Tweetdeck - Desktop Twitter Client Review

Tweetdeck has long been one of the most popular Twitter clients on the iPhone and iPad - new client apps for these two devices are being re-written from the ground up and coming soon, according to the web site.  It has variants available for Android and Chrome, and is currently beta-testing a web-based client.  On top of all of these versions, one of the most-requested releases is now a reality - Tweetdeck for Desktops.

Tweetdeck's greatest strength is its ability to organize tweets and other social messages into groups and display them as columns, bringing some structure to the stream-of-consciousness that is Twitter.  These columns can be based on groups of people you follow, searches, or filters.  With the added screen real estate of a desktop, Tweetdeck becomes that much more powerful.  Beyond just centralizing and organizing your Twitter feed (or feeds if you have multiple accounts), it also allows you to integrate Facebook status messages, FourSquare Check-ins, LinkedIn, Google Buzz and more.

SoundNote - iPad App of the Week

SoundNote is an outstanding note-taking app for the iPad. It has a similar, intuitive interface to Apple's Journal App, but adds many capabilities.

As the name implies, one of SoundNote's greatest features is to capture audio as you are taking notes. It also syncs your written notes to the audio, so that when you review your notes, you can select the audio portion that goes along with each written note. This is extremely powerful, and useful for meeting notes and minutes, recording lectures, and capturing presentations. It is ideal for interviews, as well.

SoundNote also adds the ability to make simple sketches within notes, and the complete note, audio and sketches can be e-mailed or sync to your desktop.

Like Journal, each note page has a title, and you can scroll through these. There is also a search function which is very useful.

SoundHound is available from the Apple App Store for a very reasonable $4.99 - you'll have your money's worth after just a couple of uses. Give it a try!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/soundnote/id364789577

Angry Birds Playable Birthday Cake!

Some very devoted parents built this for their son's birthday - very cool! You can almost hear the pigs snickering when he misses.

Beautifully drawn Angry Birds by Shane “Das Chupa” Parker.

Flipboard - iPad App of the Week

Flipboard is an app for the iPad that pulls information from your social networking feeds, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as your favorite news web sites, and assembles them into a custom "magazine" on your iPad. The magazine is a very readable format, and allows to to "click through" to the original article, or to follow links. It's very easy to set up and you'll find that oncce you have your content set, it will become your favorite place to read your social networking updates as well as your news.

Even if you don't take my word for it, Apple named it "App of the Year" and Time magazine called it one of the Top Innovations of 2010. Most importantly, MC Hammer appeared on Oprah to promote Flipboard last week, so you know its 2 Legit.

And it's free!

Check it out: http://ax.itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipboard/id358801284?mt=8

OneNote for the iPhone and iPad at Last!

If there is one application I can't live without, it's Microsoft OneNote.  I started using it on the Tablet PC, and it has become a central repository for my meeting notes, to-do lists, reference materials, and any other information that I want to collect.  The search functions make it easy to find things, and the tagging system allows tasks to be categorized and associated with events in Outlook.  Everything was great in OneNote Land until I got my iPad.

There is no more natural application for the iPad than OneNote, and for my first couple of weeks with the iPad, I looked everywhere for a substitute.  While a lot of people love EverNote, the interface just didn't click with me.  MobileNoter allowed the viewing of OneNote content, but entry and syncing just wasn't there the way I wanted it.  A couple of weeks ago, with no warning, Microsoft released this app and I found my prayers answered.

OneNote for IOS is mainly a OneNote viewer, but you can create new notes and to-do lists, update existing ones and organize your notebooks on Windows Live.  Some new features have been added - you can add pictures from your camera roll (or screenshots).  It's the closest thing yet to the full OneNote experience on an Apple device.

There are a couple of catches.  First off, it's an iPhone App, which could be seen as an advantage since it works on both platforms, but the display when zoomed in to fill the iPad screen is a little pixelated.  Also, you are required to publish your OneNote notebooks to Windows Live in order to access them.  Again, this could be seen as a positive, having your information available in the cloud, on your iPhone, your iPad and through Microsoft Office Live's web interface.  There are a few limitations on content - embedded files cannnot be accessed, although images show up fine.  There is no handwriting interface, one of OneNote's key features on the PC, but the iPhone and iPad aren't built for a pen interface, so this is to be expected.  I would love to see an iPad specific version which uses the full resolution available and maybe even lets you doodle or sketch.

If you use OneNote on the PC - you need this app.  If you don't use OneNote, you need to start!

If you are not sold already - it's FREE for a "limited time"!  Get it at the App Store:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onenote/id410395246?mt=8

Any Video Converter - The Free and Easy Way to Convert Video Formats

Occasionally, I find myself with a video in an inconvenient format - a .mkv file that I want to load onto my iPad, a high-res clip that I want to upload for web streaming, or an .avi file that I want to burn to DVD. I have used many different utilities over the years, some high-priced and feature-laden, but I have finally come across the most straight-forward application for this, and the best part is, it's free! Any Video Converter can be used very simply - select the file you want to convert, then the format you would like to output - anything from mobile-phone appropriate format to Flash or DVD's. If you want to, you can drill down into the deeper settings, choosing audio formats, quality levels, video size, etc.

It even includes basic editing features, so if you want to pull out a clip or two and assemble them into a new montage, it's as easy as dragging and dropping.

You can download the latest version for Windows from here:
http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

iPad App of the Week - Harbor Master HD

It's hypnotic, it's relaxing, it's challenging, and it's free!

You need to give this one a try. It is the perfect use of the iPad interface, guding ships to docks to unload their cargo. The HD version, iPad only, allows for in-game purchases of additional game maps - I got one which adds the challenge of The Kraken pulling your ships to a watery death (the one it comes with is fun and challenging enough to keep you going for hours or months), and you have the option of purchasing "rewinds" which allow you to turn back time if you get in trouble. You can also earn rewinds just by playing, so I think of purchasing them as cheating, but I won't hold it against you if you buy some - hopefully it will encourage Imangi Studios to develop more great games like this.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/harbor-master-hd/id363658120?mt=8