I can’t help but talk about this app! It’s so cool. The Apple Remote app has been one of my favorites since it shipped last year when iPhone 2.0 came out. Over time it’s had updates to make it better, however Apple just updated it to version 1.3 this week. With the 1.3 update you can now completely control your Apple TV. There has been Apple TV support for a while, but the support had been limited to just choosing content to play and using your iPhone’s keyboard to key in text when prompted to for things like passwords and searches.
However, 1.3 now brings multi-touch to the Apple TV. You can use your finger to swipe left, right, up and down to navigate the menus. Since you have access to the menu, you can really do everything that you would do with the supplied remote. You’ll need to run the latest software update (2.4) on your Apple TV before you’ll see the new interface. This feature also requires the iPhone OS 3.0 update on your iPhone or iPod touch.
Not just for Apple TVs, It’s all about iTunes
The main reason behind the Remote app is to give you a Wi-Fi remote to control your computer running iTunes. The concept is simple. You launch iTunes on your computer. You pair your iPhone/iPod touch’s Remote app with your copy of iTunes and from that point on you can see all of your playlists, songs, movies, etc. and control their playback. If you have multiple Airtunes speakers, you can even control which ones (rooms) will play the music. Also since it’s a Wi-Fi based app, it doesn’t require line of sight. You don’t even have to be in the same room as your computer.
Everyone’s a DJ
Another feature that was added to the Remote app is the ability to allow any iPhone or iPod touch on your Wi-Fi network to give input by voting for songs that should be played next. So imagine that you’re having a party and you’re playing music in iTunes from your Mac or PC through your stereo or Airtunes connected speakers. Anyone at the party can join your Wi-Fi network and then open their copy of the Remote app. Without needing any special login or password, they can access the DJ feature and request songs to be played. The more people that request the same song, the higher priority it gets on the list.
The Bottom Line
If you play music and other content via iTunes on your computer and you have a Wi-Fi network, then you should definitely have the Remote App. If you have an Apple TV, then it’s a must have! The Remote app is a FREE download from the App Store.
I often come across great apps for the iPhone/iPod touch that work great and are very exciting to me, however there’s a problem. Some of these apps are really only useful to people that have a certain piece of hardware or a certain piece of software on their computer or use a certain service such as a particular bank. If I make one of these apps the iPhone App of the Week, then chances are the app will only appeal to a small segment of my readers. So rather than profiling an app with limited appeal or ignoring the app completely (as I have done in the past), I figured I would group them together from time to time in one post so that there will be a greater chance in seeing something that you can use. So welcome to my first “iPhone App of the Week – Helper Apps!” Here are 10 of my favorite Helper Apps:
This one is for the trivia buffs (or to combat them 🙂 ). Cool Facts is an iPhone (iPod touch) app that now boasts 6,500+ Cool Facts. I was actually surprised by some of the entries. Not that I think I know a lot about a lot of things, but some made me go “wow, I’d never heard that before!” This app is a great conversation starter (please resist the temptation to use it on a date. You know who you are).
The app displays the facts in a random order. You can swipe your finger to go to the next fact or shake your iPhone/iPod touch to go to the next one. It seems that shaking is actually a little more responsive than swiping.
6500+ Cool Facts is a FREE download from the App Store. Get it here.
I would guess that most of the folks reading this blog have some type of membership card either in their wallet/purse or on their keychains or worse, you have them in both places. My keychain was starting to look like the shoppers section in the Sunday paper.
Sometimes having these little tags do actaully help you out at check out time with discounts that appear right on your bill for that transaction. Krogers is good for this. Others add up your rebates and actually send you coupons that are as good as cash. Staples is good this. So using the cards do help you save cash. The one thing that always bugged me was having to have a different card for every single merchant. Why couldn’t their be ONE card that you get when you go to any merchant and it would have YOUR number on it? When you go to a different merchant, they just add YOUR number to their system. This way each person only has to have ONE card. Oh well, that’l probably never happen. The CardStar app offers the next closest thing!
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CardStar can store all of your membership cards in one app
When I first saw CardStar I couldn’t download it fast enough! I was main interested in it because it looked like it would eliminate all those little tags on my keychain. The concept is simple. You choose your Merchant from the list of over 130 merchants and then add your customer/membership number from your little tag.
CardStar creates a barcode for that merchant just like the one on the tag. I was skeptical that this would work. However, I had to try it immediately. Since one of my errands would take me right next to a CVS store. I walked in and bought something just to try it out. The cashier was a little surprised when I whipped out my iPhone with the CVS logo on screen, but she held up the little wand and “beep”, it worked! I paid for my item and was on my way.
Next stop, Staples. I bought one item that I was kinda low on anyway and “beep”! It worked there too. That’s two for two. Now of course Y.M.M.V. It may not work at all merchants with all scanners. However, even if it didn’t scan the barcode, the number is displayed so that it could be keyed in manually in the worse case scenario. You might also run into a merchant that insists upon seeing your actual card. Your Gym may require this! However for the most part for me it’s goodbye little tags on my keychain!
What about your other membership cards?
I was totally content just eliminating the key chain tags from my life. However, after digging a little deeper in this app, I saw the Travel category. I saw airlines, hotel chains, etc. in the list. So I started entering those too. Now most of these type of entries won’t produce a bar code. For example, when I check in at a Marriott, they don’t scan my card. They do ask for my Marriott Rewards number though! I know the light just went on for some of you. Yep that’s right, you can enter all your other membership numbers too even if you don’t use a bar code with those places. When you need to know your AAA, Hilton, Blockbuster, etc. numbers you can just look them up quickly in CardStar.
Although CardStar boasts about 130 merchants, there are going to be merchants that you use that aren’t in the list. For me that was Olga’s Kitchen here in Michigan. No problem, there is a “Custom” entry option that allows you to put in any merchant you want. You won’t have the fancy logo, but you will be able to have the number and the generated bar code for any merchant you want.
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The Bottom Line
CardStar is a brillant app that solves a practical problem. They are already promising updates with even more features like coupon support and of course more merchants. CardStar is available for FREE (Limited time before the price kicks in at 99¢) at the App Store here. So get it while the getting is good!
Last week I put out a request for an app that I thought would be great to have. My idea was to have an app called “Meet me halfway”. The app would figure out where you are and then let you choose a contact from your list and figure out the midpoint between you both and propose a restaurant, bar, park, etc. to meet at. Just as suspected, one reader of this blog came through again! Blog reader “Brian” pointed me towards “Midway.”
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Just what I was looking for
Midway does just what I was looking for and even takes it up a notch. You can either turn on the Location Services feature to figure out where you are or simply use the Contacts in your list. Once you choose two Contacts or your location and a Contact, you then choose what type of place you want to meet at. Your choices are Restaurant, Bar, Hotel, or Cinema. There is an Add.. feature that lets you key in your own category.
Since the feature uses the built-in Google Maps app for the results, chances are you can have a broad list of categories. I added “Park” and it worked fine.
Midway takes it up a notch by doing one thing that I hadn’t even considered. It lets you choose multiple contacts. This way if you and a few of your friends were meeting up, you can pick a place that’s in the middle of all of you. This way you can all travel as equal of a distance as possible to make it fair. Once you pick a spot you can get directions to that spot for yourself and you can share that location with everyone else via email. Perfect!
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The Bottom Line
This is a great app! If you need to pick meeting locations for friend get togethers or eBay/Craig’s List transaction completions, this is your app. Speaking of eBay/Craig’s List. My only feature request (which I’ve already contacted the developer about) would be to have a feature that lets you also key in an address manually. I love being able to use the addresses in my Contacts, but I would also like to key in an address for the person that I’m only going to meet that one time or if I’m meeting a friend/relative and they aren’t coming from home/work. Otherwise, this app rocks! Midway is $1.99 and you can download it here from the App Store. Thanks Brian for the great find!
This one is definitely going to have more appeal to the Mac users out there than the Windows PC users. However, Windows users stay tuned, I’ve got a reason why you might want this too.
Mactracker has been a long standing indispensable reference tool on the Mac to look up the specs for all the various Mac hardware that Apple has released over the years. It’s a great tool especially when you’re in the market for a used Mac or selling your Mac and you or your customer wants the specs. Well now that tool comes to your iPhone or iPod touch. Just like the desktop version, Mactracker for the iPhone is organized by category and then by Mac type.
So lets say you wanted to know the specs on the 20″ iMac G5 with iSight camera. You would first scroll up to Desktops (assuming you had scrolled down to see what was there) and then you’d tap on iMac. There you see every iMac model since the first Bondi Blue introduced back in 1998.
Once you scrolled down to iMac G5 (20-Inch iSight) and tapped on it, you would then see all the important information. Things like when it was introduced and when it was discontinued. Processor speed, latest Mac OS that it could run, maximum amount of RAM that you could put in it and all the info about Expansion, Ports, Graphics, and even the famous audible “Startup Chime” feature.
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Mactracker, it’s not just about Macs
Let’s say you are a Windows user, but you have an iPhone, iPod, AirPort Base Station, Apple Display, or Apple TV. You guessed it! That stuff is in there too. So if you were selling or buying any other Apple gear, this would be a useful tool to have.
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The Bottom Line
Having Mactracker on my iPhone is GREAT! I love the instant access to the specs about machines that I’ll never remember or care to remember. Although the App works as advertised and best of all it’s FREE, like most things there is some room for improvement. I was actually quite surprised that there was no option to email the specs page of a specific machine. Don’t get me wrong, I know that the desktop app doesn’t have this either, but it seems like such a natural for the iPhone version. I’d also like to see an “I have that” section. This way I could go through the database finding all my gear and mark it as a Favorite or “I have that” and then whenever, I wanted/needed to know the specs of a Mac or piece of Apple gear that I owned I could just go right to that section. Otherwise this app is great! I highly recommend it!
P.S. If you’ve ever wondered about some of the apps Apple features in their iPhone TV ads, they’ve put theme all in one spot for you. Check them out here.
This is a bitter sweet kinda review. So let me get to it. When the iPhone 2.0 update came out last year and the iPhone was open to 3rd party app development, one of the main apps on my wishlist way back then was a SlingPlayer Mobile app. After all Sling Media had produced mobile versions of their player for other mobile platforms and the iPhone seemed like a natural for this kind of app. So I waited. Then I thought my dream might actually come true. I actually got to play with an early Alpha fo the SlingPlayer Mobile app back in January at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. The app was beautiful with a nice translucent display for onscreen buttons. I started getting really excited until I heard those words. They said, “well we’re just about ready to begin the submission process to Apple.” That’s when it dawned upon me that even though this app was being developed, that doesn’t mean that it will actually make its way into the hands of users. Unlike most other mobile device platforms, Apple has to approve every app submitted for the App Store. So there’s always a chance that the app could be rejected. Back in late March, the news broke that SlingPlayer Mobile app had been submitted to the App Store for approval. The approval process takes about a week on average. When two weeks went by, I knew that there was trouble in paradise. Something was wrong. Another week went by and I had pretty much assumed that this thing would never see the light of day. I had a suspicion that the problem was not with Apple, but with AT&T. AT&T has recently been reemphasizing their polices on streaming data and bandwidth to wireless devices. The SlingPlayer certainly would violate this policy. Even though they later came back and said that the update was released in error, the writing was on the wall. So it was no surprise to me that when the SlingPlayer Mobile App finally got released this week that the ability to stream video over 3G networks was removed.
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It’s finally here! SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone
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What’s a SlingBox and SlingPlayer?
To save time, if you have no idea what a SlingPlayer is and why you’d want one, go read my review of the Slingbox Pro here. Go ahead and read it now. We’ll wait…..
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How well does the SlingPlayer Mobile App for iPhone work?
Now that we’ve gotten past all of the politics (well not quite, but let’s put that on hold for a sec) and what a Slingbox/Player is, let me concentrate on the app itself. The idea of the SlingPlayer and SlingPlayer Mobile app is that you can watch your TV (DVR, DVD player, Apple TV, basically any video source you have connected to the Slingbox) on the go. I LOVE the ability to watch recorded shows from my DVR anywhere I happen to be as long as I have my laptop and internet connection. The SlingPlayer Mobile app promises to give you that same capability on your iPhone or iPod touch. It’s great to have this ability when you find yourself with some down time or sitting in a waiting room somewhere. Plug in your headphones, fire up the SlingPlayer Mobile App and using the on screen remote control interface you can change channels, switch sources and watch recorded shows from your DVR.
My DVR of choice is the TiVo HD. I have Comcast cable and I do have one Comcast (Motorola) DVR. This is the DVR that I have my SlingBox Pro connected to. Why not connect it to one of the TiVo HDs? There’s a reason that I have it connected to the Comcast box instead of my favorite DVRs. When you use a SlingPlayer to watch your TV/DVR remotely, you are physically controlling that DVR in real-time. So whatever you do will be seen by the people in your home if that TV happens to be on. So as to not disrupt the TV viewing for the rest of my family, I put the SlingBox Pro on the DVR that no one likes to use. Yep, that’d be the Comcast box in my office. This way I can have it to myself when I’m on the road.
I downloaded the SlingPlayer Mobile app the minute it became available (something like 1AM my time). I wanted to see how well it worked and of course tell you about it as well. The app works great! I haven’t had a single issue yet. When I first fired it up, it requested that I log into to my Sling account online. I hadn’t actually set up an online account yet, but I did right there on the spot. Took just a couple of seconds to get going.
Once I had my account setup the app/site found my Slingbox and I was watching live TV! Wow! It works! I don’t really have much interest in watching live TV, so of course the next thing I wanted to see was my DVR. The integration was right on the money. I pressed the onscreen DVR button and it sent the proper commands to my DVR to bring up the list of recorded shows. I was able to easily navigate to a show and start playing it. Again, it just worked as advertised. Although I don’t really use the SlingPlayer to watch live TV, I wanted to test these features too. So I setup my “Favorites” buttons so that I could switch to any of my favorite channels with the press of a button. It worked fine.
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What could be better?
This is 4:3 content while the player is set to the widescreen mode. If it's set to the 4:3 mode, the content will fill the screen top to bottom.
The one thing I noticed is that I can’t ever seem to get the video to fill the screen. If I watch 4×3 content I can set it to letterbox it. However, if I watch 16:9 widescreen content, there doesn’t seem to be a way to zoom in on it (even if I’m willing to crop some off) to see it fill the screen from edge to edge. Apple allows this in the iPod app. I would like to see this in the SlingPlayer app as well. Although the remote functions well, there will be a few second delay from the time you press a button until the results are displayed. You have to remember that it’s sending these commands over the internet and then via IR to your device. So give it a sec.
Bonus Tip: Since you have control of your DVR via this app, there’s nothing stopping you from using this as a remote control to schedule recordings too.
I can’t ignore the elephant in the room. As great as this app is, the single biggest frustration is that it only works over a Wi-Fi connection. If you’re an iPod touch user, you’re used to this. So it’s probably no big deal. However, if you’re an iPhone user, it may be a deal breaker. It means that you’ll only be able to stream content from your TV source or DVR when you’re connected to Wi-Fi and not over the 3G network. Argggggh! So close, but so far.
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The Bottom Line
Here’s the thing with this app, it works as advertised. However, I can’t ignore the biggest problem and that is it’s been crippled by AT&T restrictions and doesn’t not allowed to work over a 3G cellular network. It only works over a Wi-Fi connection. While it’s easy to blame AT&T for this restriction, there is one thing that Sling Media could have done to soften the blow and that is lower the price! I don’t have a problem paying $29.99 for a SlingPlayer Mobile app (heck I just did). However, I do have a problem paying the SAME price as every other version of the SlingPlayer Mobile app (for BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile, Symbian, etc.) and not being able to watch over the SAME 3G network as all the other players do. Think about it! If I go buy a BlackBerry from AT&T, I can buy the SlingPlayer Mobile App for BlackBerry and watch TV over AT&T’s 3G network. Granted, it’s probably in violation of the small print in the agreement I would sign, but there would be nothing stopping me from doing it technically. If caught, AT&T would be within their right to suspend my account. I’m not advocating breaking the rules. I’m just using this as an example.
This is not the first app crippled by AT&T. Remember, it wasn’t long ago that Skype shipped their iPhone app and like the SlingPlayer for iPhone, it only works over Wi-Fi.
Bandwidth abuse or overuse is a legitimate concern especially when you know that your network can’t handle the hit. If you’ve been to the last two Macworld Expos you’ve witnessed AT&T’s data network brought to its knees by the sheer volume of iPhone users simply checking email and surfing the web. Each year after the Apple keynote you could forget about using your iPhone to do anything data related on AT&T’s network. Nothing but gridlock. Streaming video/audio takes way more bandwidth than email and web surfing. AT&T is concerned that thousands or hundreds of thousands of SlingPlayer users suddenly streaming video for hours on end would be a significant impact to all their users. They’re probably right!
I have read many of the angry comments in protest of this and people are saying that they refuse to buy the app without 3G support. Frankly, I don’t blame them. Yes, I know that software development costs money. Remember, I work for a software developer? I know that Sling’s hands were tied over the whole 3G issue, but they are the ones that set the price. Why should we be asked to pay the same price for our app that doesn’t have the same functionality of the same apps on every other mobile platform that this app is available for? So there I’ve said what many of you have been wanting to hear. I agree with you!
The SlingPlayer Mobile app (Wi-Fi) is available for the iPhone and iPod touch for $29.99 from the App Store. I don’t think I need to say it, but just in case: you will also need a Slingbox connected to at least one video/audio source in order to take advantage of the app. Need a Slingbox? The Slingbox Pro HD is here for $234.80 (List Price $299).
Sling Media has done a very good job coding this app. If they lowered the price OR if AT&T would allow it to work over 3G it would be a must have for every Slingbox user out there.
As we enter the official summer blockbuster movie season I’m relying more and more on the apps on my iPhone to give the latest and greatest movie info and showtimes. I’ve choosen “Movies” by Flixter as my iPhone App of the Week this week because it seems to the closest app to offering all the things I want. You would think it wouldn’t be that hard to come up with a movie showtimes app, but I’ve got 3-4 of them on my iPhone at any given time. That’s because each one offers something that the others don’t offer or each one has a better user interface in one area or another.
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Here’s what I want…
show times – this is the main reason for the app! So I want to launch it and get to the showtimes for the movie I want to see as quickly as possible. I hate it when an app makes you click through an ad to get to this info. I’d rather just pay for the app then to have to deal with ads that get in the way of functionality. Also only list times that haven’t happened yet for that day. Don’t show movie times that have past.
ratings/rankings – I need know what the movie is rated (G, PG, PG-13, R, etc.). It’s also nice to see how it’s rated/ranked by those who have seen it already.
Location based – of course the app needs to take advantage of Location Services. If I’m traveling, I want to know about the movies playing around me.
Favorite theater – when I’m not traveling, I go to the same theater about 99.9% of the time. So I really just need to know quickly what time is the movie that I want to see playing at my Favorite/Default theater.
Trailers – Movie trailers are nice if they are fast. Half the time I get bored waiting for the trailer to load. Chances are I’ve already decided on the movie I want to see anyway. So trailers are cool, but not a deal breaker.
Little to no Ads – Like I said above, given a choice of ads or pay for the app, I’d opt to pay for the app not to have to see the ads. I know that free apps are often subsidized by the advertising in them, but unless the ad is a banner ad that doesn’t get in the way of how the app works, I’d just rather not have them period. Whatever you do don’t make me have to watch a full screen ad before I can get to the info that the app provides. That really grinds me the wrong way!
Map to theater/directions – If I’m on the road, having a link directly to built-in Maps app is key. This way I can not only see the closest theater, but also see how to get there from where I’m at.
Buy tickets – oddly enough there’s only one app (Fandang0) that supports buying tickets at my closest/favorite theater. The other apps allow for ticket purchases, just not at my theater. Buying tickets via the app is nice, but what would really make me use this feature a lot more is if there was a way to buy the tickets online via the app and either print them or email them to my computer for printing. I would love to print the movie tickets before leaving the house and just go straight to the ticket taker person.
Add movies to my Netflix queue – Usually when I’m sitting there before the movie starts I’m watching the trailers for other movies that are coming out. Many times I’ll see a movie that I’d like to see, but know that I won’t see it in the theaters. So I like to add it to my Netfilx Queue right then and there while I’m thinking about it.
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Bonus Features/Nice to haves – these are not deal breakers, but nice to have features:
email show times to friends – if you’re going to the movies with friends, it would be nice to either email or SMS the movie times so that you can all pick a time and meet up at the theater. If you’re going to have this feature, I guess you’ll also need the ability to email the map/directions to the theater too.
See upcoming movie/DVD releases – It’s nice to be able to see what movies are coming to the theaters or DVD/Blu-ray on which dates/weeks.
Facebook, Twitter integration – usually after I see a movie, I want to either tell people how great it was or how much it sucked! So having the ability to rate the movie and instantly post that rating on Twitter and/or Facebook is a plus.
Concession Stand Ordering – How cool would it be to also place your food order (fill out the mortgage app first) before getting to the theater so that you can just pick it up when you arrive and walk straight in with your printed tickets too.
So out of all the things I want above, Movies comes the closest and seems to be the one I tap on first most times. I just fired it up to see how quickly I could get to the show times for Star Trek at my favorite theater. The first thing it hit me with was the option to play the trailer:
When I hit “Skip” it took me to the Box Office Screen to show the list of movies Opening this Week. Star Trek was at the top of the list. Cool, but I already know the movie I want (Star Trek) and I know which theater I want to see it at.
So I taped the Theaters button and my favorite theater is at the top of the list (good!)
I tapped my favorite theater and then it showed the list of showtimes and I scrolled down until I found Star Trek.
Mission Accomplished! However, call me silly, but shouldn’t I be able to set a default that just takes me right to this screen every time I launch the app? I mean after all, I’m usually going to the same theater when I do go to the movies. I usually know what I want to see and I’m really just launching the app to see what times the movie is playing? That’s how this app could be better! That’s how all of the movie apps could be better. Let me set my landing page and let me get there with one tap! Before these apps were available I used to use a Web Clip to the mobile Fandango site for my theater and son of a gun, it launched Safari and took me right to the page for my theater listing the current times. I want the native apps to do the same thing. Then if I want to do more like see trailers, see other theaters, see other movies, etc. I can choose to do those things. Just for kicks I recreated my Web Clip for my favorite theater and timed how long it would take to get me right to the times for Star Trek. It was on screen in about 7 seconds. I had to tap one more button to get to the next page where the Star Trek movie was listed. Otherwise it would have been more like 5 seconds.
Fandango Mobile Site in Safari
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The Bottom Line
Like I said, Movies is probably the app I use the most. But it’s not the only App I use because there are other apps on my iPhone that do some things better. I do recommend Movies as it’s the most popular and closest to everything I want. However, I also recommend looking at iTV (more than just movie listing and offers Netflix management and TiVo scheduling too. iTV is a KILLER app and it would be my first choice if it were faster. I use it more for TV listings which is what it really excells at!), OneTap Movies, which was my first favorite movie app and Fandango, which has a ways to go in the interface and features department, but it’s the only one that actually lets me buy tickets at MY theater.
All of the Apps I mentioned above are FREE and therefore you should try them all out and see which one you like best. Perhaps at the end of the day I’d use a web clip to quickly get to show times and the Movies app for everything else.
Have you ever said, “gee, I wonder how much the houses cost in this area?” Well if you have, you will LOVE this app. Zillow is a real estate data app that simply blew me away. It’s location based, so you don’t have to enter addresses. Simply fire it up, wait a few seconds for it to acquire your location and you will start to see the houses in your immediate vicinity appear on the map with little price tags above them. Now of course this data is only as good as the real estate databases out there and don’t take into account for any recent modifications, renovations or disasters. However, it will definitely give you a feel for whether or not the houses you’re eying are in your price range or not.
WARNING: Depression Alert!
I live in Michigan, which has one of if not the worst economies in the country. So I don’t recommend running this app on your own house/neighborhood if you live in this area (or a similar area) or you just may wind up on the floor in the fetal position or reaching for your gun. Houses all around me are going for a fraction of what they cost a year or two ago. It’s definitely a buyers market. Sigh…
How well does it work?
Since I’m on an iPhone 3G with an actually GPS in it, my location was very accurate. In most cases it put me on the map exactly where I was in my car. I drove to a relatively new development (built in the last 4 years) and I was really curious to see what those homes were now going for. Again, not pretty, but good info.
The Zillow app has both standard Map and Hybrid (satellite) views. There’s also a handy List view for viewing the properties by address. As you might expect the app will also tell you if a house is for sale or not (aren’t just about all houses for sale if you offer enough money?). Once you find a house that you want to drill down on you simply tap right on it and you’ll see the address and basic specs like number of bedrooms and baths as well as the estimated value. Tap again and you’ll get a more detailed listing including charts and price range that that house has fluctuated in. You can also see when the house was built, square footage of the lot and the house, and the property taxes. I was also impressed by how the map scrolled as I drove and the GPS updated my position. Pretty neat.
You can also simply enter an address in the search field. I’m surprised that there is no tie to the Contacts app for a quick look up of your friend’s…….never mind.
The Bottom Line
This is simply a cool app! Even if you’re not in the market for a house (I’m not), it’s still fun to play with. Who knows, if the right deal were to come along it may change your mind about staying where you are? Although this app works both on the iPhone and the iPod touch, I can’t see it being as useful on the touch in situations when you wouldn’t have a wi-fi connection to look up the data.
If you use Flickr.com and you have an iPhone/iPod touch, then you’re going to want this app! It is by far the best app I’ve seen to date to browse and upload to Flickr.
Not only does it let you bowse your own photos, it can use your current location to show you photos that were taken nearby by others.
I’ve used other apps that let me upload to various services. However, this one is great in that it lets you properly tag the photo and pick the photo set you want it uploaded to before you actually upload it. You can also use Mobile Fotos to view videos on Flickr. I haven’t played with this as I don’t have any videos on Flickr yet, nor do any of my friends. Currently videos are limited to 90 seconds and 500MB on Flickr. So for now I’ll stick with YouTube.
Uploading
One of the main reasons I use Mobile Fotos is to upload snapshots I’ve taken with my iPhone. The upload feature is the most full featured uploader I’ve ever seen in any iPhone app. It let’s you use every option available for Flickr just as if you were uploading from your computer. You can choose a Title Description, Tags, Set (including creating a new Set on the fly), Group, Location, Privacy settings, Safety Level, Content Type, whether or not the photos hould be Hidden and Resolution. Yep, it’s full featured and this should be the model for all apps that let you upload to a photo service. Even Apple’s built-in upload to MobileMe could learn a few tricks here and seems anemic by comparison.
It Geotags too
Monument Valley shot
One of my favorite features of Flickr is that it automatically adds your photos to the Yahoo map if they contain location information (longitude & latitude). Of course when you take a picture with your iPhone’s camera you have the option of including location information. Mobile Fotos uses that location information and includes it in the upload.
Not always about you
You can also tap the Contacts icon to see the latest and greatest shots of your Flickr Friends. This really allows you to not only share your photos quickly and easily as they happen, but also to see what’s going on with your friends and family that also use Flickr. You also browse your Flickr groups!
The Bottom Line
There’s not much else I can say! This app totally rocks and does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It’s easy to use, full featured and works great. If you use Flickr, this is your app! Mobile Fotos is $2.99 and available at the App Store here.
