Review – Findaproperty iPhone App

Since I was planning another possible relocation, this time from London to Brighton it seemed perfect timing that the findaproperty popped into the iTunes app store.

For a property app that searches a database of listings this app has a few nice touches that even eBay could learn from. The functionality and usability is well thought out and 15 screen shots and hints when you first launch the app means you are soon aware of the features. The findaproperty app has the usual search functions you would expect and makes use of your current location. The home screen adheres to Apples development concept of keeping things simple and supplies just 4 buttons along the bottom for new search, saved searches, recent searches and your account settings which leads me to the first of the nice touches. The app allows you to quickly sign up for an online account and syncs your searches and saved searches, recognising that users more and more like their online activity and how they access the Internet to lead how things function rather than design and development being led by the device. The other little extra that stood out was the ability to swipe through the listings while in the listing view. By this I mean that there is no need to hit back, go back to the listings, scroll and then tap the next house.

While in listing view the map button quickly loads up a google maps and the properties are annotated with pins which is very nice if location is a key criteria to your search.

The listing view is slick and if you are browsing on wireless the images are quick to load allowing you to quickly assess the property. The listings are not unnecessarily scrollable with links or buttons to further information and contacts rather than cramming all the info into one page.

One thing I would have liked to see and this merely reflects upon my search. I very much like on the website that in the listing view I can see the distance to nearest train station. As a commuter this info would effect whether I even look at the listing or not. However the map view allows you to make this assessment to.

Check out the App on the Findaproperty website.

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February 9, 2010 | glennmward | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Review – Sony Dream Machine ICF-CL75IP iPhone alarm clock radio with 7 inch display

This Christmas I asked Santa for a new clock radio with an iPhone dock built in. My old one was perfectly alright but since it was built for the iPod it no longer charged my phone which had become quite annoying. My eldest sister rose to the challenge and being partial to my gadgets, I think had a little bit of fear of getting it wrong! But she got it so right!!

The new Sony Dream Machine and it is a DREAM MACHINE does everything I wanted a clock radio to do and a whole lot more, with a few nice touches thrown in there to polish it off.

Where to begin? Let’s start with the obvious! It’s got a 7 inch screen! As you know 7 inches is quite enough! And like you are wondering now and I was wondering as I took it out the box, is that merely a digital picture frame or can I watch movies through it? And yes, yes you can. The 7 inch display (800×480) allows you to watch your iTunes movies, video on YouTube, and even things like the iPlayer! Genius! and supports Mp4, M-Jpeg and Avi file formats. It also is a digital picture frame for when the machine is idle and this can easily be switched to sleep mode when you hit the hay with 3 taps of the snooze button.

The dock foe the iPhone pops out, spring loaded from the right hand side, you can control your music or video from the iPhone or from the dream machine. The sound is good and I’d so far to say more than you’d expect from a clock radio. Oh! Clock radio! The main function, it’s got a sweet clock radio that allows you to be woken up by radio, iPhone or sound of nature and matching image. One of the nice little extras is that you can set more than one alarm and adjust them from one button on either side of the display the alarms can also be programed to just go off over weekdays or just at weekends which if like me you are away most weekends saves having to remember to manually switch it.

The entire menu screen is based on the playsation 3 theme and is just as intuitive, you’ll get to grips with it with limited consultation of the instruction book.

The dream machine has 1 gig internal memory so that you can import photos, music and video. It has a USB slot SD slot and obviously the iPod dock.

The radio is pretty sweet an gets a better signal than the old clock radio I had in exactly the same position.

OK now for some negatives
The first USB stick I plugged into it could not be read, second one fine.
I cannot for the life of me figure out how to delete the sample pictures which is really frustrating having them on my little slide show.
Also, if the clock radio is on sleep mode and you drop the iPhone in you will get the this device is not supported error and it keeps flashing up but this is no biggy! Just tap snooze and drop the iPhone in again.

Nicks option

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January 30, 2010 | glennmward | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

The import photos, pictures, images, camera, role from your iPhone Mystery – Transfer NOT using iTunes but Image Capture

This subject is not documented much so i thought I’d explain how to quickly import pictures from your camera role on your iPhone. The obvious thing would be to use iTunes to transfer your photos to your laptop but this is not the case.

You can set up in iTunes to sync a folder on your mac with your phone but this does not retrieve them. On the old iPod you could set the device to appear on the desktop or my computer as an external drive but I don’t think this possible with the iPhone.

With the iPhone plugged in, go to Utilities and open Image Capture. On the left hand side you should see you iPhone and in the main window you will see you entire camera roll. The rests pretty self explanatory! It’s the knowing which program to use which is the undocumented part.

For windows users apparently you can use regular camera capture software, alternatively… buy a Mac!

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January 18, 2010 | glennmward | Tags: , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

Favourite and most used iPhone Apps for January

First for this month, the NB TotalFit App has knocked the Mapmyrun of the top spot for fitness Apps with more functionality on the free app some of which MapMyRun a charging for.

The big one for this month is the introduction of the Amazon Kindle, see my Amazon Kindle review. This a simple App but a great seamless collaboration between website and the mobile web.

I am not usually one for replacing the phones basic phone functions with third party Apps but since I bought a Gorillapod the other week I thought I’d try out the Gorillacam App when I saw it and it is brilliant! Simple additional camera functions, countdown timer, sequence photos to name a few. The best bit is that it is well thought out and intuitive.

Since the iRail App has begun charge for their App I have begun using the Trainline App. It’s free and possibly more flexible than iRail with greater information provided once you have found your journey.

Also I should mention again the improvements to the Facebook App, now allowing the syncing of contacts and profile pics with your iPhone contacts.

The Rightmove App is still a personal favourite although a little birth tells me there might be a Findaproperty App just around the corner, watch this space for a full review.

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January 15, 2010 | glennmward | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

Review – Amazon Kindle iPhone App now available in the iTunes App Store

Today, for the first time since “The far away tree” I lost myself in a book. I am not much of a reader at length. Most of my library is reference and I dip in and out as I need to learn but today I discovered something great. Roughly a month ago a colleague called me into his office to show me his new Amazon Kindle. Being one for gadgets and tech I was impressed, mainly considering the space I could save. I put it on the future purchases and thought nothing of it until the other day. I was browsing the Zagg website when I came across their App recommendation tool, I signed up and in my first list of recommendations was the Amazon Kindle iPhone App. Without hesitation I installed it, linked it to my amazon account and began searching for a book to test the App. After a short browse I discovered that you could send a sample of hue books to your Kindle to decide whether it’s the book for you. Very impressed I chose a couple and today on the train I spent the entire 40 minutes reading. Now this, for most is no major accomplishment bit one of the reasons I stopped prolonged reading was not by choice, I would get four pages into a book and wake up 2 hours later. The Amazon Kindle for iPhone has a function to switch the color to sepia. I found this a lot less hypnotic than the harsh black and white of a usual page. Maybe it was the time of day, maybe it was mind over matter as I was reading a book on a gadget but I know that I don’t have time to wait for my books to age to that sepia sort of color and will be reading a lot more on my iPhone.

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January 13, 2010 | glennmward | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Favourite and most used iPhone Apps for December

December_iPhone_AppsBy far my most used App of this month is Copilot Live and the recent improvements to iPod control within the Sat Nav makes it all the better. But this month I wanted to mention a couple of novelty Apps I have been playing with.

Timelapser is a nice litle time lapse / stop motion software that produces a nice little video. I liked it so much I bought a gorilla pod for my iPhone.

GS Lite, not played with it much but a nice to have for simple blue or green screen effects.

NB TotalFit, works with Mapmyrun and apparently is based on the iMapmyrun App, it has all the little extras like voice feedback that you meed to pay extra for on the premium version of iMapmyrun.

Natwest, I didn’t think it would be long before a bank jumped on the App badwagon and luckily my was first apart from the company that tried to produce an app for a bank that no-one has heard of. Natwest is a very handy and has taken anoter routine job of mine off the laptop and onto the phone.

Flixter, now I have a Ciniworld season ticket thanks to the PruHealth plan the flixter app is perfect for seeing what’s on, rating and trailers.

TV Guide, I don’t get much of time to watch TV but this app is very easy to use and allows you to glance over all the channels very efficiently, with one touch providing more details.

And of course Wordpress 2 which without I would be writing these blog posts with on the train most mornings.

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December 11, 2009 | glennmward | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

Apple Quicktime removes the Mpeg2 playback component

Quicktime_MPEG2_Playback_ComponentApple, what are you doin to me? QuickTime.. the one program I thought I could trust in the world of video. The program that I thought I could make play most videos has slowly been getting worse as apple moves their programs more towards the consumer market than the professional but this takes the buiscuit.

Why have you removed the MPEG2 playback component? I have hundreds of videos produced by the company and external agencies which now apparently are not movie files and it really messes up the playback of .tod files which up until a couple of weeks ago I played fine with the JVC Everio plugin.

Their is a solution! Apple will sell the MPeg2 playback component back to you for a bargain $19.99 but why? Who made this ridiculous decision to reduce the power of Apple programs! Come on let’s not turn into windows media player! Come to think of it, Powerpoint supports mpeg2 and no other mpeg codec.

Please ReTweet until someone at apple reads this.

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December 10, 2009 | glennmward | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

XBox 360 – Playing Video Files from an Extenal Device

Xbox_360_Video_LibrarySimilarly to the Playstation 3 you can play regular video files on your XBox 360, here’s how.

Plug in you Hard Drive to a USB port,

Go to My Xbox and scroll right to your Video Library square / button/ tab what ever you call it,

Choose Portable Device with the USB symbol by it,

You should be able to see the folder structure on the hard drive, browse to the video you want to play,

The next screen will show the title of the file, hit Play, you will get a message telling you a media update is required (about 4 meg) you will need to sign into Xbox live, if you haven’t already, do so and hit Play again.

Choose Download Update and the Optional Media Update the Confirm Download,

You’re done, go back and play the file.

If you want to know how to do the same with your Playstation 3 See Here

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December 7, 2009 | glennmward | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Playstation 3 – Playing Video Files and Movies on your PS3

ps3_slim_videoIn the past I have exported my DVD’s to play on my iPod or laptop while I am out of the country or out and about to save carrying them all around with me. I wanted explore ways to play these on the television.

Using the PS3 plug the hard drive into the USB port. On the Playstation scroll over to the Movie symbol then scroll down and locate your USB Device next press Triangle NOT the Cross and choose Display All you should now be able to see all the files on your device. Navigate to your video and hit X.

If you want to know how to the same on your Xbox 360 the See Here
and if you want to learn how to stream your media from your Macbook Pro to your PS3 See Here

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December 1, 2009 | glennmward | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

iPhone apps or Online apps? What is the future as new smartphones emerge?

iPhone_App_BrowserI am very much into my iPhone apps but a website I visited the other day made me stop and think. I always check the weather on Windguru but it not always accurate, so I went to the XC Weather site using safari to have a second look. XC advertised their new iPhone app on the homepage but with a web address rather than a link to the iTunes store.

I stopped to think and realised that soon at this rate I would have an app for nearly every website I visited on a regular basis and that would be ridiculous! The thing about XC Weathers development was that although just a webpage, it looked and behaved just like an app. From the vendors point of view, as other mobile phone catch up (lol) then the need for development in order to satisfy the entire Market will be high. With an efficient browser and bookmarking the tried and tested web application might not be such a bad idea.

An issue may arise with the software / website accessing key functions on the mobile phone such as the GPS which sets applications on the iPhone far apart from any website but i’m sure it’s very easily overcome.

I was never a fan of web design for specific devices and actually got frustrated when my iPhone reverted to a .mobi when I wanted to browse the original site. I thought .mobi was a minefield of errors but with the iPhone setting such a precedent and with with full screen browsing it might be a way to go!

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November 18, 2009 | glennmward | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »
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