After the iPad…
New puppies. Maggie and Millie.
Oh yes…
1. Tweetie 2 - This is a Twitter app and it is as smooth as they come. The interface looks like it was built by Apple, and it is super slick. It has all the features you would expect in a Twitter client and then some. It’s $2.99 and worth every penny (check it here). However if you’re a cheap skate like me, Echofon is an equally great Twitter app and it has Push Notifications to let you know when people @reply you. Plus it’s free (check it here).
2. Facebook - I labeled this one not so much because I love it, but because I use it so often. It’s a pretty solid app and if you’re on Facebook it’s a must. It has Push Notifications but I don’t use them. I really wish it had the ability to watch Facebook videos, but not yet (check it here).
3. BeejiveIM (pronounced “bee hive”) - This is an app for instant messaging. It works really great and I use it for Google Chat, AIM, and Facebook. It is very clean, has a great icon (which is extremely important) and keeps you logged in for at least a week even after you close the app. Through Push Notifications it sends you IM messages like text messages even when you aren’t in the app. It’s $6.99 and way better than IM+ (check it here). However as of this week a new IM app hit the store called Meebo. It’s free and has gotten pretty good reviews, so I would recommend checking that app first (check it here).
4. NetNewsWire - This is an RSS reader for Google Reader. To find out what RSS is read this post (click here). I have tried almost every RSS reader there is for iPhone. I tried Byline, Reeder, Newsie, and NewsRack. All of these apps are missing one major feature…a “mark all as read” button at the top of the news feeds. NetNewsWire has it all. Its simple, clean, and most of all has the necessary buttons right where they should be. NetNewsWire is free and only $4.99 for an ad free version (check it here).
5. Tumblr - I use Tumblr for my blog page. I’ve tried Wordpress, and Blogger and Tumblr is as good as it gets in the world of free. To update my blog on the go I use Tumblr for iPhone. It gives all of the same features that you have in the web version and I love it. It’s free (check it here).
6. vlingo - This is one of those apps that is just beautiful. It does so much and is so simple to use. It’s basically a “speech to text” app that translates what you say into a task for your phone. You can speak things into vlingo and it will search Google. You can speak a location into vlingo and search Google Maps. You can speak a contacts name into vlingo and call them (great for iPhone users without 3Gs). My favorite feature is you can speak status updates into vlingo and tweet or update your Facebook page. The best news is that it’s free (check it here).
7. Pano - This app lets you take panoramic pictures with your iPhone’s camera and it is really good. It is very simple to use, and I’m totally blown away at how good these panos turn out. It costs $2.99 but it is so worth it (check it here).
8. Bible - It is what it is. A really great Bible that fits in your pocket. I like this app because it is clean and simple, but very robust. There are tons of translations, daily readings, commentaries, and you can tweet verses straight from the app. There are quite a few Bible apps that cost money, and that just seems silly. Check out this slick, free Bible app and save your money to buy a homeless guy a doughnut. (check it here).
9. Shazam - This app amazes me every time I use it. It’s an app that listens to music around you then tells you who the artist is and what the song is called. Amazing! It is seriously near flawless and worth the free price tag (check it here).
10. Air Mouse Pro - This is a little on the techie side, but this app turns your phone into a mouse for your computer. It requires you to load a piece of software on your machine and you need WiFi, but man is it nice. I use it most when I plug my computer into my TV to watch Hulu or movies on my computer. Air Mouse comes with instructions on how to set it up and is worth the $.99 price (check it here).
What does this icon mean? You have probably seen it around the web. It is the icon for an RSS feed. What is an RSS feed you ask? Think of it as your favorite websites sending you their updated content though email every second they post it. That way you don’t have to visit their site, they send it to you. It works great for news sites and any site that updates their content on a regular basis. To set up your RSS feeds you need a feed reader. I use Google Reader. Basically you go to google.com/reader and sign up for an account. Then go to your favorite site, click on the icon that looks like the one above. Copy the website address that it takes you to and paste it into your google reader feed. That’s it, now when you log into Google Reader all of your news feeds are right there. It’s a great way to keep track of news. To learn more you should defintely watch this (click here).
If you have a Mac and you like using iChat, you can now chat up your Facebook friends without logging into Facebook through the web.
1. Open iChat
2. Follow the steps in the image above
Thats it you are good to go. I realize that Adium has had this ability for almost 2 years but iChat is nice too. Just spreading the love. Enjoy.
iPad 2.0
Today Apple released a new product called the iPad. It is supposed to be a tablet computer with amazing Web, Email, and eBook capabilities. It looks like a giant 9” iPhone, and frankly performs like one too. The chip is fast and it has a couple cool features but again, it’s just a big iPhone.
If people want to go buy one that’s fine, but I have a couple issues with it. First it doesn’t do anything that an iPod Touch can’t do (with the exception of lame condensed versions of iWork). The iPad should have been built on Snow Leopard with an added ability to run App Store apps. Instead it’s just a big clunky iPod/iPhone without the phone capability.
Second, it doesn’t run Flash! The iPad is being sold as the “best internet experience ever.” Sorry but without Flash, and DivX my web experience is lame.
There is one silver lining. There is a new App and Store called iBooks. It’s an App Store for buying books and reading them on your iPad. This combined with buying Newspaper and Magazines directly to the iPad may very well save the print industry. Even though there are tons of eBook reader apps for the iPhone I think iBooks is a knock out of the park.
Will I get an iPad? I already did, 3 years ago…it’s called an iPhone.
