The Apple and I

The Pleasures Of Drawing On The iPad

It may lack the "soul" of sketching on paper, but I sure don't miss all the clean-up!

I've always been a doodler and a sketcher, if not a proper artist. (Whatever that means.) It's something I've enjoyed my entire life, but my engagement waxes and wanes. I spent a full year doing the daily sketchbook thing, and then two years drawing nothing. It's one of those things I always mean to do more of, that I feel guilty for not doing, but with one thing and another, sketching often just doesn't happen for me.

What initially turned it around for me was the game Draw Something. I enjoyed playing it so much that I began to feel guilty for sending people these elaborate scenes with detail and composition and color blocking, when all they really need (or want) is a concept elaborated with just a few quick stick figure brush strokes.

The next turning point came when I bought a stylus that I liked. Because although I'm surprised at how well I can make art by drawing with my fingertip, I still craved the familiar feel of a pen in hand.

IPad + stylus + Sketchbook Pro = WOW.

Drawing on the iPad with Sketchbook Pro makes me realize how much of creating art is the drudgery of setting up your tools, and cleaning up afterward. My favorite medium is to sketch an outline in pencil, ink in the lines with a dip pen, then add color with watercolor. You have to wait for the ink to dry (twice!), clean the dip pen while trying not to spill ink all over your desk, set out the little tray of watercolors, mix the paints, try not to spill the paint, keep refilling your rinse cup, wash out the little trays when you're done…

Or you can just tap a few points on your iPad screen. DONE.

Using the layers in Sketchbook Pro lets you recreate the experience of sketching, inking, then erasing the pencil marks - without any mess, fuss, or accidentally lifting up your ink. You can add infinite color, and there's an "undo" button. Want to experiment with some oil painting techniques? You can do that, just choose a different brush option and transparency levels.

Making art on the iPad does feel like some of the "soul" of the process is lost. I miss the smell of paint, the tactile feel of the dip pen scratching against the paper. But I sure don't miss having to wrangle and clean all my supplies.

App Review: TCM Clinic Aid

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a fascinating field, which covers methods of pattern diagnosis, and therapies such as acupuncture and herbal medicine. Although far different from conventional Western medicine, TCM is still very complex, and requires years of in depth education in order to be a competent practitioner. Having resources on hand that facilitate review of pattern diagnosis, and the various therapies, will make the practitioner’s life much easier.

Whether you are a TCM practitioner, a student or simply interested in this field, you may find the the iPhone app, TCM Clinic Aid, very handy. Although I am not a TCM practitioner, and so I don’t prescribe herbs or perform acupuncture, I have taken a acupressure certificate course. I wanted to be able to help family members and friends with minor issues as they arose. I didn’t want to drag stacks of books around with me where ever I went, so I looked for an app that could help me locate appropriate acupressure points.

Overall, I’ve been pleased with the TCM Clinic Aid app. The app makes it easy to search by disorder, for example, migraine, and then find herbal remedies or acupuncture points to be used in treating the disorder. The acupuncture points are illustrated, so it is easy to find them on the body. The medical description for location is also included.

The information on the TCM herbal remedies also seems extensive, and includes photos of the various herbs. I think it might be difficult, however, to positively identify all the herbs just from the photographs.

Are there any TCM practitioners who have an app you like to use in your practice? If so, please share your experiences here.

Sketchbook Pro vs. Express

At $4.99, Sketchbook Pro is mind-bogglingly powerful

A while back, I tried out Sketchbook Express by Autodesk. I was impressed with it, and I found myself needing a little bit more functionality. So last week I upgraded to Sketchbook Pro, for the princely sum of $4.99.

For my needs, it was definitely worth the upgrade. The ability to export a layered file is critical for me. But for a lot of people, I suspect that Sketchbook Express is all you will ever really want. And I continue to be impressed by what a full-featured app the free Express version is - it has probably 80% of the functionality of Pro, including the ability to scale, move, and rotate a layer.

BRUSHES

Sketchbook Pro offers a ton of brushes, compared to the default 15 that come with Sketchbook Express. But as is so often the case, 95% of the new brushes are useless gimmick brushes, like leaves and sparkles and stuff. There are a few paintbrush textures that I have enjoyed using, but for the most part, I think the default brushes with Express will be enough for any casual user.

These new brushes are difficult to select, as well. You have to swipe your way through a bunch of panels to see them all. Or you can tap a teeny tiny dot to go directly to the page, which I can never manage to hit.

EXPORTING

Sketchbook Pro offers much better export capability. Whereas Sketchbook Express only lets you export to your photo library or print, the Pro version lets you export to your photo library, iTunes, Flickr, Facebook, Dropbox, Twitter, Email, and Print.

It also - and this was the "killer app" for me - lets you export it as a layered PSD file. This way I can sketch on my iPad, export it to Dropbox, pick it up on my desktop computer, and finish the fine tuning in Photoshop.

LAYERS

Sketchbook Express lets you have three layers. Pro lets you have more layers… but only up to six. Why only six? I do not know. But I suspect that most users would find that three layers is more than enough, given that you have full functionality with them.

(For new users unfamiliar with layers: sketch out a basic outline on one layer, adjust the opacity about 30%, thus creating your own tracing paper. Now add a new layer, and start drawing on that, using your first layer as reference. You're welcome!)

Product Review: Targus iPad Stylus

I feel like this is a pretty good stylus. And at only $15, the price is definitely right!

After my last bad experience with a cheap iPad stylus (a $3 stylus with no brand name, a hard point, and a chisel tip) I was a little bit leery. I did a ton of research, and finally settled on two models that I was interested in trying out.

Then I went to Target and they were literally out of every single stylus except for this one, which was the last stylus left in the entire store. I guess 5PM on a Sunday, and Mother's Day to boot, is not the best time to go electronics shopping at Target. But I bought it anyway, and luckily it turned out to be pretty good!

This stylus comes in a variety of colors, designed to match your iPad's Smart Cover. Except that they only had a blue one left, and I do not have a Smart Cover. But other than that, it's a nice bonus.

One thing I have learned (through experience) to look for in a stylus is a rounded tip. This makes it feel like drawing with a Sharpie or other felt tip marker. The rounded tip is also more forgiving of being held at odd angles. It provides the same surface area no matter which specific angle you are using it at.

Unlike the other stylus I tried, this one has a spongy feel to the tip. This is great because it helps keep you from accidentally pressing or tapping too hard on your iPad's face. Unlike a drawing tablet, the iPad can't read force feedback information to tell how hard you are pressing, so it's best to tap as lightly as possible.

I was a little concerned that the sponge-like soft tip might create drag as I used it on my screen. But it didn't, it glided along like a treat. I gave it a pretty good work-out, starting off with five or six rounds of Draw Something, and the Targus stylus made it effortless.

The stylus's slim design and powder metal case might be a little tiring for your hands if you use it for a very long time. I found myself taking short breaks to stretch out my fingers. Then again, I do tend to hold pens in a death grip. The stylus's narrow shape is designed to fit in the pen pocket of a Targus iPad case.

All in all, I feel like this is a pretty good stylus. And at only $15, the price is definitely right!

App Review: Sims Freeplay

As I played, the game eventually came to feel more like drudgery than entertainment

The Sims Freeplay extends the multi-gajillion-dollar blockbuster Sims gaming franchise into your iPad. But is it worth your time? In my estimation, at this point, most players will eventually get tired of playing Freeplay after a few weeks. However, EA continues to add functionality to the game, which only debuted six months ago. I intend to revisit the game in a while, to see if it's improved. It's only fair.

One difference between Freeplay and other Sims titles is that your Sims feel much more abstracted from you. Perhaps because the game returns to the visuals of the original Sims, you can't bring the camera in very close to them, and you're stuck with the default 45 degree top-down camera angle. I never identified with any of my Sims the way I did with my Sims Social character, nor did I develop an emotional attachment to them the way I do with my Sims PC characters.

The graphics are pretty good, and the controls are fairly intuitive once you figure out the basics of switching between Sims. Your Sims can earn money by baking, gardening, or taking careers (once you build the appropriate buildings on the town map).

The most revolutionary and bizarre aspect of the game is that it takes place in real time. If it's 7:45PM in real life, it's 7:45PM in the game. This has a lot of ramifications. For one thing, you can't speed up gameplay to get through the boring bits. (Although you can spend LP, an in-game currency.) This weights down your gameplay options, and makes the gameplay feel a lot more Farmville-like than you might expect.

Gameplay is effectively 100% goal-oriented, much as it is with Spore. You can ignore the goals and do your own thing, but not for very long, and not very well. And there are many events (like a wedding, or giving birth to a baby) that can only happen when the game gives you that goal. This makes playing the game feel more like "Simon Says" than anything else. (I also feel like it violates the fundamental premise of the Sims franchise, but that's just me.)

Goals are also weighted so that the more you play, the more difficult they become to attain. It may only cost $5,000 for your first Sim, but you need $7,000 for your second, and $10,000 for your third. Prices for things like building new town lots are not fixed, but run on a sliding scale that makes it harder and harder to get anywhere.

As I played, the game eventually came to feel more like drudgery than entertainment. I suspect Freeplay is doomed to be known as one of those second-tier Sims titles in the dustbin of history, and rightfully so.

More "Draw Something" Strategy

Four ways to improve your game

OK… I might be a little bit obsessed with this game. Having finally managed to assemble a pretty good list of friends to play with, I have been spending at least an hour a day rapt with attention, drawing random things with my fingertip.

And I'd like to think I have gotten pretty good at it, too! The only time someone hasn't been able to guess one of my drawings recently, it's because I had accidentally chosen something that I knew I couldn't draw… but instead of clicking the bomb to get more words, I clicked "Les Paul." Oy.

1. Use background color

Choosing a basic background color can help place your drawing in the right setting, right from the beginning. A few quick strokes with the widest pen will fill in your screen quickly.

Using two colors to fill in the background, and proportion of the colors you use, can really help set the scene. Filling the top 2/3rds with sky blue and the bottom 1/3rd with green emphasizes that "this is something that flies." Filling the top 1/3rd with sky blue and the bottom 2/3rds with dark blue tells your partner "this is on the ocean."

2. Use the eraser

The eraser can help you "paint with white." If you're drawing something white - like a bride - paint in your background first, then use the eraser to delete a bride-shaped hole. To draw "Nun" it's easiest to paint the nun's form in black, then use the eraser to delete her head area.

I also will take any excuse to draw googly eyes. Paint in your character or animal, then do two dots with the second-from-smallest eraser brush. Then add two dots of black with the smallest paint brush for pupils. They always end up askew. It's always hilarious!

3. Use "Undo"

At the bottom of your drawing screen there's an "undo" button. It's an arrow curling around to the left, like a backwards letter C. This undoes the last thing you did. It's often a lot easier to undo the last line that you did, rather than trying to erase over a bunch of other stuff you've drawn.

4. Add scale

Scale is the difference between "forest" and "broccoli." For forest, add a few tiny people to show that your trees are tree-sized. For broccoli, draw it on a plate, and add a knife and fork beside it. As with adding a background color, this is all about giving your drawings context to help your partner guess correctly.

MapQuest iPhone App Review

Can you trust the voice?

As someone who had spent years driving without a GPS, with either a map or scribbled directions in one hand, and gripping a steering wheel with the other, while I franticly scanned street signs, I truly appreciate a disembodied-voice-enabled GPS app that tells me just where to go. I even appreciate that app when my husband is driving. I simply let the app tell him where to go, and save myself the bother.

Given that background, I love having a GPS app on my iPhone. I appreciated getting a free one courtesy of MapQuest. The MapQuest 4 Mobile app, however, does have its quirks, quirks that may leave you in some, shall we say, interesting situations. The corn field in Forest Lake, instead of the restaurant to which I thought I was headed, comes to mind.

One thing that puzzles me is when the directions it comes up with when I use the MapQuest website don’t match the directions I get when I use the mobile app. It seems that they would use the same database of location information and the same mapping algorithms, and so yield the same result.

Yet that doesn’t always happen. I have learned to double check though, and when the directions don’t match, it seems the website offers more accurate results. I then send those to my iPhone and have them available, but I lose the disembodied voice telling me where to go, and I’m back to clutching again.

Given this, I’m considering actually paying for a GPS app. Do you know of any apps that are accurate and reliable for iPhone?

Zynga buys Draw Something

Are they regretting it?

It has been quite the rollercoaster ride for Draw Something development company OMGPOP. First, the little app that could - "asynchronous online Pictionary" - saved the company from bankruptcy at the last minute. It was a final Hail Mary pass that really worked, skyrocketing the company to the top of the charts.

This kind of movement isn't going to go unnoticed in the business world, of course. Draw Something was launched on February 6, and was snapped up by the much-loathed Facebook titan, Zynga in late March. For a record - and to many, shocking - $200 million.

Unfortunately, it seems that Draw Something's popularity has collapsed, leading pundits to call Zynga's purchase "an expensive blunder."

Many people on the sidelines are tut-tutting and claiming that this is just another example of the fickle marketplace. Few of these people, in my estimation, have actually played the game very much.

Having spent the last few weeks absolutely obsessed with Draw Something, its drawbacks are obvious. And in talking with other players, I find that - unsurprisingly - these drawbacks eventually drive players away. In other words, unless Zynga and OMGPOP fix Draw Something, it will soon be consigned to the dustbin of internet history.

Problem #1: finding other people to play with. NOT JERKS OR IDIOTS. Hell truly is other people, especially if you're playing a semi-anonymous internet game with them.

Unless you can wheedle your friends into playing with you, or find like-minded people to play, you're basically stuck playing the game with - as far as I can tell - people on the level of Youtube commenters. Yep: it's that bad.

Problem #2: steep currency rate strong-arms you into spending real money. You start the game with only five colors. You can buy more color palettes for 294 coins per palette. But each turn only earns you between 1 and 3 coins. Best-case scenario, you have to play ALMOST 100 GAMES before you can buy more colors. Until then, you're stuck drawing (e.g.) yellow trees, because green isn't one of your five free colors.

Problem #3: small vocabulary. The list of words is surprisingly limited. How many times can you draw a nun, or Jupiter, before you get bored and stop playing?

Worse, there are rumbles that Zynga may further monetize the game by dropping sponsored words into the mix. We could soon find ourselves choosing words like "Mountain Dew" and "Frito Lay Crisp Corn Snacks."

Get healthy with your iPhone

Apps can motivate and offer first aid info

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably a bit of an “app-aholic.” I love to look through the iTunes store, searching for magic apps that will make my life better. Health-related apps really can make our lives better, whether we have medical conditions or are simply trying to get into better shape.

Running can be a great way to improve your aerobic conditioning, It’s easy and doesn’t require much beyond running shoes, shorts and a T-shirt. Tracking your runs and your progress can be very motivational, and an inexpensive app can help with that. One app that I just love is MotionX GPS by MotionX. It’s versatile; it will track not only running, but biking, hang gliding and skiing, to name just a few.

One feature that I really appreciate it that it will tell me how far I’ve gone and what my pace is. Rather than trying to look at a screen as I’m jogging down the street dodging potholes and pedestrians, it’s so much easier to hear a voice proclaiming distance and pace. More importantly, if one of those aforementioned pedestrians is so startled by hearing that disembodied voice that he keels over and stops breathing, I can quickly access the PocketCPR app, conveniently installed on my iPhone, and begin administering chest compressions. Of course, I’ll call 911 first.

Usually I run with a canine companion, so naturally, I also have a pet first aid iPhone app by Jive Media installed. Along with pet first aid information, it also has a section for his medications, health conditions and his veterinary clinic’s name and phone number.

As for myself, if I pull a muscle or break a bone, I can consult apps that will help me determine just what I damaged. Real Body Work offers terrific apps for learning the human muscle and the skeletal systems. So, take full advantage of your iPhone and load it up with apps that motivate you to be healthier, and help you if medical assistance is needed.

App Review: Audubon Birds - A Field Guide to North American Birds

Invaluable for even the casual bird-watcher - and on sale for only .99!

I spotted this one in the top charts listings over the weekend. Sales of great apps often bubble up there, with their popularity pushing them into the top 10. And the Audubon app is no exception. Usually this app sells for $19.95, but it's on sale for only .99 for a limited time, to celebrate Audubon's birthday. If you have any interest in bird-watching at all, you NEED this app!

Even as a somewhat-serious life-long bird-watcher (if not quite serious enough for the title of "birder"), I was genuinely surprised at how great and useful this app was. I was skeptical that it would be much more useful than my favorite, battered copy of the Peterson's Guide. (It falls open at all the pages I usually check!)

The first thing that caught my eye was the bird entries. Each bird has gorgeous, huge, full-color pictures. From there, you can click to read a lengthy description (much more than they have room for in any single guide book), range maps (no more flipping back and forth to the back of the book!), and a collection of recorded calls (!!!!!).

If you, like me, have ever tried looking up bird calls online, it can be a frustrating experience. Many sites collect bird songs, but they may only have the warning chips and not the song, or the song but not the warning chips. And it seems like at least 3/4ths of the time, songs on the Cornell pages (the biggest archive of bird recordings online) are broken, missing, or just plain old not there.

Not true with the Audubon app. You get a selection of calls for each bird, typically from several different areas of the country. The recordings are short (about 10 seconds), clear, and clearly described.

Explore further, and you will find that the app hooks into your iPad's Location Services to tell you recent sightings in your area, birding hot spots in your area, and - best of all- a separate page listing "Rare and Notable" sightings in your area. Just click on the bird on the list, and it takes you to a Google Map with pushpins marking the exact location of the sightings.

The app also features a journal and a Life List. Although using these took a bit of getting used to, they provide a huge amount of lifetime value for the app, beyond just bird identification.

I know it sounds hyperbolic, but using this app was a revelation, the first time I really saw the full potential of the iPad coming to fruition.

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