iThings – Page 2 – Tech, writing, and tech writing

SkyDrive

SkyDrive is a cloud storage solution from Microsoft. It allows you to store content “in the cloud” and retrieve it through a web browser. They also provide free apps to allow access from Windows and Mac machines, Windows Phone and iThings. Anyone can sign up, for free, and at the time of writing, you get 25Gb of storage free with a basic account. Not to be sneezed at. You can add more storage (20-100Gb) for an annual fee (€8-€37).

There are a few nice features:

You can create and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote files through the web interface. You won’t get all the functionality of the desktop versions of the software, but the essentials are there.
You can share uploaded content (individual files, or whole folders) with specific individuals by issuing invitations. They’ll only see the specific content you’ve chosen to share with them once they log on. I find this handy for sharing large documentation deliverables, too large for mail server limits, with clients.
If you install a desktop app on your PC or Mac, your SkyDrive will show up as a virtual drive on your local machine, and you can view and edit local copies of your content. Changes are synced back to the cloud. If your internet connection disappears, you might not notice, though, so for anything critical, it’s no harm to check your changes are in the cloud copy of the file before you shut down your machine and leave.
Even better, you can access your PC or Mac remotely to pick up any files you forgot to upload to the SkyDrive. For this to work, your will need to be on, the SkyDrive app installed, and you’ll need to authenticate with a code mailed to the email address your SkyDrive is associated to.
You can disconnect an authorised machine at any time via the web interface, so if your laptop is nicked, or you change jobs, you can break the link remotely.

Not bad at all for a free service.

I Shot the Serif

@DaveGorman gave this a mention on twitter a couple of days ago, and I had to give it a try.

Available for free as a web app and for iThings, I Shot the Serif is a fun way to squander a few idle moments. And you can tell yourself that you’re developing useful proof reading skills while you’re at it.

Basically, you’re presented with a grid of random letters, half of which are in serif fonts and half in sans-serif. You have to select (shoot) the serifs, and leave the sans-serifs alone. You’re playing against a timer, and are allowed a certain number of mistakes. The higher the level you play at, the less time you have, and the fewer mistakes that are allowed.

The 5yo (still high on his zombie shooting buzz from last week) was keen to have a go when he saw me playing, and I was impressed by how well he did. I’m kidding myself that it’s helping him improve his reading skills (he does whisper the names of the letters to himself as he inspects each one), but really I know he just likes the sound effects.

Downsides: I found that on the iPhone this crashed very frequently, often when I was on my way to a highscore. And the shooting sound effects were a bit much for me, so I played with the volume off. Aside from those 2 niggles, it’s great fun.

Math Vs Zombies

Math Vs Zombies Logo What more could you ask for really?

In this free iThing zombie shoot-em-up, you shoot the zombies, collect ammo and health packs by solving the simple equation atop your target. Different levels have different classes of maths problems (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), and different levels of difficulty.

I let my 5 year old play this for about 15 minutes yesterday and could not believe how much quicker he was at mental arithmetic by the end of it.

Because the problems associated with the zombies change each time you play a level, though stay in the same class and difficulty level, you can replay the same level over and over to suit the player’s ability, rather than being forced to move on a level, and it still sustains interest.

Screen layout changes on iPhone (numbers along edges) and iPad (number pad bottom centre) to make the numbers easier to reach, which is a nice touch.

Only problem I had with it is that you can wind up with multiple items on screen at the same time that have the same solution, and you don’t get a say in which of them gets shot/picked up, so the zombies will sometimes get you because you pick up ammo instead of shooting. This led to one or two moments of frustration for the small person.

Still, it’s fun in small doses and definitely has an educational outcome.

Foozle

For a bit of Friday Frivolity, I thought I’d share a current favourite iThing app of mine and my 5 year old’s: Foozle! Great name, great game. It’s less challenging (and frustrating) than Angry Birds, which is good for the 5 year old in particular, but it’s still quite engaging.

The basic premise is that you have a bunch of furry little shape-shifting critters, some of whom are good and some of whom are bad (and occasionally some of whom are neutral) sitting around on platforms. Some platforms are level, some are angled, some are bouncy, some swing… You want to make all the bad guys fall off the screen, while hanging on to the good guys. Tapping a Foozle changes its shape from a square to a circle, and depending on where it is, that’ll either start or stop it rolling. The fewer times you tap to get rid of the bad guys, the higher your score.

ABBYY TextGrabber + Translator

The TextGrabber + Translator – ABBYY app is the biz, and incredibly easy to use.

Launch the app, point your iPhone at a piece of text, give it a moment to autofocus, snap, crop to just what you want, then click Read. Moments later, you’ve got an editable copy of the text in front of you to do with as you will. Alternatively, you can select a photo from your Camera Roll if you’ve already got a snap of the text you want analysed.

First thing you should do is check for any characters the app got wrong. There’ll probably be a couple, but not many. In my experience, kerning in the original text or glare off the page are the most likely causes for error. You can edit the text in situ to fix any problems, then choose from a variety of built in options as to what to do with it:

You can tweet the text, or post it to Facebook.
You can stick it in an email or SMS.
You can search for it using Google.
You can copy it to Evernote.
You can just copy it to paste into any other app you want to use.
And a particularly nice touch: you can select to translate from the source language to another (powered by Google Translate).

Or you can do nothing for now. The OCR-ed text will stay in the app’s history, and a snap of the original image in your Camera Roll, until you’re ready to come back to them.

Here’s an example of how it performed on the blurb from the back of a text book we had lying around:

Original Scan of Book Blurb — Original Photo of Book Blurb

I cropped to the first paragraph only, and it got just two characters wrong. Not bad.

I can see a multitude of uses for this app – from quickly grabbing contact details from advertisements before calling/mailing, to translating menus when travelling, or instant note taking in libraries.