I might be preaching to the converted on this one but if you are one of those people who if you wanted an album or tune you would just search it on iTunes and buy it, there’s plenty of sites now with mp3 downloads way beyond the standard price. I first discovered this when searching hotukdeals, linked through to Play.com and bought Cream Future Trance for £2.99 which is now one of the most played albums on my iPhone. Now I check Play, Amazon, HMV with a quick look on find-cd before just getting it from iTunes. Amazon have even developed a little download software that make the process almost as easy as downloading it from iTunes!
Ok, I didn’t manage to get this to work completely but as I think it might be down to the network I am going to post it anyway. I almost managed to stream the music from my MacBook Pro (iTunes) through the Xbox 360. The idea of this is to have all music in one central location to avoid duplication of songs and double handling when it comes to updates.
Also, if you don’t have your mac set up to run a Windows environment or need to improve your Bootcamp set up follow my blog post that talked about an easy installation of VM Fusion using your Bootcamp partitioned drive. I did need to import the Bootcamp Partition in order to mirror the music folder in OSX and Windows.
I didn’t use the medialink streaming server software, instead I opened up VMFusion and loaded Windows Media Player. In the VMFusion Setting found under Virtual Machine I then turned on folder sharing and mirrored the music folder where the iTunes Media folder resides. By doing this I was able to use the Add to Media Library under File In Windows media player in order list all my music without actually copying anything over into this environment.
Next, make sure all you media sharing is turned on in the windows environment (I’m using Vista) you can do this via Library > Media Sharing > Share my media to: in Windows Media Player, the Xbox 360 icon should appear in the box below, or choose Control Panel > Classic View > Networking and sharing > Media Sharing > Change.
With everything on, turn on your XBox 360. Go to My Xbox > Music Library and select your computer, you should see your playlists…. problem is, mine won’t play!!
If anyone can get ths working please expand in the comments area?
See how I got this to work on the PS3
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
I often want to take a few of my favourite movies away with me when I go away. It is possible to convert your DVD’s into a format that will play on your iPod, iPhone or any portable device to save you physically carrying the discs around with you. I am going to talk about a software I use on a Mac but you can download similar software for windows, just look on download.com or softpedia.com.
I use Handbrake to convert my DVD’s it’s really easy to use and now comes with present for most popular portable devices. Open up handbrake and insert you DVD, if you DVD Player software loads up just quit out of this as you don’t want the computer doing two things at once. 
Choose Source in the top left hand corner and locate your disc, you don’t have to go deep into folder structure, top level is enough for handbrake to assess the disc. 
Once selected Handbrake will review all the chapter on the disc. Make sure you have selected the first chapter right through to the last chapter to ensure you convert the entire DVD.
Select the preset for the output video using the drawer on the right handside of the interface. Handbrake now has presets for iPhone, iPod and iPod Touch to make things nice and simple but if you are worried about file size then you can fine tune the settings yourself.
Once you are happy and have selected where you would like your file to be saved hit the Start button next to the Source button at the top of the interface.
Open the file in iTunes and it will be copied into your iTunes Media Folder, next time you sync you device the file will be uploaded.
Also see Duplicating DVD’s and CD’s using Mac OSX’s Disk Utility
I first encountered Copilot live 7 on the O2 XDA orbit and it managed to turn me from the Tom Tom One. The software maps, routing at the time seemed to be superior with less errors. I also liked the walking mode which pointed you in the right direction you quickly needed me to find somewhere. This allowed me time to collect my thoughts with a cheeky coke before my last job interview.
The Software
So, what does Copilot Live 8 have to offer on the iPhone. Much the same functionality but an improved map interface. The menu navigation takes a couple of journeys to get used to at first but once you know where everything is it becomes pretty easy. Copilot Live also offers a motorbike mode on top of the walking mode, I function I have not yet tested although I do have a Bluetooth helmet so fingers crossed that it works with that. I assume, lime most know it all techies, I often think I know better than artificial intelligence and go my own way. Copilot quickly recalculated the trip and displays a fairly accurate new time of arrival at the bottom of the screen. You can choose from different display modes including instructions and 3D maps, I choose the 3D maps and this also displays the directions cue in the bottom left hand corner of the screen up to 2 junctions in advance. The display can adjust automatically to both landscape or portrait and is easily viewable in both.
The software now offers various Internet functions including live traffic, live link, live weather and roadside assistance.
Interaction with the iPhone
I use Copilot while connected to the stereo in the car, this means it’s taking a charge from the connecting lead and also playing my music which is controlled with the stereo functions. I have had the software lag at bootup a couple of times but more often than not it works just fine. When you receive a call the software shuts down as you would expect, it does not effect the muting of your music and once you hang up the software relaunched and quickly returns to your planned route.
Installation is fairly straight forward, about a 250 mb download so definitely do it through your iTunes software, I have not received any updates yet but I presume ALK Technologies will iron out any bugs as and when they find them.
In summary, Copilot Live 8 is an extremely powerful app and although stuff magazine said the maps weren’t as easy to follow as Tom Toms, I personally don’t see much difference. Stuff gave it 5 stars and I do too.
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