Private chat with other Instagramers using an iPhone and InstaMessage

When posting pictures to Instagram, you can post a title, description, location and hashtags. Others can view and like as well they can comment. Sometimes, a comment needs a bit more privacy for the reply rather than blasting out for all to see in the comments area. That is the need that InstaMessage wants to fill. Not to be confused with a like name product that posts text squares rather than photos to your Instagram account, this free solution lets you chat with others you have connected with on Instagram.

With Instagram being part of Facebook now, I expect a similar service to be rolled out by them using the standard FB Messenger app/service. Till then though, you will need to allow InstaMessage to have access to your Instagram account if you want to connect and private chat with your Instagram friends.

From the Friends button in InstaMessage, you will se a list of Instagram contacts that have the app installed, followed by people that do not. Select ‘Chat’ to start a conversation. The  ‘+ Invite’ next to your friends not year using the app can be alerted that your available to chat if they load the app.

Choosing the Chat button will show you a list of Instagramers your chatting with, select one to see your previous conversation and to continue texting. If they have ‘push alerts’ turned on, they will be notified that your reaching out to them even if they don’t have the app launched.

In the profile area of InstaMessage, you can choose to broadcast out to your Instagram friends that your available to chat. Selecting the option will post a image on your photo stream showing your contact info and the app information. Once people have the app installed, they really don’t need to know your name/info since you will appear in their list of friends to chat with.

 

Ultimate iPhone Case Survivor now allows for mix and match colors

When the Survivor case from Griffin Technology first came out, I gave it a test similar to what they showed in their promotional videos. I let my (previous) iPhone 4 take a tumble down two flights of stairs which had required some skill as it had to round a corner. Happily, the iPhone was unaffected. So, the case is now what I use when traveling. It definitely adds a bit of bulk to the sleek iPhone design, but I never worry about the device falling out of a cab or drop kicked when running through an airport. Your mileage may vary, but for me it has been a life saver.

Since I was one of the first to publicly play with the case, mine is still the black on black coloring. Some time ago, Griffin Technology started offering a few accent colored versions, adding Pink, Camo and White.

Now, the handcuffs have come off as the site is giving you the power to choose the colors for all three parts of the case. The rubbery ‘bumper’ surface (Silicone wrap), the hard Polycarbonate shell and even the belt clip. I did an attention getter combination here so you can see there are no limits to mixing the colors, meaning there are 100s of combinations possible. Just choose a color for each part’s slider and see the image change in real time. No reason serious protection can be customized!

Draw Book, it’s like having the Paper app on our iPhones!

Paper is a fun and very useful sketch app on the iPad. Rather than rethinking how electronic pen/paper should work, the developers duplicated the joys and pains of the limited physical world we all still live in.

Since no one needs to do more than type notes or draw very detailed art on our iPhones, there has been no match for the iPad Paper available for the iPhone. Till, Draw Book came along. The app is truly, ‘in progress’ but it is a lot of fun to use it the way it is right now. Draw Book lets you zip out those quick little creative sketches when you need to say it in pictures. While the app has plenty of power to do detailed images, it’s best suited for doing what you would normally on a small pad of paper.

When a work paper is on the screen, there is a small ‘+’ at the bottom of the screen, centered. Tapping that will bring up a toolbar for quick access to undo/redo, color picker and writing/drawing tools. Select a tool to select, tap the screen to close the bar to work on a clean screen.

Selecting any of the writing tools will give you access to adjust how the tool ‘writes’ on the screen. The thin/thick stroke of a pen sure helps make any sketch better than just a thin solid line.

Selecting the ‘open book’ icon on the upper left corner takes you out of the work screen to a view of the notebook your working inside of. As well, all the pages in the notebook are flowing out to the right. Sweep through the pages to select on for viewing or future editing. The ‘Guide Book’ in Draw Book says you can sweep through the pages in a notebook using two fingers, the feature never works for me, I always go up to the notebook level to jump to another page.

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Collect and share Ideas in all forms quickly using a Free iPhone tool

It seems that fresh app ideas are released by multiple developers close to the same time. I always wonder what the catalyst was for different groups around the world to start thinking through a particular issue needing a solution.

This is of particular interesting because I have spent the last couple weeks putting a variety of ‘Idea’ recording apps. There has been quick note apps available since the beginning of iOS apps. Recently, the simple note apps have gotten more features in the area of being a single location to enter text that can then be moved to other apps on the iPhone. Now, a new group of apps are making it easy to get your ideas out of your head, saving them for private use of share, and via the cloud have access to your notes across your multiple devices.

I tried to do a head to head, but they each have their own unique special features that don’t just drop into a comparison chart.

Today, it’s Catch. An app for the iPhone, iPad, Android and Web. All of the user tools are included for free. If you find you really pound on the service, there is several upgrade levels to allow for more storage and traffic (upload/download).

For Catch Notes (I love the iPhone UX, but find the iPad UX average), launch the app and choose from the lower center button if you will be adding a text note, adding an image (can be worth a thousand word when trying to remember something), create a Alarm, create a audio file or even start a checklist.

Tap the note option and start typing. Hashtags are good to add to your Catch notes for easier grouping and relating multiple notes to a single idea. Note in the Desktop/Cloud version above, a button is created on the left for each hashtag for fast group viewing. Notes added to the folder (called Spaces) ‘My Notes’ are private to you. Create more Spaces, each can be private or shared with others to view/edit.

Checklists can have more in them than just text, add photos, voice and alarms. These can be handy when sharing lists with others. Everyone in the shared group can add and edit the items in a list. Usual ToDo apps that allow sharing. limit all lists being shared with one group rather than each list being able to be shared individually. With Catch Notes, you actually sharing a folder (again ‘Spaces’) which can contain multiple documents.

Viewing your Catch Notes entered can be done by Folder, by tags and by ‘Favored’ (stars). Surprising is how many note apps don’t support Search. Text is searchable, but I find by adding simple ‘#’ keywords to notes I can find groups of notes both on mobile and desktop quicker.

Like I mentioned above, if you need to have more sharing spaces or more storage memory than the free account:

  • 3 spaces (private or shared notebooks)
  • +2 more when you create a Catch account
  • 70MB new content per month to cloud service
  • Text, web clips, photos, voice memos (no office document attachments)

there are Pro and Premier ‘for pay’ accounts available. My first thought was that I can just use my Evernote account for this though it too charges for this level of share as well the Evernote app isn’t made to get started entering a ‘Idea’ as fast as Catch Note.

 

Do skins on an iPhone Simple UI make it less Simple?

I mentioned Minu Timer before as an app I use as a iPhone based timer that removes the clutter and just gets the job done. Upon launch, twist the face one way to start a stop watch, the other way to a time as a count-down timer.

A recent update to the Minu Timer offers the ability to change skins. The feature requires an upgrade to the 99 cent ‘Pro’ version though.

Unlike many ‘Pro’ theme updates in other apps, you get access to all 6 new themes with the one buck fee.

The theme changes in Minu Timer is nothing more than colors and accents. Making the experience more personalized to the way a person feels comfortable with. No functionality, features or addition of buttons, just enhancements to the accents. This doesn’t change the User Interface, but should we consider it a change to User Experience?