Jeff Turner: Out & About - Filed under 'app'

ABBYY TextGrabber Sure Does Grab Text

I'm not sure exactly what situation would cause me to pull this app out, but I love the technology at my fingertips. Just snap a photo of a page with text on it and ABBYY Text Grabber will convert it to editable text. My tests so far show it to be a great little OCR app. See an example above.

Filed under // app iphone ocr

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Shiny Object Alert - WITH

New from the creators of Path. Introducing With, a Path Short: http://blog.path.com/post/6288422944/introducing-with-a-path-short. You can find a download link here: http://with.me

Filed under // app iphone location photo

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Quick Look At The New Posterous App

Some screen snaps from the new Posterous iPhone app.

Filed under // app iphone

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Need To Loose 18 pounds? There's An App For That.

When my scale continued to read 220 for a period of time I'm not ready to admit, I determined I needed to do something different. And since my iPhone has never failed me in the past, I decided to trust the advice of a friend, Ines Hegedus-Garcia, and start using "Lose It" to make some changes in my food consumption.

As it turns out, I eat for sport way more often than I'd like to admit. I like food. Sue me. But eating for sport is not the same thing as actually participating in a sport, so the downside is you gain weight. Imagine that. What the "Lose It" app has done is help me realize that I can eat a LOT less and be happy about it. In fact, I'm so happy about it, I'm about to lower my goal from 195 to 185, a weight I haven't seen in 7 years.

If you're looking for a tool to help you lose a few pounds. This one may be right up your alley. Of course, you have to actually input the food you eat. But if you're like me and your iPhone is practically surgically attached to your hand, it won't be that hard. After six weeks of use, I can safely say "Lose It" has certainly worked for me.

Filed under // app health iphone weight

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I Kinda Dig ToonPAINT

I've been playing with the ToonPAINT iPhone application for the last few days, mainly on airplanes. I love some of the "toons" I've created with my kids' photos. But I needed a subject who probably wouldn't mind being toonified, so I chose Derek Overbey www.Twitter.com/doverbey as my subject. ToonPaint is not your typical image filter. It gives you some great control over the base cartoon image, but you have to do the work of selecting colors and painting them on. It's like paint by numbers without the numbers.

As with many of these apps, my main gripe is export size. These save at 320x480 pixels, which is really only large enough to use as avatars. Which is sad, since a few of the ones I've made with my kids would look great larger and hanging on a wall. Not sure about this one. ;)

It's fun and worth a try.

Filed under // app iphone photography toonpaint

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Realtor.com Launches An iPhone App

Realtor.com launched their consumer-focused residential search app for the iPhone today. It is available for free in the iTunes store.

They key features of the Realtor.com iPhone app are, GPS location of nearby homes for sale and open houses, the ability to sync your mobile searches with your online Realtor.com account, save searches to the iPhone itself, the ability to share properties via email, Facebook & Twitter, and a notes section for rating the properties you visit. I've had the chance to play with the app for several days now and it's very responsive and accurate in my area. Each house I drove to had a for sale sign out front. That was nice. :)

From a consumer perspective, it does most of the things I'd hope a search app would do, including giving me the ability to take notes on each house I visit. I like it. Here's a few screen grabs, but hey, it's free. Download it for yourself and give it a shot.

Filed under // app iphone real estate realtor search

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The #BHGREiPhone "Home Selection Assistant" App Is A Refreshing Departure From The Norm

When I visited the Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Headquarters a few weeks ago, Camilla Sullivan, SVP of Marketing, told me that I was going to be very impressed with the BHGRE iPhone app when I saw it. My quick review tells me she was right.

This is not your typical real estate iPhone app. It's objective is not to lead you to a home via search or to a BHGRE agent. It's name, "Home Selection Assistant," really says it all. It is your "assistant" in the home selection process. You'll use it for taking notes as you're out shopping for a home, look up neighborhood data, find information on home remodeling, landscaping, or how to "make a winning offer." All of the informative content is driven by the extremely consumer friendly Clean Slate Blog.

The BHGRE iPhone app also allows you to snap your own photos of homes your viewing, place those photos into albums, rate the features and the home, and add comments in the moment. And I can quickly share any of it via email or on Facebook. As you can see from the screen captures above, it's SOLELY focused on consumer benefit. I find that refreshing.

In fact, I searched, but could not find a single attempt to direct me toward an individual real estate agent or away from the homes I might be looking at. If it's there, it's hidden very well. Thankfully.

If I were out looking at houses, this is an app I would appreciate. This is an app I would use.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Filed under // app iphone real estate

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ReelDirector - Video Editing for iPhone

Here's a quick test of ReelDirector, a new iPhone app that does simple video editing. The user interface is clear and simple. It didn't crash once. Pretty impressive. I look for Apple to come out with their own.

Thanks to Joel Burslem for alerting me.

Sent from my iPhone

Filed under // app editing iphone video

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Photoshop.com Mobile Comes To The iPhone

While I love the camera on my iPhone 3Gs, sometimes the light is not quite right for the perfect shot. Lots of apps exist on the iPhone to help you remedy this problem. I've tested dozens. I can confidently say that none of them are as easy to use as Adobe's Photoshop.com Mobile.

It's not overstuffed with features, and it doesn't need to be. The Adobe programmers nailed the use of the iPhones touch screen and simplified the tools by making the entire screen act as your effect slider. If you've ever tried to grab the small slider bar on some apps, you'll know why that's a benefit. Here's a sample result.

Sent from my iPhone

Filed under // app iphone photoshop

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Photoshop.com Mobile For iPhone - Free

The editing features didn't wow me, but the user experience is amazing. Adobe took full advantage of the touch screen and made the entire image the effect slider. Very easy to use. And fast on my 3Gs.