Word Lens — http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-lens/id383463868 download now on the App Store, and purchase language packs when you need them!

Languages currently available using in-app purchase:
- Spanish to English
- English to Spanish

Try the demo modes first to get a sense of the technology in action — reverse or erase Spanish and English words!

Check us out at: http://questvisual.com/
Now available for iPhone 4, iPhone 3gs, and iPod Touch 4.

Word Lens can instantly translates printed words from one language to another using the video camera on your iPhone. No network delay, no roaming fees, and no reception problems.

Word Lens is a dictionary — evolved. It looks up words for you, and shows them in context. You can use Word Lens on your vacations to translate restaurant menus, street signs, and other things that have clearly printed words.

Word Lens has its limits. Sometimes the translation will have mistakes, and may be hard to understand, but it usually gets the point across. If a translation fails, there is a way to manually look up words by typing them in. Word Lens does not read very stylized fonts, handwriting, or cursive. Try it, and tell us what you think!

This is my iPad 2 3G 64Gb.
See how easy and fast is to jailbreak it. It is running 4.3.3.

As mobile phones become more ubiquitous, they are undoubtedly changing how we respond to and record crises. We can report emergencies and call for help in real-time, rather than having to drive to the nearest phone. But we haven’t really built these networks out fully and taken advantage of all the power of the mobile phone to send text messages, phone calls, conference calls, photos, and instant messages – not just to the authorities but to friends and family.

Enter Guardly, a new app from a Toronto-based startup that arrives on iPhone today.

I don’t want to run a sampling of scenarios where you’d want to have to use a device like this. But consider this. Even if you walk around with your iPhone in hand (or in pocket), it still takes 8 taps to dial 911 (Home, Slide to unlock, Phone, Keypad, 9, 1, 1, Send). It takes 3 taps to launch Guardly.

When activated, Guardly is able to contact the user’s personal safety network (which can be a number of people via voice, SMS or email) and/or cal 911. It will keep you in contact with these groups so you can collaborate via conference call and instant-messaging. Yes, another group messaging app. But not really.

The app also includes mapping and photo-sharing and can issue a blaring warning sound too.

The app is free, but you’ll need to subscribe to the premium features – $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year – to unlock all the features.

(from readwriteweb)

Posted from Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

Posted from Schiphol, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands.

I have written several times about Foursquare, Gowalla, and all this check in apps that are more like games and that I find myself using less and less.

At the end of the day if I choose to communicate my position I would do it in two ways:

1. Using Facebook places to let my friends (not my followers) where I am.
2. Using an app to coordinate with people I am meeting with on our locations. This could be via Google latitude (that I don’t use) or, sending an SMS with the location with apps such as i-Finder or Kayak, or even better using Whatsapp

But now there is a new way, Glympse.

This app sends an email or an SMS not just with your coordinates, but it logs in real time your trajectory. You choose the time you want to be broadcasting that to the person or group or people you send the message.

I find it very very cool, just to say: “I’m on my way” and they can check exactly my location and the progress towards destination.

There are a couple of iPhone apps that I started using recently. One is WhatsApp which is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS.

A cool thing is that it is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Nokia.

In addition to basic messaging iPhone, Android and BlackBerry WhatsApp Messenger users can send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages and even a map with your current location.

The nice thing they just add with 2.6.x version is Group Chats. It took me a while to find how they worked. Go to Chats and pull down. A menu appears on top with broadcast message and group chat. Groups could contain 5 people at this point, but it is great.

Check here:

For this you could also use Beluga which is basically for group texting plus a cool map to see where all your friends from a group are. The cool thing about Beluga is that you can create groups easily: a group for the ski outing, then see where everybody is and chat and send photos for free. WhatsApp groups has not the map with everybody but the rest you can do too, and more! share voice messages, videos, …

The third app I wanted to talk about is Viber. Viber is an iPhone application so far, but coming soon on Android and Blackberry. It lets you make free phone calls to other iPhone users that have Viber installed.

When you use Viber, your phone calls to any other Viber user are free, and the sound quality is much better than a regular call. You can call any Viber user, anywhere in the world, for free.

You could argue that for this you have skype or other messenger, but I was surprised to see how many people of my contact list (it scans it) had it. Also it just runs on the back, it uses push so you don’t drain battery.

Shot with iPhone 4 and the app use to create this effect is called TiltShift

Posted from Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

The official Google Translate for iPhone app is now available in the App Store.

The iPhone app [iTunes link] allows you to translate from and to 15 languages and to translate words and phrases into more than 50 languages.

You can also listen to your translations spoken aloud in 23 different languages. One can also zoom in on text to read it more easily, as well.

Using autostitch

Since I have my iPhone 4 I have noticed that iPhoto sometimes imports things twice from my iPhone, so I end up with some duplicates.

I don’t know if this is due to the fact that I have tons of photos in the iPhone and in the iPhoto, or that this is the 4th iPhone synchronizing with iPhoto or that we are synchronizing 2 iPhones…

What I know is that I have duplicates and I could not find an easy way to get rid of them…

I use iPhoto on my macbook to sync my iPhones photos. The iPhone camera has become my main camera.

My nikon d300 I sync with a PC (multimedia) running windows 7 and picasa (more than 250Gb of photos).

iPhoto duplicates: Solution

I found and bought this program: Duplicate Annihilator.

Basically what it does is to identify the duplicate photos and add a comment saying that it is a duplicate. They you can search them and bin them. Pretty straight forward. It has many options but the default worked fine for me.

The problem is that the thumbnails can be duplicated too, and even if they have another program for that, if you start iPhoto holding Command Key+Option, then you have the option of rebuilding thumbnails.

The features of the Duplicate Annihilator are:

• Easily find and annihilate duplicates created internally by iPhoto or during import.
• Compare images using different algorithms to detect and understand differences.
• Detect duplicates using effective algorithms using electronic checksums like MD5 and CRC32.
• Detect duplicates by using file specific meta data such as filename, dimensions, filesize, Exif creation date or date of creation.
• Delete duplicates upon detection or mark them with a keyword to make them easily found using iPhoto features like search or smart folders.
• Makes your iPhoto slimmer and faster.
• Only uses standard Apple features and API’s. No hacking nor tampering with iPhoto system files.
• Free updates.

iPhone default camera app.



Camera Genius app



iPhone default HDR

Pro HDR app

Using a new app for my iPhone: Camera Genius app. This substitutes Camera+. I believe is better. Sun rise in Thoiry

Posted from .

Regular iPhone 4 camera. Trying to take a screenshot of the sun rising, I ended up with an interesting shot of the driving wheel of my white fiat 500.

Posted from .

Done entirely with an app for iPhone 4 called camera+

Posted from Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

Just a photo with the iPhone after going back to the office at lunchtime.

Posted from Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

Photo taken on my office desk to my desigual wallet. iPhone 4 close up plus TiltShift app applied later to bring depth.

Posted from .

Photo taken with my iPhone 4 early in the morning at the office. Photo taken using Pro HDR app, increasing saturation.

Posted from Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

Yobongo, an iPhone application for serendipitously connecting nearby people in mobile, chatroom-like environments, is launching in private beta Monday.

The previously stealth startup hails from Caleb Elston and David Kasper, both formerly of Justin.tv. The two started working on the application in March of 2010 and left their Justin.tv jobs in October to pursue Yobongo full-time. Their mission is to help people better connect with others in the world around them.

Yobongo, as described by Elston, is a new way of communicating with real people. At launch, the application automatically drops the user in a chat room — based on location — where he or she can start chatting in a group environment with others in the room. Chat room members can also see each other’s avatars at the top of room, and start one-off private conversations with other room participants.

The key difference from applications such as MessageParty is that Yobongo controls who gets placed into what rooms and when. It’s a serendipitous experience engineered by a number of variables that the service uses to determine the makeup of each mobile chat room.

Location does factor into the experience, but the application is more people-centric, says Elston. So, rooms dynamically adjust based on where people are and the flux of a city, but the velocity of users coming in and out of the app and the nature of the individuals (i.e. if they’ve chatted before) also play a role in where users end up.

Prior to today’s private beta launch, Yobongo was being privately tested by a small group of individuals, which means many of Yobongo’s features are unproven.

In a short test, I experienced firsthand just how fast the messaging experience is — in terms of mobile messaging, it’s as real-time as it gets. But because of the restricted nature of the private alpha, I was messaging in the application’s only room. The experience was entertaining and fun, but none of the people or location factors mentioned above played any role in determining how I was placed in the chat room. The private beta will continue to be a controlled test, so the elasticity of the application will still be hard to see in action.

Yobongo is currently self-funded, but Elston and Kasper are said to be in talks with investors. The two believe that as the market for location-based advertising matures, Yobongo will find a way to monetize its service.

Yobongo has fielded interest from thousands of would-be users, but Mashable readers can cut the line. iPhone owners can sign up here to receive priority access to the private beta.

(from Mashable)

Microsoft has released its first iPhone app with ties to its Office application suite, OneNote Mobile for iPhone. The app, which Microsoft says is free “for a limited time,” lets users access, edit and create notes from the iPhone. These notes can are then synced over the cloud with the OneNote web app or OneNote for Office 2010.

OneNote is similar to note-sharing services like Evernote; the difference is OneNote is tied tightly to the Office ecosystem and its focus has largely been on the desktop rather than the cloud or on mobile devices.

We took some time to play with OneNote Mobile for iPhone [iTunes link] in conjunction with the OneNote Web App. This web app was introduced in June and is one way that Mac users (OneNote is not available on Mac OS X) and others can access OneNote 2010 notebooks or create and store their own cloud-based notes.

The app is attractive and usable. The user interface has taken some cues from some of our favorite organizational apps like Things and OmniFocus, and that’s a good thing.

As expected, note options are more limited than either OneNote 2010 or the OneNote Web App. Notes are entered in as plain text and because of the rich text limitations of iOS (for non-Apple developers anyway), some rich text formatted notes from the web or OneNote won’t show up correctly. Hyperlinks, for instance, are selectable as a URL but not highlighted.

You can embed photos from the camera roll or take a new photo from the camera itself, just like with Evernote. Unlike Evernote, OneNote Mobile doesn’t support audio notes at this time. We also couldn’t figure out how to rename tabs within the app.

For the most part, the app seems speedy with synching over the cloud. Our Internet connection was a tad slow so it was hard to judge, but it seemed to be in-line with the synching performance of Evernote or MobileMe.

The app by itself isn’t really enough to convert anyone over to using OneNote on the web or in Office 2010, so individuals already satisfied with services like Evernote aren’t going to be swayed away. However, this app has potential with existing OneNote users who were perhaps thinking about forgoing the desktop app in favor of something with a more robust mobile presence.

We also hope that OneNote Mobile is a sign that Microsoft will be bringing more readers and basic editors of its Office apps to the iPhone. The best way to keep individuals and businesses from jumping ship to a different product is to make accessing and editing documents as seamless as possible. It’s good to see Microsoft leveraging Sky Drive on the iPhone.

(from mashable)

Happy Holidays season – hohoho.

This season is very special as we are releasing a new version of Skype for iPhone and iPod Touch with video calling. Now you will be able to share all the special moments in video, as they happen, wherever you are.

Download the app straight from iTunes and let us know what you think about it on our forums.

Skype video calling is supported over WiFi and 3G* data connections. You can enjoy video calls with users on all Skype desktop versions and with other Skype for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users.

You can make video calls in both portrait and landscape mode and use both front and back cameras.

Users on iPhone 4, 3GS and iPod Touch (4th Generation) can enjoy full 2-way video calling. Users with iPod Touch (3rd Generation) and iPads can receive video.

Video calling with Skype requires iOS 4.0 or above to be installed on your device. Skype 3.0 for iPhone will also work on iOs 3.x, but without video support.

Full release notes for Skype 3.0.0 for iPhone:

New Features:
* Video calling

Known issues:

* – Additional Data charges may apply.

Foursquare has added two heavily requested features to its popular iPhone app that should make the service significantly more social: photos and comments.

The new features let you attach photos to checkins, tips and venues, and add comments to the checkins of your friends. These social updates, released just in time for the holidays, will also get enmeshed within the rest of your Foursquare activity and included on your history page.

With photos, you’ll be prompted to add one as you check in, in much the same manner that you’re already prompted to add a “shout” with each checkin. You can then continue to add photos after you check in that will be added to the checkin detail page — this page is also where comment activity happens.

Photos and comments will stay mostly contained to your immediate circle of friends. Photos associated with checkins will only be visible to your Foursquare friends and the other social networks you share them with. Comments, however, are only viewable by your Foursquare friends. So, should you share a photo checkin with Facebook and Twitter, the photo and the checkin will be visible but the comments can only be seen by a logged in user who you’re friends with.

As for photos associated with tips and venues, those will be public to all users with the intention of adding richer context to your picks and pans.

“The community of users that we have are already super comfortable with checkins, so adding something like this to that mix should be pretty powerful,” says Foursquare’s head of product Alex Rainert. Rainert believes photos and comments will stimulate activity in and outside the application and better support the fluid exchange of information.

Foursquare also hopes these new features will help transform the way you think about the service and your location-based activity. Eventually, the startup would like to present your personal archive — photos, checkins and comments — in a more visually arresting manner, according to Rainert. “There are interesting things you can do when people create media at places,” he says. “We hope to build creative ways to let people browse and share that history in the future.”

Rainert stressed the fact that photos and comments have been in the works for months, but were pushed out in an accelerated fashion to get them to users before the holidays. Several enhancements are already in the works, he says. Users should soon have the ability to export photos to Facebook and Flickr, better track comments and more easily access old photos, for example.

Today, however, mobile photo sharing fans already using Foodspotting, Instagram and Picplz, will be gifted with the ability to share their photos — not just their checkins — with Foursquare.

Android users can expect photos and comments sometime this week; BlackBerry owners should expect a photo and comment compatible version of their own in January.

(via mashable)

Viber is an iPhone application (Android and Blackberry versions coming soon!) that lets you make free phone calls to other iPhone users that have Viber installed.

When you use Viber, your phone calls to any other Viber user are free, and the sound quality is much better than a regular call. You can call any Viber user, anywhere in the world, for free. All Viber features are 100% FREE and do not require any additional “in application” purchase.

How does it work and why is better than skype (in the case that you are doing iPhone to iPhone calls)?

You don’t need to have a login name. Just your telephone numbers. It scans your address book and find those with viber installed, then you can call them free, well, using part of your data.

Works via wifi or 3g or even gprs. Give it a try!

EveryScape, a startup working to create visual guides for local search, is today rolling out its Eats application for iPhone and iPad to users in the Seattle, San Francisco and SoHo areas. The application takes mobile users inside nearby restaurants for a more up-close and personal search experience.

Using�Eats, application users can essentially explore the interior of local restaurants in a virtual walk-a-round fashion, similar in style to Google Streetview for mobile, but infinitely more practical for would-be restaurant diners.

Eats also includes visual search options, social sharing features and filters for users to find restaurants by location, price or rating.

The EveryScape custom-built technology powering Eats is capable of transforming photo stills into three dimensional, user-controlled internal store tours. The application is designed to further the connection between patron and business owner, and business owners can use the service to customize their venue information.

EveryScape is also announcing today the private beta release of its mobile SDK, making available its collection of visual restaurant guides to select iPhone and iPad developers.

The Eats mobile application will be rolled out to New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. in the months ahead. In many ways, Eats is like a next generation version of�Yelp for mobile. Interestingly enough, Google may also be�experimenting with a similar idea to enhance its Streetview product.

You can watch a demo of the Boston edition of the iPhone application below.

(via Mashable)

The drawback of owning a smartphone that holds all of your apps, photos, music and more is the possibility that you may lose the device. With all of the information and content iPhones hold, it can be frustrating to lose the device in one fell swoop. There are a number of apps and services, such as Find My Phone and Apple�s�MobileMe, that will help track your iPhone�s location if the device is lost. Today,�TekTrak is entering the mix with its app that allows you to track the GPS of an iPhone remotely from any web browser.

TekTrak offers its location-tracking app for $4.99, in the Apple App Store. The App�s functionality is fairly simple: it allows an iPhone�s owner to access their device�s location information in realtime from a browser. You can access all the location history of your phone (i.e. where it was and when); and the app runs in the background. You can also remotely ring or send push notifications to your phone.

TekTrak tries to tackle the pain of battery drain by running in the background and allowing users to check location at predetermined time intervals. TekTrak�s main competitor is Apple, which can be a challenge, but its app is fairly affordable compared to a MobileMe subscription which hovers around $99 per year.

Yahoo! just launched a new iPhone app of their Yahoo! messenger.

So, what’s the big deal?

Well, when apple annouced the new FaceTime everybody was excited! wow! video chat with your iPhone and they will open the standards…

Sure but they have been sleeping… FaceTime works only over wifi… only between iPhone 4 users…

Then it came Fring. Free, phone to phone video calls. No matter which phone. Even better than FaceTime!! Now I can use my nokia to call an iPhone 4 or even a 3GS with the back camera.

Well the last is Yahoo! mesenger. It allows you to have video calls for free… but this time no just to other phones but to someone with the desktop version of Yahoo! messenger. This is big. Over wifi, 3G… and videocalling to my mum’s computer.

Apple? Don’t sleep.

One of my passions if photography, and even if I have a good camera (nikon d300) with lenses to cover from 10 to 200mm, most of the times I don’t have it with me.

What I do have with me is my iPhone 3GS (waiting for the iPhone 4).

I am pretty happy with the quality of photos and videos the iPhone 3gs does, and I am looking forward to the iPhone 4 which is much better.

For the photos I would like to recommend 3 apps that will make you a better iPhone photographer:

Autostich

Autostich is an app that will allow you to make panoramas, so you don’t need wide angle lens ;-)
The beauty of this app is that you take photos that overlap a 20 to 30% side by side and they the app puts them together on a single panoramic photo.

In addition to this you can even take a second row of photos and add it too!

Here you have a couple of photos using this app:

Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic transforms your iphone into an old camera. You can change the lense from the typical John S, to a Jimmy, Kaimal Mark II, Helga Viking, Lucifer VI, etc…

Also you choose the film: Blanko, Ina’s 1969, Ina’s 1935, Kodot Verichrome, Blackeys B+W, etc…

And the flash (simulated), from a dreampop to redeye gel or berry pop…

The results are amazing. Take a look at the photos I just took:

Pro HDR

Pro HDR is a great app for when you are facing a contrast, like a photo at home with the window. Either the inside is OK and the outside is burned, or the outside is OK but the inside is black.

HDR has been introduced to the iPhone 4. The technique is simple, you take an overexposed photo and an underexposed and you mix them. The result is not natural but it is great. I use this technique with my nikon too. I read that this app is far better than the one coming with the iPhone 4.

Take a look at the photos:

I was checking apps that integrate with Evernote when I found dial2do.
It allows you call a number and create reminders, send texts, listen to and send email, and access your favorite 3rd party services – all while keeping your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road.

It is thought for being productive while driving.

Dial2Do Voice2Note is a special service for Evernote users that converts all of your voice/audio notes to searchable, taggable text.

Take a look at the video, looks pretty impressive:

Objective: I would like to mange my Getting Things Done (GTD) using a task manager (or todo manager) that:

• Most of the inputs will be on my mobile device: now an iPhone, but in the future probably android.
• That it can be done offline on my phone when I am roaming, it is synchronized.
• Synchronization is done to:
  • Desktop client (Mac mainly, but PC too): so not a stand alone phone program
  • Cloud (using specific service or using Google docs or Evernote) – ideally a free cloud service that would sync mobile with desktop clients
  • Syncs due date tasks with my google calendar and iCal (using busyCal in mac it does not matter as I use google calendar). Most of the solutions offer due dates for the todos but in their own calendars… but I already have a calendar, I don’t want to use theirs.
• It is simple: todos, with a note, due dates, recurring todos and tagging. I don’t need fancy priorities, focus areas and so.
• That can manage projects which are basically an indented todo.

I have tested a wide variaty of iPhone apps, web apps and desktop apps, and believe it or not, I did not find the perfect solution…

Scenario: I use now Google apps: my domain with google. Email, Calendars, Docs and tasks. I have an iPhone connecting with Google apps using Exchange.

I have a Macbook pro (main computer) a windows XP laptop for travel, and a windows 7 computer. At work I have a PC (so I live in a browser, chrome synchronizing bookmarks with xmarks).

In the past when I started (just after reading Getting Things Done from David Allen) I decided to use an custom approach for managing my todos.

Reviews:

Things

From Cultured Code, it was the first GTD program I used. It is available for the Mac (not PC) the iPhone and now the iPad. You can sync all of them with the Mac using bonjour (wifi) which might not be available in your office.

I love the look and the way it works. It has a very clever way of tagging stuff and and filter stuff by tags. You can add due dates, recurring stuff and so. It was perfect except for one key thing… I could not access to my todo’s in my work place. No cloud, no PC no nothing.

This was the reason to leave it, but if they would have a free cloud way to access my tasks, even if they would not have a PC version, I would probably have stayed with them. In principle they are working on it, but I am not willing to pay for a service like this.

Pros: It is beautiful and both the desktop client and iPhone clients are great.

Simple and yet powerful thanks to the tagging, that if done intelligently removes the need of location based todos, and so. I click on shift command and T and I create a todo wherever I am. I am on an email a link is added to the notes part to that email, which is great (see right screenshot).

Also the todos can be synchronized to your iCal/mac tasks.

Cons: Just Mac and iOS. Sync over wifi (not all). No cloud, no PC, no web.

GeeTasks pro

When I moved my domains to Google Apps I though that I would stick to Google Tasks. Well I still do. They are very simple which is good. May be too simple. You can create lists and inside this lists add your tasks. You can indent them, add a due date (but not recurrent) and a note to them.

You can’t add tags and this would be good, so you can be disciplined and create tags for location, responsibility, etc… like I do for Things or Evernote. I will write a post on how I organize my tags sometime this week.

You can create todos from email using the web client and it creates a stupid Tasks calendar that cannot be syncronized with anything and that only shows the due dates task of the list you have opened, so pretty useless.

Pros: As most of the input I do it using my iPhone I found that GeeTasks pro, and after testing the rest of what you have below, I am still using this… I have it offline in my iPhone, and syncs when online, it is simple and very well integrated with my mail client. I can create todos from my mail (see right screenshot) and in a way there is a calendar with my tasks (not ideal though because I cannot see it from my iCal).

Cons: No tags, no recurrent tasks, no desktop client and no good integration with my iCal or even google cal. No API basically. Now I use fluid which is sort of dedicated browser to my tasks, but if I am offline on my mac, that’s it…

I Kept looking for other solutions….

Well I wanted to test the rest of Todo’s to see if there was something better. First I though thought there was different ways to have the sync and web access:

• A product with their own site
• Linking to existing cloud services, in particular Evernote (which I am a heavy user) and Google Docs
• Linking to ToDos services with open APIs such as Toodledo and Remember the Milk.

Remember the Milk

Remember the milk might be one of the most well know online todo managers. It is very good and powerful and free. You can pay $25 a year if you wish to have an add free version.

The iPhone app is also free. It is full of features: priorities, due dates, repeat, estimate times, tags, location, URL… You can sort by Today, Tomorrow, This week, or lists (Inbox, personal, work1, etc…)

It is a very good product. In the web you can share, have your list of contacts and subscribe to iCal, which is great.

Pros: free, great web interface, rich of features, iPhone app. I love the fact that I can subscribe in my calendar, that they have add ons for firefox and chrome and google to see the task within your gmail.

Cons: design is not like Things, not simple and very ugly. Again, there is no desktop (sure you can do it with fluid). Too complete for me. I don’t need location, sharing, and so many things. I want something simple.

Toodledo

Toodledo is similar to Remeber the milk, but other apps use it as a back end thanks to their API.

They have a free version (that does not allow you to have subtasks…) and two paid ones for $15 ad $30 which allow you to add subtasks, have collaboration, stats, location (more than 5), history (you loose if you are on the free one)… they compare themselves with other products here.

Other apps use it in a very smart (but dirty way) so you can have (in the App) projects, and subtasks, by inserting a header in the notes, that surely you cannot do if you go the other way around (using the web as input).

The web interface is crowded with tons of features with an ugly UI. It is very powerful, even more than Remember the Milk, but I don’t need HOT lists Location and so many other things… It is not GTD friendly.

The iPhone app is free and it is also complicated, full of features. Take a look:

Pros: Rich on features. There are other iPhone apps using it as a backend, like Todo iPhone app. It is the best and most powerful backbone for managing apps with more elaborated iphone and ipad apps (theirs are very ugly). A great feature is that you can create a webcal feed that you can import in your ical or google calendar and another one the fact that you can have a secret email address so you send emails directly to feed toodledo, or to have a gmail gadget to see your toodledo in your gmail, something you can only do with an online service like this…

Cons: The free version has a lot of limitations. Again no desktop client. I did not see a link to subscribe in my calendar. The web design is really ugly and cluttered.

TouchTodo

Well, while looking for the perfect todo, I found ToucTodo, and I tested it too. Why? They have the best sync with google calendar out there.

This one could have been a winner for me. I had 2 parts: todos and projects. You can sync with google calendars (you select with which calendar) you can back it up to google apps as an excel sheet, and restore from an excel sheet, so I could have used Google apps to enter data at work.

Then I realized that the projects are not backed up and that the todos that have not a due date are not in the calendar (sure!) so they are not online, unless you export it to this xls in google docs, and that it is not a project…

So it looked great, but…

Pros: Great synchronization with google calendar and google docs. Great back up and restore option to your Google account. Simple: todos, and projects. Today, tomorrow, next and someday. You can add a note, reminders, due dates, repeat and level of importance (focus they call it).

Cons: If I want to input stuff from my PC, there is no desktop app, and via web I could do it in the excel thing in google docs, but it is not great. For the events that have no due date, they are not in the calendar or todos, which is understandable but not acceptable to me.

Awesome Note

The idea of using Evernote as the back end for my todos and notes was very appealing. I am a heavy user of Evernote, and I love it.

Then I found out that Evernote it is not ready for that. I had to test two products to get to this conclusion.

The first one was awesome note or aNote as they call themselves.

I have to say that is one of the most awesome todos I have tested, and I loved it. Again there are reasons why I chose not to go on with them. Let’s see:

It can back up your notes to Evernote and or Google Docs, and it does it great. You have to select a default to do so and not do it by default to both which is a petty. The iPhone GUI is awesome. Really.

aNote has both, notes and Todos. By default you create notes, then you can click on the todo button and you create this note as a todo. So far so good. You can add a due date, but you can not add a recurrent one. This is not good for a task manager… You can select different backgrounds, and ways to filter your views. All nice. Also sort by dates, etc… I really like it. I would say that visually is the one I like the most. You can add photos and even maps (maps are not sync to evernote or google docs).

Now, how it syncs with Evernote? It creates a set of notebooks like [aNote] name of your list, like [aNote] Inobox or [aNote].No Folder for those that are Notes not linked to any folder.

The folders you can create: inbox, next, someday… and they will all be folders in your Evernote.

Each note/todo will be an entry in your evernote. You will not distinguish what is what, and here the problem with evernote, you will see if it has a due date, priority (that the program can manage) or whatever. Here was when I realized that both Evernote and Google Docs are not good enough for backing up your todos. They simply cannot back up your due dates, recurrent appointments priorities and so.

How does it sync with Google Docs? It creates a folder called Awesome Notes, and inside this folder subfolders with the different folders (inbox,etc…) and inside each of these folder a document for every single todo/note. Again, nothing for dates, priorities and so. Not the fault of aNotes, but the backend.

Pros: Beautiful design. Easy and very very flexible. Notes can be converted into todos, add due time, add photos, maps, create a journal if you wish. It has quick note entry. It syncs with evernote and google docs.

Cons: Not a problem of aNotes but a problem of the support for backing up. If I want to add stuff from my office laptop, I can use google docs or evernote, but I will not be able to add a due date. You cannot, in any case, add recurrent appointments. No desktop client, sure, apart from Evernote with the limitations I mentioned. Personally I don’t like that I have to have specific notebooks in Evernote (that I can’t rename).

Egretlist

Continuing with Evernote sync, the one to try was Egretlist. Like Awesome note, a beautifully designed app.

Egretlist is more elegant in the way it syncs with Evernote. It does not create a set of new notebooks, it is more clever and if you get use to it, because it is not an easy app, it can work like charm. The learning curve is steep though.

The way it works is that is it scans all your entries in Evernote and those which have a checkbox in it, it is added to the iPhone app. Smart eh?

So if in your already existing notebook inbox you create a new note with a checkbox it will be a todo in egretlist. In addition to this it will use all your tags seamlessly.

So here in the screenshots you can the categories are just tags. Whenever I tag something with next (I define which ones are the relevant for egretlist), it appears under categories. If a list has a star it will also appear under lists (not seen here). Then a list of the notebooks with checklists in the notes. In this cases I moved the notes to the [aNotes] notebooks (previous app) but it looks like in the third screenshot.

Pros: I really wanted this to be the one. It has a great way of using evernote, great with tags, taking the notes with checkboxes… really smart. Great looking app. You can add images, voice notes, videos, and decide which note to send to a specific task the calendar (ical).

Cons: very hard to understand at the beginning. It does not support recurrent appointments or even sorting the tasks in any way, what make it unusable for some of us… but again, this is Evernote’s fault, due dates and so cannot be seen in Evernote, and therefore not entered if you don’t have the iPhone with you. Petty because this could have been the winner for me as I said.

After testing this I realized that Evernote, as it is now, will not work for me for todos. I need to feed my task from the phone and from the web and if evernote cannot create due dates, etc.. then that’s it.

Todo

This is probably one of the most known and popular iPhone todo apps. I guess the reason why is because the got the TODO name for the app… and this is exacly what you search in the iTunes store.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a very good app from appigo.

It can syncronize with Toodledo but if you are using the free account (from Toodledo) no subtasks…

As a todo app is great, it syncs also with iCal (when I say iCal I also mean Outlook). You can tag stuff and search by tags. In the home screen you clearly see those task due by today, tomorrow, Next week and at the end those with no due date. You can star and prioritize tasks. You can create lists, like shopping list and then subtasks, and add contexts (@home, work, etc…).

Pros: It does the job. You have lists (inbox, work, home), focus, priority, due date, repetition, … everything. It syncs with Toodledo so good if you need a web interface for easy entry. Again toodledo web is not very nice but it is functional. It can sync with your local calendars.

Cons: No desktop. I don’t quite like Toodledo and the free version is very limited compared to Remember the Milk. For me this is just one more ToDo app.

edit 29/9/2010: They have released a web version 15 days trial otherwise $19.99 (i don’t know if for a year). Is pretty beta, but a good step on the right direction.

Producteev

When I discovered Producteev I thought it was Things on the web and I was very excited. So beautiful and simple web client… I loved it and I decided to download the iPhone app (free).

Producteev is a collaborative tool. For free you get two users, but I guess the beauty of this product is for a team to work together in a sort of ticketing system more like a todo way.

I loved the interface and the fact that it is socially integrated. You can add/receive todos via google talk, email, etc… neat.

The problem for me was that it is thought for a group, and not for an individual. In the iPhone app you see who entered the task (me) and who has to do it (me again) which makes no sense when screen space is the iPhone is critical.

As you can see from the iPhone screenshots it is pretty much the same than any other todo, but with this team focus. You have stars, hot (I see this over and over… and I don’t quite understand, I rather order stuff myself and the ones on top of the list are more “hot” than the others…).

Pros: It has one of the best web interfaces out there. Beautiful and useful. A trillion way to input data (email, IM, etc…). Is team oriented.

Cons: the iPhone app is not that good looking. No desktop (offline) client. I did not like the fact of having creator and responsible if I am using this on my own. No recurrent appointments. You use workspaces for projects and labels are not transferred from one to another.

2Do

I tested a few more apps. One of them is 2Do. This one is also fancy and good looking. I has locations, syncs with toodledo, and can export to iCal (it uses its own calendar but using toodledo you can have an ical live). I did not mention but some of this apps, including this, you can back up the tasks, but being in the same wifi network, you go to the ip of your iPhone and download the file with the backup… not something you do everyday. I would rather have this transparent on the back towards and online service, like touchtodo.

Well, here you have locations, like this is where you are and this are the things to do here. Fancy but I am would be happy just by tagging that says home, work, supermarket and when I am in one of these places voila.

You can add audio, attachments, photos, location… very easily and intuitively. Those you can’t sync with Toodledo though.

Pros: Good looking app. Can sync with Toodledo, ical (outlook), has push, and a lot of features (location, attachments, voice…). Toodledo back end is powrful: you can feed it via email, create subtasks (pro account), have calendar sync. It is by far the best app for sync with Toodledo. I will play more with it.

Cons: No desktop but Toodledo has a lot of widgets. What I did not like is that you cannot sync with both, Toodledo and local sync using the program they have for PC and Mac. One or the other, so I choose Toodledo.

eTodo

eTodo is from BitAlpha and the design is awesome and beautiful. Simple. If you don’t need sync then consider this one.

It is very basic, yet it has most for the stuff.

When you add something it goes to your inbox. You collect everything there. Then you go to something in the Inbox and decide if you have to take action or put it into next or someday. Big icons. Nice way to see tasks details. You can back up in the web server way (accessing your iPhone ip). I has due dates, repeat, priorities, you can add notes and tags.

Pros: simple yet it does a lot. Nice icons and clear workflow.

Cons: no sync, no desktop, no projects, no ical.

Put things off

Put things off is again a very very simple app. Even simplier than the previous.

In this app you just add a thing to your inbox and  decide if you do it today or you put it off. Once it is done, it is on done. That’s it.

For some people it would be enough. Not for me.

EasyTask

I found this one by chance. It looks promising:Orion Belt has a nice desktop app for Mac and PC, and iPhone and iPad app… it syncs with ical and… a web based app! So in principle it has most of what I need.

The desktop version is $20 so pretty affordable. You have a trial period.

Here you have projects (home, work 1, etc…) context (@home, @office, @computer, @telephone…) and finally the categories: inbox, today, next, someday… so far so good.

So, you can sync like things using wifi with your iPhone and desktop app. In addition you have a Windows version and … and that is the best, an online version too: http://www.easytaskmanager.net/

Now, it is not perfect… the web version basically sucks. Very simple. With Safari and Chrome I was just able to view not to add new tasks. Not even edit. See the revision log.

Also EasyTask does not support tags which is pretty important for me.

Pros: GTD stile, with desktop apps for Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad. The iPhone app is good, syncs with wifi to your computers and to the cloud. You can access your tasks via web but the web interface is in a very infant state. You cannot add or edit tasks. I guess you have to wait but others will catch up. The local app syncs with ical and it is pretty good.

Cons: No tagging. The web interface is only to view, not to edit or add tasks. You cannot create lists with sub tasks. For that you have to create a project and then add the tasks there.

Simple note

This is the last app I tested. It is not really good for todos, but it is very good for notes. For me there is no use, because now I can sync notes with iPhone and IMAP via google. I also use 1Password with secure notes, and Evernote mainly for everything, but this little app has a web version (very nice and easy to use) and desktop versions for Mac and Windows.

Pros: simple, nice.

Cons: too simple.

Conclusion

Well after an extensive testing no app or service is fulfilling my needs, so for me there is no clear winner.

All have their own strengths and weaknesses, but no clear winner.

I learnt that Evernote and Google apps are not good enough as a back end. That only a couple have desktop versions (Things, EasyTask), that few have a cloud sync (Toodledo, Remember the Milk, EasyTask, Google Task)…

I think EasyTask is promising but I miss tagging and sub tasks and the web interface is not good.

I love Things but there is no Windows version, but if the cloud version is as good as producteev it can be the winner for me.

If you want good integration with iCal (Outlook) it is better to have a desktop app.

If you don’t want to spend money and the iPhone+ web is good enough, the Remember the Milk is very good.

If you need a tool for your team to manage things, then Producteev is good.

In my case, I continue with GeeTask Pro and google Task, until something better comes, or Google decides to do something good about the Tasks… ideally Things if they don’t make me pay for the cloud thing…

In paralel I will play more with Toodledo as it looks like it is the winner and most apps connect to it. Maybe is just a question to get used to it…

I will write another post soon with further testing and to explain which is my solution and how I use it.

Edit 9 Jan 2012:

Finally part 2 of this post: http://tokao.com/2012/01/09/gtd-todos-task-managers-part-2/

Looking for an iPhone skin to protect your new phone from sratchs?

Well, take a look at this one, pretty clever and cool.

You can buy it here for $13.

YourTube has announced an iPhone app that will allow you to download the videos and watch them whenever you want, even offline.

Who knew that credit card processing would be the new hotness for smartphones? The Square mobile payment system has been making waves by letting small businesses receive credit card payment directly on their smartphones. Now, mophie and Intuit are looking to get in on the same action with their Complete Card Solution for iPhone. It’s a $179 package that includes both mophie’s card-swiping phone case and the 3.0 version of Intuit’s GoPayment app. After a quick application users are said to be approved (or, erm, declined) within 15 minutes and can immediately start accepting payments. Full details, including just how much users will be forking over in fees, after the break.

Initial targeted clients were people like plumbers and electricians, but we can definitely see tech-minded farmers at the market relying on this sort of system, along with craftmeisters who shun Etsy and prefer to sell face-to-face. A single account can also cover up to 50 users, meaning an entire sales team could be equipped with these devices. Intuit’s site provides lots of data on transactions and the like, but for the full ability to reconcile to invoices and track payments you’ll need to use Intuit’s QuickBooks suite, either on the PC or Mac.

The big question is, of course, what it’ll cost you to use the thing. $179 up-front is hardly a small commitment, and a further $12.95 per month makes the minimum cost quite a bit higher than Square, which offers free hardware and no monthly fees. Likewise, per-transaction fees here are between $.30 and $.34, double the $.15 fee of the Square. However, Intuit and mophie will take a smaller chunk of the overall payment: 1.7 percent usually, though that could climb as high as 3.7 percent depending on the type of card being used. That compares favorably to Square’s 2.75 to 3.5 percent.

Whether this is a value proposition for your business depends largely on the size and frequency of transactions you plan to receive. But, there is one definite advantage Square has over this system: compatibility. This case, which encrypts every credit card number before it gets to the phone, will only work with the iPhone 3G/S. We’re told an iPhone 4-compatible version is in the works, but it’s anyone’s guess when that will show up. We do, however, know that this current version is available now in Apple retail stores and will be hitting Apple’s online site in the very near future. So, go on now. Get paid.

(from engadget)

Do you have an iPhone? even an iPhone 4?

Just go to http://jailbreakme.com with safari in your iPhone and slide the bar. Jailbreaking your iPhone now just as easy as this…

Why should you do that?

Well, first now it is legal, you can always restore your iPhone if you prefer, and you get cydia, like an appstore with software you will never find in the apple app store, such as my-wi which converts your iPhone into a wifi hotspot using your 3G, or have voip calls via 3G, or have sms delivery reports, or shortcuts for bluetooth, or you name it.

I’ve seen some people reporting that when they did the JB the had issues with mms and facetime. The same people by restoring and applying the jailbreakme again, fixed the problems.

Did it work for you?

Condé Nast Digital Britain recently unveiled a series of apps for the iPhone and iPod touch, dubbed Condé Nast Traveller City Guides. There are four separate apps for Barcelona, New York, Paris and Rome priced at around $9.99 each.

The apps [iTunes link] are divided into six sections containing more than 500 searchable listings, complete with venue information, photos and editors’ reviews:

• Neighbourhoods: Browse all listings in a single neighborhood
• See & Do: Major sites, museums, parks, farmers markets and other attractions
• Places to Stay: Organized according to location, price range, type (i.e. fashionable, family-friendly or classic), and a key feature (gym/spa, internet access, etc.)
• Eat & Drink: Mainly high-end sit-down restaurants with some exceptions, like a well-known knishery and an East Village dumpling house
• Shopping: Features an array of products, including apparel, home, records and electronics from high-end to outlets
• Nightlife: Bars, music, dancing and other venues for late-night entertainment
• Word of Mouth: Recommendations from celebrated New Yorkers like designers Oscar de la Renta and Paul Smith, nightclub owner Amy Sacco and architect Carlos Almadada

The list of venues is well-curated; there are enough to appeal to a relatively broad array of tastes without being overwhelming. Users can bookmark interesting listing by adding them to a to-do list and share them via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.

What’s most impressive about the apps is their Augmented Reality functionality (pictured above). Simply point your phone in a direction and it will bring up images of nearby attractions, which you can narrow down by type. You can also use GPS to pull up venue locations on a map.

The apps contain a number of other neat little features as well, including a handful of guided audio tours and magazine articles, a travel journal, a Flickr-integrated personal photo log, a timeline of the city’s history and essential travel information about local customs, transportation and the location of tourist offices and so forth.

What’s more, Condé Nast Britain promises to update the apps’ content every four months free of charge.

The only major drawback are the prices, which are hard to justify when free apps like restaurant-finder Urbanspoon also come with many similar features (although Urbanspoon’s Augmented Reality functionality is admittedly more basic and many users would rather read a review from a food editor than from the guy next door). In all fairness, Zagat’s TO GO app [iTunes link] also costs $9.99, but then it has a key feature Condé Nast Traveller’s does not: the ability to make restaurant reservations. It also covers almost every major U.S. city in one app.

(via mashable)

The Fring app, known by consolidating together Internet Messanging services such as Skype, MSN, Gtalk, ICQ and others, has just released an update that in the iPhone 4 allows to use the front camera for video conferencing using 3G.

This is big. Now if you have an iPhone 4 you are not obliged to use FaceTime alone, calling only to other iPhone 4 users using wi-fi.

Now you can call using 3g, and the thing I wonder is if you can call a PC running skype. That would be  big for me. I could call my mum in Spain and have a video call. I hope you can do so because in their official blog they put it this way:

Face-to-face video calls with friends on their Droids, Nokia (Symbian S60) and other iPhones

For those (like me) that have an iPhone 3GS, it does work as well. It uses the rear camera, so impossible to see your caller at the same time he sees you, but good enough for people, like me who has a baby and the grandma wants to see him (again if you can call a PC).

For the time being I just tested the test call. Quality was pretty bad compared with FaceTime videos I see around.

Another big thing (to be tested because I am a bit hesitant about the functionality in general) is multitasking. In principle it can run in the background, and uses push to notify new call.

They have also added twitter and facebook, but who wants that?

Good work Fring.

Ever since the first iPhone, there has been a “Notes” application. However, the ability to save and manage notes has always been fairly minimal. Now, with iOS4, Gmail users can easily manage their notes, even across multiple Gmail accounts.

One of the apps that is seemingly unchanged from the very first iPhone release is the Notes app. While it fulfills the basic functions of a notepad, many users want more functionality. Specifically, people want a good way to save and manage their notes. Up until recently, your only options were emailing directly from the Notes app, or syncing with iTunes.

iOS4 users who have Gmail accounts will notice a few new settings. Amongst those is the ability to individually toggle mail, calendar, and notes syncing. If you turn on notes syncing, all of your notes will automatically be copied to your Gmail account. Once they are synced however, they may be difficult to find.

To find notes inside Gmail, look for a “Notes” label on the left side of the sceen. If it is not visible, the label may be hidden. Click on the link that says “X Number more” (in the above screen shot it indicates “3 more”) to pull up the list of all labels. Once you click on the “Notes” label, you should see all of your notes copied over from your device. The synchronization is done over-the-air, meaning it does not require an iTunes sync to copy them to Gmail.

From here you can organize your notes, add labels and delete them. The one limitation is you cannot add anything to the notes, or edit them in any way. While this may seem like a flaw in the design, it’s because Gmail is treating the notes as an email message. You cannot edit the notes just as you cannot edit past emails.

While not a perfect solution, this added functionality is a welcome improvement.

(from appadvice)

Two days ago I upgraded to iOS4 (jailbreak) and I am a happy man.

The best:

Folders: I used to have 7 or 8 screens, now I have only 1.
All inboxes in 1: I keep my inboxes to zero messages. I love to see all the incoming email in a single place, from any of my email accounts. Now you have subtile improvements such as highlighting stuff like telephone numbers, addresses, dates, so you can take action.
Bed mode: When you double click there is now an icon to block the screen so it doesn’t rotate. Great for reading in bed.
Tap to focus in videos: Great. The Zoom for photos not that great, but handy. Camera seems to be faster when shooting.

The disappointments:

Multitasking: is it a joke? True that there are not many apps making use of multitasking but the fact of having all the apps down in the dock when double clicking home and when you click on any of them is just like opening like before, makes it a joke. Where is skype? IMs? I guess it will improve in the future, but today, it just sucks. The only app I use regularly that uses multitasking is Evernote, and it is not that great the implementation they did. I read you can record a note and do other stuff but…

It is fine…

ibooks: ibooks app rocks. Far sexier and better than kindle. Bookmarks sync with iPad and books look great, but… who read books in an iPhone? I prefer a trillion times to listen to books, put the iPhone in my pocket and listen.
Tip for ibooks: they use .epub extension, so if you have any .epub books, just drag them to your iTunes and you’ll have them in your iPhone. Just great.

Now that I have iOS4 in my 3GS, do I really need to buy an iPhone 4???

I am sure a lot of people is going to be asking this question. What else do you get? A better display? A better camera? Maybe the killer feature for the switch is facetime, but I still don’t know how it works. Do you have to start a regular call before starting? If so, it is now worth it for me. The other end cannot be a computer and I don’t know anybody with an iPhone 4.

Now if you have to make a call, lets suppose my mum in Spain buys an iPhone 4, then I have to spend a lot of money to call her first to Spain from a Swiss phone. If you can start the call over wifi (no need to make a call) then it is a different story. It might be a good thing.

By the way, is Fring or Skype going to support the front camera? if that is the case, then yes…

Well, two days ago iOS4 was out. Two days later dev-team has released Pwnage Tool 4.01 to jailbrake your iPhone 3GS.

First make sure that:

• If you have a Jailbroken iPhone 3GS with the OLD BOOTROM and you DID NOT use Spirit to jailbreak then you can create the ipsw with PwnageTool 4.0 and restore with your jailbroken recovery mode.
• If you have an iPhone 3GS with the NEW BOOTROM this is NOT supported by PwnageTool 4.01

This is what you have to do:

1. Download Official iPhone iOS 4 for iPhone 3GS here (official from Apple).
2. Download Pwnage Tool 4.01 from any of this locations:
   • http://www.iphone-storage.de/PwnageTool_4.01.dmg
   • http://dl.finalgaming.de/dev-team/PwnageTool_4.01.dmg
   • http://www.stimp.nl/mirrorfiles/PwnageTool_4.01.dmg
3. Download iTunes 9.2 (you can do that but opening iTunes and look for upgrades)
4. Now run the PwnageTool. If it is in the same directory of the image ipsw image you downloaded in the step 1, then it will see that it the image to use. Just use Simple Mode and this image. This will create a new image that by default will be placed on your desktop. You can then close the PwnageTool.
5. Now before you upgrade your iphone, you could consider installing from Cydia AptBackup (from BigBoss). That will know which Cydia apps you have installed and in a later stage restore them.
6. Now, back up your phone, by connecting it to iTunes
7. Switch off your phone by holding on the top button and sliding to switch it off.
8. Make sure that it is connected it to the mac with the image you created and iTunes is open. Now hold the top and home button to enter into recovery mode.
9. iTuenes will tell you it is in recovery mode. Now you have to hold the Option key and click on restore. That will allow you to select the image on your desktop.
10. That’s it. The restore upgrade will not take a lot of time. What takes time is once you have iOS4 to restore you latest config.

If you have gone to the 10 steps you should have an iPhone 3GS with iOS4 and after more than an hour (in my cases) the same you had before.

Now you go to Cydia and install AptBackup, click on restore and voila, all your Cydia apps.

I had a problem though. My iPhone had a safe mode due to a problem with an app in Cydia. The app in question was MyFi. I had to remove it and now everything is OK.

PadLock is a software that protects your iPad, iPhone or iPod when they are plugged to your computer.

So imagine that you are at work and you leave your iPhone charging with the USB cable, then this little software will trigger an alarm if someone disconnects your phone.

You can download it here.

This software reminds me a similar one that I use to have on my mac, so when someone removes the power cable, touches the mouse or keyboard or closes the laptop… o even if it is moved!, the software takes a photo sends it via email and triggers an alarm. This one was called iAlertU and you can download it here.

Both are free.

Here PadLock:

Here iAlertU:

Yesterday at the WWDC Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone 4. We were expecting it after all the leaks in internet, from the stolen/lost iPhone 4 prototype in a bar to the ones found in Vietnam. We knew he would probably was going to announce a new iPhone.

From all the videos, photos and rumors we did not know the specifics, and now we do.

The iPhone 4 running iOS 4 (the renamed that), has a retina display with 4 times more pixels per inch than the iPhone 3GS. Pretty astonishing for what I read. The resolution is 960×640. No other phone out there is close to this. It is twice the resolution of an old iPhone, with a contrast ratio of 800:1.  If the nexus one screen with OLED was great but unusable with direct sunlight, this is another story.

I hope once they can scale this technology they port it the macs and iPads. Basically you can not see the pixels… incredible.

The new iPhone has also 2 cameras, a front one for FaceTime (I will explain further down) and a proper one on the back with 5Mpx. Not too many pixels, but a very good sensor that works with low light. The fight for pixels is over, you need good lense and great sensors, and looks like it does have one.

This back camera will have a led (flash) and will allow to take HD videos (720p and 30fps) and they are porting the touch the screen to focus to the video as well, which is great. Also, they have added digital zoom and iMovie to edit your videos with the iPhone like a pro ;-)

There are rumors that iWorks will be also migrated to iOS4.

Continuing with FaceTime basically is the fact that you can use the front camera to have video calls, using wifi only for the time being, and between iphones… using open protocols. I hope in the near future you can use this with skype or qik or ichat or other clients that can be used in a computer. In my case I would love to be able to use an iPhone 4 front camera to chat with my brother (now in Nigeria) or my mum (in Spain) using their computers.

The new iPhone has the expected A4 chip that ships with the iPads and will give the iPhone a great battery life (7h 3G talk, 6h 3G browsing, 10h Wi-Fi, 10h video, 300h standby). I am a bit disappointed that they will have 8, 16 and 32 Gb. I was expecting a 64Gb, but knowing Apple we shouldn’t be surprised if they leave this for Christmas or next release.

It is 24% thinner than the iPhone 3gs, and they claim it is the thinner smart phone.

It has also a 3 axis gyroscope which I bet will be great for those who play with the iPhone.

For the connectivity, it has wifi n (great) and the back of the body is plastic, having steel all around which is used as the antenna, for which we have to suppose that the speeds and coverage will be better/faster.

Well this is basically it. It will launch in the US on the 24 June. Also France, Germany, Japan, and the UK. I think is 18 more countries sometime in July (including Switzerland) and the rest of the world in August.

It comes in black or white, and with a new contract in the US, costs $199 for a 16GB version and $299 for 32GB.

You can see the official announcement here.

Turn your iPhone into a real webcamera and use it to video chat with your family and friends.
With iWebcamera you can use your iPhone as webcamera in applications like Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Youtube and every other webcamera enabled application.

Features

• Turn your iPhone into a real wireless webcamera.
• Two quality options.
• Instant-Pause mode, stop streaming instantly and resume whenever you want without exiting your host application.
• Plug and Play ready, install the drivers and you are ready to go!
• Built-in manual.
• Beautiful Userinterface fully translated in English and German.
• Compatible with Windows 7, Vista and XP and Apple’s Leopard and Snow Leopard.

iWebcamera requires an iPhone with at least iPhone OS 3.1, a computer connected to the same network and the installation of the iWebcamera drivers.

Snapfinger is the largest online restaurant ordering site with more than 28,000 locations in over 1,600 cities..

Don’t wait in line… Snapfinger is the largest online Restaurant Ordering Site

Snapfinger is the US’s largest most complete restaurant search and remote ordering site for take-out, delivery and catering from your favorite restaurants. More than four years in the making, Snapfinger allows you direct access to the nation’s top restaurant brands through each location’s interactive menu. You can access your favorite restaurants from the web, from your cell phone or from a toll free number.

The current crop of location-based social networks mostly focus on getting users to check in and share tips about local venues like restaurants, stores and coffee shops. DeHood, which officiallylaunched earlier today, wants to bring a bit more value to its users by going beyond check-ins. The new location-based social network wants to bring a local community closer together by giving its users the ability to share news and information about deals at local shops and restaurants.

DeHood is currently only available for the iPhone (iTunes link).

Going Beyond Check-Ins: Local News and Deals

While the app allows users to check in at local venues, the focus of the app is on sharing information and helping users to discover local news and events. As the company’s CEO and founder Babak Hedayati told us last week, he wants people to be able to check the app first thing in the morning and feel informed about what’s going on in their neighborhood. This part of the app feels a bit like EveryBlock, though like many new social networks, the service currently suffers from a lack of users that contribute to the service (which, after all, only launched today). In Hedayati’s vision, regular users, as well as local officials, will soon post short, hyperlocal news updates about traffic jams, fires and deals at the local coffee shop.

Besides the utility aspect of the app, DeHood also features some game mechanics. When checking in at some places, DeHood will display a scratch-off game where users can win titles and find special offers for a product. One interesting aspect of DeHood’s shopping section is that users can alert others of deals at local stores and verify deals that already appear in the app.

Challenge: Getting Users

While DeHood definitely has great potential, the app currently suffers from the simple fact that it doesn’t have a lot of users yet. Given that other networks like Gowalla and FourSquare already have a lot of momentum (though not the feature set of DeHood), it will be hard for DeHood (and other companies that want to enter this space) to persuade users to switch networks and build up their social networks from scratch again.

That said, though, it’s important to note that DeHood plans to offer an API for developers in the near future, and, as Hedayati told us, that the company is not an app company but a platform company. Because of this, the app itself is only a part of DeHood’s roadmap, and we might just see other developers include DeHood’s functionality in other apps in the near future.

(from readwriteweb)

Last Wednesday in San Francisco took place the latest Google I/O conference, in principle a conference for developers. Each participant gets a free android phone (well the probably cover the cost of the phone with the fees…).
Many people expects this conference to be a consumer goods conference where things are explained in plain english and where they release new products.
Well they did announce some interesting stuff: google wave for everybody (this should have a post of its own), new Android 2.2 (froyo) faster than the speed of light apparently, google tv, another attempt to create tv in a box (apple tv, tivo, boxee…), a google web store (is this a fight with apple?) and little about the chrome OS.

Anyway, why my next phone is going to be an iPhone 4G and not an Android?

Having migrated all my email to google apps myself (I was hosting it at home with zimbra up to now), I have thought several times that the best next phone for me would be an android based phone. I’m sure there is nothing better for Google apps integration, and I am a heavy user of google apps (mail, calendars, tasks, contacts, docs), but…

I love my current phone (iPhone 3GS) and even if sometimes I feel tempted to go for more powerful, quick and feature rich phone, such as the nexus one, droid incredible, evo… they are still behind apple’s iPhone in terms of the amount of apps, the simplicity and in terms of sync with google apps, I am pretty happy with exchange for having pushed email, calendars and contact from google, and geetasks app for the tasks.

Again I am not questioning the fact that android phones might be much better integrated, but, and this is the main reason why I am going to buy an iPhone 4G, and it is something everybody should consider:

I am not ready to see that my handset is obsolete after a month or two in the market. That there are trillions of handsets so always something newer and better than the one you have.

Same applies for android OS. They release versions like popcorn. Today you buy a motorola droid with android 2.1 and tomorrow you have the droid incredible and android 2.2.

With apple this is more reasonable: maximum one new handset per year, and the releases of updates maximum every 6 months, but always compatible with old handsets and easy and transparant to update.

Now you might also argue that android is not policed like apple is. True. That is why I get the most out of my phone by jailbraking it. No limits: MyWi, SMS confirmation, sbprefs, install apps from ssh…

My iPhone is my all-in-one gadget it does everything for me: I control the music on the mediacenter computer (windows) with iTunes using remote app, I see and control my IP Camera from anywhere, it is a terrific iPod, I listen and watch netcasts, listen to books, music, constantly!!, Navigon tells me how to get to a place when driving, I check in in places, write comments, check the web, have my email pushed, have my life archived (mail, bills and so) with evernote, I tweet, I see my webdav server, I can connect my computer with MyWi using 3G, I take quality photos and videos everywhere (I have thousands)… and if now I am going to be able to have skype running in the back with a front camera…

what else? ;-)

For $99 you can have a unique iPhone cover made of wood (bamboo) that fits your iPhone to the micrometer.

Take a look to their website: grove

These are beautiful, unique and expensive cases to make your iphone a unique piece in harmony with the nature.

You can buy a plain case for $89 or add your own design engraved with laser on the back. You can also choose from a set of artwork they have.

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online.

Now you can geocache using your Apple iPhone and Groundspeak’s Geocaching iPhone Application.

How It Works

The iPhone 3G and 3GS use a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi positioning and cell towers to determine your approximate location. Groundspeak’s iPhone Application then queries the Geocaching.com database in real-time and provides a list of geocaches near you.

Available in English, Dutch, French, German and Japanese language versions.

Screenshots and Features

Instant, direct access to Geocaching.com’s database of worldwide geocaches

• Search by current location, address or GC code
• Filter your hides and finds from the Geocaching.com search results
• Access geocache details, including description, photo gallery, attributes, recent logs, hint and inventory
• Look up trackable item details, including item goals, while on the trail
• Save geocache listings, including maps and photos, for quick retrieval and offline use
• Log geocache finds and post notes in the field
• Download active pocket queries for use while outside of network coverage
• View geocache web pages on geocaching.com without leaving the application using embedded web browser

Advanced navigation capabilities

• View nearby caches on the embedded map
• View cache size, terrain and difficulty rating directly from the map screen
• Navigate to geocaches with a simulated compass arrow (iPhone 3G and 3GS only) or directly from the map screen
• Add custom waypoints when navigating to multi-caches
• Switch between street, topographic and satellite maps
• Rotate map to match your heading (iPhone 3GS option only)

Supported Devices

Groundspeak’s Geocaching Application is best supported by the iPhone 3G or 3GS, but is also compatible with the iPod Touch and 1st generation iPhones.

Please note: You will need Wi-Fi access for the application to work on the iPod Touch. Also, without GPS, compass navigation will not work on the 1st generation iPhone.

We will be introducing a version of the application for Android in Q2 of 2010.

Ready to get started?

Visit the Apple iTunes Store to download Groundspeak’s Geocaching iPhone Application.

Discuss Geocaching with the iPhone on the Groundspeak Forums

Gizmodo has a nice story on a prototype iPhone next generation forgotten in a bar.

Looks like an Apple guy forgot the phone in a bar. The story is credible: the phone was inside a cover that made it look like a 3gs but when removed, a different phone… the new iPhone that we are expecting for this summer.

What’s new

• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

Want to follow the event at 7pm Paris time or 10am Pacific time?

Apple will present the new iPhone OS 4 (not a new iPhone phone, just the OS). Maybe in summer they present the hardware for the OS 4.

We’ll find out in an hour.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/live-from-apples-iphone-os-4-event/

Square is a a platform for iPhones, iPad (they already have a gorgeous app) and Android phones and laptops (in the future) that with a free credit card reader plugged into the headphones jack will allow to accept payments with credit cards. It is super nice app.

I don’t have a business but if I would, I wouldn’t buy a register machine, just an iPad. It will even create a community allowing to see the photos of who buys, etc…

Take a look at their website it is better to understand what it is about.

In February 2009, Jim McKelvey wasn’t able to sell a piece of his glass art because he couldn’t accept a credit card as payment. Even though a majority of payments has moved to plastic cards, accepting payments from cards is still difficult, requiring long applications, expensive hardware, and an overly complex experience. Square was born a few days later right next to the old San Francisco US Mint.

Today the Square team is focused on bringing immediacy, transparency, and approachability to the world of payments: an inherently social interaction each of us participates in daily. We’re starting with a limited beta and rolling out to everyone in early 2010.

I have written several times about my workflows for facebook, twitter using brightkite, one of my favourite apps.

Now with all the location-based apps there is a clear hype, but again we will start experiencing fatigue. You go to a bar and then what… you have to open brightkite, check in write a note and maybe take a photo so you share it in facebook and twitter, then foursquare and you see if someone is there, add a tip or a todo and maybe get a mayor, and then gowalla… uffff

Like pixelpipe allows you to post to all social networks. I use it to upload the photos I take to several locations at once (my server, flickr, youtube (if it is a video), expono…, check.in does the same for your location-based apps.

It is done by the guys of Brightkite so it should be good.

Check.in is an application that lets you check-in with multiple services at the same time. For the time being by invitation only.

I have talked about foursquare in the past.

When I first joined them they were only in a few cities and you were not able to edit places or are new ones.

Now foursquare is a completely different different tool, much more powerful and more looking like the one it had my number one in my list: tellmewhere.

I also tested gowalla and it was more sort of a game, leaving stuff and probably more to meet people. I did not like and it has been a while since I don’t try it.

The fact is that location based apps for smart phones are as I predicted, skyrocketing and looks like foursquare is the winner, even after google buzz, which includes latitude and location as well as thread conversations, but again, as I said by limiting it to gmail users would be an impediment for reaching number one, and in fact I feel the hype of buzz has gone down.
Anyway, I wanted to talk about a very nice mash up of foursquare:

near.me

A very nice graphic interface using bing and foursquare to see your friends and places you have been. Very visual and very nice.

Petty that only one of my 600 contacts uses foursquare. I guess here is not that common and I am a strange case.

You’re busy. Between meetings, social events, and hopefully a workout or two, your schedule’s packed. Don’t you wish you could hand off simple tasks so you could have more time to play?

Take a look at Siri, your personal assistant. Just like a real assistant, Siri understands what you say, accomplishes tasks for you and adapts to your preferences over time.

Today, Siri can help you find and plan things to do. You can ask Siri to find a romantic place for dinner, tell you what’s playing at a local jazz club or get tickets to a movie for Saturday night.

Siri is young and, like a child taking its first steps, may be awkward at times. Siri may occasionally misunderstand things you ask it to do even within its range of understanding.

Nonetheless, Siri will improve quickly by getting to know you better and understanding a broader set of tasks. In fact, right now, Siri’s learning how to handle reminders, flights stats and reference questions. Our vision is that, over time, you’ll trust Siri to manage many personal details in your life – from recommending a wine you might enjoy to managing your to do list.

The current version of Siri is built for iPhone 3GS and requires iPhone OS 3.1 or later. Soon, Siri will run on the iPod Touch, iPhone 3G and additional mobile platforms, as well.

A new payment system has been developed for the iPhone. Take a look to the video

Square is Jack Dorsey’s (Twitter co-founder) new startup that now has Kevin Rose (Digg founder) on board as an investor and YouTube pitch man for the prototype payment device that plugs directly into the iPhone’s headphone jack.

There is very cool website called case mate where you can design a unique case for your iPhone, iPod, Laptop, etc…. It is made in flash and it is very very nice.

Give it a try. The final price of the case is a bit expensive but you’ll get something unique.

Ardone has released a quadricopter that can be controlled with an iPhone or iPod touch. Take a look at the video, it is a super cool gadget… it works with wi-fi and has two cameras…

The new version of WordPress for iPhone just arrived in the App Store (iTunes link). While the first version was already quite usable, this update brings a number of new features and usability enhancements to the WordPress experience on the iPhone. The new interface makes it easier to switch between comments, posts and pages. The comments interface now also displays Gravatars. Throughout the app, the WordPress team has tweaked the interface and it’s now easier to manage your blog from the iPhone.

Features

The new version also now automatically saves posts and restores them if the network connection is lost during the publishing process.

Just like the first version, WordPress for iPhone 2 is an open-source program.

It’s important to note that this new version will not appear as an update to the old version. Instead, users will have to install a new app, which can run side-by-side with the older version.

The new version, of course, still offers the same basic feature set as the earlier version. These include support for multiple blogs, photo uploads and post previews, as well as full support for tags, categories and password protected posts.

Blogging on the iPhone

There can be little doubt that the iPhone – or any mobile phone for that matter – isn’t the ideal platform for writing long, thoughtful blog posts. Maybe that’s why WordPress for iPhone 2 puts more emphasis on comment moderation than the first version.

For a quick blog post on the road, though, the app is perfectly adequate, especially if you just want to upload a few pictures. It’s not as easy to use as the more specialized PicPosterous or Pixelpipe but WordPress for iPhone 2 is a far more flexible application and WordPress has a different user in mind for this app.

Again, remember that it is not an update. It is free but you should search for wordpress 2.

Just a quick note to all you HAVA Player enthusiasts: the iPhone app that the company announced at CES is finally ready for public consumption. Available from the App Store (of all places), the software lets HAVA owners control it all remotely — including cable, satellite, and your DVR. What’s more, you can stream your recorded programming right onto the handset for all those times when you can’t stand to be apart from Jim Kramer. Supports iPhone and iPod touch with (OS 2.2.1 or higher) and will run you $9.99. PR after the break.

(from engadget)

To do this here is a little tutorial to guide you there 2 methods, I suggest the easiest (note it seems that in some cases, not mine in any case, the notification SMS from unknown then put you the contact in your book, but once in the SMS you have of course the name of the sender):

Acknowledgment iPhone SMS

* Launch Cydia
* Once in Cydia -> Manage -> Source, add and install the source http://iphonedelivery.advinux.com/cydia
* In Search -> find the application iPhoneDelivery
* Install the application
* Your system restarts, wait
* In Settings -> Messages, select Acknowledgment and Flash AR (this is the info bubble that gives you the details)

After several tests, everything works perfect, no problem!

In addition it does not make you an SMS acknowledgment but just a warning.

(extracted from nightgamer)

Llamar a un contacto

Diga “llamar” o “marcar” y, a continuación, el nombre de la persona. Si una persona tiene más de un número de teléfono, puede añadir “fijo” o “móvil”, por ejemplo.

Marcar un número

Diga “llamar” o “marcar” y, a continuación, el número.

Realizar una corrección

Diga “error”, “ese no” o “no”.

Controlar la reproducción de música

Diga “reproducir” o “reproducir música”. Para poner en pausa la reproducción, diga “pausa” o “poner música en pausa”. También puede decir “siguiente canción” o “canción anterior”.

Reproducir un álbum, artista o lista de reproducción

Diga “reproducir” y, a continuación, “álbum” “artista” o “lista” y el nombre.

Reorganizar aleatoriamente la lista de reproducción actual

Diga “aleatorio”.

Obtener más información sobre la canción que se está reproduciendo en estos momentos

Diga “qué suena”, “qué canción es esta”, “quién canta esta canción” o “de quién es esta canción”.

Usar Genius para reproducir canciones similares

Diga “Genius”, “reproducir más canciones así” o “reproducir más canciones como esta”.

Cancelar “Control por voz”

Diga “cancelar”.

Finally, it is online – the sneak preview explaining the idea behind SevenSnap. Take a look at the guide.

SevenSnap in a nutshell:

Every 60 minutes, we are offering you a product from the realms of consumer electronics, travel and leisure activities. To see the price of the product, which drops every second, you have to enter the Snap Room. Being in the Snap Room costs 1,– USD per minute.

If multiple people are in the Snap Room at the same time, the price of the product can drop by up to 100,– US Dollars per minute. The person first clicking on the “Order now” button gets the deal and the price drop is repeated from the top.
This system creates incredible saving opportunities and makes shopping a very exciting experience.

Now available for the iPhone.

French app development shop PresseLite appears to have the first Augmented Reality (AR) supporting iPhone app live in the iTunes store, though we don’t know how they did it. It’s called Metro Paris Subway, and while the app isn’t new, it released a new version last week that added an AR overlay that displays information about Paris businesses when you look at the city through your iPhone’s camera.

Augmented Reality is the term for a long-developed set of technologies that place layers of information on top of a view of the real world. Developers and AR-watchers have believed that no AR apps would be able to go live in the iTunes App Store until the next version of the iPhone OS is released in Fall. No one we’ve talked to has seen any others, but this one is for sale for 99 cents. It’s possible that it was allowed in by mistake, or that it’s a partial implementation of AR, but we’re waiting to hear back from the developers for more details.

We discovered a video of the app via Swedish blogger Magnus Aldemark. Augmented Reality is being tracked far more closely outside of the United States than within it, especially in Europe, Korea and Japan.

The AR capabilities only work on the new iPhone 3Gs; both GPS and a compass are used to determine location and direction being pointed at.

AR for the iPhone is eagerly awaited by iPhone users around the world.

There are 3 major players of turn by turn navitiaon for the iPhone now:

• TomTom
• Navigon
• iGo my way

Tomtom costs 99.99 euros for the European version.  It has 21 countries.
Everybody was expecting this app. There were rumors about the price. We saw photos of the little gadget to put it in the car… Well now we know, 100 euros just for the software. For this price you can get a stand alone version of tomtom and leave it in the car, honestly.

I have been playing with it for the past couple of days. It is like the one I had on my htc artemis but worse. It has all the good things that tomtom has, but now connectivity. No traffic, no weather, no radars. If they call you it goes back to tomtom, and you can switch the screen off and just listen to the driving directions if you wish. In my case this is handy when I ride my motorbike.
The list of POI is extensive and the graphics are the same as all tomtom versions.
A nice thing it has is that it does not talk too much and you can configure complex routes. This I like.

Navigon Europe costs 79.99 euros. That is 20 euros less than Tomtom. It has 39 countries (including Romania, Hungry, etc…).
Navigon has the nicest graphics of the three. It is an app that would be like done by apple. Beautiful in terms of graphics. When on a motorway you have a real graphic of the panels and indications you find which is handy.
The downside is that it is as it is. Little to configure. You can also access the contact database, but no data, radars, traffic, etc. No alternative routes or complex itineraries.
The plus (aside from the graphics) is the POI. Very complete, with nice graphics.
The voice commands are OK.

iGo my way costs 89.99 euros and it has 40 countries. There is a Western Europe version for 10 euros less, but the 89.99 has even Turckey.
iGo is by far the best. Don’t stop reading here though. It is also veeery buggy. I would say that you should not buy it at this stage! The voice stops working and you have to reset to factory defaults. It gives far too many vocal instructions (when it works). In the negative part also you cannot plan itineraries and the POI db is the poorest. You cannot access the contacts and has bugs such as you cannot control de volumen unless you edit the language and when you play then you modify it.
Positively I would say that it is great that you click on the screen and navigate in 3d. Like in google earth!. That it has 3d topography. Yes… you can see the mountains. Also it has rendered buildings (depending on the city). Also that you can actually see in 3d, so if you are in a complex motorway you can see if it the road where you are goes under or above the one you are crossing, or if you are entering a tunnel it gets darker. That is smart. In Navigon you know you are in a tunnel because it complains that there is not satelite coverage.
Positevly also that you can choose the arrow you normaly have as vehicle: a car, truck, bicicle etc…  You can choose from alternative routes and the interface is very good. You have also the motorway panels like in navigon. Both are better in that respect compared to tomtom.

What you don’t have is the speed at what you are going. For this TomTom is the best. You can tell it to alert you if you are over the speed limit though, but tomtom is smarter and displays currentspeed/maxspeed and if you are over it turns red.

The down side for all of them is battery consumption. I have a car charger but even with the car charger connected it drains the battery. I will have to buy a 1000 mah minimum if I want to keep using this apps.

Conclusions:

Tomtom is too expensive but it is the benchmark. It does well what it has been doing for the past years. No improvements though.

Navigon is beautiful, but you should like it as it comes. Little configuration is possible but may be this if fine for 90% of the people.

iGo is premature and buggy but the one with more potential.

Not an easy choice.

As a negative point for all of them is that with a regular car charger they will not survive for more than 4 hours….

Also that none connects to the internet to get traffic or whatever. Also that none allow you to add POIs such as speed cameras and so.

May be is too soon.

The other day we went out for dinner with some friends. Seb finally fell for an iPhone and he showed me a pretty nice app:

Tell me Where

Actually the English site is empty so you have to go to the French one if you want more details:

Dis Moi Ou

It is a little app, connected to Google Maps where you have all the services: restaurants, shops, you name it, and you can review them and read the reviews. You can see what is around you and then decide weather or not the reviews are good. It is also useful for you to remember if you did not like a certain restaurant.

I know there are tons of apps like this, the problem is that here in Geneva all the american ones are pretty usless because there are not many reviews.

I would mention yelp and trip advisor.

Shoot it! is a very cool app for the iPhone that will enable you to send a real, photo postcard from anywhere to anyone in the world directly from your iPhone. Your personalized postcard will be delivered in just days…not weeks. Easy. Just take a photo (or choose one from yor library) write the text, putt the address and they will print it and send it as a real post card.

It will cost you 99 cents for the US, $1.25 for the UK and $1.50 for Western Europe. This is what you would pay to buy and send it, but it is much cooler ;)

As you might know with the iPhone 3GS it was announced to have TomTom.

Well we have to competitors in the market already offering Europe maps and turn by turn software for 79 and 89 euros. The first is Sygic the Second is iGo my way. There is a third player in the market too: Navigon

If some one has tried them, please review it in the comments. I don’t know which one is better. I see iGo has a faster response. Maybe we should wait to see how much TomTom costs?

Here a video to compare them:

Well, here I am at gate B37 Terminal 5 in London Heathrow airport. This time on my first trip/mission with the ITC, that I joined 2 weeks ago.
I am now using my iPhone and we are ready to board.
I will be arriving to Nairobi late at night and tomorrow I will be meeting a couple of colleagues. We have a pretty busy agenda for Friday. On Saturday we’ll be flying to Monrovia (Liberia) where we will spend 8 days.
Now I am boarding. Next post from Africa ;)

With iPhone 3.0 OS upon us, we’ve finally seen the delivery of much-needed push notifications from Apple. Applications that take advantage of this new feature continue to trickle in, and though the selection is slim right now, there are a handful of apps (some on their way) that should allow you to become more productive throughout your day.

With push notifications, you can now stop checking news for breaking stories, or forget opening your IM app to see if someone is looking for you – rather, you can get instantly notified instead. Let’s take a look at a handful of useful apps that can get you the information you crave even more quickly.

iPhone Apps with push notification

Chat and Instant Message Apps

BeejiveIM: Web – iTunes: By far, my favorite instant messaging app for the iPhone, BeejiveIM ($9.99) combines Google Talk, Yahoo!, MSN, AIM and more all under one program for your iPhone. Now you’ll receive IM notifications even when you have the app closed.

YoFrog: Web - iTunes: YoFrog ($.99) is a mobile group chat application that allows you to chat with all your friends or business associates (who also need YoFrog) at once. No more SMS mayhem! With version 1.1 (sent to the App Store last week and waiting for approval), you’ll now be instantly notified when your contacts are trying to chat with you. They also have a free, Lite version.

Textfree Unlimited: Web – iTunes: Textfree ($5.99) allows for unlimited text messages (for one year) to any other US mobile phone. You’ll need to set up a username for people to text you directly, so it’s not ideal for your contacts – but probably not a bad deal for anyone who sends a ton of text messages and doesn’t want to upgrade to their carrier’s unlimited plan. Push notifications for Textfree will now notify users as soon as a new message comes in (imagine that!). They also have a Lite version that limits you to 15 messages per day and is ad-supported.

IM+ with Push: Web – iTunes: A popular instant messaging app, IM+ ($9.99) can now update you in real time when you receive an IM. You can manage IM with all of your contacts from any of the instant messaging platforms, including Skype.

To-do List Apps

RememberTheMilk: Web – iTunes: One of the most popular web-based to do list managers (and my go-to web app), RTM will now instantly notify you when you have a list item that’s due. The RTM iPhone App is free, but requires a Pro account with Remember The Milk for $25 per year.

ToodleDo: Web – iTunes: Another solid to do list manager, you can purchase their iPhone app ($2.99) to use with your free or paid subscription to Toodledo. Push notifications will let you know when an item with a due-date is coming up.

ReQall: Web – iTunes: ReQall (Free) is a unique information manager for to do items and other reminders. If you haven’t used it, I’d suggest trying it for a week to see if it makes sense for you. Open the app, speak, and let their system convert your speech into a to do item. The app now supports push notifications to instantly notify you of upcoming events.

Reminder Apps

BillMinder: Web – iTunes: ($.99 on sale) The next update of this bill reminder application promises push notifications. Just set your due dates and make sure notifications are turned on. Now you’ll never forget to pay a bill again… accidentally, at least.

NotifyMe: Web: Not to be confused with Notify.me, the IM notifier app, NotifyMe (price unkown) is yet to be approved by the app store, but promises notification for anything you can think of. Set it to notify you when your favorite TV show is about to start, when you are supposed to call back a client, or when you need to change the cat box! You’ll need to set up each alert, but the developer promises you can set up a new alert in as little as two taps. The free version (with some limitations) is in iTunes now.

Occasions: Web – iTunes: Occasions ($.99 on sale) notifies you of the birthdays and anniversaries of your iPhone contacts. You can also add more information about each contact or add reminders for people not on your phone’s contact list. For me, this is great. I manage all of my contacts in GMail and they’re synced to my phone automatically, so now I can get notified of the events in their lives, without having to do much extra work.

Other Apps with Push

AP Mobile: Web – iTunes: The popular free news app now supports push notifications of breaking news. However, it seems like it might not be working properly (serious lag time and not all notifications coming through). If this gets fixed, it could be very useful for those of us who can’t stand missing the latest North Korean missile launch.

AreMySitesUp: Web – iTunes: While push notifications are not yet available for this app, they promise that it’s coming. For an app that is built to “notify” you when your web site goes down – push would be ideal, of course. Their app is a free companion to the Premium membership on their site (starts at $25 per year). There is also a Lite version of the app that works with their free plan.

Zillow Real Estate: Web – iTunes: If you’re looking for a home, it doesn’t get much better than Zillow (Free). While you could always find houses for sale near your location (no need to enter an address), you can now get push-notified of new listings that match any of your saved searches.

E*Trade Mobile Pro: Web – iTunes: For the investors out there, you probably know you can already manage your E*Trade account with their iPhone App (Free), but now they’ve introduced push notifications. You’ll get stock and account alerts pushed directly to your phone’s screen. Next time you miss that big opportunity, it won’t be E*Trade’s fault!

Will Innovators Rise to Push?

While the apps that currently use push notifications are handy, I hope that developers will take this opportunity to do some things above and beyond your typical “message waiting” notifiers. E*Trade, Zillow and a few others get the idea. I’m waiting for the app that allows me to get notified of anything I decide I need to be notified about. With all the open APIs out there today, it’s bound to come along.

Things I want pushed:

1. Allow me to be notified when my car or house alarm goes off.

2. Google, let me be notified of a new Google Alert I have set up.

3. How about instead of giving me a big vibrating brick of plastic at the restaurant while I wait for a table, let my phone connect to your system and you can ping me instead.

4. I’d also like to know immediately when Albert Pujols hits another grand slam – or when any other sporting event I’m interested in occurs.

5. What about when I need two days of rain-free weather, within specific degrees, in order to paint a fence or deck. Should I really have to check the weather forecast every day? I’d rather have an app that did the work for me.

Sooner or later, push notification of almost anything will be a reality, making our digital lives even more real-time. What type of alerts would you like pushed to your iPhone?

(from mashable)

The Pogoplug connects your external hard drive to the Internet so you can easily share and access your files from anywhere.

So forget about expensive NAS systems, configuring your firewall and router… buy this box, plug your USB Hard Disk and access to it via web from anywere!

You have even an iPhone app ;-)

Pixelpipe is a content distribution gateway that allows users to publish text, photo, video and audio files once through Pixelpipe and have the content distributed across over 75 social networks, photo/video sites and blogs, and online storage. They provide a number of mobile & desktop applications for users, liberating their content and sharing their life.

I just added the iPhone 3GS app and configured pipes to this blog, youtube (for videos), facebook (videos, photos and posts) and twitter.

This the THE tool.

Dev-Team Blog – redsn0w in june.

Skip the first two minutes, but devteam has managed to unlock iphone 3.0. Wow!
They will release this for the public on Friday! I can’t wait!

bChamp, drums controlled by voice

bChamp offers an exciting new way to drum. bChamp is a voice controlled drum kit for your iPhone. Easily make groovy beats by beatboxing into the iPhone microphone. bChamp instantly translates your beatboxing into impressive drum sounds. Making and practicing beats was never so easy or fun. No talent required. bChamp does the work, you claim the fame.

Sound recognition

bChamp recognizes three easy to learn beatbox sounds:
Snare (say “k” as in “cabbage”, without breathing out)
Kickdrum (say “b” as in “bogus”)
Hi-Hat (say “t” sound with your teeth closed)

Pitch adjustment and visual effects

Adjust the pitch of your beats by using an easy to use interface, optimized for blind use so you can focus on the beat. Simply swipe one finger to change the pitch.

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Yesterday it was the Apple’s WWDC 2009 (Development Conference). They announced a new line of laptops (basically all based on the macbook pro). No more macbooks without the “pro” because they added a firewire 800 to the 13 inches model. They have also removed the slot in the left and replaced with an SD card reader in all the 3 models. Now all up to 8Gb ram and up to more than 3GHz processors and battery life of 7 hours. Two more than in previous models.  Also all cheaper.

They talked about new Snow Leopard for only 29 usd as an upgrade. Spotlight rewritten and many other goodies.

iPhone 3.0 with copy paste but not multitasking. Much faster and exchange support and … Tom Tom!!

Finally new iPhone 3GS. Twice as fast, 3MPx camera with video and video editing. Integrated compass and better battery life. 3G up to 7.2Mbps, voice control… pretty cool.

I just wanted to mention a very nice app for the iphone: howcast,