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Apple Finally Approves Google Voice App

Quang Ly — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 22:52:57 +0000

Apple Finally Approves Google Voice App - GV Connect

Apple finally approves Google Voice App (the second time) and it is available on the iTunes store now here for $2.99 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gv-connect/id347835665?mt=8

GV Connect is a native iPhone/iPod Touch application for your Google Voice account. The app features the following:

Place calls using your Google Voice number rather than your mobile number.
Send and receive text messages (SMS) from your Google Voice
Listen to voicemails and recorded conversations right on your device (pause, rewind, fast foward)
Mark messages as starred, block senders, delete conversations
Set call forwarding, do-not-disturb), rediections
Retina displays

I suspect the FTC inquiry on Apple’s blocking of a native Google Voice app sparked the change.

Apple Unveils iPhone 4

Quang Ly — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:40:14 +0000

Apple finally unveils iPhone 4 to the masses. Steve Jobs introduced the new iPhone on Monday, complete with an all-new, thinner design, camera flash, front-facing camera called FaceTime for video calling, a second noise-canceling microphone, multitasking, HD video recording, iMovie App for iPhone, iOS software, and a gyroscope for six-axis motion sensing.

iPhone 4

Steve Jobs says the new iPhone is beyond any consumer product that’s ever been seen, only 9.3mm thick and 24 percent thinner than the iPhone 3GS, making it the “thinnest smartphone on the planet.”

Availability
The new iPhone 4 arrives on June 24, while preorders begin on June 15. It is available in the same prices and capacities as last year’s model: $199 for 16GB, and $299 for 32GB. The iPhone 3GS will be available for $99.

Internals
The new hardware also has a larger battery that offers longer uptime, including 7 hours of talk time 3G, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music, and 300 hours of standby.

Dual cameras
The iPhone 4 also includes a whole-new camera system that includes LED flash with a 5 megapixel lens that records HD video. The new rear camera will record 720p video at 30 frames per second. Users can also use built-in video editing to trim their HD clips right on the phone.

The handset’s forward facing camera can be used for video chat with the application FaceTime, allowing users to see someone using another iPhone 4 as they talk to them. Videos can also be edited using the new iMovie application, which will cost $4.99 on the App Store.

Review – CallPod’s Keeper

Jay — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:00:17 +0000

The folks at CallPod gave me a license key to their Keeper product and asked me to do a review. This is a first for me, because I typically only review stuff I would have bought anyway. I did my best to remain objective in my review – the fact that it was free was tempered by the fact that it wasn’t a product I typically would have bought. But I did want to make sure I was up front about how I got the product. OK so on to the review!

———-

There are a number of utilities that have sprung up of late that are designed to help folks keep track of their various passwords. We are constantly being given opportunities to create user IDs and their attendant security information, and unless you use the same stable of passwords, keeping track of all of them become difficult. For sites you visit often, it’s not a problem. But for occasional use sites (like credit cards, affinity programs, retirement accounts and the like), I always have a devil of a time trying to remember my security phrase or password or whatever. The tool I use, however, does not sync with the iPhone, so I can’t access my information when I’m away from my PC. Keeper resolves that disconnect.

Keeper has both a desktop and a mobile component. The desktop component is compatible with Mac, PC, and Linux, while the mobile component will run on the iPhone/iTouch, Android, and Vodaphone. I ran Keeper on a Windows 7 laptop with the iPhone mobile component. The mobile component is free; the desktop component is $19.95 regardless of platform. I took a quick look at other similar applications available through iTunes to do a price comparison. mSecure runs $2.99 for its mobile component but the desktop component is $14.99. And SplashID is $9.99 but doesn’t have a desktop component as far as I can tell. eWallet runs $9.99 for the desktop component and $9.99 for the iPhone component – you get the idea. About $20 seems to be the sweet spot for these types of programs.

When you install and launch Keeper, you’re greeted with the above screen. You pick a master password (preferably a complex one) and enter it twice. It is critical to not forget this password. You only get five attempts to log in after setting the master password; after that, Keeper wipes your data. I couldn’t find a way to change the login attempts allowed to be more than five – if it’s not a feature, I’d suggest making it a future enhancement. This is very important because the password you set in Keeper desktop has to match the password you set in Keeper mobile to allow syncing to occur. Complex desktop phrases suddenly become a lot harder to enter when tapping on the iPhone’s virtual keypad.

The data entry interface is pretty straightforward. The Folder field allows you to group sets of accounts by type. The Title field allows you to name the specific entry. The Login and Password fields are self-explanatory and the Notes field is pretty much your catchall for anything else. A few more fields would have been nice, specifically things like URL and PIN. I ended up using the Notes field to store those, plus things like answers to security questions.

The Settings allow some level of customization of the data entry fields, as well as timeout settings and data storage. There is also a way to import and export your password database. Exports can be for backup purposes, or you can print your database to PDF, text, or Excel. Only the export to text file option allows for encrypting of the output.

The mobile component is very similar to the desktop component. Options are limited, but how many options do programs like this really need? You do have the option of turning off the self-destruct of the database if you fail to enter the correct password. I thought this was an interesting option – on the one hand, you kind of want the database gone if someone tries to access your info. On the other hand, I ended deleting my database three times either because I couldn’t remember my master password or because I mis-typed my complex (but easily typed on the desktop) password. Again, balancing act – complex enough to make it difficult to guess but simple enough to enter easily on the virtual keyboard. It’s a tough choice.

The login page shown is a bit deceptive because it defaults to numeric entry. This particular page is only shown when you launch the app for the first time and need to set a master password. I’d originally set a numeric password when I launched the mobile component, but then later had to reset the master password for the mobile app when I wanted to sync (more on that later). Once the master password is set, however, you get a more standard login screen with a single password field and the alpha keyboard, rather than the numeric one.

I would suggest that Keeper look at using two different passwords on the mobile app. The first password should allow access to the mobile app, while the second password should be the one used for syncing, and be forced to match the password on the desktop component. This way, you can set a simpler password to allow quick entry to the application when you need it but you still retain a complex password for keeping the desktop and mobile versions coordinated.

Callpod will allow a one-time backup of your password database. You pick a security question and provide an email address. The mobile app then backs up your database to the Callpod servers. When you want to restore from that backup, you provide the email address you used when you created the backup. Callpod emails an access code to that email address, which you then enter into the mobile app. Once entered, you must provide the answer to the security question you chose when you backed up the file.

But what most interested me about Keeper was the mobile/desktop syncing. It works over Wi-Fi and it’s pretty slick. You activate syncing on both the mobile app and the desktop app.

On the mobile app, you get an IP address plus a numeric key. You enter this information on the desktop component, decide how you want the syncing to be done, and hit the Sync button. The process is pretty quick and fairly bulletproof. I tried syncing five or six different times and had only one failure. I just re-tried the sync immediately however, and was able to sync just fine, so it’s not like failure means hours of troubleshooting.

Overall, I was pleased with Keeper and thought it was a solid product. If you’re hesitant about buying it outright, the mobile component is a free iTunes download, so you can try it before you buy the desktop companion. Callpod’s willingness to host a backup instance for free gives you a way to store your passwords securely, so if you don’t add tons of accounts on a regular basis, it’s possible for you to set up all your important passwords on the mobile version, have Callpod store a backup, and be about your merry way. (Not sure that the Callpod folks are going to be happy about this suggestion!)

The biggest problem with Keeper (and other apps like it) is something they will not be able to solve on their own. I am referring to the lack of multitasking on the iPhone, which makes products like this totally annoying to use. I can’t just flip back and forth between Safari and Keeper on the iPhone – instead, I have to log into Keeper every time I want to access a different secure site. It significantly deteriorates the usability of the application through no fault of Callpod’s. I think an app like this would be great for the iPad, which is much more intended to provide a complete web experience. However, the lack of multitasking on THAT platform will also make things annoyingly frustrating. For a company that talks all about the user experience, Apple is having a harder and harder time justifying the lack of multitasking on its portable products.

Would I buy Keeper based on my experience with it? Honestly, I’m not sure. For a long time after I got my iPhone, I was looking for some way to view my passwords for American Express and Ameritrade and the like. But since I couldn’t find anything that I was willing to pay for, I actually ended up learning the passwords. If there were an easy way for me to switch between Keeper and Safari, or have Keeper pass URL, user ID, and password information to a Safari session, I think this software would be totally worth it. But given the frustrations of flipping back and forth between Safari and Keeper, I just couldn’t see myself using it on a regular enough basis to justify its cost. Your mileage may vary.

GymFu Fitness Apps

Jay — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:33:43 +0000

January is the top month for gym memberships enrollment. Everybody resolves to get into better shape. And come February, the peak volume of January declines to normal levels as everyone quits. I know that my gym is filled with noobs right now – we’ll see how long that lasts.

For those of you who don’t want to pay for a gym membership, body weight exercises provide effective exercise with minimal equipment and space requirements. And they’re not a wuss-out form of exercise, either – studies have shown that bodyweight exercises will build mass, reduce fat, and get you in shape just as efficiently as weight equipment, if you do it right. In order to help you do it right, a company called BrainBakery has created a suite of iPhone applications and a supporting web site under the moniker GymFu.

The GymFu line consists of four iPhone applications – CrunchFu, SquatFu, PushupFu, and PullupFu. They run $0.99 each. There is also a free version of SquatFu called SquatFu Lite that limits you to 30 reps but gives you a chance to try out the product line. I downloaded three of these apps – I did not buy PullupFu because I don’t have a pullup bar. The other three exercises only require some floor space to test out.

The basic concept behind all the apps are the same. Each application trains you to reach a target goal for the given exercise. For pushups, the target is 100 reps; for squats and crunches the target is 200 reps; and for pullups the target is 50 reps. There are two modes. The training mode is used to progress towards the target reps for the exercise, while battle mode allows you to compete against other GymFu members. In order to use battle mode, you need to create a GymFu.com account (which I didn’t do). If you create an account, you can post your progress to GymFu.com and see how you compare against other users of the app.

GymFu’s apps, however, don’t just record your progress – they make sure you’re doing each exercise correctly by using the iPhone/iTouch’s accelerometer to figure out if your rep was a good rep. They only count the good ones, so the apps help keep you honest and make sure you’re doing a full range of motion.

To start off, each application gives you a short tutorial on what proper form looks like for the exercise in question. It also gives instructions on how to mount the iPhone/iTouch for best sensitivity. The app then has you go through a leveling section, where it tries to figure out at what level to put you into. There are ten stages to the training but you can skip several of them depending on how many reps you can do when you first start out.

Each training session consists of five rounds. The first four rounds have set target reps, depending on where in the progression you are currently at. The fifth round is an “as many as possible” round, used to help determine whether to move you on to the next level or drop you down some. Each training stage consists of three “days”; once you pass the 10th stage, you reach a finale where you perform the target number of max reps in one go.

The apps count your reps for each round. They will also tell you if the rep was a half-assed one or if the rep was done incorrectly. In use, I found this part to be a little annoying – it’s highly dependent on proper placement and perfect form. It’s also important to get a strap that will fit you. That’s not a problem for arm straps but finding an arm strap that will also fit around your thigh (for the squats) will be a bit of a challenge.

The default voice is a bit mechanical but if you sign up for an account, you can download two additional voices.

Since I belong to a gym and work out on a regular basis there, I didn’t use these apps as much as I thought I would. However, for people who want to exercise in their homes and want a way to keep themselves honest and motivated, these apps are as good as anything else. They’re also probably a better workout than a Wii Fit and a heck of a lot less expensive.

ProSwitcher – Awesome Multitasking Demo

Jay — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:00:02 +0000

I’ve recently re-jailbroken my iPhone. Primarily this was to get access to two apps that the App Store refused to carry (uMonitor and GV Mobile), plus I really like skinning my interface (hint hint, Apple! For a company that claims to be about individuality, you make it damn difficult to customize your products). I have a 3G iPhone so I can’t do much with it. But I saw a few posts on a variety of iPhone and gadget blogs talking about a multitasking application called ProSwitcher. It looked interesting enough that I wanted to try it out. I’ve been using it for about two weeks now and I gotta say that these guys have a great idea.

The basic concept of ProSwitcher is to replicate on the iPhone an interface similar to that of the Palm Pre. It is a front end to Backgrounder, an app that allows you to set certain apps to run in the background. Backgrounder is a must-have app for jailbroken iPhones but it has a distinctly minimalist interface, plus switching among the various running apps requires the standard interface actions so it’s hard to keep track of what’s running in the background.

When installed, ProSwitcher creates an icon plus a Settings entry. You never need to touch the ProSwitcher app itself – everything is handled through its Settings.

The settings primarily revolve around how ProSwitcher is activated, though there are a number of other parameters that can be set using the interface.

The activation options are many and varied, and you should play around with them to figure out which method works for you. When activated, ProSwitcher cards look very Pre-like.

There are a small set of dots underneath the application title – these describe the number of running apps. To switch between the apps, just flick the cards left or right. To close a running app, just hit the “X” button in the top left corner. You can activate any of the dock icons directly as well as flicking between the active apps. And that’s pretty much it.

The main issue I had with ProSwitcher was that I didn’t have an iPhone 3GS. On the faster processor with the larger free memory, I’m sure this app would have been really amazing. But on a 3G, the lack of RAM plus the slow processor makes this app worthless for running more than three or four apps at the same time, and since two of those slots are typically taken up by the Mail and Phone apps, and since I use my iPod app more than just about any other app on my phone, I was pretty much only single-tasking anyways. But if you’ve got a jailbroken 3GS, definitely check out ProSwitcher. I think it’s a great little app, and the fact that it’s (currently) freeware is even more amazing. I was going to buy MultiFl0w, the other highly rated multitasking manager, but I’m glad I tried ProSwitcher first. Not because it’s necessarily better, but because it showed me that I really don’t multitask very much.

ProSwitcher is available via Cydia.

What Free Apps Are You Thankful For?

Quang Ly — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:49:02 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Instead of the usual answers to what are you thankful for? Family, friends, blah blah blah. I want to ask you what Free Apps are you thankful for?

It takes a lot of effort to develop applications. We should recognize the author’s efforts.

Here is my personal list to start:

WordPress
Shazam
Pandora
YouTube
Gmail
Google Chrome
Google Voice
Google Calender
Google Apps
Google Docs
Firefox
Dropbox
Cydia (iPhone Jailbreak)
LogMeIn Free

Google Wave Already Works With iPhone

Quang Ly — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:36:49 +0000

Google Wave iPhone App

Google Wave has been making headlines in the tech world. Not many people know this since not everyone received the official invite yet but it already works in the iPhone. It looks quite fantastic. You can simply go to wave.google.com in mobile Safari on your iPhone and wil be prompted that you are using a browser not supported during the preview, however, once you click through, it actually works well.

You can save a bookmark on your Home screen and it creates a little icon like other Web pages on the iPhone. However, Google Wave is a bit different. Once you launch it it removes the Safari wrapper which allows you to nagivate to another page or search the Web. It actually looks like a regular native iPhone app.

The screen shot on the right is what Google Wave looks like on the iPhone launched from the Home screen bookmark. The screen shot at the bottom is what it looks like from within Safari.

Via TechCrunch

Google Phone Coming To Verizon

Quang Ly — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:46:08 +0000

Google Phone Coming To Verizon

Google’s Android operating system for mobile phones will be available on the Verizon Wireless network under an agreement the companies announced Tuesday.

Verizon states that Android-based handsets will becoming in the next few weeks. Android is Google’s operating system for mobile phones. The new Android-based devices will come loaded with mobile apps developed by Google, Verizon, and third parties.

Even if this competes with the tremendously popular iPhone, we believe as long as there are innovative devices coming out, it will force companies to improve for the sake of consumers.

The telecom industry was stale for so long. Remember when the Motorola RAZR came out? It looked slick at first, but there weren’t many features. They also kept coming out with many different versions with little varied features confusing the market. Apple’s iPhone was a game changer and forced telecom to make better phones and provide richer services.

Dropbox Online Storage and iPhone App

Quang Ly — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:06:06 +0000

Dropbox Online Storage and iPhone App

Dropbox is an easy to use online file storage that syncs your files across all your computers. I installed it recently and must say it is very intuitive, easy, and fast! You simply go to their website, create and account, and then install on your computer (both Windows and Mac compatible). You can then select your drop box folder to by synced. Files or folders that are in your Dropbox folder are then synchronized online. The performance is great. When you make a change, Dropbox sends the “delta” only to the server thus making the change very quickly. You can also access your files through the website.

The free version begins with 2 Gig of storage space with an additional 1 Gig by referring friends. There is also premium paid version which offers much more.

Dropbox recently released an iPhone application to make it even easier to access your files anywhere in the world. This new iPhone app will let you get access to all your Dropbox documents, PDF’s, pictures, videos and much more. Dropbox also introduced offline viewing in the iPhone app, with “Favorites.” If you add a file to your ‘Favorites’, they’ll be accessible at any time. To do so, just hit the star at the bottom of any file, and it’ll be added. Otherwise, your files stay in the cloud. This is great for people who complain that the iPhone does not offer local file storage. Dropbox offers this and more with automatic sync with their cloud!

Dropbox can also let you share files and folders to anyone in the cloud. The iPhone app also lets you upload pictures and video (with iPhone 3GS).

In just a few days, Dropbox reached over 2 million users. Impressive.

When is Google’s rumored GDrive coming? Google???

Google Push Email for iPhone Now Available

Jay — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:50:41 +0000

Google Push Email and Calender Sync

Dammit. I just spent $2.99 on an app to give me push Gmail on my iPhone and then Google goes and adds that capability through Google Sync. Damn you Google, for making what used to cost money free. Details at the Google Mobile blog. Thanks to TechCrunch for alerting me.

If you have GSync already set up on your iPhone, all you have to do is go to the Exchange entry and activate the Mail option. Simple!

Warning – the Google mobile blog servers are apparently mobbed right now, cause performance is slow slow slow.

UPDATE: In the 20 minutes since I activated this service, I’ve noticed three things.

You don’t get a popup alert on your screen when new emails come in. This could be a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view. You will get a buzz indicating new mail (if your iPhone is set up for that).
There is a definite lag between receipt of email and Google pushing it to your iPhone. It’s not huge but it can be a couple minutes. I’m curious as to if this is due to the newness of the service or if it’s normal lag due to using Exchange. It’s no different than what sometimes happens with the Blackberry, so unless you’re OCD about your email you probably won’t notice it.
My Yahoo push email has apparently never worked properly and for whatever reason I do not get my Yahoo mails pushed to my iPhone. I only noticed this because of how Google’s push works. Luckily I don’t care about my Yahoo accounts, since they serve as repositories of spam and junk emails for various signup lists. Plus all my porn user names and passwords.

How To Fix AT&T iPhone Visual Voicemail Notification Alerts

Quang Ly — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:39:38 +0000

iPhone Visual Voicemail Notification Fix

One of the most frustrating and surprisingly under reported issues is with AT&T and iPhone Visual Voicemail notifications. When you receive a voicemail on your iPhone, an alert appears and you can play your voicemail as if its a song. There is now a solution!

Since the iPhone 3GS was released, some customers experienced lack of alerts for voicemail (me being one of them). I recently found a fix for it while I was researching tethering for 3GS. Apparently, tethering your iPhone may cause this issue.

So here’s the fix. Navigate to Settings → General → Network → Cellular Data Network and within the Visual Voicemail section add “acds.voicemail” into the APN field. Your visual voicemail will now work once again.

CAUTION: This fix does break the tethering. You can’t have voicemail notifications and Internet tethering work at the same time.

Via Apple Blog

Just borked my iPhone

Jay — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:10:29 +0000

Because I’m sometimes a total idiot, I decided to upgrade my jailbroken iPhone 3G to OS 3.1 last night, despite all warnings from the Dev Team to NOT do this until they’d had a chance to check out the 3.1 firmware. Because I have an almost child-like faith in the ability of the interwebs to find a workaround to jailbreak the iPhone, I figured I’d be out of sorts for no longer than a month or two before I got back to my jailbroken goodness. And who knows, I may still be saved from my own stupidity. However as of this point, my iPhone is officially borked.

So here’s the background. Following the lead of our fearless leader Quang, I jailbroke my phone using the easy-as-cake redsn0w tool about two months ago. And life was good, though not super-wonderful. The main point of my jailbreak was to get access to deep customization and themes, plus a couple of apps that Apple refused to allow in the Apps Store (GVMobile and the uTorrent monitoring app). I really didn’t need background apps or tethering, so a lot of the real benefit of jailbreaking was lost on me. Still, I’d grown pretty accustomed to being able to change the look and feel of my device on a whim. And I got kind of obsessive about monitoring the free memory of my iPhone.

When OS3.1 came out, a lot of the features it contained (Genius mixes and apps organization specifically) were things I wanted to play with so I figured I’d upgrade, try it out, and return to jailbroken freedom in due time. Well the upgrade went fine (btw, jailbroken iPhones will sync just fine with iTunes 9), but now my iPhone does not display all the apps I’ve installed on it. I believe that this is due to my use of a jailbroken app called Categories, which allows you to create folders into which to place your apps. I think that the linkage between Springboard and Categories (which hides the app once it’s been placed in a folder) still exists and that the iPhone thinks the apps are installed but that Springboard has them set to hide because that’s what Categories told it to do. I only noticed this issue this morning so I’ve tried a hard reboot to see if that would fix the problem. No dice. I’ll have to wait until I get home to do a full restore, and then if that doesn’t work I’m going to try to remove all my apps and re-add them to the iPhone and see if that does the trick. If not, then I’m well and truly hosed and I might have to return to factory defaults as a last resort.

So word of advice – don’t upgrade your jailbroken iPhone until the Dev Team gives the all clear!

Google Voice Now Fowards SMS To Email

Quang Ly — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:55:49 +0000

Google Voice Now Fowards SMS To Email

One of the most popular feature requested from Google Voice was the obvious forward inbound text messages to email. You can now receive incoming text messages to your email. Furthermore, you can even reply from email as well. Users previously could respond to the Google Voice text message on their phone but email forwarding was previously not an option.

Now, once we can have Gmail push to our iPhones then I can cancel the ridiculously priced text messaging plan from AT&T.

Via TechCrunch

iPhone App: Twitscoop Real Time Twitter Trends

Quang Ly — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:54:33 +0000

Twitscoop iPhone App

Have you ever wondered what people are talking about in the cyberspace cloud in real time? Well, now you can with the iPhone App Twitscoop.

Twitscoop allows visualization of real time trends and discussions on Twitter straight from your iPhone. The tag cloud grows and shrinks in real-time depending on the popularity of the topic. The app has a trend algorithm that pulls buzz words, breaking news, and content such as pictures, links, and videos.

Strangely, the key feature lacking in Twitscoop is the lack of ability to tweet from within the app. It is such an obvious feature that they should include it in future updates.

Twitscoop is available for $0.99 on the iTunes App Store.

Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice

Quang Ly — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:17:25 +0000

Make Free Calls to Canada with Google Voice

Google Voice now allows you to make free calls to Canada from within the continental US. Previously, you can only make free calls within the US with your Google Voice number.

You can make the call by logging into mobile apps , or by dialing your own Google Voice number from one of your phones and selecting option 2 to place a call. You can also install GV Mobile for a jailbroken iPhone from the Cydia store. GV is now free and can utilize your phone’s Contacts.

GPush Notifications for Gmail on iPhone

Quang Ly — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:54:52 +0000

GPush Gmail Push Notifications

There is finally a simple iPhone app to allow Gmail push notifications. Can’t wait every 15 minutes for your iPhone to automatically check your email? This app is for you and the reviews have been pretty good. Push notifications allow you to receive a new email rather than having your mail application check (or pull) for new email. Simply turn on the app, enter your Gmail username and password (running over encrypted SSL) and you can get push notifications with From and Subject fields. It supports a variety of alerts such as sounds, badge, or vibrate.

A neat trick is to setup Google Calender notifications to push to a different email that you setup on GPush. You will still get alerts but they won’t come into your main inbox. This reduces SMS alerts which costs you less money as well. Every now and then you will just have to push your email for “junk” or notifications.

It only costs $1 at the App Store and may go up to $2 eventually.

New iTunes 9 App Management Concept

Quang Ly — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:16:14 +0000

Do you treat the iTunes App Store like it’s a buffet and just grab everything? Now your iPhone/iPod Touch has so many screens that its hard to manage, organize, and sort your apps. There is another Apple rumor floating around stating that iTunes 9 will make app management much easier by allowing you to select and move more than one app around at the same time.

The YouTube video below is a concept on how it would work.

Furthermore, iTunes 9 is rumored to feature Blu-ray support and more integration with Twiter, Facebook, and possibly Last.fm. The integration can involve status updates to the respective social networks on what songs you are playing on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Facebook has worked with Apple before on integrating the iPhone camera to upload to Facebook so this collaboration rumor is not so far fetch.

Review – AutoStitch Panorama Generator

Jay — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:00:39 +0000

I recently returned from a family vacation in Puerto Rico. Aside from having a great time and seeing some great sights, I was able to play around with an iPhone app I’d installed some time ago. I say “play around” but really the app became a core part of my vacation photography. AutoStitch is one of the most impressive photography apps I’ve seen on any platform, iPhone or otherwise.

You may remember my review of an app called Pano. AutoStitch one-ups Pano by removing the need to manually align subsequent photos to create the panorama. Before I go into detail, let me show you a couple of the pics it created. (All panoramas have been reduced to 60% of their original size to help them fit better on most screens. Click on the images to see them in their full glory.)

The image quality is not bad at all, considering I took these using the iPhone 3G’s junky camera. This app actually made me want to upgrade to the higher resolution/quality of the iPhone3GS, because I think the same pictures would have turned out even better.

If you recall, Pano used its own interface to the iPhone’s camera to do its thing. You took a series of pictures that overlapped guidelines that Pano provided. While I originally really liked Pano, I found it really difficult to use in real life because it’s tough to get the overlap Pano needs to make its panorama. I also found that Pano was slow to snap and save successive images, making picture taking a pain. AutoStitch solves both those problems.

When you launch AutoStitch, you are greeted with a very simple screen.

You have your list of photo folders plus the iPhone default Camera Roll. I wound up using mostly my Camera Roll as my source (I’ll explain why later). When you select a folder, you get a thumbnail view of all the pictures in the folder.

You just tap on two or more pictures to begin the process. Each picture you tap on gets added to the “Photos to Stitch” area.

You can remove pictures from the stitching area by just tapping it. Once you’ve selected your set of pictures, you tap the Stitch button to start the process. To show you the output, here’s the three pictures I’m stitching together:

You can get a sense of how those three pictures might overlap to create a single image, no? Well so can AutoStitch, because here’s the output of its manipulation of the above three images.

(Click on the image to see it in full size). Pretty impressive, no?

AutoStitch doesn’t use the iPhone’s camera directly. Instead, you snap pictures using the Camera app and then just select them in AutoStitch to generate the panorama. This makes picturetaking blazingly fast. The iPhone’s camera app is pretty quick to take and save pictures, so you can snap off a series of images to stitch together in no time. (This is why I say you’ll probably use the Camera Roll most of the time – you just snap pictures into the Roll and then select them for stitching. I recommend you do this quickly after taking the sequence – it becomes difficult to remember which images went with what panorama if you let too much time pass.)

Another benefit of AutoStitch is that you’re not limited to just six images like Pano. Instead, you can use as few as two or as many as 20 to create the final frame. AutoStitch recommends that you let each picture overlap by at least 30% to ensure the best results, but I didn’t really pay much attention to that after my first few stitches. I just kind of did a fast pan-and-snap and trusted in the app to do its thing.

Once AutoStitch creates the panorama, you can crop the image to remove top/bottom fragments that result from AutoStitch doing the overlapping necessary to generate the image. The crop area suggested by AutoStitch can be overridden by you but I found that I didn’t really need to do that – the app did a great job of finding the maximum size photo that could be extracted from the stitched images.

As my final showoff of the app, take a look at this gallery of thumbnails:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

And here’s the final output:

I’m totally impressed by AutoStitch and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to create panoramic images from iPhone snapshots.

NetFlix Streaming iPhone App Rumor

Quang Ly — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:41:20 +0000

NetFlix Streaming iPhone App

Let’s talk about an amazing brand called Netflix. It has been able to stay relevant being a completely online movie delivery service even while Blockbuster has the straddle strategy (online and brick and morter). We think that Netflix’s success has a lot to do with the abundant LongTail collection of niche films as well as popular ones. In addition, they were really the first company to deliver movies through the mail and online.

A search for Blockbuster’s iPhone app yielded no results on the iTunes App Store at the moment.

There is now a rumor that Netflix Watch Instantly streaming service would be available on Apple’s App Store as well as available on the Nintendo Wii.

This is something I’m sure a lot of Netflix subscribers would love to have. The biggest question is if AT&T would allow such bandwidth utilization of streaming video on their 3G network. Afterall, they seem to have an unofficial hand in dictacting Apple approval of iPhone apps that competes with their core business like Google Voice. Ironically though, AT&T and Apple do allow the MLB At Bat app to stream video over the network. Let’s not forget the iPhone also comes with a YouTube player that can stream both on 3G and Wi-Fi. According to AT&T, it doesn’t want all this video streaming to further clog its pipes, which could be the reason why the rumored Hulu app is not released yet.

The next question would be if Apple themselves would allow such a service to compete with its movie downloads. Then again, Apple does offer radio streaming apps like Last.FM and Pandora which theoretically competes with its iTunes Music Downloads. Apple’s app approval still seems unpredictable despite its disclosure.

Via TechCrunch

Google and Apple Marriage Falls Apart

Quang Ly — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:04:57 +0000

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from sitting on Apple’s Board of Directors after nearly 3 years. It was a wonderful partnership at the start. Apple would create the fan boy devices while Google concentrated on dominating online services. However, as Google moves toward the telecom space with Google Voice, the mobile phone, its own browser, and creating its own operating system Chrome for both mobile and desktops, conflict of interests undoubtly arise with Schmidt sitting on the board.

Eric Schmidt’s resignation comes only a few days after the FCC sent letters to Google, Apple and AT&T on why Apple denied Google Voice from the iPhone App Store.

Apple released a statement on the matter

Apple today announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, is resigning from Apple’s Board of Directors, a position he has held since August 2006.

“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

Image Courtesy of Technologizer

FIRST LOOKS: Navigon Lite Navigation App for iPhone 3G/3GS

Jay — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:00:41 +0000

The first crop of GPS navigation applications are starting to appear in the Apps Store. AT&T’s version will run you $10/month, which is a little rich for my tastes, especially when I consider how much I’m paying them for my cell/data access. So when I ran into the free Navigon app, I was interested in comparing it to my current GPS, a Mio 520C.

So the first thing to note is that the icon is clearly labeled “Lite”. This is because this version does no dynamic routing. It’s basically intended to be a proof of concept to familiarize potential users with the interface and capabilities before Navigon asks them to shell out serious coin for the full version. And I’m sure that these apps will not be cheap, btw.

Above is the boot screen for the app. I’ll be frank – it takes a WHILE to boot. And this is without the routing logic being loaded. I have an iPhone 3G, so memory is definately at a premium. On average, from launch of the app to clear the above screen ran about a minute and a half or more, sometimes entering into the 3 minute range. And that’s just to boot to the main screen – GPS lock-on could take another one to five minutes beyond that. Considering that my Mio can get GPS lock from cold boot in about 3 to 4 minutes tops in the summertime, the Navigon app is way slow.

The above screen shows the primary options in the main menu. To choose a destination, just tap the first option.

You can enter a ZIP code or a city name. If you enter a ZIP, the app will have a lot less data to filter through. This is important because of the Navigon’s next screen.

Note the list of streets that are populated once you select a ZIP or city. The smaller a universe you can provide, the faster it will perform. My Mio does something similar, narrowing the universe as you type the street name. Navigon’s approach allows you to scroll to an address, but I can see it getting out of hand if the list is really long (and entering a major city like Philadelphia will produce a LONG list). I would have liked to have seen Navigon provide a quicknav list on the right a la the Contacts app so that I could quick jump to a letter of the alphabet.

The above screen shows how Navigon allows you to select an intersection. I thought this was pretty useful – my Mio’s intersection entry is annoying and very hit-or-miss. This approach is much more intuitive and easier to identify a cross-street location.

In the Lite version, you can see the destination and simulate the trip. I assume that this is where the real version will allow you to confirm the endpoint and initiate routing.

The above shows the app “calculating” a route and displaying progress in the 3D view. I’m not sure how much dynamic re-routing will add to the memory footprint. I’m also concerned about the speed of recalculation.

This is the same route in 2D view. Note the large number of POI references. I’m using this in portrait mode, so the screen is rather compact and hard to read. The landscape view would probably not be as tight and give better spacing. I didn’t see a way to limit the POIs to only a specific set, but I’m sure that will be there in the final version.

This is the night mode view in 2D.

Here I’ve looked up a POI and had the app plot me a route. Note that you can change the route profile to modify the path taken.

This is the map view in 2D mode. I was viewing this while on the bus.

Here’s the 3D version. Yes, we actually are going 0 mph. Traffic was a mess that day.

Hey we’re moving!

Widescreen view. The widescreen view is much closer to my Mio’s interface and will probably be the default view when using this app.

Overall, the Navigon app is impressive. But my concerns are really around its ability to dynamically route, which you can’t experience in the Lite version. My 3G definately felt pushed to its limits by the app. I was listening to music over a Bluetooth connection while using the app and I definately noticed more stuttering of the music stream. I’m also curious how phone calls would be handled while the nav app is running. Since the iPhone OS doesn’t allow multitasking, I wonder if the app continues to maintain a route when a phone call comes in.

All in all, I am intrigued by the app, but my concerns about performance would make me very hesitant to sink a large amount of funds into it. If there was a way to actually try the full function app without paying full price, I would definately recommend that as the way to go. The other concern I have about the app is its sheer size. The Lite version is almost 2GB. I don’t know how much of the full map universe is in the app, or how much the dynamic routing functionality will add to that size, but it took a good 10 minutes or more to sync my iPhone to install this app. Owners of 8GB iPhones are not going to be happy.

Any 3GS owners out there wanna comment on their performance? I’d really like to know if it will be a big improvement on the faster hardware.

UPDATE: Since this post was released, the Navigon app has gone live. For a limited time, it’s $70 in the iTunes store. iLounge has a very thorough review of it, which I highly recommend you read if you’re even remotely thinking about buying this app. They give it a “C”, which matches my impressions based on the Lite version. Also, there are some screen changes that I did not encounter in the Lite version.

REVIEW: Pocket Informant lets you chuck iPhone’s Calendar and To Do apps

Jay — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:00:43 +0000

Over the weekend I paid more for an iPhone app than I’ve ever paid in the whole time that I’ve owned the device. Overall, my view of iPhone apps is that if I’m going to pay more than $3 for it, it better be incredible. With my purchase of Pocket Informant from WebIS, I’ve found an app that is pretty freakin’ incredible. So much so that the 12.99 I paid for this app is well worth it.

Pocket Informant (or PI) basically replaces your iPhone’s default Calendar and To Do applications with a single app that is light years beyond those simplistic toys. It features full synchronization with Google Calendar, without the five calendar limitation that Apple forces on its Calendar app. I have ten calendars I’m using or following in GCal right now, and PI pulled them all in without any problem. The one calendar it can’t pull in is the new Google Tasks calendar, but that’s only because Google hasn’t released the APIs to allow them to do that. I’ve emailed the developer and that functionality is planned as soon as Google allows. Until then, you can either manage tasks manually using PI or you can sync it to a web service called toodledo.com.

What makes PI truly worth its price are the ways they display your calendar. First, there is a Today view, that shows you all events and activities for the current day (I’ve blocked out the event descriptions because they’re from my real calendar). The Today view allows you to see at a glance everything that’s going on today, plus it allows you to see upcoming actions that are coming due.

The List view shows you only your schedule, and allows you to scroll up and down to see past/future events. This is just like the List view in the Calendar app.

Similarly, the Day view is much like the Day view in the Calendar app, but with a great twist. Rather than using forward/back arrows a la the Calendar app, PI allows you to flick left or right to move back and forth in time. Much easier to flick through one-handed.

Where PI really shines, however, are in its Week and Month views. The Week view is not even available in Calendar, and it’s probably the single greatest thing about PI, in my opinion.

In one screen, I can see everything about my week. There are several subtle things about this view that make it incredibly useful. First, like the Day view, you can flick left or right to move back and forth in time. Second, if you have too many events in one of the compressed days to see clearly, you can select that day and PI will pop up a custom view for that day that includes your events and activities. You return to the Week view with a single tap. Brilliance. The Week view can be organized so that the same day is always shown as the wide day, or you can set it to have the current day as the wide day. You can also arrange the other small days either top to bottom or left to right. Note how each day has a graphical representation of time under each day’s heading, with color coding to represent when you have appointments. And even within those tiny squares, you can scroll up or down within the day to see events that are off the screen.

The Month view is another great PI innovation.

Note how PI goes above and beyond Apple’s Calendar app to give you an overview of what your month looks like. All day events, as well as scheduled events are clearly indicated. Need to see what you’re doing on a specific day? Just tap that day to bring up a detail view.

You can see what’s happening for that specific day, plus you have a representation of your schedule for the week. A single tap returns you to the Month view.

The To Do view is pretty standard. To Do’s are classified by Projects and can be given Start/Due dates. I’m sure there’s tons of functionality in here that I’m missing but honestly I didn’t want to get too into the To Do’s because I want to wait until Google Task integration is released.

Finally, the Search function allows you to search Events, To Do’s and Contacts.

I’m hoping that this means PI will be expanded to include a Contacts function as well, because I’m not a huge fan of the Contacts app either. The developers seem committed to continuing to evolve the app, and they’ve even got a version ready for when iPhone OS 3.0 is released. All in all, I love PI and recommend it highly. If you are hesitant (like I was) to spend so much for an app, WebIS makes a free trial version that limits you to syncing of 15 activities and two weeks of events, plus it doesn’t have the Today view. I used that for a couple days before taking the plunge.