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Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Quemaqua on Thursday, November 11, 2010, 12:29:37 PM

Title: Que the sellout makes a big post about turning his iPod into a tiny laptop.
Post by: Quemaqua on Thursday, November 11, 2010, 12:29:37 PM
I still hate Apple, I really do.  And I still hate people who worship a particular product and act as though they can't live without it.  But I have to say, this iPod touch that I picked up really is amazing.  I mean, the interface is slick enough and all, but it's just the overwhelming support in terms of how many people are making apps.  There's an app for practically anything you can think of, and at this point I've turned the thing into more or less a tiny laptop.  So figured I'd make a post on some of the neat stuff I found.  A lot of it is writing related, but some of you may find it useful, and there are some other fun things.  So here, in no particular order:

Rootology - a fun little educational game that explores the roots of words.  It's actually pretty fun, and if you're a word monkey like me, it's a great way to poke your brain a little and get some vocabulary-related stuff into your day.

WriteChain - simple tool for writers that basically lets you set how many words to write in a day and how many days you can coast, and if you fail to do any writing and input it, you break the chain and must thus wallow in your failure.  Just a nice little motivational thing.

StoryTracker - invaluable.  Allows you to input "stories" (which can really be anything you want... poems, stories, novels, whatever), create market entries, and then track what items you've submitted to which markets, how much the markets pay, whether the things were accepted or rejected, how much you were paid, etc.  Totally awesome.  I have something similar on my laptop that I don't think I'll ever need to use.  Can export to a spreadsheet.

AgentObvious - random advice from Laurie Abkemeier, a former editor turned literary agent.  Gives advice in regards to authors, editors, and agents.  Sort of arbitrary, but it's a cool little thing.  Requires a net connection and downloads random facts which are tagged with different categories... you can also browse stuff by subject.

Dictionary.com - they have an app, and it's free!  Small ads that are no big deal, and it's actually very clean and functional.  Really happy with it.

OfficeČ - nice little office suite.  Basically a .doc editor and mini-Excel.  It's very handy and does a pretty good job at what it does.  Is easy to sync up to Windows Explorer so you can just snatch whatever writing you've done and back it up.

MyWiki - about the coolest thing I've ever seen.  It's geared toward note-taking, and basically allows you to make a tiny little personal wiki right on your iOS device.  I'm using it to build an encyclopedia of all the material I have for the fictional universe I've been creating over the last five years or so where the majority of my fiction takes place.  Can be easily packed up into a zip file and exported, and you can view a nice little version of it once unpacked on any web browser.  Just awesome.

Errands - simple name, simple program, but it's clean, has a lot of features, and it's free!  Basically an interactive to-do list, which lets you sort into different categories, set due dates, view things in different ways, set task priorities... whole bunch of neat stuff.  I forget the name of the guy who made it, but it's basically a fully functional program except you can't password lock it.  If you pay him $3, you'll get access to new features before the rest of the masses, and it'll let you lock stuff with a password.  Totally worth having, and looks to me to be as good or better than other for-pay alternatives.

I also... *sigh*... have Facebook and Twitter apps.  This is more in anticipation of trying to get myself into "writer mode", where things like this have potential uses whether I love them or not.  And of course I have a bunch of games, but there's already a thread for that.

Anyway, anything else you guys can't live without if you've got one of these things?  Or anything awesome you have on a non-iOS device?
Title: Re: Que the sellout makes a big post about turning his iPod into a tiny laptop.
Post by: Xessive on Thursday, November 11, 2010, 12:49:20 PM
Awww c'mon, Que. You're not a sellout you're just very resourceful. You're the MacGuyver of Apple junk!

The relentless optimist in me needs to see it that way. Que's mighty image must not fade or corrode in my fragile mind!
Title: Re: Que the sellout makes a big post about turning his iPod into a tiny laptop.
Post by: Pugnate on Thursday, November 11, 2010, 01:19:58 PM
....
Title: Re: Que the sellout makes a big post about turning his iPod into a tiny laptop.
Post by: Ghandi on Thursday, November 11, 2010, 01:29:04 PM
Did you jailbreak your touch yet?
Title: Re: Que the sellout makes a big post about turning his iPod into a tiny laptop.
Post by: Quemaqua on Thursday, November 11, 2010, 02:13:20 PM
Honestly haven't seen any reason to.  Considered it at first, but at this point I don't really know why I'd bother.  Especially given that if things ever fucks up, I'll want to be able to take it in to a store and have it fixed.

Fuck, can you imagine me walking into an Apple store?  I'm going to have to punch at least 20 people just on general principle.  That's going to be a horrible experience... this thing better never break or stop charging.
Title: Re: Que the sellout makes a big post about turning his iPod into a tiny laptop.
Post by: Pugnate on Thursday, November 11, 2010, 06:52:00 PM
That's better.

But only a little better.
Title: Re: Que the sellout makes a big post about turning his iPod into a tiny laptop.
Post by: Ghandi on Thursday, November 11, 2010, 11:35:38 PM
Honestly haven't seen any reason to.  Considered it at first, but at this point I don't really know why I'd bother.  Especially given that if things ever fucks up, I'll want to be able to take it in to a store and have it fixed.

Fuck, can you imagine me walking into an Apple store?  I'm going to have to punch at least 20 people just on general principle.  That's going to be a horrible experience... this thing better never break or stop charging.

Yeah, there's no reason to unless you want the apps that are unlocked from jailbreaking. It basically gives you access to apps that Apple hasn't given the green light to, which tend to be oriented more towards the tech side of the device. But there are some neat games and whatnot.
Title: Re: Que the sellout makes a big post about turning his iPod into a tiny laptop.
Post by: idolminds on Friday, November 12, 2010, 10:05:18 AM
I jailbroke my ipod just because I could. Most of the changes are just tweaks and other little nice things (infinite icons in folders, being able to make themes). Havent really found anything that is a must have worth jailbreaking for.