11
Dec
09

“A” is for “Apps” :)

By Harlemite Leave a Comment
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By now, every iPhone owner/user knows what an app is and how they rock. Apps give the iPhone quite a punch, and many mobile device producers are following suit to the genius of Apple once again. For the uninitiated, “app” is simply short for “application software”. Application software itself is software that is designed for users to perform a particular task. For example, Microsoft Word is a word processor (way more than that, actually) that helps many people do their day-to-day word processing. Microsoft Excel does the same for the number-crunchers of the world. iTunes is a multimedia app that continues to expand in how it provides us with multimedia entertainment. I could go on…

But enough with the definitions! It’s time for me to list some of my favorite apps for you.

The order of the list I’ll provide will have no particular bearing on whether or not I believe one app is better than another. Some apps I use way more than others, but some of the ones I don’t use frequently are priceless in certain given situations. Since I currently have 91 apps on my iPhone (yeah, yeah. I knoooow), including the standard apps which come with an iPhone when you first purchase it, there’s absolutely no way I’ll be going through all of them. I’ll simply try and stick to my favorite 10.

Here goes:

GPS Thermometer – When I wake up in the morning, there certain things I want to know immediately: 1) how soon can I get the coffee on 2) where’s my Bible and prayer book 3) what’s the temperature going to be today. Granted, the first two are totally up to me (assuming our little Esme is sleeping soundly and I haven’t kicked some noisy toy, or stepped on some toy that will make me become noisy), but knowing the temperature in Sweden in the winter is no joke. The last thing you want is to not dress properly when a cold snap is in effect. That’s where GPS Thermometer comes in handy. It lets me know what the temperature is according to my GPS position. It hasn’t failed me yet, btw. And when you have to sometimes dress a little one, you want to be extra careful there as well. GPS Thermometer costs 7SEK/.99 cents.

Facebook – Put simply, it’s a mobile version of the very same super popular (350 million strong and growing) social networking app you’re used to hearing about in the internet world. This version allows  me to keep up with things when I’m on the move. For example, Esme and I just came back from town and I gave a quick peek at the happenings on my Facebook page while we were on the subway. Facebook for iPhone/iPod Touch is free. :)

1Password – If you have personal data of value on your iPhone that you really don’t want anyone else to get a hold of (e.g. passwords, PIN codes, etc.), then this is the app for you. 1Password is an award-winning password and identity manager that securely stores and encrypts your data. There is also a Mac version of 1Password that does the same excellent job of protecting the data on your Macs that syncs wonderfully with the iPhone/iPod Touch version. 1Password costs 38SEK/$5 for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

AppBox Pro – is truly the Swiss Army knife of the iPhone/iPod Touch world. It’s an app with 18 additional apps in it. It contains that following:

Not too shabby, eh? Believe it or not, one of the most valuable things for me is the flashlight. It’s makes my iPhone a pretty bright flashlight that allows me to sneak around the apartment and dodge the stray toys that Esme leaves around from time to time. The Currency and Battery Life apps are pretty handy as well. AppBox Pro costs 7SEK/.99 cents.

Olive Tree BibleReader – is pretty much the best mobile Bible Reader I’ve come across (and I’ve looked). It contains all of the standard Bible reference materials serious studiers of the Bible look for in a Bible Reading app. I do wish they would offer more material from the early history of the Church, but one can’t have everything I guess. For the money, it’s a really good app. Olive Tree BibleReader costs 7SEK/.99 cents with different packages available for download from 38SEK/$5 to 195SEK/$30.

Need For Speed Undercover – All work and no play makes the Harlemite a very dull person. That’s why even Yours Truly likes to kick back and have a bit of gaming fun. At the moment my outlet for this is Need For Speed Undercover. Not only are the graphics excellent, but the sound effects and driving challenges are pretty neat as well. I’ve been having quite the time earning a little bit of cash by winning some races, and buying different cars. The folks at EA Sports have definitely figured out how to take full advantage of the iPhone’s gyroscope. Need For Speed Undercover costs 38SEK/$5 and is worth every bit. ;)

På Stan – is a Swedish app that a friend, colleague, and fellow iPhone addict tipped me about (hat-tip your way Lady Linda ;) ). In a nutshell, it’s an app that tells you what’s going on in town and where (på stan means in/on town in Swedish).

One can choose from concerts, clubs, art, theater, sports, things for kids, and misc. categories. When you select a category, you are given a list of events to choose from. When you choose an event, you then get information that includes the time, place, description of the event, the nearest means of public transportation, and even a map with the location of the area, a phone number, the ability to e-mail it to a friend, and the ability to bookmark it for later. Believe it or not this app is totally free. :D

Stanza – Stanza is a free eBook reader from the good people of Lexcycle. As eBook readers go, this one is pretty darn good. Through the Stanza store, one can choose from popular selections such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, Stephen Meyers’ Twilight, and works from other renown authors such as Stephen King, Mary Higgens Clark, and the great C.S. Lewis. One also has access to over 50,000 free works through the Stanza store that are definitely worth perusing. Stanza itself is a free app, and certain eBooks are available for download at varying prices.

Voice Memos – This is a standard app that comes with every iPhone and iPod Touch at no cost. This comes in handy for me for a couple of reasons. When I’m in a huge hurry and need to make a quick dash to the store, but don’t have time to write anything down, a voice memo is the answer. I have literally used it to rattle off a list of stuff at the grocery store while I was en route. It’s pretty handy. I have also used it for a bit of fun with my little daughter Esme from time to time. ;)

Notes (no pic yet) – There are some things that are simply just good to have. Notes is one of them. When I do have time to write something down, Notes is usually my vehicle for doing it. Yes, you can find loads of fancy-schmancy apps out there that will do “notes” in a much prettier way, but I don’t need all of that. Besides, since Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Notes synchronizes with Apple Mail. Yep. The very same Notes you see there can be synced to your iPhone. That’s pretty neat.

Well, I think I’ve given you enough to chew on for a bit, but I STILL have other things to write about.

Please feel free to drop me an e-mail on what your favorite app is. I’d really be interested in knowing, and simply enjoy experiencing a new and cool app when I can.

Until the next time… Laterz.

02
Dec
09

iPhone Let Downs and Some Questions Answered

By Harlemite Leave a Comment
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I’m still a more-than satisfied iPhone user. Odds are this isn’t likely to change. If anything, the more I use it and get used to it, the better the experience becomes.

That said, I can’t honestly say the iPhone isn’t without it’s faults. In fact, Let me jump right into a couple of areas I think Apple can do better in:

  • Built-in camera. In all fairness, I was using a Nokia N95 before I switched to the iPhone. When it comes to mobile phone cameras, there’s not much out there that can compete with the N95’s built-in camera. I’m talking about a phone with a up to 5 megapixel (2592 x 1944 pixels) camera, Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar lens, MPEG-4 VGA video capture of up to 30 fps, digital stereo microphone, flash modes: on, off, automatic, redeye reduction, video resolutions: up to VGA (640×480) at 30 fps, video file format .mp4 (default), .3gp (for MMS), white balance: automatic, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent, scene: automatic, night, color tones: normal, sepia, black & white, negative, vivid, zoom: digital up to 10x (VGA up to 4x)… And I could go on. All of that and a phone. Now, one could honestly say, “Well why not just buy a video camera instead.” We have a very nice video camera in our home, and we use it (though not enough because of time, of course). However, it doesn’t fit in my pocket. With my N95 I couldn’t count the amount of times I quickly grabbed it to capture something my youngest daughter was doing, or some nice scene I was in the midst of. With the iPhone I get 3 megapixels, autofocus, tap to focus (which is actually pretty cool), video recording, VGA up to 30 fps with audio, and no flash. From what I’ve read, this is actually a step up for the iPhone compared to the first camera. Nevertheless, it simply can’t compete to the Nokia N95’s camera. Heck! Not many built-in mobile phone cameras out there can still! If the iPhone had such a camera it would be pointless for other mobile phone makers to even bother producing a product. At least that’s what I think. ;)
  • Battery life. The iPhone is actually a mini-computer with a built-in GPS, camera, running wi-fi and Bluetooth, is multi-lingual, push mail capable, and fits in your pocket. Any device that does all that and is that size is going to drain the battery. With all of the bells and whistles blowing full-out, I can easily go through my battery in a day. When I leave home I try and remember to deactivate the wi-fi, but I keep my Bluetooth going for my Bluetooth headset, and seeing as my calling plan offers unlimited data, I don’t tend to turn off the 3G function. Like other iPhone users, I have iPod cables and docks at work and home (Okay. We all know that by now I’ve bought enough Apple equipment to have plenty of cables for this. Heck, I’ve purchased 4 iPods alone in the last several years, so my supply of iPhone cables is pretty good) just in case my juice runs low. In the past I would’ve thought this a bit of a pain and quite tedious. That was before purchasing an iPhone. Those who don’t own one will think me a bit silly. That’s okay. I understand. I was there too. But it’s really one of those things where you have to experience it for yourself. It pretty much falls in line with owning a Mac. They just work, and work well. Funny how those strange folks in Cupertino manage to pull this off time and again… Regarding the issue of battery life, there now seems to be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. The mophie Juice Pack Air is both an iPhone case and an extra battery. It’s recommended by Apple and seems like a pretty viable option in that it’s nowhere near as large as I thought it would be. Of course, I plan on checking out one in person at an Apple store before considering purchasing one though.

Now let me answer some common questions folks tend to have regarding switching to an iPhone:

  • What’s it like SMSing/texting with it? I was one of the folks who thought I’d never get used to not having the tactile feeling of some type of keyboard beneath my fingertips. Even with my N95 I could float across its keypad rather quickly. If there was anything I was sort of hesitant about it was this. Nevertheless, the iPhone’s intelligent keyboard turned out to be all Apple said it would be. The biggest part of everything was forcing myself to actually trust the darn thing to learn my habits. Once I let go, things just got easier. Check out their video to see more of what I’m talking about.
  • How will switching to an iPhone impact me if I speak another language? This is no problem either. First, if you speak another language, changing from one language to another for the entire phone is quite simple. In fact, rather than bore you with the steps, I’ve found a YouTube video that shows you exactly what I mean. (The gentleman in the video is obviously a representative for a company that produces an app called Shake; nonetheless, out of all the videos I looked at, this one offered the best video quality, so I chose it). As far as switching keyboards, the iPhone intelligent keyboard video above covers this toward the very end of the clip.
  • Syncing. If you’re a Mac owner, syncing will be the very same wonderful, flawless experience you’re used to. It will be done via iTunes, taking the pertinent information from your Mac. The screen that offers the configuration settings should look like this:

As you can see in this particular case, I am also offered the choice to sync (or not by unchecking the box) with my Yahoo! and Google contacts, as wells as the calendars I selected in the Calendars area. If you are not a Mac owner (poor you! ;) ), I hear that Google Sync is a pretty decent alternative that also offers push mail (and if you have an iPhone push mail is something you want). Have a look for yourself and see if it’s for you.

  • Cool Bonus. One thing that I also dig quite a bit, especially as a MobileMe user, is the ability to Find My iPhone. This allows me to literally find out where on earth my iPhone is or at least in the vicinity of. For example at this very moment my iPhone is here:

If I was somewhere else and concerned about the information on my iPhone, I could send a message, play a sound, lock it using a remote passcode, or send a remote wipe command that would delete all media and data on the phone. I like being able to do that. In fact, I like it a lot. :D

In the next post I’ll get into some of the apps I like as well as what it’s like using a phone that’s locked to one provider (how American yet UNAmerican!). For now I think I’ve provided you with enough to chew on for a bit.

Laterz. ;)

30
Nov
09

It Was All But Inevitable

By Harlemite Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
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As the title says, “It Was All But Inevitable”. Inevitable that I would eventually give in an buy an iPhone. That I waited until iPhone 3.0 is surprising (even to myself!), but unquestionably a good thing. I now have an 32GB iPhone 3GS. My experience since purchasing the magnificent little device has been one of great satisfaction to say the least.

When Steve Jobs mentioned how the iPhone would be revolutionary I was right there along with others thinking, “Psshaw. Yeah, right.” He was right, and I was wrong. Plain and simple. I say this because the iPhone has already revolutionized the way I approach how I do my job.

As most of you know, I’m an IT tech. This means a great deal of my day is spent culling vasts pools of resources for solutions to problems that need to be solved now (at least that’s how most users see it). Despite years of doing what I do, there are often times when the answer simply escapes me. This can be for any number of reasons, but more often than not it’s because technology just keeps plodding right along without waiting for me to catch up with it and learn every new thing that has to do with the systems I help maintain or am responsible for. Like many of you, Googling has become part of my arsenal. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve had to type “Windows XP [insert error]” in a Google search window. However, this requires I be in my office, at my desk on my computer, blah-blah-blah, blah-blah, blah-blah. You know what I mean. My iPhone has helped me out big time in this area.

Now I have the advantage of carrying around a pocket-sized, virtual, searchable (most importantly!) library I can carry with me wherever I go. Thanks to the good folks at O’Reilly Publishing (and every IT geek worth their salt knows who they are): this is what one page of my iPhone apps looks like:

Word question I’m not sure about? I check my iPhone. A Cisco switch or router acting strange and I can’t remember the command for a function? iPhone to the rescue. Can’t remember that Google hack I need for a really cool search I want to conduct? You get the gist of it by now. And I can bookmark pages for future use as well as annotate.

Oh, how could I forget! Each O’Reilly purchase I made, all of them being the full edition of their hard-copy equivalent, cost me 38SEK/$5.45 or 15SEK/$2.15. Nope. I’m not kidding.

BTW, for my fellow IT geeks out there wondering what iCertify, IPEToolbox and iNet (I have a friend who used this particular app to find out some very interesting things about his hotel’s computer network) are all about, I’ve made all of the links hot and recommend you click on them and head to iTunes to check them out for yourself.

I have loads more to blog about regarding my new toy, as well as cool things I’ve noticed going on in the world of Mac, but I don’t want to burn you out with information overload. I’ll end by saying that in my next post I’ll be addressing some of the things I found not-so-impressive about my iPhone. Other things I plan on covering are the usual questions like: “What is texting with it lik?” “Are you locked into a particular provider?” “What’s the battery life like?” “What’s the camera like?” And whatever other questions you send my way.

In the meantime, it’s good to be back in the world of blogging. I’ve missed it lots! :)

30
Aug
09

A Response Worth Sharing

By Harlemite Leave a Comment
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My friend Elvis recently sent me an NY Times tech article titled “Hey PC, Who Taught You to Fight Back?” that I think is worth reading. We both agreed that it’s an interesting article, but I had a bit more to say about it and thought I’d share it with you all.

*********************

“Interesting” is a good way to put it.

I’m definitely with Mr. Munster on this one. I sincerely believe the economy is the driving force behind things for consumers, with computers as well as groceries. It always has been. Marketing is important and influential, but I think less so during tough economic times. However, people tend to dig in and do a bit more research on products they want to buy because their wallets and purses demand they do. I’m willing to bet they’ll look at the Return On Investment even more now.

I try harder than ever to be fair when comparing Windows and Macs, but I still have yet to see Windows making any real in-roads. If anything, I see it as a battle they will constantly lose, so long as the folks in Cupertino keep their eyes on the quality of their OS. Windows has the same huge negative that became quite stark when I made the switch a few years ago: they have to prepare for way too many different types of hardware. Apple KNOWS the hardware it prepares OS X for because it’s theirs. That’s an advantage I think is pretty much near impossible to overcome when the OS is as good as OS X. Such a position allows you to do things like put out an update that gives users/consumers 7 more GB on their machines, while offering major improvements to programmers that will enhance the apps made for your OS.

As we all move along in our IT-influenced world, learning the lingo of GB, OS, ROI, and such, we are also learning how incredibly value upgrades like Snow Leopard are for a mere $29. Mr. Jobs figured something out long ago. It was, in my opinion, a vision so far ahead of everyone else that we couldn’t even conceive how much it would pay off down the road. I think we’re starting to see now.

07
Jun
09

I Tried, Safari, But You Simply Got Out-Foxed

By Harlemite Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , ,

I seriously tried to get used to Safari 4.0 beta, I honestly did. However, there was simply too much missing.

I noticed that Safari’s a bit faster when it comes to surfing. Yep. I noticed. However, there was simply too much missing.

I get the fact that Safari is Mac’s default browser. Uh-huh. Too much missing.

When I start my day off, besides making my morning cup of Gevalia (actually, I’m trying out grinding my own Zoéga coffee beans fresh for a while), I log on to my MacBook Pro and fire up Morning Coffee. As the summary on the add-on page states, Morning Coffee allows me to “…organize websites by day and open them up simultaneously as part of your daily routine. This is really handy if you read sites that update on a regular schedule…” Well I do just that.

Picture 2

Morning Coffee uses one mouse click to open up the first sites I want to see in the morning. I’m able to check on important spiritual matters, the weather, my Facebook page, the world of news, and what’s happening policy wise back in my home-country. Nice.

The really sharp folks out there will notice that my tabs are all in different colors as well. That’s another Firefox add-on that I really like called ColorfulTabs. ColorfulTabs is a simple way for me to not have to search too hard for a page I was recently on. It may sound trivial to some, but it sure is helpful.

The security conscious side of me is rather nervous about surfing new web sites. There are a growing number of internet pages that take advantage of scripting vulnerabilities such as cross site scripting (aka xss scripting) and clickjacking. To help protect myself from these risks, I use NoScript. NoScript gives me the power to decide whether or not I want to run Javascript, Java, Flash, or other plug-ins on a site I’m not familiar with or willing to trust just yet. When I come across a page that wants to run one of the above, here’s what I see down in my status bar:

NoScript ThumbnailWhen I click on that icon, I then have the following choices (bear in mind I was conducting a Google search for an add-on called “xmarks” during the time; hence their reason for being in the choices):

NoScript Choices

As you can see, if I want I can choose to not allow, temporarily allow, allow all the time. I like being able to choose. :)

Another nice plug-in I enjoy using is SSL Blacklist. SSL Blacklist “…detects and warns about certificate chains that use the MD5 algorithm for RSA signatures.” For online shoppers like myself this is pretty important. I want to know that the sites I shop at have made the right move and are no longer using the MD5 algorithm for RSA signatures, which I know can be faked nowadays. When I head to sites like Amazon, where I do a LOT of shopping, here’s what I want to see in my status bar:

SSL BlacklistSeeing that the certificate gets the okay makes me feel just a little safer.

Lastly, but by no means least, is Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks). Xmarks is the award winning bookmarking program that allows one to “keep your bookmarks and (optionally) passwords backed up and synchronized” on all of your computers. In a nutshell, you install the Xmarks plug-in, and then synchronize your current bookmarks and browser passwords (optional) from your computer to their server for storage. You can then install Xmarks on your other computers using Firefox and simply synchronize from the server to the computers initially, and from computer to server after that. Xmarks is, of course, password protected.

Wrapping things up, I need to mention that all of these are free Firefox plug-ins you can all download and start using for yourself whenever you like. They do all of those cool things and they don’t cost a dime (or “crown” where I live ;) ). They’re not available for Safari, and if Safari has equivalents I’m not aware of them which is a shame.

You know. Now that I think of it, I’m not sure if one can even select a theme for Safari, and themes are pretty cool. :)

Laterz.

27
May
09

How Smart Is Taxing The Rich?

By Harlemite Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: ,

What happens when you think you can simply tax the rich? As most folks on the right will tell you, it backfires. Why? Because people who are truly rich can afford to move to places that are tax-friendlier in a heartbeat. It’s common sense really, but you know what’s said about “common sense”.

In any case, read on.

27
May
09

The Good Guys Get Another One

By Harlemite Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: ,

Looks like more good news from the wild, wild… I mean the world wide web. Apparently some folks have been caught for the old Nigerian fraud scam. Now that there are laws that can be enforced popping up all over, this may taper off a little. Let’s hope so.

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  • “A” is for “Apps” :) December 11, 2009
    By now, every iPhone owner/user knows what an app is and how they rock. Apps give the iPhone quite a punch, and many mobile device producers are following suit to the genius of Apple once again. For the uninitiated, “app” is simply short for “application software”. Application software itself is software that is designed for [...]
    Harlemite
  • iPhone Let Downs and Some Questions Answered December 2, 2009
    I’m still a more-than satisfied iPhone user. Odds are this isn’t likely to change. If anything, the more I use it and get used to it, the better the experience becomes. That said, I can’t honestly say the iPhone isn’t without it’s faults. In fact, Let me jump right into a couple of areas I think [...]
    Harlemite
  • It Was All But Inevitable November 30, 2009
    As the title says, “It Was All But Inevitable”. Inevitable that I would eventually give in an buy an iPhone. That I waited until iPhone 3.0 is surprising (even to myself!), but unquestionably a good thing. I now have an 32GB iPhone 3GS. My experience since purchasing the magnificent little device has been one of [...]
    Harlemite
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