Often times I want the applications on my devices to do something they don’t do. When I remember that there is probably someone else who wants that too and I go look for it, I usually find it. Recently I wanted a calendar with different functionality than the calendar that is part of the iPad. I also saw a commercial where they had a camera that takes pictures when you tell it to. So I went looking in the iTunes store and found two applications that I like.
The iPad has a calendar program built into it. I like it because it allows you to set appointments/events/reminders. You can even set an alarm to remind you. You can also type in things as events or appointments and have them “recur”, ya know standard electronic calendar stuff. I wanted to be able to easily mark something, as I would on a paper calendar. I wanted to just make a check or a mark. I didn’t want to have to go in and create an appointment/event. Especially since I found myself splitting the thing I was marking down. Let me explain. This past month I had a Multiple Planks In A Day Challenge going on. The idea was to do three planks a day. Sometimes I would do all three at once, but sometimes I would split them up. So I might get up in the morning and do one. Then have to go teach a Nia class and come back later that day and do the remaining two. I wanted a calendar I could just mark a “1” on. Then when I completed my three I could either change the one to a three or a check mark.
I found “A 2013 Planner” by Unidocs. It is pretty cool. I haven’t even really begun to use all that it does. For now I was just making Xs, checks, and numbers on it. But a glimpse at the other features makes me think it is pretty useful. You can write on it or you can type text on it. You can view it as an annual planner, a monthly planner, weekly planner, or a daily planner. It really is like an appointment book planner, but on the iPad. You can also include pictures in it if you would like. It seems as if it can pretty much document anything. I was just excited to find an app that I could easily notate on the calendar like a real calendar. As I learn more about it, I can always share.
On to app two: There is a commercial, I don’t even know what the commercial is for. There are so many commercials like that now-a-days they are so busy being artsy I miss what the product is that they are actually advertising. But in it there is a guy that says, “Shoot!” and his camera takes a picture. So I thought, “There HAS to be an app for that!” And there is. It is called Vapp. And it is nice because you set the sensitivity of the voice response. So if you are in a heavy metal concert you set the sensitivity to HIGH so it won’t go off with every noise. Then if you are in a quiet setting you set it at a low sensitivity so that if you just whisper it will take a picture. So you can use this when you are trying to take a picture of yourself in a group or if you need to take a picture hands free. It also has a timer, which times AFTER you tell it to take a picture. It is pretty cool.
Since there are so many applications out there it is pretty easy to find ones that do what you want for free. I think I have only purchased two or three applications.
This is also the last day of the Multiple Planks In A Day Challenge. As you can see by my planner, I missed a few days (the BIG X) and on one day I only managed to do one. But I am satisfied with what I did. Sometimes you start something, like a challenge, and things come up and then it really becomes a challenge to keep on doing what you started. But then it feels good when you get it done.
There are a lot of challenges out there and there are a lot of applications. I like to share when I find ones that I think are cool.
Do you ever want the easy of a quick check mark on your calendar? Don’t you think that having a voice activated camera is cool? Do you have any applications that you would like to share?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 