Tag: iphone

50 Apps for your Christmas iPad

Did you get an iPad for Christmas? I’ve had my iPad for a while now, and I’ve started to sort out the dross from the gold. Here are my favourites from a range of categories to get you going.

It really is a sensational device.

Reading Stuff

1. Reeder – best RSS reader, hands down.
2. GoodReader – great for PDF reading and annotating – terrific for essay writing.
3. Instapaper – curate your own longform articles from around the web to build your own magazine.
4. Zite – is an automated magazine service that finds articles based on your interests.
5. Flipboard – turns your social media channels (including google reader) into a magazine.
6. Kindle – Get Amazon’s range of e-books on your iPad.
7. Stumbleupon – click your way around interesting links in areas you’re interested in.
8. Google Currents – See what’s hot in Google.
9. Pinterest – another app for finding fun stuff on the interwebs. Populated mostly by crafty mums.

Photo Stuff

1. Instagram – I’d rather shoot photos with my iPhone camera, but the iPad app is great for checking out the social photostream (you can follow me, my username is nmcampbell, my feed is mainly photos of coffee and my daughter).
2. Phoster – makes cool posters.
3. Diptic – Stitch photos together in artistic ways.
4. Process – apply filters to your photos (not quite the same as Instagram) with the tap of a button.
5. Poly – Uses the power of maths to make polygon styled pictures. Kind of fun.
6. Photoshop Express – a nice lightweight photo editor from Adobe.
7. Grid Lens – is kind of fun, makes an instant diptic style collage (as in you take a bunch of shots at once, or with a slight delay. Clever.
8. Snapseed – I just bought this, and haven’t had a chance to play with it much yet.
9. ColorSplash – edit black and white photos with a splash of colour.

Social

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Path – a journal type thing where you can keep track of your movements, meals, and meetings, in a social way.
4. Beanhunter – find and review cafes everywhere.
5. Foursquare – let people know where you are and if you like it.
6. UrbanSpoon – find a restaurant and review it.
7. Stamped – review anything. Places. Books. Movies.

Utilities

1. Dropbox
2. Evernote
3. Bump – share files between iOS devices with a physical shake or “bump”…
4. Bluetooth Photo Share – great for giving gran some photos on her iPad.
5. Blogsy – nice multi-featured blogging software.
6. Google App
7. Remote – control your apple gear

Games

1. Angry Birds – But you already know this…
2. Stick Wars – Tower defence with stick figures.
3. Fruit Ninja – Slice and dice flying fruit.
4. Words with Friends
5. Scrabble – for the traditionalists
5. The Sims – I just downloaded this.
6. Wolfenstein 3D – A dose of nostalgia
7. NBA Jam – another dash of nostalgia. Great port from the SNES.

Music

1. Shazam – hear a new song, Shazam will tell you what it is.
2. Garageband – mix and mash your own music.
3. I am T-Pain – Autotune everything
4. Songify – speak music

Bible/College stuff

1. ESV
2. YouVersion – multiple translations at the tap of a finger
3. Logos – get your Logos library on the go
4. Vyrso – the book reader from Logos
5. Complete Class Organiser – Take notes, keep track of your timetable, and record lectures in one app
6. Greek Reader’s Lexicon – nice Greek app by Sam Freney
7. QuickCite – scan book barcodes get bibliography details by email.

That’s a bunch of apps – have I missed any?

To 4S or not to 4S…

I’m an Apple fanboy. I don’t know how it happened, but it did. I like iThings. But I’m a little underwhelmed about the new iPhone. Both Robyn and I are off contract, and lugging around a semi-bricked iPhone 3G, and a semi-bricked iPhone 3GS. We’ve been holding off on upgrading to the iPhone 4 believing the hype about an iPhone 5. But where is it?

So now the question – given that our phones barely receive or make calls anymore, and given that we actually do need phones (we don’t have a landline, and the phone provides internet when we’re on the road) – should we stump up the extra for a 4GS? And what provider should we use – we’ve been with Vodathree for ages, and while their customer service is adequate their network is not very good…

I’m not going to go to android – so shut your yaps you insidious open source google nerds… I like iTunes. I like my phone, iPad, and MacBook being essentially tied to the same mothership. But a flashy camera and a slightly faster processor? Seriously Apple. No wonder your share price dipped this morning… What do you reckon?

Here’s The Thing: A creepy iPhone cover

We went to a shopping centre on Sunday. A big one. I was shocked by the awesomeness of the Apple Store, the way shopping centres have almost entirely replaced the function of church on a Sunday in Australian culture, and the incredible number of outlets selling sparkly covers for mobile phones. None of them were quite as disturbing as this…

From iDownload, via 22 Words

Instagram: Now with (unofficial) web profiles

I love instagram. It’s possibly my most used iPhone app. Almost all of my cafe reviews on thebeanstalker.com use it. And why not.

But one of the downsides of instagram is its lack of web presence. You don’t get a profile, you have to have the link for each photo you’ve uploaded from wherever you’ve uploaded it to (be it Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, etc) to get to the photo’s native location on the instagram server.

Instagram is rumoured to be working on a nice web interface. It’s coming. So they say. But in the meantime check out this neat little 3rd party service called webstagram. All you need is the person’s username and you’ve got a nice little instagram profile.

More flood photos taken with Instagram

I like this app a lot.

The Go-Between Bridge from the Library window

Boats doing their thing on the river

I took a walk down to the pontoon on the way home.

The walkway is pretty covered

It started getting a bit foggy

I managed to get the train home


And I reckon this sign was a little redundant

DanKam: Make your Colourblindness disappear

I’m colour blind. If you’ve been reading for a while you’ll know this already. If this is a shock – please, take a seat, sip some water and calm down. It’s ok. I know you’ve just figured out why my clothes never really match and the explanatory power of that opening sentence has caused a revolution in your perception of me. But ease up turbo. Because this next bit of news will truly shock you.

There’s an iPhone app, called DanKam (apparently also available for Android) that essentially cures colourblindness. It is amazing. Following the success of Word Lens I thought “anything iPhone app developers say is now believable” and I took this for a spin. I was able to see one of those dot tests, well, the number in one of those dot tests, for the first time… but I’m not sure what I’m meant to be seeing in the right hand circle here…

Here’s a post on the programmer’s blog to explain away some of the magic.

Hopefully this will also help me overcome difficulties in such areas as calling my shots in pool (as in snooker, or billiards…) and driving (as in operating a motor vehicle).

Word Lens = Amazing

Check this out.

I downloaded the free version (a Spanish to English or English to Spanish module will set you back 4.99). And it works. Magic.

One for the iHaters

My friend Marshall suggested I post a piece of anti-mac propaganda on my blog. Little did he know that I, like Anakin Skywalker before me, have converted to the dark side. But I’m all for balance, and while I won’t yet post anything that links my use of apple technology with wanting to sit in Starbucks (I have standards), I will post this hilarious advertisement posted on Craigslist advertising a vacant room in New York.

Via Obvious Winner.

iHallelujah

Just what your iPhone ordered. A hallelujah button. So that you can break out in non-spontaneous praise.

The future of church music

I don’t want to sound like a total Apple fanboy (I remember when I used to be an unfanboy) – but the iPhone is the future of music in church. Don’t believe me?

The real question is how emo “worship” leaders are going to manage procreation without a guitar to attract the ladies…

Cool tech news

Sometimes I’m a mega geeky fanboy. Two things have me pretty excited.

The Amiga is coming back. That’s so retro awesome. We’re not talking about emulators. But the real deal.

Android is now on the iPhone. Also cool.

The best bookapp to read is…

According to Gizmodo the Bible is the most represented book app on the iPhone. There are 1000+ versions to choose from (see the infographic below for a comparison with other classics.

“The Holy Bible has more than a thousand applications at the App Store. We counted up to 1001, but it was too boring to keep on going. Of those copies, not all were free. Some of the most popular works also have multiple copies, some are free, some are paid. Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular, with 48 copies, seven of them available for a few rupees. Dracula has 34, five being paid copies for whatever reason. And so on.”

For the iPhone Bible readers

We’re all very excited anbout the new ESV iPhone app – which presents the well documented dilemma regarding being spotted staring at an electronic device in church services.

Izaac devised this solution:

Long time readers may have seen this before – but there is a commercial solution (you don’t need to hack up a Bible – give it to an enquiring friend instead)… this was designed for hiding a flask – but it looks like it would do well with an iPhone… it also comes with a bonus flask so that you can carry around your spirits with you as well.

If you’re more musically inclined there’s a hymn book iPhone cover that will do the trick too.


Sausage stylus

Cold weather in Korea is prompting an odd development for cold fingered commuters. Rather than pulling off their gloves to use the iPhone citizens of Korea are splashing out for some novel styluses. The iPhone doesn’t work with the traditional “pen” stylus, they’re geared to work with sausages. Which is where we pick up the (oddly translated) story.

iPhone Tethering

Is a wonderful thing that thanks to 3’s paucity of regional coverage I have not been able to enjoy. Until now.