Pinning goes mobile, Pinterest on the iPhone

Yes, you can take your pinning fun with you when you leave the house. You can keep up with your friend’s pins, look through subject groups, see who is following your pins and like/share what others have posted. Pinterest is on the go if you have your iPhone with you.

Pinterest is one of those fad fun services that you either really get into or don’t understand why anyone would. I have a tendency to share out fun pics I find when looking around on the web since it seems more natural there than on other social media services. Instagram is really for photos I shoot and Facebook/Twitter just gets cluttered if everyone starts toss up images they just enjoyed in through daily browsing. Pinterest is also a pretty good way to pin a picture to remind you of an article you may want to go back and read later since a link to the site is included.

On the iPhone version of Pinterest, you have all the usual areas at your finger tips. Launching the Free app starts you off with the Following group. Which is a scrollable photo list of your and the people you follow pictures. There is also the ‘Activity’ button more to the right to view who is following you as well if any of your images where liked, pinned or commented on.

The Pinterest app’s ‘Explore’ button takes you to a list of areas of interest that you can choose and view images within.

Choosing a topic takes you to a scrollable window of images in that group. The view is similar if you choose someone you are following.

Choosing a picture from one of the ‘Explore’ groups or from one of the folks you follow has the usual ‘Like’ and ‘Repin’ options. To add your own photos, use the center bottom camera button to take a picture or use one in your iPhone’s photo library. Currently, there is not way to pin a photo from your iPhone’s browser outside of the Pinterest app.

Of course the Pinterest app lets you get to you profile to see your boards, pins, likes, followers, following and the actual photos you posted.

 

Unique iPhone Task Manager, built just for your finger

Most task managers for the iPhone are just electronic representations of their paper/pen counterparts. You create a item on a line with a checkbox next to it. Electronic versions usually make it much easier to sort and add a due date than writing and rewriting on paper. But, to make the experience familiar, the general look and feel hasn’t changed between the note paper and your iPhone screen.

HQ: To Do has made an attempt at having your To Do lists make better use of the capabilities of the iPhone. Where you navigate and get through your day all with your finger. Large, colorful buttons, where sliding causes an action rather than tapping check boxes.

Creating projects and tasks within the project is done quickly through buttons by the same name. Fine tune the tasks with due dates, priority, color coding and even add a note:

Viewing the list of Task items isn’t just a list of text which requires each one being read. HQ: To Do Project list shows the different color and priority to know what you need to do first without having the read the whole list every time. To change a item, just slide it to the right to expose Done, Edit, Delete.

HQ: To Do is working well for personal and smaller To Do lists. Sadly, the current version doesn’t support multiple people working a single list and there is not cloud storage/share. The developer has specifically called those items out as being part of a future version.

Saving your lens, film and flash combinations in Hipstamatic to return quickly later

With Hipstamatic on your iPhone, there are many film, lens and flash options to shuffle, making up fun combinations. Playing a bit, you will find some groups work better for outside bright shots versus another grouping that is best for food on the table. If you forget what combination you used, you can go into the album and look at a image, Hipstamatic shows what it took to make the image.

This feature is a nice reference but takes time to get cycle through the options. An update to Hipstamatic today has added a favorites ‘star’ under the view finder. Making a grouping a favorite will let you jump back later.

Another nice add is tap and hold on the view finder to jump it up to full screen size.

Tap the larger view finder and Hipstamatic takes the photo for you.

Phone4/4s wireless security tether, battery and case in one – 20% off!

Kensington just sent an email explaining their 2012 CES Design and Engineer Showcase Honor product BungeeAir. It’s a battery case for the iPhone 4/4s, adding 4 hours of talk time to your iPhone… and it comes with a keychain fob.

A fob? The picture in the email got me to click, why do I need a fob on my keychain? It’s a tethered security system linked to the iPhone case! Per Kensington:

Just attach the BungeeAir fob to your keys or purse and never lose or forget your iPhone again. When you and your phone are separated, the iPhone screen locks automatically and sends an alert to the BungeeAir fob. A convenient app lets you customize security settings and also find your misplaced keys and fob.

The battery/security case also has a flap on the back to open and use as a stand for watching movies on your iPhone in landscape view. Not sure I would have asked for all those things on my own, but now it sure seems cool. As an incentive, Save 20% on the Kensington BungeeAir! Discount offer expires 1/24/12

Here is a link to view the full spec sheet for the BungeeAir™ Power Wireless Security Tether™.
Don’t forget the 20% discount on the Kensington BungeeAir expires 1/24/12

Framing your iPhone to become a quality desk or nightstand clock – C/Dock

I jumped onboard with the C/Dock when it was a Kickstarter project. A desktop iPhone4/4s ‘clock’ that came in Walnut wood, brushed aluminum or resin faces. I went with the Walnut. When it showed up, the folks in Oregon delivered as promised, a very nice looking and study iPhone holder that would look great at work or at home.

In the box is the c/dock ‘frame’ which has an integrated USB to iPhone cable and a charging power cube.

The iPhone slips in the end, there is no other holes which means when the iPhone is in the dock you have access to the front ‘Home’ button only. Thinner fingered people might be able to just reach the top ‘sleep’ button. The speaker slots on the front of the dock are not real, just for visual ‘old radio’ effect.

Getting the iPhone back out of the c/dock means pushing on the screen and to the right. Perhaps the c/dock should have come with a screen cleaning cloth.

I am able to run any clock app I want, so that means my Nixie clock at work or maybe the weather… at home a nice digital alarm clock app.

The lack of a hole big enough to get to the ‘sleep’ button on the top of the iPhone and the need to push the iPhone out via pressure on the screen would normally be a minor inconvenience (easy to fix on version two of the c/dock). My actual major issue is that I can’t get my iPhone to plug into the connector inside of the c/dock. I tried applying pressure on the iPhone to force it up/down/front/back with no luck. It can be an issue with anything truly handmade… although I would have expected the ‘factory’ to have tested prior to shipping. Be prepared if you buy one and give it as a gift that they may not have instant gratification if they have to return for another unit.