TurboTax Business: Intuit Drops the Ball Yet Again

I really wish there was a decent alternative solution for doing multi-proprietor LLC tax filing and K-1 creation to TurboTax because this year I feel like I just wasted over $100 of my LLC's money on this junk software and will probably have to end up either filing by hand or handing off to a tax preparer to do.

The biggest issue is how utterly "glitchy" TurboTax feels this year. Last year's version was smooth enough (not the best experience in the world, but decent enough), but this year I can't even complete my K-1's to distribute to the LLC owners because the application continually hard crashes when filling out the business's information. We're not even talking about getting to the meat of the filing process--this is happening at the very beginning of the process. What adds to this frustration is that Intuit makes getting support difficult. I had to resort to using Twitter to attempt to get any type of help and they still haven't been very responsive or even touched upon the issue encountered.

I realize that the Business version of TurboTax is used by many, many fewer individuals than their other versions, but this doesn't speak well for their entire product line. I had switched from H&R Block's software to TurboTax last year so that I had a uniform experience when doing my business tax filing and personal tax filing, but I may go back to H&R Block for my personal taxes based upon my experience with the Business product.

It's quite baffling to me that Intuit can drop the ball so hard and let their products be so bug-ridden. It's not like they're creating a brand new product. They have an established product and just need to update it each year with the appropriate tax rules and maybe add a feature or two to make it look like they're not getting lazy, but they can't even make a usable product. I wish there was some way I could get get my money back since I most likely won't be able to file my taxes using this piece of garbage and will have to shell out more money to have it done elsewhere.

Snappy5: How the iPhone Camera Should Work

Having a mother who is a professional photographer, it's sort of a given that I would at least be somewhat interested in photography, and I am, but not quite to a level where I need a DSLR and pore over Photoshop to get everything just right. I'm not a fan of setting up the perfect shot or of trying to capture something in just the right way. I don't want to carry a bulky camera everywhere I go. I don't want to do a lot of work in post on shots. I just want to take pictures of things every now and again. 

With the advent of the iPhone and its possession of a quite useful camera (especially in the 4S), I found my perfect platform for snapping pictures whenever I have the chance. The icing on top of the iPhone cake is that there are a plethora of apps that make shooting fun and quirky. I love using Instagram, Hipstamatic, Snapseed, and numerous other apps to get variations on the "normal" shots you'd get from just using the stock iPhone camera app. I find myself taking pictures of random stuff all the time (even my wife has noticed, getting me an iPhoneography book for our anniversary).

Now as much as I love the iPhone and it's camera app, the biggest issue with using the iPhone as a camera is that it takes, at least on my iPhone 4, a bit of time for the app to load. Sometimes it's just long enough for you to miss that candid shot you wanted to get. Even being able to access the camera from the lockscreen in iOS5 didn't solve the problem because the camera app still had to load. I figured I was simply stuck... until I ran across the Snappy5 app. 

The app is relatively simple and makes me wonder why Apple couldn't make their camera app work like it does. Essentially all Snappy5 is, is a replacement for the stock camera app that loads almost instantaneously, be it from the app's icon, the lock screen, or via a gesture you set up in Activator. Now I suppose I should mention that you need to have your phone jailbroken to get this app, but since jailbreaking is so simple nowadays, I can't see why you wouldn't do it. 

This little app I know will make it (and has made it) so much easier for me to grab a quick, candid shot that I would have otherwise missed. It's well worth the two bucks you'll pay for it. The only improvement I hope to see in the future is potentially a way for it to launch other photo apps and do it just as quickly. I'm sure this is not possible, but it would be a hell of a feature. Imagine having Instagram's share interface come up almost instantly. For now, though, I'm just happy my iPhone's camera is now instantly accessible!

My Top iOS Apps

Over at TiPb they've been running through the apps that they use most and it's had me reorganizing my iPhone and iPad apps and thinking about how I actually use both of those devices. I use both almost daily and they both have way too many apps loaded onto them, but when I analyze my app usage, there's usually only a few on each that I regularly use, day in and day out. So, if anyone is interested, here's what I mainly use my iDevices for...

My Top iPhone Apps

1. Hipstamatic
With my mother being a professional photographer, it's a bit of a given that I would at least like photography a little bit. I'm not the type of person to lug around a DSLR with me to get pictures of things, but I like to whip out my iPhone, which is always with me, and take pictures here and there. What Hipstamatic gives me is a combination of interesting classic filters that create unique pictures. The killer feature for me is the randomizer. If you shake your phone before taking a picture, it randomizes the lens, film, and flash combination so you can get something new every time... although I think it prefers a few films over others as they come up a LOT.

2. Netflix
This is how I entertain myself on my bus ride to and from work. Considering we have good 3G coverage in Minneapolis through AT&T, unlike many other cities, it rarely stutters or re-buffers. Occasionally on a few specific spots, probably where I'm being handed off from one tower to another, it will pause, but I'm ok with that knowing I can watch Breaking Bad or Kids in the Hall on my bus ride.

3. Audiogalaxy
This app gives me streaming access to my entire music collection. Sure, lots of people use Google music or Amazon's cloud, but since I have 3/4 of a terrabyte of music on my home machine, it's nice to not have to upload it all to a service (which would take forever). Instead, you have the Audiogalaxy app on your home machine that stores your music and as long as that computer is on and connected to the internet, you can stream your entire library through the Audiogalaxy app.

4. Scrabble
This is my go-to time waster. At any given time I have at least 6 or 7 games going with people. It's  not a perfect app (it takes forever to load and doesn't always load your Facebook friends games right away), but it's the easiest way to play Scrabble against my friends and family who play it on their phones or just on Facebook.

5. Facebook
Let's be honest... everyone uses Facebook now, myself included. There's just no getting around the fact that it is almost an essential communication tool for keeping up with friends, family, and those you just want to keep tabs on.

My Top iPad Apps

1. ComiXology and Comic Zeal
I list these two together as I use them both for reading comics on my iPad. The iPad is the perfect size for reading comics and graphic novels and there's nothing like having an entire long box of comics with you at any given time. Over the last year I've been making the transition from physical comics/graphic novels to digital and with these two apps I'm getting pretty close to not needing hard copies any more... well, except for when I want something to put on the bookshelf.

2. Kindle
Much like I'm doing with my comics, I'm also trying to switch over to reading digitally from dead tree books. The Kindle app makes this very possible, syncing up with the Kindle app on my other devices and on the web so I can pick up reading wherever I left off. The only downside to the iOS Kindle app is you can't buy books in-app; you have to go to the Amazon site to do so. That being said, it's still the best e-reading app I've found.

3. Terra Web Browser
Sure, Safari can get the job done, but Terra has become my favorite browser and since one of the things I use my iPad for is simply browsing the internet, I end up using it a lot. It's relatively zippy, rarely crashes, has a lot of extra features Safari doesn't (text search, unlimited tabs), and is regularly updated.

4. Kingdom Rush
The last two here are games that I've played a lot. This is a great tower defense game that my brother turned me on to. It doesn't do anything 100% new, but the mechanics of the game are so streamlined that it feels like it best captures everything that tower defense games need to do well to be fun.

5. Pinball HD
I love pinball and the iPad is a great toy to play pinball games on. The iPhone is simply too small, but the iPad excels at it. The tables that come with this free app are great, but the other tables you can buy are also phenomenal. I've spent many an hour trying to up a high score, never getting bored.

Turntable.fm - My New Obsession

You may or may not have heard of the up and coming service Turntable.fm recently, but if you haven't I'll start by simply saying, "Check it out!" Essentially, it's a series of chat rooms that have people "spinning" music for their fellow DJs and the audience (chat room participants) to listen to. Anyone can be a DJ and take one of the 5 open slots when they're available in an established room (or create your own for you and your friends), pick songs from a media library (or upload your own), and work with your fellow DJs to create a custom mix for your audience. It's like listening to a music channel as curated and chosen by your friends or people you get to know through the service.

I've spent a lot of time in the Decoy Music Turntable room as a DJ, spinning new hardcore and metalcore for fellow heavy music lovers from Decoy (and some facebook friends). For such an amazing and addicting service, when you think about it, it's really a pretty simple concept. Take a chat room, mash it up with the ability to play music that the group can listen to together, add a voting system to keep from having too many Rick Rolls, and boom--that's Turntable.

There's a number of reasons I see this formula succeeding. First, there's the game aspect of it all. If you get a chance to hop in a DJ slot, especially if there's a decent crowd in the room, you're going to want to play songs the crowd will like for two reasons--first, so you don't get your song lame'd and look like a fool for what you chose to play and, second, so that you can get "points" for having people love what you're playing. As your points accumulate you are allowed access to new avatars which sets you apart from the masses, showing you have more clout than regular users. It's not World of Warcraft, but the "level up" concept is in full effect.

Building on the game aspect is the social aspect. Everyone in a room can chat as well as vote on the songs being played. When you note a song as being "awesome" your avatar starts bobbing along to the music, so fellow people in the room can see what you're digging. And with the chat room mentality you get both the good and the bad that's always been associated with it--a superb social environment to talk about whatever by people who are in the same room because of a shared interest, but also a forum for people to just be dicks if they want. The latter is somewhat kept in check by each room having a moderator that can boot people who misbehave.

Lastly, even if you don't care about playing the game or socializing, Turntable presents a great alternative to Pandora, Last.fm, and other algorithm-driven internet radio. Instead of having a program choosing what songs are similar to what you want to hear, there are a group of people putting together what they think fit a genre or theme or group of people best. Add to this that right now there are no limitations on what songs can be played (remember, you can upload your own music), the variety is, essentially, infinite. Whereas other services are relegated to what's in their catalog, Turntable isn't, and for genres that don't have a lot of variety on internet radio stations, such as dubstep, Turntable has become the go-to place to listen to music.

Assuming the record labels or RIAA don't have the service shut down or it isn't acquired and neutered by a large media company, and if they buff up the rough edges (ie: they need multiple playlist support, mobile apps, non-mp3 file support, and some other small things) Turntable will be a hell of a competitor to other internet radio options. Right now, I've already given up listening to Pandora and Last.fm for my internet radio and go straight to my favorite Turntable rooms.

Spruce Up Your Monitor

Sometimes I wonder if I have some minor OCD tendencies or am slightly ADD. Heck, I probably have a combination of the two. Now isn't that a dynamic duo of dysfunctions? Anyhow, a small but noticeable annoyance I have with my work computer is that I can't stand having the same image as a background for more than like a day. Considering I stare at my monitor for 8-10 hours a day, the need for something new to look at underneath all of my open applications isn't too irrational, is it?

I've usually just switched up what my background is manually from time to time when I saw something new that I thought would be interesting, but ideally I would have liked to have something that did it for me. I found some background switcher programs, but they just cycled through a directory of pictures or images that I had. I would then find myself sick of what was in that directory. I know, I'm hard to please, but like I said I think it's some mild OCD.

Miraculously I have actually found something that completely cures my need for different background images and provides me with new and interesting pictures as often as I want. This magical freeware program is John's Background Switcher. I love it. It's robust, configurable, and works with most photo file sharing sites out there (and has dual monitor support!).

The way I have it set up now, it switches my background once every hour. And it doesn't just switch the background... it has a feature that makes your background look like it's covered with postcards that were sent to you (or polaroids if you'd rather go that route). It's undeniably unique and I am no longer pissed off when I minimze programs, but am instead happy to look at the new pictures that are there that I have it set to grab from Flickr's top 250 photos pool.

Just thought I'd let everyone know about a cool app I found and love. And, no, I haven't been paid to write this. I just wanted to share a great freeware app.

Way Too Many Chances

I don't know why I do it, but I keep giving Audible more chances. They've pissed me off so many times in the past, but I still keep coming back, mainly because I don't have an iPod (so buying audiobooks through iTunes is out) and there aren't any other good resources for legal audiobooks online. I know I can illegally get audiobooks just about anywhere, but I like to actually pay for things I enjoy instead of illegally attaining them.

Why does Audible get another chance? A few reasons actually. The first is that I picked up a 1 GB Sansa m240 on Woot a little while back for $18. My previous mp3 player stopped being recognized by Audible's software after their last upgrade, leaving me out in the cold with no way to listen to the books I purchased. $18 seemed like a low enough price to pay to get at what I've already bought.

This leads me to a side note, however. It only cost me $18 for a 1 gigabyte player, which will hold like 10 audiobooks. Why doesn't Audible simply give out a player for free with a subscription to their service? I know they had promotions in the past that were similar to that, but it was usually "get a free mp3 player or 4 free audiobooks". Most people who already had mp3 players would take the free books, as I did. If the mp3 player was simply a part of the package, it would make so much more sense and Audible would know that users always had a player that could play their software.

The second reason Audible gets another try is the length my bus rides to and from work have grown to. With the 35W bridge gone, my bus route is more traffic packed so it takes me like 35 minutes or sometimes more to get to work and the same to get home. My bus has also gotten way more full, with the bus filled to capacity and having tons of cramped standers jammed in by the time I get downtown. So reading an actual book or playing my PSP is hard to do as cramped as I am. And besides, when I get on going home sometimes I have to stand, so it is simple to just listen to my audiobooks.

The final reason I gave back in is that I was sick of having to split mp3 files and organize them appropriately when I downloaded ripped copies of the audiobooks from Suprnova or Oink. It was just no fun having to do that extra overhead work to listen to books I'd already bought.

So Audible, you get one more shot. Let's hope you don't piss me off again or I may give up on audiobooks altogether.