In no particular order other than how they appear on my iPhone, here is my list of favorite websites that have been optimized for the iPhone:
Bank of America
One of the first banking websites that provided a mobile version of their website, but now has a very nice version of their website optimized for the iPhone. They also have an iPhone app that just loads the mobile website.
Gmail
Yes, you can use the built-in Mail app to access your Gmail inbox via POP or IMAP, but this version resembles how the full browser version behaves.
Google Calendar
Yes, you can be an über-geek and sync your Google Calendar with your iPhone Calendar app via Exchange and then use Google Sync blah blah blah....but this handy iPhone version of Google Calendar is a nice reference without having to clutter up your Calendar app.
Google Docs
There are apps that allow you to access your Google Docs documents but again, why bother when this elegant iPhone-optimized version will work just fine? Both spreadsheets and word processing documents and can be viewed and edited.
Gmail Tasks
iPhone task apps are about a dime a dozen. If you use Google Tasks, don't even bother with the apps.
Google Latitude
It's an interesting concept, but still trying to find a use for this. The iPhone-optimized webpage works very well with the pinch and zoom functionality works just like Maps app.
Nike+
Being a runner and a user of the Nike+ website, I was pleasantly pleased to find that Nike had built a nice and simple iPhone version of their Nike+ website. Given that the iPhone 3GS has the Nike+ receiver built-in to the phone, it makes perfect sense. What's missing is the ability to view run graphs. Outside of that, I think the Nike+ app that comes with the iPhone 3GS ought to allow you to upload your runs to Nike+ website without having to sync the phone to your desktop. It seems like a natural evolution.
AA.com
American Airlines' website has an iPhone version that allows you to view your registration, check-in, look up gates and times, access a flight status notification center to let you know about the status of your flight, book flights, and even access your AAdvantage account info.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud-service that allows to sync your computer files or keep backups of them. It's great if you have a work computer and a home computer and you want to work from home. Dropbox will automatically sync files to its servers and to any computer you have Dropbox installed on.
Facebook
Sometimes the iPhone app doesn't behave quite right, and when you don't like the Mobile Facebook, the Facebook site for iPhone will do just fine in a pinch.
LinkedIn
The social and career networking site has a mobile version. An iPhone app is also available but the mobile version loads faster IMO.
Amazon
How else can you purchase your Kindle books on your iPhone Kindle reader, right from your iPhone?
Yahoo
Having gone through a couple of iterations, including a couple of iPhone apps, Yahoo finally got it right this time.
ESPN
ESPN for the iPhone is awesome. A very well-done skin for the iPhone that has all sorts of AJAX goodliness.
TSN
The Canadian version of ESPN has a very nice and clean iPhone-customized version of their website. It loads fast, and just like the full version of the site, it has a focus on hockey.
CBC.ca
The CBC has a nice iPhone version of their website, but it needs more news features on its homepage. Currently the homepage just shows a menu of news categories -- News, Sports, Entertainment, My Region, Program Guide.
F1-Live.com
For the F1 fan, this site has all the latest Formula 1 news and in a nice mobile version to boot.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Google - Apple Bickering
So the functionality of the Google Voice app has now taken a back seat to bickering and a game of he-said-she-said.
He (Google) says that their Google Voice app was outright rejected with Phil Schiller, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, personally told Alan Eustace, Google Senior Vice President of Engineering and Research, having a phone conversation to that effect.
She (Apple) says that the Google Voice app has not been rejected and they're still reviewing the matter.
At some point I think Apple will have to let the app, and other similar apps, into the App Store, probably with changes, like removing the dialer functionality. I think Google would be best served to releasing the iPhone-optimized version of the web-based Google Voice application to completely bypass Apple's application approval process.
I somewhat agree with Jeff Bertolucci's article, but the article's argument foundation is weak.
Google Voice is NOT VoIP. Google Voice users do not make calls over a data connection, but rather utilize the existing voice plan of the phone to make calls. This means, that you can't use Google Voice if you have a 3G data card with only a data plan. When dialing another number from Google Voice, the application actually dials the phone initiating the call, and then dials the number being dialed by the user. Google Voice acts as the proxy between the caller and callee. This is all done via the existing voice line, not over a data connection.
The only feature of Google Voice that MAY be VoIP is the ability for Google Voice users to listen to voicemails left on their Google Voice number.
VoIP, by definition, is using a data line to transmit voice signals, thereby bypassing a voice line. Clearly Google Voice in its current incarnation is not VoIP.
Ultimately, Apple holds all the cards and I really don't think the government has a place in determining what apps get in the App Store and which do not, but Apple does have a public image to think about, and picking a fight with Google when its Google Voice app is available on the Android and Blackberry platforms is something that Apple should think about. It's only a matter of time before the app ends up on the Palm Pre.
He (Google) says that their Google Voice app was outright rejected with Phil Schiller, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, personally told Alan Eustace, Google Senior Vice President of Engineering and Research, having a phone conversation to that effect.
She (Apple) says that the Google Voice app has not been rejected and they're still reviewing the matter.
At some point I think Apple will have to let the app, and other similar apps, into the App Store, probably with changes, like removing the dialer functionality. I think Google would be best served to releasing the iPhone-optimized version of the web-based Google Voice application to completely bypass Apple's application approval process.
I somewhat agree with Jeff Bertolucci's article, but the article's argument foundation is weak.
Google Voice is NOT VoIP. Google Voice users do not make calls over a data connection, but rather utilize the existing voice plan of the phone to make calls. This means, that you can't use Google Voice if you have a 3G data card with only a data plan. When dialing another number from Google Voice, the application actually dials the phone initiating the call, and then dials the number being dialed by the user. Google Voice acts as the proxy between the caller and callee. This is all done via the existing voice line, not over a data connection.
The only feature of Google Voice that MAY be VoIP is the ability for Google Voice users to listen to voicemails left on their Google Voice number.
VoIP, by definition, is using a data line to transmit voice signals, thereby bypassing a voice line. Clearly Google Voice in its current incarnation is not VoIP.
Ultimately, Apple holds all the cards and I really don't think the government has a place in determining what apps get in the App Store and which do not, but Apple does have a public image to think about, and picking a fight with Google when its Google Voice app is available on the Android and Blackberry platforms is something that Apple should think about. It's only a matter of time before the app ends up on the Palm Pre.
Friday, July 3, 2009
G-Map for the iPhone
There are quite a few navigational apps for the iPhone out there, including the built-in Google Maps, but only a few will do turn-by-turn navigation. There was actually only one that I knew of that existed before iPhone OS 3.0 that had similar functionality to a real GPS navigational car unit, and that was the G-Map by XRoad.
It was a very good product given the limitations of iPhone OS 2.x since Apple did not allow voice prompts nor turn-by-turn navigation. G-Map allowed you to avoid certain roads, marked out points of interest (POI), specific types of locations (gas stations, ATMs, restaurants, etc.) and even tracked your speed. The only thing it couldn't do that a GPS car nav unit could do was talk to you to tell you where to turn and when to do it. And at $24.99, it was a fraction of the cheapest after-market nav unit.
So along comes iPhone OS 3.0 that changes the game for a lot of navigational aids meant to be used in the car. Apple finally allows voice prompts and turn-by-turn navigation, and during the WWDC keynote, TomTom co-founder and CTO, Peter-Frans Pauwels, demos the new TomTom iPhone app along with the optional TomTom car dash mount for the iPhone. The iPhone device holder and mount allows you to rotate the device, which then results in the TomTom app interface to switch to landscape mode. The mount also has a built-in speaker, will allow you to play music while using the TomTom app, and charge the iPhone at the same time. Pretty slick!
So where is the TomTom app? Well, at this time, it's not yet available and TomTom indicates that both the software and the accessories for the iPhone will be available "this summer". No word yet if TomTom's app includes maps for all of the U.S. or has separate apps for each region of the U.S.
Meanwhile, G-Map has already released it's update to it's G-Map West and G-Map East apps. The update, now at version 1.3.1, is significant in that it takes advantage of the loosening of the restrictions for voice prompts and turn-by-turn navigation. The G-Map apps now allow for this and function pretty much just like a GPS car nav unit! It can tell you via voice prompts when to turn and will tell you how far ahead the turning point is. The update for existing G-Map customers is free, but the new version is at limited-time, special price of $34.99. No clues as to when the price will go and what the final price will be. I suspect that it will still be competitive to the TomTom app price though as a cheaper alternative to TomTom's iPhone app.
So how does it compare with the TomTom demo at WWDC? Here are the major differences that are noticeable given the scant details provided by the demo:
- G-Map only supports portrait mode. Rotating the device on its side does not re-orient the user interface.
- No G-Map device accessories are available for the iPhone.
- Personal opinion: I found the TomTom interface much cleaner.
All in all, I did find G-Map to be an inexpensive alternative to a dedicated car nav unit, and cheaper than the AT&T Navigator since that service requires a monthly subscription. The G-Map app did have a couple of bugs that I discovered during use. In one instance it tracked me being further back than I actually was so if I didn't know where I was going, I would have missed my exit. Second, there was a voice prompt that, "in 2 miles...". That was it. No indication as to what I was supposed to do in 2 miles. The same type of prompt occurred at the 1 mile marker. Then with a 1/4 mile to go, it finally told me I was supposed to keep to the right.
It will be interesting to see how well it performs against TomTom's app from a feature and price standpoint when it is released.
It was a very good product given the limitations of iPhone OS 2.x since Apple did not allow voice prompts nor turn-by-turn navigation. G-Map allowed you to avoid certain roads, marked out points of interest (POI), specific types of locations (gas stations, ATMs, restaurants, etc.) and even tracked your speed. The only thing it couldn't do that a GPS car nav unit could do was talk to you to tell you where to turn and when to do it. And at $24.99, it was a fraction of the cheapest after-market nav unit.
So along comes iPhone OS 3.0 that changes the game for a lot of navigational aids meant to be used in the car. Apple finally allows voice prompts and turn-by-turn navigation, and during the WWDC keynote, TomTom co-founder and CTO, Peter-Frans Pauwels, demos the new TomTom iPhone app along with the optional TomTom car dash mount for the iPhone. The iPhone device holder and mount allows you to rotate the device, which then results in the TomTom app interface to switch to landscape mode. The mount also has a built-in speaker, will allow you to play music while using the TomTom app, and charge the iPhone at the same time. Pretty slick!
So where is the TomTom app? Well, at this time, it's not yet available and TomTom indicates that both the software and the accessories for the iPhone will be available "this summer". No word yet if TomTom's app includes maps for all of the U.S. or has separate apps for each region of the U.S.
Meanwhile, G-Map has already released it's update to it's G-Map West and G-Map East apps. The update, now at version 1.3.1, is significant in that it takes advantage of the loosening of the restrictions for voice prompts and turn-by-turn navigation. The G-Map apps now allow for this and function pretty much just like a GPS car nav unit! It can tell you via voice prompts when to turn and will tell you how far ahead the turning point is. The update for existing G-Map customers is free, but the new version is at limited-time, special price of $34.99. No clues as to when the price will go and what the final price will be. I suspect that it will still be competitive to the TomTom app price though as a cheaper alternative to TomTom's iPhone app.
So how does it compare with the TomTom demo at WWDC? Here are the major differences that are noticeable given the scant details provided by the demo:
- G-Map only supports portrait mode. Rotating the device on its side does not re-orient the user interface.
- No G-Map device accessories are available for the iPhone.
- Personal opinion: I found the TomTom interface much cleaner.
All in all, I did find G-Map to be an inexpensive alternative to a dedicated car nav unit, and cheaper than the AT&T Navigator since that service requires a monthly subscription. The G-Map app did have a couple of bugs that I discovered during use. In one instance it tracked me being further back than I actually was so if I didn't know where I was going, I would have missed my exit. Second, there was a voice prompt that, "in 2 miles...". That was it. No indication as to what I was supposed to do in 2 miles. The same type of prompt occurred at the 1 mile marker. Then with a 1/4 mile to go, it finally told me I was supposed to keep to the right.
It will be interesting to see how well it performs against TomTom's app from a feature and price standpoint when it is released.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Review of Tweetie for the iPhone
There are numerous Twitter clients for the iPhone, including some that are strictly web-based. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that they're pretty much all the same with a few exceptions...and those few exceptions come down to personal preference in functionality, usability, and UI.
I would say that most have the same functionality, but they differ on implementation of that functionality and the arrangement of the UI elements that deliver that functionality.
All pretty much have multi-account support, search functionality, favorites tagging and viewing, direct messaging and viewing of DMs, ability to search for tweets from nearby Twitterers within a various radii, ability to view the Twitter public timeline, and view trends in Twitter.
Right now, I'm partial to Tweetie as it has all the above functionality but has different choices of themes so that it can provide different look & feel.
The other Twitter client I'm looking at is Twitterific Premium, which has all the above features but implements them differently and has a different UI. Again, it's really personal preference as to which works better for you. I happen to use Tweetie as it was recommended by other people and it is the benchmark that I use to gauge other Twitter clients.
I would say that most have the same functionality, but they differ on implementation of that functionality and the arrangement of the UI elements that deliver that functionality.
All pretty much have multi-account support, search functionality, favorites tagging and viewing, direct messaging and viewing of DMs, ability to search for tweets from nearby Twitterers within a various radii, ability to view the Twitter public timeline, and view trends in Twitter.
Right now, I'm partial to Tweetie as it has all the above functionality but has different choices of themes so that it can provide different look & feel.
The other Twitter client I'm looking at is Twitterific Premium, which has all the above features but implements them differently and has a different UI. Again, it's really personal preference as to which works better for you. I happen to use Tweetie as it was recommended by other people and it is the benchmark that I use to gauge other Twitter clients.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Rowmote
The form factor of the iPhone makes it the ideal remote control. What's obviously missing from the iPhone that you would find on most remote controls is an infrared port. It exists on all the iMacs, MacBooks and MacBook Pros, but I guess that's what the Apple Remote is for (the infrared remote, not the iPhone app).
I've tried different remote control apps for the iPhone, some were good ideas, but much too complicated and the simplicity of most of Apple's UI aesthetics was lost.
Enter Rowmote. Rowmote doesn't try to be the end-all and be-all of remotes but it comes close. Most people use their remotes to operate their media centers and control presentations. While the Apple Remote, both the iPhone app and the infrared remote, is good for some of those things, namely iTunes (music only) and Front Row, there is other media player software that are left to other solutions to enable users to control them without resorting to a mouse, trackpad or keyboard.
Rowmote allows you to control the following on your Mac:
Front Row
Boxee
DVD Player
EyeTV
Finder
iTunes
iTunes Visualizer
iTunes Coverflow
iPhoto
Keynote
Plex
PowerPoint
QuickTime
VLC
XBMC
Last.fm
Skim
Spotify
AirFoil Video Player
PandoraJam
Quite a comprehensive list, no?
All that is required is the Rowmote app for the iPhone and the (free) Rowmote helper app that runs on your Mac. The Mac and the iPhone (and presumably iPod Touch) need to be on the same wi-fi network as your Mac for everything to work.
Basically the UI of Rowmote simulates the simplicity of the Apple Remote with 6 buttons (4 directional, pause/play, and menu).
It's a great little app that fills in a big gap.
I've tried different remote control apps for the iPhone, some were good ideas, but much too complicated and the simplicity of most of Apple's UI aesthetics was lost.
Enter Rowmote. Rowmote doesn't try to be the end-all and be-all of remotes but it comes close. Most people use their remotes to operate their media centers and control presentations. While the Apple Remote, both the iPhone app and the infrared remote, is good for some of those things, namely iTunes (music only) and Front Row, there is other media player software that are left to other solutions to enable users to control them without resorting to a mouse, trackpad or keyboard.
Rowmote allows you to control the following on your Mac:
Front Row
Boxee
DVD Player
EyeTV
Finder
iTunes
iTunes Visualizer
iTunes Coverflow
iPhoto
Keynote
Plex
PowerPoint
QuickTime
VLC
XBMC
Last.fm
Skim
Spotify
AirFoil Video Player
PandoraJam
Quite a comprehensive list, no?
All that is required is the Rowmote app for the iPhone and the (free) Rowmote helper app that runs on your Mac. The Mac and the iPhone (and presumably iPod Touch) need to be on the same wi-fi network as your Mac for everything to work.
Basically the UI of Rowmote simulates the simplicity of the Apple Remote with 6 buttons (4 directional, pause/play, and menu).
It's a great little app that fills in a big gap.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
My List of Must-Have Mac Apps
Wait, this blog isn't about Macs...what gives? I recently had to install apps onto 2 different Mac laptops (well, one was actually a Hackintosh), but it got me thinking of a list of apps that I've loyally used throughout the years and cannot do without. It's a combination of office/work and personal apps. Some go back a bit in time, some are more recent. So here goes:
Aqua Data Studio
This is an awesome multi-RDBMS querying tool. It supports SQL Server 2000/2005, Oracle, MySQL, DB2, among others.
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
Despite competing tools from Apple and OpenOffice, this is still the best product suite for the workplace if your workplace is married to Microsoft Office products. Excel, Word and Powerpoint are fully compatible with the Windows versions, but IMO Keynote is still a better piece of presentation software.
Evernote
The best notetaking app EVER. It does tagging, text recognition and indexing of PDFs and images. It allows you to e-mail images and images, clip from your web browser (via plugins or bookmarklets) to your notebook as well. It's available in various platforms - Windows, Mac OS X, web, iPhone, and Windows Mobile.
Eclipse
Okay, IMHO not the best IDE, but the best one available that's free on the Mac and probably has the largest number of plugins/extensions available for an IDE. I'm not a fan of the UI though.
Safari 4 (beta)
Beats the pants off IE, better than Firefox though it lacks a proper plugin architecture, but it catches up to Google Chrome.
Firefox
One of the most flexible browsers out there with a great plugin architecture, which makes it one of the most versatile tools out there.
Microsoft Messenger 6/7
I actually have both installed. I have Messenger 7 to have the current version, but I use Messenger 6 to utilize our company's IM servers.
Remote Desktop Connection 2
This is essential for connecting to remote machines. Why have a virtual machine when you can remote to your work desktop or other servers who can do all the heavy lifting?
VMWare Fusion
Essential if you want to have a full Office suite or any other applications that are only available on Windows, such as MS Project and Visio. Yes, there are Mac alternatives such as FastTrack and OmniGraffle, but there's nothing like the real thing.
Google Desktop
Yes, Mac OS X has Spotlight, but I love the speed of Google Desktop.
TweetDeck
The essential Twitter client for all Twitter power users. Available as an AIR app, this app is not specific to Mac OS X.
Yammer
The corporate alternative to Twitter.
Dropbox
I use this to synchronize documents across my various Macs. It basically uses a hot folder to synchronize via Dropbox's servers to push and pull files. I have symlinks in the hot folder that point to my regular Documents folder so I don't have to move or migrate my existing document folder structure to accommodate the hot folder.
Mozy
The simplest, easy-to-use online backup service. The first 2 GBs are free.
Quicksilver
One of the most essential app launchers. It's fast and it has a really good plugin archtiecture.
Aqua Data Studio
This is an awesome multi-RDBMS querying tool. It supports SQL Server 2000/2005, Oracle, MySQL, DB2, among others.
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
Despite competing tools from Apple and OpenOffice, this is still the best product suite for the workplace if your workplace is married to Microsoft Office products. Excel, Word and Powerpoint are fully compatible with the Windows versions, but IMO Keynote is still a better piece of presentation software.
Evernote
The best notetaking app EVER. It does tagging, text recognition and indexing of PDFs and images. It allows you to e-mail images and images, clip from your web browser (via plugins or bookmarklets) to your notebook as well. It's available in various platforms - Windows, Mac OS X, web, iPhone, and Windows Mobile.
Eclipse
Okay, IMHO not the best IDE, but the best one available that's free on the Mac and probably has the largest number of plugins/extensions available for an IDE. I'm not a fan of the UI though.
Safari 4 (beta)
Beats the pants off IE, better than Firefox though it lacks a proper plugin architecture, but it catches up to Google Chrome.
Firefox
One of the most flexible browsers out there with a great plugin architecture, which makes it one of the most versatile tools out there.
Microsoft Messenger 6/7
I actually have both installed. I have Messenger 7 to have the current version, but I use Messenger 6 to utilize our company's IM servers.
Remote Desktop Connection 2
This is essential for connecting to remote machines. Why have a virtual machine when you can remote to your work desktop or other servers who can do all the heavy lifting?
VMWare Fusion
Essential if you want to have a full Office suite or any other applications that are only available on Windows, such as MS Project and Visio. Yes, there are Mac alternatives such as FastTrack and OmniGraffle, but there's nothing like the real thing.
Google Desktop
Yes, Mac OS X has Spotlight, but I love the speed of Google Desktop.
TweetDeck
The essential Twitter client for all Twitter power users. Available as an AIR app, this app is not specific to Mac OS X.
Yammer
The corporate alternative to Twitter.
Dropbox
I use this to synchronize documents across my various Macs. It basically uses a hot folder to synchronize via Dropbox's servers to push and pull files. I have symlinks in the hot folder that point to my regular Documents folder so I don't have to move or migrate my existing document folder structure to accommodate the hot folder.
Mozy
The simplest, easy-to-use online backup service. The first 2 GBs are free.
Quicksilver
One of the most essential app launchers. It's fast and it has a really good plugin archtiecture.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Say Who Dialer & Maps
Following up on my review of Melodis Dialer, this is a review of Say Who Dialer & Maps from DialDirections.com.
Say Who is a bit different than Melodis in that Say Who allows you to also look up an address, in addition to voice dialing, by speaking it into the application, and then opening up the iPhone Maps application with that address. It also allows you to select the contact's phone number to SMS them by opening up the iPhone SMS app with their SMS number (note that it does not do voice-to-text dictation). Melodis Dialer performs the above functions (though I accidentally omitted this in my review but has been since updated), Say Who allows you to speak a phone number into the application and will dial that number for you. Sweet!!
Say Who performs the voice recognition in the same manner as Melodis and all other voice dialing apps in that it records your voice lookup, sends the sound file to its servers, performs voice-to-text translation and then attempts to find a best match to your contacts, to an address, or to a set of numbers. All the heavy lifting is done server-side.
I would say that Say Who's competition is an overlap of Melodis Dialer, Google Apps, and vlingo. Not only can it do voice dialing, but address and business lookup, though it can't do search engine lookup that Google Apps and vlingo can. It does allow you to leverage the Nickname field in your contacts so that you don't have to say an entire name, but just their nickname.
All-in-all, the ability to dial a number not in your contact, and to use the contact's Nickname field makes it slightly better than Melodis, though I have Melodis to be faster in its response from the server.
Say Who is available in a Lite version which is free, and a Pro version.
Say Who is a bit different than Melodis in that Say Who allows you to also look up an address, in addition to voice dialing, by speaking it into the application, and then opening up the iPhone Maps application with that address. It also allows you to select the contact's phone number to SMS them by opening up the iPhone SMS app with their SMS number (note that it does not do voice-to-text dictation). Melodis Dialer performs the above functions (though I accidentally omitted this in my review but has been since updated), Say Who allows you to speak a phone number into the application and will dial that number for you. Sweet!!
Say Who performs the voice recognition in the same manner as Melodis and all other voice dialing apps in that it records your voice lookup, sends the sound file to its servers, performs voice-to-text translation and then attempts to find a best match to your contacts, to an address, or to a set of numbers. All the heavy lifting is done server-side.
I would say that Say Who's competition is an overlap of Melodis Dialer, Google Apps, and vlingo. Not only can it do voice dialing, but address and business lookup, though it can't do search engine lookup that Google Apps and vlingo can. It does allow you to leverage the Nickname field in your contacts so that you don't have to say an entire name, but just their nickname.
All-in-all, the ability to dial a number not in your contact, and to use the contact's Nickname field makes it slightly better than Melodis, though I have Melodis to be faster in its response from the server.
Say Who is available in a Lite version which is free, and a Pro version.
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