TechnologyIQ

Waterlogue     I have dabbled in traditional watercolor painting over the years so when I saw this app I knew I had to try it out. Surprisingly, the pictures it creates are some of the best photo-to-painting creations I have seen. I have consistently been amazed with the output and I am still fiddling with all the presets and options available in the program.   Here is one of my favorites so far... As an added benefit, when the app creates the watercolor, it shows the process and it very much like the process of painting real watercolor images. This has made me want to take out my paints again and use the app as a bit of a learning tool.   From the iTunes App Store... See the world like an artist! You don’t need to paint to create beautiful watercolor images—Waterlogue captures the essence of your photos in brilliant, liquid color.   Previously in "On my iPhone/Android…": Notegraphy ArtKick Human: Move 30 minutes or more ActMonitor By Aeonika - Monito...

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Trulia - average home prices, crime and school stats, commute time info and more! Google Maps Mania linked to Trulia in this article from October of last year, but it looks like Trulia has added a significant amount of information since then. Covering a dozen or more major metropolitan areas, Trulia provides great map visualizations of crime stats, average home and rental prices, school rating , commute times and more. It is a great way to explore your neighborhood and city or any city you might be considering as a home. I wish I had such extensive data when we moved to Los Angeles 28 years ago. Instead, we rented our first apartment, sight unseen, in a city neither one of us had ever visited. It could have been disastrous, but thankfully it all worked out for the best. We ended up buying a home about 4 blocks from where we rented that, now long gone, first apartment. Check out Trulia for some great, desktop investigations. You might even learn something you never knew about your ow...

I am a big user of Google Drive for most of my document needs. I don't really need the size, complexity or cost of Microsoft Office and the cloud-based sharing and group editing features of Google Drive make it nearly perfect for my entire family including my college professor wife and high school student son. Today, I noticed the Google Drive had a new menu choice within Documents and Spreadsheets. Add-ons provides access to a selection of third party utility apps that add functionality to your Google Drive documents. This includes diagramming software. thesaurus, label and mail merge capabilities, expanded templates, mind mapping and more. Most add-ons are free to use, although some have paid "Pro" versions for expanded capabilities.   You can find more information on these new Google Drive Add-ons in this post from the Google Drive group. Bring a little something extra to Docs and Sheets with add-ons You use Google Docs and Sheets to get all sorts of stuff done—...

Notegraphy     I am not a big one for sharing quotes and similar materials on my social media sites, but the new app, Notegraphy, looked so nice that I figured I would try it out for some quotes from my own collection of books and tips on various topics. The app works pretty much as designed, although there are a few features I would like to see added. It basically has a series of themes that can be applied to the your text, each of which creates a decorative initial cap and adds some form of artistic display. You can then save these images and share them with your social media accounts.   Here are 2 of my own recent Notegraphy posts:     From the iTunes App Store... Notegraphy is a web and mobile application that rethinks the way you write and share text online through design. With Notegraphy, you can create beautifully formatted layouts in real-time. Be it a single word, or an entire novel, in only three steps – write, style and share – your text will be ‘Always Beau...

Grab Over 500 Free Programming Books from GitHub from Lifehacker.com This story from Lifehacker.com points up just how easy it can be to get an education in today's world. The article links to over 500 free programming ebooks available for download from GitHub -- the home to version control service Git and a social network focused around programming. Github Web Site Programming languages are covered, but also books on algorithms and data structures, databases, data mining, machine learning and much more. Hit the link for a complete index and download links. Whether you are a technology beginner or someone seeking to build their career (or change to a new one) online resources like this a free and easy source of learning materials to help you on your way. Combine these with a mentor or two and you can be learning a lot investing mainly your time. More info on GitHub: What Exactly Is GitHub Anyway? GitHub For Beginners: Don't Get Scared, Get Started GitHub on Wikipedi...