Category : Polls
Category : Work, Life, etc.
So for the past week or so, I have had my posts scheduled, and they have decided to have a mind of their own and not publish on time, I just recently found out that they are transferring the website to a different server because they are having problems with the hardware on the one mine is hosted on, this should’ve happened months ago, but I am glad they are finally getting around to it. I’m sorry for the late posts, but bear with me.
-Brian
The iPhone 3.0 software update has been out to the masses for a full day now, and I am sure most of you know about what’s new, but I thought I would highlight a few of the biggest features that are new. See the gallery at the end of the post for pictures of some of the features.
Cut/Copy/Paste
This is probably one of the most wanted updates, this feature lets you copy and paste any text to/from most any app. It took a little while to get used to it, but it is pretty seamless and easy to use, and it makes my life much easier when people send me links in emails and they don’t quite do it right.
Push Notifications
This is a big one that was promised by Apple when the 2.0 software was released, but they finally have it working. There are just a handful of apps that have push right now, but I believe that list will get longer as time goes on. I’m anxiously waiting for the Beejive app to update to allow push, then I will be very happy.
Spotlight Search
This is also a big timesaver for me. I use this to quickly look up contacts, and use it as an app launcher because now I have 11 pages of apps. Spotlight will allow you to search your contacts, calendar, ipod, apps, notes and mail, and it is very fast. You can also customize what results come up in the settings, however I have heard that some people are able to search their Safari bookmarks, but I don’t have that option.
AutoFill
Auto fill will remember passwords and usernames for websites and does what it says, fill them in. This is very handy, and another feature that should’ve been in there from the beginning.
Mailbox Search
This is a very nice feature, you can search your mailboxes, and if you have an IMAP enabled account, it will even let you search on the server side.
Voice Memo App
This app is also handy and it picks up and sounds great. You can record voice notes and it will also sync them back to your iTunes library. The nice thing about this app as well is that you can go to the home screen and it will continue to record even if the app isn’t running.
Open Link Options
There are new open link options that I really like, it allows you to open it in the same page, a new one, or copy the link to paste elsewhere.
Camera/Photos Changes
The camera app will now show you a thumbnail of the last photo you took and if you click on it, it will take you to the photos app. The photos app will now let you select up to 5 photos to share at once.
Messages (aka the old SMS app)
This one will be nice once AT&T flips the switch, meaning that you will be able to send MMS messages, such as photos, vCards, audio, and Google Maps locations.
Shake to Shuffle on iPod
Another novel feature that is somewhat nice, but I had to shake hard to get it to work, however when I had my phone in my Griffin WindowSeat
Landscape on Everything
Not really everything, but you can use landscape mode in Messages, Mail, Stocks, Contacts (just the app and not the Contacts section of the Phone app), and Notes. This is a big improvement because the bigger keyboard is nice to type on.
Other Features and Final Thoughts
There are over 100 fixes and features, and I probably haven’t found them all, but I’ve been keeping my eyes open. One note is that you can now download videos, audio books and iTunes U content from the iTunes store app. You can subscribe to calendars and it now supports CalDAV. I highly suggest that all iPhone people upgrade, and it’s worth it for the iPod touch people to upgrade as well.
If you see anything of note that I may have missed feel free to share in the comments.
One of my favorite desktop twitter apps TweetDeck has released their iPhone version, and it will definately get a spot on my home screen, it’s a good iPhone twitter app. The best new feature in both apps is the ability to sync colums across platforms. You can download TweetDeck for your computer and the iPhone now.
TweetDeck for desktop download
(photos via Kevin Rose)
In a neverending quest to keep my contacts up to date with photos and other information, I sought out three applications that would sync your Facebook contacts with Outlook/Address Book/iPhone.
Fonebook for Outlook
Probably the easiest way to get this info into Outlook 2003/2007 is to use Fonebook. You log in to Facebook from the application, and it will smart match your address book to your Facebook contacts and sync them. It will also let you add a Facebook contact to Outlook.
AddressBookSync for Mac
This is the same context as Fonebook, but for mac. It’s another easy to use app, and it lets you customize what you want it to sync.
feX for iPhone
I have tried several iphone/facebook sync apps, and this one is the one I like the most, you log into facebook from the app, and it downloads the data and syncs it to your iPhone, this will then also sync back to Outlook/Address Book if you sync that stuff to your computer, but if you don’t it will let you keep photos up to date. feX for Facebook is $1.99 from the app store and it’s worth the price.
Besides all the iPhone 3.0 software and iPhone 3Gs announcements at WWDC this year, Apple gave customers of MobileMe a great new feature called Find My iPhone (it also works on the iPod Touch). You can see where your iPhone is on a map at me.com if you lose it, and it also allows you to send a message with a beep to the phone even when it’s in silent mode. If you don’t get your phone back, or someone nefarious gets a hold of it, you can remotely wipe your device from the control panel. This requires the 3.0 software update which will be released on June 17th, but I have tested it on my iPhone and Touch and it works great.
Category : Uncategorized
The Apple Worldwide Developer Conference is here, and there are a lot of rumors and expectations from Apple flying around about the new iPhone. I won’t post any rumors, but here are a few links to people liveblogging, and the folks at TWit will be doing a live broadcast at twit live.
WWDC Keynote Time
07:00AM – Hawaii
10:00AM – Pacific
11:00AM – Mountain
12:00PM – Central
01:00PM – Eastern
06:00PM – London
07:00PM – Paris
02:00AM – Tokyo (June 9th)
The Palm Pre launched on Saturday, here is a roundup of all the pre news.
Engadget’s Pre Coverage is here.
Gizmodo’s Pre Coverage is here.
Palm’s New Pre Takes On iPhone – Walt Mossberg’s review
That’s a lot to go through, so read up. I won’t have a chance to review one until they bring the phone to Verizon or AT&T, or I get lucky and get a review unit, so until then it’s up to you, Leo Laporte liked the phone, so that goes far.
Hulu surprised us all a couple weeks ago by dropping a desktop application into the mix. The desktop app works on Windows and Mac, and moves the content from the browser to the desktop via a Hulu approved app.
Hulu desktop is easy to use right away, however if you have a Hulu account with prefrences and subscriptions set up, it’s easy to log in and access all your personal stuff.
The application is very easy to use and let’s you browse by movies, TV, and all the other selections the website lets you. It also doesn’t suck the CPU and memory as bad as Joost for the desktop did, and this is a good direction for the Hulu folks, but I still believe they need to move towards letting people watch their content on the TV, but this is definately a step in the right direction. If you are a Hulu user, I would definately recommend you check this out.
Hulu desktop is part of the Hulu Labs offering, which will offer a peek at the things the Hulu developers are working on. You can grab the app from the Hulu Labs Webste.
Category : Work, Life, etc.
I went through this program and it has opened my eyes and helped me a lot, in fact, I plan on going through it again. It was written by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, and I highly suggest if you are any type of blogger you get the workbook and go through the course.
Click the above button to buy the workbook, it’s a steal at $19.95
