A simple concept and yet a discipline not easily mastered...

URGENT is the thing you are eager and anxious to do next.

IMPORTANT is that which you know needs to be done next!

Nurture that which is important... Urgent will fend for herself! :-)

Steve Lomas
Founder, CEO, Idea Mechanic
MojoMediaPros, Inc.

I had the chance to host a meeting today, using MeetingBurner. My buddy Chipp Walters had mentioned it to me. It was free to sign up, so I thought I would give it a try. I must say, I was VERY impressed! 

We're launching a paid service model soon!
We're excited to announce that in early 2012, we will be launching our paid service model. But don't worry - we are going to continue offering a free account level for new users. More importantly, we are going to grandfather all of our beta users (that's you) into a free package for life, to thank you all for your support during our testing.

Introduction

Introduction
One of my favorite things about the iPhone is the quality of the camera, and it's about to get even better with the iPhone 4s. I love experimenting with the various photography apps available from the App store. As you can see in Figure 1, I have a number of them. 

One app that I have found to be a bit frustrating, is Hipstamatic (Figure 2). Don't get me wrong, it's plenty cool, with its many interchangeable lenses, film types, colored strobes and filters. But that's just it: There are so many options it's pretty much impossible to remember what settings to use to repeat your favorite results. Or, at least, so I thought. 

Turns out Hipstamatic has a built in feature that, when combined with the strategy I'm about to share, can help you reference and manage your favorite settings, so you can get predictable results, every time. 

 

First, The Strategy...

You need to create a set of Reference images. Pick a simple subject matter (a still life is ideal), and shoot multiple images usint the Hipstamatic app. Each image should have a unique combination of lens, film type, strobe and filter pack.

Don't worry about keeping track of the photo settings; Hipstamatic automatically records all these settings as metadata. As for the number of reference images, the more the merrier!

Once you have a set of reference images, it's time to put these images to work for you...

From the camera back screen, (Figure 3) locate the picture icon in the lower left corner of the screen. 

Clicking this icon (Figure 4), will open a gallery of "Recent Prints"; i.e., photos previously shot from within the Hipstamatic app.

Locate your series of reference images. You can see mine in Figure 5.

Clicking on any of your reference images will open an information screen for that image (Figure 6).

Scroll down towards the bottom of the list, until you see the menu item, "Match Settings" (Figure 7). Click "Match Settings" to instantly restore all the required settings to match the look of your chosen reference image.

Once I discovered this feature, Hipstamatic went from being a little used "novelty" photo app, to a serious tool in my image creation arsenal.

Let me know if you find this tip helpful.

Happy image making!

 

Steve Lomas is an interactive media veteran, designer, entrepreneur and idea mechanic. He is the founder of MojoMediaPros.

So, yesterday was the the day... The day I referenced back in March...The day the Apple faithful have dreaded for some time...

Steve Jobs died yesterday, October 5, 2011.

1955-2011... I can't help thinking it could be me. We were the same age.

I haven't felt this way, since the murder of John Lennon. A feeling of tremendous loss. And while Jobs wasn't shot by a crazed gunman, that is little consolation. Ironically, both men were linked by the name, "Apple"...

Much has been said about Jobs' passion and all the cool technology he created. I have nothing to add, except to say, "Thank you!"

I had the good fortune of being present, onsite for many Steve Jobs keynotes. He always made it fun.

I also had the opportunity to meet him once. I was introduced by a mutual acquaintance, a former Apple employee. We had stopped at a little Palo Alto coffee shop, to grab some breakfast on our way to a meeting. Turns out, it was Steve's favorite morning spot, just blocks from his house. The guy I was with, said, "Oh, there's Steve. Would you like to meet him?" (This was shortly after Pixar's IPO -- it was Pixar, not Apple, that first made Jobs a billionaire.) And there he was, sitting at a little table by a window, minding his own business, reading the paper, and enjoying his coffee. What I remember most, was how Steve greeted my associate: warmly asking about his wife and children by name. It had been years since they had worked together.

Jobs was infamous for guarding his privacy; rarely speaking about himself and his personal life.That's why I think this video link to his 2005 Stanford University commencement address is a fitting memorial. He titled it, "How to Live Before You Die".

In it, he speaks of embracing mortality as a springboard to life.

Rest in peace, Steve.

This post is for anyone with lots of apps on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. who is having a hard time keeping track of them...

Background
Recently a friend of mine mentioned how he hates Apple's IOS navigation model of flipping through page after page of icons. I replied that I didn't have any trouble finding apps on my IOS devices. I have most of my apps organized into folders and everything is on one of two two pages. So, my friend, decided to put me to the test. "Do you have a webpage screen grabbing app on your iPad?", he asked. "I don't recall," I replied, "Let's see..." One swipe, one click, and three seconds later, "Yes: Webshot. It's in my utilities folder." 

"Wow! That's impressive", says my friend. He then went on to share that the real problem, was getting his head around the task of organizing hundreds of apps into folders. It just seemed like an endless time sink...

Sound familiar? Well I have a strategy for performing this task that makes it easy to organize your IOS screen life.

Get Organized!
Step by Step Folder Management

1) On your iPhone or iPad, navigate to your last page of icons. Click and hold on any icon, to enter edit mode (wiggling icons).

2) Drag all your apps off the lower tool bar and onto the last page, including the apple apps. If your last page is full, go to the next page.

3) With and empty tool bar navigate back to the first page (Home) -- pressing the round physical button will take you there directly.

4) Now reviewing the icons on your home page, drag any two similar icons onto each other; this will create a folder. For example: if your home page included Facebook, a Twitter client and the LinkedIn app, you could drag the Twitter app onto the Facebook app, which will create a folder called "Social". You can rename it if you like. Then drag the LinkedIn app onto the Social folder. This will result in three icons inthe single folder named, "Social". Repeat this process, creating folders for any other like categories, on the page.

5) Drag the folders you created from your home screen onto the empty tool bar. The iPhone will accommodate four; the iPad, six.

6) Now, with folders in tow, navigate to all the other pages (screens) of application icons, dragging appropriate apps into the folders on the toolbar.

7) When you get to the last page, and you have grabbed all the apps that fit the folders on your tool bar, drag these folders off the toolbar, and repeat the process.

This is a really easy way to organize your apps. The big idea here, is bringing the folders to the apps, instead of trying to drag the apps from screen to screen in search of folders -- you'll likely go mad, doing that!

Once you have everything organized by folder, you can use the toolbar to relocate your folders to whatever screen you desire. Most people prefer certain, "heavy use apps", to be free standing. My home page is a mixture of both icons and folders, and as I have already shared, all my apps fit on two screens!

IOS Folder Capacity
On the iPhone, you are allowed a maximum of eight screens; each screen can accommodate 16 folders or icons, plus the ubiquitous toolbar which can hold a combination of four icons or folders.Each folder can house a maximum of 12 apps. If every slot is dedicated to a folder, that means the iPhone has a maximum capacity of 1584 apps, or until you run out of memory.

8 pages x 16 folders x 12 apps/folder + 4 potential toolbar folders x 12 apps each = 1584 apps

On the iPad, you are allowed a maximum of 11 screens; each screen can accommodate 20 folders or icons, plus the toolbar which can hold a combination of six additiional icons or folders. Each folder can house a maximum of 20 apps. If every slot is dedicated to a folder, that means the iPad has a  maximum capacity of 4520 apps, or until you run out of memory.

11 pages x 20 folders x 20 apps/folder + 6 potential toolbar folders x 20 apps each = 4520 apps

Folder Names 
Obviously, you can name your folders any way you chose, but here is a list of potential folder names that may be useful:

Apple Apps Social Business Productivity Entertainment Shopping News Travel Reference

Graphics Drawing Apps Paint Apps Photography Note-takers Utilities Bookmarks Games Kids

One last tip, to find an app gone AWOL...
Navigate to the the home screen and enter the find mode, by either swiping to the right or by pressing the round physical button at the bottom of your screen. Once on the find screen, type in the name of the app you are looking for. It won't take you to the app, but it will confirm it's presence and you can launch it, which is probably why you were looking for it in the first place. :-)

Now go forth and organize! 

Steve Lomas is an interactive media veteran, designer, entrepreneur and idea mechanic. He is the founder of MojoMediaPros, and CyberIsland Studios.