Elegant Technologies

Elegant Words

The Ubiquitous Dictionary

 

This is not your father’s dictionary. Words come from the across the Internet and the server’s dictionary, ensuring you get a broad and modern range of definitions, usages, and contexts. See synonyms, usage samples, and original sources.

Perfect for when you are reading a book – never skip a word just because your paper dictionary is too far away or because your computer-based dictionary would mean too much of an interruption from your main task – reading. Keep it handy while reading in bed, on the bus, on the couch, but not in the tub.

Some Reviews
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“This is much more practical and functional than the other dictionary apps”

“The pairing of the word definition with other online references like Wikipedia is a nice touch.”

Unique Features
- See word popularity. Hint: “Ubiquitous” is #1
- See how many times a word has been looked up by other people.
- Get your definitions from multiple sources, including Wikipedia.
- Touch the word’s source to visit the web site that originally defined the word, such as that word’s Wikipedia page.
- See how many times you have already looked up a given word.

iPhone screenshot: Looking up 'elegant'

iPhone screenshot: the many definitions of 'fear'

iPhone screenshot: one definition of 'fear'

iPhone screenshot: another definition of 'fear'

iPhone screenshot: The Wikipedia(R) entry (if applicable)

Time to Read

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Read every day. Great for everyone both kids, and libiophiles, alike.

Mark your daily reading times with just one tap on this reading timer. You can mark your time as your read. Perfect for daily reading goals that new readers often have in school. This combines empowering your children, like other mark-your-time devices, with the convenience and cool-factor of an iPhone or iPod touch.

For fun: see your lifetime total!

Features:
* Pick your goal
* Big buttons for little fingers
* 3 ways to alarm: Sound (when available), Vibration (when available), and Visual.
* Show when this session started
* Show total elapsed time
* Show time remaining
* Remembers where you left off when returning to the program
* Allows your to keep reading even after meeting your goal to show extra reading
* Big visual marker when meeting your goal for easy display to guardian
* Lots of support options

iPhone screenshot

iPhone screenshot

iPhone screenshot

iPhone screenshot

Elegant Torch

The nightstand companion

Three little apps in one – book light, nightlight, and power nap timer

What is this?
Elegant Torch was built to live next to your bed. You’ll find a booklight, a nightlight, and a timer for taking short naps. Great for both everyday use and when sleeping in unfamiliar rooms.

Yah, but why?
I tend to read in bed. Shortly after buying my seemingly all-powerful iPhone, the batteries in my traditional book light ran out. I was left in the dark. I tried to use a free flashlight app on the iPhone as a substitute book light. It worked almost well enough, except that it kept going into “Sleep” mode, leaving me in the dark. I developed Elegant Torch to be my new bedtime reading buddy.

Book Light
The Book Light simply turns your device into a book light (aka: flashlight, torch, nightlight, reading light etc.) and there’s also a timer so can see how long you’ve been reading. This is pretty much a bright white screen. It is simple and stable. That’s it. Little else. It’s meant for people who read books with a book light. If I turn up the brightness all the way on the device, then the light is slightly brighter than a typical small book light, but not as bright as the larger book lights. I find it particularly useful as a back-up book light. Nice if batteries in your primary book light run down or if traveling without a book light. It also makes a great emergency flashlight (which is surprisingly useful).

Timed Nightlight
The Timed Nightlight dims after a preset number of minutes. You can change its brightness and color. It can be used, for example, when you are at a hotel, or if your light switches are far away from the bed. It can also be used as a little bedside reminder. I often lose track of time when I’m reading a good book in bed. I sometimes look up and see, to my horror, that 3 hours have just slipped by, destroying any chance of a full night’s rest. Starting the Timed Nightlight will give you a clear but quiet indication that it might be time to go to sleep.

Power Nap
The Power Nap is designed to wake you up from a short sleep. It’s the alarm clock for people too busy for alarm clocks. Say you have 30 minutes before your next class or before your next plane. You would love to catch a few winks, but you don’t want to go through the hassle and risk of setting up a traditional alarm clock. The Power Nap has just two controls. The first control sets the time from 1 to 60 minutes, so there is no risk of getting your AM & PMs mixed up. The second control lets you perform a sound check to ease your anxiety that your device might be muted. The timer visually counts down the time remaining for extra feedback and peace of mind.

Time to Eat

Taming the kitchen timer

How much is this meeting costing the company? What about costing society?

I designed TimeToEat to help bring a little calmness to the kitchen. When I cook big meals, I’m typically tracking a several things at once, like the sauce on the stove, the sauce next to it, the dessert in the oven, and the wine chilling in the freezer that I forgot to start chilling properly earlier in the day. TimeToEat has four distinct countdown timers, plus a summary screen to track each one.

Unique Feature
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* Four countdown times in one application.
* Each timer has its own screen.
* A front page gives summary information.
* Navigate to each timer by either tapping the dots at the top, by swiping, or by the right-arrow on the front page.
* Enter a note for each timer, like “Sauce” or “Rice.” This note is also shown on the front page.
* Easy Start, Pause, & Restart, even on the summary page.
* Keep track of when you started a timer.
* Keep track of elapsed time, even if you paused the timer.
* Displays the Completion Time to quickly help you plan other prep times.
* A “Test Your Alarm Button” on every page to help avoid the otherwise real risk of not hearing an alarm on accidentally muted device.

Meeting Timer

Time is Money

How much is this meeting costing the company? What about costing society?

Everyone knows that time is money. And everyone knows that meetings can be a total waste of time. As such, meetings can waste a lot of money. But just just how much? Download this app to find out.

Here’s how it works: Start the app at the beginning of a meeting. Spend a few of those pointless minutes guessing the Hourly Cost Per Attendee. Enter how many people are in the meeting. Then watch the running total grow as the seconds tick by. Instead of doodling on your note pad, you’ll be able to watch your product’s price increase and your bonus pool decrease.

Every meeting you attend will be added to your Lifetime Total, so instead of analysing your colleague’s new facial hair, you’ll be able to think about what you really could have done with those wasted hours. Perhaps you could have improved your own productivity, learned Mandarin, or built a house from scratch.

And every meeting added by every Meeting Timer user will go into a World Wide Loss Total, so instead of resenting about yet another meeting, you can solve the current global financial crisis.

Just don’t show this to your boss, because he or she will probably stop calling pointless meetings. And then you’d have to work!

iPhone screenshot

iPhone screenshot

iPhone screenshot: Changing average charge

iPhone screenshot: for British Pound locale

iPhone screenshot: for Euro locale

Nightlight

Gracefully lighting the night

A simple but effective nightlight that automatically shuts down when its time to sleep. Perfect for when visiting a strange hotel and need a little light before getting into bed. It is elegant.

A simple but effective nightlight that automatically shuts down when its time to sleep. Perfect for when visiting a strange hotel and need a little light before getting into bed. It is elegant.

Features
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* Device stays awake while counting down, then powers down after specified duration.
* One-Touch timer start.
* Set timer for up to one hour.
* Set brightness.
* Set custom colors.
* Works in landscape mode

Happy sleeping,

iPhone screenshot

iPhone screenshot: a different background

iPhone screenshot

iPhone screenshot

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iPhone screenshot

iPad screenshot

iPad screenshot

iPad screenshot

PowerNap

Forty Winks Anywhere

Take a short nap without fear of oversleeping. The power is in its simplicity.

I designed the PowerNap alarm clock specifically to let you take short naps away from home. In the library, for example, I don’t want to bother my fellow readers by needlessly setting off an alarm when a simple vibration may have been adequate, so PowerNap vibrates for 25 seconds before sounding an audible alarm. While waiting in the VIP lounge at the airport, you don’t want to accidently have the wrong AM or PM setting, so PowerNap limits your times from between one and 60 minutes. Lastly, you don’t want to miss the alarm because of a muted phone, so PowerNap provides a “Test Alarm” button for testing volume. It’s great while waiting for class, while waiting for a plane, or while just resting your eyes before the next big thing. PowerNap lets you catch 40 winks anywhere.

Get some rest,
JJ

iPhone Screenshot

iPhone Screenshot: Waiting to start

iPhone screenshot: Showing the silent option

iPhone screenshot: Mid Nap

iPhone screenshot: some backgrounds

iPad screenshot

iPad screenshot: Picking images on the iPad

iPad screenshot: Rain background (my backyard)

iPad screenshot: Settings

Wallet Zero

zero clutter, zero worries, convenient savings

Take all of those barcoded keychain cards and wallet card, and make them disappear into your phone.

Tired of clunky plastic tags on your key chains? Sick of digging through hoards of plastic cards in your wallet? So were we.

WalletZero is designed to organize and store your favorite membership or loyalty information on your iPhone – neatly arranged and just a touch away.

To get started, select your program and enter in your barcode number. A scan-worthy barcode will be reproduced and stored on your iPhone for easy use again and again. No barcode? We also store major airlines and hotel membership info – so you can keep it all in one spot.
In the News & Blogosphere: Infinite Wallet Space for Loyalty Cards

Roadmap
One of the most needed features is the ability to create a custom card and barcode for stores not in the list. Although there are some provisions for that today, richer, more robust wizard would be useful. I’m starting to explore options and might use some barcode generating software from Softmatic to supplement the existing server based system. The Softmatic software is linkware, so, here we go: Barcode Software provided by Softmatic

iPhone screenshot

iPhone screenshot

iPhone screenshot

iPhone screenshot

iPhone screenshot

Survey Size

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How many surveys should you send?

A handy tool to calculate the proper sample survey size.  Useful for anyone conducting a survey and you want to know how many completed surveys you’ll need in order to statistically trust your results.  This is a common tool among market researchers, customer satisfaction advocates, and survey junkies.

Survey Size on the iPhone

Visit the web version