If you own an iPad, you already know that games are its best feature by far. We’ve covered lots of free iPad games here at MakeUseOf, but free awesome games are a well which never dries. In fact, most of the apps on my iPad are games, and I rarely use my iPad for anything else anymore.

That being said, I’m picky when it comes to games, and tend to get bored and exasperated with them rather quickly. This is why I keep downloading and trying  more and more new games, in an effort to find those precious few I can actually play for more than 10 minutes. In this article, I will share 5 games that have survived the 10-minutes test, and are probably some of the best-value free games you can find.

The Sims FreePlay [iTunes link]

You’ve probably heard of The Sims. This game was hard to miss several years back, and still emerges to the spotlight every now and then. As a major SimCity 2000 fan, I got addicted to the first Sims pretty quickly. The honeymoon only lasted for a few months though, and I haven’t touched a Sims game since then. Until I found The Sims FreePlay for the iPad.

If you’ve ever played The Sims before, you’ll recognize the interface. The game includes tons of options such as building and designing your house, buying furniture, completing goals, meeting other Sims, getting pets, and of course, the best part, creating your Sims.

Like many other “freemium” games, things can take time. Personally, I find this very convenient. This means you can play a little bit whenever you have the time, and let the game work by itself when you don’t. The graphics are great, the game is responsive, and the experience reminds me a lot of the original Sims I used to play on the desktop.

My Horse [iTunes link]

Have you ever dreamed of owning your own horse? One you could ride, compete with, train and shop for? You don’t have to admit it out loud, but if you’ve ever had the slightest horse-crave, you’re going to love My Horse.

My Horse is another “freemium” game, which you can fully enjoy without spending a dime. You earn coins and gems for completing tasks, and you can buy lots of fancy equipment, enter competitions for prizes, gain XP points, and all the while looking after your horse’s energy, health and happiness.

Almost every task you perform is a micro-game, and you can choose to do whatever you feel like each time you play.  This is another game you can play when you have time, and leave it to do its thing for the rest of the day. And if it all looks a bit bland to you, I assure you there is actually some strategy to it. Try it and find out!

Frisbee Forever [iTunes link]

Frisbee Forever is one of my favorite free games, and I’ve covered it before in depth. The goal of the game is to throw your Frisbee, make sure it passes through all the hoops, collect all the stars and get it safely to each level’s goal.

While you play, you earn coins and star coins, which you can use to unlock more levels, buy new Frisbees and equipment and generally enjoy yourself. The setting of the levels ranges from amusement parks and deserts to villages in the wild west, and the gameplay gets gradually harder, but not so hard that you get frustrated and throw the whole darn thing away. Whenever you’re bored, grab your iPad and play a few quick levels. You may even get some hefty bonuses every time you return to the game.

Glass Tower 2 HD Free [iTunes link]

Glass Tower 2 is the kind of game I rarely go for. These falling tower games tend to be either repetitive or too hard after very few levels, and I always get too frustrated and bored to continue. This is why I was doubly surprised at how fun and engaging Glass Tower 2 is.

The goal of the game is simple – get rid of all the blue blocks without breaking any of the red ones. Each level is a new tower, and you simply start tapping on the blue blocks to break them, one by one. This has to be done carefully, though, because those annoying red blocks tend to fall and break when you remove the blue blocks from around them.

While you play, bonuses keep flying around on the sides of the screen, which you have to quickly grab if you want to enjoy them. This can be quite challenging when your trying to prevent the whole thing from collapsing on you.

The free version includes 75 levels, which is impressive for such a good game. It also contains some unobtrusive ads.  The paid version is $0.99, and includes 150 levels and level editor. And of course, no ads.

iStunt 2 HD Instant Hills [iTunes link]

In all honesty, iStunt 2 Instant Hills is one of the best games I have on my iPad. Having never done any snowboarding in my life, I didn’t expect this game to be so enjoyable, but this one is a real hit.

The truly fun part about this game is the tilt controls. While I usually don’t like these, they work very well with this game. You control the snowboarder by moving your iPad around, and tap the screen to perform all sorts of fancy jumps. The game starts as quite easy, but pretty soon you get fans blowing on you, gravity changers and speed boosters, while you have to do your best not to crash.

I assure you, this is the most fun you’re going to have today!

If you’re not satisfied yet, be sure to check out some more great free games:

• 10 Great Free Games for Your iPad
• 5 Must Download New Free iPad Games
• 6 Free Simulation Games for the iPad
• 5 iPad Games You Won’t Believe Are Free
• 5 Free iPad Games To Amuse You This Weekend

Know of some more great free games for the iPad? Let us know in the comments!

View full post on MakeUseOf

GrowVeg.com, a subscription based online garden planning tool, has recently launched an iPad app based on the service. It costs $9.99 (no subscription) during the introductory period. It’s possibly the best tool I’ve found yet for planning your vegetable plot or allotment, with a fantastic advanced feature set such as square foot gardening and space requirements for individual varieties.

I must admit I’ve been searching for a decent vegetable plot planner for a while – I did a round up last year and only one of the apps actually lets you map out plots, while the others were just glorified grow guides. Having recently acquired an allotment of 125 square meters, the need to actually have some kind of system to manage it all and the release of this app has worked out nicely. We don’t normally review premium apps here at MakeUseOf, but in this case there are very few alternatives at all – and I feel this is an app definitely worth paying for. Click here to view it on the app store.

Core Functionality

Garden Plan Pro allows you to define your growing areas to scale, then plan out what you wish to grow there. Each plant includes seasonal growth info that’s nicely plotted on an easy to understand graphical planting calendar, as well as indicating spacing and area requirements. Let’s look in detail at some of the features that make this iPad gardening app so unique though.

Laying Out Your Plot

This app has by far the most powerful layout options I’ve found yet. While other apps limit you to simple rectangles, Garden Plan Pro lets you define custom shapes, rotate them, and even create curves.

On the downside, things can be a bit fiddly once you start rotating them, which is something they need to refine. Once rotated, it’s nearly impossible to move the shape, and resizing by dragging the corners still functions as if it weren’t rotated. It’s disconcerting, and sometimes you may resort to just deleting the shape and trying again.

It’s not impossible though, and bear in mind you only need to define the basic shapes once, as any subsequent years are copied over. It’s currently limited to geometric shapes (and colors), straight lines and curves – but typical garden objects etc. are promised for the future.

Crop Rotation

Having made a complete garden and planting plan for a year – what happens the next? In Garden Plan Pro, the garden shape will all be saved for next year – though of course you can still edit it if you make changes from one year to the next. Even more useful is that when adding plants for the next years plan, areas of your garden will be shaded to show where those plants were placed last year, thereby encouraging you to rotate crops. The app apparently remembers 5 years, with older years shaded lighter each year. A minor feature perhaps, but one that gardeners with large allotment plots will really appreciate I think.

You can also edit plans by month if you wish, ready for you to add something else for quick successional planting. There is also an option to split the growing into two entirely separate plans if you have a long growing period, which really shows how much thought the designers have putting into making this a Pro level app.

Another unique feature is the inclusion of a square foot gardening mode, whereby instead of laying out rows and entire beds of a specific variety, you interplant things into 1 foot areas – supposedly resulting in greater overall yields in more useful small batches. Helpfully, a small number in the box indicates exactly how many of that particular item you should fit into a single square foot, as well as allowing for larger items such as courgettes that need more than a single square foot to grow in.

Plant Selection

A good amount of plants are included in the database, from both generic varieties to specifics; covering both vegetables, fruiting trees, and herbal/medicinal flowers. Compare this to the SmartGardener online plot planner, which limits the seed selection to specific seeds from affiliated companies - all of whom are American with no generic types for us Brits to use.

The varieties included with Garden Plan Pro are also American based I believe, but with both generic types and the ability to add custom varieties (including the planting schedule and spacing requirements), it’s not a bother at all. In fact, adding custom varieties alone will make this a godsend for organic and heritage growers who tend to save and share seeds that simply aren’t grown commercially.

Bugs

This the first release, but there seems to be some glaring bugs. Firstly, it’s impossible to delete plans created in error. You can edit individual plots on the plans easily, but you can’t actually delete the entire garden to start again.

The planting calendar also displayed an obvious bug for me whereby the label was moved forward 7 months – so although the graphical planting guide was correct, it said I was currently in July. This doesn’t affect functionality as far as I can tell – if you assume the blue line is the current date, the planting guide will still be accurate.

The date selections also seem to be a bit peculiar. Pressing the minus button will set it to 2201 or something ridiculous.

Worth It?

Despite it’s buggy release lacking such basics as deleting gardens, Garden Plan Pro really still shines as the best garden planner for the iPad, period. It has by far the most advanced feature set (online sites included), catering for both casual gardeners who want a little structure, and serious allotmenteers who want fine grained control over the growing season plan.  can forgive it’s shortcomings in knowing that these will be dealt with in time, and I can offer nothing but a 5-star heartfelt recommendation for this iPad gardening app.

iTunes Store: Garden Plan Pro – $9.99 introductory price, normally $19.99

I’ll try to answer any app specific questions in the comments if you like, or feel free to give us your own quick review if you’ve purchased it. What features do you feel are missing still?

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/pirates-featured.jpeg" alt="free ipad games" />It’s been a while since the last free iPad games roundup, but in my defence it’s been rather quiet on the iPad games front, free or otherwise. Must just be that time of the year. Anyway, I’ve found a few gems that should keep you busy this weekend (or shut the kids up at least), so check them out!

Crimson Steam Pirates [ href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/crimson-steam-pirates/id438053238?mt=8">iTunes link]

This is my pick of the week, and it’s genuinely fantastic. A beautiful steampunk UI is complemented by intuitive and gorgeous in-game graphics, as you plunder the seas and chase after gold and girls.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/crimson.jpeg" alt="free ipad games" width="480" height="360" />

Rare in mobile games, it even has a pleasantly interesting narrative with distinctive characters.

The controls are simple once you get used to them, but it takes a while to get into the mindset of actually steering a boat and the quirks that are involved. Shots are fired automatically when you’re in range of an enemy, and various boats have different abilities and special powers.

The entire first campaign is free to play, but I think this one’s going to leave you wanting more and more.

Steam Birds Survival HD [ href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/steambirds-survival-hd/id468595066?mt=8">iTunes link]

This plays identical to Crimson Pirates in control style, but sadly has somewhat less character and zero story. The only difference is that it’s in the air with aeroplanes instead of pirate ships. Don’t let that dissuade you though.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/steambirdssurvvival.jpeg" alt="free games for ipad" width="480" height="360" />

If you’ve enjoyed Crimson Pirates to death, and you’re looking for something similar if not a complete knock-off copy, this is definitely worth checking out. It’s a well produced game with nice graphics, but does seem to utterly lacking in originality, level design (flat backgrounds), plot, or anything else that makes Crimson Pirates great.

Boss Battles HD [ href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/boss-battles-hd/id441410590?mt=8">iTunes link]

A pleasant surprise, Boss Battles is a nod to the old space shoot-em ups like Galaga, only with dare I say it even more primitive graphics. Core gameplay elements of collecting stuff, upgrading your weapons and purchasing additional firing ‘pods’ are all there, with each level ending in the typical ‘boss battle’.

The controls are simple and intuitive – keep your finger on the screen and drag it around to move and shoot.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/boss-battles.jpeg" alt="free games for ipad" width="360" height="480" />

Epic War TD [ href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id456176092">iTunes link]

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/epicwartd.jpg" alt="free games for ipad" width="480" height="320" />

A free tower defence game, just in case you aren’t entirely sick of them yet. Yes, from its humble beginnings of flash based href="http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/Game.asp">Desktop Tower Defence, an entire genre was born that involved mindless armies shuffling along tightly winding roads littered with turrets and zapping towers. Epic War doesn’t bring anything new to the genre – but it does have lovely graphics, hordes of alien like creatures, and fiendishly addictive gameplay.

As a free game, it’s ad-supported by an obnoxious banner across the top. It’s noticeable, but certainly doesn’t get in the way of a good game.

Forever Drive [ href="http://itunes.apple.com/md/app/forever-drive/id442923846?mt=8">iTunes link]

I loved this for the 8-bit soundtrack, retro graphics, and WipeOut style tracks that really doesn’t care what a racing track should look like. The default controls are touch-based on either side of the screen and they work well – there is the option of tilt or ‘analog pad’ but neither worked particularly well, so stick with the defaults.

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Actually, you know why I like this? It reminds me so much of the old MegaRace 2 PC game, which was a hypnotic winding non-race (you couldn’t spin out and the roads had walls as far as I remember) that was truly a graphical miracle in 1996 with pre-rendered tracks. Too young to have any idea what I’m talking about? Check it out…

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/megarace2.jpeg" alt="free ipad games" width="480" height="300" />

Please, please, somebody port that to the iPad, and I would be a truly happy man.

That’s it for today – this should be enough to kill a good few hours when you could otherwise be doing something more productive.

Enjoyed these? Let us know your favourite in the comments or if the price has since changed – these were all free at the time of writing, but obviously we can’t stop companies from raising their own prices.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/smartr.jpg" alt="social network news feed" />Does the iPad and iPhone need yet another magazine or newspaper style app? Well, despite the popularity and craftsmanship of similar apps like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/flipboard-social-magazine/">Flipboard, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/zite-ipad-rss-feed-contender/">Zite, and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pulse-free-visual-display-rss-news-reader-ipad/">Pulse, Factyle’s href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/smartr-news-for-ipad/id453281695?mt=8#">Smartr News, released last week, has its own unique features and approach to using your Twitter and Facebook feeds for downloading news and other content.

If your social network usage is like mine, most of your social feeds consist of links to web content rather than pure messages. Likewise, you probably post more links than you do messages. So it only makes sense to have an app exclusively devoted to using your social networks as news feed sources. Smartr News is similar to Flipboard, but it’s more streamlined.

Set Up Pages

Smartr News starts you off with a few Technology, Breaking News, and Trending RSS feeds of news stories, but adding your Twitter and Facebook accounts personalizes your Smartr News content. It actually downloads the links to articles on the timeline of your social networks and displays them read-only style stripped of ads and other obtrusive content.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IMG_1052.jpg" alt="social network news feed" width="580" height="435" border="0" />

The two-column display includes your feeds on one side, and your selected linked content on the other.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IMG_1057.jpg" alt="social news feed" width="435" height="580" />

If you have the right selection of Twitter and Facebook friends, their links also become a part of your news sources, providing you an abundant amount of content.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IMG_1053.jpg" alt="social news feed" width="580" height="435" border="0" />

In addition, Smartr News comes with featured feeds for sports, “Long Reads” (long thoughtful articles), celebrity gossip, fashion, movies, trending, and the like.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IMG_1059.jpg" alt="social news feed" width="580" height="579" border="0" />

A preview of your pages are displayed as squares, each with a headline and an image of leading stories. You can also add pages to this top list.

Sharing Content

Similar to other news apps in this genre, Smartr provides several ways to share stories and save them for later reading. Besides having your own posted links shared on your social networks, you can also save articles to your Instapaper or Read It Later service.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IMG_1056.png" alt="social media news rss feed" width="580" height="351" border="0" />

If the links you post are really important to you and others, Smartr has a unique feature for creating blog pages based on your links.

After you add a new blog, you simply tap to add selected articles to it. Smartr creates an external blog page for you that can be subscribed to by others. The page design of Smartr blogs are very basic, but the intent is have a place where you can build a collection of selected articles to share with others.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IMG_1063.jpg" alt="social media news rss feed" width="580" height="564" border="0" />

Unfortunately however, you have to view your blog outside of Smartr. It doesn’t download within the app itself.

Smartr Activity

Another way to get more news content in Smartr is by creating an Activity page that consists of selected friends with similar interests to yours that you can follow. Your Activity page will consist solely of their posts with their news links.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IMG_1060.jpg" alt="social media news rss feed" width="535" height="580" />

Smartr also provides a list of “handpicked featured users” to get you started.

Other Features

Smartr’s other features include the ability to write and post directly to your Twitter and Facebook timelines, as well as to Tumblr and Posterous.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IMG_10561.png" alt="social network news feed" width="580" height="351" border="0" />

You can also navigate the newsreader app really easily with a single finger gesture. In addition to tapping on individual stories in the timeline, you can swipe your finger on the right column to move to the previous or next story in the timeline. This makes for a really quick way to scan stories without a lot of hand movement across the screen.

So is Smartr a replacement for other newsreader apps? Well, it depends on what your needs are. If you get most of your news from your social networks, then yes, Smartr seems to be the best way to go. Let us know what you think.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/logo.jpg" alt="hidden ios features" /> href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ios">iOS 5 added so many features, tweaks and improvements to Apple’s mobile operating system that many inclusions seem to have gone by unannounced. Everyone (including us) has been href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/notified-revamped-notification-center-ios-5/">raving about the new Notification Center, the 4S href="http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=90999">battery drain feature (!) and the fact that you no longer need href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-sync-your-itunes-library-with-your-music-folders/">iTunes to update, but what else is new?

In their marketing spiel, Apple were quick to claim “over 200 new features” had made their way into the update, except they never really explained what they all did. Here I’m hoping to shine some light on a few of the more useful, hidden iOS features you might not have noticed yet. iDevices at the ready!

Keyboard Shortcuts

Under Settings, General and then Keyboard it is possible to define words you wish to use as shortcuts for longer words or phrases. As you can see, Apple has added the first for you – when typed, “omw” changes to “On my way!” making it easier and faster to type out commonly used phrases in a message or email.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/keyboardshortcuts.jpg" alt="hidden ios features" width="320" height="480" />

These shortcuts are naturally system-wide, and new ones can be added via the Add New Shortcut… button. Useful shortcuts could include “mymail” for your full email address, “myblog” for your website URL and classics like “ttyl” and “glhf” for the gamers out there.

Custom Vibration Patterns

By far one of the coolest (if a little pointless, I digress) new features in iOS 5 is the ability to customise or create your very own vibration patterns. To enable custom vibrations navigate to Settings, General then Accessibility where you will find a Custom Vibrations option. Enable it and return to Settings then Sound where there is now an option at the bottom of the screen.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/vibrationpatterns.jpg" alt="ios features list" width="320" height="480" />

Tap it to choose from any of the five in-built patterns, or touch Create New Vibration to record your own. Hit Save once you’re happy with your creation to set it as default. This won’t be the most frequently used feature on your phone, though it can be handy if you find yourself constantly missing alerts.

AssistiveTouch

iPad owners are lucky enough to be able to use a few multi-touch gestures off the bat (more on this later) but did you know all iOS devices can make use of AssistiveTouch and its custom gestures? Under Settings, General then Accessibility choose AssistiveTouch and notice the small icon in the bottom right hand corner.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/assistivetouch.jpg" alt="ios features list" width="320" height="480" />

Touch it and you’ll get quick access to your home screen, favourites and of course gestures. These can be defined by tapping Create New Gesture and dragging out a pattern with your finger. Give it a name and function and you’ve got yourself some gesture-based shortcuts.

Speak Selection & Voice Over

Two brand new talking innovations that made it into iOS 5 are Speak Selection and VoiceOver which can both be found under Settings, General then Accessibility (and both need to be enabled before you can use them).

Speak Selection adds a “Speak” option to any text that you select (be it a webpage, an email or a message you’re still typing) before reading the whole thing back to you at a swift pace. The speaking rate can be modified in the same settings menu as above.

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VoiceOver is another potentially useful speaking option, and one that is especially handy for those with poor eyesight who have difficulty navigating their device. This feature simply reads aloud from the screen you are on, listing options and other notes. Both are particularly great at what they do, making your iOS device quite the conversationalist!

Custom Alerts

At long last it is possible to change the default alerts that were previously locked to default iOS sounds. These options can be found under Settings then Sounds and include Sent/Received Mail tones, Message tones, Calendar/Reminder alerts and a tweet tone.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/customalerts.jpg" alt="ios features" width="320" height="480" />

If you find you’re still missing notifications you can try turning on LED Flash for Alerts under Settings, General then Accessibility. This will flash your camera LED when your phone receives a notification, but be aware your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-ways-boost-cell-phone-battery-life-iphone-android-smartphones/">battery life will probably be affected too.

In-Built Dictionary

Another useful feature that made its way into this release is the in-built dictionary which allows you to select a word using the standard text select method and tap Define in order to check its meaning and pronunciation.

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There is no way to access the dictionary other than via the context menu once a word has been selected.

iPad Specifics

Those of you lucky enough to own an iPad will enjoy the few iPad-specific enhancements that iOS 5 has to offer. Multi-touch gestures are now here to stay, and you can use four or five fingers to pinch to reveal the home screen, scroll up to reveal the app-switcher (as opposed to double tapping the Home button) and scroll left or right to switch between apps.

The other feature worth noting is the split keyboard option which is accessed by holding the bottom left icon on the keyboard in typing mode and choosing Split. This makes typing with your thumbs far more accessible, and the keyboard can even be undocked (hold the button again) in case it’s in your way.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the fabled 200+ enhancements Apple managed to squeeze into href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/started-ios-5-update/">the most exciting version of iOS yet. If you know of any others then please don’t hesitate in sharing them in the comments below.

Did you know about these hidden iOS features? Did you find them useful? Leave a comment below, and have your say.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/logo.jpg" alt="hidden ios features" /> href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ios">iOS 5 added so many features, tweaks and improvements to Apple’s mobile operating system that many inclusions seem to have gone by unannounced. Everyone (including us) has been href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/notified-revamped-notification-center-ios-5/">raving about the new Notification Center, the 4S href="http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=90999">battery drain feature (!) and the fact that you no longer need href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-sync-your-itunes-library-with-your-music-folders/">iTunes to update, but what else is new?

In their marketing spiel, Apple were quick to claim “over 200 new features” had made their way into the update, except they never really explained what they all did. Here I’m hoping to shine some light on a few of the more useful, hidden iOS features you might not have noticed yet. iDevices at the ready!

Keyboard Shortcuts

Under Settings, General and then Keyboard it is possible to define words you wish to use as shortcuts for longer words or phrases. As you can see, Apple has added the first for you – when typed, “omw” changes to “On my way!” making it easier and faster to type out commonly used phrases in a message or email.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/keyboardshortcuts.jpg" alt="hidden ios features" width="320" height="480" />

These shortcuts are naturally system-wide, and new ones can be added via the Add New Shortcut… button. Useful shortcuts could include “mymail” for your full email address, “myblog” for your website URL and classics like “ttyl” and “glhf” for the gamers out there.

Custom Vibration Patterns

By far one of the coolest (if a little pointless, I digress) new features in iOS 5 is the ability to customise or create your very own vibration patterns. To enable custom vibrations navigate to Settings, General then Accessibility where you will find a Custom Vibrations option. Enable it and return to Settings then Sound where there is now an option at the bottom of the screen.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/vibrationpatterns.jpg" alt="ios features list" width="320" height="480" />

Tap it to choose from any of the five in-built patterns, or touch Create New Vibration to record your own. Hit Save once you’re happy with your creation to set it as default. This won’t be the most frequently used feature on your phone, though it can be handy if you find yourself constantly missing alerts.

AssistiveTouch

iPad owners are lucky enough to be able to use a few multi-touch gestures off the bat (more on this later) but did you know all iOS devices can make use of AssistiveTouch and its custom gestures? Under Settings, General then Accessibility choose AssistiveTouch and notice the small icon in the bottom right hand corner.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/assistivetouch.jpg" alt="ios features list" width="320" height="480" />

Touch it and you’ll get quick access to your home screen, favourites and of course gestures. These can be defined by tapping Create New Gesture and dragging out a pattern with your finger. Give it a name and function and you’ve got yourself some gesture-based shortcuts.

Speak Selection & Voice Over

Two brand new talking innovations that made it into iOS 5 are Speak Selection and VoiceOver which can both be found under Settings, General then Accessibility (and both need to be enabled before you can use them).

Speak Selection adds a “Speak” option to any text that you select (be it a webpage, an email or a message you’re still typing) before reading the whole thing back to you at a swift pace. The speaking rate can be modified in the same settings menu as above.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/speakselection.jpg" alt="ios features list" width="320" height="480" />

VoiceOver is another potentially useful speaking option, and one that is especially handy for those with poor eyesight who have difficulty navigating their device. This feature simply reads aloud from the screen you are on, listing options and other notes. Both are particularly great at what they do, making your iOS device quite the conversationalist!

Custom Alerts

At long last it is possible to change the default alerts that were previously locked to default iOS sounds. These options can be found under Settings then Sounds and include Sent/Received Mail tones, Message tones, Calendar/Reminder alerts and a tweet tone.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/customalerts.jpg" alt="ios features" width="320" height="480" />

If you find you’re still missing notifications you can try turning on LED Flash for Alerts under Settings, General then Accessibility. This will flash your camera LED when your phone receives a notification, but be aware your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-ways-boost-cell-phone-battery-life-iphone-android-smartphones/">battery life will probably be affected too.

In-Built Dictionary

Another useful feature that made its way into this release is the in-built dictionary which allows you to select a word using the standard text select method and tap Define in order to check its meaning and pronunciation.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/dictionary.jpg" alt="hidden ios features" width="320" height="480" />

There is no way to access the dictionary other than via the context menu once a word has been selected.

iPad Specifics

Those of you lucky enough to own an iPad will enjoy the few iPad-specific enhancements that iOS 5 has to offer. Multi-touch gestures are now here to stay, and you can use four or five fingers to pinch to reveal the home screen, scroll up to reveal the app-switcher (as opposed to double tapping the Home button) and scroll left or right to switch between apps.

The other feature worth noting is the split keyboard option which is accessed by holding the bottom left icon on the keyboard in typing mode and choosing Split. This makes typing with your thumbs far more accessible, and the keyboard can even be undocked (hold the button again) in case it’s in your way.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the fabled 200+ enhancements Apple managed to squeeze into href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/started-ios-5-update/">the most exciting version of iOS yet. If you know of any others then please don’t hesitate in sharing them in the comments below.

Did you know about these hidden iOS features? Did you find them useful? Leave a comment below, and have your say.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/main-screen-1.jpg" alt="ipad magazine"/>I’ve been a huge fan of magazine style apps ever since the release of href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipboard/id358801284?mt=8">Flipboard, followed by href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pulse-news-for-ipad/id371088673?mt=8">Pulse, and then href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zite-personalized-magazine/id419752338?mt=8">Zite. These apps pull articles from around the net based either upon your specific topical interests, designated RSS feeds, and/or your Twitter and Facebook timelines.

The design, layout and presentation of content in these apps take full advantage of the iPad’s size, orientation, and tactile features. Using the finger gestures, you literally flip through articles like you would in an actual paper magazine.

All three iPad magazine apps have similar features, but each has something unique  that might cause you to use all three. In this article I share some of the best new features in these apps, and explain why you might download one or all of them to your iPad.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipboard/id358801284?mt=8">Flipboard

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/flipboard-social-magazine/">Flipboard was the first magazine style app for the iPad. It pulls popular content for all types of topics you select, including entertainment, sports, travel, news and business.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_10411.jpg" alt="ipad magazine" width="580" height="369" />

If you are a heavy Twitter or Facebook user, you will simply love how the content of your social networking feeds are displayed in this application. Flipboard turns your link-based tweets for example into actual articles.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1034.jpg" alt="magazine on ipad" width="435" height="580"/>

You can even select to view your own tweets, your timeline, your Twitter lists, and even your selected favorites. So basically Flipboard can be your Twitter iPad client as you browse in the app.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_10311.jpg" alt="magazine on ipad" width="433" height="378"/>

The newest feature added to Flipboard is improved Twitter and Google integration, which allows you to post tweets, notes, and attachments directly to your Twitter timeline or Google Reader account, which saves you the trouble of opening separate applications for these postings.

While you can’t add specific RSS feeds to Flipboard, you can search for any site and link to its content.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pulse-news-for-ipad/id371088673?mt=8">Pulse

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pulse-free-visual-display-rss-news-reader-ipad/">Pulse is more of a RSS feed reader for both the iPad and iPhone. Unlike Flipboard and Zite, Pulse does not select articles for you, or pull content from your social network streams. With Pulse however you can have pages and pages of feed articles displayed in columns. You can slide each column to the left and scan preview summaries of downloaded content.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1036.jpg" alt="magazine on ipad" width="435" height="580"/>

When you select an article, it opens in Reader-only format, minus distracting ads and other abstruse content.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1026.png" alt="ipad app magazine" width="433" height="323"/>

The best and unique feature for Pulse is the ability to select and save articles to your .me Pulse account. All your saved content can be synced between your other iOS device, as well as your online Pulse account.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1030.png" alt="ipad app magazine" width="435" height="234"/>

As with the two other magazine apps, Pulse integrates with Facebook, Twitter, and Mail, but not with Instapaper.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zite-personalized-magazine/id419752338?mt=8">Zite

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/zite-ipad-rss-feed-contender/">Zite creates magazine content based on broad topics you select, including fashion, entrepreneurship, health and exercise, travel tips, pets, social media, and the like. You cannot add RSS feeds directly to your Zite collection. It pulls popular content based on topics you select.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1038.png" alt="ipad app magazine" width="435" height="580"/>

However, Zite’s newest update allows you to connect to your other bookmarking and news service accounts, including Twitter, Google Reader, Delicious, and Read It Later.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1024.png" alt="" width="431" height="287"/>

Zite will build magazine content from the services, but it will not include all the articles that get added to say your Google Reader account.

Zite attempts to learn what you like based on the type of articles, topics, and sources you choose. You can directly tell it which type of content you want to see more of.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1027.png" alt="" width="373" height="228" />

Another unique and new feature that Zite offers is the ability to have multiple profiles in the application. This means that if you share your iPad with someone else, he or she can create a magazine of their own selected content, separate from yours.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_10401.png" alt="ipad magazine" width="580" height="261"/>

Let us know what you like about these iPap magazine style readers. If you’re looking for alternatives to these apps, check href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-flipboard-alternatives-computer-ipad/">4 Flipboard Alternatives for Your Computer If You Don’t Own An iPad.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/image230.png" alt="" />With href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-release-build-ios-5-news/">iOS 5, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/apple/">Apple decided to publicly introduce the multi-touch gestures. These gestures were included in the betas of iOS 4.3, but never made it to the public release. These are 4-5 fingers gestures that allow you to perform several useful tasks such as reveal the multitasking bar, switch between applications and return to the home screen.

There’s one catch, though. These gestures are only available on the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ipad/">iPad 2. If you have an original iPad, even if you upgrade to iOS 5, you’re out of luck. If you don’t want to upgrade to iOS 5 yet, you can forget about it too, even on an iPad 2. So how do you get your hands on these awesome gestures despite these drawbacks? You could jailbreak, but some people might not wish to do that. What then?

Here are two methods for getting the multitasking gestures without jailbreaking, one for iOS 4.3.X (iPad 1 or 2) and one for iOS 5 (iPad 2).

Method 1: iBackupBot for iOS 4.3.X

I found this handy cheat in the href="http://www.icopybot.com/blog/">iCopyBot blog. For this method you’d need to download href="http://www.icopybot.com/itunes-backup-manager.htm">iBackupBot (this is a paid app, but you can use the trial version if you only plan to use it for this) and a Windows machine. There is a version of iBackupBot for Mac, but I haven’t tried it since I have no machine to try it on. If you try it and it works, do tell us about it.

Start by plugging in your iPad, running iTunes, and creating a regular backup by right clicking your iPad’s name and choosing Back Up.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-26-14h21_24.png" alt="2011-10-26 14h21_24" width="320" height="247" border="0" />

Once that’s done, close iTunes and run iBackupBot. The program will recognize your device (although it might call it an iPod), and will list your backups in the left window pane. Find the last backup you’ve just performed and click on it. In the right pane, sort the files by Path, and find Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard.plist.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-26-14h37_19.png" alt="2011-10-26 14h37_19" width="561" height="327" border="0" />

Double click the file to edit it. At this point, iBackupBot may remind you that this is a trial version and will prompt you to buy the full version. You’re invited to do so, of course, but for this purpose, just click Cancel and the editor will open anyway.

Inside the <dict> tag, enter the following text:

<key>SBUseSystemGestures</key> /> <true/>

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-26-14h41_27.png" alt="2011-10-26 14h41_27" width="417" height="308" border="0" />

When you’re done, click the disc icon to save changes and close the editor.

In the main window, click the arrow icon to restore this backup to your iPad.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-26-14h42_46.png" alt="2011-10-26 14h42_46" width="445" height="297" border="0" />

Your iPad will start to restore, which might take a while. You’ll get a handy progress bar to watch, though.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-26-14h56_54.png" alt="2011-10-26 14h56_54" width="459" height="375" border="0" />

When the restore process is done, your iPad will restart. When it loads again, you will have the gestures!

Method 2: redsn0w For iOS 5

For this method, you’ll require a modified version of redsn0w which enables the multi-touch gestures. This version was modified by a member of the href="http://modmyi.com/forums/ipad-jailbreaking/783541-ipad-1-gestures-display-mirroring-without-jailbreak.html">modmyi forum and is available in a href="http://localhostr.com/file/yNLeJW0/redsn0w_win_0.9.9b7_gestures_only.zip">Windows version and a href="http://localhostr.com/file/Akqdwni/redsn0w_mac_0.9.9b5_gestures_only.zip">Mac version. This method should be identical whether you’re on a Windows or Mac machine, but I only tried it on Windows.

Start by downloading the relevant version of redsn0w. You’ll then need to plug in your iPad, close iTunes and turn your iPad off. Do this by long-pressing the power button until the “Slide to power off” slider appears, and then slide it to turn the iPad off. Now you can run redsn0w.

In the first menu, choose “Jailbreak and install Cydia”. Don’t worry, you won’t be jailbreaking nor installing Cydia.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-26-17h17_10.png" alt="2011-10-26 17h17_10" width="432" height="524" border="0" />

Make sure your iPad is plugged in and turned off, otherwise this next step will not work.

Now you need to put your iPad into DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode. You can try following the directions in redsn0w, but it’s hard to keep up with the exact timing.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-26-17h28_17.png" alt="2011-10-26 17h28_17" width="433" height="524" border="0" />

If this didn’t work for you the first time, just go back and do the following actions:

• Hold the power button for 3 seconds.
• Without releasing the power button, hold the home button for 10 seconds.
• Without letting go of the home button, release the power button and keep holding the home button for another 15 seconds.

Your iPad should now be in DFU mode. If your iPad is unresponsive but nothing seems to happen in redsn0w, try unplugging your iPad and plugging it in again. redsn0w will take it from there.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-26-17h25_19.png" alt="2011-10-26 17h25_19" width="432" height="524" border="0" />

After several progress bars go by, you’ll get to this screen. By default, “Install Cydia” is selected. Unselect this option and select “Enable multitasking gestures”. Then click next.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-26-17h24_50.png" alt="2011-10-26 17h24_50" width="435" height="525" border="0" />

This shouldn’t take long, and after a little while your iPad will start showing white lines of text, and you’ll see this window on your computer.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-26-17h25_39.png" alt="2011-10-26 17h25_39" width="431" height="337" border="0" />

That’s it. You’re done. Your iPad will reboot and when it loads again, multi-touch gestures will be on!

Conclusion

If you’ve used one of these methods, you can now enjoy the exciting and fun-filled multi-touch gestures! Try swiping upwards with 4 fingers to get the multitasking bar, for example. You can also pinch with 5 fingers while in any app to exit it, or swipe left and right with 4 fingers to browse between apps. These modifications should also turn on AirPlay Mirroring on iPad 1.

If you get tired of these gestures, you can turn them off in the Settings at any time, but I doubt that you will!

What do you think of multi-touch gestures? Are they worth the trouble for iPad 1 owners? Let us know in the comments!

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/screenshot1428.jpg" alt="multiple user accounts on ipad" />I share my precious iPad with three other members of my family, and with occasional guests who drop by from time to time. Each user has his or her own e-mail and Facebook accounts, which typically means they have to log out of my accounts to access theirs. This is not a huge problem, but since Apple has already established a multiple sign-in accounts feature for Macs, it only makes sense to have something similar for iOS devices.

Perhaps Apple hasn’t added this feature because secretly it would like to have each member of the family own their own iPad. Well, until that happens, the developers at Ghori Networks have created a workable solution, called href="http://www.ourpadapp.com/">Our Pad. The name might not be exciting, but the features this application offers may very be useful to those of us who share their iPad with other people.

How It Works

With Our Pad, you and other members of your family or group can set up separate accounts for signing into e-mail and social networking sites, including Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, and Twitter.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/screenshot1430.jpg" alt="multiple user accounts on ipad" width="363" height="481" border="0" />

As Ghori Networks states :

Passwords for your accounts are not transferred anywhere and are strictly managed within the device using the Apple Keychain lockbox.

This setup simply saves users the trouble of having to sign out of and into similar accounts.

You sign out of a user account by pressing the Home button or by tapping your name. If you forget to sign out, Our Pad will automatically sign you out when your iPad is idle or when it goes to sleep.

Adding Accounts

Adding accounts in Our Pad is pretty easy. When you launch the application, it asks you for the name of a user. You could also simply add an alternate account for say work related sites.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1014.jpg" alt="multiple ipad accounts" width="432" height="360" border="0" />

In the next screen you draw what is called a long pattern to unlock the account. You should make that pattern as easy or as difficult as it needs to be depending upon the user and the level of security needed. This lock pattern feature is what many iPad users would probably like to see used for logging into the iPad itself.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1012.jpg" alt="multiple ipad accounts" width="435" height="580" border="0" />

If you forget your lock pattern, you will need to delete the user account in question and set it up again.

After clicking the next button, you simply add the accounts that you want to log into. The username and password for each account will be saved so that you do not have to type them in again.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1008.jpg" alt="multiple ipad accounts" width="435" height="580" border="0" />

Once you’re set up, you can easily switch between your established email and social networking accounts. In my test of the application, I find Our Pad to be amazingly fast and intuitive.

Fortunately, you can also change the name of and/or reset the log-in pattern for existing accounts, as well delete them altogether.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1009.jpg" alt="multiple user accounts on ipad" width="435" height="399" border="0" />

I’m not a big fan of the app’s design, but I’m very hopeful about the future potential of this iPad-only application.

Wish List

Ghori Networks has already said that future updates of this application will include other sites. The developers invite you to let them know about different web-based services you would like to see added.

It would be great if Apple added the ability to access multiple user accounts on iPad so that each user has their own set of applications and user settings. No doubt this will occur in future versions of the iPad, but for now Ghori Networks provides a practical solution that many of us iPad owners will want to use.

Let us know what you think of Our Pad, which is free for a limited time.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/screenshot1428.jpg" alt="multiple user accounts on ipad" />I share my precious iPad with three other members of my family, and with occasional guests who drop by from time to time. Each user has his or her own e-mail and Facebook accounts, which typically means they have to log out of my accounts to access theirs. This is not a huge problem, but since Apple has already established a multiple sign-in accounts feature for Macs, it only makes sense to have something similar for iOS devices.

Perhaps Apple hasn’t added this feature because secretly it would like to have each member of the family own their own iPad. Well, until that happens, the developers at Ghori Networks have created a workable solution, called href="http://www.ourpadapp.com/">Our Pad. The name might not be exciting, but the features this application offers may very be useful to those of us who share their iPad with other people.

How It Works

With Our Pad, you and other members of your family or group can set up separate accounts for signing into e-mail and social networking sites, including Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, and Twitter.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/screenshot1430.jpg" alt="multiple user accounts on ipad" width="363" height="481" border="0" />

As Ghori Networks states :

Passwords for your accounts are not transferred anywhere and are strictly managed within the device using the Apple Keychain lockbox.

This setup simply saves users the trouble of having to sign out of and into similar accounts.

You sign out of a user account by pressing the Home button or by tapping your name. If you forget to sign out, Our Pad will automatically sign you out when your iPad is idle or when it goes to sleep.

Adding Accounts

Adding accounts in Our Pad is pretty easy. When you launch the application, it asks you for the name of a user. You could also simply add an alternate account for say work related sites.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1014.jpg" alt="multiple ipad accounts" width="432" height="360" border="0" />

In the next screen you draw what is called a long pattern to unlock the account. You should make that pattern as easy or as difficult as it needs to be depending upon the user and the level of security needed. This lock pattern feature is what many iPad users would probably like to see used for logging into the iPad itself.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1012.jpg" alt="multiple ipad accounts" width="435" height="580" border="0" />

If you forget your lock pattern, you will need to delete the user account in question and set it up again.

After clicking the next button, you simply add the accounts that you want to log into. The username and password for each account will be saved so that you do not have to type them in again.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1008.jpg" alt="multiple ipad accounts" width="435" height="580" border="0" />

Once you’re set up, you can easily switch between your established email and social networking accounts. In my test of the application, I find Our Pad to be amazingly fast and intuitive.

Fortunately, you can also change the name of and/or reset the log-in pattern for existing accounts, as well delete them altogether.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1009.jpg" alt="multiple user accounts on ipad" width="435" height="399" border="0" />

I’m not a big fan of the app’s design, but I’m very hopeful about the future potential of this iPad-only application.

Wish List

Ghori Networks has already said that future updates of this application will include other sites. The developers invite you to let them know about different web-based services you would like to see added.

It would be great if Apple added the ability to access multiple user accounts on iPad so that each user has their own set of applications and user settings. No doubt this will occur in future versions of the iPad, but for now Ghori Networks provides a practical solution that many of us iPad owners will want to use.

Let us know what you think of Our Pad, which is free for a limited time.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-19-16h01_52.jpg" alt="evri ipad app" />Staying connected, something we all like to do these days, means reading e-mails everywhere, checking Facebook every hour, and also being on top of the latest news. Be it the big things happening in our area, some exciting Hollywood news or the release of a major update to our favorite app, we like to know about things when they happen.

There are some pretty attractive, fun and personalized href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-5-news-apps-ipad/">ways to read news on your iPad. However, many news apps, even the very best ones, tend to overwhelm me. Many of them are comprised of endless squares that I need to customize in order to not get immediately lost. href="http://itunes.apple.com/il/app/evri-for-ipad/id448520587?mt=8">Evri is a news reader for the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ipad/">iPad which makes it all a bit more organized. While not being very customizable, it makes it easy to zoom in directly on your favorite topics and still be able to broaden your interests whenever you feel like it.

Browsing, Reading & Sharing

Evri turns news, no matter what they are, into candy. The app is very well designed, and everything you look at just beckons you to read it. When you first load the app, you’ll see a top bar with some topics you can choose from (News, US & World, Entertainment, Sports, Business and Technology). Tapping any of these will show you a list of hot sub-topics on the left and some hot news on the main screen.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/image195.png" alt="evri ipad app" width="570" height="508" border="0" />

When you focus on one sub-topic, you get a glimpse of the very top news, a list of featured articles and some related topics. For each and every topic you browse, no matter how broad or how specific, there’s a “Follow” button. Tapping it will add the topic to your Now Following list, and you’ll be able to read everything under it easily as it’s published.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-19-15h19_19.jpg" alt="evri news search" width="453" height="612" border="0" />

You can easily access your Now Following list from this notice or from the main app page. From there you can also delete topics you are not longer interested in.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-19-15h13_20.jpg" alt="evri news search" width="260" height="208" border="0" />

Evri gathers news items from all over the Web. When browsing a topic, you’ll get a preview (or sometimes the full article, if it’s short) of all the hot stories from different sources. There are several things you can do with these:

• “Read” opens the full original article in the app’s internal browser.
• “Save” lets you save this article for later using href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-multiplatform-app-save-information-read/">Read It Later or href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-and-manage-your-bookmarks-better-with-instapaper/">Instapaper (requires login).
• “Share” allows you to share this piece of news with friends via Facebook & Twitter (requires login) or via e-mail. You can also use this button to open the article in href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/safari">Safari.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-19-15h13_00.jpg" alt="evri news search" width="562" height="482" border="0" />

Finding & Learning

You might not be very interested in the somewhat limited topics Evri provides for quick browsing. But don’t worry, Evri provides a quick, live search for topics. No matter what page you’re on, tap the search box and start typing. Evri will immediately start loading a list of topics which might be a match for your word. It will not limit by broad topics, so a search for “Horse”, for example, yields the animal, a military person, a plant, a film and so on.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-19-15h14_01.jpg" alt="evri news" width="475" height="481" border="0" />

When you’ve found your specific topic, simply tap on it and you’ll be taken to a page dedicated to everything that has to do with this topic. The connection can be somewhat loose, especially if your topic is a bit broad.

At any point when browsing, you can tap the “Info” icon to learn more about whatever it is you’re reading about. Evri provides an excerpt from Wikipedia with some important information, and a list of related topics, which can be very related or just somewhat related (George Clooney and Coffee?).

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-19-15h15_02.jpg" alt="evri news" width="500" height="618" border="0" />

Another convenient thing you can do is go through your entire browsing history. On the top topics bar, scroll all the way to the right and look for the “History” tab. Here you’ll find a list, complete with times of the day, of all the topics you’ve browsed today, in the past week and in the past month. If you were browsing something really interesting and forgot to follow it, you can use the history to find it again.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-19-15h14_37.jpg" alt="evri ipad app" width="479" height="587" border="0" />

Bottom Line

All in all, Evri provides a fun news-reading experience which you can use to find a specific news item, or to dive into the world of news and explore it deeply by jumping from link to link. The way Evri works, you’ll always get a list of related stories or related links, so you can pretty much go on browsing and reading news all day long.

I do wish they’d add some more ways to customize it, such as letting the user choose which topics appear on the left-side list, but even as it is, Evri is a polished iPad app and it helps you find your way through the news, instead of getting you lost.

Do you know of some more good news apps? What did you think of Evri? Share in the comments!

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/0_ipadnews.jpg" alt="best news apps for ipad" />One thing I’m sure I don’t have to tell you is that news is changing. Everything from the way information is reported down to the way it’s consumed has undergone a change in recent years, and it has led to a more personalized news experience that takes place in real-time.

The fact that anybody in the world can go on a network like Twitter and report news has a lot to do with this. If I see news happening outside my window (which is highly likely in New York City), I can act as a first respondent of sorts and break the story with a tweet.

Other key advancements in news consumption have been the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ipad/">iPad and, more importantly, the news-related apps that were designed specifically for this device. Some of the best news apps let you pull in data from your social networks, as well as pieces of news from other key outlets. Let’s take a look at some of the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/best-ipad-apps">best iPad apps for viewing news.

1. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flud/id382544677?mt=8">FLUD

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FLUD is a really cool news app for iPad that keeps you up-to-date. The app is customized to your tastes as you can follow all of your favorite blogs and news sites. You can share content via Twitter, Facebook, and email as well as bookmark stories using Instapaper and Read It Later all in one place. Also, anything you or anyone else bookmarks is promoted to the “FLUD feed”.

Like all of the apps listed here, FLUD has a beautiful user interface. You can search for RSS feeds inside the app and add them with a single touch, connect to Google Reader, mark articles you love, organize feeds into categories, and more.

2. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipboard/id358801284?mt=8">Flipboard

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Flipboard needs no introduction. This app was named Apple’s iPad App of the Year and one of TIME’s top 50 innovations of 2010. Flipboard offers you a simple way to flip through news, photos, videos, and social updates in a magazine like layout that is easy to scan. You can customize your Flipboard with sections created from your favorite news, people, blogs, topics, etc.

Be sure to also check out href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watch-videos-friends-sharing-showyou-ipadiphone/">ShowYou on your iPad. I liken this app to Flipboard for videos. We also have  href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-flipboard-alternatives-computer-ipad/">4 Flipboard Alternatives For Your Computer If You Don’t Own An iPad.

3. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taptu/id392240746?mt=8">Taptu

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Taptu, which href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/taptu-multiplatform-mobile-news-reader-curator-ios-android/">we’ve covered before, is a social news feed reader that lets you add your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the content from your favorite websites and blogs (via RSS feeds or Twitter) into beautiful streams for easy navigating. Like the other news apps on this list, Taptu also lets you share news with your friends via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and email, as well as save items to Instapaper for later viewing.

4. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pulse-news-for-ipad/id371088673?mt=8">Pulse

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Pulse is also up there among the most best news apps for the iPad, having been named to the App Store Hall of Fame. Pulse takes your favorite websites and and transforms them into a colorful and interactive mosaic. You can tap on an article to see a clean view of the news story. Pulse also lets you save stories for reading later across all platforms and syncs them with Instapaper, Read it Later, and Evernote. Sharing a story is a simple two-tap process.

5. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zite-personalized-magazine/id419752338?mt=8">Zite

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Zite, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/zite-ipad-rss-feed-contender/">covered back in March, is a little different from its predecessors on this list because it comes right out and tells you it’s a personalized magazine. Zite automatically learns what you like and gets smarter as you use it. It gives you personalized news, articles, blog posts, videos, and other content from a variety of mainstream and niche publications and websites.

You can also sync it with your Twitter or Google Reader accounts to further improve the “learning” process.

Conclusion

All of these iPad apps have something great to offer and you can get addicted to any one of them. As of now they are all free, so give them a try and let us know which one is your favorite. I have a feeling your iPad is about to replace some of the newspapers you’re used to reading, as well as cut deeply into your TV news watching time.

What is your favorite iPad news app?

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/featured-toolkithd.jpg" alt="ipad gardening app"/>A few weeks ago, Tim showed us some great title="5 Free Gardening Apps For Green Fingered Geeks [iOS]" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-free-gardening-apps-green-fingered-geeks-ios/">free gardening apps for the iPhone, but I wanted to explore some specifically for growing vegetables and the href="http://selfsufficiencyguide.org/blog/">self-sufficient lifestyle I strive for. More specifically, I wanted something that would help me figure out exactly what I could grow, and when. I have 3 apps to show you today, but sadly none of them are free. The truth is that finding decent free apps in this quite niche topic area is difficult, and none had anywhere near the functionality I wanted.

However, here are a few free ones you might want to consider as alternatives:

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/garden-plot/id430310833?mt=8">Garden Plot [iTunes] (iPhone only): A severely restricted version with just 15 plant types with in-app purchases to unlock more ‘grow’ guides. A dismal interface and graphics as well as high cost if you were to purchase all the available varieties put this firmly on my not worth looking at list.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/garden-tracker/id345197950?mt=8">Garden Tracker [iTunes] (for href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_foot_gardening">Square Foot Gardening, iPhone only): Again, restricted to only 2×2 size plots with up to 8×8 available as an in-app upgrade for $1.99. However, if you’re willing to work around these limitations then it’s probably the best free app out there – only if you follow the square-foot method of course – for those who have more traditional row and bed planting tastes, this is a bit useless.

Anyway, on with the Top 3 paid apps and a review of each.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gardening-toolkit-hd-easy/id444035675?mt=8">Recommended: Toolkit HD ($3.99) [iTunes]

First off, Toolkit HD is gorgeous – the wooden backgrounds and custom UI really make it a pleasure to browse. The app is also deceptively deep – hiding a mountain of advice and information. Here’s a breakdown of the core features.

Advice:

This is a goldmine of planting advice and schedules, my favorite section (in the screenshot below) being what you can plant each month and whether it’s suitable for your garden, along with a full growing guide. It also covers vegetables, herbs, fruit, flowers, and shrubs which is fantastic.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/toolkit-what-to-plant-now.jpg" alt="ipad gardening app" width="580" height="435" />

Another nice touch is the Plant Ideas tab, which breaks lists plants by suitability or topic – for instance, flowers for clay soils, for children to grow, or plants to attract bees. It’s a welcome feature for beginners like myself. From these pages or the searchable database of all plants, one click will place them into your personal growing list.

My Gardens:

This is where you manage what you have planted in your own garden, and the app will give you a lovely little progress bar and remind you when it’s about time to harvest them, a truly fascinating and simple feature that I really appreciate. Being able to adjust the timings for plants sown as seedlings rather than from the seed is a welcome feature too for pro users.

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There is also a journal section which is a glorified to-do list (though more features are promised very soon), and a link to the disturbingly quiet online community. Still, those aren’t core features of the app, and overall it’s a pleasure to use and just so full of useful information, so I can confidently recommend this as the best gardening app out there.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/garden-planner-hd/id396664540?mt=8">Honorable Mention: Garden Planner HD ($3.99)

Also full of functionality, I’m afraid this doesn’t get my first choice badge as the database of plants included is somewhat limited – it’s produce only, and even then missing some obvious items. However, it does have a few unique functions worth highlighting.

Plot Manager:

Added in a recent update, this is a feature I’ve always wanted from a vegetable growing app, but sadly it’s not as tightly integrated as I’d like it to be. For instance, adding an item from the catalog to your plot doesn’t automatically add it to your garden. To do that, you would have to add it first to the Garden section, then add it from there to the Plot section – a convoluted way of thinking that really complicates things, and one I hope will be addressed in a further update. As it stands, the plot manager is somewhat tacked on and just not worth the effort.

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My Garden:

This section holds basic info on everything you are growing and have grown, and even allows you to save a harvest amount for your records. Another bug shows itself here though, in that once harvested the plant still shows as active in your garden. Presumably you have to delete it, but then I’m not sure what the point on saving the harvest was.

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In general, the app UI is quite sloppy compared to Toolkit HD, and the database of plants feels significantly smaller – but if a plot manager is essential then this might be your only choice for now.

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/igrowit/id364233815?mt=8">Simple: iGrowIt ($0.99) [iTunes]

The cheapest of the bunch, and the most limited – iGrowIt aims to simply answer the question “What can I grow today?”, and as such the only setting for the app is the href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardiness_zone">hardiness zone (UK is 8, by the way). After that, it will tell you precisely what can be planted in the current month. You can switch back and forward through months to plan ahead too, and clicking on a plant will bring up some very basic planting info.

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It’s really a one-use app and certainly nothing unique that you couldn’t find for free on the internet, but at 99 cents it’s hard to fault it.

Haters will hate, but I still say the iPad has managed to be so versatile that it can literally find it’s way into every aspect of our lives – from our morning wake up routine, to managing a vegetable plot – and I find that just amazing and a real testament to the legacy that title="What Is The Legacy Of Steve Jobs? [Geeks Weigh In]" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/legacy-steve-jobs-geeks-weigh/">Jobs left us with. Having said that, I still haven’t found the perfect gardening app, but these are certainly the best I’ve seen.

Please, if you know of a free app that’s worth the download then don’t hesitate to let us know about it in the comments – or even if you’re an Android owner and have some suitable alternatives for the other tablet devices. You might also want to check out the title="Manage Your Real Life Vegetable Plot Online For Free With VGA Live" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/manage-real-life-vegetable-plot-free-webapp/">online plot and garden manager VGALive that I highlighted some months ago.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image154.png" alt="" />A while ago I wrote a post about href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-4-websites-find-free-ipad-books/">places to find free books for the  href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ipad/">iPad. In that post, I compared the iPad to designated eReaders and expressed the opinion that it’s not a worthy substitute. Following some comments on the matter I tested the iPad again as a regular vessel for eBooks and was surprised – it does provide quite a good experience.

In my quest I found myself debating which platform I should use for books – Apple’s own href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8">iBooks, or Amazon’s href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kindle/id302584613?mt=8">Kindle for iPad. True, there are other readers such as href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stanza/id284956128?mt=8">Stanza, but for the purposes of this review I will focus on the former two. So which one is better, iBooks or Kindle for iPad?

iBooks

iBooks is free to download from the app store and is probably one of the first apps one downloads when getting a new iDevice.

This is the basic library view of iBooks. Very graphic and library-like. You really feel like you have books.

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Your library can be searched and the search is live, so the results are updated as you type. You can easily sort your books and delete them to customize your library. It’s all very immediate and convenient.

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If you want to read, you need books. In iBooks, you can simply access a store from the app itself and download loads of free (and paid) books. You can also download ePub and PDF files and upload them via iTunes or even e-mail them to yourself and open them using iBooks.

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Being able to add PDFs is a nice feature (see href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-ipad-tricks/">here how to do it), and you can also sort your library by collection (books, PDFs, whatever else you want).

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As for the reading experience, iBooks tries to imitate a real book – “pages” and all. You turn pages by tapping the appropriate side, but you have to endure a turning page animation every time you do so. Page turning is rather responsive, but it tends to be a bit slow when you just load the app.

These are the default settings iBook comes with. I didn’t find this very appealing:

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After tweaking it a little bit, I got something I could enjoy reading. You can choose between several fonts, two font sizes, turn Sepia on and off and control the brightness. The menu icons are there unless you tap the page in a specific way to make them go away. Generally, I found myself reading with them there more often than not.

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You can easily search within a book (only the one you’re reading) and the results you get are very focused. You don’t get a lot of context with them. You can tap a result to go to that page, and the result will be highlighted.

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While reading, you can long tap on any word. You can then copy it, search for it in a dictionary, highlight it, write a note about it or search for it in the book. The highlight looks very real, almost like a real marker!

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You can also bookmark pages and then access them by tapping the table of contents button and then looking at bookmarks. You will also see your highlights and notes here.

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Kindle For iPad

href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kindle/id302584613?mt=8">Kindle for iPad is a free download from the app store. You can use it in addition to a regular Kindle or as a substitute.

The main library is dark and pleasant. It feels very eBookish.

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If you want books, you’d need to register the Kindle with a Kindle account. It will then be synchronized and you’ll get all your books.

You can get more books on Amazon, or download .mobi files. The simplest way to upload these is to e-mail them to yourself. From the Kindle app you can also access your archived items and easily download them to your iPad. I couldn’t find a way to search for books in the library.

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This is the default reading experience. Minimalistic. I love it. As you can see there are no menu icons in sight (they disappear automatically) and no “pages”. Turn pages by tapping the screen lightly. If you want, you can even cancel the annoying page-turn animation. It’s just a white screen with words.

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To make it even better you can play with the settings. You can choose from three types of backgrounds, 6 font sizes and also change the brightness. You can’t change the font, though, so whatever comes, you’re stuck with it.

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Searching within a book is easy and quick and you get a full context for every query. Again, tapping a result will take you to the appropriate page.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-20h59_11.png" alt="2011-08-29 20h59_11" width="442" height="539" border="0" />

A long tap on a word will give you the option to highlight it, add a note or share on Twitter or Facebook. You will also get an automatic dictionary definition at the bottom of the page.

I wondered what sharing meant, but when I tried it I got a “Sharing not supported” error message. So when is sharing supported?

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-29-21h01_04.png" alt="2011-08-29 21h01_04" width="537" height="290" border="0" />

If you make a bookmark, highlight or note, you can access them easily by tapping the book icon and going to My Notes & Marks.

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One of the best features in Kindle for iPad: you can read white on black. You can also make the font pretty darn big. This means you can easily read at night in bed without having the light on and disturbing whoever’s sharing your bedroom. Awesome! (check out  href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-ipad-tricks-2/">this post to find out how to do this for iBooks).

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Bottom Line

For getting new books, iBooks has a small advantage – you don’t need an extra account. It’s also slick and easy to use and the library and annotations tools are great. But when it comes to the reading experience, I choose the Kindle hands down. For me, nothing beats the minimalistic feel of seeing nothing but words. And the night reading – the future really is here!

Which do you prefer? Or do you enjoy another reader? Share in the comments!

Image credit: href="http://thumb15.shutterstock.com/thumb_small/59068/59068,1312047506,1/stock-photo-group-of-books-and-teblet-computer-d-model-isolated-on-white-digital-library-concept-81933127.jpg">Shutterstock

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image76.png" alt="" />When I first got my class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ipad/">iPad, I knew I wanted to use it for class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/drawing/">drawing and sketching. Not that I’m an artist by any means, I can barely draw a stick figure, but when you own an iPad it seems almost impossible not to get drawing apps. The device calls for it. It wants it.

Not having many requirements in the area, I focused my energy on finding free drawing apps. None of them were really good, and I resigned myself to the possibility that I would have to get a paid app, like class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketchbook-pro-for-ipad/id364253478?mt=8">SketchBook Pro, which I’ve heard a lot about and knew would be way over the top for me. Then I found class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketchbook-express/id410871280?mt=8">SketchBook Express.

SketchBook Express (or SketchBookX) is completely free, devoid of any ads, and it’s awesome. It’s also available on many platforms (Mac, iOS, Android). Here I will focus on the iPad version.

Brushes

The basic part of any drawing app are the brushes, and there are plenty here. To access the brushes you can either tap the brush icon at the top or swipe downwards with three fingers. From here you can access many types of brushes, control size, color and opacity and fill in whole spaces. There’s even an eye-dropper tool for re-using existing colors on your canvas. In the small white window at the top you can see what the exact brush you chose will look like.

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I mentioned that there are no ads, and that’s true, but if you wish to expand your brush collection, you can either upgrade to the Pro version or just buy a pack of brushes for $0.99. Not too bad.

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Even after you choose your brush, you don’t have to access the brush screen again to change the basic things. Tap the small circle icon at the bottom of the screen to access some brush properties.

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Now you can simply swipe up and down with one finger to change the opacity and swipe left and right to change the brush size. This is limited to the type of brush you already chose, so if you chose a highlighter, for example, it will always remain somewhat transparent even if you set opacity to 1.00 from here.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image80.png" alt="image" width="375" height="405" border="0" />

As in any drawing application, you can choose between a free line, a straight line and some shapes. There aren’t many options here, so no ready-made intricate shapes, but don’t worry. There is a different way to creates these.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-15-12h18_40.png" alt="2011-08-15 12h18_40" width="346" height="163" border="0" />

Tap the symmetry drawing icon at the top, and every line you make will be duplicated in a symmetric way. This allows you to create any shape you want without worrying about it being all crooked and bent out of shape. Here you can see me in the process of drawing a perfect set of blue lips!

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-15-12h24_20.png" alt="2011-08-15 12h24_20" width="478" height="235" border="0" />

Layers & Text

Swipe upwards with three fingers or tap the layers icon to enter the layers manager. From here you can add layers and edit their features. You can also add a photo into a different layer if you wish. Each layer in your drawing will be editable regardless of any other layers. You can also make a hidden layer (see the X on the eye icon below).

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If you make a hidden layer and then try to draw in it, you will not be able to. You can immediately turn it into a shown layer, though.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-15-12h21_28.png" alt="2011-08-15 12h21_28" width="392" height="363" border="0" />

Now for the really cool part. Draw your flower and your bee in two different layers. Now you will be able to control the bee and the flower separately. This means changing size, position, rotation and so on. So you can very easily turn this:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-15-12h22_31.png" alt="2011-08-15 12h22_31" width="400" height="361" border="0" />

Into this:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-15-12h22_15.png" alt="2011-08-15 12h22_15" width="418" height="402" border="0" />

There are many more options to editing layers. You can set anchor points and change your image around them. You can flip, turn and change things every which way. It’s very flexible and you can create almost anything you want.

Another layer you can add is text. Tap the text icon on the top and a keyboard will pop up. Aside from the regular keys, you’ll find color, size, font and opacity controls for your text. Start by entering the text you want to have in your drawing.

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The text is automatically created as a different layer, so when you finish writing it you can manipulate it exactly like any other layer.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-15-12h26_21.png" alt="2011-08-15 12h26_21" width="482" height="495" border="0" />

Exporting & Importing

All the drawings you save will appear in the gallery. From here you can view them all, duplicate them, delete them and export them.

If you have it set up, you can print your beautiful picture right away. If not, you can export it to your photo library.

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SketchBookX also allows you to edit existing photos. From the gallery you can import a photo from your photo library, and start playing with it.

You can see below that I played with the zoom. This is done by a simple two-finger pinch. You can do this with any drawing, not just pictures.

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You can easily add drawings and text to the image to create that very special greeting card or just for fun!

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Conclusion

SketchBookX is the most wonderful drawing application I’ve had on my iPad. If I were an artist, I would seriously consider getting the paid version. As it is, having the capabilities you’ve just seen, I think the free version will provide me with a few months of experimenting before I might need anything else. I probably haven’t even scratched the surface of what this app can do.

Looking for more free drawing apps? Check out these class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-free-doodling-software-apps-ipad-mac/">3 free doodling apps for the iPad.

Know of a better drawing app? Want to share your experience with SketchBook? We’re waiting for your comments!

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/00a_students_ipad.jpg">We are approaching the era where students don’t have to carry stacks of thick heavy books to school anymore. Everything will be digitized and available at the tip of students’ fingers, inside the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ipad/">iPad (or whatever other tablet can stand alongside the iPad in the future). Not wanting to waste any more time, some schools have already adopted the iPad as their learning tool, while students and educators are slowly figuring out the best way to utilize the iPad for education.

Even though everybody has their own preferences of using the iPad in their studies, allow me to share 7 iPad usages to help students excel at school.

Replace Physical Books

This one should be obvious. Other than saving the environment by preserving the trees, there are several advantages to using digital versions of books instead of physical ones. These include being able to put lots of digital books inside your device and taking them everywhere easily, you can quickly search for any information from those books, you can add notes and annotations without damaging the books, and the books will always be in mint condition so you can keep them forever.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/01a_ibooks.jpg" alt="01a ibooks" width="580" height="410" border="0" />

There are lots of book readers available for iOS. The one I use is Apple’s class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ibooks/">iBooks as most of my digital books are in PDF and epub format.

A Quick Source Of Reference

Again, there’s lots of iOS apps out there that can help you find definitions, facts, statistics, and other things you want to know. Since you can’t have too much help in this department, you can have as many apps as you want. Here are a few that I use:

• class="vt-p" href="http://www.dictionary.com">Dictionary.com ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dictionary.com-dictionary/id364740856?mt=8">iTunes link)
• class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/wikipedia/">Wikipedia ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wikipedia-mobile/id324715238?mt=8">iTunes link)
• class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/change-search-consume-information-qwiki/">Qwiki ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qwiki/id373717412?mt=8">iTunes link)
• class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/imdb/">IMDB ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imdb-movies-tv/id342792525?mt=8">iTunes link)

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/02a_qwiki.jpg" alt="02a qwiki" width="580" height="435" border="0" />

Find & Collect Data & Ideas

Even though finding and collecting data and ideas can be done from any gadget, doing it on an iPad will add a fun factor to the process. My personal favorites are:

• class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/safari/">Safari for iOS – to browse and find quick information
• class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/flipboard-social-magazine/">Flipboard ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipboard/id358801284?mt=8">iTunes link), class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/zite-ipad-rss-feed-contender/">Zite ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zite-personalized-magazine/id419752338?mt=8">iTunes link) and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pulse-free-visual-display-rss-news-reader-ipad/">Pulse ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pulse-news-for-ipad/id371088673?mt=8">iTunes link) – to read news and find ideas to write about.

To save the information, I could quickly email it to myself or send it to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-and-manage-your-bookmarks-better-with-instapaper">Instapaper/ class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-multiplatform-app-save-information-read">Read It Later using the share feature on these apps.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/03a_flipboard.jpg" alt="03a flipboard" width="580" height="435" border="0" />

Jot Down Notes

When it comes to taking notes, there are only three names that come to mind: class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/simplenote-note-taking-utility/">Simplenote ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simplenote/id289429962?mt=8">iTunes link), class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/plaintext-text-editor-for-iphone/">PlainText ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plaintext-dropbox-text-editing/id391254385?mt=8">iTunes link) and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/evernote/">Evernote ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/evernote/id281796108?mt=8">iTunes link). Simplenote is perfect for jotting down quick notes while PlainText can accommodate a hierarchy of text files inside folders. But if you love to collect snippets of text and images, use Evernote.

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All of them are capable of synchronizing your text collection to other devices. Simplenote is using its own server while PlainText is making use of the more established Dropbox environment. As an alternative, Dropbox itself is capable of viewing and editing plain text. If you prefer to literally write down your notes, you should try class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ipad-true-writing-tool-notebook-apps/">Bamboo Paper ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bamboo-paper-wacom-notes-for/id443131313?mt=8">iTunes link).

Do Actual Study

Since choosing apps that can help you do your studies will obviously heavily depend on the actual subjects you’re taking, it’s a bit difficult to make a specific list for this point. You have to go out and find apps that fit your needs. The choices range from apps that teach letters and numbers, sign language, basic math and advanced algebra, to the ones that help people write and memorize Chinese characters.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/05_evernote_peek.jpg" alt="05 evernote peek" width="580" height="435" border="0" />

But for general purposes, you can perhaps try flash cards apps like class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/evernote-peek-turning-ipad-2-smart-cover-cool-learning-tool/">Evernote Peek ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/evernote-peek/id442151267?mt=8">iTunes link).

Manage Classes, Assignments & Social Life

There are so many things happening at school that it’s difficult to get everything under control without the help of a time manager. The first app that I would recommend for this is class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/inclass-perfect-agenda-app-college-students-ios/">InClass ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inclass/id374986430?mt=8">iTunes link). This app will help students put all the chaos into a more manageable order.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/06a_inclass.jpg" alt="06a inclass" width="580" height="435" border="0" />

Other alternatives you can use are class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/sync-todo-lists-windows-pc-mac-wunderlist/">Wunderlist ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wunderlist-hd/id420670429?mt=8">iTunes link) and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/producteev-efficient-task-management/">Producteev ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/producteev/id306289289?mt=8">iTunes link). Both are free multi-platform to-do list managers that allow you to add and sync tasks using various devices.

In the social department, there are an abundance of apps you can use, such as class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter/">Twitter ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271?mt=8">iTunes link), class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/yahoo-messenger/">Yahoo! Messenger ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yahoo!-messenger-free-sms/id309219097?mt=8">iTunes link), and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/skype/">Skype ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skype-for-ipad/id442012681?mt=8">iTunes link). class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/facebook/">Facebook still hasn’t released its iPad app, but you can use class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wait-facebooks-ipad-app-3-free-facebook-apps-ipad/">MyPad ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mypad-for-facebook-twitter/id412133981?mt=8">iTunes link) and/or Friendly ( class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/friendly-for-facebook/id400169658?mt=8">iTunes link) to access your account.

Have Fun

All work and no play makes you a dull person. Every student needs to take a break and have fun once in a while. You can use your iPad to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-4-ways-listen-music-ipad">listen to music, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/complete-guide-watching-videos-ipad">watch movies, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-great-ipad-games">play games, or do class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-free-doodling-software-apps-ipad-mac">other fun activities. There are plenty of games for the iPad that can keep you occupied for as long as you want.

Do you also use an iPad to help you study? Please share your experiences and lists of apps in the comments below.

Image credit: class="vt-p" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/56155476@N08/5667294683/" rel="nofollow">flickingerbrad, class="vt-p" href="http://www.apple.com/ipad/built-in-apps/ibooks.html" rel="nofollow">Apple

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