reader Archives - Joe Tech

Lazy-Hands – Take That, Gravity!

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Last month, I tried to squeeze thousands of displays at CES into just a couple days. That meant a lot of skimming past the same old stuff and stopping, occasionally, for the unique and noteworthy. Usually, it was some flashy thing with lasers that did the trick, but in one instance, it was the genius of simplicity. When I saw Danny and Lazy-Hands, I stopped for a closer look.

The Lazy-Hands Idea

The funny thing is that Lazy-Hands isn’t an entirely new idea. I’ve seen several iPad cases that have a strap of some sort built in, but they were all cases and that was their selling point, the strap. What about the other features of other cases out there like screen protection and bluetooth keyboards? What if I want the strap without the case? What if I don’t have one of the top-selling devices people always make accessories for? Lazy-Hands stepped back from all the over-engineering (and the extra cost that comes with it) and offered up a simple and affordable solution with minimal materials and an easy design. Watch the quick video to see what I mean.

iPad Results

I have an iPad 2 and it’s certainly portable, but you notice the weight after holding it for an hour. I ride in a van-pool to the office five days a week and often use the commute to catch up on my reading. Lazy-Hands Grip for Tablets was made for this. When Danny said he’d send out samples, I was sure this would be a game-changer for me. It is, but only as much as it can be. I love the protection my case provides, so instead of applying the Lazy-Hands velcro swatch to my iPad directly, I applied it to my case. It works great, but it’s still tiresome to hold after a while just because of the weight. To be fair, this is not the fault of Lazy-Hands. It did what it was intended to do, and in my case, that meant increasing the comfort time for holding my iPad from about 15 minutes to a little over an hour.

iPhone Results

Like my iPad, I really prefer to keep a case on my iPhone, so I attached the Lazy-Hands Grip for iPhones version to my hard case and tried it on for a week. My first concern was getting my phone in and out of my pocket. Surprisingly, that concern went away as I used it all week and allowed me to focus on the advantages of this product. Although decreasing the drop-factor of my phone was not the most important feature for me, I found that I began to naturally rely on Lazy-Hands to defy gravity for me while I loosely let the phone lean in my hand. What I most wanted from Lazy-Hands was my thumb back. The iPhone 5, in all it’s tall glory, made reaching every inch of the screen with my thumb nearly impossible when holding the phone with the same hand. For the record, my hands aren’t tiny. It takes a little getting used to, but now I can easily navigate every inch of the screen with my thumb while my other hand is free for, say, mocha. This was well received.

Conclusions

Lazy-Hands isn’t a curved TV or coffee pot that tweets it’s status. It’s a product whose allure is a combination of it’s simplicity, usefulness, and low cost to the consumer. The value of it is doubled when you realize that the Grips for iPad comes with two Grips and two adhesive sheets. The Grip for Tables / iPads runs $17.99, while the Grip for iPhones / Smartphones is only $8.99. If you have something in between, they offer the $15.99 Grips for iPad Minis, Kindles, Nooks, and other small tablets and e-readers. The product is worth the price and it works just as expected.

Want One? Here You Go

Well, OK. We can’t give one away to everyone. Luckily, though, our review package came with a bunch of Lazy-Hands product, so there’s extras to use in another giveaway. If you’re a regular reader, you know the drill. For the uninitiated, here’s how it works. Just select one of the entry options below and complete the instructions to earn your entries. You know you’ve done it right when your number of earned entries increases. I’ll let the giveaway’s random number robot magic thing select some winners who will be notified by email.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

PDF Max – More Than Just A Reader

I use iBooks for most all my iPad reading activity, but what if you want to do more than just read on your iPad. An iPad app I checked out this week, called PDF Max, goes well beyond reading for iPad power users.

PDF Max Features

By and far, the number one feature is the ability to edit PDFs. Here’s some of what I found in PDF Max:

– Add, move, or delete pages
– Add notes
– Create and fill shapes
– Freehand draw
– Sign documents with your finger
– Add audio notes
– Add stamps like “Approved” or “Confidential”
– Create external links
– Create and edit a document outline
– Tabbed document viewing
– Search within the document

There’s actually a lot more to it, but that’s the stuff that really stood out to me. Of all those features, the ones I think I’ll use the most are the ability to sign documents and the page management. It’s pretty common for me to get a document emailed to me in PDF format and have to print, sign and scan before I can email it back. With PDF Max, I can send the PDF to PDF Max right from my email, sign it, and email it out right from the app. Of course, the ability to email out anything other than the original PDF (without your changes or signature) requires the Pro version of PDF Max. Luckily, it was only $1.99 and came as an in-app purchase, so I didn’t have to stop what I was doing to upgrade. This Pro requirement applies to some extended features like creating shapes in more colors, but the free version let me do everything I listed above without bugging me for an upgrade. There were no ads and the it fell short of being called “nagware” as it didn’t nag me about upgrading. They gave away everything but the one piece I’ll fork over the $1.99 for. Well played, Mobeera.

Shortcomings

I absolutely love free, so of course I didn’t like having to pay for the Pro version, but that also means I’m picky and only pay when I see value. Despite giving me nearly everything in the free version, I saw the value of the two dollar upgrade and went for it. As a paying customer, I have but one concern about this app, and that’s the bookmarks. Without adding much to the traditional bookmark model, PDF Max actually made it less user friendly than the iBooks way of bookmarking. In iBooks, I tap a bookmark icon and I’m done and when I look at my bookmarks, I get page previews. In PDF Max, I have to give my bookmark a name. It’s a nice option, but the little bit of work to pre-fill the Name field with “Page [x]” would make it so much better. And page previews would be a great update to the bookmark panel. That said, I really had no other complaints.

Conclusions

If you need to export your PDF with changes, drop the $1.99 for the Pro version of this robust app. Either way, this is a great addition to your iPad, even in the awfully function-rich free version. Both are easily worth every penny.

This was a sponsored review, but all opinions about this app are entirely mine and are a result of spending plenty of time using it.

Perfect Reader : The iPhone And iPad PDF Reader

Although the following is a sponsored review, as always I strive to provide an honest opinion of the product reviewed.

One of the advantages of having an iPhone or iPad is the ability to enjoy all forms of media in one device. From videos to photos to ebooks, every base is covered. Apple’s iBooks software did a great job of bringing ebooks to the iPhone and iPad, but apparently, something was missing because FutureMedia Studio built and released an app that they’ve boldly named Perfect Reader. With a name like that, I was anxious to dive in and see just how close to perfect they got.

A PDF Reader App That Works

Before any app can be called a Perfect Reader it should at least provide all the basics I’ve come to expect in any app designed as a book reader. At the very least, I need to be able to load and delete my own files. Done. What about the navigation? Can I thumb through pages or do I need to navigate with interface buttons? Perfect Reader actually has several ways to navigate.

Not only could I thumb through pages, but there were left and right buttons and a slider for faster navigation through long documents. Orientation locking is a must and was included in this app. There’s nothing worse than lying in bed on your side, trying to read and fighting to keep your iPhone from changing the orientation. My last basic requirement is the ability to zoom in and out. This is not as important on an iPad, but it’s necessary when trying to read a book on an iPhone, as is full screen support, which Perfect Reader also delivers. So far, this app has all the basics taken care of, but what about all the bells and whistles?

A Reader With A Lot Of Features

With “Perfect” in your name, you have a lot to live up to. Although I am hesitant to call this reader perfect, it gets pretty close. The vast array of additional features is proof enough that FutureMedia Studio really is trying to deliver the perfect PDF reader for your iDevices.

Among the features I found in this app are:

Folders – Create and manage folders and move your PDFs among them
Easy Importing – Transfer your PDFs into PerfectReader in three ways: Using iTunes, Wifi Transferring and using Open In feature – Open PDFs from other applications such as Safari, DropBox, MobileMe, Box.Net, GoodReader, ReaddleDocs, etc..
Renaming – Rename your documents from within the app
Text-To-Speech – The included Text re-flow engine reads your PDF to you
Search – Search all documents or from within the one you’re reading, including highlighting
Dictionary/Wikipedia – Look up any text without leaving the reader
Encrypted PDF support – I haven’t tried this
PDF Outlines and Hyperlinks – Support for Adobe’s outlines and hyperlinks is built in, which is nice for those huge technical manuals
Bookmarks – Bookmark any page for reading later
Printing – Print to a printer on your network

A full set of screenshots showing many of the features can be found here.

With all these features, Perfect Reader is already worth the purchase price, but it could use just a bit more.

Not Quite Perfect

Loaded with features already, this reader really is perfect… almost. FutureMedia Studio didn’t really leave me a lot of room for complaints. In fact, there was only one existing feature that fell short for me and that’s the text re-flow. It did a decent job of reading the words correctly, but I doubt I could listen to more than a page of it. It’s not ready to replace actual reading for me. The good news is that FutureMedia is promising new text re-flow engine, so we’ll have to wait and see. The navigation was another space I saw room to improve, but only just slightly. The existing navigation is great, but it needs the ability to jump to a specific page number. That feature is invaluable in Adobe’s desktop reader and would be a big bonus here as well.

The last thing on my Perfect Reader wish list (and this is kind of a biggie) is epub support. I’m aware that Perfect Reader is designed as a PDF reader, but if I could have this thing read epub ebooks, too, it would eliminate my ebooks reader. For now, I can always just use ConvertFiles.com to convert my documents to PDF, though.

Conclusions

Perfect? Really, incredibly close. In the world of iPhone apps, the real question is “Is it worth the cost of the app?” If you have a lot of PDFs to read, there’s no doubt about the value of this app. At $3.99, it’s worth every penny. It’s only a couple tweaks away from perfect, as far as I’m concerned. If you’re curious, but not ready to spend a couple bucks, try out the Perfect Reader Mini first, but either way, your iPhone or iPad is incomplete without Perfect Reader.