Quawkle » iPhone

Simplify Media adds Photos to the mix

Dave — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:51:41 +0000

I downloaded the new app from Simplify Media last week for viewing photos from you iPhoto library on your iPhone. Simply Media for photos uses the same Mac or PC application as Simplify Media for your music files. On the iPhone, it is a separate application.

I had some trouble with the caching of the photos from the Mac’s library to the iPhone. Simplify Media released an update today which seems to have corrected (my problems at least) and I was finally able to see my photos remotely.

So hard to decide which tool

Dave — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:59:11 +0000

I have been trying out several posting services lately with the purpose of easily moving video from my iPhone to several locations on the web. I have tried using Qik, which I like and which also now allows me to post video from the iPhone while connected with 3G service. I also use Posterous, a simple blogging, aggregating service (there may be better ways to describe Posterous), to post videos, audio clips, and photos. I really like Posterous because you can set it up to auto-post to other social web sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, etc. Posterous recently released an iPhone application which allows you to post photos and videos to your Posterous account which in turn will post them to any social networking sites that you setup in your profile. This morning I posted some video I took recently with my iPhone using the application, Pic Posterous. It worked great, even when only connected via 3G. The one issue I had was that my video was posted to Posterous, Twitter, Facebook, and my blog here at quawkle.com. Those were all by design as I setup my Posterous account to auto post to each of them. The problem was that I had my blog setup to send notification of new posts to Twitter and then to Facebook via Twitter’s Selective Twitter application. So the net result was duplicate postings at both Twitter and Facebook. After a little research thanks to help by Len at LenFlack.com, I discovered that Twitter Tools, the Wordpress plugin that I use to auto sent notification to Twitter and then to Facebook, had just released version 2.0 of the Wordpress plugin which has several new add-on plugin features. One is the addition of adding your own custom hashtags automatically and the other is a setting that allows you to automatically exclude posts from being sent to Twitter (and thereby Facebook) by categories selected. Since my auto posts from Posterous come over with the General category selected by default, I chose that category to be excluded and that solved my duplication issue, viola!

Facebook will be releasing version 3.0 of their iPhone application soon so I am excited to see what video posting features that app will have.

15 Apps Rendered Obsolete By The New iPhone 3GS : iSmashPhone

Dave — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:05:26 +0000

After installing the GM of iPhone 3.0 OS on my iPhone, I was able to remove a number of applications that I no longer need due to Apple providing the functionality natively in the new OS. iSmashPhone blog identifies some of the now “obsolete” iPhone applications:

Chances are youve already heard about the iPhone 3G S and some of its cool new features and same goes for the iPhone OS 3.0 and its cool new features. What you might not have thought about, however, are the apps which many developers have slaved over for weeks that were entirely rendered obsolete by the new features the iPhone will include. Read on for a list of 15 apps whose days are coming to an end.

via 15 Apps Rendered Obsolete By The New iPhone 3GS : iSmashPhone.

Amazon Kindle’s Blog – Free Sci-Fi

Dave — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:25:13 +0000

I have been using the Kindle app for the iPhone for a better part of this half week. So far, I am quite impressed with the application. I would not want to read all of my books on my iPhone, but when I am out and about (or held hostage at a shopping mall by my wife) I can pull out my iPhone and catch up on some reading. In a word, “Awesome!”

Update: I have not read any of the books below. As such, I cannot offer a recommendation nor a review of any of them at this time. If you either have read or will read any of the books listed below, feel free to leave a comment or review.

I enjoy some sci-fi reading, however, some can be rather “left field”. The Amazon Kindle blog offers information on Random House’s free book offer:

Random House is offering a “free library” of books to download at no charge until May 31st “to introduce new readers to popular and acclaimed science fiction and fantasy series.” Enjoy!

Settling Accounts Return Engagement by Harry Turtledove

His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik

Blood Engines by T.A. Pratt

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Red Mars by Stanley Robinson

via Amazon Kindle’s Blog.

Amazon launches Kindle application for the iPhone

Dave — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:36:55 +0000

From Greg Kumparak at MobileCrunch:

Not looking to drop $360 bucks on a gadget purposed almost solely for book reading, but still want to partake in Amazon’s new found love for eBooks? You’re not alone – and if you’ve got an iPhone or iPod Touch, you’re in luck. As we’d assumed they would, Amazon has just launched a free Kindle application for Apple’s much-lauded touchscreen, available immediately.

via Amazon launches Kindle application for the iPhone.

Regaining Control of NetNewsWire on you iPhone: Daring Fireball by @Gruber

Dave — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:41:27 +0000

If you are using NetNewsWire RSS feed reader with your iPhone, John Gruber of Daring Fireball offers some great advice for getting back control of a an overgrown feed list:

Daring Fireball: NetNewsWire and iPhone-Sized Data.

Review: Simplify Media – simply great!

Dave — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:46:08 +0000

Alright, I confess right up front, I have way more songs in my iTunes library than I ever do or will listen to. But I am one of those guys that likes to think I have my whole library always available for any situation. You know, like when I am at the park with my beautiful wife, a quaint picnic blanket and lunch, and a beautiful azure sky with one or two large cumulus clouds lazily floating across the sky. What better time than to have the dulcid tones of Barry Manilow, Air Supply, or some other love song straight from the ’80s playing from my trusty iPhone. The problem is that my iPhone is only 16 GB in storage size and with the bazillion iPhone apps, 32,000 photos of my loving family, and scads of other things all vying for space on my “do all media player”, I don’t have room for carrying every mp3 that I have in my library and frankly, who would ever carry Manilow, Air Supply, or any thing else of the era/genre on their iPod library?

Enter Simply Media. This software application is a work of art! You simply download the version of the client for your computer that stores your song library and install and configure it. It works with Mac, Linux, or Windows (XP or Vista). You can use it with iTunes or WinAmp. In addition, download the iPhone/iPod Touch app from the iTunes Store to access your music from your iPhone/iPod Touch. You will need to setup a free account with Simply Media from within the software. Once you install Simply Media on your computer and give it a little while to search your library, you are set to access your music from your iPhone, iPod Touch or any other computer with internet access. In addition, you can share access to your library to any other registered Simply Media user.

Chris Breen has written a review article for MacWorld. You can read his thoughts about this software here.

Apple Earphone cord management

Dave — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:13:26 +0000

John Gruber in his Daring Fireball blog talks about changes to the familiar Apple white earbuds that are standard issue for the iPhone/iPod.

Like most of you, I suspect, I’ve wound up with an awful lot of white Apple earphones over the last seven years. There have been subtle changes to the earbud shape, and the iPhone introduced the wonderful clicker (click for play/pause, double-click for next track, triple-click for previous track), but one thing has remained a constant: the cords get terribly tangled when bunched up in a pocket or pouch.