Posts tagged iTunes
Seamless for Mac and iPhone
9 months ago
Staying up late has its benefits as I discovered last night when I came across Seamless, a magical app that quite seamlessly lets you transition from playing music on your Mac (free app) to playing music on your iPhone or iPod touch (59p app) with a single tap – without missing a beat. Seamless, simply put, is your music to go.
My good friend Chris over at techese has written a nice little review explaining exactly what Seamless does. Head over and take a look and be sure to watch the video.
Seamless for Mac [direct link to Mac App Store]
Seamless for iPhone [direct link to iTunes App Store]
The New Apple TV
13I’ve kicked off 2011 as I fully intend to carry on, with a new gadget. Over Christmas I’d been giving great thought to purchasing the new Apple TV. I already have the 1st gen which is located in my bedroom, but I wanted something for the living room which can be enjoyed by the whole family and friends.
After a little bit of hesitation between Christmas and New Year, yesterday I decided to head to Apple Store MetroCentre and finally give in to the temptation. It wasn’t until I arrived that I realised I was lacking an HDMI to HDMI cable. Rather than heading off in a different direction to hunt for a cheaper cable, I just gave my extra £15 to Apple for one when picking up Apple TV.
First thought on Apple TV – wow, isn’t it small? This thing is just tiny. Inside the box is simply the Apple TV, Remote, power lead, two Apple stickers and instruction booklet. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the set-up process as I’d heard some people running into various difficulties when they purchased theirs on release day. It didn’t sound like the “works right out of the box” that we’ve become so accustomed to with Apple, but there were no problems at this end. Choose your language, choose your network, input your network password, pop in your Apple ID, turn on Home Sharing and you’re done.
The pleasing thing about the new Apple TV is it’s speed. When it goes into screensaver mode you just hit the menu button and boom, you’re back at the menu, no messing. On the 1st gen you press the menu button and sit back as it clicks and clunks a bit, has a think about it and then it asks “oh, you mean now?”. Not only is it quick in that respect but when previewing trailers I have been impressed by no lag, no jitter. Similarly when streaming a movie from my iMac it just does things extremely smoothly. That was one of my concerns, but it needn’t have been.
It’s so nice to be able to access my entire iTunes library from the living room now. I have my own collection of movies and TV shows building in there, plus a few movies purchased via iTunes that I’ll finally be able to watch on a 42″ screen, on demand. I look forward to the future for Apple TV, which I am sure will be a brighter one than the forgotten 1st gen. Hoping that apps will be arriving soon to open this up even more and make it a very attractive home entertainment device for all.
The Genius is Reinstated
2In the last iTunes 10 update, the wonderful and ever accurate Genius Sidebar was replaced with Ping, showing me what my friends were liking and buying. No more could the Genius give me frighteningly accurate recommendations based on music I’d already purchased. A huge miss for someone like me who regularly discovered new music in this way.
However, I discovered today that that the Genius sidebar was reinstated when selecting some tracks to keep me entertained as I played worked. After tweeting this, it became clear that many of my friends had also missed the Genius Recommendations and are very pleased to hear of it’s reinstatement.
I’m so glad this useful feature was switched back on by Apple. I have been using iTunes Genius on the iPad regularly, but use my Mac version with much more regularity and I expect will be spending quite a bit more on music now that it’s back.
Uface for iPhone
21 year ago
Occasionally I like to let the App Store Genius recommend apps to me, based on my past purchases. Some recommendations are very hit and miss, but it can uncover some gems at times. I quite like apps that let you create yourself in cartoon form. These can be useful for using on forums as avatars, or using as Contacts pics on the iPhone.
A few nights ago Uface was recommended to me, based on my WeeMee app purchase. With one touch, Uface Unique Face Maker can make professional looking sketched faces. The interface is very nicely designed and easy to use, with 240 male/female character items, backgrounds, facial expressions and more. Here’s just a few I created of myself…
You can also see one of them that I created in action on my About page. Perfect for people who perhaps don’t want to upload their photo to social networking sites but want to create a profile pic that gives a rough idea of what they look like. You can upload your finished sketched mugshots to Twitter or Facebook, or alternatively save them to your iPhone photo album, assign to a contact or email them.
Uface is a great app – and an absolute steal at just 59p/$0.99 for a limited time only. Grab it on the App Store.
[rating:5/5]
Track your App Addiction
3Yesterday one of my Twitter friends tweeted the amount he’d spent on the iTunes App Store, courtesy of a clever little Mac application called App Store Expense Monitor which gathers all your iPhone applications from your iTunes folder and provides you with the total amount of money you have spent on the App Store.
I must admit I was a little surprised to see that I’d spent a whopping £190.18. However, I do remember that in the early days of the App Store, many apps were priced at £5.99, but have happily reduced in price over the last 18 months. But it just goes to show how those 59p’s and £1.19′s soon add up.
What’s your total? (if you’re comfortable sharing in the comments, of course)
Festive Gifts and Survival Kits
32 years ago
Thanks to severe back pain for the past 10 days, I haven’t had the opportunity to get a post out about festive gifts sooner than this. So the ones I’m about to recommend for the geek in your life won’t arrive in time for the big day, but we all love a New Year surprise, don’t we?
iPhone App Coasters
www.iphoneappscoasters.com (not taking any more orders currently)
[rating:4.5/5]
I ordered a set of these at the end of November as a surprise gift for a friend. A week later I received the news that they wouldn’t be shipped in time for Christmas so a replacement gift was ordered. Less than a week after that, they arrived unexpectedly. So, they became a me-to-me gift.
The cost of a set of six was just £12.99 plus postage and packing, which in total came to around £15. The quality of the images on the coasters are very good and they’re also very well made, with cork backing. Having seen similar coasters in the US for double the price, these are well worth it and the perfect gift for any iPhone fan.
Twitter Mousepad
I currently can’t give a rating on this item as I’m still waiting to take delivery, since I only ordered about 10 days ago. But, as a Twitter addict I am so looking forward to having my Magic Mouse glide across it. I’ll give a full review upon receiving mine, but if you are someone you know/love is a Twitterer then they’ll love this. Facebook mousepads are also available and pretty much everything that Meninos sell is Geek Paradise. The Twitter Mousepad cost approximately £12.50 with shipping which is bargainous.
Throwboy Pillows
Throwboy.com
[rating:5/5]
I wrote about Throwboy Pillows earlier in the year – you can see my review here.
These are perfect gifts not only for the Mac Geek, but now they have a bigger selection to choose from including RSS and Chat Pillows, so every geek is catered for. They’re fantastic quality, great to snuggle up with or have on display. Priced at $29 each (+ $8 shipping to the UK).
Now we’ve covered the hardware, what about some great software for your computer and particularly the iPhone to keep you entertained when festivities are over?
CameraBag Desktop for Mac and PC
NeverCenter.com
[rating:5/5]
I reviewed CameraBag Desktop a couple of months ago – full review. It’s making my recommendations list again because originally I gave it a 3/5 rating due to no trial period being initially available, so it was somewhat a blind purchase. However, having used it frequently in recent months I have no regrets about purchasing it. Here’s a couple of photos I’ve taken recently and edited in CameraBag Desktop.
CameraBag is also available for the iPhone and is one of my favourite photo editing apps.
Ramp Champ
RampChamp.com | iTunes: £1.19
[rating:4.5/5]
RampChamp is one of the most addictive games I have played on the iPhone – combining great game play with beautiful design. Recently they released a free festive ramp called North Pole which you can download within the app by going to to the add-on tab. After you’ve knocked over fun and colourful characters and objects with the 9 balls you are allocated for each game, you can redeem your tickets for prizes and loot.
I’d have given a full 5 stars to Ramp Champ in my rating if the application was a little more stable. Even after recent updates the app still crashes my iPhone occasionally which is a little frustrating when all you want to do is throw balls at the freaky characters in the Clown Town Ramp! Once these little issues are addressed then it’ll get full marks from me.
Doodle Jump
iTunes: 59p
[rating:4.5/5]
Having read the rave reviews, I decided to download this app last week. The warning was that it was insanely addictive. A bold statement, one that it definitely lives up to. The aim is to get the Doodle Monster to jump onto each platform and basically go as far as you can, with springs, trampolines and rocket packs assisting you on some of the platforms you land on. The newest update gives it a snow-mode so it’s fun and festive at the same time.
Outside
Outsideapp.com | iTunes: £1.79
[rating:5/5]
The standard Weather app on the iPhone is okay, but it’s a bit limited and a bit boring. I’ve searched for a while for a replacement weather app and last night I found it, Outside in the App Store. Not only is this a very polished and elegant application that uses GPS to find your exact location but it also comes with Push Notifications which will tell you what you want to know, when you want to know it such as when the temperature drops below a number you set, when rain is forecast and more.
You will receive 4 weeks worth of free push notifications and if you want to subscribe for longer then it will cost just 59p for 90 days worth. This has instantly replaced Weather.app on my home screen and seems to be pretty accurate so far.
American Greetings eCards
iTunes: Free
[rating:3.5/5]
If, like me, you are a little behind on posting out cards this year by the deadline, then you might be wanting to send an eCard to a friend to wish them a Merry Christmas or Happy New Year. American Greetings eCards has a bunch of categories to choose from and you can even build your own card and e-mail it to a friend.
WhatsApp.com | iTunes: 59p
[rating:5/5]
This is an app that is definitely up there on my Festive Survival Kit list. I can’t speak highly enough about this one which just keeps on raising the bar with every update it releases. If you have an iPhone and your contacts have an iPhone then this will replace SMS for you. I wrote a review of it a couple of months ago, but recently it has received some extra features which make this a must-have for your iPhone.
Version 2.3 brought us the ability to send pictures, video (for the 3GS users) and voice memos to others with the application. I use WhatsApp to keep in touch with several of my iPhone using friends and this is particularly useful when one of them is overseas. Sending an SMS/MMS to him would cost me money via the data network. However, with WhatsApp it’s absolutely free. Fantastic application to keep you in touch with friends over the festive period.
So, that about concludes my must-haves for this Festive Season. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
WhatsApp Messenger for iPhone
92 years ago
I’ve been trying to find the perfect push notification iPhone-2-iPhone messaging solution. An app that falls between instant messaging and SMS, without the cost of SMS. The two top ones on the App Store are Ping! and WhatsApp. I reviewed Ping! recently, but I just had to try out WhatsApp to see how it compared.
WhatsApp differs from Ping! in that it uses your phone number and your contact list rather than a PIN/username, so there’s no signing up or having to pass a username onto friends – and no need to add new contacts – your whole iPhone contact list is available within the app. If you have friends with an iPhone then all they need to do is download WhatsApp [iTunes link] which is currently absolutely free, then when you open the app you’ll see which of your contacts already have the app installed by looking through the Favourites list. You also have the option to send an invite to your other friends so they can download the app and interact with you.
The advantage WhatsApp has over Ping!, for me, is the timestamps are correct. You’d have to take a guess when a contact had sent you a Ping! message as the timestamps would read whatever they wanted at any given time. The UI in WhatsApp is also far more attractive than Ping! – and the icon is a lot prettier. That matters. On sending a message you get a little notification tone, much like in the default SMS app on the iPhone. You can also see when one of your contacts is online and composing a reply – ‘typing’ will be displayed under their name at the top of the messaging window.
In WhatsApp you can set a status from the ones given as default such as Available, Sleeping, Busy, In a Meeting and many more, or you can create your own such as ‘iPhone docked and charging’ – a status which indicates that I am unable to reply right away…and something I find myself using a lot! In the settings you can switch status notifications on so that you will get an instant push notification when one of your contacts changes their WhatsApp status.
I can see many people using Ping! alongside WhatsApp. Ping! is the better alternative for chatting to online friends who perhaps you don’t feel comfortable about giving your phone number to, but WhatsApp is probably more suited to those that you do know and trust enough to share your vCard with.
WhatsApp is currently free so there’s no excuse for you and your iPhone friends not to check this one out.
[rating:5/5]
The Apps Your iPhone Shouldn’t Be Without
9Today is iPhone 3GS launch day. So, you’ve probably picked up your new shiny device and are wondering what wonderful productive and time-wasting apps you can download to fill it to it’s capacity. Let me help you.
Here’s a list of some must-have apps, for every iPhone user.
Tweetie [iTunes] : If you have a twitter account then you need this. Don’t try or buy the others because like me you’ll only regret having spent more than you need to: Tweetie does it all with a beautiful and uncluttered interface. The best twitter app bar_none. Great price of £1.79 to boot. Tweetie for Mac is also available.
Shazam [iTunes] : The gem of the app store if you are a music lover. How many times has that DJ played a song on the radio and doesn’t mention who the artist is? For me Shazam is a DJ in my pocket – he knows pretty much all there is to know about every song ever made, almost! If you hear a song on the radio and don’t want to take a chance on waiting to see who’s behind it, just fire up Shazam, point it to the speakers and press Tag Now. It will listen to the song, send it, analyze it and bring you back the results with name of the artist and track. There are rare occasions where the results come back as unrecognised, but 99 times out of 100 it does it’s job. And it’s free.
QuickPigeon [iTunes] : This is a new app for me and I have yet to see whether it can be something I will use regularly, but is an awesome idea which is what gets it on my list – along with the fact it has push notifications especially for iPhone OS 3.0. Say you want to ask a friend something which requires a Yes or No answer, such as “Coffee at 1?”. You fire up QuickPigeon, ask the question, pick ‘members’ (that’s people in your address book) click on their e-mail address and then it will send that question to them via HTML e-mail and when they hit the Yes or No button then it will send that notification straight back to you, like so…
If I can get my other iPhone friends to install this (hint hint), which is absolutely free, then I could see this proving handier and much quicker than going into Mail app to ask a simple question. You can watch a video demonstrating it’s usefulness here.
Peggle [iTunes] : After reading a review of Peggle and then downloading the trial version for the Mac, it was 10 minutes in before I bought this for the iPhone. A wonderfully addictive game which just keeps you going back if you fail to get through a game. I completed the Adventure in around a week and now I’m desperate for Peggle 2. If you aren’t entirely sure what Peggle is all about, like I was, then I recommend downloading the Mac or PC version so you can get the hang of it. Peggle costs £2.99 in the app store.
Chop Sushi [iTunes] : From one addictive game to another. I’m on my second round of the Adventure stage and this game NEVER gets old. Great music, great colourful graphics and characters. Tom wrote an indepth review of this game over at tomacintosh.com, complete with screenshots. Priced at £1.79 for the full version with Lite version also now available to try it out.
Convertbot [iTunes] : Aside from this being one useful little app for converting everything from currency, length, speed, temperature and more, Converbot has a beautiful sleek interface. An app just to fire up for it’s sounds and UI. Thankfully this app has beauty and brains for just £1.19.
Paper Toss [iTunes] : if you’ve ever sat in the office bored, rolled up a piece of paper and see if you can throw it into the nearest rubbish bin then this is for you. Strangely addictive – and free.
FStream [iTunes] : Great app for listening to radio stations on your iPhone – even the BBC stations. Read my indepth review here.
IM+ [iTunes] : Now, I’m not the biggest IM-er in the world admittedly. Infact I can count on two fingers the amount of times I’ve opened iChat this year. But, it’s good to be prepared for any eventuality and IM+ is the nicest Instant Messaging app for the iPhone. I grabbed this for the sale price of £2.99 earlier in the year and at the time of writing it’s at the sale price of £3.49. This has push notifications, so is OS 3.0 compatible.
SKY News [iTunes] : I was pleased to finally see an app for SKY News for the iPhone as it’s the news channel I tend to watch. Excellent app with Top Stories, UK News, Sport, Business News and more. Also includes a video section and ‘Your Report’ so you can snap a photo of a potential newsworthy story and send it directly to SKY News from the app.
Instapaper [iTunes] : With Tweetie having Instapaper integration so I can save links my contacts have tweetes to look at another time, Instapaper Free is a great solution for me. Basically it’s saving web pages for offline reading later. Instapaper for your browser too!
So, those apps should keep you going for a little while. My faves list changes all the time with wonderful new apps being introduced regularly, but the above are with me all the time. Touch Arcade is a great resource for discovering newly released games and price drops of existing games.
Curbing my enthusiasm
143 years ago
Whenever I buy a new gadget I find myself being absolutely besotted with it for a few weeks, then it’s not long before something else shiny and useful catches my eye along with the promise to myself that “I won’t buy anything else after this!”. However, I think there’s one thing that may have finally curbed my gadget enthusiasm or at least put a stop to the endless “I want”. That is the iPhone 3G.
Usually this time of year I’d be thinking of buying a me-to-me Christmas gift. It’s not like I don’t buy myself what I want the rest of the year because I can afford to (mostly!), but at Christmas being self-indulgent is a lot of fun if it involves entertainment. But, I’ve looked around and can honestly say that I have everything I want or need at this time. A bit earlier in the year I mentioned the possibility of buying an AppleTV, but since BBC iPlayer doesn’t look like it’s heading that way anytime soon I have put the idea on the back burner for now. If an iPlayer/AppleTV agreement does come along then that will be the deal maker for me.
I’m 3 months into my iPhone ownership and the novelty hasn’t even begun to wear off. I think what makes the iPhone the most satisfying gadget I’ve ever owned is the constant new apps coming to the iTunes app store with great frequency. There is always something new and exciting to install which has me playing with the iPhone for an hour or two each day – that’s aside from it being a wonderful all-in-one communication tool which is definitely it’s main purpose for me.
So, for the first Christmas in many a year I’m going to be writing out a very short list for Santa which will mostly be requests for iTunes gift vouchers and other non-gadget related things. I never thought I’d say that. Judging from some of the responses to my tweet about this a few days ago on Twitter it seems that I’m not the only one who feels completely content since getting the iPhone. How about you other iPhone users?
N.B. whether all this “being content” will last by the time Macworld 2009 arrives remains to be seen!! 
GTS World Racing
03 years ago
Today I bought GTS World Racing from the iTunes App Store for £4.99 after seeing a demo on YouTube a few days ago from the developers of the game, which you can watch below (my thoughts after the jump)…
[fruit]KNWFkvoQ6rY[/fruit]
My favourite type of games are definitely the racing ones. I have Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart which is my absolute favourite. I also bought Cro-Mag Rally but I find that very boring and definitely not worth the £5.99, in my opinion, although I have noticed it’s been reduced to £3.49 now. So, when I saw the demo for GTS World Racing I was itching to buy it.
I have completed quite a few laps on GTS World Racing and I’ve got to say first of all that the graphics are excellent and it really looks like a quality game. Soundtrack is okay as are the sound effects. The controls are also very good – no problems at all with steering. To accelerate you simply tilt the iPhone/iPod slightly forward but not too much otherwise the screen will go red and you’ll be told “Too flat!”. To brake you tilt the device towards you. It’s very quick and easy to get the hang of, unlike Super Monkey Ball
Now onto the tracks. This is where it falls down for me. All the tracks in every country available look pretty much the same. I picked ‘Japan’ hoping to see bright neon lights and a cityscape. All I got were mountains. It didn’t look any different to Peru, Finland or Scotland, so you pretty much feel like you’re in the same place, seeing the same things. If the surroundings were more unique for every track then it would feel much more thrilling. I hope we see some changes in future updates for that otherwise I will be quite disappointed.
Overall the game play is good. I have won every game so far, lapping my competitors on the track, although that is on the Easy setting so I may have to pump that up to Normal or Hard to ensure I don’t get bored with winning so easily all the time.
If you’re stuck between buying Cro-Mag Rally or GTS World Racing then I’d say go for GTS. However, if it’s between Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart or GTS World Racing then I’d say go for Crash. The tracks all look different, it feels more challenging and after 3-4 weeks of playing Crash I’m still nowhere near bored – definitely worthy of the £5.99 price tag.
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