Unclutterer is one of my favorite blogs. They offer practical advice and tips on keeping your work, home and life tidy and clutter-free.
This week, they've posted an article on using the iPhone for increased productivity and clutter reduction. There are several great tips, including my favorite -- photograph the bar codes of your membership cards (gym, Staples, etc.) and store them in an appropriately named album. Most scanners should have no trouble reading the bar codes (test this before ditching your cards, of course).
They also mention apps like Jott and Evernote. It's definitely worth a read. Check it out. Update: Their website seems to be having a bit of trouble this morning, folks. We're sure they're working on it. Sorry for the inconvenience.
FileMagnet (mentioned briefly by Dave in his iPhone apps I actually use post yesterday) is a low-cost wireless file transfer tool for iPhone and iPod Touch. It requires you to install a companion desktop application, also called FileMagnet, which acts as the conduit for file transfer.
Usage is simple enough: drag files you wish to copy into the desktop app's window. Then open FileMagnet on the iPhone, and as long as the two machines are on the same WiFi network, they will find each other over Bonjour, and wirelessly connect. Then your files are smoothly and wirelessly transferred over. Transfer will also happen every time you sync the device, if the desktop app happens to be running.
FileMagnet is a handy place for reference materials, such as Word docs, spreadsheets, PDFs and images, that you're likely to need to carry at all times. It handles entire folders full of files, too.
There are a few problems right now, all of which are addressed on the official FileMagnet FAQ, mostly with a promise that they'll be fixed soon:
FileMagnet cannot display iWork files (yet)
The desktop app requires Leopard (but a Tiger version is on the way)
You can't email files, or indeed do anything with them except view them (an email feature is coming)
Like a lot of iPhone and iPod touch apps, it's in its early days. Some features are lacking, or not as perfectly functional as you might like. But the developers are aware of the limitations and working on fixes and new features, and personally I think it's a decent value application with bright prospects for future development. I'll be watching out for updates with interest.
FileMagnet is $4.99, and available through the App Store.
Some have said that the iPhone 2.0 software is buggy. We say, "Bugs? What bugs?"
Today, reader Alfred has identified one that you can try for yourself. Open up Notes and attempt to type "Flickr." You'll find that you can't. The 2.0 software replaces "Flickr" with "flicke" or "flickt".
Here's the weird part: you can't even select the "r" button. Sliding a finger from "e" to "t" skips "r" entirely.
Here's the obvious, inelegant workaround: delete the "e" or "t" and type again. For more odd (and useful) iPhone tips, check out our iPhone 101 series.
iPhoneApps.org, currently the top Google result when searching for "iPhone apps," offers 10 apps for $25, including much-sought-after MMS and video recording capability.
But hold on there, pardner, because it looks like they make you jailbreak your phone to get the apps to work. According to a post by a disgruntled customer at Yahoo! Answers, the site is only selling ZiPhone, and instructions on how to install the apps shown on their homepage.
If this post is correct, this reeks of scamminess, since nothing mentions ZiPhone anywhere on their site before purchase. ZiPhone is also freeware. Not cool.
Apple and The Jobsmeister also made it pretty clear that the App Store (via iTunes) was the only place to get apps for your iPhone or iPod touch. Now, we all know that's not necessarily the case, but to base a business around breaking the rules historically hasn't worked.
It seems like only yesterday that I was posting about the soon to be released WordPress app for the iPhone. Ah, right, it was only yesterday. A lot can happen when I'm sleeping, it would appear, because sometime last night the WordPress app went live on the App Store.
This free app, which works with WordPress.com blogs as well as any self hosted sites running version 2.5.1 or higher, let's you post to your blog easily. As you can see in our gallery, the application is straightforward and pretty easy to use.
At the moment this app is all about posting to your WordPress blog, not managing it. You won't be able to access comments from this app, nor can you add users, activate plugins, or anything along those lines.
That being said, this is a must have app for all you iPhone toting WordPress bloggers out there.
When the App Store went live on the 10th, I went a little nuts and downloaded a bunch of apps. Some I fell in love with. Some I launched once. Others lingered a for a few days while I decided their fate.
Now it's nearly two weeks later, and I've identified the keepers. Here I'll list each one as well as why and how I use them. As a bonus, I'll identify the three that have made the cut to my main screen -- what I'm calling my "front page apps." Read the list after the jump.
Just a little while ago I wrote about Typepad's native iPhone app, which I quite liked. Many folks thought it looked neat, but they were either running their own WordPress blogs, or using Wordpress.com's hosted service neither of which are compatible with the Typepad app (for obvious reasons). Luckily for them, the good folks at WordPress have posted some information about the forthcoming WordPress iPhone application.
The app is ready, and pending addition to the App Store. It will work with both self hosted WordPress installs and blogs hosted on WordPress.com. You can do all the things you would expect: upload pictures, write blog posts, and edit existing posts.
The app should be available soon on the App Store for free. Once it is available I'll be taking it for a spin and posting my thoughts. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Two intrepidusers have found a simple way to mod their old iPhone docks to work with iPhone 3G: a rotary tool.
All it takes, apparently, is grinding away about a millimeter of the plastic where the back of the iPhone 3G rests against the dock. A rotary tool with a tapered grinding bit appears to work the best, as it avoids touching the dock connector.
It might not have exactly the fit and finish of a new dock, but hey, the price is right if you already have the tools.
The iPhone's home screen works just fine with 16 application icons on the main screen and four more on the dock at the bottom. It still works well with another screenful of 16 more apps on the adjacent screen.
But, says Chris Devers, as you start adding more apps, the home screen UI doesn't scale well to cope with them. Flicking across five screens of apps to find the one you want is time-consuming. And moving an app from screen five to screen three is chaotic, unless you've left "gaps" on each screen as you went along - in which case you'd have six to juggle, not five. And even then, it's still chaotic.
OK, so not everyone is going to be collecting that many third party apps. But for people who do, says Chris, there needs to be a better solution than this. He's posted a set on Flickr to illustrate his point.
What might work? A Quicksilver- or Spotlight-style app, where you type some characters from the name of the app you want and it gets launched? Or a gesture launcher, where you "draw" what you're looking for?
I recently wrote a post about Ilium Software, developer of longtime mobile apps eWallet and ListPro, and Apple's delays in getting their applications into the App Store.
I don't take any credit (it was pure coincidence), but about 8 hours after my post eWallet showed up in the App Store. I purchased it immediately, since I used the Windows Mobile and Palm OS versions for years and have been hoping for an iPhone version.
In short, eWallet is both attractive and functional. It stores your passwords, credit card numbers, and other personal information securely with 256-bit AES encryption, and it does it with iPhone style. At $9.99, eWallet for iPhone is priced at half of the price of its $19.95 siblings for Palm OS and Windows Mobile.
Read after the break for the rest of my review of Ilium Software's eWallet for iPhone (link opens iTunes Store), and check the gallery below for screenshots of eWallet in action.
Mocha VNC Lite allows your iPhone or iPod touch to connect to your Mac or PC via VNC. For those of you who don't know, VNC is a protocol that allows you to screenshare/control other computers via a VNC client (which is what Mocha VNC Lite is). It is amazing to see this working right on my iPhone. I remember back when I used a Palm device to do this sort of thing and it was very kludgy, but this seems to work rather smoothly.
When you are connected to the computer via VNC, you are able to control pretty much everything on the screen, with the exception of special keys (i.e. command, option, F keys, etc.). You can, however, "pinch" the iPhone's screen to zoom in or out the viewing area.
Now for the gripes. Mocha VNC Lite uses left-clicks on the screen (which can be quite annoying after a few minutes use). You are also unable to change the refresh rate (however, if you click the "+" button, you're given a "refresh option.")
Mocha VNC also offers a paid version which gives you more useful features like extra PC keys, cursor keys, text macros, and a right mouse key. However, the lite version will give most users everything they need for casual VNC management.
You can download Mocha VNC Lite from the App Store for free. At the time of this writing the paid version has not yet been placed on the App Store. Feel free to look at our gallery of screenshots before you download.
Missing iCards? Well, SodaSnap hopes to fill the missing hole with their postcards for the iPhone. "SodaSnap Instant Postcards" is a a free application that does just that: creates postcards on-the-go.
Just shoot a picture with your iPhone and SodaSnap lets you send it off as an e-mail postcard. You can choose a picture that is saved in your "Photos" library which allow folks with an iPod touch in on the fun.
The best part of this iPhone application is that it just works, all without creating a pesky account with some company you've never heard of. That being said, your message is clearly passed through SodaSnap's servers, so you might want to be careful of what you write (such as personal information, etc.). SodaSnap provides great access to the address book for picking recipients. Overall, this is a fun application and the results are pretty good for a free application.
SodaSnap Instant Postcards is a free download from the iTunes App Store. Get a detailed look at SodaSnap before downloading by looking at our gallery of screenshots.
The iPhone Dev Team has just released PwnageTool 2.0, thus bringing jailbreak and non-App Store third-party application support to iPhones/iPod Touches running firmware 2.0. First-generation iPhones can also be unlocked. At this time, the iPhone 3G cannot be unlocked or used with BootNeuter.
Erica will post more details later tonight or tomorrow, and the Dev Team promises a more detailed announcement soon.
As always, be cautious if you decide to install PwnageTool 2.0 and make proper backups of all of your data before proceeding, understand that installing software like PwnageTool is unsupported by Apple, blah blah blah.
The iPhone will no doubt see it's fair share of Twitter clients (just as the Mac has). Twitterrific is the big name in the Mac/iPhone Twitter app space, but in a client from Tapulous called "Twinkle" has also been generating some interest. Originally released as a jailbreak application for the iPhone and iPod touch, Twinkle has just debuted on the App Store with the ability to location-base your tweets.
While Twitterrific seems to have more precise locating abilities, Twinkle uses the location-based tweeting in interesting ways. For instance, you can see tweets originating within a certain mileage range from your location. Twinkle allows you to easily view your direct messages.
Overall, Twinkle looks like it will give Twitterrific a run for its money. Best part of all? Twinkle (iTunes Link) for iPhone and iPod touch is absolutely free.
Imagine you are a software development company that has been around for 11 years, with award-winning titles for mobile computing devices. You follow the rules, you submit iPhone versions of your applications to the App Store, and yet you still haven't seen your programs make it to the store.
This is the boat that a lot of developers are in, but it is particularly frustrating for Ilium Software. Ilium has sold two well-respected applications -- eWallet and ListPro -- for Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices for years, and has a number of other commercial and free mobile applications on the market.
According to Ilium spokesperson Ellen Craw, eWallet has been "in the queue" at Apple for over two weeks, and they can't get any word from App Store personnel on when their highly anticipated app will actually appear online. The comments in Ilium's blog are particularly revealing, as longtime customers are also frustrated by the black hole at Apple.
Having used Ilium's products before, I'm waiting for both ListPro and eWallet to show up in the store to fill those niches on my iPhone. What other great products are being held up by Apple? We'd love to know!