“Pressure sensitivity,” I knew the iPad could do it!

Got an iPad? Do you ever draw anything on it?

Ever since the first iPad, I couldn’t figure out why the capacitive surface couldn’t tell the difference between a tiny tap and a hard push. Turns out, it can, and I’m not talking about the soon-to-be-announced new iPads… your current iPad — as long as it has iOS 8.

I first noticed this with Paper by FiftyThree and their Pencil stylus. You can use the edge of the stylus to draw lines with greater thickness. Pretty cool. Then I looked at Zen Brush. Turns out, that app can do the same thing with just your finger. Go try it out.

Makes me really excited for iPad Air 2 or whatever they’re calling it. Now if they would only release the iPad Pro.

Christmas Colors and December News

Yesterday and the day before, I modified the color scheme here at Says Brad. Some simple updates, but sticking pretty closely to the same RWB Americana theme. (RWB just made me think of RWBY, a cool show by Rooster Teeth) Earlier today, while I was planning and writing my upcoming notes apps’ reviews, I thought about the theme change and decided to give it Christmas colors.

Why not? Squarespace makes it really simple.

At least if you’re using a desktop browser. Modifying the theme in SS5 is basically impossible on iOS.

Because of both of these two elements — simple, but difficult away from desktop browsers), I wanted to keep it really simple and be able to switch back after New Year’s. With a click, you can duplicate your current style and create a new name for it, make the appropriate changes, and save it alongside the old theme. Since the two sit side by side, I can simply enable the original when the Christmas theme is no longer relevant. (I suppose that at any other time of the year, it just looks Italian.)

I need to figure out how to do this at WordPress or Squarespace 6… or wherever I start my disability blog at. I know I said that I was going to get right back to writing about apps and stuff, but the recent ruling regarding NSA data-mining and the White House press release, I think it’s appropriate to discuss privacy, 4th Amendment protections (the word “privacy” is absent from it) and a bit about how that is applied (or not) to internet communications and virtually everything else in the surveillance cities and states of the world (London comes to mind). Is all of this information harvesting making us any safer, and if it is, is the price too high? Although political, I think that it’s a tech-related issue.

I also saw this Reason-Rupe poll today that says 58% of Americans think that police militarization has gone too far.

That includes a full 60 percent of both Democrats and Tea Partiers. Opposition is under 50 percent among non-Tea Party Republicans.

I think that this is particularly important as well, because although the primary tools are still primarily various firearms, high-tech weaponry is becoming increasingly affordable and available, and I don’t want to be hit by a microwave weapon gone awry.

So that’s what’s going on.

I just got a copy of Ulysses III from the wonderful, awesome people at The Soulmen, and as it interacts with Daedalus Touch, I’m going to review the two together. I can already recommend Daedalus Touch, especially if you like to work on multiple projects simultaneously or need to organize and reorganize text dynamically. It’s the smoothest, easiest to use document management tool on the iPad and iPhone.

I’m also trying my best to pack and move, but doing that with a disability is very difficult. It’s inspired me to write a bit about the major changes that occurred slowly over the past five or six years that I only notice when I think about it (like a distinct change form extroverted to introverted). In my mind — much of the time — I’m the same… but the reality is often completely different.

Notes Plus Review - iPad Handwriting Apps

An inkblog Bluetooth pressure sensitive capacitive touch stylus written response to a comment!

 

Yesterday October 17, 2013 was a pretty big day here in America — our lackluster government has resumed spending ten billion dollars per day and the default crisis has been averted postponed until mid-January.

But I also got a comment on my blog entry iPad mini note taking problems. I decided to write a reply in atypical, inkblogging fashion. Here's the comment by Jeremy.

What did you think of the Notes Plus IOS App? I've used quite a few low and high end stylus' with the app and have not been disappointed with the results. www.notesplusapp.com

Here's my handwritten 'ink' reply, with text transcript.

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! This is written in Notes Plus on my iPad3 (retina) w/ Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus. I've had the app for quite awhile, but never spent much time with it until recently. I really like the recent app enhancements and the close-up writing mode — its method for adjusting the writing box is probably the best I've used. [Note: referencing the app itself] I wish that it was either raster-based, or had cleaner line creation, more adjustability, more color options (or better colors), and finally, Bluetooth capacitive touch stylus support (for line thickness — pressure sensitivity). Jeremy, you've inspired me to work on a full Notes Plus review. Question: which stylus is your favorite, or what type of styli do you like, the soft tip, disc shaped [tip], Bluetooth, etc? Last, what iPad version are you using, and are you using iOS7? I prefer iOS6. I think that iOS7 slowed down my iPad mini substantially. I hope that you have a great weekend and I look forward to hearing from you!

It's difficult to simultaneously compose beautiful sentences and fiddle with legible handwriting, spacing and color, but it was an interesting exercise. I think that my quasi-cursive writing style looks pretty good; quality that I think would be impossible in either Penultimate or Bamboo Paper and probably many of the handwritten notes apps, with the exception of Noteshelf and Remarks.

The image at the top of this post was edited (just for fun) using Repix and Distressed FX — both apps downloaded free. I'm not very familiar with either yet, so I decided to combine the effects of each to gauge the results. Distressed FX is particularly cool; I think I'm going to use it more, likely in combination and conjunction with other apps such as Tangent and Over, for photos and designs.

If you're looking for a great app to use with a capacitive touch stylus and don't mind a vector-based app, check out Notes Plus. It has a great deal of features and a lot of options, but remains usable and straightforward.

Posted with Blogsy

Wacom Bamboo Paper Notebook review iPad mini

Inkblogging on iPad mini with Wacom Bamboo stylus.

Tried writing block print and cursive (ink blogging, note-taking) on the iPad mini again, although this time, I used Wacom Bamboo Paper - Notebook iOS app instead of Penultimate (Evernote). The resulting handwriting still looks fairly hideous; that said, it's much nicer than Penultimate. The Wacom app has pinch-zoom magnification, but using it is finicky; often when I try to pinch, I end up drawing a line on the screen instead. Hopefully Wacom can fix this.

As a note taking app, Wacom's Bamboo Paper - Notebook isn't too bad — especially for free.

It doesn't compare to the premium apps such as Noteshelf, but it is functional. On the full-size iPad (retina), it's actually pretty nice. The color palette, while limited, offers some nice options. Wacom obviously took time selecting attractive, complementary colors.

Despite originally being designed as an eponymous companion-app/marketing tool for Wacom's Bamboo capacitive touch stylus, 'Paper Notebook has gone through several major iterations and feature changes — the recent iOS7 update being the most substantial and significant. Wacom added new drawing tools, paper styles and notebook covers, as well as support for their new pressure sensitive (2048 levels) Bluetooth 4 device, the Intuos Creative Stylus for iPad..

The drawing tools and artist notebook set is available as the Creative Pack for $3.99, and everything is is offered at $0.99. In the image above, I used only the two standard free tools and free paper type.

I love the iPad mini; mostly because of its lightweight design and rounded edges (the iPad 3 has narrow edges, making it uncomfortable to hold without a nice case like ones made by Incipio), but I don't like drawing on it. In addition to the lack of retina display and slower processor, narrow margins on the left and right side of the screen makes it difficult to draw on-the-go in landscape mode because my palm ends up making contact the edge of the screen (doesn't happen to me when using the full-size iPad).

I also created some handwriting samples on my iPad 3 (Retina display) for comparison that I'll post later. I used the same two apps with very different results. The process of drawing and writing on my iPad and iPad mini side-by-side has confirmed that the iPad mini (first gen; I hope Apple releases a better, retina version soon) isn't a great visual artist's tool.

---

Worth mentioning: great tools, great devs.

I've been very impressed with several apps and their respective developers, so I'm going to review and feature more sketching and notes apps in the near future. For now — if you haven't already, go get Concepts Smarter Sketching and Tayasui Sketches. Both apps are prime examples of freemium done right; ad-free, fully-functional and useful without any IAP, and the paid features are inexpensive, major enhancements to the base app. Function and feature-rich! Check them out and let me know what you think! (Tell the developers, too! Both respond quickly)

Note: If you like creating vector art using software like Adobe Illustrator, Inkpad by Taptrix is still free (normally $4.99)! Inkpad is the best vector tool I've seen for the iPad, and it's been updated for iOS7.

Have you tried Inkblogging from an iPad?

If you have, I'd love to see it and share it with people. If we can encourage more people to draw, the world would be a better place... and if more people used iPads for ink blogging and handwriting, we might be able to convince Apple to release a special active digitizer iPad! Just a thought.

Posted with Blogsy

iPad mini note taking problems

Ink Blogging test using Penultimate for iPad by Brad Chin

While doing my semi-weekly tour of the App Store (most new apps release on Thursdays) — downloading new apps and checking out app updates — I decided to experiment with a few old apps.

I'm excited about the prospect of new iPads announced by Apple on October 22, in particular, I'd like a faster full-size iPad (hardware stylus support is probably too much to wish for, since Steve Jobs considered styli anathema) and a retina mini. I do a lot of writing and drawing on the iPad, but it's always felt a bit awkward and lacking. Quite simply, the iPad wasn't designed to be an artist's tool. I hope that that changes.

Opening up Penultimate (an original iPad app purchased by Evernote), I discovered support for an upcoming stylus release, the Adonit Jot Script Evernote Edition ($74.99, shipping Oct 25). I've had mixed feelings about Adonit styluses as they don't work properly for long (although with a little modification, you can fix your Jot stylus), but this one looks fundamentally different. No disc tip. But... there aren't a lot of details on it.

In addition, Wacom released a new stylus called the Intuos Creative Stylus ($99) and it looks awesome. I asked them to send me one to review, but no response. (Maybe you can help me convince them? ^_^ I'd be grateful!) I really want the Wacom Cintiq Companion... but it's very expensive. I've been wanting to do more illustration and cartoon drawing, but the Intuos is difficult for me to use, and the iPad... well, it has issues.

The iPad mini has he same resolution as the iPad 2, meaning smaller pixels, but it also seems like they shrunk the capacitive detection mechanism also. It just doesn't track precisely. After using the mini for awhile, going back to the iPad 3 (retina) is somewhat euphoric — it's that much better.

Penultimate, however, always seems to have issues.

The test ink blog writing above was created quickly on the iPad mini without any magnification or zoom (Accessibility Options > Zoom). The app doesn't have pinch zoom or any kind of Paper by FiftyThree or Noteshelf type workaround, so I used to tap zoom until I finally ditched the app. I like the superb Evernote integration, but it's just not worth it. I don't like messy, ugly notes. If you've seen any of my handwriting, you know what I can normally produce digitally. The image above is just plain bad. I can read it so technically, it's usable, but I don't like it.

The iPad mini seems to track strokes off to the side. (See slash separators in 10/10/13 and the 'T' in "Test") Penultimate on iPad retina seems to simply create sloppy, rounded strokes, almost like a vector pen tool with smoothing, only worse.

I've also noticed that Paper by FiftyThree handles handwriting poorly, even with the magnifying tool. Their custom ink engine is nice for sketching (there is some stunning #madewithpaper artwork online, check it out), but just doesn't track the whip-like, short and rapid strokes used in natural handwriting — cursive seems a little better than block print.

What's your favorite handwriting tool for iOS? My favorites are still Noteshelf, Remarks and Muji Notebook. I've been using Noteshelf to track and compile my thoughts on iOS7 (spoiler: I'm not fond of it), plan my new websites and social networking profiles, and to outline my very overdue guide to iPad palm rejection (wrist protection) for artists.

I took a few new photos for that post, so hopefully I can edit it all and get it up soon. Oakland weather has been somewhat depressing and miserable for me this week... hot and sunny. My neighbors have been thrilled about it. Weirdos.

Posted with Blogsy

Happy New Year

Well, I guess those Mayan calendar December 21st 12/21/12 people have something in common with those Y2K doomsday preppers. Earth is still here! Assassin's Creed III had me really worried…

If you haven't seen it, I recommend watching the Showtime series Penn & Teller Bullshit. Enlightening and fun! Unless you're easily offended. But if that's the case, why are you reading my site?

Happy new year, friends and family. More real content coming soon. It looks like a few of my scheduled drafts never actually posted, so there'll be those, too, after I edit them a bit to make them more relevant.

And of course, stuff about apps.

It looks like Adobe canned their Touch Apps Collage and Proto, as well as Kuler. Damn. If it means that Photoshop Touch and Ideas are going to be better, however — maybe it's okay.

Hopefully you snagged a few discounted apps and games during the holiday — lots of cheap and free apps!

Removing Apps From Launchpad

I prefer the Dock on the left to maximize vertical space.

Mac OS X Lion & Mountain Lion make Apple computers more like their iOS devices, but this isn’t always a good thing.

Apple’s Lions are pretty — there’s no denying that. However, in adding simplicity, Apple has limited functionality and control. In an attempt to make Mac OSX more user-friendly, Apple has hidden files and features. The multitouch trackpad and Launchpad make Macs function more like iPhones and iPads — the problem is that desktops and notebooks are more complex than their bite-sized brethren.

Want full control of your Launchpad?

"Too bad" seems to be the Apple response. According to Apple, you can rearrange icons and remove Mac App Store apps only. [To remove App Store apps, either click and hold over the app icon (similar to the iOS process of removing/re-arranging apps) or hold the “alt option” key. Click "X." To add any app to Launchpad, drag & drop the app from Finder onto the Launchpad icon (located on your Dock).]

But what if you want to remove an app without an “X”?

Since Apple won’t help, I will!

First, if you’ve used Mac OS prior to Lion, you’ll notice the absence of the Library folder. Apple decided that people don’t need to be bothered with such things and hid it. If you want to view it again, open Terminal.app, located in /Applications/Utilities. Copy/Paste the following:

chflags nohidden ~/Library

Like magic, Library will now appear in Finder. (Note: Before you go modifying your Launchpad, you may want to backup its current setup. To do that, backup the .db file located in /Library/Application Support/Dock)

If you want to remove ALL items from Launchpad, you can follow this guide at gnuu.org This might be best if you have a lot of clearing to do.

However, if you just want to remove some apps from Launchpad…

Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app and use the following;

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db "DELETE from apps WHERE title='APPNAME';" && killall Dock

REPLACING APPNAME with the name of the app you want to remove from Launchpad. For example, if I wanted to remove Reminders, I would open Terminal and enter:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db "DELETE from apps WHERE title='Reminders';" && killall Dock

Note: This won’t delete the app, it just removes it from Launchpad.

Hopefully this helps you!

If it has, please leave a comment and consider liking my Says Brad Facebook page to keep in touch. I’d love to hear from you.

There are a lot of third-party apps out there for Dock, Desktop, Library and Launchpad management, but frankly, I don’t trust them; many aren’t free or are ad-supported, created by people I’ve never heard of. Not saying that they’re all illegitimate, but I can’t be certain. Luckily, a little Terminal magic can solve the bulk of your OSX issues. I’m an iOS guru (lol), not an OSX expert, but feel free to ask if you have questions — if I can help, I will.

The best iPad apps!

I’ve started posting app icons and links here at Says Brad!

This page (saysbrad.com/apps/) will contain links to my favorite apps, primarily iPad and iPhone, but who knows, maybe I’ll add other platforms in the future.

If I post an app on that page, I consider it a must-have. These are apps I use frequently and have dedicated numerous hours to.

Got an iOS app and want an honest review, detailed analysis and constructive criticism? Message me and let me know!

Currently, my focus is on art, photography and productivity apps, but I’m open to reviewing other things as well. (I love games!) I like bringing extra exposure to small developers and indie apps, so I will promote those obscure, hidden gems before more mainstream apps reviewed by all of the big blogs and magazines.

Uploading these images and editing pages here at Squarespace is a very time-consuming process. I’ve figured out a way to do it that looks okay on my iPad (except for the standard DPI app icon badges). I’ll add more as time permits, as well as try to get website features like search, tag cloud, and category lists fully functional again.

Brad Chin uses Blogsy

Hand Stylus Part II

I thought I posted this a few days ago. Oops. Had some problems with my iPad crashing and some health problems, so I hadn't thought about the update. Today, I've been figuring out how to upload photos, attempting to fix my Says Brad gallery (here; haven't been able to fix it, however), and adding stuff to my dribbble page. Thinking about "going pro" at Dribbble but I'm not sure.

Note about Dribbble: dribbble requires images 400x300 or smaller; their website uploader will crop, but it won't scale images. My Paper sketches are natively 2048x1536, and I've been using PhotoForge2 to scale them to 400x300. That was working fine until today; PhotoForge2 just crashes after startup now.

About the Hand Stylus, 77/100

Anyway, above are a few of my new HAND stylus thoughts. It requires less pressure than the Adonit Jot Pro, but is less accurate and more difficult to use than the Adonit Jot Touch.

Above, I can see slight variations in handwriting across each stylus, but the differences are fairly small. The oStylus DOT, due to its thin shaft/handle, is harder to use while block writing. It's phenomenal for artwork and cursive, however.

I tried to use the Hand stylus to create my madewithpaper sketches, but I couldn't achieve decent results. I can't get the Hand to travel reliably and quick enough across the iPad surface to achieve the pencil and watercolor effects I use in my Paper art.

An interesting twist with HAND.

The Hand Stylus guys are based out of Alameda, and one of them read my earlier review and has offered to meet with me to test my stylus to see if it is functioning properly. If it works out, I'll share the results. They want to meet in Alameda. With my disability, mobility and timing is difficult so I'll see how it goes. It's a cool offer nevertheless.

Brad Chin uses Blogsy

The bad and badass of iOS 6

Another sunset looking across Lake Merritt

Updating my iPad has been a big change — I'm still figuring it out, finding new things, getting frustrated and used to iOS6.

The first thing that I did was test out Siri. She's not quite the virtual assistant I was hoping for, but she's still cool; a very welcome (free) addition to my iPad, complimenting the dictation function elegantly. We're still getting acquainted — I don't know what kind of pair we'll make, at least until her sports knowledge extends to cover Tennis.

I like being able to set reminders and alarms on the fly. I'm excited about doing this on the iPhone 5 while I'm out; I'm still using the iPhone 4 (Siri isn't available on it), but I hope to upgrade soon. Telling Siri to remind me to stop by the supermarket at 2pm or to set an alarm for 8:30pm feels futuristic… because it works, perfectly.

A big what the suck

Apple, having declared thermonuclear war on Google, has replaced Maps with Apple Maps and has removed the YouTube video app. I'm glad that the new map app has turn-by-turn directions (aka real GPS navigation), but the new map app is fraught with issues. Some of the more hilarious mistakes will likely become Facebook memes. I haven't encountered an error yet (I think) but the lack of street view sucks. Yelp integration is good and bad because Yelp itself is flawed.

The YouTube app was actually pretty nice. Google released its own YouTube app for iPhone, but the iPad currently has only third-party alternatives. I've been using Safari — luckily, I don't watch much YouTube to begin with, so I'm not as affected by the change.

The badass

Safari is fantastic now. My favorite change? I can now attach/upload images to websites! Prior to iOS 6, file transfer could only be accomplished through apps. It's not perfect, but I've been able to add photos to:

• My new design gallery here at Says Brad – I'm having issues uploading to this gallery, however. Hopefully it's a temporary, fixable issue. Squarespace support probably won't be helpful, however. (I'm very seriously considering switching to WordPress; I just don't know much about editing themes, and I'd like my site to look decent, so I'm trying to figure that out)
• My Dribbble account – dribbble shots need to be resized to 400x300; I like using PhotoForge2 by GhostBird Software (universal, currently $3.99 USD), but there are others.

I really like Notification Center now, as well as Do Not Disturb. One simple change that saves a lot of time is the ability to tweet and post to Facebook from Notification Center. Also, I like the reorganized Settings.

I meant to keep this post short and sweet, but iOS 6 has so many awesome features, it's tough for me to be concise. I'll continue to add observations as I become more familiar with it, and when I get an iPhone 5, naturally.

madewithpaper

Brad Chin uses Blogsy

Design is a Serious Lifestyle

"BC" logo conceptual designs, #madewithpaper

Putting letters and symbols inside of shapes and playing with balance and positive versus negative space. Reminds me of "cake cutting" from NUMB3RS. Says Brad

As an artist, designing for yourself is often one of the hardest things to do.

When I started designing professionally eight years ago, I would meet all kinds of professional artists who didn't have their own business cards and websites. Sometimes, I'd get the qualifying statements excuses, "oh, this card is temporary," (or old), "my site is under construction." Fast-forward: things are about the same, except I'm not out much due to disability and chronic pain.

Sometimes I talk to artists online — at least now it's easy to setup an online gallery, free blog, flickr account, etc. — but the situation is still similar. As a solo freelance designer, you can't hire someone else to design your own stuff, and if you want to pay the bills each month, you have to keep working.

Disability and chronic pain changed everything for me, every aspect of my existence. I'm doing things and dealing with things that I never imagined in my pre-teen years. However, I still like a lot of the same things.

I've tried to create a little something for myself over the years, eventually settling on something that I liked, only to create something better the next day, week, or month. As an artist and as with all things, learning and improving — progress — should be constant. Consistent. So it's only natural that I'd continue to get better.

Design is a mission

Design should evolve and progress with society and culture. Being a designer is a commitment — the process itself is its own art form. Design is a way of thinking and a way of being. Design must grow, and sometimes through growth, change, but the commitment remains in the roots. Great design requires a commitment to perpetual excellence.

But logos? Logos should be constant… at least for longer. Like a name, a logo is an essential symbol of identity, but it should be more. It should convey values and ideals, traditions and origins. It should impress upon and instill its audience with a thought or feeling. Good logos deliver messages. So how does a designer design a logo? Design is always changing, designers are always improving, but a logo should stay the same. A paradox? No. Difficult, though.

The big blessing, The New iPad

Using Paper, I created a few "BC" logo concepts — something I could use, like a monogram maybe. Throughout the day, I tweaked and refines these sketches; some were erased, others duplicated. Some of them work, others not so much. During this process, I thought about how I was doing what I was doing… and how special it is for me.

Several years ago, Apple released the iPad and surprisingly, changed my life. Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to get The New iPad; just a minor update/refresh of the iPad 2 for some, this device changed my life again, and continues to with new apps and app updates.

Equally surprising is the app Paper by FiftyThree, my thoughts paralleling the first-generation iPad. (I loved The Next Generation from the beginning) When I first saw (both of) these, I thought more style than substance, and I probably won't use this. In both cases, I'm very happy to be so-entirely incorrect.

I couldn't envision the benefits. Both seemed too similar to stuff I already had, stuff I was satisfied with. Both have blown me away, both I've mentioned before.

I mention it now because both the iPad (especially the new one with the Retina Display) and Paper (with my super styluses, oStylus DOT and Cosmonaut) are my main creative tools. Despite my condition, I can quickly draw and write, even laying down. With Dictation on the New iPad, I capture thoughts without holding the device!

The stuff I've drawn here probably wouldn't exist without these things. Hopefully, both will continue to improve, as design should! (Paper could really use more color options, zoom, and Jot Touch/Jaja support!)

The bigger, better

The relationships that I've developed because of the iPad are perhaps even more extraordinary. I'm friends with people I'd never have met otherwise; people across the country, some from other continents, others out of our solar system on outpost space stations and starships.

Some of the app developers have inspired me to keep trying, keep improving. iOS developers and accessory makers (those I've interacted with) are all really nice people, easy to communicate with and quick to respond. They appreciate and often encourage feedback, constantly improving, as designers should!

In particular, I want to mention Lance Barton. His company makes blogging happen on the iPad. Blogsy is fantastic as-is, and is always improving… (there's a pattern to things I appreciate and admire)

Lance has been really courteous and generous with his time. We email, and although he isn't a big writer, he always responds. Hopefully we'll video chat; FaceTime or something. He's from California but llives in South Korea; I think that's pretty cool. Aside from being my friend, I think it's great that he cares a lot about Blogsy user experience and answers everyone's questions. I had an relatively minor issue publishing here using Blogsy; he invested a lot of time troubleshooting, and had his team figure out how to fix it.

I also want to mention Andrew Goss. He's a manufacturing jeweler in Canada and is fantastically generous and kind. He designed and made the amazing oStylus, and then improved it with the DOT, and then improved the DOT! He's also a grandfather. He designed the oStylus because he wanted a great stylus to use with his iPad. That's pretty cool.

Sometimes, the process is more remarkable than the outcome.

Design lead me the iPad and these people just as graphic design is the basis of the images above. Sometimes, the journey is more important than the destination. Perhaps design isn't just a way of life or result. Perhaps it's in the core, the components, the elements, the trials, the errors, the paths — both what is done and how it's done. Maybe sometimes God is in the details.

A final thought on portfolios for professional artists out there.

I've found that sometimes, a comprehensive portfolio can work against you and your client or prospect. This happens when a potential client sees work done for someone else, and is then set on something similar. Instead of presenting previous projects and too many options, if I thought someone might offer repeat business, I'd create a few free design concepts. The advantage is that it's customized specifically for that potential client, the disadvantage is that it could mean doing work for no money — and the risk that that s/he/they might take that idea and give it to someone else. (There are a few ways to mitigate this risk, however.)

Brad Chin uses Blogsy

Reading on the new iPad

I really enjoy reading Newsstand magazines, news, articles and books on the plethora of stellar iPad reading apps. Specifically, I like Pulse, Readability & Longform, Zinio, Newsify and Flipboard. I didn't really care for reading at length on the iPad 2 because of the eye-strain, but the pixel density on the new iPad Retina display is phenomenal.

Also, 1080p video and 720p HD streaming: fantastic. If you're on the fence about a new iPad, get off. Get one. Seriously, it's life altering in the best of ways.

Keeping this short because I still feel sick. But here's a cool resource if you like strategy games: Pocket Tactics. It's all about mobile strategy games — great content, interviews, and app reviews.

ttyl.

Brad uses Blogsy

What?! Blogsy compatible with Squarespace!

Blogsy is now compatible with Squarespace.

 

Blogsy is iOS’ best blogging tool. No doubt. If you have an iPad and you blog, you need Blogsy… that is, if your service is compatible with it. Blogsy has such a feature-rich, elegant environment that it enhances creativity. It does everything you'd expect — and a lot more.

One great, main feature is its WYSIWYG environment. It is structured similar to a word processor so it's automatically familiar. I think that this helps when blogging from the iPad, and also makes blogging more accessible to those without coding knowledge. Blogsy also has an HTML edit mode, but it isn't color-coded — serious programmers and coders may want to look at the other iOS options.

Overall, Blogsy is fantastic. And now, it's fully compatible with Squarespace, my favorite blogging platform! In particular, I like the drag-and-drop image uploader — Blogsy is much better than the universal Squarespace app.

Awesome Squared Cubed

I'm pretty sure that this new development means you'll see more blogging from me, as well as more #madewithpaper — perhaps in the Gallery!

Posted with Blogsy

Free virtual workstation! OnLive Desktop for iPad

I'll get right to it: OnLive Desktop is awesome.

It's free. It's amazing. Made by the mad-scientists behind the uber cloud gaming service, OnLive Desktop for iPad offers users a cloud-based virtual desktop, complete with Microsoft Office, storage and basic apps/tools like Calculator and Paint. The paid version includes web browsing as well. All of the processing happens on their end, they simply take your keystrokes and inputs and give you the visual.

Love the clouds

Current technology trends remind me of a character from the manga/anime Naruto: Shikamaru, the cloud-loving loafer. Years ago, technology enthusiasts obsessed about terabyte hard drives, but now that we have them, we prefer smaller solid state drives. Why? It's all about speed and convenience.

We're impatient. We need it now!

Luckily, ISPs have kept up with our increasing demands (though they demand their pound of flesh and price gouge us to near-death), offering super-fast net connections that offer incredible connectivity and mobility. Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G... powerful 2lbs notebook computers and fantastic do-everything tablets — there are too many reasons to get away from the desk, and now there are plenty of ways to do it.

But desktops have advantages. At least, they used to. Now you can get that power and stability on-the-go! If you have an iPad, try OnLive Desktop. it's better than buying Windows and Microsoft Office, and you really don't have much to lose if it's not for you — you may even know someone who could really use it. I haven't tried it in any other form (other than the iPad app), but if it can run well on iOS, it should be great everywhere.

Need something else?

Later on I'll share thoughts on two more similar apps, Splashtop Remote Desktop, and Air Desktop (an app that allows the iPad to become a second computer screen). I'll also share some sweet accessories!

Free apps for $10,000 gift card!

Just in case you aren't aware, to celebrate 25 billion app downloads in its App Store, Apple is giving away a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

Apple is very close to the goal. I don't think that their counter is totally accurate (apple.com). Anyway, because the 25 billionth app downloaded gets a lot of publicity, many publishers and developers are offering their apps for free.

How to find the best apps for you

I use an app called AppShopper. (AppStore link) There's also a website you can check out, AppShopper.com — they list new apps, price changes, and favorites. I use this app, and here's a tip. Don't download an app immediately after being notified of a price change. Wait a few minutes. If you attempt to download the app while it's being "updated," you will be unable to download the app for days. This has happened to be several times, and it required emailing Apple customer support to resolve the issue. Save yourself the trouble.

Currently there are dozens of amazing, highly-rated and popular apps offered for free. IGN posts a daily update on games, but there are also great deals on productivity, photo, social networking and news apps. See for yourself.

And good luck!

If you win the gift card, you can thank me by telling 10,000 people about my site. More art, design, and app reviews incoming. Says me.

Changes, says Brad

Things have been sort of static. Many changes this year; friends, people, politics, society, work, health. If I had more time during the day to do things, you'd probably be able to read all about it. As things are, I just can't keep up. Kim Jong Il is dead now, though. Merry Christmas.

So here's what's going on. I'm spending time on illustrations, science, physics and general design, and I've been looking into my disability, health and general well-being. Made some discoveries. I've gotten a lot of great ideas this year from Apple, Disney, console video games and iOS apps (and their developers).

I'm going to try to get out more, and use the iPhone's good-enough camera. Instagram, Hipstamatic, Camera+ and a number of photo editing apps make iPhotography really fun. I've been thinking about switching to 4S (8MP camera, Siri and Sprint — AT&T SUCKS), but I'm hesitant, because of the 3GS. I think the iPhone 5 isn't far away and will be a major upgrade over the 4S, and will share hardware with the iPad 3. Why wouldn't Apple do this? The iPhone 4 form factor isn't that great, and it'll soon be surpassed by Android alternatives (some think that this has already happened). I'm excited about a retina display iPad.

If you have an iPad and you like games, oh wow. Infinity Blade II, GTA3, Bard's Tale... how many hours of fun is that?! Enjoy it. This is an amazing time, despite the turmoil that the world is going through. If life outside is looking too bleak, step into Skyrim. It's great there — you can kill dragons!

I want to share more about health, fitness, self-defense (these are crazy times) and my disability, and this is probably the place to do that. I don't need Typepad. I've tried to like SAY's service, but I just don't, really. If I knew how to properly monetize my blog, it might be worth it, but I'm not sure that I'd want to do that. I wouldn't mind advertising on my blog, but I'd want to advertise Bradtastic Approved things, things I use and love. Maybe there's content there worth saving; I'll have to spend a few hours going through it and figuring out what to bring over here... maybe I'll setup a few pages with the best of the best content.

I've decided to change my diet and focus on super foods and micronutrients. Veggies, fruits (I love satsuma oranges) and some mercury-free fish every now and then. No more red meat. More brain foods.

There are a few people I'm interested in spending more time with... I'm going to change my schedule to accommodate this change. I think I need to. I had so much more energy in Disneyland because of the sheer number of people there... it was amazing. It felt like 2008; needing only a few hours of sleep, that sense of true clarity. And now that the weather is more to my liking, it's the perfect time to take advantage. Of everything.

Enjoy the holidays. Life is short.

iPad for Christmas

It's a strange time of the year. People act weird, in the bay area, even the weather is weird. Me, I started juicing today. Stephanie and my mom convinced me to watch Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead and it got me thinking — I could try this juice thing.

The first glass I could hardly get down and keep down. It was partially the taste, and had something to do with the texture, smell, and the way it felt like it was rolling through my system. I suppose it was mainly the smell and knowing what was in it. I suppose that the color had something to do with it, too.

Anyway, that's all beside the point. I was thinking about things that I'm thankful for — some years ago, I made a Thanksgiving shout out style blog entry that I'd thought about recreating/updating... oh well — and my iPad is pretty high on the list of the things. I could go on for hours about the people and events, but that's likely beyond superfluous.

This device gives me the power of a notebook computer with enhanced functionality. With it, and apps like Splashtop, I have a device that lets me do basically everything except finalized design work. I can create and conceptualize, doodle and sketch, write, browse the web, play games, talk to people, watch videos, movies and TV, and perhaps most importantly, I can forget about my pain and disability for a few minutes here and there.

The device is so powerful and the App Store has so many great apps. Just recently, Rockstar released the 10 year anniversary iOS edition of Grand Theft Auto III! A few weeks earlier, I got The Bard's Tale, an epic action RPG from some years ago released on PC and PS2. They both look great on the iPad 2. I like to play games on 360 and Playstation 3, but I'm not always physically feeling up to it. (Sad, I know.)

I don't have the 4S, but I'd probably like Siri just as much.

Anyway, there's a lot going on in the world right now, European debt crises, Occupy, upcoming primaries and presidential election... it's a complicated place. The iPad greatly simplifies things for me, putting together several devices and what would be hundreds of pounds of magazines, books, and other resources into one simple, fairly lightweight device. iOS may not be for you, maybe you like Android, or you don't like tablets at all. I'd really like a WACOM tablet or Cintiq screen, but I don't know if I need those things urgently. If I had a MacBook Air, I would probably love that thing a lot, too. iCloud is pretty cool.

Happiness may be hard to come by, in short supply, but find it wherever and however you can. The games I play and the other media I consume makes me a better designer and artist. The articles I read make me a better thinker, and hopefully someday, a better citizen.

Hopefully I can write before Christmas and 2012, but if you don't hear from me or see me, know that if you were ever at all important to me, I've thought about you a lot, and for now, I think I'm doing sort of okay. I could really use some help, too, but I'll manage for a little while. Don't just ignore people around you in pain; someday, it could be you or someone you care about, and you might want someone to care about you.

[Oh! I can help with your app needs, at least. I know a lot about iOS and its goodness. Check out Infinite Sketchpad and AppShopper.]

Experimenting with PicFrame

Some photos from Disneyland, arranged with PicFrame, available at the App Store for $0.99 USD. Universal app, works great on the iPhone 4 and iPad 2. Later I'll use this for some Instagram and Antipresto tumblr. And I'd like to combine new Hipstamatic Hipstaprints... I got some new hipstapaks not long ago. Hope you like it... more to come.

Tablets... Game, yes. Work? Not so much.

Mo' blogging options, writing on the run

Even though the iPad market alone is worth like $20B (USD) and tablets are finally being taken seriously, even with millions of apps available on the App Store and Android Marketplace — with millions of people buying apps and downloads every second, still no one has released a decent (or better than) blogging app. There are serious gaps in mobile software.

Mobile gaming is different; there, there's at least six of everything. Anyone know exactly how many tower defense games are available for iOS? I've seen hundreds; maybe a few dozen great ones, twice as many good rip-offs of those great ones, and a plethora of crap. How many versions of Angry Birds do we need? Ten different racing games with the same cars, a dozen FPS offerings, hundreds of sudoku apps... seriously?!

Also, this micro-transaction, in-app purchases (IAP) business is frankly ridiculous — especially the pay-to-pwn model in certain games, such as Glu's Gun Bros. and its clones. The best items cost around $200 USD, and there's really no other way of getting those items other than spending cash. I understand the freemium model; make a game, offer it free, and people can pay for it in increments based on how much they enjoy it. Often, these games have no end, much like MMORPGs — the game is updated to add more, so to continue enjoying the game, players need to spend a few more dollars. Time management freemium games (farming games, building games, restaurant sims) usually offer some IAP that speeds up the process by offering instant gratification. "This plant will take 48 hours to grow, but for $2.50, you can have it now!" This is how hard-earned money is being blown spent.

Freemium is one thing, and some are fair enough that you can play without spending any money. But now there are premium games offering IAP "cheats." Example: Angry Birds offers an instant-win item for $0.99 — an Eagle that automatically clears any level. EA's Dead Space has a in-game store offering power node and credit pack IAPs.

The iPad is clearly a fantastic portable game console; dual processors, large multi-touch screen... there are Android devices with NVIDIA Tegra2 chips that have similar power. Beyond the toy factor, there are a lot of cool utilities and productivity apps. Also, mobile blogging has changed; people use the Facebook wall, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr to share media. That is blogging, though people might not realize it.

There's a market for and a demand beyond casual, social network blogging, however. There are some decent writing utilities for the iPad and some blogging services have released apps (WordPress, Squarespace, LiveJournal), but many of these apps are problematic and lackluster. The Squarespace app is the most complete that I've used (for blogging), but still far from perfect. None of the apps take full advantage of the capabilities of the services and formats. For writing/word processing, Apple's Pages comes close. I could've used it for work far more often if the app supported vector graphics.

I was on the fringes of the Tablet PC community that existed prior to multitouch displays, iOS, Android, Vista and Windows 7. People had inkblogs and used slate and convertible Tablet PCs as primary work machines. On the few occasions that I interacted with some of the GottaBeMobile guys and other tablet enthusiasts, I got the distinct impression that for some, the slate wasn't a passing trend, it was the Grail.

The iPad is my primary computing device. The iPhone 4 has filled my portable point-and-shoot camera desire. With the right software, the iPad could replace notebook computers; it's fast, has front and rear-facing cameras, wireless internet, decent memory and capacity, a good screen and keyboard support. Of all things, it's the apps (and lack of) that retard it.

Mail supports HTML, but it's only usable via copy/paste. The email editor is weak. Safari is restricted to nine windows as a form of tabbed browsing; this might have something to do with memory, but the iPad can run Infinity Blade and Safari with nine pages.

There are some great iOS apps; I've shared and reviewed a few, and with time, I hope this rant becomes irrelevant. ThinkBook is phenomenal, and I'm enjoying Writing Kit, Daedalus, Day One, iA Writer, Penultimate, Wunderlist and Idea Store. Evernote and Dropbox also work well, despite iOS limitations. I can do just about everything on the iPad... but where's Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator for iPad? Where's ecto or MarsEdit, Scrivener or Storymill? Where are the programming tools and font designers? Where's Firefox?!

It's great that the tablet market has made it possible for two-man teams to create and sell apps... I just hope some established developers start taking these devices seriously for something other than gaming.

ThinkBook app for iPad Review

ThinkBook - Write, Plan, Outline and Take Notes ($4.99) is an iPad app by bitolithic that I’ve recently spent some time using, and I must say, ThinkBook IS AWESOME. I will get into app specifics, but first, I want to comment on the wonderful developer, @bitolithic. Emiliano Molina’s responsiveness, support, and attitude has been exemplary, and he is a developer that should be supported. bitolithic is also responsible for Comic Zeal, a universal comic app with great reviews.

Now, to the meat of the ThinkBook quick review!

ThinkBook has custom keys that are extremely usable; adding notes and navigating the app is a breeze.

ThinkBook is productivity application designed to organize large amounts of information (text) into usable chunks. The beauty of this software is that, by design, it’s as simple or as complex as you’d like it to be. You could use this app to organize classes, schoolwork, research, or your entire life.

If you’re looking for a simple, straightforward to-do list application, this app is probably overkill. It could be used to keep track of tasks, but task management isn’t its main strength. (Information on “Wunderlist” at the end of entry)

However, if you are working on a complex project, ThinkBook is perfect.

From the onset, ThinkBook can seem daunting. The learning curve seems steep. Fortunately, after spending about ten minutes with the app, I realized that it is a lot more intuitive than I’d first thought, and quickly fell into a productive rhythm with the program. Still, I recommend reading the built-in manual — to get the most out of the app. 

ThinkBook has a simple, powerful structure, built around a homepage called “Contents.” This overview page is just like the table of contents in an ebook — from here, you can jump to various pages and books within the app. ThinkBook organizes text on individual pages, and books are simply collections of pages. 

All of your text inside of the application can be found using the search tool on the sidebar. Further, ease of use is provided by a cursor on the righthand side of the screen; this tool allows notes to be moved around freely, and can be used to move entire pages as well.

ThinkBook is only going to get better. I have no doubt that Emiliano will continue to support his apps; bitolithic won’t disappear. Also, if you do end up getting this app, don’t hesitate to give your honest feedback — your concerns or criticisms will only help to make the app better!

You could also let bitolithic know that you read this blog entry ^_^

(For a wonderful FREE task manager, check out Wunderlist — available on all iOS devices, iPhone, iPad, as well as Android, Mac OS X and Windows PC. 6 Wunderkinder GmbH has also released a web app version. Wunderlist stays synced across all devices. Definitely Bradtastic Approved!)