Sent From My iPhone
I used to hate getting emails that had that phrase at the end of the email. Not because it was generic and unprofessional. Nope. It was because I didn't have an iPhone [but I desperately wanted one], and that irritating phrase just reminded me that I didn't have one. However, other than making people jealous of your iPhone-ness, it's not the best phrase to have at the end of your email after just your name in a boring font. If you have a business, you'd rather have some information conveying that. And even if you don't have a business, you could at least advertise your email, your blog [if you have one], your social media hot links [And that phrase sounds like fun, eh?], etc.

Well, you're in luck. There's an app for that. Email Signature Lite is a very easy-to-use app and makes your email signature look very cool. Oops, I mean professional. [You know. Like you have it all together?]

Once downloaded, you have 4 main selections: Settings, Insert Signature Into New Email, Copy to Clipboard, and Edit Signature [see photo above left]:

_Edit Signature
This will be the first one you need to select. After you select it, you then select the section where you'd like to add/edit information. In this screen, the app is very intuitive. In EDIT, you can:

• Name the signature profile [Don't put your name here. This is just the name of this signature profile. I named mine "Main" cuz I'm plain vanilla like that.],
• Add an icon [premade or no icon at all]
• Add primary and secondary information [Your name, address, email, message, etc.] 
• Space to add 6 hot links, like your website address, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, RSS feed, just to name a few.

_Insert Signature Into New Email
Selecting this option allows you to create an email within the app using your already existing email interface. The app indicates this is the fastest way to create the email so that's how I have it set up. However, the app says you can change this under Settings.

Copy to Clipboard
This option allows you to copy your complete signature to your clipboard [I know. Duh.] so that you can use a signature for replies in your own Mail app, which is nice because some free email signature apps do not address this issue at all and it's a big gripe of mine. I do a lot more replying on my iPhone than I do composing new emails, and this little feature makes it convenient.

_Settings
Under settings, there are 2 options. You can toggle on and off whether you want a copy of the signature automatically on the clipboard, and you can toggle on and off whether you want to compose a new email inside the app. I have both set to "On". You can also take a tutorial on the app under settings as well.

That's it! Simple pimple.

There is also an Email Signature Pro app for $4.99 with a lot more functionality and customization available. It has the following additional features:

• Multiple signatures
• Text fonts, styles, colors & sizes
  
• Custom banner image and footer text
• Backup & restore features
• Export to desktop
• More hotlinks
• More branding
• Ability to add vCard

Basically, you pay five bucks to have an email signature on steroids. *shrugs* [Email Signature Proids?]

The app is available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and operates on the iOS 3.1.3 or higher and can be downloaded onto your iPhone through the App Store App or in iTunes on your computer. You can also take a look at the Email Signature Lite iTunes Preview page.

And the Android and Windows Smartphones? It's not available on those platforms. I checked in Android Market and Marketplace to see if they had any email signatures in general. Android Market had some that were close. Maybe. And Marketplace for Windows had nothing available when I searched.

_So, do you use an email signature for your Smartphone? If so, which one? Do you like it? Any favorite features? Let me & everyone else know in comments below. Please. [I love comments!]

You can also remove your "Sent from my iPhone". Navigate to your iPhone's Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Signature

And just so you know. I kept the "Sent from my iPhone" signature. It's after my fancy signature to annoy people with my iPhone-ness. And? I do want the email recipient to know that I'm on my iPhone. It's saying, "Please understand why my response is brief. It's not that I don't want to type a long response to whatever it is you said in your dissertation. Oops, I mean, email, and please excuse any typographical errors cuz, Duh, it's a small screen and keyboard and it's hard to edit when you have to scroll so much. And? I have an iPhone."

I bet you didn't know that phrase said all that, did you?

~Caroline

I know. You're probably rolling your eyes right now thinking, "What has Caroline found now?" And that is such a great question! I have found a really cool app that's fun to use and can be helpful in genealogy and family history research. And? It has a 'tude. You know, attitude?

Wikitude is an augmented reality browser, and what does that mean? Another good question. Here's how it's described in the Apple App Store:

    "Wikitude World Browser is a fun, innovative and informative augmented reality (AR) platform allowing you to         discover what’s around you in a completely new way. By using the camera, simply hold up your smartphone and     explore your surroundings. Wikitude will overlay the camera’s display and the objects you look at with additional     interactive content and information - really cool!"

So now you're probably thinking how in the world is this going to help you in your research, right? Well, when you first go into the Wikitude app it will request to know your location, which is key to operating this wonderful little app. Then the home screen, pictured above, features a search box, and a menu of icons that continues to the second page [which you can access by swiping your finger across the screen from right to left]. The menu of icons consists of the following:

• All Worlds
• Around Me
• Sights
• Restaurants
• Cafes
• Pubs
• Events
• ATMs
• Tweets
• Wikipedia
• Panaoramio
• YouTube

And then on the second screen:

• Accommodation
• Wifi Hotspots

Pressing any of the above icons will give you a list of nearby locales and a short description in its category. For example, when I selected "Sights", I received a list of nearby places that were taken from Wikipedia that were labeled as sights. Some listings for other sites will also feature listings from online directories, like Google Directory if it doesn't have a Wikipedia listing. You can then select any of the items listed for the complete Wikipedia or directory listing. However, this does not take you out of the app. For your convenience, you're still in it. Also, by selecting "All Worlds" I was taken to a listing of sites that are location-based like Flickr, Foursquare, and Instagram [just to name a few]. When I selected Instagram, my last Instagram photo was listed which was the one I took of my Flip-Pal. I thought that was kind of cool.

Now if you'll closely take a look at the view in this screenshot, there are few more icons across the top of the screen and from left to right here is what they are and what they do:

• Back - takes you back to the previous screen
• List View - a listing
  
• Map View - maps out your listings in relationship to you
• Camera View - what it looks like throught the 'view finder', so to speak, as well as the interactive content based on your location
• Star - Can favorite the current view and add it to your Home screen icons
  

So, how can this be applied to genealogy and family history research?

Well, if you go back to the Home screen, you can enter keywords into the search box to look for certain types of locales. For example, I searched for the word 'cemetery'. [The light bulb just turned on, didn't it?] Pictured to the right is the screenshot of the List View of all locations found either in a City Search or a Wikipedia listing that are near me, and it gives the distance they are from me. When you select a locale, it will take you to its City Search or Wikipedia entry for more information. [Cool, huh?]

Pictured to the left is the screenshot of the same 'cemetery' search in Map View. You can zoom and select a location, and the name of the cemetery and its distance from you will pop up with a link that will give its City Search or Wikipedia listing.

Selecting the Camera View will give you a view 'through the view finder' as if you were going to take a picture with the interactive overlay as well as a compass of sorts that indicates locales with a gray dot. The screenshot of that view is pictured to the left, and it was taken from inside my office. The view shows you that in the direction I was holding my iPhone, there are 3 cemeteries that are nearby. Each icon shows whether it has a City Search entry or a Wikipedia entry. You can then click on the icon for the listing. The second one from the left is Houston National Cemetery where my Great-Aunt Anne and her husband are buried.

Also, in the Camera View, you can adjust the distance that you want the app to look for locales up to 65.6 miles from you by pressing down on the compass icon in the top left hand corner.

Obviously, if a nearby cemetery does not have a web listing, it will not show up while using the app. However, this is a wonderful app for those who are out tombstone hunting in an unfamiliar area, and are in need of directional assistance.

Other search terms I used were 'library', 'genealogy', 'archive', and 'history'. All of them came back with positive results including local genealogical societies as well as local history spots.The Wikitude app is available for the iPhone and the iPad and it's FREE. [If I had an iPad, I could have given you screenshots from it. Hint. Hint. Santa.] It's also available for the Android [Thanks to Linda McCauley for pointing that out.] and it's also preinstalled on the Porsche P‘9981 BlackBerry Smartphone. [Not the car.]

Now can't you see why they called this app 'Wikitude'? It really is a wiki with an attitude. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it a wiki on steroids, a Wikiroid. Wouldn't you?

Let me know what you think about this app in comments below. Is this app something that you could use in your research? Are there any other search terms or ways to use it that I didn't list up above?

And That's an App Thursday,
~Caroline