David's Blog

I am testing IA Writer. First thing I do is put it into Full View. My screen is blank, except the words I am typing. I could get used to this. Then, my mind goes blank… what was that shortkey again I think it’s cmd+f lets try it… Nope. That brought up a search function lets try cmd+shift+f… Nothing. I’m going to have to exit full window. cmd+ctrl+f

Normally I avoid programs that demand the slightest bit of learning. That is, the ones that deviate from the norms of user interface or control or are completely intuitive. I picked up IA Writer, paying $9 for the app because I need something to keep me writing. I am too easily distracted from my work by twitter, carousel (instagram) and email. Once I get off the writing track it is hard to get back on, and my sidetracks can sometimes end up lasting hours. I may check twitter, then decide to post an update to one of my two blogs, six facebook pages, email, edit one of the dozen websites I administer, or worse: open up a new application.

This is peaceful, it is sereen. There are nothing but letters on my screen. The mouse courser has disappeared.
Testing *italics* nope that’s underline.
Testing **bold** now
“# Title 1″
# Title 1
## Title 2

This is rudamentary, but, it gets the writing done. The formats are not there. They are suggestions to be completed in a rich text editor. This is a basic text editor. Then again that is the point of the app, to get the text down. To complete the assignment. I’m thinking there is no such thing as spell check in this app, which is not entirely a bad thing. My spelling and grammatical errors can be fixed later. IA Writer is minimalist, to the core. I doubt I will use any of its features. All I really need is sentences and Paragraphs. The rest can wait for editing.

> Testing an indented Paragraph, apparently once I get to the end of the paragraph the indent of the paragraph will remain at this indent. So it does.

So, While it may take a few times to get the basics of this application down (that is using the features by memory, the basic principle of the application is to leave nothing between you and typing. It does that well. There is a word count at the bottom of the screen, as well as a character count and an estimation of the time it will take to read this entire entry. They appear five seconds after I have stopped typing.

440 Words, 2,300 characters not a third-grade equivalent but not quite where it should be. I am going to try and save this using what I would think to be the save short key: cmd+s… It saves the file as a .md, or text only document. Well, now I only need to turn off my phone, which is buzzing right now, and I will be distraction free.

As a student I am often caught between the crossfire of multiple platforms. At home I use OSX and have Lynux (eeebuntu) netbook. Most of the schools computers run windows, but there are a couple of labs that have Apple machines.

In this hostile environment most word processing or spreadsheet documents are worthless. Trying to move files from one computer lab to home, or the next lab is inconvenient at best.

In order to survive the greed of these corporations, I have turned to two opensource (sorta) resources. The first is Google Docs, I cannot stress how useful Gdocs has been, I take all my leture notes directly to google docs on my netbook. I share and collaborate with other students and my professors. Do I trust Google? to an extent, yes, but especially with recent security problems, I limit the access of my most precious intellectual material to my own Disk space.

Ive solved the problem of dealing with incompatible office suites (I could just buy them all… If I weren’t a student and had money.) by putting a copy of each platforms OpenOffice.org application on a thumbdrive. And save all my files on that drive. Don’t Forget backups!

Miro is a very handy video player. It handles most codex (avi, Mp4, ext) can play your music, and even functions as a Podcast RSS reader.

So what, you say, iTunes does all that.

Well, Miro does have a bigger codex library, and like iTunes, is also free. What really makes Miro stand out is the imbedded torrent downloader which works effortlessly.

When you download a .Torrent file from your browser, Miro automatically picks up the file and adds it to its imbedded downloader. This, of course has only worked twice for me, both files were movies. (I have not seen this function work for music torrents)

So whats the downside?

As a torrent client, Miro lacks. I cant see my upload speeds while initially downloading a torrent, there is a bandwidth speedlimit setting buy it is not easily turned on or off (I really like the turtle button on Transmission)

Miro does not play .wmf (for those you’ll need VLC)

With Miro there may be to many chefs in this soup, and none of its capabilities are GREAT, but they are all on one app.

Overview:
The biggest push for this app is its torrent downloading capability, this is also its downfall, You can have a much better downloader, and a player with more codex, and customization. Still, If your an avid torrent, movie watcher, music lover, and Podcast subscriber, You may love this three in one app.

Ive finally been able to get some app reviews typed, thanks to a Facebook app that has everything preorganized.

I should be able to manually import the good ones soon enough.

I’ve had my iPhone for almost a year now. It is amazing, best of all: the applications.

I currently have 58 apps on 5 pages. I am a little OCD so the first three pages are arranged by color.

I will be counting down my favorite apps starting with my top ten, but for now, here are all the apps I am currently ussing: