Author: Terry White

Terry is the co-author of The Best Selling "The iPhone Book" 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th editions. He has been active in the industry for over 25 years and is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit, Inc., Michigan's largest Macintosh Users Group, host of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and a technology writer - Terry White Tech Blog.
Snapseed

Snapseed Takes Apple’s Pick as “iPad App of the Year”

You might remember my initial review of Snapseed back in June of this year and even then I knew this App was going to shake things up. Also, almost immediately after my review they came out with an update to better handle RAW files (the main complaint from readers in the comments).

However, I had no idea at the time that it would be so good that Apple would potentially choose it as iPad App of the Year. It's always a great feeling when one of our "Best App" choices becomes one of Apple's too. Use of the iPad in a photography workflow has come a come a long way and the Apps are starting to really become compelling. I use my iPad all the time for Photography stuff and while Snapseed is indeed a great App, I'm not quite using the iPad for full blown portrait retouching just yet. However, for enhancing landscapes and other shots I'd do it on the iPad in a heartbeat. 

You can get Snapseed for iPad for a mere $4.99 here from the iTunes

 

See more of my top App picks for Photographers here.

twitter

Twitter for iPhone Gets Updated with Connect, Discover & Me

The official Twitter App just went to 4.0 with some facelift and speed enhancements. The update specifically targets the iPhone (iPod touch) with no mention of when the iPad will get these changes. In any case the update provides some speed tweaks and new tabs. Now you have a Connect Tab that more closely matches the experience on Twitter.com where you have an Interactions tab and Mentions tab. The Discover tab lets you search as well as it shows you trending stories, suggestions on who to follow and the ability to Find Friends and Browse categories. Lastly the Me tab shows your stats, Direct Messages, Drafts, Lists, Saved Searches and the ability to switch between accounts. A single tap also lets you  view your profile. This seems like a nice update and we'll have to wait and see how they implement these changes on iPad.

You can get the Twitter App for Free here from the iTunes

Gift_Plan

Gift Plan for All Your Gift List Needs

Normally around this time of year I'd recommend a new holiday shopping list App. However, my recommendation remains the same as last year. Gift Plan is still my top pick. Why? It just works! Gift Plan is not tied to any particular holiday. So you can use it all year long for any occasion. You can import your contacts or your Facebook Friends. It will automatically pick up their birthdays and start the countdown until their special day. You can create different lists for different occasions and add people to them. You can put in a person's sizes, likes and ideas. Another reason I like this App so much is that it's more aesthetically pleasing than many of the other ones that are so plain-jane. You get nice big photos of your contacts as well as the ability to take pictures of the gifts you want to buy. 

The latest version adds:

  • Tally for each person per occasion in Shopping 
  • Fully opaque password
  • Ability to Add photos  of gifts

You can get Gift Plan for $2.99 here from the iTunes

 

What about iPad users?

Alas Gift Plan is still an iPhone/iPod touch native App only. It can work on iPad, but is not a universal or native iPad App therefore it will be in the small iPhone size on iPad. If you have your heart set on an iPad gift list app, then I'd go with mGifts – Gift List Manager. You can get it here for $2.99 from the iTunes

SoftSign

Softsign Lets You Sign and Annotate PDFs

 

Although my favorite all around do everything PDF App is PDF Expert, I can certainly recognize Apps that are targeted at specific tasks and especially when they're FREE for a limited time. That's where Softsign comes in Softsign is designed to allow you to annotate and digitally sign PDF documents on your iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. It's a Universal App so it plays nicely with both the iPad and iPhone/iPod touch display sizes. You can import PDFs into the App using the Open In command from Mail, Evernote or Dropbox. My Evernote lovers will enjoy the benefit of an integrated Sync with Evernote. Once you have the PDF in Softsign you can draw right on top of it with the built-in tools or insert a signature field. This is great if your PDF is not an official PDF form as you can add Text where ever you need to. You can also highlight text in the PDF document. The signature placement tool is probably one of the best I've seen and I love that it allows you to scale the signature even after you've signed. Mine was a bit too small. Once you've finished editing/signing the PDF you can then save it back to any PDF compatible App as well as Email out to anyone you want. The App has built-in password protection to keep your sensitive documents/contracts secure.

My only minor (very minor) complaint is that while it's possible to undo or clear annotations, those commands are buried in another menu. I'd like to see them on screen at the same time that I'm doing edits so that they are one tap away. Otherwise, you can't beat this App for what it does and you certainly can't beat it while it's FREE. Don't wait! Grab it today here from the iTunes

 

Side note: At first I couldn't get Softsign to show up in the Open In command on my iPad. I tried it on my iPhone and it was fine so I knew the App worked. I even went as far as to delete it and reinstall it. Still nothing. Then it dawned upon me that perhaps there's a limit to the number of "Open In" apps that will show up in the list. So I tired deleting one of my other Apps that can handle PDFs and another one popped in the list that wasn't there before (not Softsign). I deleted another App and Softsign then Appeared in the list. Apparently the limit is 10 Apps for any one document type. This is an iOS limit and not the fault of Softsign.

BlackFridayDealNews

Black Friday Apps and App Deals

It's that time of year again where we look for the hottest deals on Black Friday. The good news is that there are several electronic sources to help you find both the hottest local deals as well as online deals. One of my favorite sites for finding deals all year long is dealnews.com.  Naturally it makes sense that they'd be tracking all the hottest Black Friday deals too. However, if you have an iOS Device you don't have to rely on their website. You can download their free App right here from the iTunes

 

TGI Black Friday

Although I like DealNews it's not the only game in town. TGI Black Friday is another hot App for Finding Black Friday deals and you can get it here for FREE from the iTunes

 

Apps on Sale for Black Friday

Kelby Media Group Apps on Sale iTunes

Our Favorite Readdle Apps are 30-60% Off  Readdle

Solitaire Spin HD for $0.99

Castle Clout HD for $0.99

Learn 101 Cocktails Now! $0.99

Play and Learn French $0.99

Play and Learn French HD $1.99

Kid Science: Amazing Human Body $0.99

Kid Science: Biology Experiments $0.99

Kid Science: Chemistry Experiments $0.99

Kid Science: Frog Dissection $0.99

Kid Science: Gross Science $0.99

Kid Science: Nature Experiments $0.99

Kid Science: Physics Experiments $0.99

Kid Science: Worm Dissection $0.99

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