Textilus App Review - Create and Edit Rich Text Format (RTF) Documents on the iPad

Looking around the Apple section of Microcenter, I overheard a conversation someone was having with a sales person about buying an iPad. Apparently the customer has concerned about the "Great American Novel" he was writing and whether the iPad could handle it. The sales associate suggested converting the novel to RTF (Rich Text Format, an older file format for Microsoft Word) then using the RTF with Apple's word processing app, Pages. This isn't a bad solution, but a couple of thing occurred to me. One--why switch to RTF? Pages will import Word files direct and skipping the unnecessary conversion may well preserve graphics and table information that would otherwise be lost. On the other hand--why assume the laptop goes away? It's probably paid for and getting rid of it isn't going to get you much. Why not continue to use it at home and use the iPad when you are mobile. Since the author didn't seem to mind switch to RTF (I'm guessing the novel doesn't contain much graphics--most don't), it makes sense having the project readily available to both machines. You just need to use Dropbox so the RTFs are accessible, and an iPad app that supports editing RTF documents... an app like Textilus from knowtilus. This way you don't lose any functionality, and gain the ability to work on the novel when inspiration strikes.

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Create and View Stereoscopic (3D) Imagery on the iPhone/iPad

It seems like all the new gadgetry lately has been adding 3D, but the basics of stereoscopic imagery has been around for a very long time. You can see some that date back to the U.S. Civil War. For many of us the Fisher Price View Master brings us our first memories of 3d devices (it is still available today—65 years strong). Today using a iPhone/iPad you can not only enjoy viewing 3d imagery, but you can create it too.

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Record High Quality Audio with a USB Microphone into a iPad

Looking for better sound quality for your audio recordings on the iPad? Try using a high quality USB microphone. Often these semi-pro microphone were specifically designed to work in certain audio situations (vocals, interviews, instrumental, ambiant, stereo, etc...). Using the Apple Camera Connection Kit, an iPad, and a USB microphone you can have a super versatile mobile recording studio.

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Print Photos Using a Mobile Printer from the iPad/iPhone

One year into the life of the iPad printing has only just become a reality. Unfortunately mobile printing from the iPad will need a bit more cook time. In defense mobile printing even with a laptop isn't really that good to begin with (expensive, low quality, not that portable). Now with the iPad you can add in limited options, and reliance on extra bits of gear to carry around. Thus turning a niche product category into a really niche product category. But if all you are looking for is a photo printer there are some options for you.

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Record Analog Audio via 3.5mm Line-out or Microphone Jack into the iPad

Updated on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 7:11PM by James Chi

Before Bit Torrent, Napster, heck the Internet people shared audio by plugging in the headphone jack of one Walkman into the microphone jack of another. It's the very first analog hole! For myself I'm interested in recording the audio from some of the instrument apps available on the App Store and use it in the iPad version of GarageBand. I could hook up the iPad to some external speakers and record it with a microphone, but let's try the old headphone trick to see if we can get a better recording. That leaves us with needing a 3.5mm or 1/8" audio line-in or microphone jack on the iPad. The main difference between the two being the line-out audio being much (~10db) stronger. There are three main solutions to this which we will explore.

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Air Form: Create iPad Interfaces for Existing or New Business Database Systems

Air Forms is an app that allows you to create iPad front ends to new or existing databases. Geared to the enterprise market it adds mobility to important business data like inventory, sales, job tracking... whatever your business has. It does this all without you writing a line of code.

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Using a Mobile Scanner to get Photos and Documents on to the iPad and iPhone

Updated on Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 9:57PM by James Chi

Your iPad or iPhone may be the perfect window on your digital life, but what happens when you need to deal with real world (hard copy) photos and documents? With a POC (plain old computer) you would use a scanner to create a digital copy to work your magic on, and that is what we are going to do with our iOS wonder device. This article will discuss what you need, what it will cost, and what you have to do to scan into your iPad and/or iPhone.

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