A common struggle in having both an iPhone and a Mac is in exchanging information between the two devices. Many times, I’ll find something great while browsing on my Mac, only to have to email it to myself to read it on my Mac. Alternately, I’ve often found wanting to copy something I’m working on on my Mac to the iPhone’s clipboard, or vice versa. Even having to deal with the clipboard limitations on the iPhone (only one thing can be copied at a time) can be taxing. Thankfully, TapBots has a solution: PasteBot for iPhone and iPad.
What is PasteBot?
Pastebot is an intelligent clipboard manager for iPhone, boasting feature above and beyond those natively present in either iOS or Mac OS X. Pastebot’s aim is to make it easier to transfer information back and forth between an iPhone or iPod Touch and a Mac. It also beefs up the capabilities of the built-in clipboard manager by allowing multiple clipboard entries, and allowing you to categorize your clipboard entries (either text or images) into categories and folders, this also serving as a miniature database for clipboard entries (and other notes)
How Does It Work?
PasteBot is extremely easy to use. Additionally, upon the first launch of PasteBot, you are presented with a simple 5-step introduction and tutorial that glosses over the main features of PasteBot with instructions on how to make them work. The tutorial is useful, but PasteBot is simple enough to use that I think most people could easily figure it out on their own.
The Interface
As you can see fro, the above screen shots (taken from an iPhone 4, so other versions may differ slightly), Pastebot’s interface is both appealing and intuitive. By default, Pastebot is set up with one clipboard and one folder. When you copy something to iPhone’s clipboard, just launch TapBots, and that content is automatically added to the clipboard folder in PasteBot. From there, it can be organized, edited, and then processed with a number of included filters. You can also save images to your camera roll, or email text or images to yourself or another contact right from within the app.
Filters
In my opinion, the Filters feature in PasteBot is one of it’s most useful. It includes options to edit and transform both test and images. In the first of thee screenshots above, you can see the available filter options for images. Many of these filters contain further refinements once you start working with them. This makes it easy to “repair” a copied image before sending it to friends, family, or an employer. The second and third screenshots show the available filters for text, which, as you can see, are numerous. However, the filters really come into handy when coupled with the next feature, that really wraps all of this together: PasteBot Sync.
PasteBot Sync
PasteBot Sync for Mac is really the tie that binds all of this together, and actually makes most of the features truly useful. It’s a free download, and it’s easy to set up and pair with your iPhone. Once you’ve done this, you gain the ability to actively paste content from your iPhone to your Mac. The applications of this are apparent: Say you are working on a website, and while away from your computer, find some HTML code that could really add to your project. You copy it to the clipboard and launch PasteBot. When you return home, you launch your code editor, and paste the code you found right into your project.
I have been using this program extensively – it’s an easy way to handle the information on your iPhone, and I’ve found it replacing Apple’s built-in Notes program on many occasions – it serves a similar purpose while adding additional functionality. Needless to say, I have really enjoyed reviewing PasteBot, and find it to be one of the most useful iPhone apps I have ever had. Period.
Some High Points
Pastebot is inexpensive, easy to use, very rich in useful features, and is backed by a company with excellent support. In my experience, they are extremely fast to answer questions or concerns that you email to them. PasteBot was quick to update the resolution of their app and enhance it for iPhone 4,0, so it can now handle multitasking and other included features.
Room for Improvement
Although I really loved PasteBot, there is no perfect app. With that in mind, there are a few areas in which I feel that PasteBot could use some improvement.
First is an issue with PasteBot Sync. Currently, it is only able to function over WiFi. This can be a disadvantage for travelers, or individuals that, due to having 3G devices in their home, do not have WiFi. I would think it useful for TapBots to add cable connectivity or bluetooth capabilities to this app – in my opinion, it would greatly enhance it’s usefulness.
Next is a concern that I have regarding PasteBot’s ability to truly multitask: Although it does support the quick-starting, place-saving features of IOS 4, the program lacks true multitasking, I would think it a useful addition to allow PasteBot to automatically store clipboard data WITHOUT having to launch the app each and every time. I can, however, see where others might disagree with me on this – I just find that it would add a great amount of inconvenience to my usage of the app specifically.
Finally, I await the day when TapBots enhances and improves their desktop client to include a similar set of enhancements for OS X as it does for the iPhone. Although there is an ability to sync Mac clipboard content straight to PasteBot for iPhone, I see potential to have a Mac software client that mirrors the database found on your iPhone. Even though it already provides excellent value for the money in my opinion, I must conclusively state that there are areas in which TapBots could be stronger.
Conclusion
Although TapBots is a very strong and useful app, with many powerful features, and available at low cost, there is room for improvement. However, I would also not that it is one of the best-built iPhone apps I have ever used, an excellent value for the money, and completely unrivaled in terms of features and actual usability. For these reasons, we strongly recommend TapBots, as we only expect it to improve in the future, and award it a 4.5 out of 5. For more information, or to purchase PasteBot, visit TapBots on the web.
Related Posts
- Review: Clipboard Evolved
- Push Gmail is Here!
- Review: CameraBag Desktop
- Review: 1Password (iPhone)
- Announcement: 32 Reviews in 32 Days
Categories: Mac Apps, TheMacFeed Reviews:, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps
