My Mobile Life : The iPhone blog

Well, after months (years even) of putting off getting a case for my iPhone I have finally given in to reason and started using one. I’ve always liked the look of the phone on it’s own and argued that’s it’s solid enough to take a few knocks. And mine certainly has, in fact there’s a crack on the back which is now measured in inches rather than millimeters, so it seemed prudent to protect this valuable little device.

What is more, Proporta were nice enough to send me their anti-microbial silicone case to review and thus I wasted no time in slapping it on my little baby when it arrived.

The first thing I can say is it slides on easily. It’s not a super tight fit, but it is tight enough to do the job and this makes it a hassle free case to put on.The silicone has a nice texture as well, which is one of the other things I’d been concerned about when thinking about putting a case on the phone. I didn’t want to put some cheap plasticky looking thing on there and hide this gorgeous device that Apple spent so much time designing. What is more the case has holes in all the right places, meaning that you still have full access to the camera, re-charge port, ear-phone plug, etc… It’s even got a couple of extra holes at the back near the battery which I can only assume are there to dissipate heat and allow the phone to stay cool. Or maybe it makes it go faster. Who knows!

The silicone case itself only protects the back and sides of the phone, which still leaves the glass to worry about. So it’s just as well Proporta have included a glass protector as well. It’s just a slim piece of plastic that sticks to the glass and provides scratch protection and would probably prevent the thing shattering into a thousand pieces if you did manage to drop it on the wrong side. Getting it on to the phone sans air bubbles is harder then licking your own elbow, but hey it’s worth the effort.

Okay, so the case does what you’d expect, it protects the phone. What else is new? Ah, well did I mention the case is Anti-Microbial. “WTF? Why would I need that…” I hear you thinking. I’ll let Proporta explain:

“It’s an alarming, but not entirely surprising fact that the filthiest things we encounter on a regular basis are computer keyboards and our mobile phones. In fact, the average mobile has 25,127 germs per square inch, whilst the average toilet seat has just 49. So to help protect against any possible nasties you could pick up from your iPhone 3G, Proporta has developed the Antimicrobial Silicone Case with SteriTouch (Apple iPhone 3G).”

Think about that the next time you decide to clean your screen with your tongue.

So for all you clean freaks out there (yes, Nanda I’m thinking of u) this is the case for you. Well, if you have an iPhone 3G that is.

Okay, I know you’ve probably heard the news by now that yesterday Apple announced the device which bloggers and Apple fans (and even a fair few Apple haters) have been talking about for a while now. While I’m not sure how much useful info there is that I can add to all the blathering that’s already going on about this device, I thought this a momentous enough occasion to warrant at least a brief post.

It looks like some of the leaks about the product were virtually spot on. The device is similar to an iPhone/iPod, just a lot larger (about 10″ by 7.5″). It’s extremely light at 1.5 pounds (approx .7 kgs) and with it’s large screen will likely become a reasonable laptop replacement. Some people are saying it looks more like a TV than a laptop, to me it just looks bloody cool.

Apple have a great video on their site about it. Check it out at www.apple.com/ipad. So what have we learned, it looks like the iPad is going to have many of the same features and applications as the iPhone, but that the apps have been re-written to work on the new device. Okay, kinda cool. Certainly the calendar interface looks groovy, I like the idea of using Apple mail on a touch device (for a change) and the reverse pinch action for expanding photo albums looks awesome.

Also there’s going to be a modified SDK (development environment and library) for the developing apps on the iPad. Existing iPhone apps will all work but will have to be either run in the normal size or expanded (which will probably look shit).  Apple may also be releasing iPad based versions of Pages and Numbers (i.e. Word and Excel for 2 Windows peeps).

If you want to know more techy stuff and read another decent post (see what I did there) about the iPad you might want to check out David Pogue’s (from the NY Times) blog post on it. Oh and if you want to see what he’s talking about (with regard to negative press) you just have to take one look at google news where you see stuff low brow pieces like this. But seriously, don’t waste your time unless somehow you have room in your life for more negative bullshit.

Wow, he’s pretty passionate about this Apple stuff, I bet you’re thinking. Nah, it’s not so much that even. I just don’t have time for crap. Which means, I have more time for the good stuff, maybe even the iPad when it actually gets released.

Previously I reviewed an app for the iPhone which can be used to track/map your rides. Well, more recently I have found another app which covers the mapping that Map My Ride does and does so much more that it has blown my socks off.

Someone at work was actually telling me about Cyclemeter and mentioned that the export features of the app were very impressive. Indeed they are and given that this was something which I had real trouble with when using MapMyRide (not to mention the fact that I now have an iphone mount on my road bike), I thought it would be worth giving it a go.

Cyclemeter cost about $6 on the Australian app store when I purchased it a couple weeks ago, but I can honestly say I think it’s worth more than that. The app is made by a company called Abvio (but don’t let the slightly dodgy Italian sounding name put you off), their work speaks louder than their company name. The app’s website is also a rather off-putting shade of red, but again that can be overlooked when you start using Cyclemeter.

The primary interface that you see by default when you are using the app to track a ride is the Stopwatch view showing various meters which include ride speed, average speed, duration, distance traveled and calories burned. By default this screen lets you start recording a new route, though once you’ve ridden a route before you can reload that route and log the new ride against it, useful for comparing your progress as you improve your cycling or master a new ride.

The second screen lets you view the map of the ride so far. This is useful if you want to look at where you’re going or where you’ve been. Like Google Maps, you can zoom in or expand the map as required. You can also see it in street, satelite or hybrid mode. In this view you see your ride time and distance. While riding you can stop and start the stopwatch as needed. The app tracks ride time and also gives you total stopped time for the ride which is pretty impressive.

On the other screens you can see a calendar showing dates that have completed rides and on the routes screen, you can see a listing of all the routes you have saved. From the routes screen you can select specific rides by date and review the ride data for the selected ride. In order to do this, you need to mark the ride as done on the Stopwatch screen. The ride review screen shows an impressive array of data including the map of the ride, a graph showing speed changes and an elevation graph which tracks the elevation changes encountered on the ride.

From the ride review screen you can also export/email your data in various formats including a Google Map route, Google Earth data and numerous other formats. Here is an example of a Google Map Route (from a ride I did earlier today). What I love about this is that Cyclemeter periodically tags the route with average speed for that part of the ride. While I did notice that the average speed shown on the Stopwatch screen during the ride seemed to lag the wired speedo on the bike, unless you’re a real stickler for precision and accuracy, this probably isn’t going to bother most users.

Lastly there is a list of options with this app that will probably take me a good while longer to fully explore, but I think I can safely say this app is recommended. Hopefully you’ll download it yourself and give it a go while you hit the roads or even some single track. Happy trails!

For a while now I’ve been thinking about using an application to track my expenses with my iPhone. You see I used to use Microsoft Money with a Windows PDA phone (the dreadful O2 Xda Atom), and ever since I’ve switched to a Mac I haven’t been able to find a money management platform that I was happy with, which also provided a mobile solution for the phone.

Well, I’m happy to say that this is no longer the case. I was recently talking to a friend about it and he mentioned to me a website for this very purpose that had caught is eye. It’s called Wesabe. While the name initially does remind me of the Japanese spice, wisabi, the only thing way that this relates to the product in my mind is that it’s hot! So hot right now!

The application is based on a website: www.wesabe.com where you can set up a free account to manage your finances online. While I know there will be some technophobes who have reservations about putting the details of your finances online (and I’ve got one word for your people, SSL – okay, it’s an acronym, not a word, but get over it, truly), personally I have no such qualms.

The main virtue I was looking for in a money management application was that it didn’t cose the earth, and this one qualifies, in fact, it’s free. What more could you ask for. Yes, I realise that once they’ve got my data they may decide to charge me to access the service, and then I’ll be faced with a choice, determining whether the service they provide is worth the asking price, but that’s a choice I’m happy to make (when it comes to that).

In the meantime, I’m happy to explore the app and the iPhone application that comes with it (and it’s also free). What’s more I like the look and feel of both the site and the app. The site takes a non-judgemental approach to helping you manage your finances. While, the application still helps you to get a hold on the bottom line, however negative that may be, it makes things like budgeting extremely easy. Allowing users to set targets, instead of spending limits, for example is a nice way, I think of using semantics to help people to take a positive approach to managing their finances. What’s more the app actually appeals to people like me, who find the whole practice of managing their finances, somewhat, hmm, how should I put it… tedious!

While, it did take a little getting used to after being a Microsoft Money user, Wesabe has actually been quite easy to use. The web application tries to make it easy to upload data from your banking institution and I suspect most major Australian Banks are supported. That said, the lengths that my bank (Westpac) have gone to to make their site more secure, do mean that the automatic replay option for downloading banks statements really doesn’t work to get my statements into Wesabe on a day to day basis.

Other major bank users may have more luck. My NAB Visa card for example, seems to have no such issues. Hmm, why do I suddently regret switching banks. Oh well, they’re all bastards! But, luckily some of the developers of iPhone applications aren’t. Hopefully you find Wesabe as useful as I do!

Ever since I bought my iPhone3G in August 2008 I have stubbornly avoided putting it in a case, somehow to me a case would distract from the phone’s natural beauty. Given this it’s no wonder that my phone is now sporting an ever widening crack at the base, something that may eventually force me to upgrade to the new 3Gs iPhone (or whatever comes out next).

My partner who purchased an iPhone more recently also hadn’t been using a case and expressed concern about her beloved phone’s welfare after a couple of droppages. So I was pleasantly surprised when I received the new Shine Case from Proporta.com. Given that the case has a mirror on the inside, I gave it to her rather than use it myself, but I thought I’d relay her comments on the case for those who are in the market for something similar.

The first thing I have to say is my lovely lady isn’t the primping kind, so the mirror is probably somewhat wasted on her, but I’m sure some of you other ladies out there who carry a mirror in your handbag might appreciate the advantages of combining a mirror in your iPhone case. Hey, it’s one less thing to carry right?!

When you unpack the case, the other obvious thing that you notice is the little arms which serve to hold the phone in place. They’re not very large and at first you would be forgiven for wondering if they’re going to do their job, but Rachelle tells me that they not only hold the phone quite securely, it really doesn’t budge an inch once you’ve put it in there. The case also has a magnetic clasp that keeps the cover shut and works in conjunction with the arms that hold the phone in place, and this is something else that Rae tells me works well.

The outside of the case has a shiny patent leather look that insures your phone still looks bling, and the case includes other thoughtful design features such as a hole for the camera lens.

One amusing (and potentially annoying) aspect is that the flap on the case can be slightly awkward to position when you’re using the phone (while it’s in the case). The flap tends to sit up against your head if you’re on the phone (unless you fold it back inline with the case), which makes you look like you’re talking on a rather large flip phone (the sort of phone you’d imagine a broker using in a movie from the early 90’s).

Overall however, the case gets the tick of approval from my lovely partner who rates it at 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Well, there’s a good chance you’ve heard all the hubub on the tech front about Google releasing the Nexus-One in the last couple days. It’s certainly going to be interesting seeing how the phone shapes up against the iPhone. While the phone isn’t available here in Australia at present, it has come out in the US.

The phone runs Google’s own mobile Operating System known as Android and has a touch screen interface somewhat similar to the iPhone, though it doesn’t appear to support multi-touch for all it’s applications just yet.

Google are selling the phone via their website (from a very Apple looking page), rather than in retail stores. While we can’t actually purchase the phone, you can visit the site and get a better idea of what the phone looks like and some of the cool features that it has. Check it out at:  http://www.google.com/phone

Personally I think the phone looks quite presentable and some of the features like Voicemail transcription are nice additions (which we don’t yet have on the iPhone). Another thing that’s very cool is that the phone comes with a free GPS app, something that I’m sure TomTom and Navigon and some of other GPS providers out there aren’t too happy about.

Anyway, maybe we’ll get some of these cool new features in the next generation iPhone which is expected mid-year. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

After posting about the Coles Shopmate app last week, I was talking to a friend while over dinner while in Melbourne and he mentioned a little app that he uses called Shopper. He showed me a few of it’s features and I liked the look of some of the functionality so I decided to take it for a whirl. Given the amount of shopping that’s going on at this time of year it seemed appropriate…

To start with the app costs $1.19 in the Australian AppStore so this isn’t a freebie like the Coles app, however I did find it a bit easier to use in many respects and it does have some nice features that are missing from the other app. In particular the ability to share lists with other Shopper accounts (i.e. if your partner has an iPhone and wants to edit/create a list to share with you).

The list creation interface is simple and easy to use, which is probably one of my favourite parts of the app. You generally don’t have to type more than a couple letters of the item you’re adding and the item comes up in the suggested items (sorta like predictive text). You can then select the item or keep typing to refine the list further.

When adding items I did find some things which are pretty basic (like bodywash for example) didn’t appear in the list of available items to select, though you can create items easily enough using the create button that is shown when you’re adding an item.

Once you have added a number of items to the list Shopper shows a number next to the app (both on the menu screen) and in brackets next to the shopping list name in the app itself, so you know how many items you have in your list. When you tick off an item the item no longer counts toward this number (as you’d expect).

Once you’ve reached the supermarket (or even before if you’re really organised) you can enter a price and quantity for each item that you’re purchasing. As you tick off the items Shopper totals up the value of the products in your cart, which is pretty handy for those on a budget who have a set amount to spend when you go shopping.

Getting back to the ability to share shopping lists, the app allows you to sync lists with other users who are using Shopper and it also comes with a companion website which makes it easy to create your shopping lists online and share these lists with others.

In summary, this is a handy little app for those who want to get more organised with their shopping. Personally I think it’s well worth the cost and an app that I’m likely to use for sometime.

A little while ago I was contacted by an iPhone developer who let me know about an app that they worked on recently for Coles. The application is called Shopmate and it’s designed for those (like myself) who regularly shop there.

The home screen

The app does a number of things including helping you find your nearest store, check store opening hours, build a shopping list and find out what’s on special at your local Coles.

Find your nearest Coles

It’s also a free app so there’s not much stopping you from giving it a go if you’re interested. Personally I’ve found the shopping list feature quite useful. I often used to use my iPhone to hold my shopping list anyway (using apps like Recall or just the simple note taking app that comes with the phone).

Check Store Opening Times

However, the shopping list that comes with Shopmate is quite handy in that it allows you to check off items as you add them to your cart.

My shopping list

The interface operates in two modes (1 in which you build the list while at home and the 2nd which you use when you’re actually walking around in Coles). There’s some funky animations and graphics in the app, like the one that displays when you switch between these too modes, displaying a shopping cart behind your shopping list.

Funky animations spice up the app

In part of the app you can explore the house section by section. When you click on a section, the app downloads a product list from Coles of items which are on sale for that area of the house. Personally I found that my patience wore thin for this, but I’m not particularly known for that quality, so others of you my find this more useful and interesting.

Explore the House

What you get when you explore the house (this is the Fridge section)

As I mentioned before the app also lets you do a search on recipes. While there are other recipe apps out there like DinnerSpinner from www.allrecipes.com (which I’ve reviewed on here previously), some may prefer to find their recipes while shopping and using something like this app.

The Recipe screen

All in all, the Coles Shopmate app, presents as a well made, practical app for those who like to get organised when they shop.

A couple of tips and tricks for Telstra iPhone users…

If you want to check out your usage, SMS the word “USE” to 176 and you will receive a text message with your data usage.

Get Telstra Usage data by SMS

Reply with the letter “m” for a detailed breakdown.

Also Telstra have just sent through a carrier update in iTunes for iPhone users to enable free tethering!

It just uses the data component of your monthly plan.

Internet Tethering with Telstra

The other day while working out with my personal trainer Haydon, he mentioned a little app that allows iPhone users to send free SMS messages to each other. Essentially the app is a chat application, similar to Skype or MSN Messenger. The key difference is that this app uses Push Notification to send messages to you even when you’re not running the application.

A notification when receiving a new message

So I downloaded it for free after visiting the website and proceed to test it with a colleague from work named Julian. We found that I was able to send messages though he got a network error when attempting to send messages from his phone.

The contacts WhatsApp automatically found which are already using it

I’ve since however tested the app with a number of other users, including my partner who uses an iPhone and no one else seems to have had issues with the application, so I’m starting to recommend it to other iPhone users.

The conversation view which looks a bit like the iPhone SMS view

The website claims that the app won’t be free for long and it’s certainly a money saver if you regularly text others with an iPhone, so go get it today.