iPad The NEW Favorite Apps (...and that neat app you just found) thread

WT Sharpe · 12-03-2015, 09:48 AM

I named this "The NEW Favorite Apps (...and that neat app you just found) thread" because there was already a "Favorite Apps (...and that neat app you just found)" thread, although that one was specifically for the iPhone and the last post was in 2011 and this one is for the iPad (though iPhone apps are welcome), but because mainly I didn't want to risk the fury of the Necro-Post Police by posting in the original four-year-old thread.

DocScanner + OCR Free is my new, favorite toy and can be found here. With this app my iPad has pretty much replaced my desktop scanner. Full disclosure here; the vast majority of my scanning jobs involves quotes from books and not entire documents, and I have yet tried to scan an entire page and don't know how well it would do, but for the bulk of what I do it is far more convenient than firing up the desktop pc and scanner combo. Much faster, too, and at a much better price. The thing is free, but limited and full of ads, so I upgraded to the full-featured Pro version for $5. Try getting a scanner and OCR software for your pc or Mac for that price! And no, I don't own stock in the company, I just LOVE their app!

What's YOUR favorite app?

FlorenceArt · 12-03-2015, 10:53 AM

Hi Tom! Thank you for starting this thead, as I've been wanting to post about the apps I use for journaling. There is an old thread about handwriting apps that I could have revived, but this is a bit different.

I started keeping a handwritten journal on my iPad a few years ago, using NoteShelf. I still use and love this app but I gradually started to miss the feel of a physical notebook and the pleasure of writing on it. Also, I wanted to include other stuff in my journal such as typed text, scans of the programs of shows I go to, photos... You can do all this in Noteshelf via photos, but it's not very practical or esthetically pleasing.

After a lot of trials and errors, I now have a setup that I'm pretty satisfied with using:
- Noteshelf for writing my journal on iPad (still my favorite app for that)
- FasterScan for scanning my paper journals and any other document I want to save to my journal or elsewhere
- Awesome Notes to gather all this plus typed notes and checklists in a nice-looking app
- Evernote because Awesome Notes syncs to it, which allows me to have a backup in case Awesome Notes stops working one day, and because it's the intermediary for saving my images of scanned documents from FasterScan (I send them to the Awesome Notes notebook in Evernotes, and it syncs back to Awesome Notes).

So I'd say that's the list of my most favorite apps here, although there are a few others I guess.

kyteflyer · 12-03-2015, 02:30 PM

One of my favourite apps is AppsGoneFree. It highlights 5 or 6 short term free apps every day, and although theres a LOT of cruft and you might not spot something you want for ages, eventually something will turn up. I have acquired PDF Expert, Notability, and quite a few other productivity apps in this way. I also have a bit of a thing for hidden object games, and those turn up very regularly, happily. Weekends are usually reserved for kidstuff. anyway, Apps Gone Free is a really excellent resource. Its universal, for iPad and iPhone.

tomsem · 12-03-2015, 03:17 PM

DocScanner looks very interesting, but I'm mostly interested in scanning books, and I'm guessing it might not handle capture of targets that are not very flat, and may not scale up well to efficient capture of hundreds of pages at a time. But for $5 it is probably worth having around for things it is better suited to.

I've had that Fujitsu SV-600 document scanner on my radar forever but it is $600, and it has been out two years now, so I'm inclined to wait for the next iteration.

WT Sharpe · 12-03-2015, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

DocScanner looks very interesting, but I'm mostly interested in scanning books, and I'm guessing it might not handle capture of targets that are not very flat, and may not scale up well to efficient capture of hundreds of pages at a time. But for $5 it is probably worth having around for things it is better suited to.

I've had that Fujitsu SV-600 document scanner on my radar forever but it is $600, and it has been out two years now, so I'm inclined to wait for the next iteration.

I just tried scanning an entire page of a book and it didn't do quite as well. Small jobs like those that make up at least 95% of the things I do it does fine, and even has a simple tool for making corrections for surfaces that are not quite flat, but I wouldn't think of it to scan entire books or even entire standard letter documents. But to grab quotes from paper books it's tops.

49Kat · 12-03-2015, 08:25 PM

FlorenceArt, Noteshelf looks like the app I was looking for when I first wanted a journaling app. I wanted something password protected and that I could place photos in. I've been using iDo Notepad and then I upgraded to the pro version. You can't place pictures within the text, however. I like Chapters for placing photos in the page, but it's dodgy about where the photos are placed. They don't stay put in the page...it's hard to explain. Anyway, that process is a bit clunky. You can create multiple notebooks and they can be individually password protected, which is nice. NotesLock is quite secure, but I was finding it was not stable. It crashed a lot. It seems a bit "kiddish" anyway. I wanted something more grownup. I don't mind paying for something I will really like.

markom · 12-04-2015, 04:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

DocScanner looks very interesting, but I'm mostly interested in scanning books, and I'm guessing it might not handle capture of targets that are not very flat, and may not scale up well to efficient capture of hundreds of pages at a time. But for $5 it is probably worth having around for things it is better suited to.

I've had that Fujitsu SV-600 document scanner on my radar forever but it is $600, and it has been out two years now, so I'm inclined to wait for the next iteration.

In the case you missed it, still couple of days left to get Czur scanner for 190-200 $.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...light=overhead

FlorenceArt · 12-04-2015, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 49Kat

FlorenceArt, Noteshelf looks like the app I was looking for when I first wanted a journaling app. I wanted something password protected and that I could place photos in. I've been using iDo Notepad and then I upgraded to the pro version. You can't place pictures within the text, however. I like Chapters for placing photos in the page, but it's dodgy about where the photos are placed. They don't stay put in the page...it's hard to explain. Anyway, that process is a bit clunky. You can create multiple notebooks and they can be individually password protected, which is nice. NotesLock is quite secure, but I was finding it was not stable. It crashed a lot. It seems a bit "kiddish" anyway. I wanted something more grownup. I don't mind paying for something I will really like.

I'm not sure Noteshelf is what you were looking for. I love this app but it's good for one thing and one only: handwriting. I'm not very happy with the way it handles photos. That's why I use it to write my diary, and then import the pages to Awesome Notes. Maybe we should have a thread for journaling on the iPad (or iPhone)?

kyteflyer · 12-04-2015, 04:49 PM

Journaling? Day One, hands down the best. I used to use Macjournal but I find when I want to write something, Day One fills the need beautifully. (Another I acquired when it was short term free in the Appstore)

badgoodDeb · 12-04-2015, 06:59 PM

Have just downloaded WTSharpe's DocScanner + OCR Free and also FlorenceArt's Faster Scan. Thanks people! I don't have a great need for a scanner, but once in a blue moon it would be nice to have.

Gurvan · 12-05-2015, 03:58 AM

DayOne is good for journalling but I think that Florence is discussing about "handwritten" journalling and DayOne does not have an option, AFAIK, for that...

But it does handle the rest of journalling... I tend to be annoyed by certain things though like it lack of encryption as the file are stored in clear and only the app is password protected. Meaning that if you know where the files are stored, you can read them...
Also, I do tend to have some synchronisation bugs between the iPhone and the Mac especially if the App is open on both sides at the same time...
But I do agree that it still the best there is...

WT Sharpe · 12-05-2015, 11:07 AM

My newest app is one that I think will become a favorite, but there's a bit more of a learning curve involved than with most apps. It's Notion 5 by PreSonus and it's music notation software. It's $14.99 at the iTunes store and I've already bought the handwriting add-on for $7.99, and there are several instrument pack add-ons that can also be purchased from within the app (the ALL bundle is $29.99, but there are several cheaper bundles for $2.99 and individual instruments for 99¢). The good news is that several instruments are included in the original purchase, although to access them you have to register with a working email. In addition, if you have the $149 computer software installed on your pc or Mac (I don't), you can switch back and forth between platforms as you work, and in addition, on your computer you can compose to film.

I haven't yet reached a comfort level with this app yet as I just purchased it a few days ago, but I'll let you all know at a future date what I think of it and whether it was worth the (so far) $22.98 I've spent on this (not to mention the $22.00 I spent on this stylus to make the notation more precise!).

BYW, the stylus rocks, but I'd like one that's fatter in my hand. This one's rather thin.

FlorenceArt · 12-10-2015, 03:31 AM

One of my favorite apps is AppZapp. Every day it shows me a selection of new apps, updates, and price drops. I can set alerts for when a specific app is updated or reaches a certain price. Users can comment on apps so it can be useful to get feedback. I tried several similar apps, including I think Apps Gone Free, and this is my favorite, especially for the mail alert system. Oh, and you can also see a chart of the price changes over the last year. It helps to see which developers have a policy of dropping prices regularly, so that you can set an alarm for those apps.

12-03-2015, 09:48 AM	#1
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,073 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	The NEW Favorite Apps (...and that neat app you just found) thread I named this "The NEW Favorite Apps (...and that neat app you just found) thread" because there was already a "Favorite Apps (...and that neat app you just found)" thread, although that one was specifically for the iPhone and the last post was in 2011 and this one is for the iPad (though iPhone apps are welcome), but because mainly I didn't want to risk the fury of the Necro-Post Police by posting in the original four-year-old thread. DocScanner + OCR Free is my new, favorite toy and can be found here. With this app my iPad has pretty much replaced my desktop scanner. Full disclosure here; the vast majority of my scanning jobs involves quotes from books and not entire documents, and I have yet tried to scan an entire page and don't know how well it would do, but for the bulk of what I do it is far more convenient than firing up the desktop pc and scanner combo. Much faster, too, and at a much better price. The thing is free, but limited and full of ads, so I upgraded to the full-featured Pro version for $5. Try getting a scanner and OCR software for your pc or Mac for that price! And no, I don't own stock in the company, I just LOVE their app! What's YOUR favorite app? Last edited by WT Sharpe; 12-03-2015 at 09:52 AM.

12-03-2015, 02:30 PM	#3
kyteflyer Wizard Posts: 1,841 Karma: 9547754 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Newcastle, Australia Device: iPhone SE2020	One of my favourite apps is AppsGoneFree. It highlights 5 or 6 short term free apps every day, and although theres a LOT of cruft and you might not spot something you want for ages, eventually something will turn up. I have acquired PDF Expert, Notability, and quite a few other productivity apps in this way. I also have a bit of a thing for hidden object games, and those turn up very regularly, happily. Weekends are usually reserved for kidstuff. anyway, Apps Gone Free is a really excellent resource. Its universal, for iPad and iPhone. Last edited by kyteflyer; 12-03-2015 at 02:34 PM.

12-05-2015, 11:07 AM	#12
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,073 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	My newest app is one that I think will become a favorite, but there's a bit more of a learning curve involved than with most apps. It's Notion 5 by PreSonus and it's music notation software. It's $14.99 at the iTunes store and I've already bought the handwriting add-on for $7.99, and there are several instrument pack add-ons that can also be purchased from within the app (the ALL bundle is $29.99, but there are several cheaper bundles for $2.99 and individual instruments for 99¢). The good news is that several instruments are included in the original purchase, although to access them you have to register with a working email. In addition, if you have the $149 computer software installed on your pc or Mac (I don't), you can switch back and forth between platforms as you work, and in addition, on your computer you can compose to film. I haven't yet reached a comfort level with this app yet as I just purchased it a few days ago, but I'll let you all know at a future date what I think of it and whether it was worth the (so far) $22.98 I've spent on this (not to mention the $22.00 I spent on this stylus to make the notation more precise!). BYW, the stylus rocks, but I'd like one that's fatter in my hand. This one's rather thin. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by WT Sharpe; 12-05-2015 at 11:19 AM.

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12-03-2015, 10:53 AM	#2
FlorenceArt High Priestess Posts: 5,761 Karma: 5042529 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Montreuil sous bois, France Device: iPad Pro 9.7, iPhone 6 Plus	Hi Tom! Thank you for starting this thead, as I've been wanting to post about the apps I use for journaling. There is an old thread about handwriting apps that I could have revived, but this is a bit different. I started keeping a handwritten journal on my iPad a few years ago, using NoteShelf. I still use and love this app but I gradually started to miss the feel of a physical notebook and the pleasure of writing on it. Also, I wanted to include other stuff in my journal such as typed text, scans of the programs of shows I go to, photos... You can do all this in Noteshelf via photos, but it's not very practical or esthetically pleasing. After a lot of trials and errors, I now have a setup that I'm pretty satisfied with using: - Noteshelf for writing my journal on iPad (still my favorite app for that) - FasterScan for scanning my paper journals and any other document I want to save to my journal or elsewhere - Awesome Notes to gather all this plus typed notes and checklists in a nice-looking app - Evernote because Awesome Notes syncs to it, which allows me to have a backup in case Awesome Notes stops working one day, and because it's the intermediary for saving my images of scanned documents from FasterScan (I send them to the Awesome Notes notebook in Evernotes, and it syncs back to Awesome Notes). So I'd say that's the list of my most favorite apps here, although there are a few others I guess.

12-03-2015, 03:17 PM	#4
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,468 Karma: 25996225 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	DocScanner looks very interesting, but I'm mostly interested in scanning books, and I'm guessing it might not handle capture of targets that are not very flat, and may not scale up well to efficient capture of hundreds of pages at a time. But for $5 it is probably worth having around for things it is better suited to. I've had that Fujitsu SV-600 document scanner on my radar forever but it is $600, and it has been out two years now, so I'm inclined to wait for the next iteration.

12-03-2015, 08:25 PM	#6
49Kat Fanatic Posts: 580 Karma: 1309104 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: BC,Canada/NV, USA Device: iPad 9th Gen, iPhone 11, Paperwhite 10th Gen.	FlorenceArt, Noteshelf looks like the app I was looking for when I first wanted a journaling app. I wanted something password protected and that I could place photos in. I've been using iDo Notepad and then I upgraded to the pro version. You can't place pictures within the text, however. I like Chapters for placing photos in the page, but it's dodgy about where the photos are placed. They don't stay put in the page...it's hard to explain. Anyway, that process is a bit clunky. You can create multiple notebooks and they can be individually password protected, which is nice. NotesLock is quite secure, but I was finding it was not stable. It crashed a lot. It seems a bit "kiddish" anyway. I wanted something more grownup. I don't mind paying for something I will really like.

12-04-2015, 04:49 PM	#9
kyteflyer Wizard Posts: 1,841 Karma: 9547754 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Newcastle, Australia Device: iPhone SE2020	Journaling? Day One, hands down the best. I used to use Macjournal but I find when I want to write something, Day One fills the need beautifully. (Another I acquired when it was short term free in the Appstore)

12-04-2015, 06:59 PM	#10
badgoodDeb Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,501 Karma: 64095689 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Harrisburg outskirts Device: Palms, K1-4s, iPads, iPhones, KV, KO1	Have just downloaded WTSharpe's DocScanner + OCR Free and also FlorenceArt's Faster Scan. Thanks people! I don't have a great need for a scanner, but once in a blue moon it would be nice to have.

12-05-2015, 03:58 AM	#11
Gurvan Groupie Posts: 189 Karma: 986146 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: En Europe, mais pas loin des Etats-Unis et d'un grand groupe de hard-rock Allemand... Device: iPhone 6+ and iPad 1 (love them both...)	DayOne is good for journalling but I think that Florence is discussing about "handwritten" journalling and DayOne does not have an option, AFAIK, for that... But it does handle the rest of journalling... I tend to be annoyed by certain things though like it lack of encryption as the file are stored in clear and only the app is password protected. Meaning that if you know where the files are stored, you can read them... Also, I do tend to have some synchronisation bugs between the iPhone and the Mac especially if the App is open on both sides at the same time... But I do agree that it still the best there is...

12-10-2015, 03:31 AM	#13
FlorenceArt High Priestess Posts: 5,761 Karma: 5042529 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Montreuil sous bois, France Device: iPad Pro 9.7, iPhone 6 Plus	One of my favorite apps is AppZapp. Every day it shows me a selection of new apps, updates, and price drops. I can set alerts for when a specific app is updated or reaches a certain price. Users can comment on apps so it can be useful to get feedback. I tried several similar apps, including I think Apps Gone Free, and this is my favorite, especially for the mail alert system. Oh, and you can also see a chart of the price changes over the last year. It helps to see which developers have a policy of dropping prices regularly, so that you can set an alarm for those apps.

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