Holiday giving

Help for the homeless and for gift purchasers

December 8, 2011 – 10:18 am

Through December 31 of this year, I will be contributing any proceeds from Amazon links on this page or donations made via PayPal (see Donate button to the right) to a local Good Neighbor Homeless Shelter. So I’m digressing from discussing all things AppleScript or iOS to recommend some gifts.

Electronics

Every iPhone or iPad user needs more than one sync cable. What a terribly, unromantic gift, right? But although this stocking stuffer may not be appreciated originally, the gift of a 10-foot sync cable
will just keep on giving. Why 10 feet (3 meters)? Think of the number of times you’ve seen an iPhone user straining to make a call while tethered to a 4-foot sync cable and wall outlet. Or how difficult it is sometimes to find a nearby outlet in a hotel room. Or how we can leave the iPad in particular in awkward locations (on the floor) when recharging. No, this cable is not the same quality as Apple’s but it is good enough, and at a much lower price. It wraps into a surprising small bundle for inclusion in a bag.

More to come…

Senior Care

I eventually plan to start a separate blog based on my experience in caring for my 81-year-old father. But here I must share a great device for helping him to get in and out of  the car, the Handy Bar:

This is very portable, latching into the slot on any car door. It is a tremendous help for a senior (or anyone with a disability) in both lowering down into a car or especially getting out of one. Not exactly gift-giving material? Well, think of how hard it is to find something your parents or grandparents really need.

More to come…

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Keystrokes

Life intervenes…

October 15, 2011 – 12:11 pm

A few users have asked about the status of Keystrokes for iPad, which will include a QWERTY keyboard and other features. This version has been long delayed not only due to my day job, but taking over care for my 81-year-old father. Life has intervened for me in a big way in 2011. I’ve always been accustomed to meeting deadlines, but this year has been very different. I have no regrets about a decision to place family first.

Although I can make no promises, I have added a Paypal Donate button to this site for those wishing to contribute to my iPad efforts, or those wanting to show appreciation for some free AppleScripts I’ve made available through a variety of venues, or free consulting advice I’ve provided via e-mail and other forms of communication.

I know many are wondering about the need for an enhanced keyboard on the iPad with Siri surely slated to come to a future iPad. My answer is that no matter how accurate the dictation function, writers still need a better way to edit text, and the cursor key functionality and quick access to extended characters as demonstrated in Keystrokes Lite is important.

I may look next at working on Keystrokes Pro so anyone can create a custom keyboard within the app, include users in languages other than English. But as I said, I can make no promises until we find out what the “new normal” is in my family’s life.

Thanks for your patience, and any donations, no matter how small, would be appreciated.

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Keystrokes

Keystrokes Lite featured as New & Noteworthy

November 17, 2010 – 3:23 pm

The app store today added Keystrokes Lite as New & Noteworthy under the Productivity category. Many thanks to Apple for this recognition.

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Keystrokes

Keystrokes Lite for iPad released!

November 7, 2010 – 7:22 pm

Keystrokes Lite for the iPad was released November 14! Many thanks to the app store review staff. Keystrokes Lite was submitted a week ago, and I was notified Sunday night that it was under review. A few hours later, it was released. It does demonstrate that these people work at all hours to make apps available, even when I’m sure traffic is high with developers submitting OS4.2 apps now.

For more information about Keystrokes Lite, I suggest you visit the following pages:

Keystrokes Lite

FAQs

Open Letter to Apple

Keystrokes for iPad

Again, many thanks to all the people who helped me along the way. Now I must get back to my day job, and then later continue work on Keystrokes and Keystrokes Pro.

—Ray

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