Category: Tech

At times wonderful, and at times totally frustrating too. That’s technology, my experience of it anyway. I do a lot of stuff with technology and I suspect I will continue to do that.

Editorial for iPad, powerful automation, workflow and scripting for iOS

Posted by on in Mobile Applications, Tech

I bought this app a while ago and have only just really started getting to grips with it, but I’ve started to see just how powerful it is. The real power in this app is in the workflow features. Think Automator for mac, but inside an iPad app that’s built for writing and with added power besides.

Editorial is a nice writing app and has a lot of features for writing and publishing, but its real power comes with a series of built in workflows that are pre-configured to do some straightforward things you might need for writing. These built in workflows are great as a place to start from with automation in Editorial, but making simple workflows is also a very easy process. Workflows are assembled by connecting simple building blocks, almost the same as automator for mac. Building blocks like ‘if … then’ statements, copy, select, etc. Combining these together is easy, and you can make some very powerful automated processes.

But it doesn’t stop there either. The workflow editor can also include python code which vastly expands the options available to any workflow. Obviously writing python code isn’t for everyone, it isn’t easy, but the option is there. There is also another option. There’s now an Editorial workflow directory in beta. If you access the directory from your iPad with the Editorial app installed on the device you can directly install workflows to the app without any difficulty at all. What this means in that you can add complex workflows into the app that have been designed and built by other people and use them for yourself.

Apparently in the next version of Editorial the workflow directory will be even more beefed up so you can upload and download within the app itself. That’ll be popular I’ll bet, and it’ll give everyone access to some great workflow and automation.

I’ve got a long way to go with this app and getting used to creating workflows, but I think that it’ll be worth the time investing in this app. In the end it’ll send a lot of time.

Android Inventor 2 has arrived

Posted by on in Tech

I’ve messed about with Android App Inventor since it’s very early days, when Google brought it out and made it available to the public. Then of course it moved off to MIT who’ve done a great job with it so far, and now it’s finally done away with the download and files you need to install. It’s now all in the browser at last. I’m looking forward to trying it out at last.

The only downside is that at the moment there’s no easy way to port projects from App Inventor ‘Classic’  to the new version. Still, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

So here I am with Android 4.4

Posted by on in Tech

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So I’ve upgraded my little old Nexus and so far I’m not noticing anything amazing with it. No incredible improvements in performance either. So, what’s the big deal then? Did I miss something?

No more Pebble for me

Posted by on in Tech

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Whilst I really liked the idea of the Pebble and it was fun, eventually I had to conclude that I really didn’t have a use for it at all sadly. So I’ve found it a better home for now at least.

My app of the week this week is … Tweetbot 3

Posted by on in Tech

I don’t think I could go back to using the standard twitter app anymore. Tweetbot 3 is so much easier to use, especially for multiple accounts, as it actually treats each account differently, or rather, it allows you to treat each account differently. In what way? Well, I use two ‘read it later’ services. One with each of my twitter accounts. Twitter’s own iOS app only allows you to use a single service across multiple accounts, but this doesn’t work for me. Tweetbot 3 allows me the flexibility I need here, and that’s not all.

In tweetbot 3 you can fine tune the interface, with the two buttons at the end of the bar being configurable. Again, this works on a per account basis, which is completely sensible in my view and is exactly what I need.

So overall tweetbot 3 is a massive step in the right direction and unless things with the main twitter app change significantly I won’t be going back.