Work

GoodReader for iPad gets even better

GoodReader? They should call it GreatReader! OK, pardon the lame joke, but what is arguably the best document viewer currently available for the iPad just got better.

The app already excels at bringing all kinds of files to your iPad: Office and iWork documents, PDFs, text files, HTML pages, photos, music, and videos.

It does this using any number of connectivity options. You can set up a temporary Wi-Fi connection to your PC, browse a Web site or specific URL, or pull files from just about any online source: mail and FTP servers, Box.net, Dropbox, Google Docs, iDisk, and … Read more

Boeing's Phantom Ray to fly in December

Boeing will put its Phantom Ray flying wing into the air before the end of the year.

The aerospace giant says that the unmanned aerial vehicle, unveiled at Boeing's St. Louis facility on Monday, is on track to make its first flight in December. The Phantom Ray will be a testbed for unspecified "advanced technologies," and in a press release Monday, Boeing rattled off an array of potential missions for the aircraft, from the now standard UAV tasks of recon and surveillance to aerial refueling, electronic attack, and the menacingly vague "strike." (A separate Boeing feature … Read more

For superhero types, a $15,000 bulletproof watch

While Wonder Woman's bracelets can deflect bullets, for a mere $15,000 you can get a device that not only does the same, but can tell time, too. The Tread 1 by Los Angeles-based Devon Works is a unique timepiece that's described as "space-aged and bulletproof haute horology for the wired generation."

Exactly how Space Age is this watch? Instead of quartz crystals and gears, the Thread 1 comprises four belts that are only 2/1,000 of an inch thick turned by an individual microstep electric motor. To ensure accuracy, an optical sensor tracks the … Read more

Field Agent for iPhone pays you to do chores

Getting paid to do small tasks has worked out well for Amazon and its Mechanical Turk service. And a new iPhone app called Field Agent is attempting to get similar results using Apple's iPhone.

The service, which is free to use, distributes small chores through a free iPhone app. As the task doer, you can see what jobs are the closest, or just the highest paying. In my test with it, all of these were pricing surveys that required venturing to a local Wal-Mart store to find out the price of bottle of mouthwash. It's not always like … Read more

Fax the Word

Windows' built-in fax tool often doesn't integrate seamlessly with Microsoft's Word, which is usually part of the Office productivity suite. That's where Fax 4 Word Addon 2.6.2 from Addins4Office can help. As its name suggests, it's a Word add-in that both streamlines and expands your capability to fax a wide range of documents to numerous recipients. You can send personalized documents to specific recipients, a capability that turns Windows' basic fax feature into an excellent direct-marketing tool.

Fax 4 Word installs a new toolbar on Word; its look depends on which edition of Office … Read more

The last Word on PDFs

Business relies on PDFs, but the software can be complex and expensive, so there's a strong market for affordable, standalone PDF utilities that simplify specific tasks like document conversion. Peernet's ArcPDF is an example. It's a basic but easy-to-use tool that converts PDF files to Microsoft Word or Rich Text files, one at a time or in batches. You don't need Word or any Adobe software to use it, though.

The program opens with a PDF-based Quick Start Guide and a nag screen that tracks the free trial. ArcPDF's dialog interface has a styled border … Read more

iWork on the iPad is a great way to work

Of the many apps available on iPad release day--and the continuing flood of new additions coming in as developers get their apps primed for the new device--a few key apps came straight from Apple. As reported when the iPad was initially announced, Apple has created iPad versions of its popular iWork productivity suite, including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps--each of which is available for $9.99 at the iTunes App Store.

We've had a chance to get a close look at each of the iWork apps and have found them to be extremely useful on the new platform. Obviously, … Read more

Presentations on the go

Keynote for iPad lets you create presentations using only a touch screen, your content, and a huge number of ways to present your ideas. Like the other iWork for iPad apps, Apple has made it easy to get started using Keynote with a Getting Started presentation that shows you how to use each of the program's features.

The touch screen interface is very intuitive, with slide navigation on the left side of the interface, and close-ups of the slides in your main working area. In the left navigation you can add, delete, duplicate or reorder slides all with a … Read more

Pages is easy on the iPad

Pages for iPad may not be as sophisticated as other desktop word processing apps, but it packs plenty of punch when you just want a way to produce nice looking documents on the go. After only a few minutes playing around with the controls, we were able to create documents with stylized text, imported images, tables, and graphs, and make formatting changes on the fly, all using the touch-screen keyboard. The program comes with several common templates to start from including standard letters, letters with photos, resume layouts, project reports, and many more. With Apple's keyboard dock connected, Pages … Read more