iPhone4idiots

Last week Apple announced there are now over 500,000 apps in the Apple App Store. While that’s great there is such a variety there is surely an app for almost anything you might want or need it does create one problem. How the heck do you find what you are looking for? Well quixey.com is a search engine made specifically for apps. Type “6 year old sight words” and you get a list. You can filter by iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android or Windows phone. It’s still in a beta phase as the results are too many. A search for “doppler radar” brings up over 100 results. However, the first three listed seem spot on and include my personal favorite Weather Bug. I figure the results will get better and better the more people that use this search engine. It monitors blogs and app review sites to base results not just on app title or developer description, but on what people are saying about the app. Give it a try. I think you might like it.

Time Warner’s TWCable TV app has dropped several channels after some programmers demanded it. While I wish Time Warner would show some guts and tell them if they don’t like it they can remove their channels altogether from their cable network, that likely isn’t a smart business decision. This is yet another battleground in old media versus new technology. See you already pay Time Warner for access to programing through their cable lines into your home. However, the law is not clear on whether or not you can stream this content to your iPad. Apparently, your cable bill isn’t paying for programming to your home, but only programming through the cable lines? The greedy programmers want another cut from either you the consumer or Time Warner. To me this like saying you have to purchase separate contracts to watch television on your Sony versus your Vizio since they are different hardware. It’s a joke. Here is a list of the companies trying to screw you and the channels that have been removed. Continue Reading…

Have you looked at the Apple App Store lately? Half of the Top 25 Grossing iPhone apps are FREE! Ok, it’s only 12 of the 25 but I round up. If you don’t understand how this is possible all these apps are what is known as freemium apps. They are free to download and play/use, but generate revenue through the use of in-app purchasing. I see this as a good thing. Users get to try before they buy and developers can rake in tons of money by selling the premium features of their app. For games like Tap Zoo and Smurf’s Village this entails buying items to make your virtual world look cooler (like having an amazing waterfall fountain in your zoo). For Texas Poker and Zynga Poker you buy more chips so you can be big man at the tables. For Contract Killer and iMobster’s you purchase items to help you move further along in the games (like better guns). Continue Reading…

I hope the title caught your eye. I think a lot of you might really like this app. Oh, by the way – its FREE! I’ve never used voice recognition software much but Dragon is a big name in that space. Well, yesterday they released a free app for the iPhone. I’ve used it half a dozen times today and I’m impressed. My favorite feature is how easy it is to stop typing and start talking for updates to Facebook, Twitter or sending email. First, the simplicity of the app is perfect. Continue Reading…

Appulo.us the website that allows jailbroken iPhones and iPods to download almost every app for free is down. Well sort of. You may have noticed recently that its been much slower and Installous (the related app that lets you install the cracked up directly to your iDevice without syncying) has been horrible. Well, I thought it was due to firmware 3.1.2. However, the problem is actually that the website is just too popular. The message seen here on the left states that 3 million people visit appulo.us on a daily basis. WOW! Anyway, they are adding additional servers to handle the traffic, but this takes time. So in the meantime they’ve introduced Troll Bridge. Basically you have to answer a question that mainly only the crackers involved with appulo know. This is intentional to keep people out until the site can handle the capacity. It should only be a few days or weeks. In the meantime if you have to have an app either figure out the question or pay for one???????

So when I saw this app and then looked at the dozen or more mosquito bites on my wife’s legs I thought, awesome, she’s gonna love me. Then I thought a little more and wondered how the small speakers on the iPhone were going to put out an audio signal with enough quality to keep mosquitos away? But hey, I’m an idiot who didn’t even know you could keep mosquitos away with sound so I thought I’d give it a try. Nevertheless, I was skeptical to say the least. My wife has tried everything including citronella braclets around her ankles. Well, other than staying inside or taking a bath in deet, the mosquitos eat her up within minutes. So how did it do? Continue Reading…

When people ask me why I love my iPhone so much its because of apps like At Bat 2009. It’s the kind of app that makes you dream about the future of the iPhone and what you’ll be doing in 10 years. At Bat 2009 allows you to listen to any MLB broadcast. Whether you prefer Harry Kalas (the Phillies), Vin Scully (the Dodgers) or Michael Kay (the hated/beloved Yankees) you can listen to them live. Better yet, while listening you have access to stats, pitch-by-pitch stats and video clips for the game. Still even better, each day two games are streamed live to your iPhone! This app is pure quality. Continue Reading…

Milton Bradley’s classic game on your iPhone! I’m biased as this was one of my favorite board games growing up. I think mainly because who didn’t love spinning that wheel? While spinning the wheel on your iPhone by swiping your finger isn’t as much fun, the game does convert nicely to the iPhone. But hey, its EA and as you’ve probably gathered I’m a big fan of almost all their games. Continue Reading…

iTunes 9 is coming out soon guys. The big rumored additions are a visual organizer for iPhone apps and support for Blu Ray! By support for Blu Ray I’m thinking they mean you can put your Blu Ray disk into your PC or Mac and import into iTunes 9. Then you sync to you iPhone and you’ve got them there. I believe Blu Ray uses video files with extension of .mk2v so I’m not sure how it would all work. Anyway, it can only be a good thing for getting higher quality videos on you computer and Apple device. The organizer is long overdue. I guess they’ll integrate Spotlight better between iTunes and your device. Spotlight on your iPhone is OK, but it would be better if it were more like Quickgold. You need to visually see the icons you use most often below the searchbox. It can’t be that hard to do, but maybe that’s just a pet peeve of mine? Well, its hot today. Been to pool already and having mom over for her B-Day party. Be well and changes and contest coming this week! Tweet ya later

Everybody loves talking about the weather, right? Well, WeatherBug Elite makes sure you’ll know what you are talking about. Whether you hike, bike, fish, boat on the lake, play golf or any other outdoor activity, launch the app on your iPhone and check out the radar to see how close that storm is from your location. For me, the radar is the key feature on the app. Where is the storm relative to my location? Is it going to mess up my plans? You can’t find the answer with Apple’s native weather icon. With this app you have your answer in less than 10 seconds. Continue Reading…