Noteworthy App Of The Month

YP Local Search & Gas Prices

Arguably, one of the best reasons to have a smartphone is so you can instantly look up the nearest gas station, movie theater, coffee shop, and more. But it's no fun doing so on a tiny, phone-based browser, it's a pain. Instead use YP Local Search & Gas Prices from Yellowpages.com LLC. 

This app lets you quickly search for more than 18 million businesses, including hotels, airports, parcel services, restaurants, and florists, to get hours of operation, phone numbers, menus, directions, and more. YP also helps you save money by displaying nearby gas prices and by offering coupons for local businesses.

Courtesy of Smart Computing, September 2012 issue.

Noteworthy App Of The Month

IMO Instant Messenger

When you maintain two or more instant messaging accounts, it's easy to forget which contacts use which services. If you maintain three or more, the convenience of an IM app is nearly cancelled out by the hassle involved in determining which one to launch each time.

IMO Instant Messenger for iPad and iPhone is an IM service aggregator that lets you view and send IMs from a dozen services, including Facebook Chat, Google Talk, Skype, MSN, ICQ/AIM, Yahoo, VKontakte, MySpace, Steam, and IMO's own client. Features include group messaging, Voice IMs, push notifications, and the ability to send images and video clips.

Courtesy of Smart Computing, September 2012 issue.

Noteworthy App Of The Month

The Weather Channel For iPad

If you have had an iOS device for very long, you've probably noticed that weather apps have become much more exciting in recent years. The Weather Channel is leading the way with flashy icons and colorful charts that bring its weather data to life. The free iPad app can display animated backgrounds that depict your local weather, as well as full screen, customizable maps. Other features include local pollen information, breaking news video, and push alerts for local, severe weather.

Courtesy of Smart Computing, July 2012 issue.

Some More Interesting Apps

Hello Apple Users Group Members:

I have a few apps you might be interested in to download to your iPad/iPhone. (Most are compatible with both).

Name of App: Black Jack

I discovered a free Black Jack game app. It's really cool. They give you $200 in coins to bet and play with. You can also buy more, probably with a credit card. That's where the catch comes in. . I am not a gambler so I just fooled around with it one night when I was bored. I would never gamble on line, but I do like apps. The graphics are great. You can play for free with 3 other players on the board, and you do not have to buy extra coins. FREE

Name of App: Audio Books

Listen to over 4,000 audio books on your iPhone or iPad, and they are free.  You can also purchase premium e-books. Some as low as 99 cents. And you can select different languages. FREE

Name of App: Free Ebooks

This is a very nice App and it's free. The books are mostly classical. There are some up and coming authors. Not your mainstream best-sellers, but hey whadya want? FREE

Name of App: Netflix

Did you know if you have one Netflix account, you can watch it on your iPad or your iPhone. No extra charge. The App is free. The cost for unlimited movies streamed instantly to your iPhone, iPad, TV, or computer? All for one low price of $7.99. My husband and I love it. By the way, my husband and I sometimes watch Netflix on two separate devices at the same time. He loves the slasher movies, I love the classics. Just thought I would pass this on. I sound like a commercial for Netflix.

See you at the June 22 meeting.

Sandra

Noteworthy App Of The Month

Scanner Pro

Scanners are useful tools, but lets face it: How many of us walk around with a scanner in our bag or backpack? Well, if you have an iPhone or the newer iPad, you can have a scanner with you all the time.

Readdle's Scanner Pro app ($6.99) will never replace the flatbed scanner in your home office, but it will let you use your device's camera to image, process and export or email documents, business cards, photos and more.

Scanner Pro handles multi-page scans, auto-detects document edges and can operate in B&W, grayscale and color modes. It's not as full-featured as a sheet-fed flatbed, but it's a handy and affordable alternative. You can learn more here ....

http://readdle.com/products/scannerpro/

Courtesy of Smart Computing, June 2012 issue.

More About Apps

Hi Members of the Apple Users Group,

As promised here are a few Apps you can "purchase" for free for the iPad. Most all of the newspapers are free on the iPad. That is, a limited edition of the newspaper itself. If you would want the entire publication it will costs you big bucks. I find these limited Apps of the news paper suit me just fine. However, the choice is up to you. All prices of the editions are listed when you search them to download. 

Try downloading the following: (Just bear in mind, when they are free apps, you may have to putt up with the ads here and there) Just remember they are free and they are fabulous. CNN, WNBC, FOX NEWS, WASHINGTON POST, NY TIMES. GOOGLE, TWITTER, SKYPE, READABILITY, (Readability saves items you come across in newspapers and on the internet to read later on), MERRIAM WEBSTER DICTIONARY, FACEBOOK,  TIME MAGAZINE MOBILE (not sure if  TIME MAGAZINE was for free), C-SPAN RADIO (great), ART LITE, (fabulous art), PHOTO EMAIL (This one is a fun APP. It's brand new by Incredimail. It allows you to make stationary and include snapshots from you photos in a special way and not the run of the mill snapshot in an email, right on your ipad).

Need or just want a free compass? Just search the word COMPASS IN THE APP STORE. Did you get your free jumbo calculator yet? JUMBO CALCULATOR Free in the App Store.Grab it. It's great. 

Now for some entertainment Apps: 60 MINUTES (if you missed the show on Sunday. You can watch it all next week on the iPad or the iPhone app.) This is a great APP and I love it. ABC PLAYER APP. Watch a lot of the shows you missed on ABC TV. Shows like THE BACHELOR, BODY OF PROOF, CHEW, THE VIEW, DANCING WITH THE STARS (too many to name here).You can even watch the late night shows.

 And remember, if you don't like the app, you can just dump it. Just hold your finger down on the APP until you see an x on the upper left side of the icon, tap the x and it's gone. One more very entertaining and educational is the Google Earth APP. You can take a virtual trip around the world, or right to the city you used to live in,  right on your iPad with this APP. Give it a try.

Well, I think you have enough information for now, but there are many, many apps you can explore. Not saying you have to like all or any of them. Be choosy. You have a lot to choose from.

My next hint will be how to clear your cache file on the iPad. Just learned this one myself. After a while this file that holds all your history and temp files builds up, just like your cache and temporary file directory on your computer. I'll tell you have to clean it out.

Bye for now,
Sandra

How to purchase an APP

Hello Members of the Apple Users Group

Buying Applications

When you find an application you want in the App Store, you can purchase and download it to iPad. If the application is free, you can download it without charge after providing your iTunes account information.

Once you download an application, it’s installed immediately.

Purchase and download an application:

1 Tap the price, then tap Buy App (or tap Free, then tap Install App).
2 Sign in to your account if requested, then tap OK.
If you don’t have an iTunes Store account, tap Create New Account to set one up.

Purchases are charged to your iTunes Store account. If you make additional purchases within fifteen minutes, you don’t have to enter your password again.

You can use iTunes Store gift cards, gift certificates, or other promotional codes to make purchases. When you sign in to your account, your remaining store credit appears with your account information at the bottom of most App Store screens.

Enter a redemption code: Tap Featured or Top Charts, scroll to the bottom the screen, tap Redeem, then follow the onscreen instructions.

See the status of application downloads: After you begin downloading an application, its icon appears on the Home screen and shows a progress indicator.

If a download is interrupted, iPad starts the download again the next time it connects to the Internet. Or, if you open iTunes on your computer, iTunes completes the download to your iTunes library (if your computer is connected to the Internet and signed in to the same iTunes account).

BTW iTunes will refer to your apps as purchases whether they cost you money or they are for free. Free is still Free.

You can also purchase and download Apps on your computer through iTunes. Just go to the iTunes store, search for the app and it's more or less the same procedure with the additional task of syncing it to your ipad or iphone once it's downloaded.

Sandra