Beading Apps by iPhone – do you, would you, what would you wish for?

I recently lost my rather antiquated mobile phone and this week I took the plunge and decided to buy an iPhone. It’s temptations included its capacity to sync with my computer address book and calendar, take videos and photos and of course the thousands of Apps (little applications) that can be downloaded to it. This morning I found an App that tells me local tide times locally so I can plan my walk on the beach at low tide time. I always seem to arrive at high tide when walking on the sloping sand at the high tide line is so much harder. Bouyed by my first foray into Apps I decided to see if Apps makers have targeted us beaders in any way. I was surprised to find several Apps for beaders.

• Beading by Deep Powder Software
• Bead Animation Class (Roidus Co., Ltd)
• Bead It! SD (Byron Lo)
• Bead It! (HD) (Bryon Lo).

There are also a growing number of Apps targeting crafters more generally that could just tempt us beaders. Here’s just two I have stumbled upon to date:

• Sketchbook – for sketching creative ideas on the go
• Evernote – for storing PDFs and sites you find on line that have great patterns or inspiration.

Curiosity got the better of me and today I downloaded the Beading App by Deep Powder Software. Its lovely bright yellow icon belied the grey interface that meets you when you enter the App. It is simple to use - you can access information in a couple of ways. You can do a search, touch a letter of the alphabet or scroll through their extensive A-Z of beading and beading related terms then click on any you want to know more about. A new screen with more information pops up.

This new screen is a missed opportunity in my view – it would have been perfect to include pictures in full colour on it (and there is the space to do so)– as it is true that in most cases a picture says so much more than words do. For instance, if you want to remember or know what a French earwire looks like it is much more helpful to see it than to read about it. Similarly, with bead finishes or with gemstones seeing images would make it much easier for me to recognise them when I see them.

The Apps makers say that they are open to suggestions so I’ll be making some to them. If you have used this App and have any suggestions I’d love to hear them.

If you have used any good Apps for beaders I’d also love to know. I’ll review those crafty Apps that I try over the next couple of weeks so stay tuned, or should I say stay ‘apped’!