Best of the App Store Part 2

Locly (Acknack Ltd)
Localy is an all in one location program that when opened, uses a built in browser to display a fantastic menu of location based search results. These include: Flickr images, Local Twitters, Wikipedia Articles, Local Events, Local News, Restaurants, Pubs, Cafe’s, Shops and Supermarkets, Taxi Firms, Films and Movies, Hotels, Gas stations, Banks and ATM’s, and Museums. When you click on these categories, another screen will be displayed with all local items and from there you click a map link for Google Maps, or the number and it will call the business (only on the iPhone of course). Locly is FREE.

Ambiance (Matt Coneybeare)
My sister uses one of those “noise” machines to fall asleep to. It’s basically an alarm clock with sounds that you can play while you fall asleep, and put it on a timer, or of course let it play all night. She uses the sound of a fan. Ambiance is an application that is just that….it’s a sound machine. It is constantly getting updated, and right now has: Birds, Blue Noise, Cicada, Clock, City, Coast, Creek, Crickets, Fan, Fan-oscillating, Fire-big, Fire-small, Frog, Heartbeat, Light Saber, Machine, Owl, Pink noise, Rain-light, Rain-thunder, Rain-tin roof, Rain-wind, River, Shower, Stream, Subway, Train, Vinyl, Violet noise, Waterfall, Waves, White noise, Wind, Wind-haunting. Most sounds are loud enough to play from your iPhones speakers at your bedside, or you could use any type of iPhone/iPod Touch speaker docking devices (of course headphones too). Ambiance is $0.99

Data Case (Veiosoft, LLC)
Data case is a wireless USB thumb drive…basically. When you launch this application, it will appear as a device in the side bar of your Finder (you must be on the same wireless network). If you click on it in the Finder, a message will pop up on your iPhone asking you if you allow the connections. After you accept the connection, you can drag any type of file (pretty much) to the Shared Files folder on your iPhone. Anyone on your network also can view and copy this file. PDF, files, .Doc files, MP3 files, JPEG files, and pretty much every other type of file can not only be stored on the iPhone in this folder, but can also be played on the iPhone. Data Case is $6.99

Update: I’ve used FileMagnet, and Air Sharing, and Data case beats them ALL hands down for ease of use. There is virtually no setup needed.

All of these applications can be found in the iTunes App store.

Creating a wireless network for iPhone connection…

…without a Router.

Some iPhone 2.0 applications require your iPhone to be connected to the same wireless router as your Mac to sync data (1Password, Remote, File Magnet). The following link is to the MacOSXHints site to an artilcle describing how to setup you Mac as a wireless router for your iPhone to connect to. You can’t use this to connect via WiFi and use the internet, and the WiFi symbol will not appear at the top of your iPhone. It will however connect and allow wireless syncing for Applications that need it. Very Cool

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080725011849280

How to email the file you are currently working on – Screencast

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a screen cast, this one is very short and sweet. When Windows when you are working on a file you can usually use the File menu to “send file” as an email attachment. Well there is a very simple way of doing this on the Mac, and it’s using drag and drop. You simply click the icon in the title menu and drag it to your mail app. Watch the short screencast by following the link on my screencasts page.

Video Drive

If you are a user of Apple TV and have video files unsupported by iTunes, you’re in luck. Some people have video conversion software to convert video files into iTunes compatible formats, but this can be time consuming. So if you would like to just tag your videos and add them to iTunes try VIDEO DRIVE.

VideoDrive supports all current formats, including mpg, mpeg, mp4, avi, wmv, swf, m4v, m2v, flv, wma, mkv, asf, divx, xvid and YouTube video formats.

With VideoDrive you can keep your videos on separate disks, seach online for metadata and cover art, cleanup file names, automatically number season and episodes of TV Shows, merge video parts virtually in iTunes and much more.

You can trial the application or buy it for $19.99

Going Legit with Rogers

So I called and spoke to a Rogers employee about the iPhone plans that were announced. I thought to myself, if I ever felt the need for the data (as unreasonable as it is), could I even go legit if I wanted to? Could I reset my phone and authorize it through Rogers and get on one of their plans, OR could I keep my phone unlocked and just request the iPhone plan. The answer for both was no.

Here’s why.

When you get a plan/phone from Rogers, these phones have been pre-programmed for them. When you turn it on, you most likely get a Rogers screen. The problem with generation one iPhones (from the U.S.) is that they are pre-programmed for AT&T. It is for this reason that Rogers “won’t guarantee” that if I were to use an unlocked phone with one of the new iPhone plans, that I wouldn’t get charged for the data usage. To top it off she said I can’t use my iPhone if it’s restored as they have no way of setting it to their network. If there are any unlocked iPhone users here in Canada hoping to go legit…it’ not gonna happen. At least not with your G1 iPhone.

Copying your Time Machine Backup

In case you ever feel the need to get a larger hardrive, or simply create another Time Machine backup for safe keeping, you may find that simply copying the files to the new drive doesn’t work. That is unless you do it this way.

Step 1.  Connect both hardrives to your computer.

Step 2.  Open up Disk Utility located in Finder/Application/Utilities

Step 3.  You should format your new drive.  Double…no Triple check that you are not about to format your Time Machine backup.  To do this select the drive you want to become your Time Machine drive from the left side panel.

Step 4.  Select Erase from the main window and choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled)  When that is finished continue to Step 5.

Step 5.  Select the Source drive you want to copy from the side panel. (the one with your Time Machine backup on it)

Step 6.  Click on Restore in the main window.

Step 7.  Click and drag the Source drive (again, the drive that has the Time Machine backup files on it) to the “Source” text field in the main window

Step 8.  Click and drag the “Destination” drive (where you would like to copy your Time Machine back up to) to the “Destination” text field.

Step 9.  Check the “Erase Desitnation” option.

Step 10.  Click “Restore”

In the image below my Time Machine (Source) drive was named “Backup” and the destination drive I wanted to copy it to was named “Time Machine”

My first step in preparing for MobileMe

As a current .Mac subscriber I’m VERY excited about MobileMe, not so much the name, but the functionality. Finally .Mac will truly be worth the money. I currently use gmail for my main email, and I am very happy with it’s functionality. Having push email however is something that looks very appealing being a current owner of the iPhone. I’ll never have to check my email to know I have a message, that is of course if my me.com email is my main one.

So lets get back to Gmail. What I love about it is the Archive functionality, and never having to really delete a message. I started out my internet days with hotmail, then briefly with yahoo, used a ISP based email, and finally gmail. The problem I found with an ISP is that well, I moved, and got a different ISP. I always kept my hotmail account because many friends and family used MSN to keep in touch. Then MSN allowed the use of a gmail account name, so I had no use for the hotmail account. I then had all of my hotmail emails forwarded to Gmail.

I bought a .Mac account specifically for web space, and backing up important data. I didn’t have a desire to change over all of my email to that account. However, with the announcement of MobileMe, I thought, how can I use this, without the trouble of alerting everyone of a new email address (again!!). Well in Gmail’s preferences you have to option to Forward all incoming mail, and to Archive it after doing so. It works beautifully, and instantly. So now if someone sends a message to an old hotmail account, it gets forwarded to Gmail, then to .Mac (MobileMe). Of course anyone emailing my gmail account will also get forwarded directly to MobileMe. As confusing as all this forwarding sounds, it’s very simple, and makes things oh so simple.

.Mac becomes MobileMe

If you log in to your .Mac account (if you have one) you find this.

In early July, your .Mac account will automatically be upgraded to MobileMe—Apple’s new Internet service for your Mac, iPhone, iPod touch, and PC. For the most seamless experience on your computer, devices, and the Internet, there are a few things we recommend you do in advance to prepare for MobileMe:

1. Set up your Mac to sync contacts and calendar.

2. Upgrade your browser to the latest version of Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer.

3. Watch the MobileMe Guided Tour.

Due to its use of new technologies, MobileMe will only work correctly with Mac OS X version 10.4.11 or later. However, Mac OS X Leopard is strongly recommended to allow you to take full advantage of all that MobileMe has to offer.

To make sure you’re running the latest version of Mac OS X, select About This Mac in the Apple menu and click Software Update.

Check out the Guided Tour it’s pretty amazing for Mac users trying to synchronize their life.

Summary of WWDC 2008 – NEW IPHONE 3G

Lots of really cool new iPhone App demos that will all be available at “launch”:

Sega – Super Monkey Ball for $9.99 on the App Store at launch

eBay – auction app

Loopt – which is a location-aware social networking app free at launch

TypePad – for easy blogging free at launch

Associated Press has a Mobile News Network

Pangea Software – has two games coming out, one is a racing game that uses the iPhone as a steering wheel, $9.99 each

Band – application with many instruments, what you play can be recorded

MLB – Live scoring and video highlights

Medical apps – two of them and many more within weeks of “launch”

Digital Legends – 3D fantasy game ready by September

Applications running in the background has been a #1 request for iPhone users. This is bad for battery life, and makes your Apple iPhone run like a Windows mobile phone! Apple has a push notification that developers can use.

iPhone 2.0 with the AppStore available early July.

Something new “MobileMe”. Exchange for the rest of us. Everything is in sync between Mac, iPhone, even PC. Data is synched automatically. Me.com REPLACES your .mac account.

Web 2.0 like interface. Mail, Calendar, iDisk, Addressbook. Syncs from anywhere, including iPhone, over the “air”

Big announcement, iPhone 3G. New iPhone, 2.8X faster, slicker, more affordable. Damn…I’m jealous. Black plastic back (or white for 16GB model), all metal buttons, same camera, FLUSH HEADPHONE JACK, dramatically improved audio, built in GPS capable of tracking. Red dot travels down road on Google Maps. 3G talk time of 5 hours, 2G talk time now 10 hours, Audio now 24 hours, video 7 hours. Standby 300 hours!

iPhone available in 70 countries by the end of the year.

Pricing for the new iPhone 3G 16 GB ONLY $299, 8GB ONLY $199

Available July 11th 2008

I’m sure Apple.com will have updates shortly with images etc.

New Dock Application

Well it takes a pretty sweet application to get a spot in my dock. Today I found yet another winner. At least for now as it seems like a pretty cool idea. It’s called NET4MAC and it’s an application/social networking site. It is exclusively for Mac users as you can only visit and navigate through the site using the Mac only application. You can join Apple specific Groups, view classified adds, and create a profile that links to the work you do on your mac. You state who you are, your Mac setup and of course interests. You can list a location that shows up in your profile courtesy of Google Maps. It is still relatively new it seems, but it appears that there are A LOT of people joining each day. I encourage everyone to check it out, and search for macintom to add me as a friend.