Tag: paper

Paper

Paper is a new sketch and note taking iPad app from FiftyThree. Considering the iPad is two years old it’s a later addition to an already saturated market so whats marks out Paper when compared to the other sketch tools? Simplicity.

Paper is free and is well worth downloading. You can have a number of sketch books, the only customisation option being the name and cover photo of the book. Touch on a book to open the book in a coverflow view of the pages. Swipe through the pages and when you reach a page you want to edit touch on it. You will be presented with a blank page. No lines, no toolbars. Just one default tool that allows you to draw on the page. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the tool tray which allows you to select from one of 5 tools and only 9 colours.

Although the app is free it only comes with one tool – Draw. To use the other tools which are Sketch, Outline, Write and Colour you need to buy them individually or buy them all for a slightly reduced price (around £5 from memory). Initially I thought that was slightly rude but it’s a great model that I’m surprised more tools don’t adopt. One really nice feature is a 20 step undo/redo. Place two fingers on the screen and rotate anti-clockwise to step through recent changes and undo them, rotate clockwise to reinstate them. Simple and effective. You also have access to an erase tool but thats it – a very clean environment that leaves you free to concentrate on your notes rather than how to use the tool. The video below from FiftyThree highlights the key features.

It’s easy to add a new page within a book and to move back to the home screen, select a new book and cary on sketching. Paper has limited but very clever sharing features. You can share a sketch on Tumblr, Facebook and Twittter or send via e-mail. I was surprised by how limited the options seemed to be – no way to save to image folder for example but you can just take a screenshot and share that way.

The reason it’s clever is how the images are shared, take Twitter for example.

By adding the hashtag #MadeWithPaper it’s easy to click and view the thousands of sketches that are being shared on Twitter and hence generating a lot of buzz about the app. Paper is easier to use with a stylus (sorry Steve!) but it helps if you have a bit of talent.

These are two sketches from Shak, one of the founders of DigitalOutbox, who also has some skills…unlike me.

It’s all positive so far but there are some negatives to be aware of. Firstly there are no brush sizes at all so it can feel a bit clumsy and imprecise especially with the colour tool. There’s also no zoom or layer support so when you look at something like SketchBook Pro which costs £2.99 it can seem expensive. Yes – I’ve just criticised a free app for being expensive.

So why is Paper a pick? The simplicity helps you focus on content rather than the application, and the tools that come with Paper feel right. I’ve created a few screen mock ups in Paper and they look so much better than what I’ve managed so far in the other sketch tools. If you’ve got an iPad Paper is well worth trying, especially if you’ve one of those lovely new retina iPad’s. Happy sketching.

DigitalOutbox Episode 113

DigitalOutbox Episode 113
In this episode the team discuss Game, Racists, Kindle Touch and Paper.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:42 – Game Enters Administration
– Enters administration
– Immediate closure of 277 stores in the UK and Ireland.
– Administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said 2,104 employees would be made redundant this week.
– The remaining 333 stores will stay open as the administrators search for a buyer for the business.
– PwC said that the retailer had suffered from high fixed costs and an ambitious international expansion. “Our priority is to continue trading the business as normal while we continue to pursue a sale,” said one of the administrators, Mike Jervis. “The recent job losses are regrettable, but will place the company in a stronger position while we explore opportunities to conclude a sale.
– PwC also said that all gift cards for Game and Gamestation had been suspended, meaning that customers would not be able to use them to buy merchandise and no cash exchange would be offered.
– http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/game-to-exit-administration-tomorrow-rbs-consortium-wins-race/093563
– Sources close to the negotiations are certain that a deal to save the retailer is incredibly close, with a likely exit from administration as early as tomorrow (Friday March 30th).
– Furthermore, multiple sources have told us that it will be the RBS-led bank consortium – and not GameStop or OpCapita – that will seal the deal.
6:10 – Racist twitter user jailed for 56 days
– A student who admitted posting racially offensive comments on Twitter about footballer Fabrice Muamba has been jailed for 56 days.
– Swansea University student Liam Stacey, 21, from Pontypridd, admitted inciting racial hatred over remarks about the Bolton Wanderers player, who collapsed during a FA Cup tie at Tottenham.
– Stacey broke down in tears as he was led away to begin his jail term.
– A second year biology student at Swansea, Stacey was arrested after his comments on the social networking site were reported by other users.
– A number of people challenged Stacey on Twitter following his first comment, and he responded with a number of offensive posts aimed at other Twitter users.
– Last week the court heard how Stacey posted the offensive comments shortly after the former England Under-21 star collapsed during the FA Cup quarter-final at White Hart Lane on 17 March.
– Magistrates were told police forces across Britain received complaints following the comments.
– Stacey tried to “distance himself” from the tweets by claiming his account had been hacked, the court was told. He later tried to delete his page but was arrested the following day at his student house in Swansea.
– When interviewed by police, Stacey said he had been drinking since lunchtime on Saturday and was drunk when he made the comments.
– Stacey was initially released on bail pending sentence and was ordered not to use Twitter and other social networking sites.
11:06 – Kindle Touch hits the UK
– The Kindle Touch will be available for delivery from 27 April, five months after it went on sale in the US. Unlike in America, there will not be a discounted version with adverts.
– The Touch is being sold for £109 with wi-fi, and £169 with both wi-fi and 3G connectivity, with no monthly fee.
– In the States, the units cost $99 and $149 for the Wi-Fi and 3G editions with adverts, $139 and $189 without adverts
– Still no Kindle Fire!
– What does Bezos do with his billions? Finds Apollo 11 F1 engines and plans to raise then from the Atlantic ocean – they are only 14,000 feet below the surface – http://www.bezosexpeditions.com/engine-recovery.html
15:40 – Harry Potter ebooks finally available
– All seven of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books are now available to download in e-book format from Pottermore, having been initially scheduled for last October.
– The first three can be bought for £4.99 (compared with their paper price of £6.99) and the last four can be bought for £6.99 (compared with their £8.99 printed price). Alternatively the whole lot can be bought as a bundle for £38.65. The titles can be read on e-book devices and platforms including Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s Reader, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Google Play — although iBooks is conspicuously not listed. The audiobooks are more pricey, at £17.99 and £32.99 respectively or £167.34 for the bundle.
– landmark move because you can only buy the books on Pottermore, but can fulfil the orders of those books through the Kindle platform. So although you find a shop front for the books atwww.amazon.co.uk/pottermore, the user is directed through to Pottermore to purchase the e-books, which will then be seamlessly pushed to their Kindle Library. Otherwise the books are available in ePub format, which is compatible with a wide range of readers, including Apple devices.
17:49 – Dot scot on the way
– The UK government has reportedly granted Dot Scot Registry, a not-for-profit company, with approval to apply for .scot, a new internet top-level domain.
– The wannabe registry can now apply to domain name policy oversee ICANN for .scot, paying a $185,000 (£116,970) application fee for the privilege.
– Under ICANN rules, any proposed new gTLD that purports to represent a geographic region needs to get a letter of approval or non-objection from the relevant local government. Dot Scot Registry now has that letter, according to The Scotsman.
19:19 – Friends Reunited Relaunches
– Early social networking pioneer Friends Reunited has been relaunched.
The UK-based network, which began in 2000, now invites users to sign up for its new “memories”-based service.
– The original site was bought by ITV for £175m in 2005, only to be sold for £25.6m four years later to online publishing group Brightsolid
– The site’s owner, Brightsolid, believes a host of professional archive content coupled with users’ own material will help make Friends Reunited the choice of social network for people keen to partake in online nostalgia.
– The site has teamed up with the Press Association and the British Library to allow users to attach old material – including newspaper clippings – to their own “memory box”.
– These boxes can be shared on various other networks online – including Facebook, where users can add a Friends Reunited app to their profile.
– The service is currently free to use – although Mr Kuyl said revenue-generating options were being considered further down the line, including inviting brands to offer their own nostalgic material, such as old cars, to be added to users’ memories.
22:02 – Shitter
– New startup will deliver your tweets on toilet rolls

Picks
Ian
Paper
– a blank slate of paper devoid of settings panels, menus, and adjustable line widths.
– team behind it had an interesting history: a handful of them spent several years at Microsoft, with a good chunk of that time focused on the Courier
– Fountain pen is only tool at startup
– Free app but £6 for 4 tools – Write (ballpoint), Sketch (pencil), Outline (marker), and Color (watercolor paintbrush)
– Simplicity and clear toolbar free UI is really nice. Great for sketching, but here’s the funny. A stylus really helps.
– Undo is really nice – hold two fingers on iPad and rotate anti clockwise – step through additions removing one at a time
– Share – twitter, facebook, tumblr and e-mail

Wind Map
– Lovely visualisation of current wind flows in the US
– Team hope to expand ot other countries if they can find the data feeds they need