Santa's Bag - A Simple To Use Christmas List Yet Packed With Features

Santa's Bag is a Christmas list app for the iPhone that is simple to use but feature rich for those that do serious Christmas shopping and are serious about their lists and commitment to staying on track and organized.

Credit: Clay Pot Software

Santa's Bag, created by Clay Pot Software, LLC, does a terrific job of being simple to use, easy to see (perfect for my vision disability) and full of views and organization capabilities for those with very large Christmas shopping lists.

Credit: Clay Pot Software

There is no need to type names into the app as it can import those from your address book. You can do things such as set budgets, create wish lists, shopping lists and even track gifts that have been purchased but not wrapped or shipped.

Credit: Clay Pot Software

Santa's Bag is FREE and designed for the iPhone but I love using it on my iPad so I can see things easily.  I'm beginning my second year using Santa's Bag and I've already checked to see what we purchased last year to make sure we don't repeat any gifts. Now if Santa's Bag could estimate grand children's growth in clothing sizes.

Credit: Clay Pot Software

iOS has 845 Emoji Smiley Faces and Symbols to Enhance Your Emails and Texts

Have you ever seen those smiley faces on emails or text messages and I don't mean thesebasic ones like (-;. I mean cute and colorful smileyor frowning faces. These are called Emoji (pronounced ē - mō - gē) and you can add an Emoji keyboard, with as many as 845 emoji symbols, to your iPad or iPhone.

Go to Settings , General, Keyboards and choose AddNew Keyboard. From here you can see the myriads of international keyboards iOSmakes available but look for Emoji and touch it. Touch the blue <Keyboard togo back and you are done.

Access theEmoji by touching the World symbol at the lower left of the keyboard.

The CLOCKkeyboard shows the most recently used emoji symbols. The next is the SMILEYFACE keyboard.

Fantasticuh! It doesn't stop here though. By swiping to the left you will see many moresmileys and other symbols.

Now choosethe FLOWER symbol at the bottom to see the next group of emoji--Animals! Andthere are 4 screens of animals and other symbols.

Select theBELL to various holiday and other emoji. Wondrously there are 7 screens ofemoji here.

Click theCAR to see the 4 screens of travel related emoji.

Lastly, try the SYMBOL to see the wide variety of numbers and directionalsymbols--all 7 screens of them.

That's a whopping 28 screens worth or 845 Emoji toenjoy.

What awonderful way to spice up you texts and e-mails from your iPad or iPhone. Thenshare this with your kids and grand kids to show them how smart you are.

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Google Maps for iOS is HERE for Your iPhone or iPad

The great news is that Google Maps is a universal app, which means it works perfectly well for iPhone and iPad utilizing the features of the iPad, not just the larger screen. It's FREE and works very, very well, including "verbal turn by turn directions" which does not work for Apple Maps.

Apple replaced the Google Maps app for their own app when iOS 6 debuted September 19, 2012 (yes, over a year ago!) to much criticism as there were many errors when displaying some areas. See links below showing many really bad situations. In fact, Apple President, Tim Cook wrote a letter of apology for the many problems and promised fixes as quickly as possible.

Google Maps was a very mature app that had gone through many upgrades throughout it's lifetime. Google acquired a company owned by two Danish brothers and introduced Google Maps in 2005. That is many years of evolving and improving. Unfortunately Apple introduced their maps but NOT based on Google mapping data and it didn't go well.

What was most frustrating was that Apple replaced Google Maps and people couldn't just put the old Google Maps app back in. Everyone was stuck with a poor product. Google got to work and produced Google Maps for iPhone that worked quite well.

Google Maps for iOS integrates fully with Google Earth which delivers very good 3D views although Apple Map's 3D view is a bit better in my opinion.

To be fair, Apple Maps has been fixing bugs since it's release last year but I strongly believe Google Maps was better a year ago, and still much better now. Don't settle folks.

iPhone 5 Problems: iOS 6 Apple App is Making Google and Android Look Good by Belinda Moreira, Sept. 23, 2012.

Apple Maps App: How Bad Is It? By Chris Taylor. Sept 20, 2012.

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6 Little Known Siri Capabilities

Siri is one of the more fun yet useful features of Apple's iPhone and even the iPad. Wikipedia says

"Siri is a personal assistant and knowledge navigator which works as an application for Apple Inc.'s iOS." 

Siri can create reminders when you get to Work or when you get Home. Siri can remind you to do something when you get home or when you get to work. Of course, Siri needs to know who you are and where home and work are. Open Settings, General, Siri. Tap My Info and select your contract entry. Make sure you contact has your home and work address. Include your birthday in the contact and Siri will wish you a genuine happy birthday each and every year. Now Siri knows you.

Now you can say to Siri, "when I get home, remind me to  take out the trash". Likewise, when you can tell Siri "when I get to work, remind me to submit today's report".

NOTE: this works on the iPhone or an iPad that has GPS.


It's fun to show off Siri but it's not always easy to remember what to show. Here are a couple of easy examples of Sir's usefulness.

Siri is really, really good at showing off it's knowledge of sports scores. Ask Siri, "who won the latest [insert team name] game?" Siri shares some colorful commentary at times too.


Ask Siri "what is a good steak restaurant close by?"  Siri searches the web and lists a few places and might share  an unknown.

Sometimes Siri doesn't pronounce names correctly. If this is the case, say "that's not how you pronounce that." Siri will ask which work it pronounced wrong and you can teach it to say it right.


Now, if you want to have a little fun with Siri, ask her. Try a little "smack down" and ask Siri about Google Glass. To Siri, say "OK Glass" (this is how you begin talking to GoogleGlass, their upcoming head wear from Google) and listen to the response. Then epeat "OK Glass" a second, and third time. Siri gives you the same answer. But, when you ask a fourth time, Siri gets a little testy with her responses. Say "Google Glass" again and again.


Oh, and did you know you can now change the gender and country of origin for Siri? Go to the Settings app, General, then Siri. Feel free to change the Language or Voice Gender.


Oh, and if you are an Android person, try a Free siri type app there called "Andy".

I Hate Those Small Smartphone Keyboards Don't You!

Not just because I have a vision disability but those phone keyboards are just too darn small wouldn't you agree? Either we have fat finger tips are we can't seem to focus on the letter we need but it sure is frustrating. What to do?

 

I use a different keyboard from the one that came with my phone. Yes, it's an Android phone and we can just go to the Google Play Store and get one--free or not. Don't worry you iOS people, there's help for you too.

 

I use A.I.Type Keyboard. It's FREE but there is a pay version ($3.99)  with a few extra features that I went ahead and purchased because I just love what this keyboard helps me with--I can SEE IT! There are lots of very good features with this app but I don't use most of them. What I like best of all is the ability to have larger keys and a very good contrast between background, letter and key face and A.I. Type Keyboard does this. The only setting I used is to make the keys a little taller so they are bigger targets. How cool is that!

 

Take a look below to see the original Android keyboard and then the A.I. Type Keyboard I use.

 

Standard Android Keyboard

 

A.I. Type Keyboard

 

Other features of the A.I. Type Keyboard include:

• It will finish words as you type and it gets smarter as it learns what you say
• Even if you mistype a word A.I. Type Keyboard will know what you mean and show the correct word. Be careful though as it might misunderstand you
• You can change key colors or backgrounds to fit your style

 

For you iOS people (iPhone and iPad), you don't get a choice of keyboards. This is bad for many but good for most as it something you just don't have to worry about. The keyboard works and you just don't have to think about it. However, for any of you that might, there is a method to make your iPhone or iPad easier to see if those eyes just don't work the way they used to.

 

In iOS 7, go to Settings, General, then Accessibility. See the section to the right and make any appropriate changes to help you. Below is a screen shot of the selections I've made to let me see the screen better on my iPad.

 

 

You may want to look through the iOS 7 User Guide to see other Accessibility features for you iPhone or iPad.
 

 

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5 Technology Tips That WILL Help You

Or, things you thought you knew but didn't.

1. If you scroll down web pages, use the space bar...don't lift the mouse or pointer to the vertical scroll bar at the right. Tap the space bar to go down a page. Hold shift and tap the space bar to go back up a page.

2. Also on the web, make the text larger by holding down the Control key and hitting + to make the text larger. Hit the + again while holding the control key to go larger again. Hit the - along with the control key to make the text smaller. I use these daily because of my vision disability. Large text is necessary for me.

These work on every web browser. For the Mac, you might have to hold the Command key.

3. When typing on a mobile device (smart phone or tablet), don't switch between keyboard styles to get to a period at the end of the sentence and then capitalizing the next letter. Instead hit the period TWICE and it will do all three things for you! That's right, hitting the period key twice in succession will place a period, then a space and capitalize the next letter.

4. Google is for more than searching, folks. If you want to track an airline flight, type the airline name and then flight number and hit enter. Google gives you the status of the flight at that moment.

5. Google as a dictionary. Type the word 'define' and then the word and the definition appears. No need to hit enter. For instance, type the word bluetooth and see the definition.

Please share your tips in the comment box below.

 

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Now Where Is The iPhone/iPad User Manual?

I've written an article that reveals where the iPad/iPhone User Guide is hidden but, with iOS 7, they have changed the hiding place.

Apple makes a very good, well written and very easy to understand User Guide for the iPad and iPhone. I've used them many times and included screen shots in blogs. I strongly recommend having it available when you want to get quick and easy instructions.

Now that iOS 7 has been released for upgrade and will be included on the next versions of iOS devices, getting to the User Guide is very important. There are some great new features to iOS 7 that I like very much.

iBooks

The new iPad and iPhone User Guides are now FREE books you view in iBooks. iBooks is Apples version of Kindle and found in the App Store. Don't worry--it's FREE and the User Guides are FREE too. A great advantage to the User Guide being in iBooks is that you have all of the advantages of iBooks and for me, with my vision disability, is just plain terrific. I can enlarge the text and see the guide contents without having to scroll from side to side as I would with a web page of a PDF document.

1. Open the iBooks app and touch the Store button.
2. Search for iOS 7
3. Choose the one you want and download it to your iPad or iPhone

You can also download a PDF version of the User Guides too if you like. Go to this link.

If you haven't upgraded to iOS 7, the User Guides are a bookmark in Safari...the very last bookmark.

Photo Booth is a Fun Camera App for iOS

Having fun with your new found gadget is the ultimate for me and here's a FREE app I think you'll love to play around with it. It's called Photo Booth and it's actually included with your iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad Mini.

 

There are 9 effects you can apply to camera views where you then snap the picture. Those 9 effects are: X-Ray, Light Tunnel, Stretch, Mirror, Normal, Twirl, Thermal Camera, Kaleidoscope and Squeeze. Take a look at some sample pics and give it a try yourself. Just have fun. My favorite effects are Kaleidoscope and Twirl but I'm sure you'll develop your favorites too.

9 Views via the iPad

 

 

Android has a few similar apps and I especially like Effect Booth. FREE

 

A Cool Smartphone Compass with a Twist

I recently had the need for a compass and took a quick browse through the Google Play Store and found Smart Compass and gave it a whirl. Not only does it do the compass as expected but the compass is beautifully super imposed across the camera view. What a cool look and I liked it alot.

Smart Compass is for Android and FREE. There is a PRO version that has additional features and for only 99 cents.
Sure, iPhone has a preinstalled compass but I really like how Smart Compass works with the camera.

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iOS 7 for the Vision Impared

Now that iOS 7 is out, here is how I have my iPad set to assist with my vision disability.

 

Fist, the clean and lots of white space are very good for my vision. There is very good contrast between text and background and that is necessary for me. Otherwise, there are only two things I've changed to make things really work for me.

• Enlarge the font
• Make the text bold

 

I just need larger text to be able to read and the iPad does this very well. The newly advertised "clean" interface is really good but a bit thin for me so I just make the text bold.

 

All necessary changes are done in Setting > General > Accessibility

1. Turn Larger Text to On.
2. The next page has the slider adjustment to the desired text size.
3. Then turn on the Bold Text.

 

Once Large Type is turned on, I slide the slider bar to the right to the desired size. As you can see, I use one step down from the largest text size.

 

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iPad Tip: Improve Battery Life by Stopping Programms Running in the Background [iOS 7] Update Sept 20

The iPad (iPhone and iPod Touch) leaves apps in the background when you choose a new one. You can see these apps by double-pressing the Home button. What you may not know is while most of these apps just sit there waiting for you to return to them, others are running and drain your battery.

Apps that use GPS and your location, music playing apps, Internet phone apps like Skype and apps using Newsstand or Weather can drain the battery. To avoid this, close the apps running in the background.

Watch this 1 min 47 sec video demonstration.

You can close any or all of the apps by again, double tapping the Home button to see, what Apples calls the multitasking screen. In iOS 7, you see each running app and a large screen of the app right where has been left off. Do a ONE [update] finger swipe upward to "throw the app off to close it. Don't worry, the apps won't be deleted.

This method works on all iOS 7 iPads, iPad Minis, iPhones and iPod Touches.

 

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iPad Tip: Save Battery by Stopping Apps Running in the Background [iOS 6 and earlier]

The iPad (iPhone and iPod Touch) leaves apps in the background when you choose a new one. You can see these apps by double-taping the Home button. What you may not know is while most of these apps just sit there waiting for you to return to them, others are running and drain your battery a little faster than normal.

Apps that use GPS and your location, music playing apps, Internet phone apps like Skype and apps using Newsstand can drain the battery. To avoid this, close the apps running in the background.

Watch this short, 2 minute and 43 second  video demonstration.

 

You can close any or all of the apps by again, double tapping the Home button and then do a long press on one to get them to jiggle. Tap the red circle with the horizontal white line to stop the apps. Don't worry, the apps won't be deleted as this only occurs when the icons jiggle from the main screen.

This tip works for the iPhone, iPad Mini and iPod Touch too.

Google Keep is my New To Do List of Choice. Here's Why.

I wrote a brief review of Google Keep a while back and gave it high marks but it wasn't ready to replace Any.Do as my to do list app. However, things have changed. Google has just updated its FREE To Do List app with the ability to add very fancy reminders.

 

 

 

Not only is Google Keep easy to see, easy to enter quick lists but now it has alarms to remind me to get those things done. Not just any alarm though. You can set an alarm based on where you are. Doesn't this situation happen to you. You are out and about and get home and remember that you had to get to Home Depot for some items and you drove right by them. Google Keep's new alarm will sound off when you drive by Home Depot. Actually, you choose a location based alarm right on your list. But wait, there's more...

 I can include a photo or photos on my list. My Home Depot list includes pictures of plants I need for my yard. My wife liked some jewelry so I took a picture to remind me at Christmas time. The sky's the limit for lists now.

 

Google Keep's  cards are very easy to create. Just tap, type or say what I want. Then tape Done.

 

Google Keeps card style is so elegantly clean, my poor eyesight doesn't hinder me to read the cards. Hard to admit but Google Keep reminds me of an iPhone looking app. Freaky.

 

Oh, did I say that Google Keeps is FREE but only for Android. There are two apps for iOS called App for Google Keep but not produced by Google. One is a FREE version while the other is $1.99. I tried the free version and it doesn't stack up and don't recommend it. While Google produce a version for iOS? We'll see.
 

 

Like I said, I reviewed Google Keep when it first came out and I liked it but went back to my previous favorite Any.Do. But now I believe I have a new favorite. The only possible problem is that there isn't an iOS version. I love that I have my To Do List on both my Android phone as well as my iPad. For now, I'm going to use the browser for Google Keep on the iPad.

 

Google Keep is available for Android, Chrome and on any web browser and it's FREE.