iTaser

I made this for a Gizmodo competition a while back in high school, in order to win some gadget prize. And now, ironically, in a bit about the Gizmodo-Apple dispute over the new iPhone "HD/4g/whatever", Jon Stewart brings it up! Of course, mine was based off the most current iPod at the time, the iPod Video.

Google Voice on the iPhone

Given that everyone with (non-jailbroken) phones is still waiting for a Google Voice app for the iPhone, I thought I'd post how I have set up my integration even though I occasionally use the GV Mobile app. This is for people who don't want to fully switch to their Google Voice number. If that's what you're looking for, check this Lifehacker transition guide.

1) Go get Google Voice

2) Set up forwarding of incoming voicemails on your number to Google Voice

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=00a93855af6943b4&hl=en

3) Change what the voicemail button on you iPhone does.

http://www.haklabs.com/2007/iphone-voicemail-button-fix/

Enjoy!

Why Can't Google Break Out Its Apps?

All the important Google apps that I use every day are all offered on my iPhone - Calendar, Docs, Gmail, [Reader]). But they're all stuck in that stupid Google Mobile app. Why? It's sure nice to have them all in the same app, nicely locked away, but by iPhone 3.0 (which should allow app grouping/folders), I'm pretty adamant that Google gets its act together and makes it a one-touch click to any one of their apps. I don't care about a two touch to all apps as much as one-touch to a select few. What's the point of having GReader on my iPhone if it takes approximately 5 seconds to open up Google Mobile and then another three to load the non-offline supported GReader for iPhone? They should be separate apps (or offered as both) and Reader should be more like the third party apps that offer sync through it (Byline, Feeds, Gazette, Doppler). Or just dead-simple and sleek like NetNewsWire. Don't even get me started on how ugly GReader web looks compared to NewsGator online. Functionality is better in Google's, sure (with sharing and tagging, etc.), but I love to read the news when it looks nice. 

George Costanza 2.0

This article by Lifehacker tells about a new web service that lets you know the nearest restroom by a Google Maps extension. It reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld, where George claims he knows the cleanest bathroom anywhere in the city. Jerry quizzes him on several intersections, and George replies with the names of some nice office towers or clean public restrooms near them. If anybody's seen the pilot episode, where George quits his job at a real estate firm over a feud with his boss, you know that the feud was over the use of the boss' personal restroom. Anyway, we can all have our personal George on our iPhones. Goody!

QwasiPad

I'm currently writing this from my iPod. But that's not special,
right? Wrong. It is actually being written on my iPod, which is
currently controlling my laptop, which happens to be on my desk while
I'm watching CNN using Livestation. A post on that piece of cool
software coming soon. But QwasiPad is something to be talked about
now. It's the cheapest and most easily functional computer-control app
that I've seen so far in the App Store. It works very easily with a
trackpad and keyboard which makes this quite easy to type an email for
direct-to-post on Blogger. Check it out - for $3 you can't go wrong.
And especially considering this is the first app that I've actually
paid for, you KNOW it's gotta be good!

The Next Gen Apps

Now we're starting to see some really cool apps and fewer "me too" types... such as those who joined in the deluge of Yelp-driven restaurant reviews and tip calculators.

Simplify Media: wirelessly access your whole iTunes library and playlists. Personally I think this should be built in, along with the Artist info and Lyrics capabilities. No longer is the tradeoff between cool device (iPhone/Touch) and having all your music (Classic) needed. You can keep as much as you want on your smaller capacity device and just stream the rest of them from your computer. Yes. This quite simply a media sever, but the best part is how easy it is to set up and quietly it runs on your computer, in terms of memory usage. It's great for singing along to your music without having to go to a lyrics site, search, and open up the song you want too. I keep it right next to the Remote app, first page.

AirSharing: I'm still trying to work with this one, since they haven't built Vista 64 bit support yet. Vista support is getting much better though with the upcoming 1.0.1 release. Updates later, but in short it lets you use your Touch or iPhone as a wireless USB drive. You mount it on your computer and you can transfer files back and forth and open up any of the recognizable formats (documents, presentations, spreadsheets, PDF) on the go, offline. Of course you can put other files on it as well, but not for viewing. I find myself using it for the openable formats, but not for others (since I carry a 2GB flash drive with me on my keys). 

Mashing RSS Feeds

I've never really needed to do much with RSS feeds besides read a few news sources and blogs easily. However, today I came across the need to mashup several sources and then filter them - a search on multiple RSS feeds, based on the content of each. I went through a few barebones web services, and then I came across Yahoo Pipes - I was floored. The interface is quite amazing - aesthetically pleasing and easy to use but amazingly powerful and versatile. You can filter based on a million things from the title, description, density, length, and more, and easily put together all your search criteria in a visual format and then publish it. Even nicer, you don't have to keep using Yahoo! anymore - you can use whatever RSS tool you'd like and just subscribe to the single feed. My weapon of choice is NewsNetWire for my iPod Touch. Way to go guys!

Nuevasync

MobileMe without the hassle or stolen $100/year! Nuevasync is still in beta, but it provides Exchange-based over the air sync to your iPod Touch/iPhone/other web-enabled device (they focus on Nokia smartphones). It's easy to set up and for a relatively small company, they're doing a good job. They are very nice about posting on their blog when servers are down for maintenance/bugs etc., but since it's happening somewhat often (once a week or so), I'd recommend adding them to your RSS feed so you know when not to completely rely on it. They're still working on getting GMail running through Exchange, but for now I have an over-the -air sync for Google Calendar and Contacts. The only downside is I thought I could sync back into Outlook when I sync my iPod but it [the iPod] won't do both over-the-air and Outlook sync. 'sall good! I have free OTA syncing and it works great!

iPod Touch/iPhone Gripes

iPod Touch/iPhone wishlist:After using the iPod Touch for about a month now (each), my friend Simon and I have come up with a wishlist for Apple's hot touchgadgets. While some of these are highly unlikely and probably only important to a niche market, I hope many of you will agree and wait for Steve to announce a really cool looking way to do this that limits everything (I have issues with how closed off Apple is at times, which is the same thing Mac users say about Microsoft, ironically). Anyway, without further ado...

=Copy/paste (update: coming soon!)

- Open link in new tab (Safari)

-Continue playing music from other apps (so I can listen to Pandora while playing a game)

-iTunes radio stations (although AOL radio is the best thing they've done since AIM)

- Yelp for the touch!!!----
-Tabbed browsing (switch without tap)
-Flash
-Reload-previous page on stop command
-Faster boot
-Easier app-closing
-Backplate replacement/complimentary buffing service
-Faster sync
-Google calendar sync/default
-Email search and tagging
-Play music apps while playing games
-Hidden options manual
-dedicated text-entry "button" - email
-Autofill forms
-Custom icon (other than web pages
-Reverse scroll on home page
-landscape keyboard option standard for all apps
-screen orientation lock
-edit font size to full width
-edit font type
-complete full screen reading
-auto scroll down
-louder alarm
-infrared tv remote
-multiplayer games across wifi/infrared

I Want Sandy

I usually don't like to make pitches even for cool products, because I often cant 1) afford them or 2) really make good use of them. But Sandy is an exception, and no I'm not personifying my Crackberry or something. www.iwantsandy.com is a web-based personal assistant service, and free for those of us who aren't CEOs. You can email Sandy with any reminder, to-do item, appointment, or whatever. My dad has a recurring reminder to sleep at 1 AM every day, which can be sent via email or text. The texting function is especially good because with the amount of email most of us get, we tend to ignore it (especially those people who have real assistants). It seems trivial, but it's actually really nice to just type something really fast than use the sometimes clumsy interfaces of digital calendars, which are the main reason people don't use them. Bits and bytes of text have not yet replaced chicken scratch on the backs of envelopes for many, mostly for speed. Typing and digital tools are great for things that would otherwise be time-consuming (typing a book or report for example), but not yet for the really fast things. An analogy is that it's easier to walk to the corner store than jump in your car and have to find parking too. Anyway, a quick email is all it takes, and there's a mountain of sync options:

1) Sync with Outlook calendar and to-do list through iCalendar
2) Sync with any other calendar like Google calendar that can support a web-feed
3) RSS feed (then open up new/old entries on your mobile device - including iPhone/Touch)
4) Through either outlook or web-based Google calendar or RSS, you can check it on your mobile device. Friends who use it can also set reminders for shared appointments, etc.
5) Absolutely the coolest, though it's gonna be fee-based starting next week. Jott Pro links up with Sandy so you can actually talk with your assistant with your voice!

I have already missed several meetings at work because I've been engrossed in another one meeting and been late for another, more imporant one because I wasn't at my desk to get the Outlook reminder. If I had gotten a text, it would've been awesome! You can also edit the email address to be something to your liking, and also enable other email addresses (your work and personal email for example) to set reminders/tasks/appts. This way, you can keep everything else the way you like it with the same software but not let things fall through the cracks!

http://www.iwantsandy.com/