Reviews

App applause – Simplenote

Cloud addict that I am my search for an online text editor had produced many options but few winners. I had always disliked MS Word and was glad to be able to switch to Writely on the web which was subsequently purchased by Google and transformed into Google Docs. GDocs do what they do very well but personally I don’t like the feature-creep as they battle with MS Office Live. To much of what I don’t need. Mobile access and editing was non-existent to poor so I started to look for an iPhone app that had a web interface.

Hello Simplenote from Simperium. Currently available specifically on the web, iPhone and iPad, Simplenote is pretty much what the name suggests. A basic notes app that syncs seamlessly between devices and the web. The free version features the most unobtrusive ads I’ve never seen and the paid version ($19 a year) removes the ads you don’t notice and features Dropbox sync, email note creation, extended version history and RSS.

Notes can be markdown formatted, printed, shared publicly or privately on the web and tagged for easy searching and retrieval. The native iPhone and iPad apps have superb interfaces which, quite literally, disappear so you can get on with what you’re doing and not be bothered by how you’re doing it.

There are a whole host of third-party apps for Windows, Android, Mac OS X and well as a multitude of browser extensions.

Quick review: Digital Journal for BlackBerry PlayBook

Digital Journal is a beautiful News Feed application that has recently come to the Blackberry Playbook and the iPad. It has taken a place in my ‘Favourites’ on my Playbook due to its beautiful design and handy information.
Now Digital Journal isn’t like most news applications in that the News stories aren’t from websites, they are from bloggers who write specifically for Digital Journal. So if you are looking for an application in which you can input your own News Feeds, look elsewhere. However, this application is still a very useful as the bloggers that write for it clearly have a high level of experience. In addition, all the stories that are written are relevant to current affairs.

Quick Review: TubeMap for BlackBerry PlayBook

If you are a BlackBerry PlayBook owner and you live or visit London then this free app is well worth a download. TubeMap is provided by MX Data who also support the app on BlackBerry Smartphones as well as iOS. They also developed Traffic TV that we have covered a couple of times on the site.

As you would expect the application is essentially a map of the London Underground but it does have some added features which are both quick and simple to use in assisting you getting from place to place around the capital.

Shortmail reinvents email and then breaks it

Many of us have a love hate relationship with email but like it or loathe it email is still ubiquitous. One company trying to make email a little less painful is Shortmail.

Shortmail is a web service whose aim is to simplify email. Not only do they restrict messages to only 500 characters but they don’t allow attachments or any kind of folder or label management. On the face of it that all sounds great. As they say: "Just communication – with any email user, anywhere. All emails are limited to 500 characters. Messages are always short and to the point."

Great, I’m in. And then I used it. The reality of Shortmail is somewhat less interesting. If someone sends you an email longer than 500 characters it gets put into a Quarantine area which I didn’t even know existed. The sender gets sent email saying their message was too long which they don’t understand as there is an expectation with email which Shortmail breaks. It all gets very messy very quickly and I found myself managing my emails even more than before.

Read on for more.

Quick Review: Conqu for BlackBerry PlayBook

Conqu for the Blackberry PlayBook is a to-do list and planning application. I personally use it almost as a calendar replacement and I find it replaces a calendar well.

The layout of Conqu is very basic and easy to use, which is why this app appeals to me. When you open the app you are shown a display that gives you your information you need. You have a multiple pane view, which has become common on Note applications for tablets. On the left pane you have your categories: Inbox, Today, Next, Future, Waiting, Projects and Notifications. On the right pane, you have your selected category’s necessary information, if you select ‘Inbox’, it’ll show your Inbox; if you select ‘Today’, it’ll show you things you need to get done today. In the bottom right hand corner you have four buttons; you have your ‘Archives’ button that allows you to see events you have already checked. Then you have ‘Back Burner’, which shows you all the events you have changed to do at a later time using the ‘Back Burner’ option. You also have deleted items and the option to search through your events. Finally, you have a ‘create a task’ bar to type in a task and the ‘Add task’ button.

Premium Samsung Apps Store for Android quick look

Nearly every manufacturer with Android smartphones in their stable have their own cultivated application store, or at least their own section of the official App Market. While Samsung’s application store isn’t new (Samsung Apps comes preinstalled on many Galaxy and Wave devices) it now offers paid apps as well as the free ones it used to offer. The UK is one of the first countries to gain access to this new store, with the main attractions being that there’s no pesky sign up process and, in the future, the ability to pay with credit cards or through your phone bill.

So, with Google’s own App Market already dominant offering thousands of apps, is there any reason to use Samsung Apps? Read on for an overview and some first impressions.