Got a Favorite Android SMS App?

I don't really like Android's SMS at all. (I'm on HTC's Sense-flavored Jellybean, btw.) In particular, the lock-screen notifications really bug me—there's no way to see if you've gotten more than one message. And group messages don't really work right. Got one you like?

Obama's Win Sent Instagram into Overdrive

It's not just Twitter that saw an astronomical boost from last night's electoral dance—Instagram completely exploded as soon as Obama clinched presidential victory. In a huge way.

Within just six quick minutes—about as much time as it took for ecstatic Democrats to confirm on Twitter, jump up and down a little, pick up their phones, and pick a filter, the rate of photos uploaded to Instagram more than double to 2.1 the normal rate. If you're a user of the app—and you probably are!—you no doubt got sepia peeks into a lot of living rooms and apartments around the country. The CNN close-up shot was a particular favorite. [Instagram]

Microsoft Office for iPhone and iPad said to be coming early next year

Today The Verge is reporting that their sources inside Microsoft say that a version of the widely used Microsoft Office suite will be coming to iOS and Android devices in early 2013. Called Office Mobile, the apps will be free and will allow viewing of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents. In order to use Office Mobile, one will need to set up a Microsoft account. And to be able to edit documents, one will need to subscribe to Office 365 from within the apps. According to The Verge, the apps will work for basic editing, but certainly won't be as full featured as the desktop versions. The software is expected to arrive in late February or early March for iOS and in May for Android users.

Today's report meshes with other rumors that have circulated, including an apparent leak of a Microsoft press release a couple months ago. An earlier report in The Daily even included a photo of an iPad running Office.

Compatibility with Office documents is, of course, a desire held by many iPhone and iPad users. And there are several quite strong third-party apps already available in the App Store that let you edit Office documents, such as Documents To Go. Some of these are designed to work seamlessly with Dropbox. This is a powerful combination. That means that if you keep your working documents in your Dropbox folder on your desktop computer, they are always readily available and always up to date on your iOS device. And you can edit them on your iOS device and have those changes automatically synced to your desktop computer.

No doubt Office Mobile from Microsoft will work in a similar fashion. But given what's already available, it's not clear to me why the appearance of a mobile suite for the iPhone and iPad stirs such excitement. I guess the assumption is that it will have greater compatibility and functionality than the third-party suites. 

In any case, if you're heavily invested in the Microsoft environment, it's often just simpler to uniformly use Microsoft products, given all the little glitches that can happen.

If you are interested in alternatives to Office Mobile, you can check out Apple's iWork suite, of course, as well as Quickoffice Pro HD, Documents to Go, Office2 HD, and Documents 2. They range in price from $4 to $20. There's also a free version of Documents 2.

You can find helpful comparative reviews of these office suites on GottaBeMobile and ZDNet. In these somewhat dated reviews, Apple's iWork generally gets the nod as being the best, but it's also most expensive. Both reviews favor Quickoffice Pro HD as a second, lower-cost choice, and Office2 HD as being a good choice in the lowest price range, at $7.99.

About.com has an excellent overview of office suites for iOS, and focuses it around which features are most important to you: integration with the cloud, depth of features, compatibility with MS Office, and the tradeoffs among free office suites and those that are medium and high priced.

It's great to see so many choices, and the imminent arrival of Microsoft's own suite.

New Facebook for iOS Adds New Chat Features, Multiple Photo Uploads, and Gifts (Updated)

A new update to the iOS Facebook app rolls out today, and it's bringing some handy new features with it. Now, you'll finally be able to add friends to favorites, upload multiple pictures at a time, and as a bonus, you can swipe left anywhere to open up chat.

The updates to the chat and photo-sharing are ripped straight from the independent Facebook Messenger and Facebook Camera apps, so it should serve to consolidate (or at least start consolidating) that trio of apps into one convenient package. And, if you're in the U.S., there's one more feature packed in, gifts. You can now gift your friends (or enemies) real-life, physical gifts from the comfort of your own iOS device if that's what your into. Even if it's not, there's plenty here for you to appreciate, so go and pick it up.

Update: 9to5mac says that some Facebookers are having issues with the update. BEWARE...for now.

Microsoft Office coming to iOS devices next March

According to The Verge, a Micrsoft product manager in the Czech Republic has confirmed that Microsoft Office will be coming to iOS devices next March. Microsoft has said for some time they'd be bringing the software to mobile devices, but they haven't officially announced a ship date. The Verge also saw a draft press release that announces the new products. The coming of Office to the iPad was reported as long ago as last February, when The Daily reported that it was in the works and even published a photo of an iPad running a test version of Office. Of course, there are already many excellent office suites available for iOS devices. The advantage of a suite from Microsoft will likely be a more familiar interface and greater integration with desktop versions of the software.

 

[Update: Microsoft has responded to the report saying it's not accurate.]

Rover 2.0 Wireless Spy Tank Review

 

I have been fascinated by robots since my childhood. It began when I saw the original Lost in Space robot, and was permanently cemented when C3PO and R2D2 were introduced in the original Star Wars. Ever since, I have been hoping that there would come a day when I would be able to command such a robot. Brookstone Innovation, a company that caters to high-tech toy lovers, has released their Rover 2.0 Wireless Spy Tank to people like me who crave to have their childhood dreams incarnated. Rover 2.0 is a remote control toy tank robot equipped with an infrared streaming wide angle webcam that is mounted on the front of the tank. The camera can move up and down (but not side-to-side, since you can use the robot's left and right movement for that purpose), and can stream video back to your iPad or Android device for secret spy missions or surveillance objectives. The two treads make the tank fairly easy to maneuver though the onscreen controls from the free iOS app takes a bit of patience to get comfortable with. The robot carries its own wireless access point and uses it to connect to the Rover 2.0 app. Unfortunately, that means while you're driving the tank, you have to be connected to the robot's access point and not your local WiFi access point. This means you will have to disconnect from the robot and reconnect to your network every time you want to connect your iPhone or iPad to the Internet via WiFi. 

 The iPad app can also be used to activate and capture still photos or moving video from Rover 2.0's on-board camera, steer the robot. The camera has infrared capabilities, allowing you to move the robot (as well as video record or snap photos) in complete darkness. Rover 2.0 can even broadcast two-way audio from the iPad to the Rover's built-in on-board speaker, allowing you to converse in a walkie-talkie mode with those nearby. If this sounds like a lot of fun, it is!  Rover 2.0, as the numerical assignment suggests, is a second generation design improvement over the original Rover product. I never had the chance to review the original Rover, so I don't have a basis of comparison for those who may already own the first iteration. While the improvements made to the original design further refined the product, Rover 2.0 has some technical limitations that indicate further iterations to the hardware and software design may be in the works. Powered by 6 AA batteries, this thing eats batteries for breakfast. Even though the package includes 6 AA batteries to get started with, potential Rover 2.0 owners might consider swapping them out with rechargeable batteries instead. While adding its own rechargeable battery brick would no doubt increase the cost of Rover 2.0 by a significant factor, the fact that the Rover lasts a little more than an hour on a fresh set of batteries means that this robot won't be roaming your hallways all night long. What would have been really cool is for the Rover to have a Roomba-style ability to automatically dock with a charging station when its batteries run low. That way, Rover 2.0 could always be on call, ready for action. Oh well, perhaps Rover 3.0 will offer such a nifty autonomous feature. 

 One nice ability that has yet to be fully realized is the record path feature. This works by activating the recording on the Rover 2.0 app, then driving the robot as normal. Stopping the recording stores the movement instructions for later playback. Unfortunately, only one playback set can be saved at a time, and those instructions are erased when the Rover 2.0 is turned off. Rather than recording a real-time set of movement instructions, the Rover 2.0 iOS application could be enhanced to include a simple series of command execution blocks (ex: turn right, go straight for 10 feet, turn left, stop for 30 seconds, take picture, turn around, go straight for 10 feet, etc.). Multiple instruction sets could be saved and shared with other Rover 2.0 owners. Games could be played to see how quickly a robot could be programmed to run an obstacle course, or run through the layout of a house or building based on the level of the structure and instruction set being executed. Since this should be a simple matter of updating the Rover 2.0 software app, adding such capabilities shouldn't be too difficult. Perhaps we'll see such functionality in a future Rover model. Overalll, the Rover 2.0 Wireless Spy Tank is an initially exciting yet constrained toy that shows a lot of promise of what we might all have in our homes one day. While it might be an expensive glimpse into the future, it might also provide inspiration to a fortunate young person to enter the field of robotics and build a future Rover that elevates it from a toy to an every day household appliance. Product: Rover 2.0 Wireless Spy TankCompany: Brookstone InnovationPrice: $149.99Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

New Maps app under fire, YouTube replacements, updated Apple apps in iOS 6

Wow, it didn't take long for a flurry of articles to appear regarding the shortcomings of the new Maps app. My initial impression is that it's speedy and useful, and am confident Apple will work out the bugs. But it's clear there's a lot of work to be done. CNET has posted an article documenting some of the many errors in the app: giving the wrong names for cities, leaving out locations, putting locations in the wrong place. Huffington Post even has a list of the 10 funniest fails. There are also complaints that the app doesn't offer all of the features of the original Maps app from Google. An article on PCWorld lists 6 Ways Google Maps Beats Apple iOS 6 Maps, such as the lack of public transit information and Street View, as well as poor traffic information. Google has indicated that it will work on making its app available as a download in the App Store.

Apple has not only given us a couple new apps, but iOS 6 also has major updates for nearly every Apple app. I noticed this right away when I used the Podcasts and Mail apps. AppleInsider has compiled a list of the new or changed features of these apps. You might want to check the list for your favorite apps to see what's new. According to AppleInsider, the following apps were updated: iPhoto, GarageBand, iMovie, Numbers, Keynote, Remote, Podcasts, Find My iPhone, Find My Friends, iTunes Movie Trailers, Cards, AirPort Utility, and iAd Gallery. GarageBand, for example, now lets you create custom ringtones and alerts. Podcasts now lets you sync with other devices via iCloud.

In addition to losing Google's Maps app, we also lost Apple's YouTube app. YouTube has made its own iOS app available for the iPhone, but an iPad version is reportedly months away. Meanwhile, other video discovery apps, such as ShowYou, Squrl, and Vidyou, are enjoying the opportunity for increased exposure. Read more on CNET.

Flipping Tip: Catch students doing something right!

 

Catch a student doing something right today!

Motivation is a key factor and you can make a huge impact on it by catching a student doing something right and praising them for it. Now let's take it one small step further.

Why not use your iPhone and iMovie to capture your praise and his/her pride in a job well done. A short videoclip is all you need. 

Let's say a child has done a nice job on a painting. When you post it on the wall have your student stand beside it and videotape their expression as you offer a few words of praise.

Better yet! Have the student say something about their work before you praise them.

Now it won't take long to point-and-shoot a video and imagine how proud your student will be. Isn't that pride well worth the $4.95 you paid for iMovie at the Apple iTunes App Store?

Spruce your videoclip up right if you wish. iMovie comes with visual themes and you can choose your favorite theme music and sound effects too. 

Share the pride! You can email or memo the video to the parents. Or post it on your school website if its secure. Sharing will payback dividends. Parents will have a favorable impression of you and the school. The Principal will be impressed with your creativity and commitment.

Your peers will want their own iPhones equipped with iMovie too.