Apps becoming a new tech revolution | Bangkok Post: tech

SLOAN RANGER

The phrase "killer app" is from the old, long-gone 20th century, but it probably ought to be revived. The spreadsheet and the word processor is what got the world going on the technology revolution, but it is the compact software on a phone or tablet that is driving the tech age now.

Covert Chirp is all about tweeting without the boss knowing, so it is simple, and comes complete with jargon notes that look like an iPhone notepad.

Microsoft announced it's pulling out of the big Las Vegas show called CES, where pretty well all the good apps are starting out. Irony alert: Microsoft is all software, all the time. But it cannot (so it will not try to) keep up with the new generation of geeks. Here is a tiny bit of what will wow you this year.

- Snapkeys is getting a bit of press, and I'm not entirely clear why. It is the gazillionth keyboard which will finally let you do away with the 100-year-old, totally decrepit and inefficient and ... stupid Qwerty keyboard.

But Snapkeys is not like all those other Qwerty killers. Snapkeys 2i ("i" for intelligent, geddit?) is (are you sitting down? are you ready?) an app! So it must be better than something based on that old touchy-feely keyboard. Right?

All you have to do is to start learning how to type all over again. Snapkeys divides letters into four buttons, based on what they look like. For example F, J and Y go together and M, H and X go together, and L, U and Z are part of a third series and O, P and R are on the fourth. Clear?

You tap the button with your first letter on it and Snapkeys predicts which word you want, maybe which sentence. Clear? And once you've mastered the whole thing, you make Snapkeys into an invisible keyboard and you reclaim screen room. Isn't that great?

If making the ‘‘final cut’’ of a video ever gets easier than the one tap of Magisto, let us know.

And Snapkeys wants to embed all this on your car's steering wheel so you can text while driving, isn't that greater?

Maybe it is. I'm not sure why rearranging the keyboard you've invested your time and brain into learning is great, but if you are clear and it's great, step right up. For now you have to go through http://snapkeys.com/ to get the app, available for Android and iOS.

Speaking of taking away the sheer labour of life today, there's Vlingo and its Virtual Assistant for TV, coming later this year. It is a voice assistant that obeys your command, and will interface from your phone or pad directly to your TV. You can tell it to change channels and finally your life will be free of the back-breaking task of clicking the remote.

But seriously, folks.

- Magisto is severely cutting-edge, smart software as in "artificial intelligence". The bad news is that it only works on iOS stuff, and the worse news is that it is so wonderful that some people will simply have to throw away expensive phones and switch to Apple to get Magisto. It's that stunning.

If you use your iPhone or iPad (or, heck, your iPod Touch) to shoot videos, you really have to have to try this app.

You have a raw video. You click or tap one icon, one time. That's all, really. Magisto takes your video and makes it... if not exactly a professional work of art, something darned close to it. It adds transitions, it cuts the stuff you don't want in the video, and then it adds the music.

When it finishes, it offers to help you to share the video with friends via Facebook, Twitter and so on.

Oh, okay, I lied a bit. Before you make that single editing tap, you have to tell Magisto what kind of music you like. The editing is done on Magisto's servers, so you get to wait a while for the magic, but don't be impatient; it's worth it. And don't try it with a 5-second video, either; the longer the better, but certainly hand Magisto a video of at least one minute, preferably longer.

If you do little video (like me), Magisto is still an incredible piece of software, because it shows you the sort of thing we can expect just a bit down the road _ apps with a fair amount of real, artificial intelligence to make our lives deliciously simpler.

"Real artificial". Who would have thought that would be popular?

If you don't have an iOS device, tell your Sugar Daddy to get you one. Today. If you are still learning to plead and cajole, or if you are an Appleless guy, find a friend who has an iPhone or iPad and get her to try out Magisto so you can watch.

Get Magisto for iOS at goo.gl/hDwl0. Note that you have to register to use the app.

Speaking of iPhones and sharing. You know the drill. You're in a meeting, a colleague or the boss says something really stup.... really notable, and you just have to tweet it. But how can you?

- Covert Chirp gets the job done.

It looks like a note-taking app, in fact it looks like the native iOS Notes app. Not only that, it looks like iOS Notes with all sorts of written gobbledygook that your boss won't understand (neither will you) but she will think you're working ever so hard.

So if elegance is your thing in tweeting, forget it. But if getting that tweet out under pressure and right in front of the boss, Covert Chirp is a bird in the hand. People will think you're taking notes, but your hordes of Twitter followers will be reading your wit and wisdom.

Check out this free app on iTunes at goo.gl/NFMRG.

Email: wandasloan@gmail.com