Mobile Phones | Glenn Ward

Favourite and most used iPhone Apps for March 2010

Without a doubt copilot continues to be my most used app on the iPhone and the constant updates to it’s functionality I think make it the best VFM Sat Nav App.

A couple of recent additions to make life easier include My Movies and Tap Forms

My Movies has a handy little bar code scanner that queries imdb for your DVD data and cover graphics. The app only failed to recognise 2 DVDs out of 201, although it only takes a couple of minutes to manually add the information yourself.

Tap forms allows for you to input much of your vital data that you have on various forms and bits of paper all over the place, things like driving license number, account numbers, national insurance etc.

Oh, and a quick mention for Voucher Cloud. Often these types of Apps make me wonder whether the content warrants an entire App but in this case the location finding and number of businesses that have signed up for it makes it very worth while. Watch this space for reviews on the new hotukdeals Apps that are in the making.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Favourite and most used iPhone Apps for December

By 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.

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

I 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!

Shortcut Keys to Screen Grab / Print Screen on the iPhone

Really quick post, yesterday I was looking for apps to generate a picture of whatever was on my iPhone screen and I came across a shortcut.

Hold down the Home Button,

Press the On / Off button on the top of the phone,

The screen will flash white for a moment as it takes the picture.

Check the Photos folder on you phone and your images will be there! Very handy for blog posts, presentations, demos etc.

Alternative Apple iPhone 3GS headphones / earphones as recomended by twitter followers

After not having too much success with a google search for an alternative replacement set of headphones for my iPhone 3GS I turned to Twitter for some advice. I got quite a response so I thought I would share the tweet recommendations. Note: I have popped into a reseller and they did tell me that apple would replace a faulty set still within the 1 year manufacturers warranty.

Apple [Link]
Replacements for the headphones that ship with the iPhone £21 and the in ear earphones are £59 on the Apple site.
Z.buds [Link]
These look awesome, durable, not to expensive and all the iPhone functions.
Griffin [Link]
SmartTalk and TuneBuds Mobile. Two solutions and not too expensive, both do not have volume control though.
Bose ipod buds [Link]
A little more expensive, in line microphone but no volume.
Klipse Image S4i Earphones [Link]
Looks like a good set of headphones, a little expensive although comes with a 2 year warranty, microphone but as far as I can see no volume control.
Etymotic hf2 Hands-free Headset [Link]
Again going for the sound quality higher end of the market, a little expensive mic, control, but again no volume.
JVC HA-KX100 [Link]
Affordable, mic and control but again no in line volume.

My (08.09) favourite iPhone Apps, Social Media, Sat Nav, Remote Access and more…

The launch of the iPhone 3GS has brought about many new and more advanced apps. On my 3G my most used apps were (in order) email, maps, iRail, twitterific, wordpress, facebook, eBay, aroundme. These are the apps that I found to be a massive timesaver and helped streamline my life. I could do my emails, blogging and stay up to date with my Twitter followings on the train and even check my eBay. Getting out of London at the weekends and having maps in my pocket meant that I rarely got lost, in conjunction with AroundMe I rarely even spent time looking for things.

Current Favourites
Using maps for directions has evolved, I now use Copilot Live, I used to have this on a Touch Diamond and to be honest put my Tom Tom away after a while. I have written about other 3D Sat Nav apps available at the App Store. Also I am a big fan of the remote access app, LogMeIn Ignition, although slow (possibly down to network and WiFi speeds) the concept is sound and I’m sure as soon as O2 upgrade their the 3G network and if I hardwire into the modem I might not be editing video from my iPhone but I will be conducting most other tasks. Also, look into Internet Tethering, o2 now support it and I’m sure it will be quicker and more reliable as it was developed by Apple but it does carry a monthly bolt on charge price depending on your data needs.

A few nice to haves
A few websites I often visit have developed iPhone apps, I don’t use these on a daily basis but they are useful to have in my pocket. Wikipedia, always good as a quick reference and very easy to use. Google Earth, better in a WiFi area but often very handy. Rightmove saves some time looming at houses and also provides a location tool so if anyone ever asks you, I wonder what house prices are like in this area? You can tell them.

The intelligent thing about these apps is that the developers have thought about why you should use the app rather than just navigate to the site using Safari.

Future Apps
The introduction of the video camera to the iPhone has opened the door for real time apps and I am especially looking forward to the augmented reality stuff. Here’s a few teasers. London Tube Signs, Twitter real time location tweets and even a Sat Nav that displays the route on reality not a 3D generated image.