Over the last few weeks there has been a lot of attention focused on the new Spotify iPhone application which has already been submitted to iTunes. Spotify is leading the way in several European markets at the moment for music streaming, however Grooveshark has been making waves in other markets as their web app is available worldwide. Grooveshark themselves have been developing their own iPhone application which is just about to be submitted to iTunes.
We were lucky enough to receive a copy of the Grooveshark iphone application before release so that we could play around with it. Like Spotify the Grooveshark application lets you search and find pretty much any music, and then provides the ability to create playlists and keep track of your own favourites. The iphone application has a very slick interface and keeps with the overall design which is found on Grooveshark.com. Music is streamed from wireless internet connect, but it doesnt really stream fast enough for my liking, but that is probably more because of the iphone’s capabilities instead of the application.
Grooveshark also keeps track of what kind of music you like and suggests artists and music that you might enjoy. It is great to see the simplicity of this iphone application with a very nice design. The Spotify iphone application will only be available to subscription based users, thus it would be great to see Grooveshark offer this application as a free download and really grab a strong marketshare. However, I know that Grooveshark are trying to work out their own subscription service in which eventually might include this iphone application.
If you are beta testing an application, or working with a developer to track down an issue, the developer will almost certainly have to ask you to provide your UUID. This page describes details of what a UUID actually is, and how to find it.
When manufactured every iPhone is assigned an identifier that is unique to that physical device. This is commonly referred to as it’s ‘UUID’, an acronym for Universally Unique Identifier. It’s worth noting that the UUID is anonymous, e.g. if you have a UUID there is no way to tie that to a person.
iTunes will only install applications that have been digitally signed by a developer using an Apple-provided certificate. Applications can either be signed for the AppStore where they can be used by anyone who purchases a copy, or for AdHoc distribution where users install the application by adding it to iTunes. With Adhoc distribution the developer must include the UUID of all devices in the certificate for the application. This is intended to prevent people freely distributing their applications.
Below are instructions for retrieving your UUID. Alternatively you can download Erica Sudan’s most helpful and free AdHoc Helper Application from the AppStore.
1) Start iTunes and connect your iPhone
2) On the Summary page for your iPhone, click on the word “Serial Number:” text
3) The serial number should change to the word “Identifier”, followed by a long string of numbers and digits
4) When you press CTRL+C (Windows) or Command/AppleKey + C (Mac) and the UUID will be copied to the clipboard and can then be pasted into an Email / IM window / whatever
Twitter is one of the hottest startups at the moment and we thought that we would put together the top 10 Twitter iphone applications. Some of these applications are paid apps but we have also added some great free ones also. Of course there are some of the most popular apps missing, but we thought we would promote some fresh and interesting apps.
Tweetie ($2.99)
Everything in one app, including multiple accounts, favorites, deleting, following, trends, location, re-tweets, photos and more. Notably, Tweetie is also blazing fast. The interface is lacking in visual-flair, leaving it feeling a little empty, though. Still, it’s robust, quick and all the features to tweet on the go are present and correct.
Tweetsville ($3.99)
Although there’s no location-based functionality or multiple accounts, everything else is present and correct, from retweeting to trends, and search to favorites. The overall presentation is polished yet refined, with a simple box-style list layout or the option to change this to a Tweetie/iChat style bubble design. For four bucks though, Tweetsville has either got to step up to the plate with some new features or back down and drop that price a little.
iTweets ($0.99)
With its iPhone SMS-influenced design, iTweets is an ultra-simple solution, perhaps most appropriate for the infrequent tweeter (with few friends). There’s no photo-support, no trends, no search: just one stream of tweets. Put simply, there are better apps than this available for free. And the app icon is, frankly, a vile blemish on the vibrant and youthful face of my lovely iPhone.
Twittelator Pro ($4.99)
As the name suggest, this is the Pro version of Twittelator (a free app). The app is painfully rich in features, unfortunately to its detriment: it feels cluttered and confusing. The app may be rich in functionality (there’s even a help button, perfect for those Jack Bauer emergency situations), but it’s poor in accessibility and, ultimately, a disappointment.
Twitterrific Premium ($9.99)
The premium version features an alternative theme and is ad-free. The adverts in the free version, though, are unobtrusive and serve as handy bookmarks when scrolling through unwieldy streams (which helps as scrolling is very jerky). Light on features, the appealing, functional interface design and super-cute tweeting sound are plus points. Certainly not worth ten bucks, especially compared to the competition.
Twinkle (free)
From the guys behind Tap Tap Revenge, comes a gorgeous looking Twitter app. It was the first one I used for iPhone but I eventually abandoned it due to various unsolved issues with the obligatory Tapulous ID. Like Twitterific, it’s light on features but has bags of character and also includes an impressive tweet-stream from nearby strangers.
TwitterFon (free)
The focus in this app is on basic features delivered in a speedy, stable package. There are only four screens in the app: a stream of tweets from the folks you follow; replies to you; direct messages; and search (including location-based search). TwitterFon feels a little bare but for purist tweeters, it’s the perfect little package.
NatsuLion (free)
An iPhone version of a functional and compact desktop Twitter-client, NatsuLion is robust and smooth with a simple feature-set for light tweeters. Like TwitterFon, there are four main screens, although instead of search, NatsuLion incorporates a somewhat useless unread tweets page.
Twittervision (free)
Twittervision incorporates an almost useless but nevertheless impressive world map feature: watch people tweet live across a map of the planet. Strange, hypnotic and downright fun. This app is the weird guy at the party who insists on showing you his magic trick — a little odd at first but ultimately amusing and impressive.
Gyazickr (free)
Perfect for iPhone tweeple with a penchant for amateur photography, this app is focused purely on posting pics. With its curious name, Gyazickr allows users to take a photo using the iPhone camera or pick one from the camera roll. Plus, there’s a funky little slideshow that displays other images recently posted to Twitter.
Tweetdeck is one of the most popular twitter iphone applications in the market at the moment, and their iPhone version is simply amazing. You can even tell the popularity of this application from the comments left on this article. Create groups, search Twitter, manage multiple accounts and easily post your tweets or share photos, link and much more. Plus sync your existing TweetDeck columns between your desktop and iPhone. Nice and easy.
For those of you who read Crenk on a daily basis or are even subscribed, you will have read my post yesterday about the Russians thinking of pulling VoIP programs such as Google Voice and Skype. This was because of competition. However, it seems as though across the Atlantic the story is much the same.
Google Voice has an application for the iPhone called GV Mobile and, until recently it was available on the Apple iStore. Apple removed the application along with several other similar ones over the past two days. Their reason for this was that it was too similar to features already on the iPhone. Whilst they did not go into any further detail I suspect that it was the voice and SMS features.
I also suspect that it was AT&T who were putting pressure on them because Google voice was taking away some of their income as Google Voice allows cheap calls and texts from the iPhone.
They called the developer of the application Sean Kovacs and told him that his application was being removed from the iStore. This is what he wrote on his blog yesterday
“Richard Chipman from Apple just called – he told me they’re removing GV Mobile from the App Store due to itduplicating features that the iPhone comes with (Dialer, SMS, etc). He didn’t actually specify which features, although I assume the whole app in general. He wouldn’t send a confirmation email either – too scared I would post it. I’ll see what I can do to get it back up there gang…”
I guess the friendly face of Apple as concerns the iPhone is just that – a face. By demonstrating such tight control over the apps available and by not even giving good reasons as for removing apps, they could easily drive customers away to other networks and smart phones, where apps are in abundance.
There are quickly becoming more and more companies entering the Application development space. Some examples are Tapulous and GClue. Today Gclue have announced a new iphone application that is the next musical instrument to hit the app store, the iHarp. The iHarp is of course a harp for the iphone and ipod touch. This new application has a clean UI and various functions such as an octave and half range or half tones controls.
iHarp allows users to record and play your music. There are also built-in songs so that if you dont know how to play a harp, you can learn.
Main functions:
12 tones from Fa(F) to Do(C) and half tones
Sparkle effect (Playing each string will generate a sparkle)
Switch tones (2 ways)
Record and play (unlimited file size)
Skin selection (select your favorite theme)
Background selection (select pictures from your Photo gallery)
Reuters reports that ten top mobile phone manufacturers, including Apple, have agreed to adopt the Micro-USB connector standard for smartphone chargers in the European Union. The shift, planned to begin next year, will allow smartphones from the companies, which control 90% of the market, to use the same charging cables. Apple currently uses a proprietary dock connector compatible with both the iPhone and iPod touch.
The chargers will be usable only for data-enabled phones, which have more capability than just standard calls and SMS texts. Data-enabled phones are expected to account for almost half of all new mobile handset purchases in 2010.
The Commission hopes that as people discard their old handsets, within three to four years all data-enabled phones in Europe will be using standardized chargers.
The plan also calls for new phones to be sold with Micro-USB chargers for a period of time before ultimately selling phones and chargers separately in order to allow customers who already own chargers to continue using their existing ones. While the agreement extends only to European phones, it is expected that the standard will make its way into phones around the world as companies attempt to keep their design and manufacturing costs streamlined.
One user on a French forum posted that the overheating is “Unbearable” and the “phone much be shut down” as soon as it switches to EDGE instead of 3G or GPS is in use.
Indeed, it seems like things are heating up over the new iPhone but not in a good way. Reports are springing up all over the internet of people having a scorching hot iPhones in their pockets, seeing red traces around the lithium battery and even fearing the device may catch on fire.
One user said “I have a black 32 GB 3GS and recently I experienced overheating when I was using GPS. Every time I use GPS it somehow overheats, however mild it may be. But in a region where 3G is out of reach and phone switches to Edge, the overheating is unbearable. You must shut down the phone”
For what is now the most well-known smart phone in the world, Apple needs to resolve these complaints about their lead product quickly. When things like this occurred with other manufacturers such as Dell and Toshiba due to overheating caused by Lithium batteries the companies were highly embarrassed, lost sales and had to write checks amounting to tens of millions to fund a gigantic recall of the faulty products in question.
So far, from what I can see it is the GPS, Internet and Battery that are having the blame placed on them. Others are also saying that the root cause of it all (if indeed this is as widespread of a problem as it’s made out to be) is that the new OS on the 3G S has poor power management.
Whatever the cause, Apple better hop to it to smooth this one over quick to either fix the problem or assure customers that no such problem exists. If this catches onto the mainstream consumer radar iPhone 3G S sales may plummet.
One of the most anticipated features in the recent release of iPhone OS 3.0 was the inclusion of push notifications. Apple’s comprimise to not allowing background apps, I think most, myself included, were skeptical at how this would turn out. Well a few days after the OS was officially launched applications started appearing having been updated to take advantage of this new feature.
Tap Tap Revenge was first, however I want to skip past that and move on to 2 apps which will possibly benefit the most from push notifications. AIM andBeeJiveIM.
AIM
Now with Push Notification, AIM® lets you stay even more connected with the people you care about right on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Communicate whenever you want, wherever you are. Connect with friends and family and keep track of status, location, and presence updates in real time
AIM comes in two different flavours: the free, ad support version and the paid, ad free version for $9.99. Now i’m not a big AIM user so I tool the free version for a test drive and with the notable lack of landscape mode in the free version, there wasn’t much of a difference the sponsor ads never got in the way as is often found in ad supported apps which totally winds me up!
The main issue with AIM is the user interface, it just felt a bit small?! It was hard to read the messages and the navigational menus weren’t asintuitive as they really should have been, but on the flip side the push notifications did exactly what they said on the tin! AIM keeps you signed in forupto 24 hours after exiting the app (you can set the timeout in the prefs , if you can find them!). Should you receive an IM whilst out of the program you get the nice little pop up similar to the text message alert. Although it did show a preview of the IM which I couldn’t find a way of switching off unlike you can with text messages.
Unfortunately for me I know one person who actually uses AIM so after a few messages to them I was bored, now I’m not sure how popular AIM really is for me MSN/Live messenger has always been the IM of choice, which brings us very nicely onto the next app!
BeeJiveIM
Stay connected to all your instant messaging buddies anywhere you go! BeejiveIM (pronounced \bē-hīv\ IM) keeps you in touch with your friends on AIM®/MobileMe®, MSN®/Windows Live®, Yahoo!®, GoogleTalk®, Facebook, MySpace, ICQ® and Jabber… all at the same time, all on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Like the old saying goes, you get what you pay for! And I have to say this is worth every penny! For only $9.99 this app really does do it’s developers proud. With support for multiple IM protocols and multiple simultaneous accounts this was one of the most impressive things I have seen come out of the App Store since iPint (haha).
It has a really lovely UI fully in keeping with the iPhone OS and has full support for landscape mode which is nice, the chat screen is similar to the iPhone own messaging app although feels like you have a bit more space. I was moving around town shopping and the app seemed to cope rather well dipping from 3G to EDGE to public WiFi and when it did loose connection a handy popup on the screen told me about it.
This I would say is definitely the app to go for if you are looking for a comprehensive IM client for iPhone, and the push notifications seem to be really working! The true test will be if the Apple systems can cope with millions of pointless apps all using push notifcations in the future. The only thing I did notice was a slight decrease in battery life which I mention, but am not entirely sure if is related.
Conclusion?
Is there really one? Push notifications work there is no doubt, but going past IM clients what else can be done with them? I’m holding out for a better push email system, yeah I like my mobile me account but I want push on all my mail! Let’s have a nice Blackberry App for iPhone! Then we will really see what push on the iPhone really can do!
All of us with an iPhone or iTouch know the addiction of downloading applications. For those of us with the 1-click purchase mode have probably found ourselves just clicking away before we realize we’ve spent some major money on what we think are useful applications.
For the rest of us that don’t have that luxury and are happy to play with free apps, perhaps this site is for you. AppGiveaway is a site that offers you promo codes to get iPhone apps for free or at deeply discounted prices. This is a great site to be introduced to apps that perhaps don’t get a lot of press, or get lost in the shuffle. The site introduces its readers to unique games, productivity apps, financial apps, etc.
Give the site a try and explore what they offer. I won’t say every app they offer promos for are worth it, but it’s a matter of introduction and taste, what works for me may not work for you, and vice versa.
Groucho Marx was an American comedian and film star born in 1890. Despite his devotion to the stage one of his most famous quotes was “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read!” Well, he was right up until dBelement decided to release the ‘Reader’ for the iPhone.
This app allows you to read books ranging from new releases to some of the all time classics such as Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. DBelement say “Discover new books, re-read some of the classics, and enjoy the convenience of having Reader’s Public Library at your fingertips”. Reader has a one touch page turning option allowing easy usability and a good, simple interface that allows you to browse through your titles and download more to add to your digital literary collection.
It also has an arsenal of helpful features such as a search facility so you can find that book you always wanted and digital bookmarks so you can stop reading and come back to it another time. DBelement have described their latest app as a “revolutionary application” that “will inspire a new generation of readers”. They may be slightly exaggerating with the whole new ‘generation of readers’ thing, but at least I guess now you can red inside a dog with that powerful iPhone backlight.
Bing has been receiving a huge amount of press and slowly even seem to be gaining marketshare on Google. Bing is now in the process of developing mobile versions of their search engine in which here are concepts.
For those of you who read Crenk on a daily basis or are even
duplicating features that the iPhone comes with (Dialer, SMS, etc). He didn’t actually specify which features, although I assume the whole app in general. He wouldn’t send a confirmation email either – too scared I would post it. I’ll see what I can do to get it back up there gang…”
One user on a French forum posted that the overheating is “Unbearable” and the “phone much be shut down” as soon as it switches to EDGE instead of 3G or GPS is in use.
One of the most anticipated features in the recent release of iPhone OS 3.0 was the inclusion of push notifications. Apple’s comprimise to not allowing background apps, I think most, myself included, were skeptical at how this would turn out. Well a few days after the OS was officially launched applications started appearing having been updated to take advantage of this new feature.
Groucho Marx was an American comedian and film star born in 1890. Despite his devotion to the stage one of his most famous quotes was “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read!” Well, he was right up until dBelement decided to release the ‘
