This little tweak turns Backpack into a must-have productivity app for iPhone and iPod touch

We gotta hand it to Justin Michael for creating a cut-and-paste code snippet that turns Backpack into a must-have app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Adding value to Backpack is not an easy thing to do because its creators, 37signals, have already thought of almost everything to make its collaboration and productivity tool very useful. However, they overlooked users who want to access Backpack from mobile Safari, and that’s where Justin’s iBackpack comes in. You simply paste a snippet of code into a Backpack divider to create a new layout that is optimized for the iPhone and iPod touch. Like Backpack, the code snippet is also free. And if you aren’t already familiar with the award-winning Backpack, go sign up for a free account and give it test drive on your desktop web browser. If you like it as much as we do, drop in the iBackpack tweak and you’re good to go on mobile Safari.

iBackpack is one of those “I can’t believe 37signals didn’t think of it already” features that is destined to be built right into Backpack, eventually. Without this tweak, Backpack pages do render on the iPhone and iPod touch without breaking, but the layout does require you to do a lot of zooming and pinching to use it. With iBackpack enabled, the application is much more usable for the touch interface. Text more readable, buttons are larger, and the menus and links are all more accessible.

Here at Touchtip we use Backpack as a collaboration and productivity tool to share files, organized ideas, and keep track of action items. Several months ago, 37signals added a set of new features to Backpack that turned it into a home run for us. Backpack pages have been traditionally private, but now we have the ability to share pages with friends, family, and co-workers. We can also get updates via email and SMS that alert us when someone changes or edits a page.

iBackpack is mostly a CSS change and the code is distributed under a Creative Commons license. Justin Michael encourages developers to improve on his code but requests that you provide credit and a link back to his iBackpack page. The CSS is hosted on his server which keeps the snippet you add to Backpack nice and compact. Thanks, Justin, for creating this handy add-on to an already great product!

Sign up for Backpack at the link below. Then go to the iBackpack page to get the code snippet to drop into your Backpack pages. And Grettir Asmundarson from tinypineapple.com has created a small Backpack icon you can use on your springboard for one-tap access to your Backpack account. Follow the link below to read instructions on adding the icon to your iPhone or iPod touch.

Get Backpack now
www.backpackit.com

Tweak your Backpack for iPhone and iPod touch
http://violetpixel.com/ibp

Add a Backpack icon to your home screen
http://forum.37signals.com/backpack/forums/19/topics/5175