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My iPhone applications

On Sunday, 1 August 2010, in Apple, Communication, Mobile, Music, Netflix, OS, Personal, Software, iPhone, by David Burden
2

I’ve been asked often recently, what apps do I run on my iPhone? Well, here are the answers below. An asterisk denotes that it’s a purchased app:

Home Page

Pretty standard stuff. I’ve rearranged some of the apps I use the most. I’ve moved Weather, Calc, Compass, Voice Recorder and YouTube into their own folder as I don’t use them that much.

Photography

  • iMovie *
  • Hipstamatic * – probably one of my most favourite apps. Produces fantastic aged and dated photos.
  • TiltShiftGen – allows you to edit photos to give them a tilt shift lens look
  • PS Mobile
  • Flickr
  • IncrediBooth *
  • MoreLomo
  • MoreMono
  • MoreNoel
  • SwankoLab *
  • DashOfColor
  • Format126

Google

  • I’ve placed the Google App on the home screen. As I use this app often.
  • I don’t use the native iPhone visual voicemail app. I use Google Voice instead. I’ve diverted all my calls to Google Voice so when a message is left, I get an email with a transcript. This icon links to the webapp for Google Voice.

Facebook

  • I’m in this app often, so it’s on the home page.

Page Two: Social Media and Communication

  • Twitter
  • AudioBoo
  • LinkedIn
  • WebEx Meet – this actually works pretty well on web conferences
  • TweetDeck
  • WordPress – for blogging on the go
  • Other social: Qik, Jive Social Business Software (SBS), Clique (another Twitter app)
  • Skype
  • Google apps folder: Google mail, Reader, Google maps (web based version), Latitude, Google News, YouTube (web based version), Google docs, Google Talk, Calendar, Tasks
  • Dragon dictation
  • Gowalla
  • foursquare
  • iMExchange * – as ActiveSync for Exchange doesn’t quite have all the functionality for over-the-air syncing right now for Out of Office, tasks, notes – I bought this app
  • acrosssair – amazing 4D view of the world with Wikipedia and things like foursquare overlapped

Page Three: Current affairs, news, sport, weather, lifestyle

  • BBC News app
  • BBC News website link to the UK pages – this just takes you to Safari
  • CNN * – a very polished news app
  • Guardian newspaper * – again, another great news app. Well arranged, and you can download articles to read offline
  • BBC Sport
  • Sky News * – lots of video articles as well as text
  • More news folder: msnbc.com, FOX News, Digg, CNBC RT, ABC News, CBSNews, NPR News, USA Today, NBC Bay Area, Metro UK, ITN News, Thomson Reuters News Pro
  • More news folder (2): NYTimes, KTVU, AP Mobile, BW, Life Magazine, Wallpaper magazine, Time Mobile
  • Weather folder: The Weather Channel, AccuWeather
  • News fun folder: TMZ, The Onion, ONN, Dexigner
  • TV: DirecTV – useful to remotely set recordings for my DVR, TV Guide, IQ+ Netflix * – let’s me control my Netflix queue remotely, PhoneFlix, Hulu Plus, i.TV
  • iNews O – I’ve played with a few RSS apps, but I seem to get on best with this one
  • Politics folder: Number 10, Politico, White House
  • Sports folder: ESPN ScoreCenter, Golf GPS, The Open

Screen four: Miscellaneous

  • Technology folder: Engadget, Wired
  • Books folder: iBooks, Zinio, Kindle
  • Games folder: Paper Toss, FIFA10 * – a pretty good football game, Virtuoso, Racing, SimCity * – something for long trips!, FlightControl *, LightBike2, Talking Tom, Physics, Need for Speed, Prison Escape
  • Property folder: Zillow, ZipRealty, Realtor, Century 21, Redfin – this is a very polished app
  • Finance folder: Square – the ability to take payments via your iPhone – there is also a device that plugs into your iPhone so you can swipe credit cards, Stocks, Mint, Finance, AT&T myWireless, Pageonce Bills, PayPal, E*Trade
  • Banks folder: Chase, Wells Fargo, American Express
  • Music folder: Pandora, Shazam, SoundHound, NPR Music, Remote – you can remotely control your iMac iTunes player, Slacker, Last.fm, I Am T-Pain * – I bought this just for fun – used it once, C-SPAN radio, Airband
  • Reference folder: WolframAlpha * – an amazing reference app, Wikipedia, IMDB, Bing, Yelp, Yahoo, Convert Units, Google Earth – still impressed by this after many years, Dictionary
  • Lifestyle folder: Zipcar – ability to rent cars off the street in the Bay Area, WebMD, Epicurious, findER
  • Shopping folder: RedLaser, Apple Store, ShopSavvy, pic2shop, Walmart, Best Buy, Craigslist, Nespresso
  • Utilities folder: iPass global wifi – will let me use wifi access points throughout the world through an agreement with my office, Carbonite – this lets me access all the documentation that is backed up daily in the cloud from my iMac, Speed test, Coin Free, HP iPrint – lets me print to my printer via my iPhone, VNC, Light, EMD PTE periodic table, iBattery, Converter+
  • Business folder: USPS Mobile, FexEx mobile, UPS
  • Navigation folder: skobbler – a great free open-source satnav program, Traffic.com, MapQuest
  • Movies: Flixster, Fandango
  • Travel: TripIt, VirginAtlantic, Avis, Hertz, iTranslate, My TSA, GateGuru, American
  • Food & Drink folder: Starbucks, Starbucks mobile card – amazing app that lets me pay for my coffee without cash or cards, OpenTable, Pizza Hut, NatDecants wine reviews

Screen Five: Productivity/Office

  • DocsToGo * – allow me to create Office files such as DOC, XLS, PPT, etc
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iPhone for the Enterprise

On Thursday, 29 July 2010, in Apple, Applications, Business, Communication, Mobile, OS, iPhone, by David Burden
1

I love my iPhone, I’m now a convert, but I still think there’s a long way to go to make it suitable as a true business device. There are so many posts and articles out there about the functionality of the iPhone, but none around the use in business.

I wouldn’t go back to a Blackberry, but there so pieces of functionality that would be really welcome. I’ve tried to explain my thoughts here:

Typing

I actually have no trouble typing on the iPhone. (I’ve even had races with Blackberry challengers in my office!) However, I think there are some improvements that could be made.

  • Custom dictionary: The ability to add/amend words added to the dictionary
  • Autotext: I miss the ability to type something on my Blackberry like myemail and it auto converts to david@davidburden.com
  • The introduction of software such as Swype to make entry even faster
  • Perhaps some shortcuts with a finger gesture – perhaps holding one finger in the bottom left corner and writing a big N across the screen with the other would take you straight to Compose New email

Email

I think this is where many of the quick wins could be found to make the device more Enterprise suitable.

  • When composing an email, on a Blackberry it remembers the email account you last used to send to a particular email address. This would be useful.
  • Now with iOS4, at least there is now a combined email list. However, I cannot tell which email belongs to which account. Perhaps a colour scheme like this for each email?

emailwithbullets 

  • Smaller fonts: Now the new iPhone has better contrast, can we not see an options for smaller fonts? Even on my Blackberry Bold, with worse resolution, I could easily read 6 pt – however I know this would cause an issue with usage if there was no keys or ball. But surely we can go a little smaller?
  • Signatures for each email account: Having one signature for all accounts just doesn’t work. I want to set a signature for my corporate email only
  • Expansion of the ActiveSync functionality: There needs to be more options here such as Out of Office, Tasks, Notes (which now works only with LDAP accounts). I know you can buy apps to do this, but this should be integrated. Integration with Exchange needs to be improved. If I replied or forwarded an email on my Blackberry, Exchange would know this and show me within my Exchange on my PC. There’s no link like this with the iPhone and Exchange.
  • Split emails into days, mark all as read before marker: I would like the emails segregated into day chunks. A click on the bar that separates could mark all as read below?
  • Ability to rearrange order of mailboxes: This is small, but I would like the ability to move the list of email account around.
  • Option to incorporate SMS into email flow. I like the idea of having all communications in one area. Email, SMS and log of calls.
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The future for the iPhone 4

On Thursday, 15 July 2010, in Personal, by David Burden
1

I’m currently sitting here, wondering what’s going to happen at tomorrow’s Apple press conference about the reception problems of the new iPhone 4. It doesn’t really bother me to be honest, I’ve not had any issue at all. My calls haven’t dropped – I’m extremely happy with my new iPhone. I upgraded my firmware today to 4.0.1 – no issues at all. My cell bar signal lines are little thicker. That’s about it.

All this hysteria about the antenna issues – I don’t quite get it. Yes, for sure it’s a problem for some (especially if you’re looking hard for it) – but look at the issue compared with what a superb device it is. What this phone does now compared with even four years ago, simply blows me away. I’m a gadget freak, and seeing what this phone does is simply amazing. It’s hardly left my hand since I got it.

So where does Apple go from here tomorrow? I’m guessing they’ll acknowledge the problem, offer a full no questions asked refund if people want to take that route, and possibly offer a free bumper. I’d be highly surprised they go into recall mode. That’ll be it, then let’s move on eh?!

I for one, get tired of anyone who sees me with the iPhone has to ask ‘do you have any problems with it?’

(Oh, and if you’re wondering, the lock screen image was taken at Las Ventanas, Mexico in the hotel lobby)

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What Steve announced today at WWDC

On Monday, 7 June 2010, in Apple, Applications, Business, Communication, GPS, Gadgets, Mobile, Music, Netflix, Networking, OS, Software, Video HD, Web, iPhone, by David Burden
1

Here’s my summary of what happened at WWDC and the announcements made today. This is all draft and I’ll add some meat to the bones later:

  • 2 million iPads sold since launch = one sold every three seconds
  • New iBook app launching today, which also will display PDFs
  • 15,000 apps submitted to Apple each week, 95% apps approved within seven days
  • Reed Hastings CEO of Netflix announced they’re coming to iPhone in the summer. Wifi and 3G
  • Apple have just passed the five billion apps download mark, 70% of revenue goes to the developer – and Apple have just hit the $1billion payout mark
  • US Smartphone market share RIM 35%, iPhone 28%, Windows 19%, Android 9%, Other 9%
  • Steve Jobs “In 2008 we added 3G and the App Store, in 2009 the 3GS was twice as fast, and we added some other cool features like video… in 2010 we’re going to take the biggest leap since the original iPhone.”

iPhone 4

  • 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS
  • Front facing camera
  • LED flash
  • Noise cancellation mic
  • Antenna built into the side panels to improve strength
  • Glass front and back to improve scratch resistance
  • Stainless steel fro strength
  • 326 PPI, 960×640 display, 800:1 contract resolution, 4x better than the 3GS, IPS technology
  • Phone powered by the Apple A4 chip
  • Battery life 40% more talk time, 3G talk 7 hours, 10 hours of Wifi, 10 hours of video, 40 hours music, 300 hours standby
  • Wireless 802.11n
  • GPS + Accelerometer
  • Now, the iPhone 4 will have a gyroscope for 6 axis motion sensing. A Jenga game demo was very impressive
  • A whole new camera system built into iPhone 4, 5 megapixel camera, backside illuminated sensor, 5x digital zoom, LED flash
  • Video! 720p at 30fps, HD video, edit on phone
  • iMovie for iPhone, fantastic, transitions, timelines, library, geolocation, five themes, export – not free $4.99

iPhone OS 4

  • iPhone OS 4 becomes iOS 4
  • Multitasking, folders
  • Threaded email, integrated inbox
  • Adding Bing to the options to search
  • Close to selling the 100 millionth iOS (iPad, iPod touches, iPhone) device
  • iBooks to the iPhone, same book purchase once and then use on all your devices, iBooks automatically syncs your place, bookmarks and notes
  • Oh, and iAds. These are some of the companies advertising: Nissan, Citi, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico, Campbells, Sears, JC Penny, Target, Best Buy, Direct TV, TBS, and Disney
  • Oh, and video calling with wifi only in 2010 – called Facetime

When?

  • Two colours, black and white
  • $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB
  • If you’re with AT&T and your contract ends anytime in 2010 you can upgrade. You can get it six months early
  • The iPhone 4 arrives on June 24th, you can pre-order from June 15th
  • Shipping to 5 countries: US, France, Germany, UK, Japan
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