font friday... what the font...

What The Font is an iPhone app from myfonts.com. And it is free and you get it through iTunes. Myfonts.com is a great company that has sold my fonts for 9+ years. What The Font is an app that is on their website and it where I always start when trying to figure out what a font is. And now there is an app so you can do it on the fly using your iPhone.

I thought the reviews were mixed but that may just be that people aren't really familiar with the app. I've used it online with good results and had equally good ones on my iPhone. And maybe people don't understand that there are tens of thousands of fonts. So the fact that there is an app like this at all amazes me. In the old pre internet days you did this kind of research by looking through books or hunting down the designer and begging them to tell you what the font was.

First you take a photo of the font in question. You crop it by tracing around it with your finger. Take a good picture with as much contrast as possible. Have no extraneous details in it. The app then decides what the letters are. If it thinks a I is a 1 you correct it in the box to the right.

Eventually it gives you suggestions. Some good, some less good. I find that has to do with how much of the type you can include in your photo. I almost always can find what I am looking for. But there is always the possibility that the font you are looking for is not in digital form. So there are reasons why this tool may not work. But when I compare it to the years of searching through books or asking other designers I think it is kind of amazing.

chapter a day on npr...

I am a huge fan of National Public Radio. You can listen to it on the radio, computer or I often listen to it on my iPhone using both of these apps. They are free. I plug my iPhone into a Yamaha Portable Dock at my desk. (If you are interested see link on right.)

At 12:30 I enjoy foraging for lunch and being read to. It must be a carry over from my childhood. Plus when you work from home you need routines. This kind of anchors my day.

Chapter a Day^® is heard daily at 12:30pm and 11:00pm on the Ideas Network stations of Wisconsin Public Radio

The five most recent chapters are available for RealAudio on-demand listening on the Chapter a Day^® Webcasting page.

In September 1927, Harold B. McCarty pulled a book from his briefcase to unknowingly begin one of the longest-running radio programs in history. Harold McCarty's book led to another... and another, and another. Today Karl Schmidt, Jim Fleming, and other readers continue the tradition as they read a chapter from a great book each day. The five most recent chapters are available online on the Chapter a Day webcasting page.

My only disappointment is that I can't go back and listen to the shows I miss without downloading some older software that WPR uses. It's called Real Audio. My guess is that is probably just works automatically on a PC but not a Mac as we use iTunes. I should figure this out as they have archives of others things that could be fun to listen to as I work.

vogue knitting iPhone app

If you knit and have an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad you should check into this. It is only $3.99 for all this organization.

This app is a complete digital organizing, tracking and planning app for the on-the-go knitter. Keep all of your project notes, multiple row counters, needle and crochet hook inventories, yarn stash and swatch info with you when you're out knitting or buying supplies at the local yarn store. Never buy duplicate needles again. Also look up knitting terms and get stitching help, browse a stitch library, keep track of your craft books, even calculate how many skeins to get when substituting yarn!

I can't wait to find time to enter all my needles. And I will also start entering any new yarn I buy. I think this will be a great tool.

(Thanks Laurie!)

hipstamatic camera for the iPhone

We spend a lot of time in the car this weekend. I usually knit and we listen to a mystery on tape. I got tired of knitting and got out my iPhone. If you have an iPhone you are never bored. I remembered I wanted to spend more time with the hipstamatic app. This app brings back the look, feel, and fun of plastic toy cameras. You get the look of the past with instant gratification of now. As we drove along I downloaded new 'lenses', 'film' and 'flashes'. Quite fun. Here are some of my test shots.

Obviously there is a lot more that I can do with this app. Especially if I am not in the car take pictures as we drive 70mph. If you like to take pictures and have an iPhone check this out.

iPhone users behaving badly...

I am embarrassed by our iPhone behavior over Thanksgiving.

We went to Rochester to our friend's Mike and Pam for Thanksgiving. I have an iPhone, John has an iPhone and Mike has an iPhone. We behaved like total geeks. Wednesday evening after a lovely dinner we all sat in the living room chatting. Talk turns to our iPhones and what 3rd party applications we each have. Poor Pam sat there iPhoneless, totally left out of the conversation. We were obnoxious, like little kids on Christmas morning gleeful with our new toys.

Starting with that night and for the next 2 days anytime anyone had a question one of the guys would pull out his iPhone and look up the answer. At Thanksgiving dinner I asked Mike's Mom if Mike's Dad's name OB was short for Obediah, she said no it was short for Obed and that came from the Bible, the Book of Ruth. That was when John announced that he had 2, yes 2 bibles on his iPhone.

I guess you can't take us anywhere.

In our defense for anyone who does not have an iPhone an iPhone is really a small computer, camera, calculator, calendar, GPS, iPod, you can check stocks and email and yes it is a phone. It may also be a cult. Just kidding, sort of.

And the 3rd party apps add functionality to your phone. I can also:
-look words up in a dictionary using WeDict
-keep track of the distance I've walked in Trailguru
-keep track of rows when knitting using StitchMinder
-turn my iPhone into a flashlight with myLite
-find restaurants by locations nearest to me using UrbanSpoon
-do sudoku with EnjoySudokiDaily
-play pac man with PacMAN Lite
-count calories with LIVESTRONG
-upload photos with Facebook
-find WIFI hot spots with WIFI finder
-get detailed weather info with The Weather Channel
-get TV listings where ever I am with i.TV.

The sad thing is if we were in the same situation again we would probably behave the same. We can't seem to help ourselves.

Sorry Pam.

We got iPhones!

This is probably not the big deal to everyone as it is to me. A year ago I wanted an iPhone sooooooooooo bad. But we lived in an area that did not have AT&T. They do now but still no iPhone service. Anyway a perk of living here is that we can have them. We both got them which is nice. We had been limping along on just one cell phone waiting for my contract to end. I then had to buy a book on how to use the phone and am slowing working my way through it. But I know I am going to love having this. Really it is a small computer. If I wanted I could blog from it, it has GPS, internet, email, camera, blah, blah, blah.

Funny thing... twice since we have been here we have asked someone for a phone book. And both times we have been met with blank stares by the twenty somethings. Both times they directed us to computers to look up the place we were trying to find. I guess my iPhone will also be my phone book.

Yesterday my brother asked me if I am happy. Yes I am happy, very happy.