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.
I’ve been a big fan of Behance products offline, for my meetings, site sketches, and to-do list from time to time. Now they are tackling productivity online with their new online app and comparable mobile app to always stay on top of the things that you need to do daily.
Action Method was introduced this year as the premiere application to manage your projects, tasks, planning, and meetings. The application allows you to create projects, create tasks, assign tasks, and manage a calendar. If tasks are falling behind you can nudge the people to whom you assigned them to in order to remind them of deadlines. Color coding is a big winner for this app as it’s easy to find what you’re looking for with alternating colors.
Have an iPhone or iTouch? No problem, your web application syncs with your mobile app so your to-do list is never far away. Incredibly useful and sure to improve with future updates, the app is free to download, and free for up to 50 tasks, premium service for unlimited tasks comes in at $12/month or $99/year.
Recently Taptu announced the immediate release of their own iPhone app. The Taptu iPhone application claims to improve search on the iPhone with an easy-to-use interface and iPhone-friendly search results.
Performing a search on an iPhone can be a frustrating task, as the results are the same as those received on a desktop search and may not be viewable on a phone, for example a Web site running on Flash. Additionally, results are provided in long lists and multiple pages. Taptu only shows you search results that are made for the iPhone.
As well as only providing iPhone friendly results the Taptu app has the ability to search multiple platforms, share results, and more.
Previously we have wrote a bit about upgrading and downgrading your Apple products. Today we wanted to run through the steps of downgrading your iPhone 3.0 firmware to 2.2.1.
Connect your iPhone to your Mac or PC and select your iPhone from the list of devices in iTunes. If iTunes does not detect your iPhone then you will need to put it in DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) mode.
You can follow these steps to put your iPhone in DFU mode (this is required only if iTunes does not recognize your iPhone):
* Connect your iPhone to your computer.
* Turn iPhone off.
* Hold power and home together for 10 seconds (exactly).
* Release power but keep holding home until the computers beeps (observed on a PC) as a USB device is recognized.
* A few seconds later iTunes should detect your iPhone.
Browse the Summary Tab, For Mac user Hold down Option and press the “Restore” button. For Windows user hold down Shift and press the Restore button. Now you will be able to browse the folder where you have the iPhone firmware.Select the firmware & hit the restore button and cross your fingers for 5 minutes.
If you get error message like 1011, 1013, 1015, just ignore them(Actually the firmware 2.2 is already successfully installed). Fire Quickpwn 2.2.1 and jailbreak your iPhone use this guide
But if you encountered with error message like 1601, 1602, 1600 or anything else then try putting the iPhone into DFU mode and try again.
If you have an Unlocked iPhone then use pwnage tool to make a custom firmware then enter DFU and restore / downgrade to 2.2.1 if not works in first time done it again n again.
Do you ever wish you could DJ some of the hottest clubs from around the world? Spinning tracks and creating beats that livened up the party and got the people dancing? Not all of us have that opportunity to be an infamous DJ, but thanks to Grammy-nominated artist, DJ, and label owner, Paul van Dyk, his mobile application can put you on a global stage to make your own hot tracks.
There is no doubt that van Dyk is one of the hottest DJ’s around, appearing on Top 10 lists, featured in some of the biggest music publications, and with popularity the world over. His new iPhone/iTouch app gives you the controls that he uses to make your music on the go. Paul van Dyk’s specially created application by Zip Design, developed by Yuza Mobile will appeal to fans, music enthusiasts and professional DJs alike, featuring a BPM Counter, Frequency Analyser, Decibel Meter, Seismic Reader, Virtual Glow Stick, DJ Check List and an Itinerary Manager. This is no doubt the biggest iPhone app for DJ’s, artists, and music enthusiasts to hit the market, and with over 1 Billion apps already sold in the iPhone App Store, there is definitely going to be increasing demand for this product.
“I have had great fun being a part of the development team for my app over the past few months and think that both aspiring and professional DJs will have great fun using it. On a practical level, it includes everything that a DJ needs.”
(Paul van Dyk)
Watch Paul van Dyk’s introduction to the app here:
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 ‘
