiple photos because it syncs up with other devices like iPad and MacBook Pro. You can pick right up where you left off no matter which device you're using and that is paramount to blogging while mobile. It's a well-designed app with a sleek interface. It feels good in the hand. Tapping out text in this app is very smooth and responsive. Day One will be sticking around for a while in my court.

I'd like to know what your favorite mobile blogging app is. Let me know in the comments!

Other Apps Mentioned In This Review

Momento is a rival for Day One, in my opinion — review to come


Camera+ is great for getting decent shots of busy toddlers

Words With Woz

I'm playing Words With Friends...With Woz.
Try saying that ten times fast!
Try playing this game – or any other game – against a genius and see how you feel!
#nervous

Hand-Made iPhone Tip:

Whenever you fear the memory zombies will make you forget your next potential move, Skitch it.
(of course, this also applies to iPad, but I prefer playing Words With Friends on my iPhone)

1. Take a screen shot of your current screen by holding down the home button then immediately press once on the 'lock' button at the top of your iPhone. You must press the lock button immediately while holding the home button because if you hesitate too long, SIRI will beep.

2. Launch Skitch and tap the plus + sign in the upper right corner.

3. Navigate to your Camera Roll in the photos (yes, you want Skitch to have access to your photos) and select the screen shot you just snapped

4. Use Skitch to annotate your screen shot to remind you of your next move

You can use Skitch for so many occasions. I use it all the time for tech support. It's so easy to say, here, see this? Tap here and then draw and arrow or circle something. Most times when people are lost, so are their eyeballs, so it's helpful to show them exactly where to look. It's one of my very favorite apps and I've been using it for years now since it was a baby website!

Get Skitch for iPad

Get Skitch for iPhone

Get Words With Friends for iPhone

Get Words With Friends for iPad

Find The Clownfish

I recently saw a link to this article about clownfish and it made me think of Apple and Steve Jobs. Whenever I see a clownfish I think Finding Nemo, of course, but being a geek, I also visualize one of the standard-issue Apple Desktop pictures. Thinking about that then leads me to wonder just how these iconic desktop backgrounds are selected to become a part of the OS installed on all Macintosh computers. Can you imagine the hundreds, or even thousands of photos the Apple OS designers pour over? Every time there is an OS upgrade, one of the very first things I ever do is to go check out what new desktop backgrounds come pre-installed. For some reason, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in doing this. If anyone does know how the images are selected or has photo credit information for this or any of them, I've love to know.

A long-time friend once told me a cute story about Steve Jobs while we were catching up on Facebook. She knows I'm an Apple Geek and told me she works out in Silicon Valley right off of Woz Way. (I'm envious and must go visit, of course!) Her friend's husband is the Facilities Manager at Apple. One time he was sent to Steve Job's office because he had set of Finding Nemo cast figurines from Pixar on his credenza. Apparently Steve had run into it with a cart or something which resulted in one of the figures falling behind it. Can you guess what the note said?


He needed someone to "Find Nemo."


I love that story. I can only hope that the Facilities Manager kept that note. I know I would have!

I believe Steve Jobs even resonated with the clownfish — identified with it somehow. Here is the link to the Wikipedia article on the Clownfish. If you're an Apple Geek like me, you might see the same parallels.

It's also interesting to note that Finding Nemo is one of the few DVDs that will still play on our 1999 Tangerine iMac G3! You can even still use the screen savers and play the bonus DVD content! Makes ya wonder, doesn't it?

Here is another cool link that will educate you on the Clownfish.

What is your favorite Pixar character or desktop background? I'm always looking for new backgrounds for my desktop so share if you have a link to one you really like!

Who else is excited to see Finding Dory in 2015?!

My Toddler Loves Photo Booth on iPad

And here I was wondering why the iPad was running out of space! Attack of TheKeaganator!