SkyView @Appattack

✤ Hello All! ✤

I have been procrastinating big time in my reality called home.  Obviously it has leaked into this virtual world of blogging.  Sorry about the silence.

To be fair (and so you're not mad at only me) my bloggers that I follow have been slacking as well.  Hannah-hoo point and case.  :)

The above blogger Hannah wrote a list of why she was wasn't blogging.  I believe such a list, in my case would be uber boring.  If I were to write a list it would likely include; Doctor Who season 5 (don't be hate'n on BBC), gardening (enforced by mom), and the weather climbing up to 70-80 drawing my pasty self outside.

I also have to make an apology, my promise hasn't been kept.  My whole "2 blogs reviewing apps per month" just flopped.   On Feb 25, (in my defense) I did start a draft of an app review, but it ended nowhere.

So to appese my app-loving buddies I went looking for new apps.

Introducing...

My new favorite app!!!

SkyView

☆☆☆

This astronomy app is incredible.

Discovery story:  This week (esp. March 15th) Venus and Jupiter are lighting up the sky with a really cool conjunction!  I walked out on my deck (thanks to the 82 degree weather) and saw two really bright stars.  I knew that when I see a extremely bright star that its usually Venus, but I wondered what the other twinkling object was.  Looking under Top Free apps this week I found SkyView.  

Let me show you what it does.

1. Launch the app and it will open up your camera.

It checks your location and shows where the stars are.

(See my lake in the photo below?)

2. Turn around and you get a "bubble view" of the stars.

I walked in the house so I could see different satellites. 

SkyView not only shows stars, but planets, satellite, space stations, the sun, and the moon.

The Planet's path lights up in orange showing you where it will be.

The Star's constellations are drawn in so you know what's what.

There is my conjunction of Venus and Jupiter!!! 

Currently above my ceiling... 

The Big dipper!!!

I was having such fun making Saturn land on my brother's head.

The boy was studiously doing homework... completely oblivious. :)

This is the best app for the beginning stargazer 

Now go, and wish upon those stars!

☆☆☆

TurboScan App

Tap that app #2: Scanning App 

Here was my need:

    For my Lit. class, I had drawn a graph showing the progressing plot of the novel we were reading.  My teacher needed the paper on our Wiggio group (Online website that helps our class see each other's papers, and comment/edit as necessary).
    The problem was... how was I going to get my graph onto my computer?  I could scan my paper with my printer onto the computer, but the end result is always grainy and I have only used scan once or twice in my life (I am too young to have experience in faxing).  If I had been smart I would have just made the graph on a Word or Pages document, but I am still really slow at adding graphs and I didn't have the time.   I was tapping through the App store when I came across something called a scanning app.

For me, time is key.  If something can save me time in school so I can move onto the next subject well Hallelujah!

TurboScan

      Basically, the scanning app takes a photo of your document with your camera, you edit what it will look like, and it changes the photo to a PDF, PGN, or JPEG file.  Voilá!  You can choose to save the new file to your phone, or e-mail it right then.   TurboScan, and other fancy versions can also send files to several different online storage sites such as; Evernote, iDisk, Mobile Me, Box.Net, Humyo, and GoogleDocs.



I have tested my scanning app, and it has passed.  This is a keeper!

Here you can tell I just scanned notebook paper.
You can choose to make the scan black and white,
or keep the original color.

This was a hard test for the scanner app, and TurboScan passed.
Here is a really (obviously) old document in business card form,
it also was laminated.  Besides the camera flash covering "American"
the scan was great. 

Ok, here is a book cover I scanned.  The color as you see,
is very altered even missing in some places.
The scanning app is designed for text but I will say in
black and white this scan wasn't half bad.

Just a photo I took with my camera to show what the cover actually looked like.

Different items you can scan are; Documents, Business cards, Receipts, Notes, and White boards.


     There are many different scanning apps out there on the market, some are free and others -from what I've seen- range from about $2.99-$6.99 and for many there is an option to choose free and upgrade later if you like using the app.  Here I've listed a few.

Paid:
Scanner Pro
JotNot Scanner Pro
ScanBizCards
TurboScan (that's mine)

Free
Scan Pages
Genius Scan
JotNot Scanner (This can be upgraded to JotNot Scanner Pro)



My Paper was scanned, and e-mailed to my teacher in moments.  Time saver!

No, the above was not my whole paper.  The rest could be typed up.

Let me know if you have an app you want a review for!

Tap that App!

App Store!

Apps are quickly becoming an everyday part of life.  The number of users go up, the number of developers go up, the amount of profit goes up... this reminds me Direct Variation that I need to be working on in Math... rats.  Anyway, it doesn't take a genius to know that consumers will be needing reliable sources to check on the APPtitude if they are paying or even using memory.

I received an iPhone 4s last year for my Birthday/Christmas/I paid for part, and it has been so useful and a really fun toy!  (I'm sure I must be overloading Siri's cloudy memory)
The first time I tapped on the app widget I was overwhelmed and felt way out of my league!

A pimple popper? Seriously??? (P.S.  It had many bad reviews)

So I had to swallow my pride and ask my younger brother (who bought an iPad 2) for help.  I soon became familiar with how to use the search function, history, reviews and more.  My brother's rule of thumb is not to get a FREE app if it has under 200 reviews or less then 4 stars.   I am not that strict!  I like to live dangerously :)  I will add new apps just to try it out.

Note: searching "app" is pointless.

So my goal this new year is; two times a month (or possibly more)  I will write a blog post on current apps and the stats.

For January I'll start with my recent find:

SoundHound

I have had soo much fun with this helpful music search!  You can type the artist or band and it will pull up the song for you... normal right?  Well SoundHound also has an option recording your voice singing a few lines of a song that you can't remember.  It searches with your audio clip, and finds the song!!!  Not only can you listen to the song you couldn't remember, it has the lyrics to most of the songs!  It also has other songs from that artist and videos.

(sorry, I'm just a bit giddy about finding this.)  :)

Tell me what apps have been useful to you!