April 2009 Archives
The No. 1 U.S. carrier may be feeling iPhone envy -- and could be planning to team with Apple for an offering of its own, according to a new report. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com
Quickoffice updated its iPhone application earlier a couple of days ago, only a week or so after the mobile office suite went live for Apple's mobile devices.
You can now e-mail remote or local files without having to download them; mount your iPhone as a wireless drive via Wi-Fi; and drag and drop files between your iPhone device and computer via Wi-Fi. They've also fixed a bug where the shift key acted as a caps-lock key.
The company told us it considers Quickoffice "a 'Live Application' that is constantly evolving." And it looks forward to adding more functionality. Perhaps this will include PowerPoint support.
You see, unlike the versions of QuickOffice for other smartphone platforms, the iPhone edition only supports the creation, editing and reading of Word and Excel documents, not PowerPoint files. It is likely the addition of support for Microsoft's presentation program is high on Quickoffice's agenda for the software.
QuickOffice goes for $19.99 and is available here.
iPhone and iPod touch owners have downloaded the standard WeatherBug app over two million times.
You can now obtain Beta 4 of the third version of the software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone and iPod touch. The SDK is what's allowed developers to create the thousands of applications—over a billion of which have been downloaded—that have helped to make Apple's mobile devices so successful. According to TUAW, SDK 3.0 includes a number of new features, such as "over-the-air PIM synchronization sources (including Google and Yahoo in iTunes, per Joachim), copy and paste in Calculator, continued tethering support, and a basic UI for managing an iTunes store account." There's also a preliminary build of iTunes 8.2.
Unbound Medicine has mobilized the Handbook of Nursing Diagnosis for a number of different smartphone platforms, including the iPhone/iPod touch, RIM BlackBerry, Palm OS and Windows Mobile.
The diagnostic tool is supposed to help nurses quickly identify potential complications, address the special needs of specific-populations, and link clinical situations to a specific diagnosis. A Related Topics feature within each selection allows healthcare professions to consider alternative diagnoses and quickly link to those entries.
The book is published by Wolters Kluwer Health and Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. It goes for $39.95. You can learn more about the guide, including how to purchase it, here.
DDH Software has released a Mac OS X conduit for syncing HanDBase databases stored on iPhone and iPod touch devices. HanDBase, long a popular relational database for many types of mobile devices (e.g. Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, and RIM BlackBerry), was released last fall for Apple's mobile devices. With the new add-on users can finally fully synchronize their databases with their Macs.
When using HanDBase on the iPhone or iPod touch, a feature called Desktop Connect enables a wireless connection between the iPhone and any desktop web browser. Using this connection, users can install databases to and back up databases from their device. But having a conduit available adds many additional capabilities using this same Wi-Fi connection capability.
For instance, with the new Mac HanDBase Plus add-on conduit, all databases stored on the iPhone/iPod touch are mirrored on the desktop automatically when the user initiates a sync. Also, using the HanDBase Desktop, users can make changes to records and these changes are intelligently merged with the changes made on the iPhone. Many synchronization modes are available to fine-tune the way the data is merged for each database with the new Mac OS conduit, according to DDH.
HandBase goes for $9.99 here.The new HanDBase Plus for iPhone add-on (conduit) package is now available at DDHSoftware.com for an introductory price of $14.99. It is normally $24.99.
With FitnessBuilder ($19.99, available here) for the iPhone and iPod touch, iPumpOne aims to make the need for a personal trainer obsolete. That's because the app places a library of exercise and workout images and videos right in the palm of your hand. The software features over 400 complete workouts and a growing collection of over 4,000 exercise images and videos that users can drag and drop to create their own workouts. You can learn more about FitnessBuilder and iPump’s many other iPhone applications here.
Unless Apple wants to switch the type of network it currently uses, its choices for carrier partners is limited.Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.
The advertiser-supported site, launched in March 2008, offers full-length television episodes and feature films from co-founders NBC Universal and Fox as well as cable networks Comedy Central, USA, Bravo FX, Sundance, E!, G4, Versus and Oxygen. Shows typically appear on the site the day after their primetime premiere. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.
You're in a store, find a product you want to purchase and recall seeing a coupon for a discount. If only you would have remembered to bring the coupon along. Now, you can have access to in-store coupons wherever you have your iPhone with a new app called Coupon Sherpa ($1.99, available here). Simply show a cashier the appropriate coupon from the application on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
The cashier then types in the bar code, or scans the coupon if that store has an optical scanner. Over 100 retailers offer coupons in Coupon Sherpa already. These include Finish Line, Zales Jewelers, Coldwater Creek, Gordon's Jewelers, CompUSA, Jackson-Hewitt and Tiger Direct.
Speaking of coupons, my wife was recently in Borders and recalled getting an e-mail coupon from the bookseller when checking out. She'd forgotten to print it out and take it with her to the store however. What she did was pull up the virtual coupon on her iPhone and enlarge the view so the cashier could scan the barcode directly from the iPhone itself—no paper, no coupon, no third-party application.
Griffin recently released new cases for the iPhone 3G, iPod touch 2G and iPod Nano 4G. The iClear Sketch, Elan Form Graphite and the Elan Form. Below are brief descriptions of each.
-The iClear Sketch ($24.99)for iPod nano 4G offers a tough polycarbonate shell with decorative translucent patterns embellishing the sleek look of the iPod nano 4G.
- The Elan Form Graphite ($34.99, see image)is made up of a patterned composite that is bonded to an impact-resistant polycarbonate shell, offering iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2G users two layers of protection.
- The Elan Form ($29.99) with sky blue trim offers a premium black leather outer layer that is bonded to an impact-resistant polycarbonate inner shell that snaps snug around the iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2G.
Despite being on official medical leave, Jobs maintains a tight grip on design and strategy decisions. Despite being on official medical leave, Jobs maintains a tight grip on design and strategy decisions. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.
Keeper ($.99, available here) from Callpod is an application that enables users to quickly, easily and safely store all sensitive passwords, notes, lists and other personal information on their iPhone. The software allows users to search, index and protect information through multi-layer, 28-bit military-grade AES encryption. In addition to storing data on the user's device, Keeper backs it up on their PC or Mac. It also allows users to share protected data between multiple iPhones and even has a self-destruct mode that erases all secret data if a password been entered wrong a certain number of times.
Tabulous was a big winner, as were Facebook, the AIM instant messenger and Google Earth. comScore research into installed base of iPhone applications has some surprises, however. Get the full story here at InternetNews.com.
The less than stellar performance of the iPhone's battery has lead to a booming market in peripherals that greatly extend the period of time between recharges. The latest device to join the club is the iPWR from Wireless Input. This accessory, a 1800mAH battery that snaps onto the bottom of your Apple smartphone, promises to extend standby time for up to 360 hours, music up to 40 hours, video up to 10 hours and talk time up to 7 hours. Not too shabby. In addition to the iPhone 3G, iPWR is compatible with the original iPhone model, the first and second generation iPod touches, the iPod nano (3rd/4th gen), iPod (5th gen video), and iPod classic. It sells for $59.95.
Discovery Guide Map Washington DC (available here) was the first in a series of travel guides for the iPhone from GeoNova Publishing available at the iTunes App Store. Maps are also now available for Chicago, Las Vegas, and New Orleans, with Atlanta, Boston, Manhattan, Orlando, Philadelphia, and San Francisco soon to follow.
The company says the applications, which go for $1.99 each, offer mobile access to interactive downtown maps that are designed for intuitive reference by first-time visitors to major U.S. destinations. So each app features a "Locate Me" button that instantly marks the user's exact location with a red pin on a city map.
These maps also show the locations of all the must-see attractions in town. In addition, every attraction location is hot-linked to GeoNova's Web site to give tourists quick access to more data from their iPhone.
Health and fitness Web site LIVESTRONG.COM has rolled out a new Calorie Tracker application for BlackBerry. This news follows the release of the same app, Calorie Tracker ($2.99, available here), for the iPhone last month.
Likethe version for the iPhone, Calorie Tracker for BlackBerry includes a database of over 525,000 food items and 2,000 fitness activities. Users search and track the foods they consume during the day, and the application automatically tallies their calories and shows fat, carbohydrate and protein intake. In addition, Calorie Tracker allows users to enter the amount and type of exercise they perform to tally the amount of calories burned that day.
Calorie Tracker ($2.99) will be featured on the BlackBerry application carousel on all new RIM smartphones and was the only health application of the 20 premiere partners announced by RIM during the launch of the BlackBerry App World at CTIA last week.
You can learn more about and find out how to download Calorie Tracker for BlackBerry here.
See below for a demo video of Calorie Tracker for BlackBerry.
VeriSign recently introduced a free app that promises to help iPhone users secure their online identities, financial assets and data. Called VIP Access for Mobile (available here), the application turns an iPhone into a dynamic VIP one-time password (OTP) credential that can be used in conjunction with a traditional username and password.
The idea is to better protect online accounts through a second factor of authentication. So, with the new credential, iPhone users strengthen their authentication at the more than forty Web sites that make up the VeriSign VIP Network. These sites include eBay, PayPal and AOL.
A recent survey VeriSign/Synovate research found that 86 percent of consumers prefer sites that enable proactive security measures such as two-factor authentication. Meanwhile, 68 percent said they would like better systems in place to protect their identities, and 41 percent said they would consider new applications offering identity protection, even if that meant extra steps on their part. See video below to catch VIP Access for Mobile in action.
Nintaii (99 cents for a limited time, available here) from Concrete Software is a new puzzle game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. As with many other puzzle games for the iPhone, Nintaii makes use of iPhone's touch screen and accelerometer controls.
The objective of the game is to tumble a rectangular block through each stage and deposit it into the square hole at the end. Switches, road blocks and arrows are located in many levels. Switches are activated by having the block stand on it.
The simple yet challenging app includes 100 levels for players to work through. No wonder the game is named nintai, which means patience, perseverance, or endurance in Japanese.
Nintaii is already very popular with BlackBerry smartphone users. It even won the Best Game of the Year award in the BlackBerry Developers Challenge.
