Technical Pro

Whether you write novels, take notes, or make grocery lists, the modern writer needs an app that just gets out of the way and makes writing less painful and more fun. After getting tired of the numbing options available, one Uncrate editor decided to just build the thing himself. Scribe ($3), a universal app for the iPad and iPhone, gives you a clutter-free writing environment, with an awesome monospaced font, and super-easy HTML support to brainlessly markup your prose for web stuff. Oh, and it syncs with Dropbox and iCloud too. It’s what we use to write Uncrate when we go iPad-only on the road. Plus, there’s at least a 93% chance you’re getting an iPad on Sunday. So Scribe will be right here, waiting on you.

Stop repeating yourself!

How many times have you sent off an email to a customer, co-worker, contractor or vendor with crystal clear instructions, only to find out later that your recipient completely misunderstood what you were saying.

So you explain it again. And again. And again.

How much time are you wasting with these “email roundtrips”?

But what if you could create clearer communications the FIRST time? What if you could eliminate email roundtrips completely? How much time would that save you each day? Each week? Each year?

Imagine how much more productive you could be in your business if you only had to explain things once.

The best way to clarify what you are saying is to use pictures. But most screen capture applications only let you work with one picture at a time. It. is. like. only. allowing. you. to. say. one. word. at. a. time.

Clarify lets you use pictures to talk in complete sentences. And that completely changes the way you communicate. Here is what one reviewer from the Mac Apps Store said:

The march towards a sadly wallet-less future continues with Square Card Case (Free). This iOS/Android app ties in with Square’s already-excellent mobile payment service, letting you use your name to pay at local spots using the company’s system, and letting you create tabs at the establishments, which automatically open upon your arrival so the workers will know who you are and even what you usually order, giving you instant “regular” status. Oh, and did we mention you never even have to take your phone out of your pocket? Yeah. “Just put it on Uncrate.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s3yUv_C1_I&feature=share

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New York City drivers (and visitors to the Big Apple) flustered with the elaborate maze of parking regulations, shifting street-sweeping schedules, and frivolous no-parking hours can rejoice. A new app for iPhone and iPad untangles Gotham’s parking knot by illuminating the city’s rules and regulations with a tap of a finger. Building on previous parking apps, ParkPal ($FREE, Apple) delivers an easy-to-operate and accurate—the information comes from the New York City Department of Transportation database—interface with parking ordinances from all five boroughs. But they also have a website www.parkpalnyc.com

Presented on a Google map, streets are painted red, green, or yellow to signify parking availability in real time. When users tap on a street, a complete day-by-day, hour-by-hour breakdown pops onto the screen. The app even details regulations that change within the same block and drops a pin on the map to mark the parking location.

Drivers in other major American metropolises can look forward to forthcoming additions as ParkPal’s reach grows. Because as anyone who’s spent time driving endlessly around the convoluted streets of the West Village or strained their eyes squinting at signs in Midtown will tell you, a good spot is hard to find.

Nate Storey is a research assistant at Travel + Leisure.

Back in July we covered the release of Photovine for iPhone, an image sharing app developed by Google’s internal Slide team that, among other things, is also responsible for Disco, a group messaging app, and Pool Party. Powered by a slick design and attention to detail, the Photovine app that was released last month didn’t allow everyone to sign up and start sharing photos as the system was invite-only without an open sign-up. With an update pushed last night on the App Store, Photovine has revamped Facebook and Twitter integration from within the app and finally opened registrations without the need of a beta invite.

Unlike the popular photo sharing app and iPhone-based social network Instagram, Photovine doesn’t revolve around the simple concept of photos uploaded to a user stream and shared with followers. Rather, Photovine is based on “vines” — photos connected by a caption and contributed by you, your friends, and other people using Photovine. So, for example, say you’d like to share a photo about your newly acquired MacBook Air, you can start a vine called “My new MacBook” and your friends will be able to let the vine “grow” with new photos related to the caption, and the photo you originally posted. This is best explained by Photovine’s promo video, which we’ve embedded after the break.

Photos in a vine can obviously be liked and commented on, each user has its own dedicated page with a profile picture and followers/following/likes counts, and an Inbox tab in the bottom toolbar allows you to check on messages you’ve received from other users, or notifications such as new followers, comments, and likes. This is not too dissimilar from Instagram’s implementation of “activity”. Users can add new photos to an existing vine (or even “watch” a vine if they’re interested in it) or create a new one from scratch — Photovine comes with a beautiful custom camera interface that lets you snap your own photo, or pick one from the Camera roll. Indeed the whole app sports a gorgeous and clean design that makes it easy to jump through vines, user profiles, and comment on photos shared by others.

Photovine for iPhone is an interesting concept with a good-looking interface and additional social functionalities to forward photos to Twitter and Facebook, and find friends on those social networks as well. You can download Photovine for free on the App Store.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MPIZKPhfDY&feature=player_embedded

By Billy Steele posted Aug 3rd 2011 at 11:03PM

Ever misplaced your hard earned MacBook Air or had an entire project vanish at the hands of a dirty thief, only to be gone forever? Well friends, the time is coming soon for the Find My Mac feature to provide a highly sought after sigh of relief, Find My iPhone-style. Apple has released the software into the wild for registered iOS devs, with the only other requirements being OS X Lion and an iCloud subscription. Using WiFi networks to locate your missing appendage via a web browser or iOS device, the location tool offers you a number of anti-theft options — send a threatening message, lock down the machine remotely, or even wipe the machine’s drive clean. Perhaps we will see this security detail launch with iCloud in fall, which was also released in beta form earlier this week.

We’re already living in the future, so why is it we still need silly things like cash and credit cards? Google Wallet (Free) is aiming to get rid of those relics from a bygone era by connecting your credit card — Citi MasterCards or Google Prepaid cards only, to start — with your NFC-capable Android phone to let you pay at any PayPass-capable terminal, and also letting you take advantage of exclusive Google Offers to help you save money at the same time. Next up? The flying car.

Our thanks to Gillette for sponsoring our mobile articles this month.