Archive for the ‘Mobile Apps’ Category

iBible: A Good Web App to Read the Bible

Reading the Bible, for those who are interested can be difficult in some regards. The most obvious being that the thing is huge with thousands of years worth of literature crammed in one binding, not exactly making it a pocket-sized reader.

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iBible is a web app which makes reading and referencing the Bible easy.

Basically, because it’s all so simple and plain; consisting mostly of buttons for each chapter and the rest being text, loading it on any device connected to the internet is quick and easy. This makes it suitable for PC users as well as when you’re on the go such as on a mobile phone using GPRS Internet, a PSP or iPhone.

It’s available in several languages including English, French, German and Polish. The home screen is where you select you language and the screens after this whittle your choice down from Testament, to books, to chapters such as the one I read; Genesis 6.

Tap Tap Revenge 3 Launching Today on an iPhone Near You

tap tap revenge 3According to Techcrunch and TUAW the new Tap Tap Revenge 3 game for the iPhone and iPod touch should be live by now, but still doesnt seem to be.

The new app brings with it plenty of gameplay enhancements, but the biggest change here is support for in-app song purchases. This means you’ll be able to choose from a roster of premium songs created by well known artists and buy the ones you like — giving users more choice than ever, and giving Tapulous a lucrative new source of revenue.

Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem says that the company has sold over 500,000 premium apps at $5 each, so obviously they weren’t exactly struggling. Now they’re be able to sell track packs through a single application.

Up until now the basic Tap Tap Revenge games have been completely free with Tapulous only selling premium games for specific artists. However, with the release of the iPhone 3.0 firmware in which now allows in-app purchasing, this now means that Tap Tap Revenge 3 costs $0.99 in the USA iTunes store.

Here’s a sampling of the tracks available:

BLINK 182 – “Adam’s Song” / “All the Small Things” / “Dammit” / “First Date” / “The Rock Show” / “What’s My Age Again”

FALL OUT BOY – “Thanks for the Memories” / “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” / “Dance, Dance” / “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” / “I Don’t Care” / “American Suitehearts”

FOO FIGHTERS – “The Pretender” / “Wheel” / “My Hero” / “Best of You” / “Monkey Wrench” / “All My Life”

THE KILLERS – “Mr. Brightside” / “Sweet Talk” / “Human” / “When We Were Young” / “All These Things That I’ve Done” / “Read My Mind”

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iPills: An App for Keeping Track of Your Medication

So taking medication can be a nuisance but at some point in our lives we’ll all have to. Most likely under strict orders of a doctor about when to take them and how often. Great, just one more thing for us to remember.

For situations like this most of us would simply create an alarm on our phone but I think that iPills does a much, much better job.

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It’s an app for the iPhone that is basically a virtual pillbox. You program in what pills you have to take and when. You can also set them up to re-occur if you have to take them more than once. Each pill in your pillbox can be customized to look like the real thing or to set it apart from the rest. When you have taken the pill you simply tap it and it is moved into the ‘Taken’ box.

This is an incredibly simple app to use which is good seeing that many people on numerous types of pills are of an older generation and may not be as tech savvy as younger people.

But then it isn’t just for old timers. Many of us take vitamins, birth control pills (don’t forget that one!) and other such meds. So keeping track of it all just got that little bit easier. iPills is available here.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Arriving October 6

Microsoft announced recently the arrival of the first wave of Windows Mobile 6.5 cell phones, which will hit the stores tomorrow: October 6.

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But here’s an interesting note, AT&T released yesterday (October 4) a new model “AT&T Pure”; which includes Windows Mobile 6.5! Yeap, they’ve released a phone with an operating system that hasn’t been officially released just yet. Here’s some user evidence.

Here are the companies that will include devices with this new operating system:

  • North America
    Mobile operators: AT&T, Bell Mobility, Sprint, TELUS, and Verizon Wireless
    Phone manufacturers: HP, HTC, LG, Samsung, and Toshiba
  • Europe
    Mobile operators: Orange, T-Mobile, and Vodafone
    Phone manufacturers: Acer, HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba
  • Latin America
    Mobile operators: Telecom Italia Mobile Brazil
    Phone manufacturers: HTC, LG Electronics, and Samsung
  • Asia Pacific
    Mobile operators: NTT DoCoMo, SoftBank Mobile, SK Telecom, Telstra, and WILLCOM
    Phone manufacturers: Acer, HTC, LG Electronics, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba

We’ve also already mentioned about a Sony Ericcson phone that will include Windows Mobile 6.5: XPERIA X2.

Here’s a quick reference about the improvements in 6.5 version:

  • New engine for Internet Explorer. Including support for Adobe Flash Lite.
  • Microsoft My Phone. Application to synchronize data (photos, music, contacts, etc)
  • Office mobile new version.

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DropBox for iPhone Released!

We’ve mentioned DropBox as one of the coolest free file sharing options available in the market. And now, as most of the cool web apps, the iPhone version has been released to the public. Download it from here (iTunes link):

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DropBox has a very intuitive and easy-to-use interface, using your Mac, Linux or Windows client; or even using the web interface. You can simply synchronize your files everywhere; it doesn’t matter from which computer you are connecting. And now, it won’t matter if you are using your laptop, desktop or iPhone.

Some of the other features included are:

  • Possibility to use public links for your files: Instead of using rapidshare, megaupload or any other file hosting; you can upload your files to DropBox in a public folder and share it with the community.
  • Usability similar with Subversion: With the local client, you can store your files in your hard drive. And every time you put files in there, they are automatically synchronized.
  • 2gb of storage.

And some of the features that you can see with the iPhone app:

  • Download files for offline viewing: Add files to your ‘Favorites’, and they’ll be accessible at any time.
  • Take photos and videos and sync them to your Dropbox: Take a photo from your iPhone and email its public link to a friend in less than a minute.

Take a quick look:

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Opera Mini 5: Best Blackberry, Nokia and HTC Web Browser Gets New Features

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Opera Mini has just released some great new features which will improve the best browser for Blackberry, Nokia, HTC and other Java enabled mobile phones.

Opera yesterday announced a new version of their Opera Mini which includes tabs so you can open multiple web pages in the same browser simultaneously. The new tab feature is optimised for touch screen phones.

Opera Mini adds a new “Open in Mini” option to your BlackBerry email client so you open hyperlinks in email messages in either Opera Mini or the default BlackBerry browser. In my limited testing, this feature works only with plain text emails.

Other new features in Opera Mini 5 that lot of you may find useful are copy-paste and a built-in password manager so you don’t have to type your logins and passwords over and over again. The passwords are saved on your phone itself.

Opera Mini 5 is still in beta but the good part is that you can install it alongside your existing installation of Opera Mini 4. To download Opera Mini 5, visit m.opera.com/next from your mobile phone browser and download the Opera Mini 5 installer specific to your phone.

QuickOffice New Version: Microsoft Office for iPhone

qoffice04If you are an iPhone maniac, you’ve probably heard of it; and if you didn’t then start to get to know this great mobile app: QuickOffice for iPhone “Mobilize your Office”.

Yes, an Office version for iPhone. And what formats are compatible with this suite?:

  • Microsoft Word: .doc and.docx
  • Microsoft Excel: .xls and .xlsx
  • Microsoft PowerPoint: .ppt and .pptx

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In fact, the last version of QuickOffice (1.4.0) introduces the docx, xlsx and pptx support, where you can view and edit these files.  This company has a long way with mobile apps; they’ve been creating Office applications for BlackBerry, Symbian (Nokia), Palm and now iPhone for over 10 years.

And how much is it this iPhone app? U$s9.99. That is the price available, just for a short period of time, 50% discount.

But wait, there’s more. This application will also give you compatibility with other known formats: image files, PDFs, web pages, txt, MP3 and MOV files.

Some of the features that you will find available regarding the Office apps are:

Quickword:

  • Edit & Create Word files
  • Intuitively cut/copy/paste text
  • Easy to use double/triple tap for word/paragraph selection
  • High-fidelity rendering
  • Wrap text at any zoom level eliminates repetitive left/right scrolling
  • Extensive text formatting; bold, italics, font sizes, font styles
  • Confidently edit with auto-save & auto-restore
  • Quickly edit bulleted/numbered lists
  • File Support: .DOC, .DOCX, .TXT

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Quicksheet:

  • Edit & Create Excel spreadsheets
  • Professional-grade calculation engine
  • Supports advanced Excel features
  • Simply tap, hold & drag column/row headers to increase/decrease column width/row height
  • Extensive formatting; bold, italic, cell background, font color, accounting, currency, decimals, currency symbols
  • Double tap on a cell & drag to select a range
  • Easily change inputs and recalculate
  • Confidently edit with auto-save and auto-restore
  • Switch easily between workbook sheets
  • Insert new rows/columns
  • File Support: .XLS, .XLSX

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Ok, you can assume that for u$s9.99, this app has just fulfilled your expectations. But no, this suite also includes another very cool feature: QuickOffice Files, will let you browse, share and copy files from your computer/Mac, to you iPhone; or viceversa:

  • Email local or remote files without having to download them
  • Mount device as a wireless drive via WiFi
  • Drag and drop files between your device and computer via WiFi
  • Remotely Access your MobileMe® iDisk® account (separate account required)
  • Create new folders on your iDisk account or device to manage digital content
  • Save files to your iPhone for offline viewing
  • View most common file types
  • Easily organize, rename, and move files on your device
  • Passcode protection keeps content safe

AtMyNumber: Send Emails to Your Mobile Number

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I have several e-mail addresses. One for work, one for personal, one for my social networks and three or four I have simply been forced to abandon due to unmanageable amount of SPAM. In fact, it’s a rare occurrence that you’ll meet someone with only one e-mail address to their name; not that you’d ask.

So remembering these addresses can be difficult. That’s where atmynumber.com comes in. Basically, you sign up for an e-mail address for atmynumber.com that matches your phone number. So if your phone number is 4526985478; then your e-mail address will be 4526985478@atmynumber.com. The service will then forward all incoming e-mails to your real account whether it’s Gmail, Yahoo or indeed…any account!

This eliminates the problem of forgetting your e-mail address due to the half dozen in your name and it’s also easier for people to send you a quick e-mail because chances are they have your number! One bad thing about this is that it’s only available in the US and Canada; looks like all us Europeans will have to make do.

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Facebook Mobile Getting Ready for Expansion

fmobile02We’ve discussed before about Facebook’s future: Mark Zuckeberg said in an interview that they are not only focusing in maintaining it as a simple website, Facebook will represent the entire platform that any user will need as for identification, business and relationship, said Zuckeberg. And now they are taking another step towards that goal: Expanding the Facebook Mobile platform, that exists since 2008 for traditional websites and Apple’s iPhone, and now it will be available for any mobile platform.

Henri Moissinac, head of Facebook’s mobile operations, presented in the Nokia World about the implementation of “Facebook Connect for Mobile Web” in a new and simple method. With only 4 lines of code, any site, application and platform can use Facebook’s API, the only requirement: A web browser.

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“What we did for photo sharing, we are going to do for mobile applications,” said Moissinac. And they seem that are doing it right, because in last month of August, Facebook Mobile had 65 million users.

And of course, the expansion strategy keeps on going: Facebook’s television interaction it is here already. Moissinac said that one of their ambitions is to start working with games consoles, as they announced previously with Microsoft’s Xbox.

Do you still think that their goal about representing an entire platform of identification, business and relationship sounds too much?

Commodore 64 Emulator for iPhone and iPod Touch Has Been Approved by Apple for iTunes Store

A previously rejected iPhone title offering emulated play of Commodore 64 titles has been approved after the developer made changes to align it with Apple’s SDK. It allows the iPhone to act as a system that was what was once Apple’s staunch competitor.

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According to a report by TouchArcade, Manomio’s $4.99 C64 title was rejected in June despite having lined up all the proper licensing rights.

Spotify iPhone and Android Applications are Now Live

The Spotify iPhone and Android applications are now live. Here is a quick look again at both demo’s.

Two new AR Apps Go Live!

londonbuslogoWe recently reported here on Crenk that the iPhone’s first ever augmented reality (AR) app had been officially released to the iPhone. This was called Metro Paris Subway. It was widely believed that this would be the only AR app released until the new iPhone OS came out in a month or so. But now, two more AR apps are live in the app store causing people to rush in to snap them up.

Basically, these three developers have found a way around the supposedly necessary jailbreak that the new OS was going to remove. So naturally seeing apps that shouldn’t even be released yet is pretty cool.

One of the new apps is from the popular app company Yelp and the other is from the same company that made Metro Paris Subway – Presslite. Now, Presslite have made a similar app for London that allows users to point their iPhone camera at a location in London and an overlay of information (primarily public transport) will pop up on the screen. This app is suitably named ‘London Bus’.

It’s important that we remember that there are dozens of AR developers who have already developed their apps for the new OS so in a couple of months we here at Crenk are expecting a rush of AR apps into the marketplace.

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