Read it Later

Some days ago I purchased the Read it Later app for iPad.
 
Since I use to dedicate some time to reading articles in my iPad at night, just before going to bed, most of the time I feel exhausted after a workday, so I don´t feel like diving myself into reading a long article, and what is more important, getting to understand it, no matter how interesting it may be.
 
For that reason, I googled a bit these days until I found that great app called “Read it Later”, a free app available at the Apple Store that allows me to mark any article I may have visited via a web browser, twitter or whatever it may be, to make it avaialble offline for a later reading.
 
That way, I have all articles I’d love to read available wherever and whenever I want, no matter if I’m on or offline, so I can be commuting from office to office (be it in a bus, train or whatever) and spend some minutes to read those articles, gaining knowledge in any topic that may be of interest to me.
 
For that simple reason, I must confirm once again that the iPad is a great productivity tool, since most of my work can be done when on the move, and time shouldn´t be wasted at all, don´t you think?
 

More apps I love to use in my iPad

Since I am kind of a nervous type and tend to store & stuff as much info as I can into my brain (thing that makes me forget about the important… and not so important things frequently), I trust on apps like the one I comment in this post.

 

I spend part of my day (a nice part of it!) reading (be it books, novels, reports, emails, …) and hearing / listening to relevant ideas and opinions. I’m a bit of a Bob Sponge regarding my interest in learning hahahaha!

 

For that reason, I’m lately unloading and unpacking all the interesting issues I may read or get to know during the day in my EverNotes “repository”.

 

As soon as I detect or identify an interesting issue going on in my Twitter account, I forward it to my EverNotes app so I can take a deeper look at it later on in the day or even keep it as a future idea for any project I may be involved in.

 

The use of EverNotes with Twitter is as easy as one may think. To store a Tweet that caught your attention you just have to:

 

-         First, follow the EverNotes account in Twitter

-         And that’s all, you are ready to send your important reads to your EverNotes “cahier/notepad” by sending a Tweet to @myen with the original Tweet

 

For example, if I received a Tweet that says:

 

@asalbares Wow, do read this article Antonio t.co/npy.com

 

And I want to read it later on, I just have to Retweet it by RT @myen and that’s it!

 

That way, you have immediately available for you to read, the article, comment, photo or whatever you may interested in.

 

The other option I often use involves my email. This second choice is my favourite when having an idea that I think is worth publishing in my Blog. I first write an email, and then send it to my EverNotes email account with the following cast in the address: MyEverNotesAccount name plus name of the folder where I want the entry to be stored (preceded by @) plus any tag preceded with a #. And that’s it. From there I can access my post via iPad and publish it comfortably from my sofa.

 

For example, to prepare this post I wrote it in my gmail account and then send it to

 

MyEverNotesAccount @Blog #EverNotes #iPad

 

The same applies for FaceBook, though I’m not an eager fan of this app, after I discovered the amazing possibilities that Twitter gives me, apart from reminding me of a birthday or showing-off how an incredible bunch of friends I have.

What do I have in my iPad?

As a recent user of an iPad, I spend some of my time searching for the greatest free applications that are available on the AppStore. So far, the experience has been wonderful, and I would recommend everybody to try out the iPad, since it allows keeping up to date on everything in the simplest way I know!

If you happen to be one of the thousands of new users that everyday join the iPad "family", I guess you may be asking for help on what to install in your brilliant new device, and that's an answer I want to give you today.

All applications that are currently available in my iPad may be classified as follow:

- Reading: I'm not such a big fan of ebooks but since I got the iPad I've given it a go, and must say it's great. So far, I have installed the Kindle app, where I've downloaded several books in French, since I'm trying my best to learn that language. The way I use Kindle is a kind of "give-that-book-a-try", and if I really love the book, just browse through Amazon.com to order it. I'm still in love with the smell and touch of a real book! Sorry for all of you in love with e-books!

- TV: Since I live in Spain, I've downloaded the RTVE app for iPad, a very nice one allowing me to enjoy live programming as well, as "a la carte", thus giving me the chance to enjoy programs that I would miss otherwise. The app still lacks that HD quality that TV offers, but it is more than enough to enjoy programs on the go

- Game: well, I do not use my iPad that much for gaming, and for that reason I just downloaded the "Angry birds" app, that's lots of fun.

- Productivity: that's the main reason why I got an iPad, and so, that's the option that I use the most. To get the best of the device, I've purchased Dragoon Dictation, an app that allows you to dictate notes, without the embarrasing need to key them in, and with a very high stat at recognising your voice. I dare say that 98% of the text I dictate is perfectly written by the app. It's so easy to take notes of books I've read, thoughts and whatever you may love, and then transferred it via email so you can post it on your blog. I also use the app to test my French and English level, since it allows you to change the languague you use when dictating and checking if your pronuntiation is correct (and I think it is since last week I said "On va prendre un verre de vin rouge") and the iPad got it right... hahahaha... not that it took a glass of red wine to my table, but it wrote it correctly as I dictated.

I also use DropBox to store and share documents, photos and whatever I want to share anywhere from any computer I may have access. It's a wonderful solution, since I can access, edit, write or read document I stored in DropBox from my iPad, office laptop, home desktop, or anywhere with an Internet access.

This week I purchased Evernotes, a wonderful solution that allows me to select Tweets, news or whatever I consider interesting on tne net, so I can access that piece of info later on in the day and give it a read. It's wonderful to forward those tweets you consider important, or just send an email to the Evernotes account and have it sorted by topic, tag, etc.

I have also purchased Bamboo Paper, a great app that allows me to take notes free-hand, thus avoiding the use of paper and pen. It's great, fast and it behaves like a real notepad, with no need to use your keyboard, and with the easiness of allowing you to send the notes to your email as a PDF document. I tried it at the office and since then I haven't had the need of carrying with me papers and pens, since I use to miss and mix up papers, making it nearly impossible for me to find the info that I need.

- Social networking: well, I'm a proud fan of them, and as son, I use Twitter / Hootsuite and Flipboard. Hootsuite is easy to use and there is not much more to say, and Flipboard is great since it allows me to read tweets in a more attractive mode (pictures, etc.) and select / subscribe to sources of info I'm interested in, thus saving my precious time when looking for something relevant on the net.