Orb App for iPhone: Stream TV, Video, Music from Your PC
November 21st, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
Orb, one of my long-time favorite applications for remotely streaming home media has finally come to the iTunes AppStore. Up to now, Orb was only possible on jailbroken phones, but somehow, Apple has approved the application for everyday use.
With the $9.99 application, you can access and view various content on a home Windows PC right on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The Orb folks say that a version for Macs and Linux computers is coming as well. What I always liked about Orb is that is smartly manages the audio or video stream based on your connection speed: it’s always optimized. So what can you stream on your handheld while away from home?
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SMS in Landscape Mode Finally Made Possible for iPhone
November 10th, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
Now with the help of BigBoss’ alternative text messaging application BiteSMS it is possible to send your SMS messages in landscape mode with the iPhone. The feature only works with the latest biteSMS version 2.5 beta. BiteSMS can conveniently be set as your defaut SMS app and I am sure many of you will once they have given it a test run. This application is only available on Cydia or Installer so In order to use it you will need a jailbroken iphone.
Landscape Mode
Typing on a wide keyboard is so much easier! In landscape mode the text is bigger too.
BiteSMS gives you the option to chose from:
- Using your current cell phone provider’s network to send your SMS text messages
- Use the biteSMS network that charges a flat rate per SMS message sent to any country in the world by buying credits.
Rates:
AUD 10 cents
CAD 10 cents
CHF 10 centimes
EUR 6 cents
GBP 5 pence
HKD 70 cents
JPY 10 yen
SGD 12 cents
USD 10 cents
In my case I use it only the biteSMS network when I need to send an SMS internationally. You can quickly switch between your carrier and biteSMS by holding down the send button for a second (until it flashes) to quickly switch from sending via the Carrier to sending via biteSMS, and vice versa.
To get it installed on your iPhone add the following source in Cydia :
http://www.bitesms.com/cydia/beta.
Don’t know how to add sources?
Launch Cydia—> Manage—> Sources—> Edit—> Add—> Enter the URL—> Click Add Source
Here are the Features Found in biteSMS v2.5:
Forward or Delete a Message
- To forward or delete a message, right-swipe any conversation bubble and you’ll be presented the option to Forward or Delete:
Adding Contacts and Location
Right-swiping the text box brings up a menu. From the menu you can add a contact or your current location.
The location is added as a Google maps URL.
Character & Credit Counter
A character counter and credit counter are neatly combined into a single circular graphical indicator.
Typically each SMS message (and biteSMS credit) allows you to send 160 characters (unless you type a special character, switching the character set to Unicode, in which case you’ll only get 70 characters).
The character and credit counter make it very clear how many credits will be used and how many characters remain for the text being entered. So let’s look at how these work.
Before you start entering text, the circle is unfilled, meaning no text has been entered. As you start to type the circle begins to fill up in a clockwise direction. As you get closer to using all the available characters for a single SMS message a prompt appears and counts down, for example “20 left”.
Once all the available characters for an SMS have been exceeded, the SMS credit counter in the center of the circle becomes “2″ and the circle moves around again filling up the second credit.
Here are a few screen shots to help show this.
No text entered:
Only 12 characters left in this SMS:
Onto the second SMS credit, and only a few characters used, so plenty left for more text!
Proxy Support
A number of applications, for example TZones Proxy Hack (from Cydia), install mobile carrier specific proxy settings on your iPhone so you can surf the web, check emails, etc. These proxy settings are honored by biteSMS, so you can also send SMS texts via a proxy!
Hide Keyboard
When typing text in an SMS message you can tap in the bubble area and the keyboard will slide away, letting you read the conversation more easily.
Turn off Auto-Correction
The built-in auto correction doesn’t work correctly in some languages, for example in Swiss German. On the biteSMS settings page you can turn auto correction off.
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10 iPhone apps that could save lives
September 2nd, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
Whether you’re taking life-saving action to preserve yourself, of bravely putting your own backside on the line for the sake of someone else’s mortality, there’s an iPhone app to help!
Sure, it’s unlikely you’ll have time to download these handy apps in the event of a real emergency, but that’s all the more reason to grab them now, and be prepared for the worst!
ICE
Your iPhone never leaves your side, right? Then why not store something useful on it, instead of that horrendous music collection! This lifesaving app can be filled with full details of your emergency contacts. It also lists over 175 of the most common diseases, allergies, medications and medical conditions, so you can easily select the ones appropriate to you.
Quitter
Those ‘smoking kills’ labels aren’t on your precious fag pocket for nowt, y’know. Ditch the habit with this health-conscious app that’ll help you keep tabs on your progress towards a nicotine-free life. It’ll even show you how much cash you’ve saved up from ditching those cancer sticks. You’ll be richer too!
Emergency card
With emergency contacts and lists of nearby hospitals should the worst happen, this app could be the difference between life and death. It’ll even store data about any illnesses you’ve had in the past so a doctor can diagnose your condition much quicker. You’ll owe your life to your iPhone, oh, and this list!
Weight Tracker
We’re not ones to encourage size zero-style eating regimes, but those above their recommended weight are most likely to suffer illnesses. Unless you install this app, and get yourself on the treadmill. It’ll help keep you in touch with your current weight, and weight-loss goals. Best of all, it’s free!
My Life Record Family Edition
Bung your family’s entire medical history on your iPhone, and keep it in the palm of your hands at all times. It even allows you to store X-ray snaps, easily accessed at a touch. Handy for parents, and ideal if a family holiday turn into a nightmare.
Tanjas SOS Flashlight
If you’ve managed to find yourself marooned and in need of assistance, this handy app will send an SOS signal in Morse Code using the iPhone’s screen as a flashing distress beacon. It’ll also double up as a torch, and can flash in more than one colour too!
Kenkou
Suffer from high blood pressure? You’ll still need to get checked by a doctor, but this app will let you keep track of the results. It’ll also keep tabs on your blood sugar and cholesterol levels. But if you’re still feeling worried you can email your GP your results right from your phone.
Banner
Should the very worst happen and you find yourself in the midst of a major disaster, touch up this communication app. If you’re unable to speak or just want to communicate with someone over a distance, it’ll let you write large messages on your phone, which then scroll across the screen. Simple!
Glucose-Charter
If you’re a diabetic you’ll know how important it is to maintain your glucose levels when choosing your diet. Thankfully help is at hand with this app, helping you make wise dietary decisions and track your blood glucose at the flick of a finger.
Flashlight
Next time you’re caught in a dimly-lit emergency scenario, you’ll be glad you installed this free app. It turns your iPhone into a handy torch. Perfect for avoiding trip hazards in the dark, signaling for assistance, or just warding off aggressive woodland creatures!
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QuickBooks Online comes to the iPhone
August 27th, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
QuickBooks Online for the iPhone lets you view read-only versions of:
- * Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss reports
- * Bank account and credit card balances
- * Vendor, customer, and employee lists
- * Accounts receivable and payable
- * QuickBooks Online contact information, which works with your iPhone to make calls, create emails, and even look up addresses using GoogleTM Maps
Here is how to install and start using QuickBooks on iPhone:
For existing QuickBooks Online Users
- * Choose Safari on your iPhone and then go to https://accounting.quickbooks.com/m
- * Log in with your QuickBooks Online user name and password.
Not a QuickBooks Online User?
That’s ok. You can try our iPhone Demo.
Open your Safari browser.
Enter https://accounting.quickbooks.com/m
Select the Try demo link to open a sample company.
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Oosah iPhone app Gives All Members 1TB of Free Media Storage
August 25th, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
Oosah a service that help users to manage all social media content from one place is now available from iPhone. Oosah has launched a new Website that can be accessed through your iPhone. http://m.oosah.com.
Oosah’s iPhone app also works on the iPod touch, so users can turn these music-enabled Apple devices into 1TB music players and access their complete music libraries and playlists on the go through Oosah. Oosah’s intuitive and easy-to-navigate iPhone interface, it’s simple to access and manage playlists, slideshows and media galleries right from your phone.
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GrubHub.com Food Delivery Ordering iPhone web app
August 22nd, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
Got the munchies and got your iPhone handy? Search by Zip Code, pick your food from the iPhone formatted menu for your restaurant, pay and have it delivered to your door. GrubHub.com allows you to place orders over your iPhone to over 1,200 restaurants and view over 25,000 menus.
You can place your order securely and our systems will send the order to the restaurant and confirm the order. Our 24/7 Customer service staff will watch the order and make sure that you get your food!
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Look for hotel deals on your iPhone with TripApple web app
August 21st, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
TripApple.com is a web app designed specifically for the iPhone. It give you easy access to discounted hotel deals only and up to $100 cash back with no extra charge for cancellations or changes to bookings.
You can browse by Top deals or more specifically chosen locations across the world.
Choose a town or city and you will be presented
with a list of hotels together with their star rating and discounted price.
Selecting a hotel then takes you do a detailed listing that gives you the address, gallery and facilities that is offers together with one click to call numbers to make your booking.
Point your safari browser to iphone.tripapple.com to try.
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Top Food iPhone Apps to Eat Your Heart Out
August 19th, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
Sure there are plenty of foodie sites online like Yelp, Zeer, Dishola and tons more. But how many have actually merged into the iPhone space, the most portable way to figure out what you want to eat?
Here are 20 some food-related iPhone apps, both free and paid, that will let you eat your heart out:
A location-based app that works with Yelp as well as Starbucks. So you can find food and your coffee wherever you are. The app also works with GasBuddy (for the cheapest gas nearby), Eventful, Buddy Beacon, ZipCar, and Quibblo Quizzes.
Yelp (free) – The Yelp app is GPS-enabled and will find you places to eat nearby (amongst other things). The problem with this app is that it lacks Yelp’s best feature – the ability to review.
UrbanSpoon (free) – A fun app if you’re close to a city. It’s not as limited as the LocalEats app (above), but you’re not going to find anything nearby if you’re more than 20 miles from a city. It’s a slot machine application that lets you pick how much you want to spend or what kind of meal you want to eat. You shake the iPhone and it gives you a list of results within the categories you selected.
iFob (free) – This app goes against GPS technology and encourages Wi-fi connections. So when you’re at a restaurant that has wi-fi, you can walk away with a friend? The idea is to connect people that are within close range of each other. So maybe you’ll have an eating partner.
Restaurant Nutrition (free) – The most disturbing of the nutrition fact iPhone apps is this one. It lists the nutrition facts for most popular chain restaurants. You won’t believe how many grams of fat are in a chicken caesar wrap at Chili’s.
iWant (free) - A (possibly better) version of the Where To app (below) that’s free. Like the Where To app, it works easily like the POI navigation on a GPS device. Easy to use, easy to drive with. It has 3.5 stars at the iTunes store with the biggest complaint being that it doesn’t list enough results under some categories.
Nearby (free) – Works like other geo-locating apps, you search for things around you; only this time there will be various types of commentary about a particular spot: photos, notes, reviews and “virtual graffiti”.
YPMobile (free) – When worse comes to worse, hit up the Yellow Pages.
Where To ($2.99) - This is a cool little app that works like the POI (point of interest) function on a regular GPS. It finds your location, you choose a category, and it finds all of the places in that category that are near you. Food & Drink is just one of the 600 categories that you can choose from. It works kind of like a front-end to Google Search, however makes using it while on the road very easy and simple to use. Is it worth the $2.99? Well that’s less than a tank of gas in most places, so sure.
LocalEats ($0.99) – Based on the site wherethelocalseat.com, this app gives you the best 100 restaurants in the top 50 U.S. cities. The interface is extremely easy to use and it mostly avoids chain restaurants. The downside is that it’s only applicable if you’re near or in a big city. Still has 4 out of 5 stars at the app store.
Munch ($0.99) This amazing iPhone app finds restaurants according to your location. All restaurants are organized by food type for easy search-ability. Great for quick-launching searches for pizza, Mexican, and so on from icons in the screen navigation. Munch returns wonderfully accurate search results, but is devoid of context. There are no reviews, no Web site listings, and every restaurant we looked at was rated with five empty stars. That’s doable if you want a listings app, but for anyone trying to make intelligent choices, it just won’t work.
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iMia, the iPhone web Interface to MiaCMS, Mambo, and Joomla! content management systems
August 11th, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
iMia is a web application focused on bringing a standard iPhone web interface to the MiaCMS, Mambo, and Joomla! content management systems. Yes, the iPhone does have a full web browser that is capable of displaying any site, so it is possible to use these content management systems without iMia. However, the experience is often less than appealing since users must constantly zoom in, zoom out, pinch to expand and contract, etc. As with most web sites and/or applications, these content management systems were coded with the desktop browser in mind. This is were iMia comes in…
iMia brings a simple web interface to the MiaCMS, Mambo, and Joomla! content management systems for iPhone users. The application is designed in accordance with the recommended iPhone interface design guidelines laid out by Apple. iMia makes use of the iui project’s fabulous efforts in this area.
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NASA Image of the Day web app for the iPhone
August 10th, 2008 by iPhoneTechZone
Todd Barnes at Toughturtle has some interesting web apps for the iPhone, including the often breathtaking Nasa Image of the Day.
Description of NASA Image of the Day:
NASA Image of the Day specifically formatted for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices. Get daily images from the “NASA Image of the Day” gallery automatically from the NASA web feed.
The web-app will display:
- The image title.
- The image description.
- The time the image was updated by NASA.
- A link to the full description and a full-size image.
- NASA RSS Web Feeds such as Breaking News, STS-124 Mission Updates, Moon and Mars Exploration News, Shuttle and Station News, and many more!
- NASA podcasts: Original audio podcasts from NASA.
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