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Quixey App Search Engine

hirtme — Thu, 26 May 2011 13:00:02 +0000

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.

Old Media Trying to Screw Consumer Again

hirtme — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:33:54 +0000

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.
Discovery channels: Animal Planet, Discovery, TLC
Fox channels: FX, National Geographic
Viacom channels: BET, CMT, Comedy, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike, VH1

Recall a few weeks ago Amazon launched a cloud music service without having reached any agreement on licenses with the music labels. The ball is in their court and my guess is they’ll ask for too much and end up suing Amazon to try and shut it down. Why don’t these major industries put their time, effort and money into embracing new technology and figuring out how to adjust their business models to it? Instead they hire lawyers and lobbyists to try and keep things the same. The thing that makes me smile is supreme confidence that this hasn’t and won’t work. Take the advice of Google and stop being evil.

Freemium Taking Over Apple App Store

hirtme — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 04:57:29 +0000

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).

The freemium app market is soaring as a year ago there were very few. In fact, from what I read freemium iPhone apps still only account for less than 3% of all apps. Freemium apps are even less prevalent for the iPad, but I suspect this will change very soon. I’d love to know how much these Top Grossing apps make on a monthly basis, but Apple doesn’t give that information. It has to be a lot which means that not only are there a ton of people using the freemium apps but many that tap the Buy button on more than one occasion once they are using it. Given that Farmville is selling gift cards this doesn’t surprise me in the least.

FYI, for you parents out there you can disable in-app purchasing before you get hit with a surprising large bill. I mean you can’t yell at your child for buying a wagon of smurfberries can you? Well, that would set you back a hundred bucks. To disable, just go to Settings-General-Restrictions-Enable Restrictions-In-App Purchases Off. You’ll have to enter a PIN.

Dragon Dictation – Best FREE app of 2009???

hirtme — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:26:42 +0000

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. Launch the app and you see the screen on the right a little below. There are only three buttons. Tap the red circle in the middle to record. The bottom left keyboard is for editing the few mistakes the dictation software will make and the bottom right button lets you easily paste the text to any app! For those like me that have rarely used software like this don’t expect it to be perfect. At least every other sentence will have a mistake. However, they are usually small (like leaving the “s” off a plural word). Once your dictation is displayed you tap on the keyboard at the bottom left and quickly edit your sentences/paragraphs. Now for the good part. Once its done you tap the bottom right button and save the dication to the clipboard. Once there you can close Dragon and open any other app and paste the text with a simple double tap. That’s right, Facebook, Twitter, email, text or whatever app you need to type into its done. In the app store the writeup by Dragon claims you can type five times faster. Well, I’m not gonna go that far as alot of it depends on how much you are typing/dictating. The longer the text, the more time Dragon will save you. Maybe you don’t type emails or Facebook at all because you find the keyboard too slow. Well, watch this 3 minute video and see what you think. That little computer in your pocket just keeps getting better and better. Typing multiple paragraphs was something I never considered because it took too long and I was never too far from a PC. However, with Dragon I might start doing it a lot more. What do you think?? Give it a try – its free which is nice because this is an app that IMO, many would pay for.

Appulo/Installous are Down While they Upgrade

hirtme — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:48:24 +0000

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???????

Repellent – Mosquito Miracle or Snake Oil

hirtme — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:05:35 +0000

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? First, the app is as simple as they come. You open it up and there are two buttons. One turns on the sound (this is a frequency that humans can’t hear) and the other lets you choose between 5 different frequencies ranging from 17.4 Hz to 20.0 Hz or all together.So all you do is push the red button seen here on the right and put in your pocket. It’s strange turning it on and not hearing anything. I wondered if it was working. My dog wasn’t barking so I assumed she couldn’t hear the mosquito frequency either. So at 6:20 in the evening I sent my wife out into the backyard with iPhone in her pocket. It didn’t take long for one of two things to occur. Either we have mutant mosquitos ammune to the noise or it doesn’t work well. They were circling withing 5 minutes. I can’t recommend this app even at $0.99 as it doesn’t appear to work.

At Bat 2009 – What All Sports Should Be

hirtme — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:40:53 +0000

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. Even on EDGE the radio broadcasts sound great. When you launch the app you are taken to the days schedule seen above. You can move ahead to the next days games as well and see which games are being streamed. When you select a game from this screen by touching the blue arrow you are taken to the Gameday screen which has four additional tabs (Field, Box Score, Summary and Video). Pictured here on the right, the Gameday screen shows you the current batter and pitch by pitch (with location) action of what is going on. The field tab shows the dimensions of the ballpark along with the names of the players on the field and those at bat and on deck. The Box Score tab needs no explanation and the summary tab allows you to go back to previous innings to see how they transpired. The video tab has highlights from earlier in the game. Usually about one highlight every two innings. Other reviews I’ve read have complained about the lack of video highlights and the video quality. While the hightlights are still limited (about five per game) the video quality has apparently gotten much better. See for yourself in the brief video below. While this all this makes this a great app, for me it’s the quality of the free video stream that puts it over the top. It’s quite clear and rarely skips or pauses. This holds true in both wifi and 3G! That’s right, stream the ballgame to your iPhone while in the car on vacation or wherever you happen to be. At $9.99 this is an expensive app, but well worth it for the sports fan. You might grow tired of playing a game you bought, but if you’re a baseball fan I doubt you’ll ever tire of this app.

I turned the game on and watched the video stream while I drove to work. I know, not the safest thing, but probably no less dangerous than texting while you drive. Anyway, the point is the video stream held up well over 3G. I love technology.

Honestly, I’m not really a baseball fan, but this app is amazing. It makes me wish there was a similar app for the NFL, college football or soccer. Remember, I started this review dreaming about the future. Well, I hope it’s not too far off that when I’m sitting at the Titans game I can also be watching the Colts or Pats game as well. It’s going to happen whether its some kid in his basement in Indianpolis with a decent camera pointed to his TV and uploading to ustream or an app run through the NFL. Make it happen please. The technology is here to do it. Check out the video quality below.

Old School App Review – Game of Life

hirtme — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:24:46 +0000

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. The Game of Life features six languages and upto four players. You have to play versus the computer or multiplayer (pass and play) with one device as there is no wifi option. This is a big problem with many games, but you know it’s coming in the near future. One nice feature when playing the computer, however, is the Fast Forward button. No one wants to sit and watch the computers turn but this option zips right through it. The game seems just like I remember as players travel around the game board landing on spaces that simulate the various events one goes through in their life from graduating high school to eventually retiring. You start the game by picking a character and car color. The player that ends their life with the most money wins the game. Very American! See me over on the right I chose Rachel as my character. I’m driving along with my hubby after spinning the wheel. If you tap on the picture of Rachel you are taken to a screen that shows your career, house, long term investments and most importantly share the wealth cards. It took me a little while to figure out where those cards were located. If you remember, you play those cards to get extra spins or make your opponent pay fees that you incur while playing. During the game you come across typical life issues like career choices, voting, lawsuits, marriage, children and property. You also experience some less common life experiences such as donating to African orphans, winning on a game show or winning the Noble Prize. The few times I’ve played there seems to be an unusually high number of lawsuits, but hey, we are a litigious society.
Visually the game looks great, but I expect nothing less from EA! The sounds are only OK. I prefer to listen to music with Backgrounder while I play. At $4.99 it’s a little expensive for an app. Especially, for a game that you probably will get bored with after playing half a dozen times. But hey, that’s life.

iTunes 9 rumors – App Organizer & Blu Ray

admin — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:40:58 +0000

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

App Review Thursday – WeatherBug Elite

admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:30:58 +0000

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. Check out the full app review WeatherBug gives you quick access to weather information in several ways. There are five pages- the default being Conditions View which gives you detailed weather information about the day (current outdoor temperature, today’s highs and lows, wind speed and direction, rainfall, heat index, humidity, dew point and the day’s forecast). Forecast View gives a typical 7 day forecast. The coolest feature of WeatherBug Elite is Maps View which gives you a doppler radar map of your area. Seen here on the right, check out the thunderstorms approaching Nashville! Actually, it lets you view one of the entire earth (powered by Google Maps), which you pinch to zoom in and move around with your finger just like the Maps app. What’s amazing is that you can zoom in to your exact location. When I zoomed in on downtown Nashville, I easily found the Sommet Center (where the Predators play), 2nd & Broadway and Riverfront Park on the Cumberland River. It remembers what you were viewing last, so you can zoom in to the location you’ll want to check most often and it will start it there the next time you open WeatherBug. This is by far what I use the most often. How close it that rain? The Maps view shows you. The only thing that would be better would be if you could play the movement of the storm over the past few hours to see what direction its heading. But hey, that gives them something to work on for the next version. The fourth view is Video which gives you Rachel’s WeatherCast. This is a waste of time. All the information you need is in the other views. No need to have Rachel tell you the forecast. The last view mode is Camera seen here on the right which shows you upto five live camera shots in your area. This one is at Tennesse State University. It’s kind of like Rachel – not very useful. WeatherBug Elite costs $0.99 or there is a free version in the app store as well. Not sure of all the differences, but the paid version has no ads which is always nice (its one of the reasons you like iphone4idiots right). I find this application is very easy to use and gives me a fast, convenient, and reliable way to get information about the weather in my location. On the downside, the radar map isn’t animated to show me directions of weather patterns, but this is something I can live without. So if you’re looking for a weather application for your iPhone, something better than the seven day forecast you get from the native iPhone weather icon, you’ll probably like WeatherBug Elite.