As I was looking through my iPod for another good app to review, I quickly realized that the vast majority of my apps are useless apps that only give you another way to show off your new iPhone or iPod Touch. They can be split up into one category of apps that only the iPhone’s screen and interface can handle (Google Earth), and another category of apps so dumb, no one would bother creating them for any other platform, but somehow they make money in the App store. Go figure!
Here are some examples:
Google Earth: Now I know what you are saying. “Whatya talking about? I use Google Earth all the time”. No, you don’t. It is a really cool and futuristic app that blows my mind every time I use it (I would like it even more if it had Street View, cough cough.) For some reason, I just do not see anyone trying to figure out how to get to their destination based on old satellite pictures.
Mini Piano: A very cool app that turns your iPhone into a full fledged piano. Pure entertainment. Somehow though, I do not see myself solving any of life’s dilemmas by playing Old Mcdonald Had a Farm on a 3.5″ screen.
Zippo Lighter: From the second I saw this app on my cousin’s iPod, I knew I had to have it. This app lets you select a Zippo, flip it open, light it up, and move the flame around using your accelerometer. That’s it. Nothing more to tell.
Coin Toss: OK, this app is the next to go. The way I organize my apps is that I try to limit them to 4 home screens. When a new app is released that I really want, I delete an old app that I do not really want. This is the next to get tossed (sorry for the pun, it is early in the morning and I am just warming up). Basically, it displays a coin on your screen that you can flip and call heads or tales. Pretty cool visual effects I guess.
Fake Caller: I guess in theory, there could be a practical use for this app, I just do not think any normal human being would actually use it. This app basically lets you make your iPhone/iPod Touch ring when you set it to. It is intended to basically give you an easy way of getting out of an awkward social encounter you do not want to be a part of, i.e gives you an excuse to stop a conversation with someone you do not like. To which I ask, why talk to them in the first place? Anyway, I have found a different use for this app all together. It helps me pretend I have an iPhone not an iPod Touch. My therapist says it helps my confidence.
This is not fake. This is just a screen shot of when Steve Jobs really called me.
Peanut Butter Jelly Time: This app has got to be my favorite “check out my iPhone” app. Who doesn’t remember the Peanut Butter Jelly Time video circulating the Web like 8 years ago? Well this wonderful app puts that video in your hands. Yes, it puts a dancing banana that sings the words “It’s peanut butter Jelly time” along with some other highly intelligent lyrics, on your iPhone. How can you not love it?
I could go on with a lot more, as the majority of my four home screens are comprised of these totally useless apps, but I figured I would stop here. If you come away with anything from this post, it should be a list of 6 apps that you must download immediately.
Let me start off by saying that VLC Media Player is hands down the best video player I have ever encountered on a PC. It is an open source, simple to use, lightweight application that plays almost every format of video. I personally have never come across a video format that could not be played by VLC.
So imagine the excitement when I stumbled upon this amazing little app for my iPod Touch that claimed to transform the iPod into a remote control that is able to control any instance of VLC on a PC. I had to try it out. Not only was I not disappointed, I was so impressed, I seriously considered buying the premium version (I have yet to purchase any app from the App Store, nothing seemed worth it; YET) that enables you to not only control VLC but also select files to play with no displayed ads.
I did not end up buying it because like many apps on the iPod, it is an amazing app, but in reality I am never going to use it, or I wont use it enough to warrant me spending the $1.99 for the non-free app.
The app works completely seamlessly with no delay at all. You click the Stop button on the iPod and VLC stops immediately. No bugs, no problems. Well, almost none. It did not detect my PC, I had to manually add it by its IP address, which took 10 seconds. Once I initially set that up, the app worked perfectly.
So if you ever watch videos on your PC, first thing’s first, download VLC. Then, download the VLC Remote Free app from the App store, lay back, and enjoy the movie!
When Aryeh posted about the iFart app, an application that enables you to make a farting noise using your iPhone or iPod Touch, I did not think it was news/blog worthy. Well, it seems I was very wrong! The iFart app is said to be pulling in $10,000 a day. It has been in the top apps list every day since it was announced. Yesterday, it hit its highest numbers with 13,000 downloads.
According to MacRumors’ numbers, the iFart app pulled in over 9k for its developers, just yesterday! So how do we explain this crazy popularity of fart apps? Well, it is probably a mixture of a few elements. The first one is that Apple originally rejected these types of apps and only recently allowed them into the app store, that probably gives a lot of people incentive to download them. Maybe it is the utter stupidity of these apps that cause people to download them and show them to friends for a good laugh. But to pay for such an app?
I mean, I have to admit, I downloaded the whoopie cushion app just to laugh about it with my wife, since she claimed a few weeks ago that so many apps in the App store are just so useless that she wouldn’t be surprised if someone made a whoopie cushion app. Too bad I did not listen to her, I could’ve been a very rich man today.
I had to download it, but after showing it to her and laughing for 30 seconds, I deleted it. So why on earth would someone pay for a fart app? I guess the so called economic crisis is not felt by iPhone users. How else do you explain it?
Still not much going on except for what seems to be a revival of a an old rumor; an iPhone Nano. Nobody knows anything about this device except that hints of its announcement keep mysteriously showing up all over the Web. First it was the small case that we saw, and now the below image brought to us by MacRumors.com.
I was sure this was a fake when the last pictured appeared, but now I am not so sure. I’ll tell you one thing, I do not understand why Apple would release such a product. If I were Steve (does he even make decisions over there anymore?), before I released an iPhone with a much smaller touch screen, I would release an iPhone with the ability to copy and paste, something that was available when my parents bought their first computer.
Well, if Apple does end up announcing an iPhone Nano, will it look like the picture displayed above or maybe the device introduced by Dave Letterman in the video below?
-Hillel
Take a look at this Transformers MAC vs. PC video. A little long but very original and entertaining. By the way, if you were born between the years 1970 and 1985, I would strongly recommend the Transformers movie.
In other news, our podcast is online for you to listen to. Just like the blog, we talk about all the latest cellular developments. You can check it out here, in fact you are strongly encouraged to do so.
This week’s DevTeam Funday features a live demo of yellowsn0w!
MuscleNerd will use Qik to broadcast a live video and audio stream (from an iPhone 2G) of an iPhone 3G being soft-unlocked with yellowsn0w. He’s in Florida for the holidays so there won’t actually be any snow in the live demo (although strangely enough if he were back home in Los Angeles he’d be very close to snow this week!).
Qik creates a chatroom for its videos but it may not be feasible to field questions live from the chatroom. So if you have a question that hasn’t already been answered in our previous blog posts, please tweet them in advance to Musclenerd.
We’re aiming to do the live demo in about 12 hours, or 3PM EST. The actual URL will be tweeted via MuscleNerd’s twitter account just as it starts.
With 2008 coming to an end and the fact that I have been asked countless times by friends what phone to buy, I figured I would try to offer some information on what I think are the all around most impressive cellular phones to date.
Before I start, let me say that this is just my opinion, and there is no real way to determine the absolute best handset. Also, I am going to try to categorize the phones based on your needs and what kind of user you are.
Let me also say that there is a huge marketing aspect to all of this. For example, the N95 was marketed so well, that people think that it is still one of the best phones, when in reality it is far from being in the same category as the phones I am going to discuss. So, I am trying to ignore marketing and hype and stick to the specs and user reviews when listing these phones.
Blackberry Bold: It is extremely uncommon to find a phone that has no negative reviews. The Bold is one of those phones, which is very interesting, considering that its successor, the Storm is one of the few phones that has only negative reviews. Obviously, the Bold is aimed at the business sector, with its RIM push mail and amazing full QWERTY keyboard. However, besides its lacking media options, it can serve as some serious competition for the less business-oriented phones out there.
The specs are pretty unbeatable with every possible connectivity option built in. That includes HSDPA or 3.5G, which is the fastest cellular internet connection available. Wifi, GPS, and just in case, the Bold has an EDGE connection. It has a 2mp camera with a flash, but the pictures look leagues above those taken with the 2mp camera on the Curve. The battery did really well in all the tests and the Bold also offers A2DP or stereo bluetooth, enabling you to listen to your music, no strings attached.
The interface is supposedly one of the best out there, and offers the best Blackberry user experience by far. One thing I really love about the Bold is that it syncs with iTunes.
If I had to choose things I do not love about the Bold, I would say that it could be a little smaller and thinner. The camera could be a little better and a few gigs of built in memory would have made it the perfect phone.Nokia E71: Aimed at the same type of user as the Bold, the E71 impressed me from the first second that I held it. The pictures really do not do it justice. Instead of repeating everything I said about the Bold, let me just list the differences. For starters, the E71 is much smaller and thinner. The camera is better and so is the battery. Oh, and it is at least $300 cheaper than the Bold. Sounds like a no brainer right? Not so fast.
The E71 runs on Symbian and if you look hard enough, you can find many reviews that include negative comments about the E71’s interface. I played around with it, and definitely thought it needed some work. Let me give you an example before all the Symbian fanboys jump down my throat. If you want to pair a Bluetooth device like a headset for example, and you navigate to the Bluetooth menu via Settings, which is where it is generally located, you will not be able to pair the device. However, if you navigate to the same Bluetooth menu via Connectivity, the paring tab will show up. I don’t know about you, but I do not think there should be two ways of getting to the same menu, especially when one of the options does not include all the available tabs.So, here is where your needs come in. If you need a smaller phone with a better camera, get the E71. If you want a smoother user experience with the famous seamless Blackberry experience, get the Bold. Whichever one you decide, you will not be disappointed, they are both extremely impressive phones.
iPhone 3G: I know you are very disappointed to see the iPhone 3G on the list, and you are probably thinking, “Enough already”, but it is not for no reason that almost every review of every phone, includes the question, “how does it compare to the iPhone”? The iPhone’s user experience is still with no competition. There have been phones that came close, like phones that use HTC’s Touch Flo, but none of them are really there. We all know by now what the iPhone does, so let me talk a little about what it does not do. Look at its shortcomings and decide if these are things you can live without.
The iPhone does not allow you to copy/paste any text. You cannot take a picture and send it to another phone, no MMS capabilities. You cannot listen to your music wirelessly, no stereo bluetooth. You cannot take a picture at night, no flash. You cannot take a video clip, no video camera. You cannot view a site with Java or flash, it is not supported by the iPhone. You cannot make video calls, no secondary camera. You cannot edit any Office document, no Office editor. Finally, you cannot put a memory card in to expand the memory, no memory card slot.
Having said all of that, I think the iPhone’s offerings overpower its shortcomings, by far. I am not going to bore you with the details, but to highlight two things I just love about the iPhone, its interface is nothing short of genius and revolutionary, and the app store makes you forget that you cannot copy and paste (as well as everything else on that list).
I am not going to tell you which of the above phones is the best, because it really depends on your needs. To sum it up in two sentences, if you want seamless email use in a beautiful but large device, the Bold is for you. If you want a smaller device with a better battery and camera, that will meet your business needs, but might take a few seconds more, get the E71. If you are more of a private consumer that wants a phone you will love and never want to put down, even with its multiple disadvantages, get the iPhone 3G.
One of the few things that prevents the iPhone and iPod Touch from being the ultimate music device is the lack of A2DP or stereo Bluetooth. I cannot think of any reason that this technology should not be implemented in Apple’s devices. So, as much as I love my iPod Touch, and you know how much I love it, the fact that I cannot use my S9 Bluetooth Stereo headphones with it, really bothered me from day one.
Well, a few days ago, I stumbled upon a possible solution to this issue. I found this Bluetooth adapter for the iPhone/iPod Touch that, when plugged in, enables you to listen to your iPod wirelessly. It wasn’t too expensive,so I had to try it.
After using it now for an hour or so, I have to say, I am a happy man this morning. The thing is awesome. It is absolutely tiny and just barely detracts from the iPod’s simplistic beauty. The sound is as good as it gets and the range is astounding, I listened from another room, and there was no effect on the sound quality.
It is not made by any known manufacturer, unless of course you have heard of K-mate. I searched a lot for the product online, but could not find the exact model that I bought. The closest I could find was this. I bought it online at Eline, but the product is not even on the site yet, so if you want it, contact them and order it.
The coolest part is that the controls on the S9 work perfectly. I can lower or raise the volume, pause, play, and skip songs without taking the iPod out of my pocket.
There are a few downsides of course. The adapter does not fit when my Griffin Reflect case is on, so I am going to have to use the invisible case I bought for it, which by the way, is pretty awesome also. Another down side is that the mic on the S9 does not work with the iPod, but I did not expect it to. So when using audio apps like Fring and iTalk, I will have to go the old fashion way and use my standard earphones with the built in mic. Finally, I have not verified this yet, but it is safe to assume, this will decrease the battery life significantly, but it is so worth it.
CES is coming up and that means a few things for you and me. First of all, it means that you will be able to come here to view/read about the latest news from the show because we have someone who will be blogging from Las Vegas for us. The other piece of information that will become clear to us is that there is no, and never will be an iPhone Nano (right Apple? You are not really going to shrink the esthetically pleasing iPhone, are you?)
CES also means that we will finally know whether Palm really has something significant for us or if they’re closing down shop. Those are the only two options as far as I can tell, because if Palm’s announcement is not something absolutely huge, I am talking iPhone or G1 huge, then we can all say goodbye to the maker of the famous Treo.
There is no question that Palm is getting our hopes up and the word on the street is that they will be annoucing a totally new OS with at least one new device but probably more. They are making some huge steps in the right direction, there is no question about that. They just launched their on-device application store for both Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices. They are calling it “The Software Store”, how original.
According to Mobile Crunch, Palm’s new OS will be called Nova, and will try to fall somewhere in the middle of the business oriented RIM and the fun oriented iPhone. I am not sure I agree with that assessment, RIM is not so business oriented, with their Storm, and the iPhone is not only fun oriented, with its push mail and GPS.
There is no question that whatever Palm announces, it will be big, the only question is, will it be big enough? They just replaced their CFO and they are releasing all kinds of teasers to the press so it looks like they are trying to make it REALLY big.
I was never a big fan of Palm, my wife had the Tungsten II, which was pretty lame, and I for one, never really understood the appeal of the popular Treos. If Palm achieves their obvious goal of competing with Apple and RIM, and they introduce a new awesome OS along with a device that has a really large touch display with all the goodies we have grown so accustomed to, I will be the first in line.
Before we discuss the latest and greatest cellular developments, I just wanted to say that this is the first post on the new hosting, it took long enough, but it is finally live, so congrats.
There have been various things going on in the tech world and specifically the cellular market, but I think everyone agrees that one of the biggest and most important pieces of news is the N97. I know I wrote a lot about it already, but a lot more is known to us now, so I think another N97 post is in order.
Mobile-review had some time with the N97 and although the commercial device is not available yet, so the final version of the software cannot be analyzed, the amount of time they spent with the device is more than the rest of us are getting, so it is pretty exciting.
I read the whole review and what I came away with is that the N97 is first of all a very impressive device. It is not as thick as I originally thought, the screen is pretty outstanding, the widgets are a cool idea, and the battery life is phenomenal.
N97 Compared to the iPhone
On the flip side of things, and I guess the flip side is what matters because these are the aspects that will prevent me from buying it (yea right, as if I could afford it), there are more than a few things that bother me about the device. Let’s start with the design. I would have liked it if the entire thing was not made out plastic, a little metal would have made things a lot more impressive and serious.
Not sure I am feeling this 35 degree angle thing, did not work for the Tilt, not sure it will work for this. Then there is the whole resistive screen issue, which to be honest, I do not fully understand yet, but it is supposedly a big downside for the N97. From the video below (might as well put your volume down, unless of course you speak Russian), you can see that the interface, which by the way sorry to say, just cannot be compared to Apple’s (I wanted to see if I could write a review without the I word) is a little quirky, but again, this is not the commercial version, so that might change.
N97 Compared to the XPERIA
I am not getting why the N97 cannot be charged via USB, why would Nokia do that? Am I missing something? As for the widgets, it is a cool idea, but if I wanted widgets, wouldn’t I want them fully customizable? If I were so inclined to have home screen widgets, I would turn to Cellogic to design em, and use Flyscreen.
Two more things I do not like about this phone is of course, the price, but more importantly, Nokia’s marketing strategy really bothers me. The 5800 just came out! I have heard of competition between cellular superpowers, where one outdoes the other and makes consumers forget about the first one’s phone that was recently released (did you get that?). What I have NOT heard of is a company stealing its own thunder. This is something Apple would never do. Why would anyone in their right mind go out and buy a 5800 now, knowing its big brother is right around the corner? Nokia would say they are targeting different audiences with the two phones and to that I say, B.S. Are you telling me there are 5800 people out there that do NOT want a full QWERTY, 5 mp camera, or home screen widgets? Cmon.
N97 Compared to its Little Brother
I, for one, was very excited about the 5800, but now that the N97 has a bigger screen, a better OS, and a full QWERTY, I would not consider getting the Tube anymore. Correct me if I’m wrong, did Nokia just convince me not to get a Nokia phone? Now, that’s good marketing.
Still not much going on except for what seems to be a revival of a an old rumor; an iPhone Nano. Nobody knows anything about this device except that hints of its announcement keep mysteriously showing up all over the Web. First it was the small 
The interface is supposedly one of the best out there, and offers the best Blackberry user experience by far. One thing I really love about the Bold is that it syncs with iTunes.
So, here is where your needs come in. If you need a smaller phone with a better camera, get the E71. If you want a smoother user experience with the famous seamless Blackberry experience, get the Bold. Whichever one you decide, you will not be disappointed, they are both extremely impressive phones.
Having said all of that, I think the iPhone’s offerings overpower its shortcomings, by far. I am not going to bore you with the details, but to highlight two things I just love about the iPhone, its interface is nothing short of genius and revolutionary, and the app store makes you forget that you cannot copy and paste (as well as everything else on that list).
One of the few things that prevents the iPhone and iPod Touch from being the ultimate music device is the lack of A2DP or stereo Bluetooth. I cannot think of any reason that this technology should not be implemented in Apple’s devices. So, as much as I love my iPod Touch, and you know how much I love it, the fact that I cannot use my 
The coolest part is that the controls on the S9 work perfectly. I can lower or raise the volume, pause, play, and skip songs without taking the iPod out of my pocket.
