QuickScroll is now available in Cydia. QuickScroll is an application that allows you to quickly scroll in a page. We did a pre-release review of this application a few days ago… you can see it HERE.

The app is pretty easy to use. Once installed, you hold one finger on the page and then triple tap with another finger. This will bring up the box that displays where you are on the page and allows the ability to quickly scroll to another section of the page (by dragging the green box). QuickScroll also allows scrolling in PDF’s:

1. In a PDF file, triple tap on anywhere (hold one finger and triple tap the other to avoid resizing).
2. A dialog will appear. Enter the page number and press “Go” to jump to that page.
3. Press “Scroller” to scroll around.

You can view the full User Manual HERE.

The only issue I have found with this application is that you have to hold your finger on a spot on the page that is not “clickable” and then triple tap in a another spot that is not “clickable.” This can prove to be a challenge on some pages! You can get QuickScroll via the BigBoss source.

ScreenShots

First off, let me preface this review by saying that I am an organization freak. I spend more than enough of my day clearing my email inbox, keeping my calendar straight, and creating and checking off my list of to-do items. I feel like I have a pretty tight system in place: Outlook for personal information management (PIM) at home, and Gmail for on the road. Google Calendar on the road and a nice OTA sync with the iPhone (thanks Google!). I just switched from Remember the Milk to Toodledo and recently purchased ToDo to keep things in sync on the iPhone. However, when Organizer came up on the review docket, I decided to give it a try.

Overview
Organizer’s screen looks something straight out of a desk planner that I used to have prior to using electronic PIM devices (ah, memories of my first Palm Pilot, or better yet, my Casio clamshell). A long tap on the iPhone’s screen allows you to input text that you can then manipulate (font, size, color) and place wherever you want on the screen. Changing the bullet point to a checkbox alters the item to a task, and options include a nice cut/paste feature, searchable entries, use of emoji, and inclusion of a landscape view upon rotation of the iPhone.

Keeping a Diary
The look of Organizer is appealing, at least to this reviewer. I like the idea of having one app where I can see my schedule, to-do list, random notes, and other drawings all on one screen. With a recent update, the application’s badge shows the number of to-do tasks remaining for the day, and I found this to be a nice touch. Being able to cut/paste and move items around made it very easy to change appointments instead of having to open, edit, and re-save them as you would in a traditional calendar app. The novelty of Organizer is refreshing, and had me considering whether I could use this app on a daily basis.

Getting Things Done, a lot of them.
I was quite frustrated with Organizer at times, and reading the app store reviews, it appears that I was not alone. First, I knew that there were options to change the background color and include holidays, but I could not figure out how to do this for the longest time. It then occurred to me to check the settings from the home screen, and sure enough, there were the missing options. Of course, this makes sense, and I believe it is what developers are supposed to do, but still, it seems that apps find a way around this and I guess I’m just used to being able to access an options menu directly from the application. Next, I had a hard time figuring out how to make a to-do item. After trial and error, I learned that tapping on the bullet point cycles through several options, one of them being a checkbox. Tedious? Absolutely. Lastly, it just seems a bit cumbersome to use this app. This is probably because I’ve grown so accustomed to using my apps of choice for my organization, but still, this app seems to make me more frustrated at times rather than more organized.

Conclusion
Again, I will freely admit that I am definitely on the side of supreme organization and it is because of this that I cannot recommend this app for me at this time. I want my calendar and to-do list to be constantly up to date, and for this, I use Google Calendar, Toodledo, and iPhone apps that will easily sync with these programs. Perhaps, a simpler system could use Organizer as its sole application, and who knows, my life might even benefit from a shift to a simpler method. Unfortunately, I found that while Organizer offered a bit more simplicity, and it certainly offered an aesthetically pleasing appearance, I did not find it any easier to use, and when ease of use decreases, my ease of living also goes down. At $6.99, I’d recommend Organizer for those who don’t already have a calendar/to-do list system in place and will use their iPhone/iPod as the only method. For others, I’d suggest staying with your current method, at least until future updates bring Organizer more functionality.

Below are screenshots of all the LockScreen, Notes and System font options that come stock with the FontSwap 1.0b application. The first screenshot will show the title of the font highlighted in blue…the screenshots following that are in that font. This can get a little confusing in the System Font screenshots. Just remember…blue highlight then screenshots of the font.

Screenshots:

Well, it seems that FontSwap has made it’s way to firmware 2.x. A different icon, a much different user interface but overall, the same idea. The application opens to the main menu where you will find four options; Dialer Fonts, LockClock Fonts, Notes Fonts and System Fonts. The Dialer Fonts will change the font of your keypad when you dial a phone number. The LockClock Fonts will change the font of the clock on your lock screen. The Notes Fonts will change the font within your Notes application and the System Fonts change basically everything else. The system font includes your icon labels, pop-up font, font in all your menus, font within applications (ex. Settings, WinterBoard)….basically all other font on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

From the main menu, you can select any of the four options (Dialer Fonts, LockClock Fonts, Notes Fonts or System Fonts) to see what fonts are available for each option. Once you are on the list of fonts, you can tap the font title to select it. Once selected, you will get a pop-up with one of the following options.

For the Dialer Fonts you will have the options to Install & Relaunch Phone, Install Only or Cancel.
For the LockClock Fonts you will have the options to Install & Respring iPhone, Install Only or Cancel. For the Notes Fonts you will have the option to Installer & Launch Notes, Install Only or Cancel and for the System Fonts you will have the options to Installer & Respring iPhone, Install & Relaunch FontSwap or Cancel.

If you are changing more than one of your fonts you can select the Install option however, when you select the last font you will want to select the Install and Respring option. If you are only changing one font…be sure to select the Install and Respring option. Basically you will always want to respring your iPhone when you are ready to leave the FontSwap application.

Once your iPhone or iPod Touch has resprung, you will see the new fonts! Overall, this application works very nicely. I had no issues with crashing or messing up my iPhone. I did have an issue installing the application. I ended up having to restart my iPhone and then install the app. Before I restarted my iPhone…it would crash half way through installing. I also found that the one font option for the dialer font does not work or at least I can’t see a difference in the font.

Once thing I would love to see in this application is a preview option. The developer did say that the Install & Relaunch FontSwap option in the System Fonts is basically a way to preview the font. But, if you are going to respring your iPhone it is just as easy to see the new font on your iPhone as it is to see it in the FontSwap application. I would like to see a preview option within the actual FontSwap application. Below are some screenshots.

Screenshots:

Search is an application that allows you to search for keywords in your Mail, SMS, Notes, Contacts and even on the web. When you open Search, you will notice a lower menu bar with the options; Mail, SMS, Notes, Contacts and Web. At the top of the screen is a Search bar. You can select any of the options in the lower menu bar and then use the search bar to search within that application. The thing that I like about this application is that once it has found an entry you can then select it to see the full Email, SMS message, Note, Contact etc. The Web option will search Google keeping you in the application instead of directing you to Safari so…that is also nice.


I did find that the Search is not extremely thorough. When searching in my SMS, I searched for the word “Sorry”, knowing that I was looking for a some specific text messages. It brought up three other text messages but, none of the ones that I had just look at in my SMS. Also, I searched for the keyword “Advertising” in my email and was greeted with one email when we have had a ton of emails lately with the word advertising in them. So, the search works decently well but is definitly not complete. I would also love to see more usability within the application. Like the ability to reply to an email from the app or respond to a text message. You are able to call a contact via the Contacts option which is a nice feature.

Overall, if you are looking for a quick way to search your email, SMS, notes or contacts you might want to check out this application.

WritingPad is an application by ShapeWriter that allows you to create Notes by using a “revolutionary text input technology that enables you to enter text into the iPhone by tracing word shapes rather than typing letters.” So, what exactly does that mean? Well, when you open WritingPad, you will be greeted with the main page. On this page you will see a few default notes explaining the application and how it works including; the basics on how to use the application, how to use the capitalization feature, what to do in the case of double letters and how to add new words to the dictionary. Tap the + icon in the upper right corner to start a new note. You will notice that the note will have the Date and Time at the top and a QWERTY keyboard at the bottom of the screen. Now for the fun part.

To enter a word, do not type the individual letters of the words instead, drag your finger to each letter. For example if you would like to type Train, start on the “t” then drag your finger to the “r”, “a”, “i” and “n” (without taking your finger off the keyboard). You will see a blue line being drawn on the keyboard as you drag your finger. Once you are on the “n” you can release and it will add the word Train to your note above. To “type” your next word, just beginning drawing that word…WrittingPad will automatically add a space after your previous word. When you draw a word it will bring up alternative words in the gray bar just above the keyboard. That way, if the word you wanted does not show up in the note it is most likely one of the options in the gray bar and you can just tap the word in the gray bar to replace it with the word in your note.

If the word you would like to type has a double letter (for example, book, application…) only draw one of the letters and WrittingPad will automatically add the other letter into the word. Also, you can change the capitalization of a word by selecting the Case option on the keyboard after you you have drawn the word. It will rotate between a few capitalization options. Lets say you type tea…selecting Case will change it between Tea, TEA and tea. You can also add a word to the WrittingPad dictionary. If you would like to add a word, type in the word using the letters (not by drawing the word) and hit the Space Bar. WrittingPad will then give you a prompt in the gray bar asking if you would like that word added. It add the word just tap on the gray bar. If you select the Menu option on the keyboard you also have the option to change the keyboard between QUERTY or ATOMIK.

Once you are finished writing your note, select Done in the upper right corner. This will get rid of the keyboard and give you a lower menu bar with the options; Delete, Email and New. If you select Delete it will delete that note. If you select Email it will open an email with the first few words of your Note in the subject and then the entire note in the body of the email. It will also automatically add your own email address in the CC/BCC address line of the email. The New option will start a new note. To get back to the main notes list, select Cover in the upper left corner. Your new note will automatically be added to the main list.

I do have a small wish list for this application. I would love to see it work in landscape mode, the ability to import a note from your stock Notes application (if possible) and the remember feature does not work…at least I couldn’t get it to work. So, that definitely needs to be fixed!! Overall, I have found this application to be very accurate. Not only is it fun to draw your words, after a little practice, it seems to be a lot faster!! Typing is so old school! I personally really like this application…it is definitely one I will be keeping around for a while. Now if only we could implement it into all the keyboards on the iPhone!