My Mobile Life

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.