This was when I started to use my Google Calendar pretty hardcore. Like, every day pretty much. While I eventually got out of the habit of using it on my iPhone all together, once I got my iPad I knew that I’d get right back into the saddle, needing to have my updated calendar with me at all times, and most importantly, being able to update my Calendar on the go.

So, I started to use the built-in Calendar App. While it worked just fine, I really found the interaction with the software to be… almost annoying. I know that it seems like a bit anal to say, but not having the ability to swipe from month to month was the straw that broke my back into seeking out and trying SaiSuke for the iPad. I needed to see if there was a better way! I’d been so impressed with SaiSuke for iPhone I was overjoyed (and not too surprised) that they made SaiSuke for iPad.

I’m going to try to be fair in my review here, but this might just end up being a post explaining why SaiSuke is better at everything.

A few things I should mention first. One. SaiSuke is only for Google Calendar Users, so you need to be using Google Calendars (if you use iCal or Outlook or whatever, you can sync with Google Calendar and then use SaiSuke this way, see the Google Calendar Help for more info on Syncing.).

Secondly, this is a very detailed review, and I’m trying to cover nearly all aspects of using the Apps, however if I miss something, or if you have a question about a specific feature I didn’t detail or procedure I failed to mention, please feel free to comment. I’ll reply with as many details as I can muster.

Here goes:

Syncing your Calendars

Well, first thing is always first, right, you want to get your Google Calendars up into the Apps.

To import your Google Calendar into the Calendar App, you’ll have to run Google CalDAV set up within your device As Outlined Here. Now, keep in mind that because of this I had to change the way that my eMail was imported, too. No biggie. ***However after setting this up you’ll actually also have to activate Google Sync for each additional Calendars, other than your default, on your Google Account to have them show up, too. (Pay close attention to the bottom text of the link above, otherwise you’ll get lost.) There are other methods to import your Calendar, but this is the most reliable and efficient.

The benefit of this over SaiSuke is Push notifications for new events. They literally show up like, instantly.

For SaiSuke, you simply fill out your Google Login information in the settings and configure from within the App which calendars you want to show. Done and Done. You won’t get push notifications, but you can sync whenever you want. (There are specific settings in regards to this I’ll cover later).

A Note About Apps Accounts
Both Calendar and SaiSuke worth with Google Apps accounts (if you don’t know what this is, don’t worry you don’t have one). However, Calendar allows you to import several calendars from several accounts, including Apps Accounts (as long as Google Sync CalDAV is enabled via the admin). SaiSuke allows you to only log in to one Google Account at a time.

Viewing Your Calendars

(Click on the screenshots in this review to see them Full-Sized.)

There is one drawback to SaiSuke on this view. It doesn’t show the start time of each of your events on the Month-Calendar. Instead you need to select a day to see the full schedule for that day. This doesn’t bother me personally, but would like to see that changed in future.

However, what it does do that Calendar doesn’t is show overlap-day events on both days. You’ll see above that my “work” schedule on Calendar only shows up 8pm Mon-Wed. On Saisuke it shows it’s actual time 8pm-6:30am on two dates Mon-Thurs. I prefer this. Some might not.

To get details about specific events on this page you need to click on the items, in both Apps. Calendars shows you the time of the event only, while Saisuke gives you full details. See below:

Day View

This is the second most common way I view my events. I’ll simply show you the difference between the two and you can judge which you prefer (keep in mind I did click on the event for more details – so minus the pop-up on both Apps for the regular Day View).

I am going to say this one thing: SaiSuke automatically provides a link for any address that’s included in the details of the event. Super. Helpful.

List View

Again, just have a look at the difference here.. you let me know which you prefer.

This is the view without the “edit/details” popup for both.
Can someone explain to me the benefit of having my events show up twice with the Calendar App?
For both the Day and List view, they think I need to have them show me the information twice on the same page?

Finally, and I cannot stress this enough. On each view in SaiSuke you can swipe sideways to go to the next month, week, day, whatever. A feature that is lacking on Calendar, and one that makes navigating this App a dream compared to Calendar. This feature alone is worth the extra money for me, but of course there is more:

Adding/Editing Events

You can add events from any view within both Apps. I mostly use my calendars in Month View, so I’ll proceed with the rest of this review that way, probably.

Calendar is stupid, because you cannot tell which day you have selected unless you have a particular EVENT selected. It should highlight whatever day you’ve selected, this is basic stuff. In any case, adding an event in Calendar looks like this:

SaiSuke has a sort of Quick-Add feature where you can choose the date/time and event info without having to type anything. However if you want to add details, you can, here’s how that looks:

Have a previous event that you want to copy? SaiSuke has you covered. You may have noticed on the Details PopUp when you view an event in Month/Day view hat there is a ‘Copy’ button. Simply choose this with any event, and choose your new date, hit ‘Paste’ and all the same details will be used again. This is of course different than the Repeat option, which is also available on both.

Pretty simple stuff, both do what they should – while SaiSuke has event ‘Types’, and the Copy feature, it’s the only real benefit over Calendar. Other than the fact that on Calendar you can only set events on the fives of the hours (9:05, 9:10, 9:15, etc), whereas in SaiSuke you can simply choose any ol’ time you want (9:01, 9:27, etc).

Notifications

While this might not be a feature that everyone uses, I still need to mention it. Calendar has the option to add an alert for events. Its a popup and alert beep on your iPad to let you know your event is coming up.

Within Saisuke you can choose alerts too, but you can select the Popup, an Email or Text Message. Which is obviously because Google Calendars offers this. Still, far superior, don’t you think?

What SaiSuke’s got the Calendar Doesn’t.

This is where SaiSuke Shines. Settings Galore. Instead of walking you through each of them I’ll just give you a preview of the Menus:

And that last one being most important. Sync Settings. This is where it is OK that SaiSuke doesn’t have push. Not only can you sync manually from every page within the App, but you can set up your own details for auto-sync – and you can do so for Each Calendar Separately. If you only want to have one-way (Google>iPad) Sync on one of your calendars, you can do that, or the other way around. If you only want to sync your work calendar once a week – you can do that. It’s completely customizable.

So, while it was obvious going into it that I prefer SaiSuke, I hope this gives you an insight into the benefits, at least, of buying a Google Calendar App. The interaction alone with the App is worth some dollars, and all the additional superior layout, design, features and customization is what makes SaiSuke one of the best iPad Apps for productivity, and totally worth the $9.99.

The only feature I wish that were on both, or any calendar App for that matter, is the ability to sync in my Google Tasks. For the meantime however, I feel like the Memo section pretty much takes care of this on SaiSuke and I’ll be singing its praises for a while to come.

If you’ve come across a great Google Calendar App, or if you have any questions about SaiSuke, drop me a line here! I’m always on the prowl for suggestions!

Well, it is cool. It’s supercool.

For the mechanics of drawing you have 35 different brushes to choose from, ranging in shapes – however you also have the option to customize the spacing of the brush shapes, from 1-20px, in my experience this pretty much determines the ‘Brightness’ of your brush. While the size, from 5-128px, well, that’s size :)

There are 11 preset colours, however you can choose literally any color from the rainbow wheel, and at any brightness too. Which, given enough time and talent, means that the possibilities for fantastic glow-style art are unlimited!

You can share via Facebook, Email and upload to Flickr right from within the App (however, I do have to say that it uploaded my photo to Facebook upside-down and flipped horizontally, and I’m not sure why). The tracking is great, a very important part of touch-draw Apps. And I really am constantly impressed by the glow effect – which looks stunning on the iPad but only slightly less so once exported to jpg.

For the time being, I’m absolutely addicted to doodling on this thing. If you can catch it while it’s still free, I highly recommended it. I do not know what the regular price will be, but I’d be willing to pay up to $1.99 for this App.

Here are a few examples of what I’ve made:
(Please click on them to see full-size, they’re much better that way)

Self Portrait

I call this one Troll Baby Flower:

Bright Angel:

The Time Vortex: (For all you Doctor Who Fans out there)

and my favorite Far Away Earth:

Perhaps more importantly, am I creating these posts because I genuinely want to share these articles and/or feature these blogs, or am I simply doing it for Content?

I started thinking about this because of an article I read on Matt Gemmell’s Blog (which I’ve been reading obsessively ever since the ‘Your App’s Website Sucks’ article);

Sharable Experiences
It’s verbose, so here’s the td;dr – social media integration is overblown, it’s not enough to be able to share, it’s being worthy of being shared.

I make no illusions to the fact that I know people aren’t swapping my url around on twitter or Facebook much, while I am a content creator, I also see myself as a content sharer. I’m sharing my opinions, lots of people do, and sometimes when I find another persons opinion that I like, or think is interesting, I want to share that with others.

Not unlike how I did just a second ago with that article that is about this very topic. Oh, Meta.

In any case, there are a million trillion websites that are dedicated to what I apparently want to do once a week or so: share with my readers what I’ve read and liked. So, I think I won’t make individual posts anymore rounding up news articles. If there’s something interesting enough to warrant me writing about, I’ll just dedicate an entire post to it.

But I still want to share awesome articles. So here’s how:
Visit and Subscribe to my Google Reader Feed

I’ll probably be updating it a couple times a week, with interesting or fun articles I’ve found online. Now, this is my personal account, so like my Twitter you’ll sometimes find non-iPhone related stuff, but, honestly, for the most part that’s all I like.

Click Here to Subscribe

Want to tell someone about the News Feed?
Just Click to Tweet This:
“iPhoneAppGirl (@ChantelleJoytwt)’s Shared News Feed http://bit.ly/CJoyGR”

I’ll be updating this probably several times weekly, highlighting my favorite articles from around the web. Enjoy!

Read the Blog Entry explaining why I made the change.

All of a sudden there was a flurry of news about Pulse, the RSS reader that Steve Jobs had used during his iPad demo, and the NY Times fallout therein. Pulse was brought to my attention and I was more than intrigued, “I must try this” I said to myself. And then then said it in email form to the good folks at Alphonzo Labs and they graced me with a promo code.

Unfortunately I couldn’t just dive-in, as Pulse was still very much a work in progress, and did not yet have two of the most important features I need in an RSS App – Google Reader support and offline caching. The second was particularly important to me on the iPad as I have a wifi only version. So i waited patiently for the next update, which promised these features.

In the meantime I was simply itching to try the iPad version of the iPhone App that won the original search into the ideal RSS reader for me – Mobile RSS, who launched their own iPad App, a bigger ‘HD’ version even. However getting in touch with the developers turned into a harrowing experience eventually i did get in touch with them and they were gracious enough to also provide me with a promo copy.

Pulse was updated, boasting of my long awaited favorite features, and the showdown could begin.

(How’s THAT for a preamble to an App Review!)

For the record I did try a couple other Reader Apps, but none came close to being a good as these two, for me. So while you might love Feedler, or NetnewsWire or what have you, I simply didn’t. These are my two top picks, and I’ll tell you why:

Reading

The most important feature of any RSS Reader is the ease and comfort of actually reading your articles. Pulse wins at this. It was specifically designed by people who obviously know how people use the iPad, and how important layout and comfort work together to make a great reading experience. While MobileRSS is just fine I prefer the One-Stop-Shopping as it were of Pulse, having all of my feeds on the left and my current article on the right. With that said – MobileRSS has the built-in ability to flick-scroll between articles from within the article, and I really love that too – so it makes it a much better reading experience in Portrait, while in Pulse you need to bring up your current feed menu to choose the next article.

Winner: Pulse (Landscape), MobileRSS (Portrait).

Subscribing to Feeds

I suppose I’ve always taken for granted that I use Google Reader. I just assume everybody does. However if you don’t then, clearly, Pulse is better for you. While, yes, Pulse did recently add the ability to import your Google Reader Feeds (individually mind you), it’s by and large for users who subscribe to independent feeds – and it makes searching for, finding, and subscribing to feeds super easy with built-in Search. It’s a fantastic stand-alone reader/subscriber. You simply do not have the option to add new feeds from within MobileRSS.

Winner: Pulse.

Google Reader Integration

MobileRSS is, by definition, a Google Reader App, and it’s great at that. Not only does it import and sync all your feeds, it also keeps them categorized by your folders, Giving you the ablity to read an entire folder, or just one feed. It also imports your “Who you’re Following” Folder so you can read your friend’s shared feed items on the go. Pulse only adds your feeds individually and the Google integration ends there.

Winner: MobileRSS

Sharing

Half the fun of reading is sharing, I think everyone can agree. While lots of Apps add Social Media Integration for the sake of Social Media Integration I think that it’s always going to be a necessary component of RSS readers because if the nature of the content itself. It’s simply Sharable.

When it comes to articles Pulse lets you Post to Twitter, Facebook, Email or Instapaper. But that’s not exactly where it’s sharing features end.. if you have Bump you can share your RSS feeds with another iPhone/iPad user via Bump and vise versa.

MobileRSS has a lot more built-in sharing options for your articles, including all of the ones Pulse has, I’ll let you see from the screenshot below, but it’s very unlikely that you’ll be without the ability to post to whatever Social Media site you prefer. In addition, you can always add anything to your Google Reader Shared Feed, which, again is another huge draw for Google Reader users.

Winner: MobileRSS

Now comes the deal-breaker feature for me. While it was important on the iPhone, it’s simply imperative on my wifi only iPad (and I think lots of you who are in the same boat as me will agree);

Offline Reading/Caching

For those of us with wifi only iPads, saving my feeds to read on my daily commute to work is simply mandatory. The reason I’m writing this article now, and not two weeks ago when I first downloaded Pulse, is because I was waiting for its most recent update that claimed to include better offline caching of articles.

While, yes, yes it does cache the articles it does not do one thing, one very important thing (especially for my webcomic feeds). Cache Pictures. This is the exact same issue I came across when trying to find the perfect iPhone RSS reader and I couldn’t be more heartbroken by this. Sure, Pulse may not have the same sharablity factor that Mobile RSS does, but the layout/design and easy of readability was so impressive that I was really hoping to use this as my everyday RSS Reader. Sadly, Mobile RSS Has it beat.

MobileRSS loads and caches all unread articles, including pictures within the article.

Winner: MobileRSS

Cost
At $3.99 or $4.99 there really isn’t much of a difference here. While Pulse seems more like a polished product, and probably worth much more than $3.99, MobileRSS has won the Battle, so it’s really up to you at this point. No Winner.

Judgement

So, in the end, Pulse beautiful, wonderful and definitely one of the best RSS Readers on the market. If you have a 3G iPad and don’t need offline viewing – I highly recommend it. Especially if you subscribe to feeds directly, and want to be able to find & subscribe to feeds from within the App. Visit Alphonzo Labs website to see even more info (the company story is a fun one).

MobileRSS HD is The App for Google Reader users, and wifi only folks like myself. Not as elegant, but very useful, and full of sharing and social features. For now, it will remain my default RSS reader, but will keep you updated if that changes. Here is the link to the Nibiru Tech site.

I’m obviously emotionally invested in this App Category now. Let me know if you’ve tried out either of these, or if you have another option you think I should consider. Comment or Tweet me!

But since this guy was seriously enthusiastic about his App, and seemed to really want my opinion and the attention of my very limited viewership, I thought I’d try it out. I was also swayed in part by the already enthusiastic reviews that he has received on the App Store. And the fact that the App is only $0.99.

I was surprised that was impressed. This is pretty slick music App and offers something I neither thought would be necessary or appealing, the ability to scroll throughout parts of your songs in your music library, at determined intervals.

For example: you can set it up on random (or create an App specific playlist) and listen to 30 seconds of each song (starting from a random spot in the song) in succession. Hence, the DJ factor. Of course, you could always set it up as a regular music player, listening to your songs or create playlists, using the fade-in/out, but that would be boooring. Honestly, I don’t know how it does it but it almost always chooses the BEST sections of songs to play, it’s awesome. A little insight into my limited music library: it works AMAZINGLY with Lady Gaga songs.

I strongly suggest that anyone interested in trying out a new music app check this one out, you might be surprised how much fun it is to essentially create mashups of some of your favorite songs. Additionally, you can also post what song you’re listening to via Facebook or Twitter from within the App. One last feature of note is that it also displays your cover-art pretty great, if you have it.

The only feature that I wish this app had that it doesn’t is the ability to cross-fade. I don’t know if this is even possible but I think that it would make this App near perfect for me. I know I am going to continue to use this App for music while working out, it’s really really great for that. And hope against hope that the next update has cross-fade!

Check out the My DJ App Website or (My DJ Facebook Page & Twitter)
USA iTunes App Store & Canada iTunes App Store.

Follow me on Twitter – I’ll be giving away 1 Promo Code for My DJ on Tuesday July 13, 2010!

Now, about the App itself. Pretty simple, you’ve got your ‘Peg Holes’ and you’ve got your Six Colours and White pegs. You’ve got a big free canvas of ‘Peg Holes’ to go wild – or follow one of the Patterns, of which there are (as of yesterday’s update) 20. The Unicorn is my favorite.

It’s pretty strait forward from there. Work on your creations with the ‘Lights off’ and then once you’re done, Light it up – make it glow! You can also turn on “Colour Wave” for a rainbow effect.

There are only two drawbacks to this App;
1) Even my tiny girl fingers were a little to big to not repeatedly hit the wrong peg circle – I found this mildly frustrating, but eventually got the hang of it.
2) When you ‘save’ a template that you’re working on, and reload it the template itself is gone. A real shame, as I was half way through the most epic unicorn picture ever when I saved, and could not complete it.

Extra features include being able to email, Facebook and Twitpic your creations.

Bright Bright is only $1.99 – Totally Worth it if you ask me. It’s on both the US and Canadian App Store.

Ten One Showcases iPad Pressure Sensitivity Proof of Concept at PC World.
In case that article title isn’t specific enough for you, let me explain. This is about using a stylus and specifically written code to accept pressure sensitivity for writing on the iPad. A fantastic read, however is still just in Concept mode since it uses private APIs, which are not included in iOS4. I think this could have a million uses, especially for artists, so here’s hoping that Apple thinks to add pressure sensitivity to the Touch Screen soon!

(Article from a month ago that I didn’t manage to see until today):
Sydney restaurant replaces menus with iPads.
Australian restaurant writes its own App for use as a super-functional menu and ordering system. If nothing else, these guys are going to get more business based on the fact that they are awesome. Honestly, if Toronto had a restaurant that used iPads for the menus I’d go. And I *own* an iPad!

STARSS and Pulse News Reader for the iPad at MacWorld.
As I’m working on my own review for Pulse (still waiting on their Google Reader integration to not be broken), I really, really liked this article comparing two of the most flashy and popular RSS readers for the iPad. Stay tuned for my two cents.

iPad Challenge: Is it ready for the road at SFGate.
Although it might make me wince at times (knowing that the iPad is not perfect), this entire series is working out to be a great read. Part 1: iPad VS Laptop and Part 2: iPad VS Smartphone are already up as of writing this, the entire series will be done by Saturday. A worthy read for anyone yet undecided on getting an iPad.

Wired Updated iPad App & Reduced Price.
I’m still not entirely convinced as it’s still $4/mo – but I like that they are obviously open to tweaking and changing the App based on customers input. I’d keep an eye on this – hopefully if it’ll come down to $1 an issue and I’ll hop on it like wildfire.

Also in the News:
Hulu launched their iPad App this week. Since I can’t use it, I will not comment.
iAds launched this week – pick your news source, you’ve probably already read about it.

That’s it for this week.

Top apps lists are a dime a dozen, you’ll find best-of lists on practically any site that reviews apps, but today I bring you a list of apps that are the creams of the crops, the most popular and most powerful for photo editing. Seeing as how Photoshop Mobile is listed, you know the caliber is higher here.

These Apps were chosen as the most popular Apps as a part of the Adorama iPhone Contest.

I’m too lazy to paraphrase, so here’s a clip from the Press Release, but this information added by me.

Adorama (www.adorama.com), one of America’s premier photography and consumer electronics resellers, announces the winners of the first annual APPOS ™ – iPhone App Awards for Photography. The annual APPOS Awards are designed to spotlight the rapid rise in popularity of the iPhone as a new platform for digital point-and-shoot photography and to recognize developers of outstanding photo Apps.

The top 10 winning Apps were selected from among the most frequently used Apps in more than 17,000 images submitted into Adorama’s first annual iPhone Photography Contest. The winning Apps, available on the App Store at iTunes, are:

* Photoshop.com Mobile (Free, no iPad)
* CameraBag ($1.99 on iPhone, $2.99 on iPad)
* Best Camera ($2.99, no iPad)
* Photogene ($1.99, no iPad)
* TiltShift Generator – Fake Miniature ($0.99, no iPad)
* ShakeItPhoto (Free Version, or $0.99, no iPad)
* Hipstamatic ($1.99, no iPad)
* PhotoForge ($2.99 for iPhone, $4.99 for iPad)
* Lo-Mob ($1.99, no iPad)
* Photo fx. ($2.99 for iPhone, ‘Ultra’ $5.99 for iPad)

“Adorama’s first ever APPOS Photo App Awards not only honor software applications and their talented developers, it highlights the endless creative possibilities of using an iPhone as a point-and-shoot camera,” said Ahron Schachter, Adorama spokesperson. “The way users have embraced photo Apps to apply creative enhancements to their photography underscores the widespread acceptance of the mobile imaging platform as a worthwhile photographic tool for sharing images.”

With more than 2,000 photography-related Apps in the Apple iTunes App Store for photography, iPhone owners are using this software on their phones to expand and creatively explore photography in ways not even imaginable on a standard point-and-shoot camera, no less a cellphone camera. These Apps (software programs that load on an iPhone or iPod Touch) are turning the iPhone into a very powerful photographic tool for capturing, editing and manipulating all types of photographic images and graphics right on the iPhone or iPod Touch (no computer needed).

Now, ideally you’ll be using these on your new fancy 5Mp camera on your iPhone 4. Which is just great, but sadly i was mildly disappointed to find that only a small percentage of the above listed apps are on the iPad, I would love to see more of them because Universal. I’m already sick of apps discriminating against it because of its lack of camera. I get that photo editing on the iPhone is much easier though, so I understand – at least there are a few options.

The only other suggestion I can throw into the mix would be Plastic Bullet, but while it does give some fantastically artistic filters and effects for photography – it’s completely random and not customizable like most of the above-featured ones.

 

If anyone has any experience with the Apps above, please share your thoughts. Sadly I have not had the fortune of testing or trying any of the listed apps, however am entirely open to any and all developers of the above mentioned apps to contact me with free promo codes. You know how to reach me.

All Photos used in this post are from the Adorama Photo Contest, credit where credit is due.

PS: Happy Canada Day Everyone!!!

I will have another App Review coming up shortly, but I’m still trying to work out the bugs, and fully test it before sharing, I’m sorry for any delay in interesting content, but this is all I’ve got for you right now.

I’ve added another link on the called “Your App’s Website Sucks” and is a helpful (and blunt) guide to making a decent website for your App. As a reviewer, I have to check out App websites daily and worse than you Not Having One is you having A Crappy One, so I hope that people find this guide useful, use it, and make my life just a bit easier (as well as their own, in the long run).

In fact, that guy’s entire blog is amazing, you should read it all the time.