Advocate's Studio

Taking classroom courses and learning to you, this great article by Mashable lists a number of different iPhone apps offering mobile eLearning options. App prices range from free to moderately paid, while some are tied to a web site or online library.  The list includes a free iPhone version of an application called Curatr, which I have previously reviewed here in the Studio. Another very cool add is the reference to iTunes U – offering programs from top colleges and universities around the world, including Ohio State University’s Lunch and Learn Series on Wellness, Yale University’s course on Financial Markets, or Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series, via iTunes.

What are you waiting for? Get to class!

Content manipulators rejoice! Your favorite web extension for Google Reader, Feedly, has finally made its long-awaited debut on the iPhone (link here)! And, in a word, it ROCKS!

I have covered Feedly and the promised iPhone version many times here in the Studio. Apps come and go, but Feedly has been a constant companion ever since I started reading RSS and blogging and I couldn’t live without it. Feedly is a browser extension that works in Firefox, Chrome and Safari (I have it in all three browsers) that syncs with your Google Reader account – your GReader stories are pulled by Feedly and actions taken in either GReader or Feedly are reflected in the other service. Feedly wins with an outstanding magazine-style layout, relevance weighting of news articles based on your reading and sharing habits and very simple to use tools for saving, sharing, commenting, and otherwise playing with the great stories found among Feedly’s greatest hits.  You can display the latest updates from feeds, blogs, and sites like Facebook and Twitter – pretty much anything with an RSS feed you can subscribe to in Reader. Feedly integrates with Delicious, Amazon.com, YouTube, and other sites as well, showing that content alongside the news stories. It offers numerous ways to add, filter, display, mark, and share content. Ultimately, Feedly delivers your own personal magazine digest of everything you’re interested in, or might be interested in, since Feedly also does a good job of suggesting content.

I have longed for the iPhone version for quite some time and, following a tip on the Feedly blog, I was able to secure an advance copy of the iPhone app last fall.  I have been playing with it ever since.

Up front, Feedly for iPhone is not the full-function Feedly web, nor should it be. The mobile app gets to the very heart of what I use Feedly for – blowing through the top content in my Google Reader folders, save what I want, share what I want and mark the content read. Feedly for iPhone also takes full advantage of the iPhone’s tactile interface, with swiping right or left to access the story headlines, swiping up or down to mark read or unread.

The app shows the digest of all articles, most recent articles, featured sources (what Feedly thinks you should read), the most popular items from the Feedly community and saved items.  The deeper you delve into one of your Feedly categories, the less recent the story. You can like items with the thumbs up and mark the entire feed read by clicking the check mark at the bottom.

There is no faster way for me to wade through my Google Reader streams than Feedly and I find it even faster on the iPhone. Plus, there is the “here and now” factor of having the app on the phone so that I can read and share a little when I am between events or meetings on the go.

Developer and founder Ed Khodabakchian has been very accessible and responsive to comments and suggestions on the interface. They really seem dedicated to providing the best possible experience with this app and it shows.

If you use Google Reader, then you owe it to yourself to try Feedly. If you are an iPhone user (or iPad user  - it works on that too with the 2x zoom), you can get a very full Feedly experience in the mobile domain. And, if you are an Android user, don’t despair – the Android client is coming soon to a mobile phone near you!

Google, ever vigilant with respect to the ways and means for improving its products and the mobile interface, is now offering its Cloud Print functionality from your mobile phone. You still need a computer, but you can direct printing from your phone, via that computer, to your connected printer. Simply power up Gmail via mobile and Cloud Print you are most of the way there. Before you can get the goods, you need to connect your primary printing PC (Windows for now and Mac OSX and Linux coming soon) to Cloud Print. Then, got to gmail.com from your iPhone or Android browser and choose “Print” from the dropdown menu in the top right corner. You can print certain email attachments as well, (such as .pdf or .doc) – simply click the “Print” link that appears next to them.

Right now, this is available US English only. Its rolling out, so keep checking back. How cool is THAT? Check out more in the  Google Cloud Print help center.

Via the  Official Gmail Blog.

I didn’t see THAT one coming! Just glanced over at my reader and caught this awesome bit of news for lovers of iPhones and MS OneNote, a Venn diagram that until recently showed very little area of intersection. I haven’t written about my deep and abiding admiration for OneNote in a while, but I have in fact crowed about it in the Studio before (link). OneNote, originally a powerful desktop note taking and organizational tool with amazing editing, search and collaboration features, made its way to the cloud via Microsoft’s Skydrive about six months ago (link). Now, through God-knows-what-sort-of-unholy-alliance, you can get OneNote on your iPhone free (for a limited time), with automatic sync and backup via the cloud-based SkyDrive. It bears noting that there is no native Mac application for OneNote, making this news all the more surreal.

For those unfamiliar with OneNote, I took the liberty of copying the description provided by Microsoft in the App Store for its shiny new app:

Microsoft OneNote Mobile is the easy-to-use, powerful note-taking application for all of your ideas, brought to you by Microsoft Office. OneNote Mobile lets you create and view notes and lists whenever you need them. Sync your notes with free Windows Live online storage and access them from virtually anywhere using your phone, PC, or almost any web browser.

With OneNote Mobile, you can:
▪ Create flexible notes that can include text, pictures, bullets, and checkboxes ▪ Check To Do items off on the go▪ Save time with quick access to your most recent notes▪ Work with confidence—OneNote Mobile automatically syncs your notes with Windows Live in the background▪ Organize your notes into sections or create new notebooks using OneNote 2010 or OneNote Web App and access them from your iPhone

Although Microsoft has other iPhone apps already, this is the first app I know of that directly relates to a paid Microsoft software product within its venerable Office suite.

From the chatter on the Web, it appears that the auto sync update via SkyDrive may not yet be working and is being addressed by Microsoft. I didn’t let that little glitch bother me – I have my app downloaded and can’t wait to dig in. Any edge Evernote may have had on OneNote based on its portability may now be gone!

I <3 OneNote + iPhone!

UPDATE : the SkyDrive sync is working – simply log in via the app to your Windows Live account.

It’s true. I love apps. Even apps that don’t work on my own system. Fortunately, there are plenty of apps that run on my iPhone 4 and iPad. And I never miss an opportunity to check out a new one. I am particularly fond of apps that take iOS4 functionality in a whole new direction or create a new method of interacting with these crazy smart phones. As I have often said, “It’s all about the apps.”

Now I am an “apps VIP”. Well, an Appsfire VIP to be precise. I have written about Appsfire before (link here). It is a fantastic way to learn about and share new apps. Appsfire leverages the knowledge of the crowd with its sharing tools and website loaded with goodies. It features apps VIPs – people who make it their business to delve into App Store offerings and share interesting new tools in their on-line endeavors.

After writing about Appsfire here in the Studio, they kindly invited me to submit my “app mix” and join the VIP group. So I did. And they did. You can check out my mix and the mixes of other VIP’s here. The direct link to my apps is here. You can “like” and share my app mix – if you have any questions about any of the apps, give me a shout in the comments here and I will be happy to let you know my thoughts.

Appsfire also has a couple of apps of their own that make discovering and sharing new applications easy and fun. Appsfire comes in a fully iOS4-friendly iPhone version (link here) that adds much of the functionality of the web page interface right onto your phone. You can even compare apps with a friend via bluetooth and use the personal recommendation system to learn about new apps.

Also, check out their iPad app –  Appstream – an “app”solutely fascinating scrolling stream of hundreds of apps that you can click on learn more about. The cool animated wall displays apps in real time:

Appsfire is simply the best way to learn about and share your passion for iPhone and iPad apps on the web or on your iDevice. They even keep you notified when paid apps go free. Check out their website at the jump above. And, if you get totally crazy about apps like me, maybe you can become an App VIP too.

See you on Appsfire!