Bob's Most Useful Apps - Part 1- Camscanner+

Camscanner+ is a really clever idea that can be used in a number of ways to improve your day to day workflow. At it's heart it is a really simple app - take photos of anything - documents, whiteboards, receipts - and Camscanner+ will store images of them on your phone for later reference.

Thats not all though. First off, Camscanner+ will enhance images with a clever algorithm that identifies only the relevant part of an image and zooms, flattens and centres the subject to produce a very readable document. After that, it applies an enhancement filter to up the clarity of the final image.

 

Take a photo of a document or receipt...

... and Camscanner+ automatically enhances and aligns the image

The application also allows folder based grouping of documents so that you can, for example, record all the receipts for a particular business trip together. You can also add metadata tags to the content to further categorise documents.

 

Camscanner+ folder view

The app has a large number of export options to choose from. As well as the usual email option, Camscanner+ integrates Google Docs, Evernote, iDisk, Box.net, Dropbox. My favourite workflow is scanning all my receipts for a particular business trip into a folder, exporting a PDF of all the documents in the folder to Dropbox for safekeeping and then sending that directly to our expenses people for remittance. No more posting receipts for me! My only complaint is that it appears to be impossible to control the image size of the documents within the PDF, potentially creating a very large file depending on the number of documents you have.

The other great use for Camscanner+ is scanning whiteboards and the enhancement tools generally produce a very clear result. If you are looking for something to quickly scan documents, receipts and diagrams Camscanner+ is the tool of choice.

Camscanner+ can be found on the Apple App Store for £2.99.  I'm not affiliated with the app in any way ... I just really like it!

 

This week vs last

I was in Lanzarote last week, weather much the same as this.

And this week I'm back home and can look forward to this.

Enough said...

 

The Big Wheel Test continues...

A major test this weekend for the new Harry Rowland wheels - towing a Chariot child trailer with baby inside. No problems yet after 4 commutes with alot of curb bumping and the towing. Whilst heavy, the wheels are definitely strong and smooth. I reckon it'll take about 3 months for a full long term test but so far I'm impressed.

As far as the trailer goes, it's amazing! Really comfortable for the baby with good safety harnesses. Folds down and wheels are removable to fit in the boot. It is a bit heavy but that just adds to the training!

Time to get back on the bike

First time that my Thorn commuting bike is back on the road since October last year. I'm giving the new Harry Rowland wheels a big test with all that weight on the back!

New Harry Rowland Wheelset

I've just received a set of handmade Harry Rowland wheels for my commuting bike.  For a while I've been putting up with a set of factory build wheels from SJS Cycles - but they are cheap and of poor quality.  For the weight I carry they have continually broken spokes so I felt it was about time for an upgrade to something a little better.

Harry Rowland is a well-known wheelbuilder - you only have to do a quick Google to find positive comments and reviews of his work.  I had a chat with Harry and he recommended a set of Rigida 36h rims with Sputnik hubs for my weight and commuting requirements.  You can see the wheels in the photos below.  

First impressions are that the wheels are really strong and running perfectly true (as you'd expect).  I'm going to get these on the bike shortly.  With wheels a long term test is required - so i'll post my thoughts in a few weeks time.

 

 

Reviewing Videos on Apple TV with Automator

The new Services support in Snow Leopard has got me interested in "really smoothing my Mac workflows", a term used by the demonstrator with the crazy hair at the last Apple keynote.

I take a lot of home movies with a Kodak Zi6; it's a cheap, but cheerful, HD handheld video camera that produces great looking images with not so hot audio.  I want to use my Apple TV to quickly review the home movies I produce on the camera - but that can be awkward.  The Quicktime wrapped files produced aren't quite compatible with Apple TV directly and so I've had to use a manual workflow of opening the files in iMovie, exporting to Apple TV, importing to iTunes and then syncing to finally get them onto the Apple TV.

With Quicktime 10, and the new Services support in Snow Leopard it is now possible to build a simple Automator workflow that allows me to -

1. Select any number of Zi6 movies in the Finder.


2. Right click, and select the "Review on Apple TV" service that i've built using Automator and some Applescript.


3. The service will pick up all the selected files and send them to Quicktime for output in "Apple TV" format.


4. It then uses some Applescript to import the converted files into iTunes, ready for syncing with my Apple TV.

The workflow is attached to the article for download.  Unzip the file and place it in your ~/Library/Services folder and then you can immediately right click any movie file and select the option to "Review on Apple TV".  It can also be opened in Automator and freely modified.

I still haven't perfected the workflow.  I want to add some metadata (specifically genre = "For Review") to the converted files so that I can quickly find them on the Apple TV.  I also want to trigger a sync on the Apple TV automatically but I can't see how that is possible in Applescript.  For now though, it works pretty well as a simple first start.

Download the Service here

Keynote Remote with Macbook Pro Ad-hoc Network

I'm giving a presentation in about a month and I'm planning to use Keynote on my Macbook Pro.  I was hoping to use the iPhone Keynote Remote app, to act as a very modern version of a slide changer (if that's what you call it?).  Keynote Remote expects both the host computer and the iPhone to be on the same network; but there are numerous reports of connection problems between both, not to mention the fact that you don't always have a Wifi network available at presentation venues.

Then, I had the bright idea of using the ability of Mac OS X to create an ad-hoc wireless network by clicking the Airport icon in the menu bar and clicking "Create Network...".  When I tried to connect the iPhone to the new network (Settings/Wifi) it appeared to connect - but the menubar network icon still showed a worse than Edge connection (I get terrible reception here).  Keynote Remote would work for a few slides, but then the connection would drop out - making it useless.

After the usual Googling, I stumbled across this Apple thread which suggested turning Airplane mode on in Settings, and THEN connecting to the ad-hoc network.  For some reason the iPhone now shows a Wifi connection and Keynote Remote seems to be working reliably.  Excellent tip!