November 2008 Archives
The ComicZeal library so far includes ten different titles with varying amounts of each comic. We hope the developer will add more over time. Right now, we're enjoying the available issues of Police Comics, which show the Spirit's and Plastic Man's earliest adventures.
The app remembers your place in each comic you download, so you can pick-up your comics with ease whenever you like. For less than the price of one new comic book, this is the best comic deal around.
With the well-designed WootWatch (available here), we can monitor what's on sale anywhere we go. It even let's us know when there's a woot-off-it which a myriad of helpful and hopeless items are sold off in quick succession-complete with the site's spinning lights.
Woot.com has grown and this app supports all it offers, including the daily t-shirt sale and the daily wine bargain. When you find something you like, you can buy directly through the app. The latest update includes an alert that lets you know when a new item is available.
Have you ever wondered how loud a sound was? Maybe screaming kids, a rock concert, or a plane taking off? Well, wonder no more: just measure it with Decibel ($.99, available here). The app offers both an analog meter, plus a digital meter showing the average, peak, and max levels.
Notebooks are gaining ground on desktops, since more people prefer a portable that they can take to work or a coffee shop, yet smartphones are replacing notebooks, because wouldn't you rather have something you could fit in your pocket?
The problem is that smartphones can't store the same volume of data. That's an opportunity for clever solutions like Egnyte, which offer a desktop experience on your favorite portable.
Egntye is a fantastically simple virtual file server targeted at small business owners. Setting it up takes only a few minutes, and we were impressed with the depth of the features.
Start by surfing to Egnyte.com, where you can sign up for a free 15-day trial.
The service allows for three different types of users: the administrator, power users, and standard users. The administrator has total control over the account. A power user is an employee who can upload and access files from the account.
You need to sign up for at least one power user, and you pay $15 per month for each one. Next are standard users, who are probably people outside your company who need to access certain files for limited times. There's no limit on the number of standard users you can have.
Companies can learn a few lessons from an alleged smartphone incident where a man accidently left his iPhone at a McDonald's, only to find that nude photos of his wife stored on the phone were illegally distributed on the Internet without his consent. He's now suing the restarurant chain, the franchise owner and the store manager for $3 million in damages, according to the AP.
Whatever the outcome of the case, security experts say it's another example of how unauthorized access and distribution of inappropriate or confidential content can ignite corporate brand disasters and data security headaches.
Get the full story here here at InternetNews.com.
Here's what you get with the Google Maps improvements:
In Google Maps, you get street view. After selecting and mapping a location , just tap the little icon and you'll get a picture of the location. Here's a Chop's Lobster Bar on the map (see figure 1) and seen from the street (see figure 2). Besides driving directions, you can also get information on public transportation and schedules and walking time to your destination (see figure 3).
Figure 1
Some other 2.2 improvements:
Podcasts: You can now download podcasts directly from iTunes to your iPhone. No need to go through iTunes and subscribe.
Safari Improvements: Safari has some improvements in its search interface, is said to be more stable and have better performance.
Home Screen Shortcut: Now from any Home screen, pressing the Home button gets you back to your first Home screen.
In addition, Apple says there should be a decrease in dropped calls, ability to turn off/on auto correction in Keyboard settings, enhancements to Mail, and improved sound quality of Visual Voicemail messages.
You can play against the computer (with three different skill levels) or play against an online opponent. The online components are tremendous, as there's a worldwide ranking list and you're automatically paired against someone at the same skill level.
What really sets this game apart, though, and that makes it valuable even to serious pool players, is the physics involved. Balls behave just as they would in the real world, and you can put a little English on your shot (side spin, top spin) just as you would with a real cue.
For pool novices, this app offers a great way to understand the physics behind pool and learn how to cue up shots without embarrassing yourself in a pool hall. Adrenaline Pool Online ($4.99, available here) is both fun and a useful trainer.
iMapMyRun (available here) uses the iPhone's GPS abilities to track your workout, giving you real-time info on how far you've run, how fast, and how long you've been running. It's more accurate than the Nike+ sensor and it lets you synchronize your results to your computer, where you can create a free account on MapMyRun.com.
Once you've got an account, you can go back and review old running sessions, viewing all your older maps and running stats. It's a fantastic way for distance runners to train for future events. The only hitch is that the app needs to be on your screen the entire time you're using it.
If you run to music, that means you need to start your music first, then load iMapMyRun. We found that kind of a drag, since we like to switch playlists while running.
Firmware update 2.2 delivers a host of new features and enhancements, including the addition of street view to Google Maps, the ability to download Podcasts directly over Wi-Fi or 3G, better sound and call stability, improved security and much more.
Apple today released firmware update 2.2 for the iPhone and iPod touch. To get the update, a close to 250MB download (it also includes updates 2.1 and 2.0 for never installed those firmwares), select "Check for Update" after connecting your Apple device to iTunes. Then hit the "Download and Install" option.
While the software upgrade contains a lot of enhancements and new features, it's missing several things users have been craving for sometime. These include the ability to cut and paste, take video, send and receive MMS messages, and use Google Maps to get turn-by-turn directions
Here's a full list of what 2.2 does deliver:
--Google Street View (this apparently isn't available for the iPod touch)
Street View takes you on a virtual walking tour: Navigate street-level photographs of places you've located in Maps.
--Public transit and walking directions
Get walking directions, find public transit schedules, check fares, and estimate your travel time.
--Display address of dropped pins
--Share location via email
Tap the Share Location button to send an email that includes a Google Maps URL
--Resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email
--Improved formatting of wide HTML email
A new search-friendly user interface, better performance, and more stability make Safari even easier to use.
Firmware 2.2 also includes a number of security enhancements. Here you'll find a full list of them.
Judge tosses two of three claims in a prior iPhone suit but rules parties can move forward on compensation quest. Class action suit addresses iPhone's cellular-wireless broadband capablities and how the casing of the smartphone is prone to to hairline cracks. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.
When the little icon on my iPhone told me that there was an update for my Google Mobile App, I didn't realize that the UPDATE waiting for me was so super. As you may have heard, the Google Mobile for the iPhone now includes voice recognition. No need to type a search word or phrase, just launch Google and speak into the iPhone.
When you put the phone up to your ear, the iPhone's motion sensors sense that, and it begins recording. All you need to do is say in a normal voice your search terms, like "Plaza Hotel," "35 degrees Centigrade in Farenheit," or "pictures of the Liberty Bell."
Google searches and displays the results on your iPhone.
We found the voice recognition algorithm to be very accurate, although it sometimes misses on proper names.
The Google Mobile App also does searches based on your location. If you are in New York City or Atlanta and say "Movie show times," the App searches for movie times in that city.
Of course, with the Google Mobile App you can also type in your search using the touch screen keypad and you can access Google Mail and other Google applications through it.
There's even an instructional YouTube video (See below) to show you how to use the application.
This is a must have application for your iPhone.
Be it before or afterwards, a home at Wal-Mart would greatly increase the iPhone's retail presence.
Today you can pick up the iPhone at any one of Apple's over 200 stores, through AT&T's 2,000 retail locations and at around 1,000 Best Buy stores. At first, the iPhone would be rolled out at select Wal-Marts and Sam's Clubs before finding its way to all of Wal-Mart's over 2,500 stores.
When Wal-Mart started hawking the first Google Android-run handset - the T-Mobile G1 - a few weeks ago it did so at a considerable discount over what the carrier was selling for. Perhaps the same might end up being true with the iPhone as well.
[via CNNMoney.com]
Recording sounds on the iPhone has recently become as easy as taking pictures. Get the baby's first sounds, the bar band doing their encore, or add audio to your blog. Recording on an iPhone might even help a reporter on deadline. There are several programs that enable recording available at the iPhone store. We've chosen two, iTalk and iProRecorder, that are simple to use yet allow professional quality recordings.
iTalk by Griffin
This free application (an ad-free version is available for $.99 known as iTalk Premium) is more than a voice recorder. It can record high quality sounds that can be saved for replay on the iPhone or can be imported to your computer using Wi-Fi and drag and drop for further editing, burning to a CD, or e-mailing.
To transfer audio files to your computer you will need to also download on your computer a free program from Griffin. This program, when launched, will detect your iPhone, and once you confirm access on your iPhone the program will allow you to drag and drop audio files directly to your computer.
Three qualities of recording levels are available (Good/Better/Best). The Best level is high quality audio, suitable for broadcast.
iTalk has a nice interface and is compatible with the iPhone, iPhone 3G, or 2nd generation iPod Touch (requires a stereo headset).
iProRecorder by BIAS
This $.99 application also allows you to make high quality recordings. iPro has a beautiful interface and recording and playback is done with a simple one-touch. BIAS (see bottom image) is a well known audio software company and this program is a useful adjunct.
Users simply select a country and all holidays for that area are presented in a list, along with the number of days left until each holiday occurs and a colorful icon for each to make scanning the list simpler. The lists may be customized by adding or deleting holidays.Birthdays
Tap on Birthdays and it automatically scans the contacts for birthdays and pulls them into the Birthdays list. Users may tap on a contact for further details, such as the age they will be, their astrological sign or Chinese Zodiac year, birthstone and full contact info. And Birthdays also serves as a to-do list, enabling users to check-off each item once cards, gifts or greetings have been sent.
The i.TV update also brings links to relevant Wikipedia articles to most show, movie and actor screens.
With a new case/batter combo called the Power Slider Case, Incase promises to more than double the battery life of the iPhone 3G. And, unlike other such solutions we've seen, the Power Slider doesn't appear to completely ruin the aesthetic appeal of the iPhone.
According to Incase, the Power Slider sports an optimized power management system for its Lithium Ion battery to provide a continuous charge to the internal battery of iPhone. When in use, power drains first from Power Slider so that the device's internal battery remains fully charged and is only depleted once the battery of Power Slider has been drained.
Meanwhile, the Power Slider allows users to sync and charge their devices while iPhone 3G is attached, so you don't have to remove the smartphone for these purposes. A five-light LED battery status indicator gauges battery life and denotes sync mode and charging.
Incase plans to ship the Power Slider in time for the holiday season. It'll go for $99.95.
The Google Mobile App for the iPhone now includes speech recognition for searches.
Author: David Needle
Google's investing a lot of time, effort and money into the G1 Android phone initiative to create a wave of advanced mobile devices based on open source code. But the search giant's primary goal is to get more people using its services, so today's planned release for the hottest selling smartphone was no surprise.
The free download, Google Mobile App for iPhone, includes voice recognition features designed to let users simply speak their search requests. A video (See below) introducing the service features Google software engineer Mike LeBeau speaking requests like "Pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge at Sunset" and "How big is a giant squid" and then seeing relevant results on the iPhone's screen.
Let's end the week with a little music (part 1). Besides being an excellent communication and entertainment device, the iPhone is also an ideal teaching tool. One of our favorite learning apps is Mozart ($9.99, available here), which teaches note reading in a few minutes a day.
Mozart makes learning notes into a game, where the notes scroll across the screen and you have to identify them before they reach the left edge. There are plenty of customization options, letting you choose the clef, major or minor key, and instrument (it works for vocalists and violin or guitar players, too).
After only a little time playing, we noticed our ability to read notes getting stronger. This is a perfect teaching tool for anyone who plays music and needs to brush up on the basics.
Let's end the week with a little music (part 2). We're sorry, Shazam, we loved your amazing music ID feature before, but that's before Midomi stole our heart.
Midomi, available here, can do what Shazam does (quickly listen to and identify any song playing), but it does so much more. You can sing or hum to Midomi and it will still identify the song. You can speak or type a line from the song.
The only downside is that you have to remember to bookmark your finds, because Midomi doesn't automatically make a list of tagged songs, as Shazam does. Still, it's the far more useful song identification app, and it's got a permanent place on our iPhone.
The Apple iPhone overtook the Motorola RAZR to become the number-one selling handset purchased by adults in the U.S., according to a new report by market research firm The NDP Group. The RAZR had lead NDP's rankings for the previous 12 quarters.
“The displacement of the RAZR by the iPhone 3G represents a watershed shift in handset design from fashion to fashionable functionality,” said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD. “Four of the five best-selling handsets in the third quarter were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features.”
The RIM Blackberry Curve, LG Rumor and LG enV2 rounded out the top five.
With voice no longer providing the level of income carriers had become accustomed to over the years, operators have increasingly turned to data services, such as messaging and video, to raise average revenue per user (ARPU). It is well known that smartphones earn carriers greater ARPU than voice-centric phones.
The growing popularity of smartphones like the iPhone and BlackBerry show that a growing number of consumers are starting to want, if not demand, their new mobiles support the data-related services the operators are purveying. For instance, NDP reports mobile phones with QWERTY keyboard experienced the greatest year-over-year rise in sales—up to 36 percent of consumers were motivated to buy a phone because of this feature. That's up from a mere 11 percent of consumers during the third quarter of 2007.
Not all consumers are sold on data services, however.
“A growing data divide continues in cellular handsets,” Rubin added. “Those who see the value in wireless Internet access are justifying the investment, whereas voice-centric users have little incentive to upgrade, which is obviously detrimental to operators who seek to sell data plans and media access services to their subscribers.”
The more folks carriers can get to move into the former category the better off their bottom line. Especially in today’s poor economic climate, where the demand for cell phones declined by 15 percent to 32 million units from the same period a year ago.
Last spring, before the release of the iPhone 3g even, M:Metrics reported that iPhoners access the Web through the device's easy-to-use Safari application far more than users of other smartphones do through their browsers.
So while 58 percent of smartphone users connected to the Internet for news and information, a far larger percentage, 85 percent, of iPhone users did the same.. Only 13 percent of standard cell phone users accessed the Web from their mobile handsets, according to the report.
It wasn't just the superiority of Safari that made the iPhone such a much-used conduit to the Web. The mini applications known as Widgets that Apple bundles with the iPhone and AT&T's unlimited plan for data access were important too.
No doubt the launch of the iPhone 3G, with much faster data access, and the iPhone 2.0 software update, with support for third-party applications, and the roll out of the iTunes App Store's have served to make the iPhone platform more Web friendly.
Popular database and forms creation tool for mobile devices nallows you to now track whatever you like with Apple's smartphone.
DDH Software has brought its database and forms software for mobile devices, HanDBase, to the iPhone. Launched for the Palm OS way back in the late nineties, HanDBase is also available for Windows Mobile (Pocket PC and Smartphone) and Symbian (S60 and UIQ) devices.
As with other versions of HanDBase, the iPhone application allows users to create and edit databases on the iPhone and includes custom views, filters, sorting, and advanced and quick searches, among other features. It also comes with a strong level of security and a myriad of user interface and database design enhancements, according to DDH Software.
In addition, DDH says it designed the iPhone version of HanDBase with finger-friendly navigation in mind, enabling users to move between fields and records by swiping left or right on the screen.
You can e-mail records from the iPhone to (or sync them with) the optional Windows version of HanDBase as well. A Mac edition of software is also available, but an iPhone synchronization conduit won't be released until later this quarter.
HanDBase for iPhone is available now in the App Store for $9.99. You can pick up the Windows and Mac editions from DDH directly for the same amount.
See here for more Tech Comics at Datamation.
Harvard law professor takes aim at device makers' restrictive app policies.
Jonathan Zittrain takes aim at what he describes as a closed model of outsourced innovation. A model where companies give a tentative embrace of the developer community, but retain strict control of the content and distribution of the applications they create.
"Steve Jobs made in iPhone 1.0 no apology that Apple would control everything," said Zittrain, noting that the Apple CEO commented at the time that he had no interest in turning the device into a PC, where glitchy software could threaten the core functionality as a phone.
Then, earlier this year, Apple introduced the new iPhone, and with it came a software development kit (SDK).
"This is a fascinating hybrid," Zittrain said. "Steve Jobs ... says there are going to be limitations -- limitations we are now starting to know."
"If you want to write a program for the iPhone and give it to somebody ... you have to be approved as an iPhone programmer and submit it to the App Store and see if they approve it. And then -- and only then -- will it be made available to people who want the software."
Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.
Cell phone giant now commands 38.9 percent of the smartphone market - down from 51.4 percent a year ago - reports Canalys. Meanwhile, Apple's jumped to the number two position with a 17.3 percent share, while RIM now holds 15.2 percent of the market. In total, 40 million smartphones shipped during the third quarter, a 28 percent jump year over year. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.
Battery life for the iPhone, especially for those who use Wi-Fi a lot and 3G, could - to say the least - be better. Thankfully, there's some more help to keep your Apple smartphone up and running longer, the iV from FastMac. While the iV isn't pretty, and it won’t do anything to enhance the inherent elegance of the iPhone, it sure is practical.
The $79.50 external battery charging unit promises to deliver iPhone users with up to 24 hours of talk, 72 hours of audio, 21 hours of video and 750 hours of standby time on a single charge. It can even double as a flash Light and includes a separate USB connector for charging another device, such as a Bluetooth headset. See here to learn more about the iV.
The iPhone's on-screen keyboard is great as far as those things go. But it sure would be nice if Apple allowed you to connect the iPhone to an external typer when you've got a lot of typing to do. Well, it appears a user in Japan has taken matters into his own hands with jailbroken iPhone, which - in the video below - is attached via cable and working with an external keyboard. It's not a full size keyboard, but it works.
[via engadget]
It's unusual music week on the blog, so check out MiniSynth ($1.99, available here) This mini synthesizer has all the features you'd expect on the real instrument. It offers two six-octave oscillators and ultra-retro filters. Use them to evoke sounds from classic rock to electronica, from prog to new wave, just by moving a few sliders.
We're seeing some interesting promotional apps being released for the iPhone, including ones from recording artists Pink and Snow Patrol. This game, available here, is a tie-in with the Disney film Bolt. In it, you're Rhino the hamster, maneuvering through obstacles to get to your favorite TV super dog as fast as possible. Control the hamster ball by tilting your iPhone and make it to the finish line. We just wish they'd update it with a save option.
It's unusual music week on the blog, so add a koto (Japanese harp) to your iPhone or iPod touch. The tone of the notes is crisp, the controls are simple, and even beginners will find it a pleasure to use. iKoto ($.99, available here) includes recording and playback controls, so that you can save one track (only one track) and hear it later.
Ever wish you could fake your way out of a meeting? With Fake Calls, you can. Open Fake Calls, available here, and within seconds or minutes the app will simulate a call. Pretend to take it to get out of your uncomfortable meeting. You can even decline the call, if you've changed your mind.
You can download MobileFiles here at the iTunes App Store.
Quickoffice is in the process of developing a version of its mobile office suite for the as well.
Among the historic aspects of tomorrow's election may be the way voters use their phones to follow the results.
Author: Amy Mayer
Many organizations are offering various options for mobile users, here are some of them:
For breaking news alerts from the New York Times, including major results, text "NEWSALERTS" to 698698. You can even get local results wherever you are. Text "ELECTIONS [your zip code]" to 698698.For text alerts from NBC News text "elex" to 622639.
The AP Mobile Election Results service (mer.ap.org) is supposed to make nationwide election results available to all mobile devices, but on Election Eve we weren't able to open the site. It's probably worth checking, though, as the Associated Press should be well-poised to push national data.
Verizon Wireless customers can use the carrier's V CAST services to watch election results. Users with Mobile TV-capable phones can access live Election Day coverage on the following V CAST Mobile TV channels: NBC2GO, CBS Mobile, ABC News NOW. There will also be clips on V Cast Video in the Election 2008 category. Look for content from the same three TV networks. Also, many local elections offices are offering text update services. Here's one example from Kansas. Visit your hometown's official election agency webssite to see if it's offering something similar.
