Reviews

While third party Applications for the iPhone are hard to come by we have to resort to web based alternatives. The many Applications I have seen are either useless, mobile optimized versions of popular web sites or simply horrible. For 7 days I will be reviewing the better iPhone Web 2.0 Applications, not watered versions but fully functional Apps.

The fourth Application in my review of 7 will be PocketTweets.

I myself am not too fond of the default interface for Twitter, even more so on the iPhone which is why I am thankful PocketTweets is available which is actually faster over EDGE than Twitter itself.

What is great about PocketTweets is the enhanced functionality it brings not only as an iPhone user but as a Twitter user.

The interface is clean and polished but still very familiar to Twitter’s web layout so you aren’t losing much but gaining a lot.

The update box is shown only when necessary and resizes itself to fit the iPhone’s screen whether in landscape or portrait mode.

Updates from other users as well as yourself can be starred or replied to by either… more...

While third party Applications for the iPhone are hard to come by we have to resort to web based alternatives. The many Applications I have seen are either useless, mobile optimized versions of popular web sites or simply horrible. For 7 days I will be reviewing the better iPhone Web 2.0 Applications, not watered versions but fully functional Apps.

The third Application in my review of 7 will be iActu.

IActu is a pretty cool Application and runs along the lines of a visual news service. It’s more of an aggregator that is extremely interactive and provides more of a newspaper feel to news retrieval. This is one of my favorite iPhone Applications in that it can balance eye candy with functionality.

Upon visiting iActu you are presented with a news stand displaying several popular news sources such as The New York Times, The Washington Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Chicago Sun Times and the Los Angeles Times.

IActu also includes a news ticker that displays popular headlines from any of those 6 sites in a very condensed yet readable form.

On the news stand itself you… more...

Infoworld placed three popular smartphones against the iPhone, comparing the browser experience in each platform. The verdict: iPhone’s Safari wins.

It was concluded that mobile web browsers are horrible compared to the iPhone. Having used a few smarphones myself, I can concur that none the smartphones referenced deliver even a close comparable experience to Safari.

iPhone includes a real web browser, not a cut down version of a browser that renders webpages into a pile of chaos—a real browser, so it was rather obvious that the iPhone’s browser would beat the others. While I do agree with iPhone reviews that the iPhone does have its shortcomings, the browser is not one of them.

While third party Applications for the iPhone are hard to come by we have to resort to web based alternatives. The many Applications I have seen are either useless, mobile optimized versions of popular web sites or simply horrible. For 7 days I will be reviewing the better iPhone Web 2.0 Applications, not watered versions but fully functional Apps.

The second Application in my review of 7 will be NewsGator Mobile For iPhone.

RSS support on the iPhone is an odd thing. The default reader located at http://www.reader.mac.com is nothing more than a simple reader which I have no problem with using on something like an iPhone, the size of its screen constricts it from including a reader that could compete heavily with desktop based readers. It did its job, it did it fast and it was simple.

But there is a new competitor in the RSS scene for the iPhone and that is NewsGator mobile. If you are not familiar with NewsGator it is an online based RSS service that allows you to synchronize feeds between NetNewsWire and read those same feeds online. Since I started using both recently… more...

Here’s a look at what PC World deems are 10 must have apps for the iPhone. A couple of teasers here… There’s an app that lets you find the cheapest gas prices in your area by just entering in a zip code. There’s an WiFi hot-spot finder app, which is definitely useful when you want the much faster WiFi and you find the slow EDGE network just doesn’t cut it. Then there’s the always useful app from AccuWeather that expands on what the normal Weather app shows. To read the whole list, head on over here to PC World.

While third party Applications for the iPhone are hard to come by we have to resort to web based alternatives. The many Applications I have seen are either useless, mobile optimized versions of popular web sites or simply horrible. For 7 days I will be reviewing the better iPhone Web 2.0 Applications, not watered versions but fully functional Apps.

The first Application in my review of 7 will be FlickIM.

As you know the iPhone currently has no Instant Messaging application, the closest being the SMS Widget. We had a few alternatives such as Meebo or even using Google’s web interface for Gtalk but all of these took a burden on Safari and they weren’t the most elegant of way to initiate an Instant Message conversation. This is where FlickIM comes in.

FlickIM is a web based AIM client for the iPhone, sorry that’s the only protocol.  One of the Application’s greatest strengths is its speed and simplicity which should be the focus of every iPhone targeted web App.

You are met with a simple login screen asking you for your user name and password but there is no indication of… more...

I am currently a user of a service called Box.net. I love them! They are one of the newer online storage services that have really grown. They are a few other online storage services that are iPhone-specific, but I really love Box.net because they are supper simple and has a nice interface.

Everyone needs additional (or backup) storage these days. Hard drives are cheap, but I am not currently aware of a hard drive that will connect to an iPhone. Of course, popular services want to jump on the bandwagon and extend their services for mobile phones. It is a smart move, so it comes as no surprise that one popular service created a nice program to help storing needs.

Located at i.box.net, the optimized interface you to easily access your files from anywhere. The company previously had a mobile version, but updated this one to be more web 2.0-ish. Very cool and helpful when you want to view one of your documents or pictures.

Have a great weekend!

Have a long commute? Going on vacation but don’t want to weigh down your carryone with beach reading? Never fear, because you can carry your books on your iPhone with BooksoniPhone.com.

Imagine choosing from over 20,000 eBooks (most if not all are courtesy of the Gutenberg Project), browsing and reading right from your iPhone. Cool, right. It gets better because this service is absolutely free.

“The site is accessible only from iPhone for reading, and from any browser for uploading texts, books, poems, documents, lyrics. There is no limit for text storage per account at this moment.”

I logged on with no problem, signed up, did a quick search and was reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde within 30 seconds. The interface was fairly intuitive, the Search feature speedy and the ability to queue up titles in your “readlist” is a nice feature.

I highly recommend it.

Are you running out of things to do online with your iPhone? There are hundreds of applications to keep you occupied and one of them will save you some money. A company called Texterity has developed digital versions of published magazines that can be accessed through your iPhone.

Thanks to the 3.5 inch screen and the zooming capabilities that the iPhone offers, magazines are great to read from the device using the Safari web browser. The iPhone digital magazine portal currently offers 20 high quality magazines for your viewing pleasure. The interface is pretty simple and is that of an actual magazine, where you can select a magazine, flip through pages, and zoom in and out; it even has the wonderful ads that we love so dearly.

Since I am somewhat of a science nerd, I am of course, subscribed to Popular Science, which is one of the magazine subscriptions that is currently available. The service is currently in beta, so don’t expect it to be free for too much longer, however, you should take full advantage of it while it is still free.

As I start reviewing iPhone cases, you will discover that I am very much against wrapping my devices in protective devices. Part of the reason why I purchased the iPhone was for its form and function. Cover it up and you just have function which is…well…not as compelling as the form/function combination.

My iPhone needed something to attach it to my body. It needed something to secure it so that it wouldn’t just fall off onto the pavement. It needed the Holster-Pro from Speck.

The first thing you will notice about the Holster-Pro is its details. The black leather is high quality and it feels it. The stitching is sophisticated. The inside lining is sturdy and you have no doubts it will not do harm to your iPhone.

The Holster-Pro also sports a nifty feature in the belt-clip that also fans out to be used as a stand for optimal iPhone movie viewing. I’m not sure how often I would use the “stand” feature but it’s good to see that it is done well, and does not take away from the stability of the case.

The only thing I… more...