TagNotate: Day 3

Three days in, and 1100 downloads later, it's time to celebrate. TagNotate is super easy to use: Simply download, use, and review on the Mac App Store. Doesn't get much easier than that. Seriously, though, we need all the reviews we can get. Spread the word: Rooftops, social media, whatever it takes! It's still free.

Am currently in Barcelona en route from Australia to San Sebastian. Not only is it a great place to celebrate, it's also a great place to recuperate after the 30 hours of traveling from the southern hemisphere... (actually, recuperation hardly needed. A gin and tonic did the trick!).

Tagnotate for Mac. Out now!

Yep... we've finally released Version 1.0 of Tagnotate for OS X. It's free on the Mac App Store for the first month - 400+ downloads just yesterday! Ideal for annotating PDFs and, uniquely, tagging those annotations so that you can use tags to collect all your annotations across all your documents in a single place. We've even got a short video introduction:



It's actually easier to use than it is to write a review of it on the Mac App Store. Which is a crying shame because that's what I'd really like everyone to do. Please? Pretty please?

Long time no write...

I can't bear to look at when I last posted to my blog. A year? 8 months? More? Less? It's hard to explain why, when life is so very good here in my new home (Connecticut, USA), the combination of moving house, job, continent, family, office, currency, mortgage, culture, can be so exhausting, time-consuming, and yet at the end of it all, so satisfying. Sacrifices had to be made, and one of them, was my online presence here (wherever "here" is). If I can, I intend to make up for the missing months with a more regular presence. If for no other reason than that I owe it to my past, and to my future, to maintain a record of why coming here is, as the saying goes, better than sliced bread (not that I can eat the stuff, but at least I remember what it was like!).

So... stay tuned. Oh, and download TagNotate on the App Store. Never mind why. Just do it! It's free. And write a review if you can/want. I'd appreciate it. The desktop version is coming out just as soon as we can figure out a workaround to a bug that Apple have yet to fix.

Finally - a rundown of major events in the past year: I'm a year older. Can't get much more major than that... And UConn have agreed to found the Connecticut Institute for Brain and Cognitive Science. Apparently, I'm its Director. But were it not for the vision of my colleagues at UConn, this would not (and could not) have happened. Other news: My apple watch has yet to arrive, my new piano will likely beat it to the front door, and if I don't get consumed by Lyme disease-harboring ticks beforehand, my next academic publication is going to be my best ever! (I continue to believe that the life of an academic cannot get any better if every couple of years or so one can publish something about which one can say that).

Still to come: why I think UK academia has much to learn from (some) US academia, why STOP signs oddly work (uh-oh... it's about time I got a US driving license), and why I love my personal trainer... yes - I do have a personal trainer: She's worth every penny/cent/dollar, and were it not for the fact that my 91 yr-old father got a trainer, I might never have appreciated the merits of this particular form of torture.

Until next time.

Boston Globe sees 85-page Harvard report into Hauser's misconduct

You can read the Boston Globe's report into this here. They got hold of the report under the Freedom of Information Act. One interesting tidbit from the Globe article: "The committee said it carefully considered Hauser’s allegation that people in his laboratory conspired against him, due to academic rivalry and disgruntlement, but did not find evidence to support the idea." So he dumped on his colleagues (presumably junior colleagues as otherwise they would have their own labs and wouldn't be in his). It doesn't get any worse than that.

Guerilla marketing at the Apple Store

All 4 iMacs are pointing at www.tagnotate.com. Sales have actually increased since I started doing this! (Am not convinced these guerrilla tactics are the cause, though!) If only I could change that poster at the back...

And here is an actual representative review:

Most innovative PDF annotation tool on the market, its unprecedented ! ★★★★★
by Jozsef - Version 1.2 - Apr 28, 2014

Having tags for annotations offers a way to organize your annotations and to connect the dots between bits of informations in a way that is not possible to do by any other PDF annotation app. I've been using GoodReader for all my PDF annotations but having tags for annotations in TagNotate convinced me to switch to TagNotate as my main PDF reader and annotation tool, its just so much more powerful way to organize and process information. TagNotate is a must have app for any serious learner / note taker. Enjoy the power of tags!

We're still hoping someone will write a review of TagNotate on one of the big review sites. Please spread the word!

 Tagnotate – Innovation in Annotation ™

Giveaway: Tag your annotations for free!

TagNotate – the ONLY app that allows you to tag annotations across your PDFs, and the ONLY app that I have ever developed – got several (5-star!) reviews across the UK, US, and German app stores, but when you go find the app on the app store, the stars are dimmed out, and you get this:

We have not received enough ratings to display an average for the current version of this application.

Apple require a critical mass of ratings before it displays an average rating. No one seems to know what that critical mass is. So... we need reviews. Honest reviews. Though to be as honest as those reviews, I'd be happy even with dishonest reviews! Actually, we don't even need reviews. Just ratings.

So here are some promo codes that will allow you to download the app for free (it's just like paying for the app - you get updates when they come out, etc. Just paste the code into where it says Redeem on the App Store. You'll save yourself $2.99). We don't get to see which promo codes have been used, just that some number have been used. So I'll post more if it looks like they get used up. Or, if you find that none of the codes work, just email info@tagnotate.com and say you saw this on my blog. There is some legal stuff that I have to post, from Apple, but I'll put it in very tiny print...

Tagnotate – Innovation in Annotation ™

EP4TJYEKYEHF

4TJ3R69KPHLJ

JLKM334KLK3E

XRJEKH3XRF7P

HEX674M9XFT3

Thank you! And do please write a review or click the stars to rate it! Not that I'm begging... but let's face it: Flappy Birds was rubbish as a PDF reader, and you certainly couldn't tag your annotations with it... but if necessary, I will rename the app Flappy Tags...

Codes expire on 22nd April 2014 and is redeemable only on the iTunes Store. Requires an iTunes account, subject to prior acceptance of license and usage terms. To open an account you must be above the age of 13. Compatible software and hardware, and internet access (fees may apply) required. Not for resale. Full terms apply; see www.apple.com/legal/itunes/ww/. For more information, see www.apple.com/support/. This app is provided to you by Tim and Gerry Inc.

TagNotate 1.2 waiting for approval!

It's been a hectic time:

On the domestic front, my father and I are each moving house (the two overlap to the extent that I've been helping sort through the layers of family possessions which, rather like geological structures across time, get put down gradually over an extended period, with each new layer of things covering up the previous layer). While planning my own move, I'm also planning the house into which I shall move - it's being built right this minute... er... well... no... not unless they're working through the night out there in the sub-zero temperatures of Connecticut. I had no idea that choosing appliances for the kitchen is so painful, or that 15% of refrigerators break, or that the phrases "contemporary staircase" and "made in Connecticut" do not co-occur on Google. Or anywhere else.

As exciting as all this is, I find it hard not to extol the virtues of that other big 'thing' in my life just now: TagNotate. Version 1.2 is with Apple waiting for approval before it can go live on the App Store. It's hugely improved. And we have a new marketing tagline:

Among the changes - iOS 7 look-and-feel, and importing of files and folders in zip archives. I used it recently for a grant panel that I had to prepare for, and it took me less than half the usual time it takes me to read, annotate, summarise, and review each grant. It's such a shame that I can't review it myself on the app store! So if anyone's reading this... please download and review it! Better still, tweet about it, or post about it on your own blog! And once you've done that, you could even consider using it...

Other major changes in my life: Cognition has an Editor-in-Chief-Elect who will replace me from Jan 1st 2015. I daren't look at how many manuscripts I've made decisions on during my time on the journal. I think that by the time I leave it could be around 4,500. Which reminds me: I'd best get back to working on #4269...

Subliminal advertisement:

Buy it. Download it. Review it. 

Annotate your PDFs. Tag your annot... nah... just buy it, and review it.