WordPress for iPad gets a much needed update

WordPress for iPad has an update that was very much needed. It adds basic functions that should have been in the app in the first place. You can now finally add a link with out having to type in the HTML code for it.

They also have bold and other editing features. These are welcomed but I’d still like to see the option to pick social networks, change the URL that is displayed and put a personal insert for rss feeds. Also when you upload a picture; it would be nice if it were not sent to the end of the page every time.

As it stands now I use the app than end up going to the web to finish any post that I was working on. We can’t tell you how many drafts and pending reviews there are right now, but it’s a lot. iBlogger was an option but the app crashes from time to time without any warning. I once lost a very good post because of a crash. That is one thing I can say about WordPress it is very stable.

App Review: Book Creator for iPad

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The app Book Creator for iPad comes highly recommend by our readers. So we thought it would be a good idea to get a hold of the developer for a little 1 on 1. For those that have not heard about this great app; 1st what? 2nd we will explain.

Book Creator for iPad is the simple way to create your own beautiful iBooks, right on the iPad. Read them in iBooks, send them to your friends, or submit them to the iBookstore. Ideal for children’s picture books, photo books, art books, cook books, manuals, textbooks, and the list goes on.

FEATURES

* Quickly add pictures from the Photos app, or grab them from the web, then move and resize them with your fingers.
* Edit text using the onscreen keyboard, and apply rich formatting to make it look great.
* Choose from all of the iPad’s fonts – over 50 to use.
* Layout your book exactly as you want it with guidelines and snap positioning.
* A quick tap and you’re reading your book in iBooks!
* Send your books to your friends over email, or sync using Dropbox.
* With your books created using the international ePub standard you know they will be readable now and in the future.
* Full support for iBooks’ fixed layout format, including double page images.

The developer and one man team over at Red Jumper Studio is the very talented Dan Amos. Here is what he had to say about the app and it’s future.

Where did the idea for the app come from?
From a trip to the London Book Fair with my wife, a YA novelist. We were struck at still have prohibitively expensive and complex it is to produce a good quality e-book.

How many developers worked on the app?
Just myself.

Will the app be on other platforms?
Perhaps Amazon’s tablet – let’s see when it arrives!

What are the future plans for the app?
I’ve had fantastic feedback from users of the app and I have a long list of requests.
Next up will be adding support for audio and video to your iBooks, along with rounding out the text and image formatting tools.

What sets your app apart from the others out there?
It’s the only tool that enables you to create fixed layout iBooks, and with its simple and intuitive interface anyone can do it!

Company Questions: How did the company come together?
Red Jumper Studio was started after leaving my role at Nokia as a Product Manager for their digital music service and the N9 device. For me this is a great opportunity to work in a fast lean way, involving my customers directly in the product’s future.

How many developers do you have not counting contracted sources?
Just myself.

What can we expect next from your talented team?

Making Book Creator the best app it can be!

Pro: Book Creator for iPad is the simple way to create your own beautiful iBooks, right on the iPad. There could not be any easier way to self publish a book at the moment.

Con: The only con I have is crashes sometimes when you try to open a created book  in iBooks. It seems to be an issue with iOS 5. There was no issue with my other iOS 4 iPad 2. I am sure this will be fixed by the release of iOS 5 to the public.

Cost: $6.99

Aye/Nay: This is a Aye. This is a great program. One of those that make you wonder “why did I not think of this?”  $7 worth it.

iTunes Link: Book Creator for iPad

Google getting ready to become wireless carrier?

Google may be preparing to take its mobile world again. They seem to be testing a Google-branded MVNO in Spain. Officially it’s unconfirmed but reports along with photos of a Google SIM card and a Nexus S running on a “Google_Es” network suggest that Google is thinking about becoming a Mobile Virtual Network Operator. It always does with Google Voice anyway. This would just be one more step. They would be a company that provides cellular service by leasing capacity from existing wireless carriers and piggybacking on their networks. The pictures are of are of Google Spain employees that got SIMS for testing.

If they do go all out with this plan that we in the tech world are all speculating on; then a Google-branded MVNO  along with Google Voice integration and add to that all the Android devices  out there. It would be a very big conflict of interest and also would make Apples closed system look wide open. Let us not forget about the Motorola  deal. This all put together would give Google great amounts of control over the user experience.  The thing is I like Google’s control systems. They still let you do what you want for the most part.

Scientists Turn Brain’s Visual Memories into a Video

The left clip is a segment of the movie that the subject viewed while in the magnet. The right clip shows the reconstruction of this movie from brain activity measured using fMRI. The reconstruction was obtained using only each subject’s brain activity and a library of 18 million seconds of random YouTube video. (In brief, the algorithm processes each of the 18 million clips through the brain model, and identifies the clips that would have produced brain activity as similar to the measured brain activity as possible.

The clips used to fit the model, those used to test the model and those used to reconstruct the stimulus were entirely separate.) Brain activity was sampled every one second, and each one-second section of the viewed movie was reconstructed separately.

The new Facebook Timeline: In Pictures

How to use Facebook’s new Timeline feature right now

A few things to know ahead of time.

• It worked for me and others.
• This workaround is for power users (many bugs)
• Only you will see your timeline at first unless you change the settings.
• If you log in into Facebook on somewhere else you can get back to your timeline by going to http://www.facebook.com/YOURUSERNAMEHERE?sk=timeline
• You’ll need to have a “verified” account for one of the steps, which should just be a phone number attached to the account.

Still want to try it? Here’s how to do it:

1. Log into Facebook

2. Enable developer mode, if you haven’t already. To do this, type “developer” into the search box, click the first result (it should be an app made by Facebook with a few hundred thousand users), and add the app.

3. Jump into the developer app (if Facebook doesn’t put you there automatically, it should be in your left-hand tool bar)

4. Create a new app. Give your shiny new app any display name and namespace you see fit. Read through and agree to the Platform Privacy agreement. This is the step you need to be verified for.

5. Ensure you’re in your new app’s main settings screen. You should see your app’s name near the top of the page

6. Look for the “Open Graph” header, and click the “Get Started using open graph” link. Create a test action for your app.

7. This should drop you into an action type configuration page. Change a few of the default settings (I changed the past tense of “read” to “redd” — again, only you can see this unless you try and submit your application to the public directory), and click through all three pages of settings

8. Wait 2-3 minutes

9. Go back to your Facebook homescreen. An invite to try Timeline should be waiting at the top of the page. Thanks Cnet

Final Product: