Category: iPod/iTunes

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My Top 10 Favorite iPhone Apps of 2008

While it’s certainly no secret that I’m a fan of the iPhone, I’m starting to become even more of a fan of the amazing 3rd party apps out there for the iPhone (and in most cases for the iPod touch). I currently have 69 3rd party apps installed. I’ve actually downloaded/purchased more than that. However, the 69 ones that I have currently installed are the ones that are my favorites and that I use on a regular basis. Each week I get exposed to more and more new apps and my favorites are always changing. So out of those 69, which are my absolute favorites? Which ones can’t I live without? If the iPhone was suddenly limited to only 10 3rd party apps, which would I keep? Here are my Top 10 Favorite iPhone Apps of 2008:

 

#1 i.TV

FREE

itv

Although this was already a great app when I first reviewed it, it just keeps getting better. The latest update practically eliminated two other apps I was using and added a feature that I’ve been waiting for since day one and that’s the ability to remotely schedule my TiVo HD to record shows from anywhere I happen to be. i.TV is a TV listing, Movie listing, Netflix queue manager (search for a movie and you can either see the show times for it or add it to your Netflix queue), and now TiVo scheduler all it one! It’s an amazing app and it’s FREE (yes, it does display ads). 

Download

 

#2 Remote

FREE

remote

Remote is one of Apple’s apps. This App turns your iPhone/iPod touch into a Wi-Fi remote for iTunes running on your Mac or PC and your Apple TV. Change songs, switch playlists, control which Airtunes speakers the music will play from and even use the iPhone’s keyboard when you need to type things on the Apple TV like passwords, searches, etc. Very well done and definitely one of my favorites.

Download

 

#3 Say Who-Dialer

FREE

saywhodialer

I’ve tried to use various voice recognition technology through the years and most of it has been a disaster when it comes to recognizing MY voice. However, Say Who-Dialer does an amazing job in letting me say the name of the person I want to dial AND the particular number for that contact I want. ie. “Bruce Mandel Mobile”. It’s gets it right 99% of the time for me.

Download

 

#4 AroundMe

FREE

aroundme

I’m not sure how I missed this one earlier. AroundMe is one of those location based apps that tells you (by category) what’s near your current location. Need the closest coffee shop, bank, gas station, etc. While that’s not really too amazing, this one does one thing that I haven’t seen in the rest. It actually has a feature that I’m shocked Apple hasn’t done yet as a separate app. It will tell you where your closest Apple Store is. This is a GREAT app for travelers!

Download

 

#5 Accuweather

FREE

accuweather

If you’ve been following my “iPhone App of the Week” posts each Friday, then you know that this was last week’s pick. It is by far the best weather App I’ve used to date! I’ve even moved it to the main Home screen in place of Apple’s Weather App.

Download

 

#6  Mobile Banking

FREE

mobilebanking

If you’re a Bank of America customer, then this app is a MUST HAVE. Not only does it let me check my balances of all my BOA accounts, but it lets me transfer funds and even find the closest BOA ATM or branch. I hate paying ATM fees!

Download

 

#7 ToDo

$9.99

todo

I’ve tried the free ones and others that cost too and my favorite task manager is “ToDo”. I like it because the UI is simple, yet powerful. It has all the features I want in a task manager without being overly complex. It works the way I do. I rely on this app all the time.

Download

 

#8 SuperBall 2

$1.99

superball2

I have a few games on my iPhone and it was really a toss up between this one and my Blackjack game. However, SuperBall 2 for me has been the most addictive and once I finished the free version, I had to have more! With this game, I’m never bored when I have to stand in a line or have some time to kill.

Download

 

#9 Facebook

FREE

facebook

I’ve been dabbling in social networking this year and have settled on Facebook to keep tabs on friends and family. So having a native Facebook app on my iPhone is very nice. This app now in its second major release has been great. There is one major thing missing though. While it’s easy to see photos, upload photos, see/write on your friend’s wall(s), etc., the one thing that seems to be missing is the ability to send a friend request right from the iPhone. I find this to be odd. I can accept friend requests, but can’t initiate them. On more than one occasion I have been standing with friends only to discover that they are on Facebook and have to wait to I get back to my computer to add them. Otherwise, it’s a great app and if you use Facebook, it’s a must!

Download

 

#10 BigTipper

$1.99

bigtipper

A tip calculator? Is this really necessary and wow, it cost money? Necessary? probably not. However, I just love the way that this one is designed. I’m a sucker for a well thought out UI and on those occasions when I’m not going to tip 20%, it’s great to have. I use this all the time. It’s the best one I’ve seen to date.

Download

 

Missing in Action!

We saw a lot of progress in less than 6 months time! Although I have a lot of favorite iPhone apps, there was one that I was hoping for that we didn’t see in 2008 and that was a native Slingbox App for the iPhone. Nor did we see a native Sirius/XM radio app. Of course I’d like to see the iPhone itself updated with Cut/Copy/Paste, Flash, MMS messaging, video recording and more. Hopefully we’ll see these things and more in 2009! Happy New Year!

 

Also be sure to check out Time Magazine’s Top 10 iPhone apps of 2008. We clearly have different tastes 🙂

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iPhone App of the Week – iWant

There are quite a few iPhone apps that try to be your one stop shop for all the businesses around you that you may want to go to. While I have tried many of them, for some reason I keep coming back to iWant. iWant is a location based app that allows you to quickly find the closest restaurants, bars, cafes, grocery stores, drug stores, clothing stores, movie theaters/show times, hotels, department stores, banks, gas stations and car rental places.

 

How well does it work?

The interface is quite simple. Nice big icons that cover each of the above categories. Once you tap a category it will start to display all of the businesses around your current location based on the category you tapped on. It seems to do a pretty good job of finding just about every business I could think of around me in each given category except for the banks. There are three Bank of America banks nearby and it didn’t list any of them. There is a Comerica bank about a block away and it didn’t find that one either. Not sure if there is some brand preference going on or not, but it doesn’t find every business in every category. Even with this shortfall I still like it as I’ve found the same limitation in the other apps I’ve tried as well.

 

A couple of added benefits

Once you tap on a business, you get to see the address and of course the phone number which you can tap to dial. You also get to see it on the built-in Google Map app for easy directions to if from where you are. The Action menu at the bottom of the screen allows you to email your current location to anyone you like and it will automatically generate a link with your coordinates. This is cool when you are unfamiliar with the area and you’re trying to explain where you are. You also have a built-in option to email the developer. I wish more apps included this ability. You can also easily control the search radius with a slider.

 

The Bottom Line

It’s hard to go wrong with this app. It’s easy to use, it’s fast and best of all it’s FREE! Download it from the App Store now.

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iPhone App of the Week – Arcade Hoops

After a long week of meetings I can use a little down time. I don’t want to have to think, I don’t want productivity, I just want some good ole fashioned arcade fun! That’s where Arcade Hoops comes in. This iPhone/iPod touch game tries to replicate the arcade/pizza place experience of making as many baskets as you can in the allotted time. It’s a heck of a lot easier than the real thing. Probably a little more fun too and it certainly costs less to play.

It’s all in your finger. You use your finger to flick the balls to the basket. There are two modes: Classic Game and Progressive Game. I like the Progressive game because it keeps getting harder by doing things like moving the basket further away. Very well done.

This is a great casual game when you just want to have fun! So far no crashes or issues. Arcade Hoops goes for $1.99 and is available from the App Store here:
Skyworks

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iPhone App of the Week – Google Mobile App

You might be wondering, “why do I need a Google app on my iPhone? Isn’t Google built-in?” I wondered the same thing. The first time I downloaded the Google Mobile App a couple of months back, it was because the built-in Contacts app was soooooo slow at searching Contacts that I used the Google Mobile App instead. Once Apple brought acceptable speed back to the Contacts app via software updates, I deleted the Google Mobile App. Recently I put the app back on. I was intrigued by the New Voice Search. Although I love voice recognition technology, it usually doesn’t work very well for me. It usually takes 3-6 tries to get the device/app to recognize what I’m trying to say. I have voice recognition in my car and almost never use it for this reason. So I decided to give this App a try just for fun. Although it’s not perfect with my voice, it does work more times than not. Of course you don’t have to use the voice feature at all. You can just key in your search words as you would expect.

 

Why do I need the Google Mobile App? Isn’t Google built-in to the iPhone?

Beyond the new voice recognition capabilities, you’re probably still wondering why you need the Google Mobile App? It’s simple. The built-in Google search in Safari and Google maps are good! I use them all the time. However, they only search the internet. The Google Mobile App searches your iPhone data (Contacts) and the internet at the same time. Beyond that it offers suggestions and word completion for what it thinks you’re searching for. Although Apple did speed up Contact searching, the Google Mobile App is still faster. The Google Mobile App also keeps a history of your searches to make it easy to do the same searches again. Another thing that sets the Google Mobile App apart from the built-in Google search in Safari is that it’s Location Aware. This means that you can do searches for things around you. Yes the Google Maps can do this for businesses, etc., but it’s not as comprehensive as all that would be available to you searching the full Google Search Engine.

Searching for Showtimes in the Google Maps App that’s built-in to the iPhone just brought up a nearby theater.

If you’re a user of other Google services such as GMAIL, Notebook, Calendar, etc. You’ll have quick access to those services too.

Don’t get too excited. These apps are Google’s web based apps and open in Safari. They are not native iPhone apps.

 

How does the voice feature work?

Google recorded this cool demonstration. See it for yourself:

 

The Bottom Line

I like this app a lot. I really like the voice feature although it’s not perfect at recognizing my voice. It’s really cool just to speak your search and have it done. I like that it searches my Contacts at the same time it searches the web, but I wish it also searched my calendars too. It would be MUCH faster than having to scroll through looking for an appointment. As a matter of fact the Calendar app should have its own search feature like the Contacts app. It would be great if the Google Mobile App could search both at the same time. That being said, this app is FREE so it’s hard for me to complain about it. It does what it was built to do and does it well.

The Google Mobile App is FREE and available for both the iPhone and iPod touch. Download it from the App Store here: Google Mobile App

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iPhone App of the Week – iChoose

Having a problem making a decision? Thinking of flipping a coin and going with chance? If that’s how you roll, then iChoose is your app. This isn’t just your basic coin flipping app. iChoose has got it all: Coin Toss, Yes/No, Dice Roll, Card Choice, Boy/Girl, Weather, Quit/Stay (in these economic times STAY!), Loves Me/Loves Me Not, and even Rock, Paper, Scissors. The latest version even comes with a random number generator, which you can set the range for in the preferences. 

Does this app solve the problems of the world? No, but it does make being on the fence regarding a decision a lot more fun. Check it out in the App Store. It’s FREE and works on the iPhone and the iPod touch. Download it here.

 

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iPhone App of the Week – SuperBall 2

Time to have some fun! 

While I certainly love picking from the hundreds if not thousands of iPhone apps (there are now over 5,000 apps on the App Store) that increase my productivity, I do like to have fun every now and then. That leads me to my new addiction: SuperBall 2! This game is like crack. Once you start playing it, you just won’t be able to stop. This game is like a mix between the old pong games and Breakout. You control it using the built-in iPhone (or iPod touch) accelerometer. So you move the paddle side-to-side by tilting the device.

I started with the FREE version: SuperBall 2 Lite. This free version has 10 levels. Not bad at all for a free game. I must say that I absolutely SUCKED at this game at first. It took me a long time to even get pass the first level. Then I finally got the hang of it. After I got the hang of it, I wanted MORE! So I didn’t hesitate to head over to the App Store and buy the full version which sports 300 LEVELS plus a dozen two player levels! I was also pleased to see it on sale for only $1.99. Game play is good and the variety of activities/levels is also good. The sound effects are well done. Also no crashes. 

With an iPhone, you never have any reason to be bored. Now I won’t mind waiting in long lines on November 4th to cast my vote in the general election. I’ll have something make the time fly. I better start reviewing some of those external batteries 🙂

You can download the FREE version of SuperBall 2 Lite or the full version of SuperBall 2 for $1.99. These work on the iPhone or the iPod touch.

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iPhone App of the Week – i.TV

I never thought I would get excited about a TV guide app on my iPhone. However, if it’s well done and FAST, then I’m all in and that’s exactly what you get with i.TV. i.TV answers the question: "what’s coming on tonight?" The app is pretty straight forward. You start off by telling it where you are. Although the App supports location services, I still ended up putting in my Zip Code. Once I did, I got the choices for the providers in my area including Comcast Cable which is what I use most. As soon as a I made that my choice, that app started downloading the guide. I was on Wi-Fi at the time so the guide only took a few seconds to download. Once It was there, I could not only see the channels, but also little thumbnails for the shows that were currently on.

Great customization options

The one thing that is a must have in an app like this is the ability to narrow the list of channels down to just the ones YOU care about. I could care less about what’s on HGTV or the QVC channel. One quick trip to the "My Media" screen and I was able to edit down the list of channels to just the ones I watch.

 

But wait, there’s more

Not only do you get the listings for the shows, you also get a synopsis of the upcoming episode as well as a listing of upcoming episodes. If you register for an account on their site (free and optional), then you also get the ability to write reviews and give ratings.

Although there currently is no way to watch the show live on your iPhone, you can watch previews as well as see available photos from the show. There’s also a great search feature and the ability to see your listings by genre.

 

There are a couple of bugs

The first thing I noticed is that a few of my channels were missing! For example ABC HD in my area is on channel 231. NBC HD is 232, etc. Channels 231-234 and channel 300 (HBO) were simply not there. This wasn’t a big deal since the non HD equivalents were there (except for HBO). It was just weird that it choose not to show these channels. Perhaps on the next data update, they will appear.

This app also has a Movies/Theater option. Although my Zip Code and Country have been entered correctly, i.TV insists on showing me movies and theaters in Puerto Rico. I already have a great movies app (One Tap Movies), so I really don’t care about this feature not working, but it would be nice if this app could do both TV and Movie listings for me.  These aren’t show stopper bugs, but let’s hope the developer gets this stuff worked out soon.

 

My wishes for the next version

Other than fixing the bugs I noticed, I would pay money if this app could also schedule recordings on my TiVo HD. I know that the developer has no control over this, but I wish that either TiVo would release their own app or partner with these guys to add this functionality since their app already does everything else I would need.

 

The Bottom Line

i.TV is FREE. It’s got a couple of minor glitches (at least I ran into a couple, your mileage may vary), but they are definitely off to a GREAT start! It’s also faster than going to web based TV listing especially for jumping to a specific time or day, so it’s definitely worth a try. i.TV works on both the iPhone and iPod touch. You can download it here.

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Apple TV finally gets Video Playlists!

Although I’m a fan of Apple TV, one of my biggest pet peeves is that there was no way to play music videos back to back. This made no sense to me at all. I think it’s cool that if you’re throwing a party or just having a few friends over that you could not only have music playing in the background, but also the music videos themselves. Some music videos also make for good entertainment and conversation pieces.

Well Apple finally fixed this in the most recent Apple TV software update. Not only did they add Genius Playlist support (new in iTunes 8), but they also quietly added the ability to not only play videos back to back, but also shuffle them as well.

You can build music video playlists in iTunes just like you do music playlists. As a matter of fact you can even mix the two. This way you could create a mix of your favorite songs and throw in the music videos you have without worrying about be limited to just music videos.

While we’re on this subject of fixing things, the next thing on my list is support for the iTunes visualizer. I’m still stunned that Apple doesn’t include this in the Apple TV. I guess as a work around you could record it with a screen recorder app (such as iShowU) and then add it to your library as a video and play it that way, but it’s just not the same. This feature should be built-in to the Apple TV, iPhone and iPods.

 

Movie Rentals Appearing Sooner

I also noticed that Apple is getting some movie rentals quicker than others. I remember being very disappointed when Steve Jobs touted the iTunes movie rental feature and then said that they would get titles to rent 30 DAYS after they made their debut on DVD. That pretty much killed it for me. I was thinking "long live Netflix!" However, I see that they are getting some titles at the same time that they come out on DVD/Blu-ray for rent.

For example, "The Happening" just came out yesterday and it’s now available on the iTunes store for rent as well.

If this trend continues, it could sway me away from Netflix. We’ll just have to wait and see.

 

The Bottom Line

The Apple TV continues to get better with each update. It has become an essential component in my home theater setup. Apple TV starts at $224 (40GB version) at Amazon.com.

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iPhone App of the Week – EmailContact AND vCard Mailer

It never fails for me. I’ll ask one of my friends something like, "do you know a good carpenter?" Of course the answer usually is something like "yeah, I got a guy." Well I get asked for recommendations all the time. If you have someone that’s good enough to recommend, chances are that person or business is in your Contacts list. My problem with the iPhone since day one is that there was never a way to easily share a Contact with someone. So needless to say, I was pretty happy to see some apps on the App Store that actually allow you to email a contact to someone. That leads me to this week’s iPhone App of the Week:

 

 

EmailContact

This app allows you to select one of your contacts and email it to someone. That’s pretty much it! It converts the Contact’s info into text and puts it into the body of the message. What’s nice is that you also have the option of turning on/off various fields that you want sent or don’t want sent. For example, I sometimes put notes on my Contact records that are personal to me. So I wouldn’t want the Note field to be sent. No problem, just turn off the Note field. Or maybe you want to send the work phone number, but not the home phone. That’s not a problem either.

Like I said and show above with the first screen capture, EmailContact sends the Contact information for the Contact that you select, as text. So the recipient is going to receive the information as text in the body of the email. It would be nice if this app offered the option to also send the Contact info as a vCard.

 

Sadly it doesn’t, but I do have an app that does. So this week you get two iPhone app recommendations for one. I also use an app called vCard Mailer. vCard Mailer works very similarly to EmailContact, except that it sends a vCard attachment instead of text. So it really depends on what you want to send (text or vCard)? For me it depends on why I’m sending the info and who I’m sending it to. Just the other day one of my friends needed the phone number for someone that we both knew. Since the iPhone doesn’t yet have Cut/Copy/Paste, I wasn’t able to just copy the phone number to an email. So I used EmailContact to send the info that he needed. Next my wife asked me for the address of a friend of ours and I knew that she would want to put all of this particular friend’s info in her Address Book, so I sent her a vCard using vCard Mailer. This way she could just double click on the attached vCard and automatically import it into her Address Book.

 

The Bottom Line

Both of these apps are necessary because neither app does what the other one does. Could you get by with one or the other? Sure. However, if you want the option to send text OR vCards then you’re gonna need both. The good news is that they are both economically priced. EmailContact goes for 99¢ and vCard Mailer goes for $1.99. Both apps work on either the iPhone or iPod touch.

 

 

 

Bonus App of the Week – Obama ’08

OK, so now I’m going to recommend a 3rd app to take a look at. Let me start by saying that I recognize that you may or may not support Obama for president. So please don’t respond with comments on how much you love or hate him (I’ll just delete them anyway). I’m not interested in your political views just like you’re probably not interested in mine.

My point for talking about this app is that I’m impressed with the use of the technology! This app allows you to get news about the Obama campaign, see videos and even find your local Obama headquarters based on your current location (it uses Location services). There’s even a feature (Call Friends) that displays YOUR contacts in order by the battleground states (that they are in) that Obama needs to win the most so that you can call your friends and persuade them to vote. Pretty innovative, although I’m not sure that I would feel comfortable calling all my friends and trying to tell them "how" they should vote (just like I don’t want them trying to tell me how I should vote), but it’s a cool feature nonetheless. Republican or Democrat, this app is cool and very well done. Whether you support Obama or not, you should check it out from a technology stand point. I think this app could be the model for a lot of other apps that could provide similar info/features for celebrities and organizations. Get the Free Obama ’08 app here. Works with both the iPhone and iPod touch.

Although I don’t care which way you vote, I do encourage EVERYONE to get out and VOTE! This is one of the most important elections of our time!

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iPhone App of the Week – Dashbuster

My pick for this week’s iPhone app of the week is Dashbuster! Dashbuster is an app for the iPhone and iPod touch that allows you to manage either your Netflix or Blockbuster (or both) movie queues. I’ve been a Netflix junkie for years! I usually have no less than about 80-90 movies in my queue at all times. Netflix just makes it so painless to rent movies and they started the whole “keep it as long as you want with no late fees” thing, which was perfect for me.

 

Why use this app to manage your queue?

Since I’m into to movies, the conversation usually comes up at some point when I’m talking with friends, family and colleagues about favorite movies or movies that they’ve recently seen that were good. The problem is, I’m never gonna remember the names of those movies. Now I can whip out my iPhone and add the movie to my queue right there on the spot. Now this isn’t the first Netflix iPhone app I’ve tried. There was one that I was using called iFlix (which seems to have been removed from the App store) and I really like iFlix, but there was one thing that pushed me over the edge to buy Dashbuster and that was the way they handle “Saved” movies.

A “Saved” movie is one that you add to your queue that isn’t actually out on DVD yet. I LOVE THIS FEATURE! Although I do a lot of movie renting, I also actually go to the movies from time to time. It never fails that while I’m sitting there watching the previews, I think “wow, that looks like a cool movie, but I may not get to see it in the theaters.” So I want add it to my Netflix “Saved” queue while it’s fresh on my mind. Now I can sit there and add them right after I view the Preview. iFlix allowed this too, but it didn’t break out the “Saved” movies from the “Queued” movies the way that Dashbuster does. That little feature was enough to make me buy and download Dashbuster even though I already bought iFlix.

 

Complete queue management and more

You can not only add to your queue, but you can also change the order in which they will be shipped. Of course you can also remove a movie from your queue with a swipe of your finger. There is also a really good search feature to find the movies you want to rent. Can’t think of a movie to rent? Use the RSS Feeds feature to see the Top rentals in each genre including the Top 100 rentals overall. Although I’m a Netflix customer, this app works for either Netflix or Blockbuster accounts or Both! This app is also quite stable and works as advertised.

 

Dashbuster goes for $3.99 there is a FREE Dashbuster version, but the free version doesn’t allow you to add movies to your queue. Dashbuster works on the iPhone or iPod touch.

 

Joy of Tech
Joy of Tech