Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

You really ought to see my office right now.  I’ve got paper shuffled everywhere and sticky notes from well over a year ago plastered all over my monitor, desk, wall and every other available piece of office real estate.  Needless to say, organization has never been my forte.  My boss, bless his heart, tried to help me in this area by sending me to one of those sacrosanct “Franklin Cover” classes.  I probably followed their method for a good 24 hours before I was back to my old routine, clutter and chaos.  Don’t get me wrong, I am good at what I do, but I understand that it stresses my partner’s out when they see my lack of organization at work.  The thing is, paper is not my friend.  As a lawyer the thought of throwing away an important piece of paper paralyzes me to the point where I have become a de facto hoarder of  tens of thousands of pages of loose paper, 99% of which should be either shredded or thrown away.  As a result, one of my many new year’s resolutions is to go totally digital, and that includes you: annoying yellow tangible sticky notes.

BugMe! has been described by the developer as “the quick and easy note-taker and reminder for your iPhone. You can jot notes, ideas and errands on the fly. Sharing notes is easy, by email or Twitter, or save notes as little Stickies to your iPhone Home Screen as an “in your face” reminder!”  So how does it far?  Pretty damn well, actually!

I was a bit skeptical of BugMe!, since the iPhone already has a pretty good built in alarm that allows you to set reminders for yourself.  BugMe! lets you write and save digital “sticky notes” that you can then save to your alarm with reminders.  You can write these virtual sticky notes either freehand or by typing them with the build in keyboard.  Once you write you note you can save tiny ‘icon sized’ notes to your app launcher, send it to your friends via Twitter or email, and pin your notes onto the built in virtual cork board.

The true beauty of BugMe! lies in its simplicity and function.  The virtual sticky notes look and function just like the ones that are littered around my office, but instead of having thousands of unorganized sticky notes plastered all over my office, I can now contain them in one digital space that auto-organizes them for me.  Whenever I go to the grocery store, I now simply write out my list on a BugMe! sticky note and don’t have to worry about forgetting the paper list in the car (I never forget my iPhone).

Of course, no app is perfect and BugMe! is no different.  One of the features displayed by the developer is that BugMe! allows you to save your virtual sticky note as your lock screen wallpaper so it’s the first thing you see when you power on your iPhone.  What they do not tell you is that the method used by BugMe! to set the sticky note as your wallpaper is about as efficient as our federal government.  Once you write a sticky note and decide that you want to set it as your wallpaper you will receive the following pop-up notification:

Really? Okay, that just bugs me!

Now, in defense of Electric Pocket, I do understand that the reason for the convoluted process is because of limitations, or some would say security measures, built in the iOS firmware, but it still does bug me that I have to go through so many hoops to do what seems to be a rather simple task.

Regardless of this limitation, BugMe! is still a solid app that deserves your attention especially if you are a slave to the tangible sticky note.  It offers what the default iPhone alarm/notification does, but it does it with a style and simplicity that far exceeds Apple’s calendar.

Available on iPhone only

When I am not writing reviews for IAR, on a completely voluntary and uncompensated basis mind you, I am in my office, or in court, or meeting clients in my daily struggle to keep the bills paid, my kids expensive private-school tuition up to date, and my wife happy. As a practicing attorney I am handed hundreds of business cards every year and I never know what to do with them. Herein lies the benefit of CamCard!

CamCard is a business card reader for the iPhone that allows you to take all those pesky paper business cards and convert them to digital form. According to Intsig Information Co., Ltd., CamCard is able to capture business card images with your iPhone-based camera, recognize the card image content, and then automatically organize and extract the person’s first name, last name, company name, work phone number, email address, physical address and company/contact website url. If only it were truly that easy!

Using an iPhone 3GS I was able to take pictures of all my business cards and, with limited success, CamCard did actually recognize some of the information correctly. I would say that my success rate was about 50%. CamCard does provide a fairly easy and streamlined editing tool that allows you to quickly correct the information contained in the business card, but, to be honest, at a price of $7.00 I was hoping for a success rate more along the lines of 90%. To give you an example, I took a picture of a brand new business card that had the following information (names changed to protect anonymity):

Bates, Jules, Firn & Smith, L.L.P.
Attorneys at Law

Calvin R. Jules

2811 Syntax Boulevard
Las Vegas, NV 90120

Telephone (555) 888-9898
Facsimile (555) 888-9191

This is what CamCard returned:

Company Name: “Fla, Ves HAR. KEY”
Department: “Mmataiee+ Wt FW”
Department: “G# +rrqir#t#tawiq. #BW”
Phone: (Nothing extracted)
Email: (Nothing extracted)
Address: (Nothing extracted)

The font on the above business card was not an obscure font and the text was in print and of sufficient font size. Maybe it is a problem with the iPhone 3GS camera? I don’t know. But for an app that costs $7.00, I would expect the thing to work as advertised and possibly offer me a back massage to boot.

Despite the limited accuracy of CamCard’s business card photo recognition software, I do plan on keeping the app installed on my iPhone. This is, of course, how I judge the usefulness of the apps I review here as there is only one other app I still have installed on my iPhone: GoodReader.  The ability to take a picture of a business card, and then quickly edit the contents to form an accurate digital copy of that business card is something I needed. Once I edit the business card for accuracy, I can save the contact information in either the CamCard folder or Contacts folder, or both. When viewing the digital card, I have the option of sending the contact an email, calling the contact, sending the contact a text, geo-locating the business address of the contact, re-directing to the contact’s company website. The main features include the following:

• Automatically trim and enhance card image before saving into Card Holder.
• Options to save into the phone/Gmail/Exchange contact.
• Automatically recognize the language type of the card image content.
• Automatically rotate the card image.
• Batch shooting or importing card images for recognition.
• QR code generation for the contact’s content.
• QR code recognition for the contact’s content.
• Email signature recognition.
• Double-side business card image capturing.
• Search contact in Card Holder.
• Export contact as vcf or Excel file in Card Holder.
• Add note.
• Password protection.
• Support Linkedin invitation or search.
• Support business card recognition for English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese.

Finally, I can throw away that Rolodex that has been collecting dust on my desk and switch to a completely digital library of business cards. For this reason, CamCard is win, albeit a bit too pricey of win!

If you are responsible for supervising either one person or a team and have to evaluate their performance annually or semiannually, then you know the challenges that can come with that.

Over the course of six months or a year, unless you are someone who manages to keep detailed and consistent notes on your staff as they occur, you will find yourself struggling to remember either the things your staff members did well or the things they need work to improve on come evaluation time.

If that’s you, then I have just the app.  It’s called Direct Report: Employee Feedback Tracker.  Its purpose: to provide you with the means to record the moments of praise and correction that arise over any period of time so that you can accurately recall them when you need to write an evaluation.  Or a recommendation.  Or even a termination.

Direct Report is customizable, too, meaning that you can create profiles for your staff and attach photos for each member.  You can associate your feedback with pre-populated categories or- in the event that the pre-populated feeds don’t fit your needs- create your own categories.  And any comments you log in are automatically timestamped with the current date.  You can view all of your feedback for a given employee, sort it according to date, feedback, and category.

There is one thing that I think would make the app better, and that’s the ability to edit the log in dates for feedback.  Because the app automatically timestamps according to the current date, if the feedback you’d like to log is, in fact, from a different date, the app doesn’t currently allow you to change it.

It’ll cost you $3.99 to make Direct Report yours, but the cost in the amount of time you’ll save not having to rack your brain during annual or semiannual evaluations alone is- in my opinion and experience- justified.  So, do yourself a favor and pick it up.

iTunes Link – Direct Report: Employee Feedback Tracker

Version 1.01

Reviewed on a iPod Touch 3.1.3

There are many reasons why I like Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite and I’ll tell you about them in a moment. First, I have a confession to make.

I own a BlackBerry.  I have for a while now, long before anyone knew what an iPod Touch or iPhone was and probably long after as well.  Why?  Well, although I think my iPod Touch is great for lots of things, writing (something I engage in frequently) is still something I struggle to do on the dang thing.  I can type over 90 wpm (seriously) on a desktop or notebook keyboard, so speed and ease are critical factors.  Plus, I’m just a physical keyboard kinda guy.

Because I’ve owned various incarnations of BlackBerry smartphones (five different models in all), I’m fairly well acquainted with a few other mobile office suite products.  Some are good and some are not so good. Most are not so good at syncing without the umbilical cord (USB) or- in the case of the iPhone or iPod- requiring a wifi connection to a desktop application.  Many of the mobile computing packages out there are getting better, but many still have a ways to go.

Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite is, of course, compatible with Microsoft Office.  More important to me, though, is the fact that this app enables me to access documents I have created and stored on multiple cloud services.  Not just Google Docs, but others such as Box.net, Dropbox, and MobileMe, most of which I have been using for some time now.  What this means is that I can finally let go of the umbilical since anything I’ve uploaded and stored with those services is easily accessible via Quickoffice.  And should I choose to make changes to a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet with my iPod Touch, those changes can quickly be updated.  If you are not yet a cloud services user, it is a snap to access and upload files via wifi transfer.

There are some perceived shortcomings to this app that are worth mentioning.  Quickoffice cannot yet create or edit PowerPoint presentations, though they can be viewed or emailed.  Also, several users have commented on the fact that they had to set up a Quickoffice Connect account before they could establish cloud service accounts with Google Docs or Box.net on their iDevice.  I don’t remember having to do that myself, but enough folks have mentioned it that I felt obligated to put that possibility out there.

Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite is available in the AppStore for $9.99, a justifiable investment given what the app offers in return.  If you use your iDevice for writing and spreadsheets, viewing PDFs and documents in multiple formats or want the option to do so, Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite is worth your consideration.

And while I may not be giving up my BlackBerry anytime soon, it is no longer the first and only device I reach for when I want to get some writing done, either.

iTunes Link – Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite

Version 3.0.0

Tested on an iPod Touch 3.1.3

pmg PassCode is on sale for free – normally $1.99-$6.99

I already have two password managers on my iPhone (1Password Pro is my favorite) but, if you need something like this, pmg PassCode is worth a look! This app not only provides an assortment of icons you can assign to different account types such as email, credit cards, etc., it also has a few different themes to choose from if you don’t like the app’s default look.

iTunes Link – pmg PassCode

Tired of co-workers asking you: “Is that a portable scanner in your pocket or are you just happy to see me”? Well if you are, Earthlink has the solution for you. Their Touch-Fill-Go iPhone Scanning App allows you to take care of any of your on-the-go emergency scanning needs thus freeing your pockets of that long, cylindrical portable scanner you’ve been lugging about.

Touch Fill Go works like other scanning apps. Basically, you snap a picture of a document, edit the brightness/contrast as needed, and the app does the rest, converting your image into a PDF. Now here comes the cool part: you can actually add text to your PDF. Using a technology that can best be described as ‘magic’ to us lay people, or OCR for the technologically inclined, the app scans the document for places where text can be entered (ie: textbox or checkboxes). If it finds any, it will allow you to tap on that box and ‘type in text’, thus turning your PDF maker into a limited PDF editor as well. You can also ‘sign’ your name with your finger or draw a picture..don’t ask me why anyone would need to draw a picture, but the function is there.

One of the cool features of this app is it will remember all the text you enter. So once you’ve entered your address on one form, it’s stored and ready to be entered again on any other form, a handy feature for jobseekers who use Touch Fill Go to fill out their hiring forms.

With the app, you can also email your PDF or share it with another Touch Fill Go user if you’re both using the same WiFi.

Overall the app works as stated. I did find that using the editing function takes a little getting used to and sometimes ‘dragging’ things around requires fairly good ‘finger aim’ – fat fingered people, you’re better off just asking a skinny handed friend for help. Also, to email a doc, you need to go through three steps: (a) processing the picture (b) converting it to a PDF (c) waiting for it to email. The whole process can seem a bit time consuming, especially if you’re an anal retentive organized control freak, which let’s face it – if you need a portable scanner, you probably are.

Scan quality – I took pictures of the docs while sitting down at a table. There was a very light shadow at the bottom caused by own big dumb silhouette, a problem I probably could have solved by standing up (did I mention I’m a bit lazy at times?). I adjusted the brightness and contrast higher for each picture and that seemed to improve the ‘sharpness’ of the image. I’m no scan expert but the PDFs looked good to me. I had written in red ink on one of the docs and my notes showed up clearly (in black and white of course – it’s not a color scanner).

I also ran into 2 bugs. Bug 1 – I took a close up picture of a doc (instead of capturing the whole document). The program acted like it had processed the image, but when I tried to email it, the email arrived with no PDF attachment. I tried to email it several times, ignoring Einstein’s advice about insanity = doing the same thing and expecting different results. Of course, I got the same blank email each time. Finally I took another picture of the full doc and it converted and emailed correctly.

Which brings me to Bug 2 – Not sure if it’s really a bug of the app but, one time while emailing, it took about 5 minutes to send. During that time I couldn’t check or use my mail program for anything else. I looked for a “Cancel Send” button on the app, but there is none. It eventually did send, so it wasn’t a major catastrophe. But being the aforementioned anal retentive organized control freak that I am, I spent that entire 5 minutes thinking “what if I had to email something this instant and this program was preventing me from doing so?” In all fairness, it’s probably more of problem with the Mail App than Touch Fill Go, but I feel better having gotten that off my chest.

Overall, I’m satisfied with my $4.99 purchase. This app would be perfect for business travelers who need to keep track of and turn in copies of signed receipts. I think as far as scanners go, $4.99 puts this on the low end of the pricing scale. I’d say that’s a fair price to pay for the power to scan and edit. Not to mention you’ll avoid all those embarrassing misunderstandings that the Planon Handheld you’ve been carrying in your pocket has been causing.

(As always, be sure to read the description of the app provided before purchasing to make sure you know what it does and doesn’t do. Also, not for iPod Touch users because you need to have a camera. Unless you just want to store PDFs that someone shares with you.)

iTunes Link: Touch-Fill-Go
Version 1.0
Reviewed on an iPod Touch 2nd Gen

MemoRu is for making memos. Duh! Draw freehand and do your thang.

iTunes Link : MemoRu

On deck: Invasion (Games)

Create your own personalized business cards and share them with others via Wifi or BlueTooth.

iTunes Link – eBizCardz

On deck: Satori Sudoku (Games)

When I run into someone I’ve met but have no recollection of, my favorite thing to do is blurt out “I have no idea who you are.” Hey, maybe THAT’s why I’m single and everyone hates me! Hmm.

If you suck at remembering names, FaceNames will train you to memorize everyone you have a photo and first or last name for. Could be great for business reasons, could be great for juggling dates, could be great for not looking like a total jackass. The possibilities are endless!

iTunes Link – FaceNames

Unit converters aren’t even close to sexy which is why it’s been over a year since the last one I reviewed, but some are definitely better than others. Polar Bear Farm’s very creatively named Convert is simple… it’s elegant… it’s shiny… and DAMN it’s expensive!

Even Polar Bear Farm acknowledges that the $5 price tag is pretty steep, so in their iTunes description they implore you: “Don’t defile your beautifully designed iPhone or iPod touch with substandard, poorly implemented, ugly software”. Ha, I like it! If only all developers thought the same way.

If you look past the price, it really is a nice app that converts everything from length to mass to currency to angles to you-name-it, and it’s dead-simple to use. The calculator number pad could use a C button for clearing the display, but other than that it’s solid. If you only need area, length, and mass (weight), then the free version will do ya just fine. If you need more and absolutely refuse to defile your iPhone, drop the 5 bucks and then figure out how much you just spent in over 40 different countries.

iTunes Link – Convert
Version 1.6.1
Reviewed on iPod Touch 2nd Gen OS3.0.1

Everyone and their mother has an idea for an iPhone app… trust me, I get plenty of emails from people asking how to find a developer to make their nutty ideas a reality! I may someday try to build something around those requests but if you need some creative validation right now you can give MyAppIdea a shot.

You see the irony here, right? It’s an app whose purpose is to farm new ideas for apps! Har har. All you have to do is submit your idea and wait for the public to weigh in on whether your brainchild is a flash of brilliance or a flash of utter stupidity. If Regenus picks your idea and builds it, you would get a part of the revenue. Not sure how exactly that would work, but that’s the claim being made here.

MyAppIdea is fun to browse through… some of the ideas people post can be pretty hilarious and not in a good way… but its fatal flaw is in the concept the app is built on. I mean, if you have a truly novel idea for an iPhone app, are you really going to put it out there for someone to poach? Regenus may be legit and sincere about working with you, but you’ll never know how many other iPhone developers are quietly scanning this app for their next big hit.

iTunes Link – MyAppIdea
Version 2.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.0.1

Need to sound intelligent at job interviews even though you’re a total buffoon? There’s an app for that!

I have to confess that I haven’t actually used this to prep for an interview, but for some reason I found SwipeQ Interview interesting so I took it for a spin. SwipeQ is an interview prep tool that provides sample answers and rationale for 150 different interview questions that actually get asked by really annoying HR people. (HR = Human Resources, for the first-time job hunters)

Interview questions are neatly divided up into seven different categories: Basics, Career Path, Teamwork (ugh), Qualifications, Communication, Work Product, and Brainteasers. Technically your entire interview is one giant brainteaser (how do I get this complete stranger to give me $50,000 a year?) but you get the idea. The name of the game here is Be Prepared, just like a Boy Scout… except the old lady sitting across from you doesn’t need any help crossing the street. Her goal is to make you look like a complete fool!

150 interview questions might seem intimidating, or to some it may not seem like enough, but they really run the gamut from common-yet-intelligent questions to common-yet-totally-unfair-and-borderline-stupid queries.

For example:

Q: What motivates you?

In your head you’re thinking “sex… and money”, but that’s the WRONG answer! The right thing to say is that you’re motivated by being the best at what you do and exceeding your personal goals. Duh, you idiot! It’s really a pretty fair question to be asked, but answering this kind of head-scratcher can be pretty hard if you haven’t anticipated it.

Another common question in SwipeQ Interview is “what’s your greatest strength” but unfortunately I didn’t find an answer to the question I’ve personally been asked more often which is “what’s your greatest weakness” (again, sex and money). I’m guessing you don’t want to say “I work too hard” or “I care too much”, but that’s just a guess! Hopefully SwipeQ will add more questions in future updates to address user feedback.

When you really decide to dig into this app’s questions, you can do so in a nice, orderly flashcard format or you can shuffle the questions so the flashcards are as unpredictable as your interviewer’s mood when you park yourself in the hotseat. Another great feature is the ability to add your own questions; most of the stuff in this app is geared towards very corporate environments, but if you’re interviewing in a field where special circumstances are often brought up the custom questions will come in very handy.

The sample answers and logic provided for each question in SwipeQ Interview may not be exactly what your interviewer wants to hear, but my general survey of the answers leads me to believe that they’re better than anything you’ll come up with on your own. I mean that in all sincerity… whoever wrote this thing definitely did their homework and, if BS’ing your way through interviews isn’t something you’re great at, this app will help you immensely.

I wouldn’t recommend whipping out your iPhone during an interview so that you can explain how you react to criticism, but carefully combing through SwipeQ Interview’s cache of questions and at least getting cozy with the underlying logic of the sample answers just might land you the job that you’re pining for in these trying times. $2 for this app? Unless you’re applying for a job at Taco Bell, two bucks is a miniscule investment for what could be the difference between getting hired and getting evicted.

iTunes Link – SwipeQ Interview
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.0.1